Glayp'neir (Arc 1)

"I don't know about that answers part, I go where the wind takes me. Wasn't exactly my idea to come out here. I figured I might as well since I felt it was my duty." Sharpe says to Jack.

He keeps looking about. The beeping is still going, but he's not sure from where. He pulls out the jewelry he found in his room, and holds it to his ear, but it's definitely not that. It seems a bit faint anyway, as if coming from down the hall.

"I got a bad feeling about that beeping, we should go look. And when I mean bad, I mean bad."

He starts searching some bookshelves in the room with the weirdest titles he's ever seen, but again. no avail. The beeping is either under something heavy, or not originating from the room. He pokes his head outside the room and looks left and right, but nobody is there. Jian must still be asleep.

Dr. Atrium doesn't care about the slight beeping that everyone is hearing. Even though the girl doesn't hug him when he hugs her, she doesn't fight to get out of his grasp so it shows that she is trusting him more and more. He lets her go and looks over to the men in his room.

"Sharpe, I would think you know more about beeps and the tech that goes with it. You should take Jack with you and go find it, I am pretty sure that it is coming from outside. I am going to stay here and chill out."

He watches the men walk out of his room, he shuts the door behind them and sits on the bed with the little girl and looks at her.

"I have been thinking about what to name you and I think I got one, Hitomi. This name is is usually given to girls with especially beautiful eyes and because I love how your eyes look when they change, I think it fits. What do you think? You like the name Hitomi?"

"This castle is that girl's realm. She has control over everything here. She's the reason the doctor went mad. And yet.. he embraces her? curious, very curious"

Jack suddenly halts Sharpe and pauses as he hears foot step

Jack stealthily peers around the corner to see a skinny tall bloke

"No no, this can't be right. those foots steps are farther away and are coming from multiple people, This is fellow is just standing there, looking at something. Seems a bit dubious. Maybe those foots steps are the help. Ah what the hell, the chap seems rather harmless. There you go again ol'Jack, worrying about absolutely nothing"

"Why hello there good sir, my name is Jack and this is my acquaintance, Sharpe"

"Wait, Could those devices be whats causing the noise?"

"Would you mind if I took a look at those devices your holding?"

As Jian's getting approached by the man who calls him Jack, he turns around, jumping back quite a bit. "Yo, yo, what the? Who are you, what the? Just sneaking up on me like that. Easy killer, daaamn!", comes from him as he does so. He then wonders what made him react so weird, he had quite a dirty slang to what he said. Magic playing tricks on him or something? Taking a close look, he sees Sharpe with him. So they both met, doesn't mean he's harmless though.

"I do mind, I don't know your business, neither do I know what exactly makes it better if you get to see it. Maybe you're just trying to retrieve what was yours for some kind of plans you had in mind for it?", his tone grew quite serious saying that. He can't let anyone pull any tricks here. He grips the device tight, holding it behind him to prevent it being ripped out of his hands. He then just stares into the other man's eyes, waiting for an elaboration, a good one that is.

While the whole ordeal goes down, Jian feels a sudden warmth to his hand.
Janette peaks around from behind Jian.

"Excuse me, there's no reason to fight." She says in a light tone.
"If you require a transfer to another wing, I can arrange that." She offers Jian who is clearly tense. "If not, I suggest you voice at a low, we wouldn't want to disturb anyone's work." She says with an almost creepy smile and takes a nod at the two servants behind her. With beat expressions on them they turn and make their way to the door to Janette's room. She takes a deep bow and turns making her way back to her room.

As she enters, one of the servants follows her. The other is about to step through the door as well as Jian's device sounds a sharp beep, now much louder since it isn't suppressed by the vent's cover. The servant stops abruptly and turns its head slowly towards Jian, staring at him with a dead yet intense expression. The beeping does not continue and the servant steps through the door and closes it behind him.

The two red dots disappear off of the screen of the device.

Sharpe moves his eyebrows up his face and just watches as Janette appears from nowhere. At least to him.

