RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Seven] We're Not In Yamatai Anymore...

[CadetNewb]

Eyeing the situation, Sif motioned towards the knight from atop of Freyja, the others mingling with each other.

"Valkyries?" asked Rin with a cocked eyebrow. She glanced at the others, and then at Sif. "Well, that is true in one sense."

The sounds muffled through her helmet - how did anyone ever hear out of these?! - the Keeper only started to panic.

"NO! Please, I don't wanna die! I haven't told mom I'm sorry, and, and - AHHHH!" From inside her helmet, she saw a glimpse of a hand descending from above through one of the small holes in her helmet like the hand of God. Defenseless, she clumsily raised her over-armored hands, only to have the helmet removed by Yuzuki. She stayed there, frozen, arms raised with floppy gauntlets at the end. But the moment eventually passed and she took a peek. All around her were beings just as beautiful as she had first glimpsed through that cursed can that she was wearing moments ago. Except, with the helmet off, she came to realize something. They were dirty. They were tired.

There was a pair of men with them.

"G-g-g-g-good Lords, I beg pardon for any insult I m-m-may have caused by my as-assumptions. I am - I am Adelaide von Weiss, and am - " her words were suddenly cut off as the smallest boots she had ever seen worn by the smallest woman she had ever met landed on the breastplate she was still trapped under.

"First thing is first. You said you were a healer? Fix him," the tiny person commanded with a tone of power, pointing to a wounded member of . Nodding furiously Adelaide pointed her palm at Dimitri from where she lay, a golden glow emanating from her hand that instantly begun to mend his wound.

"Good. Now, you will answer our questions," Sif commanded, green eyes glaring down at her."As they require the mental exercise, they shall be doing the asking, and you the answering," the Mini-Neko added. "And I expect you lot to be able to come up with good questions to ask her as well. Get to it," she ordered them, crossing her arms.

With them all getting a good look, it was clear that the poor girl underneath Sif's boots likely just came of age. Someone clearly out of her league with whatever it was that was going on. The fact that her light brown hair was a mess from being under that helmet, and her big, round glasses were askew only added to this impression.

 

[Eistheid]

With the reveal of the face within the armor, Yuzuki found that she was honestly surprised. At no point in her brief interaction with the armor clad woman had Yuzuki expected that the individual beneath would be in possession of glasses. Honestly it left Yuzuki wondering how someone like her had ended up in a suit of plates riding down a lethal foe, she seemed more the type to stick her nose in a book.

Initial impressions out of the way, Yuzuki was honestly a little stunned at the casual and direct nature that the 'Keeper' filled Sif's request to heal Dimitri. A pretty glow, and it was mending? How did that even begin to work? She had seen many things on this planet, many strange interactions between the natives but until that moment she had assumed that it was something that solely affected the local life. With the latest display however, it became clear that there were applications beyond this world, if only they could figure it out.

Despite having the passionate desire to simply sit back and let the others do the socializing, Yuzuki found that in light of Sif's demands, and the new information that she would have to put her exhausted digital brain to use again something she wasn't too keen on doing. In her effort to come up with a good question for the spectacled 'knight' Yuzuki found her gaze drifting to Sif's small aggravated form instead and for a moment Yuzuki found herself entertaining thoughts. These ranged from simply laying on Sif, putting Sif's head in her mouth, sitting on Sif... Sticking Sif in her boot... Stuffing Sif places... Shaking her head to dispel the train of thought Yuzuki was instead quick to ask, "Where did you learn magic?"

A good, if simple question and she supposed a decent enough place to start. Refraining from asking other important questions for the moment to allow the rest of the group to participate, Yuzuki awaited the answer to what was simultaneously one of the most simple inquiries, and one of the most important. After all, she might be able to learn how to ply the unique properties of this world, maybe something useful would come of it.

 

[Syaoran]

Dimitri was just about to get to work wrapping up his leg when the gold light wrapped around his leg. The sensation was weird, but he expected as much, after all his skin was healing right before his eyes. He was just glad that she didn't ask him to pull his pants down or something to make it easier. Once that was out of the way he could focus though on the situation at hand and it was a pretty complicated one.

The girl under the helmet was cute, but now wasn't the time to focus on that. Sif had entered great teacher mode and Dimitri had already said some stupid things before, if he lost any more points he might have to do something humiliating like standing around holding buckets while everyone else gets to relax. There were many questions in his mind, but how many of them were good questions was another matter. He would just have to take a stab at it and hope for the best. "Also..the drow seemed to be after you, why is that?"

