959 replies to this topic

[Rothene]

Happily, Ranyin complied and picked up the knife to begin chopping his set of vegetables. Picking up the carrots, Ranyin asked, "So what're we having?"

[Zsword]

Shadrak nodded. "Right, it's stupid hard to detect, but I think Naoki is getting a feel for it. He might be able to check for us..." Shadrak said... though it was clear that even he was uncertain, he glanced at Naoki, and saw that he was just staring intently at Chip. "Atleast... the way he's looking at your monkey I'd guess that's the case..."

[Phoenix]

Galley

"Well we were gonna be fixin' up some beef stew-""Gods help us." the scrubber interrupted ", but Fira suggested we make stir fry instead. Doesn't mean I won't still be mixin' in my special seasonin' though."

"... oh no."

"Where's your gods now, huh? Hehehhhh. Don't mind him, he just hasn't got a taste for my cookin'. Can't be any worse than what you folks eat though, am I right?"

"I'm not so sure." Fira cut in. "They might not have a taste for your cooking either. I'll handle that part and make it normally this time around, and you can experiment later. Is that alright?"

He sighed. "Alright, fine, Fira. Have it your way." he finally conceded. "Would have tasted delicious though."

"Would have tasted like garbage ..." the scrubber murmered.

"Maybe, but in my hands it'd taste like delicious garbage." he confidently shot back. "That's the sign of a true chef."

A deep moan followed that. It's the sign of someone who will one day kill us all with his spices ...

Raquel

"Hmm, what is with this staring contest anyway?" she asked seeing the monkey and raven for herself. She figured that Chip was just trying to intimidate Naoki so the raven would stay away from the emblem but what was Naoki doing just staring back? She thought he might just be doing what Shadrak mentioned and trying to detect the emblem but she couldn't be sure. He sure didn't give a lot of indicators as to what he was doing.

[roymbrog]

“Hmm? Oh, I just came to get you out of the rain, before you catch a cold or something. Also, they seem to be getting dinner ready below deck. I’m guessing it’ll be ready soon,” Valter said, explaining why he was there. Bert awoken and message delivered, the horseman started walking off towards the horses. “I'm going to check on Phyllis,” he called back as an afterthought.

[Zsword]

Shadrak shrugged his non-occupied shoulder. "Iunno, magically afflicted creatures having some sort of... issue, I guess, I'm actually interested in seeing how this is going to break out... if it does..." told Raquel, just kinda looking from the bird to the monkey, and back to the bird and like, watching to see if they were actually gonna do Something.

[Mercakete]

"Oh, alright. Thanks," Bert replied as Valter left. That was welcome news but it was best to check in with someone to see if he could take Rizen with him into the galley, lest she do some sort of damage to whatever he tied her to. The alternative? Find some way to get the food from the galley to where he could keep Riz, which actually wasn't preferrable. Norbert sort of wanted to eat with everyone else. It was strange since he usually preferred his only company to be Rizen, but that was how it was. "... Hey, Valter!" he called as he followed his friend, pegasus in tow. Once he'd caught up again, he asked, "Could you please bring me something to eat? I have to stay with Riz and it wouldn't be fair if I was eating while she waited for food."

[Phoenix]

Dinner Is Served

With the five of them working together, it was only another twenty minutes before they had made enough beef stir fry for the whole ship.

No girls pretending to be maidens or pyrophobic mages were harmed in the making of this stir fry.

"It's ready." Fira announced.

"I dunno~ ... could probably use one of my seasonings ..."

"No!"

"I think it's fine." Fira replied simply.

He sighed. "Alright, but don't come crawling back to me when they complain about how bland it is. We could've kicked it up a notch and it would be perfect."

"I think you should only give a meal for this many people so much seasoning. Not everyone likes something the same as someone else, and it's difficult to wash out flavor, so it's probably better to just let people use some extra salt if there's not enough already."

"Listen to the Fiery One." the scrubber muttered.

