A small group of hylian children played at the base of the fountain of Truce on this particular late morning, kicking a ball around and generally being boisterous like all children are inherently meant to be. A couple of moms sit on a nearby bench to keep watch over them while they play, talking amongst themselves and the upcoming week's events that are yet to unfold as their ordinary-yet-fulfilling lives continue apace without heed to anything beyond that specific scope.

A loud gong sounds from a westernly section of the city, reverberating loudly as the chime of Leene's Bell echoes throughout the city, the act of which instills a magnetic attraction unto the children as they suddenly lose interest in their games and make three individual dashes out of the fountain square and toward the sound of the ringing bell. With mild exasperation, the pair of maternal figures lift themselves from the bench and proceed to follow them, making smart remarks not likely intended for children's ears in the process.

Amidst all this, the fountain of Truce continues to bubble away, prominent in its animated task of keeping the center of Truce an attractive and welcoming location for all manner of people... up to and including those not from this world.

A bead of light formed, hanging roughly three feet above the ground, but it quickly spiraled open into an active portal of white-blue light and a single individual emerged.

She was pale, delicate and sported pointed ears which were mostly hidden by her white hair, despite the fact most of it was short and held back by a headband. All she seemed to have with her was a small backpack, a bow and quiver, as well as a rather pretty looking bandore decorated with mother of pearl and ivory.

She paused and glanced down at the small sheet of paper in her hand before glancing around to take in the details of her surroundings.

There wasn't exactly a surplus of activity in Truce at the moment, as the early spring weather still rendered the outdoors a little chilly for most folks to simply be out and about with prior pretense or incentive. The sound of laughing children could be heard a distance to the west, and the general population milled about in standard 'busy city' fashion. The city itself seemed to have a modestly old-world charm to it, relative to whatever expectations people from a more 'modern setting' might have; buildings were plentiful and made of alternating stone and wood, with small pavilions or huts for some smaller businesses and establishments. The pride of Truce was a beautiful multi-layered fountain at the city's centered, constantly gurgling away with recycled water that pooled into the clear basin at its bottom-most level, where small toss-ins such as the occasional gold or silver piece were clearly visible.

Zen moved to take a seat on the edge of the fountain as she folded the paper in her hand into quarters and tucked it into a small belt pouch for the time being before she turned her gaze to the waters of the fountain.

Her boss had suggested that staying near the fountain initially might be in her best interests, as it was open and outside, and one of the two individuals she would be looking for may be more easily spotted from there. She had the directions to get to the tavern, but that was more of a destination post meet-up.

Instead, she would wait. She pulled the bandore from it's place attached to her pack and rested it on her lap, her fingers playing over it's strings lightly so the instrument's soft notes wouldn't be disruptive to those nearby whom were going about their day. She hums softly along with the notes as she prepares to wait for however long was required.

The sound of children playing off to the west suddenly gets a little noisier, with a young boy's voice rising a bit higher above the rest; this is followed by a young female's shriek of distress, and then a chorus of children's laughter, which then turns into the clattering of hooves that suddenly come racing in from that same westernly direction toward the fountain square. An older male voice can be heard calling out, half-laughing, half-apologizing. "Hey, wait a sec! Alyss! They didn't mean it! Come back!"

The voice belonging to 'Alyss' yells back, apparently really upset as the sound of hooves get distinctly closer. "Roven sa na orva sa niv rabutumi! Gamdo gorvin sa atso'wa!? Roven sa yakru husa!" Her tone is decidedly thick with a distinct accent, and the words flow smoothly despite erstwhile nativity.

In a span of about four seconds, a centaur female suddenly comes galloping into the city square, clattering to a halt up against the fountain and looking extremely upset. She is of a youthful sort, possibly akin to a teenager somewhere in the upper range, her tanned torso wrapped in a frayed tribal-style leather bandeau and hoisting a longbow over one shoulder with a quiver of ammunition over the other. Her equine hide is a mottled white, and appears to have two small, wet handprints of red paint stamped right above one flank. Her hair is fairly wild and untamed, long enough to flow partwise down her horse-half's backside a short distance, and an off-white color that's almost gray, but not quite.

