Persistent Stalkers (Aiko)

Dusk had settled upon the land, the forest full of shadows under the shroud of night. The moon was a mere sliver in the sky, what meager light it had to offer lost to the forest floor, the thick foliage a shield between earth and sky.

It was into this dark night a young man stepped forth from air that shimmered purple, alighting upon the ground with nary a sound. Hair that been violet under the portal's light now glowed a pale silver, a beacon in the darkness. Eyes glinted as they scanned their surroundings, taking in the still night air broken only by the sounds of forest fauna - the insects buzzing, an odd owl hoot and...

A flash of white as teeth were suddenly exposed in a quick grin, "Ara, Joker senses there be camp close by..." turning sharply, the lithe youth made his way through the forest, following that brief but telling sound of horses settling and, even more telling to his senses, the aura of those were asleep yet far from home.

It was a quick trek he made, accompanied by a brief stop as he reached up tie a black bandanna around his hair to make it less noticeable from the top. There was nothing he could do for the long tail but hopefully no one would be sneaking up behind him to see it in the first place.

Now his pace slowed considerably, if there were horses then Joker could only assume he was in a more medieval realm. Horses usually meant more than one traveller, and in that case Joker was willing to bet there would be sentries on duty.

"Ara, what shall Joker do? Shadow the camp or barge right in?" Leaning back against a tree, he crossed his arms to ponder his situation. As he thought, a whiff of camp fire blew his way, bringing the smell of what ever had been on the cook pot as well. The effect it had on his stomach was surprising.

"Ahaha..." Joker looked down at his grumbling organ and patted it, "Joker must see you filled it seems," his eyes lifted as he surveyed the area. The ice blue ring around his pupil seemed to glow in the faint light, before dimming, the only sign that Joker had used the Dream Mists to pull those in sleep deeper into its embrace. Those who were awake, Joker left so. It would be less fun if there was no one to avoid.

Opening a small portal, he reached within and took out several objects.

"Game, start~!" he whispered to himself before throwing his arms out, two spheres leaving his hands in opposite directions. Upon hitting the floor they would continue going in that direction, giving Joker time to sneak between and see what food was to be had.

It was a cold and lonely night.

It was dark too, Hunter was realizing, with only a thin slice of moon in the hazy night sky. He'd taken on the central guard post himself tonight just because of these conditions... he hadn't wanted to stick one of his comrades in this, and well... he didn't think he'd be able to get much sleep tonight anyway. There was far too much on his mind... He thought he may as well put his restlessness to good use.

Next to him, Mannie's nostrils were still busily sniffing at the faint smells of leftover dinner that hung over the dying blue embers. She seemed to be sniffing a bit more than she had just a few minutes ago, but the prince thought nothing of it. Perhaps she's just getting hungry again...

He slipped the mare another carrot from the stewpot and stood, stretching his tired legs. A little farther off, he could hear the voices of others that had volunteered for the night's watch, but they didn't sound urgent. For now, he passed them off as sleepy mumbles. They soon faded to just mere background noise in his mind as he thought over the coming day's plans...

We hold this post until the dawn, when the other battalion comes to relieve us... and then we are to head into Renamor, for training and strategizing. I've... not returned home in... quite a number of years. Rumors and news will no doubt travel with great speed. What if... word should reach the castle? What shall I do?

The young commander paced back and forth, not noticing the hush that fell over the camp as his fellow soldiers plunged deeper into sleep, or the confused mutterings of his fellow watchmen as they encountered some mysterious spheres...

Joker frowned as none of the guards raised a noticeable fuss over his 'distraction devices'.

"Ara, the old lady lied..." he muttered to himself as he sauntered forwards. He was quite certain she had guaranteed disarray and chaos should the balls be deployed in opposite directions.

"Perhaps Joker was in a paradox and somehow managed to throw them in the same direction? Yet Joker is quite sure his arms were not facing the same way. Indeed, Joker remembers being posed as thus," here he opened his arms, "to look most dramatic-"

"Intruder!" the shout came close behind him and Joker whirled around, his arms still outstretched to either side.

"Ara! Joker is seen~!" Grinning he flapped his arms, his voice changing to a wheedling tone, "Joker is unarmed, unarmed Joker says!"

The guard who had found him watched him narrowly, suspicion still in his eyes, "One man found, search for more! He could be a distraction!"

Joker rolled his eyes, propping his hands behind his head, "Joker guarantees to be a distraction~! Unlike the old lady, Joker is willing to offer a money back guarantee should you not be sufficiently awed at how distracting Joker can be!"

The guard stared at him a moment longer and then shook his head in disgust, "A simpleton... he must have wandered upon our camp," louder, he called out, "Commander! We've captured someone!"

