Guild Wars III Roleplay (Rated T)

[Amneiger]

Amneiger looked up at a sudden motion in the sky. An eagle or something tried to land on the lamp, wobbled, and then fell down. Huh. How strange.

He was interrupted in his looking at the lamp when he heard Vyt shout for him and Shade to move out of the way.

"Look, it seems to be down at the moment, and we shouldn't get too close to it until we can tell what it's -"

Vyt then rushed past him and began trying to do something with the creature's head.

"...doing."

Amneiger looked around; nobody seemed to be doing anything about the lamp. He ran over the lamppost and, using the vibroblade as an improvised climbing pick, climbed up towards the top of the lamppost. When he got there, he carved out a foothold with a few cuts, and then slowly sawed the lamp away from the post. When he had the lamp, he climbed back down and rushed over to where the creature was with it.

[Draco]

<<Going To Merc Base>>

Draco continues to run with the three ninjas behind him when he stops in his tracks. Causing the other three to skid to a stop.

"Why did you stop?"

Draco looks around. "I'm not one to get premonitions or anything, but I just got a strange chill down my back. Maybe something at the Dojo, maybe something at the Mercs, or something else. I'm not really sure."

"Should we head back to the Dojo?"

"No, if the Superior is right, then having a bad feeling is nothing compared to what may come. Lets continue." He starts running again, "The Merc base should be in view in a few more minutes I think."

---

<<Sky Around Mage Manor>>

Gil reaches and begins to circle the manor a few times jotting down notes. "Ok then. I should continue onto that castle, then to the mountains. That should give me a good idea of the surroundings. I'm not the greatest at map making, but it's the best we'll have for a while." He looks down at his map, the distance is way off, and the lines are all wobbly. "Maybe I'll fix it before I report on it..."

With that he turns his aircraft and continues on his flight.

[Moonlight]

~Outside Mercenary Base~

"We have a-oh, forget it,"

Wilhelm clutched his cane and tailed the other mercenaries to the aforementioned "choppa", too. It was probably better to run when you were a facing a big, black smoking pit. It didn't seem like the mercenary way to do things, but everyone else was doing it. Why not? Better safe then sorry...

He reached the others and got up into the chopper, as the forest grew silent. But the stillness lasted but a second. Flame roared where the darkness had grown quiet, dashing the trees with raging fire. Well, what else could go wrong? ...Wilhelm couldn't really think of that right now, while climbing up into the vehicle.

Wait. Glancing back at the base, he remembered the book he probably couldn't finish anymore.

Heh. Too late for that.

~Mage Manor~

Liyer paused and listened to everyone else talking, trying to get what they were saying. So two of the others were trapped down in the basement...

Darn dream made him miss the spectacle. He never did travel near the basement; it always felt cold and dark. Oh, wait.

But really, maybe it was his possession of a very tiny bit of magic, or just common sense, but the basement seemed to have a persistent evil aura clinging to it. Now this thing was inhabited by something worse. It could sense your fears.

And now they needed a rescue party. "I could volunteer to go, if there's not too many people already," he piped up from near the door, wanting to help, "I can fight my fears in my sleep, so I'm definitely not afraid." It was truthful, if you think about it. He looked at the other mage who offered to go, a young girl. Sitting at her side, a striped brown cat stood to attention.

He hadn't seen her around before...The cat, that is. She seemed...Well, she seemed fine for a cat. Yeah.

Cri-Cra-BAM!!!

Liyer hissed in shock as the rock encasing the basement door exploded into chunks of rock and stone. He was thrown(smacked) into the wall a few feet away, collapsing into a pile of rubble. Struggling out of the heap, he winced and tried to brush the debris and dust off ivory fur before looking up to see two figures step out of the basement.

Well, that might solve the problem of a rescue party.

"...Ow."

