2017-04-12: Calico ARMs

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<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise and her noodle-armed friends couldn't clear the deadfall in the Leck Mines. But they did find tracks - and tracks spaced out as if someone was moving away fast. Ones going in a direction that doesn't seem to be quite right.

There's a lot of ground to cover, though - and she wasn't looking forward to hiking all that way. So she made a stop outside Adlehyde first.

It's hard to find a horse that Talise doesn't look a little silly riding, given her height, but the rental stable outside of town found her one - a large blue dun gelding who's handling his rider well enough. She's not a natural equestrian but Talise is managing well eno-

"Althena's sake, I didn't think it'd chafe that much," she grumbles as she rubs at the lower curve of her back, wincing.

Okay, she's managing as well as can be expected.

Rising in her stirrups, she raises a hand to her forehead to try and shield her eyes from the sun, squinting off into the distance. The tracks seem to go on forever, wending off into the distance. How far did these bandits /get,/ for heaven's sake? Finally she sighs and settles back into the saddle, looking back towards the little group she's been travelling with. She didn't think to ask Zed to come because she doesn't trust Zed to have an attention span longer than five seconds.

"One of you's got a map or something, right," she asks. 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Lynnai is not exactly a world-class rider, but she's holding her own, and a lot more comfortably than Talise is. She seems almost comfortable on horseback, though she isn't about to burst out into acrobatics.

Horse acrobatics. Equestriabatics?

"I do," Lynnai confirms, patting one of the pockets on her coat, which she is of course wearing. She also has a saddlebag on her horse (smaller than Talise's, brown, white patch on the forehead) with some other pieces of gear in it, and also dinner because she wasn't counting on hunting anything down on a day she was riding.

"If you're asking where we are, I can tell you in a few moments. I'd want to take a sighting. But yes, I have a map." Lynnai straightens in the saddle as if trying to look around a little better, then sinks back down. "Following the tracks, I may not be so good at, but that I can do, at least." 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Guild Galad does not have very many horses. They take up space, and require large quantities of feed, which is hard to come by in a city where plants are either grown in cutting-edge Aquatic Gardening Vats, shipped in from Parm (which is somewhat more hospitable where gardening is concerned), or brought in from Sylvaland and even further places. Motor-carriages come in a variety of useful makes and models, require benzene--as opposed to food that would be better used to feed humans--and are a symbol of just how advanced Guild Galad is. The net result of this is that Ida's experience with horses amounts to 'maybe one or two rides out in the badlands, where cars are a liability'.

The first thing that Ida has learned about horses is that riding them is much trickier than most people make it look; she's thankful that Claude taught her the mysterious 'core exercises', since holding herself upright and stable is would've been challenging otherwise. She is wearing a wide-brimmed hat, which is doing its part to keep the sun out of her eyes. "If you give me a moment, I can locate the trail again," she says. Her horse trots to a stop next to Talise's, her tail swishing to shoo off some manner of insect. "They were careful, I'll give them that--but tracking people isn't so different from tracking animals." 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Meanwhile...

Well, SOMEONE else has a map. It's marked with several arrows and question marks, bits crossed off and at least one confused cat face. There's been a pattern forming, though, the route of a large group following a tortuous route, zagging on pursuers who'd expect them to zig.

That someone has been working up a sweat in her nun's habit, under the harsh sun. Life is full of trials. Then again, it's not as if she's unused to desert riding. And at least she's on a horse-- with a customized saddle, because her large clawed feet don't fit most boots, and bare feet don't comfortably fit most stirrups.

Rosaline isn't looking where her horse is going, holding on to the reins and large map at the same time. Right now it isn't terribly important, anyway.

The horse stirs under her when people appear in the distance. She looks up, without lowering her map. Travelers? Bandits? These don't LOOK like bandits. Then again, it can sometimes be hard to tell. Should she reach for her weapons...? She remains frozen up like this for some time.

In the distance, it looks like a person on a horse attempting to conceal herself using a sheet of paper. Cat ears and eyes peer from over the edge, their owner under the apparent impression that she's being stealthy right now.

