Rac'cona: Between worlds [Fanfic RP- full, no more players]

DracoDei · Post by **DracoDei** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:46 pm

"Adam, if we..." Barnard started at high speed then stopped. He moved closer to Adam then a few seconds later with lowered and slowed voice said, "Will the cafeteria be a safe place to talk about all this? I have done a little practice with damping out sound, but I am not sure if I could keep strong track of a conversation while doing it, and it would make it more obvious that we were saying things worth eaves dropping on... I hope I am being clear enough..."

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:19 pm

Adam listened carefully to Barnard as he spoke, approving of how he slowed it down. Now he could understand him.

He answered back in a low voice, "The cafeteria will be safe enough. In fact, the more the merrier." When Barnard gave him an odd look, he knew he'd have to explain. "You see, in a crowded room, there's lots of noise and talking to cover anything you might say. A quiet room would be worse. The sound carries farther." He gave the boy a little smirk. "I would know. One of my first assignments involved having a meeting in a quiet bar. Suffice to say, about everyone in the city knew what we were planning within five hours."

He patted Barnard on the shoulder. "We won't be needing your dampening field, lad. Just a noisy cafe where everyone is too busy to care about anything but their own conversation." He grinned. "And nice job on slowing things down for me. I can finally understand what in the world is coming out of your mouth."

DracoDei · Post by **DracoDei** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:16 pm

"Thanks." and then after a pause in a lower voice than he had used even in discussing security precautions, too low he hoped for anyone else in the party to hear,"... but, if you will excuse my asking, what should I expect of you in your ability to receive information from the others and especially me in the heat of combat, when things tend to be muddled and too complicated for information to be edited? It may be a completely silly thought but I never claimed to be especially bright."

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:21 pm

Adam chuckled and gave Barnard a brotherly hug before whispering back. "Son, don't worry about that. When a fight comes, just talk how you normally do. Although, you might wanna cut out a couple of the big words. I ain't exactly college material."

He grinned and started walking towards the cafe. "C'mon, let's go get something to eat. We can talk about this later." He gestured for Barnard to follow, the grin still on his face. Maybe we was crazy. But with people like this around, at least life wouldn't be boring.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:35 pm

The bustling market was now in full swing, punters and tradesmen barking out invitations to potential buyers, their wares laid out on every conceivable surface. From simple tarpaulin cloths covering the ground where the hand carved furniture was piled, to grandstands with collapsible tables and large lux-powered shingles pronouncing the owner's company name, the merchant flogging his produce from a small stage at the center. With all these dramatized distractions one would have thought that such a place would be a haven for pickpockets and street urchins, praying on the more unwitting of the crowd. Yet today there was a distinct lack of lowlifes, the WarFooting and proximity to the collage affording a far grater quota of guards then on a regular market day. In the nearby cafe, the sizable group of companions had requisitioned several tables and had settled down to talk about the mornings events over fruit drinks and a bole of sugared beetles. All eyes were now on Kathryn as she recounted the biomancers findings, leaving nothing to chance as she explained about his surprisingly healthy condition despite his turbulent journey, pausing momentarily as the dreadful images that the scars across the boy's chest had conjured came back to haunt her.
Adam nodded deeply, leaning back on his stool slightly as he mused over the girl's words.
"So.. the humans did torture him then?"
Kathryn shook her head slowly "No. Torture's one thing, but this… This, was more like--"
Words failed her, Bernard stepping in to fill in the gap, "--Mutilation. Systematic, and brutal."
Kyvan had been unnaturally quiet throughout the entire recital, only now gather himself to speak as Bernard returned to his drink "I just, I can't understand how anyone could do something like that to an innocent pup?... Dose he know who was responsible?"
"He says that he can't remember," the girl muttered, pausing to collect her wits, Bernard butting ahead once again.
"But there was something else too. The shape of the wounds, you know? I know this is a horrible thing to be thinking about, but they looked awfully like 'cuts' rather slashes from a whip or crude interrogation device, almost as though he'd been in some sort of knife fight. The evidence simply doesn’t make sense. If he was tortured, surely they would have had some far more refined technique then to just keep slashing–"
"Bernard." Adam growled ominously, his eyes quickly directing the elaborately dressed youngster to the girl beside him, who was starting to look as though she were about to loose herself again as fresh images strobed though her mind, a her nerve still hanging by a thread since the examination.

