Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

"I don't think some fancy ball is really my style, but I might be able to be talked into it. He'll have to ask me himself though, I'm particular like that," she replied to Amon.

Connor

"Let me know about any results of research- Raquel's group could really use more advanced weaponry. Whenever I hit a wall, I end up starting a new project as well- sometimes the ideas from one project can carry over to another one. I've been able to perform pretty much all the transmutations people have done in the past, but there's always more to do. I'm hoping to break new ground in weapons development soon," he said to Hoshi.

[scorri]

"Oh, of course. Work like this is meant to be shared. Well... within the company at least. Obviously I wouldn't just go telling anyone how to make it. Sir." She glanced a little nervously at Weyland before continuing. "I think that with the ideas you've given here I'll be able to get this though. Thank you so much."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yeah, you and that guy from earlier," Gar replied to the woman-from-the-shop. He wasn't exactly thrilled about about the fallen-guy at all though. He added on all the other rexian stuff after before the person who was with Robin going with someone called Jam. That was pretty much everyone here. "Alright, everything's nice and set up for ease after I make the rounds with everyone else. This is nice." Gar ignored more of the egg ramblings, he really didn't care. "As for outfits, well there's probably something loanable here if you can't afford your own." Gar shrugged, not like he knew for certain, but a man who could afford so many maids could certainly afford expendable finery.

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

Amon tried to tune out the argument brewing between Robin and Siv so he could hear Nadya's answer ... and from the looks of things, Haythem was on his own on this matter. "Right ... I ... guess I'll pass that along to him later."

"Grrrrrr-" Siv was becoming visibly furious due to Robin's reply. Having been asked what they could do since they were apparently so dangerous, she snapped, yelling, "I already told you, wild humans can't take care of our eggs! Put them down!" Next, she literally leaped into action, thrusting herself into the air with the strongest wing beat she could muster in the moment. She left a few plumes in her wake and sailed over the dining hall before coming down right onto the table directly in facing Robin. She wasn't particularly heavy, so despite her fast and hard landing, the table didn't shake as violently as it might have if someone else had come slamming down on it that way.

Shadrak was stunned to see Siv pull off a move like that at all. He'd pictured her as relatively helpless and not the least bit athletic. He could already see Steinn laughing at him for such an assumption. Upon closer inspection, Siv had also done something else he wasn't expecting. She'd actually gauged her surroundings quite well. She had not only landed exactly where she wanted, but exactly how she wanted. She'd missed the nearby food and even the nearby candle stand. Siv had even thought to grip the left side of her dress in order to keep it bundled near her so as not to hit or cover anything nearby.

One last observation Shadrak made, though unwittingly, was the state of the dress. Siv's tail was nowhere to be seen, but since she'd landed facing them and kneeling on her right leg, much of her left stocking was visible from where he was sitting. He sorely regretted paying such close attention to the landing and averted his eyes. Dammit, why did she have to come flying in from above? He spoke up while looking away from her and toward the egg Robin was holding. The last thing he wanted was to be caught staring under the girl's dress, assuming he hadn't already been. "Siv, calm down, please! This isn't exactly a kestrelii egg we've got here, and we were asked to look after it. I just want to see if you know anything about egg care that you could share with us."

"You're just a wild human! You can do other things, but you can't take care of our eggs!"

'Wild humans' ... that's not a term I particularly like or miss, Shadrak thought to himself.

"Give me the egg or ..." Siv demanded as she raised her hand over her head. Her eyes quickly shifted as she stared down at Robin, the white in them fading to black as her irises began to glow a fierce gold. Immediately the palm of her hand began to glow as fire magic gathered there and a small fireball emerged. "... or ... or I'll take it and burn you and scorch you and set you on fire!"

"Oh crap," Shadrak yelped.

"This is gonna be good," Gabbie said. Fizza nodded to that and both watched with eager anticipation. Amon and Malik weren't quite so happy about the sudden rise in tension. Greta was just plain confused and docile by that point, and Reign ... only spared them a glance. He was a little sick of the overprotectiveness being shown to this egg.

Guest Room

Raquel was grateful for Bert's apology, but that wasn't all or even half of what he had to say. Some of what he said, like how she'd grown stronger, she welcomed and was somewhat happy to hear. Others, like how she was too trusting, not so much. She didn't deny that she was a little desperate for help, and a little too grateful for anyone willing to put their life on the line in this group regardless of their motives, but it still wasn't something she enjoyed hearing. The obvious fact that there could be a spy, an assassin, both, and any number thereof, already within the group also wasn't a fun thing to hear again.

