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A very loud, panicked banging could be heard on Xiao Lang's door. "Xiao? Xiaaaaaao! Are you there?!" The banging became more frantic. "Please tell me you're there! Pleasepleaseplease!" Whoever was at the door was now using both of their fists to knock, though at this point it was fair to say they were pounding on it. "Let me in! It's Merope! Pl-eeeeeease!"

"Lemme in lemme in!" Merope shouted as he shoved his way past Xiao Lang before flinging himself further into the room. The younger horseman had stretched out into a diving motion with the intention of pulling a sweet dive followed by a roll, but at most he managed to pull off a belly flop followed by several more bounces.

Wheezing, Merope gestured frantically for Xiao Lang to shut the door. "I," he began once the door was safely shut, "I was testing your survival skills in case of a fire. Good news: you move faster than me so you're not dead."

With that proclamation the imperial soldier let himself fall backwards from his seated position, stretching out and taking up as much of Xiao Lang's floor as possible. "That and, uh," he continued after a moment, "I might have been running from someone. Or several someones. Can you do me a solid and keep that door shut?"

Xiao's first questions caught Merope's attention. The younger horseman wiggled until he rolled up and into a sitting position. Like a child at class he sat on his knees, hands respectfully folded on his lap as he looked up with sparkles in his eyes. "Auditioning?! They're auditioning for something? Which clan? No wait it'll be us right?! Wow! I better go find out more once all of this blows over, I'd be the best fish on stage or I'll die trying!"

He clapped his hands, perking up. "Speaking of dying! You know how I have to take those extra supplemental classes and things? See, I went to go practice my dodging skills a bit, except there wasn't anyone who could help me at the moment since it takes two to dodge y'know? And Teacher wasn't around and would probably make me practice more interpretive dancing in order to better blend in with the humans and I'm honestly kinda tired of that soooo I went down to the War floors."

"See, the nice thing about Wars is that they're always doing something including the one that was doing nothing that I approached! I asked them if they'd be okay with throwing things at me that I could dodge and they were really, really into the idea of things and even made a couple of suggestions of things I could try! It didn't work out very well though 'cause I was getting hit more often with the leather balls they were throwing at me -- speaking of, do you know how hard those things are? I bet they're actually rocks. Anyway, I was doing such a good job that some more of their members got interested and suggested ramping things up a bit. So they went to go get their teeny-weeny short bows and reasoned that if I can dodge a rock I can dodge an arrow."

Merope let himself fall backwards as he stretched out on the floor. "So now there's like... four or five warriors armed with training bows and blunted arrows after me. No big deal, right?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather strip with beads and feathers. "Except I kinda also took their thing after tripping over it and I think they're angry about it."

Merope scoffed as if Xiao asked the obvious. "Because it's safe here, duh. And besides, if they didn't want me to take it then they shouldn't have left it in a spot where I could trip over it. It fell straight into my pocket and I didn't even realize it was there until I heard them start shouting 'oi where's the thing' 'I dunno oi thought yew' had it and stuff and -- heyyy! Are you mocking my War accent? I bet you can't do better."

He flopped back down onto the ground, raising his hand and waving it lazily about. "Anyway, at the very latest I'm learning a very valuable lesson in dodging. Namely that you should never, ever get into the sort of situation that requires you to dodge. More importantly though..."

The younger horseman rolled to one side and sat up, looking quizzically at Xiao. "Didn't you ever want to be a tactician? To move up in the ranks? You're good at this sort of head stuff." He gestured towards the door, adding, "If I go out there, chances are they'll shoot first and ask questions later. If you go out there, then you might be seen as an accomplice and accidentally attacked when you had nothing to do with it."

"So. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?"

Merope wore a triumphant smirk. "I knew it!" He announced in a stage whisper, "You've got the smarts and know-how to do it, and honestly I'm surprised you're still here on Soldier level with me. But hey, it's your call." He shrugged, changing the topic in order to avoid prying further.

"So. Right. They're out there. What I was thinking is that I could go out there again and get off these floors first. You know how the artisans are coming up with things, right? The last thing I wanna have happen is that a stray arrow or something hits something and I get blamed for ruining someone's precious art piece. So I'm going to book it to the elevator."

He leaned forward and started using his hands. "Now here's where it gets tricky. I could drop their thing so that someone finds it. But the someone who finds it might not be War, and if that War person catches me without their thing then I'll probably be in deeper trouble. It might be in my better interest to hang onto it."

"Ooon the other hand," he continued, "I could chill here and wait out the entire thing 'til it blows over, then saunter back onto their floor, take some arrows, and give them back their thing then. Though," he looked rueful, "It wouldn't surprise me if they take more than the thing back or if they tie me up and use me for more archery practice."

Merope crossed his arms and looked pensive. "Either way I see it, I think it's fair to say I'm going to take some hits either way. It's a no-win situation, isn't it?"