Almost immediately following, and looking decidedly out of breath from either laughing, running, or both, is a slightly-older male dressed in layered leathers with a loose hooded cloak, and non-descript longsword sheathed at his side. His blonde hair is considerably mussed, like he'd been horseplaying (no pun intended) recently, and there's a bit of dirt and dust on his clothes as well. "I know, I know!" he says with a coughing laugh. "I said I was sorry!"

She glanced up from her focus on her instrument and glanced over at the ruckus going on to the west, sitting up a little straighter as she heard the centaur speak in a mostly familiar language. She halted her fingers on the strings of her bandore but tried her best not to seem like she was focused on the new arrivals, they didn't match the image she had been given of her potential contacts.

Despite that fact she didn't need to make contact with them, she rather felt like she wanted to. She's met many a centaur in the past, worked with many of them extensively even. But...she wasn't an outgoing person either, so for the time being she would just pretend to tune her instrument as she listened in to learn a bit more.

The centaur mare promptly reaches into the basin of the fountain and attempts to scoop water up and onto her flank in an attempt to wash off the handprints splattered thereupon, with moderate results; it seems as though the stuff is probably just finger paint, but it's probably going to take awhile at the rate she's going. She continues to complain as she goes about it, as well. "Shirov sa na lasho'ilwa ku'an," she gripes, somewhat getting it off but also smearing it around a bit over her fur, too. "Miv sa yakru shukento ilminjustari, Jules." She doesn't seem to notice the woman sitting on the bench nearby, apparently single-minded in her current task.

The man tries really hard to belay his amusement, but it seems like a pretty difficult endeavor. Despite no longer laughing, the smirk on his face doesn't seem to want to go away easily. "I'm really sorry, Alyss," he said, trying to infuse some sincerity in his words. He steps over and attempts to help her out, and between the two of them, they seem to make some decent headway in getting the kids' handiwork off her backside. "I didn't know it was going to throw you off that much." He looks up at her, his smirk broadening a touch. "I also didn't know you were that good with kids." He doesn't seem to notice the bystander, either, apparently more worried about saving face with his companion than anything else.

This comment seems to toss her anger aside just a smidge, her scowl lessening fractionally. "...Bu'i. Luto..." she scoffs, redoubling her efforts to get the paint off.

As much as she was supposed to keep a low profile, she was having a hard time not offering some assitance to the pair in their efforts to remove the paint. It wasn't in her nature to just stand by and do nothing if she was capable of helping in some form, even if it was something as small as helping clean up some paint.

She also did not have the experience and wisdom her boss did when it came to helping without permission. She whistled a soft little tune and traced a gesture with her fingers over the strings of her instrument, a little wispy trace of magic dancing through the air over toward the two before it circled around the red stains on the centaur's coat only to swirl briefly and fade, the unwanted pigments fading with it.

She kept her head down and seemingly focused on plucking the strings, rather hoping that it wasn't too obvious as to the source of the assistance.

The centaur's left ear, half-buried beneath her hair, flicks lightly at the sound of the whistling tune, seemingly enough to temporarily take her attention away from her backside and toward the source. She doesn't seem to notice, at that point, what said tune is actually doing to the paint she'd been trying to clean off, and does not notice it alleviate itself from her hide.

Jules, however, pauses in mid-scrub as the then-pinkish smears he'd been working to remove suddenly cleared themselves up, though he wasn't as taken by the source as his companion. "...Oh. Huh, I guess its self-removing. I didn't know magic paint was a thing," he says, somewhat curious. "See, told you you'd be fine. It wasn't anything to..." He trails off, noticing Alyss's attention having been stolen by something else, as water still dripped from her fingertips. He stands up straight, but doesn't say anything.

Despite Zen's attempts to stay in the background, a centaur's ears are pretty keen to things like whistles and song, much moreso when the two of them are put in tandem, and Alyss was no exception. She blinks, amber eyes seeming to register something familiar but, at the same time, completely baffled at what she's actually seeing, like it was the first of her kind in a very long time. "Ilvis...Terra-koshu?" she asks, both ears now pointed in Zen's direction. "Ino?"

Zen winced ever so slightly as she came to the realization that her attempts at remaining unnoticed had failed pretty miserably and she lifted her gaze in the direction of the two, hoping fervently that she hadn't upset them in her attempt to help.

"Um...hello." She raised a delicate hand and gave a little wave in friendly greeting. She was still a little weirded out by hearing a language she was familiar with in a place, a WORLD she'd never been to before.

