Fire Emblem: Wretched Whispers, Act 1: Three Days

[SB.]

Norman was glad that the battle was over. He had no idea what was really going on with the monsters or the guy summoning them, and he hadn't gotten an explanation from the girl who he'd talked to when he first got into the fight. She said they would explain after, but instead he just felt like he'd been kind of ignored. Well, the girl had collapsed and all so that was sort of understandable, but he was still owed an explanation. "So..." he began, raising his voice. "Is anyone gonna tell me who that guy was? Or what this place is supposed to be?" Hopefully he would get a decent answer this time.

[scorri]

"Oh... Right. Sorry bout that." Taima waved the man who'd helped them over. "This is Sheikah, our boss. We were hired to help take care of this guy cause of the monsters and stuff. She can explain more." Taima hadn't paid too much attention to why they were fighting if she was being honest. It didn't really matter in the long run to her.

[SB.]

"Uh, thanks I guess." he said, walking over and looking expectantly at the group's boss. "You guys are mercenaries then?"

[Nanami Touko]

"Heh... Je crois que oui." At least, if she did ever feel down, these people were nice enough to cheer her up again. Most of them, anyway. There was always Declan... "You would? Zat would be fantastique~" Mel smiled again, still defeated on the inside, but not showing it anymore. Anima was, after all, a bit less interesting to her. Light had always been an opposite when she'd been learning her dark magic, so if she could get a handle on it, well, it'd feel like she'd conquered something. "Eet ees never too late, I suppose... Ben, what am I getting all sad for? I am only seventeen! I 'ave all ze time een ze world~" And that was that. Bad feeling gone.

[riariadne]

Like A

"Hmm, yeah. There's a lot going on in the world... sometimes it's nice to not be involved in the zaniness of it all," Sheikah agreed. "Have you ever been to Bonvale? There's a great boxing ring there with different circuits and everything. I bet you could do pretty good in it... kinda wanna give it a shot myself, too." She looked to Artemis yet, who had been quite patient. "Well, he's not conscious, first off, and I dunno how much we'll get out of him right away, and we have to be sure he's not going to try anything. There's a lot more to it than waiting till he wakes up and telling him to talk. We'll probably need to let the army take care of detaining him." Lastly she looked to the new recruit. "Yeah, we are... I'm the boss. My name is Sheikah, and we are Hart's Hollows. What's your deal again? You seemed to have the same idea as us, but I don't know your story. You should tell me."

Mystique

"I took far more time than you might think. I began learning when I was three, which is before you were born, if I am correct. It takes time, misery, and suffering to come so far," Mina lectured. "Best of luck in your own pursuits, then." She watched silently as Melanie mingled Interesting... Her eyes scanned to locate the dancer she had seen earlier. "You were... dancing in the midst of all this, were you not?" she spoke, intrigued. "It was quite the show. I rather enjoy dancing, myself... I am Mina. Tell me, what is your name?"

[scorri]

Taima's eyes brightened as her boss mentioned a boxing arena. "Really? Niiiiice. I'm for sure going to try that out. It's been a while since I've gotten to beat the tar out of people and get the tar beaten out of me without any complications. It'll be nice to get the chance to do that. And I'm sure you could give 'em a run for their money too."

[Refa]

"Yeah, I studied anima magic in a formal setting, so I'm probably more qualified to teach it than people who were self taught...or so we can hope, right?" Artemis finished, grinning at Melanie's next few remarks. "That's the spirit. Just do what you can to the best of your ability, and the results will follow," she concluded. Huh, that was sort of profound for me, wasn't it? She then turned around to Sheikah next. "Oh...right. He must have some pride as a mage though, right? I can't imagine it being too hard to get him to brag about his accomplishments. Probably will be harder to figure out his motives though. We're giving him to the army to interrogate?" Artemis asked, almost disappointed. "But...then we'll never get the answers." On that somber note, she sauntered off to find a sword guy; didn't matter which one. With this thought in mind, she happened upon one who looked like he'd seen better days. "Hey, you uh...don't look so good. I was going to ask you for help with something, but I think you're the one that needs help. Hold on, let me see if I can get a healer or something over here to check you out."

Edited November 6, 2014 by Refa

[Nanami Touko]

"Ben oui? Parfait~ I shall 'ave to ask you about zis when we 'ave, ehm... A better place to practice, eheh." Artemis sure was good at giving pep talks. Mel was in high spirits, though she didn't quite know what to say about the talk Sheikah was having. She did nod to Mina as she walked off, though. It was nice to know she'd be staying with them, for a bit longer. While she wanted to get started on light and anima, she couldn't forget her dark magic, and she needed to practice that as well. But while she was caught up in her thinking, Artemis had started to talk off. While it felt a bit weird to run after her, the talk of punching and the like wasn't that interesting, so perhaps whatever Artemis had in mind would be. She dawdled after her, and they came upon that sword fighter. "Oh, oui... You look quite 'urt. 'Ere." Melanie popped up behind Artemis and brought her staff out to heal him, hoping it would take away his unease.

