PM to join From Wind Reach, With Love

[Ornea]

The Inarta excelled at straightforward and honest bluntness. They called a spade a spade. If they wanted to ask about something, they asked about it. If they had an opinion, they spoke it. They saw no meaning with not having an open and direct communication. It was an efficient and time saving way to deal with things and be productive. The Inarta felt no understanding for the circumstantial ways of people who thought it polite to playact, conceal their true feelings, stay silent instead of getting things said and done, and waste time in favor of being meek.

Thus, the tall woman’s cuckoo comments were wasted on the Inarta, as that kind of meaningless chirping so often was.

The brunette’s unpleasant and wheezing voice had however been a surprise. It had sounded like something that could have come from a snake, in the Inarta’s opinion. An unexpected sound from somebody so beautiful. It was just like seeing the beauty of an elegant swan, then be confronted with it’s not so elegant song. There had been a kind of hissing undertone. Hissssss ... Ornea shuddered inwardly, and wondered if the other woman had caught a cold. Perhaps. It was best to stay at a distance in order to not be infected!

She listened distractedly while Youshi Dawn stopped slacking and speeded up her work to decent pace. Bat caves ? Well. Everybody had their interests, so why not bat caves, for those who were into bats. Ornea didn’t mind. Each to their own taste. But personally she wasn’t fond of the ugly little creatures; they actually reminded her of ziths, just smaller. They had the same kind of leathery wings.

Mini zith! Alright. Alright. Alright. Bats weren’t mini zith. They were just small animals. Nothing to be scared of. They could even be cute, in their own beautiful-ugly way, like all other animals. The flying little cuckoos were just not so appealing to her. The idea of seeking them out in their stinking caves was disgusting to her. Nothing could make her voluntarily go looking for bats in the dark !

To her surprise, the shabby man behind her eagerly offered himself as guide to the bat caves. Ivak. Not only one, but two people who were intersted in bat caves ... the world these days. But she knew Lhavit was somewhat wacky about the okomos. In a city where people worshipped goats she guessed it could be possible to find a few bat worshippers too.

Clipped nutty folks, eh ... if those two made a deal or not wasn’t clear to her. But she supposed enthusiasts with similar interests would soon meet again, be it by a random unexpected meeting in the bat caves, or as a planned common expedition to said caves. She could see it now. Some people stumbling around in the dark trying to avoid the pools of stinking guano. Clouds of upset and piping bats on the run from whatever the visitors were looking to do with bats. So on. She sure wondered ...

The door closed behind the tall woman. Ornea broke out of the odd sidetrack her thoughts had taken, and forced her attention back to the present situation. It was her turn to speak with Youchi Dawn, which she would do once the woman was done putting some parchments back into the folders they belonged to. While she waited, Ornea glanced back at the man again. She decided to take the opportunity to speak with him a bit. It seemed natural, as they stood there.

And it might give her some clues to where and when ... well, here we go again. The correct thing to think was that it might finally prove to her that this Brandon Blackwing of the scruffy appearance really was a complete stranger. By the way, he ought to brush his long hair; it was something of a mess, to her standards. it wouldn't be wrong to tie it together at the neck with a nice ribbon, if you asked her.

“Are you ...”

She nearly asked him if he was here in Cosmos Center often, but in the last tick she dismissed it as a useless line. It seemed somewhat misplaced. But she had already started to speak, and when one thought had been kicked out another kicked in, automatically. Before she knew it, she had asked him a totally other question.

“Are you ... really interested in those bat caves, or were you only looking for a profitable guide job ? It seems like a dangerous excursion.”

If the man cared to answer, she would hear him out and perhaps also ask him about something more. Otherwise she would just speak to Youchi about the meditation training.

...

[Brandon Blackwing]

OOCSo I’m going to skip Ayszel since I am starting to suspect she’d gone AWOL. Sorry for the lateness of this, but I kind of forgot this thread was still up and running

The conversation with the woman didn’t last long, basically not being a conversation at all. She simply told him to come to the gates at a specific time if he wanted to be a part of this, and then she left the premise. Well, a simple yes or no would have sufficed too, but alright, he’d be there then. Depending on how long he’d still be standing here! From what he could hear, Youchi was placing papers and documents in folders, organizing her desk, among other bureaucrat things. While that was taking place, it seemed that the redhead had decided on some small talk with him to pass time.

