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year 5, quarter 3
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Post by Caius Dragelion on Aug 25, 2022 12:39:02 GMT -6
The Dragonblades
So.
Caius had been busy since Celes went on her vacation, hadn't he?
No seriously. The man thought he had been through some stuff when she was there and taking care of things on the homefront while he was out adventuring. Raising a dragon, slaying both the Lich and the Kraken, saving Torensten, starting a war with an entire crime syndicate. Those were pretty big things, and one can't deny that Caius has had absolutely no trouble with finding, well, that. Trouble. Everywhere he goes. The thing is, one would think that with Celes going on her vacation to deal with a long-cultivated set of identity issues, Caius would step up on the homefront in her place even if he had nowhere near the amount of experience in that area as his partner.
And to his credit, he did. Caius genuinely made an honest attempt at it. Sure, he wasn't exactly getting paperwork done at the same rate as the former General, even with a new receptionist helping him out. She was just too darn good at, well. Paper things. But he did try. He even took fairly well to training the recruits, doing background checks, testing people for their aptitude before sending them on proper missions. Caius hadn't been an instructor in the old world like Celes had been, but he'd dedicated a great deal of time to the role and was putting his best foot forward until he started to make it work. He took to that a bit more naturally than he did at paperwork, thank the Astrals for that at least. He had managed to, for the most part, slot neatly into these duties, whether it was training, paperwork or even just restocking the stores and handling concerns of their mercenaries.
But the thing about this kind of work is that you would think that in comparison to Caius' wild adventuring days, these would be fairly lowkey. Almost quiet and peaceful, even. Hell, it was likely part of the reason that Celes had taken her vacation in the first place. Too much quiet, albeit the busy kind of quiet. It was a lot of work, but it wasn't exactly eventful. There wasn’t often exciting bandit battles, getting into hijinks and making your name in glorious fashion. Just busy work. One would think that the role reversal for the two would put Celes in the hot seat — seeing as there was no way Celes wasn’t jumping into the fray at the first opportunity — and Caius to a quieter life that might have even done the workaholic mercenary a bit of good.
But you remember that part about finding trouble? Well, apparently Caius couldn’t get away from it even when he was just vibing back home in Torensten, running the operation from a desk.
First it was the statue. That was just weird. Sure, he’d led the operation against the Kraken, but Caius hadn’t expected them to want to throw a statue at him. This was something Celes had delegated to him when her vacation started, but Caius knew nothing about art and was too awkward to really have any idea what he was doing!
If that was the worst of it though, Caius could probably have handled it and moved on to a hopefully quiet and peaceful existence. Or as peaceful as you can get when you aren’t used to staying in one place and constantly find your trigger finger getting itchy. But it only got worse. Because then came… The doppelgänger. Caius thought Celes had returned for a visit, but he realized very quickly how wrong he was when “Celes” nearly screeched Torensten to the ground in a raging tantrum for the ages. No, this doppelgänger was an opera diva. Emphasis on “diva”. They disagreed on almost everything, and yet somehow Caius was coaxed into accompanying said diva to her show as her “date”. How did that even happen? Caius is confused about it to this very day.
Then there was Claire, whom he had met during a foray to Provo who had moved to Torensten with her family. Somehow, Caius had essentially "adopted" this girl, though nothing had been said officially on the matter, and had practically taken position as the girl's father. Taking care of her when she visited, feeding her, keeping her safe. And for some reason consistently going along with her strange fascination with setting him up on dates. Seriously though, who would have thought she would try and set him up with an otherworld Princess of all things?
Then there was the weird skeleton man who was harassing the Tonberries. And then a Behemoth getting too close to Torensten with Claire's big-little sister Serah wanting to come along. Finding out that Cassandra was housing a psychopath. A hyper-sentient AI trying to set up shop in their base. A weird elf trying to bribe him to get him an audience with a King. Oh, and can't forget literally meeting a younger version of his former nation's King who has never actually met him before, and is planning to stage a prison break from a Sonoran gulag of all things.
So busy it was. But after all that, there came a day where Caius had actually done well with his work behind the desk, the recruits were trained, food was stocked and everyone had gone for lunch. Claire was out with her family, and so that left Caius with, for probably the first time in his life, absolutely nothing to do. Even Tomoe, the new receptionist, was taking an early day to take her girlfriend on a date. Good for her.