"I think,"

Falcon had been as silent as a ghost since they had all sat down, and a good few of the companions nearly leapt out of their fur when his calculated voice suddenly joined the conversation "That the bigger question here would lay in his apparent deficiency with lux." All eyes turned to the currier with curiosity, the coon allowing a few moments for dramatic effect before continuing, voice lowered so not to be overheard "IF the boy is as inept with lux as these test show him to be… then how, did he deal with the kidnapper?"
"And make that shield," Kyvan added, staring into the rippeling surface of his fresh juice with a degree of apathy, pausing for a second or two to think over their circumstances "Maybe we should talk about that back at the collage though… little too exposed here really. What were you saying about the symbol on his back, Kathryn? Was that made by the humans too?"

"An Excellent question!"

Now it was Falcon's turn to jump, the sickeningly cheery voice emanating from somewhere just to the left of their table. The currier looked toward the source of the intrusion, knowing the sound of the media hoard anywhere, and turned around just in time to see a rather dashing young man plonk a stool down next to him and take an uninvited place at the table.

"I hope you don't mind mine joining your little gathering here," The Coon asked, placing his own drink down on the table top, along with a vast bundle of badly scrawled notes and a quill. "Only I couldn't help overhearing the conversation and wondered if I might be able to get a few quotes from you all?"

The group looked Dumbfounded as the stranger arranged his wad of notes into a suitably tidy pile, wondering just what had possessed the man to suddenly up and join them.

Noticing their expressions, the Coon razed an eye brow of curiosity, suddenly realizing his mistake "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, where are my manners." The stranger chirped, standing up and offering his paw to each of the group in tern "Harold Wirebrush, of the 'Sanctuary Journel'."

Mjolnir · Post by **Mjolnir** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:13 pm

Kyvan took the paw and shook it, probably with a little too much force, his mind still on the torture that Rayne had endured.

"Mister Wirebrush," he said, the skeptizism heavy in his voice, "What sort of quotes would you be looking for?"

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:44 pm

Adam just stayed quiet and watched the man. Not only did he have a general dislike for soothscribes, one he nurtured during his time in the Guard, but his paranoia was kicking in again. He made a mental note to check the man's credentials. He'd be appalled that anyone would suspect him of being a spy, but Adam was ready to put pressure on him if need be.

All he did for now was sip at his juice and ignore the paw offered him. It was best one of them maintained an unfriendly attitude. The only way to fend off a reporter was to imply they were wasting your time and be as surly as possible.

That, and having a good solid punch to demonstrate on nearby objects...

GrayTiger · Post by **GrayTiger** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:33 am

Ayshe simply slumped in his chair when the reporter introduced himself. The last thing he wanted was to answer more questions about his past. He hoped perhaps his new clothes would disguise him, and he pulled his hat down to cover his signature white headfur hoping he would be spared having to have his past dragged out in front of the others.

Kerry Skydancer · Post by **Kerry Skydancer** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:50 pm

Falcon turned a rather baleful gaze on the soothscribe. "The Journal, eh? That would probably explain the eavesdropping." He sighs, putting aside the conversation for now and turns his attention to the annoying fellow. "You want a statement? Very well. The boy's testimony, mad as it sounds, is the truth. He's been through a lot and is currently being cared for and helped to adjust to life in the Seven Villages." He stops at that point, waiting for a response.