“Am I interested?” A strange question, though considerably less when knowing it was an Inarta who had asked it. To them liking any animal that wasn’t a bird was weird. For some reason they seemed to believe birds were smarter than mammals, though Brandon was quite sure things were the other way around. Birds were stupid. Wind eagles were excepted from that generalization, as they clearly possessed intelligence far above that of the average Inarta. Well, that couldn’t really be helped; it was what you got from using a caste system and worshipping all avian creatures.

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t have offered otherwise, now would I?” He looked at her as if she was some sort of crazy person, which was probably not too far from the truth. “It’s a lot safer than you think too. The immediate area around Lhavit has been cleared from dangerous monstrosities and predators by the Shinya. Sure, there might be the odd wolf or mountain lion roaming about, perhaps even a bear or two, but nothing too dangerous.” He grimaced then, remembering the Zith hordes attacking Wind Reach on a regular basis last two seasons. “At least no armies of Zith, or undead abominations shaped like bears… or other weird monsters I’ve heard rumors of during my stay.” He shook his head. “The endals are not as dedicated as I’d expected them to be. Not as tough either.” Though his words were nothing but the truth, the bat could not deny he was stating this to get a reaction out of her.

Youchi had in the meantime finished her business, and seemed to be waiting patiently for the Inarta to turn back around and ask whatever questions she wanted answered, though the quiet sound of a foot tapping the floor proved the smile on her face was just a façade. Not that Bran had expected it not to be. “By the by, are you going to do whatever it is you’re here for, or should I go first?” The Dawn woman, at least, seemed pleased with the suggestion. Brandon took a step towards the counter to usher the Inarta to make her choice, speeding up the process just a little bit.

credit goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Ornea]

What the cuckoo!

Here she had just asked if the shabby man really was interested in those bat caves the tall beauty had spoken about ... and he had answered by insulting the Inartan endals. In addition he was obviously trying to bypass her in the queue.

She wasn’t going to let the insult to the endals go unanswered. No way. But keeping her place in the queue was priority one of course. Ornea didn’t need to think twice of this. A lifetime of violent queuing in Mount SkyInarta with its combination of caste system and limited supplies had made tenacious queueing an ingrained habit.

Nothing bar an endal, or a person of an equivalent position in Lhavit, could make her voluntarily give up her place in the queue. The incident at the door of Cosmos Center was however fresh in her mind. The push she had received had shown her that this man possessed considerable strength and was prepared to use if. No qualms about using physical force there. As far as she had seen, no special rules for being polite to women. He didn’t seem to respect caste positions either, and as they were in Lhavit she knew that pointing to her caste wasn’t going to help her one bit. It was different in Lhavit. They acted like everybody were quite equal.

She gave him a once over, saying nothing. His time would come. After she had spoken with Youshi Dawn, that was.

Ornea promptly ignored Brandon and turned to the clerk. As she had lived in Lhavit nearly all of the last year, she had already done her trial and error and learnt her lessons about the social behavior expected in the city. They were very smarmy, the Lhavitians, and they wanted all other people to be smarmy too. At least this was how Ornea thought of the softspoken and ever pleasant style of the natives in the city. But, regardless of her opinion about it, she knew by experience that Inartan straightforwardness or openly displayed irritation wouldn’t get her anywhere. Her best bet was to adapt to the local customs.

“I beg your pardon” she said softly to Youshi. “I think it’s my turn. I’m looking for a good meditation trainer here in Lhavit, somebody I can trust to teach me and guide me. You kindly referred me to Dawn Tower last time I asked you. But as it turned out, they didn’t offer any training there, so I’m wondering if you have others you could recommend.”

Polite meek smile, Lhavitian style.