"You are not bound by the truest chains, Jian. Don't worry, this guy's ok. For now. I'll let him introduce himself. All I gotta say is at least we have a bit more muscle now. Just what I was looking for honestly."

He stuffs the jewelry back into his coat pocket, as he realizes he hadn't done it while exiting Doc's room. He crosses his arms and leans on the wall.

"There was a beeping noise I was concerned with, and it seems to be coming from this hall. I'm getting worried it might be something... suspect and dangerous."

Dr. Atrium waits for some sort of sign of Hitomi liking her name or not. After about a minute though without her doing anything but looking at him, he decides that she doesn't hate it. He gets off the bed and paces for a bit, thinking to himself.
Does that man really thing that this poor girl really is controlling this realm? There is no way that could be true. The picture he as of her is proof that she can't. If she could control this place, why would she want to live in an old house with dirt floor when she could make it so she is living in this castle?

He hears voices outside, but he dismisses them. If it was important, Sharpe would get him. He goes back to pacing and thinking.

"So this is Sharpe's other comrade. Why would such a casual bloke be associated with a veteran and a highly skilled sorcerer. Unless, this entire harmless portrayal of himself is merely a facade. For all I know, this man could be a blood thirsty lethal vector. And yet, I approached him so casually and disregarded those footsteps. I'm letting my guard down too easily. Could she be driving me mad just like the doctor? Oh damn it all, I don't want to think about it."

"It seems you two know each other quite well. I apologize for intruding... my goodness what is that!!!"
Jack immediately grabs the silver device right from Jian's hand. Jack is so excited by the presence of such intricate technology that he completely disregarded all of his previous thoughts
"This must a highly advanced electronic. Yes yes, the ancients would've referred to this device as a redare if I do recall."

"Be vague, They'll only think your mad if you tell them the truth"

"Sorry, I fancy myself a bit of a historian as well. Uh, anyways, yes this is a redare. It works like a map, but instead of showing landmarks, it shows a person's current position. This is incredible haha...oh dear..."

Jack closely examined the radar's screen to make sure he wasn't seeing things that weren't there"

"If I'm right, this dot should be the doctor and this cluster of symbols should be the three of us. Who here is the skull and crossbones?"

As it got ripped out of his hand, he streches his arm a bit to retake it, but then just stops. "Tch!", that's all that comes from him. "Not even the manners to introduce himself, what a rude "Partner" you seem to have met, Sharpe.", he says and walks past them. "But he suits you perfectly.", comes from him as he swifts past Sharpe's right. He walks back down the corridor to check on the doc, which at least had some manners throughout this whole thing going down.

He enters the room, his face clearly annoyed. "Hey there doc, how's it going? That new... fellow, I will call him, what's up with him? What a rude start it was, just ripping things out of my hand like they're his. Not even his reasons were mentioned, nothing. I hope you can help telling me more.", Jian hopes for an explanation. As Jack, at least that's how he calls himself, denied doing so, even though he was told to do that before getting that unknown item he found.

He sits down and looks at the girl. "She's completely up and at it aswell, hm? Good to see that's she's alright.", he adds to his short rant. He doesn't know if she even likes him or not, not that he has done anything to know about that. His eyes jump back to the doc though, to hear out his explanation.

He shoots Jack a look of disappointment.

"I was expecting you to introduce yourself. I'll say, you definitely did an excellent job of leaving a foul taste in his mouth. Jain is not very trusting of people at first, and values civility, even if you are the pretense of posh and arrogant enemies."

He extends his hand, palm up and open.

"May I have that "ray-dar" back so that I might return it to Jain? Finder's keepers." He retracts his hand a little.

"Actually, how about you go apologize, and return that trinket to him. I think it would mean more to him if you did. Might clear up the muck between you two. Don't be selfish." Sharpe turns and begins walking back to the rooms.

Dr. Atrium stops pacing and watches Jian walk into his room. Looks as though he has met our newest member of our group. He chuckles at what he says.

