Return of the Emblem Chapter Eight: Affairs of the World

[Ether]

"I'll see what I can do. I don't know if I'm the best to do this, but someone's got to, if this is gonna keep going otherwise." Faatina muttered with a dejected sigh.

[Phoenix]

Rush

Raquel still couldn't make eye contact, but she was listening, and when Blake said that everyone knew she would succeed, it touched her. It was something that had never occurred to her in the entirety of the journey. The thought that the friends and mercenaries that had been traveling with her actually had faith in her or at least in their eventual victory was something special, and they were getting stronger; even she was on the front lines now, bolstering those around her and curing ailments that no one else could. If only they could test that strength without putting everything on the line ... "Thank you, I ... I know we'll win too, it's just ..." she paused, trying to find the words. "I just get so discouraged when things go wrong. It's so hard to keep focused when my enemy blows up a world famous inventor's war machines and another sends us to another world entirely. And then there's Lilith ... every time she's shown up, something bad happ-WHAAAA-" Raquel was interrupted by a huge blast of wind. Everything was. The gust came came like a shockwave, and the Leverager listed a full ten degress toward the starboard side. Raquel's balance was always lacking and she fell into Blake as a result.

Meanwhile Filat had been in the middle of walking away from the Dauntless and the gust caught him right before his foot hit the deck. He stumbled and stumbled desperately trying to catch his balance, but it was no use. <"Oh for crying out loud!> "Babushka, help me!" he yelled reflexively before he collided with Aneda. He hit her hard, but his face hit her breastplate which spared her any pain from impact. Filat on the other hand wouldn't be getting up without a very sore face.

Gabbie figured that a little exercise never hurt anyone (who was smart about it), and decided to go with Connor's idea and load the Dauntless back up. She was going to walk after Filat, but the wind caught her just as she took her first step and she wound up slammed against the Dauntless. She slowly slid down into a seated position with a pained look on her face. "... fffffuck that hurt." she muttered as she grabbed her left shoulder. It had taken virtually all of the impact.

After the wave passed, the wind was gone, and though there were still light breezes here and there, the air was normal again. The eastward wind had passed, but it had left a lot of embarrassment in its wake. All of Temptress had been struck by it, and in the distance, dozens of ships could be seen swaying heavily from the blast. The larger ships held strong, while the smaller ones saw crew and cargo tossed over the rails. Several longboats that were out on the water and had no building coverage capsized and their occupants emerged from the water seconds later with dumbfounded looks on their faces. A lot of equipment had fallen into the water from both ships and the docks, and even half of the crane crew was now bobbing around in the water. The director was yet to realize it, but the bag of gold he'd collected from Raquel wasn't grasped tightly enough, and now it was at the bottom of the harbor.

Captain Bogdan barely remained standing, but could only watch in frustration as half of the men under his command that he could see fell flat on their faces or were sent snowballing across the deck. one of them even fell into the open grate and crashed somewhere a deck below. "That definitely isn't natural. Maybe the gods are angry .... It had better not have anything to do with us, though."

Edited April 10, 2012 by Phoenix

[Ether]

The sudden gust of wind was rather brutal, causing Faatina to tumble over, not expecting it.

<"What in the bloody hell was that?"> Faatina muttered in Rexian, before standing and righting herself.

[Snowy_One]

The same gust of wind that caught Tina also caught Robin. As quickly as she could, Robin fell flat to the deck, pressing her body down to the wood as she tried to cling on for dear life. The ship was rocking back and forth! They could all die as it capsized!

[Mercakete]

When the wind hit, Gytha had been mid-stride. "Whaaaat in Levi--OOF!" she lost her footing and wound up slammed against the guardrails, waiting out the surge of wind.

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

As Norbert began to ride over to where the scene had taken place, deciding that maybe he should talk with Robin, a sudden blast of wind caught Rizen's wings and she loosed a shrill whinny of panic as her hooves left the deck, her wings spread out in full due to the wind's impact, and sent both her and her rider a good distance backwards and off the side of the ship.

