There was a plan to try to be more proactive as it concerned keeping a connection to friends. The only way to improve yourself was to change. Fearing and avoiding all touch less, accepting certain things, and learning how to be more social were all important. One step at a time, all while continuing to work for the best of the kingdom. It was his life goal and dream to serve the people of the kingdom and aid them as a magic knight, nothing had changed this. At some point a desire to improve in strength and not just be content with being at the bottom, or near it had sprung. It had been counteractive with the part of him that wanted no common person to know his name easily, to be a forgotten name and face. It was one of the reasons why being in azure deer had felt so fitting when first trying to become a magic knight. Before they fully understood themselves why they harbored a fear of standing out or being well known. Bit by bit, he's been shoved out of obscurity by life and learned the reasons behind certain things. Not wanting to be well known had been a buried fear of becoming like his mother. The fear of violence and discomfort had always been known, but now he understood it definitely went further back. Raque wasn't the first time they had seen dead bodies like he had originally thought, but became the only time that he could remember at that point.

Now he was in a magic knight squad that made him stand out more just by existing as a member. Though the young man wanted to not use his stars to gain rank in their squad, it was something he had to do eventually. Not now, but eventually. ~Maybe nobody will notice if I don't and just let it accumulate.~ His dream to become a magic knight might have been hardwired since birth, he had no idea. It had been a strange dream to be so determined to reach, a goal his blood father had reached. How many generations in their fathers blood had come to seek to join the magic knights? Doing that before knowing who that man was, the family he had been in? It was a bit frightening to think about. So many things had changed around him, it was almost head spinning. It was too bad that all the spheres in the kings castle during the mission underground had been fully depleted. It would have been amazing to find out what was behind those doors. Then again, maybe it was for the best. If it was a threat locked away, then it might never leave that room. At the least, it could not break free for a very long time, nothing seemed ready to break apart in that ancient abandoned kingdom. They had accomplished most of the goals within their mission on that journey at least and had made friends with some others.

That's why he had written Nova a letter asking them to join him him on a mission, included details and a meet up day, time, and location. As a magic knight, it was important to be quick and organized. He had signed it as Joseph Ravencrest of the Golden Dawn. Was that a good idea? They had met Nova as Cobborn, but saying that in the letter would have been a lie now, right? Explaining that over a letter would have been far too rude and impersonal to do when he was planning to meet up with the Silva face to face anyway. The man had his herb pouch tied around their belt area, the item being mostly full of different edible wild plant life already. It would be nice to bring home to Yugo when the two were done working there, just thinking about it made them smile a bit. Visiting an area in the forsaken region wasn't so strange for someone who enjoyed traveling, but he had no idea if someone as sheltered as Nova had even spoken to people who weren't nobles like they were people before. ~Will nova be able to talk to normal people and ask them about normal things? Does he know how to have a normal conversation?~ This was something signed to himself, because he didn't think his friend was there yet. Besides the pouch, Joseph was dressed as plainly as ever. The commoner looking clothing still stood out against the regal looking golden dawn mantel.

The young man was currently sitting on a tree stump just outside of a town. The mark of being a golden dawn member was the only thing that was related to clothing that looked noble on him. If someone cared about elegance, they probably wouldn't be sitting on a tree stump while waiting. Their back was straight and proper, but he was over all in a semi relaxed position at that moment. Just peachy sitting on the mans person just made him look more common. It looked very plain after all, despite being a relic. While the starlit fallen looked more elegant, it was also hidden out of view completely by Josephs long sleeves. All and all, he looked and felt to be in a generally mellow and joyful state. There wasn't really any reason to worry about Nova showing or not. If they didn't, the older man was pretty sure they could handle this on their own anyway.

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The symbol ~ will be used in the post to reference when sign language is being used.

The young adults upper half moved a bit, his head turning more than any other body part to face the voice before getting up from the stump. It was nice that Nova didn't take too long to get there, there was no expectation of them arriving early like Joseph typically had. Their light orange eyes filled with warmth, his smile deepening a little. “It's the perfect day to help people together, a wonderful day so far.” But of course bringing up his mother was the quickest way to snatch the sparkle from their peachy pink eyes, the smile fading a little. He was used to hearing of her, she was someone brought up frequently enough by strangers. Her existence was something accepted long ago as never being forgotten, that would always come up in some way or another. At first the upset was over not remembering her, how ironic that remembering her didn't make that feeling of others speaking of that woman any better. He only replied honestly because this was Nova and he trusted this person. This was done with sign language because he didn't trust anyone else, even if nobody else was near either of them. When it came to someone like the Burning Crimson it wasn't bad to be as cautious as possible. Almost nobody knew of her bad deeds, only er skills as an operatic singer and beauty.

