Completed New Year's Party! (Part 3)

[Orin Fenix]

Orin Fenix Food Equals Love Orin’s head was aching and he could feel a vein in his temple throbbing. The adrenalin high that had been carrying him thus far had finally ended and he found himself shaking slightly at his audacity. He had never dared or imagined that he could speak in front of that many people. The sick sensation in the pit of his stomach wasn’t going away, and Orin thought wryly, This is a fantastic way to start off the new year. A man departed from the party but he was quickly replaced. The latest arrival was about the same height as Orin with a rather fetching shade of burgundy for his hair. However, he appeared taller, since his carriage, unlike Orin’s was ramrod straight. Orin was far more likely to hunch over and keep his head down. ”Hello Keris, I’m Orin. And a very happy new year to you too. Thanks for coming; it’s better late than never, right?” However, when Keris asked if he had missed anything, Orin could only burst into laughter. It had more than a hint of hysteria attached to it. How could Orin even begin to start explaining the events of the last few bells. However, when the recently departed man came pelting back into the party accompanied by a crashing sound and yelling, something in Orin snapped. He had had enough. ”Hold that thought Keris.” Orin’s words were clipped or tight. Turning to Treachery, Orin smiled grimly. ”Treachery there’s a plate of ham on top of the hearth’s mantelpiece. I was going to have it, but somehow I don’t think I’m going to get to eat tonight, so you’re welcome to it.” Though hunger was gnawing at Orin, his stomach would probably revolt if he tried to put anything in it. Stalking into the party, Orin stood just inside the doorway, put his hands on his hips, and took a deep breath. Then he let it out in an explosion of sound. ”What the petch is wrong with you all?! By all the gods, can’t you go five chimes without something happening? I swear, you lot are worse than children. At least children have an excuse for their unruly behavior!” Throughout his tirade, Orin’s voice steadily climbed in pitch until he was nearly shrieking with frustration at the end. ”It’s not only the new year, we also have new life to celebrate! I’m trying to hold to my resolution to be more friendly and outgoing but you all are making it really hard on me and it's what, not even a full bell into Spring?” For once, Orin didn’t care in the slightest that he was the center of attention. He was simply too angry to give attention to anything but his words. Dropping his voice just slightly, Orin continued his rant. ”While we’re on the subject of pregnancies…” Orin pointed to Garland. ”Garland you’re my friend but your….girlfriend, wife, whatever she is, mother of your unborn child is stinking drunk and I clearly remember Sayana telling you to take her home. While I’m not an expert on babies or a doctor, I’m pretty sure alcohol doesn’t help them any. Maybe you want to talk to her about that.” Shifting his attention to the crowd of people around Sayana and Aren, Orin narrowed his eyes. ”For Sylir’s sake, I know you all want to wish them well, but give them some room to breathe! They need a moment to talk to one and another.” Moving on, Orin turned to Holland and Claudia. ”Now, I know that you’re being sweet and exchanging vows or whatever but maybe you’d like to take this somewhere more private? I think you two and the rest of us would be a lot more comfortable.” Pausing, Orin glared at everyone. ”Any questions so far? No? Good!” He went on without actually waiting to give anyone a chance to respon, a dangerous glint in his eyes. He practically dared anyone to challenge him and while he might not be the best fighter he didn’t care. His rage would probably keep him going long after he might normally have given it up as hopeless. If anyone physically confronted him right now Orin would probably go berserk. It had happened rarely before, but the results had never been pretty. Settling on his final target, Orin advanced on the man who had fallen by the bed, at Devi’s feet practically. ”As for you, what in the world is so important that you had to come dashing in here and make another ruckus in the process! If you left something behind there was no reason you couldn’t have returned in a calm and orderly fashion. Don't you know anything about manners? What was so important anyway that it couldn't wait for a few more chimes?” Orin placed his booted foot over the strange looking contraption on the floor. ”For the last time, no weapons at the party! And what is this?” Orin leaned over to scoop up the yellowed piece of parchment. He unfolded it and scanned the few lines of text on it. His bravado drained away completely, quickly replaced with fear. The color drained out of Orin’s face completely. ”Wh-what is this?” Orin asked, voice shaking. He held the paper up and hopefully out of the downed man’s reach. OOCI actually don’t know what is it, but I’m assuming it’s incriminating if you made such an effort to get it. The contract maybe?

