Monstro Town - Monster Mama's Abode
This is a lovely house. Oddly enough, the carpet is the same vivid green
as the grass on the cliffside outside. A weird levitating fan is in the
corner, hovering above some crates. On the back wall, there's a bookcase
under the staircase leading up to the next floor, and in the middle of the
room a simple, elegant coffee table sits.

The residence that Ambience and Gforte found themselves led to was one of the largest domains in the small cliffside town, and as such was inhabitated by what the residents would consider the 'mayor', or some similar persona. Monster Mama, as she was called, was busy chatting away with Aura, a red-dressed woman with a ponytail of midnight blue, and an elderly man in a green robed laced with white lining, who seemed to be squinting at any and everything.

Upon entering, Ambience seems a little perplexed at only seeing the two of them here, but no less happy to see either of them. "Mama, grandpa... is it jus' you two? The council didn't send anyone else? I expected there t'be more than a few people wanting t'talk to him."

Gforte scoops up a small object as the boy lead him to the meeting place, frowning and shaking his head. "Damn kids, I give someone something to protect themselves with and they just go around dropping it on the ground." After finishing muttering to himself, Gforte pockets his spear once more before leaning against the doorway of Monster Mama's house. "You don't need that many people to give a 'Sorry, you're not good enough to be a Hero' speech, kid."

Ambience looked up at Gforte with a small frown, but whether he was goign to say something in rebuttal was anyone's guess, since Aura spoke up in his stead; Monster Mama had toddled off into the kitchen, and the two bid her goodbye before turning to the two's entrance (well, Gforte's half-entrance, anyway). "You should give yourself more credit than that. Not everyone in the middle realm can say they successful defended a town from complete annihilation. It's only your motives that are under scrutiny here, if you must know for certain why we've asked for a discussion." The old man hung back behind Aura, his expression hidden amidst those squinty eyes and a quite well-kept, if very dominant, mustache and beard. Very sagely, indeed. "And yes, it is just us, at this time. As you can probably imagine, the Holyland is tripping all over itself. They didn't feel inclined to send any more people down here than was needed; us two sufficed."

Gforte sighs, and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Motives. You guys are really giving me more credit than I deserve." Gforte closes the door behind himself and settles down in a chair, eyeing the bearded man before turning his attention back to Aura. "My 'motives' are to kill the Sinistrals before they manage to murder any other towns. If you want to dig deeper than that, I made a promise and I'm damn well going to keep it. You guys have the one person I've come to trust in forever essentially chained to your realm. I want her back. And somehow I doubt you all trust me enough to let me into your world. As far as I know, getting rid of the assholes up there is my best shot, so I'm going to do it. End of motives.'

A chuckle sounds from behind Aura, the old man allowing for a brief response in humor. "He does quite speak his mind, no doubt. No minced words here." Aura seems less amused, and Ambience is merely standing at something akin to attention nearby, himself probably aware of the seriousness of the situation despite his youth. "Your knowledge on Jillian's heritage seems slightly skewed, but we are aware of this proposition that has been made, and despite the fact that she went willingly, we hold ourselves to promises as strongly as you claim to." Aura tosses her ponytail over one shoulder, with a sigh. "But beyond all this, we would like to thank you, too. Whether you realize it or not, you've spared many lives today, regardless of your reason for opting to potentially sacrifice yourself in the attempt to do so. The denizens of our realm have their own situations to deal with, but as representatives therefrom, you have our thanks for what you've done."

"Many lives, in addition to your kid." Gforte turns back to Ambience for a moment, and eyes the boy. "By the way, where's your attack harpy? I still have a few words to have with her." He drums his fingers on the table in almost impatience.

Ambience frowns at Gforte's reference to his friend, and merely shrugs. "She has other things she has to do. She's a part of some group that hunts dark creatures or somethin', I forget the details. But she kinda has a habit of turning up randomly, so I dunno. I don't tell her where she can an' can't be." The boy pauses for thought, then adds. "She left the Holyland before I did. I went to take a nap before comin' down to find you, and she was already gone. So I don't know."

"She'll be fine." Aura sidled up alongside the coffee table, with the old man taking a spot on the other side, but neither opting to sit down. "More importantly, at least in the run of things, is what we need to focus on from here. If you're still adamant about taking them on, then you have not only our gratitude but our assistance as well. In order to gain entry to the Fortress, one must carry the Sword of Mana to its doors and break the seal." Aura looks upon Ambience before speaking up again. "Ambience, if you're having any second thoughts about this, now is your chance to speak up." Her tone gave a brief hint that perhaps she was almost hoping he would.

