Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I'm not even sure I'm getting water," Gar replied as he looked over the menu. He had to admit he'd had a hankering for some actually cooked food. Living off of what he could scrape from the galley meant he hadn't had meat or anything complex in too long. On the other hand if the cooks or servers of this place had a negative recollection of him they'd probably try and poison him. That was pretty much the reason he always controlled what he ate. Still he was at the mercies of grocers, but they were about the one people he went out of his way to be cordial to at all times. Still there was always family and other types of relations. And all of this got away from the true purpose of this meeting. Ah well, he'd gotten this far. Might as well see how spectacular pressing his luck this much would come back to bite him in the ass. "Might as well go full on with some rigorous steak. Mm mm steak."

The waitress of course appeared like waitress were want to do in this type of situation. "That's one steak, and you miss?"

[Phoenix]

Heading Back

"Okay, let's head back and get ready to move the Dauntless," Raquel decided. Hopefully Bert would think to warn people that they had a prisoner with a bit of free rein, but in case he didn't, she was thinking of having Colin put his hood back on.

"So ... what are the odds someone takes a shot at me once we show up?" Colin inquired with a smirk.

"None. Put your hood on and try not to act suspicious," Raquel said in a demanding tone.

Colin complied within a couple of seconds and asked, "Mind if I walk closer to you? Out front of course. People might worry less and I'd personally be a little more comfortable."

"I'd be more uncomfortable, so no."

"Fine ... worst date ever ...." he feigned a bit of moping.

"It's not a date!"

Ordering

Suzume thought about ordering the same, but she had the overwhelming misfortune of never having eaten a tender steak in her entire life. Needless to say she had some reservations about placing the same order when that came to mind. "Uhhh, I never luck out with steak. Maybe ..." She quickly paused to scan the menu again, hoping to quickly come up with an alternative. "Maybeeee this ... 'chicken soup'?" She looked at the entry again and said, "Why is it spelled like that?" under her breath.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Revealing their destination to Colin was slightly unfortunate, but the organization already knew they were in league with Weyland anyway. She wasn't sure what to do about the supplies issue- sending Colin or relying on the Organization were obviously stupid ideas, so sending a member of their group the Wrathites didn't know like Gar or Katrina seemed a good alternative. The news about dragon slayers and avatars of Wrath was unsettling to say the least. Maybe we should look for an opportunity to get out of Ursium while we can...perhaps this meeting with the Organization will end things once and for all, she tried to think to herself optimistically, though that sounded hollow even in her own mind.

"I'll keep our group from attacking you once your identity is revealed. This is not an invitation to provoke them however," Veronika warned Colin, sensing an unpleasant altercation between him and Shadrak in the near future.

[roymbrog]

Steak it is, to the north of town it was, and soon the three horse people and Gytha were surrounded by a few eatery choices. One, a standard sit down affair next to where they stopped. Second, a restaurant down the street with a few tables outside, but most people seemed to just be picking up their food and leaving. There was also a stand selling sandwiches that Synthia had her eye on. That had been more the type of thing she was considering in the first place. The problem though was that it was unlikely they had, uh, steak.

“I think I’m just going to get a sandwich. I’ll come sit with you guys wherever you end up going, though,” the mage said.

OoC: 65% chance the sit down restaurant contains Suzume and Gar. Don't ask me how I calculated that.

-----

The Dauntless was still near the ship, as Valter had assumed. He took to simply hanging around nearby. Someone would return for it soon enough, and he wasn't too keen on interrupting Tia and Shadrak's conversation after earlier. Or just in general, really.

[Mercakete]

"Mmm sounds like a good idea!" Gytha happily replied to Synthia's comment, "Think I'll get one, too, if ye don't mind. Haharr!"

Gytha figured Synthia wouldn't mind, so the added bit was more of a light-hearted attachment to the main statement. It did serve the purpose of giving Synthia the opportunity to deny her coming along if she wanted, though.

