A Tetragon of Weirdos

"So...you know how to deal with your police forces?" Tyrlars said as he checked the life-signs of the incoming officers filtering through the building; seeing them as colours through the walls.

"Unlike my grandpa, I've never had to deal with the police!" Akane shouted, trying to get Tyrlars' attention while Velodus pinched at his brows and let loose a long, clearly annoyed sigh.

"Do we always have to do things like this Tyrlars? I would like for at least one of our adventures to not have an altercation with law enforcement." The full Elf let out a long, displeased sigh while he cracked his knuckles.

"Hey, you can't go having a fist fight with the police!" Yuriko shouted, looking at the gesture with alarm while he blinked at her with clear confusion in his eyes.

He looked at his hands, trying to identify what wrongdoing they may have committed while Tyrlars started to count down with his fingers. Though Akane noted that the Arcanist was counting down with his thumb going in first, rather than the more common pinkie finger first. Hrm...

"My knuckles were tense and needed cracking. Does that gesture mean anything to you?" He asked, tilting his head while Aratani couldn't help but snigger a bit. Perhaps out of the sensation that this was all just utter madness and she may as well allow herself to succumb to it. And to be fair, this was quite the fat load of egregious nonsense.

"Why aren't you freaking out?! Why are you two so calm?" Shiki asked, glaring daggers through Tyrlars who seemed more interested in the signatures and colours of the flowing magicks in the air than anything else.

The half-elf looked back at the young boy briefly, multicoloured eyes scintillating as he looked him up and down, brain-racking around for some sort of witticism before he shrugged.

"Because it's not going to be a problem. I have already seen it in the stars. I wrote it in them even. Fate manipulation's a bit hard but hardly undoable for someone of my talent." He said, gesturing to himself with a degree of pride that would have come off as smug from someone that Akane was less certain could back it up than Opyrheimr.

"Besides, it's not just the two of us. The Ruby-Onyx-Gold Lance wouldn't be as well known if it were just us two." He said dismissively, gesturing at an empty space and then seeming to be a bit annoyed that it remained empty.

He cleared his throat and harrumphed, making it clear that he wasn't content with continuing to wait like this. A watch was conjured and he cleared his throat a bit more loudly, finally getting the figure to appear with a flash and a crackle that made Aratani and Yuriko jump while Shiki fell on his hindquarters. Though Akane stood her ground, she found herself trying to narrow her gaze at the new figure.

She saw a boy alright, with hair coloured like straightened steel wire. One eye largely covered by the hair, the other free to show a laser red iris. Their figure seemed too pale to be human, closer to marble or ivory than skin. But the lines like she'd expect from an android, as if...no because he was a robot.

The way he moved, the mechanicalness to the way his eyes swivelled from one corner of the room...definitely some sort of machine. Just one that had more than the usual effort to make themselves look human, though

His aesthetic seemed...strange...but not entirely unlike the others, mid-neck length hair swaying a bit in the air conditioning, blowing every time the fan waved past him while his armoured frame seemed to be at some crossroads between futuristic power armour, clockwork machinery, and simple French style plate armour; far more reserved in size and shape than she expected from fantasy armour. The black, red, and gold colouration seemed a bit on the scary side though, as did the gear and sword symbol on his chest. But he seemed calm despite everything.

"Tyrlars, I would have preferred to wait until I had a clear shot to exfiltrate us." He said, the figure seeming to be the tallest out of the bunch by about half a head, hand currently grasping a halberd with what seemed to be some sort of gun fitted between the axe blade and the spike. Sensible she supposed, for keeping enemies at a distance.

"Well pardon me Strykar, but the lady here asked me to present all the faces on my dice." He said, the expression seeming to be a bit odd to Akane, but not impossible to comprehend. Cards facing up seemed to be the closest equivalent.

"Do you have anyone else here waiting in the shadows or something? Just waiting to jump out and go boo?!" Aratani shouted, waving her arms with a bit of exasperation while she tried to gather herself. It was a valid question, Akane thought.