Raquel

The staring contest continued for way longer than Raquel was willing to put up with, and she eventually took her palm and gently pushed Chip back down into the bag and closed it. "Let's do this later. I don't think we're going to get anywhere with them just staring at each other. That aside, it seems like dinner's almost done. I can smell something good at least."

Praying

Standing by Siv who was still tied to the mainmast and looking rather pathetic. She had caught scent of the food brewing long before anyone near her had and it was making her wriggle around in her ropes in discomfort. Once Gio picked up the smell of food, he smiled and bent over toward Siv a bit, bringing himself to her level.

"So, you feel like talking yet?"

She shook her head violently and looked away.

"Hmm ... wait ..." Does she know common or did she just figure out what I was getting at? "Hey!" he raised his voice to get her attention. Of course she looked at him, but slowly and carefully.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? Nod for yes, shake for no."

Instead of either option, she gave him a pitiful look of uncertainty before looking over at Gabbie. She was standing off to the side with her arms crossed. Looking back at Gio, it was obvious that the captain was getting a little impatient so she finally spoke up. "Little ..."

"Little?" he echoed quizzically.

"I know little ..."

"Hmm, did any of the other fallen speak common?" he asked Gabbie.

"Yeah, the one in the red gown just switched over to common when we showed up. That lancer didn't though. Just kept talkin' in Kigenese."

"Did the red one teach you?" He turned to ask Siv.

She nodded. "She knows and teach ... es ... teaches."

"Huh. Doesn't seem like she got very far before you were nabbed, ey?"

"Home! Take me home!" she began yelling.

"Uh, no. Can't do that."

"Please! Take me home-please!"

"'Please' is not the magic word, Miss. 'Money' is."

"I have no money!"

"I figured as much, so just sit tight."

The now teary eyed Siv looked down at the floor and began chanting <"Lord Valdimarr, please come for me. Lord Valdimarr ..."> over and over again.

"Sheal? Valdimarr? What's she sayin'?" asked a confused Gabbie, to which Gio simply shrugged. They wouldn't know what she was murmuring about without Fira present.

"Let's just leave her be for now. It's almost time for dinner anyway."

<"Lord Valdimarr, please come for me ...">

[GoD]

"All right, let's get to work with you.....Once you're awake you're gonna pay us back big time. How should you make it up to us? Perhaps you could start wielding a carrot in battle as your weapon? Go on a shopping spree and make you carry everything.... Hehehe.. The more you sleep, the worse the punishment soldier....."- Chelsea smirked as she healed the young man.

[Zsword]

Zel

Zel rolled his eyes at Chelsea's comments (not that anyone could see them), and took a whiff at the air. "Excuse me miss, but I think food is ready, if you've done everything for this man that you can... I suggest we head that way." He said, politely holding his hand to her as some sort of escort.

Shadrak

Shadrak nodded at Raquel, snapping his fingers a couple of times with a magic spark to draw Naoki's attention away from the monkey and emblem. "Shall we be on our way then?" he asked, taking a step forward with a slight bow, gesturing with his hands as a sort of chaperon saying 'lead the way'.

Krystal

Krystal took a good breath of the decks air, it seemed like dinner was on. With a smile she started to make her way to the source, hoping to find the source there.

[Phoenix]

Raquel

Naoki looked at Shadrak's fingers and then paused ... false alarm.

"Oh, sure thing." she said, a bit surprised. Shadrak seemed capable of playing any part he needed to, from avid researcher to gentleman at the drop of a hat. To that she smiled, and headed for the galley with her escort.

Debrief of the Fallen

Under the pouring rain, Brynhildr stood over some feasting hellcats. While the beasts cleaned up what was left of the fallen demons, she tightly gripped her lance and snarled. Her hair hid her burning irises from Svanhildr who was close by and soaked to the bone.

<"So tell me, what happened in the end? It is rather obvious that you failed to rescue our sister, but there was no new blood on the Cloud Breaker either ...">

<"Just shut it ..."> Bryn quietly snapped.

