WQ - The Fade (Roland/Brad/Ju)

"Well this is just great." Roland muttered as he walked through the nameless town he had found himself in. It was a hunting village on the western border of his land, one of the various settlements that didn't show up in any map, a fact that led to even further aggravation to Roland. What was more concerning however, was the state of the village. The huddled figures of the villagers clung to to the walkways, to tired, or scared to venture far from the huts they called homes. Roland wasn't quite sure why. Ever since he had taken over his Dutchy he had learned his constituents were a meager and sparse group, but seeing it first hand was something different. So it was to his surprise that he was met with a request to investigate what sounded like a plague running rampant through the western portion of Astorea.

Like a good Duke, Roland accepted the request, heading out to some of the villages the request had mentioned specifically partly to search for the cause, but mostly to build morale. This was an important transitional time in Astorea, and while many claimed Astor to be a popular king, it wasn't possible for his influence to reach the outer fringes of his territory while he sat sealed within the capital. As such, Roland made sure to let the people know he had not abandoned them. Not yet anyway. As such he had prepared a speech ahead of time. One that he repeated to each village they passed.

"People of Astorea

I am your Duke Roland Rutledge.

I have not been in your lands long, but I have seen your plight.

The dead, the sickened, the weak, the starved. I have seen them all with a heavy heart.

Know this.

I am among you

I am enduring your hardships the same as you.

And I will promise you now with complete certainty.

I will utilize what ever means possible to investigate the evil that plagues these lands.

And once we have found the cause of what has claimed so many of your loved ones

I will exterminate it with righteous fury, the kinds of which these lands have yet to see. "

They were just words, but they seemed to at least reignite the fire in some of the men's hearts. Sending them to their hunts, or fields with renewed vigor. Sadly, it was all Roland could do for the time being. Of course he had not come alone. He was tailed by both @Bradwynne and @Ju Huan Xiang who had both accepted the quest with him. Their primary goal was much the same as his, investigate the rumors. Roland relied on them to do the investigation, as he tried to rally his people.


@Bradwynne @Ju Huan Xiang

 

"Such a politician," Bradwynne muttered with a smile as he listened to the duke's speech for the fourth time, while asking some people what had happened in this village. Well this was really needed anyway in order to reinvigorate the populace so that they could continue to strive to survive in this land. But if Bradwynne was going to be asked, it should be hard, unless they knew the true situation here, and the solution to it.

They were sent here because of the reports that the western part of Astorea had fallen prey to a very odd plague that had spread from the Naryu Canyon. Flora, fauna, everything fell dead to this plague and it had spread very wide, as too much focus was shown in the northern parts of Astorea that the western part was neglected. Now it had become an alarming issue, as the villages within the area had become affected with the loss of vegetation surrounding them, until they themselves became also affected directly by the plague. He had gathered reports of a strange sickness within the villages, and the loss of magic did not help the situation. With nothing to cure the people, whether by magic or by herbs, the disease could never be contained, but would spread quickly. Hoping that he could find out the cause, he moved around the villages, scouting out conversations, assisting people in exchange for stories, and other things. But what he had only found out right now was mostly the effect and not the cause, and if anything, just proved that the reports that they had received was true. He did not know yet how the plague had spread, and this lack of information quite distressed him. Maybe the plague had also been affecting them unawares, so they had to be careful in anything that they do.

Apparently that speech of the duke that he had spread in every village had some effect as the populace was invigorated, hunting and planting with a lot of determination in their eyes. But how long would it last? Bradwynne hoped that they get to the information about the blight, before it would be too late for them to save the villages that they were visiting.

 

The same scene had repeated before her eyes quite a few times since the task to investigate this plague had started. Huan Xiang was all for helping people, but the talking required to do so sometimes annoyed her. Thankfully, that role was filled by the duke responsible for taking care of these lands, Roland Rutledge. As soon as she received her orders, Ju easily sneaked off on her own to try and gather as much information as she could. With hurried steps she asked the people around, concern slowly building up inside. Diseases were a concern even in the real world, but when you added in the possibility of magic mixed in…

Things got complicated very fast.

Crops were dying out of nowhere, breathing was a chore and it didn’t take a healer to notice just how the people all around were almost lethargic. The rumours about possible sources of the problem were wildly different from one another, although most of them seemed to be connected to the Naryu Canyon one way or another. Acquiring information through this method proved to be inefficient by the minute, and Ju was almost at the limit of having her share of weird stories that just couldn’t match one another. She let out a loud sigh while approaching another village, when…

“THIEeEeef!”