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

"Blasted port wind always coming off the water..." Norbert grumbled as Rizen flew as quickly against the wind as she could in the direction her rider guided her. She was actually rather enjoying this flight. She was pumping her wings with as much force as she could and nothing was trying to hunt her or her rider down. Her wing muscles felt excellent! She was quite content when she touched down near the Dauntless. So much so that she didn't pick up on Norbert's stress right away.

There were a few group members waiting around by the Dauntless already, so that was a good start. So, without prelude, the pegasus rider simply announced as he pointed out the tower, "Everyone with Raquel, listen up! We're all meeting by that tower as soon as possible! If you know where anyone else is or can gather people up quickly, tell everyone you can! We're gathering there and leaving soon!"

That was really all he was there to say and he had people to look for, so he planned to take off immediately and see who was already at the tower. He waited a moment to see if anyone actually knew where some of the others were first, though, and to see who would help join the search and who would go to the tower. It'd help him figure out who he would need to look for.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Mercakete

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Steak and chicken soup," the waitress nodded. "I'll be back with your waters in the meantime."

"Yeah, speaking of that," Gar grabbed the waitress' attention before she got away. "Why no drink selection."

"A couple years back some drunk really tore up the place, we've prohibited alcohol ever since," she said before hurrying off.

Hope that wasn't me, Gar thought while stroking his chin. "So, first time having chicken soup?"

[Eail]

redacted

Edited February 18, 2013 by Eail

[Snowy_One]

"I think that's a call for us." said Tia with a smile as she turned around to head down the docks towards the tower, eager to have her books fixed. As she did so, she passed by Robin, who slowly got up and followed in kind, being sure to avoid eye contact with the others as she slowly made her way to the tower.

[Snike]

"I kind of figured as much. And gotcha," Axel said, as Veronika left. He could begin meeting the newbies, but instead, the man decided to check around to see if there was anyone inordinately interested in the group or the Prometheus in general. To the best of his knowledge, there was not. Well, since that was done, and the port had already bored him enough, the lancer made his way to the watch tower that a few people mentioned would be the meeting point. Somehow, he doubted that he and the others would have to wait for long.

***

The transfer was over in a relatively short period of time, after which Blake, once he had retrieved his staff, made his way to the watch tower. After sitting down and laying the carved weapon on the ground in front of him, he took out his strategy book, found where he had left off, and resumed reading the tome. The man couldn't well practice his swordplay in public, so tactics would have to do.

***

Well, Grant eventually got up, found out that the Prometheus was in port, refroze the bodies, ran back up to main deck, and arranged for said corpses to be placed in the coffins someone had created, at which point said containers would be carried up to the Dauntless. In that order. Unfortunately for the duelist, who was eager for solid ground and the freedom from having to avoid Fairweather it entailed, a rather rough-looking pegasus rider announced that they all were meeting by the tower- the watch tower to the north, probably- and were to leave shortly. Great, now they were on a schedule. The duelist briefly wondered why he hadn't heard about this before, but put that thought aside to actually begin the journey to the watch tower. There was always time to harass upper management later.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Snike

[Phoenix]

Streets

Colin raised an eyebrow at Veronika. "Exactly why would I 'provoke' anyone right now? You people haven't been paying much attention to what I've been saying, have you ...?" He sighed. "I guess that's about all I can expect at this point; you people are way too sensitive."

"Urgh! You know, there are a few people in the group that would provoke," Raquel warned.

"Then they're too wrathdamn sensitive, like I said. Honestly how many of your people have we actually killed? Don't even count Dolin and his people because they'd gone rogue and if you had just butted out we would have killed them ourselves. So how many of you have we killed? If you think the scores of our men you've cut down is justified because you're the 'good guys' then consider this. What makes you the good guys? What makes us the bad guys?"

"You kidnapped my father, tried to kill my friends, killed dozens of innocent people, hounded us across the country and beyond, and will probably try to kill us again as soon as we let our guard down. You're bad guys, villains, despicable, and nothing you say is going to blur the lines. I don't want to call us 'good guys' ... I'm just trying to get my father back and I've been forced to make some big moral concessions in order to do it. Others are here for their own reasons."

