Thin threads of magical energy weave together, forming a fabric sheet between Bach's hands. Concentrating upon the material, his eyes glow bright blue and swirls of flow condense into new, elongating fibers blending into the growing mesh. The magical matrix slides down with each new manifesting row. The energy cloth touches the top of the dining table. Bach blinks his eyes back to normal and shakes his head of longer brown hair back to awareness. Glancing over to Aristespha, he passes the magical fabric over to her. "Okay. So, I think I got the pattern you wanted, but might need to tweak the strand properties a bit. Don't know. I kind of went on autopilot midway through."

Aristespha focuses her violet glowing eyes upon the material in her ivory hands and feels the fine mesh between her fingers and thumbs. "This is very close. I believe I saw how you were doing it. Truthfully, it might take me a few attempts..."

Continuing to inspect the cloth, she brings it closer to her face. Sebastian's ghostly form hovers behind her, and he lowers his head to just above her shoulder, curiously watching the process. "So, what prototype material is it today, dear?"

With a playful smirk, Aristespha lightly shoos Sebastian back from her shoulder with a toss of her long, silvery blue hair and rests the magical sheet upon the table top. "A magical replacement for medical gauze. While I have always preferred using properly treated and manufactured gauze, I cannot help but want something that can be fabricated in the field."

Furrowing his brow, Sebastian scratches the back of his head awkwardly. "Huh. But... Um... You have spells that do similar already."

Nodding in agreement, Aristespha smiles lovingly at Sebastian and shrugs. "Yes, I do, Sebastian. The idea is to have something that could be made when supplies are low, but there is no immediate need. As they taught us, a spell saved now is a spell that saves later."

She starts to deposit the energy weave aside into a small tray, and a clawed fvalian hand reaches out eagerly. Cideeda grins toothily and flicks her furry ears. "Can I see it?"

Aristespha nods and places the magical fabric in Cideeda's awaiting hand. With initial caution and care, Cideeda inspects the material. Tugging upon it, she tests it physically with a content smile on her light brown face. "I NEED to learn how to do this."

Aristespha neatly readies her workspace of books, tablets, and instruments in preparation. Holding out her spaced hands, she exhales calmly and concentrates, narrowing her stare. Thin threads of magical energy grow out from her palms and weave together. A similar material manifests between and gradually extends down to the tabletop. Bach glances over at the attentive Cideeda and shrugs nonchalantly. "It's not that hard to start doing actually. The theory is simple, but it's just a lot of practice and experimentation after that."

A sly smirk appears on Cideeda, and she tilts her head to the side, perking up an eyebrow. "Says the man who can throw lines out like some kind of comic book hero."

Rolling his eyes at himself, Bach modestly shrugs in acceptance. "Yeah. But, I had A LOT of practice when I had... Well... NOTHING else going on."

With a small grin, he thinks a moment and cocks his head at Cideeda. "Actually... You might pick it up better since you have an amazing understanding of electronics and mechanics. This type of stuff really isn't casting spells, it's just willing flows to form in particular ways. There's a lot of dynamics that are similar. Capacitance, conductance, pressure, force, and so on."

Cideeda's emerald green eyes widen in anticipation, and she dons an awaiting smile. "Well. What are the basics, then?"

Aristespha progresses with her fabric. Flexing his hands, Bach summons up magical energies, manifesting examples for Cideeda. "Now, the thing to do is to will the magical energy to condense..."

In the lull of conversation, the din of the living room television rises up from the background. The material in between Aristespha's hands stops forming, and she grasps onto it. With close, careful inspection, she frowns slightly and sighs with hints of defeat. "Not quite there."

Sebastian glances between the material and Aristespha. "It looks the part, dear."

Smiling, Aristespha slowly shakes her head. "Yes, it does. But... It does not feel right. I do not think it could handle any significant stress."

A loud commercial plays out from the television, and she angles her head to watch. Aiming the remote, Dretphi flips between channels from the couch, staring off bored. Aristespha stands up and navigates around the table and chairs towards Dretphi. "Before I try to replicate that again, let's see how that shoulder is doing."

Noticing Aristespha approaching, Dretphi sits herself up from laying on the couch and rolls her wrapped shoulder around freely. "I think it is healed. No discomfort today."

Aristespha takes a seat next to Dretphi, gestures out an incantation, and methodically inspects Dretphi's upper arm and shoulder joint. "That is very good. Let me double-check to make sure. At this point, we can get this wrap off. It has served its purpose."

Aristespha gently guides Dretphi's arm through diagnostic motions and positions, and Dretphi flips through the wasteland of channels, pausing upon a talk show.

"A Grath family house is nothing more than a cover for unmitigated amoral debauchery and polygamous perversion!"

Dretphi's narrows her steely gray glare at the screen, directing her full attention upon the show. An older human man sits in chair on the television talk show set and postures himself smugly against other guests. "I can't even qualify it as any proper family unit as it lacks even the most basic structures. It's so flimsy and sparse in definition, that I'm surprised they don't yet induct furniture as members."

