The Otter

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Callum Prosser

---

Callum raised an eyebrow at how quickly Anabel's mood shifted. "I'm overjoyed to know I'm not in trouble for listening to our boss," he replied drily. He nearly reached out to pat her head, before feeling eyes on his back. Just as he turned to see who might have been staring at him he was addressed by the culprit, with the offer of yet more work to content himself with. He looked across the waves, the great green form of the dragon being taken in tow by some of Duchess Agustria's boats.

Thought for a moment about it, and shook his head. "I'm sure he's looking forward to the chance to talk with me again," he replied wryly. "Not that that's done well for him. Let him sit on the ride back. Send a message over, make sure they've got him bound well—he's fast and he's got a few tricks to make sure you can't see the knives in his hands. I'll stop by and see him when we're back on dry land if I get the chance."

Given the trouble Raiden had given him, it was tempting to consider just what he could do to the man without any guards watching. Too tempting; but regardless, it was clear that the Sparrow had decided to make them enemies down in the Minstrel's hold, and hadn't spared much consideration at all for Callum or Anabel's continued presence when he decided to join in attacking the ship they were on. Callum didn't have much further consideration or pity to spare the man, certainly not after how the rest of his day had just gone.

He had one thing on his mind.

"For now, I need to find something to eat. That was a lot of work down there, making sure I wasn't swallowed!"

He glanced down at Anabel almost immediately after saying that, jaw slamming shut. Was she distracted enough with the necklace to have not noticed that? He hoped so. Evidently she had worried enough even without knowing of that small wrinkle in the plan. Nor did he know why she worried so much in the first place. How did she and the guards say it? 'He's with House Furino, I'll take responsibility for him?' How literally did she intend that...

Maybe he had two things on his mind.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

Thankful as he was that Éliane had managed to bring her cannon to bear at last, his ears weren't terribly pleased with the sudden roar of high-volume fire coming from just behind him. Eos, still low to his chest, had already plugged her ears as tightly as she could as he dropped back behind cover. Still, his hearing wasn't so overwhelmed that he couldn't recognize everything else that had just been done as Leviathan began bellowing at them. "I would rather like it if she would calm down," he groused, watching as the head that had just been behind him suddenly placed itself well ahead of him.

"Or at least if I'd had a chance to plan for all this nonsense. I knew we would never be able to rely on overwhelming firepower forever."

"You mean you didn't have a plan for this?!"

"Do I look like I make a habit of fighting beasts and Eidolons?"

Rudolf slid under a strike, lashing out with one of his own. Behind him, Miina called out for cover, and he could see her out of the corner of his eye running for Leviathan's tail. "Selene!" he called out to the purple-hued fairy, hovering near Rudolf. "On Miina!" He couldn't offer much cover beyond trying to catch her, but with some help from Selene she might manage to react to anything in time to keep from needing it. "Eos, you get up to Rudolf. I don't think he was ready for that. Someone will be behind you to drag him out of the way if necessary."

Both fairies darted off instantly, two blurs of light streaking through the air. Selene tracked Miina easily, transferring her speed to the diminutive mage; and Eos, hands outstretched, hovered near Rudolf as he began to slow back to normal. "Robin, get up to her head, see if you can't keep her blinded! Éliane, you have anything to help with that?" He set the rifle back down next to her, drawing out his sword and buckler. "If so, I'd prefer you use it. Just don't hit me."

With the rest keeping Leviathan distracted, and with the clear damage she had suffered and energy she had spent, it was a simple matter for Esben to make his own quick advance. Wide bounds carrying him forward at a rapid pace—behind a pillar, next leaping behind Arton, spinning on the ball of his lead foot and leaping atop one of the coils of Leviathan's body—he closed the distance rapidly. From behind Rudolf's arc of flame he leaped atop another of Leviathan's coils, pushed off of it to alight atop a broken pillar. Jumped from it to the next, higher up; scrambled up part of a wall, ran across an arch, sailed over to the next pillar, up above the Eidolon's snapping head.

He may have lacked Galahad's ability to take to the air like the dragons he hunted, or any of the magics or technologies the others could bring to aid in their attack. But he was sure-footed, and as Izayoi first had learned, more than capable of keeping up without a boost to his speed.

A little bit of solid luck burning in his pocket for good measure, just to make sure everything lined up his way and footfall landed perfectly, only helped.

