Character Mansion

[Entry hall]

Wait... WHAT?

"You're making political decisions.... using a maze?" Lance raises an eyebrow, his voice surprised. "I mean I've seen political appointments as favors and hereditary monarchies... but a maze? Who benefits from that?"

He sighs, "Different worlds sure are weird...."

Well maybe mostly just yours.

[Balcony]

Well the antimagic is gone... so clearly he's not all smoke and mirrors "Where I come from at least, the host doesn't always show." Hilda raises a hand for some getures. "Sometimes they plan something and then have other things to attend to. So perhaps all this," she moves her hand from left to right, "Was planned in advance but something came up. Of course you can't rescind invitations so you just let it go on. Everything's good with alcohol... right?" She pauses for a few moments, then decides to begin speaking again, "And between you and me, it's not like they invited the classiest of guests. There's a mercenary here, who's, pardon my language, a bit of a manwhore. Total laugh though."

[South Guest Bedroom]

"Stories?" Sven sighs, "I mean sure it's gotten messy, but it's not terribly... well interesting." He looks and avoids Koyel's gaze for a moment before settling back, "I mean sometimes you won't get paid and then you end up ransacking the treasury, sometimes you ransack innocents." He bites his lip, "I got into this whole mess when I was sixteen. My father died, and my mother, bless her soul was low on money. My magic was coming forth and I had an affinity for healing. Someone offered me a job to... well heal. I was expecting a hospital. What I got was an army."

[Parlor]

"Seems an unsound mechanism." Linna observed. "They'll run out. Or at least run out of things they can reach. Might be better in the short term..." She winced. "This sort of thing is really Micheal's department."

She glanced up at the door and grimaced at Nara standing there, the same uniform...but of course Nara looked a lot better in it. "NR. What's up?"

"Not much." Nara replied. "Just checking in. My buddy downstairs got busy."

[Entry Hall]

Joarkiel straightened himself up, "Perhaps an explanation is in order."

"The twenty-five city states are both their own independent nations and part of a larger nation. In order to solve difficult decisions, two or more city states will send their champion to compete against each other in the City Maze, which shifts for each competition. It is a complicated political system on Arcadia." The Cherubim explained.

[Garden]

"Ah," said Xavier, feeling a little stupid. "Planes. Right." Why didn't I think of that before? Although it's not like I meet a lot of pilots, and she's so young... Maybe jumping to conclusions wasn't such an unjustifiable idea after all. In this case, at least.

He was about to explain planes to Anne when he realized that butting in on Tamara would be a bit rude, so he remained silent. As it was, they had just come to the waterfall, so Xavier sat down on a rock to watch it. It was fairly small, but pretty, and the water was surprisingly clear. Was it filtered? The water flowed into a small pond near a cluster of grapes. Probably for irrigation, from the looks of it.

[Sparring room]

Mai didn't know anything about fighting, but she was sure that there were easier ways to go about this. Didn't anyone try to go for the legs and feet? They stuck out from the rest of the body, were awkward to protect, and vital for balance. One good hit and your opponent was on the ground. But then, there was probably more to it than that. Maybe they weren't so hard to shield as she thought they were.

Anatoly gave a small roll of his eyes. "Yes, well, that's kind of the point-" He turned to the door as Nara entered, nodding his head to her in greeting. To Linna, he said, "A friend of yours?"

[Garden]

Claire smiled and looked over at Samira. "Not to worry," She said, with a bit of a chuckle. "I am not easily bored." She looked ahead again, and continued a bit more solemnly. "Anyway, I'm sorry hear that, though I'm glad that your family is managing well... Where I'm from, Autism and its related issues have been entirely eliminated... Well, mostly."

"Airplanes," Said Tamara, as they came to a stop by the waterfall. It seems that Xavier had known where he was going all along. "They're like... Um..." She struggled to think of something she could compared airplanes to, given the technology Anne was used to. "Uh... Well they're... Flying machines, I guess." She shrugged and wandered off, looking around for a stick she could etch and airplane into the dirt with. She quickly got distracted by the waterfall, however, and sat down near to it. She stuck her finger in the water, but pulled it right back out again. That's pretty cold. She thought.

