Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yeah... cauterizing with gunpowder is actually pretty useful to learn. A lot better than heating blades, now that, ho ho nearly broke a tooth from THAT. Never try it without something to bite on yeah..." he sort of trailed off. "But anyway, life's fun! Wouldn't trade it for anything, hard road coming and all. Specially because I got to meet you," he lightly chuckled. "So watching everyone throw their lives away on the alter of a vasili is sickening."

[Sakusa]

Gwyn sighed and shook her head, her loose curls bouncing lightly from side to side.This man clearly had no experience in the service industry, and it was apparent in his questions. "We have three bowls. It wouldn't look right to place two on one end and one on the other or even place all three on the same end. The sandwiches are already dispersed among the bread and produce. If you account for the length of the table, then it would be even more inconvenient to place the soup bowls all on one end of the table. If multiple people wanted soup, they would all have to congregate in one spot, which would make the other guests, especially if they were sitting on front of the soup, feeling very uncomfortable. If you distribute them evenly across the table, such an occurrence will either not happen or the hassle will be minimized. It would not only be easier for guests to reach their desired foods overall, but it would also diversify the types of foods among sections of the table without being an inconvenience to procure. Does it make sense to you now?"

[Mercakete]

"I still think it would be better to have all the soup at the end of the table," Norbert disagreed, shaking his own head. This lady was a little annoying. Her tone was somewhat condescending, but it wasn't enough to prompt him to add any aggression to his own tone. "People can just pick up a sandwich and head to the end of the table, grab some soup, and be on their way that way. If there's a designated place for all the soup, since it's in three bowls, people can all just spoon however much they want into their bowl and someone else can just get some from another bowl. If they were all next to the sandwiches, it might hold up the line, cause grabbing a sandwich is a lot faster than dishing soup into a bowl. This way, everyone can get the sandwich they want, and no one's waiting for someone to finish getting their soup at the very first tray, since all the soups are the same."

[Phoenix]

Serving Style

"It's a matter of context," Erica lazily chimed in, pointing her finger up toward the ceiling for some strange reason. She looked a bit silly in general sprawled out in that small chair like she was. "The benefit of having all three bowls on the same end is that if the guests are well familiar with traditional buffets, they'll know to form a line on one side of the table and each make their way across in an orderly manner. The benefit of having them evenly spread is that it looks nice and symmetrical and with fewer people around, a line is completely unnecessary anyway. It's better for parties and the like. I'm sure that's how they handled it at that big fancy engagement party last night at least."

"Pretty sure they want to know which should be done in this 'context'," Johnny noted, scratching the side of his head a couple of times. Sometimes I feel like we should get a bed moved in here ... then I remember how nuts that is. Maybe a futon.

"If there are fewer than mmm ... mm-twenty people out ... there then go ahead and serve them evenly," Erica decided, letting her hand come down.

Servitude

"I-I'm glad I got to meet you, too," Suzume quickly replied, avoiding eye contact. Blushing was overrated and avoiding eye contact helped her to not do that. What helped even more was the subject change. "Yeah, I gathered you don't approve. I'm not really sure myself, honestly. I mean in principle ... society's built on people serving each other. It's really hard to be truly independent, and I'd hate to go to extremes just to avoid that. With the vasili, though, I'm not sure if it's a religious thing or just a ... an agreement or something."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Heh, thanks," he smiled at her. She was damn cute like this. "That in the hall was a show though. True, I don't agree—at all, but that was deliberate, calculated. I could have bite my tongue at any time and smiled pretty and let Shade Drake and everyone else run off to get themselves in heaps of trouble. Just like all the other times we've gotten vasili visitors and I do so hate saying that." He grimaced at the constant hell of idols his life had become. "Watching them bend knee and render their lives, their experiences, their hard work irrelevant on the whim of beings born more unfathomably powerful than us. Feh." Gar shook his head at the idea.

