Raineh Daze

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

If anyone was less enthused about the ball than Tyaethe, it would be hard to tell--the vampire's response to finding out had been a stream of grumbled profanity in half a dozen languages, and then setting out to make sure her outfit was ready as soon as possible. After all, it wouldn't be done to not go given her position (except if she went and got herself banned from all formal events again), no matter how intolerable such things were. Perhaps fortunate for Lucas, as it meant she was quite preoccupied on that first night, and any involvement in his grief amounted to a slice of cake oddly left by the door.

As could be expected, Tyaethe opted to attend as an adult, both to avoid the irritating comments on her default age... and probably to avoid awkward questions when she got to the drinks. What was perhaps not expected was the ornate black and silver dress she wore instead of anything more military, the only indication of her knighthood the heraldry pinned to a sash across the gown, bearing both the colours of the order and of the crown knights, as well as flowers emblematic of the goddesses. The glasses also helped with not glaring at everyone throughout the entirety of the event... although that seemed likely anyway.

Continuing the unexpected behaviour, the vampire took one look at the guests, and then promptly made her way to one of the tables without a word and started perusing the wine on offer. It seemed she was content to leave everyone to fend for themselves.

Despite the princess having yet to arrive, there was a wide variety of interesting characters on display. Obviously, the Iron Roses themselves contributed a lot, and like any major function of this type smatterings of the upper echelons had showed up along with their scions. As usual, on top of the guards there were numerous knights of the crown in their purple-trimmed gold in attendance, no less deadly for their lack of armour. There were also a few who weren't there for any clear purpose, or necessarily recognisable. Particularly noteworthy was a pair of elves, their hair a matching pale green, off towards one corner, respectively wearing a resplendent gown and a uniform that had more than a passing resemblance to the captain's, if in darker colours. And stood next to them was the most obvious guest of all: a delicate blonde with a similar-dress like garment and arm-covering gloves. It wasn't her outfit that made her stand out, or the fluffiness of her hair. No, it was the part where, from the waist down, there was a massive white-and-gold arachnoid body, taking up rather a lot of space.

Echoes of a Moonless Night

Sato and Sato

Fortunately, with everyone situated in the car--and more importantly, belted in--it was a pretty easy drive, although the quiet bickering between the two in the front seat about whether it was appropriate to turn on the stereo for such a short journey and around new hires could be distracting. An argument that Lily thoroughly lost, with her partner arguing that the demon's taste in music was not something to unexpectedly subject new people to without warning. Also, it was her car, and they were nearly there anyway, so that was that.

"Will do," the woman confirmed, raching over to the glove compartment and sliding a thin laptop out, driver's door propped open. "Lily, you make sure the crowd stays calm. Nakanishi, Nyoko... honestly, try not to invite yourself next time, but you know what to do; keep the grudges away from civilians."

On cue, the demon hopped out, producing a colourful handkerchief from her pocket and waving it over her head with a cheery "Yo ho~ Civilians this way~" It didn't seem like the sort of action that would have much impact, but they were dealing with a succubus here--even dilute and spread out as it was, her ability to charm others was just the sort of distraction you needed to keep people from outright panicking... well, so long as nobody gave her a power boost to turn it into a cause for one instead.

"New hires... well, I don't know what you can do," their driver admitted with a shrug. "Priority is to keep people safe first, then exterminate the Grudges. Don't get tunnel-visioned into killing them before we know if we missed someone."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

... well, she had no idea what he could be planning with apples, nor did she particularly care to find out. Leaning back into her cushion pile, the vampire closed her eyes and gestured vaguely towards the front door. "I don't see a problem then. Why not see what that messenger wants? Poor man has been standing there since we got back, too scared to just come over here and talk to me. I'll take the plates back to the kitchen later."

If someone wasn't going to approach her despite being simply the other side of the room, the vampire wasn't planning to try and get a message out of him. Whether awestruck or terrified, the odds that he would explain whatever it was incorrectly were far too high.

Besides, she'd rather get some rest after the journey, and between Gerard's earlier exercise and this conversation, that had been quite delayed. At least some good had come of this one, on both sides--Fionn learned about his own magical potential, and she got to eat. Twice, even.

@The Otter

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

Too soft...? What could grapes possibly be too soft for that would require apples? And in what way could the apple harvest be relevant? Her only thought was that a good harvest would mean a glut of the fruit, which would imply they were all being wasteful, but the number of wasteful options for fruit seemed quite limited. A knight might consider training of some sort, which might mean...

"Please don't throw apples at the other knights."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The look Tyaethe gave him was one of complete confusion at the sudden change in topic. Was the apple or pear harvest going to be good...? 'It's been relatively sunny this year' was the closest the vampire could give to input on farming matters, she was a knight who lived in the city. The state of a particular fruit harvest was information rather outside of her area of expertise.

"In case you forgot, I have lived in the same room here for two hundred years," Tyaethe stated after a long, awkward pause, "I do not know how the fruit harvest progresses. I also grew up near the border; the focus there was far more on grapes. The weather has been good for that."

@The Otter

Echoes of a Moonless Night

Sato and Sato

"Of course~" the demon said, winking at the girl, "What was it that gave it away? The cute tail? These beautiful features? Or~ are you some sort of incredible connoisseur of the derriere? Don't worry, you'll be able to get a nice long look at these amazing cheeks--"

"Lily."

"--if we ever need to wear swimsuits." the demon finished, not skipping a beat and skipping away to finish her coffee. Obviously, her lack of formality extended to a poor separation between work and pleasure... although you couldn't really blame a foreign demon for having trouble finding opportune times to make friends. Even if it was some schoolgirl and an amazing slab of muscle... although there was approximately zero change of ever getting to include him in any fun. What a loss.

