Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 3.7K All Categories
- 3K The Midnight Age
- 757 Announce posts
- 125 Newbies
- 6 Class Guides
- 804 Harpy's Head Tavern
- 57 Echo Canyon
- 310 Self-Affirmations
- 163 Town Crier
- 135 The Exchange
- 167 Sparring Grounds
- Combat Guides
- 30 Combat Logs
- 188 Idea Box
- 9 Classleads
- 581 Roleplay Logs
- 107 Aetolia Development
- 5 The Void
- 744 Miscellaneous
- 9 Announcements
- 417 OOC Chat
- 217 Tech Talk
- 47 Scripts
Looking for more active discussion? Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/x2s7fY6
A concert at The Lover's Fling
Most of this log is from Xenia's point of view, inside spoilers you will find excerpts from Iazamat, a monk in the audience hearing everyone's thoughts.
Location:
Xenia turns to Emir, "Now one rule for you no explosions, and no loud words while the lady is singing," she frowns, peering closely, "I mean it!"
Iazamat says, "He'll behave, I'm sure."
Emir just thought:
If she's telling me I can't cause explosions then something bad is gonna happen to me that they think is funny.
Iazamat's hand brushes Mjoll's elbow as he makes for a nearby couch, making himself comfortable in it.
Iazamat says to Emir, "Hardly, Emir, she simply doesn't want you interrupting the performance."
(Tells): You tell Didi, "There's a concert about to happen in Esterport if you'd like to come and
join us. We're in the Lover's fling."
Mjoll falls back comfortably into the seat next to Iazamat, draping an arm over his shoulders.
Emir makes his way to a couch, keeping his gaze locked on you suspiciously. Finding his seat, he sits down and nods at Iazamat. "Well maybe that's the c-ARE YOU IN MY BRAIN?!"
Louse stands awkwardly near the entrance, his hat clutched to his chest with both hands.
Shaking his head, Iazamat smiles and says, "No, your thoughts are simply as loud as the rest of
You."
Emir just thought:
Nowhere is safe
Mjoll says, "Find a seat, Louse!"
Xenia reaches down to that massive shark-dog, taking a hound-borne emergency mini-keg collar overflowing with "Liquid Strength" and then looks to Louse, she waiting for the othersto get comfortable. "Would you please join me at my table?" she asks.
Lin arrives from the in.
Xenia stands near the entrance at Louse's side, her eyes falling to the stage as Lin enters and she starts to clap.
"Of course, ma'am," Louse answers obediently. He stops before he takes a seat - the motion of Lin's arrival catches his eye, and turns his face.
Lin steps out onto the stage, a large, iron-inlaid sitar dangling securely from her shoulder. She pauses for a split-second in her tracks, identifying her audience, her golden eye shifting to violet, then back again. Taking position by a stool, she dips into a low curtsey.
Emir utters a word of command to his golem.
With a guttural moan a clay golem looks upward and then melds away into the ground.
At the table, Xenia leans in close to Louse, murmuring a few quiet words.
You murmur to Louse, "This is Lin, she's going to be one of the resident performers here in the
establishment my family runs."
(Seirathi): You say, "Lin here wants to be a resident performer for the Fling, let me know what you all think after the performance."
Didi says, "I love concerts."
(Seirathi): Mjoll says, "Will do."
Xenia smiles at Didi, motioning her over to join her at a table.
(Seirathi): Mjoll says, "I've heard her play before, casually. She's pretty good from what I remember."
Emir raises his hand in greeting to Didi and says "Hi!"
Iazamat draws his feet up onto the couch, pulling them underneath him and to the side. He reaches for Mjoll's hand, specifically the one attached to the arm draped across his shoulder, gripping it gently as he watches Lin.
Didi raises her hand in greeting and says "Hi!"
Didi pats herself on the head.
Quietly, Iazamat says, "Hoi, Didi."
"Thank you for coming," Lin says demurely, head still bowed low. "You, who honor Esterport with your presence, and honor the legacy of Roan Seluno." With an economy of subtle motion, she sets herself into the stool, crossing one leg over the other. The sitar, then, rests in her lap.
He sits. He does it slowly, so as not to disturb the stillness, but he seems unable to control the
expressive, side-to-side flick of his tail. Louse barely turns his eyes from the stage, tipping his chin just enough to acknowledge your explanation with a shallow nod.
Lin begins without introduction or fanfare; an effortless flap of her hand, and the room is filled
with a drone, the exotic sound of El'jazira's most famous answer to the lute. She lets this chord
hang and buzz in the chamber, before she lays into a slow and meandering melody - desert music with a distinctly improvisational sound, as though each cluster of notes were designed, organically, by those that came before.
As those chords fill the room, Xenia shifts a bit in her chair, sliding forward, leaning in towards the stage, forgetting her drink on the table.
EMIR UPHOLDS RP STANDARDS!
The aura about you fades, leaving you somewhat more vulnerable again.
[Dizzy]: Lost the endgame defence.
Your skin crawls as Iazamat's focus turns inward, and after a few short moments you feel
inexplicably bolstered against harm.
[Dizzy]: Gained the endgame defence.
[Dizzy]: Lost the endgame defence.
Turning your focus inward, you weave your power into a wide, pervasive field of protection.
[Dizzy]: Gained the endgame defence.
(Web): Emir says, "Smdh mfkers can't turn off systems for rp."
(Web): Emir says, "That's it you're all using rime."
(Web): Emir says, "Gonna code you an rp mode in."
(Web): You say, "Sorry >_>."
(Web): Mazzion says, "How dare you."
(Web): You say, "Thank goodness Emir is upholding the RP standards here."
Lin sings: "No hoops of gold adorn my ears; the tax-man's taken each last pence--" Her voice is
raspy, not that of some virtuoso, as though a hunting beast were singing. "But in my arms, I've
another coin: a man with honesty and sense..." At the end of each verse, her hand skitters across the strings of the sitar like the final dance of a dying spider, and the simple melodic progression takes on vast and complex layers, which die off slowly, the sympathetic strings remembering their sound for many seconds after.
Emir remains motionless as he stares at the stage. His face hidden beneath his mask, his awe is conveyed through his eyes as the follow Lin's hand across the sitar.
Iazamat watches Lin, the way her fingers pluck at the strings, and remains silent as he listens.