Would Caius realize just how little in hobbies he had? Who knows? But after finding himself with little to do, Caius quickly found something practical he could do. And that was fishing to restock his personal stores. It was something he did here and there for Vordun to take a break and relax while Caius did something practical, but deep down he knew that he enjoyed the tranquility of it as well. Monsters weren't fool enough to attack a man resting against a dragon. So he didn't have to worry too much, and for once he could let his guard down. So it was that one afternoon, a little ways from the resort on the Pale Coast where the monsters didn't often flock, but just far away enough from where people tended to gather that they wouldn't often be disturbed, Caius casted his line.
It was a nice, hot day, as it often was in the Pale Coast. Perfect to lay back against the large, curled up dragon and fish for a few hours.
Though it likely made for quite the sight for someone passing by. A man fishing with a dragon. And while Vordun was curled up, the dragon's gaze was constantly on the line. Waiting for the fish to bite.
So far they didn't get much for information on this land. Aphmau had met a few on the road and learned this was called "Zephon". Some explanation on two settlements they could've gone to, Ovjang had considered to move towards Provo, but both Aphmau and Mnejing thought it was better to go for the larger settlement called Torensten. Also while it was further away, they could hang around near the coastline for now.
The long stretch of beaches was a pretty sight, Aphmau still did look up at times to see if she could see any more airships, but so far it was relatively quiet. Well, outside Ovjang commenting on things at times. The automaton liked to talk and obviously she would take the chance to comment on anything she saw along the coast. Whether it was about shells, small creatures walking along the coast, or whatever was in the water. At least, until a certain sighting of a… dragon? "Isn’t that a dragon? Or perhaps a drake? We find little sight of beastmen and the coast seemed so boring," Ovjang continued energetically, "and then a large winged lizard just appears to be resting along the coastline!" The automaton bowed forward with one hand above the opening in her helmet, like trying to see far in the distance.
Aphmau was surprised as well as she looked, but it seemed like there was something more than just the dragon. Mnejing remained quietly standing next to her, from his continued straightened stance Aphmau would assume he was disinterested in this new situation. But it wasn't like they were dealing with a situation here. The dragon was far away and they were still strolling along the shoreline. Aphmau did move further forward as her curiosity was now peaked. She thought she saw there was someone with the dragon.
"Appears there is someone with the dragon, so the dragon would have to be friendly," Ovjang started as she marched onward. It seemed Aphmau was not the only one would notice. "..." there seemed to be some reaction from Mnejing, "we'd best be quiet..." he didn't seem to like the situation at all. Still, Aphmau continued to go forward, it wasn't like there were many hiding places after all. The girl and her two automatons continued to move along the coast until they would get a better sight of what was going on.
It appeared to Aphmau that there was someone fishing there while the dragon was resting and staring at the line that was cast out. "It looks to be just someone fishing," Aphmau smiled a bit nervously while looking at Mnejing, but the white automaton remained quiet as he continued to move, he had moved somewhat quicker than she had and positioned himself more in front of her. Perhaps in a protective sense, Aphmau was more focused on the dragon and, what she would assume, was the dragon's owner. "Well, let us hope things don't get too lively," Ovjang said as she hurried forward, "hello over there!" She suddenly called out, causing Mnejing to shudder, seemingly in shock that the other would shout.
Post by Caius Dragelion on Aug 26, 2022 10:26:51 GMT -6
The Dragonblades
With that, Caius had finally found his way to relax, even if just for a bit. The mercenary had convinced himself that this was practical. He could do this without wasting time. Sure; fishing was unpredictable and could prove to be without fruit. But Vordun loved fish more than any other food, so the time put in was worth it in order to catch some fish for Vordun.
Caius had just finished reeling in the first catch and had promptly handed it over to Vordun as was tradition for the first catch of the day — when a voice would catch his attention. Caius sat up at attention. Vordun rose to his full height, likely intending to look big. But it was hard to look all that intimidating when the dragon had a half-eaten fish hanging out of his mouth.
Someone had indeed called out to them specifically, and Caius didn’t recognize the voice at all. They had been found and Caius didn’t know who by. Most random passerbys would just leave them alone, but…
When he turned, he would see a young girl accompanied by what appeared to be a large… Puppet? No, he had to be imagining that, right?
“What can we do for you?” Caius called back, then.
Seeing the dragon in full glory was a sight to behold and when Ovjang had the bright idea to call out to them, Aphmau did stop in her tracks as well to see what the dragon was going to do. But her eyes slowly moved towards the person with the dragon. He was still sitting, but more with the attention to them while the dragon gave a bit of an intimidating presence. Even with the fish hanging there. That part seemed lightly silly in earnest.
