Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Ether]

"Tch... timid brainwashed girls... fuck that." Arietta commented, spitting on the ground before shaking her head.

"Whatever... if Weyland says she's worth pr'tecting, then I'll pr'tect 'er." Arietta concluded with a sigh, before taking a moment to look over her supposed partner for the operation.

"Stupid stunts, eh? What sorta shit do I need to watch to drag your ass out of?"

[roymbrog]

[spoiler=Scholar's Mate (same day as TS)]

Norbert returned to the stables a bit more refreshed than he was when he'd first arrived. Rizen had been quite happy to see him and she and Phyllis had been tended to when Valter came back from the galley. When they were finished with the equines, though, they didn't get to the chess lesson right away. Instead, Norbert opted to go clean himself up, but had promised to return for the lesson. Now, he was fulfilling that promise and though his clothes and armor were still worse for wear, he and his attire were clean again.

"Hey, Valter," Norbert greeted as he walked up to his fellow Ursian man. He wasn't entirely sure what was involved with chess, so that was the first thing he asked about. "So... What do I do?"

After returning their dishes to the galley (and passing by a moping Synthia), Valter had met Bert in the stables to care for their equines. While the pegasus knight left to get cleaned up he removed the pouch from his belt and had started setting up the chess set. The board wasn’t actually a board, however. Instead it was a patchwork of thick, black and white fabric, due to being much easier to carry around. The wooden pieces were set up with white on his opponent’s side and then Valter sat down to wait.

He didn’t have to wait long, however, and waved as Bert returned to the stables. Valter smiled, as he had already planned out part of the explanation in his head. “Alright, then. So the objective of the game, or what you do I suppose, is to force your opponent’s king into checkmate,” he said, pointing to his own king. “You can capture the other pieces by placing one of yours in its place, but if a move is made that would allow a piece to capture the king on the next turn, the king is in check. I would have to move my king, take your piece, or defend my king with another piece. Checkmate is achieved when your opponent can’t take any of those options. Also, it’s illegal to make a move that would put your king in check or checkmate.

“Each piece can be moved a certain way on the board. Pawns can only move forward and capture pieces diagonally. They can also move two spaces forward the first time you move them. Rooks can be moved horizontally or vertically across the board. Knights move in an L-shape, either one horizontally and two vertically or two horizontally and one vertically, and can also jump over other pieces. The bishops are moved diagonally on the color they start on, and the queen can go in any direction as long as it’s a straight line. The king can move one space in any direction,” he explained, pointing out each piece and its movement range as it was mentioned. “There are some other rules in addition to these, but I thought we’d start with the basics first."

As Valter explained, Norbert sat down on his side of the board, paying careful attention to each piece as its movement was explained. "So, these are knights," he began to review, indicating the little, wooden pegasi on his side, "Those are bishops, those are pawns... The king can only move one space at a time... Guess he's weighed down by a bunch of expensive robes or something. I decide how the pieces on my side move, right?"

He was already forming a plan. The goal was to take his opponent's king, so that's what he intended on doing. It's weird that the bishops can capture people. Guess they aren't Mercites... Rooks, too. Aren't rooks a kind of bird?

“That’s correct,” Valter answered. Good, Bert was picking it up quickly. He smiled. “White goes first.”

"'Goes first'?" Norbert echoed, "So, we take turns?"

Well, that seemed to be the case. I guess that makes things easier. Well, his pieces were white, so that meant he got to move first. So then Norbert proceeded to begin to move pieces forward on the playing cloth, not seeing anything wrong with moving more than one piece on his turn. Though that misunderstanding was likely about to be corrected.

Valter was about to confirm Bert’s question when the pegasus rider began moving several pieces at once. “Woah, woah, one at a time!” he said hurriedly. This was amusing. Had he played a board game before? “We take turns, one piece at a time. Also, skipping your turn isn’t allowed,” he explained further. He needed to make sure he wasn’t taking anything else for granted, but he couldn’t think of anything he may have left out at this point. "Um... if you're unsure about any moves just ask."

"Oh. Er.." Norbert quietly responded shortly before setting his pieces back into place. To Valter's comment about asking about things he was unsure of, he nodded and replied, "Okay."

I guess that means I can't storm him... Well... Hmm... I really have to think about how I move these things carefully if I can only move one per turn... They can't even fight very well if they're overtaken just by someone coming up to them... I guess the good news is that so are his. Uh... Well, I guess I'll just move one and see what happens for now... So, looking over his pieces, Norbert selected the little, wooden pegasus on his left and placed it in front of the pawn on its left. Then, he rested his elbow on his leg and held his head as he scrutinized the board, waiting to see what Valter would do in response.

“Hmm, interesting choice,” Valter muttered, tapping his chin. “Well then, I think I’ll go with this.” And he moved the pawn in front of his King two spaces forward. Bert may have been a beginner, but that didn’t mean he was going to go easy on him. Failure was a pretty good teacher anyway.

[spoiler=The Stables are Pretty Popular Apparently(Third day of TS)]

There were few places where one could find peace and quiet on this ship, but Synthia had managed to find one after a few days: the stables. She much preferred the company of horses, anyway. She had arrived earlier to find her horse (that she had finally managed to name) laying down, and had sat down beside her to read for a bit. An hour later found her asleep. Another hour later and some noise decided to wake her up with a bad case of sleep inertia. She could hear someone else down there somewhere, but wasn’t bothering to look. The loss of solitude was unwelcome. “Go away, the horses will be here later…” she said, irritated.

Well, the chess matches had gone about as well as could be expected. Valter captured Norbert's king every time no matter what strategy he put into place. That was the trend anyway for the past couple days. Continuously being defeated only spurred the pegasus rider on to do better, though, and so found himself thinking about how to defeat the horseman more often than he'd expected. It didn't take his focus off of the other things that had to get done, however. He utilized the training area they'd been granted both the previous and the present day and concentrated on his fighting abilities as well. He'd also taken Rizen out to the main deck for a run the previous day and was planning on doing so again.

As he was fastening Rizen's tack onto her, he heard someone groaning, telling him to go away. It was a little irritating. "The stables are for anyone to use, you know," he replied as he continued at his task.

“Oh, it’s you,” Synthia said. She pulled herself up a bit and slumped over Myra’s back. Bert was saddling Rizen, so he was already complying with her request to leave whether he saw it that way or not. The mage didn’t like being contradicted, however, and instead contradicted him. “Yeah, but not all at once.” She then lazily pointed an accusing finger at the guy. “You owe me,” she grumbled. For being annoying, not listening to her, and most importantly for waking her from a much needed nap. She wasn’t about to let that slide.

He paused for a moment to send her a bit of an irritated glare. Merz, what'd I ever do to her? "For what?" he returned.

“For being annoying, almost getting your ass killed, waking me up, you name it. Do you know how much sleep I’ve gotten this week? No, of course you don’t...” And she laid her head on the horse and sighed. “Anyway, you owe me. And you still have to tell me who you are too. And you still need to get out of here and let me sleep. None of those overlap,” she muttered.

"How does almost getting myself killed affect you at all?" Norbert asked under his breath before asking so she could hear, "So which do you want right now? Me telling you who I am or my getting out of here? If you want me to leave, you'll have to wait for me to finish getting Riz ready. If you want to talk...well, it's not like I don't have time." He was still a bit irritated, but really, this was the third day of a two-week-long voyage. He could easily take Rizen for a ride after their conversation.

“I won’t fall asleep again until you leave anyway… Go ahead,” Synthia said. She sounded grumpy (which she was), but was genuinely curious. Now was as good a time as any to make Norbert spill the beans.

It was a bit odd that she'd actually been serious about wanting to know how he defined himself, now that he thought about it. This had been brought up back in that last port they were at so he'd figured it was forgotten by that point. It certainly had left his thoughts what with the events that happened after it. He was also a bit surprised she'd chosen to hear about it than just telling him to leave as he thought she would. Well, he'd offered, so there was no reason not to answer.

"So, who I am, huh?" he mused aloud as he thought it over some. "Well, for one, I've been known as Bert the Crusher for...the past three years or so in Northeastern Ursium. It wasn't because I was so great at fighting, though. It was because I preferred crushing weapons to sharp ones. I was pretty cruel, too. I targeted outlaws -- mostly bandits -- and beat them down for information when I could. Mostly sought after where they kept their spoils, what sort of people I'd be dealing with and raiding schedules. Lived off of their loot or at least what I could carry. Never did become an official Ursian citizen. Or at least I never filled out any forms or whatnot. Only payments I made were for the essentials. Food, equipment and maintenance, basically. Never lived in a town or city or anything either. Actually, I avoided people for the most part. It was just Riz and me."

His tone darkened some as he thought back to those days. "What I did to those bandits was pretty terrible. I wouldn't always aim to kill -- I'd aim to maim. Of course, usually it was because I wanted information, but when when I wasn't, I was sadistic. I broke their bones. Sometimes I'd break every bone they had. Quickly, if I thought they wouldn't last much longer and was particularly angry or if I needed to know something. That's another thing: I'm a pretty angry man. You probably already figured that out, though. I'm easy to set off and I don't care much who it is who does it -- I let them have it."

By now, his anger was getting clearer in his tone. "So who am I? I'm about the most worthless human being there is in Sardius! My best skill is in fighting but I'm not even very good at that! Try as I might, I'm still unsociable and I still have my past. Just as well, I guess. Even before I was Bert the Crusher I wasn't much. Just some angry kid who everyone knew wouldn't achieve anything. Everything was always my fault. Still is. So who I am... I'm someone no one should care about...but I'm still someone. So if someone thinks they can just kill me or mistreat me, they've got another thing coming."

Frustrated with himself again, he tried to summarize, "So, I'm not good at speaking... I'm not sure if you get it now or not. Sorry if I wasn't clear with what I was trying to say. I guess in the end, who I am is...a regret. It's why sometimes I think about splitting off from Raquel's group. There are some good people here. I don't want to bog anyone down. I'm selfish, though, and I don't want to leave. People treat me a lot better here than I deserve and I don't want to give that up. Especially Valter... I still don't understand why he risked his life to save mine. Any life for my own is a pretty poor trade, after all. And...I think I've been less angry here than anywhere else. The pay's great and it's not as risky as how I used to live either."

The pegasus rider groaned. "Merz, I started rambling... Sorry. In the end, I'm just not a good guy is what I'm trying to say, I guess. Not worth having around, not likable, not even useful. Sorry to disappoint."

Synthia listened quietly as he started talking. It was surprising that he was willing to be so open as she never would’ve exposed her insecurities like this. She had always considered Bert kind of harmless, honestly. The mage was quickly starting to question that assessment. This guy really had something mess him up as a kid. All in all, she wasn’t that affected by the fact that he had basically tortured murderous criminals. She was sure there were people traveling with them who had done worse.

About midway through, though, her expression darkened. So that was why he didn’t care about his own wellbeing half the time. Truth be told, she felt uncomfortable hearing about his lack of self-worth. It may have hit a bit too close to home and there was little she could say that wouldn’t make her a hypocrite. That made her upset, both with him and herself. She considered punching him, but that wasn’t feasible with the effort required and distance involved. She settled for merely glaring. “I don’t want to hear you depreciate yourself like that, got it?” she said. It wasn't a question.

Small bit of anger spent, she descended back into melancholy. “There’s no reason to be so hard on yourself. You, at least, recognize your faults. Besides, most of us aren’t here for any reasons nobler than yours.” She was purposefully avoiding the last things he said. Telling him that he was likeable and not useless was just too cliché and she wasn’t going to say it unless there was a concrete reason to.

He shrugged. "It's just the facts. Always has been. I'm not happy with it, but I've accepted it," Norbert replied as he leaned against Rizen, "It is how it is... I'm not about to give up, though. Even if it's impossible, I'll prove my worth someday. More than that, I'll gain even more value. I'll better myself at my skills and as a person and I'll increase my worth! That's my goal. I may not be much now...but I'll be more someday."

Suddenly losing a bit of his gusto, Norbert added uncertainly, "At least, I hope so... I don't know -- maybe it is impossible... I have to try, though."

At least he was trying to work on bettering himself. That was more than Synthia could say for herself. “Well, good luck with that,” she said. The words themselves may not have sounded sincere, but the tone behind them was. All in all, she was still rather subdued and was waiting for him to leave so she could return to her nap if she could fall asleep again after this.

Synthia seemed to have tired of the conversation, ending it there. She'd wished him well and, actually, she sounded sincere about it, which he appreciated. He hadn't quite been expecting that reaction, either, given all he'd detailed out about himself. After a pause, as Norbert pushed himself off of Rizen's side and went back to saddling her, he simply replied, "Thanks."

Well, now she knew. The saddling process was near complete anyway, so he was finished with that soon enough. As he led Rizen towards the exit, he stopped by Synthia momentarily. There was something he wanted to say, but he couldn't quite find the words. The only statement he managed before continuing on his way was, "You're a good person." Then he continued on his way to get out of her hair.

While Bert left, the mage curled up next to Myra again to resume her nap. Once he was gone she muttered under her breath, "No I'm not."

As the ship began making its way into port Synthia had come up on deck with her horse to loiter around the Dauntless. The trip hadn’t been as horrible as she expected, partly because she had become accustomed to the bouncing of the waves a few days in and was no longer seasick (the larger size of the vessel certainly helped with that). At some point she had remembered to offer help to Raquel with the payment issues, but was somehow roped into dealing with money in general. Most of her free time during the trip had been split between trying to decipher Ranyin’s notes and figuring out the merchant’s inventory and accounting systems.

The mage sat down against one of the wagon wheels and took out her tome and pencil. A good three quarters of the book were actually empty and she had been using the latter pages to record pertinent information. Currently she was trying to figure out what the payment scheme should be after Weyland’s missions.

-----

Sometime yesterday the vasilus egg had been passed to her, and Kat now sat with it on Volga near the bow of the ship. With the port clearly in view she was becoming apprehensive. It had never been in her plans to travel to Ursium, but here she was about to be unloaded into what she considered hostile territory. She had no idea how the Ursians were going to treat her or her wyvern. The group had previously been traveling within the country with all types though, so maybe it would be ok.

Looking around, a few others of the group were up and about, including the merchant not a few meters away. Raquel didn’t appear as happy as what she would expect of someone finally returning home. Katrina considered asking her about it, but quickly decided not to. It wasn’t her place to pry. Instead, she slipped off the wyvern’s back and walked over, sitting down quietly with the egg until she could think of a suitable question. Hmm… “So, what is Ursium like?”

-----

It was just sunrise? Pffft, Valter was still asleep belowdecks. All you darn early risers.

