Fire Emblem On Forums: Mortal Transgressions (IC)

[Aurorix]

"Huh?!" Baldur was not expecting Tabitha to come across the corner. Luckily, she was able to side step out of the way. Wait... if she keeps going like that she'll...! Without hesitation the butler grabs Tabitha's hand before lifting her back up to her feet. Still holding her hand he asks, "Tabitha are you alright? Nothing twisted the wrong way? You nearly scared me half to death there."

[Flannelmagician]

Tabitha is taken aback by this new development and initially motions to slap Baldur's hand away from her's but realizes that he just saved her from bodily harm, so that's probably not the best thing to do in this situation. 

 

"N-no.. I'm all good. Just a little startled that's all." She lets go of his hand and uses it to awkwardly grab her other arm. "Thanks... Uh, Baldur was it?" 

[Aurorix]

"The name is Baldur Anton. Oh, and please think nothing of it. I'm sure you would have done the same. " The butler gives a slight bow,

 

"By the way, you didn't happen to notice anything missing in your room today did you? We got a new member today and he thought it'd be a great idea to steal things from everyone's room to prove his worth. Honestly, it's been more of a nuisance than any sort of proof in my eyes."

[Flannelmagician]

"Baldur Anton got it... I'm Tabitha Bellmonte, but you probably already know that." She pauses and thinks, "I can't really think I'm missing anything? The only thing of value I would have was confiscated at the prison... But thanks for the heads up I can see how that'd be irritating... I guess they must be replacing what's-his-name? " 

[Aurorix]

"Who? What?" Baldur raised his eyebrow, was there somebody who needed replacing? 

 

"Anyways, it is breakfast time. How do you like your eggs? I feel like I should make amends for almost bumping into you and having you nearly fall down the stairs."

[Flannelmagician]

"O-Oh its no problem really..." Tabitha exclaims as she waves her arms in front of her. "But if you must I guess I don't mind them omelette style. Although I'd feel bad if you wouldn't let me help out in the kitchen? We could make breakfast for two?" 

[Aurorix]

"Splendid. I don't mind your assistance at all. Let me drop this off in my room first then I shall get the spices ready for the omelette. Meanwhile, you should start making the bacon. A breakfast is not complete without crispy bacon after all." The butler gives a light chuckle.

[Flannelmagician]

 

"Sure thing, sounds like a plan." She watches Baldur leave and decides to have some fun with her new friend. "And hey, from one healer to another, if you do anything stupid while cooking like cut your hand off I'm not going to heal you." She offers a friendly smirk and walks towards the kitchen. 

[Shauntaro]

Walking towards the dining area with Mim, Shin takes a look at the food that's prepared, breakfast is something he could always look forward to at least.


"..some food would be good.. yeah, I'll.. uh..h t-" before Shin could finish his sentence he notices Mim's hand wrapped around his own. ..Needless to say he starts devolving into even more of a mess.

"a-a-ah.. I-" He says before clearing his throat and looking away.

 

"A-anythings.. f-fine.." 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Shauntaro

[Swordstar]

Mim seemed oblivious to Shin's reaction, simply grinning and continuing to head towards the table.

 

"Oh good! Hmm, maybe some fruit would be good, a nice fresh start. And then lets get you some bacon... Maybe a pancake or two? Anything else you're interested in? I'll probably just stick with some fruit, I can never have too much of a heavy breakfast, but fruit is always good. Oh, eggs! Do you want some eggs too?"

[Shauntaro]

Shin tried his best to shake some sense back into him. He clearly didn't have the energy to start losing it this early in the morning. Food, he had to just get some food. He starts talking after taking a few quick breaths.


"A-ah.! Those would be great! Eggs too please..! I-I'm not too picky with what I eat, really.. my eating habits used to be much.. much worse to be honest.."

 

Despite the slight blunder earlier, Shin felt it a lot easier to speak more openly with Mim all of sudden. It felt like a sense of warmth made it's way to him, it felt so alien.. but at the same time it was probably what his heart was deprived of all this time.


