Not So Saintly (TRUTH, Plot Thread 2.6)

[Andy Jammer]

Roxa's information wasn't a lot to go on, neither he nor Andy could make sense of Trisha's parting words. 'Seek the traitor Saint', who could that even mean? Roxa? Nia? It could mean anyone...and this left Andy's group in a boat without a paddle, they had moved away from the group in Heaven's Last to get their space but in the end they had little answers about the orb and where it came from.

"Seek the traitor Saint...yeah, likes that's helpful." Andy rolled his eyes, looking amongst his group and moving to Jasmine. "I am getting that feeling again...that one I had all throughout fighting Trucido: the one where I feel like I am being played around like a chess piece."

The group had stopped at the edge of a small river, there was some shade from trees and a stream rushing by. It felt serene and peaceful, despite all the violence and death that happened earlier. Even this place though was about to have its...moments of chaos...for the group didn't notice at first...the slight rumbling of the ground.

[The Other]

"So, I get not wanting to follow the pipsqueak and his merry band of annoying." The Other piped up, ruining the serenity of the moment with his usual loud blabbering. "I mean, did you catch a look at half of them? Bunch of freaks if you ask me. Yet we are sort of just wandering around without any idea now aren't we?" The Other leaned in close to Andy, a hot whiff of breath throwing Andy's hair around as he gave the boy a curious look.

"Not that I mind really. Don't exactly have much to do for another couple weeks, so really this beats just sitting around, but don't you have people to save or something? That's usually what gets you goody goodies' bloomers in a bunch right?"

[Dios Sarvo]

Shifting forth from the shaded canopy over the young red-head, Dios chuckled that oh so telltale chortle of his; equal parts snide and belittling, before breaking his stint of muffled snickers to voice his presence.

"It's rather easy for the more intelligent to pray on the naive and ignorant. Perhaps that's you're problem, my boy."

Laughing once more as he loosed himself from the gripping shadows, Dios dropped from the trees' side, landing amidst the already assembled group with a slight "oomph" before giving his pants a quick pat, and briskly adjusting his hat and tie.

"That aside though, you have anything you'd like to share with us? I mean, and this is just me exercising my keen observation, but that little trick back there at Heaven's Last that you pulled seemed like quite the move. Care to share where you learned that one from?"

Walking around with his hand placed upon his chin in a facetiously inquisitive manner, he eyed the others present from under his hat as he "hmmmm'd" and "haw'd" before pivoting back to Andy with a snide grin.

"I mean, I can't be the only one with just an itty-bitty-tiny little bit of curiosity when it comes to this, right?" Posed Dios with a rather "matter-of-fact" tone behind his words and movements.

[The Other]

"Oh look, the shadling decided to come back after all. Here I was thinking the battle had scared you off, what with me not seeing you kill a single thing that whole time. Need to change your pants before you came back to us?" The Other threw his head back and laughed, his tendrils quivering in response to his delight as he smacked Dios against the back. A playful smack to be sure, but a sturdy one all the same.

"I don't know why you're being so hard on the little red head, shadling. I'm sure he's just finally learned his lesson from Ghiaccio and is ready to fight like his life depended on it. I can understand how much he misses my masterful power in combat after all. Wouldn't you do anything to get me back on your side?" He asked rhetorically, his question thrown at the group in general as he plodded along through the lightly forested land.

[vincent]

Vincent marched around his squad as they took guarding positions around the group resting near the river. He'd made his move while the groups departed, his going up north, unsure why the Mentor kid was so keen on knowing Vincent's movements when he ended up going the other way in the end but whatever--after briefly finding nothing and a little investigation it turned out to be a bust and Vincent had his men come back. It seemed they were unfortunately heading back to Ignis...

And then that's when he had come across the circus this fine group by the river, all of two faces he recognized in the bunch. That was when his amazing plan to invite himself along with them came to him and when the queen snarled "where the hell were you?!" he could grin and say "doing my duty, for the death of Duo!"
Genius! That was Vincent Loque.

He listened in to Dios digging into Andy and his intelligence, letting out audible chuckles to support Dios's ribbing because, well, Andy wasn't smart. Or so Vincent perceived. Jasmine liked him and he trusted his daughter's judgement for the most part, but that was more along the lines of whether or not Andy was a good person, not his intelligence. Like really, he allowed this ugly black monster tittering about follow them and it completely baffled Vincent, and enough that felt the need to join in to address it.

