Memento (Open, Festival of the Gods)

[Lucinda Noru]

Lucinda found herself somewhat lost in translation as Finn countered Castile. She didn’t have much experience dealing with people from other countries or cultures so she didn’t recognize the mocking the way he did. Rather, she just kept a calm facade as the ‘men’ talked until she was addressed directly. She smiled as he asked if she would accompany them and attempted to make small talk about shopping. “Of course, your lordship. I have heard much of you amongst my fellow people here and it seems your company is not one to be turned down lightly. For my part, I was shopping for a festival costume. I’ve been saving for months for this,” she answered, trying to play off being a commoner and probably failing miserably.

She noticed that Castile’s companion didn’t say anything at all and she wondered if the lady was mute or simply being respectful. Listening to Castile address her however, she decided it must be the latter. She smiled as the other man asked about addressing them with the titles and shook her head. “No, you may call me simply Luci if you wish, especially since you’re being so gracious as to insist on dropping formalities yourself, sir,” she said, giving the man a wry smile.

When Castile asked about a warrior goddess costume for his companion, Lucinda turned to finally look at Seanait fully and carefully assessing her. “A warrior goddess, like Helena perhaps? That would suit her quite well. She’s certainly got the build for it, very lean and muscular. She must be very good at her job.” Lucinda said, granting Seanait a decent compliment.

[Deleted]

Finn takes this change to appraise the 'guard' of this nobleman. The girl looked strong and he could see some scars suggesting she'd seen battle, but what clinched it was how her eyes were appraising him. She was examining him as a threat despite no insult or provocation, a bodyguard and a good one, probably a former soldier he decided before returning his attention to the group at hand only to find the foreign man laughing and patting him on the shoulder.

Finn was a bit surprised, but he let out a breath and grins up at the foreigner. “I was that transparent huh?” He asks making no attempt to hide the back and forth. As he asks what to call Finn he strokes his beard. “Well at times like this Finn is fine, but when we are at court or amongst the nobles it will probably be best to use Arch-duke or Lord Talrin,” He lets out an exasperated sigh “I don't like the formalities, but it is important to keep up appearances at least or my people might suffer for my arrogance.” He admits as he scratches the back of his head.

“Well let us move to more pleasant subjects...though what should I call you?” He asks curiously.

However when Castile asks Lucinda if he should call her 'lady' Finn's eyes flicker colder for just an instant, he could feel it and was not sure if the others saw it, but as he realized he had tensed he finds himself regretting it. Finn carried no pretense regarding which of Lucinda and himself were more important, and he had found he even enjoyed the princess' company. Don't jump at threats that are not there. He warns himself before relaxing and turning to Lucinda.

“Well L-Luci, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He greets, though when they start talking about costumes he tilts his head. “A warrior goddess would certainly be fitting, but it's kinda short notice to get a custom breastplate.” He points out “If you have some good chainmail you might be better off getting an alchemist to dye it with a temporary radiance spell.” He points out, simply trying to be helpful.

“What about you Lord Verdonia, do you plan on going in something from your country? If you would like I can help you with trends in this one,” He suggests, though realizing he was being rude he apologizes, “I am sorry, I did not mean to presume you were unaware of current fashions...I'm a bit to used to being on campaign and have forgotten my manners.”

[Deleted]

Luci managed to get in before Séanait could answer whether or not it was appropriate for Claire to call her Lady and she had to struggle against a smile as she saw Finn's expression. He'd already called her "Lady Luci", so his "pleasure to meet you" speech was too little too late. It made Séanait suspect that Luci must be quite high nobility indeed, for Finn to have trouble calling her just "Luci". He seemed the informal type who would have more trouble remembering to apply a title than forgetting it.

"I think," Séanait said in her lilting voice, also marking her as an outsider, "That the respectful term for a common woman is 'goodwife', although I suspect that only applies to married women."

There was just the slightest hint of a smile about her face as she said this, although her tone was neutral and respectful. Finn would probably pick up on it if he was any good as a politician, and Luci might as well, but it couldn't be helped. Watching the two of them trying to pretend that Luci wasn't part of the nobility was very entertaining.

When the subject changed to costumes, Séanait suddenly found herself the center of attention. She smiled and bobbed her head when Luci gave her a compliment, saying "Thank you. I do the best I can."

Finn's observation that it would be hard to get a custom breastplate drew the first real, sustained smile from her so far. She held the "breast"plate she had been examining about, a real shit-eating grin on her face.

"The good thing about my body is that it'll easily fit into one of these."

