Bay 12 Games Forum

Hortensia was still on the verge of attempting pleasantries, so she still gave a small nod of acknowledgment at Eirin. She attempted to tune the two's conversation out. She had done her absolute best to keep her composure, but she couldn't help herself when she turned her head away with a somewhat inaudible 'hmph' as the gleeman saw fit to wink at her. Did he think her some floozy willing to just throw away her time to gawk? Now, she was trying to keep her mind focused on the conversation, but even that was dull enough to still keep the song from worming into her head. What was it even talking about, anyway? Why were these so called beautiful walls being pierced by a lance, anyway? It was...

...Suddenly, the small bits of education that were given to her as well as her knowledge of the common folks' disgusting fascination with certain functions that should normally be left solely to reproduction. Now, an audible gasp came out of her, her hands clasping around her mouth as she looked away, now thoroughly annoyed.


"To sing that in the presence of nobility...! Disgusting...!" Hortensia muttered to no one but herself. She might have complained to Isidro had he not been busy suffering through his own pains.

To keep herself occupied, Hortensia opted to watch the scenery and drown out the noise of the rabble in the background— at least nature was quite nice when she got out and saw it. It provided well enough of a distraction... until something started to catch her attention. Her head perked up on instinct— was that music? Singing? She was quite fine with the occasional instrumental, but the singing was just disruptive— she briefly turned her head around to the source... of course there had to be a gleeman in the group, as if three Aes Sedai weren't enough to test her patience to its limits. It was getting frustrating to listen to, enough that her hands reflexively began to jerk up to her head— she just as quickly jerked her hands down to her lap and turned her head away back to the scenery.

It's fine, he's done, he's just going into more instrumentals and that should be fine... honestly, the foolish things that these people can find as entertainment...

Arnett mostly stood there, just about as worried as he was during the examination— he had not been able to perfect his own Arte and thus his abilities were limited compared to the other group. That just put them at a further disadvantage... but at least he could hang back and simply keep trying to heal everyone. Hopefully he could achieve that much.

He continued to take deep breaths as he took his place, watching the other group while clutching his paintbrush enough to give him comfort while not actually breaking the paintbrush.

"G-Good luck," he spoke at a timid tone, somewhat inaudible compared to the others but thankfully it wasn't hard to read his lips.

Claus's plan had been all but laid out perfectly. It would take some quick thinking and significantly more stealth skills than he had previously, but it was certain to work...

...Of course, something quite interesting had happened.

"Ah, yes. As I expected might happen— it's just a shame Professor Vinter couldn't care to do his own research before jumping to conclusions. Perhaps then all of this could have been avoided." Claus simply shook his head very vaguely, turning to Viverna. "That should save you some boredom. I'll meet you back up by your room when I'm done, then?"

"I don't trust it one bit, honestly." Claus shook his head. "I'll believe Vinter's words when I actually see what they're doing for myself. A Lucid Crystal is dangerous when overloaded or suppressed— and whatever they're doing doesn't look like neither of the two. And I highly doubt that it's unintentional."

It wasn't unlike listening to a lecture, but for once Claus simply listened while keeping his thoughts internalized. It was rather dull listening— unfortunately a professor like Vinter was not one to be willing to back his ego down so easily. Yet the professor was still the professor; Claus had said his piece and so he would listen. As far as he was concerned, the treatment of this precious Lucid Crystal was still quite difficult to believe. Was it a cover-up? He made a mental note to make his own further investigation— once he came better prepared.

Relief coursed through him— so Vinter would underestimate him. No prison time, but detention? Detention was far too easy of a punishment, and plus he was happy to have Viverna get a little less time, even if it was still warranting an apology.

But then... Professor Vinter did something unthinkable. Deplorable, even. Claus's expression darkened upon this— to be forced into guard duty, such a trivial and boring task that wasted his time, was one thing. But this? Two hours for seven days? That was fourteen hours. Fourteen hours of studying down the drain. His schedule was going to be demolished by this. But of course, it was inevitable coming from someone who refused to acknowledge the essentials of an education.

"...Very well. I see why you prefer Officer Vinter rather than Professor Vinter. You demand respect... And I suppose you are the final word in all of this, then. Lower dungeons, four o'clock in the afternoon. Today." Claus's expression was darkened under his hat. Viverna knew that expression very well, while nobody else would— it was a rarity. It was the expression that Claus meant business and he would do something absolutely stupid and crazy to get back into his worktime. The scariest part is that these things would tend to work out in the end— arguably he might even be losing more time than if he just toed the line. Yet that was just how Claus's brain worked— egotistical without even realizing it.

Milos's cheeks tinged a light pink at Aurelia calling him brave.

"You... really think so? I mean, I was kind of just... worried that I didn't do enough, honestly... b-but yeah, what matters is that everything is hopefully going to be okay...! J-Just as long as we succeed in our mission..."

Milos didn't jump at all at Aurelia's sudden arrival— instead welcoming her presence

"Oh... Aurelia... I'm fine," Milos said with a little nod. "He's... still scary, I won't lie, and I wish I could have done a little more than just yell at him and easily get ignored... but I'm okay, I think. Thank you..." He still seemed a little on edge, but it wasn't anything serious. At the very least, he wasn't fidgeting or anything.