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Post by Caius Dragelion on Feb 28, 2019 10:13:29 GMT -6
Suppose this world isn't so terra-ble.
@blacksuit Word Count: 1'369 OOC: Here we go again! Dialogue Color: 196fd1 Party Sprites Credit
Outside Of Torensten
A settlement had spent the last few weeks being sacked and tormented by these creatures they called Tonberries. They seemed to be coming from a cave nearby, and were almost completely unrelenting in their assaults. Every single day yielded another day of death and torture, another day of more civilian corpses being found covered in stab wounds by the end of the day. A notice had been put out that these things needed to be eradicated, and Caius had taken the job. Alone, this time. Of course, he knew that the notice was open, and had learned by now to expect anything. Who knows? Perhaps the Dragonblades would find a potential prospect?
Caius had never seen a tonberry before, and as he would walk toward the entrance to the cave, he would check on Vordun in his jacket to ensure that the dragon hatchling was prepared for what was to come. He didn't know what to expect from these tonberries. In his world, they were either incredibly rare, or they didn't exist at all (It was the former!)
Letting out an exhale, brown eyes scanned the landscape as he didn't even leave out the possibility that he could be ambushed out here. It was there that he saw a small creature, bi-pedal but almost turtle-like in appearance. Caius would blink a few times as he stared down at it, and would lean down a bit to get a better look at it... What in the world was this green creature? What was this small, green thing doing so close to the caves? This couldn't be a tonberry, could it? It didn't seem all that dangerous, but he also knew that appearances could be deceiving. But this thing? No way.
Caius looked about a bit more, still apprehensive as to his surroundings... But he was ready to delve in, and delve in soon. Better to get the jump on these ambush specialists before they ambushed him.
"Hey! HEYYYY!"
The gunblade touting mercenary was busy trying to figure out a good route into the cave while also preparing himself for ambush. While ironically paying little heed to the ambusher itself. Caius though would stop when he heard the voice. “Hmm?” He sounded as he turned toward the sound, keeping wary of everything around him except for the bipedal turtle. A woman had started running toward him. He recognized her from one of the villages he'd visited nearby. What was she doing out here? It was also possible she was in league with the ambushers... Something that Caius thought of and kept wary. While still not looking at the cute little thing that held a knife behind it's back.
Someone definitely should have drawn Caius a picture. He’d probably ask for one next time.
“Hey...I was...trying to...get your...attention!” Called the exhausted woman as she seemed to have lost her breath from rushing there.
"What are you doing here?" Caius asked, but would be quickly interrupted when she would pull him back. Not hard, very subtly and gently. Which was about the only reason he didn’t mistake it for an attack and make the sudden movement that she was specifically trying to avoid. Then the young woman would whisper into his ear.
“I wouldn’t stand too close to that if I were you" She whispered, pointing behind him. Caius blinked a few times as he looked around, then finally looked down. There was the cute little turtle thing. Holding a rusty looking knife.
“... Is that a knife?” Caius asked, as the realization slowly dawned on him. “Did that kappa just try to shank me?”
“That's no kappa, it's a tonberry. They may look cute but they’re really dangerous!” She exclaimed, as Caius would back up a bit. "That's a tonberry?" Caius would inquire, watching the tonberry with a perplexed expression. “It looks kind of mad, doesn’t it?” the woman whispered apprehensively as she was still trying to pull Caius back, the two watching as the tonberry began to very slowly walk towards them, the lantern clutched tightly in its other tiny hand swaying from the momentum. It's knife was very well pointed at the two of them. And indeed... It didn't look happy.
Caius stared at the angry little kappa creature with the hood and the lantern and the sheev with a perplexed expression. This thing was what he had been hired to kill? This thing had been torturing and murdering villagers? This was the sadistic, merciless creature that had a high bounty, it and it's friends? Caius blinked a few times more, wondering if the girl was perhaps joking. But one really couldn't deny the fact that it had just tried to shank him.
Caius was truly beginning to realize that maybe... Just maybe... He'd gone just a little soft since meeting Celes.
The girl would suggest that they run before it called it's friends. Which conveniently was exactly what Caius wanted. Caius stayed put, cracking his neck as he would then summon his sword.