"WHOAAA!!" That's some fierce wind! The wind in Norbert's lungs, however, was knocked out of him as his back collided with the mast of the next ship over and Rizen wound up being a crushing force due to the wind. Owww.... When the wind's gust was done, Rizen righted herself and began flying back to their ship, checking back and whinnying with some concern to see if her rider was okay. Norbert was coughing and regaining his breath, but patted Rizen's neck as a form of assurance that he was alright. Where did that come from?

[ReformBlade]

With all the arguing, Aneda wasn't able to focus on much else. Instead of getting between the two (who would step between two violent people?) she kept to herself. Of course, someone had something else in mind for her as a powerful gust of wind appeared out of nowhere. Now, see, Aneda could balance herself in the wind. After all, the Pegasus Knight flies on a Pegasus almost every day, she's used to high speed winds and such. However, some guy couldn't hold his footing and he fell right into her. She thanked the gods she wore armor, but the guy who fell into her was probably not thinking about that... in fact he was probably thinking somehting along the lines of 'Oh god oh god, this hurts' or something a lot more vulgar and sailory. She did feel sort of at fault for the immediate pain, so Aneda decided to aid the man and helped him up. "Hey there, sorry for the unfortunate fall, but with all things considered, it could have been worse! Anyway, do you need help balancing further or d'ya think you'll be fine?" She said as she tried to help him balance. Hannah of course was freaked out. Something along the lines of 'I'm not flying, I'm standing still, why is there so much wind, I'm standing still this doesn't make sense' went through her mind. It took Aneda's hand on her nose to bring her back into a realm of sanity, although it wasn't all that much better.

Davod didn't do all that well to the sudden gust, getting floored rather easily, but he did manage to grab hold of something and keep his grip on it before tumbling over the edge. "What the hell?!" was all he could shout. Not the greatest attitude to have towards nature, but he didn't particularly care. Standing himself up and dusting himself off, he saw Faatina in the same predicament. "Hey, you alright?" he called over before moving over to her. He would've offered a hand but she seemed to have mastered teh skill of standing up without help. Clever girl.

Edited April 10, 2012 by RainbowKitty

[Ether]

"Yeah, I'm fine." Faatina replied, dusting herself off before looking around to see what general state the area was in. It seems a good chunk of those exposed to the gust had taken a tumble. After checking to make sure Robin was okay, which she seemed to be, Faatina remembered Gytha storming off, and moved in her direction until she was back in sight, and apparently lodged on a guardrail. Faatina called out to the mariner. "Hey, Gytha, you holding up?"

Edited April 10, 2012 by Ether

[Snowy_One]

Robin slowly pulled herself up from the ship, trying to be sure of her footing as she stood up. It seemed most of the people had been sent flying, but where unharmed, though Bert had been knocked off the ship.

"Are you okay Bert?" she asked, a hint of uneasiness in her voice as she spoke.

[-Cynthia-]

A Mighty Wind

He's certainly optimistic about all of this...or maybe he's just trying to cheer Raquel up. A little positive thinking couldn't-ah! Veronika managed to catch herself, maintaining a wobbly sort of balance. Blake had stopped Raquel from falling, perhaps accidentally but disaster was largely averted. That was sudden...

"Can't the two of ya just leave each other alone?" Nadya suggested to the quarreling pair of Robin and Gytha, who didn't seem to pay much attention to her. Then she was surprised by the wind and faceplanted into the wooden deck, a painful and unpleasant experience.

Connor had been loading the Dauntless back up when the sudden wind came. He clung against the side of the wagon for support and managed not to be knocked against it. "Are you okay?" he asked Gabbie after the gust had ended- she didn't look so great.

[Mercakete]

"Still a little annoyed, but nothin' time won't heal. ... S'long as she stops provoking me," Gytha replied, muttering the last part as she stood up from where she'd wound up leaning.