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=Outcast Bonding(Day Two)]Talking at lunch wasn't Shadrak's favorite thing to do since people like Synthia and Gabbie or others just looking for an excuse to poke at him would be within earshot. Instead he waited until after Robin had left to speak with her. "Hey," he greeted. "Are you busy?"

Robin had been busy that day. Waking with the others, normally she would have gone out to start crafting new arrowheads or tools from stone, but had decided against that that day. Maybe it was the simple desire to try something different, maybe it was the fact that the only easily accessible stone was the ship ballast which would not have gone over well with the sailors, or maybe it was depression from her incident with Zach, but she had opted to cook that day instead of craft tools. It wasn't easy for her though. The ship had limited supplies and little in the way of variety, but she had still managed to whip up a garlic soup with an orange-sauce and bits of jerky on the side and it had been delicious! Far better than what the others had eaten, she was sure. But even as she was walking away from the table she wasn't quite finished. She still held one piece of jerky in her hand while nibbling on the other. That was when Shadrak decided to approach the red-headed woman.

"No, I am not. I just finished cooking and am nibbling on some jerky. What some?" she asked, offering the bit in her hand to him. Then, regardless of if he took it or not, asked "Did you have something on your mind?"

"No, I'm good," Shadrak declined. "Aside from the usual, no. I still have to figure out this whole emblem business, still have to convince someone other than Raquel, Veronika, and Blake to care. Still have to find out what happened to Naoki, and on top of all that, figure out how to beat this organization that keeps hunting us. I can't focus on that stuff all day long though and Faatina advised me to go around and talk with people more instead of going over my notes. You've been spending a little too much time on your own too, so I wanted to make sure you were alright and take her advice at the same time. Sorry if that sounds a bit too calculated."

"Your apology is accepted." said Robin, trying to make a weak smile. "I am sorry that I have made you worry though. It is warranted. I do not feel alright because of how things have been between Zach and I, but I am used to being alone as well. I am tough. I can take it." she said before pounding her chest to add emphasis.

"Well yeah, but you shouldn't have to. Though, maybe that's just my frustration talking. It's probably better to be alone with people like these around ... with a few exceptions I guess ..."

"A few exceptions? Like who?"

"Err-well ..." Shadrak paused, not expecting her to request any specific names. "Well there's you of course. That new wyvern rider, Katrina is pretty nice. It's not often people step in to defend me on and off the battlefield. Blake's alright when he's not scheming something ..."

"I do not understand why people are so hostile here either. It is almost as if groups are forming within the group itself and not being in one of those groups makes you an outsider. It is a bit shocking and very annoying. I will admit, there are times when I wish others would talk to me, especially when I have problems. But I seem to make people mad just by speaking, so I stopped."

"Well you can always talk to me if something's wrong. I haven't been able to help out a lot lately, not with the emblem, not with anything but fighting."

"Are you sure you want me to do that? Right now the main thing wrong with me is how Zach has been treating me and I suspect you may not want to hear about that. Maybe you would prefer to ask questions about Ohka and learn about it? Or hunting? Or... Something else?"

"Uhhh ... well it's true, I'd rather not spend any longer than necessary talking about Zachary ... still, if that's what's bothering you, then wouldn't it be better to just ... get it over with and move on? You'd feel better once the situation was handled, right? So ... despite how annoying it is, I think it's the ... the better ... topic. Or something."

Robin sighed in annoyance before swallowing her jerky. "It... It is not that simple. Zachary and I... We had a close relationship back in Ohka. Before he left we were very close." she said, gulping nervously, the implication clear. "When he left, one of my big worries and fears was that he would end up finding some other woman and replacing me. That I had just expressed myself in that way only to be tossed aside. Now that we have met again, he has lost someone close to him and, and I am afraid that if I push he will run from me into the arms of someone else. Tact has never been my strong point, so I know it is certainly possible. I do not want to be controlling, but I also do not want to be tossed aside, or worse, to BE the reason I get tossed aside."

I think moving on would be in her best interest, honestly, but I don't think I should actually come out and say that ... Shadrak thought to himself. "Well sometimes people grow apart. He left for a long time, right? Even if he didn't find someone else, he probably moved on in his own way. Do you really want to be with that guy-err-Zachary. Sorry. If you do, you should probably say so before it's too late."

"I wish I knew. This is why I was so afraid of it getting to this level in the first place." grumbled Robin. "Now that he has been gone, is he going to forget me and chase skirts? Was I just a fling? A final mark on Ohka for him? Was I his friend? Was I his lover? I do not know. And it would be horrible for me to end up cheating on him." she said with a sigh.

"I remember the stories of old when one spouse would just bonk the other on the head and they would be husband and wife. Why must things be so complicated compared to that? I would rip the mast off this ship to hit his head if that was all that was needed, but that would also make me the type of controlling woman I dislike."

"The whole mast?! Well ... I can tell you really care about him, but is he really worth all of this? I mean he spent the first night on this ship getting drunker than hell with some girls, and then snapping at you the first chance he got. How are you going to get him to stop doing stuff like that and just talk to you?"

"I think... I think I need to confront him about it and just keep on hammering the point home. Not letting him escape, not letting him plead, just raw honesty. Either he needs to acknowledge me and shape up, or he needs to ship out for good."

Honestly, after hearing about the drinking contest, I thought he already had. Well, better to make it official than to keep inadvertently jerking her around like this ... "Good idea. Once you know for certain, you can go from there ... and maybe things won't be quite as confusing."

Robin shook her head. "Things will always be confusing. But I will know if I am truly alone, or have a friend."

"You have a friend, even if it isn't Zachary. I mean what am I, chopped liver? Heh, I guess some of the people around here would nod at that ..." he muttered.

"I am sorry Shadrak. It is just... Friendship to me means a lot. A friend is someone you can trust, always depend on to be there, and know will support you. I like you, a lot, and we are on good terms. But a friend? I do not know. Maybe not just yet. But I do like spending time with you."

Shadrak sighed. "Chopped liver for now, got it."

"What?" asked Robin, baffled. "I did not say that. I said being a friend means a lot to me just... UGGGG! This is something else that confuses me! You know what? Fine."

She suddenly leaned forwards and hugged Shadrak. "There. You are a friend now."

"Uhhh ..." Would be stupid to go back now so ... I guess ... that's fine. "I didn't want to pressure you or anything ... it just seemed a little arbitrary to me at first is all. Anyway, you won't regret it, I can guarantee that much," he replied, smiling at the end.

"Just do not be the type of friend who betrays another. If we are friends that means we are a team. We are supposed to work with and care about each other. Hunters who work together need to work in packs with complete trust for their teammates or else they struggle to make kills and cannot feed themselves."

"Don't worry, I won't betray your trust or anything like that. And don't you forget that you do have a friend now, one who's willing to listen and help however he can," Shadrak replied with a firm nod.

"Likewise. It must be hard for you, being a mage in a group comprised mainly of non-magical people and the other mages not spending much time with you. Do you ever wish there was some other mage that you could talk magic with?"

"Well, yes and no. It's not so bad in the sense that I don't have to deal with arrogant upstarts who only want to prove how much better than me they are. On the other hand, if I do want to converse with someone, chances are it won't be about magic unless it's Raquel, and that's usually emblem related. I guess that's my fault, though. She avoids it so much that goes even higher on my list of priorities than just making sure she's coping well ... anyway, ranting. I certainly wouldn't mind there being more dark mages around, but I'm not hurting for competition."

"I am afraid I will not be of much conversation. I have the magical amplitude of a stone and no special knowledge to help. But maybe you need to sit down and listen to some of those upstarts? Every person believes they are right about something at some point, and some of them are. Maybe they just need a little bit of attention? Back in Ohka, when I was little, I tried going out on a 'hunt' when I was five years old. I had looked up to my father so much I wanted to be like him, so I pulled out some old traps and set them up hoping to catch a bear. I caught my father instead. He was furious for the following week, but then after he calmed down he realized that I had managed to set the traps all by myself and my problem was my lack of experience with the real world. He sat down with me and he started to help me to learn how to become a real hunter. If he had not done that, I would likely be in Ohka trying to learn to knit aprons and be a good housewife instead of hunting down wild animals and traveling with you guys and my father would just be a misunderstood brute to me. I do not know if it is the same with mages, and I am sure that there are some out there who are arrogant as well, but maybe you should try talking to them sometime and seeing if they might be right?"

She caught her father? Man ... Master would be so pissed if she fell into some trap spell I laid out. Not sure I'd live to see tomorrow, honestly. "Well I typically rely on my master, Chie, for new insight. I wouldn't be downright opposed to seeing other points of view, but ... kinda difficult when that person's an insufferable ass. I'll keep what you said in mind, though."

"Have you ever considered using magic for more mundane purposes? I know it sounds foolish, but imagine if mages could find a way to transport packages across distances faster than any wyvern. Or allow the non-magically inclined to carry a load of cabbages up a mountain without a cart. Think of how much our lives would improve by and how much we would progress."

"My master wanted me to focus on combat techniques. Anima magic is better for the mundane anyway, unless you're talking about stuff like bonding and synthesis. That's the kind of stuff that Raquel goes for. Another issue is that it's really difficult to pick up a lot of skills. Even people who do don't really excel at any of them. Take Raquel as an example again; she's decent at what she does, but she's not too dangerous in a fight even though she uses dark magic," Shadrak explained. "Not that I don't mind making people's lives easier. I love to help people, actually. That's part of why I'm here."

"There is always a use for something, even if it does not seem apparent at first." said Robin, trying to sound upbeat. "Bonding materials together to form newer, better, ones maybe? Ah well. I am just so sick of how violent this world is at times and think we might be wasting so much time fighting when we could be doing other things. I know that sounds funny coming from me, but, well... Have you ever woken up atop of a mountain just as the sun rises? Or shared stories after a hunt around a campfire? Violence may be part of our world, and it may be needed. I fully expect to end up punching Zach before long. But that does not mean one can not want some moments of peace and happiness."

"I've woken up at dawn a few times, but nowhere as spectacular as a mountain. Uh, some peace and quiet back at my master's home was common and nothing bad ever happened. There was the occasional trespasser, but nothing major," Shadrak replied. "The only person I really had to share stories with were my master and she already knew everything I'd been doing and most of the details. I guess you were just making a point about violence versus non-violence, and I agree. I'm trained to take people down and hard, but even I want some peace every now and then ... that's why all these dumb arguments between battles get on my nerves. We have enough enemies gunning for us and people still want to be petty ..."

"Have you ever considered telling someone else those stories?"

"Lots of times, but I've been chopped liver until now. I don't word my opinions in a particularly nice way and everyone takes it personally so I don't have too many allies here. I guess I get it from my master. She's not very polite either ..."

"Well, you can talk to me at times if you want to share one. I am not chopped liver. I may be distant, but I do listen."

"That's good to know, and you'll definitely be the first to hear them. Though, maybe another time for the stories. I'm probably talking too much about myself already, heheh."

"Alright then. Whenever you want to, you can speak to me."

"There's not a lot to do on this ship, sooo it'll probably be soon, heheh. Anyway, it's been great talking with you, Robin. I appreciate you giving me the time," Shadrak thanked her with a smile.

"Two thirty. And I will see you later then."

[spoiler=Emblem Inquiry(Day Three)]'Dammit, this is all useless! I can't accomplish anything here! Too many people, less than the other hold but still too much fire hazard. There's just no way I can train until we get back on land.'

These were the thoughts of Zachary Fairweather as he mulled over the frustrating situation at hand. He just couldn't get the rising shield to work no matter how hard he tried, all of the factors coming together resulted in the sage pretty much not being able to put his magic to use on this trip. A frustration to say the least considering how useful the technique might possibly be if he could just nail the damn thing.

'What am I supposed to do then? I've got the urge to be useful right now in some way. Kat can handle herself pretty well with how she's training, same with Marella..... Raquel? Maybe there's some way I can help her with the Emblem. An artifact like that can't be easy to control no matter what'

Making his decision on what to do the brown haired sage got up from where he was sitting and waved bye to the green haired Wyvern Rider he'd become friends with. Now it was simply time to track down the boss lady. She'd probably be in either the mess hall or the Dauntless, maybe Zach would luck out and Raquel would be in the latter. Much less distractions that way.

______

Up on deck where the wagon was still left Zach knocked on the door "Raquel? It's Zach, I was wondering if I could talk with you about something?"

Raquel had been working on coat for Reign for several hours. She planned on taking a break after another hour or so, but eventually fell asleep against the wall with her progress laid out over her lap. When she heard a knock, she came to, if only a little. "Huh? Taaalk?" Waait a minute, did I fall asleep in the middle of all this? Urgh.

Well uh, that hadn't exactly been the response he'd been expecting. It sounded like he may have woken Raquel up from her nap or something. "Yeah um, I was wondering if I could talk to you about the emblem and stuff. If now's a bad time I can always be back later, didn't mean to wake you up." Zach said, after opening the door and poking his head through.

"N-no, it's fine! I wasn't supposed to be sleeping or anything. I've just been working for hours," she explained as she picked herself up. She set the coat and materials on top of a nearby create and tried to fix the part of her hair she'd been sleeping against. "Sooo you wanted to talk about the emblem ...?" she asked, trailing off and frowning.

"Yeah, this is kinda sounding stupid now that I'm thinking about it though really..." Walking into the wagon Zach sat down across from Raquel, trying to think up words that would make what he was trying to say make sense "Well the emblem is obviously fueled by magic of some kind right? I was thinking maybe I could figure out a way to help you with the thing then. If it's magic it can be studied and eventually understood. You just gotta poke and prod at it in the right way."

"That sounds pretty similar to the offer Shadrak made," Raquel noted, still frowning. "Either way, I still don't know what kind of magic it is. It's not dark or I would be able to control it. It's not light because despite the way it looks it doesn't behave the same way. It's definitely not anima ..." she trailed off once again.

This was puzzling to say the least, the emblem obviously had to be magic of some sort, but it wasn't one of the three types? Just what did that make it then? "You think it might be possible, and this is just me, that it's somehow a.... combination of all three of them? I mean obviously this thing isn't normal to begin with so I don't think that assumption might be too far out there. Some type of combination magic could lead to something that we've never seen before."

"Most of the time when people try to combine magic, they blow themselves up," Raquel noted. "I'm not saying it's impossible, especially if this is a divine relic, but I also can't sense its power either. You'd think a combination of light dark and anima would still be detectable, wouldn't you?"

