Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Balcerzak]

Sinbad nodded at Reign's instructions, then led his horse over to the others. On the way he thought he'd heard another comment of appreciation for his hat, and he smiled. Reckon I oughta look that fellow up after, maybe offer him a wad of chew, swap some stories. The night is still young. Still, business before pleasure here.

After securing his mare with a quick pair of half hitches, removing her saddle and tack, and giving her a quick rub down, he then headed toward the wagon, which was frankly impossible to miss. He certainly did not envy the horses that had to pull that mammoth, no wonder one of them had already lain down and fallen asleep, and another seemed to be dozing standing up. As he approached, he caught a few snatches of conversation. Things like "sapphire", "partying", "cousin", "decisive battle". That last one raised a few warning flags, but without context there was really no judgement he could apply.

In addition to the lady he was seeking, the wagon was surrounded by a crew of three men: one with long red hair and glasses, another with sort of medium length messy blue hair, and a tall fellow with short white hair. He recognized them all, and could certainly try to guess at places names to the faces, if pressed, but honestly the acquaintance was almost entirely in passing. When there seemed to be a suitable break in the conversation, he interjected. "Pardon for interrupting your business here, but I just had ta quick check in. Don't know iff'n you remember me, Miss―the name's Sinbad, we was on the boat together. Reign said I outta mention that at least. Anyway, chiefly just interested in sharing your fire here for the night, I'd seen your signal flares earlier in the day and followed the trail make sure as nothing untoward had happened, surprised to find it was from folk I recognized. Unless fate has us continuing to head on in the same direction, probably just be parting again on the morrow."

[roymbrog]

“I believe so, “ Valter replied. He hadn’t been paying much attention to the chain of command at the time, with what was going on.

Gar came over asking for a flute, which resulted in a quizzical expression from the horseman. As far as he was aware Raquel did not sell instruments. Apparently more people than just Gar had music on the mind though, because shortly after the request Luka hopped up from the fire, quickly returned with a violin, and asked for requests. Valter watched for a moment and felt a bit silly. If he had known the cleric had one he could’ve asked to borrow it on the ship.

Then, with a background of violin music, Sinbad came over and asked about borrowing the campfire. Valter vaguely recognized him, but not being the most social type didn’t remember ever speaking with the guy.

-----

A second passed where Katrina looked dubiously at Aneda before her normal smile returned and she handed the egg over. “Alright, here you go~”

-----

The second attempt was slightly better, with Synthia stopping the bolt a full foot away from her, but she still hadn’t been able to finish all the steps. So she tried again. And again. She had Grant throw seven more bolts, and though each try was slightly better than the last, she wasn’t achieving the result she wanted, to catch the bolts in midair. Besides looking pretty damn cool, it would probably be more reliable and definitely safer than knocking the projectile off course possibly into another person. However, her expertise at the moment was with slim slashy things and quick-casting areas of pressurized air was just not working out.

The mage sighed and rubbed her face. The successive failures were not exactly heartening. “Thanks for the help, Grant, but I think I need to work on some of the basics again. No more pellets for now,” she said. Something visible was needed to practice trapping air, smoke from the campfire perhaps. "I should probably head back..."

[Ether]

'So what if I had a little alcohol... I'm an adult, I can handle my damn self... who do they think they are trying to keep me here...?' Faatina grumbled in her own mind, as Shadrak moved her once again, and proceeded to attempt to force feed her some water.

"Y'know Shad... for the *hic* guy who was bitchin' about Reign takin' ad-*hic* vantage of me, your sure quick to start shovin' shit down my throat yerself..." She grumbled, mostly sarcastically... but then sarcasm never was one of Shadrak's strong suits... oh well, too late now.

Before the shaman could get out a proper reply, however, Faatina heard the sound of a violin. She recognized the tune... vaguely? It was similar to one she had heard some travelling bards play in Sanctuary, rare a sight as they were, she recalled it vividly. The melody was not exactly the same, but it was decently similar, enough so that it was probably just a different rendition of the same song. Regardless, the melody was all that was present, no rhythmic accompaniments, no vocals... that just wouldn't do, would it?

Bolting upward from her current sitting position, and proving what she was already completely certain of, that if she didn't want him to, Shadrak stood no chance of actually restraining her with his physical strength alone, Faatina made her way happily closer to the violinist... realizing most of the way there she didn't have any sort of instrument of her own to start a rhythm, she opted to simply go about it with the clapping of her hands, hoping to generate some sort of following.