"Shame. Sort of wanted to keep one as a pet" Caius would remark as he would load the chamber on the gunblade, feeling a bit of his energy dip into it as the energy bullet was loaded and ready to go. Caius would watch the creature a little bit longer before deciding that it was indeed dangerous and he would have to engage with the mission. "Guess I'm not sure if Vordun's old enough to tolerate not having all the attention anyway."
With that, he turned his attention to his companion. "What were you even doing here?" Caius would repeat-question the woman. "I usually pick berries around here, but I saw you heading to where those monsters live and came to warn you!" She would respond, as Caius would nod his head. "Are we going, or what?" The woman asked, tugging at Caius a little harder. Caius turned to look her full in the face, his expression as blunt as could be. He spoke plainly, as blunt as a dull edge.
"I'd run."
With that, Caius would aim the blade's tip toward the tonberry and open fire without hesitation, his eyes, his expression - all grew cold as he fell completely into battle mode. It wasn't something he wanted to do to something so adorable, but unfortunately, it was what it was. Even if he wasn't on the job, then he had to do it in order to keep people safe. That was how life worked, after all, and someone had to do it.
The woman's eyes widened as she realized just what was about to happen. "B-b-be careful!" She cried out as she would point toward the group of tonberrys that had begun to emerge from the shadows. "Go" Caius spoke calmly, yet firmly. "I'll cover your escape. Just run."
As the woman would take off, Caius knew that his job had just begun. He would quickly survey the territory, the former Glaive doing his best to plan ahead and strategize as early in the conflict as possible before he could be overwhelmed. A second and third tonberry were heading for him, but the young man refused to back down. Bringing down the hatch, he would strike downward, with the tonberry blocking the blade with surprising speed and accuracy considering how small the knife was. "Blast" Caius would mutter as he would be forced to jump back when the Tonberry would stab at him. While he was avoiding it, the other Tonberry would also stab at him, and Caius would hop back again, his eyes widening in shock at their speed. He also noticed the first tonberry beginning to make it's return entrance.
Cissnei was looking to broaden her horizons of this world’s cultures and settings. With no current loyalties and muddled memories, she decided it would be best to wander to see where she fit into its schemes. IF she fit into this world. But, of course, this cost money - and leaving Provo and the Headstone Forest, which seemed a vortex always sucking her back in. Luckily, money was not difficult to come by with her skill set, it seemed. But it was definitely not anywhere near a fixed income she hoped for. For now, it would have to do.
As she did her rounds around the settlement, she found a small crowd around the notice board. Probably another set of people with specialized skills and no steady income. She gave a soft sigh as she pushed through to look at the board. No one protested as she was small and could see clearly over her. Not that one, or that one, or that one…The board was full of small gathering jobs or temporary help needed at a certain market stall. But there was one that seemed to draw her eye.
Tonberries…? She drew her brows together for a moment. There was something by that name. Were they not imaginary opponents? Computer simulations created in a glorified arcade to challenge fighters in an arena? But the description here indicated they were very real and harming citizens. Curious. Her memories were not aligning with the realities of this world. Perhaps she remembered wrong, or it was simply just something different here. It was enough to make one feel crazy.
Moving away from the board, she left to go pick up some supplies for what seemed to be a job in or around some caves. She asked the locals for descriptions of these Tonberries and a layout of this cave. Though she discovered what the Tonberries looked like, no one seemed terribly sure of the layout. Well this was going to be fun. At least they knew which direction to point her in. Once she was finished up her preparations, she headed out towards the direction of the cave. Taking care to not be direct in her path. Once she was close enough to the cave’s entrance, she decided to quietly stake out in a nearby tree.
Despite the dangers it was quite beautiful here. The vibrant greens of nature contrasted beautiful with the dark grey of the cave. It felt terribly welcoming. She reveled in the view, while at the same her narrow focus stayed trained on the cave’s entrance. So far nothing was seen yet. Cissnei did not move an inch as she saw a small brown-robed creature shuffle out of the cave. It aligned with what she remembered what it looked like. But an ambush was not an ambush without additional combatants. Where were its friends?
Quietly, she stayed put, not moving an inch to avoid detection. She took slow, even breaths. She was not one to rush. At least not usually. It was not long, however, for her to see this thing in action. A familiar man seemed to stride right up to it. At first, the creature seemed passive with Caius. Was it to lure him into a false sense of security? It was not until a woman she did not recognized ran up to him and identified the ambusher that the Tonberry began to take a more active role.