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

As Rizen landed, finishing off with a short trot, Norbert had recovered for the most part. His lungs were in working order again, though he was still a tad disoriented. Immediately, Robin asked if he was alright. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Flying creatures are pretty reliant on the wind so when it does something like that and catches their wings, they're pretty easily blown away. Don't worry about it. Looks like the wind's calmed down again," he answered dismissively as he squeezed his eyes shut then blinked them open and shook his head, trying to reorient himself. "What about you?"

[Acacia Sgt]

Despite the odds, it looks like it the situation didn't escalated.

<Well, looks like the worse has passed.> John thought, before taking his attention elsewhere and went over to Gil, who as previously mentioned, was now napping, still in the same place he landed.

<Oh yeah, I think this wind is too bothersome for him to want to fly around I guess.> He thought.

Meanwhile, Sophia, who had to look for another cover due to the wind had decided to just duck beneath the guardrail. As if it were hard to do so in her situation. Incredible, they did manage to. She had thought when the Dauntless made it on board. Despite what she had said before, Raquel didn't seem in the mood to want to explain things just yet, so Sophia figured she could spent some more time down there.

And then without warning, disaster struck.

The strong wind-wave came across the ship, tilting it and making a mess of it all. Thanks to their positions they mostly avoided the wave, though the tilting couldn't be said the same thing. Fortunately it wasn't as sever.

<I knew it, something's definitely out of place with this wind.> John thought, having used Gil as a shield, the latter merely waking up. He himself had the Dauntless for a shield after all. The tilting however made him stand up, the wind was mostly gone anyway.

<Wait a minute, isn't the Dark Utka using this wind to get away? Then this wave would certainly...>

What was that? Sophia thought, finally standing up. It seems the port had suffered as well, likewise the other boats. This wind is not natural...

[Ether]

"I don't know what happened between you too, but Robin seems dead set on it. Anyway, she said she would try to keep out of your business if I talked to you... I don't know if it's personal or anything, but would you mind telling me what happened? I'd like to do whatever I can to not see any more fighting within the group." Faatina asked Gytha, hoping she might be able to work the pair towards peace in some way.

[Snowy_One]

"Terrified. Scared." she said as she pointed to her hair, clearly visible as standing on end. "And then the wind kicked up and doubled that." she seemed to visibly slump down in relief. "I honestly thought I was going to die, or at least be horribly wounded. I am scared that I am going to have to spend the entire trip like this as well, on a boat, with no firm footing or even friends to back me up. Still..." She looked to Nadya before back to Bert, about to explain to both. "I cannot just leave her alone. This is not a matter of repaying a debt, but trying to make things right for everyone on the team. It is wrong to sleep with a grudge, but I cannot just wipe away the past for the illusion of serenity either. If I did that... I would still be mad at you Bert."

[Mercakete]

Gytha sighed. "Well, most o' us were there when it happened. No reason not t' tell ye. We were doin' a job fer a man named Weyland in Ursium, helpin' some mercenaries from Kigen he'd alreada hired. Onla one o' them came back with us from Kigen, but th' point is we were takin' a Fallen o'er t' Weyland. Some Ursian Wrathite soldiers attacked us because o' two things: we were takin' a Fallen through Ursium n' they wanted Raquel's emblem, but we weren't about t' let'em take it. So we fought n' won. Amon -- a friend o' mine who was with us at th' time but stayed in Sanctuary when we left -- had captured th' lady leadin' th' group that attacked us, but she wasn't goin' t' tell us anythin' useful. We talked about what t' do with 'er. Robin was one o' th' ones wantin' t' let 'er go. I was in favor o' that too until it was explained that she'd send out a warrent fer our arrests and we'd probabla be hung fer what we'd just done. So, th' answer was clear. I shot th' lady in th' head t' protect us. Robin was angry at me fer that so she threw a bunch o' arrowheads at me and tried t' just walk off. I'm not one t' take that kind o' behavior, so I fired back. It wasn't a lethal shot, but it had 2 lessons attached t' it. First: don't attack someone dangerous n' try t' walk away. Second: I'm dangerous. I was nice enough t' try t' give 'er that advice b'fore it got 'er killed, but she's been demandin' an apology ever since n' this happened about a month ago. I've put most o' th' hard feelin's b'hind me n' moved on. I even try t' help 'er out n' be friendly every once in a while. I even helped 'er with a crate that was too heavy fer her when we were unloadin' th' Dauntless. She just won't stop tryin' t' convince me t' apologize fer somethin' I'll never apologize fer. Earlier she even tried t' drop a box on me foot! I finally had enough and warned 'er t' stay away, but she kept harpin' at me n' followin' me so I finalla attacked again," Gytha explained, somewhat exasperated around halfway through until the end.

