Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Call it..." Gar froze up for a second. What should he call it? Advice? "Well call it something. But well, since as far as I know we're still on for going after that Sardis guy. No matter your choice there's probably gonna be words exchanged with him/her/it. So I just wanted to say that during said exchange of words that you should trying singing some musical lyrics in your head."

Edited April 5, 2013 by Script

[Snike]

Raquel went off, with a bit of a confused expression on her face. That was to be expected, given how cryptic Blake was being. Oh, it would be explained in good time, but first, he had to speak with Gabbie and Bert, then set things up. The swordsman turned away from the wagon, and began to look for the fliers. Now where had they wandered off to...?

[Ether]

"Y'know you could help me out a little, Reign." Faatina responded with her best pout, eventually reaching the Dauntless. Seeing no chairs around, Reign pointed her to the front seat, where she sat down.

"I'm pretty sure I put my armour in storage." She told him, leaning back against the seat of the Dauntless... it was rather comfortable, really.

***

And so Arietta found herself standing by the fire with nary a damn thing to do. What she wouldn't give for some sort of oversized rabid rodent to beat the living shit out o- oh hey there was that snippy, arguey archer girl from before, what was her name... Blue Jay? Falcon? Obnoxious-rumped Swallow? ...eh, it didn't matter, Arietta figured wailing on unsuspecting allied archers wouldn't end all that well.

[roymbrog]

“Haha, that’s funny.” Despite the sarcastic tone, Cloe did look slightly amused. That man had a stick so far up his ass… The only date she'd like to give him was a date with her fist. “I don’t think he’d be interested,” she replied.

[Eail]

As Zach and Grant came back to the camp fire not long after they left with one noticeably more worse for the wear than the other Zach called out "Anyone wanna fix Grant? He took a good few Blasts and could use it." Well that was his requirement done. So for now the sage simply plopped down next to Marella and Aneda at the fire. "Well that was fun, makes me feel nice too after all the problems I've had with him~. So did I miss anything here? Oh! Aneda you have Phee right now don't you? Notice anything different with her?"

[Mercakete]

Norbert waved the injury off to Gabbie with a nonchalant, "Don't worry about it. I've survived worse blows than that one. It hurt, yeah, but it's nothing I can't take in the end. Not even the worst pain I've been in."

Frowning some as he brown furrowed in confusion, he continued, "I'm kind of disappointed, though. Sorry I wasn't more of a challenge. Things like this tend to cheer me up, so I thought maybe it'd help you out, too. I couldn't help but notice you seemed a bit distracted earlier. Maybe if you sparred someone who was more of a challenge..."

He didn't commit much thought to that, however, before addressing Nadya, giving her a puzzled look. "Were you just watching us that whole time? Anyway, yeah, thanks. She got my side, too." He pointed out where the injury was. Then, he asked Gabbie, "I was trying not to break anything, but do you think you'll need any healing, wyvern girl?"

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

Aw, the other mare had to leave. Well, when your rider needed you attention, they needed your attention. Shortly afterward, Riley and Sandrock's rider came by. She didn't seem to need their assistance right away, though, so Rizen just enjoyed their company while she could and continued to graze.

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

"Nice t' meet ye, Sinbad! Aye, we were in Sanctuary. Amon's not a priest, though. Devout, aye, but he works directla for Aisha. Lot o' people there do," Gytha clarified. She didn't see why that was particularly impressive. What did catch Gytha's attention, though, she asked about, "So, where're ye goin' anaway?"

[ReformBlade]

"That sounds pretty... dang boring, not gonna lie. Is it really just a grey area? I dunno, I just thought with how fantastic that dream was, in the literal sense of the word mind you, that the actual thing would've been a bit... more engaging I guess?" Leaning back on her hands, "I wasn't there so I can't really make the comparison as well as you can. How did you guys even get there? Doesn't sound like a whimsy kind of visit, and if it were that'd be... certainly different to say the least."

Aneda fell over while hugging the egg to herself, not really tired so much as extremely bored and lazy. She did however let out a sigh or a blegh kind of noise to accompany the fall.