Mnejing was stood frozen in place while the red automaton walked further forward, she was incredibly small when compared to the dragon, but still she seemed not at all frightened as she walked towards the two. "Oho! Are you two by chance companions?" she asked cheerfully, "or what is the intelligence of a dragon really?" Hurriedly she continued until she would come to a halt not far from the two while looking up at the dragon and then towards the man, "might you, I don't really know much of dragons." She would perhaps come to half the man's size.
Then she slowly turned around as Ovjang came to notice that the other two hadn't followed her. "What's wrong?" she asked motioning towards the two. "You really need to see the danger of things!" Mnejing started and slowly started to walk towards her, "you might need to actually tone down your joy." Looking at the man and the dragon. Aphmau was still gazing from the dragon to the man before following along, "I… I suppose you're right, Mnejing," she started, "we're not from here," she said towards the man. "We saw the dragon from a distance and were… curious, it just seemed exciting!" Aphmau couldn't help herself be cheerful.
"This is Lady Aphmau," Mnejing intervened as he motioned towards the girl, "I am Mnejing and the one that could've done with a few more manners would be Ovjang," he continued as he motioned towards Ovjang. "You stick-in-the-mud, they're fishing here, I don't think they're going to just attack anyone that appears, now… would you?" while the first of what Ovjang was said was directed to Mnejing, while talking the red automaton turned towards Caius and Vordun.
Post by Caius Dragelion on Aug 27, 2022 8:33:26 GMT -6
The Dragonblades
With the nonhuman element to the creatures by the woman's side, it was no surprise that Vordun was especially on guard. The dragon was used to fighting monsters and non-human creatures on the regular in order to defend Caius. With no clear knowledge on whether they were a threat or not, Vordun would quickly chomp up the last of the fish in short order as the dragon stared them down. Caius meanwhile, rose to his full height and dusted himself off, fiddling with the fishing rod between his fingers. Which at least indicated he wasn't preparing for combat just yet. That, or it was a feint. Something to lull a potential enemy into thinking that Caius' guard was down.
Caius meanwhile, was perplexed by how the creatures beside her were speaking. What were they? Some kind of automatons? He hadn't seen their like before. Caius kept himself calm, his breathing level, as he heard the red one continue to speak out to him. The girl herself, it seemed, scarcely spoke a word. Instead, her two automatons spoke most of their greeting for her. The red one moved to them without hesitation, bursting with joy. While the yellow one remained cautious, and openly so. The girl herself was more on the cautious side herself, though eventually spoke up. Explaining that they weren't from here. Offworlders, perhaps?
After their greeting, Caius gave a polite bow for his own. "Caius. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Aphmau. Mnejing, Ovajang" he spoke calmly and respectfully. "My companion here is Vordun. Excuse his caution, he will not attack if not given reason. I assure you that pleasantries do not count as a reason" he did his best to reassure the group. People being fearful of Vordun was normal for him, so he had himself grown used to telling people that Vordun was relatively harmless. Vordun would lean over to sniff at the red one, still seeming unsure.
"You say you're not from here. What brings you to the area, then?"
Mnejing continued to not like the situation and stayed far away from both man and dragon. Even if Aphmau slowly did pass him by, he stayed where he was for now, but despite not being able to show it: he was fully prepared to leap forward if anything was tried against the girl. He kept serious as he listened to the man's greeting. "This one has good manners, far better than the pirate captain had been," he said, actually content that there was someone with manners here.
Aphmau chuckled a little before she made a small bow, "a pleasure, w-well we did kind of stumble without much caution, so I hope we aren't bothering you," she said with a bit of uncertainty. Before she really could continue, Ovjang burst forward, "come now, where's the sense of adventure! One should let their joy loose into the world!" Moving even closer towards the dragon, "so Vordun, I suppose these wyrms are incapable of speech? I've always heard they were hostile to most races, but that might just be the case in Vana'diel."
Ovjang was a bundle of joy now having been sniffed, feeling like she was accepted, so only would get closer as to try and touch the dragon. Mnejing chose to reply to the question that was asked, considering Ovjang was only interested in getting herself in possible trouble. However, she actually had been singing when she was kidnapped at the time on the ship, so he couldn't really put in the effort to deal with her reactions right now, especially since the dragon didn't seem harmful. "We're not certain, this entire place is new to us, we were just about to get attacked by the Dark Rider and next thing we know: we're here," the white automaton walked calm forward, continuing to stand straightened and in a serious tone.
