2nd adventure: Proxy War

He rolls his eyes and walks her through it. "You need more friends Faith. A cool person like you should know how to hang with the cool kids."

After running her through it 3 times, he starts speeding up, assuming she can keep up.

It only takes her one attempt to get it right. "That was so cool!" exclaims Breeze, impressed.

"I... didn't expect that," comments Fredrick.

"Me neither," adds Naomi.

Everyone else is dropping their jaw.

"I assume this was your way to say goodbye?" asks Faith.

Konrad smiles. This is just a treat for him. Whatever she or they are, in some ways they're human just like everyone else. He steps back to give her space to walk out, and lights his pipe, taking advantage of being outside for the moment.

"Yeah. Safe travels until we meet again if you want to get all sappy about it. Got to hide it under a cool handshake, I mean how else would you protect your rep?" He smiles.

Faith nods hesitantly at Steve, walks through the back door, and closes it behind her. If someone follows her, you will see her enter the forest, but you will lose trace of her after some time since she apparently made sure to retrace her own footsteps to trick you into taking the wrong direction.

As the door closes on the Deremonda lookalike, Master Avalon clears his throat, and voices his impression of this encounter. "That was... unexpected."

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The monks have retired into their rooms, but not the kids; they've stayed into the dinner hall to play some more with the fairy, who they've taken a liking to. Saria is especially determined to win at least one round of the funny face contest they've improvised, but Breeze always seem to come out on top. It might not help that Volwind is the one who's been nominated as judge. Fedler enjoys watching this little game of theirs, and once she has finished washing the dishes, she makes sure to join them for a few rounds. To everyone's surprise, she is good enough to beat Breeze a few times, and these victories were won with hilarious faces that had the children rolling on the ground.

The four squad members decided to wait on the pier outside, and Zelk made it clear to Steve that she wanted some time alone with them. They would inform the rest of the group of the Barracuda's arrival as soon as they caught sight of it; which happened just a little before noon, like Master Avalon said it would happen.

OOC:

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Edward, the quartermaster of the Barracuda, has arrived on the pier with a boat he has been rowing by himself. Once he sees that all the party members are there, alive and well, he cannot help but grin a little.

"After what happened during that storm, I have to admit I wasn't sure we would ever meet again," he remarks. Then he looks at Konrad and salutes him. "Captain. The Barracuda has taken little damage during the last battle. She is ready to take you home."

"Don't worry about it. I was hoping for some me time too. I'll see you later." He'll kiss Zelk goodbye and join the face making contest for a bit before working on that poem for his girlfriend. He'll put his whole ass into all stated activities, lol.

"The docks are the other way." Konrad does follow her out, still smoking his pipe. "Hang on you. Where's your ship?"

He follows her to the edge of the forest and walks in for just a bit, when it becomes clear he can't spot he. He's no tracker, and the deal was for them to contact him for an exchange of information. Plenty of information has been exchanged already.

However, since the tracks aren't being hidden, he does walk in some more, following them until they turn, so that he can get far enough in for his voice to carry through the woods. "We're going to talk about this...thing, alright?" he calls out in the tone of a "don't forget" demand, before heading back.

Inside the monastery, he puts out his pipe, and gives Naomi a glance, then heads to his room, where he finds Steve working on his poem. "If I may interrupt you for a minute, what do you think of our new 'friends'? Have any good theories?"

Steve sets down his favorite pen. "Hmm? Why would I have any theories?" His grin is wide and full of guile.

"Please. You're smarter than you look and sound, and you know it." Konrad wafts the paper with Steve's handwriting on it into the air to get a read. This happens rather swiftly for the paper's small size. "You were trying to find out what makes her tick."

"Granted, I did have to go for a walk in the woods first before it dawned on me just what you were trying to do. Bravo for confusing her, too. She was so orally-oriented at the time that she couldn't perform a simple handshake when you changed it up. It was a real hoot, to be honest."

"You think they were woven? I'm thinking offal was involved. Cadavers, rotting brains and the like. to reduce the cost. Or perhaps they were still alive...!" he offers with that ghosty "whoo" inflection. "Perhaps she's the Deremonda, in the rotting flesh!"

IC:

Mihai, can't help but quip.

"Cadavers aren't made of silicon. Whatever she is, though, we got a ton of information out of her. And developed some kind of rapport, to boot. Good work, Steve." - he sounds like really means that past part.

