Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[-Cynthia-]

Erica

"I already knew that- word reached us of the problems back in the church in Ursentius," Erica said. Didn't show them what they wanted to see isn't the same thing as didn't have anything... she noted privately.

She sighed heavily. "If you're going to insist on fighting, take a route where we can't find you. Go back to Rex-Avaz or something. If you stay in Ursium, we will hunt you down and good people will die."

Nadya

"Wait, you're buyin'? Count me in," Nadya responded to Chelsea rapidly.

Connor and Veronika

"Sure, if I see anyone on the way over there, I'll tell them where to go," Connor said agreeably. He noticed Raquel and Gabbie were arguing again. Wonder if there's a way I can make them get along... he wondered to himself.

Veronika heard Raquel's plans from where she was standing. "None of us should be traveling alone, you least of all. I'll accompany you to the port, I had nothing else planned to do here anyway," she said, walking over towards the merchant.

[Mercakete]

"Are you kidding me?! That horrible desert makes even Purgatory look like a vacation spot!" Norbert almost added "and I should know!" but managed to not blurt that bit out. Instead, he calmed down a bit in contrast to the sudden, slightly panicked, furious rejection of returning to Rex-Avaz, instead, just sounding a bit annoyed. "Though it's not really my choice where we go... So I guess if Raquel chooses to head back there, I don't have much of a choice..."

Shifting his attention away from Rexia, Norbert continued, "Anyway, thanks for the warning. I'll talk to Raquel about it. I'll let you decide what you're going to do. After all, so far you keeping with this operation to hunt us down has been beneficial to our survival. Still, the next time we meet, I hope it's on friendlier terms. You're a soldier, so I don't expect you'll pull any punches if it comes to a fight."

[Phoenix]

The Preparations

So Veronika was coming with. That wasn't surprising, especially not after her explanation, and it suited her just fine anyway. "Okay then, let's get going. I don't want to hold us up for too long and there are more than just a couple of places I want to stop by."

"Hmm," she suddenly began to wonder about something. "Maybe I shouldn't take the Dauntless with me for this trip. It's really big and hard to maneuver through tight streets like these and I don't think I'll be bringing back more than I can carry ... at least not if I take one of the horses with me ..."

"Also, if you leave the Dauntless, I don't have to leave Connor out in the open while I run your little errand," Gabbie added, still sounding rather peeved.

"I ... guess so. I guess I should leave it here for now, though it needs both of the horses to move. I was thinking of bringing it to the tower first and then taking one of them and heading off to the stores but going through all of that, I might as well just take the Dauntless with me."

"Just borrow someone else's horse," she shot back.

The Chase

Now all Suzume had to do was keep Anna in sight, or failing that, keep Gar in sight. She hoped he would catch up to her or she would notice she was being chased by one of the group. Either one would bring an end to this and she could take care of her only real business in this port.

Anna was fast, a little too fast for someone with a large backpack, but the traffic was slowing her down some. Gar could catch up soon enough at this rate, but she hadn't noticed him just yet.

The Ball

"You know Ursium's not so bad this this far away from the capital," Reign talked to himself while walking up the streets on his way to the tower. More and more people were starting to come out as the sun rose up into the sky. "Uuunfortunately we're heading pretty close to the capital."

"Watch out, mister," came a panicked child's voice. Reign looked to the source and all he saw was a small red ball speeding his way. He knew he didn't have time to catch it, so he lowered his face just enough to cause the ball to hit his forehead instead of his nose. That plan worked and the impact wasn't so bad. The child ran up to pick the ball up off of the ground and quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, mister. We were playing tag-ball."

Reign squinted at that response. "You mean 'dodge'ball?"

"No, it's 'tag'ball. We invented it a whole year ago."

"Hahah, you're not very good at tag-ball are you?" the other child spoke up, running over and joining the conversation. "You're supposed to dodge it, not headbutt it."

Reign merely shrugged at that. "I doubt either of you would have avoided that ball if you didn't see it coming. I was more concerned about not dropping this basket here," he explained, gesturing at the basket.

"What's in the basket? Sandwiches?"

"I'mmm pretty sure they're scones," he replied, sounding less certain than he actually was.

The Goal

"I never said it was odd or bizarre," Shadrak quickly noted. It was true; he hadn't. "My goal is to acquire as much power as I possibly can so I can protect not only myself, but people I care about. Raquel's enemies remind me a lot of the bullies I knew growing up. Without power, you ... you can't really do much of anything; you have to rely on others, and others aren't always there to help you. Well, that's one of my goals anyway. The other's got little to do with magic as a whole."

[Snowy_One]

"You got bullied as a kid? Uggg! Stupid thugs who think muscle can solve every problem and gives them the right to do whatever they want. Girls bully too, but it's a lot more psychological than physical. I had to deal with a few myself as a kid, but they weren't much to worry about. I found an ample supply of hugs helped a lot! But still, if you don't mind my asking, what is that other goal? To find a certain person I bet?"

[-Cynthia-]

Erica

Not a fan of the desert huh? Sounds like a story there, but now's not the time. "We're under orders not to kill your group if at all possible, but in the heat of battle some might have trouble following that order. I don't want to hurt you or your friends Norbert, but I am under oath and I do not plan to break it," she agreed with him.

Connor and Veronika

"Depends on what all you're getting really. If it's just a few things, you probably don't need to bring the whole Dauntless with you," he suggested.

"If it's just a few things, I can also help carry them. If you're buying multiple suits of armor or something, we should bring the wagon," Veronika noted.

