Tyrell had shivers racing down his back as the girl strode past him, but when she turned to speak they shot clear down to the soles of his feet. It was a mercy she was leaving; Tyrell wanted no part of her. He backed away, not daring to take his eyes off of her until he or she turned a corner. As soon as he found a street to his left, he turned and dashed.

"I hate nobles," he muttered to himself as he ran. Her superior attitude, her freaky scorpion, and her even freakier, frozen eyes were all reasons for Tyrell to rejoice if he never met her again. Let some poor sucker of a suitor looking for a cute girl with gobs of gold deal with her.

He'd let the girl mess with his head. Tyrell wasn't paying any attention to where he was going, so when he emerged on a new street he had to come to a screeching halt to avoid crashing into a guy wearing the freakiest armor Tyrell had ever seen. Nearby was another guy in armor and a guy kneeling over an unconscious guy, stealing all his stuff. This was a very bad place to get into, Tyrell decided. But he'd already been seen, so it was too late to turn and run.

"Sorry for interruptin', I was just lookin' for the nearest, uh, bathroom. Don't mind me, I don't care if you rob the sap." Tyrell tried to sidle around the two suits of armor.

It was the smallest chance. Really, it didn't even make sense. Some sick feeling in his stomach, some chill in the air, and suddenly it feels like a clue. It was silly. But, then again, even if it was impossible it was worth it, if only for the chance so he could maybe feel some sort of closure. Maybe to shake off some of the gloom following him. Maybe if he could bring justice to the people who destroyed his village he would pay off a fraction of the debt weighed against himself. So he needed to find out who this man was, and Celosia's answer simply wasn't enough.

So that was why Leon decided to run after the raven-haired women, Celosia. "Hey, wait up!" Leon called out to her. He ran to catch up to her, then spin on his heel, placing himself in front of her. Leon spoke to the girl in a hushed tone, so that the congregation of people that came to aid her wouldn't overhear. "Listen, I know I don't really know you or anything, but... I want to help you chase this man. A long time ago my home was destroyed, and my family was killed, and I think that man was involved. Please, if I could go with you, or just get some information about him I would be grateful."

Freya sighed. She forgave the man for this time. She figured that he must have had SOME sort of reason behind it.

"Anyway, what did that man do to-"

Before she could finish the sentence, a boy that looked like a girl had appeared. He said something about robbing someone, and Freya assumed he was talking about the person under the foreign man's foot.

"It's not what it looks like!" She said. "It's a misunderstanding. I- he-..."

Freya couldn't figure out a way to explain anything to this new person. She wasn't even clear on why the foreign man was assaulting the braided one.

He cared not for what girl or the interloper thought of him, for they were not aware of his reasons. Nor had she and especially the boy done anything to earn that privilege. Pocketing the box for further inspection and if possible to return it, he chastised the woman, "Do not speak for me on my behalf, you neither know of my reasons nor did I ask of you to speak. " He looked at the boy and saw his shock. It must have been the armor woman and her animate suit of armor next to him. He felt like grinning at his luck for any possible mischief that boy had was stopped.

He spat out some more blood that had filled his mouth with too much fluid to speak. Turning to address the boy giving him a curt, " A good day to you." He was tense, he had two people watching him take that bandit and rile through his stuff. He didn't trust and worse didn't know what they would do; try and attack, report to the authorities, or hopefully keep quiet and ignore him? He walked forwards leaving them behind physically but not mentally, as he was morethan ready for a cowardly attack from the rear.

Tyrell looked at the armored person, mildly surprised that she sounded like a woman. He received another, even more mild surprise when the looter denied her words. He kept his face passive, more than happy to let the guy walk away. That did leave one man beaten to a pulp on the ground, though, and Tyrell didn't want to be standing nearby when the guard showed. He looked up and down the street, checking for anyone with a weapon that might give him grief. No guards, no wannabe heroes, not even a butcher--a happy, peaceful street, by Tyrell's reckoning.

"You ain't with him, then. You two partners?" he inquired, turning his gaze to the other suit of armor. Tyrell squinted in an attempt to see inside. He couldn't make out any features in the darkness, so he finally gave up. Whatever they were, it seemed these two weren't particularly keen on their identities being known. Tyrell could respect that; he didn't like people knowing who he was either, but he had always favored the low-key approach. Full-body suits of armor were attention magnets, this one woman's especially so.