"I don't know how t' get 'er t' stop pesterin' me..." she groaned.

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

Norbert listened, having only asked the question in passing and only realizing he'd asked it after the archer began answering. During her answer, he was able to reorient himself. "What, you're still going on about Gytha?" he asked, wondering why he was even the least bis surprised, "She's kind of like a natural disaster. It's kind of useless to get mad at her for doing what she does. That's the way I see it anyway. Hmm... Though, you know, I think the best thing to do is to just stop following her around. Who flies into a windstorm and expects to be okay afterwords? And making her upset is only going to get you hurt. Be smart about this. It's not like you're the only one she's taken aim at. I know to shut up when she points that pistol at me, though. And when I stop bugging her, she puts it away. You might want to try something like that. Seems to work." He shrugged at the end of his advice.

[Phoenix]

Afterwind

Connor got lucky, it seemed. That was good. Gabbie didn't much mind the results so long as neither of them were seriously injured. She picked herself up, but did not let go of that ailing shoulder. "Not gonna loie; that hurt like hell and I think I'm going to see a healer in a second, here. How are you-are you okay?"

Pain. That's all that was going through Filat's head for the first few moments. He shook his head lightly at Aneda's question and replied "I-I'll be alright ... my sea legs are just fine in a real storm. That freak-wind on the other hand came out of nowhere. Are you alright? I did not mean to trip into you, though as you said, it could have been worse. Had I missed you, I'm sure I would have gone right over the rail ... or broken my neck against it ... better not to think about the odds too much." he added, keeping his hand over his nose for the moment.

[Snowy_One]

"If she were a natural disaster I would not be trying to talk to her. I would be finding a way to survive her. She is not though. She is human like you and I. That is the problem. She did something wrong and, regardless of if it was in her character or not, she needs to at least take responsibility for it and put the effort to make things right." she quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts. "I do need some distance from her though, but that is only going to put off the inevitable fight for some time. You do not want to see either of us dead, now, do you? Besides, what would I do during this trip? There is only so much space on the ship."

[-Cynthia-]

Windstorm Fallout

Nadya groaned a little as she dragged herself off the deck. Robin was going on about boats and debts and sleeping with something...Nadya wasn't really paying enough attention to Robin to care. Urgh, my head wouldn't be ringing right now if I were on Luca. she thought to herself.

"I'm fine, I got lucky and didn't run into anything," Connor explained to Gabbie. "The weather sure is strange down here- I never heard of wind just stopping and going like that," he pondered, watching her pick herself up. "Oy! We could use a healer over here!" he called out to the group.

[Mercakete]

"This isn't really a small ship. And even if you see her, you don't have to talk to her," Norbert mentioned, "But the thing is, she doesn't really have to apologize. It seems kind of silly to try to make someone like her do what you want them to. Just try to get by. Don't try to change her. You'll only frustrate yourself or get yourself killed. She probably won't hurt you unless you upset her, so just avoid the storm and you'll be fine. Not like she reasons like very many people. At least not many I've met."