Here Joker sighed, "Alas, Joker is always so misunderstood! Being called things such as simpleton, idiot, blasphemer and b*stard. Really, none of them even fit Joker for Joker is a genius and his parents were married when he was born! Why, Joker has never blasphemed since Joker only calls upon his own name in vain - and when one speaks in third person that is certainly not blasphemous! Unless people wish to view Joker as a deity, to which Joker would not protest. Does this mere soldier wish to be the first of Joker disciples perhaps?"

The guard merely looked past Joker, as though someone else was approaching.

Excitement and adrenaline were running through the camp, taking the place of sleep. Everyone seemed to be energized by the discovery of this intruder--they ushered Hunter over with zeal and urgency, feeling as though perhaps this was going to go down as some historical event. The capture of a enemy spy by one small, tired, yet valiant band of Chorastrian soldiers--they could picture it all now. They stood proudly, their backs straight, but their eyes dark with the lack of rest, as they waited for their commander and prince to step forward.

The moment Hunter's eyes fell upon Joker, he knew he wasn't from his world. The blue hair and wild purple eyes... they were all obvious signs. A... troublemaker of some kind, from the Dome? Here, now, at this time of all times? When I'm about to return home... has the Dome sent someone to ruin this for me, for some reason I cannot fathom? These were the worries that ran through the prince's mind as he noticed the grin on the captured man's face, saw the mischievous sort of glint to his eyes. He knew he was no enemy spy, and yet...

"We cannot have this intruder running free." Hunter felt a pang of guilt at making this statement--the idea of keeping someone who was quite possibly an innocent man as a prisoner didn't sit well with him at all. But to be truthful, a person from the Dome, possibly with powers and magic, was far more risky to have running around during this most delicate of times than just a simple spy would have been, and so... "I suggest we throw him in the dungeons and allow the battalion arriving tomorrow to take custody of him when they arrive."

All the other soldiers nodded their approval of this plan. The prince would have felt terrible, especially seeing the distraught look the man's face took on at this announcement, until he rationalized that the battalion's officers would just interrogate the prisoner, see that he knew nothing, and would release him in a day or so. No harm done. And in the meantime... he could handle things back in Renamor without any fear of someone from the Dome interfering. Everything would work out fine...

OoC: Sorry that this is so bleh. <__<

Joker couldn't keep still. As he was herded along to the commander of the group of soldiers, his eyes kept wandering over their faces, their clothes and the manner with which they acted. Obviously his arrival was something they all seemed to be enjoying, and Joker was one to always enjoy being the center of attention.

When he did come face to face with the leader, he was quite surprised. The man had a troubled air about him, and looked at Joker as though he was a herald for worse things to come. Also not an unexpected look - but Joker was only used to seeing that expression from those who had met once before. He was certain he had never encountered this man.

"We cannot have this intruder running free. I suggest we throw him in the dungeons and allow the battalion arriving tomorrow to take custody of him when they arrive."

Joker blinked, momentarily surprised at this turn of events. Imprisonment? That seemed an extreme action to take upon some hapless person who had stumbled upon their camp. Unless perhaps, the situation he landed in was a tad delicate... as he thought of possible scenarios, his face fell with each one. If he was imprisoned, there was no real way for him to investigate his surroundings. Then again, there wasn't much that could keep him of all people contained.

Just as his thoughts reached that point he was turned around by the soldiers and marched off without another word. Joker turning back and wriggling to keep the commander in sight.

"Ara, who was he? Why is he the boss? He seemed sad, why? Did someone steal his princess?" Joker asked, looking at the two guards who escorted him.

"Silence, spy. The Prince is not for you to make jests out of." The guard on his right shook his arm roughly and Joker winced at the rough treatment.

"We'll see how talkative he is, come morning when that other battalion gets here." The other soldier commented, jostling the captured Dream Weaver a bit on his side.

"But Joker doesn't know anything to be questioned over! Joker would never spy, especially on a group of men! There be no fun in that!" His protest ended on a yelp as he was suddenly flung forwards into a wooden cage. Rolling on contact with the ground, he came up to his feet and stared as the door was slammed shut. He looked at the lock with contempt, with his trusty daggers -

"Thieves!!! You stole Joker's daggers! Rogues! Hooligans!" Joker threw himself at the bars, his arms comically flailing through them to reach the two guards who stood there with a dagger in each hand. They must have taken them while jostling him. Joker was furious with himself, while he could still portal out he would now need to find those daggers and steal them back.

"Fool, think you we'd let a prisoner keep weapons? How inept do you think we are?" Snorting, the two men walked off, examining the daggers in what little light there was. Joker was left to follow them with his eyes, noting the direction in which they traveled.

Before he could completely settle and await a good time to leave, two more guards arrived, planting torches on either side of his cage to ensure he was always visible.

"Ara... what untrusting folk..." Joker looked around and realized that he would be kept in view the whole night, making a secret escape quite hopeless, even for him.