Much to Atalee’s surprise, the young woman turned on her heel and began walking in the opposite direction. One of the young men present chose to follow her, saying something when he finally caught up. Atalee couldn’t hear what he said or if she replied, however. The sister remained where she was standing, staring blankly ahead, unsure of what she should be doing. She glanced back at the corpse behind her and then at the raven-haired woman and the messy-haired man up ahead. Again, she wondered what all this was about, and although she didn’t want to intrude, her curiosity got the best of her.

[/i]“Perhaps this is a sign from the Mother Goddess. Maybe she wants me to follow this woman and give her a hand…”[/i] She pondered.

The odds of that, Alatee calculated, were unlikely.

Still.

“Umm…” She searched for words. “Uh…”

“Wait up, please!” She hastily made her way forward, her heavy boots hitting hard against the ground with every step she took, “I, uhm…”

“I don’t wish to intrude, but…”

Still burning with curiosity about what had just taken place here, Joscelin held her tongue for as long as she could. She turned her head as another man walked over to join the small group gathered around the woman, watching curiously as performed a rather pretty-looking healing Etra of some sort. Once it seemed that the woman - Celosia, as she had introduced herself - had been sufficiently treated for her unpleasant but otherwise superficial wounds, she rather quickly informed them all that she would be on her way, not leaving much room for her to get a word in. As she began walking away, Joscelin already knew that she would run after her. She was surprised, then, when the man named Leon actually beat her to the punch, running to catch up with Celosia and placing himself in front of her, before whispering to her almost conspiratorially. She couldn't stand being so overtly left out of something that she wanted to be a part of, so soon after the soft-spoken woman with the unusual accent ran forward to join the others, she finally snapped and sprinted over to continue the reformation of the small gathering of people a few yards away from where they had previously been.

"Heeey! Don't forget about me!" She called out as she ran up to the group, her swords clattering against each other for a moment or two after she came to an abrupt halt. "Listen, I have no idea what just happened or why, but now I really want to find out!" She said, a big grin already formed on her face as she looked around at the others. "I'm Joscelin! Future hero extraordinaire and current mercenary ordinaire! Oh yeah, and this is my trusty companion..." She began to say, trailing off as she turned and noticed a distinct lack of short, cute thieves in the immediate vicinity. The realization dawning on her suddenly as she turned in the direction of the gathering with a slightly exaggerated frown. "Oooh... I can't believe he ditched me!" She said, sounding more upset than genuinely angry.

Freya was a bit confused by what this person was saying when he asked if she was partnered with someone. Her first thought was that he referred to the large man she was talking to earlier, but when she turned to verify, she foujd that he had left. This left her slightly frustrated since she couldn't recieve clarification on the man's reasons for what he did earlier, but she decided that it was fir the best. Freya's next guess was the braided man on the ground. She quickly dismissed the guess, for it was quite clear that he was a victim of simething.

Freya gave up on trying to figure out the boy's reference and said,

"I'm sorry. I don't know who you're talking about."

Celosia wasn't expecting to be stopped.

Or to be asked to join her on her hunt. So, when she was first approached by Leon, she had no words to return to him. "Excuse me, what?" She blinked a couple of times, before digesting what was just asked of her. Unfortunately, Celosia knew little to nothing about that mysterious murderer, and thus, she was unable to tell him anything about Dhoulen. So, check that one off the list. And that left his request to join her on her quest. That one was a little bit trickier. Like it was mentioned, Celosia and Leon literally met minutes ago. How would she know that he wasn't out to kill her, or something strange like that? But her gut instinct told her that it wasn't the case. Just a look into Leon's eyes proved that. Still, she hesitated to answer.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, she was interrupted by the other two females. Celosia turned around to see Atalee approach her, and she tilted her head to the side. "Yes? Can I help you?"

Then Joscelin introduced herself, and her energy coaxed a smile to her lips. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and the way she introduced herself was just adorable. But put a hold on everything else, if Joscelin was missing her companion, then the people-pleasing Celosia simply had to assist.

"Who's your friend? I can help you find him."

