Alec shrugged at Vex's suggestion to check out the other doors, but went along with it anyway. This whole plan of breaking into the castle was a strange mixture of well thought out, and completely and utterly made up on the fly. Mostly the latter. Sure, Vex had managed to learn of and locate one of the easiest ways into the castle, but on the other hand here they were checking an entire dungeon door by door. And come to think of it, Alec hadn't heard Vex actually tell them what they were looking for. Perhaps they'd know it when the found it. Regardless, Alec went on to the next door and opened it, revealing... another door. A door much finer and sturdier looking than the dungeon door he had just opened, a very fancy door to be sure, but it still was, as far as he could tell, a door. After contemplating this door and its significance for a few moments, Alec decided that he should do what he usually did went confronted by doors, and stretched out his hand to open it. “BEHOLD, MORTAL!” a voice bellowed, causing Alec to pause. “BEFORE STANDS YOU AN ARPETURE THROUGH WHICH YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY HOPE TO GAIN PASSAGE! BEGONE!” Alec looked at the door for a few moments, taking in and carefully forming his thoughts regarding what had just happened. After careful deliberation, he came to the conclusion that his initial thoughts regarding this had been correct: The door was talking. The best way to deal with this situation seemed to be to take it head on, at least for the time being. “Well, Misss...ter? door,” Alec began, “I didn't actu-” “MORTAL! I AM DVERI, THE SAGE OF PORTALS! GUARDIAN OF THE KING'S COURT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!TELLER OF SECRETS AND KEEPER OF LIVES! NO AXE CAN CHOP THROUGH ME, NO RAM CAN SHATTER ME, NO RUST CAN SQUEAKIFY MY HINGES!!!” “Squeakify?” “Yes, squeakify,” Dveri told Alec in a admonishing tone. “Don't interrupt. Where was I? Ah yes. I am Dveri, no ram, no rust, and the FOREMOST OF THE ENTRANCEWAY'S OF THIS-” “If you're so great, why are you locked up down here?” Alec questioned him. Dveri suddenly became as downcast as a faceless door can be. “They say I talk too much. They say that state secrets shouldn't be discussed with the maids, and that my opinion regarding what shade of yellow the hall should be – hey, wait!” Dveri exclaimed as Alec began to close the dungeon door on him. “Please don't go, I can tell you things, like why there are so many redheads in the west side of Corvus, and how the oil tax really goes towards the Lord Kuston's private massage parlour, and that the King isn't actually human, he's really a –” Alec shut the dungeon door closed, muffling anything else the magic talking door said. Probably for the best. Turning back to the other three, Alec pointed over his shoulder with his thumb back at the dungeon. “I'm guessing that's not what we're looking for.”
Mizuki used Blitz. Will post something decent later on, right now I'm about to head off to work. Dx
Mizuki frowned at Beaucette and her charge into the enemy. It was really frustrating having to deal with this group of dolts. Needless to say, when Clara set off into the castle, and Mizuki was left to choose between her and the 'hero' charging a fucking army, Mizuki chose to follow Clara. She probably had as little idea about what she was doing as Beaucette, but at least she didn't have a readily apparent death wish. When they got to the seemingly empty room, that for some reason Clara thought was incredibly important despite there being absolutely no indication that it actually was other than the entrance being lit, Mizuki was cautious. She didn't get too near the door, and instead scanned the room from the hallway. It was indeed, as far as she could see, empty. So that left them with a few options. One, this was just a fucking empty room and they were wasting valuable time here. Two, it could be a trap, à la cardboard castle, and catch them all as soon as they entered. Or three, it could be some sort of trans-dimensional, or simply just magic, room that contained both what they were looking for, and nothing at all. She remained outside, glancing up and down the hall