From the elaborate one-two-three chord, back to a slow and dreamy, trancelike tune, the structure of Lin's song is regular, its complexities more a function of how the melody seems entirely made up, on the spot. "Theeey write accounts in soldier's blood; honor'd death is their pretense--" She extends a leg, letting her sari slide back along her shin, bunched up over a knee, coupling this with a nonchalant toss of her head, her hair thrown back over her shoulder. The adjustment frees her tail, which laps impatiently around the base of her stool. "My man wants not for pointless death; he's made with honesty and sense..."
Watching Lin with an appraising stare, Mjoll taps what she must think is the beat, silently on the
top of her leg with a free finger.
"Death's cold claws wrap 'round my throat; She says I live at Her expense--" As per the song's
structure, Lin strikes a loud and powerful five-fingered chord, claws swiping across the strings,
and times it with a snakelike shimmy of her body, her sari coming down from one shoulder, the wrap growing loose, baring a sliver of a kawhe-colored thigh. She wears an expression of purest
concentration. Lin sings: "I beg She take my final breath; but leave my man with honesty and sense..."
Emir gulps at the show of skin, quickly diverting his attention to anywhere else.
Emir just thought:
I fucking knew it.
"Calm, Emir. She likely doesn't even notice," a voice comes mind.
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
Emir just thought:
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF SHE NOTICES I NOTICED AHHHHHHHH.
Emir just thought:
Stay out of our head.
You feel as well as hear the rush of sand against the outer edges of your mind, a voice amongst the hissing rush: "If I wanted in, Emir, I'd come in. You're just being loud."
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
Emir just thought:
It's our head we'll be as loud as I want.
Noticing Emir's sudden movement, Iazamat glances his way, a half-grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
The sitar's neck bobs up and down, depending on how high up the frets Lin's playing ventures. As the song begins to reach its end - for the lyrics are short and sweet - she cradles it close to her bosom like the supposed lover she sang about, chancing just a brief peek up at her audience. There is something peculiar happening beneath the sari, though its profuse patterning makes it difficult to make out. Something hidden beneath her arms, behind the instrument, but glimpsed briefly from time to time. The finale skitters down several octaves, one of Lin's hands rising higher and higher on the sitar's neck, until the tune is cut off entirely as she clenches the strings fiercely - as though choking the life out of someone.
Emir congratulates Lin with some wild clapping.
"Bravo!" Didi cries as she claps her hands delightedly.
Iazamat's brows rise as Lin ends her song, then furrow quickly in likely contemplation; contemplation that doesn't last long once Emir starts clapping, causing the Idreth to join in as well.
This abrupt ending leaves Xenia stunned in her seat, she only managing a blink
before the sound of Emir's wild clapping bringing her to and she soon joins in. Her own applause softer and less rambunctious.
Mjoll uses her free hand to slap her leg in applause.
Smiling happily, Emir giggles with amusement at Mjoll.
Lin takes a moment to wrench her hand through her hair, throwing it back again - it simply cannot be made to behave for long. There is a certain shyness to her demeanor, so long as her angled-back ears and hiding tail are any indication, but she accepts the applause with due grace, bowing her head low, setting in motion certain disturbances of the patterned silk she wears. "Thank you," she says politely. "I've one more, if you will but bend your ear."
Xenia thinks: "I was not expecting that to end like that, I wonder what next is in store."
Louse breathes. He's sat rigidly upright in his chair this whole while with hands grasping either
side of the wooden seat. He doesn't applaud. Instead, he hollers a low and booming whoop of obvious approval. The smile that splits his mouth reveals a silver tooth where one canine should be.
Emir shoots his eyes to the furthest corner of his mask, trying his best to look at one ear before
they move to the opposite side. Failing to see either ear, he turns his head wildly from one
direction to the next before giving up in frustration. A loud "Ugh." escapes from beneath his mask and he uses his hands to cup his ears and bend them towards Lin. "Like this?"
Didi pats Emir in a friendly manner.
Xenia nods at Lin's words, her attention briefly to the drink on the table, which
is claimed as she settles more comfortably back in her chair.
Iazamat brings a single finger to his mouth, an amused exhalation escaping him as a smile grows behind that finger.
Lin stares vapidly at Emir, giving in eventually to laughter that can't be heard, but makes her
shoulders and head bob. "Perfect," she insists.
Lin lifts her chin and clears her throat, and this time begins not by playing the strings, but by
sharply rapping her palm on the wooden side of the sitar's body. It sounds almost like the drums of the desert, though naturally lacks their fine timbre. A beat, then. "It may occur to you as strange that a... Duiranite, and former Praadi, would pay tribute to one like this, but then, I have had a strange and storied life."
Xenia's head bobs in rhythm of the song, a finger tapping alongside against her drink.
Didi drinks from a rotund obsidian cup of fresh water.
The music begins. It is both dire, but peculiarly encouraging, jumping between minor and major tonalities in a scheme that seems at first slapdash, but then develops an easily identifiable pattern through repetition. The strings are plucked more often than stroked, allowing her split seconds to tap the sitar, and keep the ersatz drumbeat going. "Tossing in bed, tossing in bed... I can see the ceiling split and cryatallize--" Lin sings with less variance, almost a chant more than a song.
Buzzing busily, a bee arrives from the west.
Emir pulls a menacing flail from his weaponbelt fluidly in his right hand.
Emir uses Terramancy Skullbash on a large, yellow bee.
Emir slams a menacing flail into the ground, calling upon the power of Earth and causing the ground to buckle crushingly around a large, yellow bee.
Emir has scored a CRITICAL hit!
The final blow proves too much for a large, yellow bee, who expires, pitifully.
Having slain a large, yellow bee, Emir retrieves the corpse.
Emir ceases to wield a menacing flail, securing it to his weaponbelt.
(Web): Emir says, "Fuck honeygang."
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
Emir says, "I don't like bees sorry."
Iazamat hangs his head and pinches the bridge of his nose, his focus seemingly lost.
Didi says, "Ok I won't summon mine."
Lin jerks her shoulder, as though she's wounded, like she'd just caught a thrown spear in the worst way possible. Part of her sari tumbles open, lending a split second glimpse at her bare chest, before her hair tumbles down to cover her. "A thousand phantoms flutter through my head, and I... I can see your emerald eyes--" A second pair of arms rise from the loosened gown, fingers outspread, claws extended, held over her head.
