Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, that seems to have done the trick. And at least, had Lilith explaining some more.

<So that's what was it,> John thought. <The dependance on the emblem was her doing in the end, though unaware. I do wonder though how it ended up like that.>

So she was doing it without knowing? Sophia thought. Well, I suppose now Raquel could try to work out on something.

But despite so, the talk did ended up on a grim note. The possibility of being forced into hiding was one thing, but the warning of the condition to hear her plans certainly did it for Raquel.

''Well, I suppose if anything you at least know now why you couldn't make the emblem work,'' John said to Raquel. ''Makes for a good lead for figuring something out I'd say.''

With that kind of warning she may now not want to know, Sophia thought. Though considering it now involves her, she may have to even if she doesn't like it.

[roymbrog]

So avian chick finished talking to Raquel and walked down to meet avian guy with the egg, who had been pestering the shaman guy apparently. Man, Katrina really needed to learn these people’s names. Regardless, she still had no idea what was going on. Most of the conversation had been unheard due to her distance and she hadn’t quite put two and two together yet. Perhaps she should just wait till whatever this was finished?

Volga decided this was the perfect time for a nap, and Katrina lost a few feet of height and her footing as the wyvern flopped down. She got up off the deck and rubbed the sore spot on her back. “Urrgh…”

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

It was surprising how dull Lilith's overbearing nature was. Well, whatever. If Wrath--why was he involved in this? Well, if there was one god who was probably gonna be a petty spiteful dick it would be him--but why was he related to all this? Well, actually it made perfect sense if he wanted the emblem. Force everyone to worship him and all that. Geez, Gods were almost as dull as humans in ambition weren't they?

On to more important matters, like Raquel's incoming mental breakdown. She really wasn't cut out for any of this, which made Lilith's accusations a cutting truth.

"You're not fine," Gar told Raquel. She probably already knew that, was just trying to make Reign-guy less worried by saying she was alright. But Gar needed to say it anyway. "Which is good, if you were fine with this you'd be some sort of eccentric crazy nobody likes." Gar pointed at himself with a thumb to give a perfectly related example. "Take a breath, take your time, and come up with your answer on your own." Gar gave actual advice.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

Lilith approached Captain Bogdan next, much to the man's surprise. "Is there a vacant room on this ship I could use? You'll have it back in an hour."

"Hmm. There's the galley, but it's more of a public venue. If you want privacy, you'll have to settle for the navigation room or my cabin."

"Navigation is fine. Could you show it to me?"

"I suppose. Follow me." Bogdan said before heading inside.

Lilith was just about to follow when Shadrak accosted her. "Wait!" he said. He quickly added "Please ..." to try and sound less forceful.

"I'm done talking out here, Shadrak. Just follow along." And with that, she stepped around him and was on Bogdan's tail again.

"W-... blast! Why can't I get a word in?! I've been waiting for this all week! Argh!"

Gabbie had sat down and watched most of the events taking place from the top of the Dauntless, and once all was said and done, she lied back down muttering "... pretty sure I'm not gonna get any sleep for awhoile." Then she sighed and went back to moon gazing.

Aft Deck

"That's true ... I've got a place to start, I guess." Raquel replied to John. Since Gar didn't seem all that crazy to her, she was surprised by him using himself as an example. On the other hand, being the first--ignoring Shadrak--to speak up was something. They didn't know enough about Lilith to be sure how she would respond to everything. "I'll try to think this over, carefully, but I've got a feeling that she's going to end up taking my emblem piece if I don't get fully on board. Maybe not now, but ... eventually. She doesn't trust me at all and so she's willing to kill me over it." she replied with a frown. She quickly wiped her face to make sure she didn't shed any tears and carefully sat down against the guardrail. That hurt so much more than she thought it would, and it had her wondering why. This was exactly the sort of detached and ruthless behavior she had been expecting from Lilith, so why did it feel so awful, now? She got to wondering if she was feeling disappointed rather than just scared. If Lilith was her friend, then she would be a powerful ally. Instead she might not even be worth the vasilus' time and she didn't want her involved at all. They would never be friends or true allies at this rate. Maybe that's why she was feeling so awful, she realized. The most powerful ally she could hope to gain in this fight, and she messed it all up before she even knew she had a chance.

