[TGC] Pretrial Brooding (open to all)

[Bladewyn]

Timestamp: before the Trials of the Golden Chalice

Bladewyn was, as usual, looking out at the ocean.

She'd spent nearly her whole life by the sea. Her childhood was remembered in mere images of the coast as the troupe traveled all around Aelyria. Abestat had been fairly near the ocean, and now the half-elf called Jaedaxia her home. The sights and sounds of the sea were irresistible for some reason... That pungent, salty scent that stung her nose when she got too close; the inevitable and unpredictable temperature changes; the chill of the water in the morning, or its golden blue warmth at midday. It was constantly changing... Maybe that was why Bladewyn was so attracted to it, since she saw the same quality in herself.

Well, enough brooding. She sighed lightly and turned around, hands in her pockets. From here, Bladewyn could see many of her... what were they? Opponents? Competitors? Teammates? There was still so much to learn about the quest that had brought them all here, and so much to learn about each of them. How did she look to them? Some were bedecked in full armor, like one man who she could have sworn was a Giant. There was a Dorin, too, and even some that she thought she recognized from Jaedaxia. Was Bladewyn fit to compete amongst them? Was she fit to be here? It had been little enough trouble getting onto the island, after all, so she guessed that she had just about as much right to be here as any of them... But all the same, she wondered what she would find out about the others, given the chance.

[Iseult Fluersdotter]

Iseult was not unlike Bladewyn in that she felt a close connection with the sea. Perhaps Iseult's went a little deeper given her blood, but she was drawn to the sea, to the sound of the surf and the smell of the salt, in such a fashion that it was to the beach that she walked rather than trying to hunt down the Diamond Spire that everyone seemed rather fascinated with. She was rather apathetic of the entire thing, coming along for the sake of a friend and because, inevitably, Iseult was perhaps a little bit curious.

It was then that she spotted Bladewyn, a shape familiar only in that she was female rather than for any recognization of the face. As she drew closer she began to put a name to that face and recalled that she had seen her once. Bladewyn, that's who it was. Not a common name. Not all that hard to forget. She knew little enough about the young woman save that she was a half-elf and lived where Iseult herself now lived. Jaedaxia.

Not generally the type to infringe the solitude of others, Iseult hung back. She held her boots in one hand and had cuffed her trousers to the knees, her bare feet sloshing through the water as it rolled in off the sea. The water wasn't nearly as chill as that of Libertine Bay and in that regard it was...comfortable. It was an odd thing to run into someone so far from home--and she could call it that now. Home. So she adjusted the frame of her body to give the impression of greeting, striding forward to allow their paths to intersect.

"Serale, Bladewyn, wasn't it?" she greeted her after a moment, feeling awkward as she did. She swiped at a few stray wisps of the white-blonde hair tinged blue-green as the sea-wind swept inland. "Didn't really expect to run into any familiar faces. Here to see that thing they're calling a...what was it...Diamond Spire?"

[Bladewyn]

Bladewyn had been just about to start walking towards a nearby quester, so she was surprised when she had scarcely moved when she was being greeted herself. She turned around to see one of the faces she recognized from Jaedaxia: Iseult, who Bladewyn had only met just recently at a festival in the city. Bladewyn liked talking to Iseult, even though talking always seemed to make the Thelyri a little bit uncomfortable.

"Serale, Iseult! We keep running into each other, don't we?" she replied amicably. "I actually only decided to come at the last minute... I heard about some adventure at the Eunesian Isles, and 'some adventure' was enough for me. I actually don't really know anything about the Diamond... Thingy... I just came for the quest." Bladewyn gave a bit of a bashful smile. It might not have been the wisest thing, just rushing to wherever adventure went, regardless of the reason, but... it was fun!

[Iseult Fluersdotter]

Bladewyn's description of the Diamond as a "thingy" was perhaps as accurate a description as Iseult might have been able to provide herself. She certainly hadn't seen it yet and hadn't heard anything about it beyond what had been mentioned upon their arrival. That was all.

She couldn't help but grin at Bladewyn's assessment of her own reason for being in Olympia. Adventure. That sounded incredibly familiar. "You sound almost as bad as 'Aran. If you suspect there is something exciting to be had, you are off racing." It was a teasing remark meant in a friendly jest. She did not elaborate on who this 'Aran was. Perhaps Bladewyn would figure it out on her own, perhaps not.

"I don't know anything about the 'Diamond Thingy' either," she admitted with a slight shrug of her shoulders, turning slightly to let the breeze sweep directly into her face rather than at an ear. "I just came for a friend. Someone has to make sure he doesn't go bashing his head into any walls in search of glory." Not that he wouldn't anyway. Of course, she might just let him, too. Served him right jumping into something he didn't have any knowledge about. Of course, she wasn't much better herself. She'd come along, hadn't she?

"They're saying that the star that fell had something to do with magic and ancients." She frowned, as if perplexed by the notion and completely uncertain of what to make of it. "Think that's true? Or is it just the stuff of gullible fools willing to make a few coins?"

