zenderael_rl | [EVENT] Acher's Attack on Enghelab

He stared at her. The sort of blank, judgmental stare that one only gets when they've said something monumentally stupid and the one giving it is just waiting for them to realize it.

He gestured toward the casino behind him. The casinos lining the streets. The decorative opulence that had taken over Enghelab when Las Vegas had merged with it. All of it was smothered in darkness at the moment, but the meaning, he felt, was clear enough.

There was money in this city. And money was power.

"Okay, yes, there's money." And, yes, she did realize it was a little silly now that he was pointing it out to her. GOD, Siegmund! "But you have the Armaiti and the Vairya in close range. You spent God only knows how long on a boat with the Armaiti, Siegmund. Would you really want to provoke her?"

Eileen shook her head, downing the remainder of the vial and tossing it aside before fully turning her attention back to Tai Feng. "Admittedly, Eghelab's the country's capital. If they're looking to try anything, then I guess--"

And then, suddenly, something occurred to her, her eyes widening a bit. Controlling Pakerion meant controlling the capital. Even with the Vairya and the Armaiti here, there wasn't really an organized army here. There hadn't been, really, since Aerveas was killed. That made Enghelab the easier target. Control the capital, control the country.

She glanced down at Tai Feng once again. "Tai Feng, you said he was wearing a metal crown, right? Like a king would wear?"

This was all Zenderael politics and so Tai Feng's internal processing of this conversation was more or less Charlie Brown adult noises all the way across the sky. Her bones felt better by the second. She could probably get going soon!

But Eileen asked her a question, and Tai Feng blinked up at her. "Yes, like that."

"And on a dragon," he added, as though that were a perfectly normal sort of place to end up spending time with the Armaiti.

But the Armaiti also didn't give a fuck if someone ran in and conquered Enghelab. If it caused chaos and shook things up, she was fine with it. She'd keep an eye on whoever did it, but an attack like this didn't mean instant Armaiti-enemyship. Before Siegmund could get any of that phrased right in his head, though, Eileen was already blowing past on her own train of thought, and he gave up with a quiet sigh of resignation.

A crown for a king. Like Aerveas. Hadn't his crown looked metallic? She thought so, but she was having difficulty recalling what the thing looked like in source art or if there had been any source art for him at all.

"He must want Pakerion," she said after a moment, forcing her face to remain as neutral as humanly possible. Any more of a deviation than one she was already making and she wasn't certain parts of Tai Feng would heal correctly. She was not going to let that happen to Tai Feng, thank you very much. "First the capital, then the country. It's what Aerveas tried with Everea."

Man, that freakin' dragon was somethin' else. "It was big dragon," she noted, more or less just to say words.

But then Eileen had her revelation, and Tai Feng grimaced, muttering, "He have a good start, then," bitterly. Don't take over countries by beating up cute girls!

Or murdering tons of innocents, but for Tai Feng the cute girls thing is more important.

"Giant," he agreed, holding his hands out as though demonstrating the size of a fish he'd caught. He looked down at Tai Feng, suddenly interested. "You see it crashed here?"

Yeah he was just...not engaged in what Eileen cared about at all. A new ruler for Pakerion didn't...really...make a difference around the place. He was concerned about the attack itself, not that its leader might own Pakerion in the aftermath.

Eileen never paused in her healing, although she did twist a little to look at Siegmund again, this time with a properly incredulous look on her face. "Siegmund, someone capable of tossing a person into a building like they're nothing is trying to take over the country you currently call home and you're not the least bit concerned about this?"

Tai Feng muttered, "The throwing is bad, but I think the killing everyone part is probably worse..."

Then, for happier thoughts, Tai Feng lolled her head a little to look at Siegmund and couldn't suppress a smile at it not making her scream. "Yes! I was here. Big dragon drop right in front of me, very scary! But lady that get off was even more scary. And other g--"

Pause. Blink. "Oh! It is you!!" She talked to this guy on the forum right after that! Probably!

"Other guy?" he guessed. "Yes, I am the other guy." She'd obviously recognized him, but he had no way of guessing that she'd also been the one he'd spoken to on the forums afterward. Still, now that the event was behind him, it was kind of exciting to get to talk about it. It was basically bragging rights.

And Eileen was just determined not to let him focus on that, wasn't she. He flashed her a sour look. "He takes Enghelab," he said. "What happens after? Here isn't the same as Everea. A new king changes nothing, and if he does, no one here likes rules, so he dies quickly."

Trust Siegmund to think about this in ridiculously simplistic terms. Clearly, however, she wasn't going to get anything more out of him, and she sighed, turning her attention back to Tai Feng again. "You know, whenever we talk, there's a part of me that wonders how we're even friends."

