Lagi's arrival

Lagi finally arrived to oak town after much travelling; he looked all around and took a deep breath of fresh air. “It’s nothing like the jungle setting that I’m accustomed to, but I think this place would do just nicely. Now, I would have to plant a new garden somewhere. “Lagi would say briefly as he slid down the hill and ran throughout the town to check things out Even though there were plenty of things that Lagi needed to pay attention to, he kept looking at the giant map that he bought with him from his hometown. Well, it wasn’t necessarily a home town; it was more like an island. Either way, it was a place that Lagi called home, so of course it would count. “Grumble, Grumble.” All of that travelling kind of made Lagi hungry, he was in the mood for some sea food to be exact. “So where could I find a good meal around here anyway?” Lagi could just stick with the fresh vegetables that he picked from his hometown for now, but he would of liked to mix them in with a bunch of meat, or some stew at least. After pondering his next moves, Lagi would eventually be found sitting on the sidewalk.

The recent Magic Council factions had everyone on edge, Saigara included. He was a young and newly-made Paladin, whose politics revolved mainly around himself until recently. There were plenty of undercover tentative relationships that finally bubbled over, and now the divisions had full names and different headquarters. Although Saigara had followed his superior in joining the Paladins at Era, Saigara still needed to make the decision for himself. He'd seen what the Crusaders stood for and their methods... and honestly, in a time of uncertainty, sometimes being heavy-handed was the only way to restore order. But he still needed to see the other side before making a complete decision. For once, Saigara was wearing street clothes; pretending to be an average traveler... rather than the Seeker he truly was. It was painful to hide something that he took much pride in, but a necessity if he wanted the truth. If the Loyalists found out he was part of the Council, they'd stop at nothing to recruit him to their side. As long as they didn't see his tattoo on his shoulder, Saigara figured his secret was relatively safe. It wasn't like he was particularly famous.

Saigara stopped at Oak town in his travel to Worth Woodsea. It was amazing to see the people continuing about their business, oblivious or uncaring about recent events. So much needed to be fixed, Saigara honestly couldn't understand how people could pretend to continue their daily lives. Did they have no sense of urgency that the world could end any moment? Didn't they know that the entire country was about to change? Ugh, it was unbelievable. Saigara was half contemplating on whether he should press on ahead or spend the night here, and half people watching... when he heard an audible growl. Looking to the sidewalk next to him, he found not a beast, but a man and his noisy stomach.

“So where could I find a good meal around here anyway?” The young man wondered. Saigara half snorted; it must be nice to wander about lazily and only dream of the next meal. Saigara was about to leave the man to his own lazy thoughts... when he noticed the tattoo on the stranger's hand. It was undoubtedly that of the Magic Council. He wasn't in uniform, which probably meant he was off duty, but... any Magic Council member here was likely part of the Loyalist group. This could be the chance Saigara was looking for.

"Excuse me, sir?" Saigara did his best to remain amiable, even managing a convincing smile. "I couldn't help but overhear, but I too am looking for a good place to eat. It would be my honor to treat someone who serves our country - won't you please join me?" Not exactly a lie, but certainly an extension of the truth.

Sir? Do I look like an old man to you?” Lagi would say causally as he stood up from sitting down and puts his hands in his pockets. Now this was a person that he never seen before, standing before Lagi in some casual street clothing. Then again, Lagi was new to this town, and he didn’t know anyone in it. He was supposed to run into a magic council representative to tell him about the area, but that was yet to happen. That and the fact that Lagi had his sleeves up, which kept his wrist tattoo shown. Nobody wound know anything about him unless he started opening his big mouth, which was less than likely around strangers. They would just assume things due to the fact that he was a part of the council. When the young man offered to treat Lagi, he shook his head and smile. “Sorry, I can’t do that. Regardless of whatever kind of good I might do for the world in the future, it wouldn’t be cool if I was to allow you to use your money. Well, maybe something cheap if you insist, like pizza. That way, we both can get a slice or something.” Lagi didn’t want to owe anyone anything, one of the reasons why he seems so selfless at times. There could be people that were worse off than he was, Lagi wasn’t going to use his position to take advantage of anyone.

"I guess not," Saigara's smile became a bit wry when Lagi mentioned his age. The person before him certainly seemed young. Saigara wasn't exactly the best at gauging age, although he could tell this person was at least close to him. There was a chance that this stranger had yet to become a Paladin or Seeker. If that was the case, how much was he going to know? Saigara's smile faded completely as Lagi at first turned him down. It seemed like such a textbook response, albeit flavored in the Magic Council member's informal speech. Saigara had been certain that anyone would have taken the bait though - few Council members were appreciated these days, and it was hard resisting admiration. Then Lagi mentioned pizza; Saigara chuckled. Of course not, his earlier theory had been correct. Pizza wasn't exactly the most glamorous of foods, but maybe it was the other's way of agreeing without being too far indebted.

