Alfred thanked the woman, and sat down heavily. The last few days weighted on him; witnessing someone kidnapped under his nose (metaphorically speaking) was rattling, to say the least. It seemed that no matter what happened, there were always some barbarians intent upon ruling the rest. "May I ask for your name, ma'am?" He asked the woman.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Eoin nodded in kind.
"So, which one did you get, mate?"
By the way the Irishman's eyes fixed on the other Inheritor's features, it was clear he was asking which deity's Essence he contained.
My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.Governor Niels looked decidedly non-plussed. "A fascinating story, to say the least. And whose divine essence did you inherit upon your arrival, Mister Akira?"
The woman smiled once more, and held one pale hand over her mouth to conceal a brief laugh. "My appologies, good sir, but we have only just met; and in exchange for the kindness I offered you, already you seek to take more from me. One wonders, perhaps, if your intention is to court me; if such is the case, I am afraid I must politely and respectfully decline."
For Eoin's part, the man in green frowned. "That's rather forward, don't you think?"
edited 20th Aug '11 11:43:25 AM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre Codex"I mean no disrespect," said Alfred. "As to courtship, I am... was, now that I think of it, happily married. Asking for your name seemed like the polite thing to do; if I have caused you any inconvenience, I apologize."
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Eoin blinked twice, raising his eyebrows in geniune surprise.
"Very sorry, sir, I didn't mean to cause any offense. I don't know all the ettiquette involved amoungst our kind; I've spent all my time here on either a small island or a large boat. I'm sorry," he repeated.
My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.The man in green grunted. "Since, by your own admission, you're new to all this, I'll let it slide for now. In the future, though, do yourself a favour; people around here, they value their privacy—they're not just gonna divulge the names of what being they host to the first person who walks in off the street. Don't ask for things like that, and you won't end up in trouble."
"You have not," the woman replied to Alfred, "though I accept your appologies nonetheless."
She took another sip of her tea, her movements elegant and graceful, then paused as though considering whether or not to tell him something.
The governor's eyes narrowed slightly. The Danse Macabre Codex
Alfred trilled softly - when you possess a beak, it is a bit hard to smile. Waiting for the obviously-Japanese woman to make her mind, he withdrew his pipe from a pocket, and started fishing around for some tobacco.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Drew appeared to be getting impatient. "I understand your reservations, governor, but I request that you not waste our time. Either send me after them, or send me away." He crossed his arms. "Still, if I know inheritors, then these folks will slip through your grasp if they are strong enough to dare stand against empress; I may be your only shot in the end."
Plan A wasnt looking so good, so he began to formulate a plan B.
After a moment, the woman glanced up from her tea and met Alfred's gaze. "My appologies, but I do not believe that I have ever seen a refined gentleman such as yourself in such a place as this. Forgive my asking, but you are not from around here, are you?"
The governor sighed, then turned around in his chair. "Very well," Niels said at length. "Do whatever you have to, but bring them to me—alive, if not necessarily unharmed. Do this, and I will see what can be done to help your cause; perhaps I will be able to put in a good word for you once he arrives." The Danse Macabre Codex
"You are correct, ma'am," replied Alfred. "I am not from hereabouts. I have appeared some time ago in a forested isle; there was a... church, or cathedral, there. I have travelled by ship to here." He blinked, and finally found his pack of tobacco. "Originally, I am British. An Englishman, to be precise." He indicated his pipe. "May I?"
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Drew blinked. This wasnt quite what he had intended. Still, he doubted he could get anything better. Perhaps something could be salvaged frm this. "Thank you; you won't be dissapointed."
He rose and gently tapped the man on the shoulder; he used the brief contact to tell if the man was planning on betraying him or any sort of deception. "I'll be needing some descriptions, unless you want me to arrest every godling in sight."
edited 23rd Aug '11 3:30:43 PM by tvtropesnoob
Beyond irritation at being poked and weary resignation, Drew sensed nothing from the governor; he was being honest with the Inheritor, even if Niels was not particularly enthused by this situation.
"They're a fairly and large group," he said, raising a fat hand to remove Drew's finger from his shoulder. "We don't know all the details, but the ringleaders appear to be a fleet-footed character with bark for skin, a woman with fur and jackal ears dressed in Egyptian clothing, and an angel of some sort. Also, there is supposedly a child with them...and my superior has a rather vested interest in this girl, for reasons that escape me. She is not to be harmed; the others, you can kick around as much as you like so long as they survive the experience."
