Ontos

Crossroads of Astas [High Fantasy]

Name: Orpheus Orsini

Age: 19

Race: Avignon Human

Appearance: Orpheus is 1.54 metres tall.

Two profile pictures

Brief History: The only child of Archbishop Alexander III (though in public records, Orpheus is recorded as Alexander's nephew), Orpheus was apparently appointed Grand Inquisitor of the Archbishopric of Avignon 3 years ago. Apparently, he has effectively ditched the position by taking a joy cruise towards Vekia (He says that he got caught sleeping with the niece of a bishop). Orpheus's position was not earned by merit, quite obviously.

Gear and Possessions: He has the insignia of the Grand Inquisitor, which is a small golden badge shaped like a shield that can seal up minor cuts by pressing onto them. He also has his sword and shield, both of which are well-made and inconspicuous.

Skills Orpheus is a skilled sword-fighter, using both sword and shield in combat. However, his small size and lack of bulk makes him ill-suited for prolonged warfare. He's also... quite the flirter. He also has a musical ear, often earning his keep by singing or playing music.

Personality: Best described as a 'fop', Orpheus always has a wisecrack to make and a flirtatious line to throw at a lady. (Strangely, he backs off if a lady shows too much interest in sleeping with him, though.) To others, he seems like someone living in the moment.

Even God Cares Not (Interest Check)

Even God Cares Not: Chapter 1: Our Very Own Sun

Facility 3

Datalog: 7th January 2011

It is fortunate that we have received the samples without significant casualties. The samples were all of ages 15 to 18, though our equipment to determine ages for some of the samples could not be used due to physical limitations. We had to hazard a guess in most cases, as the samples were too dangerous to talk to or unwilling to cooperate with us.

These samples have powers that are not easily explained by conventional science. But this is what this facility is for, and we will make sure that they will be explained.

Laboratory morale has dropped significantly since the arrival of samples. Due to budget limitations, we are unable to permanently solve the morale issue. However, HQ has approved the self-defence measures that senior research staff requested, so any morale issues will not pose a permanent danger to us.

(Addendum: Senior research staff were unable to find appropriate silencers for their self-defence measures.)

Datalog: 8th January 2011

Testing was delayed due to Dr. O'Brien and his attempts to make his opinions of the experiments clear. We have dealt with him in accordance to facility regulations. Unfortunately, one of the samples reacted poorly to O'Brien's termination. The resulting damage, inclusive of personnel, was noticeable. While progress has been slowed, it will not be terminated.

Datalog: 9th January 2011

HQ has sent heavy backup to the facility. It is unclear if heavy security will have any effect on our ability to continue our testing. Unfortunately, I do not believe that this heavy security will have any real effect on our real security, however. If the samples truly wish to break our of the facility, we will be helpless.

Testing will begin again.

---

The date is 10th January 2011.

You are all 'samples', or strange genetic freaks of nature. Caught by a mysterious scientific facility, even 3 days in this facility full of shining cold walls and scientists that address you by numbers rather than names, the burning wish to escape is strong in your heart.

Today is the day. This is the first chapter of a story about mutants.

Rules:

1. No godmodding/powerplaying.
2. For dramatic effect, I think some characters should die in the escape.
3. Check your spelling and grammar!
4. The mutants will be the star of the story. The science team will play important parts in this chapter, but they will not be around forever.
5. THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT BEING BADASS MUTANTS. There is no world to save.

This is how this chapter would probably end

Escaping from the facility, perhaps with some casualties, the mutants find themselves in the middle of the highway at night, hungry and tired.

A passing limousine stops by their side. And begins the second chapter of a story about mutants.

Character Sheet for Mutants:

Mutant CS

Name:
Age: (15-18)
Appearance: (pictures are okay)
History: (Mutants may have been part of loving families before their abduction by Facility 3. Their families, or anyone who knew them, would have been dealt with by unsavoury means.)
Abilities: (things they can do that can be credited to their strange genetics)
Skills: (things they can do that they learned)

Human CS

Name:
Age:
Position: (Normally, 'scientist' will do. But they can be part of the security team, or be technical support.)
Appearance: (pictures are okay)
History: (be brief)
Skills:

