Return of the Emblem Chapter Eight: Affairs of the World

[-Cynthia-]

Just Horsin' Around

Nadya fetched an apple out of her pack and held it in her palm for Luca to eat while she stroked his mane with the other hand. This bit of horse care was interrupted by Bert's announcement.

"All right, all right I'll be up soon," she said, turning her head to him. Blah blah big important announcement...at least the boss tends to be brief. she thought to herself, not leaving yet.

[Snike]

Raquel apparently took his idea into account, and announced to the group at large that they would be sailing with the Leverager, and that they had best not immediately separate on the ship, for there would be combat team discussion. It looked like that 'drink' was wearing off, as she appeared to be confident, though a bit distracted. The party members then quizzed the merchant about their ride, and a newcomer was being discussed. Blake didn't notice any sort of weapon on the ashen-eyed newcomer, so perhaps he was a mage. Well, he'd have to be integrated, somehow. Maybe as a sort of support attacker? Regardless, he seemed to be in, and with a bit more discussion, the majority of the group were led by Gytha to the Leverager, while the remainder, Blake included, went down to the markets to purchase supplies. The lifting and loading and maneuvering of the food, water, and other necessities provided the swordsman with a convenient excuse to avoid discussion while he thought about battle strategies. This subject was still on his mind as the Dauntless traveled to the Leverager, where another problem reared its' head.

The Dauntless was too heavy to ride up the ramp, so the call was made to unload the wagon and carry the cargo up. Due to the fact that he was on Raquel's payroll, Blake did not even so much as volunteer to transport the cargo before he went at it. Some boxes he carried himself. Others he silently lifted with the help of the Leverager's crewmen. The man was so immersed in his work that he only noticed the crane once the last crate was firmly on the Leverager and the argument down near the monstrosity heated up. Raquel was talking to someone- the crane operators? - in a very agitated manner, but after a few minutes, the latter stepped away, just as ropes fell around the wagon. The merchant called for aid, and before Blake could react, Robin jumped at the call and volunteered to help her employer. Well, that was just fine. Gave him more time to wind down, anyways.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Snike

[Snowy_One]

Robin gave a quick nod before heading closer to the Dauntless and Gabbie. Turn on the deflector pads? The metal things under the wagon? If that was what was needed that didn't sound to hard on the surface. Doubtless there was some magical trick to it. She really hoped it was little more than pressing a button or something though and not some enchantment. That could only end poorly.

"How do I turn these on and off?" she asked as she approached Gabbie.

[Phoenix]

Gabbie's Hovering Tutorial

Robin showed up, so it looked like it was time for Gabbie to thoroughly explain things so nothing catastrophic happened. "First of all, get down here." she called over from underneath the Dauntless, at the same time making her the harness she had built for herself was secure and that she could still reach the pads she was to be operating. While waiting for Robin to come under the vehicle, she began her explanation. "I can only reach the frontal pads, which isn't enough. I need you secured at the back end so you can reach the other two. Each deflector has four rings and each ring has a small rectangular rune that flips onto it like a switch. Flipping them over so they touch the rings will seal off the magic and turn off the rings just like they are roight now. Flipping them so the runes aren't touching the rings turns them on. Was that clear enough, so far? Say it back to me."

[-Cynthia-]

Bringin' Nadya Back

After Luca had finished his apple, Nadya decided to make her way back towards where the Dauntless was being lifted...they apparently still hadn't finished that and Raquel was making no announcements.

Well this is a waste of time, Nadya thought to herself.

Edited April 9, 2012 by -Cynthia-

[Snowy_One]

"Go to the back pads, flip the square thingies so that they touch the rings for off, flip them so that they aren't touching for on. That right?" asked Robin, trying her best to make sure she understood what was being asked of her.

[Ether]

"You've lost your memories?" Faatina asked, turning directly towards Davod instead of looking towards the ocean as she was prior.

[Phoenix]

Let Us Complete Readiness

"Sounds about roight. Moving on; don't turn on the outer rings first ... or you won't be able to reach the inner rings. It'll take three rings to get this thing off the ground, so turn on three rings for each pad. Start from the inner ones and work your way outward. When we start turning them back off, we'll do it noice and slow, starting with the outer rings and working our way inward. DO NOT turn them on or off until I give the signal. If we don't do it at the same toime for every pad, the Dauntless is gonna get flipped like an omelet. With that said, the only way we can turn them off again will be if we're both hanging from the wagon ..." she explained. She handed Robin the second harness she had just finished putting together. "Put this on and then toie the two ends to the bars over there. It's gotta be able to support your weight."

