Crashing into a party?

[Tetsuya]

Casey wasn't exactly sure what to make of the guildhall, or the people inside of it. He'd like to say he was sane, and the place didn't remind him of something back in the human realm. He's like to say that it was just pure coincidence. But then, today had been a rather insane day. ridding the rather stupefied look off his face, he parted from the group, and walked right up the bar where he saw a rather beautiful woman serving other guild members. "I must ask, what kind of jobs do the guild members here take? I'm mostly just curious because I'm from the human realm," he asked.

Luna had started approaching one of the few free tables, until some muscle head walked up to her. Hey babe, ya 'anna party up wit me? I kin keep ya nice and safe," he asked. "No, I'm quite fine with my boyfriend. Please get out of my way," she replied, attempting to move past him. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder to stop her from getting away. Now hold oOOAAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!" Before he knew what hit him, Luna had grabbed his hand, threw him over her shoulder, and blasted the guy into the wall with an arcane blast. He left a rather large imprint on the wall thanks to that. "Freaking dense idiot. I said no, and that meant no. Next time, listen before you get hurled." She then turned to Arin. "Let's sit down for a bit, and get something to eat, Arin. I'm feeling fairly famished right now."

Before Aldari could step further into the building, he could her the sounds of women running up to him from behind. "King Aldari! Is everything okay!?" "We saw the palace freeze over! Are you alright!?" "Do we need to worry about an attack!?" "Is anyone hurt!?"

[Arin]

Arin muttered under his breath when Mary mentioned how Lance never 'took shit from anyone' "No wonder he gets pissy when people lecture him..." He was about to step in when he saw the muscle head that was trying to get physical with Luna. But when she flipped him over and sent him flying into a wall with a blast, he backed off, smirking when she turned to him and told him she wanted to eat. He smirked, walking over and draping an arm over her shoulders as they went and found an empty spot at a table "Sounds like a plan to me.

One of the current occupants of the lobby walked over to where Lance was sitting, roughly patting his back with enthusiasm and laughing his ass off "Oho man! That was awesome! That merc didn't know what hit him! You got some skill pal!" The red head sat down, a few seats away, holding a mug of his own "The guy had it coming though, but none of these guys wanted to bother with it. You got some serious skill, where did you learn to fight like that?"

The bartender looked up after sliding a mug down the bar towards a guild member, spotting Casey's odd attire and smirked when he asked what kinds of jobs the guild members took "Well, that depends on what the client needs. Many of them are escort jobs, sometimes they have a frequent bandit problem that needs dealing with. or maybe there's a civil feud that needs a diplomatic diffusion. We alway have active jobs posted on the board, and how much gold the client is willing to pay them for a successful job." She was cleaning a used glass with a rag, looking at Casey curiously "So, you're an outsider from the human world, huh? When did you arrive?"

Aria walked over when Aldari was being bombarded by women, obviously escorts, or women who were trying to claim the title of queen. Then, the questions started happening, and she knew that things were only going to get worse. She walked over and cleared her throat "Ladies? Please give the king some space. He has been through quite a lot and I doubt he's in the mood to answer questions. If you want to know anything, address your questions to Lord Cypher, or General Asmous. Aldari? Would you like an escort to your room so you can rest?"

[Lance]

Aldari shook his head,  his expression grave. "I will be fine Aria, I just...need to think on some things." The day's events had finally caught up with him, now that the Adrenaline had left his body, he was worn down, tired and worst of all, conflicted. Aldari walked towards the bartender, his normally regal posture replaced with one of exhaustion. "Is there an open room? I does not need to be fancy, just in possession of a bed."

Suddenly, there was a great crash, Lance had slammed a man's face into the table and had his knife planted inches from the unfortunate soul's nose. "I am only going to say this once...FUCK...OFF." Lance released the man and stormed off cursing angrily. "Can I not get some fucking peace!? fall into a new world, nearly get killed twice in as many weeks, and now these drunken fucks won't piss off!" Lance's rant was cut off when he passed through a door, slamming it violently with a gust of wind.

An observer with a keen eye would have noticed that Lance's hands were shaking as he left, his breathing irregular, something was wrong with him.