DracoDei · Post by **DracoDei** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:37 pm

Barnard has been doing some quick thinking, and it initially looked like he was going to just jump in and start babbling.
"Good sir. If you would be so good as to give a scant witted man a chance to gather his wits I beleive I might have a quote or two for you.", this not only not said rapid fire, it is actually said with a distinctly SLOW tempo and does indeed sound like the speech of someone slightly "slow".
He then nudged Adam and whispers in his ear. "The next time you see me take a drink, you may wish to plug your ears."
He then sits back, folds his hands, and appears to be thinking very hard, but still paying attention to the environment for dangers and (at least somewhat) to the conversation.

(OOC: anyone who checks will see that he is NOT up to anything Lux-wise).

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:00 am

The Sooth scribe smirked and sat down again, rubbing his fingers together lightly to massage his hand from Kyvan's strong grip "Well, I'm sure you've seen the morning's articles? There's a ridicules number of rumours and superstitious nonsense building in the mind of the general public, fuelled of course by these 'speculations' that the unregistered papers have so helpfully provided. The more reputable papers, such as the Journal, are focusing on the far more important matter of the WarFooting and possible implications. But the problem is that the tearags and conspiracy pages have been given far too much room for manoeuvre by the resistance of the guard to release any information on the alleged 'human child' itself."
He chuckled slightly, folding his legs over and taking a gentle sip from the mug of hurble tea before him "They've come up with some rather interesting hogwash this time, everything from ilogical; "Human in Racconan form Heralds immanent invasion!" too the down right insain; "Humans attempting to breed out Rac'conan populous though secretive cross breading program". Now normally, even though the front pages are currently devoted to the Warfooting, we like to have something to come back at these ridicules speculations and give the people some reliable insight into the truth behind matters at hand. But there’s simply not enough facts for decent, reputable papers to publish counter points. True, that’s never stopped us in the past, but with something this important I took it upon myself to get to the real story before the editor bodged something together.. Suppose I’m a bit of a romantic amongst my kind. I tried getting into the collage this morning to book an interview or get a at least a firm account from someone, but in the end we had to settle for a generalised, totally open-ended statement. Which is why I was wondering if I could get you all to answer a few questions and hopefully shed some realistic light on the matter?”

--After falcon’s post--

Wirebrush scrawled down a few sketchy notes onto the sheet, smiling at Falcon with that same sly smirk that one might expect from an anchor man or talk show host, someone far too calm not to have Altria motives. However, as the scribe opened his mouth to speak, Bernard added his too Penarth, stalling him mid-sentence. The quill wilding raccoon stared doubtfully at the swordsman sitting across the table from him.
“Humm, quite.. anyway, has there been any other major differences between the boy and native Racconan’s? Like--“ The scribe rifled though his notes, “Blast where did I put it… err, yes. Well I suppose the most predominate question physiology wise is weather he can change his form at will, and if he really is new to this land, just how did he survive in the dire swamps? And are the 'difrences' related to that in someway?”

Mjolnir · Post by **Mjolnir** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:41 am

Kyvan, who had been getting more and more annoyed at the accusations be thrown at Rayne, along with Wirebrush's too calm demeanor, finally snapped.

"Of course he can't change forms!" Kyvan yelled, "If he could, do you think he'd be as miserable as he is!?!?!"

His brain having caught up with his mouth, and the looks on all the faces now staring at him, signaled that he had gone too far.

"Um ..." Kyvan said, but fell silent looking rather ashamed of himself.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:48 am

For a moment or two Harrold seemed almost taken aback, a slightly smirk of understanding flicking on his features for a moment as he quickly noted something in the corner of his notesheet "So he's quite depresed at the moment? Intreeguing..." The scribe shuffled though his papers for a moment, selecting one and quickly skimming over its contence before reterning to his relaxed posture, turning the quill over in his gently gripped paw with a genuine look of interest.
"You're.. Kyvan Treefel, the childs apointed 'guardian', right? Tell me, how do you feel about being apointed such an awkward position? I meen even though you volenteared and clearly show become somewhat close to the child in the short time you've had together, it must be a terrible weight on your shoudures to know what is suposedly following him, especialy given you're past life events and such?"

