Drakes, lunch, and running away...

"Avatar of suffering?" Eric gave Lortz a look of utter disbelief. He looked the man up and down. He seemed so kind, friendly, and cheerful...Inviting, even. The type of man that you simply trusted and you didn't need a reason why. And yet he was in charge of suffering. What a startling reminder of the fact that looks can be deceiving. Eric thought, laughing quietly and shaking his head. He never would have imagined that the element of suffering could be used to heal.

"On the subject of where we're going. What's out there? I've never been outside of the Falls until just now."

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Elliot felt a faint smile pulling at his lips. Zix was a land of incredible contrast, which somehow made it just that much more beautiful in his eyes. From the fires that roared in the distance to the unbreakable stillness of the sea, it was all perfect to him. In his 50 some odd years of exile, Elliot had spent almost all of his time on Zix.

He came to the gates of the city and landed gently on the ground, his blades settling into place behind and around him. The gate guard greeted him with a curt nod. He knew Elliot well enough by now. He returned the nod with a friendly smile and held up his hand in a wave of appreciation. The gates swung open and Elliot walked into the city he almost considered home. He figured that Eric would have tried to get away from the Tangle as soon as possible, and the city seemed like the first place he would have run to.

"Ah fuck, who am I kidding? I have no idea where to start. Maybe I should ask Lortz?" Elliot mumbled to himself as he took off in the direction of the emerald tower. He had never known Lortz well, but they had met a few times. He was always up to date on what was going on in the city. Eric would have surely attracted some attention if he came waltzing into the city. Most people didn't even know about the Glassborn, let alone know what they look like. So a strange floating man with flying swords would stick out like a sore thumb.

Elliot knocked lightly on the door, taking a deep breath as he braced himself for Lortz's booming "hello".

Lortz grinned as eric looked him over. "WELL, I ADMIT I DON'T EXHIBIT THE CLASSICAL LOOK OF MY KIND, BUT HEY." he said, shrugging.

Lo seemed to think a moment upon Eric's question. "Well..." he began "On zix, alone, theres a countless number of things to see." he said, reclining a bit in his chair. "You have the tangle, which is where we just came from, and that's....well....it's incredibly varied and beautifull, but dangerous as hell, though in a different way from the fields of fire you probably spotted aerlier....and then you have the giant ocean...which is.....also quite-"

Lortz interupted with a guffaw "WHAT HE'S TRYIN TO SUGARCOAT IS THAT EVERYTHING ZIX HAS THE POTENJTIAL TO KILL YA." he said. "The Burn is the most naturaly stunning thing you are likely to see....but...yes, everything on zix is very...uh....dangerous." Lo finished, looking a bit sheepish. "I was just trying to emphisise that it's not all bad."

Lortz grinned "AT'S TRUE." Lortz agreed "LEAST ROUND HERE, THE THINGS THAT WANT TA KILL YA COME RIGHT OUT WITH IT. NO CLOAK AND DAGGER ON ZIX, THAT'S FOR SURE." the giant man said. He seemed like he was ready to continue when there was a knock on the door. Lortz stood up, nodded to his guests and went to get it.

--------------------------

With Lortz gone Lo continued. "The thing you have to understand though is that Zix is only one of many planes. There are all sorts of places out there. Some are downright cool...others....we might well want to steer clear of." he said. "So i guess if you want know what's out there, im gonna need to ask where to start."

--------------------------

As Lortz opened the door, he grinned at the sight of Elliot. "WELL HELLO THERE!" the giant said, even louder than usuall. "TO WHAT DO I OWE THE PLEASURE?" he asked. "GOT ONE OF YOUR COUSINS IN HERE ALREADY SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL COME IN." he continued, motioning for Elliot to come inside. "WHAT CAN I DO FOR YA?"

Eric took a deep breath. He had a feeling that he was going to have to start getting over his fear of germs if he was going to travel with Lo. And the germs were the least of his worries, it seemed. His mind wandered back to their battle with the Drakes. Everything on Zix has the potential to kill me. He looked around him at the beauty of the tower he was in. Dangerous and beautiful. That seemed to be Zix in a nutshell.

