Return of the Emblem Chapter Nine: Consolidating Forces

[Snowy_One]

Robin gave a small 'humph' as Lia walked off to find her own clothes. What was wrong with her choices? These dresses would look very nice on Lia for sure! Why, she was only rejecting them because she felt she could handle dressing herself even though she had no experience doing so. She would pick wrong and choose ugly clothes!

"It is not the need of a party, she does not know how to dress herself. She needs help. She needs someone to look out for her." she explained to Zach in a huff before he walked off.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"So...you're not allowed to actually practice shooting the cannons?" Veronika asked the men by the cannons after listening to their exchange. "Doesn't that make it difficult when you need to shoot them?" That might make practice difficult as well- although we don't all need to be shooters most likely.

[Phoenix]

Place of Death/Buffet

"Urgh, mostly fish. Not surproising, but I was hoping the northern colonists would have set up some pig farms down here." Gabbie commented as she led Ringo along. She kept a tight grip on his reins to make sure he didn't stick his head too close to the goods. Riley stood perfectly still and eyed every human or sharp object with suspicion. Once she found a seller with carcasses that 'looked' like pigs, she approached. "Gods, tell me those are pigs."

"... tell me you're a customer~" the vendor came right back with a grin. He put his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation.

"... yes."

"Yes." he echoed. "Looking to feed your wyvern, hmm? Is it a special occasion or is this a regular thing, I wonder?"

"Guy's a little malnourished, but so am I ..." she admitted with a shrug. "Today he gets to pig out."

"Excellent pun. So what sorts of cuts would you like?"

"Cuts? Hahah, I said I'm lettin' him pig out. Just give me two of those things and let him sort the rest out."

"Heheheheheh, alright, then. That will be twenty gold, Miss."

Raquel watched from a short distances as a couple of assistants from the shop Gabbie was at retrieved two whole pig carcasses. "Two of them? Wow."

Place of Death Delivery/Gun Deck

"Huh?" the two men looked over at the visitor. "Oh hey, it's one'a the mercs. How are ya?" one greeted.

The other went straight into an explanation. "We can practice out at sea, but at the docks? Heh, I bet you'll get in less trouble practicing firing your guns in town in the middle of the street than we will setting off these bad boys in port, if you know what I mean."

"Too much can go wrong; we could accidentally hit somethin' we're not supposed to or cause a panic nearby or even distract the port patrols from a real threat, so port regs around most of Sardius are to keep these things cold unless we have to defend ourselves. Makes sense to me, but these idiots wonder why there isn't one good gunner in the straits that's not military ..."

"I'm a decent shot." the other came back defensively. "Remember when I took over aiming and nailed that one guy?"

"We were trying to hit the main mast, not the guy twenty feet to the right." the other shot back.

[Acacia Sgt]

So there they were down the road, until they could finally see that the wyvern was Ringo, with Gabbie nearby.

''Hey there,'' John called out once they were near. ''Giving him quite the treat huh,'' he commented at seeing the pigs. Gil just grunted, he certainly wasn't envious.

-----

''Hm?'' Sophia turned to actually see what Raquel was being surprised about. ''She's buying them whole?''

[Ether]

Zachary seemed to have a positive opinion towards her choice, thankfully. The other girl seemed to be grumbling about something or another, and the third had been oddly silent... not a talker, perhaps? As the grumbler with the strange and varied fashion sense approached... Lisandra could only wonder why none of the outfits that one had chosen even vaguely resembled what she herself was wearing, she decided at the very least that she could give a slight curtsy and a pose.

'This is what one does when buying clothing, is it not?'

***********

"Is that right... hah... without context that ranking system still makes no sense to me..." Faatina replied, as it seemed Talitha was getting quite hungry, taking any opportunity to scarf down her food.

***********

"So this is when it begins then, Fox~?" The woman asked with a cheery smile.

[ReformBlade]

"Oh my gooosh. You. Are. Adorable~!" Aneda had to smile at teh little one's choice of clothes and hat, though something seemed to be missing... "Hold on a second..." Rummaging through various articles of clothing that'd be a good fit for Lia, Aneda let out a triumphant gasp as she pulled out a blue cloak, just the right size for Lia. "Ok ok, Miss Lia, try this on with your outfit, I think it'd be friggin aaaawesooooooome~" Handing it over, Aneda was grinning ear to ear, for some reason taking great pride with this turn of events.

[Phoenix]

Shopping

"John?" Gabbie looked his way just long enough for Ringo to start pecking at the carcasses.

"Uh, should we just ... uh, what do we ... umm ... he's ... Ma'am, do we just let him have these or ... what ..." The words just would not come, and this guy didn't know when to give up. Gabbie glanced back wondering who the hell taught this guy common and saw what was really going on. Ringo was already digging into one of the pigs. She shrugged.