[Claudia Blackwood]

After that rather passionate light-hearted ordeal, Claudia was still feeling rather light-headed. This whole new ordeal was still very new to her. Holland then repeated the question he had asked earlier, seeming to emphasise an important point. He also seemed to be rather insistent about the fact that she answered his question.

He asked if he could be with her. At first, she wondered if he meant more than that, but her thought was quickly silenced as he mentioned that he could always elaborate if needed. Although Claudia had an idea of what he was referring to, the idea of asking him to elaborate was too good to pass up. He also spoke plainly this time getting straight to the point, avoiding using flowery poetic language this time, so she sensed that he must be serious. She appreciated that.

So she posed the question back to him, grinning widely. "My answer could be yes, but I'll prefer it if you elaborate first. I appreciate the different approach though." before letting out a chuckle.

Taking a glance around the room, she saw Orin having a nice chat with a rather late new comer to the picture. He was a rather handsome looking guy. The shifty-looking man in the cloak who departed the party, came back running noisily accompanied with a crash.

That seemed to have set Orin off into something furious, and it was at that point that she noticed Orin having a meltdown. Claudia quickly stood up, getting up from her seat, walking over towards him.

She wondered what could cause a timid guy like him to go on such a tirade. It just didn't seemed like him. He seemed to be picking one everyone in the room, lecturing them on everything possible. He picked on Garland, April, Sayana, Aren, Holland..just about everyone in the room really. He then went on, and on again. Claudia had heard enough and after accessing the situation, she grabbed a chair from one of the neighbouring tables and carried it towards Orin. She began to approach him from the back.

His yelling was giving a tipsy self a headache. She was not fond of headaches. Grabbing him by the shoulders, she forced him down onto the chair, placing her hands on his shoulders, saying "Calm down Orin, that's not like you." She then gave him a shoulder massage, rubbing his shoulders, hoping to loosen his tense muscles to calm him down. "Calm down Orin. It's alright now, you're just tired. There's no need for more yelling."

OOCOrin, Claudia is approaching you from the back, so she can't exactly see what you are holding, or your sudden pale expression.

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross A soft wave of relief washed over the boy once he was reassured that Ser Lorden was not going to yell at or discipline him. In fact, the knight seemed to seem more understanding than anything else, which gave Alex a new respect for the knight. Of course, a closer glance at his face gave away that his look of serenity seemed a bit forced, Alex noticing this because he himself had done the same thing a million times before. He didn't care about this, though. As long as he wouldn't get yelled at or punished, he was thankful. He nodded when Lorden voiced his guess of Alex being a squire, replying in his most respectful tone. "Yes, sir. I am." He always had the habit of calling anyone with higher authority than him "Sir" or "Ma'am", this being another thing his stepfather had taught him. And since the knight seemed to respect him more than most other knights did, it was only fair that he show the same respect in return. "What made you respond the way you did, anyway? I know I was short with you earlier. But, now that I know you're a Squire, I'm sure you wouldn't throw out the threat that you did, unless you had a good reason?" At this, Alex froze for a moment, unsure of what to say. If he told Ser Lordin that he saw Aren using magic, and seemingly in a threatening way, then it was possible that the knight would still have the Akalak arrested, separating him from his family. And as if the boy already had enough things on his mind to keep him awake at night, he didn't want to live with the guilt of separating a father from his child. Then again, Lorden had made it clear that no one was being hauled off tonight, upholding the same reason Alex had. That, and it was likely that whatever was going on between Aren and Treach at the time could have been something as harmless as a short interrogation. With this to reassure him, he spoke. "All right," He said with a sigh. "The reason I acted the way I did was because I saw Aren--" He was suddenly interrupted when one of the earlier party guests who had left suddenly charged back in, making quite a bit of noise as he did so. For petch's sake, people... He was going to yell out, but it seemed that Orin beat him to it. It was then that he saw Orin pick up a piece of paper, scanning the written lines. As he did this, his previous demeanor immediately changing from frustrated, to one of fear. "I... I think we should check this out..." He said with a quick gesture.