[eclipse]

"I've learned to switch my weapons in a jiffy, because of those times I had to fight alone," Peter explained. Bah, enough of the gloomy talk. "And thanks! Sometimes, everything goes right, and the job ends on a positive note. I'm glad that we all made it out in one piece. I take it you weren't injured too badly during that battle?"

[Ether]

"I managed to get out pretty well unscathed... a horse it good for hit and run fighting like that, especially when you don't need to get into melee range to fire off shots... if it weren't for that, there's no way I'd have made it this far." Celestia replied, looking herself over for any stray shots she might have missed... even if it hadn't struck her directly, it might have torn her clothing or something.

"Nope, looks like I'm completely clean... that usually doesn't happen..."

[MRDRHAWK]

Sighing heavily, Declan looked around and surveyed the group to see if there was anyone around he felt like talking to in some manner. That is, if he hadn't alienated them in some way as it was. He seemed to have a bad habit of doing that with this group in particular.

[riariadne]

"Hahaha, yeah. Just some good old fashioned fisticuffs, yeah?" Sheikah punched the much taller woman on the shoulder jokingly. "We should talk more... I think we'd really be able to hit it off well, know what I'm saying? Bonvale's a big place with a lot to do, so that's worth looking forward to." She bit her lip at Artemis's more serious questions, unsure of how to answer properly. "We'll have to at some point... we don't have enough people to bother with constantly monitoring him, and we can't leave him unattended because he's so dangerous. Sorry for not really knowing how to get what you'd like out of him..." She frowned, sighing as Artemis walked off. "Ah, jeez... sometimes I wonder if I'm really cut out for this whole boss thing..."

[scorri]

Taima shook her head. "Stop that. You've kept us together, you've kept us alive, and you've kept us successful. Seems to me you've been a great boss. And you're right. We need to turn him over to the higher ups. They'll know what to do with him. We're just one group. If there's some big plot going on, we can't deal with it by ourselves. We need support from the people who can pay us. We're not interrogators or anything like that. We've done our job. Just because he's some big mage doesn't mean he's going to give us answers. Heck, probably makes him less likely if he's one of those smart pants mages, you know? We can't always get what we want." She looked at the smaller woman and then placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You just keep doing what you've been doing, alright? You've gotten us this far. I know I trust you to lead us down the right path for our group in the future."

[eclipse]

"That's quite impressive!" Peter said, the admiration in his voice sincere. "I'd always end up with some injury or other when I first joined up with a new group. Not all of 'em knew how to treat an archer! I suppose a mount might've helped, but then I'd have to care for it, and horse feed ain't cheap in the cities!"

[riariadne]

Sheikah smiled at the assurance the armored fighter gave her. "You really think so? Thanks, Taima... sometimes it's just hard to be confident about things. It's not easy to be a leader, and sometimes you don't know what to do and things start to get out of control. So someone just saying you're doing things alright... well, it means a lot to me. It's great to have you with us, too." The wyvern rider fiddled with her hair, staring intently at the ground for a moment in thought. "There's... a lot on my mind right now. Sorkaan was here... you were on the other side of the battle, but that makes the second time in three days we've seen him. Can't be coincidence, if you ask me. I just... can't beat him, or get him out of my life." She sighed heavily, sitting down in the ruins.

"Back when I first started out as a mercenary, after I finished wyvern training, he was my boss. We were all aerial fighters and fought in formations... I was the wild-card of the group, since it was a lot of physical weapons. Nobody saw light magic coming, though I guess it's catching on now. Me and him were close for a while... I thought he was someone I could totally trust and everything, but... one day we got an offer from Angala, and we had a few bad interactions with involving the army and stuff in the past. A lot of us didn't feel like it was a good choice since we were hired for Irska so much. It was around a year ago, so hostilities were starting to get serious, and we thought it'd be a bit of a betrayal. But he ended up accepting the job." She paused for a moment, exhaling after her long-winded story. "Anyway, a lot of us were really displeased, and I talked to him about it. That was... the worst day of my life. He was outraged many people weren't willing to work on what he thought was the best opportunity, and... he's always been savage. But he beat me down, after all that..." She teared up, sniffing heavily. "So me and a lot of the others left... in the time I was with them, I was sort of like a second leader due to how well I'd worked with Sorkaan before then, so responsibility fell on me. And we met up on the fields of battle, fighting against each other, about six months ago. It was horrible... most of the people with us died, and those who didn't were too down to continue." She raked her fingers through her hair and buried her face in her hands. "So I failed... I failed everyone, and those were people I knew well and fought with frequently. I couldn't do nothing from there on, so I started my own group and started hiring you guys, but I've never really been fully trusting in myself since... as a person, or a leader. And... I guess that's my story."