"If ya don't moind, I'll just let'em eat roight here. I'll pay extra if it's driven away your customers ..." She didn't feel like paying extra, but Ringo showing no restraint was usually a bad sign and she felt sorry for him. He must of have been really hungry to not wait for her to give him the 'okay' ...

"Oh, I suppose it's fine just this once." the vendor answered. "That one looks mighty hungry, heheh."

A short distance away, Raquel shrugged at the question. "It certainly looks that way," and then she noticed John. "Oh, it looks like we're not the only ones who came over here."

Eating

"If it helps ..." Talitha paused to swallow another mouthful. "... my strength is ranked six and my accuracy is fifteen."

"Sounds like you don't miss, heheh." the sailor commented.

"Right, but only because I'll never bother shooting someone who's actually fast enough to evade my attacks. That just seems pointless. Let someone else deal with those targets and focus on the ones you can take down in one or two hits guaranteed."

Plotting

"Heh, I'm hoping this is where this particular issue ends, actually." Fox replied with the faintest of grins. "With my property returned to me and those responsible for this mess dead or under my thumb."

[Acacia Sgt]

''Looks like he really was that hungry,'' John noted. ''Anyway, I was here to buy food for Gil too,'' he explained. That's when he noticed a short distance away Raquel and Sophia, to which then he walked over leaving Gil behind who just grunted at such display of behavior Ringo was showing.

''Huh, I thought you were going to buy clothes,'' he said.

''Well, she wanted to come with us,'' Sophia thought, making brief glance at Gabbie and Ringo. ''But also wanted to buy food for her wyvern, and that got dealt with first.''

Edited August 7, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[roymbrog]

So Synthia and Gytha were walking back all chill like, and lo and behold, what was this? The wagon! Amazing. Synthia wondered why it was still out, and why it hadn't been there when they'd left... weird disappearing wagon. Had the horses been left out all night? That was horrible and stuff! After asking Gytha to retrieve the two shiny metal bits sticking out of the straw, the mage hurried over to unhitch the two horses and lead them onto the ship, Phyllis following quietly behind.

-----

“I-I was... um... well, I was watching you practice,” Torin said sheepishly. “You're pretty good with a sword.”

[Mercakete]

The walk back was fairly uneventful. It was nice to just relax, idly taking in the happenings of the port city. When they got back to the Leverager, though, Synthia noticed that the wagon was still there from the day before, none too happy about that, and saw something in it. The magic-user asked her to retrieve it. Figuring someone had just left something behind, Gytha climbed up and investigated. Turns out it was Bert's maces. Jethro must've left 'em here. she thought, recalling that it had been John who brought the pegasus rider into sick bay. Quickly looking around to make sure no one else forgot something, the mariner left the wagon and followed Synthia back onto the ship. She was leading the horses already.

"Hoy, Synthia," Gytha called as she caught up, showing her the maces once she had, "Looks like someone forgot these. Ye have everathin', right? Wouldn't be good t' forget anathin' n' realize it's gone once we're out t' sea." Gytha did a quick mental inventory herself, just to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything anywhere. The results were satisfactory -- she was certain she still had all her belongings.

[roymbrog]

Synthia glanced at the maces Gytha had retrieved. Huh, those looked familiar. Synthia quickly checked over herself, but there really wasn't much to lose anyway. “Yeah, I have everything,” She said, continuing up the ramp towards the stable entrance.

The two wagon horses were surprisingly cooperative, willing to follow a complete stranger up onto the large vessel. With the cult wiped out, that technically made Zach guy the current owner. Maybe she could convince him to give her one...

[Phoenix]

Death Market

Ringo continued to gorge himself, figuring this was the last time he would be eating anything good this month while Riley watched in horror from afar. "Oi, Raquel! We can head out as soon as he's finished, okay?" Gabbie called over.

"Okay, sure." Raquel humbly replied. She could wait; far be it from her to rush a hungry wyvern ...

[Snike]

Blake continued to frown at the boy's explanation, though he did sheathe his sword after the end of it.

"I'm not that good, really," the swordsman said, honestly. "Most of the arena must be better than I am, so why aren't you watching them instead of watching travellers on ships you weren't invited to?" He had an inkling of an idea why, but may as well wait and see what the kid had to say.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Say, you wouldn't mind if I came along?'' John asked. ''I suppose there is no rush to head back to the ship if there are people still not coming back anyway,'' he shrugged. ''And I doubt we'd be leaving them behind if we had to leave in a hurry, more so if you'd be one of them Raquel, heh.''

