Forum Thread

Ava gave a confident thumbs up, too confident, really, considering all the blood in their body was rushing up to their head for no particular reason. Or, well, they took a minute to think about it- coming to the only One conclusion they can come to. Stress? Their blood pressure will not survive this. They seriously need to get back to Heart soon, but they also don't want to miss out on quality Noah hang out time. They fidgeted and twiddled their thumbs with some nervousness, even holding their breath, waiting for the Queen to finally leave so they can talk more freely. The moment she walked off enough, they exhaled. "Can you show me in a second? I need to update Heart, I think..." His voice sounded sad. Womp womp.

"I suppose," Heart looked back again "Maybe I've been too doubtful lately, I apologize." They faced Twig and almost bowed, catching herself in time. Instincts, maybe. "Shall we wait for them? I wager the situation has calmed down a little by now, but I can also try and fetch them."

---

Mumbling something about a "Well, it wasn't me who kicked it..." Hadeed invited himself to sit on the chair Enzo so gracefully sacrificed, thanking her with a smile and a pat on the back. "Yeahh, any important bizz talk or anything?" They more or less echoed Enzo's question.

(Time: Early noon.)

The Wasteland Leader carefully nods to each person that has entered the room, and sits down. The plan keeps replaying itself in her head. She hopes that this meeting will go over well. It should go well. She had a decent connection with most of the important members. As she thinks about this, she thinks about Twig. She hopes they are alright. She never had to say much in advance to the Head Archer, however. They always seemed to understand what she wanted of them very quickly. She is taken out of her thoughts when she realizes she hasn't spoken yet at all. "You haven't missed anything." She addresses Enzo's question. "We were just about to begin." She glances over at Tarin, waiting for her to chime in.


Noah smiles and looks at Ava once his mother is out of view. "Don't worry about it. I'll show you before the ceremony, for sure. See you then." He waves and then walks further down the hall. He carefully looks through his papers, smiling as he sees the part where he gave Ava papers. He then looks through them further, and frowns as he is still missing a page. He shrugs it off, and continues to walk down the hall.


Tasha finishes reading her book. She smiles as she closes it. The Kingdom had defended itself from the attackers, and found peace with them. They coexisted. She puts the book away in her book bag, and looks through the royal library for another book to read. She smiles again as she finds a book that is the sequel to the one she just finished. She sits back at her seat next to the window and flips the book to the first page as she tunes out the world around her. Which isn't hard to do considering the library is dead silent.


Twig slowly swings their legs from the windowsill subconsciously as they listen to Heart. "Sure, we can wait here." They focus on the outside world. They are facing the Kingdom walls, but can see the expanse of the Wasteland beyond it. It reminds them to snatch some food for the people before they leave. "How has castle life been? Do the Royals treat you well?"

Clef

Slightly fixated by the shield Amalie is carrying with her — how much must that weigh? — he tries to focus on the information he is given. “Oh, yeah, Amalie, I knew that much!” He, of course, did not know that much. Clef tries to listen intently to what she's saying, but she ends up staring at her own shoes, hoping that Riesbyfe will remember the clear details of the conversation.
She waves with her hand dismissively. “All good, all good, we've got it all under control, you know?” She sends a thumbs-up. “Whatever the walls say, they can come right at me, I'll give 'em a proper lesson.”

She decides to immediately forget Amalie's advice as puts her hands on her hips and redirects her attention to the knight. “Enough of us, how about you, Emily? You all ready for later?”

David

As she sees children running everywhere, in haste of following the boy to the leader's house in seek of entertainment, mystique, whatever their reasoning may be, she feels herself grow incredibly weak. Squeezing Steven so tightly that some stuffing is on the verge of falling out, she feels herself opening her mouth involuntarily.
“It's not right to yell, it won't help anybody.”
They run further and further away, even as she tries to helplessly run after them. Her legs feel weird, like she doesn't have full control over them any more.
“If a child does not obey, then can I even call them my own any more?”

“I demand you to stop!” She yells at the top of her lungs, squeezing her eyes. She knows this will only make them more scared of their situation. “If you had the right to run around carefree, you wouldn't be here, would you? You'd actually be loved.”

And she gets her wish granted, as the children slowly walk back, not daring to look her in the eyes.

