zenderael_rl | [EVENT]

"She seems all right, all things considered." Did he know about the dyadavias? Probably not, but, then again, she wasn't certain it was her story to tell, especially when Alison had all but told her it wasn't a particularly big deal. "But I don't know what she's going to do now that the cafe's closed. She offered to help spread the word about our site, though." She had to smile a little at that. "With all the creatures running around, people need protection, and we can make that, at least."

She still wished they could make proper swords, though. Curse not having an infinite budget and the ability to create a proper forge in their backyard.

"I wasn't even sure she'd come with me," she confessed, looking a little sheepish, "but I didn't want her to be curled up with her dogs all weekend, either." Even though they were ridiculously cute and cuddly dogs. She had spent a particularly depressing weekend curled up with Monster once, and she hadn't enjoyed it. She couldn't imagine Alison would have liked it much better than she had. "I'm glad she came." Wherever she had disappeared to.

Nope, no clue about two-headed birds. If Rhys had mentioned anything to Nadir, he hadn't mentioned it to Ezra in turn. Which was fine with Ezra. He didn't want to think about the number of things they killed in a night, nevermind during the day. "Sounds like a plan! All that's really left these days is food an' monsters, feels like." He was increasingly tempted to take up the offer of his dad's old car. He hadn't driven in awhile but he was pretty sure he could still pull it off.

"Well, dogs ain't all that bad, either," he said.

"There's worse," a voice said from behind, and Ezra jumped a little, crossed arms pulling apart slightly before he settled back into his folded-armed slouch, seeing that it was just Nadir coming up behind him with a water bottle in hand. Ezra reached out to catch it as the spellsword tossed it to him.

"True that, my friend, true that. Eileen, Nadir. Nadir, Eileen."

"We've met."

She opened her mouth to agree with Ezra, but assert cats were better, when a new voice caused her to jump (though, fortunately, she didn't drop her plate of baklava; that would have been a tragedy). She spun, one hand shifting away from the plate to move a little closer to the hilt of the knife at her waist, just in case, only to have her eyes widen in surprise, her hand falling uselessly at her side.

"Nadir!" she exclaimed, eyes wide as she stared at him, completely covering Ezra's attempt at an introduction. "I... um..." Why was he here? The giant man with the missing eye who was apparently a spellsword, according to Alison. Now that she got a better look at him, she almost wanted to kick herself for not noticing the golden eye before. How had she missed it? "I..." Ohhh God what was she trying to say? "I didn't know you knew Ezra."

She wasn't certain she had been trying to say that, but it worked. Hopefully.

The reaction garnered something of an amused look from Nadir, a raised eyebrow that fell back at her dumbfounded expression. He would give her credit for not running away immediately.

"Long story," he supplied. "I'm his roommate."

"Eileen plays Anais, th'paladin in Bastan I play Ras off of. Man," Ezra said to Eileen, ignoring Nadir's exasperated look at his choice of words, "that shit with Ravindra, what was that? I talked to-" Rachel "-someone else 'bout it, 'parently Akhi's some kinda past life of Ravi's? Which is weird since Duncan ain't been playin' him for a week or three, last I knew." information among the group was nebulously learned, but he was sure someone had told him. Rhys maybe?

"I'm helping him out," Nadir added for clarification, seeing as Ezra had glossed it over. "Lifting, mostly."

Eileen frowned a little bit at that, recalling the text conversation she had had with Alison and the brief one she had had with Heimdall over the forums. She had assumed he knew what had been going on with Ravindra, that he had planned that all out from the beginning, but if what Ezra was saying was true...

"Well, I heard that some of our characters in the game are becoming self-aware now." She'd just ignore the fact that Ezra apparently had a spellsword for a roommate. At least this was a topic of conversation she could handle. Well, sort of. She didn't know all the facts about it, but maybe Ezra knew more, what with having a spellsword for a roommate and all. "So, I guess that if Heim wasn't playing him at the time, then maybe Ravi's his own person." Or was it Akhilendra (not that she could pronounce it)? And did that mean Ravi was going to cross over like Nadir had? How did that work, anyway? "I mean, I sent him the log, and I thought he knew, but I think Heim would have warned us if he was planning to do something like that."

She sighed, picking up her piece of baklava from her plate and nibbling on it a bit as she pondered this. Everyone who knew what was going on probably wanted answers just as much as she did, and yet it seemed as though there were none to be found. Did anyone know the answers to the questions people were asking? After a moment, she looked up at Nadir again, studying him carefully before quietly asking, "You were one of the people we made the swords for, right?"