A guideline to EXPUNGING data

1. Tell me when you're expunging.
2. Mutants will never have expunged data. Expunged data only refers to data that Facility 3 does not want other members of Facility 3 to know.
3. There will be very little expunged data, overall. I'd like to keep the strange things about the science team to a minimum.
4. Expunged data is stuff that makes a member of the science team:

- Inhuman
- Skilled in fields that they shouldn't be

---

Facility 3:

Ontos

Professor Lothaire von Wittelsbach

Name: Lothaire von Wittelsbach
Age: 61
Position: Director of Facility 3
Appearance:
History: The Director of Facility 3, Lothaire is the face, at least to the mutants and the science team, of the financial backers of Facility 3. Lothaire has been in charge of the Facility 3 since its foundation, though none of the current members of Facility 3 can remember how Facility 3 was formed. It is highly likely that he is the only one who knows who funds Facility 3.
Skills: DATA EXPUNGED

Professor Francis Magnus

Name: Francis Magnus
Age: DATA EXPUNGED
Position: Vice-Director of Facility 3
Appearance:
History: The Vice-Director of Facility 3. No one knows how someone who looks so young managed to be appointed Vice-Director of Facility 3. Some rumours have mentioned that Professor Francis was involved in the incident at DATA EXPUNGED.
Skills: DATA EXPUNGED

Dr. Johannes Swift

Name: Johannes Swift
Age: 73
Position: Head of Biological Research Division
Appearance:
History: The most senior scientist in Facility 3 besides Professor Lothaire, Johannes has been placed in charge of the samples ever since Dr. O'Brien was terminated. Even Dr. Johannes does not know when Facility 3 was created and who is behind Facility 3.
Skills: He's a scientist. Figure that out.

---

Mutants:

Jakob Schwarz (Adjectives)

Name: Jakob Schwarz
Age: 18
History: Jakob was born in Berlin as the son of a Polish immigrant and an American immigrant. Both his parents naturally had a strong work ethic which they instilled in Jakob but were also obsessed with having a perfect family and the idea of having a 'gifted' child. Expectations of Jakob were high and he was home schooled from a young age to become gifted; his languages already included English, German and Polish but he was also taught Spanish and French in his teenage years. As well as this, his parents devised a 'four year rule', in which he would learn what his most intelligent peers had four years before they did. When Jakob failed to live up to his parents expectations, his father would often beat him and he received little sympathy from his mother either. Over time, Jakob began developing an anxiety disorder which brought on regular panic attacks when he felt he wasn't achieving. The family moved to America in 2010 when Jakob had turned 17. Several months later, his parents bodies were found beheaded and without any limbs in the trash can near their house and Jakob was gone.
Abilities: His body is armed with two, three metre long telekinetic tentacles which he can grow from his chest on will. They are razor sharp and strong enough to withstand bullets. His obvious weakness is his difficulty in using them against anything more than three metres away from himself. As well as this, he is unable to use his tentacles when in unbearable pain / very weak / drugged.

Rainee Marcus (DotCom)

Name: Rainee Marcus | Age: 16 | Ability: Pyrokinetic
Traits: Loud • Easy Going • Entirely Too Friendly • Optimistic

Skills:
Speed/Agility - She's a hurdler for her high school track team • Charm - People tend to like her. She can be quite manipulative • Knitting - She makes a mean scarf.
History:
Rainee, an exuberant, sometimes obnoxious girl by nature, discovered her powers when she was six years old. She had always been more likely to laugh or sing or dance or just bounce in place than fight or argue, but when she found two older boys picking on her quiet, withdrawn twin brother at the park one day, she saw red. Perhaps literally. It was the last thing she remembered. When she woke up in the hospital a week later with no memory of what had happened. She was told she had been rescued by the local authorities from a fire that had started in the dry grasses of the park. Someone, they told her, must have dropped a cigarette and started the strange blaze. Her brother had run for help, and Rainee had been found, unconscious, in the grass, apparently stricken with heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation, though there were no burn marks on her body. The other two boys, "hadn't made it." When her brother told her what had really happened, she'd cried for a week. She still doesn't talk about that day.

Two weeks after her sixteenth birthday, Rainee and her twin brother went missing from a house fire that killed both their parents.