(She's actually just very shy.) 

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

In fairness, Talise isn't a world-class rider either. She's a mariner, though at the moment she took her coat off and went down to her tank top, because it's warm out. The coat is tucked haphazardly into one of her saddlebags.

"I can manage the tracks. I just don't think I can do it when I'm holding a map and riding a horse," Talise confesses with a rueful smile. Then ida trots up beside her, and she gives her reins a little tug, her horse slowing as Ida stops along with her. With a heavy breath, she tugs at her collar a couple of times as if to fan herself out. "Ff. Yeah, that's be great, Ida. And they were careful. Plus if we don't hurry, the wind'll blow sand over the tracks and we'll be out of luck."

Lifting her head, she squints off into the distance -

"Hey. Someone's ahead," she murmurs with a glance to Ida, then Lyn. Rising up in her saddle. She squints, eyes focused on the figure -

And then she gasps as she sees what's peeking over the edge of the map.

"Oh my goddess, it's a kitty!" she squees in spite of herself. 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Lynnai is glad to have other people around who can track. She's good at a lot of things, but she's not much for following a trail. Generally the trails she follows are so old that they're not actually present anymore and she has to research them.

"Then I'll take a sighting," Lynnai says, twisting around in her saddle to get something out of her pack without annoying the horse too much. She flips her coat back so she can get into it.

As a result she's too busy to be the first one to see the person in the distance, but she looks up when her attention is drawn. Lynnai squints, trying to make it out at a distance, and then just gives up and uses Symbology; she puts her hands in front of her face in L-shapes, forming a rough rectangle, and looks through it. The 'lens' shimmers as she shapes it, almost like a telescope.

Lynnai closes her hands afterwards. "I don't think she's a threat," she says, before adding, uncertainly, "Probably?" It's not anyone she knows, but... "Talise, those are Granas robes, I think. Ethos. I'd be careful what you say about Lunar but they should otherwise be safe. They safeguard historical items and knowledge; they keep them more secret than I like, but some of the sects do good work to protect people from trouble." She raises her voice. "Hello!" she calls, toward Rosaline.

You've been spotted... 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

"Of course," Ida says. She dismounts with some effort, balancing a little unsteadily on one stirrup as she swings a leg up and over her mount's back. Once she's got both boots on the ground, she unfastens her coat's buttons to let some fresh air in, and stretches. It feels good, especially after so long on horseback. Ida's horse waits patiently, and trots along after her as she takes the reins and starts searching for the tracks.

Talise spots someone. Ida does not look up, but there's a subtle change in her posture--her coat falls open a little, revealing part of the holster on her right side. She is suddenly as tight as a drawn spring, expecting an ambush.

It never comes. Talise /squeals/. This does not happen terribly often, and Ida starts at the sound of it. Lynnai identifies the figure, and Ida snaps out of it in an instant, straightening up and looking in the figure's direction. "The Ignas branch of the Ethos, yes," she says. She was not expecting to find a /nun/ out here, but stranger things have happened. 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Rosaline is called a kitty. She gets that often, and never appears to get used to it.

"Eep!" she lets out, ducking behind her map out of reflex.

This doesn't last long, however, because Rosaline, like most adults, has an unfortunately solid handle on object permanence. And besides, she's being greeted, which is a solid improvement over most desert encounters. She isn't hearing anything racist (well, not outrageously), no one is wearing men's formalwear and no one is trying to get her to give up her material possessions.

Why does that ever happen, anyway? Bandits should know by now that clergy is often PACKING HEAT. What a world, what a world.

Is it more of that providence? It might be. Rosaline folds up her map and steers her horse to approach the group.

"Hello, travellers!" she answers, managing to sound reserved while shouting. "Nice day, isn't it? There really is a lot of... huh... sun."

She laughs nervously. Her ears droop. Oh no, oh no. You really blew it this time, Rosaline. 

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"If she is, she's a cute threat," Talise chuckles discreetly back at Lyn, then quiets as the woman calls out towards the nyan nun.