every now and then to look out for enemies, and observing the room from outside. She still didn't trust that ****ing room. Ren reacted to Aiden's story with a grimace. Things had been tough for the guy it seemed, and Ren couldn't help but feel sorry for him despite it all being of his own doing. However, they couldn't really let Aiden take a second gem like this. Sure, he was planning to use it to restore to his parents what was rightfully theirs, but it was because of greed that he needed to do so in the first place. Greed had led him to gambling away what wasn't even his. And it was a certain sort of greed, albeit a perfectly natural one, that urged Aiden to try to regain his parents affection. Whether the warning over the gems applied to greed such as these was hard to know. It would most likely not, the magic over them would probably detect only the most blatant and crudest forms of the emotion. However, there was the possibility that, because this was such a valuable treasure, that the magic was much, much more sensitive. Ren for one wasn't prepared to take that chance. So he would make Aiden an offer. Stepping forward to make eye contact with the other man, Ren smiled and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Aiden, I know where you're coming from. I really do,” Ren nodded. “You made a mistake at one point in your life, and now you want to make it up to your family. We've all been there, to some extent or another. But I think there's a better way to go about this,” he continued, becoming more serious. “If you take that gem, there's a huge risk that we'll all end up dead. We'll never get to finish our mission, Annika will leave the kingdom without an heir, all those people turned to stone back at the capital will die in a few short days, and your parents, the ones you would risk this for, will be left without their property and their son.” He waited a moment to let this last bit sink in. “I don't know about you, but I think they'd rather have the little boy they raised alive and well than a palace filled with gold. So don't take this gem, not for money, it's not worth it. Besides, we can help you if you need some cash,” Ren offered. “The king will be rewarding us for saving his and the kingdoms collective ass, and I'm sure Annika will put in a good word for you as well. And if that isn't enough, well, this Staff of Light... you can have it when we're done. It should fetch a good price. “I mean, I know I told Ferris we'd give it to him as payment,” he continued to explain, “but really, we all know that isn't going to happen. That greedy little man couldn't be trusted with something like this. You, Aiden, on the other hand... you I think we can trust.” Ren held out a hand to Aiden. “Sound good?”
So something something probably happened, and I totes know that because I totes read the past two pages of posts. Erm, and Hasu used Aero. /Epic Post
Hasu used Aero. Would love to kick open the doors with Mizuki (NOT Mukuzi, Mikuzi, Mikizu, or, for the love of god, fucking Muzki), but I probably won't be around to post all that much so... I'll have to let someone else do it.
Hasu used Aero. Mizuki used Blitz.
Ren used Barrier Surge. Mizuki used Blitz. Peter tried to write a proper post, but he was too tired!
The tree's supplications were completely ignored by Mizuki, and that idiot Jack was back to irritate her with his presence. “Be quiet, fool,” she told him offhandedly, not even pausing to look at him. She took a few steps back from the tree, readied her sword, and then dashed towards it suddenly. Using all her speed and strength she ferociously swung into the tree, passing through the trunk in one swing (this would never happen but at this point I'm cutting down a tree with a sword anyway so- ). The tree crashed to the ground, and Mizuki paused to observe her handywork. A few more swipes with her sword, and five planks had been made, although since nobody had actually told her what size they were supposed to be, either these would be completely useless, or way too much. Regardless, she hoisted them up onto her shoulder, and marched back to the ship, not bothering to wait for Silvia and the insufferable Jack.