"Ah, so you don't picture yourselves as the heroes and heroines in this struggle? Or at least you don't? That's ... surprising. Pleasantly surprising mind you," he replied with a smile. "I don't run into many people who can assume so much hatred without glorifying or victimizing themselves in order to justify everything they do~"

"I have to send my friends off to kill every time an enemy shows up. Each time, I have to sit back and watch from safety or get cut down by the enemy while trying to help. I put some important principles on the shelf for the sake of this mission and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. I feel like anything but heroic," Raquel explained.

Cut down? Whoa, you'd think she'd have a bodyguard or something ... "I see .... Sorry to hear that, but at least you're trying~"

Dauntless

Gabbie listened to Bert's news and sighed, figuring now was probably a good time for her to be helping out, but like always helping out meant pretending nothing bad could possibly happen to Connor while she was gone, and oddly enough, Ursium was slightly more dangerous for Weyland's heir than anywhere else as a whole. Here he was actually relevant. Still, she pretended nothing would go wrong while she was gone and hopped onto Ringo. "Okay, Connor, I'm going to go have a look around. I'm sure they'll be back to pick up the Dauntless soon so just wait in there with the monkey. Oh and shut the door," she instructed.

Shadrak meanwhile was having reservations about leaving the Dauntless only partially attended. "Actually, Tia, I think I'll just wait for Raquel here. If you want to go ahead to the tower, I'll see you there I guess." Seeing Robin walk by was a little depressing, but if it had anything to do with Zach, he had already said his peace, all of it. What more was there to say on that matter, really? "Err, Robin? Are you okay?" Of course not saying anything was just begging for chopped liver status in return later on.

Tower

"So you think five people on each team would be good?" one of the children asked Reign.

"Five's not too big or small for what you're trying to do here, and it should be easier to play more games more often since you won't have to involve your entire neighborhood."

"There's only seven boys on our street though. The rest are girls ..." the other boy chimed in. "I don't want the girls playing with us. They cry whenever they get hit."

"Have you tried not hitting them square in the face?" Reign asked. He noticed the other kid reaching and decided to hand him another of Zoe's scones. He was grateful and quickly began munching on it.

"Ummm ... no?"

"I know!" The scone muncher ceased his munching for a moment and gave a crumb lined smile to Reign and his friend. "We can train them! They can be like Nadine!"

"That's too many damn Nadines," Reign muttered.

Restaurant

"Sort of. It's the first time I'll be trying someone else's; the spelling in common just throws me off sometimes," Suzume gave half her answer to start. "I've made some myself a few times when jerky was starting to get on my nerves. I think I had reached the end of my rope and gotten a taste for moister foods was when I spent weeks out in the wilderness with nothing but jerky and old rations." She began scratching her head nervously as she said, "I think I went a little crazy back there, heheh," imagining her desperate attempts to soak her foods in a spring for a time before she dared eat them. Then her expression faded back to a more casual one as she continued. "I can handle eating dry foods ... I guess, it's just I really prefer something wetter or at least moist. And that's why just about the only thing I know how to make is soup ... yeah."

[Snowy_One]

"No. No I'm not." said Robin, a bitter tone in her voice, but more hurt than actually angry. "It is that new girl. Look, Zach and I have had a rocky relationship ever since he came back. All I wanted him to do was to try and give me some attention and make him happy, but all his focus was on Lia and her death so... I told him point blank that he is dead to me. Now this new girl, Miri or whatever her name is, comes along and thinks she knows Zach, he flaws, his problems, and everything because of one conversation and now just flat-out told me I am a heartless bitch because of how I have treated him."

"What?" asked Tia. "What's going on? Shadrak, do you know what's going on?"

"Oh great. Another young magical girl for him to dote on."

"Huh?"

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

"I could eat a sandwich or a steak. Your call Blondie, you're buyin'," she said to Chelsea.

