Lore of Leyuna RPG (FRPG)

[Hopeflower]

"Not yet," Viho replied. "She usually makes her rounds during the lunch break I give the class."

Over the rim of her steaming mug, Vix's eyes found Natalie's. She lowered her drink to offer a soft, compassionate smile. She had the feeling it ended up a little too sad. Natalie's fear was plain to see, even to one who couldn't read minds. Vix edged closer, approaching cautiously as she might a frightened animal, and she took a seat on a bench nearby.

"Hard to feel like your life is out of your hands, isn't it?" she asked softly, pitching her voice low. It was just shy of a comforting tone.


The dark-skinned elf arched an eyebrow. He moved to retake his seat at the table he'd been writing at. "I thought class was cancelled today. Does he need something?"

[C S]

"The excised and dead me... Snicker... is an idiot." Natalie fought the compulsion to bury her face in her hands. And crying. She fought the urge to do that, too.


"Needed me to find you." Dahnae looked up to the ceiling, ran her words back through her head. "Suggested that I come find you while he did big decoration thingies with jacketmun, dogmun, Weirdo Spook and Viv Admila. Viva Ad... Vix." She looked back at Firel to see if he got any of that.

[Hopeflower]

The innkeeper tilted her head. She didn't know the whole story, not really. But she did know that it was often desperation that drove people to these kinds of extremes. It was that knowledge that made her set her mug down on the desk and reach out to Natalie, wordlessly offering comfort.


Firel blinked. "Ah," he said, though only about half of that statement meant anything to him. "Well, I hope you don't mind if I finish up what I was doing."

[The Kingpin]

It was a statement that did not escape Andruil's attention. His gaze shifted to the former Stalker, realising for the first time since the conversation began how unnerved she must have felt. His expression softened somewhat with the realisation. He knew neither Viho nor Johnathon would offer her any sympathy, however. It was an unfortunate fact that this simply was the best way to achieve their goals safely. For her, as well as for them. "Well, after this, you will be able to bury that past permanently. It will be an opportunity to walk away...to start a new life. And in doing this, you could well be saving many lives that may be lost if we did this any other way." It was the only comfort he could give.

[C S]

"I know." Natalie swallowed hard. "It just requires a bravery that I don't think I have." She put a hand to her neck and could almost feel a noose tightening around it.


"Nuh-uh," Dahnae said. Her ensuing scampering, a blur of motion, had her sitting at the table just before Firel had settled into his own chair.

She then laid her chin down, looking up at him.

[Hopeflower]

Vix's hand tightened in a gentle squeeze where it rested on Natalie's knee. "That you're here and willing to help at all takes all kinds of bravery," she assured. "I can't sit here and pretend I have the perfect words, but I can tell you that it's okay to be scared. And that from what I've seen, I think that everything you need is within you."


With a brief shake of his head, Firel bent back over the letter he'd been writing and picked up where he'd left off. The gentle scratch of quill on parchment filled the silence. As always, he tried not to wonder if his mother would even recognize his handwriting or his name. Once, she'd preferred that he keep in touch frequently. She'd stopped writing back as her illness had worsened, and he also tried not to let that deter him. He was going to do everything in his power to help her.

[C S]

Johnathon's appeal was more pragmatic in nature. "Once it is over, you can turn your back on it for good. There is a life for you in this city, but I will not be the one, if there are any at all, to stop you from leaving and doing things over again in a place that doesn't remind you of Snicker. That's your call."

"My decision, after putting my neck on the line and being a... traitor." Because even if she were playing for the side that she knew was right, she would be betraying four people that had grown to trust her other self. How and why, and for what damnable ends?

Natalie could only nod, resigned to this path.

It would be over soon enough.

[Hopeflower]

When the time the students would usually have been taking their lunch break rolled around, the group had finished ironing out the last details. Viho had set about penning the concise letter to Desrium, sealing it, and slipping it into the pile that Dahnae would soon arrive to collect. He would have liked to say he didn't hesitate. There were more unknowns than he would ordinarily have been comfortable with, but he would stand by what he'd said and live with the consequences, whatever they'd prove to be.


As Firel stepped back to let Dahnae out of his room, he noted, "I think that's the longest I've seen you sit still outside of class." He rubbed at a smudge of ink on his finger, grimaced, and decided to let it be for the moment. He could clean up once he'd seen her out.

[C S]

Natalie took over a desk by the windows and was staring out over the city, her thoughts her own as she prepared for the role she was to play in coming events. Johnathon, after seeing how Vix dealt with her, became curious. She was a gentler presence than Jesse was.