"Yup, she is doing well. Her name is Hitomi by the way. As for the clockmaker, I'm am not really sure why he is here. All he told me was that he was invited to come to this place by the mistress. He has a magic gun and he also thinks that Hitomi controls this place. I know he is wrong about that. Yes, the man is a bit rude. I kinda snapped when he tried to order me around, if you want to know the details, talk to Sharpe. I just forget I did that....So is there anything I can do to help?"

"I guess it was rude to just snatch it from him and dangerous considering he could've crushed every single bone in my hand at moments notice, but bloody hell, I could've sworn I introduced myself before those servants walked in...wait... Oh Jian, first your a hyper lethal vector, now your a genius as well."

"Sharpe look at the radar. Now that Jian has left, the dot the represented him has moved towards the dot representing Dr. Atrium. This dot represents one of us while the skull and cross bones represents the other."

The entire time, Jack has felt like the entire castle was trying to kill him. He was unphased by the possibility that someone marked him on a radar like a target. The pain of his brother's death made him immune to the fear of it so long as he could die knowing the truth. All he cared about was gathering as many clues as possible to find out what was going on.

but what if Sharpe is the target...

Jack's voice turned timid, almost as if there was a man behind Sharpe ready to strangle the veteran
"uh, I guess I'll walk towards Dr.Atriums room to see which one of us is marked and check up on the girl and return this to Jian like you said. Don't move for a couple of seconds if you wouldn't mind."

"Who would want to kill Sharpe, and why didn't those servant appear on this blasted thing?damn, damn, damn it all! Something bad is going to happen soo, I just know it"

before he walked, Jack noticed there was an extra dot on the map

"I'm getting to excited, all this anxiety is clouding my mind. Maybe nothing will happen and this is all just a dead end"

"Hitomi it is, hm? Sounds like an eastern name, something people would use in a neighbouring country where I used to live. How did you come up with it?", speaks Jian, very curious, "Also, about that other person. I am fairly sure that I'll try not to cross my path with him too much. I don't feel like dealing with a rough man who lacks more manners than Sharpe. I mean Sharpe already kind of lacks them, that's a fact, but he just flings overboard."

Jian shakes his head saying that. He rather would want a mastermind to help with this. Somebody who doesn't work with his muscles. That would somebody he could associate more, rather than short-tempered fighters, killing or at least disabling everything that crosses thier path. Doc's doing it right in his opinion, he uses his mind and magic to help, and only fights when only driven to do so. Jian respects him a lot for his mentality.

Sure, Jian nearly went to kill his brother, but that goes way back, there's a lot of history behind it. Sharpe probably killed tons of people without them having a history that goes back with him. At least that's how it looks to him.

"Well then Hitomi...", he starts, "I know we haven't talked much, or rather... at all. I would like to know more about you, if that's okay. Would you like to talk a bit?"

Jian gives a really warm-hearted and honest smile. Talking normally to someone really relieves him. Hopefully, he's able to at least get a few words out of her. Even if it's a "Not now" or "I don't feel like it". Just hearing something that shows that she understands him is enough. He eagerly waits with his hopes up, not breaking his smile.

Hitomi observes the strange beings she encountered in the forest. She had been with them for quite a while now but strange as they were they seemed to have a structure. Nothing at all like the other creatures she had encountered. These were more civil. Not tense.

She tilts her head a little, staring at Jian. After a moment she tilts it to the other side and turns to face Atrium. She did not understand the odd noises they made at her. There were no growls or hisses, but different tones placed in such a way that they seemed to form some sort of common understanding amongst the strange beings.

Unable to understand she simply smiles contently. Not a whole hearted smile, but a soft and complient one.

"Alright." he says simply. He observes Jack's stride and posture as he walks. Man seems somewhat arrogant. Hopefully he's the kind who'd realize it later.

As he stands there waiting, he finds himself reflecting on the events and his behavior. He was really tensed-up in the main hall, and upon meeting Clarent. It seems he was maybe a little spooked by the place, and was anxious to do his job. Still. He feels that perhaps Jian and Doc were right, he should have been more civil. It might have given them away more, as his agitation might have been an easy clue to his intents. He sighs. He resolves that in the future, he'll be more presentable.