Alyss just stares, agape, for a good few more seconds, before craning her neck back to look at Jules. "Jules, know?" she asked. "See before?" Her attempts at the common tongue are pretty broken, but she seems to be able to get her point across easily enough. It could be assumed that her flustered state from earlier had thrown her willingness to speak in a universally-better-understood form aside at that particular time.

Jules shook his head. "Nuh-uh," he said, peering around her at Zen. "But it's kind of rude to stare. You know that." He offered a small wave. "Sorry about that, miss. We're not exactly from around here, so everybody's kind of a new face, lately. I guess we probably surprised you, rushing in here like that."

Alyss turns back around to look at Zen, either ignoring Jules' scolding or just not caring, because she's definitely staring with unabashed awe.

The cough is distant, and wheezing. It proceeds to get louder, and louder as a man approaches from the northern end of Truce.

Haut thumps his fist against his chest as he tries to get his lungs to stop spasming, but they were being stubborn about it. Each time he thinks it's stopped he felt another tickle in his throat and there it goes again. Normally people might think he's just sick, but this was a familiar enough sight that some of the more regulars knew him as a serial cougher.

Said coughing fit called attention to him, but also made it so he didn't really see what was up at the fountain. People around. A horse woman? God he really hoped she didn't shit like normal horses do.

Zen pursed her lips slightly, a bit of embarrassed colour reaching her pale cheeks and she averts her gaze somewhat while still addressing the two.

"It's okay, I'm new in town as well. I just thought...well I thought you could use a hand." Her voice was soft, invoking the impression of a downy feather. "I'm sorry if I overstepped...."

The coughing caught her attention and she quickly turned her head toward the direction of it's source. Taking a moment to observe the man, it certainly seemed to match one of the images she had been shown, but now she was also interacting with the centaur and her friend, and Zen was feeling anxious about coming off as rude.

In a bid to try and get Haut's attention she raised an arm and gave a little wave in the man's direction as she shifted the bandore off her lap and rested it against her leg.

The comment about being lent a hand brings Jules' attention back down to Alyss' flank, and he makes the connection pretty quick. "Oh, was that you?" he asks. "I wondered what was going on. I thought maybe it was just water-soluble or something. That was pretty nice of you, considering it was kinda my fault that it happened in the first place." He doesn't specifically look at Alyss' face, for clearly-obvious reasons.

Alyss, though, isn't worried at all about the disappearance of the paint on her back end. She's still quite taken with the fact that she recognizes Zen for... something. "Ilvis-Terra-koshu..." she repeats, the same word she used earlier. "Come from? Not here, different place? Alyss not see before."

Haut gets his breathing under control enough to be able to focus again, with enough time to notice a woman waving at him. He's not really sure what's going on but he just. Raises a hand and waves back? He wasn't exactly a looker, despite the fact that he somehow managed to land one. It was kind of a weird feeling, and strange for it to be happening exactly as Jill's left to go do... Jill stuff.

Still, he'll observe the situation. Clearly the centaur has eyes for this lady, he's not looking to interrupt here.

Jules notes the waving, at the very least, given that he isn't as fixated as his female companion. He seemed pretty quick to match things together, and while he can't exactly stop Alyss from her engagement, he can (and does) hang back a ways to merely be an observer, since whatever is actually going on (including whatever Alyss' deal is) doesn't specifically concern him.

Zen offered up a soft friendly smile to Alyss, the woman seemed to be a little...shocked? Perhaps it was confusion, Zen wasn't entirely certain which, but she wanted to at least try to set her mind at ease.

"I am not from around here, no. You speak Sylvan, are you from Toril?"

She paused and cast another glance over at the coughing man, hoping that perhaps he had realized why she had waved, it didn't really seem like he had, but abandoning the conversation seemed so very rude. She waved again, beckoning the man over, but returned her attention to the other two while she waisted for him to get close enough to speak to without shouting.