~I found out my blood father was Fintan Ravencrest and my mother had him killed so she could keep him from finding me. This was discovered by me finding out something was a memory and not a nightmare, as Zaven was able to lipread everything spoken. It was from while I was deaf and mute, so there was no sound in it at all. The only member of my adoptive family that wasn't helping my mother was my father. She had him go insane on purpose to try to get him to stop protecting me. Though his insanity and strength together made him dangerous, he is still a good person. I'm glad that my family, the Ravencrest are making sure he is cared for. But all of this is just.. old things I didn't remember enough of to deal with until recent times and the fallout in dealing with it.~ His life was an over complicated shit show sometimes. Not having all of his memories was one of the key reasons for this, he knew this. There was no magical way of getting everything back, just like there wasn't a way to regain his adoptive fathers mental health, nor his blood fathers life. Wanting to remember wasn't enough, especially when a different piece of you didn't want to remember. There was also a strong possibility drugs mightr have permanently removed a portion of what was missing from his mind at the moment.

Despite how well known and loved his mother was by others, learning or remembering about her jut brought him pain it seemed. There was also a fear at the back of his head that people might actually be after him, which was so wonderful. But still, that was then and this was now. She was a shadow of the past. Her corpse may be carrying some metaphorical daggers possibly aimed at him, but that didn't mean he would let that phantom drag him down by the very mention of it. “I really love nature and there's some very nice weather for this time of year. Maybe its being nice because we aren't too far into autumn? But anyway, are you ready to help me ask locals for information on sightings pertaining to a beast? As the letter stated, many farm animals have gone missing, though none of them have been reported to be dead? I've never heard of any wild animal doing anything like that, we need to get as much information as possible and find out what is reliable.” Sometimes people didn't remember things properly, or were too prideful to admit they didn't get a good look at something. It wouldn't make sense to stop at talking to one person, but rather to talk to enough people, or gather enough information that they had an idea of what to look for.

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Joseph didn't use things like wax seals, so if the letter from him had the Ravencrest seal on it than it hadn't been his doing. Wax seals were more of a higher class thing to do, something he knew at least some nobles did, but he had never done himself. Being raised as a commoner, he wouldn't even know why it was done, so wouldn't even try to do it. It was better to avoid giving off the wrong impression than it was to just go in head first doing something that you understood not the social implications of. Despite taking the Ravencrest name, he hadn't made much progress in learning about how to act as a noble? The rules of etiquette and the like. In any case, he was happy that Nova agreed, even if he had a feeling the reason for that was different. “I think I would only be able to rant in person. Because of certain things, there's always a concern on what might happen if certain people saw certain bits of information before the letter even makes it to you.” It was a way to say he trusted Nova, but didn't that there wasn't a chance nobody would try to read it before it even got to them. The man knew it likely sounded paranoid, but he would rather be safe than sorry. But as he found out in the cave system, its not always a bad thing to be hyper aware of everything around you.

“But we should spend some non mission related time together at some point after work, somewhere safe for both of us to talk without concern. Just another reason to work as effectively and quickly as possible.” Hearing Nova say he didn't know much about seasons was a surprise. Normally that would be something to brush aside, but if they ended up searching in the wilderness it might be very important. The Silva may be naive and inexperienced, but they had intelligence. The red head had faith that their friend could soak in information easily, when they wanted to. The lithe figure started walking towards people in the distance. “Well despite your fathers best efforts you have a good ability to learn. We might be searching for something in the forest at some point during this mission, so I will say information important to know about our current season. Autumn is when non evergreen trees and certain other plants that are weaker to cold start loosing their greenery to get reader to sleep during the winter. A lot of animals typically are trying to prepare for whatever they will be doing during winter, so honestly? Animals going missing at this point of the year is less likely to be caused by a wild animal, as they are focused more on easy prey, or traveling to a different part of the world to avoid the snow. Some even travel towards clover specifically for the snow during winter months.”

