Character Capital

Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite

Garkin continued with his work, tapping away at the holograph. Rolph and the crew had apparently captured the plant that wasn't a plant, among other things.

He couldn't stop himself from occasionally glancing over at the other end of the room, but did still not want to interfere.

Museum Park

Kyana breathed a sigh of relief as Buso and Akira were released from the invisible grasp they were under. A surprise attack would probably make things tense once more, so the fire girl started moving to pop out of the bush and hopefully settle things peacefully. Before she stepped out however, her green eyes spotted two very familiar figures approach everyone, two she hadn't seen in awhile. Moreena and Lara, the death goddess and the fire and ice girl. She couldn't believe it and had a feeling it was coincidental they stumbled upon this mess.

Taking this confusion as her chance to show herself, she stepped out and said, "Alright, since things seemed to have calmed down, mind releasing our friends and we can forget about this whole thing?" She was looking at the figure. If he were to start something again, she had a feeling Moreena and Lara would help knowing she was involved. Maybe. She just hoped none of this would backfire and she caught the seller in a better mood.

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Qrlil tilted her head quizzically. Performance anxiety? Is that literal or a metaphor?

"I am interested, yes," she said. "As I think I have told you before, that was the only manner I would have considered myself interested in you before until recently. I am still becoming used to that now..."

Her voice trailed off. It didn't help the situation that the, well, rest of the situation they were in was so unusual. Though for the same reason, that didn't hurt the situation much either, since the unusual had more or less been the usual with Angua in the past.

"But anyway, as I have also said, that on its own is not enough, at least for a qrtxian. So even if things do turn out in an... unfortunate outcome" - always a risk with cross-species relations - "it should not matter much overall. Not that I expect that anyway."

She tipped her head in the other direction, and spoke more hesitantly. "Is... I wonder, is part of it my fault? For being so direct when talking about this? As you say, it is what qrtxians like to do, but I do realize that it might seem stranger to - er, really, just about anyone else."

[Museum Park ~ East (Near Bench)] (Buso, Seller, Akira, Kyana, Lara, Miyuki, Moorena)

The seller's glare did not let up.

"Kindly leave, Moreena and Lara. If you stay, you will be greatly interfering in my business matters," he gestured to the three standing before him, "as they were. The only hostility here has come because I have been pressed to take careful measures in resolving this matter in as civilized a manner as can possibly be attained at this stage. Needless to say, your presence here is not helping. "

Buso had been stood up again by the invisible hands, along with Akira. They still held him in place, and restrained his arms, binding him somewhere around the shoulders, but his head had been released, and he could speak. The hands had—at the seller's request—brought him closer to the bench, where he stood within arm's reach to Miyuki's side. Slowly—in the midst of all the discourse—he turned his mask and tipped his head forward. The same was true for Akira. He was almost touching shoulders with Miyuki. The faint warmth of an idea began creeping into Buso's mind.

Then Lara, the younger looking newcomer, made a move. Even as the icicle formed, the seller's grip on his phone tightened, and his expression grew dark. He wasn't much of a smiler normally, but before that point he had never look truly angry. Now, with fire in his eyes, he brought the phone to his ear and spoke loudly and clearly, "If anything happens to me, break their necks." Then he all but slammed the receiver back onto its stand, set the entire phone to the side, pushed Miyuki's sword aside with the back of his hand and stood up.

Moments later, the sensation of hands around his head returned to Buso. The same went for Akira. One could almost see the faint shape of the hands as they re-secured their grip.

"That is enough!" the seller barked. "I am conducting business here! I am conducting!" He clenched his teeth, pointed at Lara and snarled, "Ye of little understanding, remove yourself!"

Before anything else could happen, Kyana reappeared, seemingly at a poorer time than she had anticipated. The seller turner to look at her, and, hearing what she had to say, began to laugh. Not a sinister laugh, but a genuinely amused laugh.

Buso sighed quietly. Kyana. His plan was dead before it had a chance to live.

