Code: PIRULUK

[iMMERSION FUCKING BROKEN] jk it's cool. I think she should definitely be autoinclude for any major battles, though. Like, the ones that have a large impact on the plot and stuff.

Serene frowned. "Merchants, huh? I don't do too hot with merchants.They always seem so annoyed with me whenever I burn their stalls down..."

During the lull in the conversation, she noticed Hoshiko sitting by Meredith, looking glum. The girl was too young to be on the battlefield, in her opinion, but that was the way of the world. The girl seemed to be a believer as well, so seeing her being downtrodden pulled at Serene's heartstrings. Hoshiko looked so... depressed. Like herself, so long ago, before she learned of fire. Her posture reeked of insecurity. Feeling sorry for the girl, Serene casually placed one hand behind her back and wordlessly moved her fingers, such that Rosalyva and Radburn would not notice. She preferred to keep her level of skill hidden for a while, at least from these two. Meredith was the commander and had the right to know, Hoshiko likely wouldn't tell anyone. As she arranged the spell in her mind, she noticed that Hoshiko had cheered up a little. Still, it would have been a bit of a waste to let her work go unused, so she cast the spell anyway. As she kept her eyes level with Radburn's and Rosalyva's, a fireball appeared in the air in front of Meredith and Hoshiko. It hovered in the air for a while, then spread out and formed a sentence with fiery letters that bobbed up and down in front of Hoshiko. "Believe in yourself! ∑ d(≧◡≦)" Turning her attention back to Rosalyva, she responded to the offer. "Aye, certainly. I'm the last person to refuse an offer to get closer to a fire. I can't say I've ever been to Caelum; what's it like?"

I mean, tactics aside, shouldn't Saffron be autoinclude for flavor? She doesnt seem like the type to hang back while others fight. ((Also, IKR. Anime is saved. I think it's interesting that they gave Nozomi an Osaka accent, since that's usually a comic relief trope.))

I feel like Saffron should be an autoinclude for every map since she's the Lord. ((Also OOT but I see Huk is watching anime of the season. I approve.))

Hmmmm I'm undecided about whether I want Serene in traditional robes or in armor. :/ Armor fits her fighting style a bit better, but robes are, well, magic things :/

I think it depends on your working definition of undead. If they're reanimated corpses made by plonking spirits/souls into flesh vessels, then you could probably exorcise them.

I blame Luka. He started the cry chain.

Serene grinned at Rosalyva's question and drily recited the description she had been given back in the army. "Aye, a band of filthy godless rebels, led by a traitor princess, who do not understand the great benevolence of our king and wish to raze our cities to the ground. Pretty much every soldier's heard of you people." Serene chuckled at the unrestrained embellishment of propaganda, before continuing. "Reasonably sure that's not an accurate description at all, but hey. That's how propaganda works. Of course, if you do happen to raze something to the ground, do let me in on it." Serene laughed at her own joke, before clearing her throat as she considered the possibility that she might be the only one finding it funny. "Anyway, I'm here since I'm now a wanted woman with a bounty on my head for setting my camp on fire and deserting. Bit extreme, yeah? I didn't even kill anyone in the fire; made sure to pass the CO false orders to march the entire battalion southward. In any case, I figured, if this rebellion thing does work out, I would be in a good position to get the bounty cancelled and my criminal status revoked if I helped them win, yes? Plus I'd get to use actual Fire magic rather than boring Thunder all day. A win-win!"

Serene giggled. "I suppose that might work, except for the tiny detail of the wooden sword burning up and leaving nothing to swing." Amused by his show of bravado, she casually walked over to him and delivered a light kick to his shaking left leg.