As she found herself becoming finally close to the violinist, who she had mistaken for Raquel for a time, though compared to Raquel this girl was definitely lacking in assets... oh well, not really worth delving into, and she could play, which was all that was really a concern at the moment. Taking a deep breath, Faatina began to recite those lyrics which she remembered all too well, a Rexian ballad of a gallant soldier, whose brave deeds and heroic persona culled his foes, wooed his women, and wrote him into the hearts of bards across the continent, nay, the world.

Unlike her drunken slurs her singing was... understandable enough. Well, if you understood Rexian, that was. Not to be considered some sort of idol or anything of the like, but the Rexian's voice was rather charming in it's own regard, the light soprano tone a decent pleasure to hear... and showed no sign of her alcohol consumption.

It might seem as though it were meant to be, the nigh-magic of her loss of inhibition allowing the woman the freedom to sing as a bird, her hiccuping fits lost to her, as well as any noticeable slur... perhaps it was all destined to be? Hah, she knew that not the case, but she had sung enough in her youth to be able to suck back those ailments in order to perform. Of course, inhibition, or lack thereof, certainly played a part, on a normal day, the woman would never have allowed herself this, nay, it would have been the complete opposite, and if her sober self knew of her own exploits, it would surely end in catastrophe. Not but a single witness would live to see the end of the day, all evidence and trace of the deed to be smote from the eyes of the world. A certainty to her intoxicated mind, Wrath himself would tremble and forfeit his name to her before attempting, and subsequently failing, to flee from her purge in sheer terror.

But well, her sober self would just have to deal with it. The prospect seemed far too damn fun to pass up in her current state, and so with that, Faatina sang aside the violinist girl... when she would figure out that Luka was a boy no one knew, but hey, not important.

[Phoenix]

Campfire

So it turned out Robin had gone out hunting and brought back two quail. Reign wasn't impressed, figuring those were just for her. Congratulations, you've caught your own dinner. Moving on. And with that, he turned his attention back toward the Faatina issue.

Shadrak on the other hand was now genuinely concerned because it seemed to him like Robin had been hunting for the group. "Uh Robin? There's only two of those. Unless everyone's getting like a really little piece each, there's not going to be enough for everyone."

"I call a thigh. One delicious little thigh" Colin randomly chimed in. Shadrak rolled his eyes at that.

And then before she could be given the new water, Faatina broke free and rushed over to Luka to sing. Shadrak sighed as he handed Mushirah's scarce amount of water back to her and held onto the new one Reign had gotten for the time being. "Well, this isn't going so well ..."

Dauntless Head

Well now she had a lot to take in and response to. She decided to prioritize Sinbad as that question seemed more pertinent and anything else really could wait. "Um, sure, that's fine. You can stay with us for the night. Though I honestly pray nobody else saw those flares or our whole plan may have backfired on us."

"It would be a shame if your enemies attacked in the middle of the musician's performance, wouldn't it?" asked the numerous voices of the dragon head. Raquel nearly jumped before turning to see the phantom itself protruding from the Dauntless and smiling eerily as always.

Gabbie glanced over to see the head not too far from where she and Ringo were and raised an eyebrow at it. "It's that thing again ..." she mumbled sleepily.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

The pink violinist started up into some piece. It was fair enough, probably. Rexian girl wormed her way into singing though. And Gar felt like clapping along to encourage them both.

[Snike]

And suddenly they were having a full performance, strings and all. Way to keep stealthy, guys. Though, the singer wasn't too bad. The lancer just sat down and listened, for the time being. There was little else to do other than harass Veronika, and she appeared to be busy for the time being.

***

Someone started singing in a language Blake didn't recognize -Rexian, maybe?-, which added to the already beautiful melody being played by Luka. The man would've enjoyed it, had this been a different time and place. Before he could say anything more, however, the dragon head just appeared behind Raquel. Out of nowhere. No warning, no magic circle or anything like that, just. Popped. Right. Up. What sorcery was this?

"I'm guessing you have some business with us?" Blake asked the floating head, once he calmed himself enough internally.

***

"Gotcha," Grant said, as he picked up the remaining bolts and returned them to his pouch. "Lemme know if you need my help again. I don't have much else to do." Aside from body maintenance, but that didn't count.

