Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[ReformBlade]

"Yeah, I know." Mushirah nodded at Shadrak and would have said they should probably move on when suddenly another person was let in and things seemed pretty dire, as only saying 'it's a matter of life and death' could imply. What's going on? I probably shouldn't get involved... "Shadrak" she started softly, "I think we should go." Whatever was going on it sounded like the man wasn't really looking to talk whatsoever, and while Mushirah might have wanted to help, now didn't seem like an appropriate time to just brush off other obligations even if they were entirely selfish.

Jericho sighed to himself. I should have known better than to expect immediate action, these people simply won't let a goddamn thing drop even if there's other important things that need immediate attention. And now if I point it out again, I'm the asshole. Day one on the job, hoo fuckin ray.

[Snike]

And it appeared as if Blake wouldn't be left alone, as Bert had followed him. He was asking if he was 'alright'. Having a link inside his head which removed his privacy meant that he wasn't, but he really didn't want to talk about that. So instead, he decided to mislead the pegasus rider.

"Define alright," Blake said, continuing on towards his room. "Physically, I'm alright, but I'm a bit worried."

[Snowy_One]

"And then what?" asked Robin, a slightly irritated tone in her voice. "If your father walked through that door right now, you would go after the men who captured him so that they would never post a threat again? Go after the Fallen so they'll never be a threat again? Go after Nyx so she will never hurt someone like Shade Drake again? Go after me so I will never punch another drunkard acting rude to a little girl again? Raquel. What you are doing is important. We all know that. But even so, even in both history and story, people took breaks and time for themselves. Mark had his Sharon, Lyn had her Ron, and what do you have? A long night where you do nothing but fret and worry and cannot even claim to have a pet to offer you comfort? What good is it to your father if his daughter dies from stress and overwork before she even gets to the building where he is being held? I am worried for you Raquel. As both the person I work for and probably the closest thing I have to someone who does not hate me, I am worried."

Edited May 18, 2014 by Snowy_One

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Well, close to normal," Gar mused. "Well wouldn't be a bad idea to check how things fell apart back there so... think I'll accompany you until you head back."

[-Cynthia-]

"I can't cook, but preparing drinks is something I grew to be quite good at," Veronika informed Reign, setting the White Neviskotian down in front of him. Robin seemed to be concerned about Raquel's stress- while this was a nice gesture, this didn't really seem like an appropriate time.

"So what have we decided to do?" she asked after sitting down, hoping to get discussion back on track.

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"Only someone who's absolutely full of themselves just assumes everyone hates them," Reign muttered irritably. He needed that white 'skotian inside of him soon so he could forget about how annoying these exchanges really were. "Raquel's going through with the bomb version of the rescue plan but I'm not sure about the exact approach yet. She did say she wanted to talk with you about something so I'm assuming it's that. Sounds kind of shady but commanders withhold information from the grunts all the time, so this might be a good thing depending on how you look at it," Reign replied to Veronika before taking a sip of the cocktail. He wasn't disappointed. "This is really good. Smooth, too," he smiled at her.

By this point, Raquel was fairly certain Robin was worrying too much. She was also forgetting that Raquel's father was the most important person in her life. There wasn't anyone she would rather spend her downtime with than him right now, and so as far as Robin's questioning went, her priority if he just randomly showed up would be looking after him, not chasing after her enemies or anyone else. "I've taken too many breaks, too often, and it's only made me weak and dependent on everyone around me. I'm not going to just sit around trying to enjoy myself when there's no reason to. I'll worry about things like that once my father's back. Until then, whatever stress my body is under will just have to wait and endure it."

Amon began musing quite noticeably again as soon as Raquel said that. <"What?"> Malik asked.

Amon shook his head in response. <"It's nothing important. Just wondering how far Raquel can physically push herself."> <The emblem uses a lot of different means to accomplish it's wielder's goal, so ... it might actually suppress any problems she might be having. I'm starting to worry it might be taking over her mind, too, though. That's pretty plausible in a situation like hers. After all, if you don't have enough resolve to accomplish something important on your own ...>

"But, yeah," Raquel's gaze fell to the floor, "I need to talk with Faatina for a minute, and then I need to talk with you, Veronika. After that, I'm going to get in as much practice as I can until Gar figures out this bomb situation and Anna gets back," she explained.

Main Hall

"Alright," Shadrak nodded, ready to head outside. It was a good way to get away from this waterlogged man before he started pressing him, even if it meant going out into the rain a bit prematurely. "I'm sure they're ready for us with the mounts by now anyway. Let's try to get over to the stables as soon as possible."

