Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Snike]

Blake was jolted back to reality by Chelsea cursing into the air. Oh boy, now what? The swordsman took stock of the situation. A few more people had left for reasons unknown, but while that was annoying, that wasn't the issue at hand here. Chelsea was looking towards Raquel, Shadrak, a newcomer, and the prisoner, while drawing her light tome. Given that Shadrak explained the situation- it sounded like this guy was a womanizer- it probably was the same guy from the manse. Oh dear. The mercenary made his way closer, staff in hand and ready to intervene. He doubted he'd need it, seeing as Veronika took over the explanation, but it was better than resorting to his sword if something did erupt.

***

The crisis dissipated by itself, though Veronika did step in, ineffectually, afterwards, which essentially allowed Robin to run off, with little ado. This was despite the fact that they were supposed to be leaving shortly. Before he could get a snarky remark off, a troubador - Chelsea, if he was remembering correctly- went off and appeared to be getting ready to kill the hooded man. Luckily, a few others stepped in while Veronika explained that he was leverage. Expendable leverage if the enemy was willing to send him in, but leverage nonetheless. Looks like he wouldn't need to intervene, after all.

***

Some argument involving Fairweather had erupted, and ended just before a troubador went and had an outburst, which was being dealt with right now. Grant kept an even expression, but was quickly growing impatient. Shouldn't they be off by now?

[Snowy_One]

Robin looked down from her perch atop the tree, removing another shard, this one from her chest. She wasn't sure exactly what to say. Telling the truth and talking in general had not helped out so much so far, but being silent? Would that help? Would ignoring somehow make it stop either? Part of her wanted to snap out, be mad and angry, and... drive away the only person who was actually trying to help her it sounded like.

"I just want to be alone." she said after a moment. "Zach and I have had a falling out. Zach wants me to leave him alone so he can be with Lia and his new... girlfriend. They confront and challenge me on every issue and want me to stay out of their lives. Marella was mad at me for punching Rook when he did not mind his tongue around Tia. Zach supported her as well. I just want to be left alone. Anything I do seems to only make more enemies and hurt me more. When someone gets mad at me, I have provoked them. When someone hurts me, I am to blame. I do not want that any more. It hurts to do anything, so I will stop doing anything."

[Phoenix]

Store

"You're paying? Huh ..." I wasn't going to ask but ... that would save me some extra money for the trip. I might have more rooming expenses to worry about in this country than I originally thought. "Thank you, Gar. I wasn't expecting that but I'm grateful."

The woman returned with four mostly identical tunics, but they were all different colors as she'd said. One was a pale enough blue to be considered white to the untrained eye, another was beige, the third was a dull red, and the last was dark blue. All of the colors were essentially dull or subdued in appearance, but it made them harmless to onlookers under any lighting, unlike a few of the other bolder colored items on display. "Now I know at least a couple of these will suit you just nicely~"

We shall see, shopkeeper lady. We shall see ....

Outside Store

"Bah, wrathdamn skotian sympathizers," the man concluded, shaking his head at Bert before deciding to go about his business.

To Bert's question, Gabbie said, "Eh, not really. Would certainly be noice if he turned out to be shopping in there." She pointed at the store nearby. "Hmm, I'd actually do some shopping myself but I'd rather raid Weyland's safe first. I dunno exactly how much I'm going to have to spend on myself and Ringo between here and Europa."

Tower and Dauntless ... Mostly Dauntless

"Well," Raquel began to give her own input. "Sardis wants a 'meeting' apparently, and not to fight. I know, I don't trust him either, but if we wait too long, I'm worried he'll interpret that as us preparing for an attack and then change his plans to match. This is as close as we've ever been to rescuing my father and I don't want anything to go wrong .... Thirty miles ... he's just thirty miles from here right now." With that thought fresh in her mind, Raquel's mood was now rather melancholy.

Road

"Thanks again, guys! This is a big help~" Anna said to the bandits. She was riding as a passenger with one while the others road behind and alongside them. She kept her backpack on for obvious reasons.

