The Halls of Medeia - Prologue

[steveflam]

GEorge tries to dance but his feet can't follow the beat and soon, he stumbles and falls to his side. Not embarassed, just slightly put off, he stands and brushes off his clothing. He moves away from Christine. "Thanks for the dance. Told yer I weren't any good dancer, Christine." Her smiles politely and moves to sit a little away from everyone. He glances at the older woman, face impassive, but eyes telling her he is more than disappointed.

Turning his back on her, he sits near the others. He goes through his languages through his mind, then ponders the lessons he
learned this week.

[A G Thing]

Die roll for Christine's Perform Dance Roll aiding George

VIEW CONTENT:

Rolled on: July 22, 2014, 5:46 p.m.
1d20+5 → [20,5] = (25)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4581316/
WELL AT LEAST I ROLLED A TWENTY! A +2 to Georges check even though we saw what happend!

Christine tries her best to be patent with George as he dances on her toes and for all her efforts and even smiling encouragement she could tell something was off by how distracted he seemed. For a time she almost thought she could get past that and make him relax and dance a bit.

Still, she almost took a tumble when George fell near the end of the song but he fell to the side and he let go of her hand so as not to drag her down all the way and she reached to help him up but he stood on his own. As he stood and dusted himself off he spoke up and while she didn't expect him to be embarrassed really the fact that his words came off as polite but put out without any embarrassment bothered her more. She did not think for a moment she had done anything wrong but she guessed something was off.

"I will make a dancer out o ya. Tonight perhaps is not the night though..." She said this in half jest as the wind flew out of her sails a little bit. Still perhaps they did not see how much of a success tonight had been at least from where she was standing. The camp had spoken with them and even enjoyed their company she thought. Unless something really bad had happened while she had been performing and dancing she did not think it had gone badly. She wondered if George just had not read the situation or conversations he had tonight for subtle clues. True she had doubted they would open up on the first night. Perhaps she should have explained that before but she had her reasons for it all the same.

Looking around to the others she sees them tired perhaps as Bennedict's strange look made her think or bored and casually watching as Oliver seemed to be from where he stood. George looked put out and with only a slight glance while he moved away to the elder woman who he had spoke with earlier she wondered why.

As the music had ended she walked over to the girls and thanked them all for teaching her a few new steps in Calo. Walking over then to the young boy who had been playing her violin she thanks him as well in Calo and then the others as they had played fantastically with her. Gathering her instrument from the boy who had taken up playing as she danced with another thank you and grabbing her bundle she reaches in and grabs a single letter she had written.

She walks over to the elder woman and with some words in Calo hands her the envelope and continues to speak a little more.
Christine speaking in Calo to the elder woman.

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"Forgive me elder but I thought if you happen to see your kin and run into a girl named Tamara Karela daughter of Russo Karela who travels with her clan that you might give her this from me. I don't know if you will meet her but I hope if you should this will come to mind. I thank you and yours for inviting us in tonight and I hope none of my or my friends acts have brought any of you discomfort. I know they are impatient for stories and perhaps too caught up in their world a bit but I am trying to show them there is more to it. George I know asks questions because a fire burns in him to figure out mysteries but also to learn of other people and places. I hoped tonight would do that some and I only wanted to show them a good time with the kin of those who once treated me as family and who I consider family. Thank you for your food and company. I hope we may share such good times again soon."

She waits to hear what the woman has to say and then walks over to Father Niles and takes care not to interrupts him. "Sorry to cut our time short Father but I think the boys are a bit tired. I could dance all night but they must have tired their legs out earlier today." Her smile was a bit muted from before but she kept it on though she did not feel as content as she made herself sound.

It really was not a lie. Christine wondered what had brought such a down mood to the evening at least on her peers time within the camp.

[Ail]

Oliver, hearing Christine's call, decided to walk back to the group. He is about to join when George starts dancing with Christine, and stands watching. After George falls and embarrassedly joins the circle, George comes to sit by him and with a friendly tone says:

"Good try, George. Don't give up, you'll do it someday. Christine will help you". The tone is not sarcastic at all, as he goes on.

"I may have been a bit abrupt a while back. I didn't mean it, it just comes with my convictions. But they seem a good people and received us with tolerance. I'll be more careful in the future. "

Then he offers his handshake to George, saying: "friends?"

As Christine stops and gathers her things, there are smiles all around the camp. The music goes on, as if there had been no change in the number of dancers and musicians, and it even seems some new people are readying to join. However, the old woman and the captain, plus two or three of the others, come to say goodbye.

The captain says: "We don't usually have visits, and in any cases not everyone who comes to our camp intends to be our friends. You are very fortunate to have been here, remember that. This is our home, after all, and there are some things of ours that belong only to us. You are welcome to return, but only if you promise to respect our wishes when we ask you to stay away."

"Christine, we recognize your friendship. We have not heard of your sister, but you gave us the right signs. But even to you, we may need to ask you to stay away when we need your privacy. Do you agree?"

[A G Thing]

"I understand and fully respect that and I know better than most why. I am lucky to have shared what I have with my kin before it was lost to me. I hope to visit again often but if you send me away then I will assume it is the best for both of us, and will do so for however long you wish. I only want what you would freely give in friendship and safety. If you need anything of me you only need ask. I will do what I can."

Christine smiles understandingly to both the elders and the others who had come to wish her and her friends farewell. She then speaks in Calo to them all.

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"Be well until next we meet my kin."
She meant every word and spoke it with that meaning.

A bit of moisture is in her eyes but not of sadness but of joy as she smiles gently. The evening had been too short it seemed but it was not the last she was certain she would see of these new kin. She was certain they would see each other again. With luck she might also see her sister once more as well. But that would perhaps be longer in coming. And perhaps she hoped, that reunion would be as good or better than this one.

