Epsir

Beyond the Boundary

Lexine sat forward in her chair, looking over the grand assortment of food they'd been gifted one last time. Just as she'd been walking in, she still wasn't hungry. The others around the table continued the chain of introduction, and between bouts of vying with her lack of an appetite she took in what she could about the others. Elizabeth and Noah were still some sort of enigmatic to her, although she was getting tired of repeating to herself that this kind of work took all sorts. Haruka Taiyo, on the other hand, explained her being with such an encouraging radiance that it almost entirely slipped Lexine's mind that she was regarding a dog-eared martial artist who was here to play the information market. Every fiber of her being told her to doubt and disbelieve a cover given so freely, but she couldn't. Haruka was just like Al in that regard, she realized. The two of them were so fully earnest that she could only accept such cheery people had ended up on the same path as the rest of them. As long as she didn't have to listen to too much of it, she could even continue to appreciate their light. A slight smile crossed Lexine's face as she stood up and away from the table. It was time for her to get moving. Her knees stung as she went to her feet, but they'd acclimate quickly. If nothing else, the kid was starting to ask too many questions, and she could get going while they were still being directed to Haruka.
"That's good," she said after Haruka's offer to Noah. "We're all a team now, so the same goes for me." She looked over her shoulder, back at the now emptied throne room. Alec hadn't left them a guide or a guard, which surely meant they were only being watched in secret. As she turned back around, her eyes went over the others present. Settling on Al and Haruka to let them know she was referring to them as well. "If any trouble starts up, come find me." Her smile continuing, Lexine made to walk off before anything else happened. She'd had a couple minutes to sit and recollect herself, there were a few things that needed to be taken care of before she left. Anything to carry their baggage was out of the question at that point, but now that fighting was assuredly ahead of them she'd need a set of gloves. All of hers were still sitting in some hotel somewhere, unused and pretty much useless in the Grisian climate anyway. As soon as she was free of the castle, she turned towards the marketplace and set off with head hung low and hands buried in her coat. With any luck, the others could finish their business at the keep without and she could resupply without incident. That was a futile hope, she knew. Half of them were troublemakers and she herself could have been the worst, as not merely a thug, but a thug with bad luck.

Beyond the Boundary

It was vague, but it was clearly all Cross wanted to give them. Lexine leaned back in her chair, the aching in her back joining the aching in her head as if it was a viable competitor in her woes. She looked down into her lap as she thought, eventually folding her arms. It didn't seem like anyone had an objection to what she had said, the girl introducing herself as Sage was even offering the same sentiment as their official plan of action, so she had time to think. As far as she was concerned, her deal with Alec Cross was off the second he said the words 'interesting creatures.' It hurt to violate a man's generosity such as she now was, but what he was doing was already tantamount to killing them off. There was no telling what the local lord would do when they actually returned. Under her darkening frown, Lexine's jaw clenched. What really made her furious was that there really wasn't a choice. It wasn't a certainty, where along her path she'd grown such a conscience; she didn't remember most of that path, but even thinking discontent with their terms felt wrong to her. Luckily, it reached her that introductions were going around.
After the swordsman named Al spoke, she raised her head, looking a curious blend of sheepish and perturbed as she said, level and clear, "My name is Lexine, put my vote on Sage's plan." With that, her eyes went back down and she went back to committing Cross' words to memory. As much filler as he'd given them, there were useful details as well as what his daughter had been kind enough to relay. Giants would be problematic if they were any sort of intelligent. They couldn't afford to run into a hunting party that decided to remove some encroaching humans.

Beyond the Boundary

Lexine's head followed Cross as he turned away, towards the sound of the doors opening. The sight of two newcomers greeted her, and the implications of their arrival were, to her at least, important enough to distract her from the obvious interruption of Alec's explanation. Their little assembly wasn't just the morning quota, they may have even been waiting on a previous batch of adventurers to be processed. Two more had shown up shortly after them, and that lent some more credence to Alec's claim that a countless number had already come through. Despite some exclamations to the contrary, the two seemed utterly unrelated to her. An older, bearded man who bore himself on a cane. If her work was taking her into the domain of wizards, this man was here to play the part. It was an easy assumption to make, part of her wanted to claim that it was too easy but there were few other stories that explained why a man getting on in age would subject himself to this corner of the world. The other was a dog eared girl bearing quite a number of arms. She had seen lightweight fighters with methods for manipulating heavy weaponry before. The faint tremor through the stone floor as one of the girl's weapons landed, a flail-like construction she had seen touted by those with an interest in exotic martial arts before, indicated that she was one of their like. More pressing to her than any fighting style was that the dog ears on her head appeared to be real.

