Return of the Emblem Chapter Nine: Consolidating Forces

[Ether]

"Sure, I guess that works. It'll save me a trip back to the ship." Faatina replied to Mandy.

"I'll be back in a minute then, I guess." Faatina added, before she headed off to the stables, picking out a horse with a similar build to Sharif.

<"You seem friendly enough."> Faatina noted, receiving a whinny from the horse in response, before mounting the stallion. As she made her way back to the others, Faatina stopped next to Aneda.

"Alright, sorry about that."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Meeting huh?" Gar crossed his arms beneath his cloak. "Well, sounds interesting, but it also sounds like it's not my business unless you want it to make it my business. Well, I guess I'd be my business if it was something illegal, but you've been upfront about having dragons on board so you'd probably be up front on anything shady." Gar shrugged. "Guess I'll wait til they're done or you need me."

Edited May 20, 2012 by Script

[saifors]

Dion continued reading his book, now and then he took a bit of water, Untill there was no more water left.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

"Weeeell," the sailor began as he looked to the captain. "It's kind of related to the safety of the ship." The captain grunted disapprovingly again. "I'm just saying, maybe he'd want to help with that little problem."

Guild

Mandy smiled. "Now we've all got equines! Let's ride!" Summer reared back happily before galloping off. Tali nearly fell off in the processes but held onto Mandy. Summer's wings flapped a few times during the start of the gallop, perhaps barely controlling the urge to take off instead of running on the ground.

Hell's Aftermath

"Are we done being cruel and unusual, Sardis?" Burke teased.

"Coming from you, that's just hypocritical. But yes, we're done here. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Jethro, but I had to be certain." I'm still not convinced, but Burke makes a good point. No matter what Cassandra is, she could help me learn more about the emblem. Should she gain enough control, we might be able to gather up the rest, though I will need to take some special measures to destroy her if in the event things don't go according to plan.

"Well now you're certain, I guess. Enjoy the extra muscle and research material. We'll be in touch. You be a good girl now Cassandra~" What an odd way to say goodbye. Naomi was still close by and instead of just saying goodbye, she wanted to part with a hug, but that might have been too suspicious. She wasn't sure, so she didn't take the chance.

"Be careful, Cassy." Naomi whispered to her friend.

"Naomi, let's go!" Burke called over as he made his way back over to the coffins. The two crashed ones were beginning to pull themselves out of the ground and all eight were floating around randomly by the time Naomi arrived. Sardis just watched as the two left atop a pair of the coffins.

With her physical wound healed, Cassandra headed back over to the group. She still felt terrible, and had Burke not taught her how to feign indifference like this, she would have been exposed as soon as Sardis gave his first command. It was off to an agonizing start, but at least she had gained a bit of trust from attacking Jethro.

"I suppose the show is over. Resume whatever it was you were doing. We still have a progress report we're waiting on. As for you, Cassandra ..." Cassandra looked up at Sardis. He didn't seem to like her very much ... or maybe it was just the distrust of Burke being projected onto her. She couldn't tell. "Do what you want for the moment, but do not leave town, venture into the mines, or disturb anyone. Self defense is authorized." he explained.

"I understand."

[Mercakete]

Gytha shrugged. If Raquel wanted to come, of course she could. She was a little worried for her, though.

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

She didn't answer my question, but I guess I can just ask around after the testing. She's probably too busy to answer questions that aren't directly related to the assessments anyway. Norbert reasoned as he began riding along the ground after Mandy. This probably isn't a speed test since it's easy to keep up. We're probably just heading over to whatever testing area there is for equines.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Safety of the ship? Well, you have hired me to take care of that, so if you want me to go I will," Gar stated. "I won't push the matter, what with it being all secret-like and me being all shady-like though."

