Recudor: Party's House

Airgetlam gets up and heads for the staircase.

"Tell you what, while you all decide on what you're going to do with her, I'm going to take a little walk, go ahead and save some food for me though." She says and goes up to her room, putting on her long pants and boots and her cloak, and only the short sword, as she doesn't think she'll be needing the crossbow until they do some serious work. She keeps the hood down and goes back to the living room.

"Don't want to come back to a smoking crater, ok?" She jests and leaves to go on her walk, heading towards the market to see what wares there are today.

Richard sighs as the illusion fades, allowing his shoulders to fall. "Tch. Figures. The image was perfect, but the sound was off. Shoulda figured." He makes a mental note of trusting his own senses more and turns around to face Jericho yet again after hearing what he has to say, this time a more agitated look applied. "... You'd ask me to put faith in you, yet produce illusions to fool my senses. Tactful. Great for negotiation, those." He pauses, allowing for those words to sink in, before continuing.

"You say i know nothing about her, and... you're right. Personally, i don't know her... But then again, that's true for each and every person here other than yourself and Doc Atrium. Hell, you two are the only ones who can confirm she even exists. Other than that, all we know is that this 'Lady Aura', formerly 'Lady Dahaka' was once in contact with a demon who then stole her body. As Jack put it there's a fair chance she could be fooling both you and the Doc. He's right in the fact the doll is indeed weak, and would probably have little to no potential to cast, but you know as well as i do that all you need is the intent to do harm. A functioning body, of ANY kind is enough to accomplish a goal you're determined to see though. With everything that's going on we have too many openings. We can't keep an eye on everything. We'd be spreading ourselves too thin having to keep an eye out for her as well..."


His sight shifts down to the trap in Jericho's hands, his eyes slimming as he grows ever more suspicious.


"As you know well that Clarent was a potential candidate for being possessed right? You don't think this Aura saved her knowing damn well she has that capacity? That at perfect health there is a possibility she could regain a semblance of the warmth having flesh and bone brings?... No offense, Frazil." He comments offhand, remembering the visitor supposedly used to BE a body of water. "You also may have not known, but I too suggested that getting the trap back onto Clarent might be what's best for her health, i mentioned it after hearing her situation earlier from Atrium."

He sighs, "...But see, i can tell by your actions that none of that is getting through to you. You demand that WE deal with her, not caring whether it brings good or ill. Seeing as you'll be relinquishing control back to 'the Good Doctor' soon, you won't have to deal with it for the most part, but we will. Which is exactly why i proposed we handle it in such a way. I'm not saying there isn't a possibility that she is not a good person, what i'm saying it that in the off chance her intentions aren't just, YOU would have your eye on her, as YOUR responsibility instead of dumping this conundrum on us and then just up and leaving."

RD looks back to Jericho, arms crossed and his gaze darkens even further.

"Instead you only see yourself as the victim here. All I see right now is a selfish man who thinks himself cornered and fully intends to whatever he wants to force others to see the only way of thinking he feels is right; his own. 'Be damned those who do not adhere to my path' Amirite? ...I'm trying to reason with you, still allowing you to have your chance at introducing her to us, but letting you know that she is YOUR responsibility if this is what you intend to do. As your responsibility your first duty to the people your are introducing an unknown element to is to get the 'OK' from them first. You, and to a further extent Atrium cannot keep bringing all of these; for lack of a better phrase; 'pet projects'..." Richard gestures not only to the soultrap, but the cat and Hitomi, "...into a group you both co-ordinate with and then expect that group to be held responsible for any problems those 'projects' may cause. And, yes, sure, maybe you and Atrium both see substance in freeing this essence by allowing it to occupy the doll and he'll take care of it as he does his own... but seeing the way you act around Hitomi and the cat he picked up, we can only hope, right? Have you even fed them lately?"

RD then realizes something brought up by Frazil, "She does have a point though. Since when did you even care about the plight of others? You used to be so set on accomplishing that goal of yours that another person's personal situation didn't matter to you..."