That might have been a bit on the rude side for her, but she'd worry about that later. She had a person to heal first.

Tai Feng studiously did not comment on the friends part, not so much out of tact as an acute desire to not be involved.

Instead, she focused on Sieg. "We talk after, a few hours later," she said. "On forum. I was not knowing Armaiti." She grinned, a little. She'd sort of rather the meeting be under much different circumstances, but getting to see someone was cool, anyway. "I guess she is not only scary person, huh," she added, settling her head back against the concrete while Eileen worked. Without any medical knowhow of her own, she had to more or less assume all was going according to plan.

Edited 2013-11-04 06:05 (UTC)

"Tell me how it's wrong?" he demanded. She was irritated that he didn't seem to be taking this seriously, but he was irritated that she wasn't getting it and was using that as an excuse to question their friendship. His friendships were all very thin these days. It was frightening on a subconscious level to be confronted with one threatening to snap, even if she wasn't being serious.

He turned away from her to focus on Tai Feng, crouching at her side to get a better look at her face like that would shed any light on their text-based interactions. "I remember that, I think. Have you a guild?" Because yeah, what was going on here was pretty fucking scary, but if she had any special abilities he could advise her on how to avoid another incident.

It wasn't so much that she was irritated that he wasn't taking this seriously, although it was certainly part of it. It was that he only really talked to Eileen when it was convenient. She hadn't heard from him in ages, and then when she did, the only thing he says to her is that he needed her to heal someone for him.

"I'm not having this conversation with you right now." That was certainly sharper than anything Eileen could recall having said to Siegmund in the past, but this was the first time she honestly didn't care. "Maybe when I'm done."

Of course, maybe if she finished healing Tai Feng with minimal damage to herself, she could just slip out and avoid having that conversation entirely.

Tai Feng found herself wondering whether an ugly break up occurring at the same time could make the healing work less. She lay there. Should be done soon...? Maybe...? She couldn't even tell, honestly. She definitely wanted to be done soon, she was restless and this was incredibly awkward.

'Have you a guild' he asked, and Tai Feng briefly looked at Eileen. She hadn't actually mentioned this, last time, but ...

"Rogue," Tai Feng said, looking back at Sieg.

When Eileen said she wasn't having 'this conversation' with him right now, he didn't think she meant the conversation about how dire the situation was. Maybe that was the excuse, but that wasn't what she meant. What she meant cut a lot deeper than a simple difference of opinion on current affairs, and he didn't want to have that conversation either.

His face hardened, but he said nothing, effectively ignoring her. She was irritated, but he was scared--and he was determined not to give her any satisfaction by showing it. He focused instead on Tai Feng.

Rogue, that was easy, similar avoidance techniques to assassins. "Use stealth," he advised her. "And go in the alleys, not on the roofs. Everything is dark so you can't see the jumps right, and the falls are very high."

He paused. She'd said that she'd tried to take down the guy that was between her and the exit, hadn't she? "And don't try to go through someone again."

"Stealth I can do," Tai Feng said. "Not on the roofs..." Her impulse was always to find the highest possible place, but with the darkness...yeah, she saw what he meant. "Do not think I want to fall so much anytime soon," she muttered, trying to be light but actually annoying herself more.

She emitted another annoyed grunt at his advice on not going through people. "Waiting is no fun," she announced, but still, her head fell back to hit the concrete she'd been mostly-dead on not too long ago. "Better than get thrown, though. Good idea."

At least she wasn't arguing with him about it like he didn't know what he was talking about Eileen.

He flashed her an admonishing look when she decried waiting, but it softened with her relenting. "Waiting is better than to make Eileen fix you again," he said, looking askance over at Eileen. "She gets angry."

Yeah he was just intentionally needling her now. Siegmund is bad at friends.

Siegmund was the worst at friends, clearly, and Eileen resisted the urge to glare at him (although it was incredibly strong).

"I'd only get mad if she went and hurt herself doing something stupid so soon after I was finished." Look at her restraint, Siegmund! Watch her not glare at you! "Not that you would know what being smart about things entails, Siegmund, considering you thought it would be a great idea to jump on the back of an earth elemental while it was moving when we first met."

Tai Feng couldn't hide a giggle this time, and to her surprise it wasn't like exploding to death.

Almost done!!

"Last time, was no past but through, they had mans killing," Tai Feng muttered. "Now, more open. Guys like this...no, I just want to go." Another low laugh, and she repeated: "More fun than I wanting for one day. Waiting..."