Tarin caught the Leader's gaze and nodded, straightening up. "Yes. We were hoping to discuss some of our strategies for tonight," She started, clearing her throat. "We were considering a nonviolent approach, where we would rush the stage peacefully and steal the show. After that, the Leader and I would both speak. That's the simplest version of the plan we have... We're both open to suggestions."

Claude awoke to the piercing rays of the sun coming through his window. Groggily stepping out of bed, he tiptoed around the piles of books, candles, and other objects that cluttered his floor. He hadn’t intended to sleep in this long today, but a late night of reading had made it hard for him to get out of bed. Claude rummaged through his drawers and closets trying to find a nice pair of clothes for the event tonight. Claude frowned as he looked into his mirror, his clothes didn’t match at all. “I hate dressing up” he mumbled to himself while fighting to put on a new pair of pants.

Rose rummaged around her small home, trying to find her backpack that always managed to get lost in the piles of rubble. Nothing about the place would remind you of a home, it was a very old shack that could topple down at any second. “Gotcha!” She exclaimed as she found her bag under a pile of bloody papers. Slinging it over her shoulder, she made her way outside.

---

A pleasant surprise,to be accompanied by one of the most famous and well-regarded knights of Ruddilia for both her looks and skills. It was difficult for Riesbyfe to chime in the conversation but he was glad with how well Clef was handling it,even though her eyes wandered off at times.. He kept nodding along and wished Amalie didn't witness his gaffe. He couldn't help but feel relieved that the pages would be under the wing of such knights.


Enzo rolled her eyes,almost in disbelief. "A nonviolent approach? Rush the stage peacefully?" she repeated Tarin's idea. "You oughta be kiddin'. We can't get in as is." she pointed out. Not only is the event happening in the Kingdom,it's happening inside the castle. "We can't avoid conflict and bloodshed,you know that. I bet my other eye that there's no way in hell they'll just let us stop such a big event without putting up a fight." she added.

Amalie could not help but giggle a little, smiling at Clef. "I keep forgetting that you wield the metal far better than the tongue." She looks over to Riesbyfe and just gives a slight smile. "You know, even though I worry about the density of royalty that will be here tonight, with knights like us, nothing will happen." She smiles, her shield shining in the light a bit and blinding Clef ever so slightly. "What about you two? Has the queen given you the frights now or are you unaffected?"

Damien listened intently before he decided to interject himself. This all seemed terrifying to him but if it meant potentially getting answers, he's in. "Well, we may be able to use some magic during the process. I think I know a spell or two that could assist us..." He trailed off, looking at the Leaders for affirmation.

oh yeah everyone.. i drew the queen and damien.. better art dropping soonish

(Time: Early noon still)

Once magic is mentioned, shadowy bursts of magic fall from the Wasteland Leader's fingertips. They land on the table and seem to just absorb into it, saturating the colour of the wood. She has a good amount of control over her powers she obtained from the Wasteland, but she always had shadowy bursts of magic fall from her fingers when she was stressed or anxious. That was one of the reasons she had most things for her home made of Wasteland wood. She continues to think about magic. She remembers the multiple occasions when she was younger and trying to gain control over her powers. She would pass out multiple times from overuse, trying to test and expand her limits. But she would do anything to protect the Wasteland and share their message, even if it meant she had to go to extremes with her magic. "Yes, go on, Damien." Although she wants to elaborate and explain her approach to Enzo, she decides to come back to it later.

(OOC: that looks so good, nev!!!)

Clef

Tilting his head in reaction to Amalie's words, he opts to think of them as positive. She said 'better' in that sentence, which can be inflected to mean best, right? So he's the best at something, that's really nice of her. He puffs out his chest a little more, standing more proud than ever. He beams at her, right until he has to cover his eyes, lest he loses his vision by the reflection on the shield.

With his hands in front of his face, his response becomes a tad muffled. “You're darn right, nothing will happen! We're respected knights, we must serve that position well, no matter what may come our way!” He shouts a little loudly, his confidence overflowing at that moment, although he retracts his voice a moment later to add in a detail in a hushed whisper. “Although, I do admit, the Queen did spook me a little… I mean, how can anyone not be affected?”