Seeing her leave, Cissnei just leaned back in her tree and watched Caius fight. If she had some popcorn, she would probably have eaten it. Did they have popcorn here? As the original Tonberry seemed to run back into the cave, Caius seemed to be fighting two others. Cissnei turned her head and noticed with horror that other Tonberries seemed to be following the original attacker back into the cave. Whelp. This was going to be fun.
Her eyes lowered back down to Caius and his combatants. She decided to speak up, “I don’t think anyone is kidding.” She said lightly, still watching as he dodged out of the way the blades. She cracked a small smile. Not quite helping him yet. “I don’t think they took kindly to being called a pet, either.” As she spoke, she considered that these creatures seemed to use rogue tactics. It was almost comical to see how fast they could move. But looks could be deceiving, and they used that to their advantage.
Cissnei debated on talking profits, before assisting him. But, she did owe him one from the forest. A Turk always repaid their debts. Her shuriken appeared in her hand in a flash, and she boomeranged it at the secondary tonberry on Caius, in hopes of distracting it at least. Let’s see how they tolerated an opponent on higher ground than them.
Post by Caius Dragelion on Mar 6, 2019 15:45:41 GMT -6
Suppose this world isn't so terra-ble.
@blacksuit Word Count: OOC: Caius is taking no shit lol Dialogue Color: 196fd1 Party Sprites Credit
Caius noticed when someone began talking, thinking at first the woman had come back before realizing that he recognized the voice. Remembering Cissnei from both the storytelling at the pub, as well as the encounter at the forest, he would lower his eyelids when it was clear she wasn't interested in helping him at first. Instead, she wanted to make light of the situation. Seeing as she wasn't going to be an ally it appeared, he would refocus on the Tonberrys instead of giving the bystander anymore attention. Starting to turn up the heat, Caius would begin to dodge with more vigour before blipping forward using his warping capabilities and surprising one of them with a hard strike. The creature would take the hit and go down, but there were plenty of it's brethren to go.
The second that was trying to attack him from behind would be hit by what looked like a boomerang, catching them off guard and allowing for Caius to turn, aim his gunblade square at their head and fire. Though they'd managed to catch them by surprise, Caius doubted that the rest of the Tonberrys would be that easy. As more of them began to advance, Caius found himself with an idea based off Cissnei's attack from earlier.
Tossing his blade up toward her, Caius would Warp forward, landing behind Cissnei on the little hill she was perched on. Reloading the chamber on the gunblade, Caius would place both arms on her shoulders, leaning against her from behind as he would aim the gunblade again. With so little room at the top, he still needed the best vantage point he could get. Normally he would probably apologize for causing her any discomfort and offer to try and find a way to accomodate them both without this, but... Perhaps he would offer it shortly. He'd made him wait for a little while, she could afford to wait a little longer.
Seemed Caius was holding a small grudge. Though the grin he shot her was completely playful, indicating he was more teasing her with his grudge fulfillment than actually meaning any malice.
"Fire as many and as quickly as you-Duck your head-"
He gave a small warning before he would finish aiming his blade from where he'd been holding it over her shoulder, firing at one of the tonberrys that was advancing toward their vantage point.
"-Can, before they figure out how to get up here."
Caius scanned the area a moment, before seeming to pinpoint some strategic points."
"As tender as this moment has been, (A line he totally didn't get from one of those books that taught him what tender was) I suggest we split off to those two cliff points down and to the side of this. It still gives us some height on them, and they'll be forced to split up in order to take us both. If you finish your side before I finish mine, aim at the ones on my side and we can pincer them from both sides. If we're lucky, we'll thin them out before we're forced to fight on foot again."
Caius' blade would disappear then as he would move down from his leaning on her, putting the plan into effect without waiting for her to say anything. They were lacking in time and needed to act fast. Swapping to a short sword, Caius would split them apart to reveal two daggers.
Taking his spot at one of the vantage points below, he would bring his arm back and toss the dagger at one of the tonberrys. Striking them, he would toss the second dagger and hit them again, before summoning them both back to his hands.