If the brash demon's inability to feign politeness and not listen in to a phone call bothered her, the woman said nothing, just nodding along to the instructions and then slipping the phone back into her pocket. "Boss told me to pick the team; I'll take the new hires with me. See how they work." Plus the beefy demon looked pretty capable in a fight... less so the tiny child, but finding out what she could really do was the point. "Come on, I have a car just outside."

Sure enough, she lead them immediately to a spotless-looking grey vehicle--a very large-seeming SUV given the location they all lived in, but as modern and legal as any other car. Like most, Suzume seemed to have little interest in maintaining an old vehicle to the standards required for inspection... or perhaps her line of work just tended to damage them to the point it was infeasible. Naturally, Lily hopped in the front passenger seat, leaving the four of them to divide themselves amongst the other six seats available. Oddly, given the left-hand drive nature of the country, Lily was on the left.

Once everyone was in, she turned to look back at them. "I don't care if you're an ancient youkai who wouldn't be scratched in a crash, use the seatbelt. Less trouble. And no eating in here."

Sure enough, there wasn't a crumb to be seen on the interior.

@Zeroth@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas

Echoes of a Moonless Night

Sato and Sato

The next one to come in through the door was at least less of a new hire than the rest over here--although, to the newcomers, what looked like a model strutting in with a disposable cup of coffee might seem entirely out of place for the environment, before they looked past the comfortable yet appealing outfit and took note of the demonic features. A task made only slightly more difficult by the succubus's excited flitting from newcomer to newcomer, looking them all up and down before turning to look at the door with a grin.

"Look how many cute ones there are, dear," the demon proudly announced, throwing an unasked-for arm around the most directly appealing of said 'cute ones'--Mika no doubt somewhat confused by the strange and definitely foreign lady getting so close to her, "Isn't this one delicious~?"

The one she was addressing had just walked through the door with an identical-looking cup and barely raised an eyebrow at her partner's antics, instead counting up the various contractors and contractees dotting up the room as she entered, finding a blank spot of wall to lean against. "Lily, step away from the girl."

As the succubus did so with a pout, the tall woman's eyes drifted over to the already-seated youth, "Yatsujima, have you heard if we're supposed to be working as one group?" She'd need to look into getting a minibus, if that was the case. Fitting nearly a dozen or more in one vehicle if they wanted or had to avoid trains for some reason? It would've helped to get a good idea of the exact number in advance.

@Zeroth@PKMNB0Y

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

"If you're pushing yourself physically, you already know the signs to watch out for," Tyaethe said with a shrug, making a good attempt at polishing off the remainder of the tart, "Here, you don't know your limits or even have any familiarity with approaching them. It's not something where you can get away with pushing yourself just a little further."

The talk of blood and death obviously didn't bother the vampire at all, as she chewed over another bite thoughtfully, "Not that there's the same impetus to push yourself as with exercise. How much mana you have is a trait of the soul, no matter how much you push it would always stay the same. It's why most mages use catalysts of some type to help focus it more efficiently or why rituals are even designed. You don't get more efficient by working yourself into a coma.

"Well, I can't say I know where beginners should start. I learned the standard fire-lighting trick back in the day, but since the dark doesn't bother me it was never something I needed..." she mused, stabbing the fork into the remnant of the chart and focusing on a raised fingertip. There was an imperceptible feeling of something around Tyaethe as she frowned at the offending digit, a glimpse of an oily red sheen... and then, without any fanfare, a small fire dancing above her finger, connected to nothing. "It's something like this. There's words and everything, too; it makes sense the bookworms are the ones most concerned with lighting candles."

The fire winked out a second later, job done--and the obvious reason to not just start by teaching magical illumination. Starting a fire was a simple task you didn't need to keep going for long.

@The Otter

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The young woman took another bite out of the half-eaten tart, before continuing, "I don't mean the basic principles of magic--I can explain those well enough, on a theoretical level, even if I don't know the first thing about proper spell construction or the actual role chants play in it. I mean that there's a chance he left the principles of his speciality in a more knight-friendly format, although I've never cared to look. Explosions. Breaking things. A small, controlled attack on a foe's weapon can be as much a victory as removing their entire upper body."

She twirled her fork a few times before pointing it at him, expression stern. "However, you must be more mindful of your limits than with physical training. Exhaustion is the best you could expect if you push too long or too hard. Temporary loss of magical ability or even death aren't unheard of if you go too hard. Consider it to be always adverse conditions and rest appropriately."

Well, not that she knew firsthand. If Tyaethe ever ran her reserves that low, she'd be delirious with hunger first, and then just drop dead.

@The Otter

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

"Well, I can't offer any assistance there," Tyaethe said, leaning back into the mound of cushions and making a vague gesture, "Everything I do is too mana intensive, and the least draining thing I can do has no combat application at all."

There was another example of that ominous red shadow flowing over the vampire, but it dissipated almost immediately to leave... well, it was still the same girl, just with about a decade in age and a rather disappointing few inches more in height. If anything, despite the much sharper cast to her features, she looked even less knightly than normal; the change in figure obviously contradictory to her overly-acrobatic approach to combat.

"There have been various magic-using knights down the years, I'm sure some of them wrote more general tips down, if you can find someone willing to instruct you in the basics of magic. I'm sure Parv left something... although he was equally heavy on mana usage. Maybe the principles would come in handy?"

@The Otter