Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"I don't think there's anything I can make that would help much if you got hit by that, but armor should protect you against a lot of other things. What material would you like? We have leather, chain mail, plate mail," he said, beginning to arrange the armors out for Robin's viewing.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"I'm not really into scented soaps, and even if I was, I'd hate to wash Chip with one of those and have him rubbing his nose all day afterward," Raquel explained, waiting for Mireille to hand the thing over. Once she received that, she'd had everything she needed to clean Chip.

What followed was a little unpleasant. A water apparition began accosting her for some reason or other. Raquel stared at it with a disturbed expression and wondered who was conjuring it. She doubted Reign would ever bother with something like this, so that left ... "Tia ...?"

[Snowy_One]

"Chain mail would be good." said Robin, pointing to a suit of splint, incapable of telling the difference. "I wear leather already and plate would be too restrictive on me to draw my bow. That looks like the best and, so long as you are not mean to me, if it does not work I can switch later."

---

"Yes?" said Tia, popping up from behind the crate, a smile on her face as the golem slowly walked over to her. "Sorry Raquel. Just wanted to have some fun. But I do want to talk to you about stimulants. Namely, I need some to keep a steady supply of bolstering mists and the like. Plus, I kinda want some more friends."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Well, you can always resell it and then buy another suit. Raquel doesn't really do full refunds. I might be able to upgrade it to a light plate mail later though, something that won't restrict your shooting, I'll charge you for materials but that's it," he said to Robin.

[Balcerzak]

"Ahh, yeah, mighty good point there," Sinbad conceded as Synthia mentioned she had absolutely no idea what had happened at the end of the battle, and since some of what he was interested in hearing about was at least a little related, he decided the proper thing to do would be to fill the girl in first.

"Anyhow, I kind of hazed out a bit there myself in the middle, climbed back on my horse 'n intended ta stay in the fight, but was shook up pretty bad until yer gypsy there swung around. Not sure why she'da chosen me over someone she knew, but she sounded kinda desperate and things were in a bit of a bad way, so maybe she were just grasping for anything that might help. After that, I helped fish that Valter fella out of a right pickle he'd gotten himself into with this Colin guy you'd been travelling with, but apparently wasn't actually with ya after all?" Now that he thought about it a little more, the cowboy realized that particular situation wasn't so odd after all. Reckon, someone could say the same thing about him taggin' along for the moment, and folk'd have no real reason to think of him any different than they had Colin, after all, wouldn't they?

There was a bit of an itch in his throat, so Sinbad turned his head and coughed lightly before continuing. "That there weren't the real heart o' the matter though, just a little warm-up, I s'pose. Almost right after I ended up shootin' Colin, folks on both sides called some sort of truce, seems things blew up on account of some misunderstanding on various parts, but I find that a little hard ta swalla considering the one fella's dispostion... But I digress, yer Raquel was having a powwow with one of the bigwigs in the center of the courtyard, while another one of 'em was calling things down from time ta time from the ramparts. The one seemed an alright fella from what little I could hear of it, but the one shouting from atop the wall was a right bastard. Pretty much threatened to hunt down and kill all Raquel's family one by one, starting with her father they done coerced inta working for them. Wretched bit o' spite that, even gonna kill his allies? Though, I reckon Jethro only signed up under duress anyhow, but still... Hmm, let's see what else were there you should know..."

Sinbad paused thoughtfully in his summary while trying to recall any other pertinent details he'd missed.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"This is a really bad time to be focusing on fun, Tia," Raquel replied. It's probably also a bad time to be bathing Chip, but I really don't want to wait any longer. Besides, this is the only distraction I've got left ... What came next were two radically different subjects, neither of which Raquel was sure how to deal with right now. "I'd worry about the stimulants later. Right now we're running, not fighting. As for friends ... I don't know what to say to that ..." I'd always made a distinction between allies and friends since I was going to be heading into the military someday, but nowadays it's starting to seem a little unfair ... calling someone an ally but not a friend. It makes sense to me but it still seems a like needless clique fuel. "It won't be long before we have to stop and make camp for the night ... I know Sandrock and Riley can't take much more of this. You should probably go around and get to know some in the group." That's something I've been thinking about doing since we get new people so often, but now all this has happened and I can barely think straight ...