She turned around to find the source of the shout, her eyes glancing from one side to another in order to find culprit. Amongst the lethargic and somewhat slow villagers, however, the suspect was a bit lively, running at a decent speed. Wasting no more time, Ju darted forward and pursued the cloaked figure while making use of her acrobatics and incognito to remain undetected and avoid any obstacles on her way. Eventually the thief’s sprint came to a halt as he hid behind one of the many huts in the village. Much to his surprise, however, Ju dropped from the over the hut, mounted crossbow aimed and ready to shoot at him.

“Do not move, or I will shoot. Considering the situation, it’d be understandable if you were stealing out of necessity…” She eyed the cloaked man, dark purple eyes narrowing in response. “But you seem pretty lively for someone in this plague-ridden village.”

“I know nothing! P-please, you must understand! Everything is dying! I have a daughter, she needs food!”

“Like everyone else does.” She raised her hand and brought up her menu, sending a voice mail to @Roland Rutledge and @Bradwynne;

I have found someone not so afflicted by whatever is going on. I think it’s worth investigating.

Find me near a hut in the northwest of the village, there is a large and dead tree close by, can’t miss it. I will be waiting.

 

Roland's eyes caught a flicker of movement streak past him as Huan disappeared. "Stealth, huh?" Roland muttered as he scanned the village, looking for visible signs of chase. They had very little time to talk to one another since this journey had began, and never really divulged their full skill sets. As such it came as a surprise to find out that the smaller girl had seemingly spec'ed into rogue set of acrobatics and incognito. As tempted as he was to follow her, he couldn't simply break away from the villagers he was speaking with in order to do so. Instead he'd have to assume she could handle herself. "Ah.. no... I don't think so." He said in response to one of the villagers questions before moving to another, "Yes, I will absolutely let your son join my guard....when he comes of age." and another, "Exports mostly, clovers specifically... Yes, yes, you'd be surprised." and another, "The Orcs are being dealt with as we speak..." and another, "No the King isn't as great as they all say...", and another, and another, and another.

As he spoke, a message appeared on his UI, it had seemed that Huan had found managed to find someone worth talking too. Sadly, Roland had his hands tied currently. With a nod he turned to @Bradwynne, "Go ahead and head that way, I'll try and finish up here and meet up with you guys." Hoping the teen would comply, Roland turned to the gathering crowd. It seemed this village was a bit more lively than the rest, but even here everyone moved in a slow and lethargic manner. That said, even in their downtrodden state seeing a noble with their own eyes seemed to boost their spirits. They surrounded him in a mob, some reaching out to touch his clothes, others content to merely speak and voice thier concerns. "The food issue will be addressed soon... uh.." he answered one older looking villager.

He felt like a fraud. He had little to no actual authority, and most of the the questions he answered were mere guesses if not out right lies. This was of course mostly Astor's fault. The king had given him authority to those in his keep, and region, but his calls for further aid had so far gone unnoticed, something that was becoming a trend with the man of late. Of course it was possible the king was busy with his own issues, but these just seemed far more serious than anything Roland had heard from the capital. First the orcs, then the dissonance, and now...

Something suddenly clicked in his mind. It was a wild theory, but it was possible. With a sudden flurry, Roland pushed his way through the crowd with half hearted apologies. He needed to get to Huan and the others, and interrogate their suspect. He was half the way there before he turned, realizing his mistake. If the man showed no symptoms, he may not have seen the cause, instead he turned to one of the sickly men huddled in the road. Grabbing him by the arm, Roland ruthlessly pulled up him to his face and asked, "Have you been seeing an unnatural fog, one that may be dark, or even black....?" It may not have been related after all, but he needed to know. For if it was true, they were all in grave danger...

@Ju Huan Xiang @Bradwynne

 

After the duke's speech, Bradwynne saw he was being approached by the populace, as was always happening everytime he saw him end his speech. And maybe they had visited more than ten villages in this respect. The duke really worked like that, managing all the people in his domain? It was even doubtful that those villages that they had visited was the whole domain of this person. So it had seemed to him that that person might have been overworked. Looks like the king's nobles were too thinly spread within the kingdom that they were becoming overworked. Maybe it was also the reason why the situation with the plague was being overlooked. One person could only do so much about managing every affair of the people in his domain. And so Bradwynne hoped that more players should be assigned to administering the affairs within Astorea. This current situation with a handful of dukes administering the large kingdom of Astorea would be doomed to fail.