Veronika

"We may not be the heroes in this struggle- but you lot are most certainly the villains. Failing to kill us is not an excuse. You're little more than a bunch of ambitious bandits and pretending you're anything more is a lie," she said, deciding to give Colin a piece of her mind.

Connor

"Ok," Connor agreed somewhat reluctantly, shutting the door. I thought we'd be safe once we got back to Ursium...seems like we ended up with more problems. I can't even get home without violence...what's this world coming to? he thought glumly.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I could imagine," Gar murmured. He'd taken probably a year to learn Kigenese and even then he wasn't perfect with it. Was Suzzy Q Kigenese? Well her name certainly was. Well, that wasn't important ever, just something to amuse himself with. "Oh yeah, moist food is the best. That's always why I carry apples around, they keep their nice freshness for so long. Dry food just reminds me of my desert trip," Gar shook his head at the misery of even recalling that. "I still get an unquenchable thirst whenever I think about that place." And to demonstrate he took a long drink from his glass of water.

Wait where'd it come from? Man that waitress was good.

[Mercakete]

Most of those in the immediate area seemed to be headed for the tower he'd indicated. A few were staying, though he supposed they wouldn't be long. It looked like Gabbie was on her way to help with gathering people up. Well, that was good enough. Without further delay, Norbert and Rizen took to the skies again. This time, though, since they were starting from the docks, it was a much easier flight. Rizen could practically just glide on the wind and still manage a good pace. And so, Norbert landed at the tower within a fairly short span of time. The good news was that there were already some people there. The bad news was that there were only a few of the group members there.

"Raquel and some of the others are on their way," Norbert informed the few that were waiting around, "I'm going to try to find those who aren't heading over here yet; we're leaving soon."

Not seeing any reason to stick around any longer, Norbert and Rizen took to the skies yet again. Now came the tedious part. The group members who he hadn't seen yet could be anywhere in the port. That included inside buildings or under the covers over some of the stalls in the markets, which would mean he couldn't see them from above. With a grimace, Norbert began to realize something he didn't really want to admit: he was beginning to see why Raquel didn't like members straying from the collective. Instead of acknowledging that, though, he simply focused on the task at hand. Or, perhaps more appropriately, the task at wing.

Thinking on where various members were most likely to go, the pegasus rider first decided to fly over the markets. He'd land after a pass, since that would give him a better view of the people in the market area, though he knew that ground travel was slower than air travel if only because of the traffic. Well, there was nothing to be done about that, so he simply pressed on with the search.

[Phoenix]

Streets

"Heh, save that line for Sardis, lady. I'm just a mercenary on a long term contract. Anyone truly loyal to the cause can refute your points until they're blue in the face for all I care," Colin replied.

"So they hire mercenaries too ...?" Raquel found that somewhat interesting. It was once again defying her image of Sardis' organization but was less annoying than Colin simply being a carefree lech.

"No, we have hundreds upon hundreds of zealous warriors under our thumb ready to take on our enemies at the drop of a hat," Colin sarcastically shot back. "We meet our friends the same way you do, Raquel. Money. That's how I was bought, though just like you there are at least a few people around who are real believers and some others that just damn good friends."

Yes, yes, you're people too. I don't care! Raquel fumed in silence.

Dauntless

Now that Connor was in the Dauntless, Gabbie felt fine leaving to find the others, though she wasn't in a particular hurry and didn't plan on looking very hard. In actuality, she was just going to do a bit of thinking along the way. In the air was where she preferred to do her serious thinking but she didn't always have the time. But now, she was off and airborne.

Shadrak meanwhile could only grimace at what he was hearing. Why was Robin attracting such grief into her life? Tia was apparently curious too but asked Shadrak since she was more familiar with him and that meant he would either have to slap a 'private matter' tag on Robin's topic, or try to explain it somehow. He went with the former for the moment. If Robin wanted to share, that was her choice, not his. "Don't worry about it, Tia. It's ... not something you should really be focused on right now. And Robin, maybe you should stay here for the moment too. Zachary just headed off to the tower, or at least that's what it looked like. You'd inevitably run into him there and I doubt there's a wall you can use besides the Dauntless. Basically what I mean is maybe you should wait here for now and ... hang out with us." He shrugged. His message had fallen apart rather quickly but luckily not before he got the gist of it out.