 

[Brett M]

Aya nodded, though she looked unconvinced by Freyja's advice. After all, to the average bystander swordplay also seemed like a simple proposition! The knight's reactions were getting curiouser and curiouser by the second. In fact, Aya almost wondered if someone had somehow managed to perform a switcharoo, replacing the real knight with a more cowardly imposter. Nonetheless, she couldn't help but feel pity for the poor woman. The feeling was only magnified as she continued to ramble, though Sif cut her off mid-flow. The contrast between the tiny yet imposing Mini-Neko and the hapless knight was striking and more than a little amusing. As Adelaide then healed Dmitri, the sky blue Nekovalkyrja watched with interest, though she didn't say anything.

Yuzuki had already asked the question she was going to ask, so instead she decided to ask a follow-on question to Dmitri's own query. "We heard something about a 'dark lord' recently... would you know anything about that?"

 

[FrostJaeger]

Somewhere Besides Yamatai, Village

Masato blinked, doing his best not to stare - or, for that matter, blush - as the "knight" was revealed to be an incredibly cute girl that, upon further examination, appeared to be close to Masato's age (Ara~ ara~...wait, what the...?) - then felt his jaw drop, for the aforementioned girl had done something that, outside of RPGs, was supposed to be impossible. Magic......? How.........incredibly fascinating......hmmm...so, what would constitute as "mana"......

"And I expect you lot to be able to come up with good questions to ask her as well. Get to it."

Belatedly (his mind still focused on working out the mechanics of the planet's nanomachine-powered magic system), the Minkan realized that he was among those that were supposed to ask questions - Oh, derp...... - then, after a moment's thought, had a flash of inspiration. Aha! I'll ask which spell it was...after all, mages usually prefer to name their spells...well, mages in RPGs at least... "Ē to... Kokoro watashi wa sono jumon no namae ga nandeatta ka tazunetara?"

The Santô Hei's features were that of confusion as Siv promptly sent a glare in his direction - Why is the Heisho...? Oh. Oh, frell... - until he realized that he'd just spoken in Yamatai-go. Again. Stop speaking in your native tongue, you gorram baka! People are going to start noticing...


"Gome-pardon, uh...mind if I ask what the name of that spell was?"

 

[cyborgakadjmoose]

Rin watched in astonishment as the young girl projected some kind of beam of light at Dimitri's wound and it was miraculously healed. She casually approached the young girl and stood by her comrades.

"Magic healing? How exactly did you do that?"

 

[quantumditto]

Looking hard at the 'keeper' Freyja wondered just what information she could get out of them the others hadn't already asked that Sif would be satisfied with. Thinking back to a partially overheard conversation in a tavern the black striped neko decided to ask

"keeper what do you know about Ostewüste?"

Raising one hand to her head Signy removed her helmet in time for her satisfied smirk to be visible thinking she'd asked a brilliant question. Tucking her helm in the crook of her shield arm she looked out toward Dimitri calling out

"you feeling better now Nep- Dimitri"

Freyja winced as she nearly called him Nepleslian but she did manage to not slip up too much and it would be nice to know if the Nepleslian was going to be trying for the pity points or if he actually needed a friend.

 

[CadetNewb]

As Yuzuki continued to undo the leather straps and buckles for Adelaide, her eyes widened, the effect magnified by her big, round glasses as she looked from one person to the next. With each of them taking Sif's orders so seriously, it looked like she was completely overwhelmed with questions.

"I - Well, uh. I was home schooled by the King's Master of Magic, an accomplished Maestro from Víteliú who had learned from the elves themselves," she calmly began to explain to Yuzuki. "As for the Drow, I believe she was desperate enough to seek the 'Right Hand of Darkness' which I am charged with caring for," the brunette answered Dimitri with her best guess. As odd as it was, the earlier fear and panic was gone. The young woman was, for some odd reason, comfortable with just explaining things to them. Her disposition changed when Aya asked about the 'Dark Lord' they heard rumors of though. "Oh, what nonsense! It's probably just another upstart slave leading a revolt!" By now, Yuzuki had loosened one of the gauntlets off, allowing her to free herself with a furious gusto. "Really, either the Drow got fat and incompetent, or their debauchery had crossed a line the slaves would not tolerate!" she exclaimed tossing aside the second gauntlet, and making it clear that her hands couldn't even reach into the gloves unless she had jammed them all the way in.

