[IC] Fire Emblem - The Crisis of Akaneia

[Constantine]

“And by business partner he means employer,” Silk said absently, her attention wandering in the direction of a wealthy looking nobleman who was slowly making his way in their general direction. She was vaguely aware that she may or may not have been insulted. The thing was that even had she been paying attention she would not have cared very much either way. Let people be honest and blunt if they want, no skin off her nose. After all it wasn’t like she had any intention of getting to know either of them. “You must be so much fun,” she said out loud but not directed at anyone specific.

With the nobleman having passed them by and her purse a little heavier for the trouble she returned her attention back to Matthew and his ‘friends’. As it turned out this coincided with the arrival of an impressive looking fighter. A swordsman by his own account. And confident to boot. The fact that he seemed to know Matthew was something of a bonus. However his attitude left a lot to be desired, not that Silk was one to judge. She smiled warmly at him and hummed in a curious manner. “I’ll you what, why don’t you…go around,” she said in a warm friendly tone that matched her expression.

[GrandzHelios]

Now that Samantha had brought her brother to bar with a bounty board Samuel said he could handle it himself. He may be starving and extremely cranky but he was sure that he could find a glorified bulletin board and find out who exactly he was about to start hunting. As Samantha waited with River and Hiki Samuel burst through the doors to find the room was crowded with a bunch of strangers. At first their were a funny dressed guy and a young girl. He could be about anything with his build and the way he was carried himself but the girl was more than likely an inexperienced sword user or a thief. Then there were two others who looked like your typical cannon fodder and an old man making a commotion like he owned the place. That old man carried a blade so maybe a swords master of some kind? Samuel looked as if he were a living zombie because he not only did not want to deal with the crowd but they all looked like they had potential to tick off Samuel and start a major bloodshed right here. The plegian decided that he would bite his tongue this time and try to behave. "Hey where can I find a bounty board?" He asked out loud but it came out with a groan.

[Apollosarcher]

Matthew gave a slight smile at Wyvern rider and then bowed. "I'm Matthew, from Rosanne you made me quite the home sick fool with that show yesterday."

He looked over at the Jiro with a smile. "Speak of Grima and he shall appear. Silk, Nicole this is Jiro he was one of the guys who fought the monks with me. You and your band of mercenaries looking for work too?" He said with a slight chuckle as leaned back against the board. "Sorry for ditching you, I had to finish penning a letter to my sister and find a new sword... Plus there also been the hassle having Silk around."

He said explaining why he had run off yesterday as Silk made her comment about not moving. He groaned and cracked his neck moving from his leaning position against the board and stood throwing out his robe, his armor dent and in of shine rotated his arms. "Silk please don't piss of Jiro, I haven't even had breakfast yet. I don't need a fight this early over something stupid." He said moving to the other side of Silk so Jiro could see part of the board.

Shrugging he looked over the group and sighed. "Silk don't cause any trouble, I'll be right back." He gave her a soft smile then ducked off.

He said walking over to the new arrival, he looked the boy over carefully. His traced him up and down, then he gave a light smile. Samuel was an easy read, he didn't even manage to hide much. "Were you the one wondering about the bounty board Cavalier? You're from out of town. Yeah I'm gonna guess you Plegian, my names Matthew. Tactician out of Rosanne in Valm, what's your name?" He said walking up to the boy, the look he had gotten was that of trash he might not be a noble but no body looked down on him. "If you want to get farther around here I suggest being more polite, manners are a sign of intelligence you know." He said with a smile as he leaned against the bar.

[vancexentan]

"I thank you for your praise but in all honesty my wyvern is the one who should be praised. I am merely an instrument that allows him to make crowds happy." Dominic said plainly as Jiro laughed. "Hey it's a dragon you know not a piece of wood or steel. You both are partners not instruments calling anyone an instrument is typical of people who don't know the value of existence. Trust me this sword on my back? That is an instrument not your dragon." Jiro laughed as Dominic gave him a disdain filled glare. Nicole patted him on the shoulder and chuckled nervously. "Now now big guy he has a point the big guy back at the tents ain't some dumb animal. But in all honesty Mister Jiro you could have a bit more tact." Nicole said to him as Jiro told her the best way to live was honestly and lie as little as possible. "But what do I know huh? I'm just some loser with a big sword on his back. And I would move around you little lady if your big butt wasn't taking up all the space around you. Pfff haha...I'm just kidding sorry I had to. Really it's my big head that's too big to move around you but hey what do I know I'm just a merc with a sword right? Matthew is the one with the plan so to speak. Or he should otherwise he'd be piss at his job." Jiro said as he wiped some sweat off his brow. "Also if you would be so kind as to move and not refer to me as some pig headed brute Matt and company I'd appreciate it. I'm not one to get mad over comments but I really do need to take a look at that board before Zaku kills Isabelle or vice versa. I swear those two love birds can't keep their hands off each other..." Jiro said thinking of the two kissing which made his eyes roll. That would happen the day Grima came back to life and started to murder everyone and Ferox took over Valm. In other words never.

