It was a sunny day in the city of Gabir. The city was abuzz today with even more activity. For today was one of the many annual events happening in the city. As such it would be filled with food, music, people, and whatnot. The even today was an archeological based event, sponsored by the Kyosian mage colleges working in tandem with the Adventurer’s Guild whose cooperation has brought many an interesting relic from lost cities. It was both a sort of like fun event mixed with some advertisement for their respective organizations.

The theme for this event was revolving around ancient languages and a specific artifact called the Codex Wheel. The plaza where the event was being held in the city had some banners with an image. It was a rattle like object with segments that could be spun vertically and horizontally. Later, in the day, there would be a symposium held on the artifact and the topic of archaic languages held in the local museum with various guest lecturers.

Of course, for the people less interested in such high-minded stuff there were more fun things to attend to. One of the attractions for today is the semi-regular Archeogastronomy events. Demonstrating the usage of the Codex Wheel. A food recipe from the old Snownut Dynasty, of which this relic came from was translated. It consisted of pieces of a flatbread with cheese, sauce, and other toppings being placed into a bowl of soup.

There would be many stands offering their own interpretation of the dish available for all the people to try. There would also be a contest that would rank the best version among the cooks. While not too serious of a contest it would still give some advertising power to the eateries that are the winners of the contest. Meanwhile guests would get to eat a bunch of foods washed down with local beers and other drinks as well.

Currently it was the early mid-day and the event was already starting. People have already arrived and were meandering around the different stalls and stands and activities. But, it was far from being at its peak. Alongside the area were also advertisements for the mage college and the Guild. There was even an ask and adventurer type event to be held. The sun and one of the moons were visible over the city and so far it seems like it's going to be a regular day.

A foreman from the fleet of airships had been storming around the fairgrounds, collecting a few of the crewmen who'd rather carouse than finish offloading. They couldn't be entirely blamed, however, as the crew of the 'Feldraeiser' were quickly beset with what whispers spoke of: a haunting.
Soon after leaving port in Ispar, workers had begun hearing strange noises from the lower decks. Originally thought to be an issue with the pumps, maintenance promptly responded though hadn't found anything wrong. It would not be until that night when the 'noise' was heard again. It was described as soft and melodic, like singing, but when security nearly tore the cargo hold apart while looking for stowaways, there wasn't a single trace to be found. The crew had been on edge for the rest of the voyage, especially since the noises never stopped for too long unless someone was in the hold.
It was a solid idea, security drew straws and worked out a rotation to patrol their own ship, and the noises stopped. Unfortunately, for efficiency reasons because of the crew's demand for proper rest in the five day journey often left only a single armed and armored sailor to wait in the silence. "Even time vould hold eits breath, sittink zehr in zee dim lights, knowink vahtever eit iz you're lookink for...vell...you knew eit vahs vahtchink you. Vhy else vould eit be so quiet?" recounted a hunched sailor over her drink which they intended to lay low for long enough to finish, in spite of the foreman who sifted through the crowd of other (sea...sky-men?) before giving up.
It was just last night that the watch broke, the young man left in the hold having reportedly been 'just sitting for a bit' during their shift when they 'suddenly realized' they were hearing the singing again coming from sounded like right next to them. He damn near woke up the whole boat, tearing out of the hold like something desperately fast trying to escape something they--

The arguably meta simile dragged on in that narration while dock workers offloaded the airships that had flown in to supply festivities and people to enjoy such festivities, alike. Among the ships in drydock was an older craft of typical human design, 'Feldraeiser' embossed on a large metal plate on either side's supplementary hull armor. Ex military, its armored ammo storages now servicing as a vault for valuable cargo which crates were retrieved from and stacked on the walkways to be later delivered.

A crate marked to contain Isparian silks and tapestries was the last to be stacked, the crew moving on to the next ship just in time to turn away from the lid of the crate lifting corner by corner. Creaking open, Kaite stood with the lid, conspicuously looking around before stepping out and reaching back in for a moment to withdraw his hat. Easing the lid back on for the nail-holes to even line up, the evidence of his involvement was erased.

First, he walked, merely to create distance and increase coverable ground while 'looking', but there was so much to look at.
People with foods all of a similar nature but varying enough for styles to be unique, their variations made it impossible to discern the 'right' way save for adhering to the baseline themes. With so much attention being given to the culinary confection of the convention, Kaite made a mental note to uncover a common recipe for future replication. For the time being, there was business to take care of like find out where he even was. Two birds with one stone, he approached the collection of stalls to search for an unoccupied tender. A mounting troublesome task, given the nature of the event.

"Snownut Dynasty ehh?"