Tower

Bert came, delivered his message and then left, so Reign didn't really have anything to say to that but took note just the same. "So like I was saying, don't aim for the face, don't shout or do anything needlessly harsh, and don't put up any pointless restrictions based on gender and you should be fine."

"Pointless restrictions based on gender?" the child echoed.

"Yeah, remember when I told you about how Trevor made Nadine the team captain for the rest of the game when we were losing? We won that game, remember? I seriously doubt it would have happened if he hadn't, close call or not," Reign explained.

"Yeah, but Nadine is tough, like a boy."

"Tough like a military officer, more like it," Reign said as his face took on a tired sickly expression. Vivid flashbacks were coming in, clearly.

"The girls will be more like Raquel and just get hit, and then we'll lose more players because we don't have anyone like Wynn."

"Eh, everyone's unique. Play a few games and see what happens."

Restaurant

"That sounds awful. I at least had water around, though the mountain forests have their own problems that desert probably doesn't ... like wolves. Not as bad as the dire wolves they have up north, though. That's even worse," Suzume said. She then noticed that her water was sitting next to her too and stared at it without really thinking for a few moments. Then it hit her. "Wait, when ..." Scanning the area was no indication or help. "I bet the same thing is going to happen with the bill ... poof," she said, grinning a bit as she put the water to her lips and took a careful sip. "But back to the other thing. What do you know how to make ... err-food I mean ...?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yeah I have no idea either," Gar reluctantly let out. "And I'm supposed to be good at this sort of thing." He shook his head and cleared his thoughts with another sip of water. Man, that was good for water. Well usually he just drank from his waterskin, so after that probably any water that wasn't malicious would be good. Water aside and food forward though. "Little bit of everything," Gar answered. "I'm no palace chef but I can get by on my own power just about all the time."

[roymbrog]

Well it seemed Valter had returned just in time, as Bert had flown in informing everyone that they needed to leave. That was all well and good for the people on foot who couldn’t keep up with the Dauntless, but the horseman didn’t necessarily see a reason to leave immediately. Raquel wasn’t back yet and he was pretty sure the wagon wasn’t moving till she was. Count in that half the people who had been watching it just left, and he saw a very valid excuse to sit nearby and take a short nap.

-----

“Why would I mind?” was Synthia’s response to Gytha. The mage’s small smile meant that the question was an affirmation that she didn’t mind rather than a genuine inquiry. Now she just had to wait on Chelsea’s opinion. If she was coming with they could just go over together, and if not she needed to know where to meet them.

[Snowy_One]

Robin looked at Shadrak and Tia, unsure if she should accept or not. "You're worried I can not handle Zach, are you? I'm sure I can but, you are right, I do not want to face him now. Especially with his girl-toy around."

"Well, if he bothers you that much, why not just fire him out of a catapult or something?"

"What? That seems extreme and would make me a murderer! I am not a murderer! I try to not kill people even when we fight bandits."

"So... You fight people, wound and maim them horribly, then leave them to die? Wow... That seems stupid."

[Eail]

Zach

After Norbert had made his announcement Zach gave a shrug "Seems that solves that problem doesn't it? Kinda sounds like we're leaving soon though." Oh well, Zach had everything he needed on him anyways, so it wasn't like there was any reason to make a trip back into the ship. Sparing a glance to the coffins on top of the wagon he began to walk off in the direction of the tower, the others would certainly be behind him anyways.

At the tower the sage noticed a certain blue haired swordsman off to the side reading. This seemed to be as good a time as any, so he walked over with a wave of greeting and sat down next to Blake. "Hey... you mind if we talk a bit Blake? There's a few things I wouldn't mind discussing about the group."

