Bay 12 Games Forum

Keilee to G-7, attack Fantine.
Marta to E-7, shoot Fantine, canto to E-9.
Shoes to E-8, Rosencrantz to H-9, Milly to I-9.

Ververs

Mordecai, not knowing how to respond to that, just looked down and flushed slightly, shuffling his feet. Was the history teacher complimenting him, or was that a critique? He had never considered how he thought about things before.

Reeve

: "Yes, I'm sure they will." Or at least, he certainly hoped so. What if Reeve's family fell in with that Seeker bunch? "You're already well on your way to grand things, in my opinion." The vampire shook his head at Reeve's apology.

: "Don't worry about it. It happened years ago, and there's probably at least a couple of other people on this street right now who have lost family to Fiends. Still, I appreciate the thought."

With a start, Mordecai realized that they had arrived at his usual butchershop.

: "Oh, we're here. Listen, you can wait outside for this stop. I'll only be about five minutes, and I understand that homids tend to find the sight of blood disturbing."

Lin

Mordecai looked surprised as Lin spoke to him - his fellow belgor didn't speak often and even more rarely to himself - but he nodded in greeting.

: "Greetings, Lin. Sure, I'm not due inside for another ten minutes or so. What's up?"

Glad to see I'm not the only one iffy about going maskless so soon. There's still way too many people out there who don't bother to take even basic precautions, and I bet loads of them will lie about being vaccinated so they can go wild.

Meanwhile my dad, who is fully vaccinated, seems like he can't wait to go maskless. I'm not sure what to say about that.

@ Reeve

: "Ah. I'm sorry for prodding. I didn't know about your troubles with your family. Hopefully all your achievements here will help convince them that you made a wise choice in attending Solrise." Mordecai couldn't imagine any family not being proud of a child with Reeve's considerable talents. The vampire nodded in response to his rival's question.

: "Yeah, they sure did. This was about, oh I'd say eight, nine years ago." Long enough that he could talk about it, in other words, but not so long that his heart didn't ache a little at the memory. "A Calamity struck at a really bad time, and my mother and I barely made it to the keep where we holed up until knights from the Order arrived. Father stayed behind to try and slow the Fiends down. Just a farmer with his pitchfork, but it was enough. Er, obviously."

@ Ververs

Mordecai frowned at the professor's question. What was this about hobbies?

: "Anything...else? I'm afraid I don't follow, Professor. I see her in the library and other places around campus sometimes. We're both working very hard, you know, this being our third year and all. Exercising is a great way to unwind." Something was nagging at the back of Mordecai's mind as he spoke. Something about the history teacher's giggling and smiling...

Reeve

Mordecai had finished paying the clerk and handing over the letter while Reeve was talking. It gave him a bit of time to decide on his response.

: "Ever since my father died, mother hasn't liked the idea of me battling Fiends. She knows that's what Knights do, so it wouldn't be a complete shock to find out what we've done, but she was under the impression that we'd actually finish school before going up against any live specimens. Add in the fact that we got caught up in some sort of conspiracy AND that the teachers were staying hands-off to see how we'd do, and she'd probably faint. Then come straight here to pull me out of school, heh." The vampire's laugh wasn't particularly convincing. A moment later, a thought occurred to him.

: "Hang on, you sounded surprised. Don't tell me you told your parents about it all. Won't they be worried?"

: "Little busy with this one."

Kenji scoots over to I-7 to lay a minor smackdown on Grunt E, then darts over to H-6.

: "Thank you, Reeve. I really do appreciate it. Hopefully I can return the favor some day." The vampire headed for the post office's counter, intent on making sure his parcel would be going out on the next airship or whatever the mail system used. He made sure to answer Reeve's question though.

: "Yeah, to my mother. Though I'm sure she'll share it with others in the village." Mordecai pulled the sealed envelope out of a pocket to show Reeve (and hand over to the clerk). "It's been a few months since my last letter, so I was telling her about how this school year has been going so far. Everything except that last battle."

@ Ververs

Mordecai let out a held breath. This was safe ground, though the vampire didn't think to ask how the pink-haired professor had learned of this or why it was of interest. He was just glad it wasn't a lecture about the quality of his work.

: "Oh, yes I do. She and I are rivals now, to use her term; we're both highly placed in magical studies and we're in the same class, so we tend to spend some time together. I guess it's a competition to see which of us is "on top" so to speak. I don't particularly care about that but having her around keeps me sharp, and I've exercised with her outside class."

@ Reeve

Mordecai was in fact rather impressed by Reeve's deft touch with her fire magic, conjuring and extinguishing it so quickly. His own dark magic was unsuited for such feats. Probably unsuited for entertainment in general, really.

: "Well, I'd still like to check it out some time. Maybe the next time we have a few days off I'll take the time to explore it thoroughly, get an idea of where the best reading spots are and such. It would probably be easier with a guide, though." The vampire looked hopefully at Reeve as the two of them climbed the steps to the post office, wondering if she'd be interested in the job.