"Well, we might as well start here. I think perhaps we should maybe avoid the Tangle for a while probably." His voice was incredibly unsure as he weighed the pros and cons of going back to the Tangle. Drakes and germs, pretty big cons. Absolutely gorgeous and he already knew what to expect, tiny pros. He was about to make a joke related to his internal struggle when a flash of silver caught his eye. "ELLIOT?!" He stood up suddenly, his blades falling away from him for a moment before coming up behind him, fanning off of his back like two wings.

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Elliot gave Lortz a warm smile, careful to hide the lack of care behind it and wincing as his greeting shook the ground around him. He was never one for being formal, although he felt it was only proper in the presence of an Avatar.

"Hello to you too, sir. I was actually coming to ask you if you knew of a Glassborn coming to the city, but you've already answered that question." He stepped into the tower, trying to see everything at once. He'd only ever been inside once or twice, and each time he had been stunned by the architecture and artwork. He envied Lortz at times. He lived in an elaborate home with the most striking decor, and it reminded him of his own home in the Falls sometimes.

Following Lortz to a living room area, he smirked as Eric jumped up. "What's the matter? Weren't expecting me to hear of your exile? The hell did you do, man?" Elliot opened his arms in the invitation of embrace. Eric glared at him as if to say 'are you fucking kidding me?' and he dropped his arms. "How did you survive the Tangle with that attitude?" he mumbled.

Eric folded his arms across his chest, pretending to look hurt. "Do you doubt my competence?"
"Yes."
"Oh you jerk." Eric laughed. He motioned to Lo, turning slightly to face him. "I had help of course. This is-" He stopped himself, ignoring Elliot's confused expression. "Well he can introduce himself." (Eric wasn't exactly sure if Lo was willing to give his name out to just anyone. "And to answer your exile questions, this fine fellow crashed through my wall and since he happens to have silver eyes...Well you should be able to gather the rest. I followed him, mostly of my own will but partially because I had to."

Elliot whistled. He was mildly surprised that they hadn't just killed the two of them. "Welp. Do you guys have room for a third in your party? It's been a long time since I've had the chance to talk to you. Hell, we have a lot to catch up on if you're running out of the Falls and stabbing Drakes now."
Eric turned to Lo, awaiting a response. "This is Elliot, a good friend of mine. He was exiled for learning and speaking the Celestial tongue. He shattered an entire city, and they decided that was enough." He gave a half-hearted laugh, partially devastated by the memory and partially amused.

"Huh, well i can certainly see why we'd do that. "The tangle....hell, most of zix, is something we might want to explore once were a bit more...well equipped." Lo finished.

Then, Lortz had returned, along with another guest. "SAY HELLO TO-" he began, before the two glassborn started chatting exitedly. "NO NEED THEN." Lortz said cordialy, once again taking a seat.

Lo looked on at the two glassborn bemusedly. "Well, im sure we've all broken things at one time or another." he said with a half smile. "And i'm Lo." he continued. "Nice to meet you."

"There's breaking things, and then there's disintegrating a capital city." Elliot laughed, but his eyes reflected a strange sort of satisfaction. The kind of prideful glint one gets when remembering something they have no remorse for. "Nice to meet you too, Lo. I hope my friend hasn't been too much of a drag?"

"Hey!" Eric glared at him. "I helped him with the drakes, didn't I?"
"Or did you get in the way, Eric?"
"I helped." He hissed. Then he spun around to face Lo, his expression slightly worried. "I did help, right?"

Elliot shook his head. Same old Eric, just with a little more stupidity than before. Innocent, reckless...It was going to be sad when he finally lost it.

"So what did I interrupt?" He said, shoving his hands into his pockets. His blades stuck themselves into the floor around him in a circular pattern.

"BREAKIN' THINGS IS ALWAYS BETTER WHN THEY'RE BIGGER ANYWAY, EH?" lortz chuckled.

