EliteCommander

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek supposed he should not have been surprised about even Onyx's distrust. There was a reason that he had scarcely even heard of her people prior to meeting her, and that was not easily overcome. At the very least, she did have some good things to say about him, which was more than she could say about most anyone else she had met in this place, but he did hope that he could at least fully gain her trust at some point.

Tarentek gave a slight grin upon Onyx's mention of the events at the sea. "Now, can you truly blame me for that...incident? As I recall, you had done the very same thing to me only minutes before, did you not? I would say that would be fair...although, I suppose such rules only really apply among friends. Harmless pranks were not that uncommon among my friends in Amman. As long as no one went too far, simple jokes like that could be amusing. I suppose it was not too appropriate in the situation at the sea, but also keep in mind that I had been dehydrated and starved for days on end by that point; rational and reasonable thought was...not exactly my strongsuit at that moment. For what it is worth, I apologize."

After a brief pause, another thought crossed Tarentek's mind, which prompted a question. "You say that you do not like water. From what I saw at the sea, you seemed quite afraid after I pushed you in. I assume you cannot swim, correct? Is that common among your race? I suppose there is not much water in the area, and it does prevent you from flying, but I would still call swimming a useful skill regardless. It was rare that I had the opportunity, but when I could, it was a great pleasure to swim in the nearest river to Amman. Without that ability, you would drown if you fell into a deep section of water. Perhaps I could make it up to you by teaching you that skill? If your people have to retreat to the isthmus connecting this region to Africa, the continent to the southwest, then it is not farfetched that we may have to fight near the water. Knowing how to swim could be lifesaving." Tarentek offered.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

After a day of being unable to eat, Meesei was quite glad to be able to prepare herself and Sabine a quick dinner, even as she was thinking about how to conduct her questioning. She needed to be careful in how she worded her questions to both Vera and Harriet, as she did not want to reveal that she had an actual suspect, which might influence their responses. There was only so much reliable information she could get from questioning them, but it still might give her leads she could follow.

Rhazii would likely need to be fed again soon, but for the moment, Meesei focused on finishing off her meal as quickly as possible. "I know you prefer cooked meat Sabine, but I hope you do not mind eating raw today. I do not have the time to cook, unfortunately." She commented before moving on to Sabine's question. "What are tips? I am still not completely familiar with all of the cities' customs, but I...think they are something you give to someone who performs a service if you believe their work was of good quality, usually a small amount of gold. I seem to remember making a mistake along those lines a few years ago when I started offering advice to a woman who served our drinks in a tavern. In any case, I believe Ahnasha was making a joke."

Ahnasha returned Vera's smile and wave, though from her overall demeanor, it was clear she was in something of a hurry. "Ah, Vera, I was just looking for you. It is good to see you as well, though I'm afraid I'm in sort of a rush." She began, her voice becoming quieter as she walked closer. "I left the food up in our pack's room, if you would like some dinner. Meesei is waiting there as well; she said she wants to speak with you." Ahnasha explained briefly. She expected she would have to do quite a lot of walking to find all of the lieutenants, but luckily, she had already eaten her dinner while she was in Bruma. "Also, do you happen to know where I might find the other lieutenants? Meesei wanted me to give them a message."

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek could not think of any more to add beyond the suggestions he had already made, so he left with Onyx when requested. Now, he had a mission on the horizon after he recovered, which, as long as he kept up a good diet, would not take terribly long. Perhaps a week or two at most. Likely, he would recover from his dehydration first, as he had been able to get plenty of water since arriving in the village. In fact, now that he was out of the meeting, he resumed drinking from his canteen.

"I could certainly use a meal, thank you." Tarentek responded. "I do not know if I could bring myself to sleep for the moment, but a good diet is all I really need to recover. In perhaps a week's time, these scars will be gone, my muscles will no longer be sore and weak, and I will be ready for the mission your father has given me."

After pausing for another drink, Tarentek took on a concerned expression. "As for your brother, well...I do not think I expected trust. You were certainly not lying when you said your people do not trust outsiders; honestly, I'm surprised your father has been as accepting as he has. I am grateful he has, of course, as it may end up saving your people. I do wish I could gain Opal's trust, along with the rest of your people, really. If your father is giving me tasks, then I assume I am going to be with you all for the foreseeable future. Do you think there is anything I could do that might gain your people's confidence? I do not really know what traits or actions your people respect, or dislike, for that matter."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei knew exactly what it was she needed to do. All of the information she had finally pointed her to a suspect, though she still needed much more to actually make an accusation. Based on Vera's testimony, Harriet was the one who had the opportunity to poison Jerrick, as she had been alone in the meeting room with his waterskin. However, Meesei could not make a judgement based only on a lieutenant's testimony. If Vera was the traitor, she would have plenty of motive to lie. Regardless, Meesei intended to question the lieutenants once more, and hopefully gather more forms of evidence. For the moment, she still needed to keep up appearances, so she made sure her tone was curious, and even somewhat upbeat.