Kyros has been looking over the small bowls that were laid out like an assembly line. There were dozens of tables, dozens of recreations of the same bowl of cheesy smelling broth. Some had vegetables, others bread, even a few of them had chunks of cooked meat but those werent for sampling, you had to pay for that. Still Kyros followed his nose, and the fact that cheese (but mostly a free meal) attracted the giant fiery man. He seized it in both hands drank deep of the broth. He slammed it back down.

"YAAAAAAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOO!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!!" He roared this, and it was enough to even go over the volume of the event and get dozens of wary concerned looks. Even the stall owner jumped at the roaring Ifrit, his eyes a blaze with the desire for more, a toothy grin on his face.

---

They've arrived in Gabir just at the start of the Codex Wheel festival and to be honest, it was kind of a surprise. They meant to come to this city to follow a lead, but when that person skipped town to the gods know where, it was the Hero for Hire and his companion that were left high and dry. Having come such a long way, they had not had that many jobs in the weeks prior. They were down to their last couple of coin, not even enough to warrant staying at an inn.

Thankfully, there were not alot of places Kyros could get into. They had been camping out in some abandoned warehouse along the city limits. It wasn't comfortable but it kept out the rain and drafts, if there was any. The festival however provided an opportunity to fill their bellies without breaking anymore of the bank. They made sure to go into town and enjoy the festivities before planning their next move.

Kyros suggested they bite the bullet and join up with the Adventurers Guild. It sucked to not have the freedom to make their own way but they couldnt rightfully live and travel without some kind of income, and atleast the Guild should offer some of that. Kyros wasn't concerned for himself. He could sleep on rocks, but he wanted to make sure his companion was atleast partially comfortable on their noble quest.

---

Speaking of...

Kyros had grabbed a few bowls from the started teller, offering him more simply out of fear of him causing a scene. He had four bowls of the cheesey broth, one in each hand, one balancing on each bicep and another on his head. He for some reason didn't mind the balancing act as he went throught the crowd. His bulk causing him to apologize as he had to bud into each crowd.

"Its times like this I wish she was a bit taller." He said to himself, seeking his comrade at arms.

@tenma tendo

A heavy breath escaped the blonde haired girl's mouth as she pulled her flute down to her lap and bowed, the small circle of people she managed to gather around giving her a short applause before tossing spare coins into the red cup beside her.

It hadn't really been her intention to play anything for the events taking place today. Kyros ran off at the mere sight of food, leaving her to wait by the fountain for him to eventually return with something for the both of them. She must've garnered some attention, being a little girl all by herself in such a big place; one of the moving vendors even offered her water in a medium sized cup, which she took gratefully. After drowning herself in some water, Euterpe was startled to see a round woman plop herself down beside her, carrying a wailing child squirming within her grasp. Unable to just watch the woman struggle with her child, the glasses wearing girl brought her trusty flute to her lips and began to play in attempts to calm the child.

This of course caught the attention of a few passerby, and with her cup resting right beside her, she probably looked like a street performer. Of course she wanted to tell the truth, and have them keep their money, but her voice quickly died in her throat and she simply bowed, unable to say no to so many people. Not to mention she needed the money as well, so this was an overall win-win, right? With these few extra coins and possibly joining the Adventurer's Guild - Euterpe had very little opinion on joining, she would follow Kyros practically anywhere except for the bathroom - they would definitely be doing better than before.

Placing the now full cup in her hands, Euterpe listened as the coins jingled freely with every little movement she made. She couldn't wait to show Kyros what she managed to do on her own, but that would require finding the large man. Fortunately, after stand where she originally sat, the musician caught sight of the Ifrit balancing a bowl on his head. A happy smile pulled at her lips as she bounded forward, slipping through the tiny cracks in the crowd before wrapping her arms tightly around her companion's waist.
"Found you!" She said proudly before holding up the coin filled cup. "There's a lot of nice people here. I'm g-glad we came when we did, even though our lead was a bust." Euterpe said with a pleasant smile.

"Right, get that to the mages now mates, those critters on our way out of that place slowed us down more than we thought! Don't forget to track down that Adventurer who is holding our pay, we don't work for free after all!" A group of mercenaries that had been hired on by the Adventurer's guild were making their way in from one of the side ways into the town, among them being a man who looked a tad old for simple mercenary work. Of course, he was very much beyond a humble mercenary, but he wasn't one to brag. Instead, he was currently tracking down the Guild liaison he had to report the artifact's arrival to, since they had been delayed by unforeseen circumstances. Of course, it did not take terribly long to track down such a man, as he had been trying to track down the mercenary as well. The two did not speak for long, little of consequence outside coin changing hands for services rendered. Sometimes such Guilds needed to contract outside their typical manpower, for a variety of reasons, and men like Weiland Voss often found themselves filling in for such roles. Tipping his imaginary hat to the man as he rushed off to facilitate the relic being added to the displays discreetly, Voss reckoned he might as well stay for awhile and see the sights. He hadn't been this far out of the way of his usual stomping grounds, as it were, in quite some time and it was clearly a festival day after all.