[Tetsuya]

Casey nodded to bartender's explanation of what guild member's do on a regular basis. "Yeah, I actually just dropped in today...inside the king's throne room. It gets awkward when you have over a dozen spear-tips pointed at your face," he said. He barely paid any attention to the more violent prone man that was a part of Arin's group. "But we managed to clear up things just a while ago." He then looked over at Aldari, seeing him look exhausted. While he couldn't say the same for himself, he felt a little worn out himself. "Are you going to be alright, Your Majesty? You look pretty haggard right now."

Luna waved down one of few waitresses that were actually managing to walk around without getting harassed by the local patrons. Once the girl was nearby, Luna simply, "Milk for me, and anything you have to eat, as long as it's delicious."

[Arin]

The guildmember froze up when he was pinned to the table, a knife at his throat. When threatened to back off, he complied immediately "Alright! Alright! Sorry!" The man rubbed his neck where the knife was pressed to it, watching Lance storm off angrily "Yeesh, what's his problem? I just wanted to thank him for knocking around that guild bully..."

Aria nodded to Aldari's response, bowing out of the group in time to watch Lance storm off in a huff. Concerned, she approached Mary and Lambert about this "...I don't suppose you two might know what's bothering Lance...aside from some of the obvious recent events."

The waitress smiled and started jotting down some notes on her notepad "I can assure you, miss, all of our food is delicious, and high in nutrients, for long, demanding journeys. Might I suggest a grilled chicken salad, the extra protein gives it a wonderful full feeling when it's finished, and the greens are always cleaned and chopped fresh from the guildhall's private garden. Our fresh dairy milk is also filtered through numerous times, to remove as much unneeded content as necessary, leaving all of the vitamins and nutrition for consuming before we chill it for desired temperature and taste."

[Lance]

Mary shook her head, a worried expression on her face. "No, I don't...when I last spoke to him  back in the human realm he was fine." 

"He's suffering from some kind of paranoid episode..." Mary looked up and saw Kaen looking at the three of them, arms crossed. "He's a soldier, yes? perhaps something happened in the past and the loss of the palace reminded him of it." Lambert frowned, "He's been tested for PTSD, he can't be having flashbacks." Kaen shrugged, "I don't know what PTSD is, but you don't need a malady for a previous shame to come up, let alone be affected by it."

The Oni looked at Aria, "You should talk to him, his parents are wise, but they don't understand what he's going through...but you, I can tell by your sent, you're ancient...ancient enough to remember the purges that sent this land away from the human realm. YOU have gone through war, he will find a kindred spirit in you."

Aldari looked at Casey, "I am not alright Casey, my subjects died because of an attack on my home, an attack seemingly perpetrated by the Ice Kingdom. Now, I do not believe that they are responsible, but I cannot prove that, and I fear the drums of war will begin to beat."

[Tetsuya]

Casey saw the grim outcome that was to arrive if this war was finally realized. Not only would it be bad for everyone in general, but it also meant that whoever it was that he believed were pulling the strings of this future conflict would greatly benefit from it. He didn't know exactly how, but it was the only logical explanation in his head. He then looked at the bartender as he asked, "How long would it take for someone to get to the Ice Kingdom from here?"

"Grilled chicken salad for me. Arin, what are you going to get?" Luna asked.

[Arin]

The bartender raised an eyebrow when Casey came back, asking how long it would take for him to reach the Ice kingdom, curious as to why he would want to go to an enemy kingdom "Why in the heaven's name would you want to travel there? In case you haven't noticed, we're on the verge of a war breaking out, and one wrong move could wreak chaos and bloodshed on the entire continent from the conflict."