At the mention of the word 'Sylvan', Alyss' face lights up like a gosh-danged Viorar night when the sky is clear. "Keo! Miv sa anim'li 'Sylvan'! Miv sa yakru tunsi ilminjustari!" she exclaims, her tail actively swishing a bit, not unlike a dog's, to emphasize her delight. The rate at which she abruptly switched back to her native tongue is at least somewhat amusing, possibly. "Miv sa chukaro ju ino, aan'i! Miv sa ju 'Terra'! Roven sa keo'su na vivori, luto gorvin sa kisner'il oshi ilvis-Terra-koshu ina miv sa pamo ju hokenra! Miv sa na kirilli miv sa niss'ta iresmoni ju orva sa niv kovornis'ten ino!"

Jules just smirks faintly, but doesn't say anything; he's just observing, too, but he seems amused at Alyss' antics, at the very least. Maybe he was just glad that she turned around from her earlier bad mood as quickly as she had.

Haut blinks his one eye, brain drawing a complete blank as to why the hell this girl was now beckoning him over. He does eventually make his way, maybe she was allergic to horse hair or something. Once he's close enough to catch the language, he actively winces. He's not awake enough for any of this shit, especially after waking up to an empty house. Inhaling; he holds up a hand and just decided to interrupt.

"Aight, do I know you from somewhere? Because if I owe you money I really don't recognize you."

She was about to speak back to the centaur, but the man she had waved over spoke rather gruffly as he got within range and she quickly diverted her attention to him, worried she was wasting his time.

"I am sorry, sir. I was sent here with a delivery for you."

She reached into one of the small pouches on her belt and pulled out the folded paper she had placed there previously and unfolded it.

"I require you to check your preferred form of the requested materials, and please sign the form at the bottom, if you would, please."

Her voice was very quiet but, businesslike enough to maintain professionalism. The form itself had two options with a box next to each. The first was "Canister of of loose pellets." The second box was labeled "Fully fabricated fuel rod".

Haut's brain lurches around for a few moments as he takes the paper, checking it over with the skepticism of someone accepting a scam letter. When he finally reaches the bottom his eye returns to the woman before him, trying to rationalize her being connected to the guy from last night. She didn't seem to have anything on her but:

He pats down a pocket and draws out half a pen. Using his thumb to keep it extended from the protective plastic tip, Haut marks down a x on the 'rod' before marking another x where the signature was requested. Then he passes it back, before looking over to the Centaur and the guy watching on. Something about him at the least was familiar-

Right. A year ago. Looked like he got lost on the way to the edge fair. Strange to see him back, and thus worth remembering and observing, but his attention returns to the woman before him instead. "You're the one then?"

Jules seems aware of something Alyss isn't, and gently pats her on the rump to get her attention. When that doesn't work (she just seems like she's waiting for Zen to say something back to her, like a dog standing on its hind legs), Jules steps forward a little, reaching up and hooking a finger into the back of the bandeau that's wrapped around her torso, pulling on it in a more direct attempt to get her attention. This, at least seems to work, as Alyss blinks and turns her humanoid half around to see what Jules' problem is, tilting her head.

Jules leans up a little ways and whispers something into her ear, making a small offhand gesture back at Haut. There's a slight delay, but whatever he said seems to register, although Alyss looks a bit put out and furrows her brow as visual indication of this. "Keo..." she says, quietly, but agreeably. "Alyss vivra." She actively backs up so she's not all up in Zen's grill at this point, and puts on what can best be described as an 'eager patience' sort of expression, as she waits her turn. Jules turns and cops a seat on the rim of the fountain basin, himself.

"Yes, sir." She shrugged out of her backpack and set it on the edge of the fountain and started to open it. "Give me one moment, sir." The pack itself was a pretty plain looking pack, several small compartments covered the sides, of which she took a moment to fiddle with the fasteners that held them closed before she started to open the pack's main compartment, perhaps a sort of combination code for gaining access.

When the pack was finally opened, Zen reached into the pack and...a large narrow case is pulled out with not insignificant effort on Zen's part. The case looked like it 100% COULD NOT fit in that pack. She carefully set the very secure looking case down on it's narrower edge, keeping one hand on it for the time being.

"Okay, sir. He said that the case is very protective but advises that you get the item inside it into it's required place in your project ASAP or there may be heat issues. Though it should be fine for one hundred and forty-four hours."

She briefly glances over at Alyss, with an apologetic look in her eye as if to say "I'm sorry I'll be with you in a moment."

Haut stoops down for a moment, eyeballing the case after having squinted at the pack it was retrieved from. There's an odd moment, and the next when he reaches out to collect it he looks like a younger man. At the very least he's built like one. "Right. I can repurpose some of the old containment solutions until the frame's settled. Did he say anything about the C-59?"