Lexine wrenched her staring eyes from the girl's exotic ears as the curious hybrid started to eat. At any rate, the newcomers were quick to file in. They were part of the group, then. She didn't mind that in the slightest, one was an obvious martial type and the other... His name was Jack, the first name given between all of them and that of the last to arrive. Grimly enough, it hadn't even been given by its owner. It was natural to fill in the blanks, to write an old man off as weak and wise, but she knew well enough not to try. The only certainty with him was that, despite youth having passed him by long ago, he had the will and a reason to be here. Whatever his actual qualifications turned out to be, he was working with a purpose. It was more than she could say. Someone else at the table was speaking, and she broke in after the exchange between Sage and Al. She wasn't afraid of the dark, least of all in starlight amplified by snow. That particular condition had made moving at night less safe than she was used to, actually. Instead, she was afraid of her body simply giving out some day soon.
"It'd only be right to use beds offered to us. If we stay the night, we can use that time to make sure we know everything we can about the wasteland," she said, not so casually promoting her preferred course of action. A bit of genuine rest wasn't going to hurt either.

Beyond the Boundary

You know, as a player, you are more or less equally involved with the tone of the thread as the rest of us, right? Personally I'd appreciate if you at least helped to resolve the interaction you're in if you're that upset about everyone else in this thread.

Beyond the Boundary

It's nice to see people coming to the thread even after it's started. Welcome to the roleplay, you two.

Beyond the Boundary

She took a salutary pull from her glass, noting that the water was indeed close to tasteless. Poisons were impractical for such a situation anyway but it was really just entertaining one of her undamaged senses. Lexine returned herself and her glass to the table, settling in as the aftermath of their greeting played out. The sounds of conversation echoed in the stone room, they weren't a raucous bunch yet but their assembly was becoming bothersome loud for Lexine. Her patience held only for the fact that she retained a vested interest in actually getting their promised information out of Alec Cross. She already held a sort of fondness for the idea of the group; it was easy to get attached to things that raised your life expectancy, but nothing about her desire to travel with them would change her temperament. Things had started to settle down in the throne room. The scholar had at least begun drinking even if he hadn't toasted. From what she gathered, he was something of a familiar anyway. One of the twins was being engaged by the lord of the castle's daughter, and the other was seemingly done speaking. Slowly, she assembled her words, casting her tired glare around the table in expectation of someone else saying something.
"I have every intention of taking part in this meal, Lord Cross, but you are unfortunately accurate in calling me a professional. One of your conditions was giving us all of your information about what's waiting for us." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and supporting her head as her eyes swept the group, finally landing on Cross himself. The faint smile she put on was her attempt at politeness, but it was regrettably beyond her to soften the harsh aura of her face.
"Before I chance getting distracted by all this merrymaking I'd like to hear this or see your archive," She said. It sounded all reasonable enough to her. In a place like Gris she risked offending some sense of honor or long standing social traditions, but people everywhere understood hard business the same way. No matter which parts of her fractured experiences she looked to for wisdom, shrewdness and efficacy made constant showings. Cross looked to her like a man who knew both better than her, and if he didn't, she wasn't the first person to wildly misstep in his presence and not die. Her smile only grew more strained with time.

Beyond the Boundary

It was a lot of information she'd be just been given. It was no longer a question why they had been left with their weapons. In her case she simply wasn't as great at using them as she supposedly used to be, but in any case they were simply woefully unequipped to kill Alec Cross in his own castle. If she was reading the locale properly, that wasn't a very uncommon occurrence either. Lexine took her seat as bidden, finding renewed liveliness in her stride as she raced over to the table. Her long coat crumpled as she sat down, although she had no intention of removing the ankle length winter cover no matter how warm the interior was. Granted, a man openly bearing four swords had been admitted without concern, she felt more than a little uncomfortable about possibly revealing her hidden weaponry. It wasn't a thing that garnered much trust. As soon as she made contact with the chair, faint aches ran up her back and legs. She shrugged, adjusting her pose slightly but more or less ignoring the pain in favor of finally sitting down. As much as she trusted the furniture, Lexine did not partake in the food set out by Cross. As he went on, he made it clear that there were no survivors among those who had gone north, and she wondered as to what the cause of that was. Conventional knowledge provided that the environment, however harsh, was merely a set of conditions humans had been dealing with for years innumerable. She was habitually skeptical, but in suspecting there was more to the dangers of Gris' wild she felt wholly justified.

