The Visitors [O] Portal plaza in New Alexandria
#1
Posted 24 November 2012 - 01:37 PM
Riders Iosen Lysaedra and Ainetto Sylvea had spent much of their time while on patrol discussing the Elysians who had come to Vynett and the ramifications of their arrival in Acantha. They had not been particularly quiet about their discussions, so when Wing Master Adras Tiana was assigned as the head of a task force to be sent through the portal, they were the first on her list of potentials to approach. "I have been tasked with scouting the realm they came from," Tiana had explained as they lounged against their mystdragons at the top of a mountain overlooking the jungle. The mist alone had shrouded their presence but the dragons were still on edge. Malaki raids had become ever more frequent of late, so Lysaedra suspected there was more to this task force than mere scouting.
"Didn't a couple of riders from Eimel already scout around over there before the Elysians even got here?" Vynett was not on great terms with the neighbouring village, as evidenced by the fact that Eimel had not bothered to alert them to the portal's opening. However, they were as close to the Badlands as Vynett so suffered the same volume of raiding, and had suddenly decided to share intelligence.
"Yes," Tiana acknowledged, "but we have no way of knowing if the intel they have so gallantly offered-" The Wing Master pulled a face. "-is legitimate or complete. The Sky Lord wants us to do our own. Besides that." Tiana's dragon, Dacao, flashed green and snuffed at Yarai when Lysaedra's myst shook out its tail. "The Sky Lord is hoping we can reach some sort of agreement with the Elysians. A small group of them survived a Malaki raid and even took out most of the hunting party all by themselves. We know first-hand they are better ground fighters than we are. He - we - hope we have something to offer them in exchange for them bolstering our defenses."
And so, the scouting party was led through the portal by their Wing Master. They were awed by the differences between their realms, and disappointed when the first few settlements they encountered turned them away. The people there were so beautiful, Rider Sattar Fhen joked about never returning home. The worst was the realisation that Elysia had suffered its own losses: Trees throughout the forest had been felled and entire tree-top villages destroyed. Recognising the similarities with their own homes, the Mystriders empathised but feared the worst.
Finally, they reached a portal and bravely passed through, their goal of finding someone willing to discuss their proposal firm in their minds. They exited the portal in the midst of a bustling square surrounded by square structures full of people, sounds of shock, surprise and even horror lashing across the rumble of voices. Unaccustomed to being on the ground, the mystdragons flashed red and white alarms and their shrouds thickened. "Let's just hope someone here can translate like Alain and Jericho."
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#2
Posted 09 December 2012 - 02:56 PM
But then as he was passing the plaza, the bustle of regular traffic changed to something kinda sinister. People sounded shocked and scared, so Kiel just, like, wedged his way through the crowd to see what was happening. Like, he was off duty from the Guard and all, but he always carried a weapon or two these days and, like, he was a Protector so he was never really off duty, after all.
“Wahhhhh.” Spotting a familiar vapour that, like, clouded his view of the portal and the figures there, Kiel darted forward faster but came up short when he recognised Lysaedra and her squaddies. “Dude!” He paused to ogle the group, then shot forward and, like, hugged the Mystrider to death. “Dude! Guys, like, what the heck, man, for sers? I thought we'd never see you againnnnnn. You okay? Like, I kinda got the sense the Malaki were going to be all, like, rawr and stuff at you for ages.” He made claws with his fingers and mewled like a baby blue panther, then stepped sideways like a crab to try and pet Lys's dragon. Yarai flashed green and snuffled at his hand, which Kiel totally took to mean 'hi, welcome, how do' and 'can we play?'
“So, like.” Beaming at their leader, Tiana, who had that kinda sour, uncomfortable look on her face again, Kiel grinned. “What's up, guys?”