Seeing that her attack at least assisted in the tonberry’s dispatchment, she spread out her balance in preparation of the return of Rekka. As if on command, it flashed back to her hand, as expected. What she did not expect was Caius’s blade moving towards her. She nearly lost her footing for a second only to suddenly find him against her back. Surprised at the suddenness, she gave a soft, “Oh!” Her eyes wide for a moment, before refocusing on the influx on tonberries. She had seen him do something similar in past fights, but it was very bizarre to her. No man could move that fast, right?
She did turn a slight shade of red at his contact against her, slightly flustered. She was more used to keeping a healthy professional distance from people. Too much contact, and she was not sure what to do with it. Melt? His scent dazed her for a moment, and she looked at him over her shoulder curiously, before following his instructions to duck her head. She gave a slightly, playful huff at being used as a stand. “Great plan…” She muttered sarcastically, rubbing a shoulder to her ear to try to ease the ringing his weapon caused.
Oh, he wanted to play. He better be careful. She could dish it out twice as much when the time was right. “If by tender you mean painful…” She teased, using the other definition of the word. Cissnei then eyed the area again to see where he meant. She would prefer to not be lower, but to split them, they would need to at least be more openly seen. “Got it.” She then leaped from where she was to the lower area he pointed out for her.
She eyed the crowd that began to split her way. She did what she could with her shuriken hitting its mark, or even killing two birds with one stone, but they were fast. A bit too fast. With a soft glimmer, her shuriken came back to her hand. Cissnei clicked her heals on the ground, and she felt the instant rush of magic sweep over her legs, and up through her form. The ground seemed to radiate green light beneath her feet, and a swirl of air picked up around her and swayed her hair. Her body felt lighter, and she could certainly move more lightly on her feet.
She moved must faster, but still it was not nearly enough to take out the tonberries, that were starting to figure out a path up. She pushed away the bottom of her blazer to reach her belt. She had a few of these handy, though she knew there was a precious few of them in this world. Waiting for the tonberries to at least make it half way up to her, she pulled the pin with her teeth and tossed the grenade down at them. She then moved as fast as she could away from the blast and took shelter covering her head. She heard the explosion. It also weakened the rocky side of her cliff, and a small avalanche rolled over the other tonberries, and crushing most of them.
Seeing that her work was done, she began to maneuver to a similar vantage point to assist him with mowing down his line of tonberries. “Are we keeping count?” She mused, wondering if they should make this into a game. "I have a second one on me, but didn't want to leave you...hanging." She referred to her earlier strategy.
"No I'm pretty sure I meant tender" Caius remarked bluntly, though his being on the move at this point probably meant Cissnei didn't realize his face read actual confusion as he spoke this, before moving on with a joke. "But if you prefer painful I can always bite you next time."
Caius hadn't gotten to the part of his books yet where the meaning of that changes.
But the biggest grin crossed Caius' face as the daggers returned to his hands. As Cissnei would continue clearing them out and the Tonberrys would be forced to divide their attention between the two of them in order to keep from being caught off guard, it was the perfect opportunity for Caius as the mercenary would load energy into both daggers. He would spin them both between his fingers before aiming them at the tonberrys.
And then he opened fire.
Rapid fire shots would ring from both firearms, pelting the tonberrys with unyielding attacks. While they weren't as powerful as the shotgun blast type explosives of his normal gunblade, the repeated attacks would keep the tonberrys from getting a chance to attack, allowing him to attack them over and over and continue driving them back before focusing on others. Against a group of foes like this, the strategy proved to be quite effective.
The sound of a large explosive would rattle Caius from his focus a moment as his head darted toward the source of the commotion. The woman had used what appeared to be a grenade, though Caius hadn't seen any of that kind of weapon in Zephon so far until now. They were known in his world, but uncommon. Noting that the environmental damage finished the job of clearing her side, it seemed that she'd figured out a clever way to finish out her end. Interesting. Caius made a mental note of her resourcefulness for later.
It wouldn't take long for the remaining tonberrys to realize their numbers were dwindling and begin to flee into the caves. Caius would allow his weapons to disappear, as he would begin to step down toward the caves. Though even with his focused march, he did answer Cissnei's remarks.
"You did enough of that before the first shot" He reminded her calmly as he peered into the caves. "Thanks for the assist, though I assume you're here about the bounty?" He inquired, some coloring seeming to return to his face as the battle adrenaline seemed to calm down, though his expression remained as all business as it had been throughout. "We need to rout them out here. If they're living in the caves, it's possible it connects to other places. They might not ever leave us alone if we let them escape. Monsters have long memories."