"We were talking with some people on the road," Aphmau continued nervously, "we understand this is… Zephon? We're just trying to figure out what best we could do right now." Slowly getting closer as well, "we're from Aht Urhgan, I am the royal puppeteer and as we were sent on an important mission it would not do well for us to remain if… leaving this Zephon is a possibility? We heard it was not, but perhaps you know of more." She made a polite bow, "if you could spend some of your time for us, of course. We do not wish to keep you if unwanted."
Post by Caius Dragelion on Aug 27, 2022 9:15:09 GMT -6
The Dragonblades
The pirate captain? While there were surely more pirate captains out there, Caius had to wonder for a moment if these ones had met Faris. Though it was likely just a coincidence, "Captain Faris" and "bad manners" did often go hand in hand. The girl herself seemed nervous though, indicated by a slight stutter. Was that why she had the puppets speak for her? Social timidity? It was quite something to have puppets speak for you in order to make up for your inability to speak clearly, though. At least she seemed polite enough, though Caius didn't rule out just yet the possibility that they could attack at any moment.
"You're not bothering us. We just caught the first catch of the day" Caius brought up, though looked to Vordun after that. "Though it is presently in Vordun's belly. If you wish to join us though, you are free to it. I always bring a spare set of fishing gear just in case" he offered, perhaps against his better judgement. Though he had some level of confidence that if they attempted anything funny, Vordun would be on them quickly. Especially when the dragon was already on guard around them.
Speaking of guard, Vordun didn't seem to like that the red puppet pointed out that he couldn't speak. The dragon snorted smoke right at them in response with a grumpy little huff, which got a small laugh out of Caius. "Don't mind him. He's a prideful lizard. Wouldn't hurt a fly without a good reason, but you might get snorted at if you offend him" he pointed out, though Vordun seemed to get over it quickly enough when the puppet moved to pet them. An action which was allowed.
Caius listened as the yellow puppet and the girl would speak in tandem to explain their situation. Offworlders, most likely. Caius nodded as he motioned that they could take a seat nearby. "Of course, I will see what I can do" he accepted in turn. "I have not heard of Aht Urghan, so I am going to guess that you are one of the stranded offworlders. Same as myself" he decided to get over with to start. "Zephon isn't a different land as most find out, but a different world. It decides who comes, and who goes, and when. Best you can do is make a life for yourself until that day comes. Could disappear from this world tomorrow, presumably to return to your own. Or you could be stuck here for years like I have."
He shrugged at that. "Though it's not bad here. Certainly more full of life than my own world."
At the mention of the first catch, Aphmau did look up at the dragon. She did see him eat a fish a bit earlier, but if they were fishing to fill Vordun's belly fully, then she suspected they would be here for a while. A human was much easier to fill than a creature this big. Her puppets at least required no such thing as food, the two automatons wouldn't really know what to do with food if they got served any. Though she wouldn't put it past Ovjang to try.
Looking at Ovjang, the red automaton made a small hop backwards when the dragon snorted smoke, surprised and figuring she should perhaps watch it. Though, they seemed to allow her to pet them. "You say Offworlders, so how do the Onworlders react to all these offworlders appearing in their world?" Ovjang asked while petting the dragon, "I would think that at some point they'd start finding it troublesome with people appearing and disappearing. Sure it makes life interesting, but there should be those that grow annoyed, right?" "I assume they, and likely offworlders themselves, have been looking into the phenomenon and attempted to find out how to deal with it," Mnejing stated in a calm manner while he moved towards the fishing gear, wanting to try and inspect it.
"From what you have said, I take it that any excursions you might know of have failed thus far?" Mnejing continued. "So chances are… that we are definitely not seeing home any time soon," Aphmau sighed, rather sad of the present situation, "before we appeared in this place, we were attacked by the Dark Rider. With us were some people, do you know if we just disappeared from that place? Since this world pulls people from other worlds, maybe it has someone from Vana'diel? I must know if my brother is safe." She was hopeful that they got out safely, but Razfahd had been possibly the main target of Luzaf. Even if he now no longer could take down the entire family… or perhaps he could, she was here, after all? This all seemed so confusing.
Walking a bit closer and trying to figure out how to seat herself on the ground, Aphmau figured she could just join them there for now. "How long have you been here now? Since you say 'years' I presume you know of a lot of strangers having come and gone," she asked while she sat down. Ovjang finally moved away from Vordun to join her while they let Mnejing focus on trying to get ahold of the fishing gear.