Finally, after all of that, the true issue came out; Bert was leaving them. "I don't understand. Why not?" Was it just getting too dangerous for him? Was the incident with Schwartz the last straw?

Project Trueblade

"There's a special bonding method a few of the students over at headquarters developed to accomplish just that, but it was meant for standard blades, and they can't exactly help us at this stage. I'm sure they could reinforce the edge once it's finished, though," Weyland noted on the sharpening issue. "As for the guests ... Connor, do you know who's she's talking about? If so, then send someone to fetch her. We're on a tighter schedule now, so I need to go take a look at the Dauntless in a moment here."

Edited September 1, 2013 by Phoenix

[Ether]

Well, this was an interesting turn of events... little miss Fallen maid had completely ignored the retort that it wasn't actually a fallen egg, and was now trying to torch the Skotian girl who had been holding on to the thing... the girl choosing to use fire magic was odd in of itself but not particularly noteworthy.

"Weren't you listening? That's not a Kestrell egg... it's some Phoenix thing, or so I've heard." Angelica noted to the noticably less docile fallen girl, keeping a close eye to throw a dense wind wall in between the enraged girl and her target... probably not enough to allow the archer girl to fully evade if she remained the target, but it would lessen the blow at the very least, and if she chose to switch to a further away target, they could evade if they were paying attention.

***

Quickly finishing her meal, Annelise stood before Steinn once again.

"I am finished, Lord Devlinos. Shall we begin?"

***

Well that didn't look good, but Faatina wasn't quite sure what she could do about it... and Reign seemed to be fairly nonchalant about it, as did most everyone... perhaps it would amount to nothing? With that in mind, Faatina decided it best to watch for now.

[scorri]

Erion

"Huh-uh..." He stared at the flying woman who had landed in front of him. The Fallen woman had looked so... docile when she first appeared in the maid uniform but that was clearly not the case. He subtly loosened the ties on his wrist knives so that he could quickly access them if needed. Trying to sound casual and succeeding to anyone who didn't know him well, he called out, "Robin, perhaps it would be best if you let this lovely lady here hold the egg until we can better sort this thing out. I'm sure that she would be much more willing to listen to, say, Weyland or Raquel than you, and what's the harm in letting her hold it for a while? I doubt she'll do any harm to it. Even if it isn't a Fallen egg, she still couldn't do much worse than we have. Especially if it's as hardy as people have been saying. And that way we'd all stay nice and unburnt."

Hoshi

"Oh, uhm, right. More descriptive. Uh, she was just a bit taller than me, blond hair I think. Uhm, short skirt. Very short skirt. And the knives were strapped to her legs. The only reason I saw them was because of the shortness of the skirt. Also, I can just go find her again. No need to bring her here or anything. At least not until we know if she's willing to let me tinker with her blades." She blushed slightly before continuing, "As for the sharpness of the blade, as you say, it's not important right now. But that's something I will keep in mind. Thank you."

Edited September 1, 2013 by scorri

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Is this place secretly a fallen refuge or something?" Gar wondered out loud when the situation with the egg escalated somehow. He went back to keeping his lyrics up between wondering if he should try and care or not. He a better look around, no one ball-relevant likely to be hurt other. Though, there were certain turns of the head, positionings. that gave Gar an idea. HEY FALLEN GIRL SOME GUYS ARE TRYING TO LOOK UP YOUR SKIRT, Gar thought as loudly as he could.

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

The argument between Siv and Robin over the egg had caught Nadya's attention.

"Yep, clearly Siv's as harmless as a baby foal and has no hard feelins towards humans whatsoever," she quipped. She wasn't particularly worried about any impending violence- Siv was highly outmatched and Nadya could probably heal off whatever she could do regardless. And it just seemed to be Robin in danger anyway...

Veronika

The scene between Siv and Robin had caught Veronika's attention. Guests fighting each other under Weyland's roof isn't going to end well for anyone, Veronika thought to herself, maneuvering over towards the egg with her hand on her sword. She said nothing at the moment and simply attempted to find a position where she could intervene if necessary.

Connor

"Oh that must be one of Greta's people. the one that wanted the tour," Connor said after Hoshi's description. "I'm not sure how most of those people fight myself- I thought about inspecting their gear for anything of interest but thought that might be a bit of a faux pas."