She turned side on so that Finn and Luci could see her in profile and then held the front half of the breastplate to her chest. There was more than ample room for her in the breast shapes hammered into the front of the breastplate and she laughed. Then, spying Kail and feeling that the waist of the breastplate would be too tight, she said "Although..." and then trailed off, before calling, "Hey, Kail, over here!"

She turned apologetically back to Finn, Luci and Claire.

"Sorry."

Then, as Kail arrived, she said, "Kail, this is Castile, my current employer, and these are the Archduke Talrin and Luci. This," She said, turning from Kail back to everyone else, "Is Kail, a friend of mine. He's become a smith of some talent."

Holding out the breastplate to Kail she asked,

"Kail, do you think you could widen the waist in this?"

[Deleted]

Kail then hears Shy and asking him to come over to the group and walks over the group. "Its been awhile Séanait and greetings to you two ser's and fair lady" he said using some words that would be common for this timeline. Since he was now much more worried with a Arch Duke in his presence. He looked over at Castile or Claire in disguise and would play along since if they were all found out they would all be in deep shit. Then the redhead asks if he could widen a piece of armor. The blond had not done any armor yet and this did put him on the spot. If he was going to make it would have to be now "I do not have a forge nor my tools on me, and I have not bought a fire gem yet" Kail said and then took hold of the piece of armor and brought it up. He would give it his best shot on the matter.

"If you can get me to a forge I can make the alteration" said Kail and then as he got closer and saw that the blond haired girl was way too clean on her appearance. She did not fit in with the rest of the common folk around him. He did take note of the noble and saw that the was the trope of the dashing devil. Kail wanted to roll his eyes but did not. "This should be easy to do unless the material is cheap. Honestly though I can make better for you" he spoke again with getting to be a tad more casual in his speech with Shy.

[Claire]

“You can call me Castile if I may call you Finn. But ah- hm.” Claire frowned, scratching her jaw a little. “Arch-duke. That important- hm.” she looked back to Seanait again. “I think I may be lost on the titles here. What am I called again here? I think I got confused.”

Claire turned her head back to Lucina, a broad smile coming back over her face. “Luci, then. Good to meet you.” She turned her head back to Finn, tilting her head. A laugh escaped her after a moment, her hand resting on her hip. “There are not nearly enough… colorful feathers and lapis for that here. I think I will have to make do with your culture. But I must be something that is a worthy companion for a goddess of war. Don’t you agree?” she nodded back to Shy, grinning once more.

Claire looked over to Kail, a brief hardness coming back over her expression. Would the young man recognize her? And more importantly, would he play along if he did? But Kail addressed her as a man and focused his attention to Shy and her expression relaxed. “Did you hear that? Your own custom armor. I do not know how much time we would have for such a thing, though.”

[Lucinda Noru]

Once they'd finally gotten all the introductions out of the way and established what they would call each other, the topic quickly switched to focus on Seanait's costume. Lucinda didn't know much about such things and lapsed into a silence as she followed the conversation. She jumped a little, startled, as Shy called over someone she knew apparently and introduced him as well. The princess simply nodded and smiled as she was named, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. He sounded like he knew what he was doing, at least. "How very fortunate to have a friend with such a talent and that you should run into him just now," she said, smiling. "There's a few days yet left until the king's ball. Depending on how quickly, Kail was it?, can work, it should be plenty of time," she supplied, helpfully. "What do you think, sir?" she directed at Finn.

[Deleted]

Finn listened to the exchange of the group and extended a hand to Kail, attempting to clasp his arm in the northern tradition. “If you are truly a smith as capable as your companion seems to believe I would love to hire you. I am always in need of smiths, I'll pay well, and if you can actually make this into a piece of armor as fine as your friend claims I will pay you VERY well.” Finn laughs jovially as he crosses his arms in front of himself, though the warriors might notice that his hand always stays close to his hilt.

“But I suppose enough of my recruitment. There is a festival coming and it would not do to let our presentation be lax,” he leans in a bit and says in a stage whisper “I have been reliably informed that presentation is key to a successful court life.”

As the Arch-duke stands up straight his eyebrows raise as they mention wanting to use a forge and he says. “If you need a forge I can provide one. My estates originally housed a large garrison and a forge was part of it. I would be happy to provide you with what you need,” He offers finding himself curious about the group.

“In fact, if you find yourself disliking the palace accommodations I would love to host you both.” He offers to Castile and Shy. “I even have a rather large collection of feathers from a variety of winged beasts if they meets your fancy.” Finn admits, as the Arch-Duke's hawk banner often saw his cloaks vestune with feathering. “Of course you are invited as well Luci.”