[Snowy_One]

Fred groaned as he continued his new job sweeping. This wasn't his place! This wasn't the duty of a powerful alchemist like himself! He should be out there in the arena, winning men, taking fights, wooing names, and beating up women. Wait... That didn't seem right. He quietly smacked his lips together as he tried to focus on clearing up that thought, noting with disdain that his lips parted dryly. It had been a day since he had gotten a drink and he could feel the heat and sweat from his armor overwhelming him. Thirstily he looked over towards the stalls, looking to see what could saite his thirst. He was not disappointed. Flasks full of rum, casks of bubbling beer, and sitting there at a table in a nearby restaurant was a man with a full pitcher of water. Sitting so casually, drinking it so absently... tilting it back, sucking down it's crystalline goodness as if it was meaningless... until at last it was gone.

"By the goddesses, this job sucks." he groaned out as he tried to resume sweeping. Yet his mind wandered still back to the thought of a nice, cool, drink to aid him. He looked over to his guard, thinking of asking him for a drink of water, before dismissing the notion. He would probably just be mean again and ask why he couldn't just transmute the water himself.

[Eail]

Seeing that his Weyland idea really wasn't going through at the moment Zach attempted to form another one. Going over in his options in his head Zach suddenly had one option that burst forth into his mind.

"There is actually a good chance my expectations on the number of combatants in the cult is wrong Raquel, there is a Warriors Guild in Tremere though. Would you have any objections to hiring out a few of them?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"If you get captured, this group no longer has a purpose. If anyone else dies, we can still complete the mission. Not that I plan on having any more members of the group die but...it's something to keep in mind," Veronika said, turning to Raquel. If I die...will anyone find Pavel? Maybe I should write a letter or something, just in case...ugh I need to focus on this cult business right now. she thought to herself.

Connor

"Well you do the fighting, you know what's better than I do. If that's all, I should be done in about a day or two. Unless you want me to put the Weyland Enterpises logo on your breastplate. It'd be great for advertising," he said, half-kidding.

Nadya

"Show off," Nadya muttered under her breath at the sight of Summer speeding off. She managed to resist the urge to have Luca race the pegasus and instead had him maintain a steady trot behind the guild testers.

Organization

So the armored guy is 'Burke' and the girl with him is 'Naomi'. Should remember all of this for the report...should meet up with Cecily and Clara to see how we can send it without seeming too suspicious. Cloe thought to herself.

Hearing that Sardis had declared that they should get back to their duties, Clara decided to check in on the man who was attacked- named Jethro apparently. "Um, are you going to be all right?" she asked him, walking closer to him.

[Snike]

"Well, that's good to know, I guess," Blake said when Zach shot down his outlandish ideas. Then, bribery came up on topic, alongside Raquel participating. Oh lovely, move on to other concerns without outlining the plan of attack. The swordsman really wanted to get the battle strategy set in place, but apparently that wasn't a major issue for now. Very well, he'd respond to those needs.

"If we have to bribe the authorities, I'm at least willing to contribute to the fee," Blake said neutrally. "As for you, Commander, well, it's your call on whether you will or will not participate. I'd prefer if you were to stay out of this, for your sake, but that's just my opinion."

To the defector's idea of hiring Warrior's guild members, the swordsman said, "That might not be a good idea, especially if the cult controls the town. The guild could very well be connected." He was getting a bit of an uneasy feeling. There was the fact that Zach had said initially that the whole cult would probably be at the manse, before backtracking and confirming that they'd all be there. Now he was waffling on enemy count and trying to get Raquel to hire fresh arms from an unverified source. Was he a rattled dissident, or a false friend?

Edited May 21, 2012 by Snike

[Phoenix]

Wardroom

The suggestion to hire guild warriors came up, and at first it seemed like a good idea, but Blake quickly brought up the possibility that they too might be under the influence of the enemy. The possibility was real, but Raquel was more worried that anyone they hired would immediately betray them upon learning that they planned to kill off a bunch of people that they couldn't quite prove were out for their blood. True, they had the dossiers and Zach's testimony, but after what happened with Zel, Raquel wasn't sure she could easily involve just anyone in these offensive schemes. She felt like such a villain right now. Plotting to kill others, even in a kind of preemptive fashion was just a bit too much for her conscience.