Cade Marcus (DotCom)

Name: Cade Marcus | Age: 16 | Ability: Hydrokinetic
Traits: Reclusive • Intelligent • Secretly Hilarious

Skills:
Strength - He's got some wiry muscle, for a skinny kid • Logic - Good at planning things • Piano - Like a young, (more) awkward Elton John
History:
Cade was opposite his sister in every way, and yet the two seemed made for each other. Always much more reserved and thoughtful, he discovered his ability first, though he kept it from his sister for almost a year, afraid of what she would say. He'd been at a birthday party, too afraid to swim, wishing he was at home. Rainee had been dutifully playing with him on the tarmac, but when it grew too hot, she ran off to find them some ice cream. A 'friend' took the opportunity to push the shy redhead into the pool; Cade had panicked, and before he knew what was happening, dragged the boy in with him...without ever having touched him. Both he and the boy had seen the water lap around the latter's ankles and pull him under. Cade was dubbed a savior and future lifeguard when he dove in after the kid and hauled him out, coughing and sputtering. The kid never talked to him again, and Cade couldn't accept any praise.

Two weeks after his sixteenth birthday, he woke up to find a strange man crouched over his bed. Impossibly, a moment later, Rainee was there, with a look in her eyes he knew well. The next thing he knew, the house was gone, and he and his sister were being dragged away.

Lucas (Xionist)

Name:
Subject 1126 (Lucas)

Age:
18

Height: 5'10" --- Weight: 149lbs --- Hair Length: Medium-Long(Shoulder length)

Abilities:

This is the only datalog we could recover after the attack on Scyntell Facility.

Datalog: 3rd January 2011

Subject continues to stay extremely hostile and uncooperative. The other scientists fear to get anywhere near the subject's cell. We are to lose funding soon if we cannot get testing started on the subject soon. Termination cannot be an option. Despite the subject's erratic nature his human genetic code had completely adapted to the foriegn DNA. This is our best chance at unlocking the full potential of the human genome.

Below is a list of alterations done to the Sample that we collected from the Scyntell Facility. These notes may be outdated as most of the notes for this project were destroyed during the attack.

Wolf Genetics:
Subject's body took very little modification with the introduction of the wolf genetics. His nails have become claws and the subject's speed and endurance has greatly increased. More testing will be required in the future. The subject's senses have all been greatly increased over time. During past testing exercises before other genetic modifications were introduced; the subject has proved to be able to track down even the most obscure scents within the facility. His hearing has been heightened to a point to where it has become required to hold him within a cell that blocks any sound from entering as he has been listening in on any and all discussions that were being held outside of his previous cell. All future tests on his performance have been frozen due to circumstances regarding his other modifications.

Shark Genetics:
The subject's teeth over time have become replaced with sharp jagged teeth that closely resembles a shark. His jaw-strength is powerful enough to crush bone into powder in seconds. Subject's skin has become tough and resistant to attacks with blunt weapons. Never approach subject without a stun-gun. Subject is to wear a face mask at all times. No exceptions.

Snake Genetics:
Subject's body reacted the quickest with the introduction of the snake genetics. His pupils transformed from normal human circular pupils to a slitted snake-like pupil. Subject now takes in much more light in comparison to the average human, and can now see in the dark. However the subject has become much more sensitive to bright lights. His cell must always be kept in the dark to preserve his eyes for future testing. Cameras within his cell must have night-vision, and are required to be running at all times. Use stun grenades when dealing with the subject if necessary.

**WARNING** --- **WARNING** --- **WARNING**
Subject's bodily fluids contain a potent toxin. Do not under any circumstance let the subject remove his face mask. Subject has claimed the lives of three scientists with this toxin.


History:
Lucas in every way is not a normal child. From the way he was born, to the things he has gone through. Everything about him scream abnormality. However in the Scyntell Facility that was exactly what they wanted when they created Subject 1126 A.K.A. Lucas. Subject 1126 is a test-tube baby created for the sole purpose of testing to see if it was possible to splice together Animal DNA with Human DNA to creature a superior creature. This was funded under a military contract, and if there were any successful results then the product would have been immediately shipped to the government to be used to create a whole new future of soldiers. Despite the fact that this project was buried so far underground, figuratively, to keep secrecy. A certain mysterious facility managed to catch wind of such a project and decided they wanted to take the project for themselves. With force.

Extra Notes:

Sample is to be kept restrained via the use of the following restraints:

Shackles
Straight jacket
Specialized face mask retrieved from the Scyntell Facility

Sedate sample with heavy-grade tranquilizer if necessary.