Meanwhile Raquel addressed John. "Okay make sure you're ready. Once the Dauntless lifts off, it's going to be up to you to keep it steady."

"You people are crazy ..." the crane director commented. "Also there's ten minutes left until you go overtime."

"I wonder who's fault that is ..." Raquel shot back angrily.

[Acacia Sgt]

''I'm on it.'' John said, then turning to face Gil. ''Come on Gil, let's show that wind it can't move you easily, heh.'' He laughed before mounting. Gil grunted, before starting to take off.

<Any minute now...>

Edited April 9, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[Snowy_One]

"What is an 'Omelet'?" asked Robin as she tied the rope about her waist before moving down to tie it to the bars as Gabbie had said to do. This was going to be a very technical job to say the least. Still, she moved down to the pads, being careful not to touch anything as she tried to get closer to them. "I wait for your signal, then flip them from the inner circles out, right?" she recited, hoping she got it right.

[Phoenix]

We Have Completed Readiness

"Eh don't worry about it. Point is, mess this up, and we'll be in the infirmary for the rest of the day ... or dead." Gabbie replied at the omelet question. "And yeah, wait for my signal." After that she leaned toward the side of the Dauntless so her voice would carry. "Hey, Raquel! We're ready down here!"

Raquel took a deep breath and glanced over at the crane operators. They were ready too, it seemed and gave her an okay gesture. "Alright, we're all ready on our end, too!" she called back.

"Lift!" the crane director ordered. And the pulleys began to guide the ropes back. The Dauntless barely budged at first.

"Alroight. Robin, flip the innermost rings on first, and watch your hands! The power is going to be rushing out of there at hoigh speed!" ... wait ... oh man we're going to be hit by so much damn dust when these things come on. "Put your shirt over your mouth too! This is gonna be bad ..." she warned. Immediately she put her hood on which was the least she could do at the moment.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Phoenix

[Snowy_One]

"Huh? But my shirt is hide." she said before reaching down and trying to pull it up. Her hide shirt didn't stretch at all like fabric and she had to hike the bottom hem up high enough so that her belly and lower ribs were exposed to the open air before she could pull enough of it up to reach her mouth. When it did it didn't form a mask, but rather was more like holding her arm up to block out the upcoming dust. Suffocating. Still, holding her breath, she reached under and let her hands approach, ready to flip the switches as soon as Gabbie gave the word.

[Phoenix]

Lift Off

"Flip them on, now! Innermost to outermost, and only hit three rings, not all four!" Gabbie instructed right as she began to do just what she said. The second Gabbie flipped off the innermost rune, two air jets blasted the ground and sent dust bleeding out from under the Dauntless. Raquel took a step back just hoping Gabbie and Robin were okay down there. When the second set of rings fired up, the Dauntless became so light, the crane began to pull it off of the ground. When the third set came on, the crane operators almost lost pace and the Dauntless was no longer sitting on the harness made for it.

Already the wind was causing the Dauntless to drift ever so slightly. John and Gil's turn; Raquel gave an affirmative nod toward the rider while Gabbie and Robin hung awkwardly from the wagon. Fortunately they were still within reach of their respective deflector pads. "Aaaaand that's what I get for wearin' ... well ... this." Gabbie muttered to herself, looking down over her outfit.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Phoenix

[Snowy_One]

As soon as Gabbie's command came, Robin's hands went to work flipping the rings on. "One, two, three!" she mentally counted off, stopping short of the fourth ring to prevent too much power from surging forth. Robin was lifted off the ground as dust clouded around her, obscuring her from vision before the Dauntless rose up into the air, Robin hanging on by the rope, shirt held up over her mouth, as she too felt Gabbie's resentment.

"I did not think this through." she thought as her legs clamped shut and her face turned beet-red as she was lifted up into the air, feeling the wind rushing down over her exposed skin and causing goosebumps to rise up.