As for whether or not she would actually participate ... "Well I ... I guess I just figured that maybe they would be a bit more careful in how they fight us if I'm mixed in with you. If they're really planning on capturing me for Sardis, then the last thing they should do is take the chance of killing me in the crossfire. I'm probably a lousy deterrent, but it seems like it might work ... if they're not completely crazy. I mean, if I don't show up ... they're just going to go all out on the rest of you, aren't they?"

Main Deck

The captain sighed. "They are in the wardroom. It will be up to them whether or not to involve you." he replied.

"Aren't you going back to the meeting yourself, Captain?" the sailor asked, feeling like he'd done something wrong all of a sudden.

"Eventually."

Restaurant

Davod's dish needed a bit more preparation time since the cook had to start from scratch, but Connor and Gabbie's meals were finished around the same time as Dion's and so Neela would have to apologize for the extra wait. She came out with two trays containing the food and made her way to the trio table first since she'd already rehearsed her apology in her head and wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. "I'm sorry about this, but there was a bit of a problem in the kitchen and so your meal is going to take a little bit longer to prepare. I'm so sorry for the wait, really." She set down Connor and Gabbie's food as she apologized.

Riders

The clearing came into view after the short ride. It was at the edge of town, a whole field with various training equipment lying around and about a dozen people overall scattered about. Mandy rode out to the middle of it and then had Summer stop, or almost stop. She was still trotting around in very tight circles for a few moments. Eventually she stopped and Talitha was able to safely dismount. "Welcome to the Warrior's Field~ We use this area for any tests that might require a bit of running space. It's a ways from the main building, but we're kind of all over this city, anyway."

"We're not all over the city, we just have a few places where some of us like to hang out. It's not like we own this field. It belongs to the Governor's family. They just let us use it since it's not good for much else and the equines like it out here."

"The Braydens. Ugh, don't remind me. Got another staggering offer for Summer this morning, but I don't really wanna part with her, you know? She's the best pegasus ever, I don't care what anyone says!~"

Some Town

"Attacked by a cheap copy of my own daughter on a whim. " Jethro shot back angrily as he nursed his arm wound. Alexis was close by and frowning at the injury. Her own weapon had caused it. The woman didn't feel guilt often, so it was plain on her face. Meanwhile Cassandra was aching inside over the comment. Jethro really hated her, didn't he? She really just wanted to get away from him for the moment, but had no idea where to go, and she didn't want to be alone. She wasn't sure she could keep herself from crying if she ever found herself alone again.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, so long they're not in the mindset of just making sure they send you to the organization alive, whatever injuries you sustain aside.'' John said. ''And I suppose crazy or not they would just fight us anyway whether you're there or not. After all, that would mean less opposition when going after you later on.''

[Mercakete]

The governor's?! "Oh great..." Norbert groaned before adding with some irritation, "We'd better get this over with, then. I don't want to be pestered about selling Riz again."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

All the trust was quite refreshing after Gar's usual act of declaring how incredibly suspicious he was. Either whatever task the Captain was involved with was that big--which was real likely considering dragons seemed to be the lesser secret here--or he was just tired from dealing with a quick-lipped subordinate. Or both. Yeah, both. "The wardroom huh? Well, looks like I'm feeling a bit antsy with my questioning and all, so I think I'll throw myself on their mercy to allow me in and relieve me of this anxiety," Gar grinned. "Maybe solve whatever this problem is of theirs in exchange."

OOC: Consider Gar on follow mode if the Captain moves to the wardroom.

[Snike]

"That's true," Blake said, when Raquel mentioned that she could act as a deterrent. That could help to some extent, though numbers were still a headache. Fresh out of ideas, the swordsman looked around the room,to see if anyone else had something they wanted to say immediately. Valter, who had been silent for the majority of the discussion, might have some plans. He certainly appeared to be lost in thought, anyways.

"So, what do you think about these ideas, Valter?" Blake asked, as he turned to face the horseman. Perhaps he could offer a new perspective on things.

[Phoenix]

Meeting

The captain shrugged and shook his head a little. He decided to head back to the meeting now, since his only other plan for the day was having a drink in his cabin and interrogating that druid they'd captured; not necessarily in that order. Spotting the two heading back to into the ship, Shadrak grew suspicious. "Who is that guy?" he wondered aloud. Figuring he wasn't going to get an answer by just standing there, he quietly began to tail them.

