Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Phoenix]

Galley

"Thanks ... still ... I don't think whatever's in this thing is going to be very happy with us once it hatches, " Reign replied, still examining the egg for any cracks he might have missed. Once he had looked the whole thing over he said, "Well at least it's face proof. That's good."

Oddly enough, the doctor's reply to Bert was to glance blankly at him and say, "Healer presence is extremely redundant right now. Also, left staves in the infirmary. Will assist if asked for, but right now ... seeing to breakfast. It's only a minor injury anyway; easy enough to fix." Yeah, he was one of those healers, apparently. "More concerned about tension in group. Perhaps nearing a 'boiling point'."

Connor's explanation of Gabbie's tendencies was anything but satisfying to Shadrak. "Why do people get away with this crap?! I get that some people don't care if a scuffle breaks out, and I know that Gabbie doesn't work for Raquel so she can't exactly order her around, but this is ridiculous! Seriously," Shadrak complained, his voice changing slightly with his nostrils covered. To Robin he quickly said, "No no, don't touch it," as he used one hand to do a stopping gesture and left the other over his nose.

Synthia's little comment was even more annoying. "What did I even do to you?! What, is it suddenly popular to 'treat Shadrak like dirt'? Did I miss something here? I didn't do anything to deserve that, but of course, I'm the one at fault. I'm the one to blame. Gabbie's perfectly justified to outright attack anyone for pointing out that she isn't that strong? That's bullshit. You would have stepped in if she attacked Raquel!"

"True ... most people in this group can look after themselves, including you, so I'm more inclined to step in for her. Thing is, she said you were going to die if you said her name again, so I think you got off pretty light here. Hell, for a second there, I thought she was going to go get her lance so she could finished the job. That would have been worth intervening in. All you really got was a sore nose," Reign commented.

"It's broken, genius, and SHUT UP! Nobody asked you ... freaking ursian dropout ..."

"Yeah, just keep prodding every person that just so happens to have the 'Nose Buster Egg' on hand. Brilliant idea, Shadrak," Reign said with a glare.

"Okay Reign, stop," Raquel quickly chimed in. The way the last confrontation started hadn't escaped her and she made sure not to let it happen again. "Can we just ... please get a healer over here? PLEASE?!"

Stairs

"Suzume," the girl gave her name miserably and put her hands down since the chances of being gunned down were significantly lower now. "... and sure," she added at the mention of food.

Gerald then made for the stairs saying, "I'll go find a couple of boys who can handle this kind of job, Captain."

Delan nodded. "Right then, back to the old routine~" He began heading up the stairs after the quartermaster, likely headed back to his cabin.

A Shadow Cast Over the Battlefield

The Battle for Urcenter continued for hours. Determined to retake the city and cut down the Neviskotian attack force before any reinforcements could arrive, General Remus moved over one thousand extra troops to the front lines and overwhelmed the city defenses. Boscov killed over a hundred men, but was eventually injured by Remus and his personal guard, working together with a team of ballisticians. Once Boscov and several other dragons were forced to fall back, the wyvern riders and ground forces were left to fend for themselves. Heavy casualties were inflicted on both sides, but as more and more Ursian reinforcements began to pour into the city, the Neviskotians began to fall back, hoping to hold on to as much of the city as they could for as long as they could.

They couldn't hold on until the main reinforcements arrived from the navy, but they did manage to buy enough time for the Grand Marshall's trump card to arrive. A black slender dragon appeared out of thin air directly above the bulk of Remus' front line forces with its wings and arms outstretched. "Another dragon!" A soldier closer to Remus himself made the announcement.

Remus looked back over his shoulder and scowled. "Send word to spread out! Spread out or they'll all be killed at once!"

"Sir?" The order confused the soldier since they had been fighting the dragons protecting the city more aggressively than that. Defensive formations hadn't played a big part in that until now. What the soldier didn't know was that the creature that appeared above the advancing army was a shadow dragon of Neviskotian's Guardian Corp, an extremely efficient killer called Schwartz.

"Send the order out now, or those deaths are on your head, soldier!" Remus yelled back.

"Thank you, Milena ... for this bountiful feast," said the shadow dragon as it opened up its paws. Two dark spheres began to form in front of each, and they soon began to draw in the air around them.

From the ground, all of the soldiers with ranged weapons began to take aim or prepare their spells. Some of them knew to start spreading out even though Remus' order hadn't reached them yet. They knew something big and devastating was coming and only the ranged units stayed in order to try and make a preemptive strike.

"Unleash hell!" The ranged troops began firing bullets, arrows, fire, lightning, wind blades, everything they could manage up at the dragon.