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#3
Posted 28 January 2013 - 12:47 PM
And then a man she recognised appeared. Lys could not keep up with his chatter, his accent stranger than Aifric's, but her shoulders slumped in relief nevertheless and that in turn calmed the mystdragons a little. “Kiel! It is good that you are here.” She shook her head to display her struggle, deciding to ignore what she had not understood in favour of explaining their presence.
The rest of the task force raised their helmets belatedly. It was rude to leave them down while on the ground, but they had exited the portal expecting to find very little - much the same as they had in the forest - and been startled by their surroundings. Keeping their dragons under control was more important than manners.
Seeing that they were physically very similar to themselves, the Elysians also calmed a little, though most still kept their distance and stared. The spot between Lysaedra's shoulder blades practically hummed.
“Wing Master Adras Tiana, you remember?” Lys gestured respectfully at her commander, and went on to reintroduce the others. “We are here in...” She fumbled for the words, her hand rotating vaguely, before finally settling on a request she knew would help. “Jericho or Alain, perhaps?”
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#4
Posted 01 February 2013 - 02:56 PM
“Ummm, well, like. I dunno about Jeri, haven't seen him since we got back, you know?” He waved a hand vaguely 'cause he didn't expect her to fully understand him anyway. “And last I heard, Alain was on patrol with the Red Wardens.” He'd even tagged along on one such patrol, but he had no idea if Alain was still out there. “I don't really know anyone who can...” He flapped his hands between himself and Lysaedra to encompass conversation. Like, he was pretty sure Tad would like to get his hands on them in the name of science (like, pushing the boundaries of telepathy and all that) but Kiel seriously doubted his brother would remember to come up for air long enough to actually do the translatey bit.
“Oh, hey! I know, I know! There's this dude at the... Yeah, so like, come on, come with me. Uh, like, you might wanna send the dragons to the outskirts of the city or something, though, you know, 'cause they're kinda... freaking out the dashiri and stuff.” He didn't mention that the dragons were also freaking out basically everyone on the streets (and there were a heck of a lot of folks to freak out, you know?).
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#5
Posted 03 February 2013 - 12:56 PM
Her shoulders snapped back when he mentioned (or she thought he mentioned) that someone else was going to help them. She frowned in consternation, tripping over his request that their dragons remove themselves from the premises. She turned to Wing Master Tiana so they could confer for a few moments, with Fhen chipping in a few words he had picked up even while actively avoiding her lessons with Aifric. When she turned back to Kiel, eyebrows pulling together, she gave a sharp jerk of her head.
“They will not leave us. They...” She shook her head, not sure how to explain. He had not been surprised before by the bond between Rider and dragon, but the lack of surprise meant little in the way of understanding. Though the dragons could fly overhead easily enough, keeping their Riders in sight or close enough to be satisfied, they could not really be trusted in a foreign environment. Any small thing might set them off, and already these Elysians had proven themselves easily frightened. Mystdragons utilised their flashing colours to intimidate, so that was not at all surprising; but Tiana did not trust either party to not cause some sort of incident while they were trying to talk to whoever was in charge here.
Instead of trying to explain, she merely repeated: “They will not leave us.”
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#6
Posted 06 February 2013 - 03:42 PM
“Well, can you get them to be, like, less conspicuous or something? You know, like, less with the flashy and the rawr?” He fluttered his fingers and pulled back his top lip, grimacing into a silent growl. “Only, you know, the whole thing about Acantha and the Malaki raids has got people pretty spooked and I don't wanna get you guys killed or, like, potatoed or something, you know?”
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#7
Posted 06 February 2013 - 03:49 PM
A combination of his incessant flow of words, hand manoeuvres, and the still-nervous stares of passers-by suggested that the dragons were going to be a problem. Kiel had already said as much in asking them to leave, so it wasn't much of a stretch for her to assume he was requesting something along the lines of a subtler approach. Less flashes? Less... What was that thing he was doing with his face?