The other two sailors went back to whatever it was they were doing, and the captain eventually arrived back at the wardroom. "We have a new passenger." he announced as soon as he'd opened the door. "He may be willing to help you with your problem. I leave it up to you whether or not you want to involve him, though." He would have asked for a progress report, but he didn't come back alone, and it was unclear whether or not Garfield would be included in the planning just yet.

"Umm, hi." Raquel greeted nervously. Oh my gods, is this what I've been reduced to? A paranoid arms dealer who can't look at anyone without wondering if they're on our side or not?

Warrior's Field

"You'll be fiiine. So then, shall we begin with a little test of endurance?~" Mandy replied with a mischievous grin.

Reign On the Road

Upon leaving the ship, Reign began to debate where his first stop would be. Going to the authorities was right out. Asking random people on the street was time consuming and relied on sheer luck both to get the information he needed and to not run afoul of anyone that might be under Cervantes' employ. He quickly decided to carefully gauge the situation with the governor himself if at all possible. Getting an audience when he looked more or less like a vagrant didn't seem likely, but he'd find a way. If nothing else, he could find out from a more available family member.

And so he was off, making his way through the port city and occasionally stopping to ask for directions to the governor's estate. He passed by the Arena of Masters along the way and saw plenty of people wandering about. One in particular stopped to pester a rexian woman who was leading along a pegasus. An odd one, that girl. She had pink hair with white highlights while her white pegasus had pink highlights on its feather tips, mane ends, and tail ends. It would have taken some careful work to dye its feathers, mane, and tail in such a way. The two seemed to match quite well, but he could barely overhear the man trying to convince the woman to sell her pegasus. She kept refusing despite the man dropping the Governor's daughter's name. Claudia Brayden, huh?. He wasn't sure how useful that would be, but it might get him into the governor's manse as long as he wasn't caught lying.

Eventually he arrived. Juuuuust fantastic. The governor's estate was a very large property and completely gated off. The number of guards around was pretty light, though. Light enough for Reign to have to resist quietly mocking the security, or worse, trying to get them covering the estate better. Either way, they needed at least a few more guards than they had to avoid a real situation. Not his problem just yet, so he approached the front gate which had only two guards posted.

"State your business." a disinterested guard spoke up.

"Is Claudia Brayden here by any chance?"

"No." he quickly answered, hoping that would be the end of the exchange.

"Do you know when she'll be back by any chance ... or perhaps you could tell me where she went? I'd like to speak with her about something."

"Why don't you just tell us what you want to talk with her about and we'll see if you're worth the young lady's time?"

"... ow. Never been word handled like that before. Anyway, I wanted to talk with her about acquiring a pegasus of her own and-" "A pegasus?" the guard interrupted. "Yeah, I believe that's what I said just now."

"Huuugh. She's down at the Arena of Masters currently."

"What?! I just came from th-guagh!" Reign vented his frustration a little. That was just fantastic.

[Mercakete]

"Ahoy," Gytha greeted the newcomer. She didn't add much else, however, seeing as she couldn't tell by Raquel's reaction whether she was accepting this newcomer's help or not.

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

"Sure. I have a question, though," Norbert replied to Mandy, "Are we being tested with or without our equipment? It seems to me that whether we test with it or not will effect our scores."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar followed the Captain man back to the wardroom, a slight little smile on his face all the while. The contracts he had taken until now were all rather small-time, so something big and secretive like this was sure to be something to get his blood pumping. It was certainly bit enough that someone was now trailing him. He might complain if he wasn't so suspicious. The downside to an all encompassing cape after all.

The Captain led the Gar into the room, announcing that he was here to solve all their little problems for them. Well not that, but it was close enough. it certainly was a varied group, and the one among them who answered--no, no, that wasn't right. Gar rubbed his eyes and looked right back at her. Pink hair, green eyes, vast tracts of land. It matched exactly the description he had been given, well, except the clothes. This was the girly with the Fire Emblem? No, it was all just a legend. Or maybe he was just looking at it all wrong, maybe his eyes were going bad. After all, gray hair was a sign of age, why not gray eyes? Except he was born with gray eyes and white hair. Logic sure passed his birth over didn't it? Just like it passed over this whole damn situation.