"Not sure why you're thankin' us, lady. For all you know, we're takin' you back to our hideout," the bandit noted.

"You can take me to your hideout or to Urquium, but be warned, I'm only paying you for the latter and refuse to fall behind schedule."

"... right ... whatever 'refusing to fall behind schedule' means."

"It means you won't get paid and you'll be down one horse~"

"Urk-... urgh." Why is she so confident? It's irking the tar out of me. She's practically a hostage right now and thinks we'll take her wherever she wants to go ... urgh ... yeah I'm done thinking about this. I'm just done. We'll decide once we get closer what we're going to do with her.

[Mercakete]

Norbert shot the townsman a fiery glare, but that was really all he could do as Gabbie began to answer his question. That gave him enough time to think a bit more rationally, too. He's doing exactly what I asked him to. I...can let that comment go. Who cares, anyway? I actually do know some 'Skotians, too. Does that make me a sympathizer? Not really... Bah, I have more important things to think about!

"Yeah, that would be nice," Norbert agreed a little distractedly, "We can't check every store, though. If we want to find him, though -- and Raquel's going to keep sending us back until we do anyway -- we might have to do just that... Grr blasted, air-headed people who don't tell anyone where they're going..."

[Ether]

"That's odd, Zach doesn't seem the type." Faatina replied, thinking it over a bit to herself before continuing.

"Lia... she was that girl from the manor... she was one of the ones who didn't make it out of that last fight alive... I think that she meant a lot to him... he was the one who convinced us to save her, and then so soon after, she..." Faatina took a slight pause, and a breath. The girl's corpse had been far from a pretty sight, and Faatina was still a tad shaken by the whole affair... she had killed people before herself, but this wasn't a grizzled warrior or a seasoned mercenary... it was a small girl.

"I don't know the details, Robin. I don't know Zach as well as you do, I don't know what happened... but I think it might have just been too soon for him. I saw him when he saw her body... that's not the sort of look you forget Robin... he looked mortified, ashamed, scared... everything he had done for her and in an instant she was gone. People don't think straight when that sort of thing happens... you probably tried to comfort him when he wasn't ready yet, he probably lashed out because he was confused... and I think that when something like that happens, sometimes it can get in the way of two people making up." Faatina continued, giving her thoughts on what might have gone down... at the very least, it seemed like the sort of thing that could feasibly happen considering how passionate both parties could be about some things.

"As for Rook... I haven't spoken much with him, but he seems a man set in his ways... I don't think he is the sort you can silence through force of will or words... I think it might be a better approach to advise this 'Tia' to steer clear, rather than attempt to change that type of man... as for the fisticuffs, had it stopped at that, I think it would have been left alone... brawls happen all too often over disputes, a punch or two are thrown, and people move on... I think the reason you were singled out was because you drew your weapon and he didn't... it's easier to blame one person over another when only one takes action, y'know?" Faatina added in regards to Rook, before dismounting Sharif and hauling herself up into the tree beside Robin... it was a bit more cumbersome than she would have liked due to her armour, but she managed to make it up without any falls or general stupidity. Taking a seat next to Robin, Faatina allowed her legs to dangle from the branch leisurely.

"In the end, what matters is what you do now... nothing can change what has already happened. Tell me Robin, do you really believe that being alone will make you happy? Are you really willing to give up everything you two had over a fight or two? Forget Rook for a minute, and think about Zach. Will cutting your ties with him really make you happier than making up with him, regardless of who was right and who was wrong?" Faatina asked, taking a slight pause before continuing.

"When people fight, it is very rare that one is right, and one is wrong... the world isn't that clear cut. Usually, both sides are right about some things, and wrong about others... two people will never see something the exact same way, y'know? Sometimes it's better to take a fall and let something blow over so that you can save a friendship, instead of letting it die just because neither side was willing to admit that maybe they weren't entirely right. If you guys make up from this, in a few months, maybe a year if it's real bad, this fight won't mean anything... hell, neither of you will probably remember it at all... but if you let this be the end, then this one fight that could have been nothing? It becomes the most important thing, because it became the reason you guys aren't friends anymore... no disagreement, no lashing of the tongue is worth that... atleast that's what I think." Faatina finished, before letting out a deep sigh.

