Return of the Emblem Chapter Fourteen: Nine

[Phoenix]

Armor

Tonya wasn't too keen on leather armor. Frankly, she wasn't used to having little more than animal hide between her and an enemy's weapon. The defensive lance would certainly help, but only to a point. "Let's pass on the leather," she forced a smile, "I can move just fine in plate." Admittedly there was one thing tempting about the animal hide route; it wouldn't pin her chest if struck by some random maul. That was a point in its favor. Still, Tonya wasn't about to let herself be hit like that again, anyway.

Food

Raquel had begun to wonder about her own abilities. She had a few in her arsenal already. Changing her hair color or something like that was already doable with dyes ... so as an emblem ability, it didn't even compare to gravity defying ceiling perching or warping from place to place. Granted, both of those were doable with other magics, too. She shrugged at Xenia's question. "I ... probably could? I don't know how yet, but I'll be really embarrassed if I can't pull that off."

"That glowing nonsense is 'scarier' than changing your hair, anyway," Jethro dismissed the potential power. Admittedly Raquel's hair didn't do her any favors when it came to intimidating others. That was probably best left to the illusion artist.

"Dinner is now ... being served," Erica called over from the doorway to the kitchen. She'd clearly had to revise mid sentence, what with the large pot still in her hands. Johnny was getting things ready on the serving table for some reason. "We got word that they're having problems in the staff kitchen, so we're going to be making extra."

"Basically," Johnny chimed in irritably, "we're setting this up like a buffet for you. We've gotta get back to it to help feed everyone else, so help yourselves or have Rebecca here or one of the other maids serve you."

More Armor

"You'll be here a while," the voice noted wryly, "... and then you will die."

"I-I have a question ..." Suzume began, her hands in position to start charging another thunder spell, "What ... are you? Are you just a suit of armor?" Speaking of which, the thing was badly damaged, it was clear as day there was no one inside it, and the damage itself wasn't consistent with any weapons she was familiar with. It was almost as if some parts of the armor were immune to strong impacts and others, like the edges of most of the plates, were susceptible to them. The plates were actually in tatters, but only around the edges. That couldn't be natural unless those were the only areas targeted, which didn't make sense to Suzume.

"How hopelessly naive. Begone, little mage."

Suzume winced. That wasn't the kind of answer she was expecting. She didn't think her question was naive so much as curious.

Fairy Tale

... still not making a whole lot of sense, Leo thought, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to visualize everything. Amalia had lost her wings, and so she went to see the Goddess Nyx. Nyx apparently agreed, though this wing restoration wasn't happening right away. It sounded like a more grounded version of a fairy tale. Leo didn't know Amalia to be crazy, though, so despite the story sounding off from start to finish, he decided to let it go. He at least had an explanation, and if it turned out to be true in the end, Leo would only have himself to blame for getting bent out of shape about it here when Amalia had been honest. "I'll take your word for it," he conceded.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Do you know how many people have told me that?  A lot.  More than the people I've killed and I've kill a lot of people," Gar boasted.  "I'd say the number, but I'm pretty sure you can't count that high.  But I proved the guy who paid me five thousand gold to drink a mug of poison wrong, so whatever the hell you are isn't gonna posture me off."  He looked back at Suzzy Q.  A much better sight!  "Could I get your help throwing the bags of flour at him?"

Xenia

Xenia tapped her fingers on the table.  "Hrm, well, you should test your creative limits, might be a solution somewhere in there."  Fod was on after that.  Much as she wanted a platter "Others first" ever still rang from her covenant.

[Snike]

"Right, then so, the light infantry or the cavalry armors," the shopkeeper said, as he turned around and headed into a back room.

Lane, meanwhile, found the bow that looked like a composite, retrieved it from the wall, and brought it over to the counter.

***

"In that case, see you at the meeting," Pavel said, as dinner was being announced. He started away from the dining hall without another word.