"As a matter of fact..." A fourth, feminine voice said, the mechanics of Strykar's body turning slightly to regard the last person to emerge, this time seeming to step in from what she figured had to be some other dimension. The universe seeming to ripple and fold away to let her step through with a click of armoured boots, gear meant to be practical, almost unassuming, camouflage painted armour and a somewhat shimmering cloak that shifted colour to blend in with the environment around her. Pretty fancy to say the least.

This one girl was more about Shiki's size, seemed to be closer to his age as a matter of fact. Red-skinned and with considerably sharper, more horizontal ears than the elves and the curled horns of a ram emerging from her temples, and hair that was a dark burgundy in colour, maroon eyes staring back at Akane through the shade of a wide-brimmed inquisitor's hat while she crunched on what she assumed was a lollipop. Tail swishing back and forth and neatly tied hair hanging behind her.

The solar disc and lunar crescent pendant she had on her chest seemed to be some sort of holy symbol, with a cluster of other smaller symbols rendered like little planets around their parent sun. Hrm, polytheistic? Probably, she'd have to ask the short figure some time as her armour seemed to shift towards a more gold and silver colouration as the light changed, which seemed a bit garish with her skin,

"Yes...would have preferred to not spoil the surprise but what can you do?" She said with an exhalation and a roll of her eyes towards Tyrlars, her face seeming more...Mediterranean than the rather Northern European features the other three had. More Italian to the...some kind of Scandinavian Tyrlars and Strykar would have struck her as or the Celtic that Velodus seemed to be.

"Well, that makes four! Why didn't you come in earlier?" Tyrlars clapped his hands in joy as the party fully assembled, the girl pinching her brow and shaking her head after taking a brief look at Shiki who could barely hide his fawning over her before his sister pinched his ear.

"Because I'd have preferred to simply be on our way to the Sundered Lands already instead of getting ourselves stuck in this...uh...you there what's this country called?" She said, gesturing to Akane as confusion briefly overtook her thoughts.

"Japan." She replied simply, getting a nod out of the...Akane believed they were often called "Tieflings" in western fantasy.

"Are you a Tiefling?" She asked, getting a quick glance from the girl before she nodded.

"Lelienna Costaltio. Great Grandma got busy with a devil or something...it's not really my business." She shrugged while Akane thought about it. Hrm, yes from what she understood, Tieflings were descendants of unions between evil spirits such as the western concept of Demons and Devils as otherworldly entities woven from the concept of evil or the souls of evildoers rather than the eastern concept of them simply being another race of being. Seems odd then for her to be a priest of some sort.

"And we were supposed to already be on our way with you but now thanks to Tyrlars we'll have to deal with the police." She said, accusatorily pointing a finger at the Arcanist who gave an exaggerated sigh and shrug.

"Hey, look, I'm sure that we will overcome this as we always have. Once we explain everything we can be on our way and all our schedules will be right back on track." He said with a huff, the indignant look he gave coming off as...kind of cute actually, Akane thought while she approached.

"Akane-Chan, are you sure these people are...intelligent?" Yuriko asked, sliding in to whisper to her friend as she looked back at her and then at the squabbling quartet as some accusations were passed along the four about whose fault this was and how often Tyrlars made trouble for them.

"Well, if they can afford all that they can't be complete morons right?" She said, gesturing at their mechanised armour and assorted weapons. Plus, completely dysfunctional idiots are only successful in Manga or if they're born to it, that's what Akane knew anyway. 

"But you know in fantasy settings that plate armour is cheap right?" Aratani said, a roll from Akane's eyes following suit. 

"Bleh if they have an arcanist that can teleport a whole observatory I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But there is one thing I want to know." Akane said, walking past Shiki as he babbled nonsense and heading straight to the squabbling group.

Akane decided to slide in and then examine Tyrlars' eyes and the way the constellations and colour patterns in them slowly shifted.

"...Uhhh...pardon me but why are you doing this?" Tyrlars asked.