Aria glared at Kaen when he called her ancient. She knew he didn't mean it in an offensive way, but it was still offensive to hear regardless "...I will speak with him..." Without another word, she turned and followed after Lance, trying to find out where he ran off to. Before she could get too far, the guild member from earlier stopped her "Hey, lady, are you going to go talk to that guy?" Aria looked at the man curiously, nodding in affirmative "Could ya give him this? it's sort of a peace offering, for being so assertive earlier. I didn't mean to piss him off, I just wanted to thank him for dealing with that jerk from the mercenary guild and offer him a few drinks, on me." He handed her a handful of wooden chips, with free drink markers on them. She took the chips in hand and nodded "Very well, I will give these to him, and tell him your apology." The man rubbed his neck and smiled energetically "Thanks lady, I appreciate it! See ya 'round!" As he walked away from the door, Aria walked through it, heading for wherever Lance went to hide away at.

Cypher stepped forward when Aldari voiced his concerns about the status of thei kingom and this current cold war "...As much as I want to agree with you, Aldari, somehow, I feel that the ice kingdom has some, if only minor role in this attack. We can discuss that in private though, no need to speak politics in front of the people. For now, let us drink, and enjoy ourselves with the company of your people, what do you say, old friend?" Asmous approached Aldari and thumped his chest in salute "My king, I have scouted the perimeter of the building, nothing suspicious to be found. Shall I scan the residents of the guildhall for illusion magic?"

Arin was blushing as he saw the girl standing over them, waiting for their order. But the red headed waitress cleared her throat and nodded towards Luna "Your order, sir?" Arin looked away, blushing furiouslyand cursing himself for even doing so in the first place. Speaking in a monotone voice as he gave her his order "...A porterhouse steak, medium rare...And some mashed potatoes and broccoli, if you have any..." The waitress jotted down his order, smiling calmly as she did so "Anything to drink?" "...Some water with sliced lemon, if you have any..."

The waitress jotted down that as well, perking up now that the orders were complete "alllright, I'll get this over to the kitchen and it should be ready in a few." She then leaned close to Luna, while Arin was distracted by his own guilt, speaking on the side opposite of where Arin was sitting, so he couldn't hear as easily "Please don't take his actions personally, miss, I get looks from men all the time, so I'm used to it. He's cute though, you're lucky to have each other!" She turned and started walking away, a pep in her step as she kept a bright mood while doing her job, and collecting dirty mugs and dishes once their orders have been placed.

[Lance]

Aldari nodded when Cypher asked him to enjoy a drink with his people. "Yes, a drink would be good. Please, something strong, after today I need it." When Asmous asked him if he'd like to scan the area for illusion spells, Aldari nodded again, his mind too preoccupied with all of his thoughts on the situation to really focus. "Yes, go ahead Asmous, given all that's happened it would be wise to do so."

Lance was currently beating on a wooden dummy in the guild hall's training room...without any hand protection. His knuckles were split open and smearing blood on the wooden mannequin with every punch. Lance's punches were hard and fast at first, but they began to get faster and faster as time wore on, his breathing coming in sharp gasps. This escalated until he was pummeling the dummy with a flurry of punches, his arms nothing but a blur as he began roaring in anger while continuing to savagely beat his fists against the hardened wood.

Finally, Lance reared his right hand back and screamed angrily, thrusting his fist forward and blasting the dummy to splinters with a blast of hurricane force wind. The spell had blown back at it's operator however, deep gashes covered Lance's hand, causing it to bleed profusely. Lance panted heavily, staring at his hand for a moment before screaming at the top of his lungs and dropping to his knees, punching the tatami mat floor of the training room. 

[Tetsuya]

Casey closed his eyes if only for a second, before gave the bartender a determined look. If she looked closely enough, she could see his purple eyes shining softly. "I witnessed drastic events today, and I'm basing my theories off of something insubstantial without hard evidence. My journey to the Ice Kingdom is one I make because I wish to prevent a war from breaking out." 'Because if Aldari starts blaming them, it really will mean war if they aren't truly behind the attack. A three way circumstance, with only one route that might prevent a terrible hell from happening.' "I don't doubt I'm being somewhat reckless, but if I don't make the attempt to prevent a disaster, who will? Considering what happened, it will be too hard for any of the Fire Kingdoms citizens or guards to peacefully request any sort of audience from the Ice Kingdoms ruler."