Sitting up, as Sif leaped away, she began undoing the breast plate as she continued.

"Really. The utter foolishness of the commoners - " Adelaide paused and nervously blushed in the firelight. "U-uh, no insult or offense intended of course," she added, her voice slightly shaky. This vanished however, as Masato spilled his Yamatai-go and Sif shot him a death-glare that demanded him to commit sudoku. Looking at him as though he were a fish dressed as a man or some other thing of equal oddity, she continued on answering them. "The spell I used was a - well, it doesn't really have a name. Healing in general is a most complex art and requires detailed knowledge of what you're trying to heal in order for it to work," the apparent royal explained to both him and Rin as well. "So, I can't even begin to explain how I did it. For me, it's just 'heal' really." The moment Adelaide finished unfastening the steel breastplate however, it literally popped off as she took in a relieved breath. "I can breathe again!~" It quickly became apparent why.

Slipping, wiggling out of the armor, they could see that she stuffed herself into the suit of armor along with her gown. Forest green, with black trim at the sleeves and torso, the front lace up design crisscrossed over her slender waist and emphasized - perhaps unintentionally - the curved and strained white partlet she wore under the dress and over her chest.

"And Ostewüste literally means 'Eastern Desert' in my Vatersprache." They watched Adelaide suddenly stop dusting herself off and stiffly freeze as she realized what she just said. "I mean, father tongue - I mean - father language! That's the translation, ja. I mean, YES!" Tying her own tongue up, a curiously Abwehran accent slipping into her words, the princess furiously blushed in embarrassment and turned to cough. "S-so, what brings so many Ostlandi here? You don't look like you're part of the great host that is traveling across the lands. More like adventurers," she observed, looking at them all from head to toe as she adjusted her partlet's frilly collar. "You don't seem to know much about magic, which is understandable, and you're certainly not after the - "

She stopped mid-speech as her face drained of blood.

"Oh, nononononononononono!" she cried, holding her head as she paced about. "My handmaiden! My handmaiden! She's probably who-knows-where with it now!" Turning to them, hands clasped together as she begged, "Please, we have to go and fin - KYAAHHHHHHH!"

With one turn of events after another, a single, panic stricken and blood smeared horse burst into the village, a familiar open topped carriage drawn behind it, and its partner nowhere to be seen. In fear, it reared onto its hind legs, hooves lashing out at anyone who approached.

"Calm that horse, now!" Sif ordered them! "Kuroneko? Kuroneko?! Respond!"

There was only silence.

 

[FrostJaeger]

Somewhere Besides Yamatai, Village

So, the region's controlled by a monarchy, the drow (Dark Elf, if memory serves) was after this ominously-named "Hand of Darkness" artifact, and......oh. There's no established......system......of......spells......ara...ara... Masato's line of thought regarding what the native (...Adelaide...) was saying came crashing to a very abrupt halt as the aforementioned member of the opposite gender removed her (oversized) armor's chestplate - and revealed her extraordinarily well-developed "assets," which were emphasized to an even greater extent by the contours of the brunette's clothing.


Roughly 500 milliseconds later, the nose of Squad Thirteen's newest member practically exploded in a fashion that would've been instantly recognizable to a certain rigger by the name of Jace. Nai mōichido chikushō!(Damn it not again!)


Fortunately for the Minkan, the loss of bodily fluids was short lived, ending only a moment after it began.


Unfortunately for the Minkan, it caused him to miss virtually everything that was said (both telepathically and physically) afterwards - thus leaving the Santô Hei rather confused as to what exactly was going on around him. "Ehhhh...?"





(OOC: Tagging @Archander, @Semjax, and @Syaoran for the reference )

 

[cyborgakadjmoose]

Rin had never tried to calm a frightened horse before. She had seen it done a few times, so she was certainly not afraid to try. She carefully approached the animal, circling around by the carriage and coming up from behind the horse.

"Easy. Easy..." she said, speaking softly to the horse. Rin needed to grab the horse's reins from the side so she would not receive a hoof to the face.