Sliding out of her saddle, she keeps a hand on her bridle - okay, on a tether connected to it in some way. Ida and Lynnai's observations leaves her raising her eyebrows. "Huh, an Ethos? And Granas? I don't know anything about them... or really about the churches here at all, to be honest. But who knows." She lowers her voice nevertheless and assures, "I'll be careful."

As the cat-eared nun closes in, Talise flips a hand up and waves broadly, her eyes bright as she flashes Rosaline a grin. "Yeah! It's a hot one," she agrees -

The ears droop. Talise actually blushes slightly. Her big lopsided smile may betray that her inner voice just went 'aww' and fed her an urge to pet this catte.

"Hey, c'mon now," she urges. "We're not gonna be jerks to you! I'm Talise and these are Lyn and Ida. I hope we're not disturbing whatever it was you were doing; we weren't expecting to find others out this way!" Well, others besides maybe the Black Ties, but even then, Talise figured they'd be much further away. 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Lynnai does not wear men's formalwear, though she is wearing pants. (How scandalous!) The corset is definitely not men's wear, though. So Rosaline is probably safe from the threat of the Black Ties today.

"I worship Granas," Lynnai explains to Talise, quietly. "I can explain the tenets to you later; I don't know what sect precisely she belongs to, but one of the cornerstones of the faith is that good works and the rejection of evil is necessary to prevent a second Day of Collapse, or something worse. So as a rule, they tend to be decent people on average - not perfect, perhaps, but who is?" She sounds wry, there. She knows she isn't perfect.

Finally, Lynnai thinks, a desert encounter that did /not/ go horribly in any way, shape, or form. Nobody is drawing gunsmoke weapons or readying Symbology more dangerous than her far-seer, and that's a meeting she can get behind. "There certainly is. My name is Lynnai Albrek," she calls back. "Would you be adverse to a meeting? I always feel a little strange shouting at a distance."

Heedless of the response, Lynnai nudges her horse forward, whether the others are coming with her or not. She really does feel silly yelling, and if she does get shot by a mysterious gun-toting nun, well, at least her allies had warning. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

As Rosaline approaches, Ida confirms that yes, this is in fact a nun, and puts on her politest, most deferent smile. "Good afternoon, Sister," she says, bowing ever-so-slightly. She looks over at Talise, inwardly just a /little/ chagrined that she's being so casual with someone who could be out here on Church business. "Yes! Is there any way we can assist?" She doesn't look like an Etone, but Ida is honestly not sure what a nun would be doing out here otherwise. 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

As Rosaline gets closer, Lynnai can get a better look at the holy symbol the beastwoman is carrying around her neck: it's the emblem of the Ethos, a cross with ram's horns*. She gets a quietly strange look in return, probably because her outfit is corrupting today's youth.

Their apparent leader, who upon closer inspection seems to be some breed of beastwoman herself, assures they won't be jerks. This comes as a relief. A meeting seems like a good idea to her, given how she's meeting them.

"I was tracking down some bandits," she admits, seeing no real reason to hide it. She sounds so apologetic about it, too. Then again, looking at her, it's hard to imagine what she would ever DO if she found bandits. "And what are you doing out here, if you don't mind me asking?"

  • This cannot be overstated: Haha, wow, Xenogears!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Talise isn't in men's formalwear, either. She's got her knee-high boots and a pair of shorts on, along with her belt and tank top.

"Yeah. Let's talk about that later. If there's some faux-pas stuff I should dance around, it's probably good if I know about it before it becomes a problem," she murmurs with a nod for Lynnai, though that slightly embarrassed smile lingers on her face.

She catches the look from Ida and blinks, flashing her an apologetic smile. She doesn't know any better! Surely the churches here aren't crazy like the ones in her neck of the woods, right?