"..the amounts I eat tend to be unpredictable, at times I eat a lot.. and other times I barely eat anything." He says as he lets out a comforted laugh. "-But Kane and everyone else work really hard here, always.. I-I want to be able to return the favor to them all someday.." 

 

Shin pauses for a bit as he realizes that he'd started to trail off.


"A-ah.. I rambled on too much.. this doesn't usually happen.. sorry.." he says while briefly lowering his head apologetically.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Shauntaro

[Swordstar]

"Aw, hey, don't be like that! It's just breakfast. No need to get all heavy here. And besides, you have to stay fed and strong if you want to help return what you've been given." 

 

She smiled and let go of his hand to grab a plate for him.

 

"And hey, don't ever feel bad about talking. Sharing your feelings is good! Otherwise they get all built up and explode like Baldur and Crimson. It's a way to take care of yourself, which is important!"

[Shauntaro]

Slowly a genuine, gentle smile forms on Shin's face.

"O-okay, ..I'll try." He takes that plate that Mim hands him and gestures her over to where the fruits are. "Let's go eat.."
 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Shauntaro

[RedMageCole]

Eventually, everyone begins to eat breakfast, or at least Kane would like to try to get everyone together, especially so everyone can get acquainted with one another. Arthur returned about fifteen minutes before his time ran out, trying to act as if he didn't leave at all even when Kane stared him down a little. Kane's stare was broken by Simeon eventually getting up with a loud yawn, coming to breakfast with a rather large bag and starts passing out weapons from the bag that were specifically ordered at breakfast.

 

"I have to say, this glue pack is very fine; it'll come in handy for any potential battles to come, thank you Simeon."

 

Simeon gave a nod and a smirk to Kane as he moved over to Justine. Rummaging through his bag, he pulls out a long, elegant iron rapier; it has a very slender and pointy blade with a firm grip on the handle, a curled crossguard that almost looked like the ocean's waves, with an engraving of a set of thorns curled around the hilt meeting in the center of a flower blossom.

 

"Here ye go, I tried my best to fit yer description. I worked hard on it, so I gave it a name, somethin' I don't usually do unless for special orders... I named it Joyeuse."

 

Simeon moved onto Baldur as well, pulling out exactly what he ordered; a Chakram on a staff.

 

"It was a tight order, but I managed to make it just to yer likin'. I call the set as a whole the Tenderizer. Easily shown, easily understood."

 

Almost unsure as he got to Mim, he pulled out a bow almost the size of the girl herself.

 

"And this... would be yer greatbow. I hope it's what ye ordered, if it's too tough to use at all I can try to quick fashion a recurve bow for ye, but I can't judge yer strength by eye alone."

 

After breakfast, Kane went ahead and went to a closet close to the stairs to the basement, still in the dining hall; he opened it revealing a rather spacious interior full of costumes and masks.

 

"If any of you need something to wear in the field, my mother was a seamstress and sewed a lot of things for me just for fun, never thought they'd come in handy now... but that's not completely necessary, I just ask you wear a mask to conceal your face; faces tend to be the telling factor of who someone is alongside names and we all already have that covered."

 

...

 

Only a couple of minutes of looking through masks and costumes pass when you all hear it.

 

A sharp knocking on the door.

 

Kane immediately turns his head to the door, narrowing his eyebrows. He looks to the rest of you and puts a finger to his lips, looking down the area the door would be able to see inside and whispering for everyone to start moving away from the door and that he'll handle it. Arthur and Simeon move aside, though Arthur looks somewhat distressed. He moves to the door and gives a gentle knock.

 

"Good morning, is there something I can help you two with?"

 

You can't see the faces of the two Kane mentions, but you can hear a voice; a man's voice, probably middle-age and somewhat stuffy, the kind of man who sounds like he should be planning retirement but is too married to his job.

 

"Yes, good morning. Er... Well, there's no light way to put it. We're here to talk with Virtuous."

 

A short pause before Kane, somehow managing to keep his cool, responds.

 

"...I'm not sure what you mean. The criminal group?... If you're looking for them, you're not going to find them here."