Slipping his hands into the snow white pockets of his coat, Weiland strolled into the main streets of the town where the stands and displays were set up proper, idly wandering along humming to himself, pausing at random to inspect the odd relic or food stand. They all seemed to be serving similar versions of the same dish, not that it looked bad, it looked a damn sight better than the rations he had been eating during the trek out and back for the item they were contracted to find. He would have to snag himself a bowl at some point, but he wasn't quite hungry enough for that gamble yet. Besides, he needed to maintain the light schedule of eating he typically worked on when, well, working. He had to adjust how his heavy looking blade and pistol rested, mostly to avoid jostling people or otherwise hooking onto things he most certainly did not want to, while the pistol was shifted to prevent it from being easily grabbed. Old tricks, paranoia even, but having his weapon snatched at enough times taught him that lesson all too well.

Considering he wasn't actively paying attention to where he was walking, busy with adjusting how his kit was being carried, Voss completely failed to avoid running into a young....man? Woman? Weiland was snapped out of his distracted state, realizing he had run into someone a couple inches shorter than him, far more fancifully dressed, and had seemed rather focused on the food around them, to an almost obsessive degree to a casual observer like Weiland. Still, he hadn't meant to jostle the young...person, as he still couldn't pin a gender down pat, and apologized frankly enough. "Agh, sorry 'bout that friend. Guess I got distracted by all the goings on 'round these parts right now, eh?" He chuckled easily, taking the blame for the collision without any hesitation, it had been his fault after all, and the last thing he needed was to be getting into trouble so soon after his return. Though he had to admit, he was rather curious at how solid the impact had been for someone as slight looking as this...person had been.

@Lumiere

Minutes spent waiting while tenders, true to their name, tended to a rather large and loud individual. A few times, Kaite had been left to wait in spite of attempting to hail the otherwise unoccupied person. Ideally, their job should be to tend, made especially easy by the lack of other patrons, save the aforementioned fellow. There were clear reasons for this, though none caught in the construct's social filter which only acknowledged the inconvenience in being made to wait. While waiting, Kaite ran recollections on any region with such inefficient customs before the man proceeded to abscond with a few more bowls in a display that made such behavior seem commonplace. The notion was reinforced by the lack of opposition from the teller. Clearly this person was versed in the event and the region; the scene finally making sense to Kaite as the man must be of importance or hold rapport with the tender who'd let them have free food.

In the hubbub of the bustling crowd, Kaite stiffly stood to watch the monolith of a man parade himself in a balancing act through the crowd with soups a-plenty. An icon of triumph, statuesque composure preserved as he held the pose while Kaite stood to reason they were the ones to be bothered about such matters.
Kaite navigated the crowd with ease, snaking their way in lock step with patrons and cross-stepping to keep pace and weave between bodies. In spite of the displayed dexterity, the construct was hardly a fan of tight crowds. There was always everyone to always watch, never knowing but always being prepared for a face to reveal itself and its malicious intentions towards......
Thankfully, the man stopped to apparently greet someone in front of them. It was all the better, as of course two people could answer maybe one question.

Kaite stopped behind Kyros, reaching up and tapping them as close to the shoulder as they could reach. What shoulder that he could gain purchase to received a tap on. Insistently, the implications behind the force of each of the three taps being deliberately clear that Kaite was not intending on trying to get the titan of a man's attention in a similar manner a second time.
Upon opening his mouth to speak, Kaite was blindsided by Weiland who'd walked right into the lightweight construct and knocked them over. Well, more like tipped over, as Kaite stiffly started to lean from the stiff bump enough for a foot to come off the ground. His eyes darted to the ground with an audible 'click', reaching out the raised 'tapping' hand to catch himself. A popping sound like splitting ice and crunching glass barked from Kaite's hand for a moment, having firmly caught himself and now shifting a leg to stand himself back up, a glittering dust lightly drifted from his sleeve. "Accidents, zehy happen" Kaite chirped, reaching his good hand over to roll the central joint of his shattered wrist back into place. Brushing off his sleeve after standing, a faint snap signified a brief moment where the whole mess came loose. Kaite was luckily quick enough to catch his hand still inside the webbing of the glove and hold it in place to better fuse.