[Garden]

Samira frowned, and shook her head. "That almost sounds like a shame," she said. "For all the trouble his quirks cause, my husband would not be the man I love and married without them. And much the same could be said for my daughter. It takes all kinds in this world, you know." A soft smile came to her face. "I'd say we do better than most 'normal' families, when it's all said and done."

[Sparring Room]

Aseyu muttered a curse. She'd have to deal with those obnoxious balls sooner or later. In a real situation, she'd probably try to escape by now, but here? Well, it she had nothing to lose but her dignity. So she decided to take a risk and charged Jonathon while he recovered, aiming to flatten him with an anti-magic charged flying knee to the ribs.

[South Guest Bedroom]

Koyel looked interested. "Healer, huh? Magic where I come from ain't good for much but stopping pain better than bourbon when it comes to healing. But..." he lazily drew a finger across Sven's muscular chest, "you built more like a warrior than a healer. Lotta overlap? You take away lives as often as save 'em? Or you just like to stay in shape for its own sake?"

[Parlor]

Linna nodded. "Master Sergeant Nara Rajinderpal." She gestured to her current companion as method of introduction. "NR, meet Anatoly."

"Charmed." NR said. She even sounded like she meant it, with a brief bow as well. "While I only reliably respond to NR, feel free to call me whatever part of my name you prefer."

[Entry hall]

"I... um..." I don't even know what this is Lance scratches the back of his neck, "I'm sure it's an effective system. I just think it takes..." he pauses, "More active role of uh... deities?" He shifts uncomfortably, "Were you here for uh..." he gestures around the room, "Something? Or were you... dropping by?"

[South Guest Bedroom]

"Now? It's for fitness, ever sense I got this gig I haven't really had to do anything..." Sven leans towards Koyel, not minding his touch, "And sure, when I was younger they let me hide in the back, but I was too easy of a target. Kept getting too close to death, you know, had to fill things out and stab back. They'd put me up with the rest of the infantry, let me patch people up right away. Summon up barriers to protect the bastards." He sighs, reminiscing, "Sure, I'm safe with my job now, I've got more money than I know what to do with, and the hard thing in a weak is attending team but what the heck am I supposed to do?" Sven scratches his left thigh, "I'm used to not dying, getting drunk, celebrating with the guys, getting laid. Not pressing shirts and fighting with the militia. I tell myself I'll do something productive but..." Sven shifts towards Koyel "I never really do it. What’s a guy to do? You give me good fortune and I just want my shitty life back."

[Entry Hall]

Joarkiel 'looked' at Lance, "Is this mansion not the location for a party across the multiverse? If I am wrong, perhaps I should live, if not I will stay. Assuming I am right, it would be better that I stay."

[South Guest Bedroom]

"I see," Koyel said, standing up. "Can't properly understand it — cushy bodyguard seems like it'd beat playing medic for mercs." He shrugged. "But I s'pose you might be like my Mama Layi. Or me, some days... not happy 'less you've got something keeping the heart pumping and reminding you your alive."

"Anyhow," he said, glancing down at his clothes, scattered on the floor, "I'm starting to wonder if they're missing us down there. You feeling sociable, or are we gonna chill out here a little longer?"

[South Guest Bedroom=> Towards Stairs]

"You've got a point, nothing like death to get you going." Sven makes for his clothes, "Might as well go I guess." He looks back at Koyel as he pulls on his underwear and then his pants, "Nice meeting you though. Maybe we'll run into each other again?" He pulls on his waistcoat, "Don't think I'll forget this," He smiles, "Hotshot." With that he picks up his glaive and walks out the door. I'm debating where to put him, and for the moment I've got a character who to say the least would react to seeing him on the stairwell.

[Entry Hall => Parlor]

"Well that's fine." Joarkiel.... isn't very chatty. "It was nice making your acquaintance. Perhaps I will retire to the parlor. For the evening." He bows and makes his way towards the door. Bit formal... but it should work.

edited 14th Apr '13 11:03:51 PM by Aqueos

[Sparring Room]

Jonathan recovered quickly, but not enough to dodge Aseyu's anti-magic laden attack. Oh shit.