Xenia holds captive to the song, sparing only the slightest of looks in Emir's direction, brow furrowed and disapproving towards the lad. She stares a moment longer, as though this alone can will him subdued. Eventually her gaze travels back towards Lin, nodding once more to the rhythm and just in time to see a new set of arms rising up over the performer's head. She blinks.
Iazamat shakes his head and, pushing a breath from his lungs, finally looks up, only to be met by the same sight as you - Lin's newly revealed arms. His features crease in confusion.
Didi just thought:
Stifle.
Didi just thought:
Not fishing for comps.
Didi drinks from a simple cup of a refreshing, mint and chocolate tea.
"Sickness clings wetly to my skin; am I asleep - or did I die?" Lin grunts, quietly, as the third and fourth arms unlimber themselves, stretching gracefully. With the first two, she never stops playing, even as the new limbs take her sari and guide it loose from her body, letting it flutter weightlessly to the floor. Wearing only jewelry and her sitar, she plays with her eyes shut, dancing across the strings as one of the abnatural hands takes over with the drumming of the instrument's body. "Falling through the bed and floor; all I can see is your emerald eyes..."
Didi drifts off into her thoughts, eyes glazed in a daydream.
Iazamat murmurs something softly to Mjoll.
Emir blinks once, unable to take his eyes away from Lin.
Iazamat glances briefly at Emir before rubbing a thumb across his forehead, soon after pinching the bridge of his nose again. He gives a quiet sigh of relief and leans further into Mjoll's side.
Didi drinks from a cobalt tea cup of a soothing, petal-steeped lavender tea.
"I can see the world above my head; vanishing, shrinking in size..." The music drifts through chord progressions that are bizarre, seemingly out of tune at first but self-correcting, working toward some uncanny finality, as though the artist were plummeting through layers of coarse silt to find bedrock. Lin sweats, something exerting her, employing one of the four hands to wipe the
perspiration from her brow. She opens her eyes - one is a black jewel, as always, but the other reveals a sickly green iris. "Will I ever break free from your Spiral? I can't bear your emerald eyes..."
Mjoll just thought:
Emir's gonna freak.
You murmur to Mjoll, "I, ah - why has she stripped?"
Emir blinks once, unable to take his eyes away from Lin.
Mjoll just thought:
It is part of the performance, I suppose.
Emir just thought:
HELP ME.
You feel a pall cross over you and your vision dims - you are blind to everything except a few feet in front of you.
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
It's done, abruptly, with one slow, dramatic chord, the sympathetic strings of the sitar haunting
the room long after it is finished. Lin remains perched on her stool, apparently out of breath.
Didi claps her hands together merrily.
Mjoll's eyes dart around the performance, head bobbing with the music, toe tapping occasionally. As the final note lingers and fades she pulls her arm from from Iazamat's grip to applaud with claps and a rousing whistle.
Xenia doesn't clap immediately, she instead standing from her chair before an
applause is given. "Wow, four arms," you can hear her say, her words directed to Louse who sits
across her from the table.
Iazamat's head snaps up and he joins Mjoll in clapping, his own significantly softer and slower. His expression is almost harried, and his attention keeps drifting to Emir - he is clearly awaiting some crisis.
Louse stomps his feet and hoots once more. He even claps his hands, his meaty palms colliding with a resounding sound. He's on his feet in the next instant, turning to you with widened eyes. "Yes," he affirms, his grin a wild thing. He follows with, "Can I pay her?" Immediately afterwards, he clarifies, "For the performance." His words are all a jumble, one tripping over the next.
Didi raises a hand to her mouth, stifling a laugh.
Iazamat murmurs something softly to Mjoll.
You murmur to Mjoll, "We've avoided a singularity, but only narrowly."
Lin looks just a touch stunned by the reception, her brow turning a dark wine-red. It seems to strain her just to move those extra arms, but she bows her head low, and spreads all four in grandiose fashion, adding a little flourish, wrists flicking at the end of the gesture.
Neatly arranging some flowers together, Didi eventually produces a bouquet.
Didi hums a happy tune.
"Thank you. You're all... very, very kind." Even as the words leave her lips, Lin's eyes lift to the ceiling, a wistful expression on her face. She rises to her feet, and covers with the addition of two more hands what her hair and hanging sitar cannot. "Thank you. Very much."
mind hallucinate emir You feel the veil cast over your withdrawn; your sight has been restored, and you notice that while Lin isn't clothed, she has hidden her indecency from those gathered.
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
Xenia remains standing, still clapping, turning to nod at Louse, "Yes, you are free to pay her." Her eyes briefly scan the others, she puzzling over Emir who appears to be applauding the curtains.
Lin just thought:
She feels embarrassed. Not because she is nude, no - this is hardly anything new for her - but for the sloppy bodily adaptation. And the... subject matter of her song.
Lin doesn't leave too much to see, unless one is offended by naked hips, or the narrow V-shape of her visible chest. Having a lot of hair is quite handy at a bawdy house performance. With just a touch of shyness, she smiles gratefully at Emir, dipping her head to him.
Lin just thought:
"This is addicting. I could really do this again. I think I like this place."
Lin just thought:
"With a bigger audience, more people looking, clapping..."
Iazamat just thought:
"Your song was enjoyed."
Emir just thought:
We should go, you have things to do.
"Ok!" Emir exclaims.
Emir says, "Well that was fun and neat thanks for bringing me Boss Lady."
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
Louse turns. In the quiet that falls after all that applause, his footsteps are nearly audible as leather-bound swishes against the floor. He approaches Lin without hesitation or shyness, his gaze fixed but his mouth silent. The stage lies beyond an orchestra pit, and he must walk around that void, to the edge near the curtains (very near, in fact, to where Emir was staring) to lay his gift down. He leaves it there, like an offering at a shrine, gold coins spilling in sums larger than it seems his hands should be able to hold.
Louse drops some gold sovereigns.
Emir gives one last rapid round of applause for Lin before reaching for his sulfurous amulet.
Emir says, "Voltda."
A sulfurous portal opens in the ground before Emir and he quickly jumps into it before it snaps shut behind him.
Xenia nods at Emir, "Thank you for coming, and thank you for being on your best behavior," she adds, though her eyes fall on Iazamat as this last part is spoken.
Taking one last bow, Lin catches each of you with her gaze, that unsteady green color completely gone. To Louse, she sets two fingers to her lips, and points them to him, endlessly smiling.
Lin picks up some gold sovereigns.