"You'd think so, but we are dealing with a legendary artifact after all so there's no telling really." Zach said with a shrug. "But does it really only work for you? I understand that Lilith can probably use it too but has any other human been able? If not then there certainly has to be something special that ties it to you"

"I found it in the shallows of a river. No one else besides my father, Chip, Weyland, Lilith, and whoever had it while I was kidnapped ever held it. I'm guessing other people besides just Lilith can use it. It's still one of the ways Sardis might be finding us no matter where we go because we think he has a piece too," she explained. There was also the possibility of a spy, but that didn't make the Sardis angle any less valid, possibly redundant, but that was all.

"Found it in the shallows of a river eh?" Zach mused, something about this didn't add up. "There's got to be something else at work here. What are the chances that you'd find the Fire Emblem in a river? It almost seems like we're being played somehow with it but I honestly have no idea."

"Well how about this one, whenever you've used it's power what common factor has been there? A strong emotional state or something like that? If you can't use it at will there has to be something that makes it work at times."

"It was just dumb luck that I happened to find it at all, really. I was watering Sandrock and Riley and just happened to notice an oddly colored rock half buried with all the others. I thought it might be gold, so I dug it out. It didn't take long to figure out it wasn't actually gold, and I eventually decided to keep it. And then life as I knew it came to an end ..."

"As for what makes it work, I'm still not really sure. According to Lilith, I've been using the emblem all along, just unknowingly. None of the noticeable stuff ever happens until I get really stressed though, like when Zel turned on me or in my dreams where it was 'use the emblem or drown'. I don't want to have to be on the verge of losing my mind just to get it to work. It's not worth it ..."

"Maybe it won't activate unless you're in danger or something like that, it's the closest thing to a common factor it seems. Far be it from me to tell you how to use the thing but have you ever thought about having someone else from the group try to use it? At the very least it could take some of the heat off of you."

"I'm really reluctant to do that ..." Raquel replied slowly.

"Why is that? I mean I can understand if you still don't trust me, but why not Veronika or Reign? You've known them the longest, are you afraid something might happen?" Zach questioned.

"Well, aside from the fact that there are people who want it bad enough to kidnap my father and probably even kill me, it's really uncomfortable to be apart from it for very long. You see, the problem is, as long as I have it, it gives me this strange energy that I'm apparently dependent on. Lilith thought I was making that happen on purpose at first, but it might just be my subconscious or something else. If I give the emblem to someone else, whether or not they get it working, it could interfere with that energy and ... leave me a broken mess. It was also theorized that I could die, but I doubt we'd let it drag on that long. When I'm away from the emblem, I get really weak. I don't ... really want to go through that again," she explained.

"Wow.... it's actually connected to you? I've never heard of anything like this before, but if it's really affecting you just by parting with the thing that's concerning..." Zach trailed off. "Maybe when we're at Weyland's it'd be possible to observe it better? There might be something there that could at least help study the Emblem."

Giving a shrug Zach continued "I guess that's really it for my questions, don't know what I expected from all this questioning. Not like I'm smart enough to figure it out."

"Well don't sell yourself short," Raquel replied. "At least you're not so determined to figure it out that you're pestering me. I'm not entirely sure this is something that can just be 'figured out' anyway which is why I try not to think about it too much." Well that and training and constant speculation haven't done us any good since day one as far as the emblem is concerned.

"Lemme guess, Shadrak?" Zach said with a small chuckle. "He seems like the type that'd pester you for it, either that or just straight up hit on you. Me? I'm much more subtle with how I do things~." Pausing for a moment before laughing.

"I can understand his reasons for bringing up the emblem constantly, but if none of these suggestions worked the last ten times ..." she trailed off before catching the last thing Zachary said. "Subtle? Hmm."

"Shaddy boy seems like the type to think he gets what he wants when he wants it, so that's not surprising to me." he replied with a shrug "I might have zero experience with women but I'll still guarantee I could do a better job than Dark Boy"

"Iii get the feeling you don't really like Shadrak," Raquel noted with a frown.

"It's not really that hard to not like him." He admitted with a shrug. "What with the way he acted towards me in our first meeting. Kinda funny when you consider his joining was worse than mine, but of course dear Shaddy can do no wrong in his own eyes. I'm not exactly the only one with a dislike of him if the galley incident was any example either though."

Raquel frowned again. "Maybe we should change the subject ..."

"I guess I'm mostly done with my questioning. So that's it unless you have anything to talk about Raquel."

"Nothing else really. I should probably get back to work on this," she replied, gesturing at the coat.

"Right then." Zach said getting up from his seat. "I guess I'll see ya later Raquel, take care of yourself okay? There's no need to overwork after all that's happened"

"I will, and thanks. See you later," she replied. Suddenly she wanted to take a nap but wasn't sure if she was actually going to or not. Decisions ....

[spoiler=Grant Us A New Member(Day Seven]Once lunch was over, and Reign had run out of other things to do, he thought about going off to train some more. It would be a good idea to visit Raquel first and see if he couldn't convince her to come along, so that was the plan. Of course this plan was thrown out the window or at the very least shelved once he spotted Grant, the ice mage wandering about, half way back to the Dauntless. Now seemed better than later so, "Hey, Grant. Do you have a minute?"

After having renewed the freezing spells on the bodies and with no things to chill immediately, Grant had decided to go wander about the ship for a while. After all, there was not much else he could do, unless he wanted to continue his bidaily habit of mage dodging. So wandering about it was. And it was glorious, until Reign appeared and asked him for a minute of his time.

"Sure, I have plenty of time, what with being on this ship," Grant said, as he turned and moved to Reign's position. "What would you like?"

"I want to know what your plans are once we reach Ursium," Reign answered simply. "Please, only what you're comfortable telling anyone."

"Well, I figure I was going to run a circuit of the Ursian arenas for a while," Grant began, "Then I remembered I need to figure out how to keep tabs on you, until, well, you acquire a pegasus for Claudia. So, I am still mulling over the options, in short. Judging by the fact that you asked me, I am guessing you have a suggestion?"

"Something like that," Reign replied with a shrug. "If you still want to make sure I deliver on that pegasus, the only way you can do that is to stick around with this group, since that's what I'll be doing. I'm not sure how many arenas we'll be visiting, if any, but I'm willing to bet you'll have plenty of people to test your skills on and we'd all welcome that."

"I see," Grant said, realizing this was a recruitment drive. "Well, I guess the main issue here is that I'm not on, shall we say, friendly terms with one of your other spellcasters, but if that is not an issue, I suppose I could join your group for a while. Not for free, of course, but the fee should be a thing to worry about later."

"It's not an issue for me," Reign noted. "We have a few internal disputes but nothing too serious. See, you fit in already," he joked. "I'd talk to Raquel or Synthia about payment when the time comes."

Boy oh boy. If that was considered an 'internal dispute', this might end up being a loooooong journey. "Alright then. I'll do that. Anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm curious. Who's this other spellcaster you mentioned?"

"Well, that would be Zachary Fairweather, your lightning mage. We nearly came to blows after he tried to... appropriate my uncle's horses. It's been fun avoiding him for the past week," Grant said, suppressing a frown with a smile. "I hope his grudge will fade away, eventually. It is sort of inconvenient, after all."

"Huh ... why was I expecting it to be Synthia? Ah well," Reign mused aloud. "Maybe it'll fade, maybe it won't. I wouldn't let the opportunity to douse that burning bridge slip by now that you're 'officially' a part of the team, though."

"I'm not about to sit him down and talk about things, but I'll see what I can do to avoid it worsening," Grant said, as evenly as he could. That's all he could promise, at least, on that issue.

"Well even I wouldn't bother sitting someone down for a one on one like that, so that's fair. I'm about to head down to the cargo hold to train since I can do it on a full stomach now. Feel free to tag along," he ended with a shrug.

"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks," Grant said, turning towards the ocean. "I'm not interested in being in confined places any longer than I have to, no offense. Have fun."

"Suit yourself. Doubt it'll be fun though ... not unless I can convince Raquel to join in for a change. See you later, Grant," Reign gave a small wave and then made for the Dauntless. He figured he might as well see if he could get Raquel to join in. He also remembered that he wanted to check on the progress of his new coat.

"Heh. Bye," And with that, he was part of the group, Grant guessed. Hopefully he wouldn't get himself killed doing this.

Achievement Unlocked (40 G)

Request Granted

Recruit Grant Brayden.

[spoiler=Clarification(Day Eight)]Raquel was extremely reluctant to do so, but by the eighth day of the trip, she'd gotten the courage to try and summon Lilith to the Prometheus. Reign had convinced her and opted to stay with her for the potential ordeal. Raquel expected the wait at the aft deck to be hours long, but that was based on her dream in which Lilith showed up hours after the orb had been shattered. She and Reign only wound up waiting for about ten minutes. Lilith wasn't the one who greeted them initially though. Griffin landed on the guardrail at the very back of the ship and then hopped down.

"You people aren't writhing in pain and you don't have another emblem piece. This better be good; I expected a 'situation'."

"I-I uh ..."

"Griffin, we need to clear some things up before we start fighting the organization again," Reign stepped in for Raquel. "We were hoping to speak to Lilith herself, but if having you is about the same, we'll take it."

"Hm? What are you on about? What do you need to clear up, exactly?"

"Like I said, we're going to be fighting the organization again sometime in the near future. We're going to try not to get overwhelmed in the process, but if we do, we wanted to know if we could ... well, basically do what we just did and call you guys in to help us."

Griffin sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You've got to be kidding me ..."

Reign shrugged. "It's that or kill them yourselves anyway to get the emblem piece back after the fact."

"Like I don't know that! Alright ... here's how this works. You think very hard before you summon us to save you. There's no reason for the girl here to hold the emblem if she can't protect it. If you call us in to defeat an enemy you can't, it's up to Lilith whether or not the emblem stays with you," he explained to the two of them in an agitated tone. "That, I'm sure Lilith would agree with."

"O-okay," Raquel reluctantly agreed.

"Give me the orb," Griffin suddenly spoke again, reaching out with an open palm.

Raquel was surprised he wanted some old fragments, but complied and sprinkled them into his hand. Fortunately she had remembered to keep them despite how useless they now seemed. What she saw next somewhat amazed her. Griffin closed his palm and when he opened it again, the orb was restored to its original form. He placed it back in Raquel's hand. "How did you do that?"

"I cheated. Alright, I'm leaving now. Don't call us again unless your lives depend on it or you have another emblem piece." With that, he turned to leave while Raquel stared at the restored orb in her hand.

Reign tried to figure out how Griffin fixed the orb as quickly as he could but couldn't come up with a theory before the vasilus fled. "Grrr."

"What's wrong?"

"He ... cheated. He sure as hell did; wind magic doesn't mend materials like that. Earth magic could, but that's ... I don't know. Can vasili learn more than one element or are they 'stuck' in just one?"

"I don't know. Too bad we didn't ask when we had the chance ..."

"Yeah, no kidding. Alright, let's go find another emblem piece. I really want that question answered," Reign replied. He ... actually appeared to be serious which made Raquel laugh.

Raquel had been dwelling on the events that led up to this adventure in the first place at the front of the ship as Faatina steered the ship into the docks. The only viable way to prevent most of those catastrophes seemed to be power. Maybe that was what she really wanted. Power would solve so many of her problems ... probably in exchange for new ones, but ... something to think about nonetheless. That was when Katrina arrived to ask about Ursium in general. Who better to ask? Probably Connor, but Raquel was born and raised here as well and could offer a unique point of view ... if only she was in the mood for that sort of exposition. "It's ... I want to say normal, but I don't know whose standard of normal to use for that. The church and the military don't always get along due to there being four orders instead of just one. There's a lot of legal nitpicking here too. I had never been anywhere else in the world until after all this emblem stuff started. Though, I wouldn't worry too much about the wyvern. I mean, some people are going to be pretty wary of you, especially since there's a war going on right now, but with a group this size, they won't try anything unless they're even larger. I'm sorry, I might have a better idea of what to say and what to leave out if I knew anything about Neviskotia."

[roymbrog]

"No, no, it's fine," Katrina replied. "I was just curious about the culture there..." And worried about Volga, she thought to herself. She would take Raquel's word on their safety, though.

She slipped into silence again for a moment before her curiosity got the better of her. Kat sounded more concerned than anything, though. "You're not that excited about being back," she said with furrowed brow. "What's up? Is there something I can do to help, or...?"

[Snike]

[spoiler=Round 3: Fight!]It was the fourth day of the voyage and Norbert had wound up staying to a sort of schedule that fell into place. It mostly involved training, whether with his maces or astride Rizen. Today, though, he'd taken up his poleaxe again. He hadn't gotten any practice with it for a long while now and was a bit worried that what advances he might've made in learning the new weapon were now lost or diminished. It was a bit more of an unruly weapon and was quite different from his quick maces.

As he entered the training hold again, Norbert began looking around for a particular individual. They'd been sort of training partners in the past, so there didn't seem to be any reason why that couldn't be reestablished. It only took some looking to find him. Blake already had his training under way, though he didn't have a partner. Really, that was pretty ideal circumstance for him. So, Norbert walked over and spoke up.

"Hey, Blake," he greeted the blue-haired Ursian, "Remember how we agreed to help each other with our training? We haven't been doing that much. How about we start doing that once a day starting today? It's not like we don't have the time."

One, two, three... Blake was fencing with shadows again, dodging invisible blades and stabbing imaginary hearts. Eventually, the swordsman was interrupted by the arrival of Bert. This could be promising. And it was: rather than giving the swordsman the time to ask about a duel, he immediately challenged said blue-haired sword wielder to a series of duels, for the next while.

"Well, I don't see why not," Blake said, as he turned to face the pegasus rider, sword ready. "Just don't shear off my coat this time, if you don't mind?"

After backing up, the mercenary leveled his sword towards Bert, and said, "Bring it."

(Blake Level 1 Hero Defending Sword

Simple stats: 15 HP cap (12 round 1 because stanced) 9 Might (11 stanced) 9 hit (11 stanced) 10 evade 8 AS (10 when stanced) 6 Def(7 stanced) 1 RES)

(Norbert Level 5 Pegasus Knight Swordslayer Axe

Simple stats: HP: 18/18 MT: 7 (10 because Poleaxe) HIT: 6 (9 because Poleaxe) AVO: 7 DEF: 3(+1) RES: 3 AS: 6)

A competitive grin grew onto Norbert's face as he readied his poleaxe. This really was ideal. Not only was his proposition accepted, it was enacted without hesitation right then and there. "Never meant to the first time," he replied before rushing forward with a wide swing of his weapon. It was a sparring match, though, so he was being careful with his aim and not moving the poleaxe as quickly as he would if he'd actually been intending to do damage.

Norbert attacks Blake!

WTD!