Mumbles of grath curses bubble up into clarity between the man's continued rants, and they slowly drip through Dretphi's irritation. Aristespha lowers Dretphi's tensing arm down, squints incredulously at the television, and rolls her violet eyes in disgust. "Oh gods! How does that man keep getting on these shows?"

Bach twists in his chair, tilts his head to the side, and grimaces, watching the old man's rambling. "Wait... Oh yeah. I've seen THIS guy before, but I always changed the channel after hearing him for a minute. What's his fucking deal anyway?"

Aristespha sighs and slowly shakes her head with a sneering upper lip. "He's another zealot wanting to bring back those supposed traditional values to the world."

Cideeda flicks a furry ear over, glances briefly at the screen, and focuses back on her magic practice. "I lean more towards self-loathing hypocrite. He always changes his tune after each scandal he gets caught up in. Just another serial grifter."

Glancing over to Bach and Cideeda, Aristespha twists the corner of her mouth and groans out her frustrations. "Personally, I believe his real motive this time is garnering favor from a few Evuukian house leaders that like his... sanctity minded ideals. Likely leading to some business deals he wants to work."

Dretphi crosses her arms, fidgets out her irritation, and spits out an angry grath phrase. Footsteps sound out from the hallway, and Sotalia steps into the room. Scanning around the room, she places her hands on her hips, studies the scene, and lifts an eyebrow at Dretphi. "Good gods, girl. What's got you speaking those words?"

Following a hand signal from Dretphi, Sotalia examines the content on the screen and snorts loudly. "Oh, THIS asshole. Pfft... He's a REAL piece of work."

The host of the show regains control of the dialog with a forceful tone, quieting the old man. "THANK YOU... Mr. Spelh. I'm certain we'll hear more from you sooner than later."

Redirecting the camera's attention over to the other side, the host hems. "But, I'd like to give a chance for the members of two grath houses to talk and elaborate on their families."

The grath on the show explain their perspectives, and Dretphi relaxes enough, rolling out the tension in her shoulders. She glances around, frowns slightly, and fights a bit of embarrassment on her face. "I apologize. Those were not words to speak around friends. This topic is... personal to me."

Sebastian casually chuckles and shakes his head. "Hey. It's okay. I'm starting to remember this guy more. He's kinda been a real prick for years. I'm just surprised he's on a show during these hours."

Scratching his beard covered chin, Bach nods, narrowing his stare with his memory. "Yeah. I mean, the only time I've ever seen that guy is in the crappy, early morning time shows. You know, the three in morning variety. Didn't think he was important enough."

Smirking, Cideeda rolls her emerald eyes with a mocking tone. "Don't forget all his televised court appearances. He's important enough then."

Bach nods in agreement and gazes over to Dretphi with a reassuring smile. "Also, I didn't understand what you said. So, no harm done to me."

A warm smile briefly graces Dretphi. Tinges of embarrassment color her face, and she sighs at herself. "Regardless. I should abstain from excessive use of... those terms."

Sotalia flashes a wicked grin and giggles with a hint of evil, tapping out a name on her aetherphone. "Aww, but those words are the FUN ones. I found them very accurate and descriptive of the subject."

An article appears on the phone's screen, and Sotalia's golden eyes search through the paragraph of text. "Gods. That Spelh guy is such a hypocrite anyway. I think he's on his third marriage-?"

Pausing, she reads a line carefully and laughs with a derisive color. "Oh... My mistake. His FOURTH marriage."

Sarcasm completely infiltrates her voice, and she tosses her fiery orange, wavy hair back. "WELL. I guess THAT must make him an expert, then. BUT, I would argue he really could have saved himself a lot of trouble with a traditional emin termed marriage contract."

Sticking her tongue out momentarily in annoyed disgust, Cideeda rolls her eyes and sneers her upper lip. "Maybe he shouldn't keep on getting caught with his pants down. Figuratively AND literally."

Sotalia sighs and lifts an ill-humored eyebrow. "Yeah. But, what's the fun in that? Gods, how else is he going to get something new to dump hate on and get attention for it?"

Cideeda snorts into a chuckle and shakes her head of short multicolored hair. "I STILL remember his rants about fvalians. Calling us... What were the exact words? Oh..."

Her furry ears lay down and her long, fluffy tail wags in short swipes. "Hedonistic, feral beasts with the sexual habits of primitive animals."

Squinting her glance off to the side, she curls her upper lip and reveals a pronounced canine. "Always throwing out that beast term.

Sotalia twists her mouth and scrolls through the article on her aetherphone. "Did he say that after his first or second marriage?"

A mean smile appears on Cideeda, and she gazes over to Sotalia, perking her furry ears. "Second. After he got caught on video in a bed with a few fvalians at quite the party."

The old man's jarring cadence draws in the attention of everyone in earshot. "You MUST think of the CHILDREN in these dreadfully confusing environments. These poor children are left just to wonder who their mothers and fathers are and-"

Tolerance visibly wearing thin, the show's host abruptly cuts off the old man. "WELL! Funny you should mention THAT. How about we ask one of the children?"

A young grath boy walks into the scene from off stage, joins his family, and takes a seat in an open chair. The host greets the boy with a smile and calmly talks to him. "It's good to have you here today, Cettinnin. Could you tell me about your house?"