[Snowy_One]

"I know Shadrak. I can not catch much more though without some dedicated time hunting, something made harder by violin music. I will need to make due with these. I am hoping to cut them up and boil them in a stew. Maybe with some mushrooms and noodles. Would you be willing to check the Dauntless for me Shadrak?" asked Robin, looking up at him hopefully. "I would be glad if you did, and I would even be willing to make you my assistant cook. Having magic to help would be really nice."

[roymbrog]

When the dragon head appeared out of nowhere Valter’s first instinct was to shoot it. Having left his bow and quiver with Phyllis, however, he simply ended up reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there. He had heard about the apparition before of course, but this was the first time he’d seen it. The smiling head sticking out of the side of the wagon was quite unnerving. “If you’re planning on giving us all heart attacks, I dare say you’re succeeding,” he said once his powers of speech returned.

-----

“I’ll do that. Thanks again,” Synthia said before starting back towards camp. Someone was playing music and someone was singing. It wasn’t till she got closer that the mage discovered it was Luka and Faatina though. She sat down by the campfire to listen, and started to practice shaping air in the smoke. Besides staring intensely, she wasn’t really giving any indication that she was casting.

[ReformBlade]

Grabbing her flask in a blink of the eye, she swished it around to figure out the obvious, noting in her mind to clean it very thoroughly just for good measure later. "Thank you." was her response at first, but her face crinkled as she saw Faatina go and shrug the Shadrak off, a litle concern but at the same time there was a smile on her face, "Well, I don't know if trying to restrain her forcefully is the best idea either, you know?" And then a wild Robin appeared, going on about cooking and chefery. "Oh! We can both help, I'm sure neither of us would mind, right Shadrak?" Making decisions for others is never a bad idea!

Taking the egg, Aneda smashed it was still a bit surprised by the size, but pretty much the real surprise to her was that it held a person inside. "So um... it really takes on the qualities of whoever's holding it, right? Is it looks, personality or something else? Or... everything? Man, that just seems so friggin weird, but the way I see it, more of me is better for the world. Well that's what I tell myself at night before I cry myself to sleep" she mumbled the last part but wasn't really being serious if anyone payed attention.

[Phoenix]

Campfire

I know dark magic is versatile and stuff, but how am I supposed to help cook with it? The time Shadrak took to ponder cooking with dark magic was all the time Mushirah needed to volunteer the both of them. He didn't mind, but he was still confused. "Uh, that's fine," he eventually said. "Just tell us what we need to do." He glanced over toward the Dauntless when he heard an unfamiliar voice or rather voices, but he couldn't quite make out who or what they were. The view was obscured by other people in the group, including Raquel. "... what's going on over there."

"Sounds like a bunch of people reading from a script at the same time. Sounds fun. I want in. Anything to curb this boredom," Colin spoke up.

"It sounds like the dragon ..."

"The what?"

"Never mind, it's none of your business anyhow."

Dauntless Head

"Business? ... suddenly I don't feel so welcome," the dragon replied.

"You only show up when it's important ... most of the time. It's a fair question," Raquel chimed in, having composed herself quickly.

"Well it probably wasn't to induce any circulatory problems. Perhaps I merely wanted to join in the festivities?"

"Seriously what do you want? I don't mean to be rude, but I'm pretty sure you're up to something. So what is it?" Raquel asked sternly. Just then a thought occurred. How was the dragon manifesting? It happened on the ship as well ... three times. As much as she wanted to check to see if anything funny was happening with her emblem piece, the simple fact was that its shine would be incredible in the night and could be seen for miles around. Taking it out was out of the question, but maybe she could check to see if some of the shine was coming through her bag. That'd be confirmation enough for her as to whether or not the emblem was involved in these random appearances. "Is this about the training or something?"

"Well now that you mention it ...~"

[Balcerzak]

What the... someone was starting up a rendition of the Ballad of Al Hazrad? With his mind on other matters Sinbad hadn't noticed the melody had matched, not until someone had started in with lyrics. He flitted a quick glance to see who it was, a Rexian woman standing over by the fire next to someone enthusiastically sawing away at a violin. Then, attention back at the matter as hand, he turned back to Raquel, who was giving him his answer.

"I honestly cannot say one way or the other, Miss, but if you'd hoped for secrecy, indeed it might not have be―" Sinbad was completely cut-off by the appearance of some spectral floating dragon's head, speaking in a chorus of voices. Quickly drawing his pistol, he levelled it at the thing, setting up a cautious stand-off. "The blazing hells is that! Pardon my Skotian," he apologized for cussing in front of a lady. Looking around, it seemed that the blue-haired gentleman was quite composed and seemed to be taking things in stride, though the man in glasses appeared to have been taken aback.