[Snowy_One]

Robin glared at Siv for a moment. The girl wasn't seriously about to start a fight like this? It would be suicide at best for both of them. Siv would have to first get the egg from Robin before she could launch any fire attacks and, in the time that happened, she was sure the rest of the people would have become involved. At best both would likely be subdued before suffering immense repercussions. Was Robin really willing to risk that over a damned fallen egg?

No. She was not. Though the thought of pleasuring that blasted girl was disgusting, a fight over something like this was worthless. Except Robin held the egg. She held all the power here... And it really wasn't worth it. Calmly placing the egg on the table while shooting Siv a glare worthy of it's own attack roll, Robin slowly backed away. "You're welcome." she said coldly, trying to shovel some guilt at Siv's complete lack of civility in this situation. But now, with the monster girl here, she didn't really feel like staying around anymore.

[Mercakete]

"By Leviathan!" Gytha exclaimed when Siv jumped onto the table and started up a fire attack. Other people were intervening but that situation sure had grown intense. In the end, Robin backed off and gave over the egg. The mariner really wasn't sure whether that was a good idea or not since their group was supposed to be holding onto the egg but at the same time Robin was picking her fights better, it seemed. Guess that gunshot lesson was learned after all. Whew... Hate t' think what woulda happened if she r'fused t' give up that egg... All the same all Gytha could do was gawk at the scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Norbert shook his head. "Sure maybe I helped out in some small way in battle but I cause you and everyone else a lot more problems than I solve. Back in Sanctuary after that incident with their military I realized just how much I jeopardized everyone because I couldn't keep my dumb mouth shut. We're really lucky we didn't get into deeper trouble... I've been trying to get better, but when I get mad I just lose control... It feels like I haven't made any progress at all... I've thought about leaving before, but..."

His frown became a bit less serious and more just helpless. "Well, we were on some island at the time and I had to get back to Ursium anyway." His seriousness returned. "And...I know this is selfish, but this group..." His frown deepened as he searched for the right words. "This group of people has treated me with more kindness and fairness than any other group of people I've ever been surrounded with."

He actually looked ashamed as he went on. "I know I'm trash but people here don't treat me like it... They fight for me. Some even risk their lives for me. It's just mind-boggling. No one's ever stood up for me before... I didn't want to give that up. But..." he glared darkly and furiously at the ground "I know things will be a lot easier for you all if I'm not around." Norbert lifted his now determined glare to Raquel. "I'm not going to be the cause of something terrible happening to everyone! I want to protect you guys, not hurt you! I'm not strong or useful enough to make up for the trouble I cause so I'm going to split off, even with the costs involved!"

[Phoenix]

Study

"Very well. Let's be on our way," Steinn replied, standing up with an empty plate in hand.. He was in no rush to finish his meal, but since his serving had been dramatically reduced in size by Siv, he finished at around the same time Annelise had. "Hand me that, would you?" he asked, hoping to take both plates to hand off to one of the servants somewhere on the way.

Guest Room

"Is that ... really what you want to do?" Raquel asked, holding back her tears. "I mean ... nobody's perfect ... and I put us in more danger than anyone. I don't think you should leave because of what might happen. I don't want you to go for our sake ..." She quickly wiped her eyes once willpower alone was no longer working. While trying to look Bert in the eyes, she said, "You should go if there's something better out there for you; friends, family, happiness ... something! If you leave now ... just as you're coming to grips with the problem, then that's one less person with me who actually cares. There aren't as many here as I'd like ..." It was selfish, she realized, but she didn't want to hire 'mercenaries' and pay for their loyalty, she wanted to recruit allies and keep them close. For her at least, there was a big difference.

Dining Hall

"It is a kestrelii egg; I can tell," Siv yelled back at Angelica. While it did have the appearance of a fallen egg, there was one marked difference that Siv was deliberately ignoring for the moment, the red aura. She was curious about it, but wasn't going to allow them to hold onto it a moment longer just to satisfy her curiosity. She could always ask what they'd done to it after she got it away from them.

Shadrak meanwhile noted Siv's response. So it is a fallen in there ... at least as far as race is concerned. Why is it a fallen, though?