There didn't seem to be anything else he could do, and so Reign stepped away to give her some space and leaned against a different rail for the time being. He didn't plan on going to Lilith's meeting if Raquel wasn't, and so all he could do was wait for her. He had no idea what line of thinking she had wandered off into, and so he stood there worrying to himself in silence.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"All this talk of Lilith killing paints her out as quite the villain doesn't it," Gar sighed after his statement. No point in bothering anyone else--especially Raquel--right now, so he just meandered up on aft. His eyes though, were eventually drawn to the sea, and back to their trailing friend. "Hmmm, maybe I can pester one of them enough to go take out our little tailgate problem," Gar spoke to himself, but loud enough that some others might here. "Wait, convince a vasili to take care of my problems? Am I really that arrogant?" Gar placed his hand to his chin in thought as he recalled some of the memories from the Howling Voice.

"You're arrogant Gar."

"You arrogant bastard!"

"If you get anymore arrogant the world will revolve around you."

"With how arrogant you are I'm surprised you haven't made out with your reflection."

"I swear we were found out because you never shut your arrogant mouth."

"You made a bet with me using maids as collateral, of course you're arrogant!"

"I swear Garfield, you're so arrogant you'd argue with a Vasili!"

"Maybe, just maybe..." he tapped his chin as his words drifted off.

[Acacia Sgt]

Raquel was certainly feeling down. <I suppose it hasn't help either that other than this voyage from Tremere she hadn't had much time to focus on the emblem,> John thought. <Hmm, I suppose she needs all the help she can get. If she can do it and prove herself, she could even have Lilith reconsider her stand about her. Let's see, from all her attempts and now this of the subconscious thing...>

I wonder if we can help her out somehow, Sophia thought with a sigh. Maybe keep her spirits high?

Then later Gar commented of asking the vasili to get rid of the rebel ship.

''Lilith has already made it clear she doesn't interfere with what doesn't concern her,'' John made a brief stop on his thoughts to tell him. ''At the very least, you have better chances with Griffin,'' he shrugged before resuming his thoughts. <And so with the command being overridden perhaps...>

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Griffin certainly does seem to be spoiling for a fight," Gar said half to armor-guy, half to himself. Gar sighed. Talking a good game was fine and all, but heading down there and directly confronting someone who was possible a vasili was something different. Even the maybe-Lilith chats were fair questions. This was trying to convince a minor god to deal with some stupid ship. On the other hand Lilith was gonna smite Raquel for whatever reason so maybe pettiness just ran in everything from god to vasili to human.

Gar sighed. He really was gonna go do this. "If I don't make it back tell... someone I love them," Gar sighed with a smirk on his face and headed over to the stairs. Griffin was still down there, though Lilith and Shade Drake had gone from that spot. That guy had a thing for wings it seemed. They weren't the target though, not yet. "You still picking for a fight?" Gar asked of Griffin the vasili.

[-Cynthia-]

Leverager

Well seems like she made things pretty clear. Get out of the way of this god war thing or she'll kill us. "I've uh, got places to be," Nadya said quickly, going below decks with the mounts. If anyone says somethin' stupid I'll at least be out of the way...probably.

Raquel isn't taking this well...having to deal with some ancient magical artifact can't be easy. This news about Wrath and assembling the emblem sounds worrisome but also way beyond our scope...I guess I can follow her to try and find out more. Veronika thought to herself, tailing Lilith to the navigation room.

Plains

"So ya just wander around randomly without food, waiting for strangers to take ya in? Doesn't sound like y'all have any sense," Marko remarked gruffly.

"What my husband is trying to say is yeah we have food, but we ain't exactly a charitable organization. We'll make camp and share with y'all if there'd be some sort of...business involved," Vadoma added, eyeing Amon's gear like a hawk.

Estate

"I suppose your devotion to duty is commendable," Layla said dryly. "Now slow down and give me a proper report. There was an artificial girl who showed up with a man in a helmet and a girl with...flying boxes? I don't know anything about 'flying box girl' and I haven't been informed about the creation of any new 'artificials'," she said, her voice laced with irritation.