He looks back down the hall.

"So am I the one with the Jolly Roger or is it you?" he calls out.

"Hitomi is a name is is usually given to girls with especially beautiful eyes. I really like her eyes then she changes then. Also, after trying to talk to her for a few days, I believe that she doesn't speak any language that we speak. She may have her own language but I would doubt that. It makes me wounder who took the picture of her that I have." Dr. Atrium says to Jian.

He walks over to him and Hitomi and shows her the picture. He hopes that she will remember when this picture was taken and maybe who took the picture. As he is showing the picture to her, he looks over and sees Jack walk in.

"everything alright Mr. Clockmaker? Where is Sharpe and what do you have in your hands? Is that the thing that you took out of Jian's hands?"

Disclaimer:

"He's just outside. Excuse me."
*leans outside the doorway*
"Sorry Sharpe, false alarm, the skull and cross bone symbol is probably being caused by a malfunction, come on in."
Jack looks back inside the room to see that there has been a fairy there the entire time

"HAHAHAHAHA, it all makes sense. First, I accuse the doctor's patient of being you with no reasonable evidence. Then, I miss a simple dot on a redare. Now, I find that there's been a fairy in this room the entire time which I never noticed. Ah yes, your making me delirious just like you made the doctor go mad. Considering you control this realm, and you've shown your abilities to manipulate the mind, one can easily assume you can read thoughts. What do you know of my brother? What do you want with me? I don't know if you plan to kill me or not, but I demand answers regardless."

"It seems the common trait everyone in this room shares is a terrible first impression of myself. I do apologize as I've had too much to drink and too little sleep. If I may reattempt introducing myself, my name is Jack Sampson. My reasons for being here, profession, and what I have told you about my brother has been true, but I would encourage you to disregard everything else."

Jack looks down towards the fairy

"Why hello there m'lady. I guess I didn't get a chance to meet you because of how I was rushed out of the room earlier"

Jack speaks in a somewhat joking and patronizing tone knowing fully well fairies can't speak english from studies in one or another obscure textbook or encyclopedia. Normally, Jack would be somewhat harsh towards a being of magic, but the innocent look of her delicate face inspired a calm warming aura in his smile and voice.

Jian acknowledges the words of the Doc, then seeing the clockmaster walk in. He silently looks at Jack. Shaking his head again. For him it won't cut with a simple restart. He trusted Air and Doc faster than he should've, without consequences so far. But that was because they just seemed like nice people. Sharpe is not fully in the clear for him, and Jack, well he won't be clear for quite some time after this. Too much to drink? No. He just can't believe that, or that person is just a big alcoholic, which could be plausible then. But so far, he knows nothing, so he won't believe anything from the get-go. Jack then approaches the fairy. He's suspicious, what would make him out of all people talk to her? He uses the oppurtunity though, walks up to jack, and rips the item out of his hands again.

"Playtime's over. I found this, so I'll take my time to finally inspect this... In peace."
He swifts past Jack to go back to his room. Entering the hallway he aims for his room, but there's a shadow appearing at the end of that corridor. A female person talking to somebody else can be heard. He walks slower to listen closely.

"Wh-! Shit!", he silently mumbles to himself. "It's her!"
It was the voice of the girl in the tank-top, the one that's looking for him. What is she doing here?! How could she possibly known about all this?! He takes a run to his room, quickly entering it, closing the door, then hiding next to it that when somebody opens it, they would just see an empty room. His heart is pounding, his pressure is racing. Why here?

Near Jian's room... The voices exchange some inaudible sentences, though it is clear who is speaking. Then some foodsteps march down the hall towards him. They stop for a brief moment, right outside his door, but moments later continue on down the hall, occasionally stopping and then growing more distant still.