Raquel then proceeded to have an apparently normal conversation with the... thing, so he, somewhat reluctantly, holstered his piece again, and simply gazed at it curiously.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar looked for the source of a 'the blazing hells is that!', and saw that Raquel was chatting with the dragon head again. Oh joy. Gar walked over and said, "Hey dragon head, how's it going?"

[Snowy_One]

"Well, right now I need the mushrooms and noodles... And what the heck is that noise?" asked Robin, clearly catching the dragon's voice and not recognizing it. "Did Tia open a portal to hell or something?"

[Snike]

"I'm not sure how many people are even up for that training session," Blake said, still a bit shaken by the dragon head's entrance. "Not to mention that I doubt it's a good night to do the training, due to what's happening tomorrow."

[Phoenix]

Campfire

"Where are we supposed to find mushrooms around here? This isn't the forest. Where are we supposed to find noodles for that matter? This isn't ... a noodle shop." Shadrak scanned around, ignoring the voices for the moment. "Maybe gathering cooking ingredients in town would have been a good idea," he concluded with a frown.

"Spending time with you people is really starting to disillusion me, I've gotta say. It's one sad or odd thing after another," Colin commented.

"If you could just stop talking ... like forever ... that'd be great."

Dauntless Head

"'It' appears to be going just fine; everyone is still alive," the dragon explained with a wide smile. Raquel wondered if he was excluding their casualties from Chousokabe, or simply didn't know about them in the first place. "As for that training, no one need be 'up' for it. In truth, I would prefer it if they were 'down'."

"You mean sleeping ... like I normally do when this weird stuff starts?" Raquel guessed.

"Mmhmm~"

"Is this really the best time ...?" Raquel questioned the dragon looking discouraged.

"Unless you plan to avoid sleeping tonight, I think this would be an excellent time to train, learn, and grow. Everything will be fresh as you head off to face your destinies~"

'Destinies'? Not 'meeting' or 'destination'? Does he know something about this that we don't? Reign pondered.

[Script]

DH Man Called Gar

"I'm gonna have to pass on the whole dream training thing," Gar stated. "All that head stuff don't mix with my head." And he shook it to emphasis. "Besides the only destiny I have is waiting for me at the bottom of a beer tankard."

Edited March 8, 2013 by Script

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

Connor took Tia's tome and examined it, flipping through the pages quickly. "I don't think I can do anything right now," he said after a minute or so, handing it back to her. "This is already an improved defensive tome, better than standard. Pretty impressive to give to a beginning mage."

Veronika

Veronika walked in on Raquel...conversing with the dragon head again. It was still rather unnerving to look at, but she tried to ignore its presence.

"Won't fighting in our dreams keep us from getting proper rest? If we end up in a real battle tomorrow we may regret doing this now," she warned.

Nadya

"We've got enough grub to last us until Europa, assumin' we don't take a shoreman's hour to get there or pick up a bunch of useless mouths to feed- this group seems to be fond of the latter lately," she said, wondering why the irritating book girl was still with them.

[Snowy_One]

"Would you at least check? If we do not have any, telling me what we do have would be very useful for figuring out how to make these quail go for the entire group. I really doubt Raquel left without getting some food or something and decided to rely just on my hunting skills to feed everyone. If she did, then we have a problem and I will likely need a pegasus ride to take down something big."

---

"What would you do if you had the time then?" asked Tia, clearly interested. "I know it's a good tome already, and thank you for the compliment, but I want to improve on it. Make it better, faster, everything! And... Thanks for the compliment. I studied and practiced hard to earn this tome. I know I'm a bit young for it, but I'm determined to keep improving. Being young means I only have more years ahead of me to improve and become a master sage! Eventually, I want to control all the elements and use them to make major improvements throughout the world."

[scorri]

As Marella and Zach approached the rest of the group, Mar spotted Raquel talking to.. "Well... that's a floating dragon's head. Uhm, does this happen often here?"

[Eail]

Zach gave a sigh and covered his face with his hand as they saw the Dragon Head apparition back, talking to Raquel. "No, it's not that common but we've been expecting this. I'm gonna go figure this out, try to relax a bit though okay Mar? I got a feeling we're gonna need it." Walking over to where the action was the sage managed to catch the end of the discussion. "Right so!" Clapping his hands together "We gonna do this dream thing or what? Get on with it I'd say at this point."