On the Road Again

Once everyone was ready, the order to move out was officially given, and the Dauntless headed out with the mounted in tow. the day dragged on and Raquel managed to clean Chip, put together her list of relatives, take a nap, and wake up in the early evening when the Dauntless had finally stopped for the night. She was regretting that nap because she wasn't sure just how far they'd gotten and was now officially out of the loop. She only hoped that when she exited the Dauntless eventually she would see a landmark or something recognizable. She'd traveled this road a few times before so felt she should be familiar with it at various points.

Reign had spent the trip sitting around doing seemingly nothing, though on occasion he spoke up to ask Ayano a question. She didn't always answer, but when she did, Reign saw some comedic potential in her words. She always seemed to lack Gar's ... enthusiasm, though. He left the Dauntless to stretch his legs and arms the minute the Dauntless came to a stop for the night, letting Raquel and Chip sleep for the time being. The Dauntless was getting stuffy, even with the new sunroof, so he had to get out, really.

Shadrak somehow managed to get a nap in as well but he was not happy to know he'd drooled a bit on someone's shoulder. He immediately leaned back when he woke up and wiped his mouth. "Damn, I should have known better ... crap," he cursed himself figuring he was in for it.

Gabbie had pulled another flying bedroll maneuver and tied herself and her bedroll down securely to Ringo so she could sleep relatively comfortably while he flew wide circles around the Dauntless at altitudes high enough to allow for some gliding. Gabbie had to at least have him do that so she wouldn't be rocked constantly by his wing beats. There was little sleeping through that for her. Once the Dauntless stopped, Ringo continued flying in circles until the sun's light was no longer helping him navigate. At that point, he descended until he was low enough to land. The landing woke her up, but once it was over, she dozed off again. "... just keep followin' them ..." she mumbled to Ringo.

Reign exited the Dauntless to find that it was now just after sundown. The landscape looked pretty familiar to him, the main path along the road was well beaten so they couldn't possibly get lost, but there weren't many trees around. plenty of bushes and shrubs, though they were scattered about randomly, but actual trees were few and far between in this area. They were at least twenty miles up the road which meant if they kept to a good pace, they could reach Urquium in a day or two, though that was assuming Sandrock and Riley weren't worked so hard that they needed several day's rest. If that ended up happening, it would take almost two weeks to reach Europa instead of just one. Still, they had made good progress for the day. He had to wonder if the horses stopped of their own accord or if Gytha noticed they were getting tired and stopped the wagon herself. He was hoping it was the latter but there was no telling from where he was standing. Either way, it was time to set up camp.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

Connor spent the travel time reorganizing the items in the Dauntless into where they belonged. Raquel needs to know where all merchandise is if she plans to keep her business running. I'll need to know what's where for experiments as well, he reassured himself as he completed the uninteresting task.

Veronika

Gytha had done an adequate job guiding the Dauntless to their stopping point. Good to show some confidence in her- she may be more receptive to suggestions if she feels like a valued member of the group. she thought to herself, hopping out of the Dauntless and beginning to patrol around. She knew she wouldn't be much use setting up camp, but there was the matter of the invisible woman and the mysterious healer man to question.

Nadya

They traveled for a bit- a fair march, but Nadya and Luca had gone for longer before. "Sooo...are we gonna try to do any huntin' or gatherin' out here or is it gonna be rations? Talented as I am, I'm afraid I can't do much with that shit," she said to no one in particular.

[Snowy_One]

Robin was busy trying on her new mail in the Dauntless before it stopped. When it did she quickly clambered out, glad to have some space to finally relax. She knew she should go hunting in a bit, if only to try and help the Dauntless supply, but she felt she deserved just a moment of breathing room first!