The woman nodded in response to Alfred's question. "You may. Forgive me, but I must ask—have you travelled far, since you left the island on which you arrived?"
The man grunted in acknowledgement, then went back to his cup of Earl Grey.
edited 23rd Aug '11 3:43:46 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre CodexDrew nodded slowly, pretending to commit this to memory. —Only Ari and Regg and Jamie, huh? That's interesting—
Brief annoyance crossed Drew's face at the mention of Sandy, but it was gone just as quick. He did not appreciate the kid being threatened. —Dad gum it, keep away from the kid. I knew we should have left her at Remials. No use in crying over already spilt and dried milk, though.—
"I see. Thank you. I'll find them soon enough." He turned and left, leavng the leaf on the doorframe and motioning for Medusa to follow as he passed where he assumed she was still standing. He walked back down and crossed the street, and once he was agood few blocks away he entered a crowd and changed his cloak again and had his stuffy mask come off. "Thank you for coming" he said to his gorgon friend.
He assumed Regg had a spare leaf on Drew or had one on Medusa. "You get all that, pinochio?"
The bloke obviously didn't want to talk to Eoin, so the Irishman cheerily strutted back to the bar, motioning for another drink.
The drink was, in and of itself, not his goal; he wished to determine why, exactly, the bartender refused to accept payment from him. More than likely, he figured, there was some nasty godling or five threatening said honest businessman. Of this was the case. . . There was ass to kick.
edited 23rd Aug '11 5:57:26 PM by Diamonnes
My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.—Once sufficient distance had been crossed from the governor's chamber, words wrote themselves on Medusa's "brooch".
Yes. Good Thing You Were Napping When Mama Vicious Got A Look At Us. Check To Make Sure You're Not Being Followed After You Get Off The Grounds.—
"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke.""That's why I changed cloaks. Still, Medusa can't, and it doesn't hurt to be careful...........um, how I do I check to make sure I'm not being followed?"
He glanced behind him. "Got any ideas for what we should do now? I could stage a capture; maybe the guy will take me over to Tiamat's base while you all break out of the bonds I'll make for yah......Risky. Has anyone else uncovered any leads, or is this all we have to go on?"
He kept his voice low, and his hood, as always, was down, so no one would see him speaking.
"Wait, she met us? She could have seen me in the meantime, you know..................Anyway, perhaps you should tell the others what just happened. See if they got any input."
edited 23rd Aug '11 5:58:36 PM by tvtropesnoob
"Thank you," said Alfred. After some more fishing around in his pockets, he found a pack of matches, and lit his pipe. Placing it in the side of his beak, he sucked on it, then replied: "Well... we passed a few islands along the way, and picked up some more people (if you can call them so, ma'am). I think it is about two days of travel by ship, that island with the church."
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Meanwhile, Inari had managed to track down a place that sold clothes. Or at least, pawned them, together with other objects of uncertain value. Before entering, she had transformed in a dark alley into something more suitable; she know looked like some sort of female mercenary, with short black hair, brown cloth armour and the sword on her back in a common leather sheath. A person who would be expected to be out shopping clothes, in other words. Subterfuge was key. She had perfected the disguise with calloused hands and a scar under her left eye, which was now a fierce blue like its twin. Sometimes it was good to be easy to identify; it made it easier to run away once they started looking for you.
"How?"
Renard had finally woken up, and had been browsing their memories to see what he'd missed.
"Because then we just transform into something different while they are busy looking for a woman with sharp blue eyes and a scar on her cheek."
"Oh, I see. So, we are buying clothes for miss Medusa?"
They had entered the shop while talking, and Inari started browsing the various rags that lay in small piles.
"Yes, we are. Or possibly the materials for making it. I don't expect to find whole bolts of cloth or hanks of yarn, but we can always patch something together as long as it's not too noticeable."
"Cool. Hey, what about one of those?"
Inari smiled. With the well-trained eye of a ladies man, Renard had spotted a tight tank-top which would certainly display plenty of Medusa's full bosom.
"I think not. Not in that colour; black is terrible in this sun."
"Oh yeah..."
"Ooh, now these are nice!"
Inari took out a pair of unwashed denim short shorts from the pile.
"Good thinking! But...aren't they a bit too small?"
"True."
She discarded the shorts. The previous owner had not been as generously endowed with curves as Medusa.