((9-2)+5)-10 = 2 = hit!

(10+4)-7 = 7 damage!

Blake counters!

WTA!

((11+2)+4)-7 = 10 = hit!

(11+2)-4 = 9 damage!

Norbert 9/18

Blake 5/15

The pegasus rider felt his own attack strike well, but he didn't have any time for more observation than that as Blake's sword struck his armor hard, forcing him to stagger back some. He kept his weapon poised to guard himself as well as he could, but he was still a bit clumsy with it and he'd lost a bit of air with that attack.

Well, that went better than last time, sort of. On one hand, Blake had gotten decked hard. On the other hand, he was still standing, and had returned quite a strong blow himself. Still, the situation wasn't that great. One more hit, and the swordsman would definitely be on the floor. Time to see if he could end it, here. The Ursian mercenary took up his blade, and charged Bert.

[spoiler=Blake attacks Norbert!]

Blake activates Heroic Stance (-3HP)! 2 HP 11 Might 11 Hit 10 as 10 evade 7 defense 1 resistance!

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3868060/

[4,2,2] = Critical hit! 2(13-4) = 18 points of damage! Norbert is defeated!

Blake gains relief at not having his sweet jacket torn up.

Blake 2/15 HP

Bert 0/18 HP

After faking a quick jab to the upper chest armor with his blade, Blake dropped the pegasus rider with a blow from the flat of his blade. After backing away long enough to catch his breath, and make sure Bert was down, the swordsman approached his fallen opponent and offered him his hand.

"Nice match," he said, still breathing a bit heavily.

Blake didn't waste any time taking advantage of Norbert's opening. He closed the distance, feigned an attack which Norbert tried -- and would have failed -- to block before a powerful strike knocked him back and off-balance, landing him on his back. That knocked whatever air he had left in his lungs out of him and for a moment, was left coughing some and trying to regain his breath while his poleaxe rested uselessly against his chest.

After he'd gotten his breath under control again, Blake offered him a hand up, commenting on the match. Norbert gave his fellow Ursian a slight grin as he accepted the hand and got back to his feet. "Thanks," he replied, "that fight reminded me of how tough you are. I need to keep training if I ever want to win against you again."

"Well, you nearly beat me that fight, what with that poleaxe of yours," Blake said, pointing towards Norbert's long weapon. "I need figure out a way to stop weapons like it more effectively, if I want to last on the battlefield. That's why I'm definitely taking up your training idea, not only to match blades with someone around my skill level, but to deal with my disadvantage."

Norbert nodded at Blake's words in satisfaction, adding himself, "And I need to learn how to use my poleaxe effectively since it helps me fight you pesky quick-footed swordsmen. I guess we just have to learn from every fight we have and incorporate it into our training, huh?"

Somehow, something about the situation was just a little amusing to the pegasus rider. He was just shy of chuckling. "I'll fight you again tomorrow, then."

"Alright, then. See ya," Blake said, as he moved to leave the training room. The swordsman would return later, but for now it'd probably be best to go over the battle in his head and look up some tactics to help ease things.

***

Axel was silent for a moment, grinning at Eberhardt's question. Not that she'd know, given the fact that he was wearing his helmet.

"You don't have to drag my ass out of anything. Hell, you won't be able to," Axel said, without looking towards his coworker. "I only pull my stupid stuff if the situation calls for it. Just make sure that if things go really south, you're ready to run like hell with the rest of the group."

[Phoenix]

Parallel Parking

"I have some really bad memories of this place, that's all," Raquel replied. "I just hope we can get on the road again soon and be gone from here," she added, sighing heavily and hanging her head afterward.

On the other end of the ship, Shadrak could only watch in terror as Faatina steered toward the docks. Any second now they were going to collide with something or someone and people were going to get thrown while the ship took on water. Then again, the hull was made of metal, so perhaps the ship itself wouldn't take much damage overall, but the people getting thrown thing definitely still seemed likely. "Faatina, be carefuuul ..."

"Calm down. I know what I'm doi-HALF SAIL!!!"

The helmsman relayed the order while Shadrak stared blankly at her. He then began looking around and sailors were pulling in the sails to slow the ship down. "They let you give orders too?!"

"I've got the wheel, Shadrak; if people don't listen to me, we really will crash," she explained. She quickly began turning the wheel to get the ship turning its port side toward the docks. "I wouldn't have asked to drive if I thought I couldn't handle it by now~"

"... okay ... I guess so .... Aren't we getting just a little too close to the docks at this speed?"

"No," she replied simply, not even looking at him. She kept her eyes on the ship's surroundings from that point onward.

"She's doin' fine. Don't worry," the helmsman said, patting Shadrak on the shoulder.

Once the Prometheus was close to the docks, Faatina yelled, "NO SAIL!!!" Sure enough, the sails were hauled in and the ship began to drift toward the docks.

"Get ready to drop anchors," the helmsman warned the men.

Once they were close enough, Faatina yelled, "Aaaaaaaand DROP ANCHORS!!!" With two huge splashes on both sides of the ship, the anchors fell to the bottom taking massive lengths of chain along with them. The ship began to slow down even more and workers on the docks ran up to the edge with rope in their hands while crewmen did the same. Both sides began tossing the ropes back and forth and tying them. The ship was secured inside a minute and Faatina backed away from the wheel and bowed.

"Good job," the helmsman congratulated her.

"Thank you."

"I cannot believe what I just saw .... Okay sure, you've been practicing just driving the ship, but how the hell did you dock this thing perfectly on your very first try?"

She only smiled at first. "It wasn't 'perfect' by any means. Perfect isn't something you just do. The water takes the ship wherever it wants and so all you can do is compensate as best you can. I'd say I did 'adequately', personally."

"You know what I mean. It's just this whole ship thing ... it doesn't seem like there's a lot of room for error. That's what I'm getting at."

Port Sergio

The captain soon emerged on the main deck, smiling at the sight of the ship having docked successfully. Gerald wasn't far behind him. "It's good to be back. Alright then, let's get that ramp down. We've got a lot of animals to unload. Gerald, do you know where Anna is?"

"Not a clue, captain," Geral answered, shaking his head.

"She's supposed to be overseeing the Dauntless transfer, so I expect she'll show up soon regardless. I suppose it doesn't matter in what order we unload as long as we unload. We'll probably be in town for a few days, so you're in charge of resupply."

"Understood."

"Also take Zoe with you. She'll want to shop for specific provisions and could use some shore time more than any of us I think."

It wasn't long before the men got the loading ramp down ....

[-Cynthia-]

Land Ho

Nadya gave a sigh of relief as Sergio Port finally came into view. Hope we don't get sucked into any weird dimensions again- they seem to cause boat rides that are too damn long. "Everyone with a mount, get below decks and take 'em out to the port as soon as ya can. They're probably dyin' to stretch their legs," she called out, trying to talk to as many people as she could.

Veronika had been practicing with her sword alone for much of the trip, hoping to hone a new technique. I'll almost miss the ship- it's been a peaceful journey since we left Choukosabe, being back on mainland Ursium could be quite dangerous. She squinted at the people at the port, as if trying to discern whether enemies were already there.

Connor was in the Dauntless and didn't notice that they were near land.

Watching and Waiting

Private Jacobs sighed heavily as he looked through the spyglass towards the ships coming into the harbor. "If I had known being a soldier was so exhilarating, I would have become a baker like my mother always wanted. We've been watching ships come in and out of here for weeks and even the Weyland ones have mostly just been trade goods. I thought joining the army would be about winning glorious battles, not questioning merchants about the contents of their ships," he complained.

"Being part of the Ursian military isn't about glory, it's about doing what you have to for the cause- even if what you have to do isn't terribly interesting. Did you really think the army was all about gaining medals and having women throw themselves at you?" Private Erica asked, silently pleading to Mercy not to be partnered with Jacobs for their next assignment.

"Is it so bad to want some recognition and a pretty girl?" Jacobs asked, sighing again.

"You should be thankful this isn't a real boring mission- a merchant being charged with theft of a holy artifact doesn't happen very often," Erica pointed out.

"If she stole an artifact shouldn't we just tell the local guards and have them arrest her? Seems like stealing some holy relic would count a crime," Jacobs retorted.

"The Major General said there would be complications involved if we did that- we're supposed to keep this mission as much of a secret as possible," Erica said, frowning, her voice uncertain. "Hey, isn't that one of Weyland's vessels over there?" she said, pointing towards the harbor.

"Probably just another shipment. I suppose I'll send another message while you investigate- I'm sure the Major General is just loving all the false alarms," Jacobs said, riding off. Erica rode closer to the harbor, looking to see who would be exiting the vessel. I hope they show up here and not another port- I really need to talk with Norbert...

[Snike]

Once all his affairs were in order, it was time for Blake to go above deck... Well, it would be, once he dealt with one last issue. The swordsman went deeper into the cargo hold, where Suzume was being held.

"We're here," he said rather bluntly. "Once you get off the boat, you're more or less free to go. Just don't expect any quarter given if you end up confronting my group in the future."

***

Oh boy. They docked, and from what Axel could see, there were a few curious eyes from the deck. Fresh blood for the mercenary group? This could be fun. Now, should he stay there, or go up the ramp... Eh, he wasn't feeling decisive for the time being.

"Eberhardt, your call," the man began. "Do you want to go up and meet the client, our just have Raquel and the rest of the mercenaries come to us?"

[roymbrog]

Well, Kat wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that. She still wanted to help, even if she couldn’t think of how. All she could feasibly do would be facilitate a quick departure from port, so staying out of trouble would probably be a plus. She could stick with the group and not be a nuisance, perfect.

It wasn’t long before the ship pulled into port and the loading ramp went down. Kat stood up ready to get off, but not before giving Raquel an awkward one-armed side hug (the egg was in the way). “Things will be ok,” she assured before leaving. How assuring that statement actually was was up for debate though.

-----

The time to get off the godforsaken vessel had finally come, and Synthia had scarcely been happier any time during the last two weeks. There was one bit of business she had to attend to first, however. The mage closed and replaced her tome in her bag before standing and stretching. She patted Myra’s neck. “Good girl, you just stay here,” she said, then walked over and poked her head in the Dauntless to alert its resident of the current state of affairs. She wasn’t that surprised to find Gabbie in there either. “Hey Connor, we’re in port.”

[Snowy_One]

Sitting outside in the streets of Sergio was a young woman, no older than fourteen years old, with a face full of freckles and a head of red hair. Clad in robes of blue and with several small tomes scattered about her in a semi-circle it was clear she was no ordinary teenaged girl. Rather, the red-head was a full-on, practicing, mage! And before her, surrounded by the half-circle of books, laying in the middle of the street, was her next experiment! It was a small doll, carefully made, and many children had gathered about eager to see what she would do.

"Now, my fellow onlookers!" she said proudly, a tome open in each hand. "I am sure many of you know of the power of magic and how it can be used to preform so many tasks! Well, I, Tia, have set my mind to trying to accomplish a task which has never been done before! This doll is no ordinary doll but rather one I have tailored specially for this occasion! Water magic relies on the careful manipulation of water, but much of it's complexity is lost in the higher spells as they focus on only broad, simple motions! I intend to change that and, with careful manipulation of the water I have filled this doll with, make it come to life and dance for us! Now, let the show begin!" she cried out as she raised both tomes into the air and focused her mind.

Words started to flow from her mouth as she started to focus on casting the spell, carefully made and researched, into allowing just this sort of thing to happen. Slowly, she could start to feel the water inside the doll become saturated with magic, the thin skin allowing just enough to pass in without letting the water itself flow out. Then, when she felt it was enough, she started to actually cast the spell.

Before her, at first, in a moment of rapt awe the doll's arm... did absolutely NOTHING! Then, after a moment, a faint movement came as it's right arm slowly started to slide over the dirt. Nothing amazing just yet, but getting there!

"Now, Franklin, arise!" she said, trying to play up the drama as she slowly focused on lifting the dolls arm. Then something went wrong. The sound of fabric snapping as a sudden spring of water shot out of the arm signified a problem! The water bladder was breaking! Suddenly, the entire thing burst loose as the water tore free of the doll and poured out into the street.

"Awwww... Blubbernuggets." exclaimed Tia in annoyance as the kids about her laughed. "I don't get it. I made sure that the material was as thin as possible and I know it's strong enough to hold it... Maybe I just need thicker skin?" she asked as she walked over to the doll, the kids dispersing as the show was over. "I made sure to follow the theories revolving around water motion to the letter and the trans-magical co-efficient should have been lowered by using such a small amount of water. Maybe the advanced hydraulic lines in the spell caused a pressure-build up? No... Maybe it was just poor stitching on my part? I don't get it, it should have worked. Well, guess I need more dolls." she said before tossing the doll onto a discard pile of twenty dolls before gathering up her books. "Best head down to the dock to get some more." she said, steadying the load of tomes with her chin as she started to walk off down towards the dock to see if any traders had arrived.

---

[spoiler=Robin and Zach Retro. Soon after her talk with Shadrak.]

Robin took a deep breath as she approached Zach, her hands tightening up into small fists. This wasn't going to be easy, but she knew it had to be done. She needed to confront Zach head on and get this done and over with. She was nervous, afraid, but determined.

"<Zach.>" she said as she approached the man. "<We need to talk. Now.>"

Dammit, why did it have to be her. He'd been avoiding her for so long now Zach thought he might have been home free.

"<All right Robin, you wanna talk? Let's talk."> He said tensely "<You wanna know why I reacted like that? Why I've been avoiding you so much huh?"> fists balling up as he spoke.

"<Don't worry Zach, I'm still here. Your mom just died with you holding her hand as the life fled from her and there was nothing you could do. But I'm still here for you.>"

"<Oh Zach I'm so sorry, the girl you just spent two years of your life trying to save just died. She may have only been free for two weeks and died but at least I'm still here for you. Doesn't that make it all better?>

Stopping to try to compose himself Zach failed, disdain present in his voice. "<I can barely stand to look at you right now. That's why I left after Mom! I didn't understand it then but it was because of that! And now Lia too..... Just.... please, leave me alone. I can't do it anymore.>"

Robin looked at Zach with her face stern and unmoving as she took his verbal onslaught. She knew what Zach was saying... And she knew he would say it too. "<So that's what you think Zach? That's what you honestly think, that somehow I am to blame for all the troubles in our relationship? How selfish and irresponsible can you be? Your mother died, yes, and it was horrible. You were my best friend so I tried to comfort you and what do I get in response? You crying in my face and shoving me away complaining that I can't 'understand your pain'. I tried to support you as best I could emotionally, like a mature adult, but instead of sharing your pain with me and trying to get through it like an adult, you ran away like a small child. I thought you would have grown up over the years, and then what happens? You come back, having dumped your emotional needs not into trying to be an adult, but onto some small girl who has been traumatized her entire life only for you to try your best to protect her like she was your mother. Then she dies in battle and I tried, once again, to support you only to have you run away crying like an immature brat again! And don't tell me you didn't. You've been hiding from me for this entire trip!

