Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Snowy_One]

"Not too long at all. About, maybe, an hour if I paint fast and, if my assistant gets back in time, you should be able to pick it up after the ball is done."

---

Robin looked to Fizza, clearly a bit... shocked maybe? She wasn't sure how she should feel about that. "Evening. I had a wonderful dream. And no, it was not because I could not find a date or my accent. I did not go to the ball because I do not care for such things. In case you didn't notice, I am wearing leather made from animals I killed myself. That does not translate well into a waltz."

Edited October 19, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Snike]

"I do hope this meeting will fare better than the last one, Head Wrathite," Blake said, pointedly. "From what I understand, Alastor failed to follow the laws of war by outright luring and attacking Miss Valcyn's group, in a sacred place no less. I trust there will not be a welcome such as that?"

May as well open up with that, perhaps get Lord Bernard on Desmond's case.

[Mercakete]

Gytha happily nodded to the conductor. "It's a ball! I'm sure people would appreciate something a little different, though, at least for a little while. I know I'd like some livelier music, at least." She probably would have left it at that had a thought not occurred to her. "Oh, wait. Do you really not know how to play any other kind of music? I'm sorry; I didn't mean to ask you to do something that you can't."

[Toogee]

As Erion explained his wariness of Alphonse, Jam smiled, but not in happiness. OK, so Alphy's backstory wasn't exactly Jam-friendly, but if Erion knew anything about that, he would have been even more adamant in his accusations. She had put that behind her however, so more accusations of Alphy's supposed propensity towards violence was opening an old wound, one she did not care to revisit. Whatever was going on between those two, it was bleeding into her night. During the break between dances, Jam spoke after Erion bowed out.

"Look, I'm sure Alphy threatens just about everyone I hang out with. He's my bodyguard, so it's kinda his thing. Now, I did promise Alphy a dance, but I was gonna wait until later. If you need a break however..."

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

"Well, er, the city isn't that boring," Eli replied to Lumi as they entered the dining hall. "It'd only be temporary until you can head out again. And...you know...it'd be cool to catch up a little bit."

The dining area had several platters of food things out, presumably for when the group arrived from the ball. It consisted of mostly crackers and stuff that wouldn't spoil if left out all night.

"Excuse me, I'll just see if they have anything left over from lunch."

Before hearing Lumi's reply, Eli dashed off into the kitchen. He was coming ever closer to asking her out directly. The trip to the kitchen allowed him to collect himself. Whatever courage he had gathered during the shopping trip had dissipated in the midst of a more private setting. To get his mind off of that, he consulted with one of the maids in the kitchen about leftovers...and perhaps some liquid courage.

[scorri]

Erion

Erion grimaced slightly and then quickly changed it to a slightly pained smile. "I thought that might be how you chose. Look, I'm going to make this easy on you. I'm just going to go back to the mansion. You stay here, enjoy your night with Al, whatever. i'm sure he'll treat you like a princess. After all, it's only people he doesn't like that he threatens." With a bow, Erion started to turn to go.

Lumi

As Eli headed off to the kitchen, Lumi glanced around the dinning room. Spying the few people there, she went and sat down near them. Holding a hand out to the Rexians and waving to Robin, Lumi grinned. "Hi! I'm Lumi. I don't think we've been introduced!"

Edited October 20, 2013 by scorri

[Snowy_One]

Robin looked at Lumi for a moment. She knew what a handwave was, of course, but she was trying to remember just when Lumi had joined. Probably during the dragon-attack would have been most likely, especially since all the chaos and the like. Waving back at Lumi, Robin looked Lumi in the eye, trying to be respectful.

"My name is Robin. We have not. I am from Skotia myself. What about you?"

Edited October 20, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Phoenix]

Ballroom

Needless to say, the conductor was a little insulted when Gytha asked him if he even could play the kind of music she was asking for. He himself couldn't, but the comment reflected more on the band itself, which is what really upset him. "Exactly where do you hail from, suggesting a 'jig' at a royal engagement party, of all places. Ridiculous." He shook his head.

