Written Wonderland

Ari was happy that she hadn't interrupted the game too badly, grateful and surprised--although perhaps she shouldn't have been--that Hannah was so willing to find her as seat. All right, maybe that was part of being captain that she could get used to. As long as no one started feeling inferior because of it.

The red-headed soldier she was momentarily having trouble remembering the name of spoke up quickly, though, drawing her attention back. They weren't going to wait a moment to launch into serious questions. All right. Time to play ball.

"Almost assuredly," Ari said with an immense, excited grin and realized that she had also assumed earlier but didn't actually know for sure. But what else could it have been? If it had been something new, the commander would surely have called a meeting sooner. The fact that she hadn't meant that she trusted the captains to trust that it had been part of the plan--to some degree, at least.

She caught Lance rolling his eyes at Rowe's--oh, yes, that was their name--question but didn't feel it appropriate to comment. She had his attention, regardless. She didn't need anything else at present.

"Seems Evan's convinced her to do some parlor tricks," Ari said with a little laugh. Perhaps it was sacrilegious to speak of the goddess this way, but she wanted to keep the conversation casual, and Ari was not exactly sanctimonious herself. Plus, after her conversation with Nathan... did the goddess deserve their respect at all? And yet, Ari needed the soldiers to believe that it would be an honor to go to her. To stay with her. The captain was certainly walking on tightropes in every direction, but she couldn't think of a more enjoyable position to be in. It was quite the engaging challenge.

Lance chuckled at 'parlor tricks'. Rowe looked a little exasperated, though nothing out of the ordinary for them, really.

"Parlor tricks?!" they exclaimed, "Captain, did you feel when that dust fell?!"

"Now who's the drama queen?" Lance chuckled again, earning an eye roll from Rowe.

"I'm just saying... I'd love to learn that parlor trick!" Rowe replied, throwing their hands in the air excitedly.

"It seemed like a good sign regardless though, right?" Hannah spoke up now, her wide green eyes looking hopefully to Ari. "Like... that she bothered? I figured she didn't really care about any of the rest of us, and then that happened."

Ari was strangely happy and proud that the red-headed soldier pushed back on her description of the shimmer. Maybe it would not be as difficult as she thought to convince her soldiers that this was a worthwhile cause.

And, she couldn't fault Rowe for wanting to learn magic. Ari did have to admit that, as far as magic tricks went, the shimmer was a long way past amateur.

Ari turned her attention to Hannah when she spoke up, though. The girl's voice was so soft, stroking Ari's hope about the whole situation.

The captain gave a small smile and looked down for a moment.

"She certainly cares enough about us to help us win this war..." After saying that, she looked up at Lance, "...though just like in the stories, her help is never free."

"So, it's true..." a soldier said who hadn't yet spoken, "we are working with her." Their tone was one of absolute awe.

Ari turned her head happily to the soldier, realizing she didn't recognize him. Must be from another captain's group. It wasn't unheard of for soldiers to fraternize elsewhere, after all, and Ari had encouraged it, even.

"Yes," Ari said simply. "She has a vendetta against the king that is something to behold. She's going to kill him herself."

((OOC: It's Gavin, and he might actually come find Evan sooner rather than later after this conversation finishes, or at least before sundown.))

Lance met Ari's gaze with a grin and a soft, airy chuckle. He definitely felt like Ari was making extra sure she had his attention, and he could not freaking wait to figure out why. He let his gaze linger a moment after hers had move on, and then he pushed everyone's hands towards them to signal the dealing was done.

"So what's the price?" he asked casually as he picked up his hand and started sorting through it.

"Price?" Hannah asked as she picked up her hand as well, her tone quite honestly confused.

"Captain said help is never free," Lance shrugged and flicked his gaze back up to Ari, "So..."

"Maybe she's just calling it good with the soldiers she already attacked?" Rowe asked, their tone hopeful but very uncertain. "Especially if she wants to kill the king anyway?"

Lance kept his gaze on Ari.

Ari picked up her cards as well, having made a point not to touch them before the dealing was done. Superstition, but Ari did not mess around when it came to luck. Good thing, too. It was a good hand. She could certainly hold her own with this.

"The goddess has released all the soldiers she's attacked," Ari said, not sure if word had gotten around yet, "and word on the street is that she's looking to trade them for fresh volunteers." Ari lowered her hand of cards so it almost touched the table facedown. She looked carefully from one soldier to another, lowering her voice almost as though she were telling a ghost story.

"Hell, if I weren't captain," Ari added, leaning back and staring at her cards again now, "I might be tempted myself. From what Evan's been saying... it's one hell of a place to be." She wondered if she meant that literally. She was going off next-to-no information. Was it really fair to give them hope like this? To make it sound appealing? But what was the alternative, really?

"And besides... all the people who were attacked? They made it back alive." Ari rearranged one of her cards into an even better position for play.

Gavin looked at his cards. He was hoping for better, but he felt like he could play this hand fairly well. He probably wouldn't go out last this time around. Though he didn't look at anyone else, his ears pricked up. He had been curious about what the attacked men had gone through--it certainly hadn't sounded like a good time, but... Gavin grew up on stories about magic, and any book he could find about the fae mentioned the goddess of dreams. They were inseparable for some reason. And though Gavin had every reason to be wary of the fae...

Lance raised his eyebrows at the notion of fresh volunteers.

Rowe did too, a little more exaggeratedly so, their mouth making an o-shape in surprise. Rowe might have said something, but picked up that Ari was leaning in as though to share a secret, and the red-head was enraptured to be let in on a secret. Their knees bounced excitedly as they leaned forward to listen closely. Their o-shaped mouth only got wider when Ari mentioned what Evan was saying--gods, they'd been aching to hear about what Captain Rutliff was doing, it was so mysterious!!

