16 Laughter and Amnesia-16

Kai let go of Pedro and stepped away, while the parrotkin kept spinning on his own for a few times before slowing down and laughing as he leaned against a table, dizzy.

"The lord sent the hero forth, to slay and defend!

So the hero fought, until the monsters end!"

Xandra let Layla down and danced with her, spinning her by the arm above her head as if part of a slow dance, before linking arms at the elbow, bent over almost comically to dance with Layla, knees bending down as she flung her legs out in dance!

"And every night the lord sent his wife to another bed, to serve the hero a reward of unique beauty along his mead!"

Helena shook her head... and suddenly felt herself getting pulled!

She turned in shock to see yellow eyes with pupils narrowed into joyful slits looking into her eyes, as Kai grabbed her arm by the elbow using his own elbow, turning around as he pulled her into the spin of a square dance, much like what Xandra and Layla were doing with less difference in height.

Pedro tried to shake off his laughter, feeling embarrassed even as he couldn't wipe the grin off his face, clapping alongside the crowd along with Michael, and everyone kept going and the energy kept climbing.

Finally, there was no need to be embarrassed, to hold back. He just let go and cheered with the song, grabbing a random mug of some frothy brown drink and taking large gulps of it as he slammed it down and screamed!

Michael kept an eye on Pedro, laughing as the parrotkin let go of all his inhibitions as he threw himself into the chaotic swirl of the pulsing drumbeat.

"And every night, the lady lay to sleep.

But if the hero, she never heard a peep!

So she believed him of moral good.

Until one night she stood!"

Helena began to laugh, a light sound with her beautiful voice, and the crowd cheered and people around her and Kai laughed to one another with many an innuendo implied about any number of people even with nobody able to hear one another over the song.

The gray tiefling went to female genasi after seeing Kai and Helena dancing, and offered his hand, to which John and Lin glowered darkly at him. 'You think you can touch our woman?'

And then their jaws dropped as she agreed and started dancing with him!

She shot them a disdainful glance. 'Just because we're teammates and I'm a woman doesn't mean I belong to you in any way, pricks.' She turned back to the tiefling with a polite smile, and he shrugged apologetically. He knew she wasn't interested in him, but just a dance was nice enough, right?

"So the lady went, to the bed where the lord lay, alone at night.

And in their bed she found the lord with the hero, oh what a fright!"

Pedro spat out his beer in shock while Michael began laughing so hard he almost burst a pipe, and the crowd ROARED!

Helena and Kai nearly fell over as Kai burst out laughing!

'The hero WAS taking beauty as a reward alongside his mead, it just wasn't the lady's beauty but the lord's!' Kai was laughing so hard Helena had to help hold him even as she giggled herself silly, the both of them practically drunk off the atmosphere alone.

The night was young, and more song were played, many with innuendos plenty.

They partied, they danced, some drank while others abstained, and it was a wonderful blur of fun that lasted hours.

Eventually Layla nearly fell over, sleep taking her even as she stood with her eyes half-lidded and her legs shaking as she stumbled, barely conscious from exhaustion. Michael took her upstairs and Xandra went with him, and Helena excuses herself once she realized they were gone.

Kai waited a bit longer, Pedro still drinking away, and finally came to the HEAVILY smashed parrotkin to help him upstairs.

"I camstilffff... go!" Pedro slurred so badly Kai couldn't tell if he even knew what he himself was saying by this point.

"Yes yes, I'm sure you can." He simply replied, not even knowing what Pedro had actually said, just going along with it to please him.

They entered the doorway for the room they'd been given, a common area with a couch with the cushions stuffed with straw, and 8 doorways to bedrooms along the left and back wall from this main room, along with a 9th door to the right that held the lavatory.

Kai stood awkwardly for a moment. 'Which bedrooms have already been taken?'

He looked to Pedro... and walked him to the right, opening the door and placing Pedro on the ground before the bowl with marks of squares linked by straight lines out their corners, another magic enchantment made by some form of polygon linked together in some kind of pattern.

Kai looked and found a "space" on the box behind the "bowl", which had a shiny patch as though many fingers had rubbed the clay or porcelain smooth, whatever substance this facility was made from.

He shook Pedro, and Pedro opened his eyes blearily. "Meeegh...?"

Pedro looked at Kai, who demonstrated by pushing a finger against the shiny patch.

A slight feeling, like a sieve emptying a slight something within himself, a minuscule bit of his energy gone in a way he had never experienced ever before.

Kai frowned as he felt an exhaustion not that of mind or body, but of something else, yet the "exhaustion" faded instantly and he knew he had only given a very small portion of this thing.

The engravings of squares linked up by diagonal lines at the corners lit up slightly, and water from the top of the bowl swirled down into the bowl to flush the contents away.

Kai looked to Pedro. "I don't know if you'll remember how to do that yourself when you throw up... but hopefully enough of you is conscious enough to know what to do."

Kai stood up, patting Pedro on the back as he left, leaving the bathroom door open.

He headed to the nearest bedroom and cracked open the door and peering in.

On the bed... was a mess of rough woolen blankets as Layla lay in a curled up ball, the blankets drawn into a next around herself.