"And you damn well better, too." Gforte doesn't look to Aura as he says this, instead focusing directly on Ambience. "I do not want you following me on this one kid. Your want to help or not, I don't want to see a child on a battlefield." Gforte puts a small emphasis on the words child and battlefield. "I'm pretty sure your mom feels the same way." He gives a small glance to Aura at this, vaguely hoping the emotional blackmail will help neuter the kid's inevitable want to be in the battle.

Aura abstains from an immediate desire to tell Gforte to watch his tongue. Instead she watches Ambience's expression, which seems a little pressured, but sure. "No. You said yourself that I was th' best choice we had, mama. Nobody else would go willingly. Nobody else knows th' middle realm like we do, and you can't go. We both know why." Ambience furrows his brow at something, looking at Gforte. "Does this mean you, too, would rather I didn't go? What will y'do then? One of our tribe has t'go with you, since you can't use the Sword. B'sides, if I remember, you need th' sword that I already have, right?"

"Yes, and I was already planning on taking that sword, because I knew you'd pull that kinda shit." Gforte rubs at his temple for a moment, before continuing. "Now that you're caught up to speed, here's the plan. Miss Red, give the kid the sword you people refuse to let me have. Kid, you give me the gold sword. After that, we go to handle buisiness. When we get to the sinistrals themselves kid, you leave directly after opening the path for me. None of this 'Sticking around to help you fight' shit. You can be damn sure I'd prefer not to have you here, but if this lot won't let me use the sword myself, then I'll have to drag you along until then.'

"I think I'm beginning to understand why you aren't willing to acknowledge the fact that Jillian and Lillian are technically the same person." Aura didn't get riled up. She expected this much out of him; all business, no planning. "You don't get it, and the fact that you're lashing out at my kind as a place to seek blame for making your task more difficult is not in the least bit fair to any of us." Ambience looks away from Gforte, standing near a window as Aura continues. "The Sword is sentient. It chooses who will and who will not wield it. Even if we took you to the foot of the Mana Tree and said 'Have at it,' you could not remove the sword. We aren't making your life difficult by keeping it from you; you physically cannot wield it. Does this make things clearer now?"

"I'm sorry, I'm still working on the last time I heard anything concrete about you people. Oh, what was it? "The Mana Tree has put it's trust in you". Yeah, that was it, I'm pretty sure. Everything I've heard since is "Oh no, Haut, you can't wield this because you aren't a member of the tribe." or "It chooses not you."" Gforte narrows his eyes at Aura. "So where's the part where I actually hear that it hasn't in fact chosen me?"

"There's a difference..." Ambience starts to say something, but Aura shakes her head at him, inclining the boy to keep his peace and just listen. The old man on the other side of the table chuckles again, a quiet 'ho ho ho' of apparent amusement. "Being trusted by the Goddess and being chosen to wield the Holyland's most precious artifact are two very different things. And you're not far from the truth; the main reason you cannot wield the sword is because you are not a member of the Tribe.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, only a member of the Mana Tribe will ever be able to hold the Sword of Mana. Only a degree of extreme crisis will likely bend this rule, such as if no member of the Tribe is able or willing to do so. But since Ambience, here, is in fact willing to go with you as the Sword-bearer, instead of complaining about it and issuing orders, I would think that you could stand to be thankful that we have a plan to go on instead of leaving you to wonder how you're going to get inside the Fortress without anyone to open it for you." Aura folds her arms over her chest, completely unphased by his previous cynicism.

Gforte stares at Aura for a moment. "Like how you guys were there with a plan for how to stop giant magical energy beams from vaporizing towns? Or how about like you guys were there with a plan for how to warn me about what exactly I was going to face when the shards all came together? Oh no wait you deliberately withheld information from me on that one, directly leading to me touching face with death again. Yeah, no, sure. Let's hear the mana tribe's plan." Gforte leans forwards in his chair, looking intently at Aura.

There we going to be no winning this one, Aura surmised. He was hellbent on putting the blame for everything that had gone wrong and wasn't working in his favor on her tribe and its residing realm. Her desire right then was to simply take Ambience and leave; forget this realm, forget its inhabitants, and when they asked why, tell them it was because the man destined to save them all was an uncompromising jackass. But at that moment she looked over at Ambience, who remained upright and unphased, apparently aware of what was at stake here. He cared about this realm, too; it was likely more a home to him than the Holyland, his place of birth, even was. No doubt he would never let her hear the end of it if she turned her back on everything, this day. Even if she was beginning to suspect he deserved it. Instead, she sighed. "Despite what you may think, we aren't gods. They don't share everything they know with us. ONE of them keeps watch over the Holyland alongside us, but that does not mean she shares her knowledge of events unfolding in the realms below with us. We are apologetic for your hardships and sacrifices, but know that if we did indeed know about them beforehand, you can be certain that I or Ambience would have attempted the same acts of heroism that you have displayed today. Whether you believe this or not is your call." She brushed the bangs out of her violet eyes, giving a small exhale. "Now. Can we move on, then?"