Caius would step through the caves, with or without Cissnei. But after a bit of trekking, Caius looked around in surprise when he realized they had hit a dead end.
Quirking a brow, he would tap something on the side of his jacket. A little emblem would begin to radiate light, acting as a flashlight for them to look around.
She raised a brow at his response of biting but said nothing about it. If wanted to bare teeth, she would simply bare them back. She was generally a mild-mannered, unless driven otherwise. She wondered if he knew there was a double meaning to tender. She understood it as tender wounds, since she dealt with so many injured SOLDIERs and Turks in the past. She loved to poke them too, to show them they should be careful next time. Tough love.
Cissnei assisted where she could with helping him drive them back. Caius seemed to have his end under control, though she was curious where he drew his abilities. They far exceeded her own. “My apologies. I thought your dance moves were fantastic. I didn’t want to interrupt.” She replied to his comment about her watching him fight the tonberries in a very neutral matter of fact tone. It was hard to tell if she was joking, though she likely was. “I am a business lady. So, yes, I am here for the bounty. But I owe you, and Turks always re-pay their debt.”
Her eyes watched the caves for a moment more. “We should rout them out. But, I am curious as to what they are protecting? We may be able to use that to our advantage.” It was odd to her that so many of them were defending this spot. For what? Was it a breeding ground? Was there something precious to them? “I can scout ahead….” But Caius was already on the move.
With a soft sigh, she quickened her pace to follow him. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she stopped to rummage through her pack to find a hard hat with a light. She made to secure it in place with the strap under her chin, before following him. She preferred functionality over looking silly. The place felt cooler outside of the sun, and her first thought at the dead end was an ambush. She strained to hear a single noise of a shuffling tonberry. But there was nothing…. except the crackling of floor beneath them. Her eyes widened for a moment and she cursed Minerva for not having access to the materia that allowed one to float.
“Brace yourself.” She warned Caius as she felt the floor crumble away from her feet.
Caius would bite her, for real and for true, if she pushed the subject. He had no qualms about that. It wouldn’t be a hard bite though. It’d be a teasing bite.
Cissnei stated she was here for the bounty, but also paying a debt. So which was it? They would be splitting the bounty either way since she had done her share. That was how things were and was a possibility Caius had known could pass when he took the job to begin with. So he didn’t answer that. Instead, he kept on moving ahead. Noting the second source of light, neither though, seemed to show any sign of… Well, anything. Strange… There should be holes for an ambush, or… Well…. Something. Where had the Tonberrys gone? It was as though they had disappeared into thin air. There had to be something in this case that would serve as a clue… There had to be something drawing them here.
But then the floor under them would begin to break, and he knew.
The moment Cissnei called out, the floor under them would shatter and the two would be sent into freefall. Caius would flail about in hopes of grabbing onto something but nothing came. Just more and more bottomless pit. Caius would summon one of his daggers again, as he sensed that something was approaching... Likely floor. He had been about to throw his blade when he looked toward Cissnei, having expected her to use some of that magic again...
... Instead, she was bracing, as if expecting to tank this fall. Considering how far they had already fallen, the chances of her surviving that were pretty slim.
Growling under his breath, Caius would try and inch his way toward her. The ground was getting closer and closer and Caius couldn't help but dart his gaze down toward impending doom at every moment as he tried to inch himself quicker. At what was close to the last second, Caius' attempt to simply grab her with an arm turned into a frantic bear grab wrapped completely around her as he flicked the blade in the middle of the motion, trying to do both as desperately quick as possible to avoid their doom.
As the two warped through the air, Caius didn't let go. Their fall stopped abruptly, but with the awkward place they re-appeared and without the usual preparations to land safely, Caius and Cissnei would sail through the air before sliding across the ground and roughly hitting the wall. Caius had absorbed most of the impact, though it was doubtful that Cissnei went completely unscathed either.