Slipping his feet back onto the floor, Iazamat says, "He means well."
Lin turns, tail risen and swaying from side to side, and vanishes behind the curtains.
Lin leaves to the in.
(Seirathi): you say, “What are your thoughts on Lin?”
(Seirathi): Mjoll says, "Whole hearted approval."
Xenia smiles to the gathered Carnifex and Iazamat, she apparently pleased. "Thank you all for joining me at this concert."
Placing a hand on Mjoll's knee as he slides to the edge of his seat, Iazamat says, "My thanks for
the invitation."
You say, "There will likely be more, I know Lin intends to perform somewhat regularly."
"This was wonderful," Louse affirms as he rejoins the group, setting his hat back on his head as he approaches.
Xenia's attention settles next on Louse, whom she studies for some length in silence. "We have not met often," she comments, "but I am newly returned to active service within the Keep. I look forward to serving with you, Ser."
Louse blushes indigo. "Squire," he corrects mildly.
Xenia ponders this and then frowns, "Or is it Squire--" but corrected she nods. "Well, Ser in no time, I'm sure. If ever you require assistance or what not, do not hesitate to ask."
Louse's smile is as mild as his words. "Might I be on my way?" he asks, looking for to Mjoll, and
then to you, for permission.
Finding her feet, Mjoll says, "Of course, Louse."
Xenia nods at Louse, "The concert is over, you are free to go."
Lin arrives from the in.
When Lin returns, it's through a separate door, off behind the orchestra pit. She returns, clothed, and with two fewer appendages than she had before, joining the rest of you amidst the couches. She looks physically exhausted.
Iazamat's hand on Mjoll's knee squeezes.
A noise at the stage draws Xenia's attention, she offering Lin another small wave. "Welcome, welcome. I did not know what to expect from your show, but--" she nods a few times, obviously pleased, "it is exactly the sort of performances I hope to see happening more often here."
Louse straightens into a well-practiced stance of attention, his booted heels tapping together
precisely when his shoulders snap straight. He salutes, and is just about to turn and go, but Lin's arrival gives him a moment's pause. He grips the brim of his hat, as if he means to tip it, and offers a friendly, "Ma'am."
A disturbance propagates through Lin's flesh, like scrabbling hands trying to break free from her
skin, localized around her armpits and shoulders. It's there and gone, bidding her to straighten her posture and lift her chin. "With more practice, I shall," she says. Catching Louse's cordial farewell, she offers a sweet-voiced "Sir," and nods, ever so slightly.
Xenia gestures from Mjoll to Iazamat, "Lin, unsure if you've met the Carnifex Commander, Mjoll Lovetusks, or her husband, Mr. Lovetusks," she offers by way of introductions.
"Hey!" Mjoll blurts out loudly.
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
You smile wryly at Mjoll.
Iazamat says, "Why have you - we've met Lin, she knows by other names."
Despite her panting audibly, weariness in the corners of her eyes, Lin declines to sit, bowing to
Mjoll and Iazamat in turn, as if she'd never met them in her life. "We are well-acquainted," she
assures you. "In fact, I was given the privilege of admiring the Commander's musculature."
The gray skin of Mjoll's face and ears flushes dark, "Rude." She directs to you playfully.
Mjoll flexes her bicep with a grin to Lin.
Iazamat offers Lin a warm smile, his gaze flicking over her shoulders - he seems to be checking for something.
Xenia grins wider, craning back to take in Mjoll's full height, both brows rising up as a massive bicep is flexed. "Pit, Commander, you are the biggest thing I've seen in a long while." She nods a few times at this, any teasing air shifting to awe.
Lin does her best impression of Emir - beholding Mjoll's biceps for two, three seconds, then being forced to look away, a shy grin breaking out across her lips.
"careful" Mjoll warns playfully, "I thrive on attention."
Iazamat exhales in amusement.
"That makes two of--" Lin shudders, her eyes unfocusing for a spell. It takes her a moment to compose herself. "Two of-- two of us. The special part of that show took a... lot out of me, so if I might be excused..."
Lin asks you, "And if we could discuss, soon, the lodging arrangements you'd mentioned before?"
Xenia nods at Lin, "Yes, we can do that, it'll require some redecoration, I was going to offer you a key whenever you're ready to have a look. The builders here in Esterport, though, sometimes they work with me, sometimes they won't, We'll have to see."
Iazamat gets to his feet, hands disappearing behind his back before his fingers lace together. "My thanks for playing for us," he says to Lin, head dipping momentarily.
"I was as good as my audience," Lin offers, spreading her uplifted hand in an obliging gesture. Bowing her head one last time, she quits the theater, heading out on her way.
Lin leaves to the west.
EDITS: Adding in missed spoilers.
Location:
A lavish burlesque theater.
Designed for an intimate, memorable performance, this theater is elegant and lavish, with plush velvet seats arrayed around intimate clusters of tables to face an elevated stage, each one dimly- lit by flickering candles. Heavy crimson curtains drape along each wall in heavy folds, pulling closed over tall windows to easily dull the lighting to a low, smouldering glow, with a series of shuttered candles arranged along the foot of the stage itself, backed with mirrors to focus illumination up onto the dancers. A small dance floor - barely large enough for two or three couples to sway in rather sensuously close company - fills the space before a small orchestra pit, recessed down below the stage itself, with a slender music stand equipped with a small lantern set beside each musician's seat. The stage itself stands at the far wall of the room, the lounge's lines subtle angled to emphasize and highlight its presence: elegant carvings of cloth-draped ladies face the platform, as if watching in enthralled interest, while the theater's sloping ceiling melds design with form, magnifying acoustics and directing attention towards the performers. To either side of the stage, hints of the backstage wings can be glimpsed from behind long drapes, giving tantalizing glimpses of the bustle and work behind the scenes. A large, candle-lit stage rises above the seats of the theater. Here rests a silver-repaired blue ceramic cup. Displaying rows upon rows of jagged teeth, a shark-mutated warhound is here. A massive golem made of clay stands here. Louse is here. Mjoll is here. Emir is here. Iazamat is here.
You see exits leading west and in.