[Phoenix]

Let's Shop, Chop Chop

"Mmm, I guess we'll just try to avoid bringing back anything too heavy or bulky," Raquel decided, really not wanting to have to deal with moving the Dauntless about too much. "I have enough on me for some extra provisions so I guess I'm ready," she added, this statement aimed at Veronika in particular.

All-powerful Bookworm In the Making

"Well I'm not only an aspiring dark mage, but also something of a scholar. I don't want just power, but knowledge too. I want to learn about other ideas, peoples, cultures, even the barbaric ones. I feel that's what a follower of Lord Truth should be seeking when all is said and done, I'm just making it more of a full-time thing," Shadrak explained.

[Mercakete]

The grin (or rather, sneer-looking smile that wasn't really supposed to be sneer-looking) that spread across his face was probably the first tip that he'd found something funny. "Heh. 'Friends' huh? Hahah, I guess they're the closest things to friends I've come to! How about that? Me, with friends! Hah! Probably all one-sided -- I'm probably more tolerated than liked, since I am who I am -- but I think you might be right!" he laughed, "Who would've thought I'd have anything close to friendship?"

Amusing as this notion was to the pegasus rider, though (this was downright hilarious in his eyes), Norbert set it aside for the time being and climbed back into Rizen's saddle. "Do your best, Erica," he farewelled before he and Rizen launched into the air again. He had someone to find.

[Click This]

Fruits! Vegetables! Meats! Candy! More fruits!

It was a sight that Mao had been longing to see. Rows and rows of stalls flanked by shops stocked with unique and curious products from around the world filled her field of vision, but the large foodstuffs stalls to the side of the market elicited sparkles from her eyes. It took less than a heartbeat for Mao to reach the stalls and the brick and mortar stores. Mao sauntered over the nearest preserved meat stall with her coin purse already in hand. Only a a few moments and a bit of quick haggling, she walked away with three large bags of beef jerky that she proceeded to tie onto Water's saddle belts. She moved on to the next stall and proceeded to buy a dozen apples, again tying the single bag of fruit onto the saddle. She bit on one of the red apples as she made her way to one of the larger stalls in the open market. Relishing in the sweetness of the apple, she noticed the particular stall was quite busy. There were at least six people around the stall, which appeared to be a general store. Ignoring the people there for a moment, she scanned the store's ample stock until her eyes fell onto several jars stashed away between several wooden crates. They looked jars of preserved fruits. They were expensive as hell, rare as diamonds, but were utterly irresistible to eat.

"Are those jars over there preserved peaches?" Mao directed the question at the shopkeeper.

"Aye, I do. They're not for the average person though. Their prices are fit for a king."

Mao only responded with a grin, showing several gold coins in one hand and paper bonds in the other. "For peaches? Prices are no object. Now, do you take cash or credit?"

---

A few minutes later, Mao was outside the store with an open jar of preserved peaches and a wooden fork in the other as she spooned in mouthfuls of peaches. It was downright silly and absurd, but preserved fruits in honey was her weak spot. Outside the stall, she finally took a good look at the people that were still around the store. They looked people from Raquel's group, but she had yet to meet them. Somewhat sadly, she returned jar's stopper into its rightful place, and slid it into yet another bag on her horse (Water was looking like quite the pack horse now).

She would wait for them to finish their business and then introduce herself...

[roymbrog]

Synthia smiled when she wasn’t rejected. Maybe there was something to this making friends thing. The mage was smiling a bit less after Nadya was invited though. She wasn’t overly fond of the nomad, but could easily tolerate her for the day…

“Well I was actually going to pay since I was the one inviting you, but if you really want to I won’t argue,” Synthia told Chelsea. She glanced at Nadya, who had readily agreed to come, and then at the merchant who was subtly glaring at all of them. That was probably because they were taking up quite a bit of space in front of his shop. “I’ve been to Sergio before. Most of the places in port to find a full meal are taverns, but there should be a few stalls around here selling something,” she said before starting to ride off.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

How in Tartarus can she keep up that pace with a pack like that on her? Gar thought as he closed the distance. If it wasn't for the foot traffic he might not even be keeping up as well as he did. And he had to worry about not accidentally letting Suzzy Q lose sight of him. So all in all it was a lot trickier than most run-downs he did. Still, he was aces, she was slowed down, and unless there was a sudden series of sharp turns then just waiting would be enough for Suzzy to catch up. Gar slipped through the spots in traffic he could and closed the distance. As he did he wondered how he should start their conversation...

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Ready when you are," she replied to Raquel simply.

Nadya

"Can I vote for no fish? Not to be picky or anythin', but after weeks at sea I'm hungerin' for some land food if ya know what I mean," she said to Synthia and Chelsea, before riding after Synthia.

Erica

Mercy watch over you Norbert. Erica thought to herself as she watched him fly off. Hopefully they leave Sergio soon- I need to get back to base and start organizing the soldiers. she thought to herself as Patches 2 rode out of the port.

[Phoenix]

Familiar Faces

They were on their way soon enough, leaving the Dauntless for the moment. Raquel didn't have the trip planned out; she intended to stop by any shops that might have what she was looking for along the way until there was either too much on hand to buy anything else, or they ran out of places to check. They eventually happened upon a shop she was quite familiar with.

"Hey, this is Ezio's store," she told Veronika. It wasn't a place to go to find what they were looking for, but she still wanted to pay the man a visit. And who knew, maybe they would find something there worth buying. The man sold all manner of rare finds, trinkets and antiques.

It wasn't a large store, so once inside, Raquel could see everyone present, even though a new wide display case she'd never seen before was obscuring everyone's legs. They would have to go around it to reach Ezio, who was simply minding the shop. The other two people present were a man in a hooded cloak perusing some items on the wall, and a woman who seemed to be a local doing the same on the other side of the wall and closer to Ezio.