Letting out a groan, Caius would inch his ear to her chest in order to see if she was still breathing. Luckily, Vordun hadn't come along for this trip. The dragon was with Celes. He doubted he would have liked this landing either. But with affirmation that the small adult woman was still alive, Caius would release her and sit up. Catching a deep breath, he would wait until she got herself up before moving his head over and teasingly biting the back of her neck. Nothing too hard, nothing overtly harmful, but enough to get across. "That's for not warning me you didn't have a means to protect yourself" Caius muttered into her ear as he would get to his feet. Feeling sore all over from the impact, Caius would dust himself off and cast a spell he had learned back at the mountains - Cure. He walked slowly at first, watching Cissnei in case she was walking slow and if he needed to heal her as well. But as they stepped into the light...
They would find a large collection of wooden huts strewn around a massive cave city's worth of them.
Cissnei knew there was nothing but sheer abyss. All she did was tuck and be ready. Come what may. She did not fear death, like so many others. For in her world, one’s soul rejoined the collective for a brief respite, before rebirth. It was a balance. Regardless, she braced for the sheer chance that she might. In this moment, her mind slipped into a shock of memory. She had this sensation before.
The memory came in a green haze. Her eyes watching as the summon was driven back to its plane, causing the platforms it created to escape her feet. She was severely injured and her comrades all falling around her. She could do nothing but embrace gravity. To this day, she does not know how she survived a plummet from the sky. But she woke in a hospital with a dislocated shoulder and severe injuries.
It was then she realized that Caius had grabbed her. Waking from her flash back and the warping severely disoriented her. The impact only made it worse as they slid across the ground and into a wall. She blanked for a few seconds. Before eyes fluttered open. “Ugh.” She groaned softly, slow on getting up. Everything still seemed to be spinning. “We’ll feel that in the morning.”
Then he…bit her. She felt a slight shock go through her body, and her face went red again. “Are you trying to establish a pecking order?” She huffed at him, rubbing the back of her neck. What did he think he was? A wolf? “And how was I supposed to know…?” She shook her head, and felt sarcasm touch her voice. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t prepare to literally drop in…” She leaned against the wall to stand up and pushed herself to her feet. She steadied herself, then tested her feet.
She was going to ask if he was okay, but he seemed to be doing just fine. She felt a little bruised, but they had worse problems as they found the city. She gave a soft inhalation of breath in surprise. “We now know that they are protecting their home.” She said softly, looking around. “Well, we can’t really impersonate them at our height. We can try some stealth… oh…and…”
She drew on her magic again, a wind coming up around her for a moment before she raised a hand to touch his shoulder. In front of him, raised a translucent wall that shimmered before disappearing again. She did the same for herself. “This should help deflect a few of their attacks. It is fragile and won’t last but will help if we are surprised…. oh, and don’t try to bite me with this up. You’ll literally break your teeth.” Maybe she should have kept that last part secret.
Her eyes shifted back to the village. “Let’s see how much of the layout we can gauge before walking into the city.” She looked around for a moment and pointed up, “There’s some rocky ledges over there. Perhaps you can…” She wasn’t sure what his ability was called, “do what you did to get us down again? Does it have a name?” Cissnei could climb it, but it would be much faster otherwise.
"You knew of my abilities and knew you had no capability to protect yourself from a long fall. I could have prepared us adequately had I known. In your position, I would have alerted you as soon as we started falling. If I had enough time during a fall to tell you, then the fall's probably going to severely injure or kill me. Which means the most practical thing is ensuring the survival of everyone involved" Caius would point out, quite calm despite the circumstances.
"Whether you like it or not, in this scenario we are a team, Cissnei. My capabilities and yours are to ensure both of our survival. The sooner you realize that, the better the chance we have of surviving down here" He pointed out. "And I'd far rather you be by my side right now than dead."
The fact was though, they now needed to be far more wary than before. They were in the middle of what seemed to be some kind of Tonberry city, and the number of huts that Caius could see ranged into the hundreds. That meant that there were likely a very large number of them and that… Well, that could be very, very bad. Caius’ observations would be interrupted when he would feel a shield going up. As Cissnei would explain the shield, Caius nodded his head. He was accustomed to the shield through Celes’ use of it before.