Designed for an intimate, memorable performance, this theater is elegant and lavish, with plush velvet seats arrayed around intimate clusters of tables to face an elevated stage, each one dimly- lit by flickering candles. Heavy crimson curtains drape along each wall in heavy folds, pulling closed over tall windows to easily dull the lighting to a low, smouldering glow, with a series of shuttered candles arranged along the foot of the stage itself, backed with mirrors to focus illumination up onto the dancers. A small dance floor - barely large enough for two or three couples to sway in rather sensuously close company - fills the space before a small orchestra pit, recessed down below the stage itself, with a slender music stand equipped with a small lantern set beside each musician's seat. The stage itself stands at the far wall of the room, the lounge's lines subtle angled to emphasize and highlight its presence: elegant carvings of cloth-draped ladies face the platform, as if watching in enthralled interest, while the theater's sloping ceiling melds design with form, magnifying acoustics and directing attention towards the performers. To either side of the stage, hints of the backstage wings can be glimpsed from behind long drapes, giving tantalizing glimpses of the bustle and work behind the scenes. A large, candle-lit stage rises above the seats of the theater. Here rests a silver-repaired blue ceramic cup. Displaying rows upon rows of jagged teeth, a shark-mutated warhound is here. A massive golem made of clay stands here. Louse is here. Mjoll is here. Emir is here. Iazamat is here.
You see exits leading west and in.
Xenia turns to Emir, "Now one rule for you no explosions, and no loud words while the lady is singing," she frowns, peering closely, "I mean it!"
Iazamat says, "He'll behave, I'm sure."
Emir just thought:
If she's telling me I can't cause explosions then something bad is gonna happen to me that they think is funny.
Iazamat's hand brushes Mjoll's elbow as he makes for a nearby couch, making himself comfortable in it.
Iazamat says to Emir, "Hardly, Emir, she simply doesn't want you interrupting the performance."
(Tells): You tell Didi, "There's a concert about to happen in Esterport if you'd like to come and
join us. We're in the Lover's fling."
Mjoll falls back comfortably into the seat next to Iazamat, draping an arm over his shoulders.
Emir makes his way to a couch, keeping his gaze locked on you suspiciously. Finding his seat, he sits down and nods at Iazamat. "Well maybe that's the c-ARE YOU IN MY BRAIN?!"
Louse stands awkwardly near the entrance, his hat clutched to his chest with both hands.
Shaking his head, Iazamat smiles and says, "No, your thoughts are simply as loud as the rest of
You."
Emir just thought:
Nowhere is safe
Mjoll says, "Find a seat, Louse!"
Xenia reaches down to that massive shark-dog, taking a hound-borne emergency mini-keg collar overflowing with "Liquid Strength" and then looks to Louse, she waiting for the othersto get comfortable. "Would you please join me at my table?" she asks.
Lin arrives from the in.
Xenia stands near the entrance at Louse's side, her eyes falling to the stage as Lin enters and she starts to clap.
"Of course, ma'am," Louse answers obediently. He stops before he takes a seat - the motion of Lin's arrival catches his eye, and turns his face.
Lin steps out onto the stage, a large, iron-inlaid sitar dangling securely from her shoulder. She pauses for a split-second in her tracks, identifying her audience, her golden eye shifting to violet, then back again. Taking position by a stool, she dips into a low curtsey.
Emir utters a word of command to his golem.
With a guttural moan a clay golem looks upward and then melds away into the ground.
At the table, Xenia leans in close to Louse, murmuring a few quiet words.
You murmur to Louse, "This is Lin, she's going to be one of the resident performers here in the
establishment my family runs."
(Seirathi): You say, "Lin here wants to be a resident performer for the Fling, let me know what you all think after the performance."
Didi says, "I love concerts."
(Seirathi): Mjoll says, "Will do."
Xenia smiles at Didi, motioning her over to join her at a table.
(Seirathi): Mjoll says, "I've heard her play before, casually. She's pretty good from what I remember."
Emir raises his hand in greeting to Didi and says "Hi!"
Iazamat draws his feet up onto the couch, pulling them underneath him and to the side. He reaches for Mjoll's hand, specifically the one attached to the arm draped across his shoulder, gripping it gently as he watches Lin.
Didi raises her hand in greeting and says "Hi!"
Didi pats herself on the head.
Quietly, Iazamat says, "Hoi, Didi."
"Thank you for coming," Lin says demurely, head still bowed low. "You, who honor Esterport with your presence, and honor the legacy of Roan Seluno." With an economy of subtle motion, she sets herself into the stool, crossing one leg over the other. The sitar, then, rests in her lap.
He sits. He does it slowly, so as not to disturb the stillness, but he seems unable to control the
expressive, side-to-side flick of his tail. Louse barely turns his eyes from the stage, tipping his chin just enough to acknowledge your explanation with a shallow nod.
Lin begins without introduction or fanfare; an effortless flap of her hand, and the room is filled
with a drone, the exotic sound of El'jazira's most famous answer to the lute. She lets this chord
hang and buzz in the chamber, before she lays into a slow and meandering melody - desert music with a distinctly improvisational sound, as though each cluster of notes were designed, organically, by those that came before.
As those chords fill the room, Xenia shifts a bit in her chair, sliding forward, leaning in towards the stage, forgetting her drink on the table.
EMIR UPHOLDS RP STANDARDS!
The aura about you fades, leaving you somewhat more vulnerable again.
[Dizzy]: Lost the endgame defence.
Your skin crawls as Iazamat's focus turns inward, and after a few short moments you feel
inexplicably bolstered against harm.
[Dizzy]: Gained the endgame defence.
[Dizzy]: Lost the endgame defence.
Turning your focus inward, you weave your power into a wide, pervasive field of protection.
[Dizzy]: Gained the endgame defence.
(Web): Emir says, "Smdh mfkers can't turn off systems for rp."
(Web): Emir says, "That's it you're all using rime."
(Web): Emir says, "Gonna code you an rp mode in."
(Web): You say, "Sorry >_>."
(Web): Mazzion says, "How dare you."
(Web): You say, "Thank goodness Emir is upholding the RP standards here."
Lin sings: "No hoops of gold adorn my ears; the tax-man's taken each last pence--" Her voice is
raspy, not that of some virtuoso, as though a hunting beast were singing. "But in my arms, I've
another coin: a man with honesty and sense..." At the end of each verse, her hand skitters across the strings of the sitar like the final dance of a dying spider, and the simple melodic progression takes on vast and complex layers, which die off slowly, the sympathetic strings remembering their sound for many seconds after.
Emir remains motionless as he stares at the stage. His face hidden beneath his mask, his awe is conveyed through his eyes as the follow Lin's hand across the sitar.
