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 Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:31 pm
"...English, yes," Quintus confirmed. He remained unintimidated. Shaking a spear was kind of like broadly demonstrating precisely why he would lose in a fight. At least he'd backed off; there was the issue of numbers, and Quintus definitely did not have the advantage there. "M'boss here is a bit rusty on his English." Quintus was able to catch most of what he was saying, he'd heard thicker accents. Stranger ones too. Plus there was always the babel stone, which seemed to assist in most of these things even indirectly. Maybe it was a placebo.
"We're definitely a bit lost and we're just looking to be set on our way." Apparently food and water were covered, so Quintus didn't mention those. That would be Sam's problem, anyway; he was the trader.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:14 am
Skurk considered what Castor had to say, failed to understand most of it, and settled for the declaration of "Je pense que je déteste le monde" - I think I hate the world - as he placed his forehead in his hand. "Voulez-vous... choisir une direction et marcher?" Skurk asked. The commando couldn't think of much else to do. They were clearly both lost, and knowing how the Forest worked he could be just about anywhere.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:20 am
AUTOMAC-000 crouched behind a tree, listening and processing. The language was slightly familiar in some aspects, but the specifics were strange. Mac wasn't sure, but it seemed kinda like they were having trouble speaking - possibly injured or winded. He glanced down at his hands. Non-reflective matte paint in a dark green color. The paint job had been applied right before he'd made his run, and he was kind of grateful for it; it had made it possible to get this close.
Peering over the roots again, Mac observed the unknowns. They were fascinating. He'd never seen anything like them. He wanted to get up and say hello. Protocol dictated otherwise - wait, observe, consider. The Sergeant and his protocols had yet to be wrong, so Mac stayed behind the tree, listening and learning.
There, that word didn't fit in the enunciation pattern. Didn't fit in the language at all. Kerberos, he had said, just like that. That could refer to either of them. Or someone else entirely. Until he had fixed down the language, though, he couldn't be sure. Well, there was a Kerberos involved, and he was clearly not of these people's nationality. Otherwise his name wouldn't grate against their language like that. How he wanted to greet them. Safety came first, though. He could be patient.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 4:56 pm
Castor laughed aloud at Skurk's initial statement- he couldn't help it. The sentiment was just too well-fit to the situation. He hated this world, too, wherever it was. He thought about Skurk's following question for a long few moments. As lost as they already were, Castor did not like their odds if they were to get themselves lost even worse. This was followed with the assertion that, given the circumstances, there was no possible way they could get lost worse than they already were, as far from their native habitat as the two seemed to be. And sitting here talking, as enjoyable as that may be, is not getting us anywhere. We need to find civilization.
"Oui ... laissez-nous trouver nous mêmes ... loin de la ... domaine," he said, rising. He stopped suddenly- something didn't... feel right. He turned toward the forest, eyes scanning the dense foliage, a hand unconciously going to his bandolier. It was a useless gesture, but it still looked threatening.
It feels like... something's watching us. Castor contemplated using his inner sight to look around, but it would have been a hopeless gesture- he was unused to the amount of energy in the air, and he would have been rendered even more blind than he already was. He shook his head, and turned to Skurk.
"Disons ... quitter. Mais, attention, je pense qu'il y a quelqu'un ... recherche ... regarder," he said, catching his blunder. I feel there is someone watching us, he said. Or meant to say, anyhow. He looked around.
"Où ... allons-nous commencer?" Where shall we start?
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:43 pm
The boy was obviously disappointed by their answer, his shoulders fell subtly with his smile and he leaned back a little with a slight shake of his head. “I had hoped to meet someone new,” he pouted slightly then heaved an over dramatic sigh and flashed a fanged grin. “Oh well. You're new at least to here,” he paused with a blink then smiled wider. “You didn't happen to trip in a breach did you?” the boy was excited by the prospect again.
The guard between them was considerably less enthused. He continued to glare at the travelers and kept his spear between them eying them suspiciously. The others behind them were just watching from the fire. The woman huddled in a cluster behind the men, pulling up veils to hide themselves and watching nervously. The other guards kept their places but gripped weapons, mixed spears and swords, two with bows drawn and now aimed at the travelers.
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:56 pm
The forest was dense and getting dark as the trees' glow faded. There was nothing readily visible watching the two, no sound to give an observer away, no movement, nothing. Just the feeling of being watched. And then, from deeper in the forest, came a noise, a movement, something. A slow plodding, the heavy step of something large on soft ground approached them through the fog that clung to the deeper woods. This fog rolled out towards them like smoke. It even smelled of smoke. The whole forest did now that they'd caught the scent. Through the trees they saw something large and white moving toward them, from the side opposite of Mac's location.
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:37 pm
Rüd didn't like the sound of that: the squire had already proven himself/herself to be bothersome and unruly; pulling magical keys beyond his/her rightful ownership out of a pocket and moving them into a Door Nexus was cause for a much more reasonable suspicion. In fact, he'd like to know where Pango got the key too, and wasn't going to let the child off the hook easy.
"Yeah, why don't you explain that one? Where'd you get the key?" He crossed both pairs of arms while awaiting the answer. If need be the Abwehran was ready to put them to use if Pango wasn't forthcoming. He didn't like wildcard teammates: having an unknown element in your midst during pivotal moments that tested your trust- like flying a science vessel through hostile space- was never a safe plan.
