Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Phoenix]

Gabbie and Suzume

"Eh? Uh some tower on the northsoide. Pointy at the top, koinda old, tallest damn thing in this port. Ya can't miss it," Gabbie answered inattentively.

"I might have a darker one in the back. Let me check for you," the shopkeeper answered Gabbie before heading back there.

Suzume took the time to fold up her three new tops and placed them over her forearm for the time being.

Ringo

Ringo simply stared at Bert for a moment, yawned, and then began to lay down. He didn't know how long Gabbie was going to take, but he wasn't going to stand around doing nothing when he could relax instead. Unfortunately, he was almost completely blocking entry into and exit from the shop at this point.

[Mercakete]

"Whoa, hey, wait a minute!" Norbert objected as he pushed off of Riz and stood on his own again when the wyvern began to lie down. Sheesh, does this mean she'll be a while?! If she takes too long, then the people around here will have a reason to complain about him... Um... It was then that he noticed he still had that bit of sandwich he'd been eating earlier. And that was when the idea struck and shifted his somewhat alarmed expression into a clever smile.

"Hey, Ringo~" Norbert taunted as he held out the bit of meaty sandwich, "Hungry?" It's not much, but maybe I can lead him out of the way...

[Phoenix]

Baiting

This was new, someone other than Gabbie dangling food in front of him. Ringo wasn't sure if Gabbie put this one up to it or if they were simply happy to share. Either way, just one pigeon and a few of Gabbie's snacks wasn't going to satisfy him, so he began to stretch out his neck to try and reach the sandwich from where he was. Once he ran out of neck, he slowly began to stand up. This human wasn't as bright as Gabbie was he? Feeders were supposed to come closer, not stay just out of reach.

[Mercakete]

Ahah! It's working! Norbert thought triumphantly as he began moving slowly backwards in an attempt to bring Ringo out of the way.

I'll have to keep Riz moving, too. I don't want Ringo to think of her as a replacement meal... So, with his free hand, Norbert carefully took hold of Rizen's reigns and she, too, began moving away. In all honesty, this was such an unusual situation that she didn't know what to do, so it was good to have some sort of guidance from her rider in...whatever it was they were doing. Plus, they were moving away from the predator, which was good. The predator, however, was following, which was not good. Were they moving so slowly because they were in danger? Rizen kept a careful eye on the situation in case it escalated...somehow...

[Phoenix]

Mounting Impatience

And now he was moving further away? What literally ass backwards feeding behavior was this? As more and more people began staring at the baiting game Bert had going, Ringo picked up his pace some in order to try and close the distance. If he could, he was going to snatch that sandwich right out of his absentminded feeder's hand.

[Mercakete]

The wyvern was moving towards them more quickly now and that triggered an ancient instinct in Rizen: the pegasus loosed a short whinny and bolted. Norbert was still holding onto her reigns when this occurred, and so he was jerked quickly and violently backwards as a result, which led to Ringo missing his intended prize. Norbert's reaction to the sudden lack of ground beneath his feet and backwards motion was a short cry of surprise and tightening his grip on both items in his hands. He let go of Rizen's reigns after being pulled to the side of the next building over to the store, however, though Rizen kept running.

"Hey, stop!" Norbert shouted after his fleeing pegasus as he fumbled back to his feet, but she was long gone by then. Acknowledging this fact, the pegasusless pegasus rider sighed in frustration, "Wrath blast it all..."

[Phoenix]

Fast Food, Lousy Service

Just as Ringo was about to get the sandwich, that ornery pegasus took off running and dragged his feeder and snack with her. Ringo's first instinct was to take off and try to close the distance more quickly by swooping down on the feeder, but with so many people around ...

His wings had spread a bit in preparation for flight, but as he changed his mind, they slowly folded back into place and he began trotting after Bert and Rizen. He closed in on Bert aiming to take the sandwich before something else happened. This was a lot of work for something so small ....