[Nanami Touko]

"Thank you, Leo." She hoped it wasn't too much of something to worry about, or be confused about. "That avian in the fight, the one who shot me... He was one of your friends, I take it? So you probably knew a fair amount about our kind. I didn't mean to cause trouble, but... I'm glad it's settled. And Erion," she started, turning to face him, "It's quite alright. I shouldn't have been doing this; I understand your worries. I'll try to rest for today. I'll practice on what I did learn, though, so I don't lose it all. And... Hmm."

She took a small step back from the both of them, looking between them, with a hand on her chin. "What do you think of practicing with each other? I could watch, at least... And that way, Leo's trip to find a weapon doesn't have to be as much of a waste. Do you think you're up for showing me how you fight, Erion?"

[Phoenix]

Armoring

Tonya crossed her arms as she mulled over her options. Technically she would be classed as a foot soldier at the moment, so the infantry armor was a good short term choice. Still, she'd trained her entire adult life for mounted combat, which inclined her more toward the cavalry armor. It was bigger than the kind of armor pegasus knights typically wore, but the design was mostly the same. Once Lane had the composite bow, she decided. "Okay, let's go with the cavalry armor. It's not going to be so unfitting that it throws off my technique, and sooner or later I do want to get a new pegasus. I'd even settle for a horse at this point." Truthfully, she suspected a horse would be her only option for the foreseeable future. Getting a pegasus was extremely difficult for anyone who wasn't wealthy, tied to one of the Four Orders, or in the military.

Flour Spar

Why flour? Sure that was annoying as hell, but what was Gar planning, exactly? Was the goal to annoy the disembodied voice until someone fetched Ernesta, or were they poking around for an opening to kill the demon? She couldn't very well inquire openly without potentially ruining said plan or forcing Gar to find some more discreet way to answer her. The voice ... or perhaps the armor's, capabilities were unknown, so Suzume was more inclined toward defense, but she could spare one hand for ... flour flinging. "Sure ..." she said, reaching for a handful.

"Back to this, are we?" the voice said, sounding unamused.

Spar Spar

Leo was at a bit of a disadvantage in a normal sparring match, at the moment. He was using a weapon he wasn't terribly skilled with, and anything other than a precisely controlled strike from an opponent would probably draw blood on his end. None of that bothered him, but he did wonder how Amalia would react to him getting nicked a few times due to her suggestion. "It wasn't a waste of time," he said, shrugging, "but I don't mind having a regular match with your friend here. Just try not to cut too deep if you manage to score a hit," he said half jokingly.

[Snike]

"Cavalry armor it is," the shopkeeper said, as he came back with a large cloth-wrapped pack in his hands and a quiver of arrows slung around his shoulders. He set the pack down on the counter beside the composite bow, then removed, then and handed the quiver over to Lane. Once done, he unwrapped the pack to reveal a black chestplate with golden trim, as well as matching gauntlets, arm and hip guards.

"Would you like to try the armor on now?"

[scorri]

Erion blinked at the suggestion. "Well, I had been planning on eating, but I suppose that I could do a quick spar before we head in. Though I'm not sure how well my style of fighting would work one on one in an isolated incident like this to be honest. I could try though. Couldn't hurt to work on that a bit I suppose. Daggers vs sword is always awkward but..." He gave a shrug, pulling two daggers out, one longer and slightly thinner and a shorter heavier one. "It's been a while since I've done this sort of thing, but I may as well try."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yes indeed it shall be the thing!" Gar said and started wantonly throwing the flour at the demon and armor.  Cover every visible inch he could!  From a side of his mouth he whispered, "make sure to move when its vision is covered, don't want blind shoots on where you were last."

[Phoenix]

On Plate

Tonya's face reddened slightly. "I should," she murmured, "make sure everything fits me before purchasing ..." After that momentary lapse, she was all business, again. "Alright, let's start with the breastplate." It didn't take long for Tonya to get it on, though she was fighting back irritating memories the whole time, and she needed Lane's help to tie it off. Next were the arm guards ... "So far so good," Tonya shrugged. "I'm not really worried about the rest, honestly."

