zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
Rieze was still not familiar with the foreign castle. It was nothing like the Ethysian castles, having far more focus on being aesthetically pleasing than the Ethysian ones. Even though they prepared for war, the castles were still beautiful.
"I suppose this is a real castle. Not just a garrison or a manor."
She could draw out similarities between this castle and the castle of the Emperor. Nobody dared challenge his superiority, and all the border forts were just that. Empty, soulless buildings dedicated simply to being effective, not aesthetic.
I have not found a single one of the storerooms yet though... I might want to ask someone.
She stopped at an intersection, and filled in the details she had found on her "journey" through the castle
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
Delphine's steps down the hall were light, the polished floors showing a flowerlike bouncing of the light skirt she wore -- it was hardly the garment of a lady, but the craftsmanship of the yellow and purple clothing, striking against her soft blue hair, spoke to something else about her. She might have been well in-place in a palace of aesthetics.
There was still stuff she wanted to see, of course, but she intended to take a small break from getting oriented to reflect -- find a nice little garden tucked away somewhere, admire cultivations that took to the cool coming off the water better than her own native soil. In doing so, though, she spotted a busines-like-looking young woman holding a piece of parchment and looking... A little... Delphine came to a stop, trying to figure out what the word that the girl's thoughtful expression brough to mind. Forbidding? Or lost? She wasn't sure which, so she came up to her anyway.
"Are you looking for something?" She asked, coming fairly close and sort of leaning about, trying to look over her work. She had bright, open blue-grey eyes, flecked in green; there was something familiar and almost unplacable about them, and they flicked across the map like dragonflies.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"Hmm? Yes, I am searching for the storage rooms. Do you perhaps have any idea where they are?"
Rieze responded with a cold, almost uninterested tone. Perhaps a side effect of her long lasting personality crisis, but she brushed it away. Having an air of seriousness could always be good.
"You might know this place better than me."
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"Eh, I have a rough idea of a few things," she said, pretty sure that even if she wasn't an employee, she might be able to help. Since she'd been touring it, and anyway, it wasn't as if she didn't get the anatomy of a castle pretty well. She often didn't like what she noticed, but there it was. Also, it wasn't as if this place didn't have a room full of maps, some of which were maps of itself. And one thing she realized was that it wasn't as if only one type of storage room existed. Palaces tended to be full, after all, of things that were expensive enough not to wear out quickly.
"What sort of storage room?"(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"All of them really. I suppose the one i need the most for this map is the weapon and supplyrooms. Im filling out this map so i can figure out the optimal way to handle jobs in the castle."
Rieze couldnt shake off the awful suspicions she had of the woman. She looked similar to her in a lot of ways, the shape of the eyes, the blue hair. It reminded her of the count, reciting his final words in her head.
It cant be. Probably just a coincidence.... Right?
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"Shouldn't your commanding officer or commanding beaurocrat have told you about the armory?" She'd decided, not entirely correctly, that the woman was probably a soldier or pencil-pusher for Damona -- otherwise, whether anyone knew the armory or not probably didn't matter. She shrugged, though -- her answer wasn't a denial, after all.
"I think the armory is going to be outside these core buildings, given that you don't want queeny there sitting next to a pile of weapons it'd take just a little effort to kill her with. Yet, anyway."
The situation here, after all, probably wouldn't stay too quiet for long -- the war might keep people united against an enemy, but if things went badly when trouble came, then the newly-minted queen would have to be the scapegoat.(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"Excuse me. I am not from here, i came just a couple days ago looking to help. Nobody has filled me in on anything yet, so i took matters into my own hands."
Rieze was slightly curious over the fact that the woman apparently thought she was part of the workforce of the castle just because of her initiative to work, and it spurred her to a question.
"You are not from here are you?"
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"Then they probably won't let you in; it's a shame if you want to help, but allowing just any random person into the castle defenders' and maybe the capital's weapon supply is asking for trouble -- and do not these times have troubles enough to spare, without adding to them?" A cache like this, in a time like this -- the queen had to be, if Delphine had to guess, stockpiling. There wasn't quite anything between Ethysia and Damona, as far as she knew... But there also wasn't anything. No peace treaty after all. It was simply a matter of Ethysia clearing their plate before going back for second. The young woman shrugged with a smile that may have been just a little bit sad.
"No, I'm not; I'm with the Floribian company," she said, falling back onto her heels now that she was satisfied with Rieze's attempt at a map. She'd joined up when she arrived, so now it was a matter of seeing what came next. They'd managed even just a few more soldiers -- which was very good, since at the end of the day, Damona couldn't afford to offer anything to them. Her tone was casual when she spoke again, as if the prospect of what was coming did not worry her -- not as much as it did. "I'm enjoying seeing what this place has to offer; it might be the most enjoyable place I'll be seeing for a while, after all."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"Nonetheless, initiative is important."
Rieze continued what she had started before getting interrupted, finishing up the final lines and openings.
"It lessens everyone's workload if everyone does what they can."
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"It is, it is..." Delphine felt a little sorry for the young woman, clearly at ends in -- wheverever she might be, and whatever she might be doing here besides working. But the fact remained -- she didn't work here, so people letting her into sensitive places wouldn't help at all. But the impulse was really so very pleasant that Delphine patted her shoulder sympathetically.
"I don't think you're wrong, or anything. But what if you were actually a spy, or an enemy of the state, or an assassin -- or an Esthysian soldier out to destroy them? You've got to work with what'd really be best for people if you want to help them; you can't be put out by them helping themselves."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"Hmph, i suppose. But id rather try and make mistakes, than make nothing at all."