'...that's fucking cute as hell.'

His hand twitched slightly, and he eventually sighed and shut the door, moving on.

The next door he knocked on, only for Xandra to open it.

"Ah. Hey." Kai said kinda lamely to the massive muscled green woman. "Sorry... I'm trying to find a room."

Xandra nodded, looking towards her right, Kai's left, and the doors that were away from Layla's and the bathroom.

She shut her door after looking that way, and Kai sighed. 'She put Layla to bed... so she doesn't know which ones are free then?'

He thought for a second... and went to the one furthest away, opposite the bathroom and directly to the left after you enter the room.

He opened the door... and froze as he and Helena stared at each other.

He cracked an awkward smile. "At least this isn't that anime trope where you're half naked or something dumb like that."

Helena stared at him, unamused and slightly shocked in expression, speechless.

"...sorry." He shut the door, squinting as he rubbed his head helplessly, turning to the next door and opening it.

'Finally fucking empty.'

Kai stumbled to the bed and threw himself onto it, facedown as his ears folded against his head, and relaxed all his muscles in a long sigh.

"Ugh... that was an intense night... but I think it helped with the team's trust and comfort with each other... that's good enough."

Kai snorted as he slowly drifted off. 'Xandra called me the party leader... I think she'd do well though... seems like she would rather not though... but why should I do it? It's not like I'm particularly better at it...'

He yawned into the bed, and shut his eyes.

So ended his first day in Motika.

~ ~ ~

Kai stretched, a languid and fluid motion almost feline in nature as he arched his back.

He scratched his face, and sighed. "Truly, the blankets aren't that comfortable here... I might have given up comforters for this, but I won't regret the decision."

He spoke solemnly, something demanding his inner steel to show itself in the passion he held in that sentence.

And then it faded to the smoke of memory that blocked all he had once known, and Kai blinked.

'...well I already knew we chose this from the masked man. I guess this is just proof he wasn't lying.'

He fell to the bed with a soft "thwump!" as he stared at the ceiling.

'Why did I choose to come here? It seemed to have mattered a lot to me...'

He shook his head. 'Thinking about this won't help me. Let's check on the others.'

He got up and opened his door, going into the common area.

The bathroom door was still open... and the flecks of dried something on the edge of the toilet bowl was clear evidence Pedro had found need of it during the night.

Said Parrot was currently passed out on the bathroom floor, in full view.

'...that is gonna hurt when he gets up. Ouch.'

Kai looked around, finding nobody awake, and opened the door to the hall to go downstairs.

He entered the large room of the Association, where all was clean somehow, as of last night hadn't happened.

'They got some wicked cleaning magic in this place huh?' Kai split a small grin at his own words, and headed towards the people at the desk.

Milly wasn't there, but there was some people manning the desks, and the large one meter in height and two meter width windows on the walls with the iron grid across them revealed that it was an early dawn for these people to be up.

Kai headed over to the desks, and one of the people looked up at him. "Oh! You're one of the otherworlders yeah? Which party are you?"

"Uh... I'm Kai... party unnamed."

The guy, an eaglekin looked through the air, as of checking with his own status within the system.

"Okay... are you the party leader?"

Kai uncomfortably shrugged. "I guess? We might change it later..."

The eaglekin nodded, finding something. "Okay... probationary party leader, Kai... Spirit Summoner?"

He shot Kai a weird look, and Kai hurriedly explained, "Lesser spirits. I contract lesser spirits." The eaglekin nodded, accepting that explanation as the ridiculous classes of otherworlders had already been spread throughout the Association workers after last night.

"Whew..." Kai sighed in relief. It seemed like he was really going to have to explain this troublesome class every time.

He nodded, not looking entirely convinced and slightly confused. "Huh... I guess the kitsune have some mysterious classes among their people."

Kai twitched an ear. 'The kitsune are a not-too-commonly seen race around Thunderclaw it seems... I haven't seen any batkin either, or automatons, orcs, it even parrotkin. Parrots are more tropical, the birdkin here are more northern breeds...'

'So information on race specific things for us won't be too easily found here. Might have to learn for ourselves, or seek out our races territories at some point later on.'

Kai nodded to himself, and the eaglekin looked up from his text box that Lai couldn't see.

"Do you have a name for your party?"

Kai froze. Right. This.

'A party of amnesiacs of many races...'

"Maybe... uh... StarBlade?"

The eaglekin glanced at a Crystal next to him, which flashed red. "Already taken."

"Uh... Shadow Crown?"

The eaglekin raised an eyebrow, and it flashed red again. "Taken... and embarrassing."

Kai flushed a bit. 'Okay. No words like "darkness", or "blade". Something simple, memorable, and to the point.'

'Memorable... for a group of people without memory... it's almost ironic.'

Kai smiled ruefully... and then a strange light glinted in his eyes.

He looked up slowly, the thought growing and evolving in his mind as he considered it.

"Amnesia."

The eaglekin stayed silent, and the crystal didn't react.

"We're Amnesia. That's what our adventure party is called."

The eaglekin nodded, his expression switching from the previous disdain to approval. "That's a better name."

Kai nodded in relief. 'Yeah... hopefully the others agree!'