"I see. So you were taught to be the type of warrior that stands far away from battle while others shed blood in your place? Your training must have been grueling, indeed. Your only instructions seem to have been shoot from far away and pray that someone else faces danger so you don't have to.

You think that living by someone else's rules makes you special. What do you think lords do? We are the rules. We hold ourselves to them stricter than any peasant. I memorized every single lesson my father gave me, from the proper way to dine at state banquets to the best way to mount a defense against giant incursions. And every single mistake was punished, no matter how small. Even when my lessons were over, the servants that were assigned to my rooms were all being paid to report any of my slip ups, even in my own quarters, to my father. I had no friends, only tutors and servants, both of whom could have me beaten with a word.

But despite all that, despite hating my father, he made me a real warrior and a real lord. I was taught to thank him for every slap and before and after every beating, because we are held to a standard of perfection. We aren't the most powerful lords by far, and any mistake we might make is an opportunity for a richer man to gobble up the lands we've worked so hard for. You should have been thanking the heavens for giving you the gift of power, not spitting on the ones who blessed you. Your greatest desire is to have had a simple life as a weak peasant, but mine is to be the pride of the Toknal family and defend our lands with heart and soul. That is why I am your better."

"You'll never understand what life is like for people that aren't you Derrikoth. And that's why you'll never be my better, or anyone else's. Now I see why you love that horse so much, because no one with a functioning brain could put up with your bullshit. Now please, go be with him. I'm sorry to have wasted your time by not allowing you to threaten one of the only people that's ever treated me like a person, my lord." Astra says that last part with heavy sarcasm.

Earlier:

When Genevive comes across Nirzeg, the Gith laughing his butt off in some kind of tub, getting his feet massaged by Wickerman, but seeming otherwise blind and deaf to the words. Which might explain why when the towel got thrown in his face, his first reaction was to yell, "Ah! We're under attack, Mr. Wickerman! Protect me!" just prior to trying to dive deep under the water, buying precious seconds of life. Sadly, whatever follow-up machinations are dashed after being bodily picked up, and probably left sputtering and dangling in the air for a second or two.

"Wha? Who? Robolass? Are you having another malfunction?" He asked, no longer defensive, or even all that perturbed being naked at the moment. Given a truncated version of her wish in whatever form, he sighs and grudgingly at least gets a towel wrapped about the waist before being no doubt pulled to the center of action. Taking a moment to cracking a few joints, and feigning popping a collar, the Githyanki smiles to both parties and just claps his hands.

Present:

"Dragonkin. Milady. As entertaining as it would be for me to have you both continue to hash this out in a relatively public setting, and no doubt embarrassing yourselves later... or not, because maybe your into that?" He shrugs. "This is really not the time or the place. At all. Now, I see some of us has a lot to get off our chest in more ways than one. So perhaps, you take this back to your room, we all sit down, and we calmly -- truly calmly this time -- without threats--" He eyes Derrikoth. "Or insults thrown at each others... especially their compatriots." He eyes Astra. "Or any of all you've been doing. Okay? Or, you can just keep this up until such negativity eventually get you both killed, and poor, poor Alistar to pick up the -- no wait, it was Atlas! Right, Atlas was his name. Anyhow, bottom line is. Both of you calm your tits. Meet me back in the room. And let's get this shit squared."

"Because if either of you are gonna threaten profits with some bullshit like this. I will ******* see to it that after this mission -- because we /will/ complete this joint mission together, bad feelings or no -- that you are both kicked from your organizations. And before you start talking about power or influence to me, consider for a ******* moment the shit yer doing right now, and how that looks." He said sweetly. "Now, I'm sure you have your back ups as well in case of that, and that's fine -- WONDERFUL, even... and I will personally see to it that its ruined in the most absolute fashion. This is not a threat. This is a promise. Because I will not have my profits, nor this world, nor even these lands that some of you, at least, profess to care about, be ruined because of a bunch of ******* cry babies, who don't know how talk civilly when it truly matters. Do we understand each other?"

"Your insults are meaningless, much like your life's story. The horse is just another thing of mine that I have to protect. I tried to extend the same courtesy to you, but you seem fixated on rejecting that, so I will leave you to it. If you want to be treated like a person, perhaps you should have given up on being a hero."

