Mercakete

(Heavier armor, huh? My leather armor protects me a bit and it's light enough that I can move around pretty easily in it, but she does have a good point. Relying on my and Namid's agility won't always work, so armor makes a good failsafe.) "Sure. I'll give it a try," he decided aloud, though he was a tad unsure about it. (I'm not very strong, so I hope it's not too heavy for me. Though that might be more of a reason to wear it, even if I take it off for actual attacks until I'm strong enough to wear it comfortably.)

"That wasn't what I was saying," Norbert corrected, "I was saying that if we were attacked on the way, we could defeat them as always then keep the captives for a while. That way I could get some information out of them and we'll know -- hopfeully -- where at least some of them are holing up. Then, we could attack whenever we wanted to, but Raquel should see someone about this emblem thing first." "HAHAHARRR! If we all go, then, 'r if there's nothin' else fer th' rest o' us t' do while we wait fer Raquel t' come back, then I'll go ta Kigen, too! Yer comin' too, right, Amon n' Synthia?" Gytha enthusiastically asked, standing from her seat, excited at the opportunity to go onto a ship again. Wow. That was...enthusiastic... Norbert thought, at Gytha's proclamation. And loud...

"Oh, that'd be great! I've been meaning to talk to Aiya a bit, but I haven't seen her around," Tas replied, happy about the idea, "And thanks. Being able to defend myself should really help out a lot. And this time I don't have a cold!"

Hmm. Well, there's some evidence. "If it's really effecting you like that, then I agree with Shamdark. If he knows someone who can help you with dealing with the emblem, then we should go for it," Norbert voiced, his tone far less agressive than it had been a moment ago, eyes resting on Raquel in thought, "We can look for members of this organization on the way. I'll beat whatever information I can out of them about a base. Can't be too different from learning about bandit headquarters from stragglers." "If we go t' Kigen..." Gytha started before suddenly brightening up like the sun, "Will we be ridin' a ship again?!"

"Would you like to spend the day with me, then? Or at least part of it? After breakfast I was going to go get some of the gold I earned and go into town to get another set of clothes since what I'm wearing is all I had time to get before. Then I was going to go to the Septiminian embassy and then go back into town to get Namid a treat. I usually go over to him rigth after breakfast, so that's why I thought I should get him something. After that I was just going to spend the rest of the day with him, but if you have any other ideas, we could do that, too. Maybe you could teach me how to fight better or we could fly around for a while," Tas suggested. He had pleanty to do so if Irina had a lack of things to do, he migth as well ask her to come along.

How would...? Oh, right. Mind-reader. Norbert shot a small glare at the Avian. She was beginning to bug him, perhaps because of his recent, unpleasant dealings with the Fallen. "I don't care what you feel," Norbert stated plainly to the shaman, "You can probably honestly think that or you can be tricking that mind-reader with fake thoughts. Doesn't matter. You haven't presented any proof that it's effecting her. It could just be that the seal was sucking the magic from the emblem. directly and your emotion could be from fear that we'll find you out if you're working for the enemy. Why do you care so much where it is? Want to hurry up and hand it over to a contact in Kigen or something?" As he asked these sarcastic questions, his glare remained on the shaman, his meagar confidance in the man plummitting. Gytha was a bit worried for Amon. She'd never seen him so focussed with such anger. This news obviously bothered him. For now, she just quietly listened as the debate went on.

"Heheh, yeah. I actually planned my day when I woke up and included breakfast this time. This is good food, too, and there's so much that it should be okay to just eat it. I think it was set out for us, especially since people were already eating when I got here," Tas replied cheerily, "So, how'd you sleep?"

"You sure were quick to suggest that," Norbert mentioned, suspision of Shadrak rising, "But if we go to Kigen again, since these people are apparently everywhere, we could look for them along the way. Right now what we need is a direction so we can begin." Maybe I can cut off that Fallen woman who ran away from Steinn, too. If the message never reaches the other prince, it'll delay his coming and he might be calmer about it, too. I still have a chance.