[Mercakete]

Rizen had spooked and bolted, his right shoulder ached from the jarring said bolting caused, he was a tad battered from his rough landing and he looked even more scuffed up than he had from his fall when he spoke with Erica. Norbert was grumbling about the events somewhat and understandably so. When Ringo came up, the pegasus rider figured the fact that the wyvern was now out of the way of any traffic into and out of the store was at least some sort of silver lining. "Well, I guess you've earned this," he sighed as he displayed the sandwich bit to the wyvern before tossing it to him. Hopefully Ringo would settle where he was. I have to find Gar and Rizen now... Perfect... No way to look for either from the air anymore. Looks like I'm stuck with my own, two feet for a while.

[Snowy_One]

"Well, my plan was to take a crossbow and modify it by attaching a large box on top into which the bolts could be lowered in to via gravity and would be controlled through a leaver-action handle. That way someone who isn't strong, like me, could simply pull the leaver back, which in turn would pull the string back and lock it into place, as well as allowing the next bolt to drop down all without having to wind up the crossbow itself allowing for a much greater fire-rate. It might not pierce armor as well or pack the same punch, but that matters less when I can fire at a rate that can only be matched by a skilled bowman with a normal bow. The problem, however, was that the bolts wouldn't fall down into the loading groove right or more than one bolt would fall resulting in a jam. I had to abandon the project when my funds ran out and I needed to get moving again, but with only a small investment, I could resume the project and make a crossbow that could fire once every two to five seconds even by a mage! All that's needed is some experimenting around with the loading mechanism and BANG! Awesome new crossbow! And if power is an issue, making poisoned or flaming bolts would be easy after getting the basic mechanism down."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

The first three descriptions were entirely unhelpful, but finally the tower being the tallest thing at the port gave a definitive location. Well once he got back outside. "Alright, then, I'll be at the tower once I'm done," Gar notified lance-woman.

[Phoenix]

Mission Accomplished

"Alroight. By the way, if you see Bert, let'em know you got the message. I moight be in here for awhoile," Gabbie made one last note before turning her attention fully to her shopping.

"Hmm. I guess we should hurry and get this hole patched up," Suzume mused aloud.

Succailure

Finally the feeder figured out how to properly 'feed', and simply sent the thing his way. Ringo caught it easily enough and sent it straight down to his stomach, feeling it was a little too small to bother chewing. Now what? He looked back toward the store and didn't see Gabbie anywhere so she must have still been inside. She left him there so that's where she would expect him to be when she returned. Time to head back then. He turned around and began slowly and carefully making his way back.

Too Little Too Late

"You heard me when I said Weyland already has a repeating crossbow, right?" Raquel asked Tia. The girl seemed to be trying to complete the project when there was already an extremely effective version completed somewhere. "There wasn't anything wrong with it when he showed it off and I'm pretty sure mages can wield it just fine."

"Actually Anna has one ... if that's not the original I guess. I saw her fiddling with what looked like one on the ship a few days ago" Shadrak pointed out once it came to mind.

"Well she's likely long gone by now, so it's a little late to be bringing that up," Raquel replied with a grimace, remembering that Anna was in a hurry to get going.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Uh, Bert, right," Gar replied. He didn't know who Bert was, but if he was looking for Gar then that would probably give him away. He responded to Suzzy Q next. "Well we know the shoplady has seamstress family."

[-Cynthia-]

"I'm Connor Weyland, pleased to make your acquaintance," he said to Tia. "And yes, repeating crossbows have already been developed, there should be a few prototypes out there. Crossbows are the ranged weapon of the future I think, normal bows have very long reload times. Of course longbows do have a range advantage over crossbows, but if one makes the crossbow big enough that becomes less of an issue," Connor chimed in.

[Phoenix]

Store

"So we should ask her if maybe she could do it," Suzume concluded.

At around this time, the woman returned with a much darker looking corset looking thing, but it was also much longer. It appeared to be a full blown black corset coat. "Well we do have this. If you don't want to have to go through the hassle of messing with dyes," the woman explained.

"Ooooo~ Can I try it on?"