Ezio noticed Raquel right away and stood up from the stand. "Whaaat? Is that you, Valcyn?"

"Um ... hi, Ezio," Raquel greeted shyly.

"Tell me you found Jethro!" That was a quick shift back to that traumatic old topic. The hooded figure off to the right glanced over for a moment and then went back to perusing, fiddling with a golden trinket. The woman was slightly disturbed by Ezio's inquiry and decided to try and ignore the conversation.

Raquel finally shook her head at Ezio's question, though he already took her initial silence as an answer. He sighed deeply, slumped back into his chair and leaned forward, burying his head in his palms. He was taking it harder than she was at this point. Why?

"Ezio ...?"

"It ... must be horrible for you, child ..."

"I'm going to find him, no matter what it takes."

Run Through

Fortunately for literally everyone involved, Anna saw a food stand along the way and stopped just long enough to buy some food for the road. She paid for something she could eat on the run while jogging in place. It was a place where one could quickly buy food and get a move on, so Gar and Suzume had all of ten seconds to catch up before she would be on the move again.

[spoiler=DODGE!]And so Reign ended up sharing some of Zoe's scones with the two children who were playing with the ball earlier. For some reason they followed him to the tower, supposedly so they could brag about the new sport they'd invented.

"It's a great game, but we need more people to get it to work," one of them explained.

The other followed up with, "Now see you would have been out because you got hit by the ball instead of catching it, mister."

Reign sighed. He wasn't sure if he should just come out and tell them that this sport they 'invented' had existed for quite some time. He simply settled for, "Look, guys, there's nothing new under the sun. That's what my father told me, and it's ringing pretty true here. When I was ..." He paused to think of a way not to refer to the mage academy directly. "-at the academy, we had occasional games like this. It was meant to keep us in shape since what we were training for would be physically demanding on us. Your rules may be slightly different, but at the heart and core, it's still dodgeball," he explained as they arrived at the tower.

"Ours will be better and more fun for everyone involved," the child shot back.

"I've got no doubts about that; ours was meant to keep us in shape and give us practice working as a unit, but everyone just used it as a means to settle grudges. It got pretty nasty at times, both verbally and physically. It's why I know how to take one to the head like that. Sometimes there's just no time to move and you just want to make it off the court without a bloody nose."

"Hahah, tell us more about it! Come on, it sounds funny!"

"Yeah, I want to hear about your bloody nose!"

Reign raised an eyebrow. "N-no, I didn't get a bloody nose, but ... eh whatever. The game I remember most clearly was ..."

------------

"Alright, I'm back, Reign. What's the situation?" asked a rather tall ursian mage. Everyone around was wearing red uniforms with only slight variance. The game was taking place on a large court in an outdoor walled off area next to some incredibly large buildings somewhere in Ursentius. As for Reign's answer ...

"We're losing. Eight left on our side including you, twenty on theirs."

"What the hell happened?! Aren't you supposed to be good at solving problems?" He didn't sound too happy with the report.

"With all due respect, you're our best thrower and ran off to do something right as their momentum started to pick up. If I hadn't talked Nadine into caring about this stupid game, we would have been wiped out by now."

"I had to use the privy, dammit!" He made sure to say that in as low a voice as he could manage before following up with, "Okay, so Nadine's carrying the team ... how's that working out for us?"

"It's keeping us in the game, frankly ... for now. Wynn and I are goading them into attacking and then Nadine intercepts if we can't get out of the way. Raquel's dead weight at this point so we've got her in the back running retrieval with a couple of the others. Adrian is off cowering at the edge of the court over there, Taylor is worthless--we should probably just take him out ourselves frankly, and Berry ..." Reign paused when a ball came flying out of nowhere and struck Berry in the face, sending him to the ground. He was at the back end of their side of the field and so it was a spectacular snipe. "Berry is down."

"Captain!" Nadine was calling over. "Less talking, more fighting!"

"Well she's in high spirits."

"She's taking this pretty seriously now, yeah. Don't be surprised if she injures someone," Reign warned.

"Injures? For gods' sake, it's just a game. I mean I don't want to lose but ..."

"Look on the bright side, with her taking this so seriously, we still have a chan-" "GET DOWN!!!" Nadine's warning came just in time and Reign dropped to the ground avoiding a head shot. "Stop chitchatting and get over here!" she yelled afterward.

"I uh ... I'm starting to think maybe she's better fit to run this team than I am, heheh ... at least in this situation. I honestly have no idea how to get us out of this one."

"Really? Well, if you're passing over command, now's the time," Reign noted seriously as he stood up. He kept a low stance for the sake of being able to more easily avoid a follow up attempt.

"Yeah ... Nadine's in charge, now. I'll follow her lead. Let's see if you oddballs can get it done."

Reign and the former team captain, Trevor, headed back to front where Nadine and Wynn were facing off against most of the enemy team all on their own. Reign looked over and up to the referees overseeing the game for a moment. After taking mental note of their indifference, he turned his attention back toward the opposing team. He wondered how much they could get away with this time around.

Wynn was back to his goading right away, though he wasn't relying on Nadine for support. "Hey! Hey, yeah you, with the face! Yeah I'm talking to you, Mister 'I throw like a champ'! Where's the love?! I've been patting my ass at you for five minutes and you haven't even tried to hit me once! Are you scared or something?! Well I can't blame you, I mean everyone else failed, so why would some nobody like you fare any better, right?! Exactly! You wouldn't, because you're a hyped up worthless piece of meat and your only redeeming quality is that you look human enough to get accepted into this academy, and honestly, I'm betting it was just because the referees want to see you get your ass handed to you in situations like this, because there's not a chance on earth you could ever hit me with that ball, you cockeyed retard!"