"'Forget' about it." The seller repeated, grinning his gnarly grin. "Ah, wouldn't that be nice? No consequences. As if..." he shook his head, "nothing happened at all." His grin faded, though his expression did not return to it's previous anger. "I'm afraid something did happen. Something that you four are directly responsible for. Something that drags my reputation through the dirt. I demand recompense."

Museum Park ~ East (Near Bench) (Buso, Seller, Akira, Kyana, Lara, Miyuki, Moreena)

Moreena's smile was gone. "A civilized manner?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "I suppose it depends on what you're used to, but threatening to break someone's neck sounds a bit... rude to me."

She turned her attention to Lara, glancing down at her ice weapon.

"With that in mind, perhaps you should put that away? There's no need to escalate things. Not yet anyway."

Noticing a familiar looking girl appear from the bushes, Moreena raised a hand to greet her, temporarily taking on a more friendly expression once again.

"Oh, hello there Kyana," she said. "I didn't expect to see you here."

She turned back to the man on the bench, and spoke to him with a voice that had become very cold.

"In case it wasn't clear already, we're not leaving. Now, what did these poor humans do to you to deserve this treatment?"

[MUSEUM PARK - EAST]

Lara looked with surprise at Kyana's arrival. She made a brief nod, acknowledging her presence. However, her reaction to the rat's next move was different. "If anything happens to me, break their necks."

Course he'd go for the stalemate.

And then as Moreena suggested standing down, she looked at her almost petulantly. "But..."

No more words came out of her mouth. Instead, she partially obeyed, if not with a frustrated sigh. Placing a foot on her newly formed weapon, she broke off the sharper half, leaving only a stump of ice to defend herself with as a shield.

edited 7th Oct '15 6:42:21 AM by TroPartner

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Angua's face scrunched up in a look of consternation. "Well that's... In a way it's comforting to hear. But yeah, it does feel odd to be talking about this. I know I was the one to push it earlier, but that was just some unsubtle flirting. Now that it's- that we're actually..." She trailed off.

A silence passed. Angua gathered her thoughts, then continued, "I guess a part of me doesn't really believe this is actually happening. You haven't held back about being weirded out with how sudden this all is, not to mention-" she jerked her head at Garkin. Then, Angua sighed, which seemed to dispel some of her jitters. "But, if it's what you want, I'm sure I can get over it."

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

"I hope so," Qrlil said, tipping her head forward slightly. "Though of course, I would hope even more that it is also what you want."

She smiled and let out a quiet hiss. "And I certainly know what you mean about having a difficult time believing that this is really happening. That has more or less been my default emotional state for the last few days." Her smile vanished. "Actually, that has more or less been my default state for the last few years - though in a different way, of course."

[Market Street ~ Pub](Howell, Adam)

Howell looked down at his lap. He released Adam, and sighed, setting his arms back on the table.

"My..." he began, but faltered. His mouth wavered slightly. He raised his head back up and looked at Adam again. Then he smiled a strange smile and shook his head. " 'My my my'... " he muttered. "It's always about me, huh? Gotta find some way to put myself at the center of everyone's attention."

The words weren't his own; that was part of the reason they came so easily. But Adam couldn't have known that. Howell raised his arm and tried waving away the whole question.

"It's just, there's something that I've been looking for, and I know it isn't here. It's not in this city at all. And sitting around isn't going to make it any more found." It seemed sitting around wasn't going to help him miss it any less, either. His smile seemed to widen slightly, and he shrugged, "I guess you can say that I'm just passing through. Not meant to... stay."

He was quiet then, and his eyes fell back upon his burger. Howell was tempted to stuff it into his mouth so he wouldn't be obligated to answer any more questions. Always an apt strategy. But that wouldn't have been fair to Adam. Coming and going in a matter of hours, messing up the mood of the evening, thinking the things he had though... it was bad enough. While he was still around, the least Howell could do was be a good friend to Adam.

edited 7th Oct '15 7:54:54 PM by Ryuhza

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Angua chuckled, exhaling tension. "Alright, well, that would explain how level-headed you are about all this. And I do want it too. So, uhm..." She gave a kind of awkward shrug. "After you, I guess?"