Luna had a first given Arin a very non-amused look for staring at the waitress who was taking their order. She understood why he did stare though, she was fairly pretty, and didn't hold it against the woman. Before Arin could apologize after she walked away, the elf woman closed her fist, and lightly rapped him over the head. "Geez, you can be hopeless sometimes. I almost miss when you stared at me in that fascinated way," she said as she sat back down.

[Arin]

The bartender sighed and leaned on the bar, one hand keeping her upright while she looked into Casey's determined eyes. She could tell he was serious about this, and he wasn't going to listen to anyone against him going "...Look, it's not going to be so much distance as it will be preparation. There's a reason it's called the ice kingdom, and let's face it, in your current getup, you'll be frozen solid before you reach the frost gates. Those ice folk are conditioned for cold weather, and they can spot a foreigner, outsider or otherwise, a mile away, so you're not going to be mister popular either." She picked up a mug that the waitress dropped off for cleaning and started to wash it in the hot basin behind the counter "All I'm saying is, if you're going to be traveling there; bundle up warm, have lots of food and water, and try not to piss anybody off...It'll take you at LEAST a month by horseback, but a normal horse won't do you much good once you reach the tundra. And Nightmares are a fire kingdom steed for the most part. Get caught riding on one of those in ice kingdom territory, and you might as well have a target on your back that the royal guard can stick you full of arrows with."

Aria could hear the sounds of rapid-fire strikes landing on a wooden doll not too far from where she walked through the door, eventually hearing Lance's voice screaming in rage. Then, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, and she started sprinting towards him, finding him kneeling on the ground and covered with injuries on his hands "Lance! By the gods, what happened?!" She hurried over and knelt down beside him, taking his hands and using her light magic to mend his wounds "...Lance...Please talk to me, your parents and I are worried about you, and they have never seen you like this."

Asmous nodded and signaled to some of the guards in the room, their bodies emitting a clear aura as they began searching for any signs of illusion magic. He made the mistake of believing his trusted right hand man was still the same person, he wasn't going to make that mistake again.

Cypher followed Aldari and Casey to the bar, asking for a shot of rum for his own nerves. When the bartender started to talk about Casey's crusade for the ice kingdom, he was intrigued "Traveling alone might also be an unwise move, Casey. Although, I think I have the perfect solution, someone who isn't affiliated to the fire kingdom in any direct way."

Arin grunted when Luna rapped him on the back of the head for gawking at the waitress, still blushing and looking down with a half guilty, half pissed expression. Then, he noticed that her words clearly spoke of jealously, and it perked him up a great deal "Sorry Luna, I'm only human afterall. And I DO stare at you like that...Just not when you're looking..." He scratched his nose nervously, embarrassed that he admitted to staring at her when she wasn't aware of it.

[Lance]

Lance grit his teeth, almost striking at Aria when she grabbed him, stopped only by her voice. "It's just like fucking before...I couldn't stop people from dying." Lance's head leaned down, his breathing coming in unsteady gasps.

Lance was silent for a few minutes, trying to steady his breathing as Aria healed his hands. "It was in 2010...we were getting ready for the pullout, but a squad of Marines were still clearing out some dug in Al Qaeda troops in a valley about 40 miles outside of Baghdad. We were called in to provide Air support, I was in an F-16 and strafed the fuckers with my 20mm, but...it wasn't enough, bastards were dug in like Ticks. I was ordered to use heavy ordnance from the folks on the ground. Now, I had Triplets of AGM-65 Mavericks on my Fighter, that's 6 missiles with 120 pound warheads. I was ordered to use ALL of them, try to smoke the bastards out."

Lance grit his teeth, "I told them! the valley was sandstone and other Sedimentary rock, that shit is nothing but tightly packed sand and dirt, and these Leathernecks were in the BOTTOM of the valley, I told 'em, If I fire, there's a risk of landslides, but they just told me that if I didn't they were sure to be killed...So I sighted in my targets and fired."

Lance went silent for a moment. "The bad guys were dust, but the Valley walls became unstable...they were buried in 100 tons of sand and rock...and now, people are dead because I made the wrong call again!" Lance clenched his fist and slammed it against the floor, his half healed wounds bleeding again. "I should have ghosted that fuck! I could have...but instead we tried to interrogate him, and people are dead..."