"Hahahahah, you call that hell?" the dragon mocked as everything was absorbed into the two dark spheres he was forging. "Remus, your troops will fall like a house of cards. The families of Ursium will weep tonight~" Schwartz immediately threw the dark spheres down toward the army, crossing his arms, he threw them so hard. This also caused the growing singularities to tumble wildly around each other as they approached the ground. The resulting gravity waves struck the men on the ground in unpredictable ways. Some were thrown, others were pulled into the air. They all scattered, running as fast as they could, but the gravity waves picked up or threw men at random, and dozens were pulled close to the dueling singularities and torn to pieces. Eventually the two singularities got so close to each other that they began to orbit one another at incredible speeds. At this point, anyone still within the range of influence of the destructive pair was quickly sucked in, shredded, and absorbed. The two singularities merged just as they struck the ground, and Schwartz ended the duel spell with a smirk. The explosion that followed floored a dozens of soldiers fortunate enough to escape the gravity well and left a large crater that Schwarts lightly touched down beside. "Still a little energy left ... I think I'll be a bit more paws on from here," he decided aloud.

"Don't give up. We have a chance! It must be tired after that attack! Strike while it recovers!"

"Urgh ..." the shadow dragon grunted, overhearing the order to attack. As expected, the survivors were coming back with their weapons at the ready. A thunder mage that was accompanying them struck Schwartz right on the nose with a lightning bolt. "Argh! Alright then, you're next ..."

Insidious Sermon

"You must remember, brethren, that the mighty dragons once lived side by side ... among us. The Neviskotians are not wrong in their desire to rekindle that ancient bond we all share with dragonkind. They are merely misguided and completely intoxicated by the power their armies now wield. The dragons lived among us once, and for a purpose. I tell you now that this may yet become the norm again someday. Do not loathe the dragons, simply abide by the laws you are given. Lord Wrath decreed that the dragons were not to be present on Ursian soil, he did not say they were to be despised and completely destroyed from our world. What self deceiving irony would this be when you and I worship Mother Nature, the divine dragon? Remember, brethren, hatred is not our way, only gratitude and servitude." This was said by one of two naturan priests standing before a congregation. Sitting in the front row among the true worshipers of Nature was Morgana. She was at the end of the isle toward the center of the meeting hall and there was some noticeable space between her and the next person. She had her legs crossed and her right arm laying partially across the back rest with the left resting on her lap. She watched with her head slightly cocked and never took her eyes off of the second priest ... Rinaldi.

Rinaldi himself stepped forward to speak next, giving his brother in faith a moment to rest. "It is true, brethren; the Neviskotian Empire is drunk from a wine that has proven quite addictive indeed. Imagine it would you? Dragons, the mighty servants of our beloved goddess, at the command and behest of power hungry men and women? Strange is it not? They speak of equality and freedom, but all they truly desire is the advantages in warfare, construction, and agriculture that dragons provide. Lord Wrath knew how skewered, unbalanced, and sick our society would become if we were allowed to engage in such practices. That is the purpose of this segregation! We are not to rely on the strength of dragons! That is not their purpose! That is not our purpose! We, humanity, must be strong ON OUR OWN, separate from the goddess' servants. Lord Wrath would not want humanity weakened in this way! He separated us to teach us inner strength! Mother Nature would not want her servants abused in this way! She agreed to this segregation to teach the dragons what true service to her means! The Neviskotians have foolishly forgotten these things and tread on the very idea of peace in order to hold on to what power they think they possess. Remember this ... relying on others is not strength, it is weakness. Our way, the Ursian way, is just. Some believe otherwise because the Neviskotians remain undefeated but remember that our divine kingdom has stood for five millennium and still continues ... on and on through this chaos. This ongoing war will go to show countless generations following it that the just will always persevere, no matter the obstacle, and no matter the cost." Rinaldi then gave the other priest the floor again. The two nodded to each other, though the other priest looked a bit concerned. Rinaldi's message was a slightly off topic if nothing else. Morgana looked to be enjoying herself, though. Despite the intent of his self reliance speech, she enjoyed the idea, herself.

"Ahem ... t-true, countless generations will look back on our actions and praise our dedication and commitment to the gods, but let us not forget, brethren, that in order for this to happen, we must always and only look to the gods for guidance in these matters, not simply ourselves. Our limited understanding can only carry us so far in life. True wisdom is divine in nature. That is why we follow, not lead, not assume, not assert ... we follow ...."

Edited January 2, 2013 by Phoenix

[ReformBlade]

Late to the party as usual, Aneda had absolutely nothing to add. Same with Mushira only she was interested in whatever the tall guy was talking about regarding practicing magic, deciding to butt in, a tiny bit nervous. "Um, hey, if you're gonna be practicing at all, mind if I help?"