The fact that this particular tree could talk was somewhat surprising, but that didn't deter Mizuki in her plan to mercilessly cut it down. Sure, there were plenty of more trees around, and most of those probably didn't talk, but why should any of them deserve to die any more than this one? No, that didn't matter to the cold-hearted assassin as she drew her sword and stepped towards the tree. It did occur to her that a sword was not a good tool in this situation. The wood would ruin the blade, and if she wasn't careful perhaps even break it. That is, if this world followed any sort of realism, which of course it didn't, so this whole train of thought is rather superfluous now that I think about it, but I've already written it this far already so whatev~ Mizuki stopped in front of the tree, gripped the sword tightly in both her hands, and swung it fast and hard into the tree. It cut through the bark, catching in the wood, and she took a moment to tug it out. Then she readied for a second swing. Ren prepared to mount his pegasus, gazing up at where the sun was hitting the ice. He couldn't help but be somewhat sceptical that retrieving the Gem of Ice would be as simple as going up there and looking around for it, but the map said it was there, so... it might be there? There was also the small matter of the chest containing the gem turning people into ashes, but they could deal with that problem when they came to it. Right here an now though, Ren was getting a little irritated by Thomas and Scarlett's squabbling. Thomas was a fool, but at the very least a harmless one. If he could just learn to stay away from Scarlett, and perhaps keep his mouth shut a little more often, he might improve. Scarlett on the other hand was a *****. She was just a vile, nasty little girl with a big mouth. Now, if she had just been this way with Thomas, Ren could have understood it. The guy really could get on your nerves. However, Ren remembered how Scarlett had quizzed Johanna mercilessly about her relationship with Dale earlier. He also vaguely remembered prior incidents back at the guild. However, as long as neither of them kept the team back and continued to tag along, Ren felt that he could bear with them enough to tolerate them. He couldn't resist giving them some admonishment though. “Hey, you two,” he called out to them. “Could you maybe leave acting like an old married couple till we've got this Gem and, oh I don't know, saved the kingdom from perpetual petrification? Thanks.”
Mizuki had, for quite a while now, stayed away from everyone else and kept silent. They were really starting to get on her nerves. Constantly squabbling and blabbing and making noise, the lot of them were just... too much. Mizuki wasn't used to dealing with people for such an extended period of time. If this kept up much longer, she would surely go mad. And now they had to go search for random stuff. Apparently the military toffs couldn't organise a simple voyage, or even hire the labour to do so, and were now loading those tasks on them. While Mizuki was inclined to stab them right there and then, she decided that this was a good opportunity to get away from everyone. As for splitting into teams, she wasn't going to humour that notion. She was going alone. She stalked off into the (er, idk?) 'place', not bothering to wait for the other people to decide what they were going to do. She was off to find some planks.
This man, Ferris, he was greedy. That much would be obvious to anyone who met him, but Ferris also possessed a deep cunning. Ren could tell that he was sharp and quick witted, an impression that was reinforced by the fact that the man had been able to run such a dubious business like this without ending up dead. However, Ren was willing to bet on Ferris' greed outweighing his caution and reasoning. If it didn't, then he would never have gotten into this business in the first place. Ren leaned on the counter near to the merchant, smiling. “Well, Ferris, I'm afraid there's not much we can offer you right now,” he admitted in an honest tone. “But perhaps we can repay you at a later date, hmm?” Ren leaned in towards the man, now speaking in a hushed tone to emphasize that what he was going to say was important. “Perhaps I should tell you why we want the Gem of Ice. You see that staff there?” he pointed to the staff Thomas was holding. “That staff is the other part to the Wand of Light. We need it for a small job we're on right now, I'm sure you have some idea of what that is, but after we're done with that... well, it would probably be best if we handed it over to someone else.” He left it at that, leaving things for Ferris to mull over. It was a very good deal for the man, all things considered. Not only would he have the Gem of Ice in his hands, which right now was frustratingly out of his reach despite him knowing where it was, it would actually be made even more valuable as part of the Wand of Light. Now would he take that risk?
Alec calmly listened to Kari's demands that he leave. A bit of a fool this one, considering that he had told her he knew that they were part of a revolution. He could have been one of the King's men, and she seemed to think that it was perfectly safe to let him go free. No, what she should have done was kill him. Vex though, he seemed to disapprove of Kari's words, judging by the glare he shot her. In fact, the way he responded to Alec and his body language seemed to indicate that Alec was at the very least welcome to tag along. So be it. He stepped forward to pass by Kari. “This is my business, although you didn't know it till now,” he told her in a bored tone. “For now, I'm just here to watch. I want to see what kind of revolution you plan to create.” He left the girl behind, following after Vex. The man had already kicked down a door and charged a few guards, closely followed by his other companion, Xera. Alec decided this meant that Vex was one to take things head on and in a simple manner, and that Xera was inclined to follow him with little questioning. Granted, perhaps this wasn't a fair appraisal of the latter, seeing as her friend had started this fracas without her input. Alec leaned against the splintered door-frame, observing the fight inside. He wasn't ready to fight just yet. Not yet for Vex or the rebellion he planned.