Kimber (Cryptiic)

Name: Kimberly Alexandra Colt. Prefers to be referred to as "Kimber" however.

Age: 17
Nationality: American.
Gender: Female.

Appearance:

Skills:
As her name might imply, Kimber's father was something of a gun aficionado, and made sure to instill her with the same kind of respect and passion he held for firearms from a very early age. Growing up, she competed in several shooting competitions, and spent much of her free time in the wilderness hunting with her father. As a result, she is particularly comfortable handling handguns, pistols, rifles and shotguns, though she has a slight penchant for handguns. She is also a capable bow hunter and survivalist, and has a moderate amount of fencing experience. Her father also made sure to train her in the art of self defence, and she participated in a few kickboxing tournaments in the past, though she never won any medals. She is known among some of her sparring partners for being a particularly dirty fighter outside of the ring, and seems to incorporate many elements from various other martial arts into her combat style. She might have never had any lessons in formal "fancy pissy Chinese martial arts", as she would put it, but she knows how to hit and where to make it hurt. Although not particularly skilled from an academic point of view, she is a very quick thinker, and has a remarkably fast reaction time.

Personality Traits:

+ Aggressive.
+ Taciturn.
+ Headstrong.
+ Confrontational.
+ Loyal.
+ Slightly Reckless.

Myers/Jung Personality Type: ISTJ

History: Kimber was born seventeen years ago in the state of Utah, to a twenty two year old mother and a twenty one year old father. Her parents had been high school sweethearts, and had decided to get married shortly after graduating. After a small but elegant ceremony, they left for a honeymoon in Hawaii. Nine months later, she was born. She will always remember fondly the first few years of her life. Though she was of a family of modest means, they were kind and loving people, and raised her with a strong sense of ethics and respect for human life. Her father would frequently take her camping out in the woods, and she took a natural liking to the outdoors and wilderness. When she was 8, she became a part of her school's soccer team, and took part in numerous extracurricular athletic activities. Though she wasn't particularly bad at school, she never really excelled at it either, and always felt confined whenever she was put in a classroom environment. When she was 9, her father, who was a sniper in the US army, was deployed to deal with a situation in a foreign country. It was roughly at the same time that her mother began to get sick. At first it was only coughing or chest pains, although about a year later it was found that she in fact had breast cancer. Although she was a strong woman, the chemotherapy took a quick toll on her, and by the time Kimber hit the age of twelve, she passed away. It wasn't long after that before her father was honorably discharged from the army, the war and loss of his wife having left him broken in more ways than one. Without a motherly influence, Kimber grew into even more of what could most accurately be described as a "tomboy", and formed a very strong bond with her father. The two would frequently go hunting together for long periods of time, and he began training her into the art of self defence. This eventually led her to her signing up for professional marksmanship tournaments and, a few years later, kickboxing competitions. She eventually matured into a strong, independent young woman with a loud mouth and a mildly asocial behaviour. She accidentally discovered her power shortly after she turned seventeen, during a rather unpleasant encounter with a man who had had a little too much to drink. Although he had been friendly at first, he wouldn't take no for an answer, and she began to struggle with him to let her go. She eventually threw a wild haymaker at him in hope of getting him to back away, and felt a strong, concussive force come out of her palm. When the ambulance found them, he was discovered to have 13 broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a heavy concussion and a broken arm, in addition to a dozen other less serious wounds. The doctors weren't quite sure what to make of it. According to the injuries, if they didn't know better, they would have guessed that he had been hit by an average sized truck going at moderate speed, but the confrontation had taken place in the middle of a narrow alley. The girl he had tried assaulting wasn't talking, and there were no other witnesses to what had happened. A few weeks later, men in suit showed up to take her somewhere. Her father went missing shortly afterwards.

Abilities: Kinetic manipulation. Using her abilities, Kimber is capable of absorbing large amounts of kinetic energy into her body, then release it later on. This ability only seems to stretch a centimeter or so away from her skin, and manifests itself as a dim orange glow around the affected areas, which grows brighter according to the amount of energy being transferred. The larger the area of contact, the easier it is for her to absorb. This basically means that she is effectively immune to most forms of blunt impacts, such as punches, baseball bats or falling, but is unprotected from gunshots, arrows, knives, needles or any other form of objects with a narrow edge. Essentially, she is able to fall from large distances unharmed or shrug off being propelled into a wall by a high speed truck. Furthermore, she is able to release the previously absorbed energy in extremely short bursts, granting her vast increases in strength and momentum. For example, she could send a quick burst of kinetic energy to allow her to leap remarkably high distances or, as she found out when discovering her powers, channel much more strength into a punch than she reasonably could have been able to.