"Tone it down, Wynn ..." Reign murmured.

A ball came speeding toward him and Wynn didn't even get the chance to try and catch it. Nadine came speeding by and leaped in front of him, catching the ball in the middle of an aerial and then landing in a low stance with the ball in hand. "Good job, Wynn~" she commended him.

"See? A girl in a mini-skirt caught your shit midair like it was nothing! You can run off and cry now; that'd totally be appropriate!" Wynn insulted the player she just outed before directing his attention to her. Rubbing his thumb across his nose in one swift motion and smirking, he said, "Anyone else you need me to piss off? This is so much fun~"

"No, we just took out their best thrower--it hurt catching that ball, he's got quite an arm. I think we can finish them off via attrition now if we can just stay covered and avoid any converging attacks," she replied. She then stood up and gave the ball over to Wynn before looking back over the other team, trying to find some easy targets. "Wait for me to mark someone for you," she instructed, to which he simply nodded.

"eight versus nineteen," Reign noted. "Who are we bringing back in?"

"I don't care, everyone who actually matters is still in. Just bring back Berry or something," Nadine decided.

"He's just going to get sniped again ..."

"That was pretty epic yeah. I would have warned him but I wanted to see if that guy could make the shot."

"Nadine! That's messed up!" Trevor chimed in angrily. "This team revolves around all of its members, not just you and your little circle of friends."

"Get over it," she replied, practically ignoring him.

"Grrrr ..."

------------

"She sounds kinda mean," one of the children noted.

"Life at the academy was stressful," Reign replied before returning to the story.

------------

The plan was put into motion and Nadine marked targets for Reign and Wynn to goad into attacking. Raquel stayed to the mid field, retrieving balls for Trevor to attack with, and providing a little encouragement for Adrian and Taylor on the side. Eventually the latter tried to throw a ball back, but someone on the other team caught it, and he was outed. Berry was sniped yet again while trying to retrieve a ball, and Adrian went down when Raquel was caught off guard, taking a hit for her. The only reason no one buried their faces in their palms was because it would have given the enemy a clear shot to take them out. The game continued.

"Well this isn't good. We're down to five people, and they still have twelve," Reign said, though his tone sounded almost apathetic.

"I was planning for this," Nadine explained. "The only people on our team left are those that actually matter now."

"Suuure, like Raquel matters here," Trevor countered, trying to point out that Raquel wasn't doing all that much.

"She does ..." Nadine shot back with a glare.

"Ooof course she does. I wonder where her mascot outfit went. What? She's not the goofy mascot? The one girl on our team who can't throw, catch, or dodge worth a damn but she's more important than everyone else we've lost ... and she's not the mascot? Is that what you're telling me, Nadine?"

"I do prefer her company to theirs, but she's our Wynn catalyst," Nadine explained.

"'Wynn catalyst'? What?"

"Wynn's a powder keg. The person who takes out Raquel is going to be utterly destroyed by him each and every time without exception. She gets hit, he loses his mind and takes out one or two people, I bring her back in by catching an easy one, rinse and repeat. Honestly if I wasn't so sure we could win with our current strategy alone, I'd put her up front just to get the ball rolling ... so to speak."

"Conniving little ..." Trevor muttered under his breath.

------------

"Yeah she's mean. So what happened?" one of the children asked Reign.

"Well, as you might expect, someone took out Raquel ..."

------------

"Ack!" Raquel fell onto her back after being struck in the chest hard.

"R-RAQUEL!!!" Wynn practically appeared at her side out of thin air and knelt down to check her condition while Nadine covered them. "Are you alright ...?"

"My chest really hurts ..."

"Your breasts?! No!"

"Wait for it ..." Nadine said quietly. Only Reign and Trevor were close enough to hear it.

"Those ..."

"Wait for iiit ..."

"sons ... of bitches ... are all ... going ... to pay ..." Wynn snarled as he voiced his threats.

"Aaand ..."

"RAAAAAAARGH!!!" Wynn took one of the balls Raquel had on her at the time, and then grabbed the one she'd been hit with and charged toward the other field. They were quick to try and take him out too, but he simply blocked the incoming balls with the ones he was carrying, a convenient little loophole in the rules of the game at the academy that he was exploiting to the fullest. He threw both of his balls and took out two enemy players in one second. "GIVE ME ANOTHER BALL! I STILL HAVE TEN MORE BASTARDS TO KILL!" Sure enough, the two people he had taken out were actually in a lot of pain having been hit square in the face, the both of them.

------------

"Awesome! He's like a sleeping dragon! You don't want to mess with that, hahah!"

"Yeah, no kidding ..." Reign muttered.

------------

"Just for the record, I don't approve of this whole 'enrage Wynn for easy outs' ... thing ... you've got going here," Trevor said to Nadine.

"Disregarded."

"Okay we're still heavily outnumbered but we're winning, at least if you look at the big picture," Reign explained. "Nadine's got us covered from throwers, we still have you, Trevor, the Wynn and Raquel combination is our trump card here, and I've been lazing about this whole game so I've still got plenty of energy left in case we need some interference."

"I don't know ... she looks tired," Trevor pointed out.

"She is, but she'll make it," Reign assured him. Nadine didn't say anything in her own defense. She didn't want to talk about it and kept her eyes forward and her back to the conversation.

"Because overexertion at this stage of the game is a GOOD IDEA," Trevor remarked.

"Trevor! ... she'll make it ..."

------------

"Did she make it?"

"Yyyes and no ..."

"Uh oh."