[Mercakete]

Well, that was everyone who wasn't taking care of the Dauntless. All that was left was to make sure everyone was in-sight by a glance around every-so-often. Norbert kept his ears open in case someone needed his help since he'd offered that service, but other than that, it was just a waiting game now.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Mercakete

[ReformBlade]

"Eh... uh, yeah. Probably should've mentioned that earlier but it's not really something I'd like to advertise. Or anyone, for that matter..." He stared off into the sky for a while before noticing Faatina turned towards him, "Hm? Well uh... I'll be honest, I can't say it's all that bad. Can't judge what I don't know and all. Could be forgetting something massively important, could be forgetting the most boring life of all time. What I do know is that I at the very least lived in a Kigenese town up until a year ago, and I kinda wandered for a bit, and now I'm ending up on the seas. Pretty weird journey that's bound to get weirder the longer I live."

[Ether]

"I see... I... don't really know what to say... I can only wish you luck in getting your memories back I guess..." Faatina replied, not quite sure how else to respond.

[-Cynthia-]

Watching

Connor clenched his teeth a little as the Dauntless rose into the air. Well it looks all right so far...but Robin's untrained and if she makes a mistake this is going to end really badly. He decided a silent prayer to Mercy couldn't hurt matters.

Veronika, on the other hand, couldn't really tell if the exercise with the Dauntless was going well or not. It's time like these I miss that old wooden wagon we had...this 'Dauntless' is odd with all its runes and deflector pads and whatever. Guess it comes in handy sometimes, but the wooden one could have made it up the ramp more easily. she thought to herself.

Edited April 9, 2012 by -Cynthia-

[Acacia Sgt]

And it was time. At John's command, Gil got into position and thus began their part of the job.

<At least the wind is not moving or shifting erratically. John thought. <If it keeps to the same direction and strength this shouldn't be too hard.>

[Phoenix]

Loading

Raquel put her hands together as she watched John and his wyvern fly up to the Dauntless, almost on reflex. One little mistake, too much shift in the wind, anything could turn this slightly complicated loading procedure into a bloody mess. The real test came when the crane lifted enough for the Dauntless to come to a rest on the ropes again. They had the vehicle in their grasp. The operators then began slowly turning the tower. It took a whole minute, but the caution was worth it, the only drawback being that the wind would now be hitting the Dauntless from its left side instead of the back. Fortunately if John could keep it steady and the wind stayed constant, there wouldn't be a problem. They only needed to lower the Dauntless onto the deck without it being flipped.

As soon as Gabbie could see the deck below her, she called out to Robin again. "Turn off the first ring on both of your pads! Wait ten seconds and then do the next one. Once we hit the deck, turn off the last one. Keep in sync with me or we're going to have to hope the crane can hold us!" she instructed. This was it.

[Snowy_One]

Robin nodded as she reached down for the first ring, her finger resting on the switch. "Ready... Now!" she exclaimed as she flipped the first one, causing it to shut off. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... ten!" she said aloud, counting down before she flipped the second switch, leaving only the inner-most ring active, as instructed. This wasn't 'hard' so much as it was dangerous. If she got this wrong she would be going for a swim at the least, if not outright wounding herself! Caultiously she spread her legs again, getting ready to land on the deck of the ship, hoping she wouldn't be any more immodest by doing so.

[Phoenix]

Touch Down

As Gabbie and Robin turned off the rings, the Dauntless lost altitude, and the crane operators tried to keep pace, but the Dauntless lowered in steps while the crane lowered at a constant pace. This lead to two points where the Dauntless weighed just enough to jostle the crane and get the entire crew's attention. The crane held, and the two women were able to put their feet on the deck a few seconds before the Dauntless landed. The director breathed a deep and loud sigh of relief as the danger passed. He also noted that they were pretty much guaranteed to earn their extra fifteen hundred in gold since it would take no less than fifteen minutes to get the crane back to the storage facility.

Raquel's shoulders dropped, her arms dropped, and her head dropped. The tension was finally gone and she could finally take a moment and relax-"Alright, get the wagon unhooked and pack everything up. I need to speak with Miss Valcyn about the rental fee." ... or not. She brought her arms up and crossed them, and then turned to face the director with an already angry look on her face. She had about three minutes to get the crane back into storage to avoid that second 'hour' of use and the payment it somehow warranted. "Well it's safe to say that you've exceeded the agreed rental period. It's more than a three minute trip back to the storage area. You owe us one thousand five hundred gold."

Raquel just stared at him for a moment. "Fifteen hundred ... even though we barely got twenty minutes of use out of it. There is no way I am paying double for that."

