Living Room - Crossroads' Home
This room seems less like a modern construction and instead is much more
like a cave. Pipes, fashioned to look like roots, cross back and forth over
the ceiling of this room, with small lamps resembling glowing plants curled
around them. The walls resemble roughly hewn stone. Several pieces of
furniture are scattered around the room somewhat nonchalantly, all tying in
with the room's 'theme'.

Though quiet for the better part of the evening (at least from an 'outside the house' perspective), someone had eventually found it necessary to make a little racket, in the form of a somewhat-loud rapping on the front door of the domicile. It was fairly dark outside already, and given the time of year, plenty cold as well. What in the Cleft could they be selling at this hour..?

Sometime not too long ago Crossroads has fallen asleep on the couch leaning against Tyrranis' chest, eyes slowly drifting closed as she listened to the sounds of of his heart beat and steady breathing. She didn't even stir as the knock came at the door, which wasn't all that surprising considering how heavily she slept most of the time.

Tyrranis however, had not been asleep yet. He slowly looks to the door, and then looks down to the sleeping woman resting on him, and then back. Cursing silently, the giganto looks around, and after some searching, he comes up with a book he had been attempting to read a few days ago. He leans back against the couch, doing his best not to wake up Crossroads, and flings the book at the door, hoping the thump will prompt the knocker to open it.

There is a lengthy pause of silence following the thumping of the book against the door, followed by muffled (due to them being outside) sounds of a male and female conversing tersely with each other; what little bits can be heard involve something about "peeking in the windows to see" from the female voice, and "probably don't want to be disturbed" from the male voice. There is no additional knock, however, and the voices eventually grow silent.

Crossroads stirs slightly as she feels Tyrranis move, and one eye slowly drifts open as there is a thump at the door following shortly after, but it only stares blearily at the wall before shutting again. The only action she takes is to simply shift her position sightly, nuzzling against Tyrranis and wrapping an arm around him before letting out a contented sigh as she drifted back to her dreams..

Tyrranis grunts, dis-engaging Crossroad's arm from around him, and lifting her head lightly before shimmying out from under her. He then proceeds to the doorway, picking up the book he had thrown along with his bat, and opening the door.

There doesn't seem to be anywhere there; the cold air of the nighttime is Tyrranis' only greeting, though a short glance does showcase two people, a man and a woman, approaching another house nearby; they are both draped over pretty heavily in fur coats and hoods, the man leading the woman along by the hand. His stride is purposeful, almost no-nonsensical. They approach the door of the house and the man knocks with the same rough rapping that had occurred just here on this door, before.

Someone answers the door of the house, and some indiscernible conversation is held between them, involving the man brandishing a gleaming black jewel from on his person, and giving a quizzical look at the person who's opened the door to them. The owner shakes his head, and seems to offer apologies before bidding them goodnight and closing the door. The woman looks considerably frustrated, at this time.

Tyrranis, grunting once more, calls back to Crossroads. "Get up. We appear to have some kind of company." He then sets down his book next to the door and approaches the couple, calling to them now. "You were the ones who knocked on my door?" He takes his time moving over, examining the couple, but nothing of his stance denotes anger.

Both of them look up suddenly, as though they weren't expecting to be the ones approached on this night. The woman kind of hangs back behind the man as he steps forward, seemingly thankful for the acknowledgement; his piercing, steely blue eyes are visible even from the confines of his hood, giving him somewhat of a mean look despite his erstwhile features not making such an implication. "Please forgive us if we disturbed you, sir. But ah..." He pauses, noting Tyrranis' attire (lack of?) in the fairly cold winter night temperatures, but dismisses it. "I was wondering if you could tell me what this is." He holds up the same black jewel as before so that Tyrranis could see it, which glints dangerously with the telltale signs of recently-vanquished corruption.

Crossroads' eyes open when she hears Tyrranis calling to her and blinks a couple times, slow to register what he was telling her. She didn't see any company from her position on the couch, so she had no idea what he was talking about at first. She yawned and pulled herself to her feet, trying to force herself awake as well as locate Tyr who she soon noticed had left the door open. Eyes half closed she made her way down the hall in that direction realizing now that he meant they had company outside.

Tyrranis examines the jewel for a few moments, before nodding. "That is what is known as a Grief Seed, a small object that contains the soul of a magical knight who fell to corruption. In that state it is both safe and dangerous. With enough time it will create a monster. If you are not, in fact, Magical Knights, then I would request that you turn it over to me. In my hands it can be made safe." The giganto lays it out as straight as possible, and then holds out his hand for the seed.

The man's face brightens at Tyrranis' explanation, and he gladly hands over the seed, glancing over his shoulder to his female compansion. "We found 'em. Knew they had to be in this city somewhere." He turns again to Tyrranis after noting a small smile coming from the woman. "Pray tell, are there more of you here? Or is it just yourself?" He sounds oddly hopeful, but manages to keep a pretty straight face.