David

She tries to proceed as normal with her schedule, but she'd be a fool to not notice the dejected feel in her surroundings. She sighs, permitting them to have a moment of 'me'-time, while she takes some for herself. If she's going to be completely honest, it's not the biggest thing in the world. She tells them off all the time, it's expected for a child to be scolded in order to grow. Why, then, does it feel different?

Amalie gave Clef's last sentence a little ponder and then puts her hands on her hips. "Try the simple fact that dismissing, executing or just punishing a knight-in-training for as little as a minor act of defiance would be met with resistance from both us and the bourgeoisie, alongside with the potential to stand defenseless. She had no choice, really." She gives a bit of a shrug, then sighs. "But I do concur on the first part. With knights like us, nothing can land a fingertip on the royals. Not with our combined efforts."

After a while of struggling, Claude finally found a pair of clothes that were half decent for today. As he wove his comb through his hair, his dog Benny circled around him. That was Benny’s way of asking for attention. Claude stroked Benny’s head as he finished up getting ready. The pressure of today was starting to build, he didn’t want to admit it but he was quite nervous. Claude walked towards his door and then left his room, with Benny in tow behind him. He slowly made his way down the hall, and headed to the kitchen in search of a late breakfast.

---

Damien paused, fiddling with his hands. "Oh, well, that's really all I was going to say.. but I can continue a bit." He thinks for a moment before recollecting himself and speaking again. "Well, I know some spells that could help us in various ways-- especially if we don't want any problems getting in. I'll be able to think of more soon, but for now, why don't you elaborate on your plan?" He smiles kindly at the leader.

"The least we can do is attempt to avoid bloodshed and death. The kingdom dwellers think that we're savages, remember---there's no reason for us to enforce that idea," Tarin pointed out to Enzo, biting down a much snider remark. Staying professional was key here, she reminded herself.

At the leader's little outburst, Tarin touched her foot to the leader's underneath the table. Maybe it would ground her a little bit, or at the very least calm her down slightly. Magic was touchy.

Taking a deep breath, she smiled, thinking over the idea. Magic could help. Magic could make this plan viable, really, so long as everything went according to plan. "If you had some sort of cloaking spell, that would be especially helpful," She offered. "We wanted to disguise ourselves among the crowd and blend in a little bit so that we can get relatively close before rushing the stage and taking on the security." She shot a small glance at Enzo. Bloodshed probably will be unavoidable, she reminded herself, almost begrudgingly. She really, truly didn't want this to be a bloodbath.

Heart thought for a second. "It's not a life I am not used to, I feel. The queen is..." She paused, trying to find a palatable word. "Peculiar. A little odd. Intimidating?" Her confidence in her choice of words lowered with each one. "Thus far, however, they treat me well enough, or so it seems." They threw in a small shrug. They aren't really sure of how the royals perceive them and Ava, though they haven't had any outright bad encounters either. She tried to think up of something to ask Twig as well but, alas, someone finally decided to show up. Funny.


After a million responses ran through their head, Ava exhaled an "okay" and waved, then heading off to the Funny Comedic Duo Chamber. If God had other plans today, Ava would have bumped into at least ten bruise-inducing entities with the giddiness in their skipping but, thankfully, the forces that be have decided to spare him for once. It took them a second to zone back in when they arrived, and so very wisely they burst in.
"CERYS, MY FRIEND, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE" He interrupted himself by dramatically slapping a hand over his mouth before continuing in a whisper "Oh my god. Hello Twig. I am so sorry, I did not see you there." They looked back to make sure no one heard them scream, and proceeded to close the door. They shuffled in closer to Heart and Twig. "Hiii... I was actually just about to tell you about this whole ceremony thing. Schedule, right? I got you. I got you sooo well." She cleared her mind, faring through every single Noah-related thought to get back to whatever they absorbed from the papers and the queen. "If I remember correctly... The queen has a speech or whatever, then Noah introduces me and Heart to perform, and then the assignments take place." They scratched the back of their neck and looked towards Heart, who seemed proud enough that Ava even managed to come back.

---

Hadeed shifted enough to gently elbow Enzo after her comment, giving her an almost disappointed look and whispering "Please don't say that.". They looked back to the rest and nodded along to everything. "I think it's possible to make it a peaceful display. If worst comes to worst, I think a knock-out should be just fine, no need for death, murder, killing, maiming, and all of that." The last part was mostly directed towards Enzo. They seemed done with their opinion, but made sure to mumble a quick "Though we can mess someone up if they're suuper mean..." while looking away at a corner.

