Lore of Leyuna RPG (FRPG)

[The Kingpin]

Andruil watched the wreck of a woman before him with a sick fascination. It was unsettling to see someone just...splinter, in such a fashion from the inside out. He was used to battlefield trauma, but this? This was new. It was not something he ever intended to inflict on a person, regardless of psychomantic ability. He preferred his kills to be done at the edge of a blade or the tip of an arrow. At least then his foe had a chance to die honourably. "Lets leave this place... Back to the office, Johnathon?"

[C S]

"I do need to inform the relevant people of what's become of our prisoner. I can draft up the letter while you add to what we know so far, Viho," said Johnathon in agreement while Natalie's voice continued to pound away at their eardrums. "Do you think you can send her off to sleep again? Give her some peace that doesn't involve me choking her into unconsciousness?"

[Hopeflower]

"Of course." It was much simpler than getting the information they'd come for. Viho reached out and pressed down on Natalie's consciousness, gently compared to his last actions. It took almost as little time to quiet her as it had to break her. He didn't look at her while did. "She'll sleep until her physical needs have to be met again. Depending on how coherent she is, she may request something for the pain. There's nothing that will take it away completely, but peppermint will help," he rattled off, the words coming automatically after doing this as many times as he had.

However she behaved when she awoke, she wouldn't be the same as she had been. Whoever she woke up as may not even remember the reason for her pain. That Natalie deserved what little comfort could be offered.

His work finished for the moment, Viho felt his shoulders sink in a long sigh he wasn't aware of letting out, and straightened his back immediately. He couldn't even claim to be getting too old for this.

[C S]

After a long day of badge-showing and page-turning, Jessie had her list of seven -- six, excluding the one already taken into custody. It was an exhausting process. Dealing with people was a requisite of the job but damn was it tiring to say the same things over and over again, and having to pull out her identification at every hurdle, every step of the way. It was over now, and she could drop off her codex of investigation resources. Johnathon or Kenneth better have had something for her to do when she got back. Something more fulfilling than having to dig through the daily records of a city that openly let people enter and leave at their discretion. If they didn't, she was inclined to head out into the night herself. Break the hold of fear with a trusty sword and lightning.

"What do you mean we already have the names? Who the hell knows how these people look like? What the bloody **** happened to the prisoner?"

Those were her questions to Kenneth, as Johnathon had gone to sleep at his desk after writing his report and sending it off. Kenneth, to his credit, supplied his summary of the situation admirably, under the circumstances that he was dealing with. He'd arrived back at the precinct after everything had come to pass. One of the staffers on duty had to fill him in, and he was passing on the favor.

"Well that's just lovely," Jessie huffed impatiently, her bundle of documents tucked under her arm. There was some genuine sentiment to it. A psychomancer was a pretty big advantage to have. The benefactor continued to live up to his distinction. All the same, time she could have spent doing something not trivialized by a new teammate was lost. "Here." Jessie held out the bound papers to Kenneth, who had no choice but to take them. "Maybe there are fake names in there that you can cross-reference with what the mind-reader got us."

Kenneth glanced at the few words and names he could see in the mess of a pile, then looked back to Jessie. "It's only fair I get to do the boring work. Leaves me to ponder what you'll be up to."

"Two Coats down for the night. It's up to me to fill their places. More than enough, I'd say."

"No doubts here," said Kenneth.

Jessie walked across the black and white hall to a supply room. It was more of an armory, filled with stands that held the components of Draxonian armor and racks for a decent selection of general blades. Spare gear for guards. With the changing of hands, the armory was not as vital a thing for the ones who ran things now. There were no complaints about having the equipment for a hairy situation. That said, Jessie wasn't after armor.

There was one addition to the armory made after the establishment of the Coats: a line of hooks along the inside wall of the door, where operatives who didn't have an office hung their silver-patches when they were not on duty. Jessie donned hers and fixed a one-handed sword to her belt, logging her acquisition in a ledger before she left through the door.