"Tch," Glen looked away, a little bitter with Shadrak's response. He wasn't sure he trusted Weyland's mercenaries after all. Maybe Valter's somewhat political route had more merit after all.

Some Hallway

"Okay, sure," Suzume agreed, though it wasn't even a second later that she seemed nervous. No one's seen my room since I moved some things around ... and I'm not finished yet. Also this is Gar and not just some random maid. Well, as long as I explain why everything's the way it is, I'm sure he won't think anything of it, heheh. "Okay, let's go. It's just on the second floor. Turns out there's more than one way to get up there."

[Toogee]

"What am I doing here? I came here looking to sell stuff. I'm a blacksmith's daughter, so obviously I'd heard of Weyland somewhere down the line. I don't really care about all that nationality hoopla that people throw around, I just wanted to work for someone like that. But, I've always been a fighter at heart, and being able to go up against the crazy things I've heard Raquel has fought? It gets me excited." She was smiling now, fairly widely. "So, I told her I'd work for her, and it hasn't been too much of a disappointment after one day. Met some great people and got to fight against those knights. Can't say I've been left wanting. Not that all the arguing has been pleasant, but I try not to let it get to me too badly."

"Well, 'exciting' would be one word for it," Eli said. He was the opposite of Eva's smile.

"Personally, I've had enough of the supernatural to last a lifetime. It seems like we have enough grounded concerns to worry about; no need to add monsters, sentient armor, and goddesses in the mix. Yet I still find myself going on these missions. I guess it has something to do with," he nodded his head towards Tia so she wouldn't hear him. "I suppose I'm just a boring person by nature," he ended, a smirk along his face.

'Friends'

"New friends?" Greta echoed, wondering if some new faces had shown up in the last couple of minutes. When she thought about it more, she considered that she might have simply gotten used to traveling with Raquel and the others sooner than Jamilla had. "Heh, I guess ya can still consider'em 'new'. What'd ya have to say about'em?"

"Well, relatively new," Jam remarked before continuing. "Anyways, it's nice being around all of these people, but they sure know how to make enemies. I thought the bird people were bad enough, but now they're going after this Sardis guy? Seems like we walked into something much bigger than our trip. What do you think of all of this?"

[Nanami Touko]

"What? You're not boring. You're just gentle, or something." She didn't quite have a word for it, but she figured gentle was pretty good. "Just because I think facing things that could get me killed is exciting, doesn't mean I expect the rest of the world to follow along. I'm surprised there are people here that are even willing to follow Raquel, honestly. If those knights are common happenstance, or at least things like them, you'd think people would've left long ago. I'm the weird one, after all." She shrugged, but kept her smile. "And I guess if that's the reason you're hanging around, at least you've a good one. Someone needs to make sure she doesn't end up getting herself killed."

[Mercakete]

"When aren't you worried?" Norbert returned with a tiny huff. Blake wouldn't get off the hook that easily. But if he wanted him to define the term, he had no problem obliging. "You seem less collected than usual, and I think I know why. What you're worried about is the same thing as you're always worried about. This time, though, Raquel's about to pull some risky moves and you don't want her getting hurt. Trust me -- no one else wants her to do something like this. Taking back people this organization abducted is going to provoke them. And even with the Wrathites in your head or whatever's going on, I don't think anyone doubts your motives. Everyone knows you're just trying to prevent disaster. You know Raquel, though. Timid as that girl is, she's twice as stubborn."

The pegasus rider sighed and shook his head at that, but then continued, "But you know what? She's got some new tricks up her sleeve. I think she'll be fine. No way of dissuading her besides conking her over the head, tying her up, and throwing her somewhere safe anyway, and her methods seem solid. But the point is I don't think anyone doubts where your loyalties lie. I know I don't. The ones I don't trust are the Wrathites. I've seen too much abuse of power from them and the military on the whole, so no matter what they said, I'm not buying it without a good amount of solid backing. What about you? What makes you so sure you can trust them, and why are you so adamant about bringing them in particular along?"

He paused for a moment before shaking his head and finishing, "You don't have to tell me, by the way. It just seems weird to me and if you haven't wondered those things yourself, yet, I thought I'd bring them to your attention."

[-Cynthia-]

"Thanks," Veronika replied to Reign, smiling back. The question of what information Gar has had slipped her mind with all this business regarding Shadrak and Blake, but was now at the forefront again.

At least Raquel is resolved to get this done without distractions. "Very well then- I would suggest that we not actually begin the operation until after sundown anyway. If we're trying to be stealthy, darkness would be preferable," she said to Raquel.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Guess making the place a maze is one way to deter thefts," Gar joked at the multiple ways thing. "Lead on!"

