1871 replies to this topic

[Snike]

"I don't deserve real thanks for doing my job," Blake said rather quickly, before looking back down at his list. "At least she's leaving the actual combat to us, the hired arms. Makes it easier to divert enemy attention, after all."

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

Reign looked up and off into the distance, seeming almost in a trance. "Eh, life's not really about what we deserve. Take what you can get, pal, otherwise there's someone else who will and they probably don't 'deserve' it either. Not all that surprising that she's not doing any actual fighting ... she hates that stuff, and more importantly, if she's been doing what I think she's been doing, her offensive power is probably negligible by now ..."

Arena

"No, I'm not some indentured bitch, I just work for them to keep money coming into the home. I just don't have the respect for these battles that I used to. Every few years it gets worse. Fewer true battles, and more cockfights between competing nobles and stunt shows like the one going on right now." he answered, pointing his thumb back toward the arena. One couldn't see past the walls, but that was where it was, and he'd pointed his thumb just before the roar of the crowd came once again. Something flashy had probably just happened, again.

[Snike]

"I know that, but all the same, I won't take credit where it isn't really due," Blake replied, before he looked back up at Reign in badly-masked surprise. "She had offensive power with her magic in the past?"

[roymbrog]

“Halt,” the guard demanded. “These are cells for the prisoners. What business do you have here?” The group had been headed straight towards the stairs, so he doubted that it was merely a mistake.

Torin spoke up. “We’re here to see my brother, Antonio. He’s being held down there...”

“Oh, visitors, eh? Right this way. You’ll have to leave your weapons at the guard table though,” the guard said, waving them in. Synthia rolled her eyes.

The guard led them down the stairwell to a large hallway underground. There were maybe a dozen cells lining the two walls, most of which were used to house those with outstanding debts to the arena. The group stopped in front of a cell with a young man resembling Torin seated inside.

Torin scrambled up next to the bars with a huge grin on his face. “Brother! I found some people who can help get you out of here!” The guard gave him a suspicious glare. Torin amended himself. “Um, pay off your debts, I mean...”

“Wait, what?” The look of surprise on Synthia’s face was soon replaced by anger. “We didn’t agree to that! The only reason we’re here is so we can verify your story. We never agreed to help.”

-----

Wait, what was this about a cult? Valter was very confused. As he listened though, things began to make more sense. Apparently there were more people out to kill them. Again. He figured he should at least try to be helpful. “Raquel, would you like me to gather some of the others? They may be able to help.” He was thinking Gabbie, or Blake, or one of the people who seemed... tactical. Not that he couldn’t be useful as well.

[Eail]

Not even noticing the man that had just spoken until now Zach thought his plans for the group where good "It might be best if we have all of your friends here Raquel. The more people we have here the more people that can be coming up with ideas."

[Ether]

The cell was rather dank and lonely, though the auburn-haired youth was somewhat used to the somber presence of the fellow detainees, stored here until they were able to pay off what debts they owed. Antonio sighed, how was he supposed to pay off a debt locked in a cell? Though he was averse to the dishonourable practice of fighting solely for monetary gain, he was confident that if it came to it, he could crush any competitor into the ground.

Another dejected sigh. If only he could prove his axe he would be out of here with no issue. And then a rare familiar face, accompanied by several others whom Antonio had no recognition of.

"Torin. How many times have I told you not to get involved. I can get through this without you risking your own neck, and I certainly don't need you dragging others into this... who are these people, anyway?" Antonio asked, lifting an eyebrow at the exchange before him.

[Mercakete]

"So the Ursians and the Neviskotians have a competition going, huh? No surprise there if they're on the same land mass," Norbert noted without surprise with some bitterness. He was past pondering that, though. "How has it gotten worse? Just the change in frequency of the events?" Might as well ask now. Hmm. These nobles are used to getting what they want, huh? And they maintain the law enforcement around here... And it's their governor that's looking for a pegasus. Maybe I should go back to the ship sooner rather than later. I don't want some noble trying to take Riz and getting me jailed for it.

[Rothene]

Ranyin just stood in silence as he digested this new flow of information. Great, this kid failed to rob me directly and now he wants to rob me through sending to the arena? Fat chance!

The Kigenese mage started mentally flipping through as many excuses to get out of...potential trouble with the time he had. As an after thought he merely added, "Yeah, what Synthia said. We didn't say anything about helping."