Gabrielle took the opportunity to slam her shots onto the side of Aseyu's knee and hip closest to Gabrielle, hard enough to hurt, and to make a painful reminder, but not to break bones or to cripple. After all, this was only for fun. Broken bones tend to ruin that.

It was a move that relied a lot on luck...but Gabrielle was feeling pretty lucky.

[Parlor]

When Andrew finished with his song, he streched and stood up, just to walk a little bit. He's been sitting in front of the piano for quite some time.

edited 18th Apr '13 2:30:22 AM by Tehpillowstar

Garden

Anne's face scrunched up as she tried to think of her equivalent to a "flying machine." Several seconds later, she frowned. "That's...not very helpful. The first thing I thought of was a flying plow, and to me that makes no sense. Having a flying plow implies you have flying horses, and...never mind."

She shook her head before sitting next to the pond. She gazed down into the water, taking in her own reflection. This situation seemed awfully familiar...oh yes, she'd first met the dwarfs while sitting by a pond much like this one. The memories of that day came back to her. Unfortunately, with them came the pain she'd felt during the period before that day.

She frowned sharply and looked away from her reflection, eyes closed, and took a couple deep breaths. "I'm fine," she said after a few seconds. "Just a memory of a bad experience."

"Admittedly, my original plan was nothing more than looking into each room until either I found the host or could definitively say that he was not present. And that still sounds like the best plan, unless you can propose a better idea." Grimhilde responded.

Ulrich thought for a few moments. "Leaving your home at the mercy of guests, particularly one as grand as this, does not sound like the best of ideas." He walked over to the balcony and gazed over the side at the angel on the first floor. "Particularly if your gathering is attracting beings from places of all kinds." He turned back towards Hilda. "But if that is indeed the case here, then I suppose I won't question our host's judgement. I do not know how long this went on before I got here, but if it's still in one piece without nary a scratch, then he is obviously doing something right."

[Garden]

For some reason, Xavier felt like he ought to explain what a plane was a little bit better. Even if it was going to be far from perfect. He jammed his torch into the ground. "Well," he said, already self-conscious, "it's a bit more complicated than that. See, a plane kind of looks like this..." He sketched a crude top-down view of a jumbo jet in the dirt with a claw. "...except a whole lot bigger. And it involves a lot of technology that you probably don't have yet, so..." He coughed. "I... probably shouldn't be the one talking about this, I don't know them well enough," he muttered sheepishly. "Just know that they're pretty complicated."

Okay, seriously. Why did I try to explain that? It's entirely out of my league. And it's not like this was important or anything. Do I really feel that strongly that planes need to be properly understood by someone who probably doesn't know what propellers or motors are? Sheesh. I need to mind my own business more.

[South Guest Bedroom —> Main Floor]

Koyel got dressed and left with Sven. "Fair 'nuff," he said, grinning at Sven as he made his way down the stairs. Where, as one might expect, Joarkiel caught his attention. "Shit," he muttered, looking him over, "did Amu miss one?"

[Sparring Room]

Gimme a few minutes to get things straightened out with tehpillowstar.

edited 15th Apr '13 7:12:25 PM by KillerClowns

[Garden]

"Oh?" Said Claire. "A most unusual viewpoint. Just about everyone was ecstatic when it was announced that neurodevelopmental disorders could be detected and cured before birth." She paused for a moment. "But I suppose you're right, Samira... Perhaps it does take all kinds..." She smiled.