Around that time, Morgana came closer to see what the exchange was about. The conductor looked a little agitated, so it seemed like she might be able to distract herself with this by doing a little mediating.

Over by the paintings, Shadrak said, "Oh okay ... I thought we'd be stuck pretending to be statues until morning or something." Looking to Mushirah, he asked, "So ... I'm not sure what kind of pose we should do. Holding hands or something?"

Meanwhile, up on the second floor, things were getting off to a tense start, with Blake's reference to the battle with Alastor. Just as well, if Blake hadn't thrown that jab, Raquel eventually would have. "Alastor overstepped his bounds ... but this is no war ... not yet ... and it needn't be if we can come to an understanding, tonight."

"I don't have an emblem piece," Raquel immediately stated, keeping her eyes away from Desmond.

"You think I don't know that?" Desmond replied, sounding a little offended. "I have a room prepared. We shouldn't speak of such things openly," he said, glancing at Bernard, who was scowling at this point.

Dining Hall

"Not very adaptive from the sound of it," Fizza commented. She left it at that since Robin was soon in a different exchange altogether, but waved to the new arrivals as well and shook Lumi's hand when offered. Amon stood up so he could reach across the table to shake hands as well. Malik of course, spared a glance and that was about it.

Edited October 20, 2013 by Phoenix

[scorri]

Stretching far across the table after shaking Fizza's hand, Lumi managed to just barely snag Amon's hand for a shake. "Lumi. And... you're Amon? I think I remember hearing your name somewhere." Turning back to Robin, she grinned. "So, Robin," she started, "How did you get stuck in a group like this? And how did someone as pretty as you not get invited by like... twenty guys to go to the ball? I know that if I were a guy, I would have been rushing to invite you to the ball. Heck, even as I am, if I didn't have reason not to go to the ball, I might have asked you to go with me." She winked at the archer before grinned. Man, it's been forever since I've just been able to relax and have fun flirting with someone. I remember flirting with Eli back when we were younger. He was always too serious about it though... Had to stop before he got too attached.

Edited October 20, 2013 by scorri

[Snowy_One]

"I am not exactly the most well-liked person around here." said Robin, keeping her explanation curt and short as she listened to Lumi talk, feeling a bit uncomfortable with her wording. Maybe if it had been a guy, but another girl telling her she would have invited her to the ball given the chance? "I grew up far away in Skotia and spent most of my time on my own. When I came here I remained mostly on my own. I am lacking in social graces and, I am sure, most men would rather invite a girl who knows more about which knot to tie a corset with and not which knot to string up a deer carcass with. Besides, I was not particularly interested. There is only one man wh-..." Robin almost bit her tongue. Zach and her were still not on friendly terms. Ever since Lia's death they had been frigid and their most recent talk had only warmed the ice, not shattered it.

"Anyways, as for why I am here? That is simple. I tried to break into a museum to steal a sword, got caught, and Raquel freed me. In repayment I swore to follow her. I do not have some personal stake in her dealings beyond my debt to her. I... I do not really have any friends anyways. Gytha has been nice, but she and I rarely talk and Tia... just wants an ear to listen to her. I do not think she even remembers my name and... I do not know how to make friends anyways. So my stake in the group is small."

[Snike]

"Right, and, given you prepared the room, Head Wrathite, we can be sure that none of your men are there and ready to escort Miss Valcyn and or myself to a cell or worse, correct?" Blake asked, skeptically. "Because that might be incredibly unfortunate, if that were the case."

***

Meanwhile, Ethan decided to approach the prince-to-be and the princess. After slowly making his way towards the couple, the healer bowed.

"Good evening, Lord Terrel, and Princess Athena," he said, avoiding eye contact. "My name is Ethan Stashio. Congratulations on your engagement."

