FE on the Forums: Scarlet Crown [IC]

[Aurorix]

The boy was hesitant to ask at first. This is probably going to make him seem super lame but oh well, "W-well, what is that you fight for? Or why do you fight?" He paused before elaborating,  "Back at the Warrior Village I was given a sword and was told to name it after something or someone I'd swear my life to protect. But I don't know what to do. Fighting for me has always been just another part of life for me. I'm going to be a strong warrior like my father so I have to fight. With that strength I can protect the people I care about, prove that I am worthy for a wyvern as well as the people who can't defend themselves. The problem is, I can't name my blade multiple things and I don't know what is most important. S-so, I thought if I asked what you fight for most it could help me figure out what to name my blade... " He got embarrassed at that last part. What kind of hero doesn't know what he fights for most? 

[Chevaleresse]

Rhian blinked. The question caught her off guard slightly. She hadn't actually thought about it much, if at all. And even she didn't dare give the full answer to the question here and now, in the midst of the stronghold of the Dragon Knights. 

"Because I can," she began simply. "Past that point, nobody cares why, anyway. It's all I've done, and it's all I'm going to do." Rhian stopped for a moment, but whether it was her current emotional state or just some ass-backwards way of trying to finally apologize for berating the kid over a compliment, she kept going after a moment. "Somebody has to do it, and it might as well be me. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's what I've done ever since I was a little kid, and it's all that I was left of my birthright." She clamped her mouth, knowing that she couldn't continue but almost enraged by even referencing whatever it was had happened in her past, then continued through gritted teeth. "And maybe it'll give me a chance to kill the bastards responsible.

 

[Aurorix]

"I-I see..." Well, he wasn't expecting that kind of answer. Rhian seems to have a much more important goal for herself than he does. He wanted to say something but what could he? If anything, he'd probably make her annoyed again.  "Hmmmm, well that's certainly a reason. " He put his hand on his chin,  "Maybe I should go more basic and to the point then like you... If I'm going to be a Hero, then a Hero's job is to..." His hand then moved to the blade on his back and as he drew it he yelled at the top of his lungs, 

 

"BEHOLD MY BLADE, INNOCENTS!" He points his sword into the sky and holds it there for a moment before bringing it down,

 

"No, that sounds super lame and doesn't flow off the tongue well." With his free hand, he placed it's palm on his forehead and clenched his fingers in frustration.  "Ugh, do you have any ideas yourself? Anything at all, even if it's just from the top of your head." He asked the armored bow-user.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

Naomi giggled a bit at Fallon's dorkyness. Leave it to him to try and explain something in terms of magic. "I don't care what they think, I just don't want to be hated again. You know the old man wasn't my first teacher, and the others weren't as nice as he was." But she reminisced on his words a little. "But you and the old man understand me just fine. So if I can make the allied guard understand me then I don't have to leave." 

 

Her mood shifted, anxieties leaving her. She was going to try a little harder to get along with the humans. Because after all "If I leave now, I don't think I'll be able to find Hati by myself. I want to see them again, I think they knew something about me. I want to find out what it was."

 

She hugged her knees tighter, and smiled. She was really happy she got to talk to Fallon. "How's your research been going? Anything I can help with?" 

[krim]

Fallon smiled for the second time that week. He didn't think he was the best at giving advice, but she seemed happier and back to normal. Though he did raise an eyebrow in surprise when she asked about his research. "It's going better than it has been. The librarian at Scarleticia gave me a tip-off. Does the name Sierra Andon sound familiar to you at all?" he asked. He doubted it would, but it was all he had to go on at the moment. " Apparently she's the only one that's ever tried things close to what I've been looking at." then, dropping his voice to a whisper, he added "Going off of something he said when I had first asked him, I think the undead might be involved. But it's rare to find someone here who even thinks they're real, let alone has actual knowledge about them."