Cettinnin nods respectfully and carefully speaks up. "Yes. I have two mothers. And... two fathers. I have two brothers. And... two sisters."

The host nods and inquires further. "What do your mothers and fathers do in your house?"

Pondering visibly with the question, Cettinnin cuts off Mr Spelh opening his mouth. "My birth mother works for a school. My birth father manages the local guild office. My house mother takes care of us when everyone is busy."

The grath woman next to Cettinnin smiles and musses up his hair playfully. Cettinnin laughs and glances over to the graying grath man on his other side. "My house father fixes everything we break at home."

With a smirk, the graying grath man sighs and crosses his arms, nodding slowly. The grath man concentrates a cutting, stoic stare upon the old man across from him. Cettinnin crosses his arms and mimics the expression. The host returns his attention to Mr. Spelh and smugly grins. "It seems the young boy has a perfect understanding of his family."

Mr. Spelh spouts dismissively and sneers visibly. "The poor child is deluded and obviously has been warped by these deviants! It's just a form of indoctrination. The child has no proper concept of family and is just left to cling to the paltry aberration that's been forced upon him."

Cettinnin blinks incredulously at Mr. Spelh and quips a short phrase in Grath. The grath woman snaps a surprised glare at him. The graying grath man snorts out a stifled laugh and fails to hide his approval. Dretphi covers her mouth and stifles a reflexive giggle. Shaking her head, she comments in grath. Sotalia snickers with a bright grin. "Again, those are the fun words to use. Really accurate, too."

Dretphi nods in agreement with a smile. The host blinks at the child's response and resumes running the show. "WELL, we are running out of time. So, let me ask you, Mr. Spelh. What would be your ideal house structure of sorts?"

A scheming smile parts the man's mouth, and he draws a long breath. "Well, I would think a prime example of proper family hierarchy would be the Evuukian family house."

Aristespha narrows her glare at the television screen, snarls her upper lip, and grumbles out sarcasm drenched words. "Why, yes! Of course! It's SO obvious..."

She crosses her arms and levels an irritated stare at the screen. "If you absolutely adore family values that involve competitive backstabbing, favoritism, and power struggles... THEN, look no further!"

The show plays out its ending segment, and an information prompt pops up with the title of the next show.

"Scandal Watch 3017: Evuukian Political Meltdown!"

Exchanging wary looks with Sebastian, Bach aims his voice over to the gathering around the television. "Hey, you know... There's other channels with other shows we all might enjoy..."

Sebastian drifts around the room and hovers in front of the big wall mounted display, donning a politely authoritative tone. "Yeah. Let's change it to something less... Irritating?"

Aristespha sighs loudly with an apologetic tone. "Yes. You are correct, Sebastian. Let us put something else on. I can not weave flow when I am angry anyway."

Nodding in agreement, Dretphi pats Aristespha's shoulder in commiseration. She aims the remote at the television, flips through a few more channels, and the intro of movie plays. Sotalia grins happily, and moves into the closest open chair at the dining table. "Oh, Blazing Dragons! I haven't seen this comedy in forever!"

She surveys her immediate surroundings and notices the variety of magic upon the dining table. Her golden eyes open wide, and she gazes curiously at the items. "SO, that's what you've all been doing. I kept on feeling something going on nearby."

Aristespha snaps her head over to Sotalia, notices her occupied seat, and hops off the couch. Twisting her mouth, she casually shoos Sotalia out of the seat into the next one over. Inspecting the contents of the table, she spots Cideeda's claw tip finger pointing towards Sotalia's hands. Noticing Sotalia studying Bach's incarnation of the magical material, Aristespha commands, hinting accusation. "Do NOT go running off with that, YET."

Sotalia blinks, furrows her brow, and defiantly sneers in a defensive pout. "I wasn't going to!"

Aristespha rolls her violet eyes and sits back down in the chair. Bach and Cideeda share similarly knowing expressions with Aristespha. Sotalia divides her attention between the magical item and the movie.

----

Hiking forth through the dense trees, Daedrican's lightly armored boots sink into the forest floor. Two other Chrome Crusader troopers maintain formation out at his sides, and a coldly stoic Tassilda keeps her distance towards the back. Daedrican glances over his shoulder back at Tassilda with a pleasant tone. "Not much longer, my lady."

A brief sneer twitches Tassilda's upper lip, and Daedrican amends his statement. "Thankfully, it doesn't seem like anyone has been through these wood since we came through initially."

Tassilda minimally and briefly acknowledges Daedrican's words, avoiding direct eye contact with him. The team trudges forward and, minutes later, arrives at a game trail. Daedrican raises his arm, signaling a stop to the rest of the group. He kneels down, inspects the path, and studies unnatural, purposed markings on a nearby tree. The two troopers gather on either side and perform their own investigations of the area. Daedrican glances at both the troopers and stands up. "Okay. Nothing seems to have changed outside normal expectations. Garret, check north to that one clearing and see if anyone has returned. Yuttin, see if anyone has tried to settle back into that one spot along the access road."