[mrambo90]

Zack being roused out of his nap by bickering voices around the corner ran a hand through his green hair well unleashing a yawn."Man i don't remember falling asleep."he said to himself as he straightened out his equipment that had come displaced well he napped against a wall. He closed on the corner listening to the inaudible conversation taking place by the board hearing two familiar names come from a males voice."Sorry to intrude but are you a friend of Zaku , and Isabelle ,I own them some drinks from a issue that took place at a warehouse."Said Zack as he closed on the origin of the voice seeing a man with a bastard sword and a group of people around the board."You must be the other mercenaries looking to rescuing the abducted people?"Asked Zack feeling kinda rude for interrupting by trying to cool the situation down to stop the bickering.

[GrandzHelios]

Matthew from Valm, huh? This guy seemed to be pretty arrogant but knowledgeable. He was easily able to tell that Samuel was from Plegia which meant that he did get around a good deal. Judging from this the tactician was a scholar who had enough information in his system to be useful in the long run. That didn't mean that a useful person was not annoying. At this moment and in this mood Samuel was prone to slice him into a couple of pieces if no one else walked into the room. He was about to open his mouth except someone else walked in. It was no other than Zack the local defender of the peace. "My name is Samuel from Plegia, but I wouldn't go around addressing strangers as if they were comrades." He said as he almost stumbled a step. In his movement he nearly elbowed Zack. "What are you doing here?" He asked the soldier.

[Constantine]

For a moment Silk looked very unamused by the mention of her derrière in such a negative way, her hands placed firmly on her hips and a scowl on her face. In fact she looked as though she might just hit him at any moment, swordsman or not. However after a moment her scowl turned into a cheerful grin and she laughed out loud before graciously stepping aside. “At least you’re friends have a sense of humour,” she said in a happy tone to Matthew as he ducked away for the moment. She watched him curiously for a moment before a familiar name drew her attention back toward Jiro. “Isabelle? Blonde, clumsy, idealistic, wears a green robe? Likes to assault harmless little girls?” Silk said in a cheerful manner to Jiro.

[vancexentan]

"Yeah those are the kids I lug around with me big guy. Well at least they're not in trouble with such an upstanding soldier such as yourself. But I'd hold off on giving Isabelle any type of alcohol. She's only barely an adult and probably can handle beer as well as Matthew can deal with idle words about people asking him questions. Also we are apparently we're going to be here for awhile so I may as well introduce myself. I'm Jiro of Valm. I'm the Leader and Co-founder of the Garnet Mercenary Band. We only have three members officially but hey we're damn good at what we do." Jiro said in a tone that indicated he was sick of introducing himself that way. In fact he was indeed tired of that because it was the same shtick that he gave to every one of his employers. "And yeah Zaku told me about that embarrassing little stint at the warehouse. Isabelle didn't say much about it and I just quite frankly don't care what they do in their spare time. And last time I checked young lady Isabelle is as dangerous to the people around her as a tree stump. Only as dangerous as you make it. She's harmless as far as I'm aware and is just a tad bit on the goofy side. Trust me I've been her surrogate old man for the past two years. That little cleric is nothing more than a bundle of over excitement, and strangeness. And you there boy in the cavalier aren't you the pain in the ass kid who talked down to us earlier? You pick strange times to show up kid." Jiro said as he looked around and groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Oh I know exactly how this day is going to go..."

[mrambo90]

"I'm Zack Kosnin of the Ylisse Military it is nice to meet you Jiro, and I will trust your word."Replied Zack as he looked over to Samuel the man with the sharp tongue."It's nice to see you again." he said as he took a step back giving Samuel's elbow a wider berth avoiding the man's elbow."And to answer your inquiry i was looking for work."said Zack as he gave a nod to Samuel."Some many interesting people are in this town."said Zack as he looked to the man in black and his female companion with a nod.