***

Axel entered the dining hall, still wearing his red armor. He made his way over to one of the tables near where Weyland's guests were sitting, and sat down. For what reason? Who knew.

Edited October 20, 2013 by Snike

[scorri]

As a new man came in, Lumi smiled at him and gave a small wave. She then stood back up and went and stood by Robin. Grabbing her hand, she stared into the other woman's eyes, and said earnestly, "Well, screw them. I think that knowing how to string up a deer carcass sounds awesome. And hey, if there aren't any guys here that grab your interest, or they're all jerk, why not try some women? There are some pretty cute ones here. Not counting myself of course, I'm not that full of myself. You're not too shabby looking yourself. I don't care what you say, I'm sure you'd look stunning in a dress, even without a corset. Besides, corsets are silly. All they do is make it hard to breathe, and with a body like yours, you don't need one." She squeezed Robin's hand and grinned.

[Mercakete]

She wasn't sure if the conductor was actually asking her where she was from or if he was just trying to prove a point. So, she simply asked him another question, "I don't see how playing a jig at a party's ridiculous. Isn't this supposed to be a celebration?" Of course, as she had been this whole time, Gytha was completely innocent in her questions and comments. She had meant that apology that had accidentally offended the conductor.

[ReformBlade]

"Sheesh, and I thought I was the overt one here. Lumi quit teasing her! Offering to go out with her but not me after I asked? That's rough!" Aneda commented aloud before going to take a seat near Amon and gang. Holding out her bag to them, "Want some chocolate with caramel? My treat!" Looking to each one in turn, she jostled the bag once or twice.

Either they're both joking or they're both being serious, either way, color me intrigued. Jericho noted to himself rather piggishly. In an attempt to try and help out the woman being teased, supposedly, the man spoke up. "Hey, if you need help making friends, best thing you can do is most likely to ask, or try to get to know some people. Also helps if you're not a complete jackass, but that's neither here nor there. I've seen plenty of jerks with friends and plenty of 'nice guys' with no one around. In all fairness, it's how you market yourself, though. Like here, for example, you're coming in here and saying 'Men don't want this or that or blah blah blah' assuming that no one likes what you've got to offer! Bad attitude right from the start." Clearing his throat, "it's like a machine, you can only get out of it what you put into it. If you're gonna shy away from it from the start, the machine ain't gonna crank itself, ya know? Bah! What do I know? Maybe I'm just hungry, I did throw my sandwich up earlier... Yeah, hunger's kicking in." Jericho took some crackers and stuffed a few in his mouth, chewing them fairly slowly to make sure there was nothing gonna tear up his mouth or his throat when he swallowed. PARANOIA.

"Hand holding will be fine." Mushirah said with a smile. "Though... if you want to do more i wouldn't be opposed necessarily.." she added with a bit of an imperceptible blush. I'm probably being too forward there... Still though, I highly doubt I'd mind it! After a moment, she looked Shadrak in the eye with an eager expression, waiting for a response from the man.

[Phoenix]

Interactions of Interest

"This is an event for the refined, Miss," the conductor clarified, calming down somewhat. "It isn't the place for wild dancing."

"That really isn't up to you, now is it?" Morgana chimed in. It wasn't clear at first who she was referring to, since she wasn't looking directly at either of them. "I say it's up to the princess what kind of music and dancing is or isn't allowed, at least to a point," she boldly declared while pointing toward the princess' table.

At the table itself, introductions were on. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Stashio," Athena cheerfully greeted. Terrel glanced warily at her; she couldn't possibly be that happy for well wishes regarding this engagement. He hoped to change that in due time, but two minutes was just too soon for her to have changed her mind about all of this. She must have simply been putting on a show, still ... though it was a much better one than usual and caught him off guard.

"Yes, a pleasure," Terrel said, reaching out to shake the man's hand.