"THERE YOU ARE, YOU SMALL, FILTHY, WELL-DRESSED BITCH!" Zico emerged clumsily from around the corner, obstructing the way of the petite girl. His clothes were slightly tattered from the unfortunate incident that just happened, his hair a wild, unkempt flame, his eyes an inferno of molten gold. His breathing was labored due to the short marathon he had in search for her, and he mustered all of his will to not heave over and vomit from the exertion. Instead, he reached out and placed his shaking index finger firmly against her forehead, anger seething out of him like poisonous gas.

"My money. You're going to pay for every last copper your damn bolts took from me."

Although his soul was torn from his body after witnessing the pathetic eradication of his valuable bank note, Zico managed to squint through his flowing tears and saw a particular girl reloading a particular weapon with a particular pair of ammunition. He was about to unleash his furious wrath on all mortal beings of Zenith when all of a sudden he was knocked down on to his ass by an unrelenting gale, and the next thing he knew, he blacked out. When he regained his consciousness, he noticed three things. First, the people around him were perfectly find and tending to the victimized girl. Secondly, his pride as a man was struck down when he realized he was the only that was knocked out. Thirdly, the girl who took his money away from him was gone.

So he got himself up, dusted himself off with what dignity he had left, and took off towards the nearest alleyway, where eventually, he caught up with the small, grey girl.

Zico huffed, readying and flexing his finger to poke her on the forehead again.

"BAD GIRL! BAD, BAD GIRL!" Hee bellowed like an outraged father.

Tyrell's face showed his confusion. He raised his hand to point at the black armor standing right beside the woman. "Him. Er, her. Or, uh," Tyrell leaned forward to look closer. He flipped out his dagger and caught the sun on it, casting the reflection into the helmet. Not a flinch at the bright light; not a face, either. Tyrell was stunned for a few moments. Finally he pulled his mouth up and slid his dagger back inside his clothing.

"A'right, ya got me. You've got a puppet. Joke's on me. Were you going to do something about that guy?" Tyrell asked, gesturing to where the mugger had vanished to. "Or were you planning on helping this one?" His foot tapped the mugged guy's leg.

Ava stopped and looked up at the man that was attempting to chastise her, her red gorgon eyes finding his.

"BAD GIRL! BAD, BAD GIRL!" The man was yelling at her.

Was he an insect she had stepped on and failed to crush completely? The image of an ant brought to her mind her scorpion puppet, now sitting motionless on the wall just a few feet away. The girl raised a hand, as if to slap the man. But no, instead she pulled in the strings that connected her to her puppet. The scorpion was unmoved, but she lifted off the ground a few inches, now level with the man, though she now saw him as little beyond a boy. The puppet from above opened its mandibles and fired a metal harpoon into the stones just behind the man, and Ava leaned forward to place a kiss on the young man's lips.

"Am I really?" she said, not a trace of emotion present in her voice or in her cold, red eyes. The girl dropped to the ground, the puppet's weapon retracted, and Ava walked on past the man, the boy, the fool that blocked her way, steel companion following above. The paralyzing agent on her lips would be taking effect... right... about... now. The girl turned the corner and emerged from the alleyway to the sight of a tall building that was where she was staying currently. Her suit occupied the third floor entirely. Shrinking her puppet and hiding it away in the gray folds of her sleeves, Ava walked across the busy street and into the large building, the door slipping closed behind her.

Zico's eyes widened, his flaring anger quenched by the deathly touch of her soft lips on his. He let out a small gasp, wisps of breathe slithering out from his parted mouth as the metal harpoon whizzed by, nearly taking off his head.. He was shocked, outrageously stunned...by that sudden act of proclaimed love from a girl he just barely met. Why, he hadn't even asked for her name and yet she had graced him with an overly intimate expression. For a moment, his eyes glazed over, his body relaxed, and his heartbeat slowed. Is this what it feels like to irresistibly desired by? Is this the feeling that one achieves after knowing he has claimed the heart of a young, innocent maiden? Zico sighed softly, not even noticing that the young girl was walking away, his fingers brushing against his prickling lips, the numbing already spreading over his mouth and down his ne--

Wait.