Serene blushed slightly at Meredith's compliment, averting her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but Meredith's attention had been caught by something else. She closed her mouth and simply saw her off with a little wave. Firecracker. She smiled, then frowned. It wasn't fair that Meredith kept calling her that. She needed a nickname for the commander, too. Iron Lady? No, too boring. Spear Woman? Ew. She thought for a while, but couldn't think of anything good. Finally, the image of Meredith standing on the battlefield came to her. With her spear in hand, battle-worn armor and her red hair flying in the wind, with firm stance that promised to fight off any assault and defend her position to the last, she looked like... like a... "Rampart." It wasn't a very cute name, but she could think of nothing that described Meredith better than that. She grinned, resolved to use that name the next time they spoke. For now, though, she turned back to Rosalyva and Radburn, primarily addressing Rosalyva. "Oh right. Wanted to offer my apologies for getting ahead of you and cremating that undead. Many apologies. I get pretty heated up in battle, makes it hard for me to really think much about my actions."

Serene grimaced as Meredith let go of the spear, allowing her to feel the full weight of the weapon. As expected, it was heavier than it looked. Serene was not of the right build to wield such a weapon. Still, there were ways that she could use it. With the spear in hand, she took a few steps away from Meredith, making sure there was nobody in her vicinity. She swung the spear, circling it once around her head before bringing it down in a wide arc. Although she lacked the strength to use it as it was intended, she leveraged on the imbalanced weight of the weapon, swinging it like a halberd, letting the heavier shaft guide the weapon and adjusting the path of motion accordingly. As such, she was able to manage a number of heavy swings, but would not have been able to use it for shorter, quicker attacks. She moved through a number of swings, taking care to keep the weapon clear of anything that might contact it. To match her rapid footwork, she quickly changed hands, adding just enough force at critical moments to alter the direction of the weapon's path. The weight of the weapon necessitated adjusting the altitude with each swing to maintain balance due to her footwork, but the resulting fluid motions simply made the routine look more graceful. Finally, after one swing which brought the weapon high in the air above Serene's head, just as the weapon began to fall downwards, she let go of the weapon, turning her body such that when the spear, continuing its downward path, met her hand, it was with a different grip, returning to her neutral position: hand gripped close to the tip, shaft tucked away along the length of her arm. Adding one last spin to dispel the momentum, she walked back over to Meredith and held out the weapon, smiling. "Thanks. It's a blazing good weapon. Well-maintained, too. I can feel the care that you took in its upkeep."

Serene grinned. "Indeed. There is something every satisfying about feeling enemy flesh fold beneath a point, I'll give you that. I still prefer the pure exhilaration of the heat of a fire, though." She held out her hand, palm up, clearly requesting to try out Meredith's spear. "It's awfully rude of me, but mind if I look at that for a bit? It's been a burning long time since I've held any weapon other than my tome."

inb4 his name isn't actually Radburn.

Calling it now, the bow is made of wyvern ivory or something.

Serene laughed out loud as Rosalyva asked for why she joined the army. "Politics? Agenda? Nothing so noble. It was just a means to an end. I joined the army because it let me learn fire magic and gave me access to fire tomes for free. My family's finances could only afford so much magic education, and the school didn't particularly take kindly to me after I accidentally set a classroom on fire on six occasions. Left with no other options to learn, I turned to the military. Of course, this was before I knew they were going to shove me into a thunder battalion. Still, at least basic training taught fire magic."

"I used to be a Dancer, just like you..."

Serene scoffed. "Please. Mere metal cannot hope to compare to the romantic beauty of fire." She extended a hand to Rosalyva. "Since we're already being cordial and friendly and nice, name's Serene. Burning pleasure to meet you."