Luka

As he was coming up from the stables with Rika, Luka managed to also hear the announcement from Norbert about their destination. A few people seemed to already be leaving, or gone, but there were still some others around. Leading the pegasus down on to solid ground the boy could tell just how ready Rika was to fly, and he really didn't plan on having to make her wait any longer. Didn't mean he couldn't try to do a good deed though.

"Anyone want a ride to the tower? Rika can handle someone else aside from me. Especially with how much energy she has stored up."

Edited February 18, 2013 by Eail

[Snike]

Right, well, that it sounded like something came up, judging by what Norbert said, so, Blake had best read fast. Or not read at all, seeing as Zachary had decided to show up and apparently wanted to talk about the group. Given that nothing appeared to be aflame for the time being, the swordsman closed his book and put it away.

"Alright, then," Blake said evenly, "What would you like to discuss?" Best not dance around the point.

[Eail]

"Well, to put it bluntly I suppose... You're an enigma to me. I know something about just nearly everyone in this group that was here when I joined. Dossiers and all remember?" Zach said, pulling out said files that he had saved. Handing them over to Blake. "Raquel? I know just about everything. You? Not so much."

Leaning back against the wall Zach continued "Yet despite all of that I still trust you, more than most people to tell the truth. Simply because you know what you're doing. Plus despite how badly everything turned out during our last fight you and I managed to work well together"

"But what I really came here to talk about, do you think we really stand a chance in all of this? We have to be the most ragtag group of individuals ever, children, people that are quite possibly literally insane, etc. And while I do trust Raquel the poor girl isn't exactly the greatest leader there is you know?...."

[GoD]

And they finally arrived to the place where the delicious food was held, and Synthia seemed to had an eye out for the sandwiches with Nadya being non-nonchalant about the situation and Gytha being.... well Gytha. Since Chelsea didn't mind that they would eat sandwiches, really she could eat steak another time she decided to speak her mind.

"It'll take too much time to buy the sandwiches and then the steaks. And since I'm the one paying for three, I should listen to your request and just get whatever you want. Besides there's always another time for Steaks, so yeah, sandwich Hooooooo!!"- the female troubadour told the rest of the femme fatale and waited for Synthia's response. Hopefully they would get the food soon, she was hungry and might not last any longer.

[roymbrog]

“Alright, on to sandwiches, then,” Synthia said, urging her horse forward. When she neared the stand she dismounted and walked the rest of the way before looking at the painted menu on the side of the structure. “Hey, good news, Chelsea. They have a steak sandwich,” she said before turning to the woman operating the place. “Can I get the cucumber sandwich please?”

“Certainly,” was the woman’s reply, and she started preparing one.

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

"Ooh steak sandwich," Nadya said excitedly, riding up behind Synthia. "I'll order a steak sandwich please, thank ya very much much," she said to the sandwich maker woman. She hadn't eaten badly on the ship- she made a fair amount of it herself after all- but it was nice to have someone else do the cooking.

Veronika

"Working for criminals still makes you one, regardless of your motivations," Veronika retorted to Colin stubbornly. She could see the Dauntless in the distance.

Edited February 18, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Mercakete]

"I'm payin' fer mine separatela!" Gytha informed the lady serving sandwiches. After a quick glance through the menu, she added, "I'll take yer fish sandwich!" Not too specific on the kind o' fish. Wonder what sort it is.

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

Norbert was somewhat surprised to find he recognized some of the people in a part of the markets that looked to be dedicated to food. It wasn't because he didn't expect to find anyone there -- on the contrary, it was why he was searching in that area. It was because he hadn't expected to find group members from the air as opposed to on the ground. Well, they'd been found, so Norbert and Rizen landed nearby and he rode up to the group of four sandwich-munching women.

"Hey. We're leaving soon," Norbert started. Gytha's comment stopped his news halfway, though.

"Guess that means it's time t' go t' th' tower, then," she mentioned. The sandwich really was delicious.

"Uh, yeah. You know where to go, then?" he asked.

Gytha simply nodded as her mouth had sandwich in it again. The question had been for the group in general, though.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Mercakete