"Now zehn. Vould eihzer ouf you...three-" Kaite said, regarding the young Euterpe with a nod after realizing their presence as being the one talking to the towering individual. Something stuck in the middle of the construct's action of acknowledging the child, their eyes fixing with theirs' for a palpable moment. The pupils shown solid white with a blank glint as if it wasn't even truly seeing with them but there was still a silent regard. A solid single count, then looking back between Weiland and Kyros whom he had hoped he'd gain the attention of before continuing, "...May I ask vehr zeis iz? Zee city, such as eit iz."



@Eisenhorn@ShwiggityShwah@Tenma Tendo

@Tenma Tendo

He felt the welcoming embrace of Euterpe at his back and after a moment of surprise, he was smiling before he even looked down (she was about half his size) He laughed loudly, clearing a small circle around them by the stint of something strange in their midst. Elementals were quite rare. "Dang, I thought I was hiding better than that! Sorry it took me so long, but Eutrepe, you got to try-" He was in mid turn to get to her level. She looked up at him with those big doe eyes and he responded with an expression of utter shock, and then what could only be described as jubilation. Her dearest companion was not known for holding anything back, least of all his expression, since his eyes were little more then smuldering infernos, so his face would have to give away the rest of it.

Leaning down for a closer inspection and taking a knee. "Sweet baby Justice! Look at that! Eutrepe with this, and what we get from the Guild, in just a few jobs we could live like royalty!" To be honest with his joking, this would be about the time he'd grab her in a big hug and hoist her above the masses where she belongs, but his hands were full. He stood up suddenly, spinning about laughing before going back to her with low playful bow, waving his arms out for the two bowls of the cheesey soup for her as if his arm was a platter her bowls were on. "Zour' feast zour' majesty." His fake accent of some high class servant was awful.

@Lumiere

Kyros then was interrupted, a sudden tap on the shoulder which caught his attention. A "Hmm?" uttered with a raised eyebrow. What he saw he couldn't even get for a couple of seconds. The man, the girl? Well, something just, it was getting back on its feet but it was just, wrong somehow. Everything about it was thick and rigid and robotic. It gave Kyros a surprised face as he looked on. He seemed scared for a moment before the thing just uprighted itself and then seemed no worse for wear. Finally Kyros could only make a single comment. "That was kinda cool."

The thing now addressed all of them. This caused Kyros to turn his head, there was another there.

@Eisenhorn

In a single instant, Kyros went from mild surprised to sheer unbridled shock. "Eegads!" He almost did a double take. He gritted his teeth and snarled, the fire of his eyes hair and skin errupted every so slightly as he pointed a finger (Which still held the bowl of soup) Holding it right in the old man's face Kyros roar. "Weiland! It's about time you and I crossed paths again! You think I've forgotten the skies over Katachan? I've been dreaming of a rematch with you! And this time you'll see how much stronger I got!" He seemed to be smiling, grinning with excitement now even as he got into a fighting stance, his muscles surging as he prepared for them to immediately trade blows.

Regardless, this was all still while Kyros had a bowl of soup still on his head and balanced on his forearm.

Euterpe pulled away as the other was turning around suppressing a giggle at how silly his words were. He practically towered over everyone! Not to mention that bowl he had perched perfectly atop his fiery mane made him even taller.
"Yeah, suuurrrre you were." She hummed sarcastically. What he had to say afterwards had the girl tilting her head curiously, pushing up her glasses with the lower half of her flute as she held up the red cup filed with coins so that the other could get a better look. It sounded like he wanted to say something else, but got cut off... It tended to happen whenever they were looking at each other, so Euterpe wasn't that surprised, but it still normally left her with a curious look in her eyes.

As the fire Elemental took a knee, Euterpe progressively lowered the cup and the tile of her head so that it was now across from her chest and staring straight at Kyros respectively before nodding eagerly, causing the cup too jingle along with her movements.
"Yeah! Yeah! We could buy a castle and everything!" She played along, laughing out loud as the giant man spun around like a child would. Although, it was extremely endearing to watch, she wouldn't help but staring in awe at how he was able to keep those bowls of soup from falling in the process.

Speaking of soup, Euterpe was soon presented some bowls to take for herself. With a small curtsy, the blonde girl placed her flute in the strap that held her violin and pocketed the cup and coins into her especially large sweater pocket before grabbing the two bowls and staring into them excitedly.
"Thank you, good sir." She chirped back with a pleased smile, only for said smile to fade a little when Kyros' attention was pulled to something...well, someone actually, on the floor. More confused then scared or anything else, the short blonde watched as the woman slowly but surely propped herself back up. Something about the way she moved didn't feel natural, but it wasn't like Euterpe would say something like that out loud, let alone right in front of her.