***

Mireille folded her arms and said coldly, "We are here to help your brother. Your irresponsibility has led you to incur not only debt, but also end up lock here while your brother is forced to fend for himself outside and steal to garner enough gold to buy your freedom. Not that I condone stealing, but you should at least show appreciation for your brother's concern."

[ReformBlade]

"I'm not crying! I've just got something stuck... oh what's the use, yes, I was crying, I lost control for a moment, I'm still a bit stung by the whole ordeal." Flustered, she shook her head. "It shouldn't have even happened, he shouldn't have been hired, he shouldn't have been there, he shouldn't have died so goddamn young for no fucking reason." A hand on her head to steady herself, Aneda continued. "That should NOT have happened and I keep telling myself it's her fault, but maybe it's my fault at the same time? I mean, fuck, I just watched it happen..." Aneda stopped talking and merely held her head in silence, thinking through the scene one more time. It moved slowly, but the result was always the same, and the sickening crush always occurred. Her face scrunched in anger, twitching slightly before she put a stop to all of that, trying her best to shove it all away and smile. "I'm sorry Faatina... you don't deserve this crap, I'm sorry for venting." Shrugging, she motioned to the rest of the town. "Is there anything else you wanna visit or do? Oh! Right, I should get some dyes while I'm in the area... maybe you could pick some out for me? Perhaps... you wanna try some out? Oh no, never mind, I wouldn't wanna mess with that beautiful head of hair you've got."

"Yeah I'm ready. What're you thinkin of getting if I may ask?" He didn't know the are all that well and he hoped she had an idea. "I mean, I'm not against a window shopping experience or whatever, I'm just... curious."

[Ether]

"Feel free to vent if you need to, Aneda... are you sure you're okay? I don't mind staying around here for a little while if you need a minute..." Faatina replied, placing a hopefully comforting hand on Aneda's shoulder.

"It's not your fault, okay? People always look back at bad things and see all the things they could have done differently, but... of course you would see all the flaws looking back, you know what was going to happen now... I'm a hundred percent sure you did everything you could, like you always do, Aneda." Faatina continued, hoping to console the pegasus rider.

[roymbrog]

Torin shrank back from the bars a bit. His brother wasn’t as happy to see him as he’d thought. “But... I’m just trying to help. It’s going to take forever to pay it off if they keep you in a cell...” he said. “And, um, these are people I met in the market.”

“Look, your brother doesn’t want our help anyway. Come on, Ranyin,” Synthia said. She began walking back down the hall when the guard stopped her.

“Woah, hold on. You came in here as a group, and you’re leaving the same. I’m not going to let people mosey around unsupervised,” the guards said. “It’s policy.”

“Well it’s a stupid poli-“

“Would you like to tell that to the inside of a jail cell?”

Synthia merely grumbled to herself and returned to where she was standing.

Torin, meanwhile, was having a mini-panic attack. Why did the knight mention the stealing? Oh, he was in trouble now.

[Phoenix]

Raquel

"We haven't been here very long and people probably already left to ... do whatever they want to do for the day." Raquel realized aloud. "Well, if we're going to have a meeting, it should probably be someplace a little more open than this. Zachery, how much time do you think we have before those people move on their own?"

"Wouldn't they wait until they were certain 'Zach' here was captured or turned traitor? Or did they give you some kind of deadline?" one of the sailors asked, first to those in general and then to Zach himself.

Gabbie

"Errrr no soup shops and I think I'll manage. Didn't have anything in moind, honestly, heheh. Let's just walk around; I'm sure we'll foind someplace to eat." she suggested.

Reign

"Yep." Reign replied simply. He wasn't above explaining in more detail, but felt he was already treading on a sensitive topic. If Blake didn't already know about any of that, it meant Raquel hadn't said anything about it, either. He wasn't going to try and guess whether she was avoiding it or just hadn't told him yet and just assumed the former for the moment. "Could ask her about it." he hinted a few seconds later.

Arena

"This arena was founded to prove the greatest fighters in the region, and attract the best from everywhere else. The nobles are less inclined to have battles between the strongest fighters and more inclined to pit their own champions against each other or put on these events which amount to little more than over the top, one sided shenanigans." he explained. What sounded like an extremely loud and resounding gunshot assailed their ears. The first noise other than the roar of the crowd to actually reach them since Bert had arrived. The man sighed. "I've been working here for twenty years ... and I can't tell if that was a cannon going off or ... that guy blowing up some other 'thing' the nobles had carted in."