There are however several considerable drawbacks to her ability. First of all, the amount of energy she can absorb at once is limited, meaning that she would not be able to survive a fall from a skyscraper or an impact with a train going at full speed. Although she might have marginally better chances of recovery than a normal person, it doesn't really factor in much at this scale. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, her power only works for extremely short bursts, including her kinetic dampening capabilities. Meaning that although she could get hit by a stopping truck and come out of it unharmed, she wouldn't stand much of a chance if said truck kept accelerating and she had her back to a wall or wasn't knocked out of the way by the hit. She is only protected from the initial impact, not continuous strain. Her capability enhancing abilities suffer from the same drawback, meaning her power wouldn't really help her win an arm wrestling match except for a few micro-seconds at the start. Lastly and most importantly, her ability requires a lot of energy to use, and a large part of the energy her powers dampen gets dissipated rather than absorbed. Only roughly 40 per cents of the energy from each impacts she takes actually gets stored within her body, the remainder being harmlessly redirected elsewhere. Although she will naturally generate energy on her own if given adequate supplies of food, this basically renders her unable to use the capability enhancing part of her powers for extended periods of time, unless she is being subjected to large amounts of blunt impacts. Using any aspect of her ability also puts a lot of stress on her body, leaving her sore and exhausted after extensive use. She is unable to call upon her abilities if drugged or otherwise pacified, and since her ability only work by enhancing her pre-existing momentum, sufficiently tight restraint should prevent her from moving relatively easily.

Image from Crazymic on Deviantart.

Persona 3: Dark Side of the Moon [OOC]

http://safebooru.org//images/362/57a15bbad4c7c3171235426c90789810a9bf3fb7.jpg?362083

Link for the twins picture.

Persona 3: Dark Side of the Moon [OOC]

Well, it seems like Yoro knows more than Nagi/Nami thinks he knows.

Persona 3: Dark Side of the Moon [OOC]

Nagi felt stupidly right on the money about Hitomi. The way she lovingly gazed and clutched upon her game device drew even more exasperated mental sighs from her. Nami might have been the better choice to talk to Hitomi, but Nagi had to make do with circumstances as these. Hopefully, the dormitory arrangements were temporary. A multiple personality issue stayed poorly hidden in common living area.

At least she came up with an excuse about herself and Nami that seemed to work. Well, Nami came up with the excuse, but Nagi had to introduce it.

Nagi knocked on the door nearest to the stairs. "This one's mine," she said coldly, though the tone of her words felt like paper in her mouth. She turned around to Hitomi and tried to smile that was trembling at its edges and showing more teeth than she needed.

"I'm Isa Nami," uttered Nagi, still holding onto the strange smile on her face.

She rushed down the stairs to the ground floor, her heeled footsteps breaking the awkward tension with Hitomi, at the very least. The dark blonde-haired male that would have been known as Youhei, the black-haired man that looked a little too familiar to Nagi, and Kirijo Yoromatsu. The previous conversation they had escaped Nagi's attention, but she did notice the smile that Yoro had was probably the same as the one she forced upon her face upstairs.

"Mr. Kirijo?" Nagi directed her voice politely towards Yoro, attracting his attention. Picking up her own photo (of her dressed like her normal attire) from her pocket, she held it out for him to see.

"This is my brother. Nagisa." Her voice sounded rehearsed, and after a few hours of practice in front of the mirror in the morning, it had to be. "He'll be coming into here sometimes, in my place. Let him have access to whatever we—"

Nagi took a deep breath, as if she tripped up on her own words. She sometimes used the word 'we' in place of 'I'.

"—I have. At least until I move out."

Kate's 1x1 Requests (M or F / High Casual - Adv)

I'm interested in a 1x1, though I'm not that in favour of all the ideas you have so far. I dislike vampires.

I sent ya' a PM.

Precipice of a Thousand Apocalypses

Spartan023, are you going to edit Kelly or not?