Cottage

"A dark avian...interesting. So what is the normal purpose of this ship- some kind of merchant vessel? I hope you didn't get me a cruise ship, that would be too extravagant and rather inappropriate given the nature of this voyage," Lysandra said, smiling.

[Phoenix]

Navigation Room

Once Bogdan showed Lilith to the navigation room, the two stepped inside, leaving the door open for those who were behind them. She took a chair at the center of a very large table and sat down with a gloomy look on her face. Bogdan remained standing near the door for the moment. Shadrak quickly entered the room and instead of finding a seat, he swapped his tome for his notes and went around the table to where Lilith was sitting and stood right beside her.

"Can I please have my questions answered now?" he asked in as humble a voice as he could manage while being utterly pissed off.

"What do you want, Shadrak?" came her disinterested reply.

"Well first off, I want to know why you think the emblem is going to kill Raquel. Sure she's dependent on it, but otherwise she's fine, so it doesn't make any sense." he came right back with his first question. "How do we know you're not lying to us?"

"Physical objects can only contain so much power. Eventually they become unstable and dissolve or explode. Raquel is no exception. The emblem's power is not behaving the way normal powers do. It's not permeating or forming an aura around her. It's going inside of her and staying there. If the energy gathering inside of her were any other kind ... light, dark, or anima ... she wouldn't be faring so well right now."

"What would be happening right now if it was dark magic?" he asked, preparing to write as he asked.

"I'm not sure. I suppose there's only one safe way to find out ..."

"A test object, right?" Shadrak quickly turned and ran over to Captain Bogdan who had been listening. "Do you have something we can test this on? Something that you won't be needing anymore?" Bogdan gave Shadrak an annoyed look and then handed the young shaman a raisin. "Uh ... thanks." Heading back over to Lilith, he sat the raisin in front of her. "Will this work?"

"I suppose."

Main Deck

"Hm?" Griffin looked at Gar curiously, and then scanned the main deck wondering if he had been sent by someone. He hadn't been paying attention to anyone around since Lilith left. "... maybe."

With the tension wearing off quickly, the crewmen began to hand the guns off to specific sailors who then went back below decks to unload them and put them away, but there were still a good dozen men on deck keeping an eye on Griffin just in case something went down.

Plains

Amon grew visibly apprehensive when he saw the woman's gaze move down a ways. He was hoping she was referring to just his gold. Fizza flat out assumed that's what they wanted and ran ahead in front of him cheerfully announcing "We've got money! How much for a dinner for five?!"

"Err-... wait, they're not a restaurant, Fizza."

Haythem stood back a hundred feet away next to Isis with his arms crossed and muttering to himself. <"Just ask them about Nadya already, dammit ...">

Estate

Simon hit his chest a few times hoping to break up the wheeze in his breathing. He was still panting heavily, though. "They looked like coffins, but made out of metal. The pegasus sisters wanted me to inform you about the artificial girl in particular. She was given to Sardis for some reason. I'm not sure what for ..."

Cottage

"I can't say the ship isn't a little extravagant. Red sails and some gold decoration in various places, but according to the captain-his name is Giovanni, by the way-they're treasure hunters when they're not doing things like this. I guess you could call the Al-Lyrae a 'Treasure Galleon'." Gabriel explained, shrugging amusingly at the end.

[Acacia Sgt]

<... I think this should be all, perhaps,> John concluded. He glanced back at Raquel, who was still in her own thoughts. <Who knows if now's a good time, but either way...>

''So,'' he spoke up. ''What are you going to do? Are you going to listen to her?'' He asked her. <I think this is something that she may hear eventually. So long she has the emblem she is part of what Lilith has in store, so I suppose while right now she has her current situation with the emblem it's for now unavoidable.>

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Still alive, a fantastic start as always. Boring though. "Well, if that maybe leans on the side of yes, then there's a big fight waiting on the ship trailing these two ones of ours." Gar shrugged at his answer.