Siv tensed up a little more every time she saw people moving closer, reaching for weapons, or doing anything noteworthy in response to her. Being in the middle of a gathering also made it difficult for her to figure out where certain thoughts were coming from. All of this together caused her to put more power into her spell than she was initially going to use to attack Robin. The fireball over her palm had grown to the size of a watermelon in a very short amount of time and was now giving off a considerable amount of heat. At least the food wouldn't get cold ...

To make matters sillier, both Gar and Nadya had some related things to chime in with. Amon was only in a position to address one of them, while Siv glared angrily at the other for a moment. "Maybe now isn't the time to be mentioning that," Amon quietly said to Nadya.

Finally, Robin placed the egg before her. Siv, beginning to calm down, dispersed her fire spell, though it had become so large by that point, that instead of just disappearing into nothing, it scattered into smaller flames first, and then vanished after a second or two, leaving behind a wave of heat that washed over the area. As she carefully picked up the egg, someone, she didn't know who, began yelling mentally. She wasn't trained to ignore thoughts that stood out like this, and so she heard Gar's ploy loud and clear and looked down toward her most exposed area. The only person she could see that had a clear view was Shadrak, and she couldn't tell if he was looking at the egg or her.

Uhhhh ... Shadrak wasn't sure why Siv was looking at him now, and so curiously, too ... She was focusing in on his thoughts and not just his mental gibberish. She was focusing so intently that she could see what he was seeing. Fate finally kicked in and Shadrak's confused gaze wandered just a little too low for a split second. Dammit! Not again!

<"Mmgh ... why ..."> Siv came down onto both knees and sat down with the egg in her lap. She felt noticeably uncomfortable now and as much as she wanted to extract herself from the area, she wasn't sure how to get down from the table without leaping from it.

"Uh ... Siv?"

Until someone (Shadrak or Robin) gave her room to get down from the table in a more secure way, she didn't have any options she was willing to take, and so cradled the egg in her arms and moved her wings over her shoulders to cover as much of herself as she could. She could still see Robin clear as day and vice versa, but instead of looking at her, she looked at the egg, no longer ignoring its red aura. <So much energy. It reminds me of Lord Valdimarr.>

Gabbie and Fizza were a little disappointed that a fight didn't break out, but such was life. Sometimes it didn't all end in violence. Still ... gods help these people when she finds the crack on the egg.

Project Room

"I'll leave that to you two then. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go inspect the Dauntless. Like I said before, simply repairing it won't be enough ..." Weyland replied, alluding to some greater concerns. "I'll be back shortly." After that, he stepped out of the room. He was hoping the damage wasn't too severe, because that meant the Dauntless' armor was more of a burden than an aid in truly dire situations.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Phoenix

[Ether]

"Ah... I can hold onto them, just instruct me as to where and when you would like them dropped off." Annelise replied, instead extending her hand to receive the plate that Steinn had been holding.

***

"Your eggs don't glow like that, hun~" Angelica replied with a cheery voice, before the fireball swelled in size... dissipating before it was launched, as the girl shot down to her knees and began cradling the egg against her lap, and her body within her wings. Considering it was just after shooting a glare at Gar, and the capabilities of the winged folk, it seemed fairly obvious what had happened, even more so following the exchange of looks with the shaman who sat at convenient upskirt range.

"That egg was a vasilus, Phoenix, right? Anyone know if he resembles the Kestrelii... or Fallen as most would know them? If so, it might be confusing her." Angelica noted, as she made her way closer to the now shirking Siv.

"Now come, it's not very flattering to a pretty little lady like you to be tossing threats around and standing on tables, hmm~?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Things with the egg continued, none involving what Gar laid out. Instead it was some sort of acceptance and peace and then, then things went interesting again as the girl and Shade Drake exchanged just the specific enough glance that Gar knew exactly what had happened. So damned if he didn't burst out laughing like a madman. It was so loud and hard he doubled over, nearly dropping his list in the process. "Well this just shot up into my top twenty favorite days," Gar's laughter cooled down heavily as he spoke. "You're always a barrel of fun Shade Drake." Angel was trying to calm things down in her own way, but Gar ignored her and went back to singing.

[Mercakete]

Norbert's hard gaze softened a little, but his frown remained. You're not making this easy, you know... "Hey, you don't have to cry over it. It's not like I'm the only one who doesn't want everyone to die or get thrown in prison or something if you're worried about people caring." His gaze hardened again, but not quite to the same extreme as before. "And the fact is that if you guys go to Neviskotia like it sounds like you are then me being around is just a disaster waiting to happen. More so than usual, I mean. You see, as much as some of my sisters are the bane of my existence, they're still the closest thing to a family I've ever had, so I'm just a loose nova over there. Most of my sisters are in the Ursian military."