[Phoenix]

Kitchen

"Well ..." Greta paused, gently rubbing her jawline with a finger. Jamilla was going to find out about it sooner or later, she supposed. "Well Raquel's gonna be doin' her own thing from now on. Weeee're gonna be travelin' with Amon and Nadya ... I guess. See, Nadya offered to make an investment in my business, help me get started up again, but it ain't much of an investment for her if I don't stick around. It ain't gonna be easy but I'm gonna try to keep things on the road and run my business while travelin' with them. At least the security's free, heh." She shrugged, feeling a bit helpless with everything out in the open.

Dining Hall

"That's a long wait," Reign noted before taking a drink. "If Anna screws up they might retaliate before then ... well, they might retaliate regardless, or just attack us outright if that was their plan from the start," he shrugged, starting to feel like an attack was inevitable as a whole. They didn't have enough information to seriously think otherwise. "Never mind. If they're going to try to hit this place again, it's their funeral anyway," he waved his hand dismissively. "Nightfall's fine by me."

"I'd rather not risk this place being attacked again, but it would give Gar more time to get the explosives and me more time to practice. Well, with that much time, it'd be more like actual training than just practice," Raquel replied. "I want to get my father back as soon as possible but we're probably only going to get one chance at this. After that ..."

"They'll go to ground and we won't be seeing any of them for a good while," Reign finished the thought for her. He took another drink and sighed. Well at least with a drink in him, the plan wasn't seeming quite so dangerous anymore. Their luck usually held well enough for most of them to survive.

"... yeah. Anyway, we'll wait til nightfall. If any of you see Gar before I do can you tell him that we're moving the attack back to around sundown?" It didn't matter who did it as long as it was done. With that taken care of, she approached Faatina. "Umm, you said you wanted to buy a sword, earlier?"

Some Hallway

"There's more than just plain looking halls out here in the front side. Weyland has a bunch of crazy traps built into this place. I saw a few of them last night," Suzume explained as they walked further into the manse. "I wouldn't try to rob this place no matter what they were keeping here. But that's just me, I guess. This place has been hit twice already," she gave a confused look at her own statement. Granted, the overwhelming majority of the estate's attackers had no idea prior that the place could be turned into a literal deathtrap on Weyland's whim, but she still found the prospect of attacking the place slightly insane.

[Toogee]

"What? You're not boring. You're just gentle, or something." She didn't quite have a word for it, but she figured gentle was pretty good. "Just because I think facing things that could get me killed is exciting, doesn't mean I expect the rest of the world to follow along. I'm surprised there are people here that are even willing to follow Raquel, honestly. If those knights are common happenstance, or at least things like them, you'd think people would've left long ago. I'm the weird one, after all." She shrugged, but kept her smile. "And I guess if that's the reason you're hanging around, at least you've a good one. Someone needs to make sure she doesn't end up getting herself killed."

"Oh no, I like boring. Boring people know exactly what's coming in their lives. There's no regular life-or-death situations for boring people. Rival nations do not wage war with boring people. Dragons ignore them. Goddesses are too concerned with more adventurous folk selling their souls to bother with boring people. Boring people don't die on the battlefield; they die peacefully in their beds. It really isn't a bad life. But with all these threats raining down on my town, I'm not going to be able to live that boring life. Heh, I guess that's another reason I'm going along with this..."

Eli went silent as he reflected on the irony of his statement.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That's great news!" Jam said to Greta, a big smile on her face. "I totally knew things would turn back in your favor. And that Amon fellow is with the Sanctuary, so we'll be headed to Rex Avaz one way or another. Free ride home! I guess you'll be stuck with me for a little while longer."

Jam patted Greta on the shoulder, congratulating her on her awesome luck for once.

[Nanami Touko]

"Er... No offense, Eli, but I think if I had that life I would die from the boredom. To each their own and all that, but I'd like to have some excitement in my life. Maybe for the regular man, not Gods and Goddesses, or dragons and sentient armor, but perhaps... I dunno. Is it sad that I'm into these sorts of things, or sadder still that I can't think of more common place things that would produce excitement?" She ended up laughing at herself. "Sorry, Eli. I guess that's all I really know in life. Even back home, the only thing I wanted to try could get me killed. Maybe I should have you see if you can heal my brain; there must be something wrong up there!" She laughed a bit harder, eventually trying to contain herself down to a chuckle.

[Ether]

Well, it seemed for now, most of the ruckus was over. With Raquel approaching her, Faatina gave her head a light shake to clear her thoughts.