"They're children playing with fire for the first time. They think they have it under control, that they can accept the consequences, that they'll be fine. But they'll get burned by it, and they'll realize they screwed up. But this fire just won't go away, it won't leave its nice burn scars and stop and they'll learn a valuable lesson about responsibility. This fire will keep burning until they submit to it and anytime they disobey the fire's instructions they'll get burned again." He sighed, he'd really prefer not to talk about this but... Also sentient fire wasn't the best analogy... "Because their choices won't be their own anymore. They are worse than slaves, worse than anyone with an allegiance to some country or ideal. If Nyx suddenly wants everyone dead, that's it, they've got no choice in the matter. Shade Drake's silly rant about choice just leads to them having no choice, and he has the gall to argue about that. He even admitted he was broken by her, and yet I'm sure plenty of people will just go with him without thinking. And that's why they all need to be pushed away. That kind of thinking is toxic and needs to be purged."

Gar just shook his head again at the circumstances. "Which I suppose leads into my next little rant... You said something about true independence, and you could say that's something of a goal of mine. An existence derived solely of your own choices, where every decision you undertake is from your own judgement. Not just the 'boo hoo no one can order me around' that Shade Drake and others were pissing and moaning about. If you want to follow an order, you can do that as long as you are consciously aware and thinking of it. None of this mindless droning the military beats into you. If you want to reject an order, it's because you don't agree with it, not because you're a child throwing a tantrum about how no one can order you around." Gar tightened his free hand as he spoke. It'd been a while since he said these things. "Where every word, every action is considered and weighed and you come to your own conclusion."

He sighed again. "Well, that was a rant."

[Sakusa]

"To be fair, I doubt that some of your guests even know what a buffet is," Gwyn interjected offhandedly but appreciated Erica's input. The table seemed more than large enough to accommodate the group comfortably, so she just assumed that it was just more efficient. Besides, the rest of the spread was already interspersed, so it only made sense to her to intersperse the soup as well. "Anyway, I'll take a headcount before we decide on anything." She scooted off to take a quick peek outside and counted aloud to herself, muttering softly. "Two, three, five, nine, twelve, seventeen..."

"If we count ourselves and those who are no longer present but will potentially return, we have about thirty people to serve," she declared upon return and then asked, "How would you like the soup to be placed?" Though the girl wasn't too happy about the prospect of deferring to the man with indigo hair, she decided it wasn't worth getting upset over, so she left it at that.

[-Cynthia-]

Reign didn't specify what drink he wanted, so Veronika figured she would just get him whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. Entering the kitchen, she was greeted to a discussion between Norbert and Gwyn about soup or something and some people who looked like Weyland employees.

"Excuse me, is it appropriate for us to self serve liquor here or should we wait to be served?" she asked the employees, naturally moving towards where the alcohol was being held.

[ReformBlade]

Mushirah thought for a moment, "If you could help me out now I think it'd make things quicker, and I wouldn't be holding anyone up longer than I should." She still felt like a leech despite what was said, even going so far as to apologize to this maid as well. "Sorry, I don't mean to imply that, well, you're holding them up or anything... i-if you were thinking that... sorry." Ugh, why'd I go and say that? She's probably not even thinking along that line of thought.

[Mercakete]

"I don't actually care how the soup is served," Norbert replied with a shrug, "I was just offering up a way that I think is more efficient. If it's that important to you and no one else cares, we can go ahead and set it up the way you want. I'll just point you out to anyone who complains if anyone bothers with complaining."

It was then that Veronika entered the kitchen and asked the cooks about liquor. Norbert arched an eyebrow at her in puzzlement. "You're drinking before a raid?"

[Phoenix]

Kitchen

"I see ..." Erica nodded at Gwyndolyn. "Think they know how to form a line?"

"I bet you three gold that even if they do, it won't occur to them or it won't matter in the end," Johnny chimed in with a smirk.