Gil meanwhile took an advantage in a gap in the crowd to move past Ringo. Watching him wolf down the pigs wasn't that interesting.

[roymbrog]

Torin looked off to the side and kicked at a piece of rock on the deck. “My brother gets upset when I sneak in. Most of the matches aren't real sword fights anyway, just some guy beating up a bunch of people.”

The kid paused, remembering something. “Oh, and the arena is closed anyway. Hey, do you think you could show me the move where you were blocking like this?” He tried copying... something. Whatever it was, the stance was off and was pretty much an embarrassment to swordplay. It was pretty clear that he had forgotten that Blake had threatened him a short while ago.

[Script]

An Alone Man Called Gar

Gar shoved the last of his purchased meats into yet another new satchel, thanked the proprietor--who was forcing a smile--and walked away, back in the direction of the Leverager.

[Phoenix]

Market

"Sure, that'd be great." Raquel replied. "I'm a little sad to be leaving so soon though, to be honest. It's not like the trip from Temptress. We're going to be sailing for days and days to get back to Ursium. It sounds really ... dull." More importantly, my income is virtually zero aboard the Leverager. I've got to do some trading in Yoshimo if there's time.

Ringo quickly finished off one carcass, not even leaving many bones behind, and moved right along to the next while Gabbie stood around waiting.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Dull huh,'' John said. ''With our luck it's probably gonna be far from dull.''

''Though that doesn't mean it will be pleasant either,'' Sophia said.

''Hm, true. After all, we currently have something we'll be most likely dealing with not that soon after we depart after all.''

[Snike]

So apparently the arena was closed for the time being. That normally would've been of some concern to the swordsman, but considering his previous failures, including the one that had occurred last night, the last thing he needed to be doing was going and getting himself injured in a simple tournament. What was of immediate concern, however, was the boy's fighting stance. To say that it was clumsy was an understatement. He clearly needed some help with it.

"Well, first of all, your stance is off," Blake said, as he backed up and set his feet a shoulder-width apart, before drawing his sword and holding it in an upright position in front of him. "It should look like this to start. From here, there's no real move per se, but the point is to block any weapon coming your way, or at least delay the blow so that it deals less of an injury to you, and you're ready to strike at the same time." It wasn't exactly the way he fought now, but clearly the kid needed to know the basics before getting into anything too complex.

[roymbrog]

“Ok, so like this?” Torin mimicked Blake's stance and held his short sword in front of him. It was much better than his previous attempt. “So now what?”

[Phoenix]

Market

"Well, I what I mean is things can be pretty dull when we aren't fighting for our lives ... and I've never been outside of Ursium before. I'm probably not going to get to see much more between here and home ..." Raquel explained gloomily. "I should probably buy a few new books while we're out here too now that I think about it. Otherwise I'll have absolutely nothing but maintenance work to do for the whole trip."

Ringo ate the second pig much more quickly. That was because he could tell Gabbie was waiting for him to finish, and so instead of biting off bits here and there and wolfing them down, he tore off entire limbs and swallowed them whole, letting his stomach sort out the rest. One he got to the main body and all four legs were gone, he began eating as much with each bite as he could. All that was left in the end was the spinal column, rib cage, pelvis, and bits of meat he couldn't pick clean from those areas.

"Congrats, Ringo! Sorry about the mess, boys." Gabbie spoke up. "Alroight, ready to go?"

Ringo coughed up a small bone and then stared at Gabbie waiting patiently for some direction.

"Okay, c'mon." she told him as she took his reins and led him back over toward Raquel and the others.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

''I guess you're right,'' John said. ''The ocean doesn't really offer that much of a varied landscape to gaze at after all.''

''Oh, you read? What kind of books?'' Sophia asked.

[Phoenix]

Market

"Novels mostly," she answered, trying to think back to the most recent ones. "They're usually not very realistic and the heroes always win no matter what, but that's just fine by me, especially after this last month."

[Acacia Sgt]

''I may not have traveled with you people for long, but even at this point I would agree with you about the books,'' Sophia said. ''Certainly a nice read, but I know real life doesn't work like that,'' she sighed. ''Well, not like that has stopped me from reading them.''

''Looks like it's time to leave,'' John said, looking over back at the market seeing Ringo and Gabbie now heading towards them.

[Phoenix]

Continuing On In the Market

"They're a nice break from what you'd expect and can be more interesting, I think." Raquel added with a smile.

"Are we goin'?" Gabbie prodded.

"Y-yeah okay, fine." She was enjoying that little exchange but Gabbie seemed more interested in getting a move on. It was a fair stance to take given the amount of time they didn't have left, but still ... "I'm not sure where a good clothes store would be. Maybe we should ask someone?"