"That's fine," Esphyr replied, "You gave some good suggestions. I'll think about...reading, maybe." She hummed as she pondered the idea. It was the most reasonable of the suggestions Alf had made, but... There was probably something better out there that matched her better. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He was nearly done with his breakfast when something caught Tas' eye: someone else was entering the dining hall. Half a milisecond later, Tas recognized who it was. Swallowing what was in his mouth, he waved her over. "Irina! Good morning!" He was obviously feeling better today than he was days prior.

When the meeting began, Gytha turned around in her seat to listen to Weyland. The doors shutting were enough to rouse Norbert into a sleepy half-awakened state. "Mrrhhnnhnh? Wha..?" he mumbled as he tried to remember where he was, then rubbed his eyes and stretched, awakening to a more reasonable amount of clarity. That nap had done him some good. Right, right meeting or something. Guess now I can figure out what I'm up against working for Raquel. The explanation Weyland gave was grim and didn't really get any better as it wore on. Trust. ... I don't trust a whole lot of people. I guess the ones I trust the most not to kill me or be spies are Raquel, Ranyin and Valter. But Valter's been gone for a few days. I guess anyone coming from Weyland are people he trusts enough to go with us so they're trustworthy. I think the ones I trust the least are Gytha and Blake. Maybe Aneda, too, since she was looking for people who were working for Weyland specificly. That Avian's kind of untrustworthy, too, and so are Shadrak and Robin. I don't know that I trust Nadya entirely either. She's a Nomad so it's not like she'll have any reliable personal records and she could've easily been bought off. I don't exactly have a lot of reason for people to trust me either, though. I wonder how the trustworthy will be filtered out from the untrustworthy. "Sounds like there's even some in yer home," Gytha quietly murmurred to Amon, referring to the organization. "So, what are these people trying to accomplish anyway?" Norbert asked Weyland, raising his voice so the professor could hear.

"Woulda talked if I thought it woulda had th' same impact," Gytha replied to Synthia, "An' I'm a decent shot. Was careful not t' kill'er. N' 'course I'm willin' t' put people's lives n' danger. That is, th' ones tryin' t' kill me 'r me friends. Allies? I do me best t' help'em survive. Tried talkin' t' Robin after th' fact, explained why I did what I did. She's behavin' th' same way. Just hope I'm not around when she gets 'rself n' 'er teammates killed." It was apparent there was a lack of respect on both ends of the conflict. Gytha didn't trust Robin and thought she would get them all killed and Robin thought basicly the same thing about Gytha. "If that didn't show'er that provokin' attack gets ye hurt, then nothin' will. 'Least she knows I'm not one t' let things like that go. Not till they're dealt with anaway."

Before she could respond to the Dark Avian with the ruffled feathers, Synthia asked a strange question. "I value it pleanty," she answered, "Some people I value the lives o' more than others' like me own 'r me friends'. So I'll kill t' protect'em." To Krystal, she replied, "She threw sharp things at me. I reacted t' teach'er somethin' she could use in th' future: don't do that unless ye plan on defendin' yerself. Learned th' same lesson meself a long time ago. Don't act hostile if ye don't want hostilities. Havin' a 'fit' can be disasterous t' ye n' yer allies. Best t' learn now. Won't let meself be attacked like that either, even though it was harmless. Still an open challenge n' I'm no doormat." The look she was giving Krystal showed just how dead serious she was about that. It was almost coolly, calmly challenging her. "If yer that zealous b'out somethin...choose quickla if yer willin' t' fight fer it. Back with th' dragon, I decided not t' be stupid. It wasn't worth dyin' fer, so I wasn't hostile towards those soldiers. Robin needs t' learn self-control. Hope I conveyed that t'er. Least she won't be botherin' me anymore, I hope. She'll get th' same answer as last time if she does."

"Robin threw some arrowheads at me 'cause she was mad at me for shootin' someone who'd get us killed if we let'er live," Gytha continued the explanation, "She turned about t' leave, but she had a lesson t' learn. If she pulled somethin' like that on someone else, they wouldn't've bothered even thinkin' b'fore shootin' 'er dead. I just shot'er leg so she would learn how dangerous doin' somethin' like that is. Also t' teach'er that I don't take kindla t' bein' attacked." The mariner hoped Synthia wouldn't get angrier at her for it, but she stood by what she'd done. It was good and right in her eyes, after all.