As Nirzeg comes down, Derrikoth freezes before speaking icily to him, "Nirzeg. How wonderful of you to join us. I was just giving our friend here a lecture on respect, and it occurs to me that you could use the same. Please, take a seat," Derrikoth gestures to a particularly rocky patch of ground.

Astra gets ready to comment to Derrikoth on how he really is hopeless and how he's never been courteous to anyone but his horse, but she's interrupted by Nirzeg coming out to talk to the both of them. "Fine." She says as she walks off to Nirzeg's quarters.

"Respect? How lovely. But again, these conversation will be carried on in the confines of a room. Not out in the open like the -- how would you put it -- common folk? Might do it, at least. So, unless your next action is to draw your weapon upon me and attack, we will have those discussions there. There will be no vague threats. No further demands. No presumption of power be it rightly bestowed or given. Just equal talk. Because on this joint mission, 'shit' like nobility, or having a hot head matter differently than in other settings." The gith clamly folds his hands behind his back, potentially masking any 'subtle' attempt at a cast, if needed. "So, what will it be, Sir Derrikoth. Will you continue down this path knowing the results will leave you damned by your own pride? Or are we gonna be truly civil about this?" He adds, meeting the dragonborn eye to eye with a cool stare of his own.

A look slightly ruined by the lack of clothing at the moment.

"I draw my weapons when threatened, never before. Your words do not have enough bite to qualify as such, so you have nothing to fear from me unless you ask for it. The location is irrelevant to me."

With that, Derrikoth removes his hand from the hilt of his sheathed sword and follows towards Nirzeg's room.

You had indeed drawn a crowd from among the villagers, and they look disappointed that the very public argument isn't going to be continuing. The crowd disperses with a few shrugs and short words.

"Glad to see my understanding of quality of words has not diminished on this trip." Nirzeg said, smiling thinly, and then with a sweeping gesture, he steps aside in offering to Derrikoth. "After you. Given our... compatriot Atlas' tendacy to let his mind wander, I will see personally to his joining us. For as has been shown, this discussion will be important for ALL of us to have at this point. And no familiar will be enough to ensure a timely arrival, unfortunately" He confesses as he swayed back, the back of a hand daintly drapped across his forehead.

"But do not worry. We will be up very shortly. Ladly Genieve. If you could also make your way there for this... team meeting. I would appreciate it." Having said all that, Nirzeg is true to his word. But at some mental command, Zeek, who had been perched somewhere still watching the whole thing, flutters off to make himself available to wrangle some guards at a moment's notice. Wickerman, on the otherhand, casually takes up the Bird Cat's previous position, by the barn. To ward off any gutsy day Trolls, of course or would be horse thieves.

If robots had brains that could hurt, Genny would be rubbing at her temples by now. She sighs at Nirzeg's words and agrees to their team meeting but waits till Derrikoth is out of sight before pushing herself to go to Nirzeg's room as well.

(Assuming that Alus is joining us)

When Astra gets to Nirzeg's room, she gets seated in a place that's comfortable, or at least not covered in troll goop or whatever else Nirzeg uses for research material. I wasn't expecting Nirzeg to be the one to play peacemaker. Even if he has ulterior motives for doing so, but what else is new. "So, who should speak up first?"

Alus sits cross-legged on the floor, his knees nearly even with his shoulders as he slurps his way through his fourth helping of bean stew.

"Well, like, can I ask a stupid question? What's so hard about just being nice and honest to eachother? We're supposed to be working, like, together, right? Just, like, assume everyone has the best intentions and go with the flow, right?"

"Because everyone is from disparate backgrounds, my dear Alus." A then fully dressed Nirzeg said just as he entered the room, having apparently decided to spare everyone a show. "Even if one were to look from the perspective of all be connected to some great 'flow' or whatever you word one would use, not everything that combines is of like enough nature to avoid disastrous contamination." He said prior to taking a seat loosely beside Alus, back at the wall, and legs loosely crossed beneath him.

Of apparent weapons, the Gith has none on his person aside whatever the toolbit might contain. Shield, greatsword, and longsword rest across the room from him, well out of easy reach. "It's quite sad. Not everyone can be as honest or as nice as us, dear Atlas. It's really a shame." He feigns a sad sigh, and then looks over to Derrikoth. "But in answer, dear Silver, I believe Derrikoth should start. I caught most of the argument earlier, and it has been made clear that he's suffered in silence for far too long." He states, erring on the edge sarcasm towards the end. "Though a point to be made clear before we begin. There is gonna be no shouting, no blatant insults, and no interruptions. Each will be given their turn to air their grievances before others -respectfully- respond in kind with either their own, or clearing up any misgivings. Sound fair?"