"So what do you say, Robin? Want a ride back so you don't need to track us down later?"

[Snowy_One]

"Maybe in a little bit. I still do not want to go back just yet. No, I do not think being alone will make me happy. I have been alone most of my life. Even when Zach was my friend I would be alone on most hunting trips. But now... Now being alone is the only way to stop the fighting. It hurts less, even though I am bleeding, than in having another fight happen. I just... I know you are right, at least in part. I just... What you ask is something so risky. If it is not done right it will ruin whatever mite of a chance I might have."

---

Tia took a small gulp as she approached Raquel. She could see the others were talking and busy, but she was curious! Interested!

"Umm... Excuse me but... Would any of you be interested in letting me experiment around a bit?" she said, keeping her voice low as she practiced what she was going to say. Intruding wasn't her specialty for sure.

[Ether]

"All I ask is that you make sure you know what you're doing before you do it... it's far too easy to let a single reckless decision forever change things for the worse." Faatina replied, before readying herself to leap down from the branch.

"And to remind you that you don't need to go at everything alone, Robin. You haven't burned all of your bridges yet, y'know? Well, I've said my piece, I'll let you be." Faatina finished, before taking a leap from the tree, taking a tumble into the grass below so as to not apply too much pressure to her leg... can never be too careful.

"So if you need anything in the future, let me know, okay?" Faatina called up to the huntress, before mounting Sharif and preparing to head back.

[Snowy_One]

"Wait. I will ride back with you." said Robin, jumping down and landing easily on the ground before coming up alongside Sharif to ride back with Tina.

[Ether]

"Sure, hop on." Faatina replied, helping Robin mount Sharif, before riding back towards the others.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"You're under a tighter financial strain than I am, so it's only natural," Gar replied before the shop-lady came back with some new, and ugly, colors. Beige? Who would make a beige anything? Well, probably some walls, but who wants beige clothes? That nearly-white blue wasn't too hot either. Which left red, blue and the initial one.

[Phoenix]

Outside Store

"Check every store, huh? Would Gar even be in a store? Eh, no matter. I could use a new outfit anyway so I'll be roight back. Keep an eye on Ringo for a minute, would you?" Not really waiting for any sort of confirmation on that, she wandered into the clothing store with little more than the bag she carried her money in. Even her lance was still secured to the saddle. Ringo watched her go inside and then looked at Bert and his pegasus, wondering what they would do next.

Inside Store

Suzume leaned into Gar to quietly ask for help once again. "I don't have an eye for colors. Which of the other two suits me ...?" she nearly whispered.

Gabbie walked right past them and began looking around. "Hmm ..." Did she notice Gar or Suzume there? It was anyone's guess.

"Let me know if you need anything, Miss," the shopkeeper lady said to her before returning her attention to the outfits she'd fetched for Suzume.

Gabbie glanced over at long last and uttered, "... snrk heheheh ... of all the places," in response. "So that's one thing out of the way. Now let's see, does anything here work for me ..."

Tower and Dauntless

"Experiment?" Raquel echoed. She hadn't been snapped out of her bad mood, but she was at least surprised enough by the inquiry to respond normally. "What do you mean 'experiment'? Experiment with what exactly?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Well, the red one for sure, and I'd say the dark blue. Beige is just ugly on clothes period. And well, I don't like that blue-white, but don't let that stop you if you do," Gar answered truthfully. Another customer came in and--oh it was the lance-woman who threw the egg at Shade Drake. Well that sure was a coincidence. She noticed him after a while. "Yeah hi," he responded while waiting for Suzzy Q to finish.

[Snowy_One]

"Anything! Everything!" replied Tia with an enthusiastic glint in her eye. "You've got this amazing stuff here in this caravan and a ton of people, several of them mages. So if you give me the time to sit down and talk with them and a bit of free reign to practice and experiment, just THINK of the possibilities! I could weaponize this thing, develop special armor for the horses that shoots fire whenever someone threatens them, develop special armor to make you invisible, find some way to improve your guns, build golems, chairs that fold up for easy transport and transform into beds so no one has to sleep on the ground again, and... and... Who KNOWS what else? Just imagine the possibilities!"

