tumbataure | 189th Page

I don't think he'd understand those last four.

[just sayin. and dont call him a roman for the love of the maker]

[ looks at his hand and sniffs thru his nose. no shakey for you. ]

You speak words, but they do no make sense. [ what's america and what's colorado. looks at clara ] I have not heard of those lands. Is there yet untouched soil by Roman filth?

[wow is he glad he didn't go with the full "anno domini." pulls his hand back in and adjusts his glasses.]

Yep, there sure is, a whole lot of it, though with the spread of European colonialism in the 19th century... You know what, that's not really an answer, I'll just hope you're around for the 400s.

[sizes him up. sort of like checking him out but with more squinting and less leaning. academic interest. sucks in air through his teeth.]

Probably not. But trust me, they'll, they'll be on their way out in no time. Eventually. Did you— Did you just get here?

[oh my god don't confuse him he's big]

[smiles and nods]

Just about. You find anyone else?

[ looks at him like he's the dumbest shit in the arena and then looks at clara. she talks fast but at least he understands her. this man, he's just fucking. something. he even talks with a funny accent ]

Your words would mean shit, little man. [ rests his hand on the hilt of the gladius ] You search for more of your men?

No, but I wasn't really looking. Did you?

[visibly restraining himself from asking crixus questions. lots of questions. that are not helpful. flicks his eyebrows up at "little man" and does not mention the fact that he's pretty sure he's at least a few inches taller than this guy.]

Uh, yes, we search for more of our men. And women. There were kind of a lot of us, but then some of us went home and came back and... Yes, we're looking for more people. I think there's nobody else in the city, so we shouldn't be that hard to track down.

A few of us who stayed behind still need to be found, but they could be anywhere at this point.

[also not really important to drag them back, since we're still on the road home and they clearly arent]

[ he's like an inch taller and anyway he's not talking about heights. y'all scrawny modern men. you need to eat more grain and kill more men. ]

[ looks at him for a moment before turning to clara ] Does he often speak like this? Like a prophet vomiting? [ back to him ] Come, then, let us find the soldiers and offer blood to the ground from beasts of the underworld.

[ picks up the shield from the floor ]

You should leave no man behind.

I dunno, do you—

[stops. just. stops. because he might not be as weedy as he once was (or as weedy as crixus thinks he is) but he's still not about to go about sassing the big oily professional sport-killer. at least until he's seen the p90 at work.]

Well, that much we can agree on, unless of course they ask to be left behind. I'm not really sure how to find them, though, or even how long it's been since we parted ways.

[nods a little. yeah he's always like that.]

You said it couldn't be more than a couple days. [with being asleep and not dead and all]

If but days passed, we can find them. We walk absent rest within their tracks.

[ they must be big steps tho with ur tiny legs ]

But first, the mapholder. I will have words. Leadership should not be met by mere acquisition of item without challenge. It is unfit.

Yeah, I hope so. I mean, it made sense, barring some kind of stasis, but let's not make this more complicated than it already is.

[slowly turns to crixus. it feels like the next thing he says is going to be kind of important, so he takes a bit to come up with it.]

It's not? Met by mere acquisition of anything. We don't really have a leader, per se... Well I guess. Not anymore. I'm not even sure we need or want to follow the map anymore, unless everyone else wants to rescue the princess from the tower, or whatever it is that's going on.

[takes a breath.]

I have the map. I'm not the leader. I just like maps. Would you like to see it?

[starts rooting around in his pouches.]

[my tiny legs could still kick you in the nuts]

With the machine being unreliable, I'm not sure what we really should be doing anymore.

[ made of brass ]

[ looks a little incredulous at daniel's words and then bellows a thunderous laugh ] Absent lead, how will conflict dissolve? [ he waves a hand dismissively ] The map is of no concern for the moment. We should follow track, before it absconds.

Yeah, me neither, but... Someone needed our help enough to punch a hole through out universes and yank us through. I wouldn't mind following this map to the end to help them. You know, since we're here.

[glances at crixus]

That's just a suggestion and a personal preference, however, not an order. We should probably all decide what we want to do once we're all together. You can't possibly predate Democritus, but yes... That's a good first step. Let's follow track, if... That's a thing you can do? It's not really in my skillset.

[honey, daniel, stop. pls.]

I'll keep the signal going, maybe get the useless pirate on his feet.

[ "someone"? don't be ridiculous. clearly this is the work of gods

also he doesn't know how to read he has no idea who this democritus is. philosophy ain't gladiator zone. slaves don't read dummy ]

As any man can. [ he's no expert but he is a gaul and back in the village he hunted too when necessary, tracking boars and shit, so you know. ]

Okay, good plan... Good luck.

[good luck making hook do anything. at least he probably doesn't want to stick around here with the dust and the... mostly the dust.

repockets the map since apparently crixus isn't that interested in it.]

Of course, any man... Well, why don't you lead the way, then, and we can... God, having one radio is so useless, you want to split up, or all of us get the signal and Jones, then go look for the others?

[assuming the background is full of cardboard and we don't have to corral graham and bo and god knows who else again.]

[youd be surprised danny boy]

He'd only slow you down and we need people here in case it actually works.

[ he looks at them confused, like someone would be in the face of unknown words. it sounds like real language, but then there are made up words. like radio. wtf does that mean

anyway ]

We should all go, lest we are meant to travel back and forth. [ its just a broken leg he can deal with it. he's a man. ]

No, Clara's got a good point, leaving a signal here is only so useful if there's nobody to meet up with.

[probably a point that should have occurred to him too, but oh well. he just got up.]

Okay, how about this: You guys stay here in case our candle gathers moths, we'll head out and see if we can find the others, come back and stay the night in the castle which is presumably both more defensible and more watertight than the open road, then head out to, to wherever we're going in the morning?

[nods]

Sounds like a plan.

If we do not expect battle, I do not see why we should stand ground.

[ but a night within walls sounds better than the open road, so he doesn't argue further ]

Are we to expect beasts in the road? [ points at daniel ] I am not to guard the little man like a wet nurse.

Who knows what to expect? Could be beasts, could be bandits, could be a monkey and monkey cultists, could be nothing.

[nods at clara and starts walking toward the front door. a little more briskly than usual, because he's sort of used to this shit but this is getting ridiculous, and crixus has managed to be even ruder than jack or dean, which is quite the feat.

stops a bit down the corridor and turns around to look at him.]

I don't actually need a guardian. I mean I can understand that the air force uniform and submachine gun mean nothing to you, but for crying out loud everyone on this planet thinks I'm some kind of helpless idiot. Except for Derek, who apparently thought I was about to shoot him in the back, and isn't it great that that's the closest anyone's come to treating me like I'm an actual adult.

[im sorry crixus for having to deal with daniel. im sure its even more difficult when there's even less you can understand]

...Good luck.

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