The case is collected with both hands, Haut not seeming to want to let the woman keep hold of it while also not looking to treat this thing with any kind of kid gloves. Anyone in the square could sense the lack of fun going on here, despite this being a package he apparentally wanted.

"He regrets to inform you that he could not find the analogue name for what it might be where he is from. But he did ask me to extend his apologies for that shortfall." She closed her pack and adjusted the fasteners carefully before slipping the backpack onto her back once more.

"Tits." Slinging the case across his shoulders, his eye flicking over to the patient pair before settling back on the woman. "Haut, is the name. Assuming your boss told you. Got something for me to call you other than 'scout'?" He could, but it'd make her stand out even more and given how quiet this one was, she'd probably wanna do that as little as possible.

She sat back down on the fountain's edge. "I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself...I'm Zen, pleased to meet you, Mr Haut. If there is anything else you would like, I've been asked to serve as a courier or sorts."

She glances over at the two that were waiting patiently as she picked her instrument back up.

Jules isn't so much listening in as he is just being amused at how taken Alyss is with Zen, without even actually knowing why. Whatever means of translation he had seemed to allow him to understand what she was saying, but apparently not on a level enough to understand why she was so up in arms over this encounter. His amusement is temporarily paused, though, when a sudden burst of brilliant green sparkles in a very small space right in front of Jules grabs his attention, which announces the arrival of a very small tree-shaped woman with palm-tree hair. This little creature hovers in the air, waving her arms a little ways to either get Jules' attention on, or indicate, something, but she has no mouth and no words are actually heard.

Taking a moment to recover from the surprise, Jules squints at the small tree-maiden, closing his eyes briefly along with a sigh. "Yes, I know," he said, but quietly, so as not to interrupt the other pair. "I'm just wasting time, as usual. Tell me something I don't know."

Hearing Jules speak causes one of Alyss' ears to flick in his direction, and she turns around, temporarily distracted from her fascination with Zen. When she realizes who has come to call, she brightens (though not nearly as much as when Zen told her what she was). "Oh, Sylvan here!" she chirps, a little louder than she might have intended.

The little tree-spirit puts her wooden hands on her wooden hips, her big (for her size) green eyes going half-lidded at Jules' cynicism in a clearly-unimpressed manner.

Haut's attention is stolen from the unassuming but extremely interesting woman to the little shower of sparks before the guy. His eye widens for a moment, and his grip on the case tightens.

That wasn't normal.

It was also somewhat ironic given what he's currently holding. Looking to Zen, he wonders for a moment if that's a code name before banishing the thought. He had no room to talk. "I'll let you get back in to your hooved acquaintance. Enjoy the new surroundings." And, hopefully, distract the centaur. He's got some business with the man.

Alyss actually sets her rump down on the cobbled pavement, not at all unlike a dog, as her equine legs kind of... partially-fold under her in a way that doesn't squish them. It's both a little awkward and surprising at the same time, like a horse should probably not be able to do that, but at the same time, she does. "Sylvan ask for know?" the mare asks, noting Jules' lowered voice and matching with her own. "Not have, big sorry. Jules try, Alyss promise."

Jules opens his eyes, unimpressed. "I don't know what else you want us to do," he adds, still being quiet. "You could be a little more helpful in all this, too."

The little tree spirit seems to get a little pissy at that point, waving both arms in Jules' face and getting right up to the tip of his nose as she does so.

Zen bowed her head politely before she turned her attention back to Alyss finally and took a few steps in that direction. "Apologies for the wait. I'm Zen, pleasure to meet you."

She hugged her bandore to herself, still not entirely certain how to continue the conversation. "If you prefer, feel free to speak in your own tongue, I can understand it."

Alyss' ear flicks again as she hears Zen's voice a bit closer than it was, and, yet again, her attention is stolen away without much effort. It seemed to be a running thing for her, apparently. She doesn't get up from her 'squat,' but she does crane her humanoid half around to see Zen better, and her smile widens. "Oh, 'Zen' name?" she asks, both ears pointed in her direction. "'Alyss'," she says, pointing at herself, then at Jules. "Jules here. Friend. Alyss speak words, all understand! Zen not worry. Alyss know little, but enough!" There's a distinct bit of pride in her voice.