"Wagerrr ... declined. You might as well make them look nice and even," Erica decided, despite the earlier figure, "There weren't many out there last I checked, and by the time the others get back, everyone out there who's actually hungry will have already served themselves, thus ... no need for a line."

"Makes sense," Greta said before producing a sandwich in her hand and taking a bite out of it. Case in point.

When Veronika asked about the liquor of all things, Johnny half frowned and half smiled because he was sad to see it come to this and at the same time the thought was amusing. He even said as much. "So the strategy meeting's become a real uphill battle, has it? Heheh, sorry to hear that ... really. We don't have too many strict customs around here. Just grab whatever ya like from the shelf over there," he explained, briefly pointing toward the bottles.

Changing Room

"It's alright. Don't worry, we'll be done before you know it," Tamara assured her. It really didn't take very long to help Mushirah get dressed, and once she was ready, that just left the coat to retrieve. Tamara offered to carry the books the mage was bringing along to make balancing easier for her. The actual trip to the changing room only took about a minute and many of the ball gowns from the previous night that went unused were still there. For now, it wasn't a real issue. The staff wouldn't really be able to get back into the swing of things until after they mourned their dead. Until then ...

"Don't mind the mess. After last night's attack ... we have bigger concerns than a few dresses hanging around ...." She began looking around, trying to remember which of the numerous closets that particular coat was in. Once she remembered, she started toward it. "Anyway, let's see if this is actually your size or if I'm just imagining things." She found the coat in short order and it hadn't been used in quite awhile, so it was clean, and thanks to the changing room being deserted most of the time, there was virtually no dust on it either. The coat itself was, held a barely saturated navy blue color, was thick and insulated, with large buttons and a big folded collar. It was somewhat plain, but could go with just about anything else as a result, and in this weather, appearances mattered a bit less, anyway.

Shadrak's Room

Shadrak made it back to his original room and discarded everything he was wearing save for the essentials, and then went digging around in the closet for something to wear to the cathedral. As he did so, he couldn't help but recall his horrifically long battle against the condescending lectures of Nyx and the tirades of the specters that occasionally appeared in that nightmare. It all happened in about an hour ... just one hour ... even though ... urgh, it's ridiculous. I've got to find out how she did that, but first thing's first. Go to the cathedral, find 'Io' ... if that's what she wants to keep calling herself, and ask her about the arm first. If that doesn't work, we approach the archives with a contribution to try to get in without fighting the knights. If that doesn't work, I'll see how many we have to fight ... and if it's any more than one ... we just leave and I pursue another possible avenue ... though it's just as risky as going to Nyx ....

After a minute of steadily emptying the closet of its contents, the druid decided to put on a simple white shirt and some dark gray slacks. His usual boots would do as far as his feet were concerned. Last but not least was the outer layer. His cloak was in tatters and he didn't want to put on that vest he'd worn last night, so instead, he looked around for jackets. He didn't find any and eventually decided to just grin and bear the cold the thunderstorm likely brought with it. After clawing at his hair until his bangs were back in place, he felt he was ready to go and quickly finished off his lunch before grabbing his tome and leaving the room.

Some Hallway

Suzume would have questioned him, pressuring even, on why he liked to get other riled up like that, but by the time the words were ready to leave her mouth, she felt she could chalk it up to being bored. He'd been trying to come up with a plan to effectively deal with Raquel's enemies and rescue her father and at least one other person when suddenly a pilgrimage to the cathedral was organized. That was obviously inconvenient, and definitely dangerous, at least if what she'd heard about Nyx was all true.

Suzume supposed as far as vasili were concerned, might makes right, and they could do whatever they wanted. Human leaders didn't have that luxury because they could be violently deposed and replaced if they went beyond what their followers could take lying down. The sheer freedom vasili had aside, she did find it strange that Shadrak was willing to go back there, not because he'd been nearly killed--apparently, but because for all he knew, she really was just using him to lure more people into an inescapable trap. It might have been there choice, but he was still facilitating most of this.