Understanding dawned when he mentioned the Malaki. Lys glanced over her shoulder, trying to assess her companions with fresh eyes. The masks and the coloured lightning were all devices they had developed over centuries to make themselves appear more intimidating, so it was little wonder they made these foreigners wary.
She conferred for a moment with Tiana, speaking in hushed tones even though she was reverting to her native language, and finally turned to Kiel with an abrupt nod. “They will... be friendly?” To underscore her agreement, Yarai flashed green and tilted his had up as if preening or seeking the sun. “This is enough?”
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#8
Posted 07 February 2013 - 05:43 PM
“Dude, that's awesome!” He bounced on his toes, beaming at the lot of them, but especially at the dragon behind Lys when it flashed green. The light show was still pretty scary - or, like, he guessed it was. He'd been kind of inured against things most people found freaky, anyway - but the passers-by (like, most of whom were scampering away rather than actually passing by) seemed less likely to lob maces at them or something.
“Okay, okay. Like, if you wanna, like, follow me or something?” He tipped his head to his left, indicating the route he would take to City Hall, then bounced on his toes and pivoted. He went slow so they could keep up, or, like, arrange how they would travel (he was still kinda hoping they'd get the dragons in the air, at least. Like, it was going to be awkward getting them all down the street. Alexandria didn't have broad roads like the White City, you know?), chattering about the city sights along the way.
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#9
Posted 14 February 2013 - 07:11 PM
Her gaze followed Kiel's gestures as he pointed out building after building, but was unable to understand most of what he explained. Once beyond the bustling square where they had spilled out of the portal, the streets grew broader and the buildings fewer between, spaced out by carefully pruned greenery. Kiel's home was not remotely similar to her own, and she wondered all the more at his and his friends' ability to adapt and accept so readily what must have seemed completely alien to them.
Then again, Aifric had indicated that Elysia was diverse in ways that the Sky God had not allowed Acantha to be, so perhaps the Elysians who had visited Vynett had seen more already than this sheltered, cultivated world.
Finally, they arrived at a huge, sprawling building that, as they drew nearer, turned out to be several structures connected by brilliant white hallways around a much larger square capped by a green dome. The road they were using to get there was set back from the building Kiel called City Hall by at least a hundred yards of equally cultivated grass lining a broad pathway, and by black iron fencing. Closer to the structure, in front of the hall itself, was a fountain and, on either side of that, long rectangular pools.
Lys turned wide eyes on Kiel, mirrored on either side and at her back by each and every member of their task force. “This is...your god's palace?” Was that what Kiel had meant by "city hall"?
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#10
Posted 17 February 2013 - 03:08 PM
“Like, dude, wahahahaha.” How did he explain this to them? Like, Mystriders were pretty similar to Nymphs and Therians in that there was very little pomp and ceremony around their leaders. Like, their chief's hut (Aifric had chosen that title because they hadn't a clue what the real one was) had been pointed out to them but it didn't actually look any different than the others in the tree-top village so if Kiel had been asked to find it again, without assistance, he'd have gotten completely lost or something. Looking at City Hall through alien eyes, he could totally see why they might think this was a temple or something. Like, it outshone even Danae's actual temple in terms of aesthetic appeal and just, like, sheer obnoxious in-your-face wealth, but that was kind of the point of it, he thought. Like, there were a bunch of other buildings in New Alexandria, within the bounds of the wall, that displayed just how wealthy a city theirs was, so of course the main seat of the shire's government needed to out-wealthy them all, you know?
“Uh, like, no, like, um?” He waved vaguely at the back of his head, a finger twisting into a lock of hair under his hat. Like, he was getting pretty desperate for a hair cut, you know? It was long enough to tickle the edge of his jacket collar now, but between work and rebuilding, he'd not really had chance. His old barber had been crushed by the wall of his shop.