My. She had done it. It would have been so much easier to just put an elbow in the waist of the shabby chap in the way that would hurt most, then bluntly tell Youshi her previous information had been totally worthless, so come up with something better. Clipped Lhavitian meekness. Ornea suffered a little bit every time she had to adapt to this stupid cuckoo, and in particular when she had to behave smarmily to people who seemed like chiet.

“Meditation. Yes. Of course. “ Youshi Dawn answered like a true Lhavitian, in a soft and pleasant voice, now when the Inarta was behaving right, to Lhavitian standards. Bypassing people in a queue was after all not well liked in Lhavit. It was the Inarta’s turn to get service, so Youshi followed the procedure as usual. Perhaps she was even relieved to get to do so, but no feelings showed; her face was as neutral and pleasant as her voice. She pulled out a new file and started to browse it. Ornea watched, recalling how odd she had found this woman the first time she had met her, over one year ago.

Youshi didn’t comment on the fact that she had told Ornea to go to a wizard tower which had closed down it’s former training, if they had ever offered it. Cosmos Center’s information had clearly not been up to date that time. And thinking of that investigator and his weird ideas, it made sense to suspect that the information Cosmos Center gave people wasn’t always so reliable.

“For meditation there is of course the option to find a teacher among the shinya ” said Youshi softly. “But it’s not for me to say who will be accepted for training, or not. But you could go to Shinyama Monastery and ask the good monks for advice. Other than this ... I think you will need to look for individual practitioners who might want to take you on ...”

The answer didn’t sound promising. Ornea hadn’t had anything to do with the shinya. And she hadn’t visited Shinyama Monastery. She didn’t even know if it was possible to visit it. Perhaps it would turn out to be just like with the Dawn Tower. Closed for visitors. People doing meditation in there, most likely, but not letting anybody in who wasn’t from their inner circle.

“And who are the individual practitioners?” she asked. It took huge effort to remain super soft spoken and not say what she was thinking. “Can you give me any names?”

Youshi smiled politely. “I’m afraid I can’t. People care about their privacy. But you will surely find a meditation teacher if you look around for one.”

Ornea nodded and said a very polite thanks, as this was how to behave in Lhavit, no matter how utterly stupid it was in all ways. She wasn’t going to make a cake of herself by offending a clerk of Cosmos Center. The rude chiet who had tried to bypass her was a totally other thing though. Now when the enforced politeness - smarminess, if you asked her - had fueled her temper, she felt ready to give the man what he deserved.

She was done with Cosmos Center and the worthless Youshi. But she wasn’t done with Blackwing.

She turned around and looked intently at him.

“You are clearly not Inarta and don’t know what you are speaking about. The endals are brave as brave comes. The same thing doesn’t seem to be your own hallmark. You speak about how you are going into a wilderness that is kept safe by the shinya, in order to visit some cute and harmless small animals in a cave. And you have the nerve to say people who are facing hordes of zith aren’t brave enough? It makes you come off as a coward who is playing it safe, while trying to belittle your betters.”

...

[Brandon Blackwing]

His probing for a reaction had gotten him the intended result; the Inarta visibly grew quite angry, fury dancing brightly in her eyes. Brandon kept his face straight, though on the inside he was laughing. The Inarta were so easy to piss off; say something wrong about their society, their endal, or their birds, and they were guaranteed to explode. Ah, now this was entertaining; almost just as good as insulting an endal in the fighting pits and then beating the crap out of them when they took the bait. Much to the bat’s surprise she didn’t say anything, instead turning to Youshi to talk about some meditation classes.

What was even more surprising was the un-Inartan style of speech she used with the Dawn woman, it was almost too polite, too meek. Ah, of course, she wasn’t new to the city, perhaps she was one of those Avora that were friends with some endal trader, coming along and staying in Lhavit until the next time said endal returned. Well. The façade with which the redhead had countered Youshi’s was about as perfect, though the Kelvic felt there was just a smidgen too much friendliness in there. It felt just a bit fabricated, but well, at least she tried.

It took just a couple chimes and then the Inarta’s business had been taken care of, and Brandon was about to take his spot as first in the now non-existent queue, but apparently the fury he’d seen in the woman’s eyes had only been saved for a later moment, and that moment was now. Well, well. Sure, he had some time for a joust of word with this female; Youshi was once again organizing her folders and files, keeping her desk tidy and clean. The bat stared back with a straight face, unfazed by the redhead’s intense glare.