[Phoenix]

Buffet

"Singing lyrics in my head?" Raquel wasn't sure what to make of that, but she had to ask. "... why exactly?"

Dauntless

"Alright, I'll have a look," Reign replied, intending to get her things so she wouldn't have to move around any more than necessary. Once he was inside the Dauntless, he gave a passive wave and, "Morning," to Connor before looking around. "Here we go," he said when he found a familiar set of armor set aside. Once he had everything, he carefully headed back out, taking special care not to trip on his way out of the Dauntless. That fall could easily lead to a serious injury.

Campfire

"Well I don't know if it's all like that but where we came out it was a vast empty plain. There weren't even that many plants from what I could tell. A few patches of thin half dead grass here and there but it was mostly just dirt as far as you could see," Shadrak explained. "As for how we got there ... well we were trying to rescue Raquel from Sardis, but we ran into a crazy girl with a bunch of flying coffins and a guy covered in metal plates first and had to fight the former. We beat her but apparently the whole thing was a trap and it didn't matter that we'd won. We got transported to purgatory along with the entire fortress and they left us there. The only reason we didn't starve to death is because we just happened to find Lilith entombed there. I'm just glad she didn't turn out to be as bad as the legends make her out to be ... though honestly I'm still not entirely sure about her ..."

Fight Club

"Actually I prefer winning, so the easier the better ... at least to a point," Gabbie replied to Bert. "And yeah, don't worry about this. I can walk it off," she said in response to the question about her stomach. "Ringo, get over here!"

It was nice being needed. Ringo came over and waited for Gabbie to put away her boots and old riding gloves and put her usual limb garbs back on. She didn't anticipate anymore sparring for the time being, so ...

Fortress

"Hmm, well Hayato does seem to keep his distance from people," Silvia noted with some new interest. "Well except for Sar-oooooo, maybe he only has eyes for Sardis. I have to admit, they do look cute together."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Let's call it a mental exercise in keeping your mind calm and steady," Gar cheerfully beamed an answer. "Life being what it is, you never know when someone super-humanly powerful is gonna just walk on inside because you left the door open."

Edited April 5, 2013 by Script

[Phoenix]

Buffet

"You mean like what happened to Blake earlier?" Not being sure if Gar had been listening to all of that at the time, she added, "She ... 'publicized' a few things ..."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Certainly sounds like if he'd been singing about a lovely bunch of coconuts said public things would still be nice and deeply repressed," Gar commented. It was probably the walking disaster who'd gone and vanished now. "I really should have told someone to knife her in the sleep during the dream training." Gar shook his head at his lack of foresight.

[Mercakete]

Norbert had to laugh a little at Gabbie's comment about winning. "Who doesn't?" That was really his only comment for the time being, though he did wonder where Blake was. "Hmm... We're not that far, but maybe we should head back," he mumbled, thinking aloud as he looked back towards the camp.

[Ether]

Making her way to the back of the Dauntless and setting up a curtain to change behind, Faatina slipped out of her current garments and began to freshen up before putting on her battle wear.

"No peeking, okay Reign?" She teased, before donning her usual attire as well as her armour. Once fully clothed, the paladin stepped out from behind the curtain, giving Reign a quick grin.

"The leg bracers actually help me walk on my leg... sadly lately it's been getting hit enough that I know this pretty well..." She began strong, though her speech quickly degraded into an annoyed murmur.

"Seriously, it's like they have a sense that I broke this thing before... do I have a tendency to limp that I don't know about?"

[Balcerzak]

Sinbad let out a low whistle upon hearing Gytha's revelations regarding Amon, Sanctuary, and Aisha. Now that really sounded like there was a story there, maybe even a whole mess of them. "Well, I'll be," he muttered, shaking his head a bit before answering the mariner's question about his destination. "I'm on the trail of one who's done wronged me and mine. Been hard to track, and I'm not rightly sure he's even there, but rumor had it he might be on the way to Europa. One-armed fella, Kigenese, you wouldn'ta happen to have run across him ever, by chance?" There was definitely a hard glint in the cowboy's eyes, when it came to this subject.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Snike]

Ah, there they were, a bit aways from the camp proper. Blake made his way over to the clearing where Gabbie and Bert were doing... something-just finishing off sparring, perhaps?- at a leisurely pace. No rush.