Gforte pinches the bridge of his nose. This lady's boner for painting herself and her people as a group who does no wrong was getting on his goddamn nerves, especially the part where she was apparentaly deluding herself into thinking he had, in fact, no plans for how to do anything and was in fact a meandering idiot who's main goal was to cause trouble and not get blamed.

Breathing out as well, Gforte drums his fingers on the table for a moment, licking his lips as he attempts to resolve his inner emotions. Yes, he could just walk away. It would be simple. He could just create a backup of his own brain at the time he was boxed and then use that to break into one of his better bases. From there he could do a little work with some of his better goodies and find a way to deal with the Sinistrals that way.

But. It was all theoretical. Getting into his base without selfdestructs going off, figuring out a plan that didn't end up with him half-teleported into a wall was going to be difficult. And take time. Time Gforte didn't have. Really, his simplest solution was to go along with the bitch's plans for right now.

Gforte says 'Fine. You stop treating me like a braindead idiot and I'll stop assuming your first plan is to leave us all to die. So what do you have?'

"I never implied this. I simply meant that instead of complaining and lamenting, our time could better be spent moving forward. In either case, the main idea is this." She glanced again at Ambience, as if to make sure she was listening, too. "He will need to go with you. All the way through, and back. The threat that looms is not just the Sinistrals, but the Fortress itself. The Fortress' presence will eventually bring about the attention of the Manabeast, who seeks to destroy it. Its cause is noble, but vengeful; it has no control over its rage. Only the Mana Sword can put it down. So, as you can see, there are multiple links in this chain of events; the Sinistrals are but one part of it. Knowing this, are you still willing?"

Gforte digs his fingernails into the wood of the table, and grits his teeth as Aura talks. She seemed like the type who always wanted the last word. He hated that. Biting back his anger, Gforte speaks in what seems to him as a level and reasonable voice. "If I am still willing has never been the question. Everything that's been thrown at me, I've handled. If there was a time I would have quit, it would have been just after my first fight with the Sinistrals. But instead, you see me sitting here. As it happens, I already had a plan on what to do with the Fortress, but if you have anything else to say, I'd suggest doing so instead of continually questioning my merit.'

Ambience seems to be avoiding eye contact with either of them, but Aura nods. "I merely wanted to make sure you were aware of what to expect upon your success in vanquishing the Sinistrals. If this does not hinder your intent, then it seems as though everything is in order." Aura eyes Ambience again for a moment, her expression looking somewhat worried at his lengthened silence (despite having been the one that ushered him into it), before returning her eyes to Gforte. "Before we depart to finalize our own preparations, is there any lingering questions or concerns you might have? I will answer anything to the best of my ability."

Gforte shakes his head, returning to drumming his fingers impatiently.. "Get on with it. I've got gods to kill, and I'd prefer to get there before my lungs started rotting inside of my chest again."

She nodded to him, keeping any snipes to herself. It didn't matter at this point; as long as he understood what to expect, that was all that mattered. She'd done her job, explained what needed to be explained; the rest was up to him. And... "Ambience, we will return for now. The council will need to know what will be taking place here, and realize your involvement accordingly." Ambience looked up as he was spoken to, and glanced at Gforte briefly before making his way across the living room to his mother's side. Aura looked back at Gforte, addressing him. "We will return tomorrow morning, outside of this town, at the highway's edge. Make whatever preparations you need for the rest of the day today and tonight, and we will meet you outside in the morning."

Gforte is already pulling something out of his backpack, a pair of dish shaped technological devices, which he begins to work on as Aura speaks. "Yeah whatever, I'll go find a cave to sleep in again or something, I got work to do here." He sounds disinterested with the woman, turning his attention back to what he could really trust. Technology and his own creations.

Aura frowned. If she hadn't believed that he understood that Ambience (or at least what he was to carry) was vital to the success of his endeavours, she likely wouldn't trust Gforte alone with her son. But as much to honor Jillian's request as to uphold her own sense of duty, she would keep to herself and let these events proceed as planned. "Until tomorrow, then." A soft white light enveloped the three of them at that moment, and seemed to simply absorb them into nothingness, removing their presence from reality in its entirety.

Gforte pauses for a moment, to rub the bridge of his nose. "Great. We're what, a day or two into this whole mess?" Gforte leans back in the chair and folds his hands behind his head. "People wonder why I spent all my time living in caves and building things. I step outside and do something to help people, and the next thing I know, I get a throw away "Gee thanks" before some representative of a bunch of isolationist assholes starts trying to take control of me."

Gforte picks up one of the the discs and holds it up to see, idly gazing at it. "Hmm. Well, good to know I've got a good backup plan for all this." He settles back down, working at the discs.