Ezra gave Nadir a brief glance as Eileen said "self-aware", but Nadir watched her steadily, maybe with a bit of amusement (hey, why does she get amusement and Ez disdain, huh??), both of them wondering if she knew anything. It was hard to know who knew what, and Eileen wasn't someone he'd thought to tell, or Alison either, really. It just didn't seem like a thing you told people.

That Missie hadn't said anything seemed pretty amazing to both of them.

"There's somethin' goin' on, anyway. Could just be some unfinished plot thing? Nothin' sayin' if the character becomes self-aware they know what t'do with that they've been given. Could just be Ravi's way of copin' with the plotline?" He really had no idea- that seemed to be something he'd been doing with Alex, so Jordan maybe knew more? Ah, but Rachel had known, too...

Well, whatever. They'd sort it out. Poor Ravi. He liked the dude, even if he was the saddest person on the face of... of Zenderael.

Ezra was cleaning off empty plates from the tables, letting the silence fall without too much concern (Eileen didn't look to be the extra chatty type, so he backed off), leaving her free to turn to Nadir as he handed plates at the side of the table Ezra had trouble reaching. Older man, wild black hair tied back, dark-skinned, eyepatch, built like a tank, with one unmistakably gold eye. He straightened up when she spoke to him.

"Yes, I did. Not for me, though. I have my own sword."

"Wanna see it?" Ezra asked, waggling his eyebrows. Nadir gave him a pained look and the boy grinned and went back to replacing full plates on the table, though he spoke again anyway. "It's Nanshe's sword from the Gardens raid, if that helps your decision any."

Anything Eileen might have thought to say completely abandoned her brain at the mention of Nanshe's sword. Nanshe's sword. Eileen had loved the very idea of that sword from the moment she learned the thing existed, even if Anais couldn't use it due to it being wrong for her spec. Still, she could see it now. And it would be the real sword! How often did anyone get the opportunity to see something like that?

Still... what if Alison had been wrong? What if Nadir wasn't actually what she had said he was...?

"It's the real sword?" she asked, flinching a little when she realized just how hopeful that had sounded. Oh, God, did that make her sound too eager?

Nadir looked up briefly- rolling his eyes, though it was harder to tell when you had only one to roll- and he looked over to Ezra, who continued to grin cheekily. "Oh yes. We wasted eight hours of our lives getting that thing. I'll go get it?" he asked innocently. He couldn't have been happier if he had a tail to wag.

"Go get it," Nadir said with a long-suffering sigh. Ezra straightened up and saluted before sauntering off. Nadir watched after him for a moment before turning his attention back to Eileen.

"Yes, the real sword. A little knicked, but there's nothing I can do about that without a forge." He looked at her sharply. "...you know what that means, right?"

Eileen couldn't keep the grin from spreading across her face as Ezra happily went to go get the sword, though she shrunk back just a bit when Nadir looked at her like that. It was kind of scary, especially when you just had the one eye looking at you.

Why was it so hard interacting with him sometimes, anyway? Anais could probably do it and not even give a damn...

"That you're a spellsword?" she ventured. She wasn't quite sure what answer he was looking for, but she figured that it was as good of one as any. Besides, she had been trying to figure out how to introduce that to the conversation.

"If you believe it," he said, pausing before adding, "and even if you don't." It'd proven impossible to simply not be, just because of a bit of disbelief running rampant. He'd know. And it wasn't a matter of denying that part of himself- being a spellsword and existing were the same thing in his mind. "With all that's been going on lately, I think it wouldn't hurt to believe it."

Ezra returned with a jacket under his arm, and something underneath the jacket. He motioned to Eileen and Nadir, and Nadir sighed a little and went behind the table, taking the bundle from Ezra. "If you don't mind crouching," he said to her.

Once behind the table, he crouched down, taking jacket off of the scabbard. Immediately the hilt became visible, black raven wings curling loosely up to guard the wearer's fist, with an elegant, almost wing-like hilt to match. The rest of the blade was slender, knicked in places as he'd said, with engravings along the edges reminiscient of water. It had enchantments all woven through it, though only he could see them- that was enough for him, really. It would have to be.

"A shame I don't use more water in my casting," he said, "but I couldn't pass it up."

"Oh, but I do!" She wasn't quite sure why she rushed to assure him of her belief, but she felt the need to do it nonetheless. "The eye kind of gives it away." The only reason she hadn't noticed it when they had first met was because she had been doing everything humanly possible to not look him in the eye in the first place. "And, well, you don't exactly seem like the kind of person who would use colored contacts or anything, so..."