[Phoenix]

Buffet

"Okay I think I see what you're getting at now. Though ... no need to stab her. Actually ..." Raquel trailed off as she reached to retrieve the object Kit had left her. "She left me with this ... in case I needed to contact her. It's more down to earth than Lilith's orb. I guess what I'm getting at is I don't think we should try and kill her. She's a little too curious for my taste but she hasn't actually done anything to us." It was obvious that she was joking, but she tried to imply that she was when she crossed her arms, looked away and said, "You can stab Sardis in his sleep though. Go right ahead."

Dauntless

Reign resisted a chuckle when Faatina told him not to peek. Oh I've had my fill for the day. First Kit, now this .... Some water would have been nice, but I'll live. Once she was finished and stepped out, she pointed out the same concern Reign had about her leg. "Well not all the time, but even favoring one leg a little would be easy to notice. The important thing is, you've got a horse, so this shouldn't be an issue. It's probably just bad luck in general."

Fight Club

"Yeah probably best to head back now. Though, I doubt they've finished making breakfast ... especially since Nadya's here ... so ... rations." Gabbie sighed. Then she noticed Blake approaching when Ringo looked that way. "How convenient. Our next destination comes to us~"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I suppose being an insult to the eyes isn't enough for people bigger than me to kill over huh," Gar scratched the back of his head. "Since you mentioned the Lilith Orb thingie, you ever give any thought to busting that out at the meeting? Drop a.. however-much a vasili weighs headache on them?" He inquired. "Since it sounds like you made your choice on the matter with giving me reign on the sleep stab and all." Gar half-assed a joke answer.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Script

[ReformBlade]

"Eh... come again? Coffins and metal guys...?" that confused her, or rather shocked her as it sounded completely ridiculous but then again she remembered what she was asking about. "You sure do seem to run into some strange dealings, Shadrak. I know I'm not something super special in the grand scheme of things but that all sounds... wow, haha, you know? Talk about interesting." And then it hit her that not all of it was fun and games, a fact she still hasn't really let sink in yet due to how depressing she feels it is. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound disrespectful of stuff that's happened..." I just like to focus on the positives is all...

[Mercakete]

Gytha gave the question some thought before answering, "Sorry. Can't say I have. Not recentla anaway. Might've met a one-armed Kigenese man a long time ago, but I doubt it's be th' same one... Aye, a long time ago. He was a merchant, though, 'r at least he helped th' merchant in charge. Short, thin n' uptight, too. Probabla th' twin brother o' th' main merchant. Onla way t' tell 'em apart was th' arm, hehar. Even sounded n' acted a lot. In spite o' at least bein' business partners, they sure did argue a lot."

Moving on from her story, Gytha became more objective again in answering Sinbad. "Even if he was th' same one, whate're lead ye have now's probabla more helpful n' anathin' I could tell ye." She shifted from her serious talk a bit again. "Though, interestin' that yer headed fer Europa. That's where we're headed after meetin' some people around here."

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

Seeing as he was already looking in the direction, seeing someone approach was a pretty easy thing to do. Gabbie mentioned it first, though. Norbert just adopted a satisfied look and crossed his arms, waiting for whatever happened next, whether that was Blake arriving and asking about Gabbie's idea or Nadya using that heal staff of hers.

[Phoenix]

Buffet

"Not until just now. I'm not sure I could pull off a convincing bluff, but I guess that is one option. They probably don't know that Lilith's our ally yet. It just sort of worries me ... the thought of warning them not to attack us or Lilith will rain hell on them only for them to laugh. Plus if I ended up having to use it and she didn't show up in time ..." she trailed off not really wanting to finish that thought aloud.