Zach, this isn't some idyllic grove where you are immune to the wears and tears of this world. When I first left Ohka I was tricked into being a scape goat. I made a friend in prison and he DIED in battle as well! I was shot in the leg by an overreacting pirate! And I got through it! It took me time, but I pushed through it and came out stronger. I didn't curl up into some little defensive ball, I didn't run away crying. It was a struggle, problems I still deal with to this day, but I did not run away from them!>"

Robin suddenly lurched forwards, her hand bawled up into a fist as she slugged Zach hard in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"<This is the real world Zach. You had a friend in me. You had someone who would have torn apart a bear if meant protecting you. And you ran. I came here hoping you would be capable of acknowledging me as a friend once again. Instead you chose to unload your problems on to me and claim it was my fault that you left. No, Zach, it was your fault you left. It was your choice to leave Ohka. Even if I was to blame, you could simply have told me to never talk to you again and I would have listened. You could have told Lia to stay off the battlefield, that she was too young and precious to fight, but you CHOSE to let her out there. This is your mess Zach, and this time, I won't be there to help you clean it up. I'm sure you want to hear these words, so here you go.>"

She looked Zach in the eyes, her own as cold as steel. "<As of right now, until you can take responsibility for your actions and act like a mature adult, our past friendship, our past love, means NOTHING! It never happened. The boy I knew in Ohka died that day with his mother and you are just a feeble ghost that is clinging to her skirtstrings still. And sadly for you, I do not speak to ghosts. I will never speak to you, or of you, again.>" she turned around to leave.

"<May my mourning ease the passage of the soul of Zachary Fairweather and Lia into the next life.>"

Zach tried to stay strong when Robin was talking, but everything she said was true. All of it, everything he'd done was terrible and honestly Zach knew he was a terrible person. Honestly the young man hated himself more than just about any other thing in the world. As Robin was finishing her speech towards him the mage could feel his eyes already watering. When the red headed girl started to walk away he fell to his knees in anguish. Actually sobbing because of what just happened, much like on the night Lia had died, and when his Mother had died.

'Why... why does everything I care about leave me..... why can I never be happy.'

Grasping at his head as the tears started to come down.

Robin walked away slowly, closing the door to the below-decks area behind her. She then made her way down to her bed and collapsed into it, the sound of soft sobbing coming from her pillow. What she had just said, what she had just done, hurt her more than anything she had ever said or done. It felt as if she had just stabbed herself in her heart with her own dagger, but it had to be done. Not only to shove Zach along, but to help herself get over her past. She too had been clinging to the ghost of Zach, the notion that everything would be happy and perfect when they got together again, and she needed to face the reality of it. The Zach she had known was naught but a ghost. Slowly she kept crying until, at last, her eyes closed in sleep.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Ether]

"No point in waiting around for 'em, let's go." Arietta replied, as she began to move towards the Prometheus, before turning back to Axel.

"By the way, it's Arietta. Get too cheeky with that family name bullshit and I might just have to slug you." She stated with a smirk, before continuing on her course towards the ship.

[scorri]

[spoiler=Rook/Marella early on in the TS]

Marella stood up on the deck, staring out into the distance. She sighed. The last time she had been on a boat this long was when she had been fleeing from the army she had just been kicked out of. Though, she had to admit, this was better than that, largely due to the fact that she had friends here. Just then, Rook wandered up, looking all too cocky, and stood next to her. She grinned at him. "So, how have the conquests been going? Any luck?"

That wiped the smile off his face. He glanced off into the distance, mumbling something incomprehensible, and Marella's grin grew. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"My charm with the fairer sex," said Rook, lighting a cigar, "is fucken immaculate. But that don't mean I'm invincible. Just give me a bit of time, arright?"

She laughed. "No, I was hoping we could talk for a bit. Seems like you're always busy chasing some other girl around."

He eyed her and grinned. "Nah, mate, you're still the only one for me. All the rest're just practice, so I can get t' grips with you one day and woo you proper."

Marella couldn't help but notice he wasn't exactly making eye contact, and it wasn't because of the height difference. She coughed, loudly, and Rook's eyes snapped up to meet hers. He sighed, regretfully. "A man can dream, m' lovely."

Marella turned back to the ocean. "Did they ever have any news of... what's his name, Andrei?"

Rook shook his head. "If only. If I could get my hands on that bony neck of his..."

Marella shrugged. "Oh well, 'least we don't need to worry about him anymore."

Rook nodded in agreement, and blew a perfect smoke-ring. "Anyway, think Zoe's about to serve up about now. You comin'?"

Marella shook her head. "I'm going to stay up here for a bit." Rook shrugged. "Up to you." He turned to leave, casually smacked Marella's backside, and sauntered off at a leisurely pace.

Marella turned and considered chasing after him and then sighed. "Not worth it." Turning back to her view, she said softly under her breath, "I hope this adventure works out better than my past has."

[spoiler=Marella/Zach right after Robin]

Marella wandered around the below-decks area, just a little bit lost. "Ugh, it's just one ship. How are can it be to find my way around?" Seeing a door, she opened it and stepped through. As she turned around from closing the door, she noticed a huddled shape on the floor. Stepping closer, she realized that it was Zach. She started to reach out a hand to put on his shoulder, but then hesitated. Instead, she sat down on the floor near him and waited for him to notice her.

When he noticed that Marella had sat down next to him Zach quickly tried to wipe his tears away. They were still slowly falling down his face however, and the sage couldn't stop them no matter how much he tried. Leaning back against the wall next to her, still clutching at his head.

"Why can't I ever be happy.... what did I do to make the gods hate me so much?" He asked, not expecting an answer really

Zach waited a few moments... just thinking about nothing before he started to spill everything to the girl. His mother, the cult, Lia, and now Robin. Explaining everything and he didn't know why

Marella opened her mouth to respond to Zach's comment about being hated by the gods, but realized that anything she could say wouldn't help and so stopped. She considered what to say but before she could start talking, he started to just spill out his grief filled story. As she heard more and more, she reached out and took the sage's hand. When he finally ran out of words, she shifted so that she was looking him dead on. "Zach, I... I don't know what to say. There's nothing I could do that would change the fact that you've experienced all of this. There's so much sorrow in your life and it's not fair that you've been forced to have these burdens. But don't think that you're alone. I know I barely know you, but I'm here for you if you want it, I'm sure that Kat would be here if you desired it. Your friends care about you. And we've all been through things too. I'm not saying this to try and make your problems seem trivial here. I'm trying to say is... We've all had experiences that we can share to try and help you figure out what to do from here. And I won't give up on you. I'm here." She squeezed his hand.

"Thank you... that really means a lot to me." Zach muttered, squeezing Marella's hand back. It felt nice to have someone that cared, and it really felt like the brown haired woman did. "Know what's pathetic about me? At this point I think you know the most about me out of anyone... I've never told all of that before. And it kinda felt nice ya know? Just to get it all off of my chest." Zach gave a sigh and looked up to face Marella "I really appreciate you and Kat, you two have been really nice to me, even when I've said weird stuff. I'm just not good with people, I don't know how to interact or anything like that..."

He wasn't lying, the young man really didn't know what he was supposed to do at a time like this. So instead he just decided to follow his instincts....

Still not understanding what the hell he was doing as he leaned forward to kiss the older girl.

"Sometimes sharing is nice. It can help get rid of some of the pain and," Marella was suddenly stopped short by Zach's kiss. At first, she leaned into it, enjoying the moment. But she suddenly pulled back as the realization of what she was doing hit her. "Oh, Zach, no I'm so sorry. You're clearly emotionally unstable right now and I came in and let you kiss me and this isn't right, we can't be doing this right now. You don't know what you're doing, you said so yourself. If you weren't so upset right now, you probably wouldn't even be doing this. I'm just a replacement for what you really want. When you've taken some time, you'll realize that. Not that I mind, I just... I know this situation. I'm not the one you want. Of course I'm still here for you. But... you should take some time and figure out who it is that you really want. I can't just take advantage of you like this." She drew further away from him and started to pull her hand out from his, but paused and then sighed. "I'm sorry."

Zach pulled away, ashamed of what he'd just done to someone that had willing to accept him. Another sigh escaping his mouth as he averted his eyes in shame. "Don't apologize... please. It was my choice, you have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the idiot that keeps messing up anything good that happens to him, and this is just another one to add to the list.... Now you're gonna hate me too because I don't know what I'm doing."

He leaned back against the wall staring down at the wooden floor of the ship, waiting a moment before softly speaking "You aren't a replacement for her, if that's what you're thinking. I don't love Robin, not like that at the very least, I don't think I ever have. She's almost like my sister in some ways.... but I'm not good with emotions either."

Marella stared at the young man in front of her, so clearly lost and sighed. "No, you don't understand what I'm saying. I don't hate you. Not at all. I just... I feel like I'd be taking advantage of you here. Because, well, I'm in my right mind and you're not. So even if I know what I'm doing and am ok with this, there's no saying that when you're feeling better you won't regret this. Trust me on this. It's happened before. You think everything's ok and then you find out that... that they regret it and wish it had never happened. Or that sure they liked me, but there was this other girl that they liked just a little bit more, so they're going to stick with her. And then I'm left alone again. So I've learned to be alone. And I've learned to never kiss someone when they aren't in their right mind. Because it always seems to come back to haunt me. So I'm sorry. It's not your fault. I shouldn't have let it happen."

She slumped back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. "It's not that. I don't doubt that right now you think that I'm someone you want to be kissing. I'm just afraid of what will happen tomorrow or next week when you've had some time to recover and realize you've made a mistake."

"I'm sorry..." Zach muttered, he didn't mean to bring up bad memories for Marella, but that was another thing he screwed up the sage supposed he'd screwed up. But at least she didn't hate him right? That was one positive in a sea of negatives.

"I've mad a lot of mistakes in my life, and a lot of stuff I've regretted doing..." Raising his head to look at the ceiling along with the girl next to him. "But honestly? With saying you don't hate me, I don't regret doing that. I can understand if you do, hell I probably understand almost better than anyone." A dry joyless laugh escaped from Zach "Quite the pair aren't we? I'm a broken fool and you're too nice to tell me off."

Marella sighed and glanced at Zach. "Don't apologize. Like I said, it's not your fault. You don't regret it. Now. They never do. And I wouldn't use the word regret. I don't regret it. I'm just scared you will." She shook her head. "You don't even know the half of it. I don't have it all together either. Trust me Lightning Head, I'm broken too. I just hide it better than you."

"That just makes us even more of a pair doesn't it then Mar?" He asked, gazing at the older girl. "You don't have to hide anything from me ya know. I'll listen if you're willing to tell." Wrapping his arm around Marella in a half way side hug.

Marella looked at the brown haired man sitting next to her and sighed. She reached her arm around him, joining in the hug. "My life started off great. I loved my family and they loved me. But, eventually I grew up and had to do something with my life. And so I joined the Neviskotian army. Did damn well in it too. But... well. I got involved with a string of guys all of whom were interested for a bit but eventually decided I was a mistake. I have what you might call intimacy issues. I start to get close to someone and, well, decide it's better for them if they aren't close. So I shove them away. Sometimes it's just easier to be alone. No one can hurt you that way..."

She stared at the ceiling for a few beats before jumping back into the story. "Anyways, I was in the army and at that point I had decided that enough was enough and I wasn't going to try and have any sort of relationship other than professional with the men around me. So of course, that's when *he* got interested. He was a couple ranks above me, so he figured that I was safe, you see? He could just make sure that I was never promoted so he'd always be able to order me. Which he did. I ended up basically working for him while having to deal with him trying to get me to sleep with him. I kept on refusing until one day I snapped. I threatened to stab him if he ever tried something again. So, of course, I was kicked out of the army. Started wandering, made some friends, lost those friends, ended up meeting Rook and, well, ended up here."

She paused. "You see, I have all this stuff, all this anger at people, all this sadness at the people I've lost, but it's so painful to try and deal with it. So instead I shove it down. Pretend nothing's wrong. I just let people see the cheery side of me and they believe it because that's what they want to see. And so I live with a mask on. Because it's easier to pretend I'm someone that I'm not than face who I really am."

Zach sat and listened to Marella as she told him her story. It was by far the most interesting thing he'd ever heard, and at the part about her superior officer he gave her shoulder a supporting squeeze, that seemed like his only real option. But the thought about someone trying to abuse her in that way actually made Zach angry, mostly for the fact that it was Marella and for the fact that a Skotian officer could be such a piece of scum to try that. The sage never really had much love for his home country, aside from the dragons, but something like that still filled him with shame.

"That's... a lot to take in. If it's worth anything I'm sorry that all that happened.... Nobody deserves that kind of treatment." Trying to rub her arm to comfort the older girl. "I'm not gonna say to stop wearing your mask, that's what helps you by so I have no right to say that... but you don't have to wear it around me all right? Just be yourself, let it all go..."

Marella leaned her head against Zach's shoulder. "I'll do my best Lightning Head. Just... Promise me one thing? Don't let me push you away. If you decide to leave on your own, ok. But... don't let me argue you into leaving. Because I'll try. At some point I will try."

"I'm not gonna go anywhere Mar. I promise that I won't let you push me away, but I'm not gonna leave on my own either." Stroking Marella's hair as she leaned against his shoulder. "I still don't regret what I did either... and I don't think I will."

"...Ok." She closed her eyes. I hope he's right.

Zach wasn't sure if Marella was falling asleep or not, either way he planned on staying until she was ready to move. Still stroking her hair to try to comfort the woman.

'Man... things sure did flip around in such a short time. What the hell even happened? I don't even know.... I'll make it up to Robin one day though. I may not lover her but I still care about her. What about Mar though? Weird stuff always happens to me....'

Marella sighed and sat up. "We should head back to our rooms. We both need to sleep and have some time to relax. Maybe when we get off this ship we can talk some more." She stood up and offered him a hand. "Come on, Lightning Head."

Zach accepted her hand and drew himself back up to his feet. Dusting off his clothes he let out a sigh and rolled his shoulders to loosen them up. "Thanks for everything Marella, it's really meant a lot that you shared all that with me... How about I walk you to your room?"

"I'd like that." She grinned at him. "I can't say I'm too afraid I won't make it back to my room, but I won't say no to the company."

