End of an Era IC

[Shancus]

Jin scratched his chin thoughtfully, considering Rie's words. Being treated with a degree of reverence would be nice in his opinion, but coming from the perspective as a virtual second-class citizen that he felt like at times being male that didn't mean as much. "Well of course it goes without saying that the flattery comes from people either wanting to use your position to further advance themselves or out of desire to want to take you to bed. I can see how constantly being on that platform could become to be very annoying in the long run." He said nodding understanding her completely as he shook Rie's hand firmly. Jin could sense the strong value core that she carried herself with, right in line with what he knew about the Qigekki. "Valor... would certainly be a way of putting it when describing your sect of people's intensity level. Oh I'm quite good at making friends so I think we'll hit it off rather fast." Jin stated with a smile, releasing Rie's hand and winking at her. His face turned a bit more serious before he started to speak again. "But don't mistake my tenseness for fear. I fear very little this side of the Great Mother's afterlife. That was in preparation for just about for anything you might of done. Like a physical attack, be it violent in terms of a impromptu spar or sexual in terms of well sex as the rumors would have it about the Qigekki."

[Stabbajack]

Nato watched the Elumari jump onto the boat with quite a bit of surprise, as he hadn't seen the hovercraft before then. He paused, waiting for Ethan to finish.

“I could do that,” he said to Nal, scratching the back of his head. “Twenty years ago. I think.”

He quickly realized he didn't remember twenty years ago.

He made a quick bow to show respect. No sense in aggravating people who'll be watching his back if his suspicions were confirmed.

“Well, with that out of the way, I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Nato Masamune, mercenary. Occasional bandit. Mostly legitimate,” he added with a noncommittal wave of his hand, “and sober, to boot.”

He saw the symbols around Lucian's neck, figuring it for either a personal motif or keepsake of his city. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it.

Nato turned his attention back to the Elumari. "So what brings you lot on this fine voyage through waters usually hostile to most of the gathered here?"

[Lekkuen]

"Why yes I am!" Nal said in a chipper tone before grabbing her guns and tossing them high in the air. She flipped in the air after them and caught both of them mid spin before landing to the side of Ethan with both guns pointed at him. One at his head and the other slightly under one of his ribs, her facial expression deathly serious as she glared at him. "I'm with the U.E.T. and what exactly I do is one of the few things that has to remain a secret from the general public." She said serious before her face turned to a happy smile and she placed her guns away. She began to move around again and examine stuff on the ship before she moved over to Penelope and attempted to give her the same treatment she gave Ethan. Leaning down so that their faces would be extremely close and trying to lightly poke and prod all over as was standard. She was about to ask her a question until she heard Nato ask what they were doing which made her realize that both of them were Bajin.

"Ooooh is he your warlord?! Are you one of his concubines or something? Or perhaps his daughter? You're to young to be his mother but maybe he's your bodyguard?!" She began to blitz Penelope with questions instead of answering Nato, finding this recent idea much more interesting for her ever curious mind. she had seen a lot of stuff on Baji and how the warlords tend to act and the general lesser importance of women so she simply assumed that she was someone who relied on him. If not it would only raise even more questions which of course would raise questions to him as well, unless something more interesting happened that would draw her away from such things. So far this was a great start to her adventure.

[Days]

Penelope had let out a little chuckle at the new arrival's curiousity in Ethan. She heard her kind was curious, but she didn't expect this much. She studied the Eluminarun as she studied Ethan, and looked up the words of the other new arrival, the Baji man. He introduced himself as Nato Masamune, and made mental note of that in her mind.

''I'm Penelope Song, I-'' She got cut of when the Eluminari woman suddenly was all up in her face and asked questions. Her eyes opened wide in shock and suspicion, but the woman seemed harmless even though she had swung around guns some time before. Having a curious nature herself, she let the woman do what she wanted. It took her a moment to register her questions were about Nato. She took a step back from the curious woman and frowned. ''Excuse me, I am absolutely not anyone's concubine, nor is he my father or bodyguard. In fact I don't know this man at all, I'm from Kravatika.'' She said with a wave of her hand at Nato.