[GrandzHelios]

Samuel managed to regain his balance so he did not fall down on his face. "That is odd, that Zaku guy gave me a similar story of offending you yesterday. I hope it does not continue to offend you that I do not recall this exact moment." Samuel stated directly to Jiro. Samuel did have a rather bad memory so it could be possible if everyone else in the world agrees to it. "Oh it is you Zack. I was not sure it was you or not. Since I gave away the rest of my gold to that child yesterday I'm running on an empty stomach with almost no energy. He said before forcing out. "I do apologize for almost walking into you right now." With the word apologize sound extremely forced. Now that Samuel had taken time to stand still he began to ponder. If there was only one job left on this board then would all of these people congregating in this room be after the same prize? Samuel didn't particularly want to be in a group this big but if he competed against them he might lose based off the numbers. He would have to wait and see how things played out.

[Apollosarcher]

Matthew walked over to Zack. "I do believe I'm one the few you don't know here. My names Matthew, from Rosanne." He said greeting the man with a bow. "I'm a travel tactician so I'm smarter than the average merc, though from what I gather the people after this job are all above average." He laughed a little. "So why not bring us all in? We've all got useful skills and abilities?" He shrugged and leaned against a wooden pillar. "Besides we all have varying skills and personalities, some even have useful connections." He smiled his eyes tracing everyone in the room. "The reward might not be much if we split it that way, but it's better most us getting nothing right?" He said with that smile that made enemies shiver.

[vancexentan]

"I don't usually the one to go into a big massive group however..." Jiro said as he looked over the board and pulled down a paper. "The reward for this mission of finding the human trafficking ring is 70,000 gold. Ylisse may be piss broke but it seems they still have a hatred for these types of people. I'd say twelve thousand gold apiece and the satisfaction of getting a promotion in the kid's case would no doubt be enough to get rid of these punks. No doubt that the Knight Commanders are the one offering this award so that little baby Emmeryn doesn't need to hear about this. So how about it kiddos? I'm up for it if you are...assuming you know the dangers of things like this. I mean there's a strong possibility that if you aren't careful you will end up dead. I can keep my own company safe but I can't give that same promise to you guys." Jiro said as he showed each one of them the poster. On it had a strange symbol with a jagged skull with an axe in it's head. No doubt the symbol of the enemy they were looking for. "Come on speak up I don't got all day." Jiro said as Dominic spit on the ground. "To hell with this shit. Come on let's go Nicole." he said as Nicole explained they weren't' here for the bounty and were just passing through before bidding everyone a good day and they went along their own way.

[mrambo90]

"I don't need the money I want to help these people in need,So I'm in."Zack replied to Jiro's Idea."Any way if we group up on this i will be a cake walk with are wide variety of skill sets and if need be I may be able to use my position to get us some more info on these guys."Said Zack looking to the group wondering if everyone would join on the mission well leaning against a support beam waiting for everyone's response.

[GrandzHelios]

"I guess I could live with this little group." Samuel said. Well he did get his frustration with Zack out by tagging along with him and Zaku yesterday. That may also apply to Zaku but it might not go that far because Zaku did seem a bit more arrogant. Then there was the tactician Matthew to worry about. Nobles did tend to peeve him but with some effort it may work. Now that he thought about it Zack may be his best friend in this type of situation as he is the least irritating man here. "By the way, my little sister, Samantha will be tagging along with us." Samuel announced. He did feel like it was better to put everything on the table sooner than later. Especially when the young cavalier did not know who he could trust in this little circle of people.

[vancexentan]

"Don't you gotta report to your commanding officer first or something kid?" Jiro asked the soldier as he looked over at Samuel and grunted. "Well as long as your sister and you have got the balls and lances to pierce the head of some fool who tries to run you down Samuel then good to have you along." Jiro commented as suddenly Isabelle showed up and went over to Jiro. "HEY! YOU DON'T GET TO JUST VANISH INTO THE CITY LIKE THAT JIRO! You know I have half a mind to smack you with my staff you know! I mean come on you know I'm good at picking out mission!" Jiro looked down at Isabelle at the little pouty cleric stared up at him with her beautiful eyes of hers and Jiro sighed. "Oh yeah I did say I'd bring you along last night didn't I well we're going to take a mission to wipe out some kidnappers with these folks Isabelle. Maybe if your lucky you'll find a new friend." Jiro said with a chuckle as Isabelle looked over everyone and with a frankly comical look of surprise on her face as she looked at Samuel's sister and then a look of shock at she saw Silk and Matthew. "Uh Jiro, boss, sir, captain, I'm not to sure you want to go along with these guys." Isabelle said as Jiro raised an eyebrow and asked why as Isabelle shivered a little, "Ummmm I'd rather not say." Isabelle said as Jiro laughed boisterously. "You know I really don't get you sometimes."