Edited January 24, 2013 by scorri

[Snike]

"Your hand," Axel responded, before following Arietta up the ramp. It wasn't long until the two Weyland employees made it to the main deck of the Prometheus, and, after flashing Weyland's symbol, the lance-wielder led his coworker over to the front of the boat, where Raquel was talking to some Neviskotian. Sad day for their conversation.

"Morning Miss Valcyn," Axel said immediately, once he was close enough. He gestured towards his comrade "This is Arietta. We're here to help escort you to Europa." Hopefully with less drama, this time around.

[Click This]

"Port Sergio, huh? That's quite a sight."

A young woman clad in a white blouse and an open brown overcoat lazily leaned on the wooden railing by the helm of a large, three-masted frigate. It was named the Repulser, but in reality, it hadn't done much repulsing in its lifetime. It was old and beat up, almost like it was repulsed instead of being the repulser, but was sturdy and trustworthy nonetheless. The large escort boat belonged to the girl at the railing, but the vessel was not there to cater to her whims. It had already been scheduled to haul grain to Sergio and her agenda called for the same destination. It was an economical and sensible decision, but by no means was it comfortable. On an old warship, anywhere besides the captain's quarters sucked ass to stay in. She shared considerable rapport with the captain, but there was still no way in hell that man would give up his valuable sleeping space even for a friend.

Thankfully, horrible sleeping was coming to an end in just a few minutes. She would be freeeeee! No more bloody ledgers to stare at, no more annoying merchant people, and no more boring shit! Leaving that city meant losing a fair share of comfort, but that was little in comparison to going on a journey. She would travel the world, meet new people, things, ideas, and come home even richer than before.

The captain of the ship, who was staring steadily towards the port, finally turned to look at Mao. "I'm more impressed in how they line those ships up so nicely. Didn't a ship here burn to the waterline just recently?"

"Ehh? I would have liked to see that."

The captain, in his blue navy coat, shook his head. "I'm not surprised. You sure 'bout this? None of our ships will be visiting Sergei for the rest of the year. I'm sure you know it's a remote place for our company."

Mao just laughed, tossing her whitish blond hair as she did. "You jest, right? I didn't do this on a whim. Besides, if I need to, I'll hitch a ride under the credit of my good name."

"Good name my ass," said the captain with a retort as turned back to his duties. "Avast sails, drop anchor! Secure those ropes! Prepare to lower boats!"

The ship had drawn close enough to the port to dock, but there was no space. Mao could see why he didn't opt to dock and unload immediately; they would be dashed against the docks or the ships and sink if they dried to maneuver in. Mao slung her messenger bag over her shoulder, taking care not to bang into her quiver, and made her way to the prepared boat.

"Ciao, old friend! If I die, I'll give you the entire company. Just not the cots."

The boat, more properly called a dinghy, quickly reached Sergio port proper. Stepping onto dry land for the first time in months, she buffeted by the immense amount of people on the docks alone, but was more impressed by the various foreign boats, the foreign commodities and the people unloading in the port.

It wouldn't hurt to meet some of those people.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Click This

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Oh, thanks for the news Synthia," Connor responded, as he began packing up the Dauntless. A crane should be coming soon- hopefully Uncle remembered to have one come to the harbor.

Nadya

Nadya decided to take Luca and went down the ramp, since people were heading up it. I'll get the other horses later. she thought to herself, getting on top of him for a ride around the port. He needs to stretch his legs and frankly so do I. Even a big ship like that feels so small after so many days.

Veronika

Veronika saw the people approaching Raquel, one familiar and the other not. "Well met Arietta," she said, nodding her head towards the woman before turning to Axel. "Do you think it's prudent for you to be escorting anyone anywhere? It was not so long ago that you were on the brink of death. Healers can work many wonders, but after the explosion you caused..." she said, her voice trailing off.

[Ether]

"Aye, well met... whatever your name might be." Arietta replied to the swordswoman, before eyeing the merchant over.

'So this is Valcyn, huh? Y'know, she'd draw less attention if her head wasn't a bloody fucking beacon...'

That was when the swordfighter's words sunk in.

"Explosion...? Is that the stupid shit you were talking about earlier? What are you, some sort of wannabe suicide bomber?" Arietta inquired with a bit of a smirk, expecting her jab to be quite far off the mark.

******

"You're right, there isn't a whole lot of room to mess up... well, unless you like swimming and property damage... guess it's a good thing I was paying attention, huh?" Faatina replied to Shadrack, sticking her tongue out at the dark mage briefly, before turning upright to face the helmsman.

"And thanks for putting up with me... I'm sure that must have been one of the... stranger requests you've gotten from passengers... heh..." Faatina said to the man, with a slight flush.

[Mercakete]

OoC: Yeah, I don't know why but some of the text randomly bolds here. Just ignore that glitch, please.

[spoiler=Peg Pals(Day 5 of the TS)]

It was the fifth day of the voyage. By now, Norbert had gotten a pretty good handle on his daily routine. It was fairly relaxed by his standards without much interruption and even when there was interruption, it wasn't at all detrimental to his daily to-dos. And now, he was at the point in the day where he took Rizen out for a ride. It certainly was a relaxing time for him. All he had to do was train, eat free meals and take care of his pegasus among other activities of his own choosing, such as his continued endeavor to prevail in chess against Valter: something that wasn't coming along smoothly at all. Win or lose it was still enjoyable, though.

As he was leading Rizen out to the main deck, Norbert saw someone already there he'd been meaning to talk to for a while now. She didn't seem busy, so it looked like now was the perfect opportunity. So, Norbert, followed by Rizen, walked up to Aneda and her pegasus. "Hey," he greeted once he was at a comfortable talking distance.

Aneda had been getting introduced to the new stock and how to take care of things, so when Norbert walked up she may have seemed a bit absent minded and it took her a while to actually register she was being talked to. "Oh! I'm uh... sorry about that, just trying to sort some things out in my head. Who woulda thought, you know? Hahaha... Ummm, how you doing sir? You had some pretty nasty wounds from what I heard but I take it it's all good from here on out?" At this point, Aneda had one hand on Hannah and one hand on her hip, looking a bit inquisitive. She had a biased opinion of the guy already due to previous incidents, but it wouldn't do to antagonize him at he start, so she wanted to at the least come off as friendly.

"Oh, that," Norbert hadn't been expecting her to mention the wounds he'd suffered nearly a week ago. For one, it had been, in fact, nearly a week ago. Also, he didn't think many people had noticed. "Yeah, the arrow was removed and I was patched up. I had a bit of healing before then, too, so my other injuries were taken care of, too. It's not really a big deal; I seem to get injured a lot, so I guess it doesn't bother me that much when it happens. Especially if there's a healer around who I know will help me."

That explained, he moved on to another thing he'd been meaning to talk about. "I know this is pretty late to bring up since Ranyin left almost a week ago, but I've been meaning to apologize for what happened when you first joined up with us. I don't know exactly why he lied to you about us working for Weyland and... I don't know, I guess I just sort of felt like I should apologize for it. I was there, after all, and I did go along with it." He really wasn't sure if it was even appropriate to bring up something that'd happened that long ago and his awkwardness and uncertainty was showing fairly clearly.

Brow furrowed as she was trying to remember what Norbert was talking about, Aneda shrugged. "Eh, no harm no foul. I know it's crazy to say there was no harm but... I dunno. I'm okay with it I guess, I don't exactly exude a trustworthy air all the time, so telling me who you work for and all that jazz right off the bat shouldn't be something I can expect. I was miffed but it's... really ok now. And you know what? Now that you mention that I just realized that you were the one bringing me to your group, and I don't think I thanked you for that. It's been a hell of a trip, almost literally, there's been some heartache for me personally... Sammy's death still makes me choke up a little and then Sophia and john going down was another dent, but I wouldn't trade this trip for anything right now." She had a soft smile on her face, looking the man directly in the eye. "I could be at home, in the military right now just kinda doing my thing but then I'd never have gone to all the places and met all these weird people, some awesome and some laughable and all the other kinds. So thanks, Norbert."

Well, that was an interesting twist he hadn't been expecting. At best, he figured she either wouldn't remember or would just blow it off as no big deal, but to be thanked so sincerely for introducing her to Raquel? Norbert was at a bit of a loss as to how to respond, getting tongue-tied and generally awkward. The reminders of the deaths was a bit somber, but he was so surprised by the thanks that it left him confused and even bashful. The eye contact was only making him even more so, to the point where he even blushed. Finally, he found some sort of broken reply. "Uh-- erm it... Don't worry about it, it was... You're welcome."

Thoroughly embarrassed, Norbert changed the topic rather abruptly to something he was genuinely curious about but had never had the opportunity to ask, "How'd you meet your pegasus anyway?"

Even being sincere she had inadvertently made the guy get all flustered which in turn made her giggle just a tad. "How'd I meet Hannah, you ask? Well, I hate to say it, it's not that amazing of a tale. My parents kinda urged me on to go join the military, I did that and then I found Hannah there. We were pretty quiet, but once we left it was just loads of fun, roaming the world and doing whatever. I spoil her when I can, isn't that right girl?" Hannah neighed softly, possibly in agreement, possibly in annoyment. "She says yes~. but... yeah, nothign too amazing, we're just kinda... kindred spirits that found one another by chance, you know? Anyway, how'd you two end up together?"

"Military, huh?" he echoed, a lot more composed than he was an explanation prior, "Never would've pegged you for a soldier."

There was a question to answer, though, so he went on to doing that. "As for how I met Riz, in a way we grew up together, I guess. She was in one of the herds that flock near where I grew up. I was by the pegasi one day and...well, she chose me. Taught myself how to ride and take care of her by watching my sisters when they thought I wasn't looking, though only actually got to practicing it after I met Rizen."

Speaking of the pegasus, she was quite cheery. She loved all the time she was spending with her rider since they'd been on this piece of tree floating in the water. It was much better than last time they were on a piece of floating wood. And now they were by one of the other pegasi that had been with the herd. It was nice being around this one and her rider. They seemed like good sorts.

Self taught huh? That'd explain a few things about the injuries... "You say you're self taught, Norbert? You know, we're all cramped up on this ship... If you'd like, we can both go for some aerial combat training if you're up for it. I'm no expert and I'm no amazing instructor to begin with, but if we both go in with the mindset of trying to learn something, I think we'd both be amazed at the results." Holding a hand up in mock defense, "Before you may take offense to what I'm saying, I ain't trying to say you're doing anything wrong here. Hell, it'll probably be a learning experience for myself as well. i'm used to one very simple style, which I've kinda adapted and warped to better suit Hannah and I's needs... but at this point I think I'm rambling. The offer is there if you want it..." Placing the same hand on her chin, Aneda had to wonder something about Norbert though. "Actually, before that, do you mind if I ask you a fairly sensitive question?"

Areal training? So far, the only areal training he'd really done was to keep Rizen in shape and to keep up on his own riding skills. Even then, usually what he actually thought of as "training" he did on the ground. That was, practicing with his maces and poleaxe, sparring and generally trying to improve his combat performance. When he rode Rizen, it was typically more of a time to relax, the way he thought about it presently. In fact, he hadn't considered rising Rizen "training" since he first felt he had a good handle on actually riding the pegasus.

So, the suggestion its self was a new way of thinking for Norbert. Hmm... That makes sense. I do ride Rizen in combat, after all. Training with her can only improve how things go in battle. I'm not sure why I never thought of it like that before... I guess I did come up with some maneuvers already, though those usually just sort of happened by accident and out of necessity at the time... She's apparently trained with the military, so she probably knows some things I can learn from, too. He wasn't used to sparring in the air, so if that's what she meant rather than just an exchange of techniques and how to perform them, that would be new, too. He figured it was probably something he should turn into a regular exercise regardless.

As he was considering what she was saying, though, Aneda suddenly raised a hand and began to try to dissuade Norbert fro taking offense at the suggestion. Up until this point, Norbert's expression had been fairly neutral. However, he couldn't help the way his face twisted into a smile. His face was so used to glowering, after all, that most of his expressions wound up looking malicious or just irritated even when he wasn't. In this particular case, what she said just struck him as funny and soon it became apparent as he began to laugh some. In particular, it was how she was being so careful not to upset him, or rather his reputation being so apparent.

"Don't worry about it," he eventually replied, the laughter still in his voice some as he waved it off. The laughter was replied with a good-natured tone, "I like your idea, actually. If it's not dangerous for the pegasi, whether you mean sparring or just showing each other some techniques, I'll take all the help I can get. So, around this time every day? I think it's good you think you can learn something from me, too, by the way. I like that. That is, your whole not being superior thing."

Well, his ability to articulate wasn't working so well, but he didn't care so much right now. He was in a good mood, though he was curious about what she wanted to ask. "And yeah, go on and ask whatever it is you have on your mind."

"Well..." Taking a deep breath and putting on her most composed face, "Back in Sanctuary, I didn't quite catch the whole thing but I distinctly remember you getting super pissed and going off on someone. I'm merely curious as to what set you off, really... Because I'd honestly like to help out with that, but I realize I may be the last person you'd ever want help from in that regard, seeing as how immature I act myself." Trying to ease her posture a little, she leaned up against Hannah slightly. "If you don't wanna answer it, that's perfectly fine as it's kind of a loaded question. If you want, you can ask me something personal in return, if you'd like, or I can even answer first if it'd make you more comfortable. the only reason I'm asking is to know what kind of man I'm dealing with here, Norbert. I'm getting kind of sick of just hearing about... how to put it... highlights. I can hear about an event, but that's one side to the story."

Norbert's mood worsened somewhat when Sanctuary was mentioned. He thought he'd left that place behind him, but now it was coming up again. Apparently Aneda wanted to know what'd sparked an incident that happened over there and wanted to help him with...something. Did she want to help him learn how to control his anger better in general? Was it something else? She said she wanted to know what sort of person he was so she knew who she would be working with. She was being cautious again, too, trying not to be offensive. At least she doesn't want to just base what she thinks who I am off of hearsay. Norbert thought, though he still felt a bit wary. Thinking back on his time in Sanctuary wasn't entirely pleasant either.

"What happened in Sanctuary..." Norbert started carefully, recalling the events with evident disdain, "Well, the one that got the most out-of-hand in the city its self was when Amon and a few other desert people were talking to Gytha and Chelsea. I was just watching at first to see how it'd play out. One of them was a hot-tempered bigot. We began arguing. He was insulting and misrepresenting us and talking about how great Sanctuary was. I fired back, letting them know just how I felt about the place. I really don't like it there... It's filled with people who think they're better than everyone else and their leader's completely irresponsible and manipulative. They got angry and they were going to probably kill us."