"Hmmmm, what do you think of the colour of that jacket?"
Inari had found a jeans jacket in a dark sandy brown, almost copper colour and held it up to examine it critically.
"Isn't it a bit short?"
"No, I see that I can let it out a little. Besides, we can open the sleeves on this one. Very practical."
"Sounds good. Hmmm...what about pairing it with those cargo pants? It's the same shade, and it would cover up her scales when she needs to disguise herself."
Inari fished out the garment, nodding to herself.
"Yes...it fits her waist, I believe. A bit snug around the bottom, but..."
The courtesan goddess and French charmer internally shared a smile.
"Anything else?"
In addition to a red t-shirt for Medusa, Inari also took a water-bottle that could be fastened to her belt, and Renard found an lantern that still had some oil left. The grand treasure, however, was a bunch of silver cutlery, most likely looted from a house or ship that had been transported onto the Cube. It came without a case and the previously sharp edges of the knives were almost gone. But it would fit nicely to the forge goddess' means. She took the lot and walked over to the counter.
"'Scuse me, I'd like this stuff."
edited 24th Aug '11 4:44:21 AM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!-Robert helped Sophia up from the table-
"Some of the construction is... rather remarkable, but I have some misgivings about some of the exposed portions of your gearwork, and I'll see what I can to make coverings for them without overheating any of the temperature-sensitive mechanisms. Also, the materials you are constructed from are rather more dense than I had imagined; I'd advise you keep away from the rigging since your weight could damage it. And be careful on deck: if you fall overboard, we haven't got a hope in hell of getting you back in any good condition."
"One thing, though- apparently the eldest goat is the bastard child of Muhammad Ali and the Hulk." ~ Exelixi, on The Three Billy Goats Gruff.— Scout Around For Other Buildings On This Island. From A Distance, Of Course. Get Some Practice In With Medusa In The Meantime. —
— The clockwork Amazon seemed to pout at Robert. —
"Don't. Humans. Wear. Exposing. Clothing. Nowadays?"
— whirr —
"Special. Glass?"
"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."

Drew he-he-he'd at his impatience. "It won't take long." He stood slowly. "Some time ago, I arrived in this godforsaken place, as we all did. Within a short time of arriving here, couldn't have been more than a few hours, me and my parents and siblings came across an inheritor." His voice became undertoned with anger, and his fists curled tightly. "He said for us to bow to him. We thought he was a lunatic, and understandably had no idea what he was talking about, and tried to get away from him. I managed to get to a hiding place, but the rest of my clan wasn't so lucky. The bastard slaughtered them. He had just finished ripping apart my sister when I got behind him and snapped his fucking neck." He was quite angry by now. "I was too late, I acted too late; everyone else was fucking dead because of him. A strange orb floated out of him, and I touched it out of ignorance." He grit his teeth and threw off his hood; part of his cloak had covered his face tightly and had changed to the color green. It covered everything but his eyes, giving him the appearance of a plastic or leather man. He looked nothing like anyone the Governor was hunting. "Now I look like this. But I'm happy about that. Ever since then, I've done nothing but hunt down bastards like him, they're all nothing but power hungry pieces of shit, and I now live to hunt down them. Oh, sure, I won't start anything like attacking ones hanging out a public bar because law enforcers may come down on me, but I take them down when I get the chance, like I do here, much to my luck."
He stared off for a few seconds, then the anger drained from his features and he settled back into his seat after putting his hood back up. "Anyway, I'm mainly here because I know you know Tiamat. My payment will be getting me to her home. I don't want to be taken there; I wanna know where she is so I can there myself, as would make the best impression upon her. If that's not possible, then have someone deliver me to her; I won't be able to appear as impressive like that, but my main goal is getting there before anything else. My wish is that she will eventually hire me as her personal inheritor hunter." He grinned coldly. "Dozens of them, all waiting for me to come after them, and as her personal servant I won't have to worry about things like law and such anymore, and I won't have to worry about trivial matters such as survival. It would be the best existence I could hope for."
He leaned forward. "This problem of yours sounds like it needs to be taken care of, and fast. You help me with my ambition, and I'll get you these renegades quicker and easier than you could with anyone else." He extended a hand. "Do we have a deal, Mr. Governor?"
He was somewhat proud of his acting. He had always liked acting, and wasn't too bad at playing a role if he dare to say so.
edited 19th Aug '11 9:33:01 PM by tvtropesnoob