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Well, we have been waiting on you here. o wo/ ...DM?
Luca nodded slightly. "There's always beds if you know where to look." she said. "They're not particularly safe, but the people there won't want to ask any questions."
Dreadfully, one imagines. XD ...I decided Luca would probably still be cowardly. My plan has always been for her to start coming into her own at Level 7, when she starts getting the interesting summons and sort of has to start taking control of her abilities. That's what I've been working towards this entire time, really, but she's not there *yet*.
"I do think we should wait for the one day. If you run when they really don't want you to, they'll assume you've done something wrong and are trying to hide." Luca noted. "......Well, they just kind of assume I've done wrong things anyway, but one course of action is much more likely to have them actively pursue, rather than decide it's not their problem anymore."
I don't have the life experience to make that kind of a decision! But that was the way of the world, wasn't it? It didn't care what you wanted, and there were times when you'd have to make some sort of a decision before you could get anywhere. "I'd rather... stay with you. I just can't trust any of the churches, not when they've judged you before even thinking about you."
I hadn't seen any posts in a very long time, so I sort of assumed everyone had vanished. >.>; You probably could put Luca into their hands if you want to continue that way. I did want to see her hit Level 7 and really come into her own, but at the current pace, uh... yeah.
"That's how people in power always are." Luca said quietly. "If they think you're a threat, they'll do whatever they can to get rid of you, even if you don't want to oppose them. Most of them don't even bother to ask questions first - they just assume they're right." Which was why she was slightly surprised these ones had bothered to talk to her at all. Maybe their deities would take their powers away if they just went around stabbing people, so they had to get justifications first... Or maybe she was just being paranoid and they really did want to help her. Not everyone was an utter cynic, after all... but then, she literally couldn't control the powers that went through her. What she wanted was usually the least-important detail imaginable.
They still didn't understand - or maybe they just didn't want to understand. Most of the time, it wasn't that she was forced to go places or to do things. She may have been freer than other people, considering bodyguards would appear whenever she needed them. But with their focus, maybe they simply couldn't understand the gnawing fear, the realization that you couldn't escape... sigh. But at least it was over. For now. And nobody had been mauled across the face this time.
The pressure in her mind was growing more intense, more... focused. It had opinions, and she knew better than anyone how much of a problem that could become. "...No." she said quietly. "My desires are the least important of all here, and it doesn't care what I think when it feels like there might be some kind of a threat. I think everyone will be better off if I just... stay quietly at the inn and don't cause trouble for anyone. Send a message if someone has a bright idea or gets useful guidance or benefits from whatever it is priests actually do all day. I doubt you'll have any trouble finding me."
"I'm willing to hear any actual plan you can come up with." Luca answered bluntly. "But I'm not willing to just sit around forever and agree to let you do anything, regardless of how long it will take and whatever it might be. The gods are supposed to know a lot, so ask them if you need a good plan fast enough to get me to stay." After another pause, "...And if they don't answer, well, it wouldn't be the first time they've shown that they don't actually care about me, whatever the churches claim. But don't push Kien or Tyrus out just because of me - they haven't done anything wrong." It was better this way, wasn't it? Adults said whatever was convenient. Only their actions mattered in the end, so that was what she had to rely on in the end. It hurt far, far too much to think that people might actually care about her, only for them to turn their backs on her like almost everyone else had.
"The last time somebody offered to help me get free, they tried to kill me." Luca answered, not trusting them in the slightest. "Do you actually have a plan I can support, and if so, what is it?" After a moment, "I apologize if I seem like I'm not very trusting, but that's because I'm not. It's easy to have noble ideals, but I don't really want to have all of my hopes dashed again. It's a lot easier to live without hope until people prove they deserve it."
"I know that it protects me from anything that might try to hurt me." she said quietly. "Whether that's monsters or orcs or my own family, and regardless of how I feel about it. I don't know what it is or what it's motives are. I don't even know if I can know its motives. Some things aren't as simple as good and evil. Like an earthquake or a volcano, you might lament its damage, but you can't ascribe morality to nature. As for the other question, I've known of it since I was even more of a child, when its minions killed a monster that threatened me and my sister, then slashed her face when she tried to protect me from it. Then my parents threw me in a room to wait while they tried to figure out a plan for dealing with me that wouldn't harm their precious reputations. I didn't ask to be this way, and I still don't want to be... but it's not like I have much of a choice in the matter."