On Flour

Gar didn't sound serious, naturally, but his warning was all Suzume needed to get the general direction of things. She threw her own handful and then reached for another, hoping this smokescreen tactic would actually work, though for her part, Suzume still wasn't sure whether to focus on defense or offense. She specialized more in defense, but she was at a major disadvantage against dark magic. The only way to compensate for that at all was mobility and more power ...

It only took a couple more tosses from both of them to turn the voice's corner of the food storage room into the spitting image of a winter wonderland ... which was somewhat concerning. Until the flour barrage had begun in earnest, anything approaching the demon was pushed back. Now they were being buried in flour, and the hound was beginning to sneeze. Suzume would have found the noises amusing if not for how tense she was.

On Guard

Dual blades. Leo's opponent seemed to lean sharply toward precision and agility. That certainly didn't bode well, but it was roughly what he'd been expecting. He vaguely recalled many of Amalia's allies and how they fought back in Ursentius. "This should be interesting ..." Leo said, backing off and taking up a neutral stance with his borrowed blade.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Phoenix

[Snike]

Tying the back of the breastplate off was much trickier for Lane than it should have been, thanks to Sirius, but he managed. Once the shopkeeper heard Tonya's response, he smiled.

"Perfect! That'll be two hundred and forty-seven gold, which means," he continued, pushing three gold pieces across the counter, "you have three gold left."

"Thanks," Lane said, as he took the gold back with his free hand. He began to turn towards the door, but stopped, then turned back towards Tonya. "Do you need help carrying the bow?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

The unexpected side effect seemed to be working.  That wasn't good.  Was it enough now?  Usually needed a larger, more packed volume.  Well, there was a better started here than average.  And getting the jump on it was better than waiting for a reaction.  He started tossing in the occasional coin, at the ceiling, at the floor, at the demon.  "When I throw two at once, shoot a spark off towards the flour and dive outta the room," he whispered.  He made sure there was a specific trail of flour just for this.

[scorri]

"Interesting is certainly a word for it, yes," Erion replied with a grin. The man was being smart, staying out of range. Given throwing his knives wouldn't exactly serve the purpose of this match, Erion knew he would need to close in. "Right then. Amalia, you might want to stand back." With that, he began slowly circling in, keeping one dagger point out towards the man, the other closer in towards his chest. He knew he'd have to block that sword sooner or later and wanted to be prepared for that. Still, it was no fun to just sit and wait. When he was close enough for the move to be believable, he threw out a quick feint towards Leo's sword arm, as if he was aiming to bury a knife in his shoulder. Time to see how he reacts.

[scorri]

sick double post

Edited May 24, 2017 by scorri

[Nanami Touko]

"Thank you... Er, oh, yes, please don't hurt each other! ...T-Too much." While she would never strike back in this sort of practice, she knew that humans weren't quite the same. Hopefully there wouldn't be any blood... Amalia nodded at Erion, taking a step back to he could start. I just hope this is worth something, for me. Well, something she did pick up on, was how quick Erion was. She didn't expect him to take such a fast advance, jumping back a bit as he sprung for Leo's arm. "M-My..."

[Phoenix]

Charged

Tonya smiled but turned down the offer with a small shake of the head. "That's alright, I've got it." Thinking ahead to potential work as a bodyguard, carrying all her equipment with her was going to be necessary. Best to get used to the extra one, Tonya thought as she took and secured the bow around her chest. It was a simple enough way of keeping it in place for now, but she'd have to manage the quiver in the same hand as the lance if she didn't do something about the rest of the armor ... "One second ..."

It took her another couple of minutes, but Tonya got the rest of her new armor on. Like she'd thought, they fit just fine and wouldn't get in her way in a fight. That just left her carrying the lance in one hand and the quiver over her shoulder via its strap. "That's better," she smiled again, "Ready to go."

Charging

Why did they need to leave after she used her spell? Suzume always felt she was missing some small yet crucial detail with Gar, but for once it felt like the burden of thought was entirely on herself. Gar had been kind enough, or at least tactful enough to leave an odd trail of flour, and that brought a fuse to Suzume's mind. Just how flammable was flour, exactly? Her own experience with the stuff was limited almost entirely to finished products. Judging by these concrete floors, Weyland probably had something in this place that could easily start a fire, be it the flour or something else completely. Suzume hoped she wouldn't get in trouble for going along with this plan, but it seemed highly probable if fleeing the room was the only safety measure.