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Qrlil's posture shifted to a more relieved stance. Well, I am glad we cleared that up. See? This is a good example for how talking through problems does work.

Always good to have reminders of that, after the last year or so.

"After - ?" she repeated, head tilting slightly, before 'getting' it. "Er, yes. Indeed." She began walking back over towards the center of the room, sniffing briefly in Zerrimus's direction. She hoped this type of thing didn't make him too uncomfortable. Cravyn conventions or not, it had to be at least a little uncomfortable, metaphorically speaking.

"Would you like me to tell you more about it?" she said, looking back at Angua, though she included Zerrimus in the question with another glance. "That is, the last few years." It wasn't entirely a happy topic, but it did seem like a relatively non-awkward subject, and one that she would indeed like to speak about some.

Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite

Garkin looked up from the holograph. While he had tried not to listen in on the conversation, it hadn't been very difficult to figure out the general gist of it, if not the specifics.

"Um, sure," he responded to Qrlil's question. "What has it been like?"

[Pub]

Adam blinked and tilted his head, now feeling even more confused. This almost sounded like something that he could easily help friend with. That still didn't feel like a good enough reason for Howell to just get up and go after being around him for such a short amount of time.

"You're looking for something?" he repeated, "Is that all? Why didn't you just say that earlier? Maybe I can help you!"

He smiled.

"Maybe whatever you're looking for could be here. This is a really big city after all. All we need to do is find a place to start and go from there."

As the words were leaving his lips, he realized that he had no idea what Howell was even looking for. All he had to go on was his friend's word and nothing else.

"What are you looking for, exactly?" he asked, taking a fry.

edited 8th Oct '15 7:48:52 AM by Masterofchaos

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Angua said nothing, sitting back down on the couch and watching intently after Qrlil, looking interested.

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

"Well, as I have alluded to, it has been rather strange," Qrlil said. She held her arms at her sides and began to pace across the floor of the hotel suite. "To begin with: I am not quite certain how much I have explained about the origins of my species. We did not evolve naturally - we were uplifted, modified into full sapience by an ancient civilization we referred to as the Trjql Qrl'k." She glanced down. "I do not use that name anymore, though. Now I refer to them by the name some of the other species do, the Archons."

She drifted in the general direction of the food storage unit again, still feeling the urge for a snack (an urge that was now strengthened by wanting to give herself something else to focus on as she spoke). "Anyway, it is important to explain that, because the first thing that happened to disrupt my life even further than it had already been when last we" - she dipped her head in Angua's direction - "met, was that the Archons came back. And, er, I discovered they had a personal interest in me."

Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite

Garkin's eyes widened. Strange was a serious understatement.

"So you've met them?" he asked, head spikes swaying in a mix of disbelief and awe. "The creators of your species?"

He briefly tried to imagine what a meeting with Kren, Arkai or Anwyn would be like. Not that any of them had actually created his species, but given the lack of mysterious precursors, the gods were the first thing that came to mind.

"So... what did they want?"

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Qrlil turned her head to look at Zerrimus, assessing his reaction. "They are not... gods, Zerrimus," she said. "Not anything close. That is why I have come to use the other species' name for them - 'Trjql Qrl'k' literally means 'revered ones', and they are most certainly not worthy of reverence."

She found a note of annoyance had crept into her tone, and suppressed it. She was trying to explain the recent events of her life, after all, so it was hardly fair to blame him for not knowing enough about them to have the 'appropriate' reactions. "As for what they wanted, it was for me to be their agent - some type of proxy, I believe. The term they used was 'Vessel'." Her voice began to drift again, this time into a more lecturing mode. "You see, what I ultimately was told was that the Archons had originally uplifted the qrtxians to fight in a war against another advanced civilization. But they could easily have fought such a war without creating an entire species as soldiers. I think their true purpose was to have another species that they could deal with the rest of the galaxy through - I think they are at least as xenophobic as the qrtxians themselves are. Which is why - and again I am speculating - they took an interest in me. They made the qrtxians too much in their own image, so that only a few of us have ever had any interest in dealing with other cultures."