[Keris]

Keris Rowe So the young man’s name was Orin. Keris smiled promptly, making sure to remember that. He always had a tendency to forget names, and it was flaw he was trying to get rid of. The other laughed when Keris asked if he missed anything, but there was a definite note of something that threw Keris off.Oh, so I had missed something. He was about to speak when another entered the room. They were frantic, shrieking as they grabbed a few things from a woman that was halfway under a bed. His smile seemed to disappear as his brow furrowed, his expression becoming confused as he watched the man grabbed the stuff from the woman, dropping them soon after he had them in his possession. This seemed to prompt Orin to do something, as he turned and talked to large Zith about ham before he stalked his way into the party. Keris crossed his arms, curious as what was going to happen. He just got here and several people were on edge it seemed. When Orin yelled, Keris choked back a snort. His whole stance was like a mother scolding her children, his voice just rising as he addressed the party. Keris placed a hand over his mouth, covering the grin that was trying to find its way on his lips as Orin began calling out people on their faults. He watched all this with a bemused expression, unsure what to do. He watched as Orin advanced towards the frantic one who had entered the room, tilting his head slightly as he enjoyed the dispute. He wasn’t expecting this, but it was certainly interesting. The cloaked young man dropped a blade, and Keris shook his head."Well, I wasn’t expecting this when I decided to come.” He said lightly, watching as Orin paled after reading a piece of parchment. A young woman pushed down Orin, trying to calm him down and Keris looked around. Most people weren’t doing anything. Just watching as he was. The man at fault for all of this looked close to breaking out of his skin. ”Looks to me someone was doing something immoral.”Keris spoke, though he was talking mostly to himself. What was on that piece of yellowed paper, why did he have a weapon at the party? Many questions wracked against his head as he leaned forward slightly, the corners of his lips turned up slightly. Running a hand across his jaw, he chuckled softly, unsure of what to do. Apparently this was not how parties went. Adjusting the bracelet that was on his wrist, he sighed softly, curious how this was going to end up.

[Treachery]

The Zith wasn't even a sure what had happened until he had stumbled arse first into the corridor outside the room. The lingering feeling of rough hands on his neck and shoulder made sense when the blue man from before closed the door, yelling that they would be fine. Tucking his hair behind his ears carefully, the Zith got to his feet only to find the other male suddenly right up in his face. Taking in a noseful, the man wreaked of miss Sixarms, where they mates or something? Hints of violence were thrown at him as a strange sludge gathered and floated above the man's hand. Was that magic? A form of djed manipulation!? And he was going to threaten him with it? Because his mate didn't like his kind? Pulling a face, the Zith was about to politely question the blue giant's sanity when Nivel appeared from under the door screaming at them both. Shocked the zith didn't even have the chance to open his mouth when the door was flung open and a whole crowd of people were trying to intevene in their 'talk'. A little over whelmed Treachery just let things happen around him as he stared on in shock. A threat to haul the giant off to the tank was issued only to be dismissed by another older gentleman as silly. There was then an announcement about pregnancies was voiced and the hulking great blue magic user thankfully lost interest in him. Turned out the six armed woman was indeed his mate. An odd pair but who was he to judge, blue could be an especial attractive colour on the right person. The young man from before stayed with him though, even offered him some ham and Nivel some clay. Looking down at the little Pycon, the Zith noted how different she looked. Could she also change her appearance? Fanscinating. Nodding at him, treachery moved to grab a hold of him new friend once again entering the room. However he never was able to as some lunatic hurtled back into the room, sending his friend into a rage. Garland appeared at this point handing the zith some food as he once again found himself clutching onto his ears. Why were humans always so noisey? About to thank the squire again the man had vanished away into the arms of his mate, both kissing each other on the couch much to his friends further outrage. At some point another man, had come up to greet him but the zith was far more concerned about firstly protecting his hearing and secondly devouring as many of the slides of pink meat as he could. Once the noise died down, he quickly began to chomp down the pieces of ham one after the other, eating in a fairly messy manner since his claws and teeth weren't the most graceful of eating utensils. Licking the plate clean, the Zith carefully put it down before he wondered over to see what all the racket was about. A woman had began to rub his friend's back telling 'Orin' to relax. Orin, however, wasn't playing her any mind. He seemed far to focused on something he had picked up. Leaning over the female, Treachery looked over the man's shoulder at what appeared to be a piece of paper. Confused red eyes began reading it's content, obvious to the woman he had unintentionally trapped between himself and Orin. The more he read, the more angry the Zith's expression became. Glaring at who he assumed was the original owner of the paper, Treachery tried located the only other squires he could name. “Garland! Stop with kiss kiss. Nivel! Need you over here. Important. Quick!”