------------

"Oh no, TREVOR!!!" Reign called out in vain as Trevor took several hits to his side while preparing to throw. It was a successful converging attack.

Trevor began stomping away from the court and toward the out area. "Dammit!"

"Ugh ..." was Nadine's only response as she stood there panting heavily.

"Three and five left," said Reign as he looked back at the enemy team. "Nadine ... we have to bunker down. There aren't any distractions left for them now. Any throw we make is going to be clear as day to them. They'll out us with catches."

"I can't go on much longer ... we have to end this right now ..."

"You just had to do all the acrobatics. Okay, we'll try to finish this up now, but we're probably going to lose ... Wynn, get ready!"

------------

"So it came down to just me, Wynn, and Nadine versus the other five ... it was looking pretty bad with no way to send Wynn over the edge and with Nadine about to collapse from exhaustion. Fortunately her weakened state is what allowed us to make a comeback. They seriously underestimated her."

------------

Another converging attack was in the works; Nadine could see them getting ready for it. "Reign ... I don't think I can ... take all five of them ..."

"I've got your right; focus on the center," Reign replied.

"I've got your left, Nadine," Wynn called out as he moved closer. They were sure the attack was going to be aimed entirely at her in her weakened state, and that seemed true right up until the charge. Five players, each with a ball in hand came charging toward the very edges of their side of the field, trying to get as close as possible for their throws. One of them broke off to target Reign, and the other four were aimed at Nadine. Wynn rushed forward to grab one while Nadine braced herself. Reign noticed one of the balls was coming straight at him but he didn't have time to dodge it and his hands weren't up. He only had one way to recover from this one. He leaned his head forward, hoping to have the ball strike his forehead and head straight down into his arms. That would have been another loophole the referees might let him get away with, but he couldn't be sure.

Wynn caught the ball he was after, outing one of the five. Reign caught the ball aimed at him, leaving them with three players. Nadine, caught the first two balls in her arms, but was struck by the third on the forehead and staggered backward several steps. It wasn't over yet, though. Trevor came running in as fast as he could, scooping up an idle ball on the way, and then threw it at the last remaining player. The surprise attack failed though and the ball was caught.

"Wrathdammit," he cursed as he was outed yet again. One of the other players quickly came back in and grabbed a ball, ready to throw it. Now they had two players on their side.

Since they had caught four of the five balls themselves, only Raquel and Adrian came back in as Nadine and Trevor were the default choices for reentry. Nadine didn't have to go anywhere, but she was still on the verge of collapsing.

"Five on two. We're winning no matter how you look at it," Reign gave his routine update.

"Get Raquel up front, quick ..."

"Playing that card again?"

"Y-yeah ... yeah we are ..." And then it happened. She collapsed onto her back.

"Shit! Nadine! Hold on a minute! We need a substitute!" For some reason the referees ignored his plea. The thought of getting hit didn't keep him from taking matters into his own hands and he quickly picked her up off the ground and began making his way off of the field as fast as he possibly could. The other players, trying to score easy outs threw their balls at them. Reign was in no position to dodge and leaping out of the way posed some serious risk to Nadine, so expected that it was over for them. He might be hit with both balls, she might be hit with both, or they each might take one, but there was little chance those throws were going to miss, not now.

That was when Nadine caught the both of them, the first with her hands, and the second between her calves. Game over. "No way ..." Reign uttered in shock. She soon dropped them and passed out. "Nadine ...? Hey! Nad- ... well ... I guess there's nothing else to say really, is there? Good game."

"No freaking way! Refs! You can't catch balls with your legs! That's against the rules, isn't it?" one of the outed players protested.

"Hahahahah, nothing in the rules against that, actually," a referee corrected. "Trevor's Wolves win."

------------

"Amazing! She caught it with her legs?!"

"Yeah, she really knows how to work those things. I just didn't think she'd resort to that at the last second. Might have picked her up sooner if I knew that was coming ..."

"You like her~" one of the children immediately accused him. "That's why you did it."

"Think what you want; that's the end of the story, at least if you want it ended on a high note ..."

Edited February 11, 2013 by Phoenix

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Oh good, a food stand. I need to refresh my own rations. Wasn't this a total stroke of luck! Gar thought as the Weyland woman stalled--ha--herself to grab a something to eat. It would only last a few seconds, but it was all the time Gar would need. He rushed forward at best possible speed--earning a couple weird glances for it--and reached the woman before she could take off again. At that point he less stopped and more slide on the ground to stop his impressive forward momentum. "Caught you," he claimed not a breath out of place. "As an earnest representative of the girl looking for a job offer from your employer I not-so-humbly ask you to stop."

[Snowy_One]

Little Mad Scientist

"Other cultures? They're interesting, sure, and I like to learn about the whys of why they do the things they do. Especially if I think I can use them one day to make my magical power even more awesome! I swear, one day I will be the most powerful mage in the world though and I will show everyone just how powerful water magic can be! Let those bullies who claimed thunder or dark magic better and thought water was useless in fights see the truth! And they shall know my name is Tia when I lay my vengeance down upon them! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

A glint of mad glee was in Tia's eye as she spoke those words, her voice elevating higher in tone with a clear hint of madness laden in, before stopping to take a deep breath and calm herself down a bit. "Sorry... I tend to slip in to those fits of madness at times when I think about how a few of the other mages treated me in the past. I'd like to know more about your magic though, maybe see it in action some day, but I think that will have to wait for now."

---

Glum, depressed, and solitary woman

Robin had kept quiet ever since her little talk with Zach's friend. She didn't really want to talk to anyone at the moment and, instead, had taken to sitting down on the edge of the dock, idly skipping small pebbles across the ocean surface as she tried to think her mind through. All she knew for certain was that, for now, she felt REALLY lonely, and was sad she had no friends, or even pets, to hug her.