[Bladewyn]

Bladewyn had a hunch about the identity of a certain valiant someone who would rush off to quest for Diamond Thingies and rescue beautiful women without thinking twice... But she said nothing and merely offered Iseult a grin.

"I don't know," she admitted, turning the same way as Iseult. The wind was salty from its journey over the ocean and it stung her eyes, but she savored the feeling of the breeze through her hair. "Falling stars did always seem to signify magic and mystique to me, but maybe that's because I grew up with a band of storytellers and bards. It's a romantic idea, isn't it?" She paused and looked up at the sky, as if expecting to see another flaming ball of rock and gas come hurling down from the heavens at them. "I think it's both. People like magic and ancients and stars, and any smart hustler knows to capitalize on whatever people happen to like. I like the part about magic more, myself, and I guess if there are businesspeople out there who feed their families thanks to my romanticism, so be it."

[Godah]

OOC: Says open to all so mid if I dive in?

IC:

Godah...hated the sea! Yes, he didn't like all that instability, the constant noise coming from the endless blue and, above everything, sea forced him to often remain in closed chambers, trapped like a rat. One would feel the most sorrow for Godah if they knew that he had a pathetic fear of closed places, a fear that nearly caused his death so many times. Yes, Godah hated the sea.

The dorin was glad he finally made it to the firm ground; he could feel the open air calling for freedom and freeing him from whatever anguish he felt before. He stretched his body pushing his chest forward to a point that one could suspect it would tear apart and fly away from the dorin; His mouth-if one could call it so-opened wide to fill his chest with fresh and meanwhile show sharp teeth that were said to rip the throats of his enemies. The stretching, se executed by the dorin, gave him such a pleasant feeling waving through his entire body and to his tail; he almost had a tear that formed at the corner of his side-placed eye. He finally ended the little yawning by shaking his entire body, cleaning his fur; Even if the dorin was heavy weighted, his strong muscles were able to give a powerful motion to his fur sending a fog of mixed dust, dirt and water.

The dorin finally noticed that two humans were standing no far from him. He was alone and it seemed he didn't recognize anyone...yet. The dorin didn't mind talking some and gather information; after all, he was a Watch. Godah moved closer to the women trying not to seem too dangerous-was he at all? He greeted them with a bow proper to the arakmatans, if ever they ever met one.

"Feslan! I hope I didn't bother you while I was...cleaning my fur", he said with a very accented tongue and a raucous voice. He couldn't find another way to introduce himself; he couldn't just say Serale, I am Godah Yaoh Olohan, former thane of Arakmat, jailed for treason against the Empire and now spying for the crown and preparing its crash. Could he?

[Iseult Fluersdotter]

Iseult had never been the romantic sort, more than likely because the most romanticism she'd ever seen went on in her tiny one-room hovel between her mother and whatever customer happened to take a fancy to her. Which...really wasn't very romantic at all. She dealt with harsh realities, had her feet firmly on the ground, and liked to believe that when it came down it, she wasn't about to go running into something without giving it a good thinking first. So she shrugged slightly. "I guess it's romantic," she responded after a moment. She wouldn't know romantic if it bit her on the backside. And then, of course, she'd probably find it corny as all Aeternia.

"But I guess you're right. Whatever puts food on the table." Maybe. Her mother had a rather filthy way of putting food on the table. Iseult liked to think she'd never stoop to that level. Perhaps milking people of their crowns with a little exaggeration truly wasn't all that bad.

And then that's when the creature arrived, moving up towards the two half-elvish women apparently trying to be...friendly. All Iseult saw was a big dog that talked and it made her stiffen at once. She'd never been the sort for furry things to begin with and here he was...an overgrown version of the beasts. A dirty thing resorting to shaking out his fur to get himself clean. Her nose scrunched in evidence to her own dislike and her black-encircled green eyes, thelyri eyes, regarded him carefully...as if trying to decide whether or not he was some sort of threat. "Of course not," she responded awkwardly...and not without a trace of believability to her tone either. She stood like a stone, glancing at Bladewyn to see what she made of the beast.

[Bladewyn]

OOC: Welcome, Godah!

***

For all of Bladewyn's time exploring Aelyria, she had never before encountered a dorin. Well, there was a first time for everything... and Bladewyn had the good manners not to gape. His greeting and mannerisms were unfamiliar to her, and she guessed that both were characteristic of his race, his culture, or a mixture of both. In any case, she was interested in finding out more. Bladewyn had been isolated--both consciously and accidentally--from politics, racial or otherwise; so although she knew that there was something about both Iseult and Godah that might make some people grumble, she was totally unaware of it. It had upsides and downsides... She didn't know what most wars were being fought about, but it kept her from having her own prejudices based on someone else's opinions.

She noted Iseult's tone, and caught her dark eyes trying to catch hers. Bladewyn met her glance curiously, then said to Godah, "Not at all. Are you here for the adventure, too?"

[Godah]

OOC: Very sorry of the absence, was cast away.