[Jason]

~Enroute to Ninja Dojo~

Jasor gritted his teeth as he made his way towards the Dojo, the sound of leaves crackling underfoot.He hadn't been gone long, but he was already annoyed. He had just entered the forest around the dojo and was making his way there. He had been using the roof in the distance as a guide, but now he realised a problem a little too late. What would happen if he wasn't out of the woods by the time the sun set? That's when he decided to move faster.

~Spacefleet~

"Tabloid Town. That means he's planetside. Sorry." These were the words Javerson said after a moment. Nodding politely, he excused himself before heading towards the kitchen.

"Now how do I get planetside," he mused to himself as he set to work.

[Jina]

The Saucy Elephant
Jina pondered the name of the bar because Rider brought it up. It didn't really make sense. Then, she was struck by an idea, and looked at the barman. "You don't happen to serve elephant curries or something, do you?" The barman gave her (another) odd look, so she went back to her drink.

Someone sat down next to her. She looked to see who it was. "Oh, hey Rider."

She pondered that statement for a moment.

Rider...

She looked at her drink.

She looked at the barman.

"Okay, admit it. You spiked this, didn't you?"

[Shadaras]

Vyt ran right past her, and Shade almost grabbed onto the catboy’s tail as he passed. It was an insanely stupid idea to just run up to the thing. Shade wouldn’t have been surprised if Vyt had gotten slashed to bits. Except he didn’t. He ran up to the thing and shoved her dagger further into the thing’s eye. Like pinning a bug to a piece of wood for further study, or something equally macabre.

The arrival of a strange bird gave her an opportunity to look away from the thing. Before the bird could move off the ground again, Shade pounced on it and held it to the ground fairly gently. With the number of talking animals and familiars around, she figured that any bird that just happened to drop in on a lamp right after they’d been talking about detaching the lamp had to be intelligent to some extent or another. Didn’t mean that the bird could talk, but there was a fair chance of it.

So Shade smiled at the bird and said, “Who – or what, if that’s more applicable – are you?” If the bird didn’t respond to that, she’d just prod it and tell it to nod if it was intelligent. And ‘nod’ wasn’t at all the same as ‘try to bite my hand’.

[Nova]

Mage Manor

After watching the mages discuss about retrieving the two mages, he heard a wolf-boy shout ""Um, guys, I suggest that you move out of the way because the wall is about to blow,"

With that knowledge in mind, he instantly teleported a few feet back and tried to use his magic to use a weak fire shield. The door blew up instantaneously, sending both large and small chunks of stone flying in every direction. The large ones managed to graze past him, what being a small star and all, and the small chunks managed to simply bounce off his shield before a larger one penetrated the shield and damaged his left star-equivelent leg. But the pain should subside in time.

The Underdeep started to attack the Manor again, and from watching Ikkin, the Manor couldn't keep up. Nova used his magic to set up a strong fire barrier; it wouldn't stop the Underdeep but it could stall it for a few seconds or minutes.. and at this time, time is very valuable.

[Deleted]

<<Mage Manor>>
Mage and cat ducked to the wall at the explosion, the former throwing an arm up to shield her face. A short shock slammed into her sleeve, and she looked over the edge of the robe at the fragments of stone that lay upon the ground. Lika looked up with a smug expression of satisfaction. [You can figure that one out yourself.]

"Thanks," the girl muttered in dry response, though the gratitude was half-there. Much as she liked to pretend otherwise, she was grateful for the Felyr's quick thinking sometimes, even if it was using up her own magical reserves. I have to replenish that sometime...

She went through a rapidly-changing sequence of emotions as she saw the two figures in the doorway of the shadowy Underdeep--happiness and relief, suspicion, a grimace and a quick attempt to smooth her expression and hide her critical gaze. She stepped back a bit, glad to note that the Underdeep seemed to be a little restricted by the Manor's power. At least, she hoped it was.