Post by Caius Dragelion on Aug 29, 2022 8:25:12 GMT -6
The Dragonblades
Caius moved aside to make room for the puppetmaster, with Vordun moving as well in order to align with Caius before the dragon plopped back down. Now that the group had been shown to not be a threat for the time being, Vordun seemed content to relax once more, though that could change in an instant if the dragon sensed that they had become a threat. Vordun didn’t trust very easily, nor did his handler.
The automatons kept asking questions, and Caius did his best to answer as he settled down, baited the hook and casted his line again. “Depends on where you are” Caius brought up, then. “Torensten doesn’t care who you are or where you’re from if you’re willing to pitch in and help out. They’ve been the most welcoming to immigrants because they’re so used to trouble that if someone does attack, well, they’ve got plenty of good people willing to defend it, and Torensten has designed many magical methods for rebuilding quickly. And a good sense of community that ensures they all work together to get it done and get life back to normal.”
He thought about it a bit more, then. “Provo is cautious but able to be accepting if you’re not blowing up their town squares. Sonora… It’s better they don’t know. I would prepare a cover story and pick a place you’re “immigrating” from that they can actually find on a map. Not that I would recommend living there in the first place.”
There was also the memory issue. But it wasn’t relevant at the moment.
“People have looked into it, but there isn’t really any progress. Just guesswork.”
They asked about how it affected their world and their loved ones, then. Caius sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know, I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything of that kind of people, and nobody knows how this has affected other worlds. The best thing you can do is find a place to work, and rebuild a life here.”
She asked about him, then. “It’s been three years, maybe four. Best I could do was build a new life here. Fell in with some mercenaries, the Dragonblades, over in the Torensten capital. Torensten's been good to me, so I've done my part to protect it when the time comes."
That time came often.
"What're you thinking to do? Suppose if you wanted to put on puppet shows or the like, there's a theatre in the capital."
Aphmau remained somewhat cautious for the dragon. Honestly she isn’t familiar with these creatures, so she would not know what to expect. With the past with the Beast Tribes and their dealings with the raids, she would not be entirely sure how to even place a dragon in that. Her automatons had less issues with such, though Mnejing did continue to show to be wary even though he had started working on getting the fishing gear ready.
While Mnejing was dealing with the gear and wanting to cast a line as well, he did continue the conversation. “From your words, I take it each of these function as nations? Or are they actually that, nations?” the automaton asked, he wanted to place safety first, so this Torensten seemed less and less like a good place as Caius explained the place. Honestly, it probably was some kind of hole that accepted everything and everything was inclined to either backstab you or blow you up. Mnejing was not interested in going to a place where you had a big chance of stepping onto mines at every step.
While the idea that the place had their methods to rebuild and repair quickly was of interest, it still seemed like a place even the Emptiness could just pop into and be considered normal. Even if Caius spoke of a ‘good sense of community’ there, Mnejing lost quickly trust in that place when he had spoken on Provo being cautious, but accepting if you’re not blowing up their town squares. It just sounded like Torensten was blowing up town squares all too often. “I would say that Sonora’s then not a place to consider for staying,” Ovjang said as she stopped petting the dragon and started moving around Vordun all curiously, “still, are there perhaps communities even there that would deal with Offworlders? I would say that it is a place Lord Razfahd might consider moving to.”
Speaking of Razfahd, it did come to Aphmau’s attention: What if she was not the only one displaced and now there? Then they would need to see and find others of her world, perhaps. It seemed like a better idea than just wildly guessing. “Uh-uhm... If they haven’t made much progress, there could still be those looking for ways out of this place, and even if some have found, they might just be gone without people learning,” she considered if one found a way out, but not a way back in? Perhaps she was thinking too far about it.
“Would the possibility of others from the same world having come here not also an option?” she continued considering the part where Razfahd had also arrived and perhaps the mercenary as well, “on what to do... I feel we should first learn some more before settling in one place,” she considered, though her voice hinted uncertainty. She looked over at Mnejing, hoping he could help her in that sense, “if we can find others from Vana’diel, it might aid us in learning the state of affairs home. Apart from that... if we find someone from Aht Urhgan or that knows the state over there... that would at least comfort us.” Meanwhile he had cast his own line.
“Maybe we could also do some mercenary work, we very much worked alongside the Salaheem’s Sentinels back home, so we have experience as mercenaries,” Ovjang chimed in as she appeared from the other side of Vordun, having moved all around him to look him fully over as she was curious on how the dragon looked from all sides.