"Yeah... I've been noticing that a lot of times I have some trouble forcing people back if they get too deep into close combat... a sturdy blade would do a much better job repelling them than my spear ever could." Faatina replied... a different topic, atleast for now, was a good place to start... she still wasn't feeling great about this whole thing but...

***

Angelica still wasn't quite sure who of their shared acquaintances might be able to deliver on that magnitude of explosives in such short order... perhaps this was a contact of Gar's own, untied to the Howling Voice Guild... well, if that was the case, she knew there wasn't much point in pursuing it... nothing was more of a waste of time than trying to pry information out of that enigma of a man when he didn't want to give it up.

***

After a short while, Arietta finally found herself standing in front of Steinn's study... last she knew, Boss was in there. He may well have left by now, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to check. Giving the door a firm knock, the bodyguard called out through the door.

"Hey, Boss, you in there?"

[ReformBlade]

"I ain't moving anywhere, calm down girl." Aneda laughed, playing with Hannah a little bit longer. "I guess you're comin with me? Alright, still gonna wait on everyone before setting out though. Did you want up on her now or you just wanna gawk at this majestic badass?" She patted Hannah on the head a few times to emphasize the point, to which Hannah snorted.

Mushirah hurried outside as best as she could, more to avoid more soaking than necessary than to get away from the awkward situation. Unfortunately she wasn't brave enough to go into a full run so she instead went at a brisk pace, but really it didn't matter too much. "Sorry to keep you waiting!" she somewhat yelled to the crew waiting around for her and Shadrak. "Had to go get something more presentable on, hopefully this is fine."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Deathtrap eh?" Gar rubbed his chin at the idea. Just another round of support that exploding buildings outright was the best idea. "Heh, I bet his construction crew thought he was crazy putting this place together then."

[Snowy_One]

"<What?>" asked Robin in shock as she heard Raquel's defiant statement. "<You're gonna kill yourself. I hope I'm not going to have to beat you over the head with a club and drag you to some hidden cave to keep you safe from yourself at this rate!>" she muttered to herself, shaking her head as she sat back down and slumping downwards. There would be no reasoning with Raquel. She just REALLY hoped it wouldn't be the death of anyone.

---

"Can I have both?" asked Tia, looking up all wide-eyed. "Help up onto her now and a chance to look her over as well? I mean, I'm no mounted expert, but riding a big beast about sounds really cool. Part of me wishes I could saddle-up some of my teammates as well, but I doubt that they'd agree to such a thing."

[Snike]

Well, that worked. Bert figured that Blake was so off-kilter because of Raquel's role in the plan. While it was true that he really hated her role in it, it wasn't the real reason he was so out of it. But the man decided to play along with it.

"She might have new tricks, but she's warping alone into the enemy base, where another Emblem wielder will be nearby. There is no telling what could happen in there, where we can't interfere with the enemy," Blake said, frowning. "Then there's the explosives, but, well, as you said, there was no talking her out of it. Anyways, the reason why I suggested the Wrathites take part is that they share the goal of defeating the Organization with us. They'd hardly attack us while the people who caused the Celeste's destruction are right in front of them. I'm confident in that much."

[Mercakete]

"I don't know what the Celeste is, but we're on the Wrathites' home turf. There's nothing stopping them from taking the easy way out and attacking us right along with the kidnappers. It'd just be easier, since we'd all be in one place. It's a lot harder to avoid friendly fire, let alone protecting us, than it would be to wipe us all out at once and then justify it with whatever the Order of Wrath comes up with," Norbert replied, a little worried. His uncertain frown deepened a little into a frustrated one, though his tone was only a little more somber than before. "Or, I guess, I should stop saying 'we,' huh?" Man, that's going to take some getting used to... It sure has been a while now, hasn't it?

He shook off the thoughts and added, "But even if I'm not actually there with you guys, you have my support, just so you know. It won't be easy to stop thinking of you all as a group I belong to."

[Phoenix]

Kitchen

Greta smiled weakly. "I'm glad ya don't mind, but this is gonna be real tough. We're not goin' to Kigen to sight see," not that there's anythin' over there I'm really interested in, "Amon and them are gonna be fightin' all the time. Sure, security's no problem, but I've gotta somehow turn a profit when we'll be spendin' more time on battlefields than in towns or cities. Even if I decide to try my hand at arm dealin', I'll have to find people to sell that stuff to and these mercs actually take care of their equipment so it ain't as simple as relyin' on them. That's why Raquel's havin' such a hard time of it, even." She hoped Jamilla would understand her concerns a bit more with what she'd said so far. There were a few minor problems that would only add to this but she didn't want to get into them right now.