[Strayed Risaia]

Ethan stiffened as the Ynki's woman tone and posture became hostile, the pistols she leveled at him ready to do the killing that her looks couldn't. His expression was one of annoyance rather than fear, but his heart-rate had spiked and his pupils were already dilating. There was an ominous whir and click from the golem before the Elumarian soldier shifted her attention from him to Song.

Ethan wasn't sure if she had any idea how close his creation had come to lunging at her with vicious, if not quite murderous, intent. If his mental reflexes and calm had wavered for an instant...well, he suspected the rest of the trip into Zhuni lands would have been made considerably more uncomfortable regardless of who emerged less-scathed from that confrontation.

"I'm with the U.E.T. and what exactly I do is one of the few things that has to remain a secret from the general public."

“Really? You could probably do a better job of that by making your entrances less conspicuous and not flaunting your obviously military-grade weaponry...” Ethan deadpanned, turning to face her.


"Ooooh is he your warlord?! Are you one of his concubines or something? Or perhaps his daughter? You're to young to be his mother but maybe he's your bodyguard?!"

The Elumarian scientist raised his palm to his face at his countrywoman's...very poor choice of questioning.

''Excuse me, I am absolutely not anyone's concubine, nor is he my father or bodyguard. In fact I don't know this man at all, I'm from Kravatika.''

Ethan nodded at Song and gave the Ynki soldier a dry look. “If you would have a looked a little closer before voicing your thoughts, you would have noticed those,” He motioned at the pistols strapped to the half-Kravat's sides. “Bajin rely on magic and melee weapons for the most part, remember? And while I can't speak for the Zhuni, most other cultures tend to view anything related with their sex lives as a personal thing not to be casually discussed in front of strangers...”

[DarkBane]

Watching the new arrival's strange antics, Lucian wasn't sure whether to laugh or throw her off the boat and see if the sea water could calm her down. While skill in combat seemed to be a requirement here, sanity apparently took a back seat. Shrugging at the pistol-wielding elumarin, Lucian made a mental note to wear his armor for the rest of the journey, just in case all of her flipping around accidentaly discharged one of the pistols in his direction.

"Ma'am, your curiousity is... commendable, but please keep your hands to yourself for the duration of the trip. I do not think our Zhuni... benefactors would appreciate such interest in the pursuit of science," Lucian said, hoping to pull this strange woman's attention away from Penelope. Idly, he considered steering the elumarin's attention to the Zhuni guards or the deeper areas of the boat itself. It would certainly be interesting to see if anything happened.

Lucian glanced to the side, looking past the prow of the boat, "Speaking of this odd little trip... I wonder how close we are to our destination..."

[Stabbajack]

Nato was about to object to being called the other Bajin's father, but his mouth clamped shut as he realized he was probably old enough to be. Hell, he was probably old enough to be the father of everyone gathered on the deck – barring the Elumari, of course.

He decided he rather needed a drink.

Watching the newcomer examine the half-Bajin amused but didn't surprise him – he'd dealt with Elumari before in his line of work, both for and against. He analyzed the situation and put Nal among the higher ranking threats of the area, with the Kravat warrior, a couple of those in lighter armor (never underestimate a mage, he'd taken to heart after a close call involving a cliff and a ball of fire the size of his head) and the strange golem.

He shrugged, and decided to answer a few of the Elumari's questions. “I have no connections to anyone here. I am no warlord, and I'm afraid my time in Kravat – in addition to my age - has beat any grand dreams of conquest out of me. Nowadays I largely spend my time cleaning up other people's messes.”

He turned to the Kravat. “We'll likely know when we know, but over the years I've developed a foolproof method of determining our destination and distance from such. If you'll excuse me.”

He walked off to go see if he could get a crewmember drunk.