 

The second voice rings out; a very soft, feminine voice that seems to have just gotten out of bed. The voice... sounds somewhat familiar. Arthur seems to tense up immensely hearing this voice.

 

"Please, we're not your enemy... Arthur told me about you... and I had to see for myself..."

 

Another pause, this one slightly longer than before as Arthur looks immensely guilty, as well as somewhat annoyed.

 

"...Give me a second."

 

The closing of the door. Kane almost stomps over to the group. He does not sound happy.

 

"Arthur. Explain yourself."

 

Arthur's response is immediate and frustrated.

 

"I would never sell any of you out! You wouldn't trust me!? I just told them that I was safe, that I wasn't going back home and why! All I told them about Virtuous was that you all rescued me and that you should be seen as more benevolent! I didn't even tell them that you were residing in Ceda! If nothing else, they're not here as hostiles, I promise! If they were, they would have brought way more than just two people, believe me!"

[Chevaleresse]

"Simeon, it's beautiful. I can't express how grateful I am." She took the blade, holding it out in front of her and admiring the craftsmanship for a moment. She took a couple practice swings at the air, testing the balance of the weapon.

"Well, not now, come back to me in a week and I might have a sonnet for you." Her admiration was interrupted, however, by the knocking. An expression of concern crossed her face for a moment, but it shifted when she heard the voice echoing into the room.  A familiar voice, one she would have never thought to hear in this place. 

"It can't be. . ." The dancer rushed towards the door, nearly pushing aside Kane in her path and throwing it open.

[ElfCollaborator]

Lenore, who'd been with Kane, silently mulling.....something over, looks over at Arthur.

Already, as soon as she figured they were busted, escape scenarios had been running through her mind. How fast could she bug out and leave the mansion? She had a few disguises she could put on already and one or two false identities she had, just in case she needed to leave Virtuous quickly and disappear. Escape wasn't going to be easy, and she hoped it wasn't going to be necessary.

 

"I hope you're right and you haven't just exposed us to the world."

[RedMageCole]

In response to Lenore, Arthur takes a short breath, clearly trying to keep it together, and while it was working, he was clearly fighting the urge to start yelling.

 

"I swear on my life. If they were anything less than people who have been kind to me and proven themselves trustworthy, I wouldn't have given them the time of day. I just didn't want them actually coming here."

 

Arthur doesn't even notice when Justine runs off, but Kane certainly does.

 

"Justine, wait a mome-!"

 

Justine throws open the door and sees the man standing in front, with who is presumably the woman, completely cloaked to make her features minus some of her face quite indistinguishable to the common eye. The man looks rather caught off guard once the door suddenly is flung open.

 

"Err... yes, hello? Did the young blond man send you to talk?... Are you perhaps the leader?"

 

"...Hello..."

[Aurorix]

Baldur looks impressed at what Simeon has given him. "Ah yes, this will do swimmingly. Thank you very much Simeon." He tries out the the shove staff on the blade and it does seem he can rotate it on top of the staff. "Talk to me if you ever desire a delicious hand crafted meal or a new set of clothes."

 

Baldur heard the female voice from the door, and it had a certain ring to it. It was quite familiar. The butler glared at Arthur, he didn't know whether or not he was telling the truth here. He then noticed the dancer darting for door, even flinging it open. He let out a sigh using his shove staff to move her from the doorway. And holds her back. "Sorry, she is no leader of mine and is quite a bit jumpy. Excuse her." He bows to them before closing the door once more. "So Kane what should we do? We can't just leave them there, we should at least let them inside."

[Powder Miner]

Lizaveta was a lot less perturbed by the interruption than some of the others -- after all, she really didn't have much of a life outside of Virtuous to hide, so she didn't have any reflex about being seen. She didn't know how much she trusted Arthur as a person, but he at least seemed genuine about Virtuous... but a lot of her analysis vanished from her head when she saw Baldur push Justine with a staff and then start trying to hold her back -- and Lizaveta proceeded to respond by furrowing her brow and then running up to try and pry Baldur's grasp off of Justine.