"Is everything all right over here?" a servant with a tray of drink asked as he approached the table Gabbie and Steinn were using. He had every reason to wonder, with Gabbie clinging to Steinn's shoulders, shivering, and hiding her face.

Just make him go away ...

"She's fine, I assure you ... ... but leave the drinks, please," Steinn instructed.

"As you wish, Sir," the man said. He carefully sat two of the glasses on the table, and then Steinn motioned for him to leave them all there, which he reluctantly did. Then, Steinn nodded and gave a dismissing wave. The servant then left, though a bit more curious than before.

Gabbie soon lifted her head up, revealing a few tear trails and running eye liner. "I'm going to pay her back tenfold for that ..." she angrily stated before reaching for one of the glasses and downing it in one go. Steinn didn't even think about taking any of the other four glasses. No, those were all for Gabbie.

Meanwhile, by the portraits, both finished and blank, Shadrak received an affirmative reply from Mushirah and then some. "M-more ...?" he echoed nervously. He had a feeling that was what she wanted, but was avoiding being too direct about it, which had him wondering exactly how far this should be taken. Trying to imagine other couple-esque portraits wasn't doing any good since he didn't remember seeing any in the past that even went so far as hand holding, and the ones in Alex's miniature gallery were lacking at least that much as well. He had no reference points for any of this. In his own words, 'dammit'. Lemme think here ... what's special but not inappropriate right now? I could hold her like we're dancing or something ... but that's a little dramatic and we have to stay this way for a good while too ...

Before he could finish thinking of something 'more', Charlie returned with a royal guard woman tailing him. She wasn't trying to be discreet, the man had enough energy on him to cast a potent light spell. Nothing that would threaten the Dauntless, but still enough to seriously injure someone. When Charlie saw Shadrak and Mushirah standing together, he did a let out an awed but short whistle. "Exotic. Are they next? I fixed the magic issue, but now this 'lovely lady' is going to be on me for the rest of the night." The guard crossed her arms and glared at him for that comment.

"I was hoping we could figure out a pose that's special and memorable but that's not too flashy or inappropriate," Shadrak spoke up, hoping someone had some ideas because he was fresh out.

"Just turn to face each other and do a bit of a casual hold, your hands around her waist, one of her hands on your shoulder, both of you smiling at the viewer, and there you go," Charlie advised all too quickly. Shadrak wondered if he'd been waiting to say that, but he wasn't against the pose after imagining it.

Up on the second floor, Clover could only watch as Desmond and Blake exchanged subtle blows like a pair of noblemen dueling each other. "Be careful, or your paranoia might have you leaping at shadows. The room is for our mutually assured privacy, nothing more, and nothing less. The four of us will be the only ones present there. Now, can we please get on with this ...?"

Sure, we'll be the only four in there, until you decide to arrest me, then they'll probably just warp in from nearby, overpower us, and warp back out before anyone suspects a thing, Raquel amended. Though ... I might be able to do the same thing, even without the staff. At least we might not be completely cornered if we stay close together.

He seems a little too impatient for someone who's already got you in a very vulnerable position, Discovery.

We're not THAT vulnerable, Raquel countered.

Are you sure? You have a lot of unarmed accomplices down there, Hypnos noted.

I ... Raquel was speechless for a moment, even in thought, and her eyes widened a bit. Why did we even come here?! This is just one big trap! Wait wait, calm down, that's not entirely true ... but ... we do need to be careful. Only the royal guard have weapons in here, but once we get outside, we'll be armed again ... and probably surrounded, but at least we'll have a chance if this goes really bad. I think the best way to handle this is to avoid a fight altogether, so I'll have to try to convince him that if he wants an emblem piece, he should look somewhere else.

Meet, Greet, and Maybe Eat

"That stuff will ruin your teeth," Malik noted before looking in the other direction. It probably meant he didn't want any chocolate. His glance next went to Axel, who hadn't said a word. It was uncomfortable not being able to tell if the man was staring back and making eye contact or not, so he went back to staring off at a wall.