Rosaline explains herself and leaves the half-Beastwoman nodding with recognition. "Oh yeah. We might've been tracking some bandits too," she admits, her hand migrating to rest at one hip. It's a casual gesture and it comes with a slight shift of her foot in the sand, scuffing at it absently. "You made any progress at it? I mean, if you don't mind /me/ askin' too." 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Lynnai recognizes the symbol, of course. It's not the one she carries - she has a disc with Granas' symbol on it, which looks more abstract than anything else - but the Ethos are big enough that she certainly knows who they are. She does frown for a moment while looking Rosaline over, though it isn't clear why, and it goes away shortly thereafter.

"Hmm." Lynnai sounds thoughtful for a moment. "It would be an interesting coincidence if we were looking for the /same/ bandits, but I personally would assume so. They're the most notorious ones around right now, after their recent activities."

She smiles, suddenly. "It sounds like we might have things to speak of... though I'm surprised if this is church business. You don't seem like... well... an Etone." They're a monastic order, so presumably they have nuns, but Lynnai never thought they dressed quite like - like that. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

That just about seals it. Thankfully, Lynnai asks the tough question for Ida, allowing her to maintain her image of deferent piety. Thanks, Lynnai!

"Indeed," she says. "A band of ruffians that call themselves the Black Ties. They've been menacing Adlehyde, and we believe they may have just committed a high-profile abduction." Which Rosaline would already know about, right? Ida winces a little, inwardly, as Lynnai comments on Rosaline's outfit, but well, she has a point. "Perhaps we could offer you assistance," Ida says, "if this is the case." 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Spotting Lynnai's Granas symbol slightly improves Rosaline's assessment of her outfit. But it seems she's getting a strange look too? Oh no! Did she do something wrong?

But the group is tracking bandits, isn't it? The catwoman seems intrigued at first. Then, at the mention of the Black Ties, her eyes widen.

Yes. It's definitely that providence again. "Well. I believe everything happens for a reason. It looks like this is it." She unfolds the map she's still holding and shows it to the group, showing a good approximation of the very trail they've been following.

Then Lynnai points out that Rosaline doesn't look like an Etone. She winces. Well. It's not wrong. "I'm... training to become one," she says, meekly, avoiding everyone's gazes. 

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Serendipity rears nits head. Talise's smile only grows brighter. "Perfect!" she says as she lets go of her horse's bridle just long enough to clap her hands together with good cheer, eyes bright. "Ida's right. We should help each other out. If these Black Ties are brazen enough to kidnap a king, then we've all gotta work together to knock 'em into next week! That's as good a reason as any to support each other, as far as I'm concerned."

All she can think about are the old stories about Lady Chloe - how the legendary Dragonmaster recruited Jevron the priest and Miruka Ausa of the Magic Guild to help seal away the darkness. To her, bringing a wandering priest on board is simply propitious.

She pushes her right hand through her hair, her smile not fading even as Rosaline tries to dodge her gaze. "Hey, don't feel bad!" she says reassuringly. "Everyone had to train once, even the greatest fighters who ever lived! Besides, it's what's in your heart that counts!" Thumping a hand against her chest, she declares, "So long as you've got a strong spirit and you're dedicated, you can go places!"

Canting her head to one side, she looks over at Lynnai and Ida. "Besides, the more of us, the better chance we have of takin' down those Black Ties if they try any funny stuff." 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Lynnai Albrek doesn't usually keep her symbol out. She tucks it away again afterwards, though she's at least sort of identified herself.

"Ah, I see," Lynnai says. She sounds surprisingly non-judgey about it, so there's that. And whatever got Lynnai to frown isn't doing it anymore.

She nudges her horse closer so she can see the... eccentrically labeled map. But it is a map, and she's apparently been doing a good job of tracking on her own. Lynnai reaches into her own coat pocket, pulling out a handbound notebook, which she leafs through until she unfolds a map from it; it's similar, but almost painfully neatly annotated, with tiny markings showing where she's been.

"It seems as if we are on the same path," she agrees. "Talise is right. I'd rather work with more people than fewer, and I don't think it would be a good idea for ... ah, for you to encounter them alone." She's a woman travelling on her own who looks like a delicate nun, right? That can't be a good idea. Lyn doesn't even see a weapon!