[Chevaleresse]

"I don't know, call it Defender or Ymgeleddwyr or Murder Fucker, I don't give a damn," she bit off with a bit more hostility than she actually intended. The archer took a deep breath, trying not to physically shake with the conflicted emotions she was feeling. And, of course, Argos was blitheringly oblivious to anything going on with her or the situation in general, as usual. "I just want to get my orders and leave." Not true, of course, but she could never admit to what she actually wanted to do at the moment.

[Aurorix]

"Ymge-? Yimge-? -Dwen? -dwry? What?" Argos could not understand what she was saying or what that name even meant.  "What kinda name is that? I've never heard of anything like it." Then she mentioned orders and that soured is mood royally.

 

"C-can we not talk about our current orders, I already feel useless enough being a burden on everyone during battle. It sucks that I can't help recruit anyone here. If the person they're trying to recruit saw me it'd probably only hinder the process..." His sword arm drooped along with his head.

[RedMageCole]

Clement seemed very hesitant to this request.

 

"I... suppose I can't stop you. But even so, I'd rather not stick around in the general area very long either, and chances are I'm going to be leaving alone... well, not really alone. I have Juliett..." 

 

Clement pauses.

 

"...My horse. She's been the main reason I've been keeping sane in these times. I couldn't bring her inside... its been difficult keeping it together."

[Swordstar]

Kerr nodded, releasing his arm finally, and walking alongside the man, hands tucked into his pockets.

 

"I get it, I do. Though you still clearly want to help people, don't you?"

 

They were headed outside now, and Kerr jerked his head towards the stables.

 

"Wanna go check on that horse of yours then? Be away from people, be around the creature you know and are comfortable with? Could be a good place to relax, at least a little. Get your nerves down, help you see things normally again. At least a little. I know she won't make everything go away."

[RedMageCole]

"I do still want to help people... but..."

 

Clement gives a quiet sigh, looking off into the distance and off to the stables, taking a couple of steps toward them.

 

"...Perhaps that would be for the best... I have problems calming down, so I just need... a little bit of time with her, I suppose..."

[Chevaleresse]

"Can you quit the god damned pity party?" Rhian snapped at Argos, turning to look at him directly. "You took a few hits. Who fucking cares? You're alive and haven't killed anyone that wasn't supposed to die, get over it. Worse things than not being an unstoppable god of combat happen to people every day." The archer folded her arms. "And I don't' know if you noticed, but you're not exactly going to be recruiting a lot of people from the damned Dragon Knights. Sorta happens when you get invaded." She spat the name as if it was a worse profanity than any of the ones she'd uttered thus far.

[Swordstar]

Kerr nodded, walking alongside the man, a small smile on his face and his hands tucked behind his head

 

"Eh, we all have our troubles. Some of us have our past lives hidden. Most of us, if I'm thinking about it. Others are struggling with losing people or to keep up with others, or to handle their tempers, or whatever. It's a mixed bag, yknow? Part of being a person, I think. So no shame in that. No shame in failure either, only shame in giving up on everything after one failure."

 

He hesitated and then pushed forward one little bit more.

 

"Guess what I'm saying is... Look, our group could use some more healing if possible, I suspect. I'm not gonna say it's a sure thing. But... if you're willing, I can ask my leader if she's willing to give you a chance."

[RedMageCole]

For just a brief moment, Clement looked mildly interested in Kerr's proposal.

 

"You'd... be willing to-...?"

 

Before he can finish his sentence, Clement shakes his head and goes back to looking glum.

 

"...no. Bad idea. You'd have to be really desperate to ask me to be a healer, especially if you get caught in the middle of battle... I really appreciate the offer, but the only time I can even remotely advocate for myself helping you all out is if there's literally no choice. And... it's not just because of my failure today, either. I'm... not good when it comes to violence... no, not good is completely understating it." He sighs.

[Swordstar]

Kerr sighed, dropping his arms back down to his side.

 

"Ah, yeah, no, see, I'll be blunt. We don't have a healer. Our last one left us. Our last battle... Guess I shouldn't hide things even if it would make selling this easier. Our last battle sucked. We struggled to make it out alive, and we saw things none of us want to see again. But we probably will and honestly we'll probably see worse. And not everyone could take it. So right now, our options are you or using vulns. I know we were hoping to pick up another healer here but look around. Anyone that isn't you is pretty much spoken for right now. So yeah. I don't think there is another choice. But I still would have asked you even if there was."