Ok, the big giant green stew lover had backed off a little and plopped himself down on the floor, sadly reflecting on the state of his social, familial, and romantic life. He's somewhat like myself, Ren couldn't help noting, a little bitterly. But as far as not getting eaten, things were looking up! Just a little more persuasion, and the giant could even become a vegan. “Hey, Ollie,” Ren called out from the pot. “You're not alone anymore, because we're here now! If you want we could talk for a bit, or maybe play some games. Like, uh...” he scratched his head for a moment as he tried to think of games a stereotypical giants would play. “Like rock smashing! Yeah, we could play that. Although I should warn you, I'm a professional.” Hopefully that had broken the ice a little. Now he could move on to appealing to the giant's humanity. “So Ollie, why are you alone? Don't you have a family at least?” A bit personal, but he didn't think Ollie would react too badly under these circumstances. "Do you want to talk about it for a bit?"
It seemed that Ollie wasn't convinced by Lucia's argument. But at least he ate healthily, there were plenty of vegetables in his meal. And meat. They were... meat. “Hello, Ollie!” Ren called out to the giant. “First things first, allow me to introduce us all. You've met Lucia, that's the girl who you were just speaking to. We also have Zwei, Thomas and Dawn over there, and lastly we have Annika. She's a princess by the way. My name is Ren.” He smiled at the giant friendlily. Please don't do anything stupid, you great lug you. “So you like lunch?” Ren continued. “Well what do you know, so do I! I think that's something very important that we have in common. In fact, everyone here,” he motioned to the others in the pot, “like lunch. Right guys? We like it much more than being lunch, if you catch my drift. And I'm sure that's a sentiment that you also share!” he tried to persuade the giant. “So, with that established, I think we should all be friends. You, us, united by a common appreciation, nay, love of lunch! Just think about the possibilities! We could have lunch together, we could cook lunch together. In fact, if we truly are soul mates at the plates, perhaps we will even make major breakthroughs in the culinary world!” Ren was really getting into it now, almost believing it himself. “But even if none of that ever happens, even if all we get to do is bond over bacon, I think that is what is truly the greatest reward we can receive. We can be friends! It only requires that you don't eat us. And if you don't, I'm sure the princess can have her father reward you with the finest meat in the kingdom. Perhaps veal, much better than grisly human.” He held up a hand towards the giant, inviting a handshake or... something. Please don't eat me, please don't eat me, please! “So, what do you say, friend?” he smiled.
Mizuki merely grunted at the Nutcracker in response to his selfless act. Did he think he was being a hero this way, and that they'd all admire him for his courage? What a fool, Mizuki knew that he would scramble after them as soon as he could while still keeping face, and he was probably pissing his pants as he spoke. No matter, he could at the very least serve as cannon fodder. As she passed by the Gingerbread Girl, wailing in panic at the thought that she could be left behind, Mizuki roughly grabbed her and propelled the girl towards the ladder. "Move if you really value your hide. No one else does." Not entirely true. The Gingerbread girl might prove to have some information they could use. Doubtful, but Mizuki was prepared to give her one chance at least. Mizuki walked up to the ladder and started climbing. Anyone with half a brain and the sharpness to see through the Nutcracker's facade would soon follow after. And if they didn't, that wasn't important either. She could finish this all on her own.