Tamara trotted over to Xavier's drawing, stick in hand, and drew another craft next to it. Hers had a leaner, more pointed cabin and only two engines; mounted at the back. "That's what my sister flies." She said, to no-one in particular. She walked over to Anne and said. 'Y'know windmills? Planes are like flying windmills! Except they don't make grain an' they're made of metal and... Uh..." She paused to think for a moment. "Well, maybe they're not like windmills... But, um, if you put the spinny-thing from a windmill, but smaller, on the front of a carriage, but with a pointy front, and made it spin really, really fast - oh, and you'd need wings" She quickly drew rounded, biplane wings in the dirt. "If you did all that, then that would be a plane!" She said, eager to help Anne understand what planes were. She paused again. "Okay, that's sort of a plane... Kind of..." While this certainly wasn't the best description of airplanes ever uttered, Tamara was an eight year old looking for something to do, not an academic.

Garden

Anne glanced at the drawings and listened to Xavier's and Tamara's attempts to explain airplanes to her. After studying the drawings for a few seconds, she said, "So basically, someone decided to take a tube, stick wings on it, and attach windmill blades to the front of it? And somehow, this odd thing actually works?" She shook her head. "Okay, I guess if you have magic available to you, then I can see it flying. But otherwise? That's kinda...unbelievable."

She smirked. "Now I'm starting to wonder if I've eaten a toadstool without knowing it. I know the dwarfs will definitely ask that once I tell them about all this."

[Balcony]

"Oh!" Ozzy said, "So you simply want my assistance with that?" he paused, turning his head slightly to look past the queen, and began nodding slowly, "Well, that was more or less what I had planned to do anyway." he returned his gaze to the queen and gave an acceding gesture with one glove hand, "So be it."

Taking a step backward, Ozzy glanced at the doors on either of the two walls that surrounded the balcony. "Your Royal Majesty, would you like me to investigate one side of this floor while you and your chief advisor explored the other, reporting back in the instance that I find the host, or were we planning on working as a single... solidarity?" He held his hands together at his waist, and crooked his head slightly in a way that left his eyes faced the floor to the side of the queen. "I am compliable with any direction you should give; indeed, if there was a third option you had in mind, feel free to disregard the limitations on my former question."

Ozzy felt a little tongue-tied after speaking, and more than once had he wondered whether or not he was overdoing it.

[Garden]

Xavier opened his mouth to explain planes a bit better. No, said a voice in the back of his head, you don't know them well enough. Shut up. He closed his mouth. But if you stay silent, said another one, Anne will stay confused. He opened his mouth again. And knowing your explanations, said the original, she'll get eve-

Telling the first voice to stuff it, Xavier began talking. "Well, it's a bit more complicated than that," he said. "Um... you know how windmill blades are angled a bit, right? So the wind can push them around. Well, if you do it the other way, you can turn the blades to create wind." Okay, so far, so good, right? "Now, it'll take a lot of effort, but we've got technology that can turn devices like that really fast, making a lot of wind. This wind pulls the plane forward."

Wings, wings, how to describe the wings. "Now, the wings are also angled a bit." He began sketching a cross section of a not-quite airplane wing in the dirt. Since Anne probably didn't know about the Bernoulli effect (it was Bernoulli, right?), he fudged a bit. "See, if this is the top, and the plane's moving this way-" He indicated the directions on his diagram. "-then the wing moving forward will push the air down, and the air will push the plane up. The plane's got to be moving pretty fast for that to happen, but we can get there."

Okay, that wasn't half bad. Xavier mentally crossed his fingers. Hopefully, Anne would understand it well enough that he wouldn't need to explain anything more.

[Parlor]

Lance orders coffee and retires to the chaise lounge. After talking to the Cherubim he really needed a break.

[Balcony]

Hilda shifts her position slightly, her head tilted slightly to the right, "Well of course you wouldn't leave a house empty, you'd leave your servants around. They can greet the guests apologize endlessly for your absence, serve drinks, beat up anyone who wishes to steal things. The usual." She looks over at Grimhilde momentarily, "Is she really that intent on finding the host?" As she pauses Sven walks out onto the balcony, "I'm not saying it would be bad, but you'd think he would have..."

"Hey! Hilda, didn't think you would be..."

She whirls around clearly startled, magical flames momentarily swirling around her right arm. As she catches sight of Sven they immediately subside. She begins speaking her voice quitter and clearly intended for Sven. "I thought you were gone, I wouldn't have brought back Lance if..."

