zenderael_rl | [EVENT] Acher's Attack on Enghelab

"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?"

Tai Feng did remember that, now that she looked at him and was thinking about it at the same time, but there wasn't much time to think about it or comment. For another time, apparently.

Eileen pronounces her done, extends a hand, and Tai Feng...can't help but grin, and promptly kips up - her whole body weaving to shove her weight into the air and then come down neatly on her feet. She kicked her legs back and forth a few times, experimentally. Good as new! Almost, probably. If she were a responsible person she would be thinking about going to see a doctor anyway, but she was not.

"You do good job!" Tai Feng said, managing to get more energy back into her voice. "Ahhh, thanking you." Grin. "Ei...leen?" She hadn't had much occasion to say the woman's name. Practice! English names were stupid enough as it was!

And then Sieg handed her a paper. Oh, right! She needed his name! For dragons, right. Did she have stamps, she could never remember how the more bizarre Zenderael elements worked...well, she'd find out, apparently, if it came to that.

"Yes, I will," Tai Feng said, eyes turning up, first to Sieg, then to Eileen. Answer applied to both, really. She smiled, but it was thin. She was OK, but she was also really not looking forward to the next few hours at all.

Siegmund drew back when she suddenly jumped up, but he rolled with it, rising from his kneel.

Well. She was back on her feet. In good shape to make an escape from the city. Had his name in case another emergency happened.

That was it, then, wasn't it?

He stood back, folded his arms, and glanced to Eileen.

She would probably want to talk once the girl was gone, wouldn't she. Was it too late to make an excuse and bail on her?

...He wasn't mean enough to do that here. Unfortunately. He gave a short, quiet sigh.

Really, Eileen didn't want to think about dealing with Siegmund right now. Of course, if she didn't deal with it now, she probably never would.

That didn't mean she couldn't distract herself with Tai Feng in the meantime. And she was a little surprised when the girl immediately sprung up, but, then again, she had done something similar the first time she had healed her, and the paladin couldn't help but smile a little at that.

"Yes, that's right," she said, smiling at her. "But you can call me Leena if that'd be easier for you." She wasn't entirely sure it would be, but it was the thought that counted, right? Right.

"We should probably get out of here, though. He might come back." And she really didn't want to deal with that, especially not if he was a berserker. They were scary, especially in fury mode.

Tai Feng hated being idle. Lying down, too broken to move, was pretty much the worst, and back on her feet she was already fidgeting, bobbing on her feet when she turned to face the duo.

"Eileen," she said, repeating the name. Rocks back on her heels. "Leena." She tried them both, muttering under her breath a few times to weigh both names. "Leena, OK!" she finally decided. She could work with that one!

"Yes, we all need to go." She looked to Sieg. "I will keep low and be fast. I see you in Undertow, later."

Tai Feng had picked up on the message, here. Sieg was stronger, so he should be better able to keep Eileen from getting herself murdered by these guys. Tai Feng was a Rogue, and now that she was out in the open, she was pretty much not going to get found unless she royally screwed up. Hiding in plain sight was a Rogue strength, after all.

It was scary to go alone, but...it had always been how she worked, after all.

He gave her a single nod, combined acknowledgment and approval of her plan. As soon as she turned to run off, Siegmund turned to Eileen.

There was going to be a talk. He didn't want to have it. He was scared to have it. It made him brusque, not wanting to give her room to start.

The briefest hesitation before he ordered, "Come with," and moved off in the direction opposite Tai Feng before Eileen had a chance to argue.

He knew where he was going. He moved slowly enough that she could keep up, but too quickly for her to do anything else. Alleyways between streets, shortcuts over fences and walls, he was trying to get them somewhere unoccupied and inconspicuous, and that meant getting off the strip.

There was a moment, however brief, when Eileen thought that maybe Siegmund might be the sort of person who would have it out right there. Apparently not, as he was already heading off in the opposite direction... And he wanted her to go with him? Why? Couldn't she just go back the way she had come?

Apparently not.

Resisting the urge to let out the frustrated sigh she really wanted to, she paused only just long enough to scoop up her shield and sword before hurrying after him. She was still in the process of making sure her shield was strapped to her arm by the time she finally caught up with him, sure to keep her voice quiet as she asked, "Where are we going?"

Never mind that she didn't have any idea why she was going anywhere with him. She was still mad at him.

Edited 2013-11-18 04:39 (UTC)

"Somewhere safe," he answered.