Muttered, with the dull introspection of someone who just got almost-murdered: "Maybe I need to learn waiting better."

He shot Eileen a glare, followed by a less heated one at Tai Feng when she laughed. "For an assassin it's not a bad idea," he replied icily, pointedly turning his focus away from Eileen and back to Tai Feng.

"The nearest town is south through the jungle. I don't know if it's safe, but hopefully more safe than here." Maybe they should just escort her there and get the hell out of the city themselves. But Eileen was a liability in that regard, she couldn't move like an assassin or a rogue could, and if Tai Feng exercised some caution she could keep herself out of trouble better than a paladin could in this situation. He'd rather stay and protect Eileen, NOT THAT SHE'D APPRECIATE IT.

No, she most certainly would not, because Siegmund was a horrible friend! Not that she would need protecting. Eileen was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, although she preferred to disable and disarm rather than kill (which, of course, would be the exact opposite of anything a rogue or an assassin might try to do with her).

"Or she could go to the Undertow," Eileen said after a moment, glancing up and down Tai Feng's body to make certain she hadn't missed anywhere. Almost done, Tai Feng! "If one of the berserkers did this to her and went rogue, the Ahura should to know about it, anyway, and I can't think of better protection than a bunch of berserkers." What was the proper term for a large group of berserkers, anyway? She'd have to seriously think about that.

She paused to give Tai Feng a little smile. "You're doing very well, Tai Feng. Another minute and you should be done." And then they could all leave and maybe she could avoid yelling at Siegmund.

Maybe. If he conveniently forgot about it.

Rogues are better at direct confrontation than assassins! Supposedly! Someone told her that once and she believed it because it meant she was amazing.

She wasn't sure she believed it now, though, not after getting thoroughly pummeled by King Acher the Gorilla. She rolled her eyes with genuine teenage impetuousness at Siegmund's gaze-directed implication, but it wasn't like she had a lot to say in her defense right now.

Tai Feng was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she could tell what the two were trying to get at, more or less. "I know way to Undertow," she reported. "Am stay there for now. Did the Ahura guy a favor." She gave Siegmund a look, attempting to indicate that that favor was related to the last time they met; when they hustled Lisa away from the Greycloaks and everyone retreated to the Undertow.

"Is safest to go next town first," she added. "More time spent near here is bad. So, I am think go warp, then get out."

As for Eileen, she offered back a thin smile of her own and a nod. Not even all the way healed and already she was planning the next step. Is this growing up? This sucks.

He did not even try to refrain from rolling his eyes at Eileen's counter-suggestion. Heading straight to the Undertow from here was not a good idea, and it was much smarter to head south and catch a warp from the nearest town.

Thankfully Tai Feng recognized sense and made the correction before he could--though he hadn't been going to make that correction unless she didn't.

It wasn't the look, but the mention of her and the Ahura in the same context that reminded Siegmund that he'd actually seen her before. While Lisa Martinez was spilling what she knew about X-DAV, Tai Feng had been the girl washing the blood out of her clothes in the corner. Recognition lit on his face.

But he didn't comment on it. He'd been the one standing in the corner in a pair of broken glasses and a lace jacket, doing his best to pretend he didn't care what was going on in the room. If she remembered him, they could talk about it later. Now was a bad time.

"Yes," he said, affirming Tai Feng's game-plan. He pulled out his pen and notepad, as he had before when contacting Eileen, and wrote his name down on a sheet and tore it off to hand to Tai Feng. "Write to me if something happens again." And not Eileen because she gives good healing but terrible advice!!

At least Eileen understood the concept of being friendly and how to be friends with people, which was something Siegmund obviously lacked. Unfortunately, that wasn't something she could shoot back at him as he hadn't said anything to her aloud, but that wasn't the point. Right now, all she wanted was to finish and to get out of here.

Though there was a part of her that almost wanted to go looking for that berserker, just to see who he was or if she recognized him. Of course, she knew that was ridiculous, and she certainly wasn't going to go looking for trouble. Not here, anyway. She might attack a few training targets when she got back to Bastan, though.

While they were getting that straightened out, Eileen finally stopped healing, settling back on her heels to grab another mana potion and down it's contents without batting an eye. Tai Feng looked all right now, at least, certainly better than she had been before. And that hadn't been so bad! Eileen really needed to stop doubting herself when it came to things like this... She'd be sure to tell Sergeant Savarna about this later.

"All right. You look good!" Eileen smiled at her, offering Tai Feng her hand if she wanted help getting into a proper sitting position. "Let's just try to avoid high places for a bit, okay?"

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