[Eail]

Giving some thought for a moment Zach responded to Raquel "I'd say we have a day at the most if we're lucky, more than 24 hours and they might think I'm dead, AWOL, or a traitor. If at all possible it might be best to launch an attack today, but we still need a plan and for your men to arrive back." Thinking back again to what the man with different colored eyes said "At the very least we should gather what people you currently have here and see what we have to work with."

[Snowy_One]

Fred groaned as his hands gripped the shaft of the broom. He had been promptly dragged back to the arena, tossed a broomstick, and told to sweep. It was humiliating, demeaning! Someone of his stature should not be forced to sweep floors! I mean, he wasn't exactly rich, or powerful, or well-known... but someone with armor like his would make a far better doorstop than a sweeper! In fact he wagered that the only reason they hadn't stripped him of his arms and armor was because they wanted to get him sweeping right now instead of waiting for the following day. As he sweeped the steps though there was little he could do.

"Hey, alchemist, if you can really turn things into gold, why don't you turn that dust into gold to pay your way out?" called out the guard mockingly.

"There is enough dust here to pay off my debts?" he asked in reply before shaking his head and returning to sweeping.

[Snike]

"Interesting...," Blake said, thoughtfully. "I'll have to ask her about that once there's a free moment. I'm assuming Miss Valcyn's dealing with the captain now." Well, looks like his boss wasn't any mere novice at magic. Though, now that he thought about it, it made sense. Otherwise, it probably would've taken longer for her to learn how to use those staves.

[Ether]

"Stealing?! Torin, is what this woman says true?!" Antonio questioned angrily, standing from the small stool that had been left in his cell and striding to the bars, the look on is face a mix of disdain and disgust.

"What were you thinking, Torin?! I would rather rot than be bought out on stolen gold! Do you think so little of my honour, brother?!" Antonio asked, his voice cracking slightly out of rage.

[ReformBlade]

"I understand what you're saying, and I'm not trying to belittle you here, but you weren't there, ok? I just, I coulda done something. I don't know what, maybe I coulda convinced him to leave altogether, give up working for her, but it doesn't matter now." Finishing her meat stick and talking through it, "Well it's no use worrying over the past, right? It happened, for one reason or another, and I need to learn from it. But..." She sighed and place a hand on Faatina's hand. "I'll be fine, really. I just wanted a little more closure, if you will. Not that there's much left to think about it. I can continue to brood over this or move on, I'd prefer to move on and try to prevent this from happening again. You'll help me... right?" she said, giving Faatina's hand a light squeeze.

"No soup? Fine by me." He stashed his book away and caught up to them, taking note of the kid she brought with her. "You're Connor, right? I hear you're quite adept at metalwork. If you don't mind my asking, what do you think is the hardest part about it?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"They certainly are good at scattering, given the chance. I assume they'll be back by sundown at least, buying lodging in the port wouldn't make much sense when they could just sleep on the ship," Veronika said. "There are probably still a few around though, we don't necessarily need everyone to decide a course of action."

Connor

Connor didn't really recognize the man Gabbie was with- must have been a newcomer. He was a bit curious about her aversion to soup...well it was pretty hot out.

"Hardest part...hmm probably all the materials to work with. Iron and Steel react in an entirely different way to magic and heat- it's why it takes me a while to learn new transmutations. Whenever I'm working with something new, I have to change the formula entirely or it won't work. Not easy, but it keeps it interesting."

Edited by -Cynthia-, 07 May 2012 - 06:50 PM.

[Ether]

"Sorry... you're right, I shouldn't talk like I was there... I shouldn't talk like I knew him, or what happened, but... I know you, Aneda, and I know you wouldn't have let anything go if you didn't think it was right... there was no way you could have seen the future... but you can look back at the past and stop that future from taking anyone else." Faatina replied, as Aneda squeezed her hand lightly. Returning the gesture, and accompanying it with a light hug, Faatina continued.

"Of course I'll help you, Aneda."

[roymbrog]

“Right,” Valter said. “I’ll go see who’s still hanging around the ship.” He turned to the stairs and began making his way to the deck.

-----

“U-um, c-calm down, brother...” Torin managed to stutter out as he backed away from the cell. “I-I’m sorry! I just didn’t want you to be locked up in here forever...” He started sniffling. The kid looked like he was about to cry.

If nothing else tugged at Synthia’s heartstrings, this managed to. “Hey, there’s no need to be so hard on the kid. He did do something awful, but it was to help you.”

-----

After a bit of searching, Valter found a couple of party members strewn around the ship. He notified John, Sophia, Robin, and Blake that an important issue had come up and they should meet Raquel in the ship stables.