Shame and Anguish

It seems that she wasn't expecting him to lose- especially against someone like Chrom Sigma. But regardless of what had occurred- she seemed rather pleased with how the entirety of the fight went. Arthur was strong- but he had made a few key missteps along the fight...But she knew exactly how Chrom played...And she knew exactly how this was going to go. Regardless, she would make no time getting down there to join in the fray...Even drifting behind the Rowan shortly after he had exchanged his token back to the Sigma..

 "Chrom, is it?" She questions, her gaze fluttering mildly, draconic slits burning to narrow. "I see that you've made quite a name for yourself here at Pleure Academy." She adds, bowing slightly towards the Accursed. "You might have beaten Arthur and taken the token away from him-...But I'm afraid that it's not him that you should worry about. It is me." There is a brief flutter of flames...Amethyst, decadent. They coalesce carefully as she speaks..

 "Since you are tired, I suppose that I'll give you the chance to prepare yourself. But please- next time...Know that I will be challenging you for whatever it is that you have." she adds, nodding slightly. "And I won't disappoint." Although weaker than Arthur, she believes that she has more than enough of what it takes to bring the Sigma down.

 "Please-...Do not take me lightly either. I mean what I say, Chrom, just as you do." She might've been the ditzy Jianghese girl who warned him of Iosif's prowess...But now, she's different. Now, she feels like she can handle herself in many battles.

 "Don't clutch my tokens too tightly, you hear. I'll be coming for all that you have soon enough." A gentle wave is given before she follows behind the Rowan...Her smile widening considerably despite malicious plots roaming through her mind. just what will she be up to? Hm?
(Bei Bei)

There's an uptick at the corners of the Accursed's lips at the response. Arthur had always been taken for some weak junior before today, but it was obvious he was made of much harder stuff than he had anticipated.

Chrom always welcomed a challenge, deriving satisfaction from the helpless fury of the defeated-- though he didn't quite expect the Jianghese-looking girl to bother him too...

"What's this, Arthur needs a girl to defend his honour? Really?"

Amusement. Mockery. He enjoys every moment of it, a casual flick of his wrist bringing the discarded token into his hands via a small sapling. Amber eyes are appraisive of the young woman, but it was obvious he was taking her lightly.

"...Whatever, if I ever lose to some Jiang I don't deserve to be an Elite. Come at me whenever you feel like it, I'll beat every one of you one after another."

He dispels his own aura, giving a parting glance before making to head south and away from the grouping. The Accursed needed to recover, after all.

(Chrom Sigma)

Arthur stops in his tracks with Bei following suit, the scarlet hues turning back at her- and immediate mutter spills from his lips.

"...Can you not?"

"Please... don't-- don't intervene like that next time. It's already a sting as it is. You really didn't need to make it ever worse."

Despite him leaving, the final words of Chrom's words were obviously overheard, and how Bei had to defend his honour. It's shameful, to him.
(Arthur Rowan)

"I-Intervene?"

 She finds herself beginning to grow silent for the moment- both hands tucking carefully infront of her own heart. Perhaps, there were things that he might not have understood- especially when it came to Bei Bei as a whole. As much as he had loved to fight and train and battle, she thought that it was something that had been shared between the two- so much so, that he would have understood that this wasn't mainly about him...But instead, about her proving herself.

"Why-..I didn't make anything worse." It was almost the exact opposite of what she had been expecting out of him. Especially when it came to his own sense of 'pride' and things of that nature...And in a way, it terribly, terribly reminded her of the very thing that the two had spoke of within the past. Regardless though, it seems that she would visibly take a single step back..

 "When he beat you- I...I wasn't angry or anything like that. I wasn't defending you or telling him that I'm going to be fighting in your place. All I said was that I wanted to be his next challenger and that I wasn't like all of the others or like you.." she says. "H-he...Insinuated that I would be fighting for you and defending your honor when I'm not." There is a brief silence- a heavy frown.