Jules glances up at Zen, but his attention isn't so easily taken when there's an annoyed mana spirit still to deal with. He just glares at the creature, going slightly crosseyed in the process. "Look, let me be clear about something," he says, pushing his face forward so that his nose actually bumps her back in the air a little ways. "I'm trying, okay? It's not my fault he's not just popping out of the air and into our laps, okay? I didn't want to do this in the first place, okay?" That last 'okay' was decidedly venomous, and even the little spirit looks taken aback by it, floating backwards a good foot or so, though she still looks pretty upset. Jules is not at all paying attention to anything else around him.

Unfortunately, Jules' increase in acidity with his words again snags Alyss' attention, and she swivels back to see what the problem is, ears flattening against the top of her head. "Jules...?" she asks, hesitantly.

Haut was pretty familiar with that kind of spat, actually. He was also familiar with the fact that this man was currently talking with a capital M capital S Mana Sprite. Navigating around the ladies, he coughs again, though this one is decidedly much more polite. "Hey, bud. How about you take your lover's quarrel over this way some, let the two ladies have a chance to meet and greet since they're keen on it."

It was unspoken that the Centaur seemed keen, even if Zen didn't. That was fine in Haut's book, if she really was from some dimensional watch bureau then she'd have plenty of interesting things to explore. More importantly, not having a public breakdown with diminuative folks was kind of socially the norm. Even if the lil' one was a quasi-elemental force of nature and not a child.

Alyss and Jules both look over at Haut as he approaches and speaks, the former's ears lifting up a little ways to flick attentively in his direction. Jules, however, is still hanging on to a bit of spite. "That's pretty rude, actually," he said, not at all hiding the fact that he's frustrated. "I didn't get up in your business when you were talking, so I feel like you at least owe me the same sort of courtesy."

This, of course, causes Alyss to ear-flatten again. It gives the impression that she might not be used to seeing Jules like this often, if at all. "Jules, Sylvan not try be mean..." she half-speaks, half-whimpers. "Sylvan worry. Jules not help, angry."

'Sylvan', as she seems to be called, makes a gesture that looks like a sigh, and waves a small hand in Jules' direction before a burst of sparkling green lights marks her departure, where she disappears from sight.

"And who the fuck asked you to stick out of it? I'm just trying to keep you from having prolonged arguments with Sprites in broad fuckin' daylight, asshole." Haut takes a step back and pivots, not really caring about being rude back as soon as someone else throws a punch. If he wanted to get noticed by some cultist trying to catch-em-all or whatever with this Sylvan, it wasn't his issue. Not when he's got his 235 to deal with.

"Keep pissing off 'Sylvan' like that or whatever and see how much fuckin' help you get, dick. I got my own issues to deal with."

Zen stood there awkwardly, listening to the heated back and forth. She pursed her lips a little and kept quiet. There was clearly something going on here she didn't understand and didn't involve her.

She sat back down on the fountain agian and tried to find something else to do to keep herself occupied while the argument went on. She felt it rude to just up and leave tot e tavern, as she had been speaking to the centaur, but she wasn't exactly comfortable with the confrontation going on either.

She tucked the folded and signed delivery document back into the small pouch at her side and reached up subtly to fiddle with a small teardrop shaped silver earring in one ear, whispering something under her breath to seemingly, herself.

Jules narrows his eyes at Haut's back, but doesn't say anything. He just exhales through his nose, and gets to his feet. "I'm just about done with this nonsense, if I'm being honest," he says, but to whom, it isn't clear. "Alyss, I'm gonna head back to the glen for now. You don't have to leave if you don't want to, but I'm tired of this place and I just want to go home. I'm about ready to tell the Oracle to go find her damn son herself." He gives Zen a quick glance that at least seems minutely apologetic, and then promptly makes to stride out of the fountain square, toward the western avenue where he originally came from awhile ago.

Alyss just... watches him go, not really sure what to do or make of this, that would make it any better. She lowers her eyes to the cobbles, just looking sad.

Haut stops for a moment. He looks up to the sky. He curses his own fucking ears.

This was supposed to just be a pretty easy day. He'd get a drink, he'd get a sandwich, he'd enjoy himself a little bit maybe, then he'd work on the project until he passed out. Jill would get back. They'd talk about their days. And then he'd go to sleep properly. Good time. It could still be a good time. Except for the fact that he had just heard that.