<"I am not asking solely out of curiosity, I have a report to make compile.">

<"Report to who?">

<"You know very well who, Bryn. Our Sovereign.">

<"We said that we weren't going to report any of this to him until we had something to report! Do you want to lose favor or something?! How weak are we going to look, a Matriarch and Admonitor failing such a simple mission?!"> Bryn began shouting. The hellcats even stopped to look up at her momentarily. <"Where's Gunnar anyway? This is mostly his fault.">

<"Mourning the loss of a particular demon."> Svanhildr explained, pointing over to the forest edge.

Sure enough, Gunnar was near a tree with a dead harpy in his arms. The harpies cold blank gaze had Gunnar on the verge of tears. <"Oh Agnethe ... my precious Agnethe. Why did they do this to you ...?"> he murmured while unaware that Brynhildr was approaching from behind with a couple of other dead harpies slung over her back.
<"Hey, idiot. The cats are done cleaning up. We're heading out, so bag that thing, send the demons away, and get ready to move.">

<"Can't you see I'm in mourning?! ... and what the hell are you doing with my harpies?!">

<"Harpies are the only demons I can stomach, so I'm saving a couple of them for the trip.">

<"You're eating my harpies?!">

<"Yes, I'm eating your precious harpies for dinner. I snagged two before the cats could get to them. If I hear anything akin to a 'but' from you, I'll send you back to the princess in a bloody heap, understand? Now grab that demon and let's go.">

Gunnar could see that she only had one hand used up carrying those two corpses ... the other was on that lance of hers ... <"F-fine ...">

<"Urgh. Of all the demon summoners we could have used, we had to borrow that brat's vulture. That's the true reason this mission failed.">

Harsh words but Gunnar couldn't exactly disagree with her on that. He knew of many summoners who were far and away more powerful than he was. The demons they would bring to bare would have overpowered the mercenaries and their reinforcements in mere moments.

Meanwhile Svanhildr pondered the situation. I understand Bryn's hesitation. We did not inform Lord Valdimarr about Siv's abduction, or our attempt to rescue her. He will be furious at the very least. We did this to prevent him from becoming directly involved however, something he tends to do quite often. As of right now, the empire is approaching the Slaughter of Siblings, and if Lord Valdimarr is to triumph, he must not reveal any of his weaknesses to his brothers. Going after Siv himself would show his brothers how much he values our clan and make all of us targets for an elaborate scheme. I may be able to convey this to him, but our failure here will only make his intervention seem even more necessary. There must be another way to go about this ... Lord Valdimarr's involvement could hurt his chances of ruling the empire in the long run ... and bring my clan to its utter destruction in the process. That is why I MUST think of an alternative and present it to him before this gets out of my hands ...

[GoD]

"Ah that's kind of you.....But I think I'll be staying alone here and trying to patch him up a good deal more. Just so that when he wakes up, he'll be able to go right back to sleep again without any problems. Anyways I don't think we've actually introduced ourselves, did we?"- Chelsea replied to the soldier.

[Rothene]

Helping out with the cooking preparations was enjoyable for Ranyin as it gave him the nostalgic feeling of helping his mother prepare the neccesary ingredients for the tea house. Finished with his share of the work, Ranyin decided to seek out Bert. He knew the pegasus rider had some stiches that needed to be dealt with.

Counting the roll of threads he had manage to purchase along the journey, he knew he was well stocked enough to look after the clothing of five people for a week if they fought battles like today's and live everyday. Recalling he last caught a glimpse of Bert on the deck, Ranyin headed to the stairs.

[the_whistler]

Deadweight:

Nanahm groaned as the aches in his back began making themselves known, attempting to move his arms slightly. As the weight pinning him to the ground loosened, the fighter gave up the struggle to stand up and simply rolled onto the floor.

"Ugh, blessed air," he mumbled, too dazed to complain about the rocking ship. Nanahm opened his eyes, blearily observing a face hovering in the distance. Clearing his throat, he made a second query. "What's going on? Did we find that Fallen yet?" Nahm asked, wary of the answer. Don't tell me I missed out on again.