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:16 pm
Castor felt a change in the air as trees dimmed and the area grew darker, in a way that was completely unrelated to the actual atmosphere. There was something that smelled strongly of magic, and it seemed to be coming toward them. This was confirmed as the fog began to approach them as though alive, and the smell of smoke prevaded his senses. Castor looked through the smoke, but he could only roughly see whatever it was that made its way toward them. His normal eyes were useless in this case, it seemed.
"Faire attention," he muttered to Skurk, and he closed his outer eyes, opening his inner ones. The flares of the forest's power returned to his vision, though they now seemed dwarfed by the signature approaching them. Literally dwarfed- the flare that approached was enormous- even larger than the hellhounds that shared Castor's name. Castor cringed at that- killing one of them was how he obtained his "surname," and it was not an easily-won fight. This flare was not only larger than a kerberos, it was at least twice as powerful- deep, oceanic blues chased vibrant, royal purples and violets in a constant spiraling dance, making it hard to gauge just how big the being was, much less its shape. Perfect. This thing is at least of Throne-class power, and it might be hostile. And it smells like fire, thought Castor, cringing as he thought of Magnus again. That man will haunt my nightmares forever.
He was about to open his outer eyes when something stopped him. A flux of color within, or around, the larger flare. A small burst of vibrant color, like a flint, or a generator, seemingly insignificant next to the larger signature.
Castor, sadly, was too experienced to dismiss whatever he saw as "insignificant." That... that's impossible, he said, his entire body rigid with shock. As if to disprove him, the flare happened again- a brief-yet-impossibly-bright flicker of pale, vibrant blue, shot through with rose red and even flecks of green suddenly fluttered within the larger violet mass, then died once again.
Castor's hand suddenly clamped down in a vicegrip on Skurk's shoulder, and he spoke in a rushed, hoarse whisper.
"Ne bougez pas. Ne parlez pas. Ne pas respirer trop fort. Ne rien faire à moins que je le dis." The fear was evident in Castor's tone and posture. There was no way of knowing whether the being was hostile, but Castor wasn't taking any chances.
"Si je vous dis de courir ... puis exécutez. Courez pour sauver votre vie," said Castor hoarsely.
Though, to be honest... if this thing wants us dead... running won't do any good...
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:19 pm
"It was given to me," the squire gave the Abwehran a sneering glare and crossed arms across its chest defiantly. "By a higher order paladin so that I may use it to do just exactly what I just did. Get his stupid a**," it hicked a thumb at Alex, "out of trouble."
Alex blinked at the statement and looked confused but didn't argue with it, just brushed it off with a shrug and looked back to the doors. "I'm not sure how they work but I know they open up to different places," he flashed an excited grin at his new friends. "So which one should we pick?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:57 pm
The Abwehran smirked at the squire, his method of suppressing a laugh. He could see why they would give Pango such a tool, and was willing to accept it as fact without question. "I say Pango oughta pick; saved our asses, after all. Bet he knows which way is which better than us."
Rüd then nodded to the squire to reaffirm his confidence. He might not like the child's impudent manner, but there was no arguing with the results of his efforts thus far and results were far more valuable than getting along- in the Nightwalker's opinion, anyway.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:29 pm
Sam realised that entertaining the boy should be a priority of his, after all the youngling's disinterest could get them killed. So the merchant would lie, though he had recently come through a breach it was not what put them here and though he could not remember what had happened through it, he dared not reach for anything in his bag, a good traveling merchant always had a story to tell.
So he lied, "Why yes, yes we had, toh meg experents miygh be diffrent frohm hess." His English got better the slower he spoke it.
The merchant blinked slowly, hoping that this standoff would end soon.
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:32 pm
The boy's face lit up with a wide smile at Sam's answer and he clasped his hands in excitement, bouncing a little on his feet.
"Oh how wonderful" the boy gasped then tugged at the guard's sleeve. "Come on, Wadi. Let them in. They look starved and in terrible need of a bath," he curled his nose slightly at the smell coming off them.
The guard narrowed his eyes and stood his ground. "They are strangers," he very nearly growled.
"And I am your Master," the boy snapped for which the guard flinched slightly and turned his head to give the boy a flat look. The two glared at each other a while before the guard stepped aside, lowering his spear but with a threatening look to the strangers.
"Harm the boy and I will bury you in sand with a pot of fire ants on your head," the guard warned as he took a last step aside.
"He is quite serious," the boy laughed with a wry grin as he held out a hand for them.
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:43 pm
"Believe me, harm was the last thing on my mind," Quintus told the guard wryly, making a joke that was just vague enough to demand an explanation Quintus wouldn't give. It was a great way to get on somebody's nerves. Doing so was a bad habit, but it wasn't as though they'd be spending way too long here. Not long enough that there'd be trouble, he hoped.
Quintus didn't take the extended hand, allowing Sam that pleasure. He didn't really want to, first off, and as a body guard it would be unseemly. To take something from his guardee, even something so simple? Insubordination, unacceptable. At the very least, a convenient excuse to avoid touching people; he wasn't in a particularly friendly mood after his last encounter.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:02 am
Skurk had no idea what the thing was, but remaining in the open went against all his instincts. He'd frozen up for too long already. He'd been told not to move, speak, or breathe hard, the first part wasn't quite in his plans. He sank to the ground, his green-gray skin and brown leather geared concealing him as he knelt low, fading into the undergrowth.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 6:07 pm
The merchant smiled at the guard, "Ther es no rea-son ta do suj a thing." in relation to harming the boy or the threat.
He turned his smile on the boy. Sam still did not feel like being here, but he was making progress mentally, after all a new experience always cheered the traveling man up. He took the boy's hand.
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