[Mercakete]

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Norbert replied to Valter, a little annoyed at the horseman's bossy wording, "I already decided I'd wait till tomorrow, didn't I?" Well, the wording hadn't been exactly clear, but he had made the attempt to express he was giving up the idea beforehand.

The doctor replied to his query with practicality, which turned his slightly sour mood into more of a blank one. "That...makes sense..." he mentioned. I guess not all doctors act as soon as they realize someone's hurt.

"I'll be right back," he informed, deciding to go get breakfast himself seeing as none had been offered him yet. It only took a few moments before he was seated at the table again with a bowl of stew and a considerably better mood. He didn't wait to begin downing the bowl either, being as hungry as he was.

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

"A'right, then," Gytha replied as she sheathed her sword before asking, "Need any help walkin'? Ye look a bit shaky."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Predictably, the Dragon Head didn't materialize out of nowhere and sanity retained what little bastion it had left amongst the company Gar was keeping. That one rescuee from last night came stomping over to Raquel with a cigar in his mouth, which was kinda of a jackass thing to do when you were looking to get work or money or whatever it was he was trying. Veronika tried to get things back to the dragon head--which sounded like it had been hounding Raquel's dreams for a while or something--but Raquel was trying to let the matter of the head slide and was talking with the cigar-guy. Though Shade Drake wouldn't let her get away with that. Gar briefly wondered if he should lend his misery ways to Raquel's accounting books, but thought the better of it. There was no way that wouldn't lead to unnecessary questions.

Robin offered her own views on mister dragon head, which were no less inexplicable than anything Gar could come up with. Sword-guy tried playing mediator and citing the morning and all that, but that kind of talk never worked. Still, good on him for at least trying. Maybe the resounding scales of his failures collapsed him so hard he was trying to be back on top of things. Though in the end Veronika did decide to wait. This seemed to calm everyone down for now at least. Boo on that.

Reign-guy returned just after the calm and announced he'd gotten control of the forward cargo hold for training. That was all well and good, but in the end Raquel wasn't enthusiastic about it so it would probably be a waste of time.

Calm was going to be quick to break as the one lance-woman he knew nothing about implied she wanted to beat up Shade Drake as training. Or Shadrak as his name apparently sadly was. Like any sensible--or pretending to be sensible--person, Shade Drake was against that. Some of the others piqued interest in a training session--probably brought on by their silly self-depreciation over the deaths in the last battle. That one mage-girl threw a sarcastic quip at Shade Drake though. He did not take it well at all.

Or the egg thrown at him.

Apparently the lance-woman--named Gabbie--really didn't like being called that. Or maybe it was the implication she wasn't strong. Either way, she somehow had the egg that Armor-Guy used to carry and hurled it at Shade Drake after one too many comments. Gar was just one of those who laughed at the whole scene.

Well, things recovered from there on. Reign-guy caught the egg--which was scratchless, probably to be expected from a vasili egg--Gabbie left and the kiddo and Robin helped Shade Drake. He was naturally outraged at the whole situation--the mage-girl being Gar's laughing partner didn't help.

"Oh man," Gar interjected. "You honestly didn't deserve that at all." Gar took the shaman's side.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Script

[roymbrog]

Oh, this was great. He was trying to play the victim card? “Have you ever considered that maybe you’re just an asshole?” Synthia offered. “If everyone is inclined to treat you like shit, maybe that says more about you than it does about us. I don’t think you’ve ever once done a kind thing that wasn’t to boost your own ego or serve your own interests.” Emblem this, emblem that was all he ever talked about. If it weren’t for the fact that Raquel possessed the emblem, he probably wouldn’t care about her either.

Katrina hadn’t been in the best of moods in the first place, but this was really getting on her nerves. She glared at the mage from her place at the table. “That is not true,” she argued. She had a hard time believing that the tears and sympathy given last night were fake. “If you have the time to run your mouth with nonsense, then you have the time to fix his nose. You have a staff right there,” she said, pointing.

Synthia glared back. “And why do I have to help him? I’m sure he could just kill some more seagulls and be right as rain!” Mercy knew he wasn’t against killing innocent birds. “And you,” she said, jabbing a finger at Gar. “Shut up.”

-----

The group was at a boiling point indeed. Or, at least some of them were. Valter wouldn’t be surprised if people started throwing more than just words (nevermind that Gabbie already had.) While Bert left to get stew the horseman glanced at his own half eaten bowl. He wasn’t feeling particularly hungry anymore. Bert returned, and Valter sighed. “Do you mind if we eat somewhere else?” he asked hopefully. The galley was becoming a bit… noisier than he liked.