"That kid does all sorts of questionable things. Didn't you used to have this 'mask' thing that turned you insane, too?" Vincent blurted out to Andy, recalling very well old tales of Trucido's time, "the kid went absolutely nuts. And what's the deal with this thing?! You let my daughter travel around with it? What if it decides it's going to eat you or something?"

His eyes turned to the Other with a great look of distaste as he added in, "You don't fool me."

[glitters]

Jasmine sat on the ground, playing with the grass arond her and watched the boys all poke into Andy but she made no move to leap in to defend him. She listened and carefully so, and as much as she hated to admit it Dios was very much right. But this was a conclusion that Jasmine had already reached, everything that was happening to her love was very much suspicious.
She was a girl who held strongly to her faith in her friends and family, and it seemed that in recent times she was losing it for both. It was like she was changing, maybe from the naive girl she was into a callous woman, she wasn't sure. She didn't know where she was going.

Jasmine tried to hold on with everything she had to Andy. Whatever faith she did have left she wanted to put into his words, and prayed with her whole heart and soul that what he was saying was true--everything would be alright, power was not what he wanted, he had nothing to do with Duo.

'Don't let me down, Andy. Please don't...I don't want to go through this to find out...' she wouldn't finish her thoughts, she didn't want to think anything negatively of him. Right now she believed he was a good person, he was, and she had to believe in that.

So when her own father brought up to the others that Andy had a history of these strange happenings, she held onto her faith but let go of her composure as she shot herself to her feet.

"Papa, that's enough! He can't do that, something's just...just plaguing him," she shouted and balled her fists up tightly, "if anything, he needs our help, not our barbed words. You know he's a good person too, Papa, so help us."

[Andy Jammer]

Andy was gritting his teeth to keep from attacking, but suddenly he remembered something Dios had done earlier in Ghiaccio. It was something that had left his mind with everything going on, and yet it was also the source of everything going on.

"Dios you already have the answer to your question." he pointed at him, "The orb, the one from Ghiaccio. You have it right? Pull it out, see what the orb is, I mean that little 'trick' as you call it didn't happen until after we took that orb."

And then he whirled around at Vincent, "And for all that is good will you just give it a rest? I've had my issues but I have been there for her and I have never let her down or let something happen to her. And IF something happens? IF it does? Your daughter is a tougher girl than you give her credit for. Even if something happened, to me, or she was caught in a situation in which no one else was around she can fend for herself."

Then he added, "You wanna stick around fine by me, can't stop you. But she's your daughter and like it or not, I am her boyfriend. I am going to be around as long as she wants me, so...make nice."

[vincent]

Vincent placed his hands on his hips and shook his head at Andy.

"She's more than free to see whoever she damn well pleases, it doesn't change the fact that you're irresponsible and a damn idiot on top of that!"

[The Other]

"Oh, speaking of the freaks..." The Other rose up tall as he spotted Vincent and his squad. He remained away from the group, taken in more by the sights and the unusual sensation that nibbled at his feet. It felt like, footsteps perhaps?

Yet such speculative thoughts could not hold his attention when he could feel his ears burning, or at least he would have if he had ears. "Oh, forgive me, for I thought I heard a gnat trying to besmirch my name." The Other drew his eyes squarely on the Ignisian captain as he approached the man and his squad.

"Forgive me, but I didn't catch your name gnat, not that I'd bother to remember it if you had. I am King of the Sky and soon-to-be Lord of your realm, but for the time being you may call me Lord Other." Now standing no more than inches away from Vincent he drew his face closer and closer, a look on unimpressed boredom staring him down. "I'm sure I don't know what you think I'm doing that could count as an attempt to fool you, but I assure you it's all in your little mind. After all, why should I waste my time trying to fool you when you couldn't do a thing to stop me either way?"

Flashing Vincent a smug grin he stayed nice and up close in the man's face, content to stare down the mortal as he ground his faux teeth against each other, waiting to see how he'd react.

[vincent]

Oh shit, he was a king?

'...Wow, eastern Allorum is so fucked up...'

As The Other approached him Vincent drew his sword, quite expecting the creature to attack and yet just a bit confused as instead the beast mocked and humiliated him openly. Not that Vincent liked that either, really.

"Well aren't you a cocky little bastard, milord," he growled, "you take yourself a couple of steps backwards right now or this 'gnat' will shove this sword up your ass. I don't like sharing my personal bubble with anyone."

[glitters]

Jasmine was actually grateful that The Other stepped in when he did, otherwise she might have been the one to step into her father's face and turning the situation ugly, she was angry enough to do so.