She spent a little more time gathering a pack of general supplies. Food, water, things to keep her energy up after the boredom of fetching copies. When she was all set, Jessie went through the two statues and faced the streets under dancing flames, in the shadow of mountains.

[Hopeflower]

'I did warn you breaking a mind wasn't pretty,' Arsenic sighed, leaning back against the headboard of the bed Vix and Rowan were apparently using as an improvised desk. He stretched his legs out carefully, trying not to disturb the notes they'd laid out in a very specific order. He'd twitched and pulled a face upon learning what had happened, but hadn't offered his opinion of Viho being so rough with Natalie. Arsenic couldn't claim he wouldn't do the same if one of his friends was threatened.

Vix stopped chewing on her thumb nail long enough to comment, "I wonder if he considers that your free lesson." She glanced up from arranging her notes to her liking and added, "It certainly sounds like it was very informative."

Across the room, Rowan snorted, roughly toweling her hair dry. "Nah." She pulled the towel away, leaving her voice less muffled. "He would probably have made Andruil take a real crack at making her talk if that was the case."


The man in question had finally made his way to the hospital, more than a little weary but determined to visit Dahnae before the end of his day. It was hard to say whether Viho sat in the chair or sank into it, but he laced his fingers and rested his forehead on his hands as though in prayer, and then it didn't matter. Nobody could see his face to make a guess.

"I found the person who did this to you," he said after a silence in which he counted his quiet breaths and her labored ones. He sighed, tired and almost sad, and feeling every one of his many years. "I'll need to teach you about picking your opponents. But you fought well, child. I saw it."

[C S]

Viho heard the bed sheets ruffle. "Iya di freischen. Iya fos laepardi." I am no child. I am ocelot. As forceful and imposing a phrase as any other spoken before it, though bedridden as the girl was. She began to mumble, still in her birth-tongue. Wistful and distracted, the language that seemed to make meaning out of the sounds of jungle hunters did not lose its edge even then.

[The Kingpin]

"I believed it, Arsenic. It wasn't shocking, just not the usual way I see a person badly hurt. Impaled on a spear or sword, filled with arrows, that, I've seen more times than I can count. But seeing a person's brain splinter that way? That is something I haven't seen before," explained Andruil. He was, oddly enough, draped over the armchair in a corner of the room, his back to the wall and his legs over one of the arms, his hands wrapped around a mug of peppermint tea. "It will be interesting to see what the lesson is like. An opportunity to examine his teaching technique, if nothing else," he mused before taking a sip of the drink.

[Hopeflower]

"Bellator," Viho agreed in his own mother tongue, replying regardless of whether she was actually responding to him or not. Warrior. "But still a child, compared to me," he added softly. Fondly.


Rowan stretched, yawning widely, and dropped herself on the floor at the foot of the bed. "I would expect you saw some of it today."

'There's always a reason for what he does,' Arsenic muttered, tipping his head back to fix his gaze on the ceiling. He'd said as much to Firel, and it was true - the trouble was figuring out the reason.

[C S]

The few words from Dahnae's lips were incomprehensible mutterings. Fearsome-sounding mutterings. They probably ranked lower than a drunken threat in terms of intimidation, which was saying a lot for gibberish. When mind and body drifted together again, the angry-sounding nonsense abruptly switched to a more soothing voice. Dahnae was hoarse when she spoke in their shared tongue, but she still sounded markedly sweeter regardless. "In my village, the elders always spoke of respect, because they were wise with age. That was their reason. I knew it was really because they felt bad about being old."

Dahnae did not have her eyes open. She reached her arm out over the side of the bed while she sensed for the elf with her palm, moving her hand from side to side. She used her hearing, her sense of smell, and even her own mind. It wasn't psychomancy she was using. Not quite there yet. With a head of slowed thoughts, though, she did not need her vision to feel Viho's presence next to her. She pointed at him directly when she knew definitively where he was sitting.

"Old-Viho."

[Hopeflower]

"Old enough," Viho conceded. Surviving half a century, especially when his son had trained as an assassin and was - had been? - out for his blood was nothing to sneeze at. "Respect should be earned, not given simply based on how long you've lived." He paused, then added more gently, "Are you in pain? You gave us quite the scare."