The city, though dark, was neither silent nor still. Past the mouths of the alleys they traveled through, they could see glimpses of the situation. People gathering together for safety, people running, people fighting. They were sneaking around a very dangerous situation, and it wouldn't take long to realize that.

He found one of the smaller hotels, windows into an alley. That seemed like a good place to hide out until everything blew over. Brigands didn't typically go canvassing hotel rooms one-by-one when they could raid the nearby casinos instead.

He swung himself up onto the fire escape with perfect assassin grace, and then peered into the darkened window to make sure the room was empty. Hard to tell, but he didn't see any signs of movement. He looked down and motioned to Eileen, urging her to follow.

Eileen really didn't want to be here. It had been bad enough coming to Pakerion to heal someone she barely knew, but now they were sneaking through Enghelab, past people running or fighting for their lives. This was terrible, and Eileen couldn't even do anything to try to help them. She wanted to, but she knew Siegmund wouldn't stop. He probably wouldn't even understand her wanting to help, knowing him. He'd probably mock her for it or something.

Finally, they came to the hotels, although she waited in the alley while Siegmund swung himself up onto the fire escape and then motioned for her to follow.

....follow him inside? WHAT? This was breaking and entering, wasn't it? And yet she was still hoisting herself up onto the fire escape, waiting until she was beside him before hissing, "Siegmund, this is illegal!"

Siegmund would have been offended by her assumption. Why did she think he'd called her here to heal Tai Feng? Of course he understood the desire to help. He was morally obligated to do everything in his power to save someone who was dying. He was not, however, morally obligated to let Eileen put them both in danger by trying to jump into fights she couldn't win.

He flashed her an irritated glance and, without another word, whipped one of his daggers out of its sheath. Looking directly at her with an unwavering, flat expression, he smashed the pommel into the window, shattering the glass.

Super illegal. But a hotel in Las Vegas could almost certainly afford to replace a shattered window, and breaking certain rules to keep yourself alive was morally permissible.

He turned away and used the pommel again to clear the bottom of the frame of glass shards and make sure the hole was large enough to climb through. "We hide here to be safe. God forgives us." He sheathed his dagger again and climbed through the window, into the darkened hotel room.

"God might. The law won't." Never mind the law. Her guild might not forgive her for it.

And, of course, before she even entirely processed what she was doing, she was following him through the window and into the hotel room.

It took her eyes a few minutes to adjust to the dark; she didn't dare move to try to find a light. The power was still out, and even if it wasn't, light would attract whatever was out there right to the room. If nothing else, they weren't going to get into an epic, all-out battle with something in a hotel room.

Still.

Focus. She had to focus, just as she had when sneaking back into Bastan to help the people left behind. She had to think like a soldier. Not like Anais. Not any more, even if it was what she would do. "We shouldn't stay here long. Maybe there's a room further in with only one access point."

He flashed her a glare, this one a very clear message that he thought her comment was the dumbest, most useless thing she could have said in this situation. The law! As if the law were more important than God!

As if the law even mattered in Pakerion!

"What law," he replied darkly, before turning away to find the room's door in the darkness.

Personally he thought staying here was probably safe enough, but he could admit (grudgingly) that it was possible someone might see the broken window and come snooping. Lower floors were more at risk for burglary, so if they wanted to lower their risk of running into hostiles, the best idea was to head up.

"The law that exists everywhere else, even if you people don't acknowledge it here."

For once, however, it seemed as though she and Siegmund were on the same page, as the two of them began to head for the door together. Admittedly, she didn't know that they both would agree that their better chances would probably be up on the higher floors. It was entirely likely that people hadn't even gotten to the higher floors yet, which meant they'd have an easier time finding an empty space and setting up a defense. Just in case. There was always a chance that people would get bored and give up, but considering this was a hotel in the middle of a city that had merged with Las Vegas, she doubted it. The fact that it was now part of Las Vegas alone would be enough to attract people.

"We should head up once we're sure the hall's clear. They probably haven't gotten up there yet." Siegmund was ahead of her, though. If anyone was going to check out the hallway beyond the door, it would probably have to be him.

The hallway was nearly pitch black but for the tiny amount of light that managed to crawl all the way through the door and into the hall from the room's windows, and the glow-in-the-dark lighting tracks along the baseboards that illuminated the footpath to the emergency exits. Siegmund could see in it better than she could, part of the same assassin intrinsic that allowed him to see through stealth.