"Sure," the shopkeeper said with a smile. Gabbie grabbed the outfit and headed into the back. Halfway there the woman said "The changing room is on the left."

Suzume's turn. "From the sound of things, your family might be able to help me with this other problem of mine. I was looking to get this hole in my tunic patched up ..."

"Well I'm busy running the shop at the moment and everyone else is off dealing with their own things right now." She took a moment to lean in and closely examine the hole. "I'll see what I can do. Leave it here and check back in an hour or so?"

"Umm okay. How much will it cost?"

"Mmm, two gold. It's a simple patch job; I'm not making something from scratch, hahah."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

The shoplady came back with some ridiculous coat-corset and Gra did all he could to prevent bursting out in laughter. After he did that the lady gave out her pricing, a mere two gold! Which was honestly the first thing Gar thought was way overpriced this day. Gar felt like paying in advance so he rummaged out two more coins and handed them over. That meant he was up to fifty-five gold spent on all of this. Well, more with his own supplies. Was it worth it? Well, time would tell. He'd have to get some problems solved with how much bleed this was.

[roymbrog]

With really nothing better to do, Valter had dismounted and stood leaning against Phyllis, waiting for people to finally gather back so they could leave. The way the group dawdled sometimes was worrisome. He was honestly surprised their enemies hadn’t taken advantage of it yet.

The horseman considered dozing off, but luck hated him and they would probably move to leave as soon as he did. Instead he simply waited while listening to the conversations going on nearby. It wasn’t eavesdropping if they knew you were there. The talk of crossbows interested him slightly, but he didn’t speak up until Connor made a factual error. If anything, Valter looked amused by it. “You’ve got that backwards. Bows don’t have longer reload times. Also, creating a bigger crossbow just exacerbates their existing problem of weight. The one I had was already twice as heavy as my bow.”

-----

You know what? If people wanted to waste time, fine. Screw them, Synthia decided. The mage was going to sit and attempt to read through Ranyin’s notes again.

-----

Katrina felt a little lost. After the scene with Robin she had been trying to think of ways to help, but had come up blank. She had no idea how to help in such a situation besides simply being supportive. The wyvern rider sat on her wyvern looking worried and a bit uncomfortable. Besides the problem of Zach and Robin floating through her head, there was also the issue of sending Jerald back to Lukin with news of her and of what had happened to John. She had seen the wooden boxes on the Dauntless, knew exactly what they were, and it wasn't doing much for her mood.

[-Cynthia-]

"Well I suppose I misspoke- crossbows do have a longer reloading time, but with a repeating crossbow you can get multiple shots off before having to reload which reduces overall downtime," Connor clarified. "As for having a heavier crossbow, that would be more for military use than for someone on horseback."

[scorri]

As Marella and Rook returned to the rest of the group, Mar quickly scanned the people around her and breathed a small sigh of relief when she didn't see Robin. Walking up the the Dauntless, she addressed Nika and Raquel. "I found Rook and have brought him back. I didn't see anyone else on the way here though, or else I would have asked them to come back as well. Is there any idea of when we might leave?"

[GoD]

Then the situation was explained by Shadrak and Veronika, and the blonde-haired troubadour calmed down. When Shadrak told her that Colin was trying to bed Raquel, she smirked and giggled. "Poor Reign, looks like he has some competition... the fact that the asshat IS cute really doesn't help matters. Ah Raquel, you are a girl to be envied, that's for sure."- the troub. thought to herself. When Shadrak hinted that she could deal with Colin later on, she threw the dark mage a wink to show that she indeed caught on.

Then Veronika explained the situation even further; the stabber was a good pawn to use to find Raquel's father. She sighed, closed the light tome and put her hand to her temples before replying to Veronika.

"It is not an uncomfortable situation, it's an infuriating situation. I understand why we need him, but you could have told me who that guy was before bringing him directly to us."