He kicked off the top of the pillar as a globe of water slammed into it. He twisted in midair, slapping aside a chunk of the stone shrapnel that came his way. In response, the second gemstone that he'd set in the handle of the buckler began to glow as well as he started falling towards the top of Leviathan's head, lending extra weight to his blade, as well as—

A fireball erupted from his left fist as he turned the buckler sideways, heavy lead balls flying out with a crack like Éliane's rifle. Where they aimed to slam into Leviathan's scales and blast them aside or crumple them inward, he turned with the recoil, descending point first for the same spot. This farce ends now!

Fate/Illuminate Histoire

Lancer

---

@Fish of Oblivion

---

Evidently, not every servant shared Lancer's desire not to make themselves as obvious as possible. As he'd warned his master, he'd been aware of the other approaching for quite a while; said other rapidly became aware of him, eyes falling right where Lancer stood, staring back. As if that was not brazen enough, the other never once looked away; he stopped, calling over to him, words magically carried straight to his ears.

Lancer's face was an impassive mask as he looked on towards the slender man that was calling out. Taller than most, professionally dressed, but not particularly heavily built. Not that there was too much to draw from that in terms of conclusions—not enough to decide who he was, but it gave some clues as to how he might fight. Even if he was disinclined to engage in such so far.

Noticing him so clearly and easily, though...

Lancer stepped out from the trees, sauntering up to the shorter man with his hands held loosely at his sides. He did not, however, offer any greeting in return.

"Beatrice. Evidently one of them desires to talk. I'll humor him for a bit. Be careful when you leave."

He stopped a couple yards away, his stone-faced stare not having let up at all. Even without words, the message was clear enough—speak your piece or quit wasting our time.

The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel

Keirthanil

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"Yes, if you wish to sell the strength of your body to any who need a thug or desire mere entertainment, I doubt any of us have the desire to stop you. Just so long as you remember that we aren't supposed to make ourselves too noticeable as of yet." He glanced over at their minotaur, and then once at Rela, before he snorted. "Too much more, rather. I'm sure I'll have to keep an eye on my own back the entire time we're here."

While Sentinel was far more lush than it had been in prior centuries, the Alik'r desert shrinking more and more away from it, it was still the capital of the kingdom, and the backwards warriors who wandered within the desert proper still would make their way in and out of the city on a regular basis. While all of Hammerfell had suffered in the conflicts with the Aldmeri dominion, the desert dwellers maintained the greatest chip on their shoulders, it seemed like. Any Altmer was suspect; being one of upper class background, and a mage at that, only made one more of a threat in their eyes.

It was surprisingly intelligent, for one of the races of mankind.

Meanwhile, he was left sharing a glorified doss-house outside the city walls, lacking his library, lacking the majority of his equipment, sweltering in the heat that suffused the region. While the true desert may have been further inland, the coasts were rapidly coming to resemble swamp or jungle territory, and the city proper was not avoiding that fate for long.

Hot and humid, when the wind blew from the sea; hot and dry when it blew from inland. Uncomfortable either direction.

Where the minotaur shined his helmet, and the Telvanni girl contented herself with writing scrolls, Keirthanil was grinding ingredients together for some potions as they all sat. Flax seeds, stinkhorn caps, and blackberries. Nothing inspiring, especially given that he'd not had the time to piece together any of the equipment he'd unfortunately had to leave behind when he was ran out of the Summerset Isles. A mortar and pestle, glass bottles, a few ingredients...

And that was all.

Ah, what a cursed life...

He had no clue what the Dragonguard or the Vigilant intended to do; perhaps they would join the other knightly-sort in finding whatever existed akin to the fighters' guild. Lacking any knowledge of who they could most easily take funds from, then, the red-head at least had the right idea in pursuing some sort of service providing. "I suppose I'll make a trip to the market when I have the chance. We'll all need materials before too long, and alchemists, enchanters, and spell-scribers are always easy niches to compete in. I doubt they've many here that could put up much challenge for either myself or the Telvanni, given neither the Synod nor the College of Whispers have much presence here. Hedge mages can never put up much of a fight against those with a real education."

He looked back at Rela, nearly done with another scroll. "Revenge quests need funds as well, after all, and selling scrolls for those unintelligent enough to actually learn is an easy way to make a profit."

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

haha. yeah. interrogation. let's call it that.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Callum Prosser

---

"Oh, good, you did manage to keep out of the way of all...that..."