As the two people continued on their jobs; the duke trying to pacify the people, and Bradwynne trying to extract information about the plague from the populace, Bradwynne received a message from the third member of the party who was named Ju Huan Xiang... a quite odd name. A Chinese? Anyway he did not care for names much, he only cared about what was the contents of the message that was sent to him. Maybe it had some information about the plague, and when he had finally read it, it seemed that it had. It talked about Ju Huan Xiang... well he did not know her nickname, had apprehended a man who seemed not to be affected from the plague. Any other person, with that man as an exception, had some kind of a sickness that made their flesh exposed and seem to melt from their bodies. Back in their world it was called leprosy, but he had not seen a leprosy that affected plants. Animals, maybe, but plants, impossible. Well he had heard of Biblical account of leprosy, that those who are stricken by it was deemed as unclean... wait, was it some sort of a black magic or vengeful white magic? Since if anything, those could cause leprosy and curses towards flora and fauna. Anyway, the only way to find out was to see the man himself. Well he would go anyway even if the duke did not ask hom, but as he was asked anyway, he then thought of one response, but before he said that, he noticed the people around the duke. Well it should be impolite if he would say that while the people were hearing, and so instead he bowed, saying "Yes, my lord," before sprinting towards the direction specified by Ju Huan Xiang... he should ask her nickname later.

After a short while, he had reached the place specified by the woman: a old hut, with a large dead tree just nearby. By the traces of the blight on the dead tree, he thought that this place was struck by it just like the others. As he entered the hut, he then saw the woman, with the man she specified in tow. Sure enough, there was no traces of melting flesh on that man. But he had to make sure. He then moved towards Ju Huan Xiang, and then whispered in a voice the man could not hear, "Are you sure that man was a resident and not some traveler?"

 

While waiting, Ju realized that standing still would get nowhere. Truth be told, she wasn’t the best with words, and although she could try and interrogate the man about anything that may have happened in the village, she feared that she’d make things worse by striking fear unto him and making questioning a hassle. With a swift motion of her hand, Ju prompted the man;

“Turn around. I will need to take you to the duke for proper questioning.”

“Hiiiyeee! I promise I’m not hiding any--”

“Turn. Around.” Arcane energy flowed towards her weapon as the bolt ready for fire was enchanted with her magical powers.

The cloaked man obeyed with a shriek, quickly turning and exposing his back to her. With a few motions of her hand, Ju opened her UI and selected a rope she had as a spare in case things got out of hand. She approached him and tied the thief’s hands, her eyes looking over him. There weren’t any clear signs of the plague; maybe he was just a traveler, but his little story about a daughter didn’t match up. Even so, why would a traveler remain in such a small village that was clearly suffering from something?

Ju adjusted her raven-hair and checked the leather bag he had in his possession, finding a few withered apples that looked like they could start rotting away at any moment. Yes, he was a thief. Yes, he was wrong. Yet, could she blame him considering the situation of this plague-ridden land? “As you may be aware, I hope you do not try anything funny, because I can catch up to you with ease. Regardless of the current situation, what you did was wrong. Come, it’s up to the duke of this land to decide on what to do with you.”

When they were about to leave and find Roland, Ju and the cloaked man were met with Bradwynne who probably arrived in response to the message she sent earlier. “Whether he is or not, we need any information we can gather. Someone healthy could have seen something none of the afflicted people can…” Ju whispered back and adjusted her hair, eyes glancing at the worn-down booth the apples were stolen from. She picked the leather bag with apples inside and tossed it back to the owner.

“In any case, he’s a thief. We should get him to duke Rutledge, since I’m pretty sure there aren’t any guards on patrol duty because of the plague.”

Should Bradwynne follow her and the thief, they’d meet Roland mid-way through, just as he asked his question to one of the sickly villagers. In response, the raven haired girl pushed the thief forward. She couldn’t quite grasp anything about the nature of his questions, but for now, she’d trust his leadership skills. “You heard the duke’s question. If you know anything, now’s the time to speak up.“

@Roland Rutledge @Bradwynne @Pandora

 

Roland grimaced as the fan hit him on the back of the head, before reluctantly letting the man down gently with a regretful sigh. He had gotten so carried away in the moment that he had lost all reason, and looked clearly at the man for the first time. Covered in dirt and grime, the sickly man settled back down in the ground in obvious pain only made worse by a sputtering cough. Ignoring the 'noble' girl for a moment, Roland bent over, producing a small remedy potion from his inventory and passing it to the man while he muttered a soft apology.