The smile on Euterpe's face had disappeared entirely at this point as she felt the woman's gaze on her, acknowledging her before she herself scooted behind her trusty companion, only poking her head out slight to see if she was still being watched. Thankfully she wasn't, but what the woman asked after a headcount had her speak up since Kyros looked to be focused on the other being with them.
"Y-Yeah, um, the name of this city is Gabir. A-And right now is the festival revolving around relics and archaeological f-finds..." She answered the best she could with as little words as possible before looking back to Kyros, who had assumed his fighting stance. Confused as to what happened in such a short amount of time, Euterpe stepped up and moved in between the two men spreading her arms out, which in turn looked like she was presenting them each with a bowl of her soup. "Wah! No no no! Kyros were in a p-pubic area! And th-this guy did nothing wrong! D-Don't be a meanie!" She said, furrowing her brows at the Ifrit. Seriously, what had gotten him so fired up that he would want to fight in a place like this? Was it the other man? Euterpe didn't even bother looking in his direction, knowing full well that she might get scared and run away.

@ShwiggityShwah @Lumiere @Eisenhorn

The high activity in the city was far from anything Aldrin was used to. Naturally, when he'd first arrived in the city, he had expected there would be an abundance of people and sounds, but it had still been something completely new to him. Despite that, however, he hadn't found the city to be as intimidating as he had actually thought it to be in his head. In fact, there was something about all of the different people and buildings that had been interesting to simply observe at first. Initially, Aldrin had intended to pass through the area quickly without much incident, really only stopping there for food and a place to stay for a day or two. When he'd heard of the upcoming event, however, he couldn't help but linger for a while longer out of curiosity.

With that event having finally begun, the number of people milling about had grown even larger and the streets had become crowded with numerous stalls and vendors. At first, Aldrin had simply looked on from afar, enjoying the view of all of the activity, but it hadn't taken long for his interest in the goings ons to get the better of him. That, and the smell of food. As much as he had an interest in the archaeological purpose behind this event, all of the food on display was too enticing to pass up, and Aldrid figured that, as long as he was careful with what money he had left, he could try some of it. Just a little wouldn't hurt.

And so, Aldrin had ended up wandering around the various food stands, appreciating the creativity and variety in many of the recipes. The base ingredients were so simple, but it was impressive how many different ways such a dish could be prepared, and Aldrin made a mental note to himself to try cooking his own form of it sometime in the future. As long as he could get ingredients, he reasoned, it would be handy to be able to prepare different sorts of food while traveling.

Aldrin's attention was suddenly dragged away from the topic of delectable meals by a sudden commotion in a group of people nearby. A towering, burly man coated in fire and bowls of soup had taken on a fighting stance and shouted something, both of which seemed to be directed at another man. Aldrin was unable to quite tell from the literal fire-man's demeanor whether the stance was one of aggression or challenge, but either way, a crowded and public area was nowhere for a brawl to be taking place! Seeing another person in person in the group seemingly righting their balance as if catching themselves from falling, and a blonde-haired girl intercepting the situation, Aldrin immediately move in to help. "What are you doing?! You can't be fighting here, someone's going to get hurt and it might not even be one of you!" he shouted at the two men - mostly the firey instigator, anyway - while trying to be heard over the rest of the city street's noise.

@ShwiggityShwah @Eisenhorn @Tenma Tendo @Lumiere

Zeke rubbed his face in annoyance. He didn't want to be here, but the librarian he worked for insisted. Something about finding new pieces for the library, whether it be an ancient book to add to the collection or an interesting relic to put on display. He never really cared much for archaeology and old things, and even less for crowds, so it was safe to assume that the man was rather not at home.

He drew his blue cloak closer around his body. It might have looked suspicious, the day being bright and warm and him wearing a heavy robe that could concealing any number of dangerous weapons, but the fact was that Zeke was unarmed and defenseless, quite unlike many of the travellers he saw in the streets.

One such group of obvious foreigners was making a scene. Zeke, small as he was, became trapped in the thickening crowd, people all gathering to see what were the goings-on, as apparently there were several. An interesting-looking man had just been challenged to a fight by a soup-bearing fire humanoid, and two rather young-seeming people put themselves right in the way of it. Comparatively, they were both quite out of place and created a strangely amusing image.

But strangest of all was the androgynous person standing somewhat to the side of it, holding their own dismembered hand. How ever did that one happen? His assignment forgotten long ago, Zeke slid his way over to Kaite. "Pardon, but are you needing of assistance?" he tentatively made a friendly gesture.

@Lumiere

@Tenma Tendo@Starberries@sntabe@Lumiere@Eisenhorn

Kyros was getting fired up with the prospect of doing battle with the once comrade, once rival master of the blade. Whenever he gets this way, the environment and the circumstances almost become secondary. He tunnel visions, the rest of the world blurring around him as he focuses on the fight at hand and the spike of adrenaline he fells for the thrill of it. Then suddenly a little girl half his size runs in front of him with her hand out and tells him to stop. One could swear to see the steam rise off Kyros as if someone had just tossed a bucket of water on an open flame. There even seemed to be a sizzle as his eyes and hair diminished in intensity.