So, what was his course? Announce that he was here specifically looking for her and inevitably get guns pointed at his head and everyone glaring angrily at him? Or hold off, explain away why he had not actually said a word for the few minutes it took his thoughts to collect and spite probability? The latter was naturally more practical. The first would be the much more "fun" route though.

Fun certainly looked to be the winning option here! Also the suicidal one. Really it was the hope that being mostly honest upfront that would get him into good graces. Or at least not shoot-on-sight graces. Well, he'd work something out if things went south. Maybe. "You can call me Gar," he said. "And I think your name might be Raquel Valcyn?" he sighed at his cursed ability to say the truth. Feet first into Tarturus as they say. Maybe.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Our enemies do seem reluctant to go for the kill for whatever reason," Veronika admitted before eyeing the newcomer critically. How can everyone find us so easily? Enemies and allies alike, we don't seem to be at all capable of traveling incognito.

Nadya

"Doesn't matter for me- but yeah ya might have trouble in an endurance test with all that armor on. Tryin' to move with armor tires ya out real fast," Nadya commented. Well I shouldn't do too bad here- unless it's actually a strength test that they decided to call an endurance test.

Connor

"Well not to be rude and eat without you Davod, but...I'm hungry," Connor said, looking down at his plate. It consisted of an unidentified meat covered in some sort of yogurt based sauce with some lentils on the side. He cut off a piece of the meat and put it in his mouth carefully, eventually swallowing.

"Hmm it's...pretty good. Not sure what it is or what it's called, but it's not bad at all."

Clara and Cloe

"I'm sorry, that must be...difficult for you to say the least," Clara said, somewhat troubled. I don't understand half of why this Organization does what it does- what's the appeal behind making artificial beings anyway. Are they really better? "I think we have a healer around if you need one- if you don't I have some bandages in my pack," she offered to Jethro.

Well since we're basically double agents here we can't talk out in the open- and since they're too cheap to give us a room we can't talk there either. Maybe the stables will be clear again... Cloe thought to herself, heading back to the tavern in search of Cecily. She found Simon instead.

"Oh didn't realize you got here 'Darksider'. Guess you missed all the commotion outside," she said to him in a somewhat disappointed tone.

[Acacia Sgt]

<So that's the newcomer huh.> John thought. <Well, if he wants to get involved, he is in for quite the ride. Well, once we agree on what to do at any rate.>

First that mage, and now this person? So it's true, people just seem to come to us. Sophia thought. I wonder if that's really a good thing...

[Snowy_One]

This was annoying. Though Robin was glad to see her friend again, the current talk was little more than advanced political maneuvering. This wasn't the sort of thing she was good at. Hunting down an individual across the landscape, survival with few supplies, things like that were her specialties. People where not. Besides, she had her own task to accomplish.

"If you do not mind, I feel as if my presence in this conversation is token. I do not think I have much more to offer by being here. I would prefer to leave so I can start cooking for tonight, if it is acceptable with you."

[Snike]

Before Valter could respond, along came Bogdan, with Shadrak and a tall white-haired man in tow. The good captain introduced the man as a new passenger and said that he might be able to help with the attack. Fair enough, but in that case, why was the shaman following him? Sure, he was dressed all in black and brown, and yes, the man had a fierce expression, but was that really enough to warrant suspicion?

Then, the man spoke, and Shadrak's presence became somewhat justified. How did this newcomer know Raquel's full name, after all? Maybe the captain told him, but if not, well, that was too much of a coincidence. Just to be safe, Blake placed his left hand on the hilt of his blade. If Gar, as he apparently preferred to be addressed, attacked, he'd be ready.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Snike

[roymbrog]

Surprised, Valter looked up when Blake spoke to him. He hadn't really expected anyone to take notice of him, much less ask his opinion. However, before he even opened his mouth the captain returned with a newcomer. He decided it would be a good idea to figure out if this man could be trusted before running his mouth off with potentionally incriminating information.