[Percivalé]

Vale looked up. "Oh, hey, uh..." He'd only just now started to remember everyone's names. He paused for a second as Melanie prepared her heal staff; he knew her name for sure at least. There really was no forgetting Melanie. "Melanie and... Artemis, yeah?" He lifted some weight off of his sword to rub his arm again. "Yeah, a shaman hit me pretty hard and it won't stop hurting. It's not something I'm used to. It's scaring me, a little." He chuckled for some reason. His eyes were half-closed but for the most part focused on the two women in front of him, though he glanced back at Wolfgang after a while.

He'd only now just registered all of the words spoken to him."Oh, uhh, Artemis. It seems Melanie's--err, do I just call you Mel? I'm not good at this--already here to help me, so what did you need help with?"

[Ether]

"Really? I figured that was something you found out pretty quick... or at least I did..." Celestia replied, somewhat surprised. How did someone fight as a mercenary without something so basic as getting what a bowman does? Well, she supposed there was no way for her to really find that out.

"I'm glad you managed to come out okay regardless, though."

[scorri]

Taima listened to Sheikah's story and as she started to cry stared slightly helplessly at the shorter woman before quickly wrapping her arms around her boss in a tight hug. "Hey now. It's ok. Just... let it out, alright? Keeping those feeling bottled up aren't going to help, so just cry, it's alright. You made the right choice. A violent abusive boss like that... You needed to leave him. For your own health and happiness. Having to fight against them... That was bad luck, but nothing more. Losing those people didn't mean you failed. They made their choice. They knew the risks, right? They could have fallen to any enemy. But what you need to focus on is... They chose to follow you. You inspired them to want to continue fighting, even after serving under an abusive and terrible boss. And now you're leading us. And not only have we been successful, but we've chased off the bastard who's hurt you so much twice. The past has shaped you, yes. But you've grown from it. It hasn't beaten you." She tightened the hug slightly before letting go and placing her hands on Sheikah's shoulders. "You're a good boss. We're all here because we believe in you and want to fight for you. The best kind of boss is the one who has power because her subordinates respect her, not because they fear her. And you have our respect."

[eclipse]

"Those that fled at the first sign of danger wouldn't know what to do with an archer, or those companies led by someone who'd clearly been handed the position, for starters," Peter rattled off. "Ironically, those who fled usually wound up dying with an arrow in their back. Then there were those who were quick to blame the archer for any casualties - even if the arrows buried in their former coworker's corpses were nothing like mine. The sheer amount of incompetence I've seen is mind-boggling. Pah, I'm rambling like an old man!"

"I ran into a pickle earlier - if it wasn't for Melanie's quick work, I'd be one of the corpses out there," Peter said sheepishly. "I'm definitely not as young as I used to be!"

[Ether]

"No, I definitely get incompetence... seen more than I'd like to think about... too many people thrashed down and eaten by those beasts because of a mistake..." Celestia responded with a shudder, the thought wasn't doing her any favours.

"Reliable staff users are always the most comforting sight on a battlefield, easily."

[eclipse]

"I've fought against more humans than monsters, and I'm not sure which opponent I dislike more. Monsters have teeth, claws, and no mercy. Humans have deceit, incompetence, and selfishness." Peter shuddered at some of the memories it brought up - once, it was selfish and incompetent humans against monsters. He still remembered the screams of the rest of his company as he fled. His cowardice had left him the only human survivor that day.

"You seem well-versed in magic. Would you be able to wield a staff in the future? I'm sure a mounted healer would be a great boon to a good company!"

[riariadne]

Sheikah accepted the hug eagerly, sniffling as Taima spoke words of comfort. "T-thanks again, truly... having someone there like this... it means everything." She fidgeted with her hair, whimpering a little still. "Some day... I'll get him. I swore it to myself on the day he b-broke me... I almost got him, our first fight. His left eye is useless from a light spell, but if I get the chance, his death will be agonizing." She clenched her fists together. "Until then, I need to get stronger and keep on improving myself. Conquer what I fear... justice is what drives me. So thank you, for putting your faith in me. I'll do my best to make sure you all don't regret it."

Edited November 6, 2014 by Reinfleche

[Ether]

"Staves, huh? I never gave it too much thought... I had enough trouble figuring out light magic, and well, what happened to Melanie is just one example of what happens when you mess with magic you're not prepared for... I wouldn't be opposed if I found out I was a good fit, but... I wouldn't place any bets on it." Celestia replied, recalling her own experiences trying to learn magic.

[scorri]

Taima's grip tightened slightly as her boss talked about Sorkaan breaking her. "Don't worry. We'll pay back that bastard one hundred fold for what he did to you. I'll be right there beside you, I promise. We can train together. I'll help you get stronger and you'll help me get stronger. And then you can finally be rid of him forever. He's nothing more than a beast and he deserves to die for everything he's done." She let go of Sheikah's shoulders and nodded. "Don't worry. You deserve our trust. I know that I won't regret it. I promise."

[eclipse]

"Heh, you'll never know if you don't try! I remember how much my fingers hurt when I first tried to use a bow!" Peter replied heartily. "Though I suppose running headlong into the arcane isn't a great idea. Perhaps you can ask the others who wield staves for advice. They had to start somewhere!"