Kyros face went from excited snarl to almost pouty. "But-b- Eutrepe. I wanted to prove my martial prowess. C'mon it's all in good fun!" He pleaded with her. Any evidence that he was preparing for a fight seemed to melt away as he was berated by his better half. He eventually just slumped when she called him a meanie. He caught the bowl falling from his arm so that he had one in each hand and one atop his head. He looked sorry and disappointed. "I'm not trying to be..." he said like a scolded child.

Then they were interrupted by another blonde haired young man. If Kyros felt bad before he was feeling worse. He seemed to have no idea how much trouble he caused. He gave this new comer a playful big guilty grin and shrugged his shoulders. "Why is everyone ganging up on me? I haven't even broke anything yet." He looked sheepishly back to Eutrepe making a comment. "People are jumpy here." Again, oblivious to the scene, but he seemed not to be effectively defused.

In fact, there seemed to be a rather big crowd forming around them as people asked onlookers what was happening and if anyone needed help. This actually made the big guy a little more cordial. "Hey you were right Eutrepe, people are nice here. They should join us for soup." He approached Zeke and Aldrin, holding out a bowl to either of them. "Name's Kyros. You guys seem alright. Join us for dinner!" And like coin flip his mood was back up again. He looked to Kaite with a big grin. "You too, but I'll have to get another bowl."

Smooth crystalline eyes softly clicked from Kyros back to his ward as she spoke. Unblinkingly taking in the information and bridging lines of knowledge, Kaite's cognitive map was left to speculate where 'Gabir' even was relative to home. It was disappointingly little to go on, bringing to light a greater issue regarding which direction the ship had even traveled in. Kaite burnt the end of the branch, recentralizing 'location' around an idea of geographic area rather than a series of buildings that happens to have a name. The doll would never be so rude to assume those in proximity had extensive navigational awareness to the point of being able to read off exact coordinates.
In the end, Kaite was only left with a better way to ask the same question. However, for the time being, the young woman had been nice enough to submit to questioning. "Mmh, szank you, miss-" he had began, having been about to coyly request her name through implication that she would finish the sentence before her associate's voice boomed in challenge leveled towards the individual whom was responsible for the quickly reassimilating porcelain hand.

Loud noises. The tension of muscle and sinew. Focused eyes.
Action, however, was halted by a simple recap of the Branch and its roots. The individual now identified as 'Weiland' failed to match any similarities to even the late lord though being of roughly the same age. Even though there were pedestrians and bystanders who could be in danger of the large man now identified as 'Kryos' by the girl the doll had been speaking to, the danger held little of Kaite's apparent interest.
Protecting strangers was not Kaite's primary responsibility.

Instead, more faces emerged from the sea of continuously registered 'negligible threats'. A boy chastised the two men who were no doubt best of friends for all Kaite cared to note about them; had Kyros simply come in swinging, the case would be considerably different.
A quick and idle scan sized him as being around the age of the missing young lord and matching in appearance to an upwards of an 80% accurate match. Blonde hair and all, perhaps a bit older with a less pronounced nasal bridge. Their foreign accent was clearly not Isparian and rehearsal of a substitute vocal inflection would have needed to be practiced for considerably longer than the young heir had been away. It was a disappointingly insufficient of a score, earning little more than a passing glance as Kaite's attention was then drawn to the next individual attempting to glean attention from the psuedo-crowd which had built itself in the middle of the street.

In response to being asked if they required assistant, Kaite released their hold on their own wrist, lifting the daintily mesh-covered arm. Having been holding all of the pieces together, the damage had mostly fused itself back together. The hand snapped to a fist with a metallic chime of ceramisteel impacting itself. The material creaked around the complexities of the primary ball joint in the place of a wrist, various cracks still visible. "I am serviceable..." Kaite replied, offering an intendedly reassuring and pleasant smile.

So many strangers all at once. Typically, Kaite would only have a few selected lines for greeting, taking coats, coordinating parlor games, extracting information and farewells. Having to adapt to strangers on the fly was quickly becoming difficult to manage as those he had been just speaking with blinked in and out of registry as Kaite 'remembered' they existed. From this, crowds swiftly earned a place in an 'aversion' subcategory.