OoC: Your post wasn't bleh but mine might have been - sorry for the wait~! I kept getting confused cause I thought they were a camp and then the Prince was talking of a dungeon? So i just threw him in a wooden cage... >_>;

They honored the cage with the name of "dungeon", for the sake of morale. Dungeon sounded so much more secure, more impenetrable, than "makeshift structure of sticks". It rolled off the tongue much more easily too. The guards took turns, marching about the perimeter, watching the prisoner, keeping an eye out on the horizon, just waiting for that moment when the sun would begin to rise and they would see their fellow soldiers approaching, ready to relieve them of their long, nighttime vigil.

Hunter sat amidst all this on a log, with whatever passed for coffee in a earthenware mug, his eyes upon the captive, but his mind elsewhere, lost in thought.

It was a little hard to think, though, with all the strange man's protests and questions.

"Complaining will not help your case," one of the guards said, waving his spear. "So hush and cease bothering the prince."

But the man just continued to mope, and make a fuss, rattling at the cage.

Hunter felt certain that they'd all have a headache by morning. He wondered if perhaps conversation might distract the prisoner, keep his mind off retrieving his daggers, and maybe let him learn a little more about this fellow...

"Most odd intruder," he began, rising from the log to pace towards the cage, his armor clanking with each step. There was a smile on his face, not quite friendly, but not quite unkind either, as he circled the so-called dungeon. "If you are not, as you claim, a spy, then who are you? Pray, tell us where you come from. Mayhaps it will motivate us to show a little more mercy--persuade us to at least share some of the leftover supper."

Joker continued to whine, a steady monologue that he didn’t pay attention to, as he rattled the cage bars. Not bothering to use his powers, he would make sure every man here in this camp was irritable and sleepy come morning. Joker hated losing his freedom, and while this wasn’t inescapable he did have a limit on how much he would portal in front of people from a medieval world. That was just begging for a bonfire with Joker at its center.

When the leader started circling his cage Joker thought of him as the Master Inquisitor, come to torture Joker on anything and everything, from the typical where he had come from to whether he painted his toenails; coincidentally they were silver today.

"If you are not, as you claim, a spy, then who are you? Pray, tell us where you come from. Mayhaps it will motivate us to show a little more mercy--persuade us to at least share some of the leftover supper."

Joker looked at him from beneath his fringe of unruly hair. The food was a temptation; Joker hadn’t even bothered to portal in some emergency rations… And as quick as that thought came, Joker had a plan.

Standing he flourished a bow to the Prince, “Good sir, I must commend you on your victory upon Joker’s person – catching one hungered man so quickly and valiantly is surely no mean feat. Even more so when that man is – a maker of miracles and joy!” He ended with his arms spread wide and a grin on his face – a true showman’s smile as he continued his tale, pacing within the confines of his personal dungeon and now stage.

“Joker is as his name suggests, a prankster and road side trickster. Joker swindles people of their hard earned coin, not that Joker needs it mind for where Joker hails from he has more than enough gold and crystal at his disposal.” Digging into one of his billowy sleeves he pulled out via portal a considerably large lump of gold. He doubted that crystal, the other form of currency in his world, would mean much to these people. From his other sleeve he pulled a jesters staff as long as his arm, a purple and ice blue ribboned affair with a miniature of Joker’s head on it complete with jester’s hat and bells.

Pointing it at the Prince Joker smiled charmingly, “So Joker would ask you, what has he done wrong this evening? Joker might be charged for attempted theft but so would anyone starving in the woods after their camp had been raided. Joker cares not for politics and intrigue, unless it is Joker who instigates them.”

His final pose was grand, his question valid and Joker thought he cut a dashing figure within that cage. Until the head on his Jester’s staff swiveled to look at the Prince.

“Ararara~! You be a handsome one!” it squeaked, leering at the Prince and winking.

Hunter couldn't help giving a little shudder when that screechy voice spoke to him and winked its little eye. This man was trying to charm and persuade and slither his way out of his cage, but he had made a mistake--he might have been no spy, but he had admitted himself to be a roadside swindler, and that was reason enough to keep him locked up for the good of the people of Choras. The battalion arriving tomorrow could decide what to do with him in the morning.

"What have you done wrong?" he said, looking around at his men who seemed to be thinking along the same lines as him, "well, good sir, you have openly admitted to committing thievery and crimes on the roads of fair Choras, and as a prince of this nation, and a commander of its armies, I must still place you under arrest for those wrongdoings. You may not be a spy... perhaps your sentence will be much less than what we originally considered upon capturing you, but all the same... until morning, this cage shall be your bed."

With those words, Joker's audience with the prince ended.