Iazamat watches Lin, the way her fingers pluck at the strings, and remains silent as he listens.
From the elaborate one-two-three chord, back to a slow and dreamy, trancelike tune, the structure of Lin's song is regular, its complexities more a function of how the melody seems entirely made up, on the spot. "Theeey write accounts in soldier's blood; honor'd death is their pretense--" She extends a leg, letting her sari slide back along her shin, bunched up over a knee, coupling this with a nonchalant toss of her head, her hair thrown back over her shoulder. The adjustment frees her tail, which laps impatiently around the base of her stool. "My man wants not for pointless death; he's made with honesty and sense..."
Watching Lin with an appraising stare, Mjoll taps what she must think is the beat, silently on the
top of her leg with a free finger.
"Death's cold claws wrap 'round my throat; She says I live at Her expense--" As per the song's
structure, Lin strikes a loud and powerful five-fingered chord, claws swiping across the strings,
and times it with a snakelike shimmy of her body, her sari coming down from one shoulder, the wrap growing loose, baring a sliver of a kawhe-colored thigh. She wears an expression of purest
concentration. Lin sings: "I beg She take my final breath; but leave my man with honesty and sense..."
Emir gulps at the show of skin, quickly diverting his attention to anywhere else.
Emir just thought:
I fucking knew it.
"Calm, Emir. She likely doesn't even notice," a voice comes mind.
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
Emir just thought:
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF SHE NOTICES I NOTICED AHHHHHHHH.
Emir just thought:
Stay out of our head.
You feel as well as hear the rush of sand against the outer edges of your mind, a voice amongst the hissing rush: "If I wanted in, Emir, I'd come in. You're just being loud."
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
Emir just thought:
It's our head we'll be as loud as I want.
Noticing Emir's sudden movement, Iazamat glances his way, a half-grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
The sitar's neck bobs up and down, depending on how high up the frets Lin's playing ventures. As the song begins to reach its end - for the lyrics are short and sweet - she cradles it close to her bosom like the supposed lover she sang about, chancing just a brief peek up at her audience. There is something peculiar happening beneath the sari, though its profuse patterning makes it difficult to make out. Something hidden beneath her arms, behind the instrument, but glimpsed briefly from time to time. The finale skitters down several octaves, one of Lin's hands rising higher and higher on the sitar's neck, until the tune is cut off entirely as she clenches the strings fiercely - as though choking the life out of someone.
Emir congratulates Lin with some wild clapping.
"Bravo!" Didi cries as she claps her hands delightedly.
Iazamat's brows rise as Lin ends her song, then furrow quickly in likely contemplation; contemplation that doesn't last long once Emir starts clapping, causing the Idreth to join in as well.
This abrupt ending leaves Xenia stunned in her seat, she only managing a blink
before the sound of Emir's wild clapping bringing her to and she soon joins in. Her own applause softer and less rambunctious.
Mjoll uses her free hand to slap her leg in applause.
Smiling happily, Emir giggles with amusement at Mjoll.
Lin takes a moment to wrench her hand through her hair, throwing it back again - it simply cannot be made to behave for long. There is a certain shyness to her demeanor, so long as her angled-back ears and hiding tail are any indication, but she accepts the applause with due grace, bowing her head low, setting in motion certain disturbances of the patterned silk she wears. "Thank you," she says politely. "I've one more, if you will but bend your ear."
Xenia thinks: "I was not expecting that to end like that, I wonder what next is in store."
Louse breathes. He's sat rigidly upright in his chair this whole while with hands grasping either
side of the wooden seat. He doesn't applaud. Instead, he hollers a low and booming whoop of obvious approval. The smile that splits his mouth reveals a silver tooth where one canine should be.
Emir shoots his eyes to the furthest corner of his mask, trying his best to look at one ear before
they move to the opposite side. Failing to see either ear, he turns his head wildly from one
direction to the next before giving up in frustration. A loud "Ugh." escapes from beneath his mask and he uses his hands to cup his ears and bend them towards Lin. "Like this?"
Didi pats Emir in a friendly manner.
Xenia nods at Lin's words, her attention briefly to the drink on the table, which
is claimed as she settles more comfortably back in her chair.
Iazamat brings a single finger to his mouth, an amused exhalation escaping him as a smile grows behind that finger.
Lin stares vapidly at Emir, giving in eventually to laughter that can't be heard, but makes her
shoulders and head bob. "Perfect," she insists.
Lin lifts her chin and clears her throat, and this time begins not by playing the strings, but by
sharply rapping her palm on the wooden side of the sitar's body. It sounds almost like the drums of the desert, though naturally lacks their fine timbre. A beat, then. "It may occur to you as strange that a... Duiranite, and former Praadi, would pay tribute to one like this, but then, I have had a strange and storied life."
Xenia's head bobs in rhythm of the song, a finger tapping alongside against her drink.
Didi drinks from a rotund obsidian cup of fresh water.
The music begins. It is both dire, but peculiarly encouraging, jumping between minor and major tonalities in a scheme that seems at first slapdash, but then develops an easily identifiable pattern through repetition. The strings are plucked more often than stroked, allowing her split seconds to tap the sitar, and keep the ersatz drumbeat going. "Tossing in bed, tossing in bed... I can see the ceiling split and cryatallize--" Lin sings with less variance, almost a chant more than a song.
Buzzing busily, a bee arrives from the west.
Emir pulls a menacing flail from his weaponbelt fluidly in his right hand.
Emir uses Terramancy Skullbash on a large, yellow bee.
Emir slams a menacing flail into the ground, calling upon the power of Earth and causing the ground to buckle crushingly around a large, yellow bee.
Emir has scored a CRITICAL hit!
The final blow proves too much for a large, yellow bee, who expires, pitifully.
Having slain a large, yellow bee, Emir retrieves the corpse.
Emir ceases to wield a menacing flail, securing it to his weaponbelt.
(Web): Emir says, "Fuck honeygang."
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
Emir says, "I don't like bees sorry."
Iazamat hangs his head and pinches the bridge of his nose, his focus seemingly lost.
Didi says, "Ok I won't summon mine."
Lin jerks her shoulder, as though she's wounded, like she'd just caught a thrown spear in the worst way possible. Part of her sari tumbles open, lending a split second glimpse at her bare chest, before her hair tumbles down to cover her. "A thousand phantoms flutter through my head, and I... I can see your emerald eyes--" A second pair of arms rise from the loosened gown, fingers outspread, claws extended, held over her head.