Pivoting to face Tassilda, a few meters behind him, he inquires politely. "If it's not too much trouble, we'll go towards the stream and check it for recent activity from anyone that might be hiding out around here."

Tassilda presents a proper, emotionless exterior, and crosses her arms with a slight nod. Daedrican turns back around to his team and motions them out towards their destinations. "Okay. Radio if you find anything. Otherwise, we'll meet up here and head back to camp for the day."

The two lightly armored troopers nod in confirmation and walk away from Daedrican and Tassilda. Moments later, Daedrican glances over his shoulder and motions towards a direction down the game trail. "This way, my lady."

A brief wince sneaks out from Tassilda's rigid demeanor, and she follows behind Daedrican through the woods. Gazing through the bright sunlight slipping between the forest canopy, Daedrican muses in a pleasant tone back towards Tassilda. "I think it'll be a slow, uneventful day. There has not been any indication that our prior bandits had any stragglers that returned here."

A grimace twitches upon Tassilda's gray face, fading into the cold, neutral expression, and a colorless voice leaves Tassilda. "It seems."

Relaxing his armored shoulders, Daedrican tilts his helmeted head in thought. Along their hike, his attempts at small talk with Tassilda falter against her short, terminal responses. Many failed starts later, Daedrican sighs to silence and remains quiet. The minutes of looming silence breaks upon the soft babbling of water flowing down a small stream. Daedrican arrives at the narrow banks of the brook, and fits of splashing catch his attention. Gazing curiously down the stream at a large pooling of water, he watches the colorful plumage of a bird fluttering. The creature pauses, cocks its brightly feathered head to either side, and dives underneath the water quickly in a flurry of flapping.

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Tassilda slowly approaches next Daedrican and traces the direction of his visor to the wider section of the stream. The chromatic parrot hops up onto the dry part of a rock, stands still for a moment, and releases a faint burst of magical flow. The short lived wave of force repels excess water off into a fine spray. Tassilda's light blue on black eyes lock onto the creature, and curiosity cracks through her cold exterior. The zone parrot blinks around at the silence of the area and chimes out a long series of complex notes. From initial chaos, it weaves sounds into an elegant stream of rhythmic song that fills the air of the nearby forest. A small smile graces Tassilda, and her full attention latches onto the music. Turning his head, Daedrican watches Tassilda's delight and slowly steps towards the bird.

He closes the distance, and Tassilda snaps her head over, flashing a mean glare at him. With gritting teeth, she halts a reflexive comment and maintains her ireful silence. Daedrican reaches into his belt pouch, searches around, and removes a snack bar. He opens the wrapper, and the crisp crackle of the packaging halts the bird's song. The zone parrot snaps an inquisitive stare at Daedrican, and its rainbow eyes spot the treat. Daedrican slows his approach to a halt. He gradually kneels down and holds the protein bar out. With an eager glint in its eye, the zone parrot hops off the rock and waddles at full speed along the bank. Reaching out with an open beak ahead, it hungrily closes in on the food. Daedrican slowly draws the snack bar back and carefully leads the bird up his arm. With secure footing and treat nearby, the zone parrot pulls off bits of the bar and casually enjoys the meal, perching shamelessly. It shows blissful indifference to anything else. Daedrican stands back up with the bird on his arm and walks back to Tassilda.

In absolute, speechless awe, Tassilda gawks in a mix of bewilderment and joy, the zone parrot arriving in front of her on Daedrican's arm. In the moments of sheer wonder, she notices Daedrican lifting her hand up to eye level with the bird. Daedrican puts the snack bar into her hand. Tassilda blinks in confusion, and Daedrican guides her other arm up to his with the bird. Finishing the current morsel in its grip, the zone parrot reacquires the food target. Stepping over onto Tassilda's gray skinned arm, it resumes the meal, reaching for bites of the protein bar in Tassilda's hand.

Smiling brightly, Tassilda watches the creature eat from her hand and wander along her arm. She manages to pet the bird's colorful feathers, and it weaves a few songs between breaking off new chunks of the protein bar, holding the bits in its claws. During the parrot's feast, contradictory emotions mix briefly upon Tassilda's face, and swirls of shame infiltrate her expression. Consuming half the bar, the zone parrot gazes up at Tassilda and chimes out a pleasant, happy series of tones. With a flicker of glow in its eyes, it unfurls its brightly hued wings. Tassilda holds her arm out, and the zone parrot flaps up into the air. It disappears into the dense forest, songs echoing and blending into the surrounding natural din. Slowly Tassilda allows her prior cold demeanor to resume. She stops and blinks blankly. Bites her lower lip, she gazes down at the ground, visibly fighting the torrents of thought in her head. Drawing in a long breath, she smiles with a genuine, gracious tone. "Thank you."

Daedrican simply nods and continues down the banks of the small stream. Following behind, Tassilda maintains a closer distance to him.

----

Outside the ranch style house in the side yard, Sebastian's ghostly form hovers next to Dretphi, eyeing Aristespha, Bach, Cideeda, and Sotalia. "Okay. So. Since it's been a while... I figured it would be a good time to do a refresher on close quarters moves and how to defend against them."