[steveflam]

George nods politely to the captain. "I thank you for the opportunity to meet and be among you. I understand we are lucky to have been amongst you and your knowledges are sacred. I respect that. Your elder has made it clear I am too young or impatient in her eyes, so I will not bother you again."

His manner is blank, with no emotion. He turns away and heads out of the camp slowly so the others can follow or catch up to him. "Oliver, no worries, mate," he tells the fellow student as he shakes the offered hand. "Looks like I will be looking at the circus or town for fun" he spits out in disgust, apparently disappointed with his evening and saying so. "Hope you fellas or girls may it be, had a good time.... my evening was a failure. I should have stayed at school or gone to see the circus."

[A G Thing]

After a quick apologetic and somewhat worried look to the Elders for how George spoke, Christine will move to follow her friend and standing next to him will move her hand to touch his. Her words are deflated but still friendly. "I'm sorry George... I didn't think they wouldn't talk about it..." She doesn't say anything else as she waits for his response, her gaze locked to the back of his head.

[steveflam]

"I've already moved on. So I guess I will be wantin ter go see a bookstore in town when I got some free time next."

[A G Thing]

"Okay... Wherever you want George..." Christine simply falls in line following George realizing his mood is focused elsewhere. She doesn't say much of anything else unless he speaks first. The tone of those words is one of patient acceptance.

[Alastor]

From the wagons on the outskirts of the camp, it isn't immediately apparent that a small group has gathered to bid farewell to the visitors. The conversation has carried on for several minutes before someone notices that George and Christine have begun to walk back the way they had come.

"It’s been a pleasure visiting you," Niles tells the two men. "If you choose to come by the campus some time, it would be a privilege to return your hospitality, but for now I had best be seeing them back. Dinna forget the signal in case any students try to enter the ruins.”

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The signal is a green light created by placing a piece of glass in front of a candle.

With that, Niles walks off to rejoin the younger students.

[Ail]

Niles joines the students as they give their final goodbyes.
As the group gathers to depart, they notice night has set. It's almost dinner time, and it would be wise to return to the college.

Bennedict tries to comfort George.

"Hey, man, don't be so down. I'm sure that old woman liked you, why you so upset?"

Oliver is listening attentively, but it becomes clear he has missed some important part of the conversation and he holds back for now. Bennedict continues:

"Maybe she does want you to go to the ruins first. As a test... to see if you're good enough. Then she might tell you something more!"

[steveflam]

George listens to Bennedict. "I dun knows. She seemed pretty adamant when I be worthy an all that nonsense. Unless she tells me otherwise herself, I have moved on. That be impossible as I wont go back ter waste me time. I asked er stuff she aint responded to either an I telled her an the rest thanks but I shant be back. It dint work out an thats all I gots ter say about it really. Not the first time in me life I bin disappointed an won't be tha last, man. No fear, I'll find some other interestin thing to look at."

George shrugs, walking at an easy pace.

"Its easy as pie, really. You ask a question, you expect an answer. You get some cryptic answer instead and the rest of the question remains unanswered. It is either black or white in my eyes. I am not old or nuthin but aint stupid either by far. If she wanted me to go she would have said so an thass final."

He spies Niles amongst them now.

"So does any of yer knows any bookstores in town? An what of tha circus? Whass interestin there? Keep in mind my interests."

[A G Thing]

Christine listens to George and Bennedict talk. She can understand why but not how much this had bothered George. His frustration seemed to have been hard for her to grasp but as much as she wanted to ask what had been said or apparently not been said she held back.

She instead drew out one of the other items she had brought in her bundle. A small lantern and lit it carefully.

She pushed her glasses back up her nose and spoke up.

"I have not been to the book store in town before. Father Niles, do you know where it might be so we can go tomorrow?"

Christine seems very calm and quiet. Still she seems to be looking around at the others and into the darkness quite often.

[Alastor]

"There are several bookstores in town," Niles replies after a few seconds, distracted by trying to make sense of George and Benedict's dialog a moment earlier.

" If by your 'interests' you mean antiquities, George, the shop in Elmsbrook may the best place to look. They specialize in used books," here the older student holds up the volume he had originally carried outside, which looks even more weathered than before after being left behind by the camp’s entrance, “so it’s a poor choice for natural philosophy or modern biography, but there are sometimes rare texts, heavily discounted because of a missing page or two.”

[steveflam]

"I will only really know when I see it to be perfectly honest. I love books and languages so a book store is like gold for me. I am not materialistic at all. Just lucky enough
to find a benefactor who takes care of my education here. He even refused me working off the money it costs to be here. I'll pay him back by excelling in my studies, thus giving him reason
to find it in the kindness of his heart to help me and my folks out. He even helps out me folks and their bookstore back home."

George smiles at the mention of his benefactor and parents, then focuses once again on their march and their trek back. He thinks no more of the gypsies, already planning his visit to the town
and bokstores he plans to go spend time at. Maybe he might even get lucky enough to help out in one, for a small salary or for free, if only to have the chance to work with books.

[Ail]

The group arrives to the college. Since Niles is with them, nobody questions where they have been, nor make remarks at how late it is. Indeed, it is almost dinner time, and Niles urges the students to get properly dressed and ready for dinner.

Once out of earshot of Niles, Oliver says to George:

"Look, you don't have to ask permission to the gypsy woman if you want to go to the ruins. We can do it all the same. Interested?"

Bennedict, on the other hand, seems excited to know about the circus, and starts talking with other colleagues to know what there is to see there.