[Phaylix Whitevine]

InfoYes, Orin. That is the contract. I will link it. And Treachery... HAI NO.here.

Phaylix watched in absolute horror as the caterer picked up the contract and read it. Shkye. Shyke shyke shyke. Then, one of the two who'd been scrutinized for their public display of affection took a nearby chair and slid it under the paling cook. Another man, most presumably a Squire, said something, although Phaylix didn't hear it. He was already standing and closing the distance between himself and the contract. Another man, a latecomer, mentioned something being immoral.

Damn right it's immoral.

Another came and read the note. Phaylix's heart-rate quickened as the Zith's features became more contorted with anger.

The Zith called for Garland, the announcer of the pregnancies, and Nivel, the Pycon who'd protected him from the Akalak.

Hai no!

Phaylix once again burst into a sprint, but not for long this time. He was there, right in front of the caterer. He snatched the contract from his hands and, for good measure, kicked the chair out from beneath him. He booked it as soon as he got his shyke, not looking back. His apartment was just two floors above, so he should've been able to lose them, if they'd decided to pursue. He broke into a sprint again, already feeling the ache in his lungs returning.

He took the stairs two at a time, cloak bounding behind him, hood up. He made sure everything was in it's place: his blowpipe in it's loop, his wrist blade on his wrist, his ring on his left ring finger, and the contract safely tucked inside it's bracer. He'd have to make sure to find some kind of folder for that...

He turned left two floors above the "party," making his way to his apartment. His door loomed ahead. He finally made it there, sweat doubling, chest heaving. He pounded on the door.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'." a familiar voice rang. Recluse unlatched the door and swung it open. "Oh, Phaylix! How was the-"

"Shush, shhhh!' The Vantha pushed his way in, kicking the door shut behind him. He began to systematically snuff the various candles lit around the cramped apartment.

"Phaylix, what's-

"Be quiet! Latch the door. Something happened. There's the chance some members of the Order may be coming. If they do, tell them you don't know anyone named Phaylix Whitevine."

In the darkness, he saw her knowing amethyst eyes squint, and move up and down in a nodding fashion. The apartment was pitch black, but he knew his way around fair enough. He slid under his bed, curling into his smallest fetal position in a corner.

There, he awaited the rest of the night.

Final NotesThis is my final post. This thread was a lot of fun to do. Tell me if there's anything I have to change. Good luck!

[Orin Fenix]