---

Inside the Dauntless Tia had been busy with her golem the entire trip. It was very taxing on her, but she couldn't do much else until the Dauntless stopped for the night. When it did, she first looked to Raquel before deciding against bothering her. She looked like she needed just a bit of space. Connor however...

Calmly Tia walked up to Connor, golem in tow. "Hey Connor. What you doing? Taking stock?" she asked. She KNEW that was what he was doing, but she wanted some way to open a conversation and nothing else came to mind at the moment.

[roymbrog]

Traveling so far had gone smoothly, with Katrina trying to keep Volga’s flying as slow and steady as possible to allow her passengers some rest. When the wagon finally came to a halt they slowly descended before landing a few yards out. Kat was exhausted, and basically collapsed on the wyvern’s neck once they were on the ground.

[ReformBlade]

The flight was rather uneventful but Mushirah was very thankful for that, not really craving any sort of excitement or drama. She had actually managed to relax herself during the course of the ride, but there was also that odd feeling of wetness on her shoulder which wasn't prominent enough to make her wonder what it was but still annoying enough that she'd be reminded of it every so often. This was all brushed aside as the mage found herself falling off of the wyvern yet again, landing in an awkward yet comfortably sprawled state. She tried to right herself but only found that moving was just too much of a bother, ending up with her stomach on the ground, groaning. The occasional leg movement would tell anyone that she was still up. Maybe.

Meanwhile, moving at a matched pace with the Dauntless proved fairly unexciting for Aneda as she began to reflect on what had transpired. Fortunately, she got sidetracked and wondered if she should dye her hair again, as the only problems she saw were hair related. She was negligent and now her hair was all gross like, a turn off on every front unless you really liked sea monsters.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Yeah, I have to reorganize everything- that business back at the fort kind of screwed up the system here. What have you been up to?" he asked Tia. She seems to be holding up pretty well for being in her first battle and getting injured- maybe she's just putting on a brave face though.

[Snowy_One]

Tia gave a smile as she pointed down to the small, watery, being beside her. "Golems! I always like to study and try and progress my magic. Before I met you guys I was working on trying to find a way to make golems last longer than the brief few seconds they normally last, and I continued to study during the ride. It... it's taxing and lets me focus my mind after all. Keeps me from thinking about... About all that happened just now. I'm not afraid or ashamed but... Well... I'm not stupid about what I've just done either. Plus, I'm worried I may have an enemy in this group already."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Everyone in this group seems pretty nice to me," Connor said to Tia, shrugging. Though I've only actually talked with like half of them at most... "So what do you mean exactly when you say golems? I'm not really familiar with any of the magical theories involving that."

[Snowy_One]

OOC: Before you say anything, this is just me making up a theory on the fly. I'd prefer that it gets at least considered, but if it's really incapable of being canon, I will change it.

IC: Tia gave a smile before raising her hand. Quickly the golem seemed to collapse into a small sphere of water which floated up and landed inside a nearby bowl that had been empty.

"Sorry. Easier to focus when I don't have to maintain that. Anyways, as I'm sure you know full well, anime magic often focuses on creating and manipulating the world about us to form various elements to attack. Earth, fire, wind, water, and all the rest. In order to do that a physical manifestation of the element must be made and then used to attack. You want to create a fireball, you first need to make the fire, manipulate it into a ball-shape so that it doesn't go everywhere, then launch it at an enemy after all. Golems are just a specialized form of that. Basically, you focus on manifesting the element, warping it into a shape, and sustaining it for a prolonged period of time. Course, that won't get you anything special, but that's why making golems isn't a basic-level technique.

You see, just like you can manipulate a fireball into roughly different shapes and to follow different paths instead of a generic 'forwards', you can manipulate a golem into doing various things then. 'Walking' forwards by manipulating its 'legs', 'Smiling' by forming a slit for a mouth and opening it in a certain way, and so-forth. You get good at building commands and you can even make it do simple tasks, like 'breathing' all by itself. It takes a lot of energy and focus though, but even that can be worked around.