And he could feel fate wrapping around his neck to strangle him.

"Stop." There's a tiredness in his voice. He sounded like he'd been drug through a mile of shit and gravel with his mouth jacked open. "If you're talking about the Oracle I think you're talking about. And you've actually got something named Sylvan with you, then you should really know better to be talking about that kind of shit in public. Especially with Sinistrals stirring."

Jules doesn't stop, but what he does do is offer Haut a very handy middle finger as he reaches the western end of the fountain square, without even looking back, and still opts to continue proceeding westward in spite of this. Either the fact that Haut knows these things without being told doesn't bother him, or he doesn't care; he doesn't make either one any more obvious than the other, and it just seems like he's plain done with today, in general.

Alyss happens to glance up as Haut speaks, but in Jules' direction. And she also sees the bird being flipped. Alyss tilts her head, curiously. "What finger mean?" she asks, in a general sort of way to nobody specific.

Zen reached into her pack, this time without all the fussy zipper fiddling and pulled out a folder and quill. Keeping her eyes averted from the source of the unrest, she opened the folder of music paper and started to quickly jot down what seemed to be musical notes. Doing her best to be as small as possible she listened.

Haut runs through the options in his head. He had a hundred and fourty four hours for all this, right? General equipment loadout was poor, but he could probably handle it. Especially if this guy was going to be this fuckin' stupid. Pivoting once more, Haut starts heading west. Fuck this guy in particular and fuck him being done with today. The day was just getting started.

Jules stops as soon as he hears the footsteps coming in what he assumes is his direction, but he doesn't turn around. He only motions one of his hands lightly, two fingers extending in some sort of silent gesture, as if preparing something.

Alyss looks really worried when she sees Haut go on what she assumes is the offensive, and actually picks herself up to all four hooves. "Wait..!" she says, sounding on the edge of terrified.

Sensing the increasing tension in the air, she cast a side long glance in the direction of the three, her quill pausing mid stroke. There were innocent bystanders in the area and she didn't want any of them to come to harm due to a fight, let alone a fight with a supposedly volatile material nearby, a nuclear physicist she was not.

She was ready however, if she needed to spring into action, her magic was poised to protect.

The metal case over his shoulders is leaned against one of the walls. "I said." Haut's eye is wide and doesn't miss the hand motion. His own hand, freed of the case, moves to his jacket and snags hold of metal rod there. "Fucking-" A light blooms across the metal as it extends, forming a network of runic carvings across it's surface.

"Stop." His stride doesn't seem to indicate Haut plans to do the same. This fucker was holding onto info that was pertinent to the attack on Jill. It could cut down the issues ahead.

Alyss freaks out pretty heavily at this point, and issues a terrified cry at both of them. "Nana!" she calls out. "Alyss besmarta! Roven sa tis'tra! Gamdo lamitokri Jules somin'tisbara!?" Her tone is pleading, but her tongue doesn't imply who she's actually talking to, despite the name thrown in there.

Whatever that last line of Alyss' is, it causes Jules to jolt in place a little bit. His expression isn't obvious, but it apparently had some sort of impact. His posture and stance, however, don't appear to change, and he doesn't turn to face Haut despite the proximity between them pretty much closing up at this point. The only thing that does change is his finger-gesture, which changes from two fingers to three, curling upward just slightly.

Zen climbed to her feet and tucked her things back in her pack and took several steps away from the pretty fountain, she didn't want to damage it in any way, she also didn't really want to draw attention to herself either, but the only idea she had to maybe defuse the argument was to maybe do just that.

With a quick musical whistle and a series of subtle gestures a series of translucent vines seem to spiral up around her as she drew on the magic for probably the dumbest thing she's done in the past little while. With the final note whistled there was a flash, and a towering T-Rex was not standing in her place.

All of this had occurred relatively quietly however, the whistle, was even a soft wispy sound rather than a piercing one. And now the giant lizard took a moment to glance around to gauge the reaction of those in the area...and was a little disheartened when it didn't seem to send everyone running and screaming quite as she had hoped. So she roars.