"Yes, it sounds fair."

"Alus, I have no specific grievances against you, so I will explain. You may recall that the other day, the robot here threatened to kill my horse. Being concerned for the well-being of my animal, I went to restrain her, but Astra believes that I should have let her frolic around on a horse killing spree. It's really that simple.

And Nirzeg, all you have ever addressed me with is blatant insults, surely I don't have to elaborate more on that."

Astra allows Derrikoth to get his peace in before responding. "As I have told Derrikoth multiple times, his horse, nor any others were in danger. I know Genevieve. She's our friend not some murderous monster. And while I don't possess any of Nirzeg's technical know-how, I feel confident in saying that she wasn't in condition to murder anything and that what he did was entirely unnecessary."

Nirzeg is nothing, if not true to his word. And thus, he waited a moment or two more to see if Derrikoth might add something more prior to putting a hand on his own chest, hamming up being appalled at the accusation. "I may have mocked you at some point for riding into town on a high horse, but I have /never/ intentionally insulted you beyond that." He places a finger to his lips and looks askcance. "Not that I can recall at least."

After a few taps he shrugs off the expression and gives Derrikoth a curious look. "But we'll get back to that in just a moment. I... don't entirely disagree with his reaction. It was extreme, perhaps given the bodily tackle, but not wholly unwarranted. Extreme, I re-iterate, as some.... personal bias might have influenced the decision more than you are willing to recognize consciously. That, and the clear lack of trust in the skills of your other compatriots to resolve an issue in which your field of expertise are limited." He claps his hands together. "That is not an insult. Simple fact. And while this may be speciest of me to say, in the case of an outsider, hm, like an Orc, making a similiar threat, its a bit more understandable than 'ally'. That at least, you can consider, no?"

He holds up a finger for patience. "To the other matter, please clarify an event that I insulted you beyond the one I mentioned. Because the closest one I consider is the name usage. And in my /defense/, it was to be compliments... while also sidestepping an admitted shortcoming of mines when it comes to the common tongue. Namely, well... names. And a few phrases."

Genevieve speaks when given the opportunity to throw in her two copper in response to what Derrikoth said. “Firstly, I genuinely apologize for threatening your horse in that state, and for any insults and names I’ve called you in the past.” When that sinks in, she continues. “I have very little control of my voicebox in that state of malfunctioning. That voice you all heard was not my own. My sentience falters, but what little I did have, I used to lock my joints into place to refrain from causing any harm. Why do you think I didn’t fight back? Why Nirzeg and Astra had to lift me away?” She looks down at her open palms, growing frustrated with her inability to form emotions on her face. “I know I’m just a hunk of metal to you, but I’m hoping my voice can convey how terrible I feel for allowing this to come between us as a team.”

"Alright so--just a big misunderstanding, dudes. And something that could have been avoided if we just assume best intentions. For example, Derri assuming Genny was not actually putting the horse in danger, Astra assuming Derri was acting out of a true fear for his beloved animal, us all assuming Nirzeg's joke are in good fun and are not the result of actual deeper hatred for any of us. We are here to do good, together. So let's just be good to each other, cool?"

Derrikoth shakes his head as Astra and Nirzeg speak, "I'm sure that you believed her to be no harm, but I have no idea what she is capable of and really, neither do you. Even if I knew her better, I still would assume she's a danger while malfunctioning. I don't know you either, Astra, so I won't be taking your word for my horse's safety.

Nirzeg, you have continuously made jabs at my heritage and my family, on top of your failure to properly remember my—or any of ours, for that matter—name. You can feign ignorance, but you should know that I do remember these things.

Genevieve, ironically, you're the one who's least at fault. I'm more incensed by Astra and Nirzeg's statements than anything else. Still, stay away from Josephus.

Actually, Alus is the one least at fault, but still. It's not a matter of going blindly on intentions, I act on the things I observe. For example, when someone says, 'I'm going to kill your horse,' I take precautions against that. When someone insults my lineage, I get offended. There's really not much to be figured out about intent here."