 

[Syaoran]

Dimitri gave a nod to Freya and glanced his leg over. "Yeah I'm feeling great actually, this worked out really well." He tried not to act too impressed by this, he wasn't sure how common healing magic was and he didn't want to seem more out of place than they already were making themselves with the questions. He listened to the responses to the questions and it only brought more questions to his mind, but two things really stood out to him this right hand of darkness, and the other language the woman spoke that seemed to be her native tongue. He was just about to ask about both when everything fell apart and the woman began panicking as well as their horse rushing in.

He quickly rushed to the carriage and glanced in, Kuroneko was not standing so hopefully she was laying in the back and not left behind. After a quick look h helped Rin with the reins, pulling with her to try and keep the horse from bucking. "Settle down boy.."

 

[Brett M]

Aya's bemusement was starting to reach a peak. Admittedly there wasn't much competition, but Adelaide seemed to be the strangest woman she had ever met. And the noble seemed very airheaded to boot, though at least she offered some useful information - even if Aya doubted that there was nothing at all to the claims of a dark lord. The Neko almost double-took when she saw just how... top-heavy... Adelaide was, and idly wondered how she had managed to cram all of that into the cramped confines of armour. Though one thing was for certain: she did not envy the woman at all. Though it looked like the Minkan who had joined the squad was rather hypnotised, leading to an eye-roll from Aya. It was at roughly this moment that all hell broke loose.

"Come on, let's help!" Sprinting past Masato, she gave him a gentle thump on the back for emphasis as she joined Rin and Kuroneko. Maintaining a respectable distance, she made what she hoped were placating noises to the animal.

 

[Eistheid]

When the chest plate had come off, Yuzuki had briefly entertained the idea that she should check to make sure their Keeper dearest had no broken ribs. After all it wasn't every day that she had a semi-plausible excuse to fondle someone with more plush padding than herself. The overture died before it passed her lips however as the unfortunate Santô Hei Matokai Masato firmly dethroned Dimitri in the role of 'Emergency Rations.' A brief glance at Sif quickly confirmed that she was indeed at her most displeased thus far. A minor accomplishment.

Despite the desire to teach their Hei dearest that there were good reasons not to be such a bumbling fool, Yuzuki instead turned her attention to their person of interest. With a smile and a soothing tone Yuzuki assured her, "We'll help you find your handmaid. Do not you worry yourself." Yuzuki honestly wasn't sure that she did want to help the Lady Adelaide, however she had to admit that for the moment she was the most interesting lead that her party had stumbled across on their journey thus far. As such it was worth investing a bit of effort in placating the woman.

With three, (possibly four if the Hei woke up from his disgusting, perverted fantasies) dealing with the horse, Yuzuki instead turned her attention once more to their surroundings, not wanting anything unfortunate to come of the distraction that the wild horse provided. Perhaps there was something nearby that would give her information on just why there was a screaming blood stained horse in their midst, or at the very least she could confirm her immediate safety.

She was so tired.

 

[quantumditto]

After checking Dimitri was alright Freyja Listened carefully to the 'keeper' learning what she could from the insight provided by the noble, ignoring a certain minkans inability to contain himself. until that is all hell broke loose once more that night and the carriage came bursting onto the scene 'oh shit' exclaimed the neko immediately sprinting toward the horse while donning her helm and subsequently ignoring it to leap onto carriage despite not knowing who she was looking for it was probably a neko and it would suck to loose someone to this backwards magic powered planet

 

[CadetNewb]

Despite the hooves lashing out at them, the Star Army soldiers managed to calm the horse, and more importantly?

They found out that Kuroneko just wasn't there in the open top carriage. She was gone. Perhaps even more importantly, they all decided on one thing together; they needed to find this handmaiden now. After all, if there was something out there in the dark that could give Kuroneko - a dedicated combat unit - a run for her money, then time was of the essence. Having managed to re-harness the horse properly and improvising several torch holders onto the carriage to keep the monsters at bay, they set out for their former camp first. As they ventured out into the darkness as the sole, singular source of light in this overwhelming blackness, the young noblewoman was the first to break the serious silence they all held.

"Um, maybe this isn't such a good idea - I mean! I appreciate what you're trying to do, and that you all want to find your friend as well," Adelaide nervously began, "It's just that, my handmaiden was also supposed to protect me," she admitted. "I don't know how powerful she is, but she must have enough power to defend herself considering her responsibilities." At this moment however, the group spotted the embers of a fire - their old camp - and all they saw only reinforced the suggestion that searching was not a good idea. They found their many belongings strewn about, and perhaps half of the food eaten and gone. But the blood - it was everywhere. It was clear that Kuroneko's halberd had made large, scything slashes, clearing the tall grass. However, massive paw and claw marks could be found in the soil, their own feet easily being eclipsed by their size.