"Eh? My relationship with fire? Um.... Er... Hmm... How to put it..." Serene was taken aback by Meredith's question. It wasn't exactly something she had thought of putting into words. As a result, her response was tinged with a hint of incoherence. "Er... I like fire, I guess? Like, a lot. Like, other girls like guys, right? Same thing, except I like fire. Not that different, if you think about it." She collected herself and calmed down before answering the second question, which was something she had been asked before. "Nah. I'm not in it for the pain. I don't like burns. I mean, I'm not too bothered by them, most of the time, but trust me, if I could touch fire without burning myself, I would. They're more of an unfortunate byproduct than anything. I enjoy the warmth and comfort of fire. I like the feeling of it licking against my skin, like the soft caress of a lover. It provides me nice fuzzy feelings, and reminds me that the Goddess is watching over us all." She smiled as she delivered the next statement. "I like setting things on fire. I feel weird if I go too long without setting something on fire. On a battlefield, I do believe there will be plenty of things to set on fire. More than I got a chance to in the 274th, anyway. Stupid higher-ups, shoving me in a thunder unit and making me use thunder instead of fire and cheat on my one true love and taking away my fire tomes just because they didn't want me holding on to fire tomes and..." Her statement trailed off into an incoherent mumbling before snapping back to the point. "Anyway! So long as you let me set stuff on fire in battle, that should be enough to get my fix. I do think we'll probably be involved in a significant number of battles, after all, so that should give me more than enough kindling."

"Ehhh, never did care for stuff like that. Glory? What's the point when you're not the one defining it? End of the day, fire's the only thing you need." Serene rolled the nickname around in her head for a while. Meredith had called her by the name a couple of times during the fight, too. Firecracker. She liked it. "Not entirely certain what you mean by unit type stuff, but sure, blaze ahead."

Serene was temporarily taken aback by Radburn's recognition. Staring closely, she tried to connect his face with those she had seen in the past. "Hmmm... Ah! Nameless soldier E! So that's who you were. I remember now. That explains why you look ember. I saw you in the marching column, didn't I? Nah, I wasn't there when she kicked it. The 274th was posted elsewhere. Not that it really mattered, the 274th hasn't really existed for some time." Serene turned toward Meredith and introduced herself. "Serene's the name. Sergeant, 274th Thunder Artillery. Or I was, anyway. I doubt they'd welcome me back after I burned the camp down. You'll forgive me if I say that the title of "The Undying"'s unfamiliar to me; I'm not really a news person." ((TL Note: She uses ember as a replacement for "vaguely <adjective>"))

Serene sighed in relief as the healing light washed over her burns. She enjoyed the feeling of fire, but the resultant burns... not quite as much. She nodded gratefully to the healer and grinned. "Not even for leisure? That's a burning shame." She cast her eyes towards the other side of the flame, where Feri was showing a ring to Terrin. Her eyes narrowed as she continued to speak. "It's in times like these, when the fire of life threatens to burn out at any moment, that small leisures become ever more important. It reminds us that there's more to life than the battles we fight. That's how I see it, anyway." She got up and glanced over at Meredith and Radburn. The armored woman had asked to see her earlier, and now was as good a time as ever. "Now, burning thanks for the treatment, and the chat, but I do believe that the lady with the flaming hair wanted to see me, so I'll be off." As she walked toward the two soldiers, she glanced back and smiled again, speaking while walking. "I'd love to hear you sing sometime. I'm sure you'd light the place up."

Not buying anything this time so y'all better lemme get that next tier fire tome when it's available!

Serene turned her head as she heard a voice of concern behind her. It was the sister that seemed to travel with this group. She laughed and withdrew her hands from the flame. It was about time, anyway. The burns were progressing. "Well met, sister. Ordinarily, I would offer a donation and ask for a warm blessing, but that seems a little pointless since we share coffers in this little group." She tilted her head in appreciation of Mayanna's concern. "As for these burns, they're a necessary - if unfortunate - byproduct of my love. And though I may betray many things, I will not betray love. I thank you for your concern, but I don't think I'll ever stop embracing fire. It's just a part of who I am. If it's any consolation, however, I usually stop myself before the burns can progress beyond first-degree. Of course, if you feel inclined to heal these even though I will undoubtedly incur them again in the future, I would be much obliged." Serene patted the ground next to her, ignoring the smarting pain that shot through her arm as the fresh burns on her hand touched the soil. "As for the send-off... I did as any servant of the Goddess would have done in that situation. Friend or foe matters not once they are dead. All dead are equal, and equally deserving of the final embrace of purifying fire. Though I am no stranger to death, I have not yet lost my capacity for respect. It was not the first time I had sung for the dead, and I doubt it will be the last."