[Aurorix]

Rhian's words somehow was able to put a smile back on the boys face and perk his head back up. Even when her distaste for the Dragon Knights became apparent, it made his smile bigger.    

 

"Ya know Rhian, you really are the coolest. Thank you." He gave her a big smile before continuing,  "So wait, what exactly did Ymgeled- whatever mean? It sounded really cool!"

[Chevaleresse]

I'm never going to understand this kid.She didn't exactly feel like "the coolest" and hadn't the faintest idea of why Argos seemed so taken with her, but it wasn't anything she could strictly complain about. "It means 'guardian.' Or, uh, more than that. Someone who comes and helps you when you're down or can't fend for yourself." What calmness she'd acquired from the momentary distraction faded as she considered the word more in connection with her surroundings. Not someone to expect to be there when you need it.

[Aurorix]

"Guardian huh..." He places his sword back on his back. He then adjusts himself into something one could call a 'basic standing pose'. Making sure he was a safe distance anyway from anyone who was close by, before reciting once again with the same amount of enthusiasm and volume as last time,

 

"I am ARGOS VON BODIN, INVOKER OF MAYHEM!" The lad draws his sword, this time giving it a few spins above his head before continuing,  "and THIS is my sword! YMGELEDDWYR! THE GUARDIAN BLADE!" He rests his sword on his shoulder.

 

"Yea... YEA... YEA!" Each 'yea' was followed by a fist pump with his free hand,  "Awwwww, man! I'm really feelin' it! This name is perfect! Thanks Rhian! I knew coming to you was the right idea! I owe you one, seriously."

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"Nuh uh" She shook her head at the name. She listened carefully and thought on it. "How would something like that even be possible though? I mean, you know a lot more magic than I do but when I cast magic it seems impossible to control. Sure we can shape it and aim it, but you know..." She lowered her voice as she reached this part of what she was saying. "... undead, that just sounds silly. Magic is you know, about blasting. There's other techniques like the shields I can make, but I don't think we're going much farther than that."

[krim]

"You aren't exactly wrong. I had originally intended it to only be used for combat, but I've realized that there are all kinds of things that could be made with focused magic. Back in the library, there were fortified gloves that prevented things from getting dirty or falling apart. Healing staves are also magical, and amplifying them in specific ways could treat things we currently can't. Things like that should be doable....I think." he said, and shook his head at her acknowledgment of the undead. Of course, she wouldn't believe in them either. "Like I said, most people don't believe that things like that are possible, but there are....strange occurrences in this world that wouldn't make sense otherwise. I've never seen one before, but I have a feeling..." he trailed off. He remembered how Caim had looked when he spoke of them....and with memories of the incident, it made sense to him. They were real. He just barely knew anything about them. 

 

"Well, that's not important. Is it only order magic that you have trouble controlling?" he asked curiously. Despite all their time together, he actually wasn't sure if she had ever tried anything else. "Chaos is...difficult sometimes." he said, thinking of the whispers that had thankfully not shown themselves since leaving Scarleticia "But it generally does what I want, so long as it's something I've learned."

[Chevaleresse]

"Great," Rhian said, with all the enthusiasm of the average puddle of mud. She turned away from the noisy swordsman, looking restless. Like she had a destination in mind, but had to wait for someone else to give the okay. Lacking anything other than Argos and his. . . Argos-ness to distract her, her gaze eventually settled on Ceridwen, a gaze that slowly but surely filled with an outright hostility evident in her expression if nothing else. In reality, she was glaring at the journal the dragon rider was cradling like her firstborn child. 