Something pierced her anger though, something that brought her back to a bit of a softer, rational state and that was the little 'speech' as she called it that Andy gave Vincent. Hearing that Andy had the confidence he had in her to be independent and take matters into her own hands, it was something that warmed her heart more than he probably knew. After dealing with so many stubborn 'hero' men, she hadn't expected Andy to make the transition he did so smoothly. She gave him a brief smile, a little bit at a loss for words but that was probably because there were too many people around to allow her the comfort she required to say whatever could be on her mind.

"Thank you, Andy," she simply said for now.

[The Other]

"Oh my, it barks. What a cute trick, perhaps I was too hasty to call you a gnat." The Other broke the tense standoff as he drew himself back up to an erect stance and threw a dirty grin out at Vincent. "Well pup, are you just putting on a show for your daughter, or do you intend to back up your dull little threat with some action? It might even amuse me for a minute before I kill you."

The Other turned to the party of Heroes that he'd been accompanying for the last couple weeks and pointed lazily towards Vincent. "Hey, no one really cares if I off this idiot do they?" A rhetorical question to be sure, but given how little these mortals budged against his usual tactics, testing their reactions was about the only thing that gave him a little amusement.

[Dios Sarvo]

Before Dios could retort, a low rolling grumble seemed to emanate from around the emerald-haired man, as his shadows slowly grew from the ground, giving way to the elongated and thin form of The Lord of Shadows. Twisting it's form to face the Other, the shade bore it's visage down upon the hulking shade before openly mocking the hulking being.

"How long must we suffer this contemptible show? Is spewing such varies and threats all you know?"

Dios tipped his head down, rubbing his eyes in a fit of obvious frustration at his shadowy cohort. Sighing heavily, he grimaced under the shaded brim of his hat before meeting the rest of his "team" with his usual forced smile, gesturing towards the shadow with a gentile flourish of his hands.

"Allow me to introduce The Lord of Shadows; master of the Shadows Plane and specialist in making my life a living hell..."

"Such griping and whining; incessant, non-stopping. It's no wonder that even my patience is dropping," The shade retorted sharply to his host with a biting tone. "But at least, for my partner, I can relate to his qualms, as I've witnessed all of his going ons. Like with you, Mister Jammer, who's earned his contempt, an perhaps to explain would be wise to attempt. As for that sphere so lustrous in hue, it shall no longer be of concern to you. Quite ground to dust by my hand, should you care, but it's role had been served, so I'd rule it fair," remarked the shadow with obviously flippant tone as his grin widened into a broad smirk.

[vincent]

"Heh heh heh..."

Vincent continued chuckling as he shook his head watching The Other. He was trying to keep his cool, but the guy seemed to know what buttons to push which probably should have been a sign to Vincent that he was just trying to spur him on into something this stupid.

But even if it was, the guy was calling him out in front of everyone, including his own dummies--err, soldiers!

"I said get out of my god damn bubble," he growled, sword immediately drawn and slashed out at The Other with a licking of flames around the blade. It was simple, but it was enough to show he wasn't kidding and somehow he hoped that the guy would just back off, part of him not wanting to get involved with the murdering of a foreign king and another part of him admittedly a tad concerned with how overly confident this fellow was in stating he'd kill Vincent himself.

[The Other]

The Other mimicked the motion of rolling his eyes, exaggerating the motion to make up for the lack of pupils as the Lord of Shadows appeared. "Here we go again..." Of course halfway into the elaborate speech the Other slapped his knee and howled with laughter, pointing at the ethereal creature briefly before rolling back to enjoy the moment. "Oh, the rhymes! Ha, I forgot you did that. I don't know why he does it, it's not even that hard." Clearing his throat he took to imitating the Lord of Shadows voice. "Here look at me I'm all talk and no action, all I want is to get a....uhh what was it now? Damn I knew just the word. It's right on the tip of my tongue." Stumped by his own attempt the Other had almost completely disregarded Vincent, or at least he had till he felt the heat of the man's blade mere inches away from his onyx flesh.

"Hmm, oh ho ho! This is happening is it? Sorry Lord of Snores, I've got something way more interesting on my plate at the moment. Or rather, I guess he isn't on my plate yet, is he?" The Other turned his massive body to face Vincent. He took no stance, but he didn't take one step away from the man either. He merely opened his arms out wide, holding them out for a moment before he said in a cool, morbid tone. "Well dog, first shot's all yours."