"Do you have much experience doing these kinds of things?" he asked in passing. He'd taken up pacing as he waited for Viho to finish writing.


Dahnae jerked her head to one side to crack her neck, which was a very loud thing to hear because of how long she had her chin on Firel's table. She'd almost fallen asleep."I like your company," she replied, stepping out of the door. It was about that time that she needed to get some speed in her step. She could afford a few more minutes.

[Hopeflower]

"Mm? Oh." Vix looked up, distracted from her train of thought. "You could say that." She fiddled with her necklace for a second before she added, "I've been on the receiving end a lot."

At that, Viho gave her a sidelong look, but he said nothing. It wasn't his place to comment.


The young psychomancer winced and rubbed his own neck to soothe the sympathetic twinge. "Uh, thanks." He supposed he should have guessed that. Cats were very vocal about things they didn't like, after all. He cleared his throat and offered, "I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow."

[C S]

"Oh." Johnathon stopped his pacing, fearing he'd overstepped an unspoken boundary. He did not look the part of someone who might have done something in bad taste. "Hopefully you can't relate too closely to..." Johnathon looked over his shoulder to the girl by the windows.


Dahnae fixed Firel a hard look. "No classes until classroom decoration finishes beating things and people up."

[Hopeflower]

Vix cleared her throat and shrugged one shoulder. "I know a thing or two about needing to build a new life," she said quietly.


"Ah - wait, beating people up?" Firel frowned. He was missing something huge here. His magic itched and flexed with the temptation to reach out and look at Dahnae's memories. He had to remind himself of the fact that her mind was chaotic to stomp the urge out. "What's going on?"

[C S]

"So much for 'hopefully'." That was too much, even for the detective's standards of bluntness. "Proof it can be done, and done well," he chose to say instead. It was odd, being upbeat for the sake of decency. In the morbid light everything else had fallen into after Charles, it was a welcome little peculiarity. A hollow comfort if there ever was one.


Dahnae's stare lingered on Firel. There had been so much time to ask these questions while she was teetering on the verge of napping on his table. "There are people who need beating up," she said. "People that the cloaks and hoodies can't get paid to beat up, so Viho-decoration is doing it himself with the help he can get." As she spoke, she threw her knuckles against Firel's chest with a few lackluster, "demonstrative" punches.

[Hopeflower]

The innkeeper hummed a soft, neutral note. "I hope she does as well for herself. She's taking steps in the right direction."


The way Firel tensed as if to brace himself suggested he'd been expecting even those light punches to hit a bit harder than they had. He cocked his head at Dahnae as though asking that was it? Before he could think the better of it, he'd reached out and gently chucked her under the chin in retaliation. "We'll need to work on how you throw your punches," he remarked dryly. "That aside, you could have mentioned this earlier." It would have made more sense than...whatever it was she'd tried to tell him Viho was doing.

[C S]

Johnathon rubbed a shoulder. The awkward realization that a bunch of hardened, detached investigators and officers was not the best company for a person in some kind of abstract recovery period. That, compounded with the stress gnawing at Natalie, seemed to create a very unhealthy situation. Johnathon chuckled dryly. What if this was a reframing of the things that birthed Snicker? An overwhelming expectation, the sense of powerlessness to do anything about it?

That would just be perfect, wouldn't it? The squandering of a miracle. Yet all was not decided, despite the extensive talks and planning. The redheaded elf may still have a key part in how things concluded after all. The hand rubbing his shoulder moved to pinch the bridge of Johnathon's nose. "Miss Vix... Vixen, whichever you may prefer..." Ask any favor needed. Even if she doesn't agree to do it, at least you put it out there for Natalie's sake.

"I've been put in a little bit of a vice recently. The requirements of 'what needs to be done' and the state of mind conducive to that cause, versus what it means to actually be a person. Upholding the law does not usually allow them to mingle -- I know, I was surprised to learn that one when I started out. I've been battling with something else souring my thoughts, as well. A Snake in the grass, prophet of doom; that the root of all faults in our attempts to keep peace is the legacy that evil deeds sire. One who has been wronged will wrong someone else. Rape and pillage, inevitable crimes."

Johnathon pulled in a breath and shook his head. "It's the kind of thing that could run miss Gardener back into madness." He spoke softly so as to not worry -- or offend -- Natalie. "If you can find it in yourself to extend an offering of friendship, and maybe take her into a setting far from courts and jails, it would be an incredible help to both her and myself."

A help to him in more ways than one. Just as Vix did not know the true tale of Natalie Gardner, Johnathon had no clue what manner of woman it was he was speaking to. All he had to work with was Viho's trust in her ability to keep a secret due to her company. Said company included the knight present and one who was named after a poison, evidently.