[scorri]

Marella raised an eyebrow as Zach tried to go figure out things without her. Following after him, she quietly said to him while waiting for a response from the others, "No reason why I can't come listen now, eh? Seems only fair I know what's going on."

[Phoenix]

Campfire

"All we really have are rations as far as I can tell. No thanks to this guy and the news about the Wrathites coming after us. Raquel never finished her trip to get provisions while we were in town due to the rush that caused," Shadrak explained, sparing a half second to glare at Colin.

"Oh, didn't know there wouldn't be enough food for everyone. Maybe I should ask that one lady for some of her jerky after all. Don't want to go hungry if I don't have to," Colin mused aloud. "Though, I'm not sure how two quails are going to work for this many people ... unless they're just flavoring in a stew or something.

Dauntless Head

Raquel thought about what Gar said for a moment, and in the end she actually agreed that him staying out of the dream would be a good idea, though her reasons were vastly different from his. "You know that's probably a good idea. Someone has to keep an eye on Colin while we're asleep. We're close enough to the fortress for him to make a run for it, I think."

And to Veronika's inquiry, she had some thoughts as well. "I've got a strong feeling it won't be much different from regular sleep. I've never come out of any of these dreams feeling anymore tired than usual. In fact I'm usually relieved to be out and alive," Raquel explained. "I don't really know for sure because I've never actually fought or trained in any of these dreams. It's mostly just been wandering, talking, and dying ... over and over again."

Reign winced having been reminded of how difficult Raquel's dreams had been for her. What the hell were the rest of them in for ...?

"I suppose you could lay down to rest believing with complete certainty that this will drain you both mentally and physically," the dragon began answering Veronika's question. "If it comes to pass, that may be by the power of your own mind to impose its will on the body. I doubt your dreams themselves will have anything to do with it."

"So if we wake up half dead tomorrow, it's our own fault, not yours or your 'training'. Is that what you're saying?" Reign asked, hoping to get a straight answer.

"... most likely."

"Don't bother; he's not going to get anymore specific than that," Raquel warned.

"Question," Gabbie spoke up. "If I go to sleep now do I get into this training early or do I get some decent shuteye before hand?"

"Who knows~" was the dragon's unhelpful answer.

"Welp, not going to sleep then ..." With that, she got up and wandered over toward the fire.

Zachary and Marella arrived at roughly the same time and the former suggested starting things immediately. "We can't start right this minute; I'm not even close to tired yet," Raquel objected. "In fact, I'm actually kind of hungry ..."

[Eail]

"Eh, I know. Just wasn't sure if you wanted to be involved in some of the stranger stuff that goes on, because this is just the tip of the iceberg." Zach whispered back to Marella.

"Two quail is barely going to feed three people let alone twenty some odd. So whatever Robin had planned is out the window." Zach said, referencing what the red headed archer had hunted and talked about earlier. "The rest of us might be able to cook something up but I'm not that great at campfire dinners, better in a kitchen." He admitted with a shrug, maybe there was a better way to spend his time and learn a thing or two. "So Mr. Dragon Head, if you're anything like a normal dragon are you well versed in magic?"

Edited March 8, 2013 by Eail

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Besides whoever that Colin fellow was, someone should probably keep track of the bodies and that armor-making kiddo. There was some other types of nonsense, but Gar only responded to what was most pressing to him. "It's probably not healthy to be dying in your dreams all the time," he commented. "Though I guess if that keeps happening it's not so much a risk to brave dream adventurers despite that vague kind of commenting I enjoy."

[Phoenix]

Dauntless Head

"Normal dragons have bodies, don't they? Seems safe to say I am nothing like a normal dragon." And that was half of Zach's answer ... if that.

Hah! I knew he was going to say something like that! You know, he's kind of funny when I'm not the one asking him things, Raquel thought to herself, unable to conceal her grin. To Gar she said, "Well physically I'm not any worse for wear but the thought of being under water or anywhere near a guillotine makes me cringe. I can't exactly blame anyone who doesn't want to take the risk with this dream thing."

"But they take the risk all the time," the dragon pointed out with some concern on its face. "Or ... are you referring to waking up 'half dead'?"

"... both I guess. I mean who knows what horrors you'll put us through in there and who knows if we'll wake up feeling rested or exhausted? It's kind of a gamble on both ends. I know you said I got 'emblem training', but that just means what comes next is 'different', not necessarily any less horrible."

"A fair point."