[C S]

"I didn't mean to," Dahnae said, her priorities as peculiar as ever. "The pain isn't so bad. I don't know what they did to me --" Dahnae opened her eyes slowly. After a good look at the ceiling, she glanced about to the curtains around her, to the foot of the bed, to Viho beside her. "-- I don't know where I am, really, or who they are, but the pain isn't something to worry about."

Her labored breathing could have been taken for evidence to the contrary if she hadn't gone back to what Viho said.

"The history of my people is full of death; death of the young, most of all. Those who live long enough to be considered elder have gained much strength, but also much sadness, seeing so many fall before them. That is why they feel bad about being old." Dahnae stopped pointing at Viho, and instead opened her hand for him to take.

"I don't want you to feel bad about being old, so I'll be fine. I promise."

[Hopeflower]

Viho smiled, and it might have been just a little bit tired and sad around the edges. He hesitated, then reached out and gave Dahnae's hand a light squeeze. "It isn't growing old that troubles me." He didn't elaborate. Instead he cleared his throat and told her, "You're in a hospital. I've already made it known you are and you need time to recover, so don't worry about class or your job for now. We'll work all of that out later."

[C S]

"Oh." It was as if it came as a surprise to Dahnae, that she couldn't just pull herself out of bed and go to class, or make her deliveries. She protested, "I think I can sit at a desk." On a desk, more like. "And I think I can walk." Dahnae curled her lips suddenly. She may be able to walk, but why would she even want to with the streets being so crowded? She could afford to miss out on pay solely to miss that hassle. "I can walk to school, if nothing else."

[Hopeflower]

"I'm not the one to pronounce you fit to leave." Another gentle squeeze and Viho released Dahae's hand. "Even if it were up to me, I'd insist you rest. You came very close to dying." He tilted his head at her, the motion vaguely chiding, and ignored the phantom twinge in his stomach that served to remind him he'd done exactly what she was trying to do - gone straight to work after suffering what would have been a mortal injury, had he not been found.

[C S]

"What time is it?" the girl asked as she pulled her arm in and rested her hand over her chest. She cleared her throat so that she would not sound so strained, and concentrated on her breathing.

[Hopeflower]

"It's late," Viho replied simply. He glanced around for a nurse to wave over, certain that whatever Dahnae said, she needed to be looked at. And that probably involved giving her another dose of whatever they were using to dull the pain.

[The Kingpin]

"Oh, I have no doubt there is. But wondering why now is a waste of time, I think. I will not be seeing him until tomorrow at the earliest. Better to focus my energy on something more immediate," stated the Knight casually as he sipped his tea. He reached over to set it down on an end table before twisting in his seat, dropping to the floor. A moment later, he moved over to Vix, settling his head on her shoulder and looking down at the pages she was examining curiously. "Like what progress has been made on our little information hunt, for example."

[C S]

"Then I will rest for the night," Dahnae decided, which she thought was a fair compromise for now. Maybe in the morning, she could fight a doctor off and get herself out of bed. And this dress. She pinched at the thin fabric and raised it from her skin, pursing her lips disapprovingly. "At least it's warm in here. Did they put Weirdo Spook in one of these?"

[Hopeflower]

"Turns out most of my relatives were left-handed and apparently tried to claim one of my distant grandmothers wasn't her father's daughter because she was right-handed," Vix stated absently, turning her head to press a kiss to Andruil's cheek. "I think I'm looking in the wrong book."

Rowan didn't even bother trying to disguise her snort. "Good to know royal scandals were just as ridiculous back then. I think."

The innkeeper snickered. "And we're just getting started."


Viho paused, figured the only person Dahnae could mean was her attacker, and told her, "They put Natalie in a cell." And then I got to her. "She can do no more harm."

[The Kingpin]

"Glorious. It appears we are going to be veritable fountains of ridiculous trivia by the time our venture is concluded," Andruil deadpanned, a small, amused smile on his face at the thought. And Gregori thought he was insufferable now.