Averting her gaze,focusing on the plain wooden floor,she considered for a moment what she heard. It was really difficult for her to object the ideas suggested,especially Hadeed's since they tried to appeal to Enzo. "Pfft...Fine,I guess we could try a nice infiltration." she reluctantly admitted. She hated the idea of relying on magic since it intimidates her but it would spare her the trouble of going up against swords and spears barehanded. "So,what kinda magic..." she said as she moved her fingers as if she was sprinkling fairy dust "...are we talking about? Do we even have anyone for that kinda thing?" she asked as she looked around the room.

(Time: Mid noon)

Twig nods at Heart. "Its good that they aren't mistreating you two." They say, before they turn their attention to Ava walking through the door. Absorbing all the info they tell them, Twig nods and grabs their tiny notebook from their cloak's pocket. They quickly scribble all the main points down and return it to their pocket. "Thank you, Ava. Now..." Twig thinks for a moment, subconsciously kicking at the wall lightly with their shoe. "We are running a little low on food, do you think you may be able to help me find some to bring back to the others?" Their mind wanders to all the children back at the Wasteland. Finding food was a definite challenge for everyone in the kingdom and wasteland alike, but the kingdom somehow managed to keep production of food somewhat steady. On a busy day like today, perhaps someone like them would be overlooked.


The Wasteland Leader relaxes as her second in command touches her foot to hers under the table. "Well, in regards to the magic, I'm sure Damien could answer your question better than I could." She motions to Damien. "In any case, I suppose we are in agreement that we will be non-lethal at the ceremony?" She asks, emphasizing the word both for Enzo so that she would know not to hurt anyone, and so that Hadeed would know she implemented their idea into the plans for tonight.


Noah hurries down the hallway and stops before the event hall. He does a little cartwheel for fun. It had been a while since he had done something fun like that since he had taken so long studying the ceremony. It was close to the front doors of the castle for easy access of the citizens, and also to prevent people wandering the castle for too long. His heart races as he thinks about the ceremony. Will I be good enough? He shakes the thought from his head as he thinks further. He had the entire thing memorized. There was no way he could mess it up. But the ceremony was a little boring. Perhaps he could do something more creative and fun? He continues to think as he stands outside the doors to the event hall.

Claude slowly made his way through the castle halls while keeping his head low. He slipped into the kitchen and was promptly greeted by a servant, to which he responded with a head nod. He gracefully moved across the kitchen as he gathered the ingredients for a sandwich, almost dropping a tomato in the process. I hope the ceremony goes well tonight. Noah is good at these things, I shouldn’t worry. He thought to himself while he sliced tomatoes to put onto his sandwich. Benny waited patiently at his feet hoping to catch any scrap possible.

---

Damien nods. "I agree that going in non-lethally is the best case scenario... although there is no guarantee that things won't get ugly. I do suggest being.. prepared, if that ends up being the case." He flips through his notes for a second, finding a spell and then tapping it. "I have some cloaking spells that may come in handy. If there is anything else anyone may have an idea about, I can probably find a spell about it-- just say the word."

--

The Queen walks past the kitchen, peaking in. "Claude!" She exclaimed, walking in. "You're up late, aren't you? Are you feeling okay?" She leans over and pets Benny upon entering, looking back at her son.

Clef

He gulps instinctively as he listens to Amalie talk. There's a certain vibe around her way of formulating herself, nearing the level of any royal or noble, that's hard to dismiss. He hasn't really taken time to think about why the Queen acts like she does, just assumed that it's part of the fact of being… The Queen. But it's true, isn't it? If she had reacted strongly, there would be an outrage. She has to be composed at all times, even in moments of absolute terror.

'Well, it's not like such extremes would happen anytime soon.' She thinks.

“You're absolutely right!” He raises his fist in the air in an excited motion. “We'll do everything in our power to protect the kingdom!”
Or, well, he assumes they'll do their best anyway. She's not quite sure if she's willing to lay her life down so easily.

“Say, we've been standing here for quite some time now… You guys wanna head into town?” she does a mock-up posh voice. “The last time before being appointed a page, I do concur.”