Celestial and Rikku were back, at least. A little worse for the wear, like they'd been struggling, but there. The mage tried to put a little more joy into her expression, letting her mouth twist up into a slight smile without any of the actual feeling behind it. The mages looked fine--well, not fine, but conscious and standing and not leaping at their throats like she would have expected something from the Underdeep to do. Which probably meant that they were the real deal, and not nightmares from one of the many people assembled here.

So they fought against the dark and escaped, she thought, mentally shrugging. The unease didn't lighten. Something didn't click. Maybe it was instinct--she'd always relied on that a lot, when her brain couldn't catch up to the moment and she needed to act, to loose an arrow at the crack of a branch or sidestep a sharp-edged blade from behind. She'd been relying it on even more in the recent months...

Recent months. She took another step back now, a hand going to hang loosely at her side, but focused with whatever fire she could summon to it without letting the energy give way to flames. She'd seen several pages, squires, knights she didn't know, monsters, that hideous king and shadow mage that had tried to use the image of her father to rattle her, Sarin, even Ro...it was ro who had been first. What was supposed to have been a fair and friendly, if somewhat competitive, fight hadn't remained so. They'd agreed to just two knives each, and whatever hand-to-hand skills they could muster--first to drop their knives lost. No magic, no swords, no bows. Aly had won, coming back from a loss against the lady knight's superior strength and training with a little trick and some quick moves. Then Ro had snapped, and it had taken a few pages and Aly throwing up a near-inferno to stop her. I was almost killed. And that was because of some njahk's control.

And then again, with Sarin, except that this time the fight had started out rough and mean without the guise of a friendly battle to hide it. She'd always underestimated the boy's speed, his proficiency with the slim bone knives she'd once given to him. He was fast, could turn and react on a dime, dance and weave and easily overcome an enemy just by playing keep away.

That had nearly cost her. Whatever mantra she repeated to herself--I'm in a different place, a different world, not the realm of the court or kings or that drawn-out, stupid war...--she couldn't help but automatically react with suspicion to anything that she'd seen dipped in darkness.

"Actually... why don't we all try to get these doors closed again first." The girl turned her head slightly at Ikkin's voice, the suggestion breaking her out of her rapid thoughts.

She kept an eye on Celestial and Rikku as she nodded, though she made sure not to center her gaze on them. Brash and brazen as she was, she knew when to do her best to be subtle. Maybe this was paranoia, but even so...

Sra. Why am I so skeptical of them fighting through those shadows?

Because you don't think you could, a voice in the back of her head answered. If you were swallowed in that, you would be finished.

Shut up. "Omni?" she asked, grateful for the familiar face. "Could you do that thing with the door again? We could try to reinforce it. All of us. Well, where it applies, anyway."

With a rare shine of concern in her eyes, Lika only gave the mage a quick, pointed glance before returning her attention to the Underdeep. [Perhaps we should also exit here as quickly as possible,] the feline remarked, this time directing the mental voice to all those present. [Having this many people around won't be any more effective than having a few, should the Underdeep decide to reach out again.]

[Angie]

[ Outside Mercenary Base ]

Caught up with the handful of mercenaries as they made a beeline back for the base, it suddenly occurred to Hawk that since forces unknown appeared to threaten their safety here, it would be a good idea now to ask Scar where exactly the mercs were planning to go.

"Where exactly are we planning to go?" he asked aloud.

Aside from the Merc Base, come to think of it, there wasn't any other location toward which Hawk felt some semblance of the feeling of 'home'. And sure, the Merc Base was the Merc Base, and it had more than its share of squabbles and complaints and moping and bickering and perpetually empty kitchen cupboards, but that was precisely what also made it almost comforting in its own obstinate, insufferable way.

Perhaps they'd go to Tabloid Town, he thought. There were supplies in Tabloid Town, and taverns and people and nighttime alleys for the hushed trading of information. It was the stubborn kind of town - if anyone could still call it a town now - that stuck in his memory whenever he left it and stayed there for a long time afterward. Hawk had long ago made the habit of walking the streets there with his eyes and ears wide open. News spread fast in Tabloid Town, rumors even faster, and secrets the fastest of all.