[Mercakete]

The flight back to where the pegasus rider had assumed he'd find Raquel wasn't going quite as well as he'd hoped. Of course, that was partially due to something he felt he really should have expected by now: the wind was coming off the ocean while he was flying towards it. That is, Rizen was flying against the wind. Though they picked their currents as well as they could to compensate and the pegasus was, in fact, flying as quickly as she could, it still took a bit longer than it normally would have to reach the Dauntless. When they landed, however, Raquel wasn't there. Or at least, she wasn't in immediate sight. So, Norbert dismounted Rizen and climbed into the wagon. Raquel wasn't here either. Connor was, though.

"Hey, Connor," Bert hastily greeted then asked just as urgently, "Do you know where Raquel is?"

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

Gytha had found herself casually wandering one of her favorite daytime haunts of most any port: the markets. She'd been to this port before, but there had been quite the disturbance that day, too. Likely, the shops would be somewhat different. At least, that was her guess. As she was wandering, though, the mariner happened upon a few women from the group, all on horseback.

"'Hoy!" she cheerily greeted Synthia, Chelsea and Nadya, "Just so ye know, when yer reada t' head out, we're all gatherin' at that tower o'er there." She pointed out the building Raquel had shown her earlier.

[Phoenix]

Fast Food

While still jogging in place, Anna traded her gold for what looked to be a large bun and then turned toward Gar, looking a little oblivious at first. "... sooo, Suzume's looking for a job with Weyland huh? That must mean she doesn't plan on leaving Ursium any time soon which strikes me as kind of odd. Did you have anything else to relay for her or should I just wait until she catches up?" she asked, leaning to the side a bit to check on Suzume's progress. She was slowing down since there was no need to be running quite so fast anymore; neither Anna nor Gar appeared to be going anywhere.

Idle Dauntless

Why was Bert always looking for Raquel? That's what Gabbie was wondering when he showed up out of the blue and asked Connor about her. It wasn't important enough to her to prompt an investigation, though, so she simply tuned out the rest and returned to her thoughts.

Creeping Magic

"Uhhhhooookay?" Shadrak replied, not sure what else to add after that ... episode.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar pondered the absolute depths of his knowledge and came up with nothing. "Nope, just waiting time now." Gar suddenly remembered where they stood though and suddenly at the wonderful idea of restocking his own provisions.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Script

[scorri]

[spoiler=Mar/Zach lunch]

After they had searched around for a few minutes for a place to eat that seemed nice enough, the duo finally decided on a small diner. The aroma of fresh food flowing out it's doors was calling to both of them. Almost as soon as the sage and his companion had entered a peppy young waitress seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Hiya! If you'll just follow me I'll have you seated" said the girl with an almost unnatural smile on her face.

Glancing back at Marella for a moment Zach gave an internal shrug before following after the waitress. For the first time in a while the manners his Mother had taught him were kicking back in, pulling out Mar's chair first before seating himself. Almost in an instant the girl was off and back with two glasses of water. "So what'll it be for the cute couple~?" Almost causing Zach to choke on his water at the comment, coughing almost commically.

Marella snickered at Zach's reaction and then turned to the waitress. "Well, I was thinking I'd try the fish stew. I figure what with the ocean being right there, the fish must be fresh. How about you Zach? Care for any food or are you having enough trouble handling that water? Wouldn't want you to choke." She grinned cheekily at him to try and disguise the worry she was having. That reaction... What does that mean? Does he not want to be called a couple? I mean, we are moving awfully fast. And then there's the whole issue with Robin... Ugh, I could have handled that better. She just pissed me off so much... Right, Zach, me, us. I don't even know what to think. Maybe taking a step back isn't such a bad idea. I guess maybe I should see what he's thinking? Well, let him order food too. Don't want to be rude.

Zach waved his hand to ward off any concern while he finished up coughing. Finally catching his breath the young man answered "Y-yeah... I'm all right. Umm, I think I'll try out the fish stew as well, it should be pretty good after all." Once she had written down their orders the scarily peppy waitress was back off to deliver the order to the kitchen, a mischievous smirk on her face after the reaction Zach had given.

"S-sorry about that." Zach said once he and Marella were alone at their booth, for now atleast "She kinda caught me off guard with some like that ya know... You don't normally just here things like that out of the blue after all."

'Oh man I am totally screwing this up, why aren't the words working right... I was just surprised by what that girl said, this is all just so weird. I... how do I feel about Mar? She's more than a friend yeah, but what does that make her though. Whatever it is I don't think here is the right place to have the kind of conversation I'm thinking about. Maybe tonight we can talk in private a bit.'

Marella shrugged. "No problem. It was amusing. Though, you can't blame the girl. It's an easy assumption to make. We're together, alone, and you pulled out my chair for me." She took a sip of water and then continued, "It's the obvious conclusion to make, in fact. Not that I'm saying it's true. I'm just saying it's what people will assume." Man, I'm bad at this. Now he's going to think I don't want any relationship. Well... do I? It's all so confusing. Just focus on other things. "So, what was that thing they were unloading from the ship? I've never seen anything quite like it before."

"Yeah, I guess so. The assumption would be kinda easy to make..." Zach admitted, instinctively rubbing at the back of his neck. "But the chair thing is just something that Mother always told me to do. Heck she kinda taught me a lot about proper etiquette and what not. Being with Mas- sorry, Kerrigan for such a long time taught me a bit about high class, dancing and that kinda stuff." Taking a drink of his own water, without choking this time even! Zach continued "But that thing you saw was The Dauntless. It's Raquel's personal wagon that carries all of her merchandise. Don't be fooled by how it looks though really, that thing has quite a few tricks it can pull off."