Okay. So. One, he was annoyed with her for being annoyed with him. Two, because of point one, he was irrationally irritated that she was telling him to do what he had already intended to do. Three, he was starting to get really pissed off that she seemed completely unable to accept his word on anything regarding the way Pakerion ran.

He stopped suddenly, whirling to face her. They were equals in height, so he did not have the capacity to loom, but he did have a carefully-maintained intensity to him that could make him intimidating even when he otherwise shouldn't be. "Shut up!" he snapped, not shouting, but certainly not at a polite volume. "You don't know everything, Eileen! I live here, I know this country, I know how it works. No one cares if we break a window to hide in a hotel from a war outside! Do you think the Spenta hears about it and comes to Pakerion himself to arrest you for doing something to keep safe? There is no law here. And other places can't bring it here because no one will let them.

"Don't tell me I'm wrong when you don't know anything and don't fight with me about making you safe!"

If Siegmund had turned on her like this before, she would have been properly intimidated. She was different now, though. Oh, she was still worried about upsetting him, but the Eileen that was in that hotel room with him now had participated in a war. The Eileen that was there now had helped face down warhounds and lived. Sure, she had mostly just defended herself and healed the people she had been with who had, admittedly, done more than her, but she had still been there. She had dealt with berserkers who had terrified her until they had gotten into the healing tent and she learned how to deal with them.

Eileen wasn't a pushover any more, and the fact that Siegmund seemed to think that she needed him to make her safe tipped the scale just enough for her to not care about that intimidating glare.

"I'm supposed to just shut up and be happy that you now suddenly care about me. Is that it?" Eileen's eyes narrowed at him, and she was sure to keep her voice down, just in case, but that didn't change the fact that she was now furious with him. "I might not know how you deal with things out here or in Germany, Siegmund, but where I'm from, a woman doesn't need a man to protect her. Do you see this?"

She twisted just slightly to show him the hilt of her sword, resting her hand on it's pommel. "I was fighting in a war with this sword while you were off gallivanting around with your guild leader. I don't need you to make me safe. You need me because if you get hurt out here, I can guarantee you no one else will care. You're lucky I even do."

It wasn't until her comment about a woman needing a man to protect her that his angry glower twisted into abject incredulity. That was so far from his actual reasons for doing this that he couldn't even fathom where the accusation was coming from.

Also, he didn't know what 'gallivanting' meant, but he could assume from her tone that it was intended to be derisive. And that pissed him off, because she wasn't the only person here with combat experience.

"No, you idiot," he hissed. "Someone who knows not the city needs someone who does to make them safe. If we are in Bastan, then I think you will protect me. I don't need you here because I am not so stupid to try to fight out there and get hurt.

"And I fight in the war, too. I scout Bastan when you go to rescue the Spenta. You think the Ahura did nothing? You think the people with him did nothing?

"If you don't need me, fine. Go fight through the city, get killed because you think Pakerion is Everea. I don't care." He turned on his heel and stalked off, following the light tracks in the darkened hallway toward the stairs.

The tirade did not leave him feeling any better. It just left him feeling angry and stupid. Couldn't get his feelings across properly in a language he hadn't mastered, couldn't swallow his pride long enough to admit he was upset that Eileen kept saying she didn't care about him and didn't want to be friends with him anymore, and would rather leave first than risk her walking out on him. It also hurt to know how badly she'd misjudged his character and how worthless she apparently thought he was.

He was starting to wish he'd known a different healer to call in.

Trust Siegmund to go and miss the point. Never mind that English wasn't his first language and he wasn't a mind-reader. It wasn't that she didn't care about him, because she did. If she hadn't, she never would have come out to Pakerion in the first place. He was the only person she would have come out to Pakerion for, anyway. The worst part was that she couldn't even be angry at him for it, because, really, he was right. She was just angry because he was, and that wasn't even a very good reason. Siegmund was always grumpy.

And she couldn't just leave him by himself, either. Knowing her luck, he'd get hurt trying to get out of here and she'd never forgive herself if he did when she could have prevented it.

Eileen let out a frustrated sigh, glancing back towards the broken window before darting into the hallway after him, glancing up and down the hall to see where his body blocked out the light to judge where he was. She jogged after him as quietly as she could and was fortunately small enough where she could slip past him. At least he was heading the right way towards the stairs. Hopefully there wouldn't be an alarm going off when they went through the door.

"If this is supposed to be you caring, you have a funny way of showing it," she hissed as she passed him. "Especially since this is the first time I've even heard from you since you've been back."

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