Orin Fenix Food Equals Love Orin felt paralyzed. As he had been examining the note, multiple people had come up to him. Apparently they were concerned at his admittedly loud and unsightly outburst. Orin was sat down and someone started massaging his shoulders. Soothing words were uttered. People began gathering to look at the note clutched in Orin’s hand. All of this went completely unnoticed by Orin. Partially this was because the majority of it happened behind his back. But mostly it was because of the information Orin had just uncovered. A stone cold killer was standing in front of him. His world narrowed to a single tunnel of vision between him and the man. Blood was rushing to his head to pound relentlessly in his ears. Time seemed to be standing still, or at least be moving significantly more slowly. Orin opened his mouth to shout an accusation. At the same time, his free hand was rising to point. However, the other man moved faster. Springing into motion, he leapt forward to snatch the paper from Orin’s fingers. At the same time, he kicked at Orin’s chair. Before Orin could react, he found himself falling. The next thing he knew, pain exploded on the back of his head. Finding himself lying on his back on the floor, Orin tried to sit up. However, Orin not only saw stars, but the room also spun slightly, flecks of light appeared in his eyes and a thread of nausea wormed its way into his stomach. Falling back, Orin just barely managed to catch himself on his elbows before he could hit his head again. He eased down at a much more sedate pace. Orin was vaguely away of commotion happening all around him, but seemed unable to process exactly what was going on. It was as if everything was going through a filter that made it garbled and incoherent. ”I think I’m just going to lie here for a second” Orin uttered almost dreamily. ”Sitting up not so good right now.” Struck by a sudden sense of urgency, Orin struggled to get up. However all his strength seemed to have been used up in his earlier attempt. He flopped to the ground again. All of his muscles went loose at once, and he watched the ceiling revolve with a silly grin on his face. However, that weird nagging urge hadn’t gone away yet. Valiantly Orin tried to force his thoughts into some semblance of order. They seemed to escape his grasp. Orin giggled at the sudden mental image of his thoughts as a flock of sheep that kept escaping from the shepherd and her sheepdog friends. Baaaaaa, baaaaa popped up and his giggle became uncontrollable. Letting his head loll to one side, Orin saw shuffling boots. His eyes were hurting in the sudden glare and he squinted them to shut it out partially. ”I think those are my boots. Give them back!” But no, those boots were black and Orin was pretty sure his were brown. Normally he would’ve checked but the stone felt so nice under his body. It was way past the time when Orin normally would’ve been asleep and maybe it would be nice to take a nap here. But first, he had a very important message to deliver. To the nice knights. Orin smiled. Nice knights. It had a good rhythm to it and he rolled it around on his tongue as if he could taste it. Orin had to tell the nice knights something. Something very important. ”There was a bad man here! But, he went goodbye. Whoosh! But he did a bad thing, a very bad thing.” Orin felt his forehead furrow in intense concentration. It was on the tip of his tongue! He knew if he just reached a bit harder it would fall into place. Then, like a miracle, it snapped into place exactly where it was supposed to be. ”He killed someone! The bad man killed someone! He killed a good man! It was all there on the little paper he had, well I had it, but then he took it and I lost it. Isn’t that funny?” Orin laughed again. But now that his duty had been discharged admirably, he could sleep. After all, he’d been working so hard and the light was far too bright in here. Maybe six-arm girl had put new torches in. Sayana, Orin would have to tell Sayana her torches needed to be dimmed. But first, he would close his eyes and rest on the cool stone. He smiled as the light shut off. That’s better he thought with relief. OOCTo any graders, I have given permission for Orin to be moved about

[Lorden Ladis]

Lorden raised his brow when the Squire all but clammed up. The knight's heart skipped a beat for a moment. Could it be that the earlier situation was more serious than he had imagined, had he under-reacted? Lorden listened in a relieved and earnestly interested fashion, as Alexander began to speak. The knight tried to hide his concern, as the younger man trailed his words slowly.

"All right," He said with a sigh. Lorden squinted inquisitively, a flash of assessing shock shooting through his eye, for but a moment. The knight didn't like the sound of Alex's exhalation, it sounded too much like a confession.

"The reason I acted the way I did was because I saw Aren--," Lorden jumped with a fright ,as a loud banging noise reverberated through the air, and drifted over to him. The knight noted the troubling scene unfolding, as his eyes bounced up from the Squire in front of him, to look for the source of his surprise.

A yellow-eyed man had flung the apartment's door open, knocking it aside carelessly, and sending the wooden structure slamming into the nearby wall, Lorden noted. The suspicious male, then proceeded to all but ran into the small abode; leaving the door he had bashed aside swinging agape, he showed no signs of slowing down.

Lorden's hand twitched.