He grimaced as he realized that was probably the most confusing way for Raquel to find out about Weyland's finds and what they led to. "Uh, about going to Neviskotia, Veronika can explain that better than I can so if you have any questions about it, ask her, not me." Great, another mess I've made. "Anyway, the point is I'm not leaving because there's something better out there for me if only because there just isn't something better out there for me. You've all been a lot nicer to me than I deserve and I appreciate it. It's the least I can do to leave you all be before I do something that'll get you killed or something. And you really shouldn't be this bothered by it; I'm no one worth missing."

[Toogee]

Eli spit in his drink a bit upon hearing Lumi’s question. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of other guys eying Lumi. There was just one thing for it…

“I don’t know about that,” Eli replied to Lumi, “but it would be a pretty handy disguise for going out. I wouldn’t mind tagging along…if you got room for a third.”

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

“Hello? Anyone up here?”

Meanwhile, Jamilla found herself completely lost inside the giant mansion. Somewhere between a staircase and a rotating bookshelf, she was turned around and wound up in what appeared to be a deserted hallway. Most of the help was likely concentrated with the guests, though she was sure someone would have heard her coming around. The search for her room continued…

“It must be a nightmare trying to find a bathroom in this place…” Jam said to herself aloud as she continued to roam the hallway.

[Snowy_One]

Robin scowled at Siv as she backed away from the table, looking to Erion. "<Two bit skank hussy of a pigeon *****. She's violent and uncontrollable. Almost started a fight over an overgrown chicken egg. I doubt she knows anything about hatching one and is just being the stuck-up monster girl she is. She didn't even try to ask nicely and resulted to threatening to fight because she sees humans as incapable of raising an egg. Her wings need to be clipped so she can walk on the ground like the rest of us instead of having her nose. Course, if she met someone as good as she was, I bet she'd suffer an inferiority complex. Bah. Need to think about something else before I do something I really regret.>" thought Robin to herself.

"Erion. Come on, you mentioned something about the ball or something before this... egg business... started. Let us go somewhere else to talk about it."

---

"I wonder if I could generate ice simply via immense pressure to transform water from a liquid state to a solid state? If I did such a thing, I'm sure that it would possess unique properties due to its abnormal formation such as becoming denser than water. I wager that getting struck with such a dense object would result in a stronger impact, closer to a gun bullet, as well as superior molding capabilities, maybe not even melt in warmer weather, but it may deform due to a lack of pressure. Hey. I wonder if Zach like kitties! KITTY! MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW! MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW! Purrrrr.... Hehe. I bet he'd get a lot of cat fur on his robes though. Hmmm... I wonder, do mages with cats use water magic to clean their robes of the fur? I wonder if this... second form of ice would be a good cat hair remover... Well! Only one way to find out!" thought Tia if she was still in range of the Siv-mind reading.

[scorri]

Lumi

A bit confused over Eli's spit take, Lumi mentally shrugged and made a note to mention it later. At his mention of tagging along though, she brightened. "Oh, you want to dye your hair? That could be interesting! Hmm... maybe a bright blue like mine? We could be like brother and sister!" Turning to Aneda, she continued, "And while red might be interesting, I really don't know... Also, I guess we should tell that guy over there that we're not going to the ball, huh?"

Erion

Erion just shrugged. "I was mostly done. You seem set on not going to the ball, not much else I can say there. Besides, I want to see how this whole thing will turn out. Not every day you get to see a Fallen. Especially not a Fallen in a maid's outfit getting super protective over an egg that isn't even the same species as her. Speaking of which, miss... Fallen, I don't think I've caught your name at any point, do you know why the egg is glowing red like that? Seems a bit odd for an egg to glow. Do Fallen eggs normally do that?"

Hoshi

"Uhm, right then. I think I'm going to go back to the dining hall and check to make sure I was right about the knives and then talk to her about them. I will let you know both the success of that and also about any progress I make with my main project. Thank you for your time, sir." She bowed slightly to Weyland before heading back down the hall towards the dining room, having no clue of the chaos occurring there.

