[i]Those assembled lay the final preparations for diaspora[/i]

[hr]

[@Rune_Alchemist] [@TheFake] [@Lord Zee]


The sudden appearance of a woman with her weapon out did not, despite her assurances, put either Emile or Lenore at ease.  After revealing that she'd been watching the whole time and then involving herself in the forming groups' affairs, she made some suggestions of here own as to where to go.  While Emile could appreciate the initiative, he felt as though he and his niece need not alter their plans to travel south with Kallahar and Revenmar.  She did, however, voice a few of the potential problems Emile had been thinking about in his head.  If this new world did host its own peoples and nations, he would have to make sure he behaved accordingly, not just throwing around his power without a care for the consequences.  That wasn't the problem, though; what concerned his more was whether or not the other former players would be as responsible.  The two armored warriors with which he supposed he would venture seemed stoic enough, and he could corral Lenore if need be, but some of the others present practically screamed wanton misuse of power.  How would this realm's civilizations come to grips with this sudden, massive influx of godlike beings?

Such bridges, Emile decided, would have to be crossed when they came to them.  There was just no knowing how things would turn out, and that conclusion struck the strigiforme as both frightening and exciting.  The village girl, meanwhile, was mentioning the obvious—that the less-than-human members of this phantasmagorical entourage would stick out among human-oriented civilizations.  Just a little, the insinuation there ruffled his feathers, though to be fair perhaps he was just on guard from Tania's cutting comments moments before.  [i]With my helmet on, I bet I can pass for human.  Weird, maybe, but still human.  I could say I'm...what, a foreigner?  Unfamiliar to this land, shy about my face...ah, I could make something up about customs.  A foreign mercenary, forced by his culture to don a mask when abroad.[/i]  The sudden creative influx almost made Emile giddy.  [i]Whoa, this could actually be fun.  Could I pull it off?[/i]  His gaze landed on Lenore, and he winced.  [i]She's going to have trouble.[/i]  That was something he would have to address.

Emile's inner monologue evaporated, however, when the fairy rounded upon them.  The words she uttered oozed with such egocentricity that the man could scarcely believe his ears.  [color=5D8AA8]“[i]What!?[/i]  Are you delusional?  How the hell're we supposed to know what was gonna happen?”[/color]  Not that Emile expected her to admit his rightfulness; rather, he felt as though he understood Tania completely.  She behaved in a nonsensical manner for the sole purpose of eliciting reactions from others and gaining pleasure from their belittlement, making her nothing more than a elementary-school bully.  Emile's hatred of children like those, and adults who acted like them, spurred him to want to make Tania look as bad as possible in front of everyone else.  In the end, though, an adult knew when to let something go.  He decided to ignore her, and instead turned his attention to her elf companion.  [color=5D8AA8]“No, no...it's alright.  Looks like ya got a pretty rough deal.  All I can do is offer my sympathies.”[/color]  When Tania refused him and Lenore entry to her 'phantasmal forest', he said nothing.  Did she imagine that her denial stung him?  As if he, or any sane individual, would want to waste time with her.

He ignored that group of players, lending his ear instead to Kallahar, who graciously agreed to have him and Lenore along.  Her next statement, one pragmatic in its simplicity, made him pause.  “Fly...yes, I think I can.”  Actually, he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought about it.  Forget have two legs again; if this fantasy had become reality, then he could live out the impossibility of which he'd always dreamed.  He could fly...not just fly, even, but soar!

While Emile was lost in thought, his niece gave a timid response to the Death Knight's question.  [color=E2725B]“I had...a minor skill from, uh, Flesh Smith?  B-body Surf...it s-should activate...if I try to sprint.”[/color]
 
Next, the radiant dreadknought approached to express a desire to join Kallahar's intrepid band.  Having already given him the once-over, Emile -stirred from his thoughts by Revenmar's arrival- was sure that having a dependable person who was more or less normal around would come in handy.  [color=5D8AA8]“Good to have ya along for the ride, sir knight.”[/color]

He stared up into the night sky, watching the gleaming stars.  In silence, he moved with sudden purpose, a short way from the group before crouching down.  The moment Emile tensed his muscles, the air around him changed.  It began to flow toward him, gathering with the tumult and dark color of a growing storm's thunderclouds.  Black energy swirled around him, building up for a brief time, until he sprang.  Wings of pure green-blue aether burst from his back as he shot upward a few hundred feet into the air, leaving a black trail behind.  When he stopped to hover in the sky, a light coat of aether could be seen washing over him as water does over the face of a rock, and with a bright heart he scanned the horizons.  He couldn't imagine a pirate captain, with all the liberty of a carefree renegade, perched atop the prow of his ship feeling any more free than he did right now.  Once again he looked skyward, and among the stars he spotted a comet blazing a trail across the vault of heaven.  [color=5D8AA8]”There!”[/color]  He drifted downward, the flap of his wings steady, moving closer to his new comrades.  His pointed finger traced the falling star's path across the sky.  [color=5D8AA8]”Let's get it on.  We got a world to explore”[/color]