Campfire

"I guess? I used to be excited about all of this too but ..." Shadrak began to look a bit depressed. "Well when it comes to the fire emblem and all of these supernatural run-ins, I keep finding myself hitting brick walls. I don't like the idea of learning so much about the past, history, and these artifacts, writing it all down in my notes and then just sitting on my hands. I want to help somehow but it never works out. It just makes every new discovery just as painful as it is exciting ... because I know that I can't make good use of any of it. So yeah my enthusiasm's waning ... assuming it isn't completely gone already. Trust me, I'd love to be happy and excited about all of it; I used to be, like I said. But now it's just ... another day, another useless entry for my notes." He sighed afterward. "Okay that was pretty negative ..." he admitted with a wince.

[Balcerzak]

When Gytha appeared to be seriously trying to remember something, Sinbad sat up and paid close attention. When she came back with her final answer he relaxed a little in disappointment. "Ah, that'd've been someone altogether different. More'n half a dozen months back and the feller I'm after still had both his arms, but I do appreciate yer trying to help me out. Reckon I just have to keep pluggin' away with what I can manage to find. Been chasing him all the way from Kigen now, an' I reckon he must have some sort of destination in mind. S'pose he could just be runnin' scaird but... something tells me that ain't the case."

Had I said he'd relaxed? Well that must've been a short-lived thing indeed, because by the time the cowboy realized it, finishing up his explanation there, his hands were gripping his knees pretty damn tight. You could almost see the knuckles starting to turn white before he webbed his fingers together and stretched out his arms, changing topics gladly to the other crumb provided.

"Well, I'll be jiggered if that isn't the darnedest coincidence, your heading ta Europa, I mean. Who're ya planning on meeting, and how long you reckon that'll take you outta the way, if ya don't mind my askin'?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Well I suppose the rest of us can help fill in the bluff, or truth really," Gar offered. "Though since the fashion disaster pulled off something similar to Lilith's thing it's possible they might recognize it, or both the things, as shows of a powerful backer." Gar shrugged. "But well, in the worst case there's not much to ease that painful thoughts. About the only thing I can say in response to 'yes it's bad that everyone gets killed' is 'at least they all chose to go into this on their own merits'." Not that Gar knew that for the truth, but it was about all that could be said really, oh wait, there was one more thing. "Oh and, well, I won't die no matter what," Gar added off-hand in a matter-of-fact tone.

[Ether]

"I suppose so... actually, I have something else that's been bugging me. Last night, before I woke up... no matter how hard I hit him, how much force I put behind my blows... I couldn't even scratch that Dragon's Head..." Faatina noted, leaning against one of the numerous crates within the Dauntless with a less than pleased expression.

"I mean you guys made it back and everyone seemed for better than for worse... I can only assume you won... which means you took that thing down." Faatina continued, her eyes wandering quickly to the floor as she let out a sigh.

"Reign... am I holding you guys back? I couldn't do anything at all against that thing... and in all these fights I keep going down... keep getting injured... maybe... would you be better off if I didn't take to the field, Reign?" She asked, her eyes tearing up slightly as she did so.

[Mercakete]

"Hmm... Well, yer not realla a member o' th' crew like I thought ye were, but ye did participate in th' dream trainin'..." Gytha thoughtfully replied before deciding, "Probabla best t' ask Raquel that one. She's th' captain. Pink hair, about yae tall." Gytha held up her hand to try to show Raquel's height. "Anaway, she'd be th' one t' ask. Not sure if she'd like me tellin' ye 'r not."

[ReformBlade]

"Aww, don't get down about it. Big projects like that take time." She gave the guy a reassuring pat on the back, keeping it there as she spoke, "I can't really make a complete comparison but I was hoping to make a comprehensive hand drawn map of the world, by myself at that, though help wouldn't be turned away... Anyway, point is it's a huge time sink and, well, it's just gonna be improbable. This is literally my first outing into the world, been home for so long and it's intimidating how big of a project I've taken on on a whim..." She couldn't help herself from laughing at that point, but she did suppress it a little. "Like I said, it's not a good comparison. Maybe you could go over your notes with me another time? Sounds to me like you've got a lot of it but no one to talk to about it."