Like a lightswitch, the mood appeared to change while Kaite was distracted, the red highlighted visage of Kyros unintentionally introducing the girl he had spoke with as 'Euterpe' before inviting everyone to engage in soup and dinner. So soon it was said and the bowls of still faintly steaming warm food were ushered into the boy who was not the Heir and the recent hand-curious associate's own hands.
Then the eyes of the giant fell on Kaite who returned the look with direct eye contact, being the polite thing to do in acknowledging that you had their attention.
The offer to also be provided with food confused Kaite who was not accustomed to being invited to participate in such events on account of how he did not eat the way the lords or their guests did; a display described as 'unappetizing' and 'unsettling'.

"I must decline zeh offer ouf food, Sehr Kyros. Iz...not vaht I...do" Kaite vaguely explained in a cordial manner with scripted pauses intended to add emphasis to the inflections. The way he spoke sounded eerily careful and planned, as if he indeed had a grasp of common tongue and was poorly feinting hesitance on purpose. "Ehn I vould request you cease zee molestation ouf tenders az zehy have a task zeht need be performed" Kaite continued, bowing his head for a moment as he finished with, "-Alzough I vould be obliged to accompany zee collective 'you'; company ehn caskets, as zee expression goes, ah?"
The allusion to whatever grim foreign saying Kaite referenced was backed with a light chirp of a laugh which quickly tapered off.



@Eisenhorn@ShwiggityShwah@sntabe@Starberries@Tenma Tendo

Weiland was quietly relieved that the construct, as he was more able to identify now after that stunt with the wrist and hand, was unharmed. It seemed like the construct in question had a built in repair function that would allow it to recover from minor injuries, which was good considering a fall like that had done notable damage to its wrist. It proceeded to ask the three of them where it had arrived at, which was curious considering that implied it had arrived without any sort of knowledge towards where this was. He knew the name of the place, and roughly where on a larger scale, but the young child had jumped in first and answered the question. Of course, Weiland was in no position to be answering the question when, surprisingly enough, a rather familiar face got right up into his and started mouthing off. Weiland's expression twisted into an amused smirk, not quite patronizing, but still amused all the same. "Well if it ain't the Boy Wonder! Ain't my fault you forgot flight wasn't one of your finer points, my friend."

The man was about to point out the fact that this was NOT the place to be picking fights when the young girl who had answered the construct's question promptly jumped in and started working to defuse Kyros from throwing down right here and now. He laughed lightly at her efforts, though not in an insulting manner, more amused by her courage in stepping in the fellow's warpath. "Your a saint, little lady, though I'm not nearly as innocent as you make me out to be. Me and the boy wonder have some history, though I'm wounded he never mentioned me!" Clearly joking, he mockingly clutched at his heart, as if he had been run through emotionally as well as physically. Of course, by now another young man had come up, calling out poor Kyros for his fiery temperament, no pun intended this time, and going on about how others might get hurt.

"Thanks kiddo, but I think he's gotten the point by now, second one to jump on boy wonder's hide about this." The young man looked, well, pale and not overly suited for any life outside that of a village or city really, though looks were often deceiving so he would try not to judge too much there. Doubly so, considering he had the kind of attire one would attribute to a traveler or wanderer of the wilds. At this point, though, Kyros seemed to be defused now and on the defensive footing over getting jumped, figuratively, by numerous people. Throughout all of this, his stance had not shifted very much, though while it looked like Kyros was going to jump him for a fight, he had shifted his weight backwards, to facilitate a quick departure. By now he had returned to a more comfortable distribution of weight for just casually standing around. Though the snapping sound of metal caught his attention again, turning his gaze back towards the construct he had collided with initially.

It seemed his, Weiland deciding to use male descriptors until told otherwise, body was capable of mending more rapidly than Weiland had originally estimated. Fascinating, which meant the power source was more potent than necessary for a model of that size. Yet, there was no glaringly obvious bulges or the like that indicated a oversized power supply fitting poorly. Advanced construction then, well beyond anything he'd seen out in the frontiers he had wandered. Though, he noted, the construct of a young (looking) man had to hold his wrist in place to facilitate a smoother transition for the repair. Most curious indeed, definitely not a combat model of any sort, yet that sort of repair system would be found as rather pointless on a mere companion or servant model. Body guard of some sort, then? If that was the case though, Weiland mused, where was his charge? For the briefest moments, Weiland's expression was curiously cloudy, making it difficult to read, but circumstances would quickly change it back to a pleasant enough, if neutral, one.