[Mercakete]

"I don't mind either way," he replied to Valter with a shrug after he swallowed his latest mouthful of breakfast, "How about we head over to that training area to take a look early? It's probably not in use yet."

Then, feeling a bit obligated to offer, he asked the doctor, "Would you like to come, too?"

[Phoenix]

Fantome De Le Galley

"I suppose. Little I can do about the fractured nose without my staves on hand anyway," the doctor replied, standing up with his stew. He called over to Zoe who was staring in shock at the confrontations. "The bowls and silverware will be returned before lunchtime."

"O- ... okay," Zoe replied. That was about all she could manage. Normally she would try to break up a fight, but she wasn't confident she could convince these strangers to settle down. Fists hadn't been thrown yet, but if they did, she would have to step in and she wasn't looking forward to that.

Gar's comment left Shadrak with some mixed feelings conveyed through his expression. On the one hand, he completely agreed with Gar's assessment. On the other hand, it was still annoying that he had been among those laughing. Even the arrogant ursian drop out, Reign, hadn't been outright laughing. Though maybe he would have been if he wasn't too busy trying to play the hero and catch an egg they already knew was unbreakable.

And of course Synthia had to come out with the honest truth which infuriated Shadrak. He had to put his urge to shout at her on hold, though, something interesting was happening. Someone other than Robin was sticking up for him. He was having a hard time believing it. "It's okay, Katrina, I don't really want her help anyway. She'd probably not even heal my nose properly just to spite me. I'll just go talk with the doctor ..."

Noticing that he had come up in the conversation, the doctor looked over at the exchange. "Hmm, I expected the abundance of healers to make my intervention unnecessary here." He shrugged. "Oh well, been wrong before about such things. Please go wait in the infirmary. I'll be there shortly. Try not to bring confrontation with you."

Near the Stairs

"I can make it," Suzume replied weakly. Her stomach suddenly growled and she put her hand to it with a grimace. "Can you just ... hurry with the food, please? I promise I'll go straight to the crate I've been using and wait there for you."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Mage-girl just told him to shut up. Him! If this wasn't the longest he'd actually gone without being told to shut up that might have affect him in some minor and insignificant way. "Awwww," Gar said with smiling enthusiasm. "Was our laugh choir just a one time thing? I thought it was something special."

Other than that, Shade Drake and the ship doctor were gonna head off to get the nose fixed. Gar would have volunteered himself to try, but he would have charged, didn't have the tools and was rubbish at fixing noses anyhow. Ugly Pete was a testament to that. Maybe he should charge one of Shade Drake's enemies to try...

Well, while that thought was amusing at the moment their opponents were similar so there was no extorting to be had here. "Keep an eye out for dragon heads in sickbay, or something," Gar said just for the sake of saying something other than vague mockery of mage-girl.

[Mercakete]

Gytha simply nodded and began heading up the stairs towards the galley to get something for Suzume to eat. On the way up, she passed by Norbert and Valter, who were on their way down. Norbert had figured the doctor could find them if he still wanted to eat with them and so had left without waiting for him. Near the bottom of the stairs, however, Norbert couldn't help but pause as he saw someone he hadn't been expecting to see on that particular ship as he'd completely forgotten about Blake having taken her captive.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Realizing that that was the 2nd time in a row he'd used that phrase as an initial greeting to her, he added, "You keep being where I don't expect to find you."

[Snowy_One]

Robin shot a glare at Kat as she accused her of hypocrisy. She was blunt. She had screwed up. She admitted that. But that did not mean she couldn't also point out that other people weren't exactly thinking things through before speaking. But this was unusual. The group had its fights and struggles, sure, but she couldn't remember a moment in such a casual part of the day when the group had been so at each others throats. It felt like one poorly uttered word could cause a huge fight.

"People, please, calm DOWN!" she said, adding emphasis to the latter word. "Why are we so aggressive today? Shade drake has a nose broken and, deserving or not, it needs healing. Yes, some of us are being blunt, including myself. Yes, some of us just want to be left alone. But we do not need more fighting now. Especially between each other. So please, can we calm down?"

[Phoenix]

Galley ... I Guarantee It's Not Haunted Anymore

It was a decent enough attempt at quelling the arguing, but Shadrak figured the best thing he could do right now was follow the doctor's orders and head for the infirmary. "I'm going to go get this fixed," he muttered as he made for the door.

Raquel stood there for a moment thinking to herself. I wasn't much help at all. Why did I even get involved? I'm supposed to be this group's leader or something but I don't .... I just don't know. When have I ever done something that even comes close to leadership? And now Shadrak's hurt, everyone's upset, and I can't think of any way to smooth things over ... She was about to follow Shadrak, hoping to address his problem(s) in some semblance of private, but he seemed to see that coming from a mile away and said, "Please nobody come with me. I'll be fine."