Not that Lynnai has a visible weapon either, but the point remains. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

A novice? That does make sense--but it also makes Ida even more worried for Rosaline's well-being. If she's out here alone with no formal training, she'd stand no chance against common thieves, much less a well-trained and well-armed gang like the Black Ties. Thankfully, the others handle it, and once again, Ida's pious deference to a servant of the Church remains intact. She peers at Rosaline's map a moment, and then nods, confirming it.

"While remaining humble in spirit, of course," Ida says, once Talise's pep talk is finished. "Humility doesn't rule out confidence! Far from it, in fact. But yes, surely they've taught you a little at least, correct? If you don't mind me inquiring, have you been apprenticed to someone yet?" 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Talise tries to cheer Rosaline up, and meets partial success. She and the group then propose a team-up, which the nun doesn't take very long to consider.

"Y-Yes! This sounds like a great idea. My intention wasn't to go this far alone at first, but that's how things ended up. I have friends travelling in the area, so if we run into them, maybe they could help out too."

This sounds unlikely given how they're in the middle of nowhere, but she seems confident in her capacity to attract great coincidences.

"I've known how to fire an ARM since I was thirteen, and I'm a fairly decent Crest Graph user," Rosaline says, sounding the most confident she has since the beginning of this conversation, which to be honest is still not very. There's the implication that she's carrying an ARM or two somewhere somewhere, though she doesn't show that off.

"I have!" she answers Ida's question brightly. "She's called Mother Oba. She's strict but kind. She said she wished she could accompany me, but she had some more urgent business."

Yes, apparently more urgent than a literal King's ransom. Etones get up to some STUFF. 

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

There's a reason Talise left the mapmaking to Lynnai. Talise's handwriting isn't bad, mind. She just doesn't know the geography as well as her native friends.

She does, however, reach over to Ida, giving her shoulder a pat. "Yeah. You can be dedicated without feeling like you have nothing left to learn. There's always something."

The bright response from Rosaline brings a toothy smile to her face, broad enough to flash the more-pronounced-than-normal points of her incisors. Together with the pointed elf ears and the cheekstripes, it makes her look a little like a big playful cat. "Hey, those're both good skills to have. And I think we all do something a little different here - I'm a close-range fighter. So it sounds like we've got a good mix of skills!"

With a quick step back, she boosts herself back into her saddle; she doesn't start riding yet, just resuming her seat. Her hands find her reins, holding them loosely. "I'm thinkin' we'll do a bit more exploring today, but once the sun goes down we can call it off. If the Black Ties /are/ out there, I don't wanna deal with them in the dark." 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Ah, that makes sense, Lynnai thinks to herself. She nods, apparently satisfied with Rosaline's response. Etones do indeed get up to stuff.

"I don't either," Lynnai agrees with Talise. "I have a light, but it would draw attention in the darkness if we shined it around - they'd see us as well as we saw them, if not better. It would be safer to camp then and resume the search in the morning... not to mention, it would be difficult to trace tracks at night, probably." She's not the expert there, but how can you see them in the dark? Even a lantern won't work; lanterns do odd things to shadows.

Lynnai shifts her horse slightly to make herself more comfortable. "In the interest of being open, then: I'm a Symbologist." She pushes up her sleeve slightly to show the pattern of red glyphs curling up her arm before letting it slide back into place. "I can do a lot to help in battle or outside of it. I'm also a historian... but I don't think /that/ will be helpful for hunting down bandits, unless they hide in a ruin," she adds, a little wry. So much for her best skill. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Mother Oba, Mother Oba... nope, doesn't ring a bell. But then again, it probably wouldn't, since Ida's mother trained and worked on an entirely different continent, and left the service of the Church some time ago. Still, Ida knows how lineage works, and knows that it's a significant thing to know and respect. She can't help but feel a little more self-conscious than usual, too; she has no idea why her mother left, and also knows that she's not nearly as pious as a lot of her family members. What if she taught Ida things that were never meant to leave the order? Still...