[Snike]

Well, Lilith almost immediately opened with her position that allowing Raquel to have the emblem was a bad idea, which set the tone of the conversation. This remark was immediately followed by another, which amounted to the Vasilus' belief that teaching the merchant how to wield said emblem was not worth the effort. Contempt was never more obvious. This verbal abuse continued as the winged being blamed Raquel for unintentionally absorbing energy from the emblem, threatened to take the emblem away from the girl - this would, of course, probably kill her-, and outright warned everyone present, but especially Raquel, that she would destroy them if they jeopardized her master plan. Which, of course, was going to be explained in private, so whoever missed the explanation would have no idea how to avoid jeopardizing Lilith's schemes. The Vasilus was sure considerate, what with the death threats and the terror she instilled within Blake's employer.

Raquel, it seemed, was on the verge of a breakdown by the time Lilith moved to the navigational room. John and Reign seemed to have had the task of preventing said breakdown covered, though, so Blake stepped away from the gathering, and made for the now re-purposed navigation room. He really didn't have much of a choice, seeing as this could be a way of figuring out how Raquel's dependence could be remedied. Besides, if he knew why the piece of medal was so important to so many factions, he could potentially be able to use it to the mercenaries' advantage in the future.

***

The Lilith-like avian essentially gave Raquel hell, mentioned the guidance control method in relation to some emblem object, and threatened to kill- the actual term was destroy, but the implication was clear- anyone who interfered with her plans once they were informed, unintentionally or not. The decision of being informed or not was left up to the individual crew inhabitants, and with that, the winged woman left for the inside of the boat. Grant hastily retreated to the other side of the boat. This was not his problem, nor was he going to get himself killed over it. The duelist was already doing a fine job of trying to do so as his occupation.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Snike

[Phoenix]

Aft Deck

"I'm not sure what else I can do. She already explained some of her plan and from the looks of things, if I don't cooperate, she'll have the perfect excuse to take my emblem piece away. besides, if I know exactly what she's planning, it'll be a lot easier to stay on her good side. Maybe then I can figure out how much time I have left to rescue my father, too." Raquel explained. "So, I guess 'I'm in.' The information's too important to ignore just because it's from her ..."

Reign immediately ceased leaning against the railing at the news. "Right behind you." That seemed to be her cue to get back on her feet since the only thing behind her at the moment was the ocean and that pesky rebel ship. Once she was on her feet, he added "You're worth the effort, Raquel. Lilith's going to learn that sooner or later. So let's get started."

"Okay. Let's hurry up and get to navigation."

Main Deck

Griffin leaned over the side of the rails to get a look at the ship in the distance, somewhat disregarding the safety of the egg in his arms; it could have easily slipped and fallen into the water. He looked back at Gar with an extremely puzzled look on his face. "You people aren't running away from that runt, are you?"

"Ey! It's not like that!" a sailor in the background interjected, obviously offended by the comment.

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, that was good, she had composed herself somewhat and ready.

''Very well,'' John said. ''Learning that is certainly important, considering things,'' and with that he began his way to the Navigation Room.

Sophia followed suit, also wanting to know.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Eh, more like the dozen or so trailing behind him," Gar said. "This one's just following us to make sure those dozen catch up later." Gar looked over at the trailing ship as well. "Frankly if this ship had a human catapult I'd have put it to use already but we're not that lucky." Gar shrugged.

When Gar left the rail his head was still in the direction of where Raquel was, and her barely visible stance had changed. "Though, dang, thought there'd be more time until she settled herself," does that make me an ass? Gar scratched the back of his head. "Oh well," Gar shrugged. Armor-guy and cleric-girl were also on the move. Chaos or information? Which calls to me more?

Knowledge is power. Guard it well.

Gar sighed as he recalled one of the creeds of the Howling Voice. Fine, fine, dammit. He sighed again as he waited for Raquel to head over. Though he didn't know if he'd actually be allowed access it was better than not trying. And Griffin might be going anyway.

[-Cynthia-]

Leverager

"So absorbing the emblem's energy has a negative effect on Raquel, but taking it away would also be bad for her? Seems like it's a problem that can't be fixed," Veronika inputted, furrowing her brow.

Plains

"Well we could use more coin..." Marko admitted begrudgingly.

"Fifteen gold should do- that sound reasonable to y'all?" Vadoma offered, her eyes no longer on Amon's knife. "Plus, we're good company and I'm sure y'all have some interestin' stories to tell." As she spoke the other nomads began to hitch their horses and roll out mats, others began to prepare a fire.