Suzume gulped quietly as she waited for the cue, and poured more energy into her forming spell. At the moment, it appeared as little more than a yellow haze between her hands, the occasional spark popping into existence and racing around her hands before just as quickly vanishing. Ernesta will understand, she assured herself, it's one of the demons, so ...

Charge ... Psych

Leveraging the one solid advantage he had, Leo stepped back, just far enough to put the incoming knife out of range of his shoulder, and brought his sword down fast to try and nick Erion's arm. This style of blade wasn't forgiving in the cut, so Leo's intentional angle of attack would at least prevent a serious injury if he landed an attack.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Phoenix

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar threw one last batch of flour and said, "Annnnd we're done here."  Gar lopped his arm around Suzzy Q and escorted her out of the room.  "Good work, he'll never suspect I poisoned the flour that the mutt swallowed."  Because it just wasn't true.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Script

[scorri]

Tsk... Twisting, Erion managed to avoid all but a glancing blow, leaving more of a bruise than an actual cut. As he moved though, he flipped around the longer dagger in his hand and struck out at the man's elbow with the pommel of the dagger. If he could hit that hard enough, he might be able to cause the man to drop the sword. He also brought the other dagger up and towards the sword, hoping to potentially entangle it enough to at least stall it for a few seconds.

Uri returned to the table, having collected a modest dinner. A simple salad was sufficient for him right now, as he wanted sleep more than he wanted food right now. Still, the food was necessary and there was no sense in skipping it. Glancing around, he noticed Amalia was missing, Perhaps she had retired early? He put it out of his mind for now. She was safe here and was likely doing something important.

[Snike]

"Alright," Lane said, as he then turned and headed out of the weapons shop.  Once they were out and back onto the street, the robed man  stopped, and turned to his bodyguard.

"Do you mind if we visit the Cathedral? Not the inside of it, necessarily, but to at least show Sirius the outside of it," Lane said as gestured to the infant with his free hand. "If not, I understand, since you probably want to practice."

[Phoenix]

Streets of Europa

A visit to the cathedral, huh? Funny that he was asking her. "I'm your bodyguard so ..." how to word this gently? "You do whatever you want. I'm the only one that should be worrying about being an inconvenience." That said, she was a bit hungry. Actually, considering the upcoming trip, she'd probably be open to a full course meal by the time they made it back to the estate, and playing bodyguard on an empty stomach was both stupid and dangerous. She smiled awkwardly for a moment. "If you're serious, though ... it would be nice if we could get something to eat on the way."

Second Kitchen

Suzume could barely keep up with what was happening anymore. Fortunately she hadn't lost control of her spell when Gar brought her out of the room, and managed to safely disperse the energy. What the hell was going on, here? "So ... you poisoned that thing? What about the arm-I mean the voice in the armor?" Not like there was any poisoning that, but it did feel like they'd left the problem only ... a quarter solved? Half at the most. More importantly was the poison itself; Suzume had only been paying attention closely enough to have doubts, but was otherwise tempted to just take the man at his word, in spite of the flipflopping.

On the other hand ...

Training Field

With his previous sequence of moves blown away by a sharp pain in his elbow, Leo was forced to start from scratch, as well as rely on only a single hand momentarily. Even as he began to lean back to step away from his opponent, he could see his sword being put into something of a lock. He'd lose the weapon at this rate, and it wasn't meant for use with a single hand, anyway. There wasn't much choice, now. If he was going to stay in this fight, he'd have to leverage his size and the low probability of being stabbed to force Erion back. As he checked his smaller opponent, he held back just enough to not send him to the ground, and just enough to avoid stopping on the wrong foot, and being unable to retreat.

[Snike]

"Right, sorry, I'm not used to being guarded," Lane said, as he smiled apologetically. "Anyways, if I remember correctly, there should be street vendors nearby, but if not, we'll make a detour."