Imagine if I could find some material to serve as a magic power-supply or a way to enchant actual instructions onto an object instead of having to think them out? Or even BOTH?! Technically there would be nothing stopping me from making a giant shark made entirely of water that swims through the air and attacks anyone that threatens me while a similar golem in the shape of a squid does my dishes and I nap other than how much could be enchanted and a sufficient power supply as well as learning the proper commands."

Tia then took a deep breath as she smiled and tried to take Connor's hand. "The basics, however, are fairly simple. A decent mage could start to learn them easily enough and you're a smart boy Connor. If you want, I could try to teach you at least some of the basics right now!"

Edited May 20, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Parrhesia]

Rook sensed a lull in proceedings, made his way to Veronika (who appeared to be the closest thing this outfit had to a paymaster), and stated his case fairly bluntly. "Right. You. We're going to need someplace to talk, and I'm probably gonna end up shoutin' on account of there's some things I want made bloody clear."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

Tia seemed to be reaching out for something- Connor wasn't sure what it was, so he just focused both hands on stacking up tomes. "That sounds interesting, but I'm not sure of a way to allow magic users to be able to use something like that without focusing on it. There are amulets that can help a mage focus, but they don't do anything all by themselves. I'm not sure I have the time to practicing anima magic- I have a lot of transmutation experiments to run. Did you start reading that book on transmutation I loaned you yesterday?" he asked her, continuing to stack.

Veronika

"We can talk in private, but I would hope there will be no need to shout," she replied to Rook warily, walking away from the Dauntless and stopping after about a hundred feet.

[Rothene]

With the sun setting, Mireille decided it was time to stop writing. Inside the Dauntless, she noticed Connor reordering the wares, more importantly, some of he wares she had misplaced in the retreat. Feeling guilty for her actions, Mireille was about to move forward to offer her services when the boy was accosted by the new mage.

Recalling that the mage was able to animate the very element, Mireille's ears perked up when she heard talk about magic. Silently, she stood still to concentrate on the conversation, taking in all the grandiose imaginations summoned by the mage's enthusiasm. Then she saw the mage reach out for Weyland's nephew. At which point the Ursian knight cleared her throat and approached the duo, "Excuse me Connor, would you require some assistance with the arrangements?" Flexing her lean muscles, "Additional workforce is welcome I hope?"

[Parrhesia]

Rook followed, bearing an air of quiet menace. "What the fuck happened back there," he growled. "I signed on expecting a... a regular fucking job! Maybe go around beating up soldiers, caravan guards, fuck if I know, and we find ourselves tangling with a psychotic archmage who ... who fucking cut down half our number like they weren't even there! I thought Marella was dead! Now, I ain't no coward. My actions proved that. But this? This is fucking insane! I'm not ... not sticking around for this chicken feed you call 'payment'. And with a penalty for not standing for shit from your fucked-up lackey, ain't that nice. I ain't letting myself get dragged into this high fantasy 'cos I like a nice little story, I'm here 'cos I felt I owed you a debt and I've got good at murdering strangers for money. But this... what the fuck did you drag me into here?"

[Snowy_One]

"Yes. I did. I haven't had much time to read it, or do any real practice, but a lot of it seems fairly solid. I'm not sure I can manipulate dark magic to the degrees required for synthesis, but I'm both willing to try and such!" she said with a smile before Mireille approached. Taking a step back she let the bigger girl get in close. "Sure. I'm sorry. I can't believe I was so rude and absent-minded. Would you like me to help as well Connor?"

Edited May 20, 2013 by Snowy_One

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Sure, I'd be glad for the help although I have a pretty specific inventory system. Right now I'm working on tomes, which are divided into light, dark, and anima. Anima tomes are further divided by element and then within each tome category they are categorized by power and accuracy. It's a little difficult if you don't know Raquel's merchandise," he explained.