'That uh, kinda sounded like she didn't want anything to do with me at all... Am I just making stupid assumptions in thinking someone like her would be interested in me?'

"Oh, I wasn't saying that you meant anything by it. I'm just saying what other people might say." Marella sighed. I sound so horrible right now. If he wasn't having doubts before, he almost certainly is now. "Oh, ok. That makes sense, I suppose. Just seems a bit... different from the standard merchant wagons I've seen."

"Right... yeah. Don't worry about it or anything like that okay?" Zach said, sounding a bit down. 'Yeah... I guess she really isn't interested. Last night was just a fluke and her feeling sorry for me.... But I swear I felt her kiss me back. What was that supposed to mean?'

Just as things were quieting down between the two their waitress popped back with their orders of stew. Placing it down in front of the couple "Now just say something if you need anything ok!? I'll be back later after you're done for the bill." Before slipping back away, seeing how the situation was between the duo

Ugh, he totally thinks I'm not interested. We need to figure this out... "Hey, want to hang out tonight? Talk some more about life and such? Feels like we both could use someone to just talk to." She took a bite of the fish stew. Hmm, not bad. "I just figure that having someone to talk to always helps. And it seems to help avoid situations like earlier where I had to go talk to Robin. She really needs to straighten some things out... She was not very happy with me."

Despite it all a small smile managed to creep it's way back onto Zach's face. "I'd like that Mar, talking to you normally helps me take my mind off of everything. " Trailing off before deciding to try some of his own stew. 'Huh, this is pretty good. So fresh...' Seems like this little conversation wasn't done just yet either "Yeah... I imagine Robin wouldn't bee too happy with how everything is, I certainly know I'm not... But still, thanks for looking out for me Mar."

"Yeah, she uh... she wasn't happy to hear some of the things I had to tell her. But that's not important. Like I said, it was nothing for you to worry about. And either way, it's over for now. Though I suppose you'll probably need to talk to her at some point... Running away can't solve your problems forever. Especially when one of your problems is also one of your traveling companions."

"I know... I'm gonna have to confront her about all of this eventually, even if I want to or not." Zach admitted with a tired sigh. "It's just, everything I've felt is just so fucked up you know? Almost feels like the only thing that's happened is more running from my problems. Ever since Mom passed maybe that's really all I have been doing..."

"Well, dealing with problems sucks, but you need to do it eventually, you know? Clearly running away hasn't helped anything. How about this. Why don't we talk about some of this stuff now? Like Robin. What's going on there? What exactly do you need to say to her to try and fix things between the two of you? For one thing, you need to clear up the relationship the two of you have..." Marella muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "crazy woman" under her breath.

"Well, I guess it's kinda like I explained last night I suppose? I love Robin, really I do, but not in the normal way. Maybe it'd be accurate to think of her as something similar to a little sister maybe? Whatever it is, it's not in the romantic fashion, that much I'm sure of..." Zach trailed off with a sigh. "Honestly Mar, I don't know what needs to be said to Robin to make things right. She's going to expect me to apologize to her, and maybe I should, but Robin probably doesn't register that she's at fault as well."

Marella muttered "Yeah, she doesn't." Quickly taking a bite of stew, she swallowed and then said, "Well, why don't you tell her that? Apologize, but also explain how she was wrong as well. Maybe she'll listen to you, maybe she won't. But you'll have given it a shot and that's all you can be expected to do. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to rebuild your relationship with her. Ah, friendship. That's what I meant. Clearly there's no interest there. You just said that. But... someone needs to take the first step. And she clearly isn't going to. So it's either have her treat you like you're dead for the rest of your lives or... talk to her."

"I'll try that after a while I think. Having that conversation so soon doesn't really feel right to me, plus if I wait a bit it'll let me think things over a bit more as well." Zach explained, before going back to his stew, it was turning out to be pretty tasty. "Hey Mar, you aren't... in a relationship with that Rook guy are you? After what I did last night I just wanna know if I'm messing with someone else's relationship." he softly asked

Marella almost spat stew into Zach's face at the question. She swallowed the stew and burst out laughing. "Him? No. No way. Man, he wishes. There's nothing you need to be worrying about there. Heck, I'd be more likely to date Andrei then I would him." She took a sip of water and then sighed. "I'm worried about you. I know you don't want to, but the sooner you talk to Robin, the better. Nothing good comes from letting a relationship fester like that. Obviously take some time if you need it, but... just keep it in mind, that's all." She looked down at her bowl and was surprised to see it was empty. "Well, I guess I'm done. You ready to head back to the ship?"

Zach gave an inner sigh of relief when Marella said there was nothing between her and Rook. That certainly would have made things awkward and complicated, and he'd be lying if he denied the fact made the sage a little bit hopeful on the inside. "Right, just wanted to clear that up." After a few more moments Zach's stew was gone as well, if he ever came back this way again the young man would note to stop by this diner for another serving. "I promise I'll talk to her, I just need some time to think everything over first you know? Anyways yeah, I'm ready to go back as well, let me just pay the bill first."

Suddenly on cue the waitress popped back up at their table. "Here you go sir, your bill. Make sure to come back and see us again okaaaaaaay~?"

'Riiiiiiight, okay.... Let's see here, WOAH this was how much? Gods no wonder it tasted so good then.' Surprised at how expensive the food had turned out to be Zach reluctantly handed over the coins.

"So, ready to back now?' He asked once the waitress was gone, making sure to leave a tip so there wouldn't be a last minute interruption

"Yeah, lets go. We wouldn't want to hold the rest of the group up." She smiled at him and headed back towards the ship.