"Sounds good. I'm hungry too, after all," he agreed, even though pizza was not particularly favorable for him. How far had they fallen; two Council members in their street clothes eating pizza. Saigara hoped no one saw him, because this was a bit degrading, at least by his standards. As if Saigara's street clothes weren't hard enough. "My name is Saigara. In truth, I'm just passing through Oak Town right now, and I'm not too familiar with the area." Using his real name shouldn't pose a problem. It wasn't like he was famous, and remaining anonymous the entire time wasn't his goal. Saigara cast a look around, checking for any pizza parlors or something to that degree. Oak Town was small, but certainly the two of them would be able to find a simple establishment like that. "Do you normally patrol this area, or are traveling now too?"

So this guy’s name was Saigara huh? That was a pretty unique name. As a matter of fact, a lot of the names that Lagi heard so far turned out that way. They were different; the names of an individual them told a story involving that particular persons background. However, Lagi’s name was pretty simple. “Lagiel Hideoshi, but you can call me Lagi. Hideoshi is fine too if you prefer that instead, it doesn’t matter “Lagi would say as taps his sneaker against the curb. “In short, you are just like me. I just arrived here myself, though I’m planning on staying here for quite some time. I guess it would be nice to know the natives, maybe I could find a nice patch of grass with some good soil. That would be nice as well…..” Lagi would catch himself falling off track; his mind seems to drift into planting or other hobbies sometimes. “Anyway, I guess you could say that I’m permanently stationed at patrolling this area until further notice. Though I haven’t been on my first job yet, I didn’t really see a lot of action or anything. “ Hyde would say as he scratched his head, it was a bit pitiful for a council member to have not actually been in a fight.

“What about you, where are you headed?”

The options of what to call this Magic Council member was somewhat surprising. It was like Lagi was giving him permission with how formal they could be with each other. "Very well, Lagi," he decided to go with the first given name. He sure seemed relaxed about his council work... or lazy, depending on how one looked at it. The Loyalists had struck him as many things, but lazy wasn't one Saigara expected. Permanently stationed here until further notice, huh. That, combined with his lack of uniform, made Saigara even more certain of his earlier assumption.

"You're lucky then, being able to avoid fighting your ex-comrades. The Magic Council civil war is pretty prominent now. But I guess that's mainly fought with the higher-ups and their direct subordinates, instead of initiates," he said. Of course, he was in a similar situation, and had yet to fight any Magic Council member himself. At least he wasn't the only one. A lot of the younger generation seemed to have avoided some of the conflict. "Is it difficult to do your job, without your uniform to back up your authority? I've heard tales of Crusaders hunting out rogue members. Combat or no, I can't imagine your case would be any different."

After a few minutes of walking and talking, Saigara did spy a pizza parlor. Simple enough that he figured it was along the lines of what Lagi would want. A whole pizza was going to be far too much food, and Saigara didn't particularly care about the flavor, considering these weren't artisan pizzas. So he let Lagi pick out what he wanted. "I don't really have a particular destination in mind right now. I've just been wandering around southern Fiore. In times of tension, a lot of people get too scared to travel. But me... I think that's the most important time to do so. It lets one get a clear picture of the truth about what's happening in Fiore."

“Being young doesn’t mean that we would be spared, all naïve ways of thinking would have to be abandoned during this situation. The magic council’s current state and split of ideals is nothing you would need to worry yourself about. I think that as long as we could keep the mutual interest of doing what’s best for the people of fiore, then things will be fine while the two opposing sides work it out amongst themselves. I could at least promise that I fight for the people; I can’t speak for anybody else. “ Lagi would say as he continued walking.. It kind of struck him as odd that Saigara asked him a lot of questions, was this guy a journalist or something? It would make sense if he was, trying to dig in at the new council member for a story, and even offering a free meal to boot. Then again, its bad luck for this guy that Lagi wouldn’t know much about what’s going on.

When the uniform question came up, it was an interesting thing to ask. “Well, I feel closer to the people this way. Authority figures tend to have the power get to their heads, maybe I want to show the people of fiore and whoever that I help that our lives are somewhat similar outside the magic council. It’s going to be harder to do my job, but I feel as if I could still do my job without  a symbolic presence other than my guild tattoo as reference.  Maybe this doesn’t make any sense…” Lagi would say casually as they arrived to the pizza parlor and took their seats. Saigara went into the details about what he was doing and where he was traveling, Lagi nodded his head in response and rubbed his chin. “ Travelling is an important part in your life. It’s when you leave home and follow your dreams,  or search for a dream  to follow. “ When the waiter came, Lagi decided to order. “Pepperoni and mushroom please. “

The Magic Council's state of affairs and split of ideals was nothing for him to worry about... Saigara chuckled a bit. He didn't bother to hide his reaction. Sure, it made sense in a backwards logic sort of way. Lagi wanted him not to know because he thought Saigara was a civilian. Saigara had the opposite approach - he thought civilians should know and take more action. If the Loyalists were trying to do what was best for Fiore, the rest of Fiore disagreed with them. Honestly, it was somewhat surprising that a revolt had taken this long to stir. "You're not going to change anything if the people don't recognize you," Saigara disagreed. Lagi had more or less just confirmed Saigara's initial impression of the Loyalists - aimless idealists. Maybe it was unfair to judge an entire group by an individual, but this just seemed like more fuel to the fire.