As the Prince turned away Joker felt as though the cage had suddenly become quite small and threatening. He hadn't expected the Prince to turn his words into a confession, indeed had he known that would be the outcome he might have tried to rein his tongue in rather than give in to its theatrical ways.

He sat down and frowned as the rest of the soldiers, leave those left to watch him, walked back to their tents to rest. At this stage he would have normally given up and used a portal to vanish but he found himself curious and oddly challenged by the Prince. He had been neatly caught by his own blunder and would answer for it, if the punishment was reasonable. Until morning he would stay and only use conventional means to escape.

Waving his jester's staff before him, he watched as the ribbons trailed lightly on the wind before he lay back and did his best to find comfort on the hard floor before sleep claimed him, but not before he opened a portal at his back that led to his bed within the Dream Realm so he wouldn't be aching in the morning.

That wasn't the end of his day though, no Joker had plans to make and he found himself in the Dream Realm after sleep had claimed his physical body. It had been awhile since he had actually been in his Ether form in the Dream Realm but he quickly bounded to the portal in his home that led to his body.

Resting one hand against his physical back, Joker closed his eyes and concentrated on the feel of the Realm beyond before quickly flashing himself to the location in the Dream Realm that corresponded with that world. He was now surrounded by Dream Spheres of the people of that realm, including the soldiers who were now resting close to his own sleeping form.

Grinning, he whisked himself in and out of the Dreams quickly, gleaning what he could of the area, the beliefs and most of all, the Prince who was widely known and respected by his people.

OoC: Uh hiii? XD Sorry it took me so long, I was on an unannounced break I guess and I'm sorta popping in and out again from now on. Let me know if you still want to continue this or not, I'm a tad rusty ^^;

The sun began to rise some time later, as did a lump in the Prince's throat. It was... yes, a relief that the reinforcements were coming, and that they could take over here and allow his tired and weary comrades to return to their homes. But... returning home also meant that he was going to have to face what was awaiting him in Renamor--war councils, debriefings, strategy meetings, and... most worrying of all, a potential reunion with his parents.

It had been three years since Hunter had disappointed them and fled the captial to escape his arranged marriage... how would he face them now? Would they understand that Hannah Vilene had been a most dreadful girl, vain and greedy, and with no sense of humility or affection? She only wanted him for his looks and title and riches... that wasn't love. Did no one else feel that marriage should be based on that, like he did...?

It was yet another one of those things that, since he had found the Dome and found people more like himself, he felt set himself apart from this era. He felt... somewhat isolated, at times. He was at home with his fellow soldiers, but... when he looked to the future... what did it hold, here? A lifetime as king, trapped in a loveless marriage...? Would they try to push him into that again if he returned home...?

Hunter didn't know. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and rose in his tent, climbing out through the open flap to go and meet the new battalion. They could take over the management of the prisoner, and... he would see how things progressed from there.

Joker was awake well before the rest of the camp began stirring. He had learned quite a bit in his little dream traipsing spree and what he learned puzzled him.

The Prince had been gone three years, and the people were proud to know he was returning. Many of the maiden's had indeed dreamed about welcoming the Prince back and having him fall in love with them the moment their eyes met. Simple dreams, innocent dreams. Dreams that the older generation regarded differently. Scandal had surrounded the Prince's departure.

Knowing he had already caused a stir in a place and to a man who by what he'd seen was well respected for good reason, Joker was subdued come morning. He even came near to regretting having caused a stir to these people. Almost. He did wish his hair wasn't quite so outrageous but everyone had seen it the night before... unless... perhaps they could be made to believe it was but a trick of the light? Premature white hair or even a pale blonde weren't as unworldly as his normal blue locks.

Quickly casting an eye in the direction of the soldiers who had replaced his last pair of watchers, he dipped his head back into the Dream Realm, mimicking the motion of stacking his hands behind his head to cover how he was rummaging and using the Dream Ether to alter the colour of his hair.

Come morning when the camp stirred awake, the prisoner was found with pale blonde hair and innocent purple eyes. In the nature of the ever practical, most of the soldiers assumed that the moon and torch light had only made them think his hair had been blue.

Joker himself had decided the best way out of this mess was to convince them of his innocence, but after last nights debacle that seemed highly unlikely. So, he would have to convince them of how harmless he was.

He assumed the role of confused prisoner, curling into a pitiful ball at the approach of the new battalion.

"So... this is the fool you all captured last night?" the harsh voice began and Joker looked up eyes so hard and cold he vowed he would do anything to not be put into his custody. Quickly averting his gaze, Joker's eyes landed upon the Prince and without conscious thought sent a pleading look his way with the following message in their purple depths:

Don't give me to this man! He'll eat Joker alive and suck the marrow from Joker's bones with relish! Convince him Joker was... moonstruck, that Joker is an idiot and will cause no harm to anyone! JOKER WILL GIVE YOU MANY SHINIES!!!