Ontos's 1x1 Interest Check (Open until otherwise stated)

PMed you.

Bump.

The Alcean Resistance

That's what I had in mind. Fran would step a second or so after Cirindel finished talking. To his horror.

The Alcean Resistance

From the corner of the palace, the only evident sight of a small child hidden in the shadows of the palace was the sunlight glistening off his dirty blonde hair. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people had walked past the hiding spot this boy took, without so much as a glance in his direction. Perhaps this spoke badly of the people of Ilvance that they did not grant charity to a dirty boy clothed in rags, or it proved his skills to hide.

His green eyes darted around and upon every passer-by. A few days ago, his eyes would have been searching for anyone dressed in the flowing silks of rich merchants, women browsing through expensive textiles from foreign lands, or anyone who smelled of money. His employer told him otherwise, however. Street urchins did not normally have employers, and certainly none that would pick him out of a line-up of all the other children of the street.

He was looking for something. His eyes lingered on everyone that held a weapon openly, or anyone clad in armour that bore no signs of loyalty to Ilvance. He looked down at his palm for a moment, imagining the sheet of paper his employer showed him for a second. The boy could remember every single detail of that paper, even the small yellow stains caused by age at the top left corner of the sheet. There were pictures of people he could recognise that he had not met, and descriptions that made it seem like he had enjoyed a personal conversation with them for a few minutes. The employer was looking for people. Warriors, knights, mercenaries, wizards and such.

The only woman on the list dwelt on his mind, however. His employer spoke too little of her, but a woman standing at 5 feet and 11 inches, clad in armour that could crush this young boy and wielding a mace left him in awe. She was the first person picked out by him, it seemed like just about everyone noticed the 'Archangel' as well.

With a cheeky little smile, the boy ran out of the shadows, brushing past a soldier standing guard. If he had paid attention to his belongings instead of staring agape the Archangel, he would have realised that the pouch of coins hanging by his belt was gone. The boy had a little bit more spending coin tonight, especially after his employer's payment.

The boy continued darting through and past the crowd, before taking a leap off a flight of stairs and onto the second-floor balcony of a stone building that stood 5 storeys high. Second floor was where his employer's office was, and walking in by the front door was for those not eagerly anticipating more coin.

Mustering a childish, happy grin, he leapt for the door and shoved it aside, before tripping onto a pile of leather-bound books and toppling onto the floor. His coins spilled out onto the floor with a few loud clangs, and he let out a pathetic whimper as he watched them roll around the floor.

His employer, seated at a wooden desk, looked up from his book with a disapproving glance that didn't even seem worth the young man's effort. He had to crane his neck just so that his eyes could poke out from behind the wall of books that were stacked up on his table. His name was Prince Francis Machiavelli Enrico Dandolo, the Lord High Admiral of the Republic of Amalfi and the Governor-General of the Southern Amalfi Trading Company, a small young man that was a head shorter than any grown male. His face was softly built with peach skin untouched by sunlight, and brown eyes that fitted a maiden waiting for a husband rather than a merchant prince. His long white hair raced past his shoulders, resting onto the red nape he wore. His reputation did not precede him in Ilvance, and he looked like a girly fop to outsiders.

"You saw one of the targets?" asked Prince Fran. He sounded a little bored, and with good reason. Doing 4 years worth of accounting in a week left little time for other activities. His brother, Giovanni, had fiddled with the numbers to account for slave-trading. It spoke something bad about his brother that even when he was involved in the slave trade, the falsification of account ledgers was ultimately meant to cover up losses rather than illicit gains. Fran had to fix all that before he could truly get involved in the company.

The boy said nothing, though he grunted a few times as he picked up every coin of his on the floor. He froze right after he picked up the last coin. Fran was a rich man, and even though he was just a few inches taller than the urchin, the boy felt the tension in every single muscle of his, just like the first time he spoke to Prince Fran.

It didn't help that the first time he met his employer, he was trying to steal the merchant prince's coin pouch.

That incident happened 3 days ago. When the urchin cased the crowd around the marketplace districts of Ilvance, Prince Fran did stick out in the boy's mind. The red silks he wore as his outfit, along with the scarlet wide-brimmed hat with an embedded white feather made the boy think that the young man was a dandy. He did carry a rapier by his side, but the boy thought he could move fast enough. What the boy did not spot were the 5 bodyguards Fran had around him, dressed casually and carrying weapons of their own.