Turning his head up to the blue, cloud speckled sky above, he shrugs his shoulders with a nonchalant smirk. "And it's actually nice outside, and I figured it would be something different."

Sotalia places her hands on her hips, dons a sly grin, and glances over to Bach. Moments later, Bach meets Sotalia's gaze, puzzling at the attention, and returns his attention to Sebastian. Leading everyone's attention to Dretphi, Sebastian floats away and gives her the stage. "And since I can't exactly participate right now, due to my transparent state... I'll leave it up to Dretphi to run the lessons."

Dretphi surveys the group, notices the mischievous intent blatant on Sotalia's light tan face, and gazes to Bach. "Would you help me demonstrate?"

Bach shrugs nonchalantly and steps up next to Dretphi. Guiding Bach into position in front of her, Dretphi switches her stance and holds her arms up. "I will go over each step. Raise your arms up."

Settling into a faux aggressive posture, Bach stands at the ready. Dretphi motions to Bach, instructing. "Grab my arm."

With a flit of hesitation, Bach reaches out and firmly grabs hold of Dretphi's forearm. With a swift nod of approval, Dretphi moves in precise, slow motions and systematically demonstrates each stage of a maneuver. Throughout each segment, she carefully explains the process and reasons behind each action. Bach follows Dretphi's guidance, and she leads him with care. With a few twists and turns, Dretphi reverses Bach's mock attack and works his limb into a standing arm lock. Rotating just enough to put pressure upon the extent of Bach's flexibility, she cautiously halts short of any painful strain. "This is an arm lock. Twisting past this point will inflict pain. Can cause injury. Most reconsider fighting before that."

She releases Bach gently, allowing him to stretch his arm back to comfort. With a quick nod, she leads Bach into another demonstrative scenario. With precision and care, she guides Bach through another series of motions, explaining the maneuver fully. Pausing for a quick stretch and rest, Dretphi guides Bach through another example situation, instructing everyone in ways to react to it. Aristespha and Cideeda watch carefully, occasionally rehearsing pieces individually, and refresh stagnant memories of old training. Sotalia crosses her arms, watches attentively, and presents an amused smile throughout the proceedings. Finishing the last in a series of different holds, Dretphi points out a large, thick mat nearby, and motions her request to Bach. "Would you move that near us?"

Bach nods, casually walks over, and drags the pad along the grass. "So, uh, what is THIS for?"

With a calm tone, Dretphi plainly states. "To cushion your falls."

Freezing momentarily, Bach slowly meets Dretphi's gaze and cocks his head to the side with an awkward smile. "Uh... Okay... I mean... Yeah, why would I be falling?"

Tilting her head to the side, Dretphi straightens her posture and studies Bach's confusion with a humored smirk. "It happens when you get thrown."

Blinking blankly, Bach musters up his courage and stands up straight at the ready. "Okay..."

Dretphi smiles calmly, reassuring Bach. "Not hard. Not fast. I will lower you onto the mat."

Bach ponders a moment, relaxes a bit, and nods. "Okay. Cool. What do I need to do?"

Pointing to a spot, Dretphi directs Bach to a place on the grass near the mat. Bach side steps over and waits. Swiftly closing the gap between her and Bach, Dretphi pauses mid motion, emphasizes her grapple, and hoists Bach free from the ground. In stunned silence, Bach remains instinctive pliable to Dretphi's will, moving his docile mass around with modest effort. Halting at the final step, she waits for everyone's attention and confirms their understanding, easily holding Bach up. With a solid but cushioned impact, Dretphi plops Bach down upon the mat. Bach's blue eyes dart around the area, and he glances over to Dretphi. "Huh. Hey. That wasn't too bad, actually."

He pats the thick pad beneath him. "Yeah, this mat really helps out. But, you really controlled it the whole way."

A warm smile graces Dretphi, and she politely inquires. "Do you want to continue? Help me demonstrate?"

Sotalia snickers to herself and furrows an intrigued brow, mumbling under her breath. Flicking a furry ear back from Sotalia, Cideeda briefly glances over and twists the corner of her mouth. Dretphi resumes her careful, cautiously performed demonstrations with Bach. With deft precision, she ends the final parts of throws, locks, and holds and places Bach on the target pad. Many maneuvers later, Dretphi holds her hand out to Bach on the mat. "You deserve a break. Thank you."

Grasping hold Dretphi's arm, Bach gets up with her assistance. "Yeah. Whew. I wouldn't mind one right now."

Sotalia smirks mischievously, places her hands on her hips, and laughs playfully. "Oh. What? You aren't giving us the chance to practice, Dretphi?"

Stepping off the to side, Bach brushes off some stray glass blades. A tinge of evil taints Dretphi's grin, and she focuses her steely gray eyes upon Sotalia. With a challenging hand gesture, she invites Sotalia up. "YOU CAN. You may take Bach's place in my demonstrations."

Sotalia's golden eyes spring wide open, and a nervous wave radiates down through her body. Tossing her fiery orange, wavy hair back over her shoulders, she analyzes Dretphi's imposing form. She fights an uneasy grit of her teeth and recovers to an awkward grin. "Well... Um... You need a break, too. Also, it might be more appropriate for me to..."