Mjolnir · Post by **Mjolnir** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:06 am

Kyvan's face went from ashamed, to shock to full on rage in the shortest time imaginable.

"What. Did. You. Say?" he said through cleanched teeth, his hands digging into the wood of the table where he had clamped onto it.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:33 am

There was a distinct look of suprise on the scribes face at this reaction, though it was more of a 'well what did you expect'. Choffing slightly the scribe looked down the list and picked a sutable exit line "I was speeking of your finatial position.. Your busisness went under nearly three months ago, you have few assets to speek of and have been sparsely employed since. Yet here you are taking on a 'lost child', one that is undoubtedly going to require a far higher level of care then most. Even orphans and a good persentage of the metaly chalanged at least know how to read by his age."

Mjolnir · Post by **Mjolnir** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:37 am

Kyvan calmed down and looked bashful again.

"Oh," he said, avoiding looking at his companions, "Well ... um ... I'm currently doing work for the College and ... um ..."

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:52 am

Harrold's sickeningly sweet smile reterned to his face, releaved inwardly that he seemed to have dodged the bullet and quickly quoted something onto the sketch pad again "Ahh, resorseful! I like that. Trust me, readers love a tender hart story somewhere amist such serious situations. Now, what about this 'Malaclypse' figure he spoke of at the hearing? Has he mentioned anything else about the intentions of this misterious aid?"

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:59 pm

"Malaclypse has made no public appearance to my knowledge." Adam's voice was controlled and level, as business-like as possible. He was back in his role of Guardsman informing a Soothscribe. Or more accurately, the role of a Guard tolerating a Soothscribe. "And to be honest, I can't blame him. You Soothscribes would eat him alive just to get a story out of him." He calmly sipped his juice, replying just before Harrold could collect his wits.

"I'm all for the right for freedom of speech. But you reporters sicken me. You'll go to nearly any lengths to get your story, and Yeshua have mercy on any poor soul who gets on your bad side. Or shows you for who you are."

He leaned across the table and glared at the man. "You want a story, bucko? Then leave Kyvan and Rayne out of this. Instead... tell the gangs Ol' Stonefist is back in town.

"And he's not in a good mood."

DracoDei · Post by **DracoDei** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:49 pm