Zico whirled around, his eyes bulging as the girl disappeared yet again from his sight. He tried letting out a scream of frustration but what came out was a gurgling mess that sounded like a baby drowning in it's drool. Not knowing what to do, he instinctively ran, right back into the maze of alleyways from where he came from, gurgling in a panicky manner as he does so.

---

By the time he reached the original location of the gathered adventurers and the victimized girl, the paralyzing agent had already numbed his whole body save his pair of legs. He ran- actually, more like wobbled - towards the group, his lopsided head rolling about his neck, his flailing arms trailing at his sides like flimsy rope. He gave one last gurgle before the poison caught up to his legs, and he tripped, face first onto the dirt, the momentum skidding his body to the boots of young Celosia and company.

Joscelin's frown quickly dropped in favor of a slightly confused expression as Celosia immediately offered to help her find Tyrell. "Wha... oh! No no, it's not like he's missing or anything!" She said, waving her hands in front of herself a bit as if to ward off Celosia's polite offer. "Really, he's probably just laying low until he realizes that the excitement is over. I'm sure he'll turn up all on his own soon enough. But thanks for the offer!" She said, grinning at her for a moment before crossing her arms, the grin dropping into a displeased frown.

"Honestly though... I'm starting to think he's not a very good traveling companion at all, if he's just gonna keep disappearing at the drop of a-" She began to complain, though she was cut off by the sudden arrival of a strange man, wobbling and gurgling his way over to them before collapsing onto the ground and sliding the rest of the way to lay at their feet. Blinking, Joscelin looked down at the seemingly incapacitated man with an expression of utter confusion. "Um... what?"

Leon wasn't too happy to be interrupted. Sometimes it was hard to keep up a saintly demeanor. He sighed as Celosia brushed off his plea in favor of helping the other girl, Joscelin, who appeared to have lost someone. The thick-accented women also approached, although she didn't seem to be sure of how to interrupt them, which was probably a good thing. She seemed almost as if she was interacting with an entirely foreign species. She seemed unable to compose herself and communicate. The other girl, Joscelin, was... exuberant, to say the least. Leon was ever so slightly annoyed. He was about to find out more about the man who ruined his life, but finding Joscelin's companion seemed more important to Celosia. Luckily Joscelin declined her offer.

Leon cleared his throat, trying to get the attention of Celosia "As I was saying..." Leon was suddenly cut off as a man hobbled onto the street and collapsed. The man had an almost regal appearance- or he probably would if he wasn't on the ground incapacitated. Leon's instincts kicked in. He rushed to the man's side and knelt down beside him. Leon shook him, "Hey, you alright? What happened to you?"

“I, uh…” Atalee began.

The metaphorical cogs turned, and the young woman worked to put together her thoughts and articulate them in a way that would not make her seemtotally crazy. She knew that few people worshipped or even recognized the existence of the Goddess Vexa. In fact, she recalled that many dismissed religion altogether, many people opting to simply live their lives without worrying about where humans came from, what their purpose was, and what happened after any individual human died in spite of the insurmountable amount of freak occurrences and coincidences that Atalee believed to justify the existence of some greater power, or, as she knew it, the Goddess Vexa.

The woman could not figure out any other way to say this.

“Miss,” she stated outright, “I believe that the string of coincidences I have seen this afternoon is the work of the Goddess Vexa sending me divine instructions to accompany you on your quest.”

The sister awaited Celosia’s reaction, a look of total seriousness plastered on her face.

Partly out of how concentrated Atalee was on piecing together what she wanted to say but mostly out of sheer obliviousness, Atalee didn’t hear what was going on behind her, apparently a man hobbling into the street and promptly collapsing onto the ground.

Plus, the young woman faced the wrong way entirely, staring straight at Celosia rather than in the direction of the action.

"Actually, I was about to scold him. He took the helmet of this armor set", Freya took a moment to point at her puppet. "in order to throw it like a rock to stop this man" she took another moment to point at the braided man on the ground. "and beat him senseless. He used it without permission, and almost dented it."

Freya was a bit single-minded when it came to things that she dubbed "important". Still, she continued on.

"In any case, with the way people were running earlier, I stopped him from causing a fuss that could get him imprisoned instantly...Ah."