"Hmm, I believe we should take it back to our room, and perhaps take some notes on it. Perhaps you might be able to learn more about it, now that you can clearly see the effects of the poison? Come, I am sure Leaps is missing us." Meesei said, waiting a few moments for Sabine to seal up the flask and bring it with her out of the scholars' loft. Once they were in the halls and Meesei checked to make sure they were alone, she spoke up in a hushed tone. "I would recommend you try to learn more from the poison if you can, but if there is nothing more to learn, do not worry. I have the information I need. Just make sure the timing we determined is accurate, though that is why we stayed close the entire time. I am sure you would have been able to notice if something went wrong. If Ahnasha has returned, then we can have our dinner, but after that, I am going to return to my investigation. If we are fortunate, I may be able to end this tonight."

Most of the clan was starting to head for dinner, so it took slightly longer to get through the halls, but once they were past the main hall, they were able to make it quickly back to their room. Much to Meesei's relief, Ahnasha had returned, which meant she was safe, and had brought back their dinner for the next few days. "Ah, Ahnasha, welcome back. I am glad to see you unharmed, did you encounter any difficulties?" Meesei asked as she stepped into the room.

Ahnasha shook her head. "No, not unless you count the cold. I certainly would; the weather in these mountains is...horrifying, honestly. We complained about it on the way here, but I do think it is something to be worried about. I realized trudging through the snow that most of our pack wouldn't be prepared if we ended up stuck out there alone. Maybe Lorag would be fine, but the rest of us? After all of this is over, we should make sure to learn to survive up here, just in case."

Meesei nodded to Ahnasha. "I will attempt to remember that, but for now, I have...well, I hesitate to call it 'good' news, but it is progress. I believe I have a strong suspect, and am ready to continue questioning the lieutenants. I wish I did not need to ask for another favor, since you have been outside all day, but could you go and search for the lieutenants? They will likely want to hear that their food has arrived. I would like you to see if you can send Vera here first. I need to clarify some matters with her original statement."

"Of course...though I might start expecting a tip if this keeps up." Ahnasha responded with somewhat of a grin. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she liked to be able to keep up at least some good humor. It was something she had found herself struggling to do over the past few months, though only recently had she really noticed it. She had to admit, she had essentially been an errand girl for the day, but if it meant she was helping, she was glad to contribute. "I'll pick up taking care of Rhazii once I get back. Besides, I'm sure he has missed his mother." She added, giving a smile to her son before leaving the room.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei was a patient individual, but even she hoped the test would yield results sooner rather than later. The more quickly she had her answer, the more time she would have for her investigation. Regardless, she showed no outwards signs of anxiety, especially when around others besides Sabine. When she was not needed to give instruction to Sabine, she spent her time entertaining Rhazii, or meditating. The lessons with Sabine were productive, given how long they had to wait, but Sabine's most important job at the moment was to keep an eye on the test. Fortunately, their experiment finally gave the results they needed.

Meesei walked up beside Sabine and observed the flask as well. Since other scholars were still around, she kept her comments general. "Ah, that is quite interesting. It seems to take a while to activate, but then works very quickly. I do not know if any ingredients on Tamriel can create that effect. Perhaps it is possible with purely mundane ingredients, but this might suggest influence from Oblivion itself." She commented. Of course, the most important meaning she could derive from the test was that the poisoning must have taken place after the meeting, which greatly narrowed the scope of her investigation, but the origin of the poison was also of interest. If the poison did indeed come from Oblivion, then it would provide evidence that the traitor was connected to Vile, something they could only speculate on before. Hopefully, Sabine or the scholars would be able to determine if that was the case, but for now, Meesei could move on with her investigation.

---

Ahnasha was cold and annoyed, but at least she was back underground and away from the snow, apart from the amount still stuck to her fur. She was carrying as much food as her coin would buy, which fortunately she was still capable of carrying. She looked like she was carrying an entire campsite on her back, which did provoke some questions from the lookouts on the way in, but she was able to give the excuse that she was buying specialty supplies for the Champion. After all, they couldn't tell without looking in her bags that it was all food. Mostly, it was salted meats, with vegetables and some fruits. She had visited a few different vendors and purchased anything she thought would last a while.

Without taking any detour, Ahnasha headed straight for their room, which was unoccupied apart from Leaps. She let out a deep, relieved breath as soon as she was able to set down the bags she had the displeasure of carrying all the way up the mountain. However, she did not quite know what to do next. She supposed the others would want to know that the food had arrived, but she felt it would defeat the purpose of buying all of the food if she immediately left it unguarded. For the moment, she decided to wait in their room to see if anyone was going to come by, as well as getting some much needed rest.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Okay, I think I'll have Ahnasha return in my next one as well.

The Aesteria Chronicles

Ignis kept up his onslaught until he saw the ice spirit starting to retaliate. Using a gust of warm air to overturn the closest table, Ignis dashed behind it as the flurry of icy needles were launched towards him. A few of the needles pierced through him, rather painfully, but most he avoided. The attack did not take too much of his energy, so he jumped out from behind his table with a fireball in hand.