She trailed off as Ezra returned, clutching something wrapped in a jacket, and she obliged them as she ducked behind the table, eyes widening as he revealed the blade and her breath caught in her throat. It didn't even matter that it was nicked and scratched. All of it just added to it's beauty, and Eileen almost couldn't believe that she was actually seeing the sword she had fallen in love with from the minute she had seen it. The in-game model had nothing on the actual thing.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, slowly reaching out a hand as if to brush her fingers against it. There was a part of her that wanted to hold it, but then she realized it wasn't her decision to make. She paused then, turning to look at Nadir. "Can I touch it?"

"People will ignore a lot of things if it doesn't match up with how they believe things should be," he said without malice. At the last comment he gave her a strange look, not quite understanding what she meant by contacts.

With the sword out, he tilted it slightly. It wasn't entirely out of the scabbard, but one could guess the detailing went all the way down to the tip. He looked satisfied at her appraisal, looking up as she reached out to touch it.

"Go ahead," he said. In fact, he did hold it out to her. "The hilt isn't as heavy as it looks," he continued, shifting his grip so she could grasp it. "It's meant to be light." Whatever materials it was made from, it proved to be as he said, weighing maybe even less than the wooden swords she'd gotten made for Ezra and Rhys.

"Baklava?" Ezra asked beside them as they spoke, still standing at the table, attending to passers-by. "Crispy honey goodness, pistachios over here, walnuts over here. Dolmades if y'aren't up for anything sweet."

Nadir glanced up, amused, but returned to watching Eileen with the sword.

He was letting her touch it. He was going to let her touch this absolutely beautiful piece of metalwork. She almost wanted to scream with excitement, to jump up and down like a child finally getting the toy they've been wanting for years. How she managed to restrain herself to a barely audible, yet excited squeak, she wasn't sure, but she almost didn't care.

She was going to get to touch the sword.

Smiling, she finally wrapped her hand around the hilt as best she could. The grip was clearly not made for her smaller hands, but she didn't particularly care as she drew it out of the scabbard a bit further. Not all the way, of course. She didn't want to risk hurting herself with it while she wasn't wearing anything remotely resembling armor. Still.

"It's more beautiful than I imagined it would be," she said after a minute, smiling at Nadir. "I've always loved the model, but Anais..." She paused, realizing he'd probably have no idea who that even was before continuing. "Um... that's my paladin. Anyway, she uses two-handed swords. It would just collect dust in her bank if I got it for her, and something like this deserves to be used." Besides, now that she could see it and get a better look at the man who wielded it, she almost felt like the sword suited him far better than it might have suited her own paladin. "I'm glad you were able to hold on to it."

He was comfortable letting her take it from him, letting her hold it. If he needed it, he could take it back. He was not the type to let possessiveness override his common sense, so he let himself settle back and enjoy the look of rapture on her face as she examined the blade, again knowing the pleasure of finding another who could appreciate the craft.

Anais? He looked thoughtful. "The name is familiar," he said briefly. Was that because Ezra played Rasmus, or had he heard it while he himself had been in Bastan? "I was with Darius' group for a short time before I came here. Too short."

And at that, Eileen paused, staring at Nadir in surprise and she counted herself lucky that she had not dropped the sword in her shock. Darius. Had he seriously just said 'Darius'? There was only one person in Zenderael she knew with that name, but perhaps someone else had something similar? No, that seemed incredibly unlikely. But...

"Darius?" she repeated. "As in Righteous Dawn's Darius?" Did he even know if the league had a proper name? How did that work in Zenderael if you were a real person, anyway?

"Yes," he said, looking confused. "After I came to Bastan I was enlisted, having lost my own league." That part was glossed over as he continued, "Ezra tells me it was to give me something to do when he switched servers." He said the words, but it was clear he didn't quite understand them. And if he did, he didn't want to. "I was inspecting the Borderline for clues of what was going on and why Helia was killed when I was attacked. That was just before I was sent here."

He looked at her curiously. Did she know about any of that? He'd always been curious what had happened after he'd left... nothing, by the sounds of it. Ezra had never mentioned it again, but Ezra'd been jumpy about going back to the Borderline even on Rasmus or Tristan.

Eyes wide, she shifted to sit back on her heels, slowly sliding the sword back into it's scabbard so she would be certain she didn't drop it and hurt either one of them. Righteous Dawn. Nadir had been in her own league and she had never made the connection. At all.

Of course, now that she thought about it, it made sense. Anais never really associated with any of the other classes in their league, preferring to keep to the paladins and the clerics simply because she understood how they worked and they weren't strange, confusing individuals who might turn on them or something. And there had been a tiny part of her that had thought Nadir had looked familiar when she had first met him, but she had just dismissed it and now, suddenly, it made perfect sense why.