Am I going along with this because I care or because I'm a lousy leader and a pushover? I'm really not sure. Urgh, forget it. I'm going whether he likes it or not. We need to talk, and it's better to address each person individually so no one says anything that raises tension. I'll just ... wait a few seconds so he doesn't see me tailing him. I know where the infirmary is so this should be simple enough. As soon as Shadrak was outside of the galley, Raquel turned to everyone else and said, "I need to talk to him about this so please, nobody else come in. I want to avoid anymore bickering."

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Reign asked, holding the egg up a few inches higher for emphasis.

"... uhhh ... I don't know."

The doctor sighed, having reached another decision he hoped would make things easier. Instead of taking his meal with him, he finished off about two thirds of it and then stood from the table. "I've had enough. Thank you for the meal, Zoe, but I must tend to my patient. With that, he made for the door as well. Zoe noticed he hadn't finished the stew, but wasn't surprised. That was somewhat common on this particular ship and she was ready for those unfinished bowls anyway. She walked over to the table the doctor was seated at and grabbed his bowl before making some rounds to get other finished dishes and heading back into the kitchen.

And Here's Why

Shadrak arrived at the infirmary still holding his nose and trying to wipe the blood off of his lips with his other hand. It never stayed dry for more than a minute or so. He shut the door behind him expecting the doctor to not be along for at least a few minutes. "Urgh ... damn her. There's nothing you can 'say' to warrant having your face smashed in, period! She could be a much stronger fighter if she'd just focus more on her strength than her looks. It's pointless to take it out on me ..."

He came up to one of the beds to sit down, and just as he turned around, he saw two large red eyes to either side of the door, staring right at him. "Holy crap!" He fell back onto the bed and flipped over to the other side, aggravating his injury in the process and hitting his head on the next bed over as he came back. "Ow!" He pulled himself up to see that the eyes were still there. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but if they weren't leaving, then maybe he could get some answers ... that or be conveniently killed off while he was alone and vulnerable. Whichever. "W-wh-o are you?"

Immediately after the question was asked, the door and walls disappeared behind a dark shadow that began to bulge out of the wall. Shadrak flinched once, and then flinched again when he saw the mouth of the dragon head forming right in front of him. It grinned eerily at him.

"Oh crap ... what are you and what do you want?"

"... I think you know who I am, shaman," the dragon head replied in a dozen voices, both male and female. "As for what I want ..."

Shadrak used his blood stained but free hand to slowly reach for his tome as he took another step back.

"I want everything." The dragon's smile became wide and mischievous which prompted Shadrak to quickly yank out his tome and prepare to cast a spell.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!"

"Shaman, if you lash out at me, all you'll do is harm an innocent door~"

Is this thing an illusion? Does that mean it's harmless or unstoppable? Shadrak desperately pondered.

Greetings

"... I was captured," Suzume answered disinterestedly. "Blake and Shadrak are their names I guess? They wanted me out of sight for the time being, so I stayed down here. The captain decided to let me stay, but under guard. Now I'm just heading back and waiting for food to get here. I didn't think I was going to starve on this ship initially but, I'm starting to worry ..."

Edited January 1, 2013 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

"I saw Gytha on the way down here. She's the one getting you food then, I guess," he inferred.

"Well, I'm glad they said you could stay here," Norbert mentioned before he realized something and asked skeptically, "You're not still injured from the fight, are you?"

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

It didn't take very long for Gytha to make her way to the galley. She didn't waste any time in getting a bowl of stew, either, though she had to slow her pace a little to make sure she didn't spill any of it on her way back down.

[Eail]

Zach had decided to stay out of the argument involving Shadrak, though he did have to stiffle a giggle at the pain the shaman was going through, it was a nice touch. The fun did seem to be over for the moment sadly, that meant it was time to go back to work.

"Yeah, you can help if ya want to, fine with me." He off handily told Mushirah, before focusing his attention on Reign. Slipping his satchel from his shoulders Zach held the bag up to be seen "I'll take care of the thing, won't be in the way if it stays in here. Should be easy to keep warm too."

[Phoenix]

Galley

"Hold on a minute," Reign replied to Zachary. "Raquel, wait!" Raquel froze and looked back to see what it was that Reign wanted. "Now if I recall correctly, Lilith and Griffin left this thing with us because they didn't want it taking after either of them. I think the same applies to us. That's why I'm trying to figure out what to do with this thing. Who do we want this thing taking after? I don't want to just hand it off to anyone and expect everything to turn out fine down the road."