Or perhaps the mercs would go somewhere else. He didn't know. Right now, with the landscape catching fire at his back, his only criterion for escape involved being someplace away from here - not, he insisted to himself, because of cowardice or lack of honor. It was out of self-preservation. As a mercenary, you chose your battles so that you lived to see the next one and made sure you got paid for it afterwards. And Hawk could fight with knives, could fight with only bare hands and fists if he needed to, but not against a sneering flames and a darkness that never ended. Not against this.

Whatever 'this' was.

[Omni]

Mage Manor - near basement

"Even if they could hold the Underdeep out, it'd be too dangerous to trust those kind of shields. If you let your guard down for a second, you probably wouldn't get a chance to reset it."

Omni was confused for a moment. Then she realized there must have been some misunderstanding, or miscommunication. "Oh, no you don't have to focus for this kind of shield. You cast it on someone, and it's up. I don't know how long it lasts, or how strong it is, but it should block mind-reading for a good time."

"I really wish we could try something like that. But something's messing with Sev, and I think he might be mute. He hasn't said a word since... I don't even remember when anymore."

Omni's mouth seemed to shrink. This could be a problem. Still, even if Sev couldn't sing, there were songs she knew, or possessed, that would probably help spread cheer and dispel fear. It wasn't foolproof, but it might work.

Before long, the seal she put on the door exploded, as well as the door behind it. There was quite a shockwave, too. Something that could break through that door explosively must have been equivalent to several pieces of dynamite, maybe stronger.

Behind the door were two familiar silhouettes. Omni wasn't the only one to recognize them. "Hey, wasn't expecting to see you back so quickly. How'd you manage to escape?"

The thought occurred to Omni: How did they escape? They were dragged away just earlier, with none of the Mages able to do anything, and now... That bad feeling was there, too. Well, a similar one, at least.

Then the Underdeep roared.

"Actually... why don't we all try to get these doors closed again first."

Ikkin's aura connected with the Manor's and there was a glow where the door was before, but nothing else seemed to happen.

"Omni?" asked Aly. "Could you do that thing with the door again? We could try to reinforce it. All of us. Well, where it applies, anyway."

"I can try," Omni replied. She dug into the earth energy again and tried to create vines where the aura of the Underdeep had yet to grow strong. They grew, but were still somewhat restrained. She had to concentrate to get them to move at a reasonable rate.

*****

Spacefleet - medical bay

Cürian could tell that Leoness listened with interest, as if holding on to every word. Leoness appeared to think about the situation, then looked up, almost as if confused.

"Dr. Cürian, would you mind showing me said equipment? And I would also appreciate a full inventory list, current patient dossiers, a blueprint of Sickbay and a toolbox."

Hoshikira spoke up. "You'll have to get the equipment from me. I know I'm not a doctor, but I know a lot when it comes to machines.

Cürian nodded at Hoshikira, then turned back to Leoness. "I can supply the inventory and dossiers, easily." She turned to the nurse. "Friedman? Blueprints."

Jennifer smiled awkwardly. "I haven't brought them up before, but I can try." She then headed off to a nearby computer.

They watched as Leoness turned toward Ethan. "I need your help. Ethan, it is absolutely vital that I get down on the ground as soon as possible. Something is wrong down there. Very wrong."

"Wait!" Cürian interjected. "Ethan hasn't had his examination yet."

"You can do it later!" Ethan said, half-moaning. "I'm sick of sitting here, and these examinations always have the same results. And if this is 'vital,' I think it's more urgent. I mean, a few hours or days won't make a big difference with the tests."

Leoness spoke up again. "I will put my heart into solving this dilemma first, but once I'm done, I have other matters to attend to."

Cürian paused, not sure that she liked the idea of this. Yes, they needed to get the equipment issue resolved, and Leoness did seem to be talking about something important, but there were also inherent risks in going planetside during 'something very wrong,' especially when precise medical conditions were unknown...