She glances over to Aristespha and immediately cringes at Aristespha's eager, violet stare. "Oh..."

Aristespha stretches her neck to either side, rolls her shoulders, and flexes the definition in body. Fighting to keep her confident exterior, she draws in a long breath and trails off. "Practice what you've shown us with someone of similar size..."

Subconscious trepidation blinks Sotalia's eyes for her, and she fumbles for a self counterpoint under Aristespha's sinister grin. "WELL. Understandably, it wouldn't be wise to put our medic into needless danger."

Resting her gaze down upon Cideeda, Sotalia musters up an emboldened smile. "I'm a bit taller and larger than you, Cideeda. But, do you think you could help me practice these moves? Please?"

Cideeda presents a toothy grin, perks her furry ears, and happily chimes. "Of course! I might be a bit rusty, since we last practiced. So, we'll just take it a bit slow."

A flash of evil sparks in Cideeda's emerald eyes, and she narrows her undivided attention upon Sotalia. "So, YES. I believe I can help you through ALL the moves."

----

Blades of grass flutter under the frustrated snorts from Sotalia, resting her chin upon the ground. Moments later, she strains to lift her upper torso off the ground and curl herself off the dirt. Squirming and struggling, she settles her chest back onto the grass with a slight, cushioning bounce and grumbles out. "Okay! You've proved your point now!"

Grinning triumphantly, Cideeda adjusts her weight and sits on the small of Sotalia's back. Her long, fluffy tail wags smugly, and she squeezes up her grip on Sotalia's hands, pinning them firmly behind her back. Aristespha, Bach, Dretphi, and Sebastian stand around Sotalia in a circle and observe the maneuver attentively. Cideeda smiles sharply and cheerfully explains. "Now! Most mages will attempt to cast a spell. You can fold their wrists to limit finger motion and push down on the head to make it hard for them to speak."

Exhaling out her irritation, Sotalia puffs away a few stray orange hairs out her face and groans. "Gods! I'm really trying here! You just keep winning out somehow..."

She furrows her brow and huffs. "I even have the height advantage!"

A sly smirk cracks from the corner of Cideeda's mouth, and she secures both of Sotalia's arms with one hand. A flash of impish intent flickers in her emerald eyes, and she lightly grabs Sotalia's side between her claw tips. "Don't forget weight advantage, too."

Kicking her lower legs and squirming, Sotalia fights a reflexive giggle and yelps out. "AaHhHh! S-S-Stop that!"

Cideeda chuckles darkly and glances over to the rest of the team. "By the way, it's always good to have a few tricks to break someone's concentration."

Watching Sotalia squirm and laugh between irritated growls, Cideeda rolls her eyes and releases her clawed hold of Sotalia's midriff. "Okay."

Sotalia grumbles and pouts. "Good gods! You're just too flexible or something! I don't know! Last time we did this type of practice, I was able to get you a number of times, girl."

With a long sigh, Cideeda shakes her head dismissively. "Last time? That's because I had a bad headache and let you get the holds so you'd get SOME experience with them."

Dretphi searches the top of her mind and nods in agreement. "I remember that. You were moving slow. Seemed distracted."

Sotalia sighs out her defeat and idly taps the toes of her shoes onto the ground. "And I thought I did really good."

Her voice trails off, and she mumbles under her breath, narrowing her side glare. "If I had KNOWN you let me win last time, I wouldn't have asked you to give it your all this time."

Patting the top of Sotalia's head between her swept back, black horns, Cideeda grins toothily with a patronizing tone. "OH. Don't feel bad. You did just fine last time. And, you did really good, today!"

Annoyance swells on Sotalia's face, and she grumbles lowly. Cideeda snorts and leans to the side, meeting Sotalia's side glance. "To be fair, I had to TRY a few times. You need a lot more practice, but you are getting better."

Sotalia sighs irritably and mutters a few frustrated comments in a variety of languages, hints of sarcasm mingling into a mocking tone. Cideeda narrows a brief glare at Sotalia and lifts an amused eyebrow with a sly cadence. "Now, there's one last thing I want to show."

She winks to Aristespha, Bach, Dretphi, and Sebastian. "So, you can only do this if you have claws-"

Sotalia golden eyes widen and dart around warily. Cideeda shifts herself back, slides a claw tip lightly down Sotalia's shirt-covered back, and stops abruptly near her side. "You find this particular spot and clamp down HARD-"

Cideeda leans forward, curls her fingers, keeping her claws safely away, and harmlessly exaggerates her movements. Sotalia screams out, kicks her legs frantically, and tries to buck Cideeda off her back valiantly. "AHHHH! HELP! STOP HER! SHE'S OUT TO GET ME!"

Holding her hand away, she watches the ongoing, frantic spectacle, and rolls her eyes. Sotalia's fervor fades against the humored reactions of everyone else around her. With an annoyed glare on her face, she plops her upper half down upon the grass with a slight bounce and growls out through gritted teeth. "I think I'm DONE with this."

Chuckling, Cideeda releases her grip on Sotalia's hands and pats her shoulder. "Okay. I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist TEASING you."