Slowly arching her neck, she thought about their situation as Lord Cross gave his conditions. Information was something they simply couldn't turn down. Being bound to one route of egress, however, was not something that agreed with her gut. Her glare finally settled on Cross, interrogating the man from where she sat. The black clad vulture towered over the head of the table, and she couldn't help but feel as though she was (once more) carrion. His form bounced and weaved in her troubled vision, and as she slowly closed her poor eye to get a better look, she realized there wasn't much to be read on the man's face. None of them had any way of knowing the intent of his terms, of course they were couched in some notion that they were for Vulture's Roost's safety. It wasn't a fair trade by any means, it was too good to be true. Her analysis came shattering down around her and her eye fluttered open in surprise as the swordsman spoke up. She couldn't bear to look. After so much posturing about respect and stately manner before the lord of the castle, this was to be their group's first reply. It was unbearably bad chance. Her frown sunk further as she broke her eyes from Cross and glanced around the table.

One of their number was chuckling. Her dissatisfied face lingered on the man, one of the duo, in the hopes that she could be in on what about their gaffe was so funny. As was becoming a trend, she didn't find what she was looking for. Instead, the man did one better. She didn't mind the obvious play at power in the way he represented the group, because for now it was getting them out of a bind. Her eyes fell on a local vessel of wine as a toast was proposed. She couldn't drink, but that sort of display was a step in the right direction. The aristocracy of her homeland ate it up, she imagined a Grisian would be more stoic or dismissive of such gestures but receptive nonetheless. Following Ira's lead, she stood up from her comfortable chair and plucked a glass from the table. She poured herself a measure of water, wondering to what level she was disrespecting the local culture, and raised her cup as well.
"I see no problem accepting such generous conditions," Lexine said. She glanced around, hoping the others would follow suit or at least voice their agreement. In particular, she shot a lengthy, pleading stare in Al's direction, motioning slightly with her cup in case she wasn't exactly clear. It wasn't as if he was a problem, rather, having someone with such fire in the group would keep them thinking. It was just essential that he play along for these ten crucial seconds. She didn't see Cross accepting one man's word for them all. Seeing as they were now a group it fell to them to support the man courageous enough to speak up.

Beyond the Boundary

Lexine didn't bother looking around, it wouldn't have done her much good anyway. The only thing worse than being an obvious tourist was an obvious tourist struggling to discern between two discordant eyes. The city had enough activity coursing through it to warrant a differentiated market and residential section, at the very least. There was much of Vulture's Roost that their little tour couldn't take them through, and she wouldn't have enough time to familiarize herself with the city before they left. That was fine, she didn't expect any major incidents before they, whoever that group happened to finally be, departed for the far north. She kept the pace, despite the continued protest of her legs. To make it that far, she had been walking for a period of time she was no longer confident in putting a definite length to. Inside the walls, shielded from the winds and somewhat removed from the cold, she could feel her forced show of endurance beginning to break down. It was far from what she usually called home, but it was pleasant nonetheless to stand amid the normal people. The drone of marketplace conversations and the aroma of distantly cooking food both work to pull her attentions away from what currently mattered. Before the liveliness of Vulture's Roost could pull her away from the group, however, the group stopped.

She looked to the guard as he began to speak, taking note of the directions he gave in the event that they were being left to approach the castle on their own. That wasn't the case, she soon discovered, as they were once again moving. She had no intention of losing her head here, of all places. Her train of thought was interrupted by a nauseating sense of repetition. It was, indeed, a sentiment she had held shortly before almost losing her life. Lexine's face involuntarily scrunched into a frown as she turned her mind away from the topic. The rest of the group apparently had no qualms with visiting Lord Cross either, as they were resolutely holding to silence. They'd have plenty of time to drum up conversation with each other after he had given his speech, anyway. As they went along, she wondered what was important enough about their predicament to warrant Alec Cross himself, rather than a member of his staff or whatever the people of this frigid land called their governmental organs.