"Do not worry. I have faith in you. I will be back."

Cürian raised an eyebrow, but just watched, and listened, as Leoness put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's get to work then, shall we?"

Cürian nodded. "The sooner, the better."

Without moving otherwise, Leoness turned to Ethan. "Will you help me? -Can- you help me?"

Ethan smiled. He had been itching for something to do. "Will? Yes. Can? I'll keep trying until I can."

[Scar]

-Mercenary Base-

As the mercenaries ran helter skelter past him in panic -- and who wouldn't when a Lovecraftian horror shows up at your door? -- Scar gave the ... thing a nasty grin before scurrying into the base. On the way to the hangar, he spotted the base's janitor (because every base has a janitor) lounging in his chair along the hallway, bucket and mop leaning against the wall.

Scar faced him somberly and clasps both paws on the man's shoulders. "Scrubby, I know we never paid you anything but I want you to know right now you have been the best janitor we've had."

Scrubby gave him a bored look. "Scrubby believes in this base, sir."

"Alas I fear this will be the end, Scrubby. Something terrible is coming this way to blow the base up!"

"Eh, Scrubby's gonna die the way he lived, sir," he replied, shaking a worn magazine at Scar.

"What a trooper! I admire that," Scar went on. "Thus I say you deserve the highest honour we Mercs can possibly give you." He gave him a grim smile. "When we're gone, you can press the Big Red Button."

Scrubby folded his magazine and got creakily to his feet. "Scrubby will press it with pride, sir," the janitor said, giving a sloppy salute.

"Good man!" Scar yelled, the noise of the Osprey's twin engines whirring to life echoing up the ramp to the hangar. He shook the janitor's hand vigorously before fleeing towards the chopper.

Scrubby shrugged and walked calmly towards the control room with the Big Red Button, magazine in hand. At least there was something to do.

*

Scar vaguely heard a merc asking him where they were going as he scampered up the ramp. "Anywhere but here!" he yelled over the din of the chopper's twin blades, pulling the lever to raise the ramp.

The Osprey was soon in the air, whoever was at the controls doing a fine job not clipping the edges of the narrow tunnel leading up and out of the hangar. As they rose further, Scar looked out one of the windows to see that the black mass of tendrils and demonic fire had almost engulfed the Mercenary Base.

He turned to the rest. "Please tell me someone brought the cans onb --"

It was then that the Mercenary Base decided to explode.

Scar yelped and fell over as the Osprey was rocked by the shock wave but he took comfort in knowing that whatever that thing it now knew the Mercenaries wouldn't go down without a fight. After all, if there was one thing mercenaries were good at it was stockpiling explosives, even if they were rarely used. The base should be a pretty mushroom cloud by now he reckoned.

Getting into a sitting position as the aircraft steadied itself, Scar breathed a sigh of relief and held out a paw. "I don't know who most of you are but I'm Sergeant Scar. Pleasure meeting you lot." He nodded at Hawk. "And tell the pilot we'd best head to Tabloid Town. Not sure if anyone will help us but we need supplies ... and answers."

-Brassport-

Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, barely suppressed a yelp of terror as the beam dropped a few inches and his utility belt gave a great creak. He could feel it unraveling. Well at least that scared the pigeon away.

"Ah milady I do believe you are correct in that assessment," he replied, trying his best to bow politely. If he had a hat he would've tipped it too. "But lo, I do believe I have already seen an angel and she happens to come in your beauteous form."

The belt creaked again and he couldn't hold back the nervous chuckle before continuing. "An angel sent from the heavens to pluck me from the jaws of death! Ah if I could but kiss thy hand, fair maiden, and show my gratitude as a Gentleman Adventurer."

He made a faux surprised expression. "Oh my, where are my manners? Forgive me milady for it seems I have overstepped myself!"