Richard pauses, "You even traded another's life for your own to cement that point."

He closes his eyes and slowly shakes his head, dismissing the past... for the moment.

"Doesn't matter in the end though. I guess at the end of the day Point-Man has the right of it. She trips up, i'll cleave her so fast you'll think she was in a Guillotine."

Saying all he had to say and trusting that Sharpe safely had the rest of the matter in hand RD turns and hastily leaves the house merely saying "I've got a lead I want to follow, i'll catch up later." As he heads towards the market.

...

Why.
"Why What."
Why would you force yourself through such a trial?
"I have my reasons. Not something you'd understand."
Allow me, I'll handle it for you.
"I've got this. I don't need your help with this. I never do-"
HA! You know as well as i do that's not true.
"Tch. Doesn't matter, you're a terrible negotiator. Its beyond you."
I don't need to negotiate. If you'd give me the reins, you wouldn't need to either...
"You know, I kinda like interacting with people. I kinda like being an unknown element. Not having to worry about watching my own back. I haven't seen either one of them in awhile and its a damn good thing to be running with a group i can agree with again. That and you'd never hand em back if i did. I'll admit, I'm rather attached to this life. I'll admit, I've even allowed you to do what you want every now and then just to make sure i keep it; but you're not needed for this. Its a simple difference in opinion. That's all."
... If that was true... If you hadn't considered it... We wouldn't even be talking right now.
"..."
Heh... See, THAT is why I like you so much... Remember, if you ever get sick of these amusing lil' games you humans like to play, I'll be here... Just call...
"Dammit."

Jian listens closely. Hearing out everything in the room bit by bit. Then also replaying the flashback of what went down in Castle Vikuur back in the day. Eyes closed, he leans in towards the table, his fingertips holding his forehead as he thinks for a moment. Things really were crazy in there afterall.

It all leaves him somewhat torn, on one hand, Jericho is having a point with her helping them to get Clarent back on her feet. But RD makes some good standpoints here too. Leaving her with the "Good Doctor" and the others after doing so is quite a stunt to pull.
In all, it still outweighs that there's too many things opposing this. Part of it also being that hint of historical bias reeking from his thoughts. He can't help but cringe imagining that once more. He then takes a pause from RDs speaking to use it for him to add something to this.

"You see, and I am sorry to just interrupt there RD, I feel like, even if she helped us with Clarent, that this is a risky idea. As Richard said, you are going to soon be the old kind, the one we originally met, leaving us with everything that comes from this.

The last thing we all need, given that we had a HUGE hassle in that castle, is to have something similar happen once more. Now, I might not be the one to speak, as my capabilities of fighting anything like that would not really add to be helpful in a way. But look at this in a way of me having the touch of understanding things on a more... personal level, feelings and the likes.

It really does sound like a mostly selfish motive you're having there. And some kinds of people tend to gain trust by doing something for you BEFORE doing something that will harm you in a way that immidiately is more of a gain. I usually fall for those kinds myself, but in this case, I think there's enough to back up that I am fairly aware of when they will try to pull something.

As RD stated though. I guess I am ready to face you pulling your little... trick to make this happen. But also being prepared for this getting nasty, I am confident that nobody will stop in any way to tear her down if she tries to go rouge.

Though... As for me, the best would be to not even go down that path, so I am not for it, but ready to deal with it.

That said, I'll follow Airgetlam. We have something to work on and I would personally use this chance to maybe take a look at some surroundings to figure out something new for our "investigation"."

He slowly gets up from his chair, stretching. He nods at RD already leaving, his focus going back to Jericho. Jian barely had direct contact with him, more with the doc he knows, so he can't go past anything more but to judge by the few actions he saw by now, leaving him with a mixed outcome, tendency being negative though. He tilts his head at him, a somewhat grim expression forming before getting ready upstairs, followed by him leaving the house.