Sotalia sweeps her arms back in front and underneath her. Cideeda leans back and gets her footing under her. "Just remember, your supposed advantages can just as easily weigh you down without the right skill behind them."

Glancing over her shoulder at Cideeda with a playful, Sotalia mischievous smirks and quips out a sentence in Fvalian. Cideeda perks her furry ears, lifts her eyebrow with an amused grin, and retorts in fvalian. Chuckling darkly, she reaches both hands of flexing fingers out towards Sotalia's arms. "OH! WAIT! We really SHOULD go over the basics of tying up captives!"

Immediate motivation surges strength into Sotalia's arms, and she pushes herself up off the ground. Cideeda deftly tumbles back, springs herself away, and stands up. She places her hands on her hips, strikes a proud pose, and smiles brightly. Aristespha and Dretphi help Sotalia up. Brushing the stray blades of grass off her clothing, Sotalia assumes her confident exterior and smirks back at Cideeda. Sebastian rolls his eyes and sighs ethereally. "Okay. I think that's enough today. Let's get cleaned up."

Flicking his translucent blue gaze over to the ranch style house, he cracks a humored smirk. "Our FAVORITE show is coming on soon."

Aristespha walks towards the back of the ranch style house along with Dretphi, Sebastian tagging along behind. Cideeda leaves the area, and Bach follows behind, inquiring. "You know, I am actually curious where you learned all that."

Cideeda crosses her arms and flicks her ears furry with her memories. "Honestly, I just took a bunch of physical education electives in college. I did learn all about tying ropes from my dad when securing scrap pieces in the junkyard. Lots of odd shapes and sizes that normal knots and wraps don't work for. Kinda helps, since you can't assume a standard shape with people."

Catching up to Bach and Cideeda, Sotalia curiously pries further. "Aww. So, no childhood self-defense class for fvalians that you got black belt in?"

A devious chuckle leaves Cideeda, and she flexes her hand of claw tipped fingers in front of her. "Oh, my parents put me in self-defense courses. But, most fvalian specific classes taught us how to use our claws."

Sotalia thinks back in her mind and ponders out loud. "Huh. That's interesting. Anything emin specific I learned was all about using my horns and thick nails."

Bach walks along without comment. Noticing casually inquisitive glances upon him, Bach shrugs his shoulders and grins awkwardly. "Uh. Yeah... All I ever was taught was to throw a spell and run as fast as I can."

Sotalia nods in agreement and rolls her eyes at herself. "To be fair... That's usually what I've ended up doing anyway."

Cideeda twists the corner of her mouth and snorts. "Yeah, most people tend to not chase you after a laser blast or two."

----

A long, low, metallic creak groans out, and Nash rocks back in his rolling office chair. Sighing out his boredom, he levels his ambivalent stare at the computer monitors in front of him. A calm pattern of imagery plays out on the displays, and smooth scrolls of status messages rise up in output windows. Nash eyes the wall clock, watching the constant, slow tick of the second hand. He tilts his head back and breathes out. "Fffffuck..."

Leaning himself forward, he glances disdainfully at the stack of paperwork occupying a significant portion of his desk. He averts his gaze away and idly stares at the placid information graphics on the monitors. He eyes over the pile of papers, narrows a glare at the clock, and slumps in his chair. "Gods dammit..."

Mustering the willpower, he guides his hand up, grasps hold of the top packet of paper on the stack, and halfheartedly holds it in front of his field of vision. A frown weighs on his face, and he snorts contemptuously at the task before him.

A chime rings out from the displays. Green statuses flip quickly to yellow, and lines of highlighted log data shine forth against the rest of the digital, streaming noise. Nash immediately tosses the paperwork back onto the pile and snaps his full attention to the new activity. Swiftly typing, he enters a series of commands into the system and adjusts the context of multiple onscreen windows to the new relevant data. Nash studies the information and cocks his head to the side, puzzling at the digital disturbance. Analyzing the changes, he leans closer to the emerging patterns with growing intrigue.

A jarring alarm echoes into the room and spots of yellow indicators immediately flip red. New windows appear, captured data streams forth onto monitors, and status icons transition in sequence from green to yellow to red. Nash's pale blue eyes grow wide, and he grins eagerly. "OH! Finally decided to check in, you SON OF A BITCH!"

An account information prompt appears and prominently shows the name "Isaac Kurt Huxley". Nash enters instruction after instruction into the system via his keyboard. Different system functions launch status windows, indicating their progress. Database activity monitors on the office wall switch to current queries. A feverish spree of command entry later, Nash hits the speakerphone mode button on his office phone and excitedly taps out a number. The phone rings a few times, and a voice sounds out. "Hello-"

Nash immediately responds over the greeting. "Guess who decided to log in on this fine, quiet Friday!?"

Background din from another room resonates through the speakerphone, and Harvos stumbles towards astonishment. "Wha- Good gods! Isaac Huxley?!"

Nodding, Nash grins with a snarl. "HELL YES, it is. I was wondering if that bastard was ever going to check in again, but here he is. Guess he had nothing else going on tonight!"