Barnard had almost jumped in when Kyvan had gotten so angry, but the reporter had defused that specific aspect of the situation well enough himself.
“Now is as good a time as any to jump in, but I had best save the lux-breathing in reserve since it is a bit of a risk.”, he thought to himself.
He took a long drink from his cup then set it down and clearing his throat did just that, at what he considered ‘fast’ speed. Of course, given that he always seemed fast to everyone else, the word ‘breakneck’ comes inescapably to mind for what he was doing now.
(OOC: I am including the use of the spacebar in the following ONLY for readability, readers should mentally remove them as they go.)
“I guess that takes care of what he, Adam that is, has to say for the moment then, although he might very well change his mind by the time you have worked through all of the rest of us. Well, Mister Harold Wirebrush, I guess the first thing I ought to say is that I personally like the Sanctuary Journal and believe that they do a fine job of covering the facts of the news stories. I shall endeavor to serve you as best I can here in this situation. The first item of business it seems to me is to state for the record that I shall perhaps be checking on your affiliation, just to provide a double check. We obviously don’t have time to personally answer the questions of everyone who would be curious about the more exact details of what is going on with Rayne. I mean that would be completely preposterous, it is a very strange thing, and although Rayne is of course, a sweet kid, and no more likely to cause problems in my experience than any other kit (of course you must for sake of precision take into account that I haven’t known him that long, although I guess it is longer than more than a few others in our little group, because you can’t really count the people in the tavern because we left there so they didn’t get a chance to know him much, I mean certainly not nearly as much time as we have actually spent with him, plus he seems to like us, and we like him, but anyway don’t know all THAT much about him), but where was I, oh, yes, so I don’t see him as being a trouble maker, but some things about his presence and the events surrounding him might trouble others. I mean we have this whole military thing going on you see for instance. Anyway, so there are probably tens of thousands of people who would like to know what is going on and that is too many for us to talk to, I mean our throats would get sore, don’t you think? I guess my point is that I realize what you must be very greatly aware of yourself, being a reporter and all, is that one among many of the purposes of the news organizations is to save people who are important, or at least have important things happening around them the time of explaining everything to the people at large, because there curiosity is valid, and besides which it is the people who ultimately have to run the country. I mean that is why we have King Day and all, right? Of course that is right. So that is among many of the things that the news people do and I wonder what other purposes they serve, interesting question that, but for right now I am here to give you information, not the other way around. I mean when you are done interviewing all of us I might like to ask you a few questions just for the sake of my own curiosity, since you are here, I mean I guess since things are happening around us at the moment that we will be talking to the press a good bit over the next bit of time, weeks I would guess at a minimum, actually, no, make that probably months because even if this proves out to be nothing from a security standpoint, I mean just hypothetically since I don’t really have any information or ability to judge any better than you, and maybe a bit worse, how this is all likely to turn out from that sort of perspective, military and security and similar issues I mean, but I don’t think that even if there isn’t anything there TO find of any great interest that the biomancers will be done coming up with things to look for and then looking for them, I mean thinkers take time to come up with ideas, not like me, I am going to be a self-defense instructor, and it helps with that that I move myself, my whole body I mean, as quickly as I am talking right now, which I am sure you appreciate because you can get a lot of information very very quickly and just jot down the stuff that your training indicates would be of importance. So the point is that I might do well to get to know the reporting profession a very little so I can help them do there job even better, and besides which I am just curious. But as I said earlier that is something that can wait until you have gotten everything you need. I mean tit for tat maybe, but let us not get the cart before the goat. First things first. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that as a double check I might just decide to check with the Journal, I mean I don’t actually doubt you in the least, you don’t have the bearing of a curiosity seeker, but it is always good to double check things every so often just so that people know that you will and therefore don’t even bother trying anything annoying. Actually now that I think of it you certainly would qualify as being a curiosity seeker, you just do so at a professional level I guess. Interesting that. But I might check. Anyway, on to more important matters, I guess the simpliest place to start before we get to the more important business of the news in the here and now would be to lay some simple groundwork to ease your fact checking when you are trying to put all of this in clear and proper context. I guess, what I am saying is that while I don’t like to talk about myself, well I mean I like to talk as you can plainly see, or I guess I mean hear, which makes it especially lucky for you that I am one of the people you ran into here, but what I mean is that I don’t especially like talking about myself as compared to any other subject matter, but actually what I really enjoy talking about is sword-fighting, but I am trying to keep that under wraps a bit while I get some special techniques I am developing worked out. Anyway, never-the-less I think that my history is a good place for me to lay my part of the foundation for your article or articles. I mean chronological order is a good way of thinking if you want to make sure that as little as possible gets left out. So, firstly, as you have probably heard my extended family has earned the name ‘Storm-Breaker’ by way of my great-great-uncle Robert, meaning he was the first to earn it, although it spread through the family business. Robert earned it about 120 years ago and I am very sorry to say that the exact year somehow escapes me at the moment, anyway, it was a big huge storm coming in from the south, and there is speculation that it originated from some human mage’s weather working that went bad, although the evidence for that is inconclusive at best as I recall, I never personally investigated the matter myself in depth, and, of course, you could do a much better job of it than I could ever hope to, I mean it is your job, right? Can’t have a good story if you don’t take the time to get all the facts straight.”…
Here he had to pause a full two seconds to take a deep breath (he had been getting by on shallow ones until this point).

Kerry Skydancer · Post by **Kerry Skydancer** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 8:58 pm

Falcon watched Barnard's performance at first with amusement, then with growing awe as he kept the sentence going on longer and longer and longer... the courier was grinning when he finally ground to a halt, and jumped in to keep the reporter off balance while the swordsman caught his breath. "Absolutely. That's it in a nutshell."