She paused again, and poured herself a glass of water. Idly, she caught herself wondering if, should the True Alliance not come to be, she should consider going into some kind of teaching field. She had found that she rather liked telling people about these things, even if they were sometimes too personal for her to approach as dispassionately as she thought she should.

Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite

"Well, they're not literal gods, obviously," Garkin said. "But I can see why people might revere them as such, even if they... don't deserve it."

Uplifting a species just to use them as disposable soldiers? Even if that hadn't actually been their true plan, it was still an unpleasant thought.

"I guess you said 'No' to the whole 'Vessel' thing?"

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

"At first," Qrlil said, "I actually said yes. You understand, that is why I find it somewhat uncomfortable to talk about: though I had lost my faith in the ruling council of my own species a few years before this, around the time I first met Angua, I still did revere the Archons as the makers of my people. I had a tendency to believe that all that was good about the qrtxians was because of their influence. I still actually think that could be true, but if so, it was unintentional."

She took another sip of water and began to walk back towards the others. "It did not take long before I came to disagree with them, though. The Archons are extremely cryptic in their communications, but they are not subtle - I do not think they care to be. It was not difficult to realize that they held all other life in some contempt."

She paused before continuing with her next thought, worried that it mind sound grandoise or arrogant. And it was not even her idea, really. But still, she'd said so much already...

"They are one reason I consider what we are trying to create on Skrahsis so important. From what I have learned, and been told by 'George' the cthwui ambassador, almost all of the elder advanced civilizations are similarly xenophobic, or simply apathetic, to others. It is why they have had so little effect on us, except by accident, and it is a sad future to contemplate. So I - we - are, er, hoping that perhaps we can begin laying the beginnings now for our own descendants to become something better than that."

She paused again, waiting for reactions. She was a bit more uncertain now of this topic than she had been when beginning to speak about it.

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Angua sat on the couch with her legs tucked under her chin, listening quietly. She raised her head and said, "All things considered, I think you turned out pretty well."

Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite

Garkin scratched the side of his head. "Almost all of them? Well, that would be one solution to the Kevus enigma I guess," he said. "Though not a very... hopeful one."

He got up from his chair and headed over to the kitchen area to grab a glass of water.

"So, once you figured out what the Archons were like... what um, happened?"

[Museum Park ~ East (Near Bench)] (Buso, Seller, Akira, Kyana, Lara, Miyuki, Moreena)

The seller closed his eyes and pursed his lips, exhaling a long, nasally breath. He turned to face Moreena and his eyes snapped back open.

"Yes, quite, quite civil compared to the alternative; the one without these certain measures in place." the man's mouth parted into an unfriendly grin. "Why, we'd be gouging each other eyes out, loping heads off, stealing and... getting away with it." he shook his head, frowning his disapproval, then continued, "But now, you see, we're using our words like civilized... people. Everyone is open to speak— ah, speak, not stab or slice or... slink away—no no, speak their minds. That includes you two," he gestured at Akira and Buso, "if you'd like to weigh in on the situation at hand." He turned his eyes back to Moreena once more, holding his hands out slightly, as though he were presenting something, "And shall I describe it?"

The seller took a moment's silence as his go-ahead, and set to it. He waved one arm in the direction of Miyuki, Akira, Buso, and Kyana. "These four had set upon stealing a certain valuable I had—in my good name—traded to a man this afternoon. Mind you carefully, it was not a plan they cooked up themselves, rather one done at the behest of a fool woman who is discontent with ruining the lives of ordinary folk. Nevertheless, they accepted this job, for—as I understand it," his voice grew low and drawn out, "a pittance of money, and some cheap medicine."