Steve smiles, clearly enjoying the praise from Mihai and Konrad. "Well as Mihai says, they are silicon, though clearly their silicon parts are based on flesh and bone. That means whoever created them either copied their own bodies or they copied ours specifically so we'd feel more at ease interacting with them. Either way, they wouldn't draw much interest so long as they didn't interact with anyone for too long. They have more than a passing knowledge of our history and culture, but it's from an academic outsider's perspective. Make any esoteric references at all, say a townie gang handshake or something as simple as a taco, and they fold faster than Konrad at joker poker." He smiles to show he's only teasing.

"They are also highly intelligent, detail oriented, strong, fast, and share a certain likeness between them. Since they aren't related, they were clearly made by the same person or persons following their own aesthetic biases.

That said, I genuinely like Faith. Not only is she smart and full of curiosity but she's fearless. Even weary as she was she still went along with all my nonsense just to see what would happen. She didn't have to do that. I guess she reminds me of Zelk a little. Anyway she likes books, doesn't fall for tricksy riddles, and wouldn't hesitate to strike out at someone she considers the enemy. I also think she misses her home, wherever that is. Makes me wonder how long they've been gone."

Steve:

Mihai:

Konrad:

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Breeze listens intently to Steve's analysis of Faith's personality, and she can only responds with, "Ooooooh! So that's why you asked those questions!"

He starts blushing from all the attention. "All I did was apply what I learned pranking to the social sphere. If you overload someone with input they are more likely to answer honestly and in more detail in their output. And, more importantly, much less likely to notice what you are really doing."

"Whoever made them had a touch of megalomania, though." - Mihai follows up - "I mean, make someone in the likeness of Deremonda? She would never be able to pass unknown for long in public, let alone live a normal life. Like she was meant to be private property. And the way she smiled when i called them independent, it's like she cherished that word. As in, free. They have wants and likes, and think of the little things, like favorite music or color or author." - he muses.

"If i had to guess, they're not affiliated with who or whatever made them anymore, and glad for it. And the way she mentioned her group as a military unit, implies they have civilians too. Like their own nation."

He pauses before continuing.

"Now i'm just speculating here, but remember how she and Conan stared at each other before? I think they were communicating. Not just through eye contact, but complex, like up here." - he taps his temple - "I think they may be able to do it over a really long distance, too. It's the only thing i can think of that explains how they got here, knew exactly where to find us, and all of a sudden she knew Konrad's full name."

OOC:

This theory about this telepathic way of communication makes Fedler frown with concern. "If they can do that, I'm relieved we didn't have to fight them."

Mihai agrees - "Super coordination on top of super strength, when one of them alone would have been daunting to contend with. Yeah, i'm glad we're on their good side."

Zeiss:

Mihai wrote:Mihai, can't help but quip.

"Cadavers aren't made of silicon.

Konrad rolls his eyes at the nerd. "The silicon could have been woven from the guts..."


"That was what I figured, Mihai, right after she uttered my last name...hmm."

He shifts his stance. "If we are all finished circle-jerking around the artificial constructs, I agree with what you said about ego. So, that's what Deremonda looks like. Or what you think she looks like. I didn't think she'd be drawn that way. It must provide an unwitting distraction for aspiring young mages."

Konrad wrote:"I didn't think she'd be drawn that way. It must provide an unwitting distraction for aspiring young mages."

Both Fedler and Breeze look at Steve.

Mihai picks up on that and chuckles.

Steve goes beat red. "I-uh-yeah."

Mihai coughs something *cough*"kneecaps"*cough*

He reads his favorite line in Steve's incomplete poem before fluttering it back down to the hard surface he'd been using to write. "Perhaps aspiring poets?"

"In any case, I hope we get to meet her again. To try to better understand where she gets her good looks from." He doesn't seem to think she's a god. Right, smarter than he looks.

"Oh, since all of our adjunct is together, I've got something to get off my chest. Remember when I kept secrets? That wasn't very trusting of me, or very smart."

Fedler peers at the red mage, definitely curious about where this is going. "What is it Konrad? It's nothing bad, right?"

Breeze is also looking at him, a finger on her lips, and with big wide eyes.

He smiles apologetically. "Good news, and bad news. Remember I said a voice in my head told me a funny joke?"

Fedler initially doesn't understand what he means, but it doesn't take long for her to remember when she and Naomi were in this very room, and heard Konrad say that. Then, it suddenly dawns on her, and she facepalms. "Oh no..."

"What?" asks Breeze, suddenly worried. "What's happening?"