Petch it, the knight thought, resisting the urge to draw his sword, as he noted all the civilians mingling about. The knight feared that the loud sound of skirting steel, that a sword produced as it was removed from a scabbard, could only make the situation worse.

Something more discrete, Lorden mused, allowing his right hand to cross his body, and remove the small, oddly-shaped dagger that hung in a black sheath at his side. The noise of the knife, sliding from its second skin, was hardly noticeable, as the knight drew it.

"Unhand that... damn you. Put it... down!," the rude, and more than ruffled man demanded with a shaky voice. Lorden looked up from his knife with trepidation. He could guess the source, but what was the intended target of the words?

"Wh-what is this?," a new and distinct voice chimed in. As he heard the nervous tone, the swordsman shot his eyes, over to where the wind had carried the words from.

There, the knight confirmed to himself, with a calming swallow. Lorden's cold blue eyes, quickly locked on a seated man, who was starring on with fear in his eyes, at a sheet of parchment. It didn't take much reasoning, to make the link between what the male was holding, and the worried individual who had presumably demanded said man drop what he now grasped. But why had the worry-eyed man burst into the apartment; why did he care so much for the paper? Was the emotion in his rushed words drawn from fear or embarrassment?

"I... I think we should check this out...," his knife still inconspicuously hanging from his dominant hand, Lorden momentarily drifted his eyes back to the Squire, that he had been conversing with. The knight's brow ruffled in confusion, and a conflicted sense of moral decency.

What's going on with everyone? Why can't we just leave people's business be, the knight wanted to think to himself. Yet, the tone of the chef's voice, just wouldn't stop surfacing to the forefront of his thoughts. Something just wasn't right. Lorden's suspicions were only further reinforced, as bestial syllables found hold, in his now alert eardrums.

“Garland! Stop with kiss kiss. Nivel! Need you over here. Important. Quick!," the knight gripped his blade, as the Zith spoke. This petching settled it.

"Aye mate, we do. Watch my rear," Lorden confirmed and directed Alex. The knight wasn't sure any real trouble would arise, but at least if the Squire was watching his back, the task would hopefully, keep him from getting in the way.

Lorden began to scrape his feet against the ground cautiously, beginning his walk over to the chef and winged beast who sat and stood respectively, both all but dumbfounded and wide-eyed. Unexpectedly, the knight caught motion in his blue eyes, as he walked.

The man who had caused all this ruckus, quickly knocked the sitting man he had addressed down, and now he was fleeing!

Bloody shyke, Lorden thought, as he broke into his own sprint after the much faster man. The knight only hoped Alexander was behind him, all previous thoughts aside. Guilty men ran, the knight knew this. Maybe if he hadn't knocked the Chef down there could have been another explanation; but no, the Vantha that was sprinting from the apartment was running from something he had done.

As the swordsman drug his heels to a frenzied stop at the apartment's gaping door, Lorden crooked his neck out into the torch-lite hall. The twenty-year old, gritted his teeth.

Dammit, he thought, as he looked into the hallway, that was void of any life. The knight stood tensely, having failed to catch his prey. Lorden was about to demand something from the room, but he forgot what it was, as the cook's words drifted from across the small apartment, and over to the door.

”He killed someone! The bad man killed someone! He killed a good man! It was all there on the little paper he had, well I had it, but then he took it and I lost it. Isn’t that funny?," Lorden felt his stomach cringing, as he heard the cook laugh in a deranged fashion.

The knight almost fell to his knees.

The Order had to know.

This was just too much...