 "I'm in this tournament for myself-...Not for you. And if I chose to defend your honor, then who is it to say that it's wrong?" she questions- the words of the Sigma biting harshly upon her own sense of pride. "Is it that wrong of me to...Want to help someone that I care for anyway?" He listened to everything, but Chrom's own refusal to lose to a 'Jianghean' like her. "I fight because I want to-...And each time I nearly fight, you've taken those away from me." There was one good example-- which concerned Kazko. And instead of her forcefully kicking the Nagual out, it was the other way around.

 "I...I don't know." Maybe, she simply felt as if she were behind him a little too much. "Does it embarrass you that people see it that way? That a 'girl' is trying to help you even if I'm not?-- Even if I'm not stronger than you?"

 Some people would take pride in that, but this...Almost seemed like a different ball game.
(Bei Bei)

Such a foolish thing, a man's pride.

Even if she had a point, even if Chrom's words were virtually meaningless, even if she actually didn't defend his honor in that scenario and simply wished to challenge him on her own - it looked as if she was defending him, and that alone was already enough for Chrom to assume such thing.

And to hear him voice it? It stung at his pride.

"It's just--"

"You immediately wanted to challenge him after he beat me... it looked like you were trying to defend me, to avenge my defeat and put him down for besting me."

A silence has fallen over him. There's a lot of his worth that he put on his combat ability- perhaps mistakenly, but the dream of becoming someone so great was actually among his biggest ones, and to realize that just some Accursed managed to best him like that, well--

-- it'd almost crush his dreams. It was hard to hold onto them after such defeat.

"I just... I just want to deal with my own problems. I-- sorry. I said a stupid thing."

Taken by the moment of his feelings hurt after his defeat, perhaps Arthur didn't realize just what he muttered in that exact moment; but truth be told, it seemed that he no longer even wished to continue that talk.

Tucking his hands in pockets beneath the mantle, he simply headed off elsewhere, silent.
(Arthur Rowan)


She knew that there was something deeper between him and the accursed. And in the worst way, she had gotten inbetween his dreams of becoming more than the power that his parents had sold him for. And well- in a strange way, she almost understood why the confusion had came with the way that it did. But what she didn't understand was what had followed suit shortly after. If only briefly, would she find herself beginning to grow silent-- her hands tightening carefully, clenching in what seemed to a mixture of both desperation and exasperation...A period, where emotions perhaps run terribly, terribly high. But despite that, it still holds true.

"Oh.."

 It wasn't something that she had expected- but...Even then, the step that she had taken backwards, would soon become more. It's so strange to be told those things, especially when she thought that she had been helping him all those times ago but-...Now, it was different. A wave of occultism moves carefully- the drakaness nips upon her bottom lip, biting back tears as she watches him head off silently.

"Okay."

 She stands within her position momentarily- both hands still clenched tightly against her chest, before she too, departs within the opposite direction. Maybe she had misunderstood...Maybe, he didn't mean the words that he had said..

 But to shatter with a simple sentence went against everything that she had told others. And it just showed her how much of a hypocrite that she had become. The lithe girl's chest rises and falls steadily- words of Iosif and Joy's own filling her ears as she vanishes back into the depths of the city.
(Bei Bei)

It's something that he had hard time forgiving himself for.

Maybe Chrom was right? Maybe he should've surrendered himself to become an Accursed, to actually live with the parasite inside of him, give in to that darker power? Perhaps. Even then, despite all that, there's a light in his heart that was shining meekly, hoping for something to be invigorated with, but--

-- that light grew dark after seeing her walk in the opposite direction.

He didn't know why, but something stung in his chest- something far more painful than this defeat, something that deeply stirred him, something that made his mind almost go blank in a loss of what to do, and a single desire to just run after her right now. Yet, despite all these thoughts rushing through his head, he just...

He couldn't.

His legs became heavier, almost as if literal weights were stopping him from coming after Bei, from just holding her and saying that things wereokay. It was the cursed pride of a man that he's felt, the darker fall to Chaos, the pain that was his to bear with.

The thunder above roared.

Winds picked up his mantle just slightly, caressing it across the breeze, washing over his red locks and sweeping at his face. It was a common expression of Arthur, a common expression of his soul. And then, the water drops began to fall on the ground as he headed off--

-- it wasn't rain.
(Arthur Rowan)