Out of nowhere, Annika came down from the sky and landed gracefully on a carrot. Wait, falling gracefully? How did one descend from above by means of a really long slide, with absolutely no knowledge of what was at the bottom, manage to float daintily down and land a ten out of ten, perfectly poised stance on a carrot? Perhaps it didn't matter. Ren merely accepted it, and sat back on his own carrot. (And it seemed that carrots were all the rage in this cooking pot, he noted.) “Hmm, are we ok?” Ren ruminated. “That is probably a question that we cannot answer at the present time. See, if the worst of this experience is that we have to float around in food and watch your illogical descent upon a carrot, then yes, we are ok. However, if this pot is in fact the cooking utensil of some rather large creature, then when that creature returns we will most certainly not be ok.” Personally, I think the latter is the more probable case. Merely due to the fact that it provides us with an enemy for us to either fight, or talk out of eating us. That's a much more likely development of the plot of this story than having us merely climb out of a giant pot, don't you think?”
Down the street from the bar that Koko had entered, Alec had watched somewhat uneasily as various aggressive looking people entered the building. It stayed where he was though, since he was sure that his little cat could keep herself out of harms way. His attitude changed when a man, from what Alec could tell one of the Kings knights, came out and arrested another man that had only just arrived at the bar. Alec trusted Koko to stay out of the way during a bar fight, but once the King's officers got involved, he grew concerned for her safety. This wasn't any ordinary brawl it seemed. He walked up the street towards the bar quickly, but calmly so that he would arouse any suspicion. He didn't particularly want to be noticed right now. As he got near to the building, another man came out, a large, blonde brute, calling over his shoulder to some people inside, who promptly followed him out and away up the street. Koko soon emerged behind them, spotted Alec, and dashed towards him. He scratched her ears once she had scrambled up onto his shoulder. “What happened, Koko,” he asked her quietly. “Who were those people?” She looked around quickly to make sure no one was around listening, and spoke to him quietly, trying to hide the fact that she was talking. “I don't know. There was fighting, but their swords couldn't hurt the man, and there was a hamster living up in the rafters that could talk, like me, but then that other man came in and said he was in charge of the rebels, so the first man arrested him.” Alec frowned in concentration as he tried to follow along with the kitten's account of events, just about managing to grasp the main points he was interested in. The supposed leader of the revolution, in other words, Vex, had been taken in by one of the King's men. And perhaps the people in the bar were involved with him. Alec looked down the street after the tall blonde man and his companions, a thoughtful look in his eyes. “Alec? Wake up!” Koko demanded of him when she had decided he had been thinking for too long. “I'm awake,” he told her. “We're going to follow those people for a bit.” He set off down the road, not taken any precautions to hide as he didn't find the need to, and it seemed the people he was following weren't particularly mindful of who was watching. The group Alec was following had reached the castle moat, and apparently found what they were looking for, an entrance to the waterways. Soon the bars were broken, and Alec was left with the choice of either waiting outside to see what happened, or joining them. The latter was a bit dangerous considering this was a frickin castle, but the former was just boring. So since this was an easy decision to make, he walked up to the group calmly, and stopped a few steps away. The man had already passed in through the arch, but Alec was here now, so it didn't really matter. “Hey,” he greeted those of them still outside. “My name is Alec. I'm looking for someone involved in the revolution, and I have reasons to believe you know about that sort of thing,” he told them simply. Direct and to the point, that's what this introduction was. It was the best he could manage under the circumstances though. They might now answer, in which case he would just have to follow them for a while, or they might try to kill him, which is why he had Koko with him. Any sudden moves they made, the little cat could protect him from.