"Who am I supposed to pick? It's probably picking up things from people that none of us even know about each other. Besides, it's already changed hands a bunch of times. It's probably going to come out 'normal' because of that."

Hmm, maybe that was the point? I mean Lilith doesn't have a lot of faith in Raquel so letting it take after a bunch of us to create a more balanced personality would make sense here. Between only her and Griffin I bet this thing would come out all wrong. "Mmm, good point. How about this then; we'll pass it around to try and keep it from becoming too much like anyone? Zachary takes it for a little while, then someone else who hasn't yet, and so on?"

"Fine." Raquel agreed just to get a move on and left the galley in a hurry, leaving Reign with an unamused look on his face.

"Here ..." Reign passed the egg along to Zachary.

Fantome De Le Infirmerie

Since the doctor was taking his time heading back to the infirmary, Raquel managed to catch up to him before he actually reached the door. "Here for morale support?" the doctor inquired at her presence.

"Well not really, I just need to talk to him in private," she explained.

"Ah." The doctor opened the door to the infirmary only to see a billow of oily smoke dispersing around the door. From Shadrak's perspective, it looked like the dragon head's face turning into a puff of black smoke and fading away. "Not casting dark magic in here are you?!" the doctor asked with concern in his voice.

"... w-r ... WRATHDAMMIT!!! It was the dragon head, not me, the dragon head. You basically just opened the door through its FACE, okay?!" Shadrak snapped. Wow that was close ... if I had attacked just now I would have killed the doctor ....

"Oh, my mistake," the doctor replied in his normal tone. He seemed to not care anymore for some odd reason.

"What?!" came Raquel's more appropriate response. She ran into the room, passing the doctor and reaching Shadrak inside of a few seconds. "Did it say anything?"

"I asked it what it was and what it wanted and then it got really cryptic. Is that what you have to deal with when it shows up in your dreams?"

"More or less," Raquel admitted. While the doctor retrieved his staves and some cloth for Shadrak to wipe his face with, Raquel began scanning the walls and ceiling, looking for the dragon.

"It said it 'wanted everything'. What's that mean?" Shadrak inquired, remembering the exact words the dragon head used.

"Chaos, order, stuff like that, I think," Raquel quickly replied, still looking around.

"What?" What's that even ... "What do you mean by chaos and order?"

"I don't know what it meant, but I asked it a similar question and got something like that back. Dragon, why did you appear to Shadrak? Why not me?" She paused to wait for an answer.

Heh, I'm not sure if she's genuinely concerned or just jealous ... though it is strange, Shadrak thought to himself. His musing came to an end as the doctor approached him. "Are you going to fix my nose now?"

"Must determine extent of damage first, but soon," the doctor replied. Shadrak sat down on the cot and then the doctor placed his things down on the next cot over, just close enough to reach when they were needed. While Raquel looked around, the doctor carefully placed his fingertips onto Shadrak's nose. The tendrils began to extend into the skin. Shadrak couldn't perceive a thing through the pain and simply tried to endure. "Hmm, doesn't feel broken, though I do sense a fracture. Nose won't need setting, fortunately. Can heal right away. One moment."

"Seriously?! Why?!" Raquel shouted.

"... to prove a point," came the dragon head's unexpected response.

Raquel couldn't tell where the voices came from so began darting around the room looking for the source once again. "What point?"

"You know the one~ Remember when you asked me to show myself?"

"I was ... kind of hoping for more than two second appearances ..."

"The shaman received more than two seconds~"

"Urgh! Just come out and stop messing around!"

"Can this wait one minute?" the doctor interjected. "I can appreciate the significance of a specter's presence here but would like to treat this wound first, and respond second. This discussion is simply too distracting."

"... err."

As the infirmary went silent, the doctor healed Shadrak's nose. "There, thank you for your patience. So ... is the specter still here?"

"I was waiting~"

"Huh, polite specter."

"Urrrrgh," Raquel groaned.

Holds

"I took something for it and that eventually healed the wound, but that's all. I don't even think anyone's going to care or notice unless it gets infected," she replied bitterly. "I can't complain about the aches, though. That was distracting me from the hunger pains for awhile."

[Ether]

Stretching her back with a yawn, Faatina's eyes wandered to the ceiling from her place on top of the bedding she had been provided. For whatever reason, after making her way onto the ship, she had found this bed, and seemed to have lost any particular motive to leave the bed.

"This isn't like me, to just waste the time away like this... especially now that my leg is finally strong enough to walk on... I wonder why I...?" She pondered to herself, unsure of what answer she herself was looking for.