Only after which did he stand and take account of the current situation. A thief and his two companions stood nearby seemingly awaiting his judgment. Roland gave them an approving nod, thankful they had brought the man to him, but he'd have to wait. For now, Roland turned to face the archaeologist directly with a stern expression as he waited for the termor to end in a seemingly unconcerned manner.

"New York you say? So you're a player whose unaware of the player nation? You must be very interested in the rocks indeed to have heard about it."

Roland felt his face bunch into a scowl before he forcibly relaxed it, letting out yet another sigh as he forced himself to relax. This girl, whoever she was, clearly only had the best interest of his people in mind, and it was clear she knew more than the average villagers. He'd have to try at least to swallow his pride long enough to talk to her.

"I can only assume since you are unaware of who we are, you are likewise unaware of what help we can offer. I, like you, mentioned earlier, am Duke of this region, as such it is my responsibility these people are taken care of. The issue is so far as we have been able to tell, most of the villager's problems have been a statistically unlikely case of bad luck. From what you're saying, however, it seems our original estimates are wrong. As far as how much we can aid, it is directly dependent on knowing the cause of the...well fade of life in the region. You seem to know more than us, what did you mean by 'the entire region has only days to remain in this world normally'? Does it have something to do with the tremors or fog? Tell us, and I can marshal the forces of Astorea or even evacuate the region if such a threat exists."

He let the question hang in the air, fully aware that he had neglected to bring up any mention of the dissonance, as at the moment he had no reason to concern Ju, or Brady any further. After all, the fog he had seen was black, trapping all light, if she had seen something similar she most likely wouldn't be describing it as a normal fog. Still, -something- was going on here, he needed to get to the bottom of it and fast.

@Ju Huan Xiang @Bradwynne

 

As the long-haired blonde approached the three of them, Bradwynne immediately eyed her with suspicion. As was the man here, she seemed also not to be affected by whatever plague this was. And it left a bad taste in his mouth when that woman said that they were disgraceful in tying up people while they were still suffering? Just who do she think she was? At this person was not suffering from the plague. And he tried to steal from other people who were more suffering than he was. They were just trying to enforce the laws right here, and this woman dare to stop them?

And then she mentioned about how this place would only have a few number of days to remain normally, complete with a tremor after her words. This was it. So that's why she had concern for this man right here, eh? They were involved in all of this blight all along! As he listened on to the conversation of the woman and the duke, as he placed his hands on his back, he collected his thoughts, and every thought entering his mind was making him even more angrier. It came to the point that he drew his katana with his right hand and then pointed it at the woman.

"You know, everything about you is suspicious. This area would not be normal after some days? Seems like you at least know everything about the blight that is happening here. And why are you criticizing what we are doing with this man right here? This man is a thief, moreover he is not affected by everything that's happening to all these people in this village and all other villages that we had visited. So why are you interrupting us with this man? You know, if you are a player, you might have read the Bible. You know, all of this men experiencing signs of leprosy? They are treated unclean in the olden days. So all of this plague going on, the plants and animals fading away in death and decay, and all of these people experiencing signs of leprosy... all points to something magical, something like black magic or white magic going berserk. We need to help the people in all of these problems with the plague, so it would be best if you spit everything out.." He then raised his katana, and then suddenly something was thrown from the direction of his left hand and then he swung his katana a lot of times and then sheathed his katana quickly while collecting the pieces falling with both of his hands. A close examination would imply that what he was holding was chicken meat, split to perfection. "...while we eat." Fortunately he had quite held his anger.

As he was preparing the other ingredients for the dish, he then said, "You know, this is the same dish I had prepared for the other villages we had visited. I do not prepare this yet here as it was not yet time for a meal." He had quite a sense of time management; as from lighting the fire in the small stove that he had also materialized, to browning the chicken, to preparing the broth and adding all other ingredients, to making the noodles, to adding the noodles and chicken in the broth; it took quite a short amount of time while maintaining the cooking times, and the result was a quite fragrant and delicious-smelling dish. He then said while doing all those, "All the ingredients are medicated for the relief of leprosy, could also be taken for prophylaxis, and I had also infused it with my white magic, but even then, the villagers were not that relieved by my efforts. There was quite an amount of healing, but it was still not enough. I deduce that the blight was much powerful than I had expected." He then ladled out the dish for all the people within the hut, and then said, "Chicken noodle soup for the soul."