"Uh... the reason why Anais' name sounded kind of familiar is because I'm in your league." No, wait, that wasn't right, was it? "I mean, Anais is." God, this was confusing! "You know what I mean." Did he, though? Did he really? And had he ever actually met Anais? She couldn't remember, really. But what if they had and he thought Eileen didn't like him the way Anais probably didn't? "And I am so sorry if she was ever horrible to you. She isn't..." 'She isn't normally like that' was what Eileen had been about to say, though she frowned and thought better of it. "Actually, she really is like that, I guess. She kind of has trust issues, but she and I are two completely different people, and if she was horrible to you, that doesn't mean I don't like you or anything. Because I do."

Oh God. She had just made a complete idiot out of herself, hadn't she?

Nadir had seen this sort of dawning realization a lot lately on peoples' faces- mostly Ezra's- and he waited it out patiently, looking away while she sorted her thoughts and he took the sword back. Ezra glanced down at the two of them and crouched down and made a little circle with them. "What's up?"

Nadir looked over at him, expression wry. "She just found out I was in Righteous Dawn."

Ezra blinked. Both looked to Eileen as she started talking, and Ezra started grinning again. "Whoa, whoa- it's okay, it's okay," he said, holding up his hands. "Don't worry, Eileen. It's fine. If anyone's gonna understand the difference between one and th'other, it's gonna be Nadir. He's had a lot of time to see the differences," he added, his own expression turned wry. Most things different, but some things definitely the same.

"I don't think we interacted much beyond introductions," Nadir supplied, trying to reassure the girl. "She didn't seem interested in talking and I had better things to use my time on." Ah, paladins. Such a mixed bunch, a little insular, but he'd never much minded them. Most of them knew their priorities, which was more than he could say for others, and if Anais was a little fanatical, well, so be it. As time went on he was starting to see their writing in a different light, appreciating the consistency these people put into them.

"That's th'way of it," Ezra said with a sigh. "Even when she's talkin' with other paladins," he said jokingly.

Apparently, she had just made a complete idiot of herself. This was why she preferred talking to people online as opposed to in real life. Online, there was a barrier between you and the other person. You didn't have to see the looks on their faces if they were judging you like part of her was sure these two were. And she could just pretend to be more confident.

Anais didn't have any problems dealing with people whenever she had to! Why was it so difficult for her to do it? They were practically the same person, anyway!

"Yeah, that was probably a poor character choice," she admitted after a moment, taking in a deep breath and then slowly letting it out. She could do this. She could totally do this. Maybe. "Sorry about the little freak out, too, by the way. I just wasn't sure if you guys had covered the whole in-character/out of character divide thing yet." Or how well Nadir had taken that, not that she'd add that on. Anais certainly wouldn't handle it very well; she knew that much. The idea that someone else had been manipulating her actions would not sit well with the paladin, and she dreaded the day when she logged in only to discover Anais had done something of her own free will.

"Don't worry about it," Nadir said, a little surprised. Of course they expected her to be a little taken aback by it, but both had missed just how seriously she'd taken her own freakout. Nadir took Ezra's jacket and wrapped his sword up in it again, putting it by the table leg. "Whether you know it or not, she is a person and that is how she is. That's how you've written her to be. There are plenty of people like that who aren't written. There's no worth in apologizing for them. So don't apologize for Anais. She is who she is. You know that best."

Ezra rubbed his chin. "Well. Th'only person I think who'd take it well are people like Ras. Dude just wouldn't understand enough to care. So don't think it'll be out of the norm if Anais goes self-aware, yeah?" he said. There wasn't any judgement in his tone, just as there hadn't been any in Nadir's. "Guess I was just lucky to get it all sorted out first. Not much t'be done 'bout it, really... whether she likes it or not, it's the way it's goin'." Hopefully she wouldn't have to deal with it like Ezra'd had to, though he couldn't say he regretted having gone through- and still going through- those trials with Nadir. There was still something pretty amazing about seeing your character literally fleshed out.

The people Eileen knew had absolutely no right to be as awesome as they really were. She had seriously misjudged Nadir, however, which was always nice to know. Now that she had spoken to him, he really wasn't all that scary at all. And Ezra was just awesome. She really needed to start hanging out with them more often.

"Thanks, guys," she said. And, really, what had she been so worried about, anyway? They were fine with it. Now she just had to worry about reminding herself of that all the time. "You two are pretty awesome. Did you know that?"

[EVENT] - Kharveryos

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