[Phoenix]

Dark Wanderers

"If you insist," Steinn said as he handed her the empty plate. After that, he led her out of the room where the guard was still waiting. "You might as well accompany us. It will give the staff some much needed peace of mind."

Sighing with a grin, the man said, "Yeah, that's true. Like I was telling your lady friend a little while ago, repurposed farm tools scare the shit out people, and the folks around here are no exception. Best to at least look like you're supervised."

Severance Man

"That's not true! Don't talk about yourself like that," Raquel raised her voice at him. "What really bothers me is how you see yourself, and that you're leaving because of it. Don't you care what anyone else thinks? What I think?" She didn't want to dwell on Neviskotia at the moment, but it was too relevant to just ignore, and Bert had a very good point regarding it. "If we do end up going to Neviskotia for whatever reason, it could cause problems, I know ... but I doubt it's any worse than what we've already been through in the past. You shouldn't have to leave to make things 'better' for us. How are things any better with one less person looking out for us ...?" she asked him while staring at the floor.

Outbound Fallen

"'Shadrak'," Chie chimed in, though since she wasn't sparing anyone a glance, it was unclear if she was talking to Shadrak, or just quoting his name. "Even the buzzard child can pronounce it correctly." It must have been aimed at Gar, given the timing.

Answering Angelica, Shadrak said, "I don't know what fallen eggs are supposed to look like compared to avian or ... vasilus eggs? We should have asked Lilith and Griffin about it, I guess." Then, to his surprise, she came closer to encourage Siv to come down from the table. Since Robin was trying to leave anyway, he didn't have to move to give her room to get down like he had suspected a moment ago.

Siv carefully got down from the table and stood there with the egg. Things seemed to be calming down now, so Shadrak began to relax a little, though he knew sooner or later he would have to bring up the crack. Having Siv around was only convenient right now in that maybe she might be able to explain some things about egg care to them, though it was looking like she was going to try to keep the egg away from them from now on. Sadly, the real experts were long gone.

Next, Erion asked her name and one of the more obvious questions about the egg, why it was glowing. She reluctantly answered, "My name is Siv of clan Finnian ... and I don't know why this is happening. I don't know what you did to them." She looked down at the egg in her arms with concern and then back to Erion quickly adding, "But they're safer with me now! This is a kestrelii, just like me! They ... just want to be protected ..."

Of course, as fate would have it, no one managed to ask her about the cracks before two more appeared with a slight chipping noise accompanying each. Shadrak didn't notice until Siv gasped. <"N-nooo ... > Not here! You shouldn't hatch in a place like this," she said in a panic, accidentally starting off in her native language. Like the crack near the bottom, these two new ones near the top were also red in appearance. Seemed like whatever was inside the egg's shell was one big ball of ... red light.

"It's hatching?!" So it is hatching, Shadrak thought to himself, standing up from his seat to try and get a closer look. "What should we do, here?!"

"No ... not here. Please ... not here." Siv then took off running with the thing and made for the exit.

"Siv! Wait a minute!" Shadrak ran off after her.

Now he's doing his job as the egg holder? Reign mused. Little late for common sense, isn't it? Just let her keep the thing. If it really is about to hatch, it doesn't need humans looking after it, anymore. Siv might be the best option for the thing now. On the other hand, it might be a good time for Raquel to call Lilith over. I know she's missing her emblem piece, but I doubt they want us to raise this vasilus for them. They're going to find out about the incident at the fortress anyway, so why not just get it over with?

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Now the egg was hatching and being taken away. There went that comedy gold. Shade Drake was trailing after the girlie, but there was one little problem. "Oi, if anyone else is gonna go play chase the egg take this with you," Gar removed his normal beige travel cloak and held it out. "Births get messy after all, even if it's an egg. Sorta. Not like anyone here would know if vasili out pops a fully clothes adult or something." If no one took him up on his offer soon he'd have to play chase. Which was really more 'haha Shade Drake moves like an inebriated slug' but whatever.

[Mercakete]

The egg was hatching. That probably wasn't good. And then Siv dashed away with the egg. Gytha really didn't know what to do regarding it so she stayed seated, though she was curious about what the little vasilus would look like. Still, there was a joke in the back of her mind that refused to go unsaid, even if she did only mumble it to herself. "S'ppose that's what ye'd call a runny egg."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Norbert sighed. This wasn't the debate he'd expected. "You know, I'm kind of amazed you want me around. You've seen the kind of person I am, so it's not like you've only seen me on my good days... That's not important right now, though."