And then he laughed, and he made no attempts to hide it. Sure, it didn’t last long, but oh gods, this woman did say funny things. The bravest of the brave? His betters? HA! Haha! Hahahahaha! “It’s been a while since someone has gotten to make me laugh like this,” the bat grinned, wiping a tear out of his eye. “Oh. I might have forgotten how … clipped… some of you are.” He cocked his head challengingly, shaking it slowly with a smirk on his lips. “True, I’m no Inarta, but I –opposed to yourself- do know what I’m talking about.” He cast a glance at the clerk, who was still in the middle of sorting folders.

“First off, when I first came to Lhavit? I crossed the Unforgiving on my own. When I left Lhavit to go to Wind Reach? I crossed the Unforgiving on my own. When I was in Wind Reach, I was working in the emergency crew the horde of Zith attacked. I fought that horde of Zith you’re talking about.” He looked her in the eye, not quite expecting her to believe his statements. “And I fought many endals in the fighting pits. Many. Unarmed. I didn’t lose once.” Perhaps her words had cut a little deeper than he’d realized, reaching even through the armor of hilarity. Part of him was offended, it seemed, his pride not allowing to be labeled as inferior to those useless petchers of endals.

“Though I don’t suppose some Inarta rusted into the dogmas of her society to be able to understand what I’m trying to convey.” Youshi seemed to be done with her organization, and Brandon stepped closer to the counter. While she had without a doubt overheard the whole exchange of words and semi-insults between the bat and redhead, she still kept her face a mask of neutrality. “I’m looking for Sal Mander?” The question appeared to catch her off guard, more than Brandon expected. “Sal Mander?” she echoed, perhaps the biggest clue to her surprise. “Yes. Tall guy, with a beard? Clumsy? He worked as an investigator here?”

Youshi nodded along, a weave of her hand signaling she knew who he was talking about. “I’m sorry to say this, but we haven’t seen Sal around since the start of Winter…” Brandon frowned, it was the start of winter now, wasn’t it? “I mean last Winter… Actually, the end of Fall, but…” Another frown. “So he resigned?” Youshi shook her head. “He was fired?” Again a shake of her head. “No, we-“ she made a gesture encompassing the whole of the Cosmos Center “-haven’t seen him in Lhavit since the end of Fall of last year.” She sighed. “He’s gone missing.”

There was a pause, not a long one, but still, one where the Dawn Woman’s words sunk in. “Excuse me? You’re serious?” She nodded almost invisibly, her face showing signs of sorrow. “Can you fill me in on the details?”
“Well, what we ask our investigators to … investigate… is classified-” She stopped mid-sentence after seeing Brandon’s face. He could see his own reflection in the woman’s pupils, but even he wasn’t sure what his face was showing the world. Anger? Sadness? A sense of loss? A mix of all those? “If you don’t mind me asking, what was your relationship to Sal?”

“A friend. Sal was a friend.”

credit goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Ornea]

OOCI'm sorry I'm late. But here is my post now. I wouldn't mind having Ornea follow Brandon out to the street, then try to shadow him

When Blackwing laughed it was ... the drip. Ornea could hardly manage to hear him out when he called her clipped and said she didn't know what she was speaking about. But intense anger muted her long enough to give him time to say more.

While she composed herself and made ready to strike back she registered some of his words. Crossed the Unforgiving on his own. Worked in the emergency crew in Wind Reach. Fought against the zith. Despite being angry she wasn't able to find any fault with this. He met her gaze in such a straightforward way when he spoke about the hardships of Wind Reach and how he had done his duty there. It was no small thing to have fought on the Inarta side against the zith. She had to admit it placated her a bit and made her think twice of her reply. She didn't want to be unfair, no ... the way he held himself and spoke about these things impressed her a bit, truth to say. She regretted she had called him a coward. Even if he was a chiet-like person he seemed to have carried his own weight over in Wind Reach. She wasn't sure this entitled him to laugh at her and call her clipped though. But, she didn't really want to escalate the argument now ...