"Someone willing to share? Well alright," Fizza said next.

"Err-thanks, but I'm not much of a candy person," Amon answered, politely declining. "If you don't mind me asking, though," he continued, lowering his voice to nigh a whisper, "who is that guy who came in here with you guys?" He thought it a bit silly not to just ask directly but that didn't occur to him until after he'd leaned in toward Aneda, and for him that was the point of no return, lest he end up looking like he actually did want some chocolate. He didn't, by the way. Fizza on the other hand was reaching in for her share.

Edited October 20, 2013 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

<"All right then, show me. What's our startin' position?"> Nadya inquired, This music leaves somethin' to be desired, but might as well try and have fun anyway.

[Snowy_One]

"W-wait? What? Dating women? Corsets? String?" the image of Raquel, sheathed in a veil of mist as she sat beside Robin, leaning in close and breathing softly, only for Robin to look up and see Lumi's face lurching forwards to kiss her on the lips suddenly flashed through her mind, causing an uneasy feeling in her stomach. Robin made a small lurch forwards as her hand went down to brace herself and she stumbled to the nearest... sittable object, not even caring if it was a chair or not as she caught herself on it.

"I... I am sorry, but dating women? Me in a dress? Lumi, I think you need to back up and slow down. Why would I want to date a woman? How could I look like anything less than an ogress in a dress? Candy? Are all of you Tia-touched or something? Besides, I... I do not think I would like to be... romantically involved with a woman."

---

Tia sighed as she slumped down into the books, clearly feeling a bit tired and exhausted from reading so many. "Maid... Why are there so few clues in this case. With so much cross-referencing and material, it's clear there is some truth to all this but, so much of it just doesn't make sense... Maybe I need a nap? A break? What do you think? What was your name again anyways?"

---

"Well, if the lovely lady will be with you and you don't want her, prehapes I could have her?" asked Alex before laughing, clearly joking. It sucked that he couldn't have a lady for the night, but it wasn't his job to woo the women, just paint them being wooed. "Though, I must say, that pink-haired woman from earlier, getting a chance to dance with her would be wonderful, as would you madame." he said with a wink to Mushy. "But alas, you already have a date for the night and I am sure you would prefer a potent man like him to a painter/healer like me. Plus, work."

Edited October 20, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Ether]

Even after they had been let in, Faatina has mostly just been staring at the venue... it had looked impressive from the outside too, but the fully decored innards were a sight to behold, and the Rexian woman had been left speechless, and motionless, by the entryway.

Still, there wouldn't have been much of a point to going if that was all they did, so with that in mind, Faatina turned to Zach.

"Ah, we should probably keep going, huh? I guess I was a bit... awestruck, sorry."

***

And so Raquel and that swordsman, Blake, had begun talking to the Head Wrathite... though it seemed they had a room prepared for just them, what a bother. Angelica wondered if Gar had some sort of plan for this... he was certainly better in with the higher-ups in this group than she, perhaps they had taken measures already.

***

Recalling what the guardsman from Weyland's had said earlier, Annelise couldn't help but wonder... was her scythe really so menacing? The cautioned looks she was receiving followed by breather whispers from the Royal Guard... from what she had heard, Ursium's elite, it seemed it truly was a menacing sight to behold.

Well, intimidation was all well and good, she supposed. An unwitting side effect, but one that she may appreciate in the future.

***

It seemed a trend with Weyland's escorts this evening was the strange looks given by the more conventional guard. While Arietta's aura didn't project death to quite the degree of her Fallen counterpart, the sheer bulk and... general strangeness of her maul was also drawing a slight of attention.

[Snike]

"Do not mistake paranoia for caution, Head Wrathite," Blake said, shaking his head. "But, I suppose that will be fine, assuming it is with Miss Valcyn, here."