The woman in the tank-top and one of the more healthier looking maids that had recently attended the dinner but then was sent out with a set of keys, pacing the hallways. "...The head-maid Janette is past the doors we had just come from, and some of our visitors are staying here aswell." They come around the corner and see Sharpe making his way to atriums room. The woman in the tank top points in question.
The maid nods. "Yes, he is one of the other few guests we have at the castle right now. Let's continue, shall we?" They start moving again as sharpe enters the room, the woman in the tank top giving him a stare of recognition. Together they end up at the end of the hallway and the maid opens the door for the woman. "This will be your quarters for the next few days. Please enjoy your stay, madame.  And if I can do anything for you, Janette and I are on opposite sides just down the hall. Oh and... My name is Ayame, for reference."

The door closes and Ayame makes her way back to her quarters, sighing in exhaustion of todays events.


Meanwhile in Atriums room... The fairy curiously cocks her head at Jack and then looks back at atrium. She then wraps an arm around his and leans against him, as she ponders the strange creatures surrounding her with curious eyes. Sharpe enters the room and two people can be seen walking past him as he does.

As Sharpe walks into the doorframe to the room, he takes note of the two who walk past. He'll ask that Ayame girl a few things, since she seems to have much more life in her than the rest of the meat sacks he usually sees. And she certainly doesn't seem as imposing as that Janette girl. This girl, she's like a shrinking violet, maybe a Yamata Nadeshiko, but he doesn't know. She seems rather sweet and kind, not unlike Airgetlam.

He looks between Doc and Jack, shifting his eyes, seeing if they are coming to any understandings, but it looks like they still have issues. He looks at the little girl and smiles. He realizes that he hasn't honestly had any contact with the girl since he brought her into group. He doesn't have a clue as to what she thinks of him.

He kneels down to her level, and looks her straight in the eye.

"You can't understand us, can you? I'm going to try something."

He keeps his gaze and instead of saying his words aloud, chooses to thinking them, and initiate himself into a rather loose and open state of mind. Can you understand me? I'm sorry if we don't speak in a tongue or even tone you know, but we'd love to hear a response from you, little one. You mean a lot to Doc, and I never got to really introduce myself to you when I saved you from... whatever was trying to kill you. I am Sharpe, and I'm sorry if I appear really gruff. I'm a very nice man on the inside though. Could you nod your head if you can hear my thoughts?

He waits there for a time, wondering if she'll give him a response. He hopes she does.

Dr. Atrium looks down at Hitomi smiling at her when she wraps her arm around his arm. He uses his free hand to rub her head. He looks at Jack and frowns a bit, he notices something he didn't before. Now that he is back to his right mind, he recognizes the look on Jacks face, more of his eyes. The man is uneasy with him. He grew up around that look, it was the look of people who don't like or was scared of what he could do. He can understand why he would be felling like that, he did just attack the man with his magic. Not the best thing to do to people exactly if they don't like or hate magic. He sighs and shakes his head, he hopes the man will give him another chance to prove he isn't a bad man.
He watches as Jian takes the box thing way from Jack and runs out of his room. He chuckles and shakes his head. When he is done enjoying the moment, Sharpe walks in. He notices the people walk behind him. He makes a note to himself about that. Hopefully they wont try to stop what they are here to do. He watches Sharpe walk up to Hitomi, this is the first time he as decided to make any action toward her. He tilts his head when Sharpe says he is going to try something, then all he does is gets to her height and just stares at her. After a few of silents he decides to brake it.

"So Sharpe, what are you doing? What was the idea you had to talk to her? I would like to talk to her I mean, she has been with us for about three days now. I would like to know what she is thinking in her little head. I can see that she is starting to trust us, I mean look. She is holding on to my arm, when we first met her, she wouldn't even crawl out of the sleeping bag."

He chuckles thinking back to it, she was a wild one. He is glad that she hasn't changed and attacked them other then the very first time. He stops remembering and looks up at Jack.

"So what was that box thing that Jian was so happy to get back? Was that the cause of the beeping? If it is, why was it beeping, was it broken?"

