The Festival!

When Zandrophin heard the announcement for the dinner, he was curious as to what would be served. He was no stranger to finer foods, by any stretch of the imagination; as a CEO of the largest trading company on the continent, he was able to easily acquire such things. Still, he was sure his old associate had picked up a few tricks in his travels. He entered the space where the table was, noticing that Akane had already taken a place at a head of the table.

Of course she would...

Zandrophin smiled internally and scratched his partner's ears.

Look at it this way...all the focus won't be on us, for once. It's rare we sit at a table with a group without everyone watching the psychic freak.

Zandrophin moved to the seat directly to Akane's right, so he'd be free to leave if he needed to. Always have an escape route, he always said. However, before he took his place at that chair, he made an effort to ask,

"May, I?"

He had a feeling she wouldn't mind, but Zanrophin had not gotten to where he was by making assumptions based on feelings. Mentus, who was feeling rather hungry contemplated gnawing on his spoon. Meanwhile, Zandrophin wondered who else would show up.

Kazi smiled as he walked over to his seat.  It had been quite some time since he had been to the Inn and he did miss the relaxing environment that the place provided.  He was wearing a nice suit along with a fedora he had picked out at one of the Starfort shops, and his Pokemon were at his side as usual...well, most of them.  Ruby was locked safely in her pokeball to keep her out of trouble at this formal reception.



As Kazi looked at the list of events for the festival, he couldn't help but chuckle, "I really should have brought Sparky with me.  She's going to be mad that she missed out on the chance to participate in the Gladiator event."

With a laugh Kazi took his seat, with Kamakiri and Kit sitting on his shoulders.  Once again, he absently fiddled with the object he now kept in his pocket after that incident in the Starfort mines.  He could most certainly remember the trouble he went through that time.

Maya walked into the dining hall, still in her decidedly not formal clothes but at least more cleaned up. She had showered quickly, allowed Elly to dry her hair with her flames and then changed into her second set of clothes. They were no more fancy or formal than her other clothes but at least these were clean. She had washed her hair thoroughly and at least tried to put some nice earrings and small pieces of jewelry in her long braided hair.



Despite rushing to get read there was only one seat left available to her at the table and she felt decidedly underdressed. She didn't recognize a few of the people, while others were very familiar if not been seen in some time. She was tempted to turn around and leave. If it weren't for Elly and Dororo standing close behind her as support she might have. Plus it would just be rude.


Elly promised to be on her best behavior though the ghost couldn't help swinging her ghostly scones around. As Maya took the last seat left, mostly around strangers, Dororo took a spot behind her, leaning against the wall and watching the others with narrowed pink eyes. She took a deep breath, deciding that she would not freak out. She could handle a social situation. She had faced worse than a dinner party.

"You're ignoring me for a dinner party?"

Much worse.

"You look like a bum. Just so you know," her personal eldritch horror said.

Receiving the expected nod of approval from Akane, Zandrophin took his place behind his seat, hands behind his back, and waited for more to arrive...and arrive they did.

First the enigma called Aidan entered. Zandrophin frowned internally; he disliked being ill-informed. He claimed he lived outside of Pyron City, but there'd been no mention of him save for that one encounter with Prasha some time ago. Two possibilities arose from this, he was lying or telling a half-truth. Either way, while he may live outside the city, he did not live near it...and "outside" Pyron City could reasonably be anywhere else. While the man sat at the far end of the table from him, Zandrophin still planned to keep an eye on him the entire time; he had no reason to trust a man he'd barely heard of, and if he caused any issues, he'd be ready.

Next to enter was the young man from Starfort...the mining executive, if his memory served him well enough. Zandrophin made sure to give him a small nod as he entered as a professional courtesy, businessman to businessman. Sure, he may have bumbled his way into this scenario by forgetting about common courtesy towards his host, but the bounty of the earth which was brought from his town was nothing to scoff at; a few mistakes here and there were not unforgivable.