Dahnae's fist slammed into the wall next to Firel's head with much more oomph than her play. The impact had a subdued echo in the hallway, and consequently, the girl flinched. Punching unyielding, unfeeling objects with all of one's strength only brought pain to the offender. Her hand started to quiver underneath her mitten, and it soon became evident it wasn't from pain as Firel understood it. Dahnae's transformations, isolated or full-body, just seemed wrong for anything of humanoid form.

Her mitten disappeared under black fur; the intricacies of shapeshifting and the conservation of clothing wherein. What was once a fist was a huge paw pressed against the wall. Dahnae pulled it back some to uncurl her digits before bracing against the wall once more, unsheathing her claws just enough to make Firel rethink his slight.

"You were writy-thinking," Dahnae deadpanned after she felt she'd made her point.

[Hopeflower]

Vix turned her head to give Johnathon a look not unlike one she'd recently given Natalie. A shade too close to knowing, too much experience written in the line her scar traced down her features and in the way she chewed her cheek. "I can offer," she finally said, keeping her voice just as low. "She needs to be willing to connect with someone for me to do any good, though."

She paused, then she reached out to him in the same manner as she'd offered comfort to Natalie, and lowered her voice further. "And take care that you don't run yourself into madness, either. Most who are wronged pick themselves up and go on to recover, however damaged they may be. Many go on to do great things, to ensure the wrong they endured doesn't befall other people." The innkeeper pulled back and clasped her hands loosely in her lap. "None of the world's evils are inevitable. They're born of the choices a person makes."


Dark eyes considered the claws so close to his face, but the next words out of Firel's mouth were an equally dry, "Strike with your first two knuckles and keep your wrist straight, and it will hurt less." He braced his shoulder against the door frame, folding his arms. "I'm capable of writing and talking at the same time, believe it or not."

[C S]

"I'll keep in mind," won Johnathon's favor in the many things he could have said in response to that.

In the range of pessimism to optimistic outlooks, along with the modifier in the form of 'things that could be taken as crass', I'm sorry that you lived the kind of life to know was a runner up. Meant well, but he did not know the woman well enough to be speaking about things that were none of his business. A frail keeping to the separation of rationality and sympathy. Turning things back to Natalie, he added, "She's more than willing to find a friend. There just aren't any in my neck of the woods, much as we've pretended there were."


Dahnae eased somewhat at that. There wasn't an easy way to explain why she'd left Firel to his peace while he was writing his letter. It was the same reason why she'd just rested her head on his shoulder back at class while his thoughts were focused on his greater purpose. "Laepardi knows when to be, and be quiet. It is how cat feeds itself, and how cats help. They are there when they are needed."

Her explanation did well to confuse herself a little. Only a little.

[Hopeflower]

"Another step forward," Vix replied, and stood. "I'm usually in the archives, if she wants to have a chat." She gathered her coat and mug and took a few steps toward Natalie, calling the other woman's name to let her know she was there. The innkeeper gently touched Natalie's shoulder. "If you ever need anything," she said, "don't hesitate to ask."


Firel took a quiet moment to puzzle that one out. "Well," he said, and he offered the shadow of a crooked smile, "people are free to make conversation, if they like."

[C S]

Library archives, or city hall's library archives... something to clarify later. Johnathon went over to a desk and sat on it, content to let the two women have their moment. Natalie wasn't all there when Vix went to her. Her eyes had been feeding her thoughts of an inferno, a city brought down by wildfire. Whole streets made impassible by walls of debris that were once towers.

She put one hand over the other, which was trembling with nerves. "How can you be so kind, knowing what I am -- was -- could be?"


"I find most people weird." Dahnae looked down the hall. "And I find myself running late." One last look to Firel, followed by her brushing her cheek against his. "We do the people-talkening later."

[Hopeflower]

Vix squeezed Natalie's shoulder lightly. "It's who I am," she replied. "I don't see much point in treating people cruelly or denying them a chance at a new life based on what they might do. Life is never really black and white, after all." She gave Natalie another of those slightly sad smiles. "I've put my trust in the wrong people in the past, of course, but I don't think I am this time. You want to help Viho and Johnathon, after all."

Across the room from her, Viho turned slightly at the sound of his name. Bits of what she'd said had reached him, and he could make an educated guess about the rest. It was the kind of outlook he'd admired, once. He turned away without making a comment.


Firel tried, but he couldn't suppress a twitch. He wasn't sure that he'd get used to Dahnae's displays of affection, though this was definitely preferable to having his face licked.