The man brought his hands together, knitting his fingers. "They might even have succeeded, had this plan not been sniffed out long before they were a party to it. When they tracked down and mugged my client, what they stole was a decoy. I waited for them to return here, ready to discuss their next course of action. However, evidently one of them remained behind and continued to stalk my client," his eyes shifted their dead stare to Kyana, "then confronted him, threatened him with fire, and chased him. This is where my leniency begins to dry up. Shortly thereafter, another one of these four," his eyes focused tightly on Miyuki, "joined the first. She continued to threaten my client, strangled him, and bloodied his nose." he slowly turned his gaze back to Moreena, "Then she left, returning here and pointing a sword at my throat. And there you have it."




[Market Street ~ Pub](Howell, Adam)

"It's not in this city." Howell repeated. "It's not something you can just find in a shop. It's not just a... thing like that."

He lifted the top of his cheeseburger's bun, let it drop, lifted it again, and let it drop again. Then his head turned, and he stared at Adam dead-on again. His brow was furrowed slightly. His mouth quivered at the edges. His eyes were wide at first, but they trembled, slowly growing narrower. He looked pained.

"There's only one, Adam," he said, his voice growing slightly distressed. "There's only one, and I need it. I need it..."

He stared at Adam for a brief moment, looking lost and confused, then he covered his eyes with his hands, and began scooting away. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

[Pub]

Now Adam started to get extremely worried. He had never seen Howell react like this before; not even back at Archipelago after Iris yelled at him for running off with strangers.

He scooted closer to Howell and gently grabbed his shoulders, trying his best to calm his friend down. Whatever was going on through his head, he wasn't saying, and that was starting to scare Adam.

"Howell?" he said, "Howell, what's wrong? Please, please talk to me. You know I'm right here for you, right?"

[Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite]

Qrlil tilted her head noncommittally. "It is good of you to say that," she said to Angua, not smiling but with a pleased tone in her voice. "I do not know how much of that can be attributed to the qrtxian culture, though, instead of - well - people such as yourself who I have met." Her head tipped in the other direction. "Though I suppose it is not wrong either. As I have said before, however intolerant we can be, that intolerance is manifested in a far more... civilized form than in many other cultures, and I do think the Archons are responsible for that. If only as a thoughtless side effect."

She walked further back towards the others, but stopped as a thought came to her. Her head turned towards Zerrimus. "As for what happened next: well, there was a war going on at the time, so it was nothing dramatic. I... told them what I thought of them, I suppose, and they took their leave of me. They also took, er, something away from me as they did. Some type of implant that their agents among qrtxian society had planted in me some time ago. I don't know when, or what precisely it was, but I don't think I will miss it - I suspect it is why I had so many nightmares over the last several years. And" - she tilted her head again - "well, I suppose that is it, really. I didn't have to do much about what I had learned: certain, er, events made it clear to everyone else what they were like soon enough."

That was leaving quite a few things out - but it was an accurate summary brief.

She looked down, then back up. "I am sorry if that was a bit more, more 'weighty' than I intended it to be. Er, snacks?"

Museum Park ~ East (Near Bench) (Buso, Seller, Akira, Kyana, Lara, Miyuki, Moreena)

Moreena briefly pulled her attention away from the man on the bench, and let her gaze wander between the others.

"Hm..." she began, scratching her chin with a long nail. "This certainly does put the situation under a different light."

She turned back towards the man. "You'll want some form recompense, of course. And probably an apology. Perhaps you could tell your servants - or pets? - not to snap anyone's neck..." She faced the leather-clad girl with the sword. "And maybe you could sheath that sword, and then we could discuss the terms?"

She looked back at the man again. "Provided that you're telling the truth of course. I wouldn't mind hearing the other side of the story as well."

Quantum Inn - Alliance Suite

"They just let you go?" Garkin asked. That sounded suspiciously easy. Secret, nightmare-inducing implants though? He was visibly disturbed by the idea. Yeesh...

He emptied the glass of water, and tried to regain his focus. "Snacks? Um, sure."