Before the mouse could even flinch, Mizuki's blade had sliced through its neck in one smooth stroke, ending its life. Too easy. She didn't have much time to triumph over her enemy though, because the second one soon came at her with an attack, which she somewhat managed to block but took the majority of the blow on her shoulder. Turning to face this new threat, Mizuki quickly scanned the battle around her. The mouse that was still standing was on its last legs, so it's attack had probably been less a matter of a carefully executed attack, and more a wild flailing as it darted away from Silvia. Speaking of which, the other girl had taken her leave and gone to help someone else. No matter, Mizuki could easily take on this last mouse. The mouse backed away from her, a building sense of terror shining it it's widening eyes, as Mizuki paced mercilessly towards it. It lunged towards her desperately with an attack, which she effortlessly parried to the side with a flick of her sword. At the same moment, she took two steps towards the mouse, taking advantage of the opening it had offered, and plunged her sword into the mouses chest. It dropped its sword and became limp, looking at Mizuki with sad eyes for a moment, before closing them forever. Mizuki twisted her sword, and stepped back. Mizuki used Basic Attack on the remaining mouse.
"Shush, Lucia," Ren said to her calmly. He was laid back on a carrot, idly paddling around the pot. "Just accept it. This is a one in a lifetime experience, you know? I for one have never found myself inside a giant pot of soup." He shut his eyes and settled down on his carrot, lazily stroking the liquid with his arms to meander around. The water was warm, and the vegetables were comfy. Ren felt he should take a moment to fully appreciate the comfort they had suddenly been thrust into. Sure, if he thought about it too much it was a bit icky swimming around in food, but fortunately Ren wasn't in the mood to think hard about things. He was still a bit dizzy from the slide. "By the way guys," he said to the others vaguely, "I'm pretty sure this is a stew. And we're the meat. That, or there's some sort of soup monster lurking beneath these waters. Yarr, me mateys." Mizuki refused to join in the snow fight, and so was far enough away from the fire to avoid injury when Thea had her little accident. Then, the previously passive and completely unresponsive snow faries suddenly went bat **** crazy and tried to kill them all, so they had to run for it. Through a random mouse hole, something something about candy girls, and hey, fight! Now that's what we came here for! Mizuki found herself close to Silvia, facing off against two mice. Pretty good odds, to be honest. She rested her hand on her sword, examining the two enemies to decide which one she should take on. Take down the weaker one, or try to wear the strong one down first? And what about Silvia, was she in any state to take one down? "I will do my best." Mizuki glanced quickly at the other girl. It was almost as if Silvia had been reading her mind. Mizuki nodded sharply to her. "You will, or we'll die," she said quietly. Then she launched herself towards the stronger mouse, drawing her sword in a fluid motion that sent the blade slicing towards the enemies neck. Mizuki used Blitz on the Mouse with 40 hp.
The fairies didn't immediately respond, much to Mizuki's frustration, and it didn't help that nobody else in the group was eager to move on from here. She was about to grab one of the fairies and present her requests a little more forcefully, when suddenly she spotted out of the corner of her eye an object flying towards her. An attack! She twisted to the side, ducking in an attempt to avoid the projectile, putting her hand on her sword to draw it. Too slow. The missile thudded into her shoulder, and Mizuki froze in place, her sword half drawn, glaring at her assailant. It was Skadi. Strangely however, Mizuki didn't feel any pain. She glanced at her shoulder, noticing clumps of snow stuck to it. On the ground there were a few larger clumps. She attacked me with snow? She frowned at the remains of the snowball for a few moments, then at Skadi, judging to see if she would follow up the attack with another, back at the snow, and finally back to Skadi, all the while with a slightly confused frown. “That is a terrible weapon,” she told the other girl finally. Mizuki then noticed that Sara and Thea were throwing balls of snow as well. Perhaps Skadi had been clumsy and hit the wrong person... no, she had definitely thrown it at her. Why was a completely different question, one that Mizuki didn't know the answer to. This whole concept of solving a dispute with snow was alien to her. And as she had already mentioned, it was hardly an effective way of dealing with an enemy. Whatever the case, Mizuki had settled back down now and sheathed her sword. If Skadi actually wanted to hurt her she would have used a real weapon or magic. How to respond to the snow projectile though? It didn't seem abundantly clear to Mizuki how she was to react. So she simply decided to ask. “Why are you fighting?” she asked the three. “And why are you trying to drag me into it?”
