HereComesTheSnow

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

kicked this out ahead of schedule, gonna be pretty much a zombie tomorrow

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Amerigo Spadoni

Furino Estate, Castle Gardens, Present Day
@AWildSquirtle@Estylwen

---

"Ay, tranquilo, both of you."

If there was one skill where Amerigo's mastery was self-evident, moreso than even the blade, it was the subtle art of speaking with a sharp yet unbothered tone when cutting into a conversation that was trying to speed past. In a way they were similar, demanding poise, precision, timing, command— but few pushed the metaphor quite so far into reality as the Brother strolling out from the ashen cloud.

To wit:

The length of his blade sank between the faces of the two tiny abhumans, coming to a controlled stop a few inches above Raguelie's arms, regardless of how vigorously she attempted to throttle Erfir— as pointed and inarguable a barrier as any man could muster. In the hands of a lesser, begging for an accident— but Amerigo did not allow those. To him, this was little different from getting his bare arm between them, corded muscle where he'd instead gone and put the flat of the coral. He spoke in similarly even, pedestrian tone, his clipped Arrowfellian falling back behind the curtain of he and Aubri's lilting vowels and melodic Republican cadence. Like discussing the weather, albeit with a blade in one's hand.

"You show good, strong spirit," a hint of an acknowledging nod Raguelie's way began his chiding. "But remember how that eyesore found us to begin with, claro? The wind carries voices. Theirs and ours both." He glanced to the castle, eyes narrowing before barreling on, heedless of any protests from those barely scraping the four-foot mark.

"Now then, allow me to make something clear. Signore Aubri and myself are not pirates. I am in fact paid to cut pirates down. We are here on business. Our business." A glance to his employer, before his eyes were cast back down onto the two children he was looming over. "The interests of the Most Serene Republic are represented through him— and its' protection through me. We are not quite so partisan in the conflicts of a faraway place as you may believe. Though, in saying that,"

As smoothly as it had passed between the two, Amerigo's blade rose, and returned to its sheathe with a brief flourish, sliding Bone against leather until the swept hilt seemed to click into place. The barrier between them now removed, his point seemed more or less made. For a moment, at least.

Then, with both hands now freed, each settled atop the scalps of either side of the little proxy war in the courtyard, blonde and coal locks both getting worked over by the foreigner and his cheesy grin.

"I do represent my own interests as well, and chief among them is ensuring I won't be made into a liar. I promised you both your lives— let us four at least not 'liberate' one another. The blaze has surely taken enough already from the city and the people, before what other demons may yet prowl. This Countess Vernon being our next best option after the Queen, to hear you say it— she must have the guards available to keep you safe until this blows over, no? A Brother's duty is to deliver his charges to safe harbor."

He returned his gaze to Aubri even as he continued to mess with the two runts, his tone dropping ever so slightly closer to serious. "And in a storm like this, any safe port may work, so long as we arrive with a favor in hand, no? We are here to make an impression. I doubt either option could find much fault in learning the first thing we did here was save innocent lives."

He would follow his charge's lead with little fuss, at the end of the day— but a Brother of the Bones' word held certain weight, as Aubri well knew. Amerigo, flighty and lax as he had so often been on the voyage, still had his points of pride. To one of them, he had tied at least the assurance that these two would draw breath by tomorrow. Whatever happened on either side of that, he had no qualms ceding.

"I have seen good friendships begin with far less."

Falling Skies

LTJG ROY KILMER, CALLSIGN "COMMIE"

---

Within the suddenly-lonely space high above the destroyer, LTJG was very well aware of the fact that there was only one blue team unit up top when there were supposed to be two. The rushing blood had to have gone to Braide's head— no amount of sim hours truly prepared rookies like him for the roar of live combat, where the hammering heart told you every play was made for keeps. Cutting a sharp angle downward, he radioed in for the pair of Sentries below. <<Slender, Denim. Confirm splash one apiece. You guys get out of here, we'll clean things up.>>

His thrusters burned as he readied his autocannon. There had been one Fenrir that had escaped the pincer, albeit with heavy damage— and a quick look at his sensor arrays told him it was just about on a crash course to where Braide had ended up. He pushed hard on the throttle.

Time slowed, as he cleared the bottom lip of the destroyer's hull. The Venator was there, Rook's query in his ears after the kid had more or less pulled himself out of the storm. There was the Fenrir, down an arm and a leg, control surfaces all askew. There were the twin white-flag and SOS Pings, hitting his IFF—

And there was the combat knife, barely even an inch out of its magnetic lock.

Kilmer made his decision, and an icy voice filled the radio.

<<Break left, Elliot.>>

The Shrike's autocannon rose and loosed a single round. At this distance, you almost needed to try and miss. There was a moment where the bleeding-edge prototype seemed to impassively loom, its black paint bathed in the orange of the blooming fireball between them, the brassy visor seeming to drink the flame and burn as it regarded the Venator.

Within the spindly interceptor, Roy took a deep breath, letting the procession of comms roll through as he eyed the radar picture once more.

Then,

<<The plan's been updated, Rook. Rhino is engaging the enemy Fafnir in close— you and I will play fire support. Cover him, follow his lead. I'll handle the drones.>>

Retros fired, and Commie drifted away, turning as he prepared to rejoin the fight. Past the precipice of the hulk, he paused for a moment as he painted targets. The drones were small, nimble, erratic in the way only pure fly-by-wire could manage or handle. Paramount twice over that he handled this. In one sense, this would be a good stress test of the limits of this spaceframe's maneuverability when faced with top-of the line opposition—

Two funnels burned in to meet them ahead of time, sent by the Fafnir to keep the pair of them off its tail. The onboard autocannons loosed, hunting the juiciest signature they could find. Kilmer broke off, his afterburners flaring, and returned fire even as he peeled them away. In his wake, a parting word of advice.

<<Just focus on where you are, and what you need to do. That's what gets us all home.>>

— and in the very real concerns of the other, he was the one responsible for Rook's safety. Funnel drones were a rough puzzle on their worst day, and with the greenhorn only just having come out of the hole of reckoning with his always-immediate risk of mortality on the field, Roy didn't want any of that possible hesitancy to pay the Coalition dividends.

Maybe he would have been wrong.

Maybe Braide was as back in the saddle as he'd said.

Even so.

<<Commie, defending!>>

A hard bank right saw him dump a bouquet of flares in his wake, puzzling the targeting systems of the funnels for a moment as dozens of signatures painted themselves upon the infrared spectrum— granting Kilmer the split second he needed to bring his ionized blade to bear, and punch forward hard enough that the back of his helmet slammed into the seat.

Just as with the retreating Fenrir, he would afford the universe no chances.

His blade struck, burning through.

<<Splash two funnels.>>

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I can think of no man more ready for single fatherhood than Amerigo Spadoni

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Are we dads now

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Damn. Almost had you.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

handsome is halfway to adorable

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

well, amerigo’s halfway there

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

@HereComesTheSnow post theme song: the Crazy88's battle sequence.

Aubri's post theme song: Yakkety Sax.

@AWildSquirtle

i mean hey man look at Callum

you get ahead by being a lil goofy

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

aiming for today. yesterday saw me completely crash, but i more or less know what i wanna write

@HereComesTheSnow

counts