Luca was quiet for a few long moments, literally shaking in her shoes... before one of her small hands clenched into a fist. "And what, exactly, is evil to you?" she asked quietly. "Because I've seen plenty of people hate and fear something they don't understand, even when other people are just as much of a victim of it. And I've seen monsters protect me when nobody else would. I don't know why - maybe I can't know why, nobody promised that everything in the world would make sense. I'm just a dumb, stupid, ignorant child, but if people would start looking at what things actually do instead of how different they are, maybe they'd be able to tell who the real monsters are."
-Patpat- Yeah, they do that if you take too long to post.
I wonder if I can sneak a poison pill in. "Th-th-then m-my guardian sh-should definitely c-come with us..." Luca stammered out, looking like she was having a very hard time mustering the courage to talk at all.
Luca Group: Luca looked at Kien and Tyrus for a moment, then swallowed nervously. How could she do this without being rude...? You didn't want to insult people or make it sound like they didn't know what they were doing. In which case... she needed more information. "Um, h-has the honored master of the temple said what sort of questions he has? I'm a nobody, a-and I would dreadfully hate to waste the time of such a great man if it turns out there was a misunderstanding somewhere."
Luca Group!: "Um, wh-which temple?" Luca asked, looking very frightened at the thought of going anywhere near a building full of priests.
"Um, c-can I help you?" Luca asked, wary (as always) around people she didn't know. That was one of the things her family had taught her, actually. You never knew when someone else was a rival sniffing around your business, so you had to be constantly alert and observant around strange faces. Merchants ought to do that anyway because it would help you spot new opportunities, so it was really something of a two-for-one deal... exactly the sort of thing merchants loved to get, though they were hesitant to offer.
Gotcha. ^^ And I'm still hanging around!
Right-o. ^^
Luca looked at Tyrus like she thought he was losing further marbles. "I think I'd rather stay closer, where it's safer." she said, quietly and with what firmness she had the courage to muster. "I'll see if I can sell some calligraphy, too - if nothing else, that should help reduce the costs while we're here."
Alright, that was one (significant) problem out of the way. The merchant's daughter in her was a bit disappointed she hadn't had more to sell, but the practical side was just happy to be rid of a potential temptation. Tyrus had enough problems without turning to drug use, and somebody had to take care of the things his frazzled mind might forget. ...Was this what adulting was like? ...Also, maybe frazzled wasn't the best word to use, given how much the academics seemed to be hanging on his words. Had he always been that much of an expert?
We should sell the Mensha to him. Luca thought, remembering the plant's effects on Tyrus. So far as she knew, it was relatively rare, and it would probably be much safer with a scholar who studied plants... and might even be able to make a cure for the darn stuff. Better to do that quietly, though.
Strong agree. XD Never split the party.
"I, uh, I wouldn't trust anyone who likes seeing beyond the world. It's not as fun as it sounds." Luca muttered. "Especially when it starts looking back at you."
"Well, if they're not an aggressively secret society, they should be pretty easy to track down." Luca noted. "Just find someone who probably sells things to them and ask."
"Coin can do anything." the merchant's daughter said quietly. "Get you to the people you want to see, uncover the information you want to know. In the end, everyone uses coin - if you do not act, someone else ultimately will. But these clubs sound promising. They would be the type to hoard information - knowledge others do not have is worth much more than coin to them, and they are easier to deal with besides. I think we should seek them out."
Luca's face instantly went pale, and she tugged her cloak tighter about herself as if to hide her face. Not that she expected anyone to recognize her - she was a nobody, less than a nobody, dangerous and yet wholly dependent on others for her basic needs. There shouldn't have been a good reason for anyone to want to look for her, so that left only the bad ones... "So, how do we lose them?" she whispered.