Xenia holds captive to the song, sparing only the slightest of looks in Emir's direction, brow furrowed and disapproving towards the lad. She stares a moment longer, as though this alone can will him subdued. Eventually her gaze travels back towards Lin, nodding once more to the rhythm and just in time to see a new set of arms rising up over the performer's head. She blinks.
Iazamat shakes his head and, pushing a breath from his lungs, finally looks up, only to be met by the same sight as you - Lin's newly revealed arms. His features crease in confusion.
Didi just thought:
Stifle.
Didi just thought:
Not fishing for comps.
Didi drinks from a simple cup of a refreshing, mint and chocolate tea.
"Sickness clings wetly to my skin; am I asleep - or did I die?" Lin grunts, quietly, as the third and fourth arms unlimber themselves, stretching gracefully. With the first two, she never stops playing, even as the new limbs take her sari and guide it loose from her body, letting it flutter weightlessly to the floor. Wearing only jewelry and her sitar, she plays with her eyes shut, dancing across the strings as one of the abnatural hands takes over with the drumming of the instrument's body. "Falling through the bed and floor; all I can see is your emerald eyes..."
Didi drifts off into her thoughts, eyes glazed in a daydream.
Iazamat murmurs something softly to Mjoll.
Emir blinks once, unable to take his eyes away from Lin.
Iazamat glances briefly at Emir before rubbing a thumb across his forehead, soon after pinching the bridge of his nose again. He gives a quiet sigh of relief and leans further into Mjoll's side.
Didi drinks from a cobalt tea cup of a soothing, petal-steeped lavender tea.
"I can see the world above my head; vanishing, shrinking in size..." The music drifts through chord progressions that are bizarre, seemingly out of tune at first but self-correcting, working toward some uncanny finality, as though the artist were plummeting through layers of coarse silt to find bedrock. Lin sweats, something exerting her, employing one of the four hands to wipe the
perspiration from her brow. She opens her eyes - one is a black jewel, as always, but the other reveals a sickly green iris. "Will I ever break free from your Spiral? I can't bear your emerald eyes..."
Mjoll just thought:
Emir's gonna freak.
You murmur to Mjoll, "I, ah - why has she stripped?"
Emir blinks once, unable to take his eyes away from Lin.
Mjoll just thought:
It is part of the performance, I suppose.
Emir just thought:
HELP ME.
You feel a pall cross over you and your vision dims - you are blind to everything except a few feet in front of you.
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
It's done, abruptly, with one slow, dramatic chord, the sympathetic strings of the sitar haunting
the room long after it is finished. Lin remains perched on her stool, apparently out of breath.
Didi claps her hands together merrily.
Mjoll's eyes dart around the performance, head bobbing with the music, toe tapping occasionally. As the final note lingers and fades she pulls her arm from from Iazamat's grip to applaud with claps and a rousing whistle.
Xenia doesn't clap immediately, she instead standing from her chair before an
applause is given. "Wow, four arms," you can hear her say, her words directed to Louse who sits
across her from the table.
Iazamat's head snaps up and he joins Mjoll in clapping, his own significantly softer and slower. His expression is almost harried, and his attention keeps drifting to Emir - he is clearly awaiting some crisis.
Louse stomps his feet and hoots once more. He even claps his hands, his meaty palms colliding with a resounding sound. He's on his feet in the next instant, turning to you with widened eyes. "Yes," he affirms, his grin a wild thing. He follows with, "Can I pay her?" Immediately afterwards, he clarifies, "For the performance." His words are all a jumble, one tripping over the next.
Didi raises a hand to her mouth, stifling a laugh.
Iazamat murmurs something softly to Mjoll.
You murmur to Mjoll, "We've avoided a singularity, but only narrowly."
Lin looks just a touch stunned by the reception, her brow turning a dark wine-red. It seems to strain her just to move those extra arms, but she bows her head low, and spreads all four in grandiose fashion, adding a little flourish, wrists flicking at the end of the gesture.
Neatly arranging some flowers together, Didi eventually produces a bouquet.
Didi hums a happy tune.
"Thank you. You're all... very, very kind." Even as the words leave her lips, Lin's eyes lift to the ceiling, a wistful expression on her face. She rises to her feet, and covers with the addition of two more hands what her hair and hanging sitar cannot. "Thank you. Very much."
mind hallucinate emir You feel the veil cast over your withdrawn; your sight has been restored, and you notice that while Lin isn't clothed, she has hidden her indecency from those gathered.
You project the hallucination into the mind of Emir.
Xenia remains standing, still clapping, turning to nod at Louse, "Yes, you are free to pay her." Her eyes briefly scan the others, she puzzling over Emir who appears to be applauding the curtains.
Lin just thought:
She feels embarrassed. Not because she is nude, no - this is hardly anything new for her - but for the sloppy bodily adaptation. And the... subject matter of her song.
Lin doesn't leave too much to see, unless one is offended by naked hips, or the narrow V-shape of her visible chest. Having a lot of hair is quite handy at a bawdy house performance. With just a touch of shyness, she smiles gratefully at Emir, dipping her head to him.
Lin just thought:
"This is addicting. I could really do this again. I think I like this place."
Lin just thought:
"With a bigger audience, more people looking, clapping..."
Iazamat just thought:
"Your song was enjoyed."
Emir just thought:
We should go, you have things to do.
"Ok!" Emir exclaims.
Emir says, "Well that was fun and neat thanks for bringing me Boss Lady."
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
Louse turns. In the quiet that falls after all that applause, his footsteps are nearly audible as leather-bound swishes against the floor. He approaches Lin without hesitation or shyness, his gaze fixed but his mouth silent. The stage lies beyond an orchestra pit, and he must walk around that void, to the edge near the curtains (very near, in fact, to where Emir was staring) to lay his gift down. He leaves it there, like an offering at a shrine, gold coins spilling in sums larger than it seems his hands should be able to hold.
Louse drops some gold sovereigns.
Emir gives one last rapid round of applause for Lin before reaching for his sulfurous amulet.
Emir says, "Voltda."
A sulfurous portal opens in the ground before Emir and he quickly jumps into it before it snaps shut behind him.