Due to her silence, Blackwing got time to start to brag about fighting unarmed against endals in the fighting pits and winning every fight ...this erased the somewhat improved impression he had made for a few ticks. When he topped the bragging off by telling her he didn't expect her to get what he was trying to convey, Ornea went speechless. One thing was sure. He didn't seem to have even the slightest idea what an endal was and it appeared he thought they were all about pit fignting. Several acid answers to this ignorance competed on the tip of Ornea's tongue, but it was impossible to choose between them, with the result that the only thing she uttered was a low guttural sound that was neither nari nor any other known language.

Blackwing started to speak with Youshi. Ornea had lost her opportunity to give the man a scatching answer. Much as that irked her, she also started to feel done with arguing. Her temper was hot, but she wasn’t the kind who could go on and on and maintain her anger for long time. If she argued it was intense but short. She could already feel the anger fade and impatience to do something else kick in. What to do ... was it worth the while to take time to dress down this shabby being? Seeing how he behaved, chances were it would just continue as it had started, go on and on, get more and more stupid. Simply slapping him in the face in a straightforward Inarta way wasn't an option. He had already shown that he was stronger. The part about pit fights might be true. She wasn’t looking to be beaten up. And trying to silence him with a few well chosen words seemed futile; in her opinion he showed all signs of the kind of person who seemed born to banter back. So, maybe the wisest was to just leave and ...

She was on the verge of shrugging the whole encounter off and just leave, when Blackwing started to ask questions about an odd investigator she had all reason to remember. Sal Mander. It made her stay. And when she heard Youshi say the man had went missing in action last fall a chill ran up her spine. As time had passed by she had forgotten a few odd troubles of the past, but now they came to mind.

It hadn’t troubled her that she hadn’t seen the investigator for a long time. There had been no reason for her to seek him out to be thrown more buckets of cold water at and get soaked again. She hadn’t thought twice about why she hadn’t seen him around. But now she recalled how he had been investigating a potential threat to Lhavit. The word “sabotage” had been mentioned. She felt her old worries stir...

A friend, Blackwing had said. She wondered what that meant. Unsure of what she should do right now, she waited to see if Youshi would say anything more about the investigator. She lingered, trying to conceal that she was listening in. She would hang out and listen if there was more. But in case Blackwing would be done with Cosmos Center for now she would maybe try to catch him on the street outside and ask ... she didn’t know more yet, to be honest, but this was the direction her thoughts took.

...

[Brandon Blackwing]

There was a brief moment of silence where Youshi opened and closed her mouth a couple times, probably not really knowing what to say. She did speak eventually though, pulling Brandon from his memories. “I’m sorry for you loss,” she said, her face a mask. The bat nodded, but the nodding soon turned into him shaking his head instead. “No, missing doesn’t equal dead. Maybe Sal’s still alive.” But Brandon wasn’t putting his hopes up; being dead might just be best for the tall investigator. The Unforgiving was worthy of its name, someone who’d never been outside the confines of the city for an extended period of time would have a hard time surviving out there.

Sal’d perhaps starve to death, freeze to death…Maybe he’d break a leg, resulting in him being unable to make it to civilization, if there ever was a chance of him reaching another city, that is. Or perhaps he’d fall prey to one of the many predators out there; Wolves, Zith, monsters… That might just be the quickest death, the most preferable one. Though, if anything, he just wanted the man to walk back into the city, looking disheveled and wild, but alive and unharmed. With one heck of a story to tell, and more survivalist knowledge than one ever could have guessed.

However, Brandon knew well enough that scenario was not a likely one. Dira was not a Goddess known for her mercy… although she ought to be. People deemed death cruel and merciless, but she was anything but. Cold, yes, but not merciless or cruel. Quite the opposite, in fact. She freed people from the suffering they would otherwise have had to endure, she granted them merci by leading their souls to the next life, by taking their life. She was so fair that she seemed unfair. Small children, old individuals, their age, sex or race made no difference. Nor did wealth, or diseases. Some called that unfair, saying that an infant still had their whole life ahead of them, that they shouldn’t have died. That their grandparents shouldn’t have died, that they were still loved and healthy! It was unfair! Only it wasn’t. Dira was as fair as you could get. Nothing made a difference to her. Younglings, old geezers, women, Konti, Symenestra… All were the same before her. None was any different in her eyes. She did not spare anyone. No compromises, no deals.