[HellOfALife]

Rie Eurin

"Oh I see... I really don't see all the flattery as being a boost to anyone's status, I really can't do anything like that, unless, that is....if they want to be Quigekki, one thing I would like to see change is the addition of male Quigekki, I see all these men with so much potential who are ignored due to their gender, it saddens me." she chuckled for a moment."Those topics are for another time I suppose, I think that maybe if we survive this journey, your bravery might lead to a change in that tradition. That tenseness, I really hope it wasn't fear, demons have a nasty way of seeing right through that. Don't worry I wouldn't do anything drastic, unless we had some type of disagreement, I think you already saw that by the way I greeted you. Oh....and those rumors, as far as I know Quigekki sex life, is a little hush-hush no one wants to be seen in any certain way. Some don't mind, as for me? You'd have to get me drunk for me to say or do anything. I can't say I haven't done anything, can't say I have. But I believe its more of an emotional connection, a bond if you will, what about you?" She giggled, blushing as she did, something that was rare for Rie. 'Here I am talking about sex to a man I just met moments before....."

[Shancus]

Jinof course nodded when Rie mentioned that she would like there to be male Qigekki. It was a revolutionary way of thinking considering the Zhuni culture. He felt a degree of pride at her thinking that he could possibly be the one to change that long standing tradition. But it was thinking for another time. Jin knew if he went into the mission out to prove himself to anyone, it would only end up with him being eviscerated by a demon. He just needed to do his job and do it well, and following that hopefully everything would fall into place after that. When the talk turned to sex, he refocused his attention back on Rie. Jin chuckled aloud at her evasiveness on what kind of experience she had. "Then perhaps I should try to get you drunk so we can do more than just talk about sex...." Jin trailed off suggestively with a smirk towards Rie before considering her previous question. He stroked his chin thoughtfully as answered her question. "I think that if you found that person, then sure it could be a bond, a emotional connection, love if you will. But considering our short life spans, if you haven't found that person by time you turn 20 then it is very unlikely you ever will. I aspire for the companionship or friendship it can provide. That is the kind of bond I build with sex. Sex is just great, it can tell you so much about who a person is. I don't have sex to feel love, I have to feel good and to make my partner feel good too. An amazing, quality orgasm is very therapeutic for the soul." Jin said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, indicting how much experience he had without explicitly stating how many women that he had slept with over the years.

[Lekkuen]

Eventually the ship carrying the group made it's way to the shore of the Zhu mainland docking at a harbor not to far from the capital city. From there they weren't given much time to look around before quickly being taken to the city on top of one large rhino like mammals with rows of seats with short walls next to them attached on top like some sort of living bus.They made the trek across the capital and stuck to the road leading from there to the Palace, eventually arriving outside of the massive gates leading into the small city which surrounding the majestic structure. After a brief pause the guards let them in and they were instructed to meet in the palace conference room within the next 30 minutes, where the Empress would be waiting. Whenever they decided to go to the Palace they'd all see the Empress' dragon Amahri laying down, it's dark brown and gray scales contrasting with the white marble ground. It one of the most feared ones throughout the empire and beyond. That particular dragon had killed scores of enemies from all over and during the Kravat war devoured the prime minster and burned down the capital, it was incredibly dangerous and just as cunning as its military upbringing would suggest. The dragon himself would watch them carefully as they neared and passed but wouldn't actually do anything unless they bothered him or his stuff.

The inside of the palace was a beautiful mix of sparkling marble with crimson walls and gold sprinkled around as lining and banners. All around the halls and rooms were works of art from all around their empire from rare paintings to incredible sculptures. Also all throughout the palace were armored female guards as well as young slaves of both genders constantly cleaning or finding other work to do in order to avoid being punished for standing around and hanging out. The teenage princess was nowhere in the area but if one of them happened to wander to the courtyard they would see the toddler princess happily playing with her pet tiger cub, rolling a ball to him as he pounced on it and nudged it back each time it making her laugh. Of course there were numerous guards and personal body guards for her who wouldn't let any of the outsiders get close to her if they tried.