[Deleted]

Séanait frowned, head tilted to one side, as Claire asked her to help her come up with a more believable title. She wanted to make it out to be a translation error, so Séanait spoke to Claire in what little of Claire's language she knew.

"Ah, if you will excuse us for a moment."

Séanait knew the words for "liar", "language" and "speak", so she prefaced her sentence with them and then backfilled with what words she did know, spread out further with a series of nonsense words that merely sounded like Claire's language. Once she saw that Claire had cottoned onto her plan, she let Claire speak for a while, and then replied as she had before, with some new words taken from Claire's sentence.

After a few back and forth exchanges, including a few mentions of "arch duke", Séanait decided that they had enough material to work with and turned back to the others, offering up a slight bow to Finn.

"My apologies, it appears that there has been an error in translation. My Lord Castile is not an Arch-Duke, which in older forms of your language might be translated to "greatest warrior" or "greatest general", but more an equivalent of a baron."

The frown returned.

"But also not. I'm sorry, I'm translating this through multiple cultural ideals and I'm doing a poor job of it. In the end, you could say that my Lord holds a position roughly equivalent to one of your barons and is one of the foremost warriors among his people. This, I think, is were the confusion arose."

Hopefully that should be vague enough to explain any discrepancy in their story. Séanait just hoped that Claire was good enough to fill the role of "foremost warrior" if it came down to it. Which, judging by Finn's attitude so far, might very well be on the cards. Still, one thing at a time.

Claire mentioned that she needed to find a costume that would match Séanait's goddess of war outfit and she couldn't help but point out the obscenely large codpieces being sold just down the street.

"Where I come from," She said laughing, "The goddess of war is accompanied by the god of fertility."

Kail's mention of needing a forge caught Séanait by surprise. She'd know that he hadn't been getting along with Rivers, but she hadn't realised that it had gotten so bad. On the other hand, if Kail accepted Finn's offer they would have a foot in the door there, and that could work out to their advantage.

Despite not wanting to put any pressure on Kail, Séanait did want him to sign on under Finn, so she looked very happy at Claire's suggestion that she might get her own custom armour and smiled at Kail.

"How long do you think it would take to make something from scratch?"

[Deleted]

Kail wanted to curse his ill luck in this situation at the moment. As it seemed that he chose his words in a wrong way. His sense of paranoia was getting to him but kept his face not being able to show it. So the blond had to think on his feet right now. "Forgive me, I was not expecting do some work on holiday. My forge is rather far off so I don't know if I would have enough time to go back and then come here again. I live outside of Nova and its pretty far" he said wanting to clear a few things out of the air. The thing that did worry him was Finn as he did not know how this lord was on Fated. If he wanted them all burned at the stake, indifferent, or was one of the few that were on there side. But there was a dark thought that if he could worm his way in and kill Severine. That was too much of a risk on his part on the matter, even though with Shy and Claire that could be possible.

Kail does see Finn extend his hand for an offer to work for him. "Perhaps another time for a commission for you Lord Finn. I do appreciate the offer though" he shook Finn's arm as it would see rude if he did not do so. But after shaking with Finn he watches his hand go to his blade. Kail was not sure if this man was showing caution or knew something was up. But Kail switched his attention to the real lady of the group "Perhaps it was Fate's will that we crossed paths miss" he wanted to say milady but with Finn around. Kail was not sure if that would set him off so he played it safe. If Finn was not around though he would have done it. But it seemed that Finn's curiosity with the three of them was growing and from the sound of things. It did not sound that the forge had been used in awhile from the description the Arch-Duke was giving to him.

"Pardon me if I see blunt as a flat board. But it does not sound like its been used for a long time. I have a friend in the second district that has a active forge that I could use. On making the armor, I could possibly make a piece of armor from the ground up. If I started now but a full set would be madness under a few days. I would maybe need a week give or take, I don't have that much experience on making armor. I am good with making weapons and tools" it seemed that Shy did want him to sign on with Finn but again his paranoia was there. As Kail was not sure how far he could keep up the act of being someone of Nova or perhaps outside from a near by nation. Even if he could make up one, it would be questionable if there were not others from this nation. Or who was the ruler and such.

As soon as Kail could go away, he needed something to settle his nerves as they were going crazy. The blond was very much surprised that he was keeping this act up so well. He was not sure how long that this would be able to keep up. Kail did not want to disappoint Shy or Claire but he had to worry about his own skin a bit. Severine had pretty much tainted most of the Fated as well evil.