Rina was arguably one of the most tolerant towards Melody’s eccentric greeting; she received glares and looks ranging from outright dislike to plain bewilderment – the only reaction she truly seemed to notice, however, was Thalion’s visible retreat behind Alina. Something changed in Melody’s demeanour; there was a crafty glint in her eye, and the drunken movements seemed a lot more sinister as if she was a poorly controlled marionette, and her unsteady gait was the fault of a poor puppet master. She wheeled around to face Thalion, but not approach him. The grin revealed those strikingly bright set of pointed teeth, and her voice dropped into an affectionate, breathy whisper. “How now,” she crooned, “I didn’t mean to scare you, and I’m afraid disgust is part of the package...” She took two steps forward, completely forgetting about her bottle which hung loosely in her hand, “But do you really think they’d send a member of the undead to work alongside priests and paladins just for the sake of it?” She paused in her approach, her grin settling into a pitying smile as she continued, “Or are you smart enough to consider that maybe, just [i]maybe[/i], they sent an undead with enough tricks up her sleeve to be able to [i]shrug off [/i]the obvious and purely accidental smiting she’ll receive in the not-so-distant future?” Melody made an exaggerated, mocking shrug and raised her voice again, idly finishing her thinly-veiled warning with a nonchalant “Food for thought.”

Luckily, a Felbat descended upon the stronghold and rather efficiently replaced the growing tension with outright danger. The Wardens were slow to react, in Melody’s opinion, as the rider managed to get into a dive just as the attacks were called off. This provoked another amused chuckle as she waved her bottle in the brooding demon hunter’s general direction, effortlessly falling back into the ‘silly drunk’ routine (rather conveniently timed with Solares’ approach of the group) and asked “How come SHE doesn’t have to take the main gate? Is that elf privilege?”

Melody became remarkably disinterested in what the Warden Solares had to say the moment she uttered the word ‘rules’. Instead, the Forsaken wandered around the group, inspecting each member closely and smiling to herself. Her opinions on the others remained a mystery, since every time she approached a new member her reaction was simply to smile warmly and walk off again. Once Solares finished talking, Melody raised her hand in the air like a timid schoolgirl. “I never wanted to be a part of this assignment, does this mean I can leave?” she inquired jovially, and kept up that silly grin as Solares vanished into the Stronghold. Curiously enough, Melody seemed more than happy to take the subtle signs and tailed near the back of the group. She clearly and rather politely remained as far away from Thalion as possible without leaving his line of sight; she kept her back turned to him as well in an unspoken gesture of what could be trust but probably isn’t.

Aside from respecting the Blood Elf’s wishes, Melody showed much more interest in her surroundings than her partners. She whipped out a little book from her belt which turned out to be a notepad instead of a prayer book, and wrote down little scratchy notes for each room – including the corridors and stairs. This didn’t stop her from putting in her own two cents every so often, as she interrupted the tour to observe that, “for a bunch of soldiers, you Wardens do seem to be much more spoilt than the rest of the troops.” At least she had rightly figured out that her guide wasn’t going to answer, since she didn’t provoke her any further than that.

As Nesella finished her speech Melody looked surprised, deciding to address her squadmates-to-be. “Did anyone else notice that...oh, nevermind.” At the last minute, Melody changed her mind and shook her head with a smile. “You’ll find out for yourselves soon enough,” she chimed as she skipped into the dining hall, gasping with awe. “Lookit all this food I can’t eat!” she cried cheerily, immediately grabbing a chair and dragging it over to sit right next to Solares like an eager child. Curiously enough, she turned the chair back-to-front to sit on it instead of sitting like a normal person; and even then, she crouched on the seat instead of actually sitting down. Her movements were restless and ironically lively for a corpse as she snatched a fork to play with whilst everyone else ate.

It didn’t take long for Melody to start bombarding Solares with questions. “You know, with this much food and medical supplies you could almost definitely contribute to the war effort in a much better way than you’re doing right now. Why are the Wardens hoarding all of this stuff up instead of distributing the surplus to the front-lines? Do you really need roasted talbuk?” Melody gestured with the fork towards one of the plates assembled across the table. “You’re also being pretty guarded about whatever the mission entails and – by the looks of it – you’re gaining our favour through fancy meals before plunging into the nitty-gritty, which suggests whatever it is you want us to do it’s bound to be incredibly dangerous and difficult. So why risk sending a dysfunctional group of aloof, brooding and possibly incompetent war veterans instead of one of your finest Warden taskforces? Well, I think I know why, we’re expendable right? Light forbid you lose some decent warriors, so let’s just send whatever else Azeroth can muster up to do the hard work for you whilst you sit in your castle and, uh...scheme?” Melody suddenly lobbed the fork across the table and grabbed her hipflask, guzzling the contents greedily. When she stopped she burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles, leaning back a little in her seat to make the chair rock precariously on its edge.

“More importantly...” Melody leant forward, putting her face to Solares’ ear. The balance it must take to keep that chair at such an angle is impressive, especially considering how little control Melody exercised over her movements previously. She lowered her voice to barely a whisper, clearly gossiping in front of everyone assembled. “...Why did you pick [i]me[/i], of all people? Do you really think I’m doing this out of love or money? Do you think I will listen to your orders? Don’t answer that question in public; I want you to think it over and tell me the answer privately before you send me out to die again. None of this pre-meditated bullshit about being ‘a brave hero’ that I hear from other generals, since you’re honestly better than that. I want to hear, in your own words, why you thought of ME when you were sending those letters.”

Melody leant forward again and the chair clunked back into place. She raised her voice into a more conversational tone. “After all, I don’t want to disappoint you.” She smiled and gave two thumbs up.