Out of all this, they could see that there were two small clearings - pathways really - that lead away from the camp proper, and weren't made by the beasts themselves. One went to the north, and the other west.

"What way did you instruct your handmaiden to flee?" Sif sternly asked the princess with them.

"N-north! There's a well defended town there - it's a small city really - and the roads that way will eventually lead to the royal capital!" she explained, clumsily adjusting her large, round glasses.

"Then north it is. Kuroneko would likely flee in that direction as well, as it is our objective." Looking over the soldiers, she dispassionately gave out her orders. "Collect our belongings. And quickly. I do not believe we are alone." Without the moon to guide them, the sole light they had to work by shown from the various torches attached to the carriage, and whatever ones they could hold by hand. There was only a single lantern that only one of them could possibly wear on their chest, but even that was a fire risk, should the oil spill out and catch fire.

 

[cyborgakadjmoose]

Rin gathered up the rest of her belongings which consisted of mainly her cloak and her leather breastplate. She squeezed into the breastplate and strapped the leather greaves on as well, cinching the cords tightly into place. She threw the cloak over one shoulder and then adjusted her quiver to ensure the arrows were still accessible. Rin rolled up her bedroll and then tossed it into the carriage. She then leapt up into the carriage to assist with loading the rest of the squad's gear.

 

[quantumditto]

Since Freyja was already carrying all of her possessions (that weren't in a star army locker) she helped others load up their things onto the carriage while maintaining a vigilant watch for whatever beast or beasts had attacked. Surely these things were monsters to be exterminated if only she had her armour she could do more but alas this operation had been decreed to be subtle so the neko would just have to make do with her current equipment.

her face growing ever serious the blue, black striped neko asked Aya "so what's Kuroneko like? I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her yet"

 

[Eistheid]

Hopping out of the back of the wagon before Sif had finished giving her order Yuzuki was quick to poke around the wreckage of what had been their camp, spear in hand. After wandering about the tally of what she had found did little to raise her spirits. Her first discovery had been a third of her shield, the wood splintered and the metal banding twisted and warped. Next was the discovery of her her formerly full waterskin, that had been punctured, or burst the comforting supply of life giving water having long ago seeped into the soil of the thirsty plains. Her final notable discovery was the remains of her pack, the bag generously described as being in tatters.

Doing little to mitigate the unsettling sight, Yuzuki found her cloak, bloodstained but functional, a short ways away from her unwound coil of rope. While she worked to restore it to a state conducive to travel she spotted a glint of metal in the mud, her final recovered item; flint and steel. Withe the few items collected, the majority of her equipment and acquisitions on this world lost amongst the grass, Yuzuki resigned herself to the knowledge that there was little she could do as she climbed back into the wagon.

As she settled, Yuzuki cast her tired gaze from Sif to the Keeper, before inquiring softly, "What lives in these plains that could have done this? I haven't been out this way before and I'm curious as to what could have caused such a mess." Restraining a sigh Yuzuki tried in vain to cheer herself up with some pleasant mental imagery while she awaited the answer. Despite the attempt she knew that she was doomed to fail before she had even begun, and fell into a brooding state where only the wish that she had the advantage that the locals seemed to possess on this backwater world resonated in her mind:

Magic.

 

[FrostJaeger]

Somewhere Besides Yamatai

Masato - having since switched his vision over to ultraviolet - was, courtesy of a certain teenaged noblewomen, back to his usual, awkward self as the Minkan tried in vain to avoid blushing every time Adelaide spoke. Sighing quietly to himself, he gazed out around the area, trying to discern anything useful. Times like this are when I really hate having a perfect memory.........

 

[Syaoran]

Dimitri looked around with a sigh when he made it to the camp. The damage was more than he expected as well. He got down and began collecting the supplies, mostly clothes and the remains of the food, as well as the weapons they acquired from their earlier encounter. He didn't have much of his own personal stuff to bother with so he could focus on the group supplies. "Well looks like we last the last little bit of sweets we had too." Yuzuki had taken the words right out of his mouth so he didn't feel the need to ask the question himself and instead tried to figure out which way was north.