The words that RD said hit him like a brick. He just wanted to do this one nice deed, and he is being told that he is selfish. He looks sad and defeated. He watches the people leave to head out and do whatever they wish. He turns to th people that are left. He does feel a bit better they will at lest let Aura speak and plead to them. He will keep Aura with him where ever he goes and will have to remove the Soultrap before Atrium takes over. He walks over to the doll and puts the trap around her neck and waits for her to speak to him.

Clarent crosses her legs and rests her elbows on the table, letting her head in turn rest on her hands as she watches the scene unfold. She can't help but feel bad for the man who saved her life. She wants to sympathize but she is also wary of the return of the spirit that supposedly stole her body away from her. It wouldn't be the first time, but she certainly wants to keep it as her last time, and herself intact and healthy.


Jericho analyzes the doll, making sure it's dormant and doesn't try to do anything. With his magic fully restored he can feel the constant pull of the other master, as they seem to struggle to keep control of the doll themselves. A grim reminder of how little time he himself has left.
They are either an amateur or working far more of these creatures then first imagined, which would explain why each of these dolls is so fragile and weak. In theory, with enough magic and a good structure, a Golem like this should be fully able to do heavy lifting or other advanced tasks like  holding up a gate or stopping a moving carriage.

Everything seems to be in order with the doll. Jericho presents the necklace that contains the vampire's spirit and gently pulls it overtop of the dolls head.

The changes are subtle at first. A quick flickering of the eyes from green to silver to yellow, then back to silver again, finally resting at a gold-silver shine.
The artificial hair slowly fades in colour, untill it turns from a midnight black into a platinum snow white and the black gothic dress turns into a red, slim but flowing, fencing garment of sorts.

For just a moment the doll simply stands there staring off into the distance. Then a mild jitter of the eyes and the doll almost mechanically snaps its head to look directly at Clarent who is sitting next to Sharpe. For a moment it's gaze looks like it is flashing with hunger, but then its features become soft and it looks away, over to Jericho, almost ashamed of itself. A brief moment of analyzing later it looks down at its hands, folding and clenching them over and over in wonder.
"It has been so long..." Aura says, bewildered and shocked, though the tone in her voice suggests she is happy. She looks back at Jericho and gives a light smile; "I see I am mistaken. You are anything but formless yourself..." she corrects herself, probably based on a previous unheard statement.

Sharpe puts his arm around Clarent's shoulder and puts a hand on his gun's grip for a moment, but then lightens and relaxes, putting his right arm on the table, but keeping his hand firmly on Clarent's shoulder. He observes her for a few more moments, but then watches as she utters to Jericho her first words in a very long time.

"You going to kiss and hug too?" He says to them, smirking. "No urges to take over the world, or dominate the will of the nearest person?" He looks at Clarent and smiles at her, then looking back again at Aura and Jericho.

"I'll stick around a while longer, then I'm going to have to run along. Did Jian ever finish breakfast? I think he did." He says, and gets up to grab a plate of whatever Jian ended up making.

Jericho smiles when he sees Aura take form. He bows before her.

"It is good to meet you and talk to you outside the Soultrap. I am not sure if you were able to hear what was going on, but no one here seems to trust you. I want to introduce you to the people who are left."

Jericho turns and frowns when he hears what Sharpe says.

"The man there is Sharpe. He tends to try to tell jokes to lighten the mood. He is also a merc for hire. Next to him is Clarent, though I am sure you already know her."

He then turns and gestures to Jack.

"This...This is Jack. I am not sure what he does for a living, but he is here living with us."

Jericho steps aside so Aura can meet the few that stayed.

Jack imagined what it must have been like to spend so long without limbs, eyes, or ears. Nothing to see, hear, or feel. Nothing to experience but the sheer concept of nothingness itself with only the occasional conversation with one of two total strangers to break the silence and prevent one from slipping into total insanity. The thought gave him chills down his spine. Assuming Lady Aura's experience living inside the soul trap was anything remotely similar to that, she had all of Jack's sympathy. He didn't mention that while everyone was debating whether to put her soul in the doll to sound as unbiased as possible, but he was so glad she had a body now. He felt guilty, not standing up for Jericho while Richard was yelling at him, but he wasn't going to start a fight with an ex military mercenary handing out threats of decapitation. He heard Jericho introduce Lady Aura to him.