Estate

"Even someone like you should be able to tell the difference between coffins and boxes," Layla scoffed. "At any rate I think I know who you're talking about- although this artificial girl is still news to me...Sardis must be plotting something," she said, furrowing her brow. "Your report was adequate, I will go investigate this matter myself. You can be in charge while I'm gone or let someone else do it. This base isn't very important anyway," she said, waving her hand dismissively before tossing Simon a small bag of gold.

"Now come along Ripper, time to pay this new girl a visit," she said, her voice changing to a friendlier one as she began to walk off, the dire wolf trailing behind her dutifully.

Cottage

"A treasure galleon? That must be rather large- I wasn't planning on taking that much luggage," Lysandra said with a smile. "Though perhaps you were thinking that I should bring some assistance...it will be rather dangerous but I am hesitant to involve other people in this," she said, her expression changing to a frown.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

On her way to the navigation room, she noticed Griffin speaking with Gar ... or maybe it was the other way around? The former didn't seem all that invested in conversation. Either way, the exchange inevitably slowed her pace, even more so as she got closer to having to turn away to head inside.

"Hahah. I can get you over there if you really want them gone that much." Griffin replied boisterously.

Are they talking about getting rid of that rebel ship? Oh man, that would really be something. Reign thought to himself before quickly slowing his pace; he almost ran into Raquel who had pretty much stopped moving at that point.

Navigation Room

"I'm not convinced removing the emblem would kill her, but if that was really a danger, there are steps we can take that could potentially save her life. I can't stop the emblem from drowning her in power, on the other hand." Lilith replied, her stance and reasoning behind it becoming more clear.

Lilith began infusing the raisin with power, which Shadrak couldn't help but snort at. A might vasilus empowering a raisin. It became less funny as more and more power entered the little thing. It had a dark haze around it that looked quite familiar. "So how much longer until it becomes unstable do you think?"

"It's a raisin. It's already unstable." Lilith retorted. "The dark energy inside of it is crowding together and causing a reaction." She continued to infuse it with more and more power until she finally saw the sign she was looking for. She withdrew her hand and the visible dark energy around the raisin began to spread out like an oily fog. "Completely destroyed ..." came Lilith's grim assessment. As she said this, the raisin slowly fell apart into large chunks and what was left after that broke down even further. The energy spread out all over the table as the raisin disintegrated, and Shadrak was amazed by how much of it she was able to fit into such a small object. The power flowing out was threatening to fog up the whole room if left unchecked.

"That was incredible!" Shadrak exclaimed. Bogdan only cared about the dark energy pouring out all over the place and was far less enthused. Was that stuff just going to linger here or keep diffusing into the atmosphere? It seemed to be the latter, but it sure was taking its time ...

"Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen to Raquel. Even I'm not sure what the emblem's brand of energy will do to her in excess."

Plains

"Sounds fair to me~" Fizza answered for the group. She quickly leaned in toward Amon and quietly added "I'll be right back. I'm going to get the fifteen gold from Malik and invite him and Haythem over."

"When you say 'get' ... you mean 'steal' ... don't you?" Amon asked dejectedly.

"He's been whining and complaining for days. I say he owes us and can treat us to a nice meal as thanks for putting up with him, don't you?"

"I ... while I agree with most of that, I still think it's kind of underhanded."

"Just go over there and let them know that we're coming over." With that, she ran back over to Haythem and Malik, the latter of which she bumped into for some reason. Okay that was only three ... twelve more ... this is going to be nigh impossible ... I like those odds~

<"Of all the people to be so clumsy ..."> Malik muttered. <"So I take it we'll be having dinner with these people?">

<"Yeah. I'm not sure what you're going to do about Isis, though, Haythem."> she said, turning her attention toward Haythem with a frown.

Isis seemed to solve the problem herself by lying down on the grass. <"Hmm. We'll need to find something nice for her afterward, too. Oh and did you ask them about Nadya yet?!">

<"Nope.">

<"Ugh.">

Meanwhile, Amon nervously approached the nomads and said "My friend is ... getting the money. She'll just be a minute. Our wyvern is just going to be napping over there; we don't want to frighten the horses or anything."