Everyone was treated exactly the same. All were mortal, all would die eventually. All were the same in her eyes.

Dira was fair, Dira was just.

But that knowledge did not really stop Brandon from feeling saddened. The mind tried to soothe his heart with truths, but the heart was not one to listen to reason. It acted on emotions, it felt. And as such, it felt sad no matter what he tried to tell himself. But that was okay, he did not resent Dira for it, instead he just prayed that if Sal was dead –which most likely was the case- that Dira had granted him a merciful quick death. One without much suffering. However, he’d miss Sal. Alive or dead, it mattered not. He was not around either way, and thus he would be missed. It couldn’t be helped. It couldn’t be helped.

It was then that Brandon noticed Youshi was talking to him, and that he had been standing there with a blank stare on his face. “Yes, sorry. Can you repeat that, please? I didn’t hear what you just said.” The woman offered him a small smile, one of understanding. “I said that if you wanted to I could tell you more about Sal’s disappearance, though I cannot give you any details. The cases we have our investigators work on are classified after all.” She smiled again, apologetically this time. The Kelvic gave a nod, “Yeah, I’d appreciate that.” Youshi sifted through some folders, apparently either not recalling all the details anymore, or just wanting to make sure she told Brandon the right things.

“Ah, here it is,” she proclaimed, grabbing a thin looking folder with Sal’s name written on it. “Sal’s file.” The Dawn woman browsed through the pages, eyes reading quickly, darting to and fro. “Hm, yes. So around the end of Fall last year, we sent Sal on an expedition to Wind Reach-” To Wind Reach? Really? I haven’t seen Sal there at all, so he never arrived. The Unforgiving doesn’t let itself be conquered that easily, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. “- by ship. The journey was supposed to take maybe … hm… twenty days? To get to Wind Reach and back, I mean, then a couple more for the business he had to take care of. However. We got word from our contact in Wind Reach that Sal never showed up. In fact, no ships arrived at all.” She sighed. “We can only assume that they were caught in a fierce storm and…” Youshi didn’t finish her sentence, instead letting her voice trail off. Brandon knew what she meant.

He thanked the Dawn woman for her time, and headed for the doors, noticing that the Inarta was still lollygagging about. The bat doubted she still had business in the Cosmos Center, guessing she was lingering to get back at him for what he’d said. She’d looked pretty pissed when he was bragging. Not that he cared. Brandon pushed the doors open and started walking in the direction of the Obsidian Club. He needed a drink.

credit goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Elysium]

Brandon Blackwing

XP:
Seduction +1
Subterfuge +1
Investigation +1
Socialization +3

Lore:
Exchange Rate: Pinions to Kina
Investigation: The Hunt for Sal Mander
Ayszel, the "tall female"

★

Ornea

XP:
Observation +3
Subterfuge +1
Socialization +3

Lore:
Exchange Rate: Pinions to Kina
Event: Landslide in Lhavit
Subterfuge: Forced Politeness
Brandon Blackwing, the "Chiet"

Notes: This was an interesting little read. Ayszel, once you come back and update your ledger I shall award your grade posthence! As for Brandon, a couple of things. First, if you're going to grab someone, you don't declare your action successful outright. If you spoke to Ornea beforehand and she agreed to let you grab her, that's fine. But be mindful that you typically declare your attempting the action first, I.E. reaching for the other character, giving them time to react. Otherwise it's godmodding and it won't be tolerated. I will withhold grades if it keeps happening. Second, Lhavit isn't an authoritarian state that keeps files on everyone that lives there. Even I f they did for any reason, they certainly wouldn't hand it over to a stranger. Lhavit is very much about personal liberty. I'm striking the file you received from the record. So it written, so it shall be.

and so, the journey continues...