Dining Hall

So Faatina wanted a backup weapon for when enemies literally got too close for comfort. She could somewhat relate, but actual weapons were useless in her flimsy hands. "Alright, we should go take a look through my inventory, then." She tried to recall where everything was being stored but was coming up short in that moment. "I'll ask one of the maids, I guess." She then squinted at Robin again when the archer began mumbling in her own language again. Why couldn't she just pick a language and stick with it if she wasn't insulting her?

Study

The door to the study opened and Weyland was the one standing on the other side. Normally he wouldn't have been the one to answer it, but with most of the staff busy, he tended to be alone with Steinn quite a bit and there was little chance of the Fallen prince doing it, if only because he was almost always sitting down on the other side of the room when they had visitors, while Weyland was usually standing and quite close to the door at that. Just the same, Weyland was beginning to notice the trend and decided to keep one of his maids or someone around from now on. "Yes, what is it, Arietta?" he asked her.

Stables

"Is everyone here?" Shadrak asked after Mushirah got the small group's attention. "Like I said before, it's your own decision to come, if you do. This isn't going to be safe, even if she just let's us in this time." He doubted his warning would convince anyone to change their minds and stay behind, but he felt he needed to at least 'say' something before they left.

Hallway

"This place is weird in general. The 'interior decor' isn't all the same throughout this place. It's almost like there's some ... code or zoning thing I haven't learned yet. Like ... take this hallway for instance. It's really plain and there's nothing around here. But there's another hallway not too far from here lined with suits of armor, and another with huge potted plants," Suzume explained as they headed for a staircase. "Most of the places I've been too have a theme that's the same throughout the whole house, but not this place. Not even close. It's just weird."

[scorri]

Lumi

"Yeah, he got shocked pretty badly or something. I was only half paying attention to be honest. Still not sure what's all going on with this group. They seem a bit crazy. Fun, but still. Think I'm just going to offer rides tonight, not actually get involved in any of the fighting. As much fun as it can be, not worth risking getting caught under a building, especially not with Star being around."

Erion

Grinning slightly, Erion stuffed his hands into his pockets and wandered over to where Raquel was. "You might want to keep an eye out for that one," he said with a head gesture towards Robin. "She's muttering something about whacking you over the head with a club and dragging you into a cave to keep you safe. Something about keeping you from killing yourself. Still. Seems like there'd be better ways of doing that, don't you think?"

Hoshi

Sitting back and staring at her desk, Hoshi couldn't help but smile. The knowledge she'd been given... she couldn't stop using it. Her desk and floor were cluttered with various projects she'd made since getting back, and she couldn't stop thinking of more ideas. She was starting to get hungry though, and knew that if she didn't eat soon, it would start affecting her work. With a slight stretch, she stood up and headed back towards the dinning hall.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"That's... interesting..." his own houses were just thrown about wherever because of the occupants. But Weyland's home? No, Suzzy Q was right there was something going on there. "Maybe it's just supposed to be waymarkers," he offered with a shrug.

[Ether]

"I suppose you don't know where everything is in here, either, huh?" Faatina noted with a light grin... everything in this city just screamed massive, atleast she wasn't the only one a bit taken by the prospect of it. And that was when Erion made his way over, bringing Robin's words to light.

"She's an odd one... I don't know if I should admire or fear how protective she seems of you... and I'm not even the one being threatened with a clubbing."

***

"Ah, Boss, I was just wondering in you had made a decision on what I should do now, with Raquel's situation rapidly shifting." Arietta replied with a quick salute... they seemed to be rather rapidly running out of time to sort that whole thing out.

[Nanami Touko]

"Oh, sorry, Eli," she said as she heard shouting, "looks like this conversation gets put on hold." Mushirah and Shadrak had finally arrived, Eva taking a moment to sit herself properly on Sasha. "No problem, Mushirah. Weather's bad enough that I'm surprised you didn't wear something heavier." Shadrak issued his warning, probably to let them all think it over one more time, and to cover himself in case something did happen. She didn't exactly blame him for what had happened earlier. "I doubt we're changing our minds. Some of us are mature enough to understand the risks, and the others..." she glanced at Tia, "probably won't be dissuaded from their wants." She them motioned Mushirah and Shadrak over to Sasha. "Mushirah, you're sitting in front of me. It'll give me a better grip on you. Don't think I need to explain why. Shadrak, you're in the back. Make sure you hold on tight. Save for getting hit by a stray lightning bolt, we should get there fine."