"Lance is here ag..." Sven isn't nearly as quiet as Hilda.

"Don't worry he's not in this room. Hopefully he'll just chat with someone else." Her voice is hurried. "Anyway," she resumes speaking to Ulrich, "Sven, Ulrich, Ulrich, Sven. He's the court mage to Queen Grimhilde over there."

Sven raises an eyebrow, "Is she like Adolphus or?"

"The elven emperor." Sven laughs gently. "No really Sven, like him."

"Oh." He shifts uneasily. "Well then." He looks at Ulrich and moves in to attempt to join the conversation, "Nice to meet you Ulrich." He extends a hand.

edited 17th Apr '13 11:16:27 PM by Aqueos

[Sparring Room]

One of the shots missed, but the other delivered a painful blow to Aseyu's hip. She landed less gracefully than she normally would have, and groaned. Then she put up her hands. "Alright," she said, rubbing her hip, "how about we call this fight a draw? We've both proven our points, I think. Or something." She stood wary, however, and ready to dodge, in case her opponents weren't ready to call the fight ended yet.

[Garden]

Samira finally made it over to Tamara and her friends, where she looked over the drawings. "Airplanes?" she said, then looked over at Anne and managed to guess generally what was going on. "Ah. Anyways," she looked the group over, "it seems you've all been well."

Not sure what to do with Koyel for the time being.

[Wine Cellar —> Out]

Irilemi was getting tired of this place. With a sigh, she decided she was done here and slipped away, making her way out without attracting any attention.

[Outside —> Entry Hall]

A woman made her way towards the Mansion, looking mildly bemused. She was a short and lean woman, with dark chestnut skin, grey eyes, straight gray hair down to her shoulders, and sharp features, including a distinctly hooked nose very much like Koyel's. She wore a tunic and pants of undecorated, off-white linen, jungle boots made of some reptile's scaly leather, and a cloth apron whose pockets contained an intimidating knife that straddling the line between cooking implement and weapon.

"How far south I end up? Knew I should've turned right..." She studied the Mansion with suspicion, but seeing no better options, made her way in.

She was about to comment on Joarkiel, but something more interesting caught her eyes. "Koyel?! How in the spirits' name you end up this far north?"

Koyel's eyes widened, and said, "ain't sure we in a place where 'north' means much of anything. I've been figuring we gotta be in some sorta chunk of the spirit world, after all the crazy I've seen so far. Mama Esa, you got any idea what you done to end up here?"

"Nope," Esa replied. "Was up at the stele making an offering. Walked that old path a hundred times before, at least, but somehow got lost on it. And..." she waved her hand around the room. "How 'bout you?"

"Sandstorm hit," Koyel said, "and this is where I found myself when it ended."

"Spirits definitely up to something," Esa agreed, looking around.

[Sparring Room]

Jonathan and Gabrielle stopped the beat down, with the former pointing his sword at Aseyu for a few seconds (to make sure she wouldn't just jump up and attack them when their guard was down), then lowered his sword and offered a hand to pull Aseyu up. "You fight good. I'm impressed."

Gabrielle's shots floated back to their original locations, long with Jonathan's sword, which was gently tugged out of his land. "I can heal anything hurting if you'd like, but only minor stuff, if you're not too uncomfortable at the prospect of being under my tender care." It's obvious she means well, and even her small joke, she seems pretty confident of her own abilities.

Gabrielle has very basic healing powers, but Cain's abilities outstrip those by a large margin.

[Sparring Room]

With an impish smile, Aseyu told Gabrielle, "hon, your 'tender care' would be more than welcome. Oh, and the healing magic would be nice as well." Then, more seriously, as she stood without Jonathon's help, "never thought I'd be so happy to hear about healing magic, though. The Magocracy back home mostly uses it to make themselves harder to kill. And to keep torturing prisoners longer. I'll admit, the stuff's useful... as long as you don't try to heal someone who's been voidmarked." She looked nauseous. "Nobody, not even a Magocracy agent, deserves to die like that."

edited 20th Apr '13 5:46:55 PM by KillerClowns