Fran wasn't sure why he forgave the boy, but the boy had an eye for detail that could be trained, and a memory that surpassed God. And nerves that gave way rather quickly.

"I—I'm—"

Fran raised his head even higher to show a gentle smile.

"Speak calmly, Jack."

The young man spoke with such a comforting tones that Jack first thought of the memories of the mother. The sweet memories made him a little warm inside, just enough to push through the boundaries of nervousness.

"I saw Cirindel Valehold. She was heading to the palace."

Fran shot up, though standing up was only enough for the boy to see the prince's chin and part of his neck above the wall of ledgers. A wry grin made its way across his face, and trailed across his eyes as well.

"Archangel! That's perfect!" Fran cheered.

The history of the Valeholds were not hidden in dusty tomes stashed away in libraries buried beneath time, but not many knew about them outside of Alcea or about how they fell. If a single word could summarised how they were ultimately made irrelevant, it was slavery. The same word that caused his brother's suicide.

Fran hated that word, and everything associated with it. The list of people he showed Jack were of notable men or women, most of them 'hedge knights' or wizards with great magical power, and all of them with a history regarding slavery that most likely left them disgusted. People that could be worked with to deal with slavers at little to no cost.

Something Jack said made Fran think a little bit, and then gasp. Cirindel Valehold was heading to the palace. A warrior who served a crown, by common sense, had less free time to deal with their common interests.

"Jack! Ask Frederick for your pay!" yelled Fran. He tried not to sound like he was scolding anyone, but Jack cowered all the same. The prince would have noticed, if he wasn't in such a hurry. He leapt out of his seat and grabbed his signature wide-brimmed hat at the corner hatstand, hastily placing it on his head. The rapier that hung by the hatstand as well was ignored, considering that he was rushing headlong into a palace.

"And tell him I'm going to the palace!"

Fran rushed past the piles of ledgers, out of the same door Jack entered, and jumped off the balcony. He took the same route Jack did, racing past the crowd and then towards the palace gates. The lone soldier standing guard wavered slightly in his post, the pole-axe he held as a weapon served more like a form of support to the exhausted man.

The guard did tighten his face and his posture when Fran approached.

"Halt! State your business!" he barked out, shoving an open palm in front of Fran in a gesture to stop.

The last time he had entered the palace at Ilvance, even the noble grace of being the Lord High Admiral of the Republic of Amalfi, Governor-General of the Southern Amalfi Trading Company and the 3rd son of the current Doge of the Republic of Amalfi, was not enough for him to avoid the rude accosting by guards and a demand to know his reasons for entering the palace. A merchant prince was probably richer than just about all the nobles in Ilvance, but 'nobility' meant so much more than wealth.

Fran looked up, catching no sights of anyone atop the castle walls. The last time he was here, there was an armed sentry on the walls, but wherever he went to was of no interest to the prince.

The fact that he wasn't there, however, allowed Fran a little indulgence. His hands slipped into his shirt, removed a medium-sized coin pouch, and held it out to the guard.

"I want to meet Cirindel Valehold," stated Fran, matter-of-factly.

The guard's eyes widened, and his own firm gaze now darted around the palace walls. Soldiers were taught to have their loyalties to the throne in their minds before all else, but in practice, that was much harder to implement. With clenched teeth, as if cursing his own greed even as he gave in to it, the guard took the coin pouch and slid it into his pocket.

"Go in," he said with a defeated sigh.

With the sort of smile Fran would give to a defeated foe flashed at the guard, he rushed into the palace. The prince made it into the throne room just as the Archangel finished her vow of loyalty. He heard none of it, but when he saw the knight upon her knees, he could already guess what she was saying to the Queen of Alcea.

"No!" he yelled out. "Don't do this! Not yet!"

Fran regretted those words, or at least his tone, a second after they left his lips and resonated in the throne room. The ever-present Royal Guard, the last of defence to the protection of the queen first had their eyes on Valehold, but shifted to the short young white-haired man who so rudely interrupted them. A few of them whispered amongst themselves, but to the merchant's prince slight relief, none of them actually drew their weapons.

"Lady Cirindel Valehold, I need your assistance. You must not swear allegiance before you at least hear me out. I am Prince Francis Machiavelli Enrico Dandolo of the Republic of Amalfi."