[Snowy_One]

"Hello, Conner, my name is Tia. And they have? Dang it! Ah well. I was looking forwards to solving that riddle, but all it means is I get to move on to the next big one! How to improve fire-arm reload rates as well! I'd be interested in learning how they managed to get the reloading problem resolved though as well as talking to you about seeing if it is possible to develop something capable of launching blades or arrows using wind magic or thunder magic." she said, smiling innocently as she said so, as if talking about developing new weapons was as second-nature to her as talking about food is to most people.

[Phoenix]

Store

"Oh I should probably get out of this if you're going to be working on it, huh? Uhhhh ... is there only one changing room?" Suzume asked the shopkeeper.

"'fraid so, but she's only trying on a coat; it shouldn't take more than a minute or so," the woman assured her with a smile.

One minute later ...

"Hmmm, maybe I should go check on her. When I said a 'minute', I actually meant about fifteen seconds."

Once she'd headed on to the back, Suzume sighed. "This is taking too long. I'll be right back." Taking matters into her own hands, Suzume decided to find a corner in the shop obscured enough for her to quickly change. If she could do her laundry half naked on a ship full of over a hundred sailors and a group of hostile mercenaries, she could change shirts with just Gar around, she figured.

Dauntless

"We'll leave as soon as everyone's here ... so I'd appreciate it if no one else wandered off," Raquel replied, first to Marella and then ended with a general statement to anyone within earshot. Bert's still gone, Gabbie's off looking too ... who else is missing?

Once again, Shadrak was a little surprised by the new mage. "Uh, why bother trying to improve the firing rates of crossbows and guns anyway? I thought your field of interest was water magic."

"I used to be interested in improving magic too, but I gave up on that when I realized I would just be living an Abner and getting people killed more brutally over time," Raquel chimed in with a sigh.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"I believe it was made clear to everyone who Colin works for and our intentions with him. I suppose I could have mentioned the battle back at the estate, but I did not want to cause more tension that there already is," Veronika explained to Chelsea. She was a bit surprised that the troubadour didn't recognize Colin, but she supposed being knocked unconscious can interfere with one's memories.

Connor

"Well, wind mages can make projectiles more effective, but I'm not sure if enough force can be applied to make projectiles come out of an object at any sort of decent velocity," he said to Tia before turning to Raquel. "Some people think that magic and weapons research is all about finding new ways to kill people, which I guess is true to some extent. But if you have a big enough weapon to scare the enemy or defeat them quickly, more people are spared overall. People don't need weapons for violence- they'd just beat each other to death with sticks or something," he explained.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Lance-woman was taking too long in the changing room(what kinda clothing store only had one changing room?), so Suzzy Q went off before he could offer some form of shielding. And since he had enough horrid experiences with women wearing sarashi he didn't head over to do anything. Instead he stood by and wondered what he was somehow going to be at fault for soon enough, since that really felt like one of those situations right now. Well that and make sure no one else wandered into the store.

And then no one did.

So instead of reflecting on his horrific first encounter with sarashi he instead spent his time better thinking of good times in the future with sarashi. Good times.

Seriously did lance-woman pass out or something? Then knock out the shop-lady? It was quiet, too quiet. So boredom was starting to set in. Maye he should do something dumb to liven things up. Like robbing the place. That wasn't stupid at all! Well he needed the money. And not doing him was convincing himself that robbing people was a good idea.

So he started humming to pass the time. And started checking out some clothes of his own. He really didn't need or want anything but not like he could do anything but wait.

[GoD]

"It's fine. We need to keep peace here, so pointless explosions throughout Sergio won't help us at all. I'll stand down.... but let's try and leave as soon as possible. The sooner we get to our destination and ditch HIM-"- the troubadour pointed at Colin "-the faster I can calm down and get back to my usual self."- Chelsea opened her light tome and began flipping through the pages. "When we leave, I'll take up the rear of the Dauntless. Just a heads up okay Miss Veronika?"

[Snowy_One]

"I just like pushing my mind to the limit and trying to come up with unique solutions to problems. Say, Conner, would you mind telling me a bit more about the magical research you've done?" asked Tia, clearly a bit interested.