Xenia nods at Emir, "Thank you for coming, and thank you for being on your best behavior," she adds, though her eyes fall on Iazamat as this last part is spoken.
Taking one last bow, Lin catches each of you with her gaze, that unsteady green color completely gone. To Louse, she sets two fingers to her lips, and points them to him, endlessly smiling.
Lin picks up some gold sovereigns.
Slipping his feet back onto the floor, Iazamat says, "He means well."
Lin turns, tail risen and swaying from side to side, and vanishes behind the curtains.
Lin leaves to the in.
(Seirathi): you say, “What are your thoughts on Lin?”
(Seirathi): Mjoll says, "Whole hearted approval."
Xenia smiles to the gathered Carnifex and Iazamat, she apparently pleased. "Thank you all for joining me at this concert."
Placing a hand on Mjoll's knee as he slides to the edge of his seat, Iazamat says, "My thanks for
the invitation."
You say, "There will likely be more, I know Lin intends to perform somewhat regularly."
"This was wonderful," Louse affirms as he rejoins the group, setting his hat back on his head as he approaches.
Xenia's attention settles next on Louse, whom she studies for some length in silence. "We have not met often," she comments, "but I am newly returned to active service within the Keep. I look forward to serving with you, Ser."
Louse blushes indigo. "Squire," he corrects mildly.
Xenia ponders this and then frowns, "Or is it Squire--" but corrected she nods. "Well, Ser in no time, I'm sure. If ever you require assistance or what not, do not hesitate to ask."
Louse's smile is as mild as his words. "Might I be on my way?" he asks, looking for to Mjoll, and
then to you, for permission.
Finding her feet, Mjoll says, "Of course, Louse."
Xenia nods at Louse, "The concert is over, you are free to go."
Lin arrives from the in.
When Lin returns, it's through a separate door, off behind the orchestra pit. She returns, clothed, and with two fewer appendages than she had before, joining the rest of you amidst the couches. She looks physically exhausted.
Iazamat's hand on Mjoll's knee squeezes.
A noise at the stage draws Xenia's attention, she offering Lin another small wave. "Welcome, welcome. I did not know what to expect from your show, but--" she nods a few times, obviously pleased, "it is exactly the sort of performances I hope to see happening more often here."
Louse straightens into a well-practiced stance of attention, his booted heels tapping together
precisely when his shoulders snap straight. He salutes, and is just about to turn and go, but Lin's arrival gives him a moment's pause. He grips the brim of his hat, as if he means to tip it, and offers a friendly, "Ma'am."
A disturbance propagates through Lin's flesh, like scrabbling hands trying to break free from her
skin, localized around her armpits and shoulders. It's there and gone, bidding her to straighten her posture and lift her chin. "With more practice, I shall," she says. Catching Louse's cordial farewell, she offers a sweet-voiced "Sir," and nods, ever so slightly.
Xenia gestures from Mjoll to Iazamat, "Lin, unsure if you've met the Carnifex Commander, Mjoll Lovetusks, or her husband, Mr. Lovetusks," she offers by way of introductions.
"Hey!" Mjoll blurts out loudly.
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
You smile wryly at Mjoll.
Iazamat says, "Why have you - we've met Lin, she knows by other names."
Despite her panting audibly, weariness in the corners of her eyes, Lin declines to sit, bowing to
Mjoll and Iazamat in turn, as if she'd never met them in her life. "We are well-acquainted," she
assures you. "In fact, I was given the privilege of admiring the Commander's musculature."
The gray skin of Mjoll's face and ears flushes dark, "Rude." She directs to you playfully.
Mjoll flexes her bicep with a grin to Lin.
Iazamat offers Lin a warm smile, his gaze flicking over her shoulders - he seems to be checking for something.
Xenia grins wider, craning back to take in Mjoll's full height, both brows rising up as a massive bicep is flexed. "Pit, Commander, you are the biggest thing I've seen in a long while." She nods a few times at this, any teasing air shifting to awe.
Lin does her best impression of Emir - beholding Mjoll's biceps for two, three seconds, then being forced to look away, a shy grin breaking out across her lips.
"careful" Mjoll warns playfully, "I thrive on attention."
Iazamat exhales in amusement.
"That makes two of--" Lin shudders, her eyes unfocusing for a spell. It takes her a moment to compose herself. "Two of-- two of us. The special part of that show took a... lot out of me, so if I might be excused..."
Lin asks you, "And if we could discuss, soon, the lodging arrangements you'd mentioned before?"
Xenia nods at Lin, "Yes, we can do that, it'll require some redecoration, I was going to offer you a key whenever you're ready to have a look. The builders here in Esterport, though, sometimes they work with me, sometimes they won't, We'll have to see."
Iazamat gets to his feet, hands disappearing behind his back before his fingers lace together. "My thanks for playing for us," he says to Lin, head dipping momentarily.
"I was as good as my audience," Lin offers, spreading her uplifted hand in an obliging gesture. Bowing her head one last time, she quits the theater, heading out on her way.
Lin leaves to the west.
EDITS: Adding in missed spoilers.
8
Comments
Logs like these are gems unique to Aetolia, I think. Thank you for sharing!
Emir pulls a menacing flail from his weaponbelt fluidly in his right hand.
Emir uses Terramancy Skullbash on a large, yellow bee.
Emir slams a menacing flail into the ground, calling upon the power of Earth and causing the ground to buckle crushingly around a large, yellow bee.
Emir has scored a CRITICAL hit!
The final blow proves too much for a large, yellow bee, who expires, pitifully.
Having slain a large, yellow bee, Emir retrieves the corpse.
Emir ceases to wield a menacing flail, securing it to his weaponbelt.
(Web): Emir says, "unicorns honeygang."
Iazamat opens his mouth but says nothing.
Emir says, "I don't like bees sorry."
IS2g YOU UNICORNS-UNICORNS WASPS THIS IS HONEYGANG TERRITORY
@Lin I'm really excited to see how resident performers develop at the Fling!
If it'll kill a wasp, it'll kill a bee.
(Illuminai): Saltz says, "Moxie is just doing the Moxie thing to do, often misinterpreted."
(Tells): Sir Iames Gallant, the Executioner tells you, "The one Illuminai beyond prayer, I swear."
Valingar: "How could a daughter of me, the most noble man in the south, be so heartless?"
(Tells): Haven Locke, Illuminai Khimaira tells you, "Be that as it may, I've also seen the strength in you. You can take care of yourself."