"So wait ... it's a goal of yours?" Suzume was a little surprised since as far as she knew, Gar wasn't being compelled by anyone else. Whether or not he was working under someone besides Raquel seemed almost beside the point since he'd already said it wasn't about being under someone, but making decisions yourself, and neither following orders blindly nor pretending to have a choice when there really wasn't one. "So that means you're not quite there yet?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yes... I'm not there yet," he looked down. "Remember how I said there's only two things that scare me? Well, the other's a man. You could say he's the 'peak' of what I think about. Every action, every thought, is solely rooted in himself. His own strength and convictions." He frowned at that though. "No... strength isn't the right word. It's a domination, perfection, a mastery of self. I fight Fallen by reaction. He would fight them by being deliberate in every move. They could read his mind, understand every move and it just wouldn't matter." He shook his head and looked back up. "I'm not there, not yet. Not until I..." defeat Boss. Yeah, that was it wasn't it? Where it all led. The apex of everything he believed in being defeating. Carving his own path in life. "Heh, thanks, I just got some clarity on myself too, thanks to this conversation."

[Snike]

"You know, 'Bloodthirsty' as they might be, they haven't done anything vicious recently that we know of. As for the heads' up, as you mentioned, it might have already been given, so that point is moot. And the solution there would be to not use explosives," Blake said, to Gabbie, before deciding to respond to Raquel, even though her remarks weren't directed at him. "We're not aiming to beat Sardis. We're aiming to rescue your father and Hayato if possible, Raquel, and that's only going to mean anything if you survive. Which is why I don't support the explosives. I agree that we need to do something to stall or prevent an attack, but I can't agree with this."

[Sakusa]

The corner of Gwyn's mouth twitched. She wasn't even addressing this man and he decided to take it upon himself to make the soup issue a bigger problem than it should've been, which wasn't really a problem at all as it was all a matter of personal taste in reality. What really made her blood boil was that he threatened to pin the blame on her if anything should go awry, and of course that didn't sit well with her. However, there was no point in making a scene in the kitchen, especially with Veronika's arrival, and if booze was about to flow, she'd rather stay out of trouble. As a result, she quietly seethed, cheeks flushing red in anger.

"Understood," she replied to Erica cordially and gave Veronika a nod in recognition before she carefully wheeled out the cart once more. Once she was out of the kitchen, she let out a sigh of frustration. "This Johnny fellow acts exceedingly unprofessional and drinking before battle? Well, it's not my funeral... but the compensation will have to be sufficient." She didn't waste much time putting her bowl into its proper place and promptly returned to the kitchen.

"Is there anything else you need of me? If not, I'll just return the cart and be on my way."

[-Cynthia-]

"I'm not equipped to deal with all this magical vasilus, emblem, warping, mind control, whatever business, I need something to clear my head so that I can focus on what I can do," Veronika explained before heading to the liquor shelf. Locating a medium sized glass and some vodka, she opted simply to fill the glass with vodka. She proceeded to down the drink in one gulp.

"Better already," she proclaimed, grabbing a second glass and filling both with ice. Locating the coffee liquor on the shelf, she filled each glass with one part coffee liquor and two parts vodka. Scanning around the kitchen, she managed to locate a container of cream. Adding about an ounce of this to one of the glasses turned the liquid inside white. She sipped a little of each glass briefly, nodding in satisfaction.

[Mercakete]

Well, it was too late now, even if he wanted to advise Veronika against it. So, he just sighed quietly to himself before heading back out into the dining hall. The soup was actually a lot easier for Norbert to move to its spot than the sandwiches had been, since this he could pick up and put into place without worrying about dirtying the actual food. Once that was done, he wheeled the cart back into the kitchen and off over to the place Johnny had indicated before. The work seemed to be done, so it was finally time to eat. He didn't rush his departure, though. Instead, he waited a little longer to hear the reply to the pink-haired woman's question. Besides, he could use the extra time to sort out his thoughts.