His next words sounded a little sorrier. "Amon stood with us, even against the other Rexians to protect us. Even when they offered to leave the others alone if I gave myself up, Amon wouldn't have it, even though he was furious at me, too." He paused, remembering what Amon had told him. Then, he continued, even more tamely, "It...was my fault. My temper got the better of me again. I've been working on it, but I still haven't mastered it. Luckily, a couple of Amon's friends stopped the fight from happening until some high-ranking Rexian came around. One of Amon's friends explained what happened and..."

Norbert grimaced at the next part uncomfortably as he remembered the impact to his stomach. "The hotheaded Rexian and I got ours... Honestly, I'm just glad no one else got into trouble because of my temper."

Aneda smiled as Norbert decided to actually talk about it, glad he wasn't just this pile of anger that others would lead her to believe. "That sounds a lot better than you just blowing up at them..." she noted and then continued, "Well, thanks for sharing that. It was honestly starting to bother me, not knowing what happened there, but really it's good to know." Clapping Norbert on the shoulder and giving a little shake, "Because now I know you're just another person with your own foibles and flaws, just like everyone else on this ship." She said it all with a bit of a wide grin before letting go and toning her smile down a tad, "Although, now I'm more interested in your choice of weaponry, that... club thing you use. Seems quite a bit unwieldy for aerial combat."

This girl was full of surprises. It was just one unexpected thing after another! When she began talking about how she was relieved at what'd actually happened, Norbert couldn't help but give her something of a blank stare. He could hardly believe she wasn't confirming that the incident was his fault and telling him that he needs to learn to control his temper or calling him irresponsible. His condition didn't really change until she asked about his maces. That was a question easier for him to accept as actually happening. So, he shoved his dumbfounded surprise and confusion off to the far reaches of his mind and focused on the situation at hand, as he usually did.

"My maces?" he somewhat echoed before taking them up from his belt. He casually held Crunch while he twirled Splinter some, whipping it from its defensive position across his forearm out and back into its position again via rotating it by its grip: the fundamental motion he used in wielding it.

"They're pretty handy in general. Their arms aren't any shorter than a normal mace's. These have just been modified to use momentum to add extra force to an attack. I can use them to defend myself pretty well, too." He simply displayed how the arm of the weapon went along his forearm, which was particularly effective against cutting weapons. The ball of the mace also covered his elbow and the arm of the mace extended a bit beyond the grip to help shield his fingers from the side. Then, with a flick of his wrist and a series of adjustments to his grip on the weapon, he displayed his next point. "I can extend them however far I want, so stopping my attacks isn't too hard. I just have to tighten my grip or loosen it, depending on if I want to change their angles or hold them still."

The male pegasus rider shrugged a bit indifferently. "If I think the fight's going to be dangerous enough, I send Riz away anyway. I don't want her to get hurt. I can fight on pegasusback, but most of my training has been on foot or while her hooves aren't in the air. Regardless, my maces have good enough reach no matter which form the fight's taking. And if I need it, I do have a poleaxe. Riz usually carries it for me, though."

"Aaah, ok. I honestly wouldn't have guessed it was due to a genuine concern for your pegasus, that you don't fight on her all the time." Ruffling Hannah's mane a little, Aneda gave her a little hug, "See, he actually cares about his mount! Imagine what that's like, Hannah! Just imaaaagine..." Hannah's only response was a vigorous snort in Aneda's face, which the rider only laughed at but quickly turned her attention back to Norbert. "Well... I guess aerial sparring isn't all that important given the circumstances, but I suppose I can at least try and give you a few tips and pointers on acrobatic maneuvers if the need to ride her and fight does come up. Does that sound fine to you? I mean, I can still go training with you if you want, that offer isn't gone, but I guess it's changed a little... Just like life, every day with this group, haha."

"Oh, I still fight on her," Norbert clarified as he put his maces back at his belt, "Just not when a situation gets to a certain danger level." He was mildly amused by her quirkiness, the result of that showing up in a half-smile. She really did seem harmless off the battlefield, or at least so friendly it was a bit silly.

"I guess my fighting style's just...reckless. Jumped off of Riz a couple times. Once I landed on someone else's wyvern. I didn't actually score a hit then, but I did manage to get back into Rizen's saddle before hitting the ground after he knocked me off," he explained, "A spar might be the best way to figure out how much we both know. Then we can teach each other some new tricks. That's what I think, anyway. It'd be nice to have someone to train with regarding areal maneuvers, too, since I never really put much effort into that. Most of the stunts I pull are spur-of-the-moment and if they work, I just use them again if I have to."

"Ain't nothing wrong with spur of the moment while in a battle, but while there's downtime and you've got the opportunity, we should figure out ways to get to the best outcomes for ourselves, our beloved mounts, and our teammates." Hand on her chin, Aneda was in a suggesting mood. "Perhaps we can think of situations and try replicating them? For instance, I know I'm just bad at taking on more than a single opponent by myself, nor am I very good at hitting fast buggers like assassins and swordies. Best I can do is to just get out of there but then I'm leaving my teammates open..." Focusing on Norbert and his weapons, "What say you?"

"Hm," Norbert thought he might know what she was asking, though he wasn't entirely sure, so he replied, "Well, I know quick-footed swordsmen are tough to hit. That's why I wanted the poleaxe I have: it has a reach like a lance, so it makes hitting them easier. I've been practicing with it, but I'm still not comfortable enough with it to say I'm familiar with the weapon. It requires both of my hands and I'm more used to wielding my maces."

He tried to think of specific things he had trouble with in battle, but he was already addressing his biggest problem. "Hmm... The next time I'm by a Warrior's Guild, I can't let anything stop me from getting an assessment like what happened last time... I'm not really sure what I should improve upon aside from what I'm already working on. If we're talking about tactics... It depends on what's going on, I guess. No two battles are ever exactly alike, after all."

"I know that, silly, I mean we should work on what to do when we're in a jam in general." Aneda had her hands on her hips at this point, trying to seem authoritative. "Now, I'm aware that there is no all encompassing solution to winning every battle with our current means but there's still always a best solution, and there's generally always a best response or reaction, or so that's what I garnered from my very brief military existence. To me, it makes sense, we just have to figure out how to discern what's best in the heat of battle. But perhaps... it's one of those things that neither of us is gonna figure out until we finally do it... you know? Or perhaps we'll never find out, and we'll just have to rely on our teammates to help us in our hardships."

Oh, I think I get it now. "Alright, so, combat scenarios, then... Okay, so, the situation is there's a few, quick swordsmen are attacking us, right? And if we're the only ones having to deal with them... I'd say make a couple passes to see how well we'd do. I'd use my poleaxe, you'd use your lance. If there's no way to fight them, just fly away. If they're on foot, they can only go so high, after all," Norbert suggested with a shrug, "Keep out of reach."

"There you go! Now, do you think you wanna go try it out or do you wanna save the actual practicing for later?" There wasn't much else for her to say or add on the matter until Norbert made a decision.

Norbert raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. "Practice it?" It seems...unnecessary. It's not like I don't know how to do a pass or fly high enough a sword can't hit Riz or me. He mulled it over for half a moment more. Well...I'm probably going to feel silly doing something this simple, but I guess it's worth a shot. Who knows? Maybe she's got a point.

"Alright," he replied as he mounted up onto Rizen, "We can run this scenario. I'm not sure how we're going to practice many trickier maneuvers, though."

"That's the spirit! Come on, Hannah!" Aneda was in the mood for some fun, mostly because it was nice to get in some work without feeling like your life was on the line and having to kill people. Nah, this time around she could just take her time and think things through. "Well, as I'm sure you're thinking, flying is easy peasy, right? Thing is, faster guys are, well, faster. If I get hounded by one of em, it's gonna be hard to take off if I'm not already about to take off, or if I'm in the air. So what we've gotta work on is taking off in the middle of a fight. Our pegasi can't fly forever, we've gotta prepare for the eventuality of them landing, so don't think I'm just being silly here, this is an actual thing. BUT ANYWAY! Let's just practice a few basic things, like maneuvering to do a quick take off. If a guy is on your left, see if you can take off towards your right, you know?"

Norbert nodded. "Yeah, I guess, though usually I just...well, this," he replied before having Rizen jump right into the air from a standing position with some heavy downbeats of her wings. In no time they were circling leisurely above, waiting for Hannah and Aneda to join them in the air.

Maybe Riz and I are just used to having to take off from close quarters... I guess not everyone who can ride a pegasus would have practiced that. I usually get surrounded-- or, used to, I guess, so that's why it was necessary for Riz to be able to land and jump right back into the air... he thought. Then he focused on what was probably next in the scenario. If they chase us from the ground, we could just fly over some barrier that'd be hard for them to get by without being able to fly, like a bunch of trees or a cliff or something. That way if we have to land, it's not like they can catch us very easily. All this seems like common sense to me, though... Maybe it's because I've had to fly for my life so many times.

"Hmmm..." Well ok, perhaps he's already proficient at that. "Not bad, Norbert, not bad.at all. I guess we don't need to work on it too much. Still, I say it's good to stay in shape and form, you know? Or perhaps we can just have a mock fight right now? No real weapons, unless you're feeling gutsy~"

Norbert landed by Aneda to hear what she was saying a bit more clearly. "A spar, huh?" That sounds a lot more helpful than just taking off again and again. "Sure. I don't have any practice weapons on me, so I'll just use the ones I have. I don't go all out, though. I don't want to hurt anyone and I'm not used to sparring in the sky," he replied, feeling a bit better about this proposition.

The trip had to Sergio had been quite welcome for Gytha. She'd stuck to her ship work and checked in on Suzume every day just like she said she would. The previous day had been her last actual day working, really, as the next day -- this day -- they were pulling into port at the very start of it. Throughout the journey, Gytha hadn't spent much time with those of Raquel's group. Instead, she'd spent her time with the Prometheus' crew. Maw had apparently done a good job at keeping rats away from the food stores as well. She had a quick breakfast and intended on helping with docking as some of the last tasks before going back to shore with Raquel and her mercenaries.

Once the ship was docked, people began unloading and a couple came up the ramp. She didn't pay it much mind. She had other things to do. The mariner headed down to the cots and finished packing her belongings. Then, she headed for the Dauntless. She only stopped there for a moment to put her bag inside, then hustled over to the next objective: finding the Captain. Maw was already sunning herself atop the Dauntless, letting her tail sway leisurely as a sign of her contentment.

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

Norbert, meanwhile, was still asleep in his cot. Well, half in his cot. He'd moved around in his sleep and so an arm and a leg were dangling off the edge while he slept... Overslept, really. He'd meant to wake up before now so he could make sure everything was ready for when they left the ship, but that wasn't quite happening yet. Apparently, his body demanded he not wake up at the crack of dawn this day, which was rather inconvenient for his plans.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=Getting to Know Mushirah(Day Two)]Faatina spent quite a bit of time learning about the ship. She was particularly surprised by the fact that the hull was made out of metal. That would have been very difficult to build, with or without magical assistance. Every now and then though, she would have to take a break and see to Shariff, eat, train, or just relax in general. It wouldn't be long before she got around to speaking to the helmsman in particular, but first, she wanted to talk to someone relatively new. She ran into Shadrak first, but that was fine.

"Hey there. Umm, what are you doing? Reading notes again?"

"Yeah. Did you need something?" he replied, looking bothered.

"Not really. Sorry for disturbing you ..."

As she began to walk off, Shadrak winced, quickly shut up his notebook, and stood up. "Wait, I'm sorry for the tone. It's just being trapped on this ship with nothing to do is really starting to get on my nerves."

"But there's plenty to do. I've learned so much today alone," Faatina countered. "It kind of makes me wish 'sand seas' were real. That'd be so fun~ Anyway, apology accepted, Shadrak."

"... thanks. So ... how's it going?" A weak attempt at making conversation, but she would go easy on him.

"I was just on my way to find one of the new people. Maybe the other rexian girl since she's not from Sanctuary. I think it would be an interesting talk if we actually had one, you know? Would you like to come along?"

"... seriously?"

"Yes. Stop pretending to be hermit and do something productive." Not in the mood to argue, Shadrak kept silent and let Faatina lead the way. It took some searching, but they eventually found the other rexian woman, Mushirah. "Hi there~" she greeted with a slightly nervous smile.

Staring out to the sea, wondering what the world outside her home would be like in person, Mushirah wasn't expecting anyone to come up and talk to her, much less two people she hadn't been acquainted with yet. "Oh! Hi there, sorry, I was just looking out I guess. Just thinking. though I should probably be doing some sort of drawing right now, but then again, it'd just be water all around..."

"Drawing?" Faatina repeated. "Are you an artist? By the way, I'm Faatina. This here is Shadrak."

"Hi ..." Beyond the initial greeting, Shadrak just listened for now.

"Ummmm... Partially. I am and i'm not. I like to draw, and I can draw, but I don't make a living off of it. Yet, anyway." Taking a moment to pull out some of her 'work', "You see, I actually try to draw locales and various perspectives of places, but now I'm more curious at just... mapping. Just making a map that I can potentially sell or even just use normally. It's kind of a weird whim I had but I'm pursuing something that is lofty and yet within my reach, I think..." After taking another moment to think that one out, she looked to her current company "I guess it is out of reach, I can't go literally everywhere in the world... and who knows, maybe something is gonna change the very world we live in, like some sort of cataclysmic rift or something... Nah, that last one is probably just some fantasy, but, still, I'd rather try for this than stay at home all day and live with my parents. It'd be a free ride, but I'd never realize my true potential, I'd probably never find the right boy, because seriously, some of the guys there were just unbearable jerks, and well... yeah."

"I see, so you've probably been making maps of most of the places you've gone to. Mapping out the entire world is lofty indeed, but if that's what you want to do, I say go for it. Even if you can't do it in your lifetime, your children can carry on that dream for you. I'm guessing that's what 'meeting the right boy' was about, huh?" Faatina teased. "Do you think you'll get around to making a map of the ship? Shadrak and I kinda got lost while we were looking around for people," she asked, chuckling at the end of it.

"I wouldn't say 'lost' ... we didn't even have a destination in mind, really," Shadrak chimed in.

"Well I'm not sure my kids would want to do that, actually. I was more saying that it'd be hard to settle down in an area filled with people, aside from mom and dad, I wasn't all that fond of." Shrugging but still smiling about it, "Admittedly, I'm possibly jumping into something much worse by venturing out but I'd like to take my chances and just live with the consequences. Within reason, of course. I'm not gonna go around doing random things because I can. That's just not what I'm looking for in life." And Tina's asking about a map for the ship, Mushirah nodded. "Um, yeah, if you want me to, I can actually get you a quick floor plan, but I'd have to go walk through the place as well, also I'd probably need permission from the captain or whatever but I don't think it'd be all that imposing to him."