He gave another strained bow, this time to everyone. "Oscar Featherstone, Gentleman Adventurer, ladies and gentlefolk. I have traveled the world, I have seen sights both wondrous and horrifying! Sights that would make your heart soar and make grown men wet themselves in fright! I have been around the world and back and now, milady, it seems I am at your service and, by divine providence, your mercy!"

He spotted, with a sigh of relief, that they were bringing up the net. It was about bloomin' time! He grunted to bring himself around to face Asta. "And I do believe I have now answered your inquiry as we --"

SNAP!

Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, fell like a brick.

But, even in the face of death, like all the Gentleman Adventurers before him, he resisted the urge to squeal like a little girl on the way down.

[Deleted]

Brassport Aerodrome

This was about the most wonderful thing that had happened to Sarinon in a long while. Quite apart from the fact that she was back with her engineering cohorts, men who accepted her for who and what she was, she was also having the time of her life with Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer. The cheeky scoundrel even had the nerve to pay her a sleazy compliment – nay, several sleazy compliments. Had she been more naive, she may have thought that he meant what he said, but years of experience had taught her that few compliments are meant from the heart. This, she thought, was not one.

Asta’s voice cut over the noise, offering to help with the payment and asked if Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer was a member of the guild.

It was then that he fell.

Sarinon had to stifle her laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of the man. She heard Bren the engineer swear loudly as he darted forward and caught him in the net, though the string wasn’t all that supportive. Sarinon, hearing a thud, knew that Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer had hit the ground. Not hard enough to be injured, but enough to hurt his body and his pride. Nyoro~n

Not turning to Asta, but keeping her eyes fixed on the blurred shadow which was Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer.

“I don’t require any help to pay the sum,” she began, taking a step towards the man crumpled in a net. “I won’t need help because I won’t be paying it. You, Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, owe me 210 golden cogs and your life.” She continued advancing on him as she spoke until she was towering above him. “He’s not a guild member, he’s a swindler.” She leaned down and spoke softly so that only he could hear. “And you’ll have to do better than that if bedding is your goal. I know your type, but you should know, I will not be so easily swayed as those lonely noblewomen.”

Without any further fuss, she turned on her heel and strode away, Emily trotting happily behind her. It was only when they were around the corner and out of sight that Sarinon let her exhaustion show. “Assembly Hall … the meeting,” she said, before continuing along, giving no protest when Emily took her arm and slung it around her shoulders.

[Deleted]

Tabloid Town

Before Kwoiffei could get far, one of the people (as opposed to just humans; you never knew in the NTWF) had come up to her and grabbed her -- gently, mind you, but enough that she couldn't just get away. And then the woman had asked the not-bird who (or what) she was.

Wonderful. This was the turning point -- if she messed up, the shapeshifter could just forget about the whole infiltration business and go elsewhere as a different animal. Shapeshifting was a lot easier for her than it had been in years, but she also had a thing called pride, and a thing called appreciation for hard work.

There was only one way out of this: lying.

The not-bird opened her beak and said, "I don't have a name. Well, not in the sense that you... people have names." (She didn't want to accidentally call this woman the wrong species. It showed.) "People just call me Bird.

"I guess you're wondering what I'm doing here, right? If so, well, that makes two of us. In a way. I don't know what you're doing here. Not that I'm curious or anything."

Well, she was changing a few details of the truth, but as far as lying went it was a start.

*

Tabloid Town. About time.

The black panther, still clad in black, was taking a different approach to how he usually travelled. Normally he would go on foot, be it on the roads or across trees, but on the way he had been intercepted by a talking horse. Cop-Out, the stallion called himself.

Cop-Out had offered Oncara a ride to Tabloid Town. The panther accepted on the condition of, "You leave me alone after that!"

On the way, the horse, somehow able to speak, had explained that he was related to the legendary Deus Ex Machina. Apparently there was an entire herd of horses related to that beast. It was irrelevant, but Oncara stashed that fact away in his mind in case he'd need it.