Jack was completely oblivious to whether fairys could read thoughts. He was doing his best to dawn a loving and kind face, unaware that all the while he was being read like a book, and what Hitomi read was not as comforting as his face.

I don't have anyway of fighting you. I can't threaten you. Bloody hell, I don't even know what you look like. There's so many things I don't know and can't do. You know that. I know you know that. But these are all temporary problems. I'LL FIND YOU! I'LL THREATEN YOU! I'LL FIGHT YOU! I'll kill you if necessary! Mark my words. You are now an enemy of Johnathon A. Sampson and the worst thing you can do as my enemy is dare to underestimate what I can do."

"It wasn't just a 'box'. It's a highly sophisticated machinery known as a redare. I haven't seen anything something so intricate and finely crafted in all my years as a clockmaker. Jian is nowhere near qualified at examining it, but it is my fault for snatching it crudely from the lad, so I don't mind him toying around with it so long as he doesn't break it. As for the beeping sound, I do believe its a feature of the device instead of a defect. If what I know about redares is correct, its looking for something. The volume of the beeping noise is supposed to represent how close it is to whatever it has been ordered to track. And Sharpe. I would give up on trying to talk with the fairy girl. I was merely making a jest when I spoke to her. Very few people have ever come in contact with fairys before which can only mean that fairys wouldn't be have ever learned any human languages. Poor girl can't understand anything resembling what were saying"

Jack reaches out to pat Hitomi on the head. Hitomi gives a frightened look, holding the good doctor's arm firmly.

"Oh, what wrong with the girl. She looks as if I was some sort of blood thirsty psychopath out for blood. Maybe she just nervous around so many humans"

Jack retracts his hand feeling slightly offended by the swift rejection.

"Uh, I guess I'll go off to see Jian. Perhaps I could apologize for our previous encounter"

Jian, still leaning against the wall next to the inside of the door, is being frozen. The voice fades and only the others are barely hearable, but that doesn't let him calm down. They're here, that's more than enough of a concern he has to worry about. He just wants to leave now, as soon as possible. Get away and just avoid any unnecessary conflicts. In the worst case, he would have to take her on, which he obviously would not be capable of. The device he ripped out of Jack's hands are totally not in his interest anymore, so he lets it slide into the other pocket where the amulet is not in. Now both pockets are stuffed. He can hear footsteps approaching his room and he presses his back against the wall again, he tries to be in a spot where the door's deadzone won't reach his body, halting the door to blow his cover. He closes his eyes and hopes for the best, it's like a hidden survival instinct is kicking in.

Sharpe, disappointed at the lack of response, gets up and looks to Doc to answer his question.

"I thought maybe she could communicate telepathically or something, mind-to-mind. Guess even that failed. Her name is Hitomi, right? I think I heard you saying it while I was out in the hall."

He rubs Hitomi's hair gently and smiles.

"Such a nice name for such a pretty little girl."

He puts his hands in his coat pockets.

"Well, I guess I'd better get going, I wanted to ask that made some questions. Sorry to disturb, man."

He turns around and starts walking down the hall in the Maid's direction and knocks on her door, It would be impolite to simply try the knob.

"Hello young miss, I would like to speak with you if I can. It's the Swordsman, Sharpe." He yells so she can hear.

He hears a string of sounds from behind the door, likely locks and the door mechanism being manipulated. As he waits, he glances over at the other door, the one that other woman went into, but he doesn't remember what she looked like, he never caught her appearance.

"It's ok Sharpe, I like your company."

He calls out to him as he leaves. He looks over at Hitomi and gets an idea of how to communicate with her. He walks to his bag pack and gets a pad of paper and a quill and brings them to her. He pulls out a charm that goes with the quill and puts the charm to his head then touches the charm to the quill. The moment the charm touches quill, it leaps out of his hand and starts to scribble away on the paper. The quill starts to draw a picture about how to use the quill and charm in very basic pictures. He gives Hitomi the picture and then hands her the charm and quill.

"Here you go little one, why don't you give this a shot. I use this on my patients who can't talk or to the ones I can't understand."