Estate

Simon remained on the ground for a moment before picking up the gold and hauling himself to his feet. "S-Simon do good?" he asked, though Layla already seemed to be on her way. He began wandering the grounds tiredly searching for his horse. Sadly enough, his water and rations were in the saddlebags and all he had on him was his bag full of hundreds of notes and Nyx portraits.

Cottage

Gabriel gave a sad smile having been read like a book just then. "Yeah, I was thinking you might want to reconsider getting some more help. You and I can look after ourselves and each other if need be, but I've got this nagging feeling that we're going to need help ... and if we didn't bring it with us, I'm not sure where it'll come from. I don't know ... maybe that loss is just getting to me." His last statement came with a shrug and came across like a partial withdrawal from the issue, but it was still bugging him.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

Seems Raquel had stopped walking the moment they passed near Gar and Griffin, which prompted them to stop too.

''Hm, something's wrong?'' John asked her.

Is she having second thoughts? Sophia wondered.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Sounds like fun times all around," Gar said back. "Well--oh, right," something just came back to Gar. "I think I've heard talk they're they're loaded for anti-air, does that make a difference? Well, other than making it more exciting obviously."

[Phoenix]

Delays

"No ... not really. Just wondering what they're talking about." Raquel answered. She noticed a few more sailors coming over to listen in as well.

"Anti-air? No, not a problem really ... and ... what do you people want?" Griffin asked them, leaning away somewhat.

"Ya see, Yu'r Windiness, we're havin' a helluva time gettin' those rebel scumbags off us. We were hopin' ya could sink'em real quick and be done with it." a nervous sailor explained.

Another chimed in adding "Wouldn't take more than the flick of your wrist, I'd wager!"

"I guess so ..." he replied, looking crowded and uncomfortable.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, hopefully those guys don't go overboard and chase him away from the request,'' John said.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar sighed as people began to crowd around. Trying to trap the wind sure seemed a swell idea to them did it? They were taking all the fun out of the not-very subtle talk of getting him to help. "I guess that's what I was trying to get done too, just with more flair," Gar sighed again. "Oh well, if you're all gonna be so direct then this isn't interesting anymore."

[Ether]

"I suppose it is what's best... but I can't stand just lying around... I promised my brother that I would get stronger... how am I going to do that if I'm stuck on a bed for days on end?" Faatina replied, a somewhat bitter tone to her voice.

"Although... if I recall correctly, you said you would show me how that whip worked, right?"

*********

It seemed whatever this was, it was not for her to interfere with. Giving a sigh, Lisandra looked around for something to do.

[roymbrog]

Well, Katrina wasn’t going to find out anything if she stayed over there. She walked across the deck to ask someone what was going on, poking the arm of a green haired girl with a Pegasus. “Excuse me, but could you tell me what just happened?”

-----

Synthia arrived on deck to find a bunch of people and some avian guy standing around. Huh. “Uh, what did I miss?” The question wasn’t directed at anyone, so she didn’t really expect an answer. She walked over to where avian guy, Gar, and some other people were hanging around. If she listened long enough she’d pick up on something.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

"Sorry, pal, we just really want that ship gone. If they figure out we're heading to a Tracean port, they might come up with a plan to stop us there. Don't really care if it's interesting; it's been three days of worry." one of the crewmen replied.

Griffin sighed. "Urgh, whatever, let's just get this over with before Lilith figures out what I'm up to and tries to stop me." he conceded, though any enthusiasm for the actual violence seemed to be completely gone from the sound of things.

"Lilith would try to stop him?" Raquel wondered aloud. Does that mean what he's about to do is just bothersome to her or just plain bad?

"Hold this." was the only warning Griffin gave before chucking the egg over his shoulder and into the crowd. Not even caring who caught it, he looked up the stairs leading up to the aft deck. Next, he cracked his knuckles and headed up the stairs for a better view of the enemy ship. Some of the crew quickly followed him up.

"... maybe we should warn Lilith? If she would really stop him, then he's probably not supposed to be attacking ships." Raquel spoke up.

"I'm really hard pressed to try and stop whatever he's about to do to them, honestly." Reign admitted with a slight grin.