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"If you think you can make it work, I believe in you. Even if they don't exist, I'm sure you will find something else that works. You're really smart for a human after all!" Naomi praised Fallon. She couldn't understand why he was so attatched to the ideas of the undead. She made a note to find out sometime. "I can't use any other magics. The tomes don't respond to me in the slightest. And yet when I touch a tome of order magic, I feel a power call out from inside me. I feel energy that I've been building out my whole life begging to be released. That feeling is always with me like an itch. None of my teachers before the Old Man could figure it out why. Even the Old Man was stumped, he simply tried his best to teach me control. Here watch this!" Naomi closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. Slowly a shimmering light shone around her, a solid barrier like the ones she created in battle. "I can do this much without a tome with the energy I have stored. When I was still living with my... family." She pronounced that word with an audible feeling of hate. "I was able to shoot blasts and create explosions without ever having touched a tome. I don't think I can do that right now though, I'd need to hold in a lot of magic. Battles drain it out of me, and it take a while to build up again."

[krim]

A surge of happiness ran through Fallon at her praise. He couldn't even remember the last time someone believed in him like that. Well, he could. But he didn't want to. Marsilia and Caim had tried to help, sure, but it didn't seem like they truly understood how important this was to him. And the greybeard was just his teacher, who had left him to his own research. He watched her demonstration with a smile on his face. Though that changed to a more curious expression soon after. "Ah, the barriers. I knew you used some kind of energy for your magic when it hurt you early on, but the tomes not being used as the conduit is....strange. It's possible of course, with a lot of training. But compared to anyone Ive heard of, you didn't really have that. Hmm...what do you do to build up the reserves of magic again? Just wait or...?" he asked, deliberately ignoring her point about her family. What parts of that he knew about told him to never press the issue.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"I feel it come back by itself. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. During battle the energy surges up and it feels like I have infinite amounts of it. I feel it surge up build up quickly whenever I'm scared too. And then after firing off a few blasts I feel it gone. Releasing all that energy is always super satisfying too, like pressure is gone from my shoulders. The only issue is my hands." She showed him her palms. The rest of her skin was soft and speckless but her palms were a mess, the skin was discoloured and had several spots that were obviously burn scars. "The Old Man was the only one who wasn't scared of my power. Everyone else in Foen was scared of my power. The people in my village too. But I like my power. It's protected me my whole life, even if I don't understand it. And it's what makes me different from humans."

[krim]

Fallon resisted the urge to grimace when he saw her hands. He had known about that, of course, but he had thought it stopped burning her once she learned to control it. "It doesn't hurt, does it?" he asked, concerned. She never showed any indication that it did, but it was best to be sure. He was still looking at the burn scars when a thought hit him. "Regardless, it looks pretty bad. Do you remember what I said earlier about the gloves at Scarleticia? They were magically reinforced. I wonder if it's possible to design something similar that would channel it through the gloves instead....?" he shook his head, bringing his attention back to her. "I'll have to look into that later. In any case, we all have different things that keep us going. If your power is yours, there's no reason to let it torment you. As long as you can control it, nobody has reason to be scared. And if they are, they probably weren't going to be a good friend anyway. How could they be if they aren't willing to give you a chance?"

[Aurorix]

"Hm?" Rhian was starring off into the distance but at what?

 

"Man, Ceridwen has been acting pretty weird since the last mission. She hasn't gotten any better either..." Then a great idea popped into the lad's head! If Rhian was able to bring up his mood then they should be able to bring up Ceridwen's mood as well!

 

"Oh, I know! Let's go bring up her mood!" Argos stowed his sword and grabbed the knight's arm and started dragging her along before she could respond,  "Just follow my lead! It's gonna be great!" On his way forward he put up his hood and stopped in front of the sulking wyvern rider releasing Rhian from his grip a little bit beforehand.

 

"Why so glum, chum? But never fear! For I, OVERALL ENTHUSIASM, am here to bring up that sour mood!" Argos then did an over exaggerated turn and looked back right at Rhian. He leans back and points at her,  "Oh! But what is this! It's the great demon lord Misery! It seems like she wants your company but as we all know, Misery is bad at parties and will only bring down the mood more. Quickly! When I hold her off I need your biggest smile! For, only smiles and laughter can drive back the vile demon!" He then air boxes in front of Rhian, pretending to keep her back.