[Tetsuya]

Casey took in the bartender's words, noting how long it would take to make the travel first, before accepting the other bits of information as well. He had already considered the tense conditions between the kingdoms in his plans, but knowing the Ice Kingdom resided in a tundra climate helped to form a better travel plan in the long run. He then listened to Cypher explain it wasn't a good idea to be traveling alone either, and found himself curious as to who he was suggesting to join him. He decided to reply to Ms. Bartender first. "Well, that's why asked what kind of jobs are usually up. I had imagined preparation would be needed, but now I know just what to expect now. If it's allowed, I would like to accept a job or two, build up a bit of a wallet so I can purchase gear and rations." He then looked over to Cypher and Aldari. As much as I would like to accept your offer, Your Majesty, I'm afraid I can't just take what I would need from your guards armory. Your rival kingdom will notice armor from here, and likely shoot me dead on the spot anyways, Nightmare steeds or no. No, I'll have to petition protection clothes and armor, or at least buy already made equipment that don't have distinguishing features. I am curious who you would have join on my adventure, Lord Cypher." Even outside the throne, he was still using formalities around the Aldari and Cypher.

"Ooohh, so you've become sneaky when staring at me? Now I'm curious, where do your eyes usually end up looking?" Luna asked. She had a bit of a smirk, and a dust of pink on her cheeks. She wanted to know where he looked at her the most.

[Arin]

Aria continued to heal Lance's hands while he was talking, telling her about his personal failure as air support for the army. She understood all too well how he felt, the pain of losing so many friends when the Castus Cruorem rose in power and threatened all non-human magical life. She was even around to hear about the Salem witch trials, wondering if there were people she could have saved in that town, rather than have a mass killing from supposed paranoia. Everyone who wasn't from the human world, or belonged in terra mystica, she held close to her heart, and every time she found that she couldn't save them, she felt pain in her heart.

"...I know your pain, Lance...I have spent millennia trying to save those who no longer belonged in the human realm...And every time I fall short of rescuing them from their fates...There is a hole in my heart, that grows ever larger, whenever I cannot save an innocent...It has made me numb to many emotions, and rather harsh with others...But Lance, what happened was not your fault. No one could have predicted that he had a spell of that power available to him."

She finished her healing and placed her hands on his, looking into his eyes "...That spell was one of monstrous class, spells known by many of the large beasts of this world...Spells of that power are forbidden from use by anyone of human size or near equivalent, the toll is too great for one person to bear...Channeling all of that mana at once into a spell, and unleashing it in a single blast, it kills the caster, and anyone in its path...Whoever that infiltrator was knew he wasn't going to get out of there alive."

Cypher smirked when Casey asked exactly what kind of traveling companions he might have on his journey, after declining Aldari's offer to supply him with protection and food stores "Well, Daemira, of course. She has no affiliation with either kingdom, and would be a perfect neutral partner to accompany you. she is also very open minded, and I'm sure would be comfortable keeping you warm during nightfall. But ultimately, it's up to her to accept or not. Or, you could proposition for a few of the guild members here to assist you, though I doubt any of them would be too pleased with a covert operation. The majority of these men and women enjoy more proactive jobs."

Arin blushed when Luna started teasing him, after admitting that he was sneaking looks at her when she wasn't aware. Now she wanted to know what he looked at the most "...Jeeze, Luna, could you give me any harder of a question? I can't tell where I looked most...You're too gorgeous to focus on more than one spot."

[Lance]

Aldari nodded, "I understand, but..." Aldari reached behind his back and pulled out a small red velvet pouch. Aldari opened it and extracted three large crystals, handing them to Casey. "You will need weapons tailored to you, and those are incredibly expensive. Use these to pay for custom gear and supplies, and I won't take no for an answer." Aldari's tone was firm, he wouldn't allow Casey to refuse this help.

Lance was silent when Aria told him that she understood what he was feeling, and that he couldn't have hoped to stop the assassin. "I know...but that's going to change." Lance looked at Aria. "I need to go to the wind kingdom, there has to be something there that'll help us stop this fucking war."