Even Lance felt a bit of a flutter in his diaphragm, excitement and interest pushing his heart to pump a little faster. His eyes flicked back to Ari again, his eyebrow raised just about as far as it could go.

Hannah was a little more nervous, her complexion already pinkening in response to the conversation, though her smile was bright, if prone to lip-biting.

"I've got it," she spoke up once Ari seemed at a pause, and played the Mahjong to get the game rolling. "I'll call for a three."

"So," Lance spoke up once play got going, "What has Evan been saying? He's been pretty damn elusive, last I heard."

Ari kept a close eye on the expressions at the table. Lance seemed piqued, and Ari expected as much. And she was grateful she knew that Rowe wasn't going to keep this to themselves. In this case, she intended that to work in her favor. She knew that had been the game to play when she sat down at cards.

Gavin was quiet, and she couldn't quite get a read on him, but his eyes were bright, if tentative.

Hannah called back attention to herself when she played, and Ari re-sorted her cards, deciding on a new strategy. Glancing over, Hannah definitely had a part of her lip in her mouth. Oh, that girl.

Lance wasn't about to keep attention on the game, however, stalling a moment to ask another question.

If she wasn't being honest with herself, even she didn't know as much as she wanted to about the details of what Evan was doing, but she still wanted to recognize that she knew more than her soldiers did and was therefore an authority on matters.

Maybe she could modify what Nathan had told her.

"He's been... understandably elusive and vague," she said, smiling with a genial delight, "but from what I've gathered, it's no Sunday picnic. He's pushed to his physical, mental, and--dare I say--spiritual limits. But then, at the end of each night..." Ari then put down her cards to bring her hands up above her head in a makeshift dome and let her fingers waft slowly down toward the table and the others around it. Perhaps she was taking some liberties in the story there, but she hoped to reignite the physical sensations of awe they surely experienced.

But, she knew that alone wasn't about to sate their curiosity.

Ari was tempted to throw Evan under the bus for going against Mizu but decided against it with a soldier she didn't recognize close by. Come to think of it, he did look familiar...

"From what Evan says, it's like they are each testing each other, Evan and the goddess. Seeing where all their weaknesses are. I imagine it would be easier on the volunteers. They wouldn't need to resist her." Ari's own lips quirked a little a she finished her thought.

Surely that would be enough to chew on. Ari eagerly awaited her turn.

Rowe watched Ari with a wide, enraptured expression, drinking in her every word. Lance's gaze was also certainly fixed on the captain, though his expression was significantly more measured. Hannah rubbed at her chest, her face a deep pink by the time Ari finished talking. She couldn't quite hold her gaze on the captain, but did look up in interest a couple of times before getting startled and looking back to her cards with a crooked, nervous grin.

"Yeesh!" Rowe exclaimed once it seemed the captain was done. "I don't even know what spiritual limits are!" The spritely soldier wiped a hand down their face rather dramatically, and Hannah shyly giggled at their antics.

Lance made his play on the table, and nudged Rowe lightly with his elbow before returning his gaze to Ari with a bit of a smirk.

"So, is word on the street that the commander is gonna make an announcement about this, or...?"

Ari marked each of her soldiers' expressions out of the peripheral vision while she busied herself with her cards. She was grateful that all of them appeared interested, and even Hannah was cracking a smile now. Ari had a vivid image of Hannah biting her lip but immediately halted her thoughts from going to further inappropriate places. To distract herself, she glanced at Gavin, who was attentive but composed. She had little guess what was going through his mind.

At Rowe's comment, Ari laughed quietly to herself, but then Lance asked his question. Ah, this she did not have an answer to.

"He'll begin recruiting people soon. Some of the captains have forbade Evan from recruiting their soldiers as volunteers." Ari paused for dramatic effect, and after a healthy moment, she added, "I figured I would gage interest first." She couldn't help it; she winked, most directly at Lance and Hannah, though really not in any particular direction. "I suspect the commander will be looping everyone else in tomorrow, but for now? It's a need-to-know basis." She knew and was counting on the fact that the soldiers would blab, and she hope to pique their interest further by saying again that it was sensitive information.

Though, she really did not want to give the impression that this was going to be all fun and games.

"The soldiers who have come back are... addled. They are eager to return to her, and perhaps not completely of their own accord. I doubt that anyone would return from the goddess the same as when they left. And that's if they return. They speak of impossible, beautiful, terrifying things."

After a moment, the captain said, with a smile and nod in his direction, "Your play, Lance."

Lance contemplated his play, and Rowe and Hannah also seemed focused on their cards for a moment--or, were pretending to be. Rowe at least was pretty obviously fidgety, their mouth scrunched and wiggling back and forth along with with their nose.

"Well, I'd certainly have to think on it, captain!" the red-head proclaimed before burying their face behind their cards again. Hannah raised her eyebrows to Rowe, and bit her lips as she brought her gaze back to her cards, though her eyebrows refused to relax. Lance seemed unfazed by Rowe's declaration, and silently made his play, though he did comment after a beat.

"Thanks for filling us in, captain," he said lightheartedly as he returned his gaze to Ari, along with a cocky smirk. "Interesting developments, to be sure."

((OOC: ok, so, *seems* like this scene may be wrapping up (tho I'm perfectly happy to be wrong about that)... and projecting into what Lance would do next (after the game has nicely wrapped up), I think he'd just mingle for a while longer, though probably try to seek out other people for rumor-milling lol, especially once he catches wind of Evan's appearance in the mess tent. I think he'll start specifically seeking out Evan once he gets the detail that Evan said he'd take volunteers tonight, and end up at Evan's tent shortly after, so... all told, I think Evan and Xavier still have a bit more time... but not *too* much ))