[Phoenix]

Kitchen

"That should be all. You three did a fantastic job," Erica smiled, seeming to be getting some of her strength back already. Funny that.

"Fantastic what?" Greta asked, having only just gotten back from her second run. The soup was easy enough to get over, but she still managed to shake the thing a little. Still, like last time, she was satisfied with the results.

"You three did a fantastic job, I said."

"Oh. Sure, any time," Greta cheerfully replied, feeling it had just been nice to do something productive for a change.

Johnny watched as Veronika went about gathering ingredients. Before long she had two drinks ready. "What did you just make?" he asked, having some vague idea already but wanting to hear what she had to say about it.

Dining Hall

"No the solution is to convince her to leave them alone for now or knock her out," Gabbie shot back. "We'd be better off letting the wrathoites chase them out of here and focusing on the other lead."

"That's crazy! Sardis is here. My father is here. Pretty much everyone is here," Raquel argued. To both of them, she said, "Look, I know it's dangerous, but I'm not going to die in there. I'm not going to let myself be captured, either. That's why I'm trying to get in some quick practice, to make sure I can handle my part in this. If there were a safer way, I'd consider it, but this is the best we've got right now. I'm still not sure about involving the wrathites, but I'll think about it, at least."

Gabbie grunted in frustration at that. "Well do me and everyone else who lives here a favor if you decoide to involve those people. Don't drag any of us along with you. We don't need to be there when they show up." With that said, she turned to leave herself, making sure to go over and grab her cloak on the way.

I can finally put an end to this, today ... how can anyone expect me to just turn away from all of this and wait for them to make the next move? Raquel gloomily mused. I guess Gabbie doesn't care as long as she gets what she wants out of this. Ugh.

Meanwhile, Reign took a seat and did some musing of his own. Seeecret musing.

Some Hallway

It would take a lot to telegraph one's moves to a seasoned Fallen warrior and still triumph. This man Gar was talking about sounded like a legend ... or at least a very well trained kigenese warrior. From the sound of things, Gar's conditioning was useful in the short term, but was actually a crutch he would have to overcome someday if he was going to match ... or possibly even surpass? this man he was referring to ....

The last thing she was expecting for prying into someone's personal life was thanks, but atypical Gar was atypical. "Oh! Glad I could help you with that." Now if only she had a goal or something to strive for, Suzume thought. "I'll be sure to come pester you if I have any more questions." It shouldn't be too long, really. I'm already curious about some other things. It just might be too soon to ask, is all.

Main Hall

Instead of heading out to the stables right away, which would have necessitated getting wet much earlier than he'd have liked, Shadrak came back down the main staircase and began waiting around in the main hall. He wasn't sure if he was waiting for Mushirah specifically, or just trying to stay out of the rain a little while longer, but he told himself it was the former.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

"White Neviskotian and Black Neviskotian," Veronika answered, pointing to the creamy and the non-creamy glasses in turn. "Probably not popular drinks around here for obvious reasons," she guessed. I can't think of any drinks named after Ursium- is that because Ursians just drink wine and beer or because they've been our enemy?

[Mercakete]

It seemed their work was over. That was good -- it meant he could have lunch then get on with his day. Whatever his day entailed, however, it would probably be best to stay indoors. If it had just been rain, that would have been one thing, but thunder made flying that much more dangerous. Well, it wasn't like he didn't have other things to fill his time with, one of which being talking to various individuals. As he thought about it, though, was talking to some of them really the best use of his time? At least one he'd already agreed to, and another he wanted to, but the other two? Well, it may not have been necessary.

As he thought it over, he decided he'd at least ask one of them what was on his mind, but she had already been asked something. Her answer was pretty short. It came as no surprise (or interest, really) that he'd never heard of either drink. How much do Neviskotians drink that they had to start naming them for minor differences? Well, that was neither here nor there. "Hey, Veronika, do you have a moment? There's something I was curious about. It's not important or urgent, though."