Refocusing, he clarified, "I don't want to leave this group. You've all been nicer to me than anyone else I've known. This job's a lot less dangerous than my old one and the pay's a lot better. If it wasn't one-sided, I'd even call several of the people in this group friends. The important thing, though, isn't how anyone feels about this. What's important is that all of you get your best shot at making it through and the best way I can protect you all is by removing the threat of me antagonizing every powerful Neviskotian you come across. If I can't get through Ursium -- my own home country -- without causing trouble for you all, how are you supposed to get through Neviskotia with me around? I'm not basing this on some undeserved, poor outlook I have on myself, I'm basing it on things that have already happened."

To expound on that point, he added, "Remember what happened in Sanctuary? And in Ursium before that? After, too, actually, seeing what happened in Ursaea. If I, an Ursian, got out of control in Neviskotia and they knew you, an Ursian, were my boss, what do you think would happen to you and, by extension, all this craziness that follows you around?" There was also that time where he and Robin had tried attacking Burke, but Raquel wouldn't have remembered that so he didn't mention it.

More nonchalantly, he finished, "And don't worry about numbers; you'll just be down one inconsequential fighter. I'm sure you'll replace me with someone better in no time what with how many good fighters you manage to inexplicably hire out of the blue."

Edited September 2, 2013 by Mercakete

[Ether]

"If you are Lord Devlinos' ally, then you've nothing to fear from me." Annelise stated, as she followed Steinn out of the room, holding the plates.

***

"Well... that happened." Angelica noted with a shrug, as the comic relief brigade decided to exeunt stage thataway.

[Rothene]

It was faintly nostalgic to be back in the Weyland estate. Not too long ago, she spent a great deal of time in the mansion pursuing her passion for spellcraft. Reaching a quiet garden within the estate, one not demolished by the attack on the mansion sometime past of ruined by experiments, Mireille pondered on who to bring along to the ball. She did not know most of the group too well, which was a problem she had been procrastinating on rectifying for too long.

***

Hungry, Ranyin decided to sneak away from his loud granduncle, who was desperately trying to convince some of the prettier mansion maids to teach him proper speaking of the common language when all he really wanted to do was keep in company of the girl. Making his way to the dining room, the Kigenese mage's stomach growled loudly. As he was about to enter the dining hall, Ranyin noted he was no longer the only Kigenese within the vicinity.

Spotting Hoshi, Ranyin chirped excitedly in Kigenese, <"Hello!">

***

Wandering around the mansion, Itsuki drank in the sights of luxury and wealth that surrounded him. So many years seeing blood, dirt and worn down surroundings in the army, I sure have been missing out in life, thought the elder Kigenese man. The pretty mansion maid he had tried to speak to had firmly excused herself from him and his grand nephew was nowhere in sight.

Lost, the knight decided to strike up a conversation with yet another mansion maid in Common, "Hey, I wearu can see pritty purase?"

Edited September 2, 2013 by Rothene

[ReformBlade]

"Meh, I don't particularly see a need to inform someone of me not going to an event unless I was specifically asked to be there. Now, if someone good looking wanted to take me, that'd be a different story altogether!" She said with all the truthiness she could spare, deciding to let Lumi's comment on brother and sister alone and for the guy to chime in on at his leisure. "Anyway, I don't see a problem with you coming, mister. All things considered it probably won't be the riproaringest most awesome time you've ever had, but I alone can guarantee it wont be... well, uneventful, at the least~."

[Phoenix]

That's Some Alliance

"Is now a bad time to mention that your prince here, Steinn, is extremely hard to read?" the guard replied to Annelise. To that, the man in question let out a small chuckle. "Glad you're amused but with all this talk of perpetual war and what not, I can't help but wonder when that stone gaze of yours is going to get turned on us."

"Hahah. If you aren't one to be found on the front lines or sieges, you needn't worry about it," Steinn assured him.

So ... what then? You people will only be attacking people on the front lines in the future or something? That's not the smartest way to fight a never ending war, but maybe that's not quite what he meant ... I dunno ...