What few bystanders that are in the immediate proximity, of which there are very few and not within the actual square of the fountain itself, do immediately piss themselves and flee the scene when a massive creature they've never seen before just all-of-a-sudden shows up and roars like that. They at least wanted to live to see another day, fuck anyone else.

"We're about to have a fuckin' chat and I swear to fuck if you throw a spell at me I'm gonna shove those fingers right up your asshole and break them off, kid." The grizzled old man was absolutely not put off by the sight of whatever Jules had been preparing.

The people of Truce react differently to the sight of the rex. From the southern road, a child points and babbles excitedly. The roar works for drawing attention, mostly making Haut's hackles raise, and making the blood pressure of any Guardia guards on duty that day spike.

He's got his priorities though. Namely, the guy in front of him. "You got a direct line to that cunt Aura or is she just jerking you around?"

Alyss happens to see the change in gesture of Jules' fingers, and a look of clear, relieved recognition spreads across her face in the couple of seconds she has before the shit hits the fan. She doesn't see the T-Rex show up, visibly, but that roar is another thing entirely. The sound of it is enough to make her shriek in surprise, and when she actually sees what it's coming from, the color visibly drains from her face. She backs up a step, then another, and then promptly turns around and makes a bolt for the west end of the square. "Jules!" she yells out, equal parts terrified of what's behind her and focused on what the gesture apparently meant. "Gorvin sa sh'messi ino! Alyss kivornis'ten!" She proceeds to break into a rush in Jules' and Haut's direction, apparently meaning to charge headlong into both of them, even putting her head down in a 'shoulder charge' sort of style, if you could call it that.

But it wasn't a spell. It was a signal.

Aware of Haut's proximity but knowing, to his end, what to expect in the next few moments, Jules waits for a very specific moment, and as it happens, he attempts to act. Alyss tries to physically force Haut out of the way by pretty much knocking him aside on her way past, and as soon as that were to happen, Jules would turn and catch one of her arms, then extended, on the way past, using it to haul himself up onto her backside and wrap his arms around her midsection as she galloped on past.

Haut looks, to say the least, incredibly fucking pissed off. The sound of hooves rushing behind him had almost prompted him to lash out with his spear, only for his body to suddenly wither again before he's got a chance. Worse is the feeling of being beat to the side and losing his balance.

With a flail, he manages to plant his spear onto the ground as the pair gallop off, his face contorting for a moment before he opens his mouth and does what he knows best. "Aight then shitface, go piss off on the back of your bitch back to your little glade, I just hope you have a big enough FUCKING STEPLADDER FOR WHEN YOU'RE TRYIN'A-"

Raising his voice was an issue. Yelling even worse. Haut crumbles into a coughing fit once more, tearing his eyes from the retreating man and centaur to look at the fucking dinosaur behind him. "This ain't my fuckin' job. You better not start causing a scene."

Alyss and Jules disappear rather swiftly down the western avenue, looking as though they were heading in the direction of Rabite Forest, if the term 'glen' and that overall direction matched up at all, in any capacity. But yes, they's gone.

The rex stood there awkwardly, and if it was possible for a dino to look concerned, somehow this one managed. The coughing fit had her concerned and the big lizard glanced back and forth around at the empty square as if not certain if it was a good idea to change back right then, or to try to scoot behind something. A small grunt escaping the toothy beast that could maybe be likened to a dog's whine? Maybe.

There is a long moment of the beast just standing there, uncertain of what to do, but then in a brief flash it was gone and an embarrassed pale elf remained where the giant lizard had once been.

"I'm sorry....I wanted to get the bystanders away..." She kept her head down and pressed her lips in to an anxious thin line.

The cough returns, only for Haut to clutch his chest with his free hand and start channeling mana. There's a blatant flare of negative energy magic, but rapidly he starts breathing easier before simply straightening back up. His eye, somewhat disapproving, falls on Zen as she practically squirms there like a dog being scolded.

Grabbing the case once more, he sighs. "Go to the inn and look like you're freaked out to fit the rest of them. I've got shit to, but you need to lay low for a little bit. At least until tomorrow."

She nodded quickly and turned to sprint off without another word, headed off in the direction of the inn that her boss had given her directions to. All she wanted to do was hide and forget about just how much attention she had drawn onto herself.

Haut stares up at the sky again. He really hoped Jill was having a better time today. With that thought, he turns and makes his way north. He still had nuclear engineering to do today too.