As Marella and Zach approached the ship, Marella noticed that the Dauntless was off the ship and that Raquel was no where to be seen. "Hey, uh, Lightning Head. Looks like Raquel disappeared. Any clue what we should be up to now?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"It's been difficult, but we are looking," Veronika chimed in. And making no progress at all really- we're no closer to finding Jethro than when we first met really. she thought to herself glumly.

Nadya

"All right, we'll be there soon," she responded to Gytha. She thought about inviting her to lunch, but since she wasn't paying she thought that might be rude.

Connor

"She went to the port to go shopping. Oh, and we're all supposed to meet by that tower over there," he remembered, pointing it out to Bert.

[Mercakete]

What Connor had to say was both helpful and frustrating. It was frustrating because Raquel could be about anywhere in town and he couldn't see the interiors of any shops from the air so that made looking for her that much harder. It was helpful, however, for two reasons: firstly, he knew the general area to look in and he knew where she wasn't. Secondly, he knew where she would eventually be if he couldn't find her from the sky with a few passes. In the end, he was just a bit irritated at the circumstance.

"Thanks, Connor," Norbert replied before heading out of the Dauntless, getting back into Rizen's saddle and launching into the air again. This time the wind was with him, so doing a sweep of the markets from above to find anyone with pink hair wouldn't hardly take any time at all. Therefore, he planned to circle the market place a few times. After all, one pass at that speed wouldn't do anything for the search unless he spotted her right away, which was about as likely as not finding her.

[Eail]

"Ummm, not really sure." Zach admitted "She wouldn't have just up and left though, the others are probably still out as well. Maybe someone knows where we should go? Hmmm." Out of the corner of his eye the sage managed to spot Faatina still around the ship as well. "Oi, Tina! Do you know where Raquel wanted us to go?"

[Ether]

"Oh, Zach... to be completely honest, I missed her while I was getting my things ready... haha." Faatina replied, giving the back of her head a sheepish rub.

[GoD]

"Oh sure I don't- hey wait!"- she yelled at the moody mage and the greedy troubadour as she jumped atop Nenesha's back. Whispering to her trusty steed that he should hurry the fuck up and match pace and speed with the other two steeds, the horse gave an annoyed snort but complied with his masters orders.

When she got close enough to them, Chelsea resumed her conversation with the other two ladies. Cheslea first addressed Nadya with a cheeky grin and a laughably bad joke as well: "Well, if we aren't getting fish, and believe me I'm in the same boat as you so ex-nay on the fish....ays. If Synthia's been to Sergio before.."- the hungry troubadour locked her gaze upon the aforementioned mage and asked her "Hey do you know any shops that sell cake or sweets? We could eat those for lunch."

[Eail]

"Aw man... Well don't worry about it I guess. We're all in the same boat at this point right, any idea of who might know? I mean she has to have told someone where we need to meet up right." Zach said with a shrug

[Phoenix]

Ezio's Store

"You don't have any idea where he might be ... none at all?" Ezio asked, hoping they had some idea.

Honestly he could be literally anywhere by now and the trail had gone cold after just a few days ... it's been almost two months ... Raquel's grief was quickly catching up to her and she shook her head a few times to try and come back. "I uh ... I only know that my best chance of finding him is to confront the monster that took him."

Ezio nodded a few times in acknowledgement, deciding it might be best to stop there. "So ... what brings you to my shop today?"

"I was just passing through and wanted to say hi," she replied rather quietly.

"I see."

The hooded figure soon turned from the merchandise and exited the store and began leaning against the side of the building near the exit ... waiting.

"I ... I guess we should get going. I didn't want to be out here too long. It was nice seeing you again, Ezio."

"Likewise. Listen, when you find Jethro ... and you will find him--I've got no doubts about that--tell'em I said ... tell'em I said to bring me back some better goods next time ... heheh. Yeah ... don't forget, child."

"I won't."

Some Bun Store

Anna slowed her idle jogging until she was simply standing there since she figured this conversation could take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes despite how she planned on dealing with it.

Suzume finally caught up and said, "I'm sorry, I was trying to catch you before you set out. I was wondering how much you could tell me about Weyland Enterprises and if it would be possible for me to find work with that company ... good paying work, mind you."

Instead of an immediate verbal answer like Suzume was expecting, Anna took off her backpack, set it on the ground, and then began digging through it for something. She quickly whipped out a large notebook and a pencil and presented them to Suzume. The first thing she noticed about the notebook is that it had lots of remarkably well drawn separators and some other names written down along with some other miscellaneous information about them. It was definitely what it looked like ... an application list that Anna just happened to keep with her. She wondered who else was hitting this woman up for work as she reluctantly took the notebook and the pencil.

Finally Anna spoke. "Just use the next empty space~"

Suzume simply nodded in response and began looking over what she would need to write down. Name, obviously; age, understandable; sex, much the same; height and weight, sounded less relevant, but probably needful or useful for something or other; combat style and skills, this one would take up some space to fill out, and luckily there was some room for that. The other entries on the list asked about her availability, desired/required income, religion, and unusual or notable moral views, something she wasn't expecting at all. Once she was finished filling out the form, she gave it back to Anna.

"Thank you for considering Weyland Enterprises and rest assured, Weyland Enterprises is considering you~ If you'd like to showcase yourself in person, I'd recommend heading up to Europa or the capital to one of our main offices."

"Huh ... oookay." She wouldn't have been surprised to be referred to one of those cities before having to fill out that form, but now it just seemed redundant. She was still considering it though, if only because redundancy could greatly improve her chances.