[Zsword]

Shadrak

Shadrak smiled 'escorted' Raquel to the galley, chuckling at her astonishment at his little act. "So, ignoring this bit about the item, how are you holding up with being a leader?" he asked her, smiling and generally being friendly.

Zel

Zel nodded, and gave Chelsea a slight bow. "Zelatus Drak'thul, Knight of Ursium, at your service m'lady" He introduced himself in his most knightly tone... the entire scene probably seemed rather corny.

[Acacia Sgt]

'Huh? How long has he been under there?' John wondered, surprised. ''Well, we have the Fallen on board, and we're heading back to Ursium right now. You must have spent the whole time... down there.'' He answered.

[Phoenix]

Raqy

"I'm not sure I'm holding up at all really." she said with a nervous chuckle. "I think I've just been blessed with cooperative allies ... though I guess we have our moments ..." she added thinking to little incidents, mostly times when people missed important battles or Gytha's public gun moments. "I guess as long as they get paid, and we don't lose sight of our goals, we'll be fine, hopefully."

[the_whistler]

Confusion:

"What?!" Nanahm exclaimed, slamming his boots into the floorboards as he stood up. Too quickly, he realized, when the wyvern rider before him drifted out of focus. "Tomatoes be damned, you've got to be kidding me!" he growled towards an invisible enemy. Shaking his head to clear out his thoughts, the fighter only felt worse. Another battle? What is this, the second one I missed? Veronika said not to worry about it, at least I'm alive…. Nanahm shut his eyes until he felt less dizzy, not caring how silly he must've looked to John by now. Crazy even.

"Yeah, I wandered down here by accident, and hit my head on that," opening his eyes to narrow slits so he could point at the loose board. "Then I tripped and knocked myself out on a sack," bending down to rummage around for the offending object. "Aha!" he cried out triumphantly. "There's got to be something metal in here that made this whole mess," he muttered. "I ought to tell the captain about it," looking for some way to open the burlap.

"Say, John," as he found the carving knife in his pocket. "How did the battle go? Any casualties?" he tried to ask calmly. What if me being absent led to someone dying? What if they needed an extra person there? Nanahm tried to convince his subconscious otherwise. One more person can't be that important, right?

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well,'' John began. ''How should I put it? We certainly were lucky there. There were monsters, and two Fallen there. We were lucky the Fallen focused more on the mercenaries we were looking for, but can't say the same to them. They all died except for this girl.''

''Anyway, we did fare well against the monsters, but got beat up pretty bad, and now the Fallen had their eyes on us. When all of a sudden Axel unleashed an explosion. This granted us a chance to escape, getting the most injured into the mounts and quickly head back here. Fortunately we all managed to live... well, Axel seems to have not, I'm not sure. Looks like he was too close he got caught in that explosion as well.'' He explained as best he could.

[the_whistler]

Below deck:

"Oh," Nanahm blinked. Axel blew himself up? Smart, real smart. "At least you're okay, and alive," busying himself with the sack. Eventually the fighter ripped a hole in the thick fabric, yanking out a metal cup. "For Raguni's sake, who would put a stinkin', lousy cup in here?" Shaking off a few grains of wheat, Nanahm was tempted to throw the thing overboard. Unless they miscalculate again, I'm not getting any pay for the Fallen. This is all your fault, he glared accusingly at the unresponsive drink holder.

"I'm keeping this," Nanahm said to John. Gonna have some explaining to do, sighing as his stomach started rumbling. "Let's go eat dinner, I'm staaarving," he drawled out. "And thanks for helping me out, who knows how long I woulda been stuck underneath that pile," eyes darkening for a second.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Sure, no problem.'' John said. ''I only wound up here since I was heading for dinner actually, and got a little lost.'' He laughed. ''But yeah, let's go and eat.'' With that, he walked out of the room.