"I'm a naturalist by trade," Ida says, "but I've been training with ARMs for almost as long as you have. My mother was an Etone. Sister Flora, student of Father Xiao of St. Heim, Originator and Master of Five Precepts Caged Demon Style." Which, as far as Etone gun-fu goes, is pretty esoteric. Ida does not seem to know this. Does Rosaline?? 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

"That sounds like a good plan," Rosaline answers to Talise's assessment. "I can see better than most people at night, but that's only me..." She does have the slit-pupils and everything. She nods as the group shares their respective specialties.

"At least it can make for interesting conversation," she remarks to Lynnai, with a small smile.

Ida's comment on her mother causes Rosaline to gawk. Ida may not know this is esoteric, but Rosaline has had a lot of time to learn whichever esoteric Church facts would bother to reach her corner of the world. She puts her hands to her cheeks. "Really? Heavens! This is an honor! I can't believe... Oh, wow." 

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"Yeah, and I don't want to give them anything they can track either," Talise agrees with Lynnai, nodding. "I don't know how many guys they've got so it's our best move to play it a little safe here. I've seen a few villages off in the distance - small ones, mostly. I imagine we can stop at one of those once things start to get on towards sundown."

Crossing her arms against her saddlebow, she listens as Ida explains a little about herself. It's stuff she didn't know, including the style. Her eyebrows come up slightly and she smiles. "That's an incredible name for a style of anything."

The gushing, she leaves to Rosaline. But her gaze does search Ida, curious. Seems the scientifically-minded woman had a few layers to her. Idly she wets her lips, giving Ida a slow, appreciative nod.

"I usually don't stick my nose into Church affairs," she admits. "But that's just me." 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

"Well, I can't," Lynnai says, bluntly, at Rosaline's comment that she can see better in the dark. "And I don't especially want to break a leg falling in a hole, even if we did somehow manage to keep to the track. And we do need to sleep sometime. Best to do that by night; we can take shifts."

Watching, of course. Lynnai is the kind of person who sometimes assumes that everyone around her can follow her train of thought without actually saying it. When it's something like this, it's not so hard. But with some of the leaps she makes... "I do hope I can manage conversation at least, you're right."

Lynnai knows approximately very little about Etone combat styles, guns or no guns. She knows a little bit of martial arts for self-protection, and she could fire a gunsmoke weapon if she really had to, but that's as far as it goes; she's generally just fought with her Symbology when she needs to. "Is that good?" she asks the group at large, about the fighting style. She has no idea.

"Nor do I," Lyn agrees with Talise. "I like to think that it's mutual." 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

"Yes," Ida says. "I daresay I wouldn't want to camp here overnight." Not that she doesn't trust her comrades to keep an eye out for everyone--they're on the trail of dangerous bandits, and the closer they can keep to what passes for civilization in these parts, the safer they might be. And then Rosaline apparently recognizes something that she doesn't, and she blinks. "I--I don't know /that/ much, really," she says, with a little laugh and smile. "Mother insisted I learn the basics, though, if I was to go on the expedition. I had no idea she and her master were notable." Again, there's that feeling of self-consciousness. Lynnai asks her for more. Talise looks appreciative. Ida's face starts reddening. She glances over at Rosaline a moment before explaining to her friends. "It's--well, there are a number of schools of Etone gunplay. The monk my mother studied with taught a style based around five precepts, but the short of it is that occasionally one must resort to the ARMs of Demons in order to stop worse threats. It's, ah, big on the synchronization everyone's talked about in the past, as well as breathwork." 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

"Yes," Ida says. "I daresay I wouldn't want to camp here overnight." Not that she doesn't trust her comrades to keep an eye out for everyone--they're on the trail of dangerous bandits, and the closer they can keep to what passes for civilization in these parts, the safer they might be.