[roymbrog]

Synthia was a bit miffed that the shaman thought she would screw up his nose just to spite him, but she didn’t care enough about his opinions to be offended by it. The doctor was willing enough to take care of the problem anyway. And then Gar had the nerve to try teasing her, which earned him an annoyed glance and a frown. “Yes, and no,” she replied. The rest of what was going on didn’t really involve her, and she still hadn’t remembered that she was going to talk to Raquel and so wasn’t really affected when she left.

-----

“Well, if you say so…” Kat said in response to Shadrak. He and the group leader left, Raquel after talking to Reign about the egg and it getting passed off to Zach. “So this thing is supposed to pick up traits from people?” she asked Zach. Man, Vasili were weird.

-----

Valter followed Bert out of the galley to find… Suzume? What was she doing here? Well, Bert already asked that and they soon got an answer. Apparently Blake had brought her aboard after forcing their surrender. The topic turned to her previous injury and Valter chose to be more practical than friendly. “If you do need something, the ship has their own doctor on board. You don’t need to interact with our group at all,” he said.

[Mercakete]

Norbert nodded in agreement with Valter's suggestion. It was probably a good idea to avoid the group as much as possible. "So, did they let you go or something?" he asked, noticing that Suzume wasn't exactly behind bars. She'd also mentioned being allowed to stay on the ship by the captain, so that was something. Maybe that meant she wasn't a captive anymore and could roam as she pleased.

[Eail]

Zach made sure he had a secure grip on the egg once Reign passed it off. Sure it may have beaten the shit out of Shadrak's face, but that really wasn't much of an accomplishment really, still funny. Hugging the thing to his chest he glanced back at Katrina to answer her question. "I think that's the way it works, not really sure though. Certainly gonna be a hodgepodge of personalities once it comes out for sure, gonna be fun."

Staring down at the egg in his arms a smile crept up on his face, maybe he could have a bit of fun. "Hey Kat, girls like single dads don't they~?" He asked in a rather cheeky manner

[Snowy_One]

Robin shot a look at Zach. I don't get it. He was furious at me earlier and wanted to leave me alone, and now he's joking with that other girl? Uggg! You try to be nice and you get treated like you skinned his pet dog, but the moment he's away from you he's all smiles? I thought we were friends! You've been avoiding me this whole time! she thought, ire pulsating through her. She then stopped and took a deep breath.

"I need to get out of here. There is too much anger and tension here. I am going back up top." she said simply, trying to keep as even a tone as possible.

[roymbrog]

Huh. Katrina wondered how the egg chose which traits to copy. Were they physical traits, or just personality ones? Her line of thought was cut short by Zachary’s unexpected question though. The only single dad she knew was her father, and he had never really had a bunch of women after him. At least, not that she could remember. Maybe it was because he was old. “I have no idea. I guess you’ll have to find out,” she said, a small smile on her face. This was a relief after the tension in the room a minute ago.

[Eail]

"Yeah, I guess so eh?...." He said with a soft chuckle.

'Like hell that's gonna happen. I'm surprised Katrina's talked to me for this long.... I'm no good with with people. Should I try to stay away from people? I don't want what happened with Lia to happen again, I can't take another loss.... Lia....'

While he was thinking all of this over in his mind Zach had started to stare down at the egg he still held. If one might have looked closely, the might end up seeing a stray tear or two fall from his face.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Eail

[scorri]

Marella stared at the egg in Zach's arms. "Where'd you get that thing? Seems like an odd thing for a group like yours to be carrying around."

[-Cynthia-]

Near Infirmary

After a minute or two, Veronika decided to follow Raquel to the infirmary, still a bit worried about her safety and she wanted to encourage physical training if possible. Unfortunately, when she arrived Raquel appeared to be speaking to the "dragon head" again, Shadrak apparently having viewed it.

Veronika put her hand on her sword and looked around cautiously. "One might also ask what the entity behind this 'dragon head' is after- is it simply meant to bother us or is there an actual point to all this?" she asked no one in particular.

Galley

Staying in the galley, Nadya decided to chime in on Zach and Katrina's conversation. He was probably just flirting with her, but Nadya wanted to give her opinion anyway. "A single guy with a kid usually makes me wonder whether the mom left him or died. Or if the kid was had without gettin' hitched, but then the woman usually gets the kids," she interjected.

Dauntless

Connor decided to go back to the Dauntless after finishing his stew and thought Gabbie might like to talk. When he came inside he decided to talk to her instead of getting back to work as usual.

"So about what happened back there- are you feeling all right?" he asked her.

Edited January 2, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Parrhesia]

Rook whistles a jaunty tune.

Now there's a good ship, H.M.S. Cock-Robin.