 

@Ju Huan Xiang

 

The raven-haired girl observed as the wheel of fate turned and another piece of chess entered the board. Her eyes locked onto the blonde’s as she lectured the party, her expression remaining neutral and unphased as it was most of the time. She had a point, and Ju was wholly aware that her actions did not help the situation, in a sense. Even so the raven-haired girl was sure of something; neither did her lecture. Despite her harsh way of dealing with the problem at hand, Huan Xiang was looking for a way to end it all. The words that rolled out of her tongue… If they weren’t filled with the hope that maybe the party would be the ones to end the village’s suffering, Ju Huan Xiang would have immediately answered her just as harshly.

Fortunately, the blonde woman realized those were not the right steps to start with. Both Duke Rutledge and the sword priest, Bradwynne, had already stepped in and voiced most of the concerns she could think of and because that, she remained quiet, eyes attentive to any funny movements coming from the thief. She watched as what firstly appeared to be like a released anger from Bradwynne turned out to be a good way to bridge the gap between the party and the villagers. As someone who had experience with cooking, however…

Filthy, filthy filthy dirty! Unclean, hygiene, where!?​

Her thoughts stormed on her mind — how could that man use his weapon to cut the ingredients used for cooking?! Her everlasting pokerface neutral face gave in as her right eye twitched in agony of imagining just what did he cut with that sword of his. Monsters, people, oil for maintenance, god knows what else could be contaminating -- Ju stopped her own train of thought with a heavy sigh and closed her eyes to concentrate… Except she couldn’t, because she had to keep an eye out on the thief. If Bradwynne offered any soup, she’d politely refuse. Being a magical girl is suffering.

Her own little hygiene trigger aside, Huan Xiang realized none of them asked why the blonde woman apparently looked fine despite confirming she had been in the area for some time. Huan Xiang raised her hand to her chin, pondering the possibilities within the question, and after her fellow party members were done on their end she spoke up, “You said you’ve been here for some time. Why is it you don’t look as… 'faded' as most things here?” With that done and out of the way the raven-haired girl fell silent again.

Her party members had such interesting skill sets. She felt a bit obsolete. If only she had some enemies to shoot...

@Roland Rutledge @Bradwynne @Pandora

 

Roland grit his teeth as Nani continued to test the upper limits of his patience. Sure he had not come off very well manhandling the penniless drifter, but he felt he had gone out of his way to show his sympathetic soul. Yet still, her razor tongue felt it necessary to call him a coward and his tactics pointless. Meanwhile, if she had bothered not the be so god damn vague, and circling the issue Roland would know how to approach it. Luckily or not, his companions seemed as lost as he was as one began to cook a stew, while the other pressed forward in the pursuit of the truth.

Then came the kicker. To learn what was causing the chaos they'd have to follow the girl to 'somewhere' which she had, of course, neglected to mention. Roland's fist tightened, and he tried his best to keep his anger from swelling up and exploding upon her. He wanted to demand she merely spit out what she knew right now. Why did they have to travel to some obscure place? Why not just tell them where to go, what she saw, what they should be looking for? Why did it have to be this excruciating process of withdrawing information?

Despite these feeling, Roland managed what could be considered a civil smile, accompanied by a wordless nod and hand gesture pointing forward so she could lead. He didn't know they were headed towards Naryu Canyon until they made it partly the way there. Not that it answered any of his questions, at least not yet. Still, his mind turned and jumped to conclusions as he tried to think of a way to spin this set of events his way.

If the source of the disturbance was in the canyon it likely wasn't due to foreign interference. Which meant some sort of local dark power was resulting in such drastic deaths and sicknesses. Still, try his best Roland couldn't think of a single culprit left alive that would have such a motive. A priest of the spider queen? No, they'd focus on Faldrean. A priest of Azog? Most should be dead, and they'd likely just be setting something on fire anyway.... So...who was at fault? It was these thoughts that occupied Roland as he traveled.