"Just having a look to see if you've got brains behind those eyes." She said with a smirk that got Tyrlars to flush a bit and then scoff.

"Of course I do! They are marvelous brains! The best!" He protested indignantly while Akane let out a small laugh before she got to her actual point.

"Well, then, perhaps you can explain to my why you're so calm about all this." She said with a forced, fake smile.

"Because I for one, don't want a police encounter on my record. And not just the cops, but the JSDF is out there too. Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if they dug into my family record!?" She said with a flat tone that slowly started to rise into a louder and louder voice until it ended in a shout.

"Uh what did your grandfather do?" Tyrlars asked, clueless while she grabbed at his collar and tried to pull at him with a shake.

"That doesn't matter!" She shot back, clearly having only so much patience for so much nonsense.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS COUNTRY IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING IN YOUR RECORD?!" She shouted, starting to rattle him back and forth until the sounds of heavy boots gave way to the door once again being flung open, this time by armoured officers and soldiers almost seeming to compete to be the one to get in first.

"Secure the civilians!" One of them shouted as Tyrlars finished letting out his "weh" at being shaken.

The police and JSDF seemed to be as confused as Tyrlars, Lelienna, Strykar, and Velodus simply seemed to stare right back at them with their unusual outfits and clear possession of weapons.  Akane gulped, clearly expecting this all to end in disaster while she started to pray to whichever gods were listening that she not end up in prison for this.

"...What the hell?" The ranking commander blurted out with clear confusion before noting Lelienna's arrow tipped tail and horns.  

Hell was probably an appropriate term honestly, this certainly seemed like the sort of punishment someone would receive for...for...she wasn't sure what someone could do to deserve this but whatever it was Akane was very sorry for doing it.  

Tyrlars cleared his throat and walked towards the procession of armed men and women, a croaking gasp coming out of Akane at the sheer audacity of this spell-slinging fool; the others going through a range of emotions from shock in Aratani's case, flabbergasted babbling in Shiki's case, sighing in Velodus' case, and choking on whatever they were chewing in Lelienna's case.  

"Please, please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Tyrlars vit Opyrheimr, Half-Elven Arcanist from the distant League of Empi-" He managed, the tension rapidly building until one of the officers lost their nerves and a taser was shot out at him; bouncing off of some sort of automatic magical barrier with a "ping".  While Akane was mortified, to say nothing of her less stoic nerved companions who were trying to plead with the officers to remain calm, his party seemed more...annoyed than anything else.

"...Well that was rude." He said, looking at the electrodes on the ground before live ammunition was released, the barrier this time outright disintegrating the bullets on impact or shunting them to...probably another plane of existence or just otherwise nowhere near anything that could be threatened.  Akane caught on to the fact that there wasn't any immediate danger and relaxed in short order as she tried to shout over the ringing in her ears from the indoor gunfire and the bark of the guns themselves.  

"STOP SHOOTING! YOU'RE NOT EVEN DOING ANYTHING!" She managed while the JSDF troops wrestled weapons away from their police counterparts or otherwise grabbed their attention, the sound of her friends screaming now overpowering any other sound.

"CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! WHAT ARE YOU?! AMERICANS?!" The JSDF commander shouted, her voice carrying over the sounds of the ineffectual gunfire while Tyrlars let out a huff. 

"Really I heard you were a quite polite country." He said with a look more akin to a disappointed teacher than an archmage. 

"My...apologies for the hostile greeting, please, forgive us and our nation for this embarrassment." The commander said with an offered bow before Tyrlars waved it off with almost astonishing flippancy. Akane squinting towards this madlad as the gears of her brain worked overtime. 

"It's not the worst introduction I've ever gotten in a foreign nation. But apology accepted. I was just here to pick up Takeda-Chan for an appointment written in the constellations themselves." He said, making starlight appear between his hands as he clasped and then parted them to instil wonderment. 

"...How about you come by for some questioning first?" The Commander said to Akane's sigh of relief before she looked over at the four and then signalled to them. 

"You four as well." She said, clearly not a request.