"You could give the captain copies of the ship's layout to put on each of the decks as a guide to newcomers and forgetful types, and as thanks for letting you practice your mapping," Faatina assessed. "You should probably still ask him before doing any actual work, but I think he would like the idea."

"Oooh, that would be a good idea. Maybe even make a little coin on the side for it, but I won't press that. I just wanna do something, you know? Being cramped up here with a bunch of strangers can get kinda... weird. No offense, is meant by that." She quickly added before she came off as insensitive. "But it's one hell of a way to meet you guys, meddling in your affairs and apparently just kinda having to watch you lose some allies..." Oh dammit... "Look, i'm sorry, I shouldn't have even brought that up."

"... smooth," Shadrak noted before Faatina lightly elbowed him in the arm.

"Don't worry about it. We'll alright, eventually. It's just ... still a fresh wound, to the whole group. Also, we're not strangers anymore so I hope things will be less weird for you."

"Look, I'm sorry, it's kind of the biggest thing I can think of when I see your group right now, but I'll just keep hushed about it, it was stupid of me to bring it up so casually. Again, I'm sorry." Hearing that they weren't strangers was a little bit reassuring for her, as was evident by her smiling. "Well I hope that's the case then, I do hope it becomes less awkward for me. Perhaps awkward is the wrong word, it's just different being out of my comfort zone." fiddling with her blank papers a little, she was tempted to start drawing right now but she eventually just stopped that and looked at the two in front of her. "So um... As you can tell, I'm not the greatest conversation holder. I don't even know where to begin, really, haha."

"Tell us more about yourself," Faatina immediately suggested. "When did you discover your talent and were you always as good as you are now or was there a natural progression or something like that?"

Shadrak raised an eyebrow. Is this how socializing is supposed to go or is Faatina just a special case?

"I don't remember when exactly as it's always just kinda been a part of life growing up. My mom noticed it first to be honest, looking at my scribbles and urging me to nurture that into something more." Tapping her head a few times and smirking, "Thankfully I've got an incredible eye as well as a memory for detail, so it all kinda just came naturally for me, but it was definitely my mom that made it really bloom. And now I'm just kinda trying to do something with that talent, maybe subconsciously to try and make her proud but I don't think she's not proud of me in that sense... Or maybe I'm just full of it in that regard, I dunno, heh."

"If you're talking about my Earth magic, that's a different story but not really a profound one." Shrugging a little as she went on to explain. "My dad knew magic so he decided to homeschool me about it, so everything I know has come from him or at least the groundwork has. I'm hoping to improve myself on my own from now on, like he did. He wasn't some big name, and I guess he wasn't the best at it but I can't think of a better teacher than my dad." she finished with a rather friendly tone.

"You were homeschooled?" Shadrak spoke up curiously. "I always thought people would go off and try to master magic on their own or enroll in some school. Glad to know there's more variety than that. I was sort of trained in a similar way, but by my teacher and master, not my parents."

Faatina was more interested in the nonmagical aspects of Mushirah's life; having spent her whole life in the presence of divine magic and slightly lesser luxuries left ordinary magic not as interesting to her as it otherwise might be. At the same time, she was thinking she would just let Shadrak have this time to relate. It seemed like he seldom got the chance to do so.

"Well..." Mushirah began, trying to quickly form an adequate response. "There was never really any need to go pursue a formal education in that sense. My dad taught me what he wanted to teach me, and I learned what I wanted to learn. Is it perfect? Nah, but it's good enough. I don't really use my magic for offense, though my dad says I'm a natural at it, I just use it as a more defensive measure. However," Mushirah quickly produced her shotput and tossed it into the air slightly before catching it with a bit of effort, "I think a fifteen pound piece of flying metal oughtta be offensive enough if the occasion arises. I'm not known for my accuracy so I'm not realy inclined to give a demonstration, but... just take my word, I can hold my own against even learned folk, not to mention petty thieves." She was almost ashamed at her bragging. Almost. "But then again, like I said, it's... unrefined. I suppose that comes with having only one source and being homeschooled, though I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, my experience."

"Hmm," Shadrak pondered aloud. "Are you an earth mage?" Seemed like a solid theory, though he'd missed her confirming that already. There were only a few ways to propel a fifteen pound object and earth magic would be the most convenient once the inherent learning hurdles were overcome. Figuring she was an earth mage even before she answered, he found some respect for her, not only for being homeschooled but also being homeschooled in a more difficult form of magic and coming out decent. This was all supposition, though.

"Fifteen pounds? Hmm, probably about the same weight as the rock I took that one guy down with," Faatina noted, placing a finger on her lip as she recalled the arena raid in Tremere. "Yeah, that'll do it," she concluded.

"You hit someone with a rock?!"

"Why do you sound surprised? Those are surprisingly good weapons. In fact, if you think about it, there's a thousand ways to kill a person for every one method to help them. They just happen to be dense enough and heavy enough that throwing them will usually guarantee some devastation in one form or another." gently tossing the ball up and down, she continued talking, "And yes, like I mentioned, I studied Earth magic. It's what my dad knew and I guess he figured it'd be something for he and I to bond over or something, and he gambled correctly." A confused look washed over her face for a moment before she just shrugged. "I'm still not entirely sure how I do what I do, it's like... I know I can do it, so I can. If I were asked to explain how, I'd be at a complete loss, I'll be honest."

"I'm not sure I'd be able to explain what I do, either. If I thought I could, I would try to pass on a few offensive spells to Raquel. It's good you and your father got to bond over magic. My master and I ... study entirely different fields of dark magic for some reason. It's really weird and I'm not too keen on pestering her about it. The first time I asked, she told me our strength will come from diversity, in all things. Not sure how that justifies me only knowing offensive magic, but I guess on the bright side I'll at least be able to master some pretty powerful techniques, even ones she won't be able to."

"Raquel... Raquel... she's the pink haired merchant lady, right? Huh..." A perplexed face was all she could muster. "Would not have pegged her as a magic user. Then again, I probably don't exude the air of a magician either, haha. but, going back to your teacher, I can see some sense in that, but at the same time yeah it does sound weird. On one hand, you've got two different things being learned or something, but on the other hand, it's... gotta be weird trying to compare notes." Going with her limited knowledge, Mushirah wasn't exactly understanding what Shadrak's teacher was playing at but then again, she didn't understand normal teaching methods to begin with. "But you say you're offensive, right? Perhaps, if I'm still traveling with you guys, we should team up. I know I'm new but I can protect you, I know I can. My dad couldn't get past my defenses in practice sessions the day I left my home. He wouldn't go easy on me, before you say anything about that..."

And he was about to say something about 'that' but Mushirah preemptively addressed it. Shadrak felt predictable all of a sudden. "Heh ... I uh, wait ... t-team up? Really?" Shadrak was surprised to hear that suggestion; perhaps he was a little too surprised. After all, the same thing had happened with Katrina. He and Mushirah had also only just met and there wasn't much reason for their relationship to sour so quickly.

Faatina on the other hand was only a little surprised to hear that come up, but she was more happy for Shadrak getting such an offer than anything else. She was right, branching out and talking to people was a good idea. Even if they didn't actually team up in the end, just having this kind of conversation would be good for the guy, she felt. "Our group could really use more defenders. I try to multitask between offense and defense, but it's anything but easy," she told Mushirah.

Cocking her head, "What, do you not like the idea? Or... is there a more pressing reason as to why you're surprised?" Hearing Faatina's claims of not having many defenders both made Mushira happy and a bit nervous. On one hand, she'd be needed. On the other handed, that requires being responsible... She waited for his answer, preferring to see what this is about before going on.

"Oh no, i-it's not that, I just ... I don't know. Let's just say I've got a habit for alienating people," Shadrak explained. "I'm not used to being treated too nicely."

"Oh that's not true," Faatina quickly countered. "You're just focusing on the negative. Even I had people I didn't get along with coming up. Maybe you have a few more enemies than anyone really needs, but that's nothing to focus so intently on. Think of the people you do get along with and how great that is. There's Chelsea, me--if you play your cards right--Mushirah here, I heard you and Robin used to talk a bit too."

"Hmm, okay, I guess you're right about that much. Sorry, Mushirah, I guess I've been looking at things a bit too negatively."

Mushirah noted that Shadrak seemed to get along with women. Sort of. Giving an inquisitive glance to Faatina, "Does he not get along with the guys in your group or something?" Turning back to Shadrak, "Anyway, I don't see anything bad, especially since you at least seem honest about having bad tendencies. I don't really try to find faults and hound at them, but if people can acknowledge them and actually work on them, I can easily respect that."

Not only friendliness but respect, too? Shadrak was feeling almost giddy but kept himself in check for the sake of not screwing everything up here and now. "Some guys, some girls ... not entirely sure 'why' for some, but like I said, I can rub some people the wrong way. I'd work on it, but sometimes I wonder why people are so offended by 'honesty' ..." he sighed. "I mean do I have to apologize in advance? Meh, maybe we should talk about something else. I don't want to focus on that stuff right now."

"You were on a roll too ...." Faatina noted.

A giggle from Mushirah showed she was enjoying the conversation, glad to talk to people, but she felt compelled to continue the conversation. "I don't think honesty is what they're not fond of, it's the shoving reality in people's faces, or at least that's what I always gathered from my parents. They never outright lied to me... I think... but they didn't really start being blunt with me until I could handle it, you know? I'm not saying treat people like they're kids, but perhaps what you see as just a truth, or just plain old honesty, maybe some people don't want to deal with it."

Extending her hand towards the corpse room, "For example, you're all completely understandably touchy about me bringing up your dead comrades, and I'm sorry about it now, but I'm using it as an example... If I were to tell you they were dead and to just get over it because they aren't coming back, hell, it'd be true but it'd be extremely rude of me... I would never actually mean something like that though, and again, I'm truly sorry I brought that up..." taking a deep breath to bring herself back, "If you were brought up to be blunt, that isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but not everyone appreciates bluntness. If you'd like, I can try and keep you in check or something!" she added in the thin hopes that it'd alleviate the stupidity of her bringing up their dead allies again.

"It's alright," Shadrak assured her. "You're not doing it to cause trouble, and I get what you're saying. I'm not sure how to practice not pissing people off though, so if you're willing to help me, I'd appreciate it, heheh ... yeah ..."

Greetings

"Huh? Axel? What are you doing here?" Raquel replied. That was answered all too quickly and then she said, "I'm surprised you're here, but we could certainly use the help, either way. We've lost some people ... some for good," she said, lowering her gaze to the deck.

The Wheel

Shadrak groaned a bit thinking back to what might have happened if Faatina had messed up and crashed the ship while the Helmsman said, "We enjoyed havin' ya, Miss, strange'r'not. Take care out there."

"So is she ... like ... qualified to drive ships now?"

"Windjammers, certainly," the helmsan instantly replied.

Dauntless

Gabbie stood up saying, "Let's get to the docks and wait for Anna. I'm not sure how long it'll be before we have a crane ready to move the Dauntless, but she said she'd handle it,"

Freedom

Luca was the first horse to be freed from the giant metal thing and was happier than the moment he was first able to run. And so he ran. He and Nadya were free, and it was time to enjoy that freedom. Now that was fine and dandy but fate had other things in store for them. While weaving through the bystanders with all the grace of a champion, Luca happened upon one that was short with red hair and freckles, and all sorts of in the way. He weighed his options quickly, dodge to the left or the right and risk hitting someone else, grind to a halt and risk throwing Nadya, or jump right over the girl.

...

...

...

Jump ... he was going to jump her. He was going to jump her like some kind of hurdle.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Phoenix

[Snowy_One]

As Tia walked down to the docks, one of the newer ships was pulling into port and unloading. Though it looked like it was a trade ship, Tia paid it little mind. It was a new ship pulling into port. If it had any cargo that wasn't food it would be a while before it managed to unload its wares. Even if it did have the skins she needed it would be a looong time before it managed to unload enough to the point that they would be willing to trade. Not to mention that she had a MUCH more pressing matter at mind! Navigating the crowd without dropping her books!

Already she had been jostled three times by eager business men trying to move along with little regard to the presence of a young girl and the stack of tomes she was carrying showed that. It was crooked and uneven, twisted about, and several were now having to be carried pressed against the stack instead of in it due to having been knocked loose by other people. Still, she was making progress, her eyes scanning as best she could for a merchant stall or a ship decently unloaded.

And then a horse charged off the ramp of the newly arrived ship. Tia quickly turned about as she heard the sound of hooves bearing down on her before stopping, frozen in shock. Tomes fell to the ground left and right as a high pitched scream of terror filled the air! Quickly she crouched down as the steed thundered towards her, trying to curl up into as small a ball as possible to keep her safe from the stampeding horse.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Eail]

After his rather.... interesting and confusing interaction with Marella last night Zach had retired to his own room. He'd stayed up for a while wondering what the hell had just happened before blanking his mind and going to sleep, there was always the morning to think more...

_____

The next morning would find Zach sitting on the edge of his bed reading a novel that he'd kept in his bag. Soon they'd be docking though, so it was probably time to get ready to go. Maybe he'd get a chance to talk to Marella again.

[scorri]

Marella laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. With a sigh, she swung her legs over the edge of her bed and sat up. She took a deep breath and put a smile on her face. Time to get up and face the rest of the world. She got up and got ready to leave. As she started to leave her room, she paused and changed directions to head to Zach's room instead of the upper deck. Arriving, she took a deep breath and then knocked on the door and called out, "Hey Lightning Head, hurry up. We've arrived."

[Eail]

Zach was just about to close his book when he heard the knock on the door and Marella's voice. Probably a bit too eagerly he swung off the bed and went to the door, opening it up to reveal the woman "Hey Mar, I was just about to go find you. I'm all ready to go though" Stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him. "Um... are you feeling better after last night?" Zach awkwardly asked

[scorri]

As Zach opened the door, Marella couldn't help but grin a little more at the sight of him. And then he asked her how she was feeling. "What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. How about you? You were worse off than me if we're being honest here."

[Parrhesia]

Rook decided it was about time to get his eye in again, and spent some time shooting gulls as they flew over the ship. Bird after helpless bird smashed into the deck, and Rook retrieved his arrows with unreserved smugness.

[Eail]

"Everything's all right, thanks to you really. I'm glad you're the one that found me..." Zach said with a small grin before realizing what he just said and averting his gaze. "Are we supposed to go meet up with everyone else somewhere like on the deck?"