@Ju Huan Xiang @Bradwynne

 

Bradwynne sighed as Ju Huan Xiang... damn it he forgot to ask how should he call her... rejected his soup. He wondered why as he took the soup that was intended for her and took a sip from the bowl. It was real delicious, one of the best he had cooked so far, and so he wondered why she rejected it. Well she had just lost the chance to taste something from the Medical Kitchen of Bradwynne Lambert, famed for its pharmacological cuisine that would ensure long life for its costumers... wait that should be the name and slogan for the restaurant he would construct in Stokbon. Well he had not made it yet, and so he should back down. But still, as he had finished the bowl without noticing, it was so good. This should really pass as one of his special dishes in his restaurant. He then dematerialized the bowl as he listened to this blonde before them.

But it should be better if she should skip to the details, for Bradwynne was really irritated as she continued talking. She's like... a walking insult machine as she had just dissed the two of them males. He really felt like he should have cut the blonde down, but as a hero he should not, and he just gritted his teeth as he continued to listen to the blonde until he had heard about some monster residing under the Naryu Canyon, that was absorbing energy from everything around it. And, as he had speculated, it was quite unknown that such thing was residing within the canyon during earlier times, since, maybe it was still small and was having problems absorbing anything from a canyon that had limited sunlight shining on it. Now, the monster had grown to the extent that it was absorbing the life force of everything within it could reach, and the new, rich, energy would make it grow and become more powerful. As it stood, the longer they tarry in fighting the monster, the more powerful it would be, to the point that even all the players in Terrasphere would fight it, they would be still defeated. And so, they should see first what were they facing, before they should release a clarion call to all players to stop this monster before them. And so, as directed by the blonde, Bradwynne also went to the Naryu Canyon, the pot containing the remaining chicken noodle soup in tow as he was eating on the way.

After a long while, and with a bowl still remaining in the pot, they had reached the Naryu Canyon, the home of the monster mentioned by the blonde. Taking note of what was happening around it, and the extent of its feeding on the surroundings, he then said, "Whatever that thing is, it is such a glutton," not taking note of his own gluttony as he poured the remaining chicken noodle soup to eat. Finishing quickly, and dematerializing the pot and the bowl, he then cracked the joints of his neck and his hands as he readied himself to look at the thing that was sapping energy from its surroundings. He should know what was its form, what it could do, possibly its weaknesses, so that they could ready themselves for the future challenge they would be facing. He knew it would never be easy, and he knew that the three of them had a small chance to defeat it. He hoped that they could return quickly after they saw the thing in order to inform the king and call all possible persons to battle it.

 

As always, Ju remained quiet as Nani’s words pierced like swords right through the party. She approached the thief under her responsibility and unbinded the rope keeping him a prisoner and with a kick to his butt sent him away. That ought to teach the man to not worsen the situation the village faced. With a monotone sigh, she eyed Nani, eyes narrowing at her few last words before they continued their journey to Naryu Canyon.

“A healthy diet, eh…” She muttered to herself, her eyes noticing Roland’s patience wouldn’t last long at this pace.

Her hand rested on her hip, itching to pull her crossbow. Huan Xiang wasn’t a woman of intuition, but she’d rather not ignore when her own told her something was off. First, she mentions how food could have helped the village. Afterwards, she mentions just how it was a temporary solution, and worse, says she is in healthy diet. Oh, please, could it be…

“With all due respect, but are you perhaps mocking us, Ms. Nani?” Ju said as she stored the rope on her inventory and cleaning her hands. “Ever since we arrived in this world, we have defeated two extremely dangerous creatures. One could easily crush an adventurer alive, while the other threatened covering the entire world in ashes and eradicate all life.”

She adjusted her hair as they walked. “We don’t understand what we are dealing with, you say? That’s funny. Perhaps if maybe a certain healthy someone had reported the situation to the capital before, we could have dealt with this issue sooner.” Ju suddenly gasped and covered her mouth with her right hand.

Her sudden gasp turned into a sweet and welcoming smile. If her ever neutral expression was anything to go by, this was clearly an act. “But forgive me, where are my manners? I mean, it could be that that certain someone is busy with their healthy diet, you see? In any case, I believe that person should also give our Duke here proper credit and respect…” She shrugged, hands up in the air. “They may say he is but someone in the office barking orders, yet he’s still here searching for the problem himself, while that person sits in their little Canyon paradise. I wonder if that healthy diet includes a lot of hypocrisy as well, hmm?”

With that out of her chest, Ju fell silent for the rest of the trip to the Canyon while checking her inventory.

@Roland Rutledge @Bradwynne @Pandora