"Greetings and salutations madame! As Jericho just said, my name is Jack. John Sampson is my full name, but everyone I came across would call me Jack and it just stuck from there on out. I'm a professional clock maker and a mechanical tinkerer in my spare time. Every single time I've tried to make a good first impression with anyone living under this roof, it has been a total complete failure, so why stop now? The entire reason I'm here is because a voice in my head said that the heavens wanted me to join this group. Am I going mad? Probably. I hate to brag, but even so, I'm pretty sure i'm on the upper half of the sanity spectrum of this whole motely crew. As much as I'd like to give you a warm welcome and a cheery good morning, instead, I have to warn you that roughly half the group doesn't trust you at all as a result of your 'Lady Dahaka' past. I'm not one of those people, but I'm not going to say who is out of respect for their privacy. Just don't do anything suspicious and I'm sure they'll warm up to you eventually...I hope. I'm almost certain I've covered most of the important topics, so with all that out of the way, good morning Lady Aura."

After getting over the initial shock and confusion of what Clarent was witnessing, she couldn't help but giggle remembering once again the 'upper half' getting flung across the street right into the arms of the guard. The thought filled her with some temporary mischievous comfort.

Aura takes in and analyzes every person in the room, her cold exterior hard to read due to it's uncanny features. She attempts a brief bow, getting used to the dolls limitations, and returns the greeting.
"Greetings, Ser Jack, and others." she smiles an unsure smile, making a subtle note of Jack being the leader of this group of adventurers. "I'm Aura of Vikuur, once heir to the throne a long time before the pure. I assure you my best wishes and wish you no harm." she then specifically gestures towards Clarent, "Pray forgive me, I was a victim like you, child." she asks of her before stopping briefly.

The sudden complete pause in her motion brings some sense of alarm, but after a brief awkward pause she rights herself up and turns to Jericho with an unsure expression on her face. "It seems... Hm... how curious." she says and looks to the door. "I feel the shared bond between my cast, yourself, and the other master. She is dining at a mere public locale, near some powerful people somewhere not far from here."

Sharpe sets down his plate of food, and before he gets to eating, he gives a small, unofficial salute to Aura. He begins to eat, taking his time with what was prepared and rather enjoying it. At the mention of the other controller of the body being nearby, Sharpe abruptly stops eating and looks up.

"Which direction does it feel like it's coming from? The markets? If that's the case I'd be willing to put my plans on hold to find whoever it is that sent the dolls after us last night."

Jericho can't help but smile as he watches Aura talk to the few that remained here. His smile quickly fades though when he hears that she can feel there the other controller is.

"This is good. You are able to lead us to the fail cur that attacked us during the night. Seeing how this little group's leader seems to be as eager to meet her as I am, I think we should go find this person and thank them for your new body."

Jericho then frowns, remebering some of the things that RD had said.

"Give me a moment to get ready. I think it would be best if we took care of this as fast as we can."

He then walks into the kitchen and grabs two plates and fills them with whatever meat that Jian had cooked. He walks over to the corner that the little fairy girl is sitting in and puts the plat down for her.

"I am sorry that I have not feed you. I am not used to taking care of anyone other then me...please forgive me and enjoy the food"

He rubs her head and walks to the table where the white cat is sitting. He puts the plat down for it as well.

"As I am sure you heard, I am not used to taking care of other living things. I a sorry for not feeding you. Please enjoy the food"

With that done, Jericho turns around and smiles.

"Ok, I am all set. Lets find us a doll maker."