By now, the middle aged sellsword was snapped out of his thoughts by Kyros' loud and booming voice inviting the gathered folks to dinner. The construct spoke up again, agreeing to accompany the group and referencing the whole idea of caskets as well. Weiland snorted briefly, a fairly undignified gesture, but one of amusement all the same. "Aye, I'll come along as well boy wonder. Though I'm not paying for anyone's food except my own, no trying to dump the debt on me again. Though, I must admit..." Weiland turned his gaze onto the construct once more, noting a cloaked figure as well who had asked after the construct's well being. The cloak was rather curious, noting the way it settled and moved was far heavier than anything appropriate for the climate, and short of the farthest northern stretches, would remain so. He would keep an eye on the young man should he also choose to follow along, but for now he addressed the construct. "A youthful construct, foreign in accent and unaware of the very village he arrived in recovering near as well as soldier constructs I encountered years ago is a surprising thing to encounter this far from any centers of Magitech. It makes for quite the curious picture, no?"

Euterpe continued to maintain her 'angry face', which looked more like a saddened pout then anything, at the large man in front of her, hoping it would be enough to have him stand down for now. She knew her faithful companion meant no harm, but there were some times where he could get a little bit too excited and forget what was going on around him. She couldn't deny that she loved that part of him, but when other people's lives were possibly in danger, she needed to put her foot down.

Just when she thought she would need to put Kyros down even more, Euterpe was surprisingly assisted by a boy with similar hair color and a head or two taller than her. The little musician's eyes immediately traveled down to the bright blue scarf around his neck before looking back at Kyros with an incredulous look.
"Yet? Wh-What's that suppose to mean?" She frowned before straightening at the sound of a much older voice relaying the fact that they actually knew each other. It was quite funny seeing the older man grab his heart like that, heck, Euterpe probably would have laughed too if it weren't for Kyros' booming voice pulling her attention. Of course not being the type to say no to almost anything Kyros wanted, Euterpe nodded quickly. "U-Um, sure. If they would like to, that is."

Kyros was definitely right when he said that these people were very nice and nowhere near as scary as she would have thought if she hadn't talked to them; even the older man Kyros knew and was trying to fight seemed really silly and fun to be around. Eventually, Euterpe's gaze found its way back to the blonde boy who graciously helped her out, speaking up to the boy seconds after. "Th-Thanks for your help, uh... Mister." Not knowing his name and not wanting to be rude, Euterpe defaulted to 'Mister'. "I-I like your scarf th-thing by the way...it's really cute." She smiled shyly before pointing to her own, more sufficient for colder weather, scarf. Giving a slight bow and sliding away when her Ifrit companion attempted to give the other blonde some soup, Euterpe turned to the older man Kyros attempted to fight earlier and cautiously held up one of the bowls she had in her hand in case he wanted some.

@ShwiggityShwah @Eisenhorn @Starberries

An hour or two later, and there was much commotion at the museum. It was close to the time of the lecture which would also involve a public display of the artifact. Bris and Dee were two ordinary guards dispatched into the storage room to get the Codex Wheel which was under a reasonable amount of security.

"I can't wait to haul this thing upstairs and rest until shift's over." Said Dee as she opened up the door to storage facility

"I hear yah, I really want to get upstairs and go back to my soup." Briss said following her. He then checked the directory to see where they needed to go. The space was rather massive despite the modest size of the museum.

"You think we can get Chris out for more of that soup before all the vendors close ship?" Dee asked.

"Maybe, depends on how quick we do this thing."

The employees continued chatting and walking through the massive storage space. Unbeknownst to them, they were not alone in this area.

When they approached the container with the artifact they noticed it had been tampered with. The meticulously placed security wards were destroyed without tripping them off. The locks also too, were completely shredded through and no where to be seen was the artifact. "Such wisdom is wasted on infantile species like you!" A rough spiteful voice rang out. The intruder than knocked them over with a sweep of his tail and ran out. The shocked and confused guards called for help but it was bit too late.

"What the hell is that!?" said Briss as he was struggling to get up despite his instinct telling him not to agitate this intruder. Epecially after eyeing the menacing sickle-shaped toe-claws on his feet.

The reptilian figure had already blown up his way out through the museum's wall and was now running through the open streets with absolutely no regard for being seen in public. A group of guards where surrounding the figure now, but he laughed haughtily as he pulled out four orbs that fit barely in his clawed grasp. "None of you are worthy of fighting a warrior like me, much less machines like these!"

With a flick of the wrist these orbs went flying out and rolled on the stony street. The orbs then began to fragment into various parts, as said parts began to rotate and shift around until they had expanded into theropodian robots. These robots despite their whimsical appearance were quite powerful as a stray shot fired from one caused a building's wall to explode into rubble. Even their melee was powerful as the claws on one, glowed with energy that enabled it to sheer through a guard's armor wounding him.

People were already running scared at the sight of these robotic dinosaurs fighting the guard and causing collateral damage to their surrounding. The figure admired the chaos and destruction these automatons were dishing out to these impudent young lifeforms. He then began to continue his running away. "Commander, I have acquired the human relic, I will begin inputting the glyphs so that I may warp out."