Desmond being impatient probably meant it wasn't a trap, but he'd leave the decisions to his employer.

***

Ethan accepted Lord Terrel's hand and shook it energetically. "No, the pleasure's all mine. That was a magnificent dance, if I do say so, myself."

***

Axel didn't react to the young woman's wave, nor the Rexian man's sudden interest in the wall. Instead he just continued to observe the ongoing discussion, as there was nothing else of real interest, at the moment.

[Rothene]

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine Eric," Mireille replied smiling as she picked out a few dishes she knew she liked. And cannot be found when adventuring. Among the pile on her plate were some dumplings stuffed with fattened goose liver, a thin slab of rare cooked steak garnished in citrus sauce, a small pile of broccoli deep fried in butter to a crispy lightly burnt texture with some hot mustard and a boiled tomato stuffed with some sort of mashed food that smelled good and piqued her curiosity.

Picking up a glass of red wine to go with her meal, Mireille waited for Eric to pick his food, offering advice, "If you have trouble deciding on what to eat, just take a bit of everything, or you can tell me what you like or dislike. Some chefs take pride in making the ingredients of their food hard to guess."

[Mercakete]

At Morgana's input, Gytha smiled, realizing that she'd been talking to the wrong person regarding what music was played and taking her explanation as direction. "Oh, thank you! I'll go ask her, then," Gytha replied to the professor before heading over to the princess' table. She seemed like she was already talking to someone, though, so she just stood by and waited politely for her turn.

[Phoenix]

Ballroom

<"Feet side by side, like this ... and normally we'd stand side by side like this ..."> Haythem began instructing Nadya. Once he'd established that he abandoned the starting position to stand directly in front of her. Teaching her the rest of the dance would be difficult if she could only view him from the side, so this was his solution until they got the routine down, though admittedly, it didn't much matter what their positions relative to each other were in a situation like this. Usually this dance was done to entertain onlookers rather than the dancers, but Haythem found it fun and good for coordination. After showing her a few of the more common moves, some of which were real crowd teasers, he decided that they should probably just do the dance facing each other rather than trying to pick some part of the crowd to mess with.

Shadrak meanwhile was scowling at Alex, who had made not one but two passes at Mushirah. He didn't really care if he was joking, he already didn't like where things were heading. Before he could say something about it, though, Charlie spoke up. "You can have this guard lady following me around if you want, Alex. She's ... kind of pretty, I guess."

"Urgh, let's just focus on the painting, please," Shadrak insisted.

Once Gytha wandered off, Morgana smirked and then turned to leave, as well, leaving the conductor a little worse for wear and agitated. He just hoped the princess had the sense not to ruin her own engagement party by allowing people to dance like buffoons.

At the princess' table pleasantries began to wind down. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. If even one person is pleased with our performance, then it was worth it," Athena said. She then turned slightly to jot down a few more things on the page she was given.

And to think, she was uninterested in putting on a show, before .... "Tell me, Ethan, are you here alone this evening?" Terrel asked.

"Oh my, what are those two up to?" Athena had spotted Nadya and Haythem practicing in the crowd. She was already committing their motions to memory.

Raquel, not wanting to put off the inevitable any longer, turned her head back toward the conversation but kept her gaze as low as she reasonably could. "Lead the way, Desmond." She wasn't going to bother with titles, leader of the wrathites, avatar, or not.

As they left the area, Bernard began to wonder what the wrathites were focusing on this time. He remembered the pink haired girl's mention of an emblem piece, but that wasn't too helpful of and by itself. Rather than ruin his night dwelling on it, he turned his attention back toward the dance floor.

Dining Hall

"You should learn to relax a bit more; it's good for you," Fizza advised, somewhere toward the end of Robin's protest.