On her home trip, up and down she's bobbin'

Oh the crew's pretty tough,

The sea is so rough,

They're all fed up and say

That they've had more than enough...

His chest had, mercifully, proven more or less watertight, and as a result he was armed and armoured. Well, in the process of arming and armouring himself, anyway. Whistling as he sharpened his dirk took his already flighty mind off the dull work, and off the troubles at hand.

She's got a father

He's an able seaman

And they call him Redhead Tom

I'll write to say I'll meet you

And with your friends I'll treat you

So who do you think I've had a message from?

For instance, this new group seemed to recently have been mourning the losses of... some guys. Which meant this particular mercenary work might actually be dangerous. This was not something Rook was used to. Being a lone travelling trader? That was dangerous, but not mercenary work. Most sellswords he'd met were posturing cowards, meant mostly as a deterrent.

Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors

Coming home across the briny sea

When the anchor's weighed

And the jouney's made

Yes they'll start the party

With a heave-ho, me-hearty!

But Rook was a hard nut. He'd take on any three men and be laughing by the end of it. He was proficient with bows, knives, fists and barstools to an approximately equal degree. If there was a challenge to be had, Rook would not be found wanting. When Death comes for him, he would kick him in the skeletal crotch, nick his scythe, and paint his face pink. Dying with grace and dignity was for children and cripples.

Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors

You can bet you're going to hear them when they hail us

An old maid down in Kreven

Said my idea of heaven

Is forty-seven ginger-headed sailors!

The bowman brushes his finger against the point of the dirk, and true enough a droplet of blood drips forth.

He grins, with yellow teeth and mad, bloodshot eyes.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

Gabbie was sitting inside the Dauntless for a change, fiddling with various things that weren't in a closed box. She set the enchanted trinket she was holding down to address Connor. "I guess so. Not sure this whole 'group' set up is really my thing, though. It was easier when I was just a wandering guard or spy. Somehow, the extremely tedious guard work and the extremely dangerous solo work were less annoying to me, hahah. Oigh ..."

Galley

With the egg past along, Reign decided to leave the galley as well. He wasn't going to chase after Raquel and he wasn't sure if Veronika went after her or down to the training room but either way that's where he was headed ... the training room, not the infirmary. The training room. Not the infirmary ... the training room. Just so we're clear.

Infirmary

"It's been helping Raquel with the emblem, supposedly, but now it's just toying with us," Shadrak stated, glaring randomly around the room. "Mmm," Shadrak suddenly began to think about their options. Since he didn't like his, he certainly didn't like Veronika's. "This thing seems pretty confident magic can't hit it so I'm sure a sword can't either ..."

"Well ... probably not here," the dragon replied, still not manifesting anywhere in the room.

"Okay-okay! Listen ... why are you appearing outside of my dreams now?" Raquel tried to inquire as clearly and as firmly as she could manage.

"It may not have been real to you after it was over with, but you stood up for yourself ... you defeated Lilith ... you took what you needed even against overwhelming adversity ..."

"... it was just a dream," Raquel reasoned.

"Just a dream?" the dragon echoed. "Discovery, the emblem has heeded you in both your dreams and in this world. I have appeared both in your dreams and in this world. The emblem's power is not limited in either."

"What do you mean not limited in either?!" Raquel began to break down slightly, overcome with frustration and confusion. "What do you want me to do?!"

"Yeah, come clean already, dammit!" Shadrak snapped, looking as if he was about to start taking potshots at the walls.

"Hmhmhm, you're acting brave all of a sudden~" the dragon replied to Shadrak. To Raquel it said, "Discovery, I want you to believe. Believe that the power you have learned to wield in my world can be harnessed here as well."

"But how can I do that?"

"Take out the emblem," it replied simply.

Raquel wasn't expecting it to be glowing so brightly when she did, but it was and she couldn't stare directly at it. Even from where Shadrak was standing it was like a flare and he turned away. "W-what's going on?!"

Behind Shadrak, the dragon head began to emerge from the wall, looking as if it was squeezing its way through the surface. Shadrak saw it as a result of looking away from the emblem and jumped back. "Gah! There he is!"

Then came the big wide smile Raquel had grown used to seeing every so often. "Think about it, Discovery ...~"

Okay ... thinking ... thinking. He's convinced the emblem can work in the real world just as well as it does in my dreams. For some reason he's appearing to me now and the emblem is glowing brighter than it ever has .... What does that mean? Come on, I know I can figure this out ...

Holds

"I've never been very eager to near you people, believe me. And no, I'm supposed to stay on this level, and in that area back there ... specifically so I don't run into you people more than necessary," she explained. "Speaking of which I should probably get back there before more people show up ..."