[Aren]

Sayana's certainty at having his baby made the Akalak's heart skip a beat. He hadn't wanted to put even the slightest amount of pressure on her, but he had to admit she had made the choice he wanted her to. They had gotten interrupted before the discussion could get much further, but the pair was finally left alone after Seros' threat, and Aren had to admit that while his brother's methods left much to be desired, they were certainly effective. His head swiftly turned away from the two knights just in time for Sayana to reach up and give him a kiss. He smiled absentmindedly at her comment, for a second, before she asked the question which he couldn't imagine wasn't on the Eypharian's mind: did Aren himself want this baby? Bending his knees a bit, the Akalak wrapped his hands around Sayana's waist and lifted her off the floor with relative ease. His sun-burst eyes scoured every inch of her face, analyzing every curve, until they met her soulful gaze, "Never in my life have I been more glad of anything." Aren's eyes seemed to water with emotion as he said the words, and there was nothing he wanted more than to return his lover's kiss, but it seemed the party had not quite reached the zenith of its absurdity. 'Would you be terribly angry if I unleashed Seros' fury on your guests?" The mercenary bemoaned, rhetorically. "We better tend to them, though. There will be time for us later," He added, after putting Sayana down in a single, gentle motion. Taking one of her hands in his, he brought it up to his lips and gave it a gentle kiss, before turning to face whatever fresh hysteria had consumed Orin. "I'm starting to be able to pick that man's voice out of a noisy crowd," Aren mumbled, his head shaking from one side to the other at the implication. "By Akajia's milky nipples, what is going on here?" The Akalak exclaimed, one brother beginning the sentence, and the other finishing it. The strange dichotomy of his voice might have perplexed some and even aroused the suspicion of others, but neither seamed particularly concerned with that, at this moment in time. As Aren headed in Orin's direction, he glanced over to Sayana's "friend" who seemed to be trapped under the weight of his own inebriated woman. His only reaction was an amused grin, and he kept walking towards the excitable chef with a determined stride. At this point, he had seen the second man attack his chair, causing the chef's head to hit the floor hard, and run out of the apartment. This prompted the Akalak to wonder what trouble the cook had gotten into now. "He seems to have a propensity for getting himself rendered unconscious," Seros offered, his dislike for the man having been ameliorated, though not entirely curved, by his consideration towards Aren and Sayana. Forcing his way through the crowd of onlookers, the blue giant approached Orin's "resting" form, uncertain if any of the words coming out of his mouth could be trusted, considering his condition. "No, no. He's still awake, although I suspect not for long." The darker Other again volunteered, absent prompting. Propping one of his eyelids open with a few fingers, Aren made a snapping sound next to the young man's ear with his other hand. "Orin. Orin! Can you hear me?" The Akalak queried, before looking up at the gathered throng, "I think he mentioned something about a murder. You guys might want to get on that," He said, already noticing that at least one of the assembled knights to which he was directing his statement might have have caught that same part of the chef's declaration, if his expression was any indication, "Assuming he has absolutely any idea what's he's talking about, of course."

[Alexander Ross]

Alexander Ross "Aye lad, we do. Watch my rear," At this, Alex nodded and followed, his hand once again gripped tightly on the hilt of his longsword. The way Orin paled when he looked at the note made the boy's blood run cold as ice. What exactly was it that the yellow-eyed man thought was so important? If anything, he acted as if he had dropped an item of extreme value, rather than a simple piece of paper. “Garland! Stop with kiss kiss. Nivel! Need you over here. Important. Quick!" The Zith's sudden outburst startled him enough to make him jump, but it also confirmed his suspicions: The note they had read was indeed valuable... At this, Alex gripped the hilt of his weapon even tighter in anticipation and picked up the pace in which he was walking, his heart pounding heavily with adrenaline. Then, before either Alex or Ser Lorden could react, the yellow-eyed man suddenly snatched the note from the cook's hand and knocked the chair out from under him and he was out the door before Orin even hit the ground. Lorden acted instinctively, taking off in a dead sprint after him. The men who were guilty always ran, it didn't take a genius to know that. Alex on the other hand, froze in his tracks, unable to decide what to do as the events went by in a hazy blur. Aren stood over the cook's unconscious body, ordering them to go after their suspect... something about Orin mumbling "murder" and "Bad man went woosh". Remembering that Lorden had ordered him to follow, Alex sprinted out the door. Of course, neither men were anywhere to be seen, a result of his delayed reaction. So instead he ducked back into the apartment and approached the unconscious cook, standing next to Aren. "I don't have any experience in this sort of thing. But if there's anything I can do to help, please tell me." He said hastily.