That was to say, he was pretty sure that whatever did this wasn't just a random wild animal being a wild animal. Stealing animals from humans tend to be avoided by wild animals as a whole, let alone during the time of year that animals are trying to gather and store every. Human related foods were considered too much work, expending more energy than the animal would get from eating the animal in question. “Unrelated to work, autumn is colder than summer, but warmer than winter.” Now it was his hands that moved rather than their lips, still looking towards his friend with their peachy pink eyes. ~Yes you have to speak to locals, how else do you expect us to gather the information? I wont be the only one of the two of us to talk to anyone. Remember, I was raised as a commoner and it was my knowledge that kept us fed in the cave system.~ He wanted Nova to become better at socializing, at seeing that having a different class than someone didn't make them lesser. Of course he also knew that using himself as an example might not hold water for that animal. He was raised as a commoner, but his bloodline was 100% nobility and royalty. There was a multitude of people who cared a lot about things like that. People like that who might feel his own genetics were being wasted, or that he was insulting others by not caring about his own pedigree.

The Golden Dawn member could never imagine himself caring about things like pedigree, so it didn't matter to him how bothered some might get.

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Total: 2,394
The symbol ~ will be used in the post to reference when sign language is being used.

“Much information about me could be considered sensitive, so I need to be careful how and where I share information. Even with someone I trust like you, my friend, I still need to take those precautions.” Joseph didn't want to risk Nova misunderstanding him in any way. He trusted the Silva, but sensitive information had to have the right place and people. Somewhere without the risk of extra eyes and ears that might give away that information to the wrong forces. There were too many risks involved in saying certain details in places that didn't have some amount of privacy from those forces. When stuck on an island of corpses with only a few people and only one knows any sign language than its fine to share. If you are underground in an area where people haven't stepped foot in for hundreds or possibly thousands of years was very clearly a safe place to say things in. It would be nice if spots like that were easier to find, but that just wasn't how the world worked. In a small town setting like this? There weren't many people, but those that lived here were far more likely to spread anything that seems like good gossip to at least some of the people there tended to stretch out like liquid falling from a cup. The more people know this information, the more dangerous.

He knew that with each person it spread to the more likely the information was to be accurate, but it didn't change the chain of people information could still go through when handled the wrong way. That's how he felt when moving onto the part of the mission where they question the local people for information. Joseph had started out hopeful, but by the time he and Nova met back? He felt and looked a little mentally drained. It felt like each person saw a different animal that they couldn't describe. Despite claiming to be witnesses, it felt more like the information had gone through a long game of telephone and returned with barely anything in tact. It told him farm animals were missing, but no evidence of any of them being killed. This was not really new information, though the idea of the farm animals not getting killed and being taken by an animal seemed pretty contradictory. It sounded like Nova barely had better luck than himself, but it was still better. “They told me about the animals going missing too. While I didn't see any evidence of them being attacked in the areas the events occurred, the idea of a wild animal kidnapping farm animals without bleeding a drop out feels very improbable. There is clearly missing information that none of them know about. Wild animals don't do that.”

Wild animals kill, they don't kidnap. Even monsters didn't kidnap. ~Kidnapping is a very human action, something wild animals only copy in rare cases where a mother looses her child and seeks a replacement. This is clearly not a case of that, so none of this makes any sense to me. If you think there is something north, than lets look there.~ There words were signed calm and normal, without pause or hesitation in his movements. The man disliked feeling out of the loop, or having nothing make sense. They were clearly missing big wafts of information, but what he had no idea. Between the people and the Silva in front of him, he trusted his friend. None of the locals knew nearly enough for the red head to trust any of them. So that's what he did, trust that person and head into that suggested direction. With every step taken, there was more area for his peachy pink pale eyes to look in. It was only when they were a little ways from the buildings that his eyes spotted something. “These animal tracks are made by a creature that I can't identify, so it likely belongs to the culprit. Who knows how long it would have taken to find without an idea of what direction to go in.” This was his way of complimenting Nova. They found useful information, it was leading them into the right direction. This to him was a better compliment than mindlessly sweet words.

Words: 713
Total: 3107
The symbol ~ will be used in the post to reference when sign language is being used.