[Snowy_One]

"I... I cannot promise that Bert. As much as I hate to admit it, we share some common traits. We are both stubborn women who refuse to change. I only wish that we could stop butting heads against each other. I... Do not want to be her enemy, I really do not, but what she did was not something minor either. It cannot be just glossed over with a smile and ignoring it only makes it worse. Thank you though for trying. Bert... If... If it comes down to it and we end up fighting again... Do you... Will you... I don't know. I don't even want to think about it. I just... I feel like I am alone in this fight and... I just want someone to be willing to..."

Do what? Bury her? Pull her away for medical attention? Be on her side? What? She wasn't sure herself. She sighed as she rubbed her brow. "Yea. You're right. I need to avoid her, if only for a bit."

[Ether]

"That seems like an interesting dilemma..." Faatina muttered, looking out over the railing at the ocean.

"I can certainly see both sides. You tried to teach her a life lesson, and honestly, I can agree with that. First thing she did after I joined up with you guys is yell at me for killing those ambush troops... but at the same time, I think I would be pretty steamed if I got shot by a teammate... s'never happened to me so I don't know if I would hold a grudge or not." Faatina went over the situation to herself, trying to think of what might get the two to stop fighting.

"Sounds like she didn't want your lesson though... she certainly hasn't taken it to heart if she keeps coming at you like that." Faatina mumbled, watching the waves roll by.

"I just don't know what to do... I already told her if she kept causing fights I would knock her out, but it doesn't seem like the sorta thing she'll listen to. I can only hope she'll keep up her word and lay off you already... especially on a boat like this where we'll be stuck for who knows how long... if you're gonna be at odds with someone, damnit atleast have the decency to do it where you have space to be apart." Faatina complained with a grimace.

[Acacia Sgt]

Sophia heard a call for a healer. Turning, she saw it came from the Dauntless. Well, it wasn't unexpected for someone to have ended up injured, but that aside, she hurried to take care of whatever the problem may be.

-----

<I guess there's no point trying to check.> John thought. <What matters is that it's quite the head start they got.> At this rate their departure was certainly delayed some more.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[Phoenix]

Further After

"Unless the biggest bomb in history just went off somewhere out west, I'm not sure how else a shockwave loike that could have come at us so hard. They would have built a wall to protect against somethin' loike that ... or something, urgh ..." Gabbie complained while wincing at her shoulder. She noticed Sophia heading over, so that was a good sign, at least.

[Mercakete]

"Not realla my choice. I do me best t' stay away, but she always follows me. I'm on th' verge o' just killin' 'er," Gytha replied, obviously feeling like she was running out of options.

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

"Well, I'm glad you're seeing that. If you stay away from her, I'm pretty sure she'll leave you alone, too," he responded with a nod as he dismounted Rizen, "I understand what you mean, though, or at least I think I do. Sometimes you don't even care about what others think. You understand what your actions will cost you but it's worth it. As long as you don't care what happens to you, you just keep going forward. That's kind of what happens to me, I think. If I lose my temper, I lose my temper so I can't think and I just act, but if I'm thinking clearly and I still act, it's because what happens to me doesn't matter. It's what I'm trying to achieve that matters. That said, I don't think you'll be able to achieve anything by continuing like you have been. So it's just better to stop that approach at least. It could be just that no matter what you do you'll never change her. You have to be okay with that if it comes to it."

This is weird. Me, giving advice? Hmm... Maybe I shouldn't be doing that. I'm not really wise or anything. I don't know. Whatever. And so Norbert began to get a tad irritated with his own thoughts again.

[Ether]

"That... seems a little excessive, don't you think?" Faatina replied to Gytha's musing about simply killing off Robin.

[Mercakete]

"It's gettin' t' th' point where I don't care if she dies. She won't stop naggin' me. If she dies, it's her own fault," Gythe replied, a bit residually grumpy, "I don't let people bother me like this. She's gotten away with it fer a long time. Not sure how much more I can take, especialla after t'day. If ye attack someone, expect them t' attack back. But she whines and complains, unable t' accept th' consequences o' her actions. N' I'm gettin' tired o' it."