If he was relieved at seeing that Anabel hadn't gotten hurt during the fight, any recognition of that relief went away as his tone shifted into a dubious rise at seeing her reaction. Seeing the girl worried almost to tears, after how she'd dealt with nearly getting kidnapped or speaking face to face with the queen, was about as far from his expectation as could be possible. "Yes, well, you know how it is. The queen asks, we have to follow. I'm sure you would've been more excited by everything down there."

Leaning the now-sheathed sword against his legs on the deck, he finally pulled off the necklace that had been placed on his neck, the pearls and mother-of-pearl shells gleaming in the sunlight. "Would you like this?" he asked, holding it towards the short girl. Easier just to push on ahead than to keep wondering why she was getting so worked up when she'd barely known him for more than a week. "It's not really my sort of thing, anyways—I'm more interested in what I just heard Vulluin saying. Raiden couldn't manage to run this time, eh?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

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Fionn's grin only grew wider as Gertrude's scowl deepened. He, of course, didn't believe her for a second—if she were truly so unconcerned, after all, she wouldn't have bothered trying to help him or yelling at him, after all. But if she needed it to feel a little better about everything, he was willing to let her tire herself out. Not that she stayed focused on him for long, between Renar and Fanilly jumping in.

Renar even started trying to warn Fanilly away from playing the witch-apprentice's game before him.

He pulled his gauntlets off, shaking them to make sure there was no dirt or bark stuck in them. "I don't rightly think there's too much else we can do right now, unless we want to go wandering off into the forest," he mused. He started to walk towards the overlarge tree that they'd just been fighting, though not without casually reaching out and ruffling Gertrude's hair as he walked past.

Just a small reminder that he was still there, and wasn't going to fall for her games or protestations.

"Gerard and the others left to try and find this realm we're looking for ahead of us, or at least as much of a general-Fae-territory as they could, and I don't have any way to call them in. They shouldn't have too much trouble seeing what we've found, and Arken and Fiadh are pretty well convinced this is the right spot. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have found some help to get in, but no matter what we're probably better off setting a watch and taking the moment to relax while we can like Tyaethe is doing."

He suddenly faced the taller knight with another grin.

"Unless you fancy running off through the woods in search of them with Fleuri?"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

@HereComesTheSnow

---

Esben wiped his hair out of his eyes. He hadn't yet stepped out from behind the cover of his own pillar, but that made little difference to the torrents that Leviathan was intent on unleashing upon the party. The rest were similarly drenched, some worse than others; it was nearly impossible not to notice Éliane a short ways behind him, struggling with a thoroughly waterlogged rotary cannon. "Of course she tried to set that up here," he muttered to himself.

It was a shame she hadn't been a bit faster, given what the eidolon was up to now. He wasn't much of a monster fighter, after all.

He jogged over, coming to a stop behind a nearby pile of rubble. "May I borrow your rifle? I promise I'll try not to break it." With an unhappy glance his way, she handed it over wordlessly before returning to her impromptu maintenance. Esben nodded appreciatively, peeking back over his new cover. "Cover your ears, Eos," he commanded sternly, before disengaging the safety and firing on Leviathan's barrier.

He would have called Selene back, as well, to try and speed up Éliane's work—but the glowing sprite had ideas all her own. Given that Izayoi hadn't been able to capitalize on the boost she gave, and already well aware of just how fast the samurai was, she had left her side and made her way over to Rudolf. She shuddered for a moment coming close to him, like a chill wind had just passed her by, before pressing closer. Once again, her glow suffused Rudolf, and the younger man would suddenly find himself moving noticeably faster.

Out of the corner of his eye, Esben could see Miina preparing a similar spell, from what he'd seen of her repertoire thus far. "Put it on Rudolf, Miina!" he called, before sending another shot into the barrier. If they were to bring everything they had to bear against the Eidolon, then until Éliane was ready to fire with the cannon, letting loose a whirlwind of blades was nearly their only option—letting Rudolf become a whirlwind all his own seemed an effective enough method, especially if he was bringing his own borrowed powers into the mix.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

@The Otter The Queen does love him. //serious nod

@Estylwen

i'm beginning to think this queen has a soft spot for lost-seeming children

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

and poor callum's mentor-to-be got assassinated the night before he showed up

it's cool though the queen loves him