Mariko entered shortly after, and Zandrophin noticed Akane's gesture towards her to take the seat opposite of him. Once again, Zandrophin stood a bit straighter as the good doctor approached. He took a moment to rationalize why this continued to happen; he was standing next to the Queen of Celosia, and yet he felt more relaxed around her than around Mariko. Then a thought hit him--Akane had allowed him into her mind. Though he had contacted her uninvited before, allowing a psychic into ones mind was a great show of trust and brings a level of comfort and relaxation just by knowing a bit more about someone than surface emotions. Still...

She does look lovely, Sir.

Zandrophin playfully pushed his partner's head and took his spoon, placing it in his pocket. Moments later, the spoon floated back to Mentus' tail, and he resumed nibbling on it.

Your thoughts; I'm simply relaying them back to you.

Zandrophin bowed slightly as Mariko took her place behind her chair, though only a few hours had passed since she'd arrived. Still, it was proper etiquette to greet a lady, no matter how much time had passed. Mentus sent a small ping to Akane, acknowledging what the Queen had been thinking earlier.

Finally, Maya entered the room, and something felt wrong...very wrong. Zandrophin started slightly, but kept any outward show of surprise to a minimum; he didn't wish to alarm anyone else. When Maya entered, he suddenly felt like his skull was being split open, but he maintained the majority of his composure, the only sign of his discomfort being an increased grip on his chair. He could feel Mentus was slightly curling and uncurling his tail while trying to use Calm Mind around the room to keep the pain from increasing, and to help alleviate any stress from any others who may be feeling it, as few of them as that would be. All the while, Zandrophin began to have vivid flashbacks; screams, a town razed to the ground, death and destruction everywhere...and that man...standing there above him, with a satisfied smile on his face. Through all of this, Zandrophin heard the Queen's thoughts,

"Zandrophin, you and I need to speak with Maya, the temple priest, after this is all said and done. Do you understand?"

As the pain became manageable for him, Zandrophin gave his retort,

"Of course...have the psychic talk to the ghost girl...sounds like a great plan. I know she's not dangerous, I've traveled with her before...but whatever that thing she's got with her is...that's another story."

---

Alright, people...just a reminder, as Akane mentioned in her post in the festival thread...if your character is not tuned into the world of auras or psychics, or you have no Pokemon with some such attunment, as I figure some of you are, you cannot have a personal reaction to Maya's tag-along.
You can, however, notice any changes from those of us that are. For those of us that are in tune with such things, make an effort to give these people something to go off of. Mine was small, but that's just how Zan works; he's been around this stuff a long time, he can hide it fairly well. I will, eventually, ramp up what happens as time goes on...so just be looking for the clues.
I don't want to have to police this...but I have been reading almost everyone's other threads...and I'm sure I can find evidence to disprove any sudden link to the world of psychics and energy from anyone here, if I need to use it.
Thanks, guys...continuity is paramount, here!!!

As Kazi watched Akane, due to a mixture of respect and intimidation, he noted that the Red Queen and the CEO that he had dealings with in the past seemed to be having a mental discussion.  While the young CEO of the Starfort Mining Corporation was no psychic, he was quite skilled at watching body language due to him learning to speak to the Pokemon on his team.  It seemed they were troubled by something and that made him worry, as the two of them were quite powerful in their own rights, so something that would worry them, worried him.

"Adamantine," he murmured as he gripped the item in his pocket, feeling its weight increase as he held it, "something may be wrong.  Lady Akane doesn't easily get this worried from what I've seen."

"Troubling?" asked a distorted voice in his head.

"Perhaps," replied Kazi, "Though I hope I'm wrong.  I did want to enjoy myself here."

"Rest," said the voice, "Deserved."

Kazi nodded, acknowledging the wisdom of the ancient pokemon and gazed around the rest of the room at the other people, petting Kit's fur while doing so to appease the fairy type.