Cissnei would ask if Caius could warp them down, and he would nod his head. “Mhm” He responded quietly and calmly, his demeanour having changed with the changing of the situation. He would hold out an arm and, if the shield allowed him to, pull Cissnei against him as he would summon his blade once more. Taking a deep breath, he would point his blade toward a point down below. Instead of the Warp Strike, with the time to focus he would be able to use a full Point Warp. He didn’t think he had to tell her to hold on. It was pretty obvious. Caius would focus his energy, before the two would Warp forward, landing just above the point down below as they would land on their feet. Caius would release her and begin making his way forward. Hopefully they could get a view of the place before-
Beady yellow eyes seemed to pop out from everywhere around them. While the area was a bit lighter than the caves above, the dark had kept Caius from really noticing what was around them until they were down there. But he saw them. Hundreds of pairs of eyes. From the shadows came hundreds of Tonberrys, all holding weapons.
Surveying the situation, Caius knew that trying to kill them wasn’t in the cards. Perhaps they could be reasoned with? The bounty was just to neutralize them as a threat to the village, after all…
While he prepared to fight if needed, Caius would hold out his hands.
“Parlay.”
The Tonberrys stopped, tilting their heads.
“Yes. Parlay.”
The Tonberrys blinked a few times, not seeming to understand. Caius looked to Cissnei. “I saw this in a movie once at the palace.”
He looked to the Tonberrys.
“Parlay means, uh… In pirate speak, it means that both sides must cease hostility. And talk terms. And… Neither side can harm the other until terms of parlay are complete. So uh…”
Caius looked to Cissnei and quickly gave her a look. He wasn’t a pirate, the look said don’t say anything.
“So uh… Take us to your leader so we can talk… Terms?”
The Tonberrys looked from one, to the other, to the next, to the next. Then they began to move, with others walking behind them with their little sheevs pointed at them to “Encourage” them to follow.
Caius was so bewildered it actually worked that he almost got stabbed.
Cissnei stared him directly in the eyes as he gave her his lecture. She was not understanding where he was coming from. Hindsight was always 20/20. He did not need to know that she fell back into PTSD, while falling. Nor did she need to explain herself. The most confusing of all, he seemed concerned for her safety. She mulled over it but could not seemed to understand why. She was disposable and if she fell, then he could take all the reward money. He seemed more than capable of handling this mission on his own.
She searched his gaze for a moment. “…A…team…?” Her head tilted to the side. She had never heard words, or the voiced concern, since her time with her ShinRa partners. She looked down in troubled thought, trying to figure out why someone was concerned about her in a world she thought was dog-eat-dog. Certainly, protecting himself and taking all the financial gain outweighed the benefits of her own safety. “Very well. I will enter this partnership with you. I apologize for any misunderstandings and your injuries. If you need medical assistance, I will be sure to check you over.”
She was not sure what else to say to him. They had bigger things to worry about than botched communication. She removed her hard hat and turned off the light, before placing it back in her bag. Cissnei took his invitation to get close to him and she held on. She felt that lurch in her stomach, and when they landed she felt highly disoriented again. But much like a ballet dancer who gets disoriented from spinning too long, she powered through it and willed her eyes to focus as she let go of him. She stayed where she was as she looked around at the buildings, trying to figure out where the roads wound.
But those eyes seemed to melt out of nowhere. Cissnei simply stared back into those eyes. She could see the intelligence in them. She heard Caius begin his “Parlay”, trying hard not to facepalm at his movie knowledge. Oh, Minerva, save them all. She said nothing about pirates, but she did not take the glance to mean to stay quiet the entire time.
As they were forced to move forward, Cissnei tried to take in what was along the path. Noting crevices and buildings passed. More importantly she spoke to them, “I want to apologize for what we have done.” She said softly and daintily. “We did not realize what a remarkable civilization you have here. We only knew our life was in danger.” She made slow, non-threatening movements. She could see a couple of the tonberries looking at her curiously. “But I can see why you want to protect such a breath-taking place. I would too if I were in your shoes.”
She was trying to set the stage here, even if they did not respond to her, they could still hear her. One threatened her with a soft jabbing motion with its knife to indicate she should stop talking to them. She thought about whispering something to Caius but did not want to botch their negotiations with any ideas of colluding.
As they moved forward, she noticed they were moving deeper into territory. She nudged Caius slightly and tilted her head to show her line of sight of a possible entrance to go deeper into the cave between buildings. She was memorizing every step they took, even as they approached a more elaborate building. It was more ornate and defined than the small huts around them. “Should we be dressed more appropriately for your leader…” Cissnei asked hesitantly as they moved them closer inside in what she assumed would be their leader.