Beyond the Boundary

She hadn't been able to drum up the exact response she wanted, but at least there weren't any members standing apart from the group and declaring that they were strong enough to go her own way. It was a sign of trying times that she would even expect such a thing, but it was that sort of maverick and reckless behavior she associated with scholars of the occult. A call from above tore her attention away from the group, although she was unable to crane her neck well with her hood secured. Instead of looking, she listened to the guard's voice. They had made it through the waiting without incident, their introductions were over and, for her at least, preparations began. Given the abominable environment around it and the isolationist attitude its glorious walls projected, she expected little in the way of hospitality from Vulture's Roost. Knowing her hopes of a carriage were worthless, she figured that she would at least be able to refill her supply of preserved foods for the journey. In traveling this far, she had barely dipped into her provisions, but she had no idea how far they would have to go to find Tikkis' potentially existent temple of wonders. A grimace dashed her face as she realized, for an adventure with as bizarre a premise as theirs, it was entirely plausible that they would be venturing out onto the ice north of the continent proper.

The procession had started ahead of her, and Lexine made to follow. She reached up with one hand and undid the fastenings of her hood, letting it fall away to her shoulders. After shaking her ashen hair free, she turned her head up to get one last look at the walls of the castle. It was her last chance to see it from this angle, she supposed, as she had no intention of looking back after leaving. She shuffled along after the others, looking back down to the the open gate, and the group of soldiers within. It had been a while since she'd seen full suits of plate such as what they wore, and done up in black the guardsmen of Vulture's Roost were rather intimidating. They were the surest sign of an organized military she had seen since arriving on the continent, although to Gris' credit she hadn't been looking. Their presence gave her hope for finding the amenities of civilization within. The stay in a chair she had set as her minimum required rest seemed all the more closer then.

Beyond the Boundary

No sooner than she had likened them to herself, one of the brothers declared that they were there on orders. Did that make them professionals? She certainly hoped so, as that identity fit very well into her assumption that however violent they were they could be called on to act rationally. There was nothing on the table yet for her, so to speak. The goal of her expedition was knowledge, not material gain, so from treasure hunters and investigators she had nothing to fear. Her problems could only begin when someone decided that Tikkis' fairy tale's validity was their secret alone. She went on listening to the other responses to the boy's second question, knowing her turn was coming up. There wouldn't be a point in lying, Elmgrove was hardly a name on this continent, and hardly a name where she came from anyway. They very much liked it that way, so she would be lying pointlessly on their behalf at least.

In the middle of her musing, someone new had arrived to their waiting assembly. The same as the rest, she turned her discolored eyes on them just long enough to acknowledge their presence and make sure they weren't doing something like running at her with a weapon drawn. It was only after turning back around and fixing her feet in the snow that Lexine spun once more to make sure she had seen correctly. The blurry silhouette of her ruined eye's vision continued to dance around the figure, but through her functioning sight there was no mistaking that he had actually elected to bring four great swords into the fray. It struck her like something out of her fragmented memories.
"Yeah, might as well be. Welcome to the line," she said in an attempt to excuse her conspicuous examination of the newcomer. Afterwords, she turned back to the group. Her greeting had held up the procession a bit, but she did intend to continue. Her eyes fell to the boy who had asked. He looked innocently curious enough, which pained her for what she was about to say.
"I report for a scientific journal overseas. Tikkis' claims contradict fairly recent cartographic expeditions to Gris, and it's my job to investigate such discrepancies," Lexine said, smiling invisibly within her coat. It was true enough that, had things fallen slightly differently, it was exactly what she would be doing. Her orders were slightly more specific, and her skill set was slightly more eccentric than a scientist's though. At the very least, her ill fit for the role was justifiable by the ill fitting environment for an ordinary reporter or journalist. She decided to press onward and get her interests out in the open while she could.
"Since we're all either passing around introductions or sizing each other up, I'll say this, I look forward to traveling with you all. If any of us are going to make it far north without a caravan, we're probably going to have to do it together." She kept her voice even, staying reasonable and matter of fact for what was equal parts her dear hope and legitimate plan.