"I am mildly impressed that Scarlet had her fingers in so many pies. Proverbially. She was a very busy woman," comments Aestrix. Then she remembers that she's helping with making this clear to the audience. She—almost explains the wrong thing about Lion's Arch. Two hundred and fifty years ago it might have been Kryta's capital, Aestrix, but it's not anymore. Instead: "Uh, the council in question is the council for Lion's Arch, a pirate's haven. The council was also made of other pirates."

"Marjory and I managed to capture the Aetherblade captain, Mai Trin, with the help of Inspector Ellen Kiel, who later became the next councilman," James continues. "So that was that, but we had not found out about Scarlet yet.

"A while later, the Queen threw a celebration in honour of the ten year anniversary of her coronation, and Scarlet revealed herself there. She tried to kidnap the Queen and—" He visibly winces, then, before sighing and continuing. "She killed a lot of people. She hijacked the Queen's exposition of watchwork knights, but ran away on an Aetherblade ship. We also suspected she was the one behind the Molten Alliance, because she used teleportation technology similar to what we had found amongst their hideouts."

Aestrix doesn't really have anything to add, here. ... Well, okay, one thing.

"Do you want a hug? I promise not to impale myself on your shoulderpads."

"—well, I don't think I would say no."

"All right." She gets up from her chair, then holds her arms out in an offer of hug that he is free to accept.

He chuckles a bit but stands up and hugs her. He's warm.

It's almost like he's on fire, or something.

"You realize the silly spikey shoulder bits and copious fire are not conducive to hugs, right?" she informs him.

He laughs. "Are you trying to get me to undress?" he asks archly.

She sporfles.

"No!" she laughs. "I can't see anything of yours anyway, I would get nothing from you undressing except the knowledge that you're undressed. I am informing you that your armor is impractical."

"So you only found me a face, not a body?" he teases. "Well, I can see my body just fine, and the armour is not meant to be practical, it's meant to be intimidating."

Snort. "Armor can be practical and intimidating," she sniffs. "And your face comes attached to a body, but they're all pictures, and none of them are of you without clothes. ... Well, some of them are shirtless, but that's Pedro's fault, not mine."

"I see Pedro has the right priorities," he says, brightly. "Regardless, my defences are magical rather than physical, so more practical armour would not buy me much."

"They might buy you more hugs. I'm immune to spikes and fire! Other people aren't! Also they might buy you eyes that are not poked out by your shoulderpads when you raise your arms, which I hear is very useful for people."

He tries and fails to raise his arms above ninety degrees to demonstrate that the shoulder pads make it impossible to raise them that much in the first place. "If I'm in armour I do not often find myself in situations where hugs happen, and when I am in such situations I am usually not in armour. I was just wearing this now because the Queen specifically requested the Commander of the Pact, not James Orland."

"But you could conceivably need to raise your arms above ninety degrees in a combat situation. That could happen. What if you need to climb up a ladder? What then? Commander of the Pact is foiled by ladders."

Now he points his arms forward, taking a step back not to hit her, and raises them. In that position they can go a bit above his head. "Works for you?"

"No. Why do you even need ridiculously large spiked shoulder pads, anyway, are you a linebacker?"

"...a what?"

"A... person that professionally tackles people. In a sport. From my home. That I don't watch or really know anything about."

He laughs. "The answer to your question is, again, merely aesthetics."

Aestrix huffs, affronted.

He laughs some more and sits back down.

She sits, and she pouts.

"Fine, all right, continued storytime, go on." She waves her hand imperiously at him. Then she considers this, and adds, "... please."

"As you will," he says, bowing his head a little. "I was talking about the Queen's Fête. There were some more disasters involving Scarlet after that, and all of Rox, Braham, Marjory, and Kasmeer helped me with them. Caithe occasionally showed up; she said Scarlet knew a secret of hers, but we don't know what it was.

"Taimi we met when we were fighting one of Scarlet's constructs, a watchwork marionette. She's young, but much smarter than the average asura, and she admired Scarlet's work. It was... strange. But she's been a true ally and we would not have defeated Scarlet without her help."

"A good and proper adventuring party," says Aestrix, a little fondly.