[spoiler=Tia's Imagination]

Tia watched from the Dauntless as the massive armies of the evil bad guys swarmed forth, striking down people with mad gusto. Tia turned back to look at the Dauntless, the four other magic users in the group gathered. "The battle is lost, unless... We have no choice." she said, Raquel nodding is sad agreement.

"So let it be." she said as the mages gathered around the Dauntless. Then, one of them raised their tome high into the air and...

"EARTH!" He cried out, magical power flowing into the Dauntless, shaping the metal within and triggering several hidden switches locked away where none could reach without magic.

"FIRE!" cried the second, causing flames to flow in, heating the metals to ease the reshaping and igniting an internal furnace to allow steam power to flow throughout the machine.

"WIND AND THUNDER!" cried the third, sending charges of magical power to the many weapon-systems.

"WATER!" cried Tia, causing various liquids to fill chambers and steam to flow within to grant it motion.

"HEART!" cried Raquel before all five leapt into the giant, transformed, Dauntless, moving to five various seats, each controlling one of the various functions and Raquel in the lead. "We are Hyper-Awesome Death Kitty! By our will and our progress, our power will pierce the heavens themselves!"

"RAWR!" cried out the Hyper-Awesome Death Kitty as twin drill-fangs spun rapidly about in its mouth and a volley of metallic claws, launched through the power of lightning, shot out into the army before them before the Death Kitty leapt into the midst of the army, biting, scratching, and swiping with lethal efficiency until none were left in their mighty and cute wake!

"Just imagine the potential." said Tia with a happy sigh.

[Phoenix]

Store

Suzume shook her head at the last part of Gar's statement. "Red it is then," she decided with a smile. That still left one other pick for the twenty percent discount but one thing at a time.

"Oh I think the red one would look rather nice on you. Though green seems to suit you more. It's a shame I couldn't find one," the shopkeeper chimed in with a sad smile.

"Ooooo~ what's this?" Gabbie soon picked out the same white experiment Suzume had a few minutes earlier. "Do you have one of these in black or dark blue?"

"I uh ... you're serious? Err-I'll have to check, I suppose, hahahahah ... hehhhh."

"Heeeh." ... what's her deal? Is this not in style anymore or something?

Tower and Dauntless

"W-what? Weaponize ... invisible horses with fire ...? Golem-ch-chair beds? I'm having trouble keeping up here," Raquel replied. "And it's hard to imagine much beyond explosions ..."

[Snowy_One]

"Invisible horses with fire. Didn't think of that. Basically, Raquel, if you let me I can try to experiment and make a lot of cool stuff. Especially if you let another mage help me out."

[-Cynthia-]

Experiments

"Almost all horses are scared of fire- if ya start makin' it come out of them they'll be terrified of themselves. Ya can't just use livin' creatures as 'subjects'," Nadya said to the annoying girl who was still with them for some reason. She better not do anythin' funky to Sandrock or Riley and if she touches Luca this group is gonna be short one water mage.

"Do you have any experience with modifying weaponry? It's not easy and can be pretty dangerous if done improperly," Connor chimed in. A lot of her suggestions sound pretty implausible- and besides I'm the one who does the upgrades around here. he thought to himself.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I think it's because we didn't select that type," Gar hazarded a guess based on an assumption that lance-woman's lack of response was her being weirded out by the shoplady who was now laughing as maniacally as Gar would have in a joyous moment.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Script

[Snowy_One]

"A bit. I tried it once trying to build a repeating crossbow. It worked... sort of. It repeated but I couldn't get the bolts to lock in properly. I figured 'Hey, a girl like me is useless without her tome and vulnerable, so why not make a weapon that is easy to use, doesn't need magic, and can fire multiple shots quickly?' If I had more funding I could have worked a bit on it more, but what little money I get from odd-jobs and donations really isn't enough to buy the materials I need. Sides, magic is more my thing. You look like a mage as well. May I know your name?" she asked Conner.