Lo nodded curtlyto the first question. "He's been very accomidating considering that my request was akin to kidnaping him."

Lo smiled as the small argument broke out.

"Very helpfull.", he chimed in earnestly.

Lortz answered Eliot's last question. "EH, NOTHING MUCH, WE WERE JUST GETTING TO SAYING HELLO, CATCHING UP, AND PLANNING AS TO HOW TO GET THESE TWO WHERE THEY'RE WANTING TO GET WITHOUT BEING KILLED IN NASTY WAYS, EH LO?"

Lo blinked. "Uh....well that's certainly one way to phrase it." he said with a small shrug.

"Oh." Elliot nodded. He was amused by the blunt way Lortz tended to phrase things. He knew he could handle himself. After all, he'd been floating around for quite a few years now and he hadn't been too badly hurt.

---

Eric looked quite proud of himself, having been told that he was, in fact, helpful. Sticking his tongue out at Elliot, he neatly arranged himself so that he was sitting on the flat of his blades.

"Right, so. What do we need and where are we going? Well, I mean we're exploring here, right?"

(tiny post is tiny q.q RCPC rules are making it hard to post properly)

Lortz nodded sagely. "IT'LL BE STRIDING SUPPLIES IM GUESSING, EH LO?"

"Yes." Lo responded. Survival gear for...well, three now i suppose, for all the common planes if possible."

Lortz grinned. "HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN ME TO DISSAPOINT?" the giant man asked nudging lo with his elbow. (slightly aquard looking as his elbow was almost as large as lo's entire torso.)

"No." Lo said with a grin. "In any case, a good question. We are planning on exploring the planes. There are one or two we will be avoiding, but that is irrlivent at the moment. Along the way, there are a pretty close to infinite number of interesting things to do, so the supplies lortz has agreed to provide us are more general equipment we may need on each plane specificaly."

OOC: RCPC? And also im sorry to hear that.

"Like I said before, I've never been outside of the Fall." Eric said. He had no problem admitting that he didn't know what he was doing. Though, he did figure that a change in wardrobe was probably necessary and added in a quiet voice: "I'm guessing the crimson tailcoat isn't good traveling."

"No, not the best." Elliot laughed. "Maybe we should take a look around the city first? Get him a change of clothes? You don't need to look well-dressed while you're dodging vines, beasties, and or bullets."
"Bullets?" Eric's expression had changed very rapidly from one of acceptance to one of terror.
"Well, probably not bullets." Elliot admitted. "But you can't guarantee that you aren't going to run into a gun-toting madman in the jungle. You can't guarantee anything in that clusterfuck."

Lo sighed. "Yeah, to be honest Zix is one of the more unpredictable places I've been." He seemed to brighten back up. "That said, clothes should be easy, we're in one of the most interesting cities on the entire plane, and the market isn't more than a ten minute walk."

Lortz grinned, the expression making him look somewhere between comical and completely terrifying. "WELL, IF YOU'RE GOING SO SOON, ILL GET TO THAT EQUIPMENT. SHOULD BE READY BY THE TIME YOU GET BACK I SHOULD THINK." The giant man said.

"Thank you again." Lo called after the retreating giant's back.

"IT'S NO PROBLEM, ENJOY THE MARKET." Came the reply, hardly muffled by distance.

Lo turned back to his new traveling companions. "Alright." He said "Now before we go into the city proper, there are a few things you have to know. First of all, you are going to see some incredibly odd things, even by the standards of the fall. Zix is a place filled with life, most of that life imbued into things that generally, would not be nearly as alive. Since that's how it is, the first thing you have to remember is not to act like anything is off. Most people don't have a problem with outsiders, but I've found that it's usually better to blend in. Second thing." Lo paused seeming to consider his words carefully. "There are a lot of things for sale at the market, and there is no standardized currency in Zix, that means, if you want something, even if the price seems minor, ask me about it, because the market thrives on people who don't know much about it." Lo didn't elaborate.