"Ah, right," Gytha replied, the memory surfacing. Then the Dark Avian appeared. "Ahoy, Krystal! Sure ye can sit here."

"I see. Who's Valter again?" Gytha asked, veaguely recalling someone having been in their group that went by that name.

"This mornin'," Gytha answered before asking a question of her own, "Who's Phyllis?"

"Ah! Ahoy, Synthia! Where've ye been?" Gytha asked, happy to see the mage, though secretly hoping that she wasn't still upset at her.

While she waited for Alf to answer, breakfast seemed to have begun, so she took her plate and began to fill it until it had a balanced, moderate amount of food on it and she began eating, still waiting on his reply, though primarily from lack of anything else to do. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Though quick, the bath had been effective and Tas felt refreshed, though hungy. His trip to the dining area was guided not only by directions he'd gotten from one of the wandering people he didn't know, but also by the new scent of the meal. He arrived quickly enough and began mimicking a few of the others in collecting his plate and then serving himself. There weren't very many gathered yet, but he expected that would change soon enough and so simply began hungrily enjoying his breakfast. Esphyr's attention wandered over to someone she hadn't seen in a while stuffing his face with the large breakfast he'd allowed himself: the wyvern rider who apparently had a brother-like bond with his wyvern. His absense actually hadn't occurred to her until just now. (He must be very quiet unless talking about wyverns...or eating.) Letting her gaze wander, her eyes fell on Arrin who seemed to also be ravenously attacking a full plate. (You'd think we were all starving...)

"Ahoy, Nadya an' ... ... ... ... oth'r jack with Nadya," Gytha greeted Nadya and Valter before adding to what Amon had mentioned, "Ye should find a place t' sit. Don't know when it'll start, after all. C'mon, Amon." With that, she began pulling him along until she found a random place to sit, sat him down by the chair she'd selected for herself and sat down as per Amon's prediction. ~~~~~~~~~~ Norbert was flat out sleeping at this point: head back, eyes closed, mouth ajar, arms crossed and unaware of the world around him. However, like many others, he was in the correct room and seated.

Glad you like it!

OLD REQUEST FINALLY COMPLETED So, about a year ago, Phoenix asked me to draw one of his characters. I accepted the challenge (especially since the only reference I had was basicly an FE9-style sprite which meant it was half-body with only one view.) Also, she rides a pegasus. As it might be obvious, I'm new to drawing equine creatures and saddled pegasi confuse me since you'd thing the rider's legs would hinder the pegasus' flight. Anyway, drew the Jerdonian Sigrun clone from the LoAF RP. [spoiler="Viva la Daneka!"(Merc knows very little French so this is what Daneka will say especially since she seems to primarily fight for herself)] And Alphonse is still missing.

"Aye, I hope so. If I'm on a job t' protect a ship and he attacks, though, I won't hold back," she replied as they entered the confrence hall.

"Ah, good," Gytha sighed, truly happy to hear Amon's thoughts on it, though she kept her voice down since she had more still to say, especially since he didn't mind, "That's not th' end o' it, though. Y'see, me full name's Gytha Thirdgem. Me father's Captain Reese Thirdgem o' th' pirate ship Saltstraumen. Yer a landlubber, so I don't expect ye t' understand what that means, but he's th' most feared n' most successful pirate o' this age." She seemed oddly proud of that, yet awkwardly spiteful at the same time, leading to some sort of confusion. "Gave me me pistol n' bandanna." She indicated the bandanna tied on her head. "He's a pirate n' fer a long time me dream was t' sail th' seas with'im..." The story obviously continued, but she shook off the deep, brooding look that came over her and smiled at her friend again, though somewhat sheepishly. "Not sure what I'll do if I e'r see'im again."

"Pirate port town," was Gytha's simple reply as she nodded, "I'm a mariner now, though, so ye could see why I wouldn't want any o' me potential employers t' be findin' that out."

"Well, y'see... I come from a place in Neviskotia called 'Stubbsgrit.' Me mother owns a good place called The Salty Brine Inn. It's where I grew up. Always looked forward t' me father pullin' inta port. He's a captain, y'see," Gytha began to explain. She didn't know how much about Stbbsgrit Amon knew already, but she figured he didn't know much since he wasn't too ocean savvy as is.