Freya finally realized that she could be imrisoned too, with her strange-looking armor and all. She released control of her other armor, but not before manipulating its parts to pack it all up again.

"Speaking of which. Do you know what caused the commotion earlier?"

This day was becoming more and more eventful indeed. Too many people were talking at her at the same time, who was she supposed to focus on? Guys, calm down. Celosia isn't a superhuman, she can only process so many things at at time. After everything that's happened, she needs time to cool down a bit. But apparently that wasn't happening at all. Things continued happening, people continued talking...

Calm down Celosia, take things one at a time. You can do this.

Okay, that hyper girl... Joscelin, her name was? Okay, check. She doesn't need help finding that person.

Leon... I'm sorry, okay? But Celosia can't help you. It's simply just not possible. Oh, and he's distracted! Next~

Okay, the blonde woman now. Something about divine instructions and a goddess? That was... A bit unique. Celosia's heard about various people who have a very strong devotions to deities, but she never thought that she would actually meet one. Well, when you travel, what can you expect?

And the man lying on the ground isn't saying anything so--

Wait. There's a man. Lying on the ground. It took some time for Celosia's confused mind to process this, but the instant it registered, she was on her knees, placing her hand against his pulse. Judging from how he was acting earlier--Celosia did see him, okay?--something was causing this. Unless you know, he was faking it or something. The way he moved, the way his head lolled to the side... Could this be paralysis?

Going purely by instinct, Celosia placed her hand on the man's forehead, and said hand began to glow a soft yellow color. It was one of her Etras: Purify. Since this was indeed poison, the unfortunately poisoned man would feel his body begin to relax and perhaps fall limp as the poison slowly made it's way out of his system.

There, that should do it.

It took Zico al'Sorna a full minute to realize that he had regained his ability to blink. Rapidly, he fluttered his eyelids as stinging tears flood his dusty face. He let out an involuntarily and painful groan, wincing as he took notice that his vocal chords were working again as well. His body ached and he was trembling, his blood a painful torrent as it flowed against the malicious poison in his veins. Slowly and gingerly he lifted a shaking arm and gently grabbed Celosia by the wrist, interrupting her performance of the healing etra. With a sudden jerk, he pulled downwards, causing her to topple over as if he was trying to draw her into an intimate embrace. His other hand folded around her and rested gracefully on the small of her back. Using her as support, he brought his body up a little, bringing him closer to her. He craned his neck slightly, placing his mouth a few inches away from her ear. A warm breathe escaped his lips as he whispered softly to her...

"Your hands are sweaty." And with that, Zico gently pushed her away, releasing another loud groan.

He clenched his eyes shut, his jaw tense as he tried to steady his breathing, the soreness of his muscles almost too overbearing. But slowly he got up even though his body screamed bloody murder with each timeless movement. He ended up in an awkward half-squat-half-standing position, his hands pathetically supporting his upper body on his knees.

Breathing heavily, his body trembling like a newborn deer trying to walk, he craned his neck upwards to face the crowd. Miraculously, his face was unscathed and flawless. He gave a charming smile that dazzled in the sun, his eyes twinkling in pleasure despite his feeble state.

"Why, hello ladies and gents! Zico al'Sorna, delighted to make your acquaintance!"

"Earlier?" Tyrell repeated absentmindedly. He was still looking down at the guy on the ground. It took a second before his brain really registered what she had asked. "Oh, you mean the panic by the south gate? Some guy killed another guy right out in the open, so the crowd was runnin' for it. Look, can we drag this guy somewhere? Into the alley or to some bloke's house, I don't care; but I'm gettin' nervous standin' above a guy that looks dead."

As weird as it was for Tyrell to even think it, he couldn't just do nothing. Some guy was lying in the road like a speed bump, and since Tyrell was there he should do something. Joscelin would probably try to patch the guy up and ask what happened, but that's because she was stupid about cities. Whoever the heck that other guy was had a fight with this guy, and this guy lost. Tyrell couldn't say who was the bad guy--actually, Tyrell was guessing they were both the bad guy--so he wasn't going to stick his neck out for the sucker. But he couldn't do nothing, and he was very suspicious that this nagging feeling had something to do with the brief time he'd spent around the wannabe heroine.