[Phoenix]

Shopping

"You not into this sort of thing?" she asked Suzume.

"My friend warned me about clothes like that ..."

"Lemme guess ..." Gabbie paused to make a short series of choking and gasping noises and expressions before saying, "Breathing problems?" and then smirked. Suzume simply nodded. "Well a corset looks dumb toied loosely so I guess you're better off wearing somethin' else."

"Yeah probably," Suzume agreed, though she was clearly not used to Gabbie's demeanor just yet. "So," she said turning back toward Gar and the shopkeeper woman. "No beige or blueish white. How about this blue one then?"

Innovation

"Repeating crossbow? I think that's already been ... wait-doesn't Weyland actually have one? The 'astra bow' I think it's called. Was that it, Connor?" Raquel asked, trying to think back to the summit in Europa. "He said a really intimidating line after he used it. 'Five shots, five burials, ladies and gentlemen', something like that."

Shadrak thought back to it too and nodded, mostly to himself. Then there was that really big crossbow with the bomb on the arrowhead. Weyland has a pretty dangerous mind ...

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yep, blue one looks good," Gar reagreed with his earlier assessment.

[Phoenix]

Sold

"Alright, these three then," Suzume told the woman. "Keep the blueish white and beige," she threw in to clarify.

"Alright then, thirty-six gold was our agreement as I recall~"

Gabbie meanwhile held the corset thing to her body and checked to see if it would fit. She wanted to go change into it but didn't want to bother unless the woman had one in a darker color. On the other hand, she did have a third option ... and extremely annoying third option but a third option nonetheless. Raquel. "Mmmmrgh."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar dug back into his back. That much money would take more than a few handfuls, so he walked over to a counter and began pulling out--and putting back the wrong--coinage. Eventually he managed to set the 36 gold pieces down. "Well that should be it right there." Gar mentioned.

[Phoenix]

Clothing Matters

The woman counted up the gold rather quickly to confirm the amount and then smiled. "Thank you, Sir." She might have stuck around to say more but she still had another customer to tend to.

"So, shopping with the mage from the foight at the docks, huh? Interesting. Well just make sure you head back to the tower when you're done. We need to get out of town soon; the 'Angry reds' are breathing down our necks again from what I hear."

"'Angry reds'?" Suzume wondered what she was saying. She had her new clothes and now she could change into one of them while her tunic was getting fixed. There was the matter of the cloak, but that was slipping her mind all too quickly now that she knew Gar had other places to be soon.

"So what were you asking about earlier, Miss? You wanted one in black or dark blue, is that right?" the shopkeeper asked Gabbie.

"That or some dye. I know a girl ... an annoying girl, but still. If I could get it done for free whoile she's too dumb to charge for it, I'll take my chances."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Tower? What tower?" Gar asked with an eyebrow raised. Well, clearly it was a new meeting point, but where was it was the question. Angry Reds meanwhile were, well probably military or religious since that was obviously a nickname and shouting out that one of those groups was after them would be a silly thing to do.

[Mercakete]

"Hey, I thought--" Norbert began, but Gabbie was already inside the store at that point. I thought you said you were going to conserve your funds... Now isn't the time to be shopping anyway. He mentally grumbled. There wasn't really anything he could do about it now, though, unless he followed her into the store and that wasn't a good idea since he'd be leaving Ringo unattended if he did that. The pegasus rider briefly turned his attention to said wyvern. He wasn't the only one paying attention to him, though. Rizen was a bit nervous. The predator's handler was gone, after all, but her rider was still there, so she figured things would be okay. She still shifted her weight continuously, though.

After some minutes went by, Norbert dismounted and simply leaned against Rizen while he waited. Waiting for someone to get done shopping isn't something I'd pictured myself doing... Least of all right now when I'm supposed to be gathering people so we can get the heck out of here. Again, he shifted his gaze from the door to the wyvern. "Is she always like this?" he wound up passively asking the winged lizard.

Edited March 2, 2013 by Mercakete