"I've got a nice, warm...hey, where'd it go?" Ignis began, rapidly searching around the room until he realized the ice spirit had disappeared. Looking around, he could not see too much through the steam someone had released into the air, but he did not hear any fighting, and he could feel the body heat of those close to him well enough to get a sense of where they were. It seemed the fight was over. "Oh...well yeah, you better run. I'll melt you."

Ignis extinguished his flames, bringing himself back to his normal, translucent self. It took some searching to find out which blob of body heat was Helen, but eventually, he got close enough to see her finishing up dealing with the boy's wound. Ignis was pretty confident the boy was going to live from the way the situation looked. Helen, and even Ignis himself, had dealt with quite a lot of bullet wounds during Helen's time in the military, so it was a procedure she had a lot of experience with. For most gunshot victims, if they managed to make it to a doctor, they were probably going to live. Whether or not they stayed in one piece was a different story. There was no such thing as a minor bullet wound, and even if it didn't require an amputation, gunshots could have a permanent and painful influence. If the boy was lucky, he could avoid that.

"Eh, I've been hurt worse. I'll spend the night in a forge, or maybe the ship's boiler room. I've been needing a good bath anyway." Ignis answered lightheartedly. He did not know if anyone other than the boy and the Walkins' had been seriously hurt, but unless Helen or Adonai were injured, it did not really matter to him. He did have some concern for the boy, though that was mostly because Helen was concerned for him. He knew how she would feel if the boy ended up with some kind of permanent injury, so Ignis decided to lend his own form of help.

"I think I'll take a look inside your patient, see if there's anything I can see." Ignis informed Helen, not actually waiting for a response before going ahead with his plan. As courtesy, however, he did at least jump into the boy's body while his back was turned, so he did not actually see Ignis merge with his own body heat. "Hmm, yes, he was definitely shot. I'll look around for a bit and tell you if I see anything you should worry about"

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

"I understand." Tarentek said just before Raldel began to speak to Onyx. The isolationist attitude of their people seemed to extend beyond just this tribe, though he was right that Tarentek would be busy in Tel Nof. They could not afford to wait on any front, as they needed as many allies as they could muster. Tarentek hoped that Raldel's mate and daughter were as good of negotiators as he was suggesting...and that they were still alive. If they were not warriors, then there could be a better chance that they survived if the eastern tribe had been attacked. Their enemy was not destroying cities, but annexing them, which meant that the city was kept in as good of a state as possible with civilians spared.

Tarentek largely ignored the looks from Opal. He did not expect to easily gain his, or anyone else's trust, so he kept his focus on the matter at hand. After Onyx mentioned seeing a group of enemy scouts, Tarentek spoke up. "That makes sense; our enemy is expanding quickly, but there are limits to their mobility. They still have to learn about the land, find the locations of settlements, and plot their next move. They have a large army they must move, house, and feed, so they cannot simply move on immediately. Hopefully, that gives us time to mount our defense and learn about the Empire. In the meantime, the roads may become more dangerous to travel." He commented, pausing a moment as a thought entered his mind. "Well, they might. There is still quite a lot we do not know about our enemy, but the fact that they annexed Amman seems to suggest they want to expand their Empire. However, that does not mean they will attack everyone on sight. Warriors perhaps, but their target seems to be cities and other settlements they could use to expand their power, not necessarily common travelers. In fact, it may not be so difficult to scout the cities they control. If the cities they conquer are joining their Empire, then they would not keep them locked down forever. They still need to keep trade flowing in order to keep their economy strong. Scouting their cities, especially those they have held for a while, may be as simple as walking through the front gate. Perhaps disguised as merchants? We would need more information before attempting it, of course, but it is a possibility."

Star Wars - Scum and Villainy

From the way it looked, the man seemed to be taking the strategy of complementing his mercenaries to sell his job. She wondered if he was exaggerating in any of his descriptions of the others, though her own description seemed pretty accurate. She had based her career off of exploiting her own strengths to her advantage. Given that there were very few, if any, other Ssi-ruu in the galaxy outside the Imperium, she was probably the only Ssi-ruu mercenary they knew of, and maybe the only one at all. She did not even pretend that her uniqueness was not the reason for her success. Sure, she had skill built up over almost a decade of experience, but there were far more experienced mercenaries out there. She carved out her place in the galaxy by tailoring her skills to her own natural attributes, making her far deadlier than she could have been otherwise.

Personally, all Sirka needed was to hear her pay to accept the job, as long as it was not an absolute suicide mission. The only reason they would hire her is to make her fight someone, and she was not at all concerned with who the enemy might be. Military, criminals, civilians, anything was fair game as long as the credits were fair. Of course, even if it did not influence her decision to accept the job, she was still curious about what they might be doing. "Look, as long as history pays like you say, you've got my muscle for this. Though, it'd be nice to know exactly what I'll be shooting."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think now would be a good time to skip later in the day (unless you have something else planned, of course). I don't really know when you wanted to skip to, though, so you may have to do it. If you were going to include summaries of everyone else's days, don't feel pressured to include them all in the same post. That would probably be a lot of writing.