When the man decided to reveal thar he knew who Raquel was, Valter's suspicions were as good as confirmed. He crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "How do you know her name?"

[Phoenix]

Meeting

Raquel Valcyn. That was her name, alright. Valter followed up with the inevitable question of how he came to know that name. Raquel freaked out a little on the inside. Needless to say her expression changed from slightly nervous to downright intimidated.A lot of people seemed to know who she was, and none of them wanted autographs, so it usually was not a good thing. Usually.

Restaurant

Gabbie took a bite out of her own meal and was immediately elated. Remembering that Davod had ordered something a bit less savory(understatement), she ripped off a part of her sausage roll and offered it to him. "Sure you don't want one last taste of real food before those cooks in the kitchen serve you your death soup?" She didn't look like she was joking. She was but ... there was enough concern in her gaze to take her seriously.

Neela next walked over to Dion's table and served him a plate of chicken, sliced into slabs with some kind of sauce and vegetables on the side, complete with a fork and knife. "And here you are, sir~"

Warrior's Field

"It's more fun for us to see if Tali can still pick out your raw talents even with your equipment on, but you're in a hurry apparently, so go'head and take it all off. I need to get out some buster arrows." Mandy replied to the group.

"Am I doing all of the gauging?" Tali inquired.

"Mmm, yeah let's just do it that way. We can get through this much faster that way. You don't mind that do you? Pegasus boy?" Not meant as an insult, but she'd forgotten his name. Had he even mentioned it before? Didn't matter in the end since they would all be jotting their names down for the guild's records by the end of the day.

Arena of Masters

Reign eventually made it back to the Arena and found himself trying to scout a way in that didn't involve paying for a ticket. He figured he would have to play the pegasus card again all too soon. No way that other woman sold from what he saw last time. He didn't see her around anywhere, though, either. He walked up to a receptionist and gave a small wave. He got one right back from the woman.

"Welcome to the Arena of Masters. Can I help you with something?"

"Yeah, I've been hearing things about Miss Claudia Brayden. She's looking to purchase a pegasus, is that right? More importantly I heard she was here. Is she?"

"Oh, most likely. Any winged combatants be they pegasus riders or dark avians always keep her seated. I'm afraid you will have to convince her personal guards to grant you an audience, though." she admitted with a pitying smile. She didn't think he was getting near her without an actual pegasus' rein's in his hands, but what did she know.

Mining Town

"Not too proud to let a wound fester. I'll get it looked at. Don't worry about it." Jethro replied to Clara, trying not to let his agitation get through as much this time. She wasn't like most of the other annoying agents roaming about. Save for a sparse few, Jethro was putting up with a bunch of jackasses and jerkasses, including Sardis.

Meanwhile back in the tavern ...

"Unfortunately yes I did. What happened if you don't mind my asking?"

"That was one hell of an initiation." Cecily commented offhandedly as she stepped into the tavern with perfect timing.

[ReformBlade]

Sighing, aneda started taking off all of her armor. Not ALL of it you sickos... Anyway, then she was down to her light gear, still raring to go, she was in the zone at this point, waiting for the... Meh I don't know what she was waiting for. But she looked silly enough as it was, leaning down on Hannah like she was just waiting for the chance to pounce onto a target and go to town on it.

Davod smiled and shrugged at the waitress, "It's all good, ma'am, really, it's fine. I don't think we're in that much of a rush..." Of course, davod coulda been fooled by Connor's reaction, but he wasn't really offended, he just laughed and smiled again. And then came the offering of sausage from Gabbie. "Eh, I don't wanna be taking your portion, as much as I appreciate the gesture, Miss. I'm already in debt as it is to you, you know?" You are such an idiot. Seriously, what were you thinking, you just shoulda bought some bread, maybe some jerky, not... not this. "And besides! It'll be more fun to have pure unaltered experience with it, dontcha think? I'm mostly doing it fo the novelty, another story I can tell. Whether it's flattering or not, I don't care, memories are memories."