And then Rosaline apparently recognizes something that she doesn't, and she blinks. "I--I don't know /that/ much, really," she says, with a little laugh and smile. "Mother insisted I learn the basics, though, if I was to go on the expedition. I had no idea she and her master were notable." Again, there's that feeling of self-consciousness. Lynnai asks her for more. Talise looks appreciative. Ida's face starts reddening. She glances over at Rosaline a moment before explaining to her friends. "It's--well, there are a number of schools of Etone gunplay. The monk my mother studied with taught a style based around five precepts, but the short of it is that occasionally one must resort to the ARMs of Demons in order to stop worse threats. It's, ah, big on the synchronization everyone's talked about in the past, as well as breathwork." 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

"I'm sorry," Rosaline tells Lynnai, wincing at her blunt comment regarding night vision and the lack thereof. She doesn't ask questions about what she's saying next, trying her best to look like she's following.

It's all right, Ida, you're not the only one feeling self-conscious right now. "I haven't studied a particular... style myself, it was just basic self-defense, advanced self-defense, ammo sanctification, ARMs maintenance, monster identification, emergency blessings, confiscation, trigger discipline in exorcism contexts, expert self-defense, final rites, basic Gear cockpit layout, just in case..."

"The baseline, really..." She sighs.

Her ears perk up as she realizes something VERY IMPORTANT. "Oh no! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm sorry! My name is Rosaline Calice." 

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"Geez. I never knew guns had so many styles to them. I figured out the pointing-and-shooting part but the actual styles is different," Talise says as she runs one hand through her horse's mane as if to keep the beast from getting bored. "But I guess it stands to reason. Swords have a lot of styles, too. I mean, aside from Thousand Stormless Tides."

Which is her style she just made up, but she's not about to admit /that/ out loud. She does, however, reach back to adjust the hang of the large scabbard across her back; the green stone in the pommel of her long-bladed, long-hilted sword glints as light catches in it fleetingly.

Inevitably she finds herself looking at Rosaline's twitchy ears. Again her inner voice informs her that this is absolutely adorable.

She doesn't give it voice, instead touching a hand to her forehead and giving her wrist a little snap in a short, casual wave. "'s'all good. It's nice to meet you, Rosaline. Can I call you Rosaline?" With a broad smile, she taps herself on the chest. "I might've done it already but my name's Talise Gianfair." 

<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.

Lynnai Albrek is sometimes a little direct socially, too. In this case it was a statement of fact, not a particular attempt to be rude...

...which is why her response to Rosaline is a slightly baffled look. "Why?" she asks, unsure why Rosaline would be sorry. "I can't. That's all there is to it."

That sounds significantly beyond 'basic' to Lynnai. Gear cockpit layout? She's never even seen the inside of one. Confiscation? Trigger discipline... in exorcism contexts? Well, if you need to get rid of one of those skeletons, she supposes.

"You three make me sound like I haven't studied combat at all," Lynnai says, sounding more amused than annoyed. "I don't know any advanced martial styles, only some basic training; most of my time was with Symbology, of course, and academic pursuits. My name is Lynnai Albrek, which I believe I said, but please, use Lynnai."

The Albreks are a fairly wealthy mercantile family in Adlehyde. They fund, operate, and protect trade caravans without actually producing anything themselves except guards and wagons. The goods must flow, after all. Lynnai is related, but has no connection to the business - by choice. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

"The Etones are, ah, a bit more of a martial order than most," Ida says. "As you can surely tell." Damn, and she's still only a novice? Ida keeps that cheery smile on to camouflage the sudden, horrible worry that she's essentially been faking her way through this. The last time she fought the Black Ties, things did not go well for her at all...

"A pleasure to meet you, Sister Calice," Ida says, before Talise goes and gets all casual again. Thankfully, Ida does not make an issue of it, because Talise is a foreigner and has her own issues with organized religion. Ida does not want to touch those with a ten-foot pole at the moment. "Oh hush," she says to Lynnai, but she's grinning. "You've studied something very few people truly understand." 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

"It's nice to meet you, everyone," Rosaline says, softly. To Talise, she looks a bit confused, then answers, "S-Sure..." Yes, the slightest bit of social pressure will do that to her. She nods along with Ida's reassuring words to Lynnai, albeit hesitantly.

This should be... interesting.

Rosaline has joined the party!

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