Library

"I'm Dafne. You know, scholars, historians, treasure hunters, and even the various religious groups have all been researching the fire emblem all the way back since Year One of the A.R. calendar," the maid noted. Frankly, she wasn't surprised Tia hadn't turned up anything particularly useful, but she was wondering just what the young girl was after. Weyland's people had already gone over all of this material thoroughly in order to try and identify the object Raquel had in her possession. "My thoughts on the matter would depend on what your goals here are."

Edited October 21, 2013 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

Once it seemed that the man who'd been speaking with the princess was now speaking to the other half of the couple, Gytha made her entrance. "Ahoy, princess" she cheerily greeted, "I was told that you were the one to talk to about the music. You see, I think what this party needs is a good jig or two, but the shantyman doesn't think it's a good idea."

[ReformBlade]

Holding out the candy for Fizza, Aneda replied to Malik fairly adamantly, "Lies, neglect ruins teeth, these perfect immaculate globules of bittersweet chocolate and super sweet caramel do not." and then with a slight bit less conviction, she turned to Amon, giving a shrug and as best an explanation she could give, "Eh, name's Jericho. Some idiots were accosting him and we happened to be nearby, Lumi intervened and sent one of em packing while he himself took care of the other guy while downed. He was punched pretty hard in the stomach, coughed up his dinner... Anyway, I think we brought him back because we felt kinda bad for him, also I think he said something about looking for a job so... I'll probably try to introduce him to Raquel, see if she wants anything to do with him." Taking a deep breath, Aneda resumed her smiling, looking to everyone again but still holding the bag out towards Fizza. "Yall sure you don't want any?"

Jericho could hear the description of the events, but he didn't really make any amendments or any noticeable movements at it. It seemed ok to him and it was mostly true, so eh. Chewing on another cracker, he sat back, kinda miffed that he didn't get a reaction out of the teased girl, but all the same he was still wondering if he could interject.

Mushirah let out a small bit of laughter at the attention she was getting, a bit nervous but also a bit excited at the same time. "I think that pose will work." She said, taking her stance and smiling widely.

[scorri]

Seeing Robin pull away from her like she was diseased was like a slap in the face. Letting her pull her hand away, Lumi stared at the wall for a few seconds, listening to what was going on behind her. Once Robin was done, she turned around, and almost stalked back to the table. "What's so wrong about the concept of being romantically involved with a woman? Have you tried it? Or even if you're not a fan for it, does it really deserve you pulling away in what I can only assume is disgust? So what if I like to flirt with other girls? What gives you the right to act like it's something that's completely unimaginable? For the record, I was just having fun. It was just supposed to make us all smile and maybe even laugh. But you..." She trailed off, doing her best to rein in her emotions. "The look on your face when you pulled away made it seem like you found me sickening. And if that's how you feel... Maybe I don't want to know you." She walked away from the rest of the group and sat down near the man in the red armor, not looking at him or anyone.

[Snowy_One]

"This is why I do not deal with other people so well. Seems like I am always the bad guy." grumbled Robin as she went to go sit down as well. "<You say you were just playing and didn't even think I might not have realized that? Now I'm a bad guy.>" grumbled Robin to herself.

"Relax? I do not relax. I... Do not really know how to besides maybe spending time alone in the hot tub, or being by myself in the woods under the stars. I do not know how to relax with other people."

---

"Well, I've figured out that the Fire Emblem was shattered, presumably by Wrath. It's taken many shapes, but none larger than a human fist. It was said to have been used to create the earth, and was originally housed deep within it. When it first appeared it was described as a star in the sky, visible even in daylight. It is believed to be powerful enough to grant any wish to its wielder imaginable, but must be assembled first in order to complete it's power. The fire emblem is also associated with a golden light, so fire emblems discovered, whether real or fake, are only considered emblem pieces if they are completely golden in appearance, and emit that same golden light. However I can't find any actual pictures of it, or figure out if Raquel's medallion is, indeed the emblem or not. It certainly sounds like it might be and, if so, that's very important, but I simply don't know! I hate not knowing stuff right under my nose like this!"