[Constantine]

Isabelle’s look of surprise and her immediate reaction to the presence of Silk and the others amused her greatly, causing her to laugh out loud at the young girl. Once done she ran her fingers through her soft, silken hair and smiled charmingly at the young lady. “A pleasure to see you again my dear,” Silk said with a modest bow. She walked over to Isabelle and looked her straight in the eyes and smiled with infectious cheer. Or was it amusement? She offered Isabelle her hand in friendship. For now she would play nice nice with the idealistic brat.

“We may have gotten off on the wrong foot yesterday. My apologies. Let’s start again. My name is Silk, merchant, adventurer and professional trickster,” she said with complete honesty. After all none of those things were technically lies. She simply didn't tell her the whole truth, which in present company would have caused no end of problems. Whether Isabelle accepted her hand or not didn't matter to Silk. She took a step back and gestured to Matthew. “And of course you remember Matthew? That charming young man from yesterday? Turns out were partners now. So let’s all play, OK?” she said in a soft, cheerful tone.

[vancexentan]

"Uh ok yeah...I guess it is nice to see you again Silk yeah..." Isabelle said returning a hesitant smile as she reached over and shook Silk's hand as Jiro looked over them. "But yeah Isabelle La-just Isabelle. Cleric, mercenary, and....and...uh...talkative young lady?" Isabelle said hesitantly unsure about how the day was going to transpire from this point forward. She didn't think she'd run into Silk or Matthew again...let alone both of them. But the one statement that caught her off guard? "You really waste no time picking out boyfriends do you Silk? I mean he's ok looking but didn't you just meet him yesterday? Isn't that a bit quick on the draw? Not that I'm questioning ya but it's just seems weird. But I suppose if Jiro agreed to work with you I will too. I mean Jiro-" Isabelle started to say as Jiro coughed, "I'm right here don't talk about me in the third person you little pip squeak." Jiro said grabbing the top of Isabelle's head as she stared up at him. "Uh-yeah sorry boss-sir-Jiro." Isabelle said embarrassed.

[Apollosarcher]

Matthew gave a chuckle walking over to stand alongside Silk. "I'm her business partner, think about it a minute Isabelle. We did just meet yesterday and I'm an out of town man who was looking for work. I'm currently in her employ not in her bed Isabelle." He told her with a smile.

As he looked over at Silk with her infectious grin spreading to him. "Why were so keen on that all of sudden anyway? We're you worried Silk was going to break my heart? Or perhaps I hers?" He faked a dramatic gasp collapsed against Silk some. "You wish court me yourself!" He accused before grinning slightly and breaking character. "I'm joking, so how about we go gather up whoever were missing, buy supplies and meet by the gate in an hour ready to work?" He asked them all, figuring that not everyone had all there belongs on them that morning.

[Constantine]

If Isabelle thought to embarrass her she going to be very disappointed. Silk was no innocent little maiden who blushed at the first implication of intimacy with a man…or woman for that matter. Instead she followed Isabelle’s gaze and looked at Matthew in a critical manner, humming thoughtfully as did so. She put her hands on her hips and leaned toward Matthew before smiling roguishly. “Well, I suppose I could do worse. He’s seen a bit of action but I think I can smooth out the edges,” she said jokingly before grinning at Matthew. She turned back toward Isabelle and crossed her arms over her ample chest. “But as prince charming here says, we’re business partners, purely professional. And I agree, let us all meet at the gates in an hour or so. I have…places that I need to visit before we leave, arrangements to make,” Silk said in agreement.

[vancexentan]

Before Isabelle could reply in any sort of fashion it was Jiro who spoke up, "An hour? Isn't that a bit short? There's still shopping to be done and people to talk to which could take another hour at the least. This may or may not be a one way trip between our destination our current location. It also still has merchants actually selling what we need. It'd be wiser to actually buy what we need and THEN meet at the gate." Jiro said to Silk as Isabelle nodded at Jiro. "Smart as usual boss." Isabelle said smiling at him as Jiro looked back down at her. "Sucking up won't get you free treats later Isabelle." Jiro said promptly as Isabelle groaned. "I'm not three! I may like sugar but I don't live on the stuff you big jerk!" Isabelle said with indignation....however she was wishing she did have a treat in her hand at the moment though she didn't make too much of a scene.