Under Better Circumstances

"You're not inconsequential," Raquel quickly and somewhat loudly countered. Lowering her voice to a near whisper, she added, "... but I get your point. Just ... don't treat yourself like this. If you have to leave, at least do me that one favor. Please? I'd rather have you here than some expert mercenary whose only care in the world is how much money they can get out of me." She was a little surprised to hear herself saying all of this, but she meant every word, even if she was only just now realizing how much Bert cared about them. It felt like an awful time for true feelings to be coming out. Maybe if this had happened sooner, she might have been able to talk him out of it.

Fallen Fallout

"I wonder what he plans to do when he catches up to her," Chie said, mostly to herself.

"C-can't ... ... miss ... this ...! Urgh!" Gabbie struggled but eventually got up, grabbed her panini and ran for the door as well. Her new friend Fizza was able to keep her urges in check, figuring nothing interesting would actually happen.

Siv made it out into the hallway and made a left. From there, she kept on running. Shadrak followed as fast as he could, but the awful truth was that Siv was actually faster on foot than he was. "What gives?! She's got those enormous wings and dress dragging her down; how come I can't keep up?!" Urgh! I guess my own robes aren't exactly helping here, either. "Siv! Wait up! Arrrrgh!"

"Haven't caught'er yet, huh?" asked Gabbie as she caught up and began matching Shadrak's pace.

"What fresh totally inexplicable--?! You're in heels!"

Futility In A nutshell

Since Shadrak had grown tired chasing Siv down the left wing of the main building, she'd gained quite a bit of distance. He was sure she was trying to avoid him at that point and started to wonder why he was even bothering. After the incident with the dress, she probably didn't want him anywhere near her. Deciding that was the reason, he slowed down and bent down to take a breath. "Gabbie ... please catch her for me ..."

"Well ... my stake in this is koinda ruined with you panting back here, but alroight."

Hey wait, she didn't hit me in the face or ... well ... anything ... even though I said her name. "Uh ... Gabbie?"

"What now?" she asked. She'd just been about to leave too.

"You don't ... mind me using your name anymore?" After bringing it up, he began hoping he wasn't just asking for a threat or actual attack. "Does that mean ..."

Gabbie just smiled helplessly at him and shrugged. "No, I just stopped caring after I got my memories back. Names are things other people give you. As long as they're addressing me ... and not some twisted idea of me, I won't complain. Anyway, you should catch your breath and stop embarrassing yourself. I'm gonna go catch her. You're lucky you asked me and not someone else. Even though she 'got away', I'll still foind her in no toime~" With that, she took a bite out of her panini and faced the direction Siv took off in.

Everything In Moderation

"... ... ... the bloody hell ..." Weyland eventually said as he stood there gawking at the Dauntless. Anna was standing beside him and wearing something similar to the other workers. It was official. Anna's current job within Weyland's company was engineer. "The heat that would have been needed to cause this much damage so quickly should have cooked the occupants alive. I'm thankful it didn't, but this is a miracle ... and a mess."

"Thoughts on the situation?"

"Raquel's going on the offensive this time, to Neviskotia of all places most likely ... and ... the Dauntless just won't be able to deliver. Sadly, there's no point in fixing it right now. It's not the transport they'll be using from now on. We'll need to focus our efforts elsewhere."

"Well, we were building another prototype based on the information I gathered from them and your own personal revisions, but it's not finished yet. We've also got the problem of usage. That vehicle's using an experimental dampener to replace the deflector system. It's the only one we've got, though. Raquel and her friends are a good testing group, but this is Neviskotia we're talking about ... this thing's not supposed to exist. We're going to get in trouble if it's discovered," Anna explained. "Frankly, the upgraded Dauntless variant was never intended for their use."

"Yes, yes, I know, and I can't let them use it, especially given how involved with the vasili they've become as of late. We'll go through our transport list and see if we can't find a good base to use. They'll be here for awhile, so we should have time to put together a new prototype specifically for them," Weyland decided.

"Right. Though what they need is a type of armor that just doesn't exist. I'm not sure what we're going to do about the heavy attack threats. I knew they were dangerous, aureola especially, but I wasn't expecting the enemy to be able to use such a powerful one."

"There's more than one kind of armor, Anna. Don't forget. Now come on, let's get a look at that list and try to get some plans drawn up. Also, let's not overdo it. That could be just as detrimental as doing nothing."

[Ether]

"I suppose deception is a far more effective tactic against humans, than Kestrelii. Still, if Lord Devlinos has chosen this place as his base of operations, the chance that you need fear him turning you is slim, so long as you don't give reason to do so." Annelise replied to the guard.