Despite Lagi's affiliation, Saigara didn't particularly dislike him, however. Maybe that was why he chose to argue. It was sort of a passion-less argument, more to give the option of conversion than anything else. Perhaps it was duty, or perhaps not - did everything he did need a reason? When the pizza came, Saigara set off the mushrooms to one side. He ate the single slice, before eating the rest of the mushrooms, and leaving the rest for Lagi. "You sound like you want to be some kind of vigilante more than part of the Magic Council, with talk like that," he commented. "Although I do appreciate our 'bonding' time today. I don't think getting closer to people will set you apart. Maybe it is arrogance, but someone has to make the law. If everyone was equal, it would mean there were no consequences to breaking the rules - the rules would just be remade each time to fit an individual's whim."

“People will recognize me someday; let’s just call it a working progress. I just don’t like the uniforms, and I’m only going to wear it unless I absolutely have to. I’m more comfortable in my own clothes; I bought them for a reason. As for change, it comes in many shapes and sizes. There is no telling what will happen this early on. I might change; you might change, just not today. “Lagi was a different kind of man, and some could say that he was hard to understand. However, he was somewhat passive towards the current situation of fiore.

When the pizza came, Lagi took a big bite of the pizza and made a small puffing sound. “Ahh, it’s a bit hot.” Afterwards, Lagi remained silent and blew on his pizza as Saigara went on about his own opinion and responses to what Lagi was talking about before. When Saigara finished, Lagi took another bite of his pizza and puts it down. The mushrooms were very tasty to Lagi, he wondered why not a lot of people was fond of them? “….” Lagi didn’t give that much of a response, but it was only due to the fact that he had nothing to say. He didn’t want to seem ignorant, but he didn’t want to continue to play into someone else’s opinions too much. It was good to listen and consider the thoughts of others, but Lagi didn’t desire to go back and forth. “You’re right..”

Saigara's face flickered into a frown. The other's response had been far too tepid to be convincing. If Saigara had been actively promoting himself as a Magic Council member, he might have expected it. Actually, he did expect people to agree with him with the uniform on... because obviously, his opinion was going to mean more, as part of the Crusaders. But that wasn't the case now, so he didn't understand why Lagi would avoid the conversation. Especially when Fiore's current state of affairs had more or less split the earth apart. "I hope you're at least thinking about what path to take. Too many people on their deathbed realize that they've been doing the wrong thing." Maybe he was being dramatic, but it was a very serious matter. He seriously hoped that Lagi hadn't joined the Loyalists just because he liked the idea of working without a uniform.

And speaking of uniforms, Saigara was missing his more and more by the minute. All this slinking around undercover was absolutely distasteful, although it had its purpose. Talking was also making Saigara understand his own motivations better. The crusaders were the law, and he wanted to be the law. The Loyalists were just some sort of rogue faction of vigilantes, with a single honorable member at their head. "I just remembered I have something to do," he told Lagi, standing up abruptly. Reaching inside his wallet, he took out some money for the pizza (and a frugal tip), and placed it on the table. "Thank you for the enlightenment, Lagi," he said. And he was thankful, that this other Loyalist had offered some insight, even if Saigara had reached it in an indirect manner. But for now, he needed to find a bathroom or something, and change back into that uniform that was stuck inside his pack.

(Sorry he's a jerk >___> we can either end here or Lagi can catch him with the Crusader outfit on, your choice)

The conversation didn’t turn out too well as the young man excused himself from the table. However, Lagi didn’t blame him. It goes to show that the first impressions that people would have of someone usually sets the tone for the rest of the interaction. Maybe Lagi’s nonchalant attitude offended him a bit, but Lagi wasn’t going to change who he was for the sake of one mere interaction. He could be an individual that was very well focused on his tasks, but he took it easy sometimes too and was very relaxed when he isn’t working too hard. “Well, thanks for the food.” Lagi would say as he continued to eat silently. Regardless on the disagreements that the two might have, Lagi wasn’t going to waste a free meal. After Lagi continued to eat his food silently, he wondered why that citizen was so uptight about his views and opinion. If Lagi wanted to be really rude, things could have gone for a different turn and he didn’t have to say anything about it at all. “Then again, it wouldn’t be nice of me to do that to a person who treats me to a meal. “Lagi sighed as he left the parlor and went on his way.

-EXIT