"If you leave without paying us, you'll be blacklisted. We have your information, Miss; that's what the log was for, and I promise you it will be sent to anyone and everyone associated with our bureau. You'll have a much harder time getting services in the future, and you'll be receiving a hefty fine at some point. Life is only going to get harder." the crane director explained, staying calm and sounding almost like he gave a damn about Raquel's well being.

"You wasted our time arguing about safety when you should have been doing what I asked! You took your sweet time getting down here, and every time I look over my shoulder, it's like watching people moving in slow motion! You don't deserve an extra fifteen hundred gold! You didn't even earn half of the first fifteen hundred I gave you! Even now you're just sabotaging me by talking me into paying up when you could be getting the crane back into storage!" Raquel yelled, having thrown her arms down to her sides near the beginning of it. The director leaned back and put his hands up defensively. He wasn't expecting such an immediate backlash. Raquel had been preparing to bite the man's head off, chew it up, and spit it back out for awhile now, clearly.

"I know what it looks like, but we had to be careful. Safety first. Besides, we don't make the rules, we just follow them. You can't blame us that it took an extra half hour to finish unloading that giant wagon of yours, and you can't blame us for how much the blasted thing weighs, either."

"I can blame you for wasting just enough time to cost me an extra fifteen hundred gold! Why should I have to pay for time you waste talking my head off instead of doing your job?!"

"We're just doing our jobs. Explaining the risks to you is a part of that. You might think we're just wasting your time, but it's anything but. Either pay what you owe or you'll be finding ports less and less friendly in the future. It's as simple as that." the director concluded, feeling further justification was both unnecessary and pointless.

Raquel put her head back down, resisting the urge to do ... something. Eventually she came back up from her silence and pushed a bag of gold into the man's chest so hard that it forced him back a good three feet. He caught the bag before it fell to the ground and looked up to see Raquel stomping off toward the loading ramp. "Don't spend it all in one place, you racketeering bastards." were her parting words. She couldn't look anyone in the eyes afterward and just wanted to get onto the ship and find a place to vent.

[Mercakete]

As the dull thud sounded, Norbert spared a glance over to where the Dauntless had landed. Okay, so it's on the ship now. People were already working to get the ropes off of it. He looked around the deck and saw that everyone was either still in view or still working with the Dauntless and the crane. A short while later, Raquel stormed onto deck. Immediately, he looked back to the wagon. It looked fine. Maybe Raquel was upset about something, though. Maybe there'd been some sort of argument. I'll leave her alone for now. She should be able to see that everyone's here herself. Bert decided, taking to loitering until the pink-haired merchant was ready to address them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The landing of the Dauntless woke Gytha up from her thoughts, causing her to look over. Well, the wagon was aboard. The captain would worry about the wind at this point, she figured. Her grin resurfaced as the mariner's excitement rose. They were close to casting off now. She pushed herself from the guardrail and began walking around, a skip in her step as she hummed quietly to herself. Then she looked back, beyond the port to the desert until her eyes fixed on an invisible point on the horizon. After staring at it for a moment, she donned a sort of sorry smile. I'll come back t' this port one day. N' probabla many more times after that. We'll talk about how things have been n' exchange stories... Good luck on yer mission, Amon. I'll see ye soon.

[Snowy_One]

Robin sighed as the Dauntless came down solid. She was out and untying herself in less than a second before straightening her shirt again to cover herself before leaning against the Dauntless, exhausted. She had done it though! Somehow she, a girl with no magical talent at all, had managed to handle the magical pads without summoning some sort of eldrich abomination into the world. This was a flat-out victory for her! She felt like a boss! The notion of walking over to Gytha and demanding the apology right then and there even passed through her proud mind. However, as she finished letting the stress and embarrassment run away, Raquel returned looking downright like... someone had done something horrible to her... She didn't need to deal with Robin's troubles right now for sure. In fact, she looked something like a pink bear, ready to maul whatever got in her way.

[-Cynthia-]

We're (Almost) On a Boat!

Veronika frowned at the pricing policies of the crane operators, but causing a conflict here was just going to waste more time. "Let's get on board now," she suggested to Raquel, clapping her shoulder lightly.

Nadya watched the scene between Raquel and the director and shook her head a little. For a merchant she sure doesn't haggle much...the wagon's already on the boat no need to be throwin' gold away like that. she thought to herself.

Connor sighed with relief as the Dauntless landed, seemingly unharmed. Now to put everything back into place...this might take a little while.