With that issue being settled, the healer turned away and began to walk back towards the main street.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika raised an eye at Pavel leaving dinner, but decided to leave him alone for the time being as he made no indication she should join him. We get to see little enough of each other at it is- probably Guardian Corps business or whatever this Thanatos group is. "So forgive me if this seems like a stupid question, but...what do you people do exactly? I know you're supposed to be shrouded in mystery and all that, but we do seem to be working together now," she asked of Cassandra and Dominik as she ate from a plate of chicken, rice, and vegetables.

Lysandra had filled her plate with extremely small portions of everything and began picking away at it slowly, deciding to observe her new allies for now. What a varied group- I suppose they've been successful so far, but will they really able to defeat Cygnus? Stranger things have happened...

[Phoenix]

Ebon Clad

Tonya followed after Lane and the infant he was carrying, musing about what she'd like to eat. She considered what she might want versus what might actually be available. Fortunately, the Grand Cathedral in Europa was a tourist hot spot, so good cuisine could be expected in the areas around the central plaza. Even with the fallen attack, there would still be some attempt at keeping things running smoothly.

They didn't make it all the way to the Central plaza before encountering an odd sight. Tonya hadn't been expecting to see individuals as ebon clad as they were, but lo and behold, there was another man, dressed all in black, and guarded by what looked like a knight of the Order of Truth. The golden trim reminded Tonya of her own armor. The man the knight was guarding had white hair, part of which was tied in a long ponytail, and he stood on one knee, feeling over the ground with his bare hand while onlookers puzzled over him from a safe distance.

"You don't belong to the Order of Truth by any chance, do you?" Tonya asked, smirking faintly at Lane. She would have asked if he thought the kneeling man was with the order, but the vague similarities between them made her far more curious about her employer.

Dark Duties

Dominik shrugged. "It depends on which of us you ask. We don't all get the same tasks. No one would even consider sending Burke to do the grocery shopping, so that's Naomi's job."

Cassandra sighed. "I'm not sure it's really a good idea to be sharing too many details. He brought up that memory erasing thing for a reason," she noted quietly. "I mean we're 'disciples' of Thanatos, so ... you can probably imagine what may or may not have to be done from time to time."

"Anyway," Dominik continued with a friendly smile, "our goals are ... similar, but not exactly the same."

"Stop teasin'em," came a familiar voice from the doorway to the dining hall. Gabbie stepped into the room, piercing Dominik with a mock glare, "We do whatever Thanatos needs us to do. If he decides to open up an antique shop somewhere, one of us is going to be running it. Simple as that." Eyeing the food, particularly the beef casserole, Gabbie started toward the serving table.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Phoenix

[Snike]

When he saw who exactly was feeling the ground, Lane's smile faltered for a moment. It quickly returned, accompanied by a raised eyebrow. 

"No, but I do know him, if you were wondering," he said to Tonya, as he strode towards the kneeling man. Once the healer was a few feet away from the latter, he addressed the strange man, also known as Morpheus: "Are you looking for something?"

As he waited, Lane wondered whether the knight was runic or mortal. It wasn't clear to him from where he stood, in any case.

[Phoenix]

Curious

The Morpheus' eyes never opened, but he still seemed to notice them. As he slowly rose back to his full height, Tonya squinted, trying to get a read on him. "Battle preparations," Morpheus said, smiling, "I'm setting things up in the north. That's all."

"Battle preparations?" Tonya raised an eyebrow at the explanation. He seemed blind but didn't act the part, but that still didn't make sense of what he was doing. How was someone supposed to make battle preparations while kneeling down in the street? Furthermore, if there was another battle coming, shouldn't people be warned? There was some measure of blindness here, Tonya knew, whether it was her own ignorance or something on this man's part."

"Yes, bodyguard, battle preparations. The details aren't important, but why is that one, here?" Morpheus asked, pointing at the infant vasilus.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Well I could go back to plan 'blow it all up', but that'd probably get you fired so..." Gar railed off, letting the obvious implications set.  "Besides, from the way he's acting something's real shady.  Why would he be doing this here of all places?  Better to test the waters first before diving in."