Sounds of Harvos fumbling with the phone slip out along with his words. "You ARE recording everything he's doing right?!"

A smirk briefly appears on Nash's face, and he laughs amused. "Oh, of fucking course! I got everything he's doing logged and any data he's pulling is being copied on the fly. And, if there's anyone paying attention at our network egress, I should have someone trying to track down where he's connecting from."

Chat windows open up on a side display, and Nash types in responses. "There they are. Good, it looks like they got the alerts, too. They're going to try to trace out the aethernet route."

Exhaling his nerves over the line, Harvos calms down his tone. "Okay. Gods. I hope we get something useful. I just want this whole mess to be over with."

Bouncing his attention between different screens, Nash nods in agreement, grumbling. "Tell me about it. I'm getting REAL tired with learning about our predecessors dirty little secrets and having to be the fucking ones to deliver the bad news to the higher ups."

Harvos groans with disgust and frustration. "I could use A LOT less of these mysteries in my life right now."

Pausing a moment, his curiosity slips into his tone. "What is Isaac doing right now, anyway?"

Nash flips through the numerous interface windows on the many displays in the office and hunts down a particular output. Studying the lines of text scrolling upwards, he tilts his head to the side. "If I'm reading the database queries correctly... He is hammering the shit out of the system for research done by a... Dr. Malkav?"

Harvos hums in thought over the speakerphone. "I have heard of him. But, I haven't delved too much into his work, exactly. Do you have any examples of his work?"

With a humored snort, Nash commands his computer and opens up a document. "Plenty. Isaac is mass downloading EVERYTHING from this guy. Let's take a look at... Uh... THIS one."

He grimaces, puzzling at the title, and scratches his head of long, graying hair. "Post Abstract Prism Elder Energy Acquisition and Applications? Okay..."

With a dawning realization, Harvos's cadence shifts out of confusion. "It's coming back to me. Dr. Malkav did a lot of... Well... Out on the fringes research on elder energy magic and theoretical possibilities of access to it. But... If I remember correctly, he proposed a lot of theories, but none of them ever really worked out."

Nash contorts his face and ponders out loud. "SO, what the hell is Isaac doing now? I mean he is wholesale dumping everything Dr. Malkav we have. Does this guy still even work for the Grand Library anymore?"

A long sigh escapes Harvos and handset noises telegraph the shake of his head. "Oh. No. I think he left the Grand Library officially a long time ago. But, I think he was involved in some... Unofficial capacity? I don't know exactly. Honestly, after the whole Orth Ridge ordeal, I've been combing through this damn department's project records for any other strange circumstance. So, I will prioritize THAT mystery. GODS. I do NOT want to be blindsided by something like Orth Ridge again."

Nodding empathetically, Nash rolls his eyes, sighing out his disgust. "I know the feeling. Got sets of the original blueprints for a few buildings, and I've been double-checking to see if they match up with the buildings now. If I don't find revision notes or any other updates to the plans, I still got the sledgehammer from engineering."

Harvos chuckles with a humored tone. "How the hell do you still have that? Didn't Vetra take that back?"

Laughing, Nash smugly smiles, squinting at the data streaming on screen. "Yes. It was LAST SEEN in engineering. Don't know if they've bothered checking to see if they could still see it where it was last seen."

A status monitor icon flickers from red to black. Streams of data slow to a halt, and capture systems close out. Nash searches the information before him and grits his teeth. "Well... He disconnected. Damn. Let's see what the crew up the pipe got."

Glancing over to a side monitor, he reads the information dumps in the chat windows. He shakes his head and directs his disappointed tone towards the speakerphone on his desk. "They traced him decently. But... Unfortunately... It seems like he was connecting via an aethernet tower along some highway in the middle of fucking nowhere. Roughly somewhere between GAA and Appaland territories."

He rolls his eyes and frowns. "So, not too helpful."

Harvos hopefully comments. "Still, it means he was around there at this time. He can only move so far so fast. It will be useful in the right hands."

Nash slowly nods in agreement and settles back into his office chair with a long, groaning creak. "Yeah. Yeah. I definitely know some people who'll want THIS. Well, I'm going to dig into this more. I'll get you a copy and send one to Aristespha."

Harvos replies appreciatively over the speakerphone. "Thank you. Don't fret. We'll figure it out yet."

Pausing a moment, he inquires curiously. "Quick question, Nash."

Nash quirks his brow and eyes the desk phone. "Yes?"

Harvos sighs from the other side of the connection. "When the hell are you going to get a new office chair? I keep hearing that damned thing, and it sounds like it's going to fall apart at any moment."

A defiant laugh bellows out from Nash. "Never! We got history, this chair and I... And... Well... All the new chairs feel weird to me. Strange back support and all."

Harvos grumbles in commiseration. "Yes... Very true. Please, let me know if you find any of the old ones in storage somewhere."

Nodding, Nash hovers his finger over the call end button on the desk phone. "Will do. Catch ya later."

With Harvos's goodbye, Nash terminates the call and stares at the screens in front of him. He glances over to wall clock, eyes the paperwork, and settles upon the task before him. "Ffffuuucckkk..."