Rieze finished up the drawing, tucking it back into one of her pockets.
"Enough about me though. Why are you here? Running from the war i suppose?"
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"It's not a bad ideal -- I think in that case, you'd have to break in just to organize some weapons -- wanna try? Or should we rather find something useful to do that won't cause some poor sod to get fired?" She asked, clearly not bothered by the Hmphing -- the suggestion of needing to break in to do some good was, after all, pretty funny... Even if firing someone was not funny. It's... Not as if that'd never almost happened with her. But since there was do-gooding to be done, why not do it? She invited herself effortlessly.
"Running from? No, I tried that. It was... Kind of awful, really. They thought I'd just go along with it." She rubbed her arm, suddenly self-concious as she remembered sitting there in the house of a minor Aracian duke, people tutting and saying to wait and see. She laughed a little, just under her breath. "No -- I guess I'm doing the opposite of that now: I run to the war, like a fool."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"You don't take me seriously do you... Nevermind. Also, that will likely get you killed. You hold your ideals that high?"
I suppose she has some guts if she ran away like that.
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"Hey, if you said 'yes,' we could be planning a reverse-heist. Or washing dishes; whichever. You're the one not being serious," she said with a bright and mischevious smile spread across her face. But she did mean it. She figured washing dishes could be something they'd be allowed to do -- not prepare food, though, which was a shame. Then again, she recalled the time she caught a traveller she'd convinced her mother to let stay the night with silverware in his sleeves. That'd been fun -- she'd had to convince them it was a gift. Probably something a capital might be less lax about even allowing to almost happen.
As for it getting her killed... Well, of course. Of course it might. She shrugged, as if it meant very little -- her heart pounded at the thought.
"I suppose I must," her tone was a little different. Was it her ideals she held to? ... Maybe not. Maybe it was theirs. "...Or maybe I'm just that willing to throw them away when the moment arises -- either way, I...think I know the path I need to walk."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"That.... is admirable, if anything. I still know nothing about what im going to do after the war, with no home to return to."
Maybe she just hoped that the war would claim her, so she could go into the afterlife, where nobody could bother her ever again
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"Ah, so you're with us as well?" Delphine asked, taking in the woman in that light. She bet there'd be something she could be useful for with Finny, if he'd let her -- a better angle than wandering the castle like a lost puppy.
The expression on the woman's face made Delphine's heart lurch. For how callously she'd put the desire to help someone -- even if she'd been, honestly, sincere in every word (well, let's call it a 90/10 split) -- she didn't like seeing something like... The sort of grim uncertainty; like the waiting for a tidal wave that a rock might have. Delphine's face fell, just slightly, the mouth pulling into a smaller expression -- then, someone who could see both women, from a distance, would have never assumed them strangers. Delphine then tried to cheer her up with a sort of game smile, sincere and warm. More than her motions, or the flounce of her skirts, or the bright color of her hair -- it invoked the blooming of flowers.
"If you wanted, I could find you somewhere to go; I'm sure the reconstruction would want hundreds of people just like you -- I certainly will."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"I wouldnt be accepted there. I am sure of it. You wouldnt dare keep an Ethysian within a hundred miles of you would you?"
Rieze looked at her with a serious gaze.
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
She tilted her head and considered that -- for about a moment.
"You would; I have contacts all through Amarana, if they survived; I'm sure it could be understood... Because you're not just an Ethysian." She waggled a finger at the foreign soldier -- the thought, that so many people could be dead as to render her home, itself, a foreign country was hard. But she could endure; she would rebuild. Amarana would live. And from there... Anything seemed possible.
"You're not my enemy. You're not there, in their armies -- wherever you're from. You're here, with us. So you deserve to be treated as our friend."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"I shall consider it... Wait, Amarana?"
Oh gods...
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"That's right. I know we got beaten up pretty badly in the early going... But that's all the more reason we need someone willing to help people for its own sake there, if we can both survive this." It probably seemed like a doomed measure -- but that wasn't something Delphine could tolerate. She waved a hand, somewhat downplaying her own offer.
"Look, I'm not saying it's 100% -- if I die or something, then I guess I can't offer you anything. But if you're worried about a home...There isn't a better one in the world I could think to offer; or one that needs any help that can be given more."(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
".....Okay then. What is your name?"
I have SEVERAL bad feelings about this
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"My name? It's Delphine," she said without missing a beat. It didn't seem that urgent, right away, to mess up things by flaunting a useless name around. Well, not totally useless -- she could use it, one day, to make things a bit better for this sudden turncoat. "And yours?"(edited)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"Rieze. I suppose we will have to get along then Delphine?"
This might be alright.... For now.
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
"Well, you know. You don't have to -- you can do whatever you like. But I think it'd be more fun -- and you'd have a place to stay if I don't die. I don't see why I shouldn't get along with you, frankly." She said, bouncing just a little on her heels.
"You seem like a pretty good person, Rieze. Come on -- I bet we can find something that they'll let a couple of wierdo foreigners do."
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-08/18/2016
"Heh..."
Rieze laughed
"Let's go then, my fellow "wierdo foreigner"."
LadyDeme-08/18/2016
And Delphine took her by the arm and began heading down the hallway, towards -- well, whatever they would find. Possibly nothing, but hey -- better to try and make mistakes, right?
==END RP==
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