IC:

Dark eyes, sending a primal fear in whoever tried to fix them; those eyes appealed the instinct of the animal that inhabited the dorin for it was a sign of danger that all beasts recognized like the yellow taints of the desert serpents warned any creature of the lethal embrace that awaited them. Godah discovered those eyes as they fixed him and the memory of lost brightenings surfaced and, yes, he remembered the face he saw once and those dark eyes he fixed ago. The furred arakmatan could still remember the gaze of that mysterious face, the black eyed who stood once at the sides of his Sultan; the dorin met before that brethren, the mysterious sea elves his people thought to be legends. A sighting like a mirage in the deserts of arakmat. Godah still remembered the old sea elf.

Opaque, the eyes were to him and it seemed the hearts too. The former thane of Arakmat was used to the rejection of the foreigners, the expectation of the imperials and the hate of the katta and his heart learnt to sense them. He bowed slightly to the half Telera with his eyes diving in the abyss of her eyes. His tail convulsed in nervousness and his ears outlined the shape of his massive head. All were unspoken words. He then turned to the other woman and examined her. Hints of her elven lineage were clear but it seemed to the dorin that her heart was less tainted by the sun-children and leaned more to the human temper. He could be mistaken, but rarely did he.

"I came here mostly to check the state of my business. I own a shop of fine clothes in the Hermesberg side of the isle", he said as his entire body changed to a more relaxed shape. The muscles of his torso relaxed and his fur lost the fake volume his nervousness created a moment ago; his ears directed toward Bladewyn and his tail raised, the dorin seemed completely changed.

"But it is true I heard about the mysterious diamond. Are you of the adventurous kind, effenda(*)?", he added with what could be thought to be a smile drawn on his muzzle if one could distinguish any expression other than anger on it. The dorin would try to have the most information he could about that stone of sorts; perhaps the ladies knew something.

(*) Effenda= Lady: fem. of Effendi=Sir. Arakmatan word.

[Iseult Fluersdotter]

ooc: don't worry about it, Godah

ic:
Iseult took a small step back, largely without thinking, as the dorin sketched a slight bow in her direction. She couldn't tell that he was nervous, largely because she knew next to nothing about his kind and other furred races. Her own fault for not bothering to make efforts more often than not, but now she stared at him, completely uncertain of how to respond to his presence. He seemed civilized, more so than the smaller variety that couldn't walk and talk. He did, after all, have his own store and he spoke better than she might have imagined. She shouldn't have been surprised. It wasn't as if she'd never seen a dorin before.

"So you're one of those that got kicked off the island?" she prompted...it was a topic she was unclear on herself. "I'm a little confused, maybe you can clear it up. Some are saying only the mainlanders got the boot. Some are saying everyone did. I haven't really talked to any islanders yet... What happened there? Why'd it happened?" Straight forward. Direct. Though she still remained wary of the dorin herself, she was at least curious enough to bother asking questions. She did try to be polite about it, though. Tried. Her voice was still a little rough, asi f she were wrestling with herself to be on her best manners. She wasn't really succeeding very well.

Knowing it, Iseult looked down at the sand, nudging at the grains with the toe of her boot, then out to sea as the wind gusted and a wave rolled it over in a show of sea-blue and foam. The waters seemed far more inviting than the cold chill of the Libertine Bay.

[Bladewyn]

"I am," Bladewyn replied. "As I was telling Miss Fluersdotter--" and she realized that neither of the Jaedaxiennes had introduced themselves yet, "--I seem to follow adventure wherever it goes, no matter what the circumstance. Of everyone who has found their way onto the island thus far, I'm probably one of those who knows least about why they're here.

"By the way... I am Bladewyn of Jaedaxia, and this is Iseult Fluersdotter. Pleased to meet you, sir...?" She hoped the rise in her voice would prompt the dorin to introduce himself as well. And now, with a smile, she dropped silent, interested in what Godah had to say in response to Iseult's questions. She'd heard whispers and rumors about the history of Olympia, but it would be intriguing to hear a firsthand account of what had actually transpired here.

[Godah]

Godah considered the question of the half telera; in fact, the decision to evacuate the isles had been sudden and puzzling.

"I am not native from the island though. I am a merchant from Archadoon, Shahef El Hattar. But I remember that the evacuation applied to all the population of the isles. Only a number of marines stationed here to apply the ban."

He paused. In fact, he was not on the isle when the evacuation was declared. He never understood himself the reason of such decision.

"I am afraid I don't understand, myself, the logic of the decision. I suppose it has something to do with the suspected aeternian worship that was practiced on this isle"

Godah has in fact established his store just after the Great Tempest. Most of the isle of Olympia had been destroyed by a storm thought to be the aehernian wrath. The dorin turned to Bladewyn and bowed slightly.

"The pleasure is mine effenda Bladewyn. I am myself of an adventurous soul even though I have not lived anything exciting except once when brigands attacked our caravan. I am curious to the nature of the diamond that appeared on the isle, aren't you?"

The dorin learned since he was released from custody to take the traits of a personage. He was Shahef El Hattar, the merchant who lived all his life between caravans roaming the Empire to buy his goods.

"Maybe you can visit the shop when you have the time. It is called 'Shahef's Fine Clothes and Wares' in the Hermesberg district. You can't miss it."

He added. Godah would need to find a new shopkeeper and manager; he doubted Syrrilis would come back.