Test of Trust

[Goldie]

"The Test of Trust is about to being!" The Herald declairs from a small podium. He is dressed in Serendipity's colors, the rising sun emblem embroidered on the front of his tunic. His arm is raised above his head and he is holding a large flag with two hands clasping in order to represent the Test.

"Will all partners please step forward and state your name, and status!"

[Rhindeer]

The amount of people at the gathering was a little overwhelming, at least for someone who wasn't used to life in the city. And not only that, but now here they were, at a festival on castle grounds. Castle grounds, jostling elbows with nobles and commoners alike. Nobles. The king of this country was supposed to be here, too. It was a little...disconcerting in a way. After all, she had technically been an outlaw once by this country's standards and Nexus was certainly a criminal, too. But no one here would know that. It still felt strange, though. Commoners and high born folks mixing and mingling like this.

Yet it was also exciting.

Even more so since they were about ready to enter a contest--and cheat like all hell. It was just too easy, though, and like Nexus the idea had popped into her head as soon as she'd read the sign. And she'd immediately been all for going to this festival. Not just because of the trials, of course; the whole thing seemed like it would be a fun way to spend their first day in the country--well, aside from Cerenis and the wilderness and whatnot--and it meant more time spent out and about instead of going home and facing certain issues.

Ahem. This would be a nice distraction. Even if she didn't plan on staying for the whole thing; she'd read the part of the flyer that mentioned there would also be dancing and whatnot, and she planned on escaping long before that.

Still, it was an effort not to laugh about the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Seriously. This was a test of trust, and they were going to be cheating. Cheating at the test of trust. Oh, the irony killed her.

Ah well. There was a prize, after all, and as long as they didn't get caught it would all be good. She just hoped Nexus wasn't obvious about it. If he didn't stumble here and there, it might give them away.

Bouncing lightly on her toes as she waited for the trial to be announced, she turned to Nexus and handed him her staff. "Couldja put that in your satchel thing?" she asked, just seconds before the Herald appeared to announce the event.

And Niamh couldn't help but palm her forehead at what he said.

STATUS?! AUGH. She should have known. Their "issue" was going to haunt them wherever they went it seemed! There was no bloody escape!

Oh crap, what would Nexus say about that? NO! That settled it! She was going to be the one announcing them! With Nexus' track record for embarrassing her all to hell, she did not want to take any chances. Who knew what he'd announce them as...and in front of the whole bloody kingdom.

It'd be a disaster.

Acting fast, Niamh stepped quickly around Nexus and cleared her throat awkwardly. "Right. I'm Niamh Mera and this is Nexus Savaros," she said, motioning toward the man. "And we're...um..." She cleared her throat again, throwing her tall partner a brief, uneasy look. The status question. They just had to ask the status question, and somehow she had a feeling that they weren't asking whether they were dirt poor or wealthy. That wouldn't really make any sense, after all.

"We're, ah...friends. Good friends. Something like that," she finished lamely with a shrug, passing a hand through her short blonde hair.

Then she stepped back and snuck a glance over at Nexus, giving him a smug little grin and thrusting her hands into the pockets of her breeches.

For now she'd won. It was always best to keep one step ahead of him.

[Anonymous]

Nexus didn't mind big cities really, they were the perfect place to be when you wanted to blend in. Thousands of people around here, just living their lives and enjoying themselves, well, it would work out that just being here would hide them amongst all these people. Nexus would HAVE to do something about his eyes eventually...they were the things that were setting him apart from everyone else. However he knew of two others beings who had the same problem as him...and he knew that one of those other beings was here now, Rift Savaros, his bastard brother...Twice as mean, four times more sadistic, and only God knows how sadistic. He did NOT look forward to meeting with that man any time soon. However, it meant that Vortex would be coming soon as well...which was a little better?

Sigh. Family was such a bothersome thing!

Nexus was never opposed to cheating, or to having just a fun time with the locals. This contest was as good as theirs, as LONG as Niamh kept her wits about her and was smart about the whole thing. Nexus had automatically assumed that they could cheat, after all his eyes could see through...well everything. Blindfolding him didn't do anything for him, so it wasn't really cheating! Yeah. He kept telling himself that much. If he was cheating, his eyes wouldn't naturally see through things. No, it would be just like he was breathing, that's all. Heh, yeah. And they wouldn't know either!

Unless somehow a psychic peeked deep into his mind which really...was a bad idea for psychics. They would see horrible images of his past, and that could scare anyone, even the most hardened of souls.

The irony wasn't lost on Nexus either, betraying the trust of the king and his people during a test of trust, it really was just hilarious to say the least. He was gonna have a grand old time laughing about it later, very quietly so the neighbours didn't hear him after all. They might go tell someone, which would be really...bad.

"Huh?" Nexus was lost in his own world, thinking about what he would do to bad people who tried to cut in on his fun. Nodding once he reached out and took the staff from her, placing it into the satchel after flipping the little lip open. He got a few strange looks from people as he stuffed the staff into his storage space. People ignored it now, looking away from to the person talking at the podium. Nexus winced, knowing exactly what was going on in poor Niamh's head. His hand slowly rested upon her shoulder, trying to calm her down. His touch was soft, gentle, trying not to surprise her or cause alarm to her. Nexus decided he would speak, but of course, before he could open his mouth, someone was already speaking.

"Mera?" Nexus murmured as he looked down toward Niamh with a smirk. So her name was Mera! Damn he should have remembered that, shouldn't he? Hm, alright, so her last name was Mera. Hmph. It would sound better as Niamh Savaros. Yeah. That would be a really good last name for her. A very strong last name. Still, he wondered what she was going to say about what they were. Friends! Well...she corrected it with good friends. Yeah. That sounded about right actually. They weren't...REALLY good friends but...they were good friends.

Nexus moved forward, standing beside her with his brim pulled down and a smug grin on his face. He caught that little grin of hers, and he was going to enjoy talking about all this later. She was an adorable one. He really did fancy her.

"I'll get you later Niamh. I'll get you later."