Veronika

Veronika sighed a little at what Rook had to say, frankly she was surprised more of their group hadn't made similar complaints. "I won't lie to you Rook, this is dangerous work- this criminal organization has a lot of powerful people on their side and our path for defeating them isn't clear. I will agree that you're definitely not a coward and you don't let petty grudges affect your actions on the battlefield- rescuing Robin showed your professionalism. I think restoring your pay to our original agreement is more than appropriate."

[Parrhesia]

Rook was still clearly bristling, but it had mostly subsided and Nika had reached an arrangement that made certain both sides could leave without loss of pride. "Yeah... alright. Thanks. And I don't plan on desertin', neither... the contract is the only god that's ever given me anything. I won't betray that. Anyway, I got places to be." He nodded and left, presumably to continue glowering somewhere.

[Rothene]

Mireille made an unladylike smirk in response to Tia words saying, "I will not accept that apology until you share your pet project with me," turning to face the pile of tomes, Mireille added addressing Connor, "Sounds simple enough. I may be a knight, but I do have a good grasp on the basics of magic. I am confident in my ability to sort the tomes."

Picking up a tome, the Ursian knight made a quick survey of its contents before placing it carefully on the appropriate pile. Sorting through the tomes this way, Mireille would achieve a better understanding of the various tomes that might exist in the market, knowledge which she fully intends to utilise with her new capabilities. This work will surely pay off.

[Snowy_One]

"Actually it sounds perfectly sensible. By doing it that way you make it easy to find any merchandise from a random pool of requests. Just tell me what the order is and I'll be glad to help you shelve them! As for my pet project, I'll gladly share it with you. If you have some new insight, great! I'm trying to learn Golemancy, along with alchemy, continuing my studies as a mage, mistamancy, and inventing. But now I was talking about golems. I want to improve my skill at making and controlling them."

[Snike]

Axel spent the entire trip cleaning and polishing his weapons and chest and leg armor. Once that was done, and they had arrived at the campsite, the lancer stepped out of the wagon and began to help set up camp. He kept an eye on Veronika, who was busy with a few things, as he worked. They definitely had to talk, after what had just happened.

***

Blake kept his head down, his back against a wall, and his mouth shut for the duration of the trip. He was fairly certain he'd be getting let go shortly, after that disaster of a battle, so it would probably be best to stay quiet and not make things worse. Of course, then they stopped for the night, which meant judgement time was upon him, soon. The swordsman stepped out of the Dauntless, ready to help set up camp and thus be of some net benefit, before remembering his wardrobe issue. The shirt and the coat would have to be repaired, but, unless he wanted to walk around shirtless -he didn't-, he'd need to borrow a shirt or something while they were patched up. Right, well, better to get it addressed now, while he was still a member of this group, than later, when he probably wouldn't be. The Ursian spotted Reign standing right next to the wagon, and decided to ask him about it.

"Hey, uh, do you have a spare shirt, or cloak, I could borrow for a little while?" Blake asked the Rexian man. "I took a few arrows to my back at the fortress, and my spare shirt was destroyed along with my things by the fire." And the water, but, well, that didn't matter right now. He continued. "I'll pay, if necessary."

***

Once the Dauntless came to a stop, and a good portion of the mercenaries departed the Dauntless, Grant stepped outside and made his way to the top of the ravaged wagon. The heat from whatever hit the Dauntless- an aureola spell, maybe? His memory was a bit foggy of that period in time- had definitely sped up the melting process, so either he would have to refreeze them, or they'd begin to smell overnight. With that in mind, the warlock got to work. The two smaller coffins were intact, so that meant that the dead wyvern knight was the one who was vaporized. Poor kid...

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"I usually put more powerful tomes near the back and more basic tomes in the front to be more easily accessible. I didn't know you knew anything about magic Mireille," he noted casually.

Veronika

"Good to have you with us Rook," she said to him before returning to the group at large. There was still the matter of the mysterious newcomers to attend to, but she decided to let them start that conversation rather than pressing it.