The sun was getting low by the time they arrived.

"We're here, sir," said Cop-Out.

The feline simply leaped off of the horse, landing on his feet on the road they were on.

"Now, keep your promise, horse!"

The words came out as a snarl. Cop-Out looked nervous, but few people saw it as the horse galloped off at a speed few horses could reach. As he did so, Oncara stood up, revealing that he was very short, yet stocky; also, he was a black-furred person wearing black clothing.

Wordlessly, the black jaguar walked further into Tabloid Town. There were going to be answers, and he would find them. There would be dangers, and he could conquer them.

After all, he was a ninja - not just any, but one of the guild's best. And he knew it.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Mage Manor

Lupehunter shook off the explosion after it threw him off balance. Other than a few cuts and bruises, he was fine. He healing powers could easily handle them.

As the dust settled, two figures slowly materialized. Lupehunter was stunned to see that it was the same mages that they failed to rescue, effectively negating the efforts to send out a rescue team. They did look a bit worse for the wear, considering what they went through. He could sense that something was wrong, but he wasn't sure what it was. For now, he decided to go with the flow.

He went up to the dragon-mage and returned the weewoo to her.

"Er, I believe this is yours," he told her. "I think it's still in a bit of a shock, but it should recover eventually."

[Zylaa]

((Totally Not The Moulin Rouge))

Zylaa felt very slightly guilty for abusing Goosh's sparklepowers. But really, once she had realized that people could be distracted by his sparkling in any circumstances, it wasn't very long before she had decided that such powers should be put to good use.

Well... fun use, anyway. Maybe not good use.

The Saucy Elephant wasn't exactly a place where pirates could feel at home, but it was full of sparkliness of its own sort. Zylaa was pretty sure she and Jina were the only females in the place wearing clothing without glitter. ... For that matter, the only females without dresses on.

But the music was rather loud. And coming from someone who's listened to an orchestra of weasels for a few months, that's saying something.

So after another handy use of the sparkles, they were on the roof. Zylaa gave a sigh of happiness as she looked out over the city. It looked almost peaceful up here, and the lights and flashes from all over the city were captivating. More shinies.

"Love lift us up where we belong, where eagles fly, on a mountain high!"

"I dunno... you'd think people would have had enough of silly love songs," Zylaa said with a shrug as she followed Goosh out to perch on the elephant tusks. She sat dangling her feet over the edge, humming a bit to herself.

I should probably stop getting Goosh to use the sparkles so much, Zylaa thought. She had gotten better at ignoring it, but she already had a tendency to obsess over shiny things without the help of whatever odd powers Goosh had. It was distracting. Overexposure to strange mind-control powers is probably not the best of ideas.

To distract herself from Goosh's distractingness, Zylaa peered down towards the crowd of people entering the tavern... and saw an all-too-familiar horse standing outside.

"Shiva?!" she said in disbelief. "Look, Shiva's back! That must mean... could Rider be here?" Zylaa bounced up from the tusk and ran down the stairs, not waiting for a response.

Now where would Rider be, if she was here? ... Did she even have to ask that? Zylaa wove through the crowd towards the bar.

Midway there, a very tipsy man with the emblem of Castle Kestrel on his clothing ran into her.

"Hey you! You a pirate?!" he said, swaying slightly.

"What's it to you?" Zylaa said.

"Gotta... gotta message for the pirates," the man said, with an important nod. "Knights wanna know if you're okay, what with the earthquake an' all, an' if you need some help."

Zylaa stared. Earthquake? ... They want to know if we're okay?

"We're just fine," she said, cheerily. "No need to worry about us. Everything's spiffy. Have a good night sir!" And she shoved past him.

There at the bar, right next to Jina-- a figure she couldn't help recognize.

"Rider!" Zylaa cried as she bounded to the bar. "You're back! Where've you been? And -- I'm happy as anything to see you, so don't take offense to this, but why are you here?"