Luca never enjoyed getting attention from priests, much less deities. She didn't dislike the Triarch, per se - it was more that she was worried they'd just smite her if she ever got noticed. People (case in point: her) generally feared what they didn't understand, and priests were people too. Perhaps more relevantly, she didn't even want to consider what it said about her if even the gods thought she should be smited on sight. "What kind of nuts are in this?" Luca asked as she got one of the flatbreads with some honey on it. Definite sweet-tooth, this girl...
Well, there's always Realm Works if you want to get really into the details. Bit pricey, but solid software overall, especially for campaign management over just a data repository. XD
Alrighty. ^^
She'd never been taught enough to take over the family business, or even help in a meaningful way, but she could at least do basic transactions. The good thing about dwarven settlements was that pretty much everything was a good height for her, so she didn't even have to go out of her way to examine things. "Something big with cinnamon." she said, looking over the pastries.
Luca is definitely on the "art" end of things, as in "she has absolutely no idea of how to perform her art properly". XD
As Tyrus spoke, Luca tugged on his sleeve, then pushed up onto her toes so she could speak into his ear more effectively. "We do have the money if that spell is useful, with some yet to spare." she said. Money wasn't easy to come by, but they were no longer entirely broke.
If nothing else, maybe Wizards just don't like doing "menial" work that much, and nations are hesitant about pushing them on the matter when they're also mildly concerned about angry wizards mind-controlling people.
"I think he just feels comfortable here." Luca whispered back, careful to be sure Kien couldn't hear her. "But I can't blame him. First everything that happened in the jungle, then the ship rides... you can only be tense for so long before you start to crack. We should make sure he has lots of fun while we're here." Unspoken was the fact that Luca and Tyrus, alone, would probably be in a great deal of trouble if anything wanted to harm them. They needed Kien much more than he needed them.
Safe was good. Safe was very good. "U-um, why aren't kids normally allowed to have their drinks?" Luca asked, not particularly familiar with alcohol or why the bearded folk were often said to be keen on it.
If there was one good thing about being a kid, it was that most people didn't take her too seriously. (Nevermind that she couldn't be called a child for very much longer, even by stretching the definition. Some things were just hard to move on from.) "Um, d-do you want to travel with the caravan?" Luca muttered to the others as she came back after exploring.
"Mmph. Get some supplies, maybe a map of the coast?" Luca suggested, clearly even more willing to be rid of the ship than they were to be rid of her. She wasted no time at all hopping off the ship and heaving a little ways away from the dock, looking to get a sense of the area.
"...I don't think I like sailing." Luca said once they were safely onshore, remembering the pirates and the island she and Tyrus had been prisoners on for awhile. "Bunch of so-called adults scared of their own shadows..." Was she really going to have to do everything herself after all?
"And even if it were true, your first response is to go antagonize the people you think might be bringing trouble!?" Luca asked, more than a little disbelief in her tone. "Oh yes, our group - notably featuring a sick old man and a child - is really the danger to your ship that you should be worried about, instead of, I don't know, maybe a larger predator moving in underwater and driving the local marine life out of their usual hunting grounds?"
No good deed goes unpunished. Luca thought sourly, feeling that Kien had the right of it. Some people were so superstitious that they hated people who helped them - after all, anybody capable of handling some eerie aquatic threat might have been an even bigger threat in their own right, yeah? ....Which, to be fair, may have actually been true, but this sort of thing was why she had such a hard time trusting or opening up to adults. The gods are powerful and can provide magic to solve threats? Praise and support them. Ordinary people like you happen to have some skills and can solve your threats? Burn the witches.
"Wh-who's hurt?" Luca called out, worried about drawing attention but also not quite brave enough to voice a different opinion when an adult told her to do something. "We have a doctor!"
All I'll say is that this is a very, very good time to get rid of things you don't actually want to keep, and the more of that you do now, the better. XD
Luca panted slightly as she felt the energy of the second Slowing spell leave her. She wasn't really low on energy yet, but she only had so much, and it was starting to show. For now, though, she just had to hold the magic steady and try to ensure it lasted as long as possible.
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