Crossroads approaches Tyrranis and the pair he was talking to, arms wrapped about herself to fend off some of the cold outside. She yawns once again, "Is everything okay?" She asked when she reached the gigantos' side. Slightly more awake now, she looked at the man and the woman's faces carefully though she didn't recognize them as one of their neighbors or any of her customers.

Tyrranis nods, pulling open the cork on his bat to settle the grief seed inside of it. "My companion, Crossroads." He looks back, nodding to her. "These people were apparentally looking for us." He turns forward again, and looks the two over. "So why were you looking for us?"

"We were informed by Kyuubey that there were comrades of ours involved in the Wutai catastrophe not overly long ago." The man explains himself in short order, seeming to catch on Tyrranis' desire for upfront straightforwardness. "We've been looking for him, her, or them, as Kyuubey has a bad habit of not providing information unless you proverbially strangle it out of him. We're from Wutai, and we were absent during the time this... 'event' took place. Do either of you know of what I speak? He looks between Tyrranis and Crossroads, keeping his posture straight.

At the mention of Wutai Crossroads frowned and looked away, remaining silent and allowing Tyrranis to answer their question. She really did not know what she should say to them at the moment. For her, it wasn't just the memory of the witch they had fought in Wutai that was making her uncomfortable, but the angry mob of people that had chased her out of there prior solely on the fact that she was one of the people who had accepted a wish from Kyuubey. They didn't like them, and there had to be a reason.

Tyrranis nods to the two Wutai-born. "An attack took place in Wutai not long ago. An abnormally powerful witch took it as her hunting ground, also producing a control effect. Through concentrated effort of ourselves and members of the Viorar group, we managed to destroy it, at the cost of one of our number. We have avoided clearing the area again due to... hostilities presented from the townsfolk."

The man is quiet as he listens, and nods stiffly at the conclusion. "We've noticed. The population of Wutai has been culled considerably from the attack, and its citizens are still attempting to get on with their lives. Fortunately for us, the population at large is unaware of mine and my wife's status. They have expressed disdain for the contracted for a good many years, but this recent event has proved something of a tipping point."

He stops for a moment, considering his next words. "It is good that you were able to vanquish the threat in our absence. It would've been a considerably-worse homecoming surprise to find a ghost town in place of our home, upon our return. But I suppose it goes without saying that you and your companions would do well to avoid the town for some time to come; rumors have been coming and going about a witch-hunt or some such, as some of the towners have become rather zealous. This aside, however..

He offers a short, if stiff, half-bow. "My name is Johnathan de La'fey. This is my wife, Miriam."

Miriam half-steps out from behind Johnathan, and waves shyly. Her eyes are the same steely blue as Johnathan's, but have a much gentler tone to them. She looks tired, more than anything else, but she offers a smile nontheless. "Good evening, yes."

Crossroads listens quietly as Johnathan explains, letting it all sink in. With Wutai being a neighboring city of Truce she was still afraid that their sentiment towards them would spread to her home. "This is Tyrranis," Crossroads said finally, nodding to the gigantos. As he had introduced her it only seemed fair that she introduced him, "And we also have Lorastine who lives with us but she isn't in at the moment."

Tyrranis gives the two a once-over, and then nods. "You will please excuse me if I do not remember your names. I tend to have issues remembering things without certian... reminders. One last thing." He pulls his Soul Gem from his bat, and shows it to the wutai pair. "My Gem, so you know I do not lie of my origins." He looks back to Crossroads, hoping that she would take over the proceedings from here, given his lack of social tact.

Johnathan waves a hand slightly. "We require no proof. We'd asked around for someone to tell us what the Grief Seed was, so that we would be able to find any contracted living within the area. Asked in the way that I had and appearing ignorant, it also kept our identities safe, in the event that people here were equally hostile to our kind." He tightens his coat around his body, reaching out to take Miriam's hand. "Again, please excuse our intrusion, but we mainly wanted to confirm the presence of other contracted within this city. We may visit again at some point, if you'll have us, but for now the hour grows late. Please excuse us, then." Miriam squeezes Johnathan's hand tightly, ambient light glinting off not only the pair of wedding rings visible there, but also a deep red-jeweled ring and an ocean-blue ring on adjacent fingers, indication of their Wishborn status.

"Oh, yes of course we will." Crossroads nodded. She had actually been just about to invite them inside where it was warmer with the offer of something to drink. "Its good to know more people like us out there, especially so close. The only other ones we know of are all the way in Viorar."

Tyrranis puts away his gem before giving the two a small salute. "Indeed. I share her sentiment on this matter. And next time someone might not be using me as a pillow when you knock." He pokes Crossroads' side lightly at this, attempting to get a smile from her.

The two of them offer smiles of comraderie, and turn to take their leave. "Have a good evening, then. It was nice meeting the two of you." And with that, they depart at a leisurely pace, hand in hand, heading off northward toward Truce Canyon.