"YOU do not get to decide who gets to do what!"

[RedMageCole]

Arthur notices Baldur moving Justine, and gets annoyed as they both approach the door. Though he's generally angry, he looks even more ticked than before, being all pent up. Kane moves as well with Arthur, but gets blocked by him for the most part.

 

"Oh, would you give it a rest with that? Don't make me snap that thing in half!"

 

Arthur goes to pry Baldur's hands off of Justine at the same time as Lizaveta while he moved Justine away in what looks like a mess of human beings tangled together, the man looks visibly very confused as the woman gives a little wave as the door gets closed.

 

"Hello... Arth-"

 

As the door gets shut, Arthur lets out an audible, annoyed groan as he lets go of Baldur, stamps his foot and moves to the nearest wall to almost bang his forehead on it, instead opting to rest it on the wall. Kane does not look pleased with Baldur, potentially moving to remove any further grip on Justine that Arthur may have missed.

 

"First off, don't do that ever again. Not just for Justine, I'm not sure why you were so jumpy Justine, but even if you knew one of them too we can't just jump into showing people our faces when they know who we are. And Baldur, we had a discussion an hour ago about this kind of thing, but in case I didn't make it clear, don't resort to force or anything resembling it just because you got a new toy. Secondly, no, we can't exactly leave them here, but we should at the very least try to conceal ourselves until we can confirm this is a trustworthy party, even if Arthur says they are."

[Chevaleresse]

That face was unmistakable to Justine, even partially cloaked.

"It's you- I can't-" Whatever the woman was going to stammer out next was interrupted by her unceremonious movement away from the door, courtesy of the rudest man she had ever had the misfortune of encountering in her life. Her frame quite literally shook with rage for a moment; another moment, and Justine had taken a step backward, bringing her blade up to point towards the man's throat.

"I have had QUITE enough of your self-righteous egotism." She glanced at Kane and her expression briefly changed to an apologetic one, before hardening and returning to Kane. "Since civilized ways of settling things have seemingly just wafted through that hollow between your ears, I'll state this plainly. You will mind your tongue, your brutish hands, and your misbegotten magic around me, or I will be forced to carve the idea into you so that you might finally recall it." Her piece said, she turned to Kane to speak without allowing Baldur time to offer his retort. 

"Kane, the woman outside is the Queen of Ceda. I refuse to believe that we could not trust her."

[Swordstar]

Mim had meant to say something to Simeon earlier, but Kane had interrupted her before she could. And then... everything had happened. Staring at the scene before her, she turned away from it and walked over to Simeon instead.

 

"Thank you for the bow. It's good. I mean... maybe a bit small. But good! It should do the trick at least for now. Certainly wonderful in the time you had~"

[ElfCollaborator]

Lenore stares directly at Justine. Then at Arthur. Then at Baldur.

 

".....so. We have the royals of Ceda at our door. Justine, I don't know what you two have going but I'm not about to get into it because you don't NEED me to tell you why we can't just instantly trust her. Baldur's being helpful, again. Kane....between Lysander and this, please tell me we aren't expecting any MORE surprises."

[Powder Miner]

Lizaveta turned from where she'd been attempting to manhandle Baldur, letting go of him like he was a heated surface when a sword got involved.

"Justine, I don't know why in the world we would be able to trust someone just because they're royalty."

[Twinwolf]

Cecily groaned. 

 

"They're here. We're not about to stab them I should hope, so we're gonna end up talking to them at the least. Masks go on. Queen or no, we're not exactly a legal group and showing our faces to her or her guard," The latter seemed directed at Justine - putting aside whether they could trust the Queen (which she didn't, but she wasn't about to push on that), there was absolutely no grounds to trust the guard, "Is begging for something to go wrong." 

 

"As for you Baldur... I don't know what made you think that was a good idea. I don't know what made you think that was acceptable - you act high and mighty but seem to forget how to solve things by words." Literally the only reason she wasn't punching him was because they had more pressing matters. "It might have been hasty, but magically shoving her out of the doorway? Are you serious? We have more pressing things to attend to but there are going to be words."