“Like, Xanth's kind of, well. Like, she doesn't mingle with the mortals, you know?” That wasn't strictly accurate, as he'd met her personally and was sure Zeph had encountered her way more than once. There were also rumours that the Voice was going ahead with building a temple that she would actually be visiting for real, instead of just, like, a shrine or whatever in her honour, but that was all very complicated and hearsay and he didn't want to muddy the waters. “This is where our leaders, the Thirteen, Consuls, you know, our, um, our chiefs? This is where they work. Like, they don't live here, though, so you're lucky it's daytime, wahahaha.”
He let that sink in, the corners of his bottom lip pulling down in a nervous not really sure this is going to work expression. “You, um, like, you wanna go in? With me, obviously, because, uh, yeah.” They wouldn't really need him to act as a diplomat or whatever. He wasn't a talker or a translator or anything like that, he was the fisticuffs guy, but they might feel more, like, at ease or whatever with a familiar face.
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#11
Posted 19 February 2013 - 05:53 PM
"Sir. I think. You might want to take a look outside?"
The guard was young and fairly new to the job. Most of City Hall's security force had been loaned out to the City Guard after the quake. Though the Council had feared the consequences of using new recruits to fend off potential threats, the city's need had been greater than their own.
"I assure you..." Etienne could not remember the young man's name, so he waved a hand airily. "I have already seen the gardens. Yes, they are magnificent. If you would excuse us, Maria and I were in the middle of a discussion."
Maria arched a sleek eyebrow at him. He wondered briefly if she plucked them. He distinctly remembered them being much thicker before she acquired the much coveted position she now held. "And here I was thinking we were arguing." She may look more suited to the role of a leader and public figure, but her acerbic attitude had certainly not improved.
"Then I suggest you acquire yourself a dictionary, my friend. Perhaps a heated debate, but"
The young guard had the audacity to interrupt. "No, but sir, ma'am, you really need to look outside."
Etienne sighed. Maria's eyebrow returned to its default position, the corner of her red-painted mouth quirking up. It was a garish colour on her, but Etienne had been destined for politics since birth (thanks to his father) so he had more diplomacy than to tell her as much. He merely followed her to the window and sneered over the top of her shiny black hair. "Honestly, I cannot think what the fuss is about. I hope to Xanth there's not another accident with the dashiri. We can ill afford another jamBugger me."
"My dear Etienne, there are dragons on our lawn."
Etienne ignored the proprietary way she referred to the city's greenery and scoffed. "I take it we are to have visitors. Perhaps we should greet them in the hall."
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#12
Posted 22 February 2013 - 12:07 PM
Like, Kiel called it an invite, but he was pretty sure it was a command. He wasn't sure if he should be warning the Mystriders to flee or, like, waving them in. They were a small group on unfamiliar turf, but he didn't think City Hall had an army hidden inside it, you know?
“So, like, this dude's saying the Thirteen are, like, woah, for sers?” He blinked and gaped his mouth at the other guard. The dude looked to be around his own age, but didn't have slitted pupils so wasn't a 'Varian. “The council's all meeting up so they can meet with you and, like, that's a lot of meeting going on. Like, the Thirteen, they're our elected leaders, kinda like your Sky Lord but there's more than one of them? So, like, you wanna go?”
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#13
Posted 25 February 2013 - 03:33 PM
Five minutes later, their small group were gathered in an elaborate hall that outdid even the Sky God's throne room, their dragons sunbathing on the huge lawns outside under the watchful eye of Sattar Fehn. He wouldn't be able to prevent the dragons from responding to distress calls since he shared a bond only with his own, but he would at least be able to stop curious Elysians from getting too close or vice versa.
"And you are?" One of the thirteen leaders (Lys had to wonder how they got anything done with so many voices fighting to be the loudest) looked at Kiel. They had all swapped names, and the thirteen leaders had given brief summaries of their job descriptions and how they might pertain to their visit, but it was a lot of information to digest all at once. Thankfully, there were at least two of the blue-slit-eyed people here, like Jericho and Alain, so the job of translating was not only on her own shoulders.
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