"Well I think everyone is getting a little too antsy. A public place nearby full of powerful people, or in other words, strong mercenaries perhaps. Lady Aura is probably talking about the militia tent. Even if I was thinking about disobeying Richard's advice, it would be unwise for me to show up there of all places. That leaves you two to confront her. The fact that she's after us implies she knows exactly what we look like. The reason she sent the dolls after us must be that she didn't want us to capture her and force her to tell us why she was after us, so she'll probably run the moment she lays eyes on you. It's broad daylight and heavily crowded, so she could easily create a commotion to make her escape. After all, two men approaching a girl with less than honest intent seems rather suspicious, and assuming it really is the militia camp, a commotion is the last thing you want to start. Jericho, could you or Atrium still cast that disguise spell you used last night? If so, you and Sharpe could go on a reconnaissance mission, trying to see what she's up to without any risk."

Sharpe gets up from his seat at the table and glances at Jack.

"What makes you think the woman in question's a youngin'? Either way approaching with caution's a good idea, but I've no intent to exactly start a fight. If she runs, alert the guards, they can't ignore somebody being attacked within their city. As much as I'm partial to vigilantism, the guard have their place and when urged properly can be most indispensable." He looks at Jericho, looking him up and down.

"So disguises to me constitute hoods and generally not looking like what you normally look like. My experience dictates that's clothing, but you know how to do something like that to a more discrete level? What'd you two have in mind to that effect?" He asks of them both.

Jericho frowns a bit when the two start talking about discuses. He turns to Lady Aura then sighs a bit.

"If you guys wish to be somewhat discreet about this, then I think we need to go clothe shopping. As much as do like your attire Lady Aura, but most people don't wear that around here. We will need something new so you will be able to blend in with the crowd. As for me, I an always use an illusion to change how I look."

Jericho then turns to Aura.

"If you are ready, I would like to go now. The faster we free you from the other controller, the better."

"Now hold on a tick. She's coming too? That seems a bit problematic. First off, Lady Aura, I apologize in advance for insulting your appearance, but as a doll, the only way you can step outside without raising any suspicion or drawing attention would be to either to use Jericho's disguise illusion spell or have an entire costume's worth in fake human skin. More importantly, I find it extremely hard to believe it's safe for Lady Aura to be anywhere near this woman. It seems like bringing a match next to a canister of gasoline. If Lady Aura as a doll can read this woman's thoughts and sense her presence, wouldn't the opposite be true too? Jericho, Sharpe, I think it's best if you two go on by yourselves. After all, the key to espionage is to take as few risks as possible, right?"

"Point taken." Sharpe says to Jack, as he looks back and forth between him, Jericho, and Aura.

"But that still leaves how we deduce who it is, can Aura get a fix on the controller's appearance? Can she maybe get a more precise position of the target? These are the variables I'd like to have at our disposal." The man looks over at Jericho and Aura in the meanwhile

"Beyond that, I'll be good to go whenever, just let me do a final check."

Jericho cant help but sigh.

"I can tell that you are unfamiliar with magical golems. Let me clear somethings up. First of all, sure they are uncommon to see, but they will not turn a lot of heads. People will see Lady Aura, then go back to their business. Second, I cannot sense where Lady Aura is even though I am one of the controllers. Therefor whomever the other controller is, he/she will not be able to know that we are using Aura to find her. Also, judging by what Aura has said, she cannot just tell us where the other master is, she can only fallow where the pull is. If you are so concerned about how she looks, I have already said that I would get her new clothes to blend in with the crowd. Now I don't want to seem rude, but Aura and I are leaving. I am going to the market, then looking for the master. Fell free to fallow if you wish."

With that Jericho gets up and walks out the door.

"Well now I just feel embarrassed. Maybe I need to do some more homework on golems. Well then, I guess I'm stuck here. I wager by the time it's say to go outside, it'll already be night. Sharpe, I was already assuming you'd join them. Don't worry about me. I have plenty of work to kill the time, and I have Hitomi to keep me company"

Clarent coughs jokingly when Jack comments about Hitomi being the only one to keep him company. 

Jericho, Aura, and whoever else follows make their way over to the Southern Markets to look for the Master.