[-Cynthia-]

"Given how long this discussion has been taking, I doubt my presence there is urgent. Ask away," Veronika invited Norbert. No matter what we plan, I doubt there will be much time for talking after we do whatever we're going to do. We're in danger any way you look at it.

[Mercakete]

He was only a little bit surprised that Veronika had agreed right then and there, but he had no qualms about it. No reason not to get right to the point, either. So, with genuine confusion, he asked, "When Shadrak quit, you seemed really upset, and not the usual kind either. That is, the only kind of upset I've ever seen you in is when you're angry, and even then you seem like you have full control over it. What triggered that reaction?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika bit her lip, she was definitely glad she had a drink before Bert dropped this on her. "As second-in-command of this group, it is my duty to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal, and most importantly, stays alive. With Shadrak, I just failed at one of these, if not both," she explained after a short pause. Just like I failed John and Sophia...

[ReformBlade]

Shaking her head at the maid's apology for the place being messy, "It's alright, I'm used to messy rooms anyway. I'd often leave a lot of my supplies out and about in whatever room I happened to be drawing in that day and my parents would always get mad at me, heh." Ultimately, mention of last night still made her bitter, but even forcing a smile was better than moping over it. After everything was said and done, Mushirah thanked the maid profusely and went on her way again, slinging her backpack to her right side to compensate and balance by herself. It wasn't a perfect solution by any means, but it was still something and it helped her out. She saw Shadrak near the front, looking like he was waiting on something. "Ready?" she asked, feeling a twinge of nervousness hit her. She wanted to ask him about what his earlier outburst was about, but that was answered already. What she really wondered was how he was feeling about it, it seemed so sudden to her that it hadn't really registered. It didn't really change much, now that she thought about it, but she didn't like drama to begin with so... curiosity. Cats. Do the math.

Edited May 16, 2014 by ReformBlade

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I'll be waiting then," he rubbed his chin at the idea. "Not many times I get to actually talk about things I can talk about."

[Snowy_One]

Robin gave a small sigh as she felt like slumping down in the chair. Things were crazy to say the least. Indeed, it seemed that, for every day they stayed in one place, things got more hectic, almost as if by moving in the Dauntless they had been fleeing some arcane curse of chaos. She didn't really care too much as to what was going on. What Tia hadn't grasped was that Robin was sure that, if needed, someone would have asked for her.

"Pretty sure she just wanted to meet Nyx." she mumbled to herself as she stood up. "Raquel, Gabbie, when was the last time you relaxed?"

[Toogee]

Unlike Eva and Tia, Eli was in no hurry to march to his death head for the stables. Not even the rain could speed up his walk; if nothing else, it conditioned his body for the wet conditions they were about to fly in. By the time he arrived, Eva was ready and Tia was trying to get a ride with Aneda. He couldn’t blame the young mage for switching rides; their last ride ended with Tia getting slashed by some monster.

“No need to rush, Tia,” Eli said. “I’m sure Nyx will still be around whether we leave today or the next.”

Eli then entered Betty’s stall and gave her a thorough look over for ticks and such. Once he was satisfied, the rider then grabbed his saddle and attached it to his Pegasus. Satisfied, he led her out of the stall and grabbed a comb. Even though they were about to go out into the rain, a quick grooming tended to be therapeutic for both rider and mount. He probably needed it more than Betty. While he was combing through her mane, Eli looked over to Eva’s direction. He may as well strike a conversation while waiting; it could have been his last.

“So…how does one obtain a wyvern in these parts?” Eli asked Eva. He had gotten pretty far with not knowing the girl’s name (yes, one sentence is pretty far for Eli).

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Jam really had nothing to add to the assault on Sardis. The dancer felt like an outsider in all of this, not knowing the finer details on Raquel’s journey. It wasn’t clear whether Greta or even Alphonse would be helping out, so she didn’t have a dog in this fight. She simply grabbed a sandwich and continued watching the fireworks.