Welcome to Gaia! ::

Vrtn examined the girl who had just appeared through the portal. The other people in the room were mere figures to Vrtn--unimportant figures. From the looks of it, this girl was in charge of this outfit--she could give him a nice (painful) job, if nobody else. He sniffed indifferently. "Are you the boss around here?" he asked. "My name is Vrtn; we talked earlier about my being hired? When can I get pummeled?"

Joe looked on in mild amusement. So far, it didn't seem Steven was serious, but Joe would attempt to stop him if he was.

((Really, really sorry about disappearing for about a week so soon after rejoining. ^^; My internet decided to take a holiday.))

Ruki had been thinking about bringing the duffel bag with her, but remembered the rough time period she'd be heading to. She was already going to be standing out enough because she wasn't human; she didn't want to give the locals any other reasons not to trust her. After grabbing a few gold coins out of the bag, she headed down from the dorms to the general area of the portal room. Never having actually been there herself, she couldn't exactly say were it was, but knew roughly the area it was in. Plus, she could hear plenty of voices, so finding the right room was made that much easier. "Sorry if I took long," the young dragon began, quietly stepping into the room. "Oh, greetings, Commander," Chibi added, giving her superior a respectful salute. The powerful woman didn't seem to be in a good mood at all, so Ruki decided short and sweet was best, for the moment.

"Well, this is actually the first time I've been in here, but I've heard that the items we'll absolutely need will be placed nearby the portal we need to go through," the dragon replied, scratching behind her left ear a bit. She couldn't be sure of the integrity of her sources, but at least mice never lie, and the mice here were extraordinarily intelligent. Looking around, she spotted a small pile of clothing and an assortment of a few different blades in front of a portal showing a path leading to something that looked bigger than a village, but wasn't quite as large as a city. "There we are," she said, pointing towards it.

"Why precisely are you asking me to beat you up?" Steven asked Vrtn suddenly, since such a request made less than no sense. He turned towards the pile of clothing. Ah, that was pleasant. Oh well. Meandering over to it, he examined his options before deciding upon a cinquetta, a light tan tunic with accompanying plain fabric pants, proper leather boots, some thickish leather gloves, and a wide leather belt. He did take note of the amount of leather he was using. After a quick moment he was wearing it, looking down on himself not in disappointment. "I suppose it'll do," he murmured, picking up the other clothing and tossing it into a pile elsewhere. In the process he invisibly relieved his pants of the Glock and slid it with its magazines into the deep pockets of his new pants. Perfecto.

Vrtn sighed in a bored way and lazily peered over his shoulder. "Look, alright, if I don't get hurt, my body can't keep itself healthy. If I'm healing from a wound or nine then I don't get sick, otherwise I'm bedridden with the mother of all colds. I have a twisted ankle right now, but that's only enough to leave me with a minor case of the sniffles."

Vrtn turned back to the portal, even though he was hardly paying attention to the world shown within it. He noticed that his throat felt dry and scratchy--he was coming down with a sore throat, and that could only mean that a big, bad cold was on its way. "What I really need," he muttered, "is a leg-crushing, rib-shattering blow--an avalanche, or a nice, big, tree falling on me."

"Does shooting work?" Steven offered. "There'll be a fee for ammunition, especially if you expect me to use armor-piercers." If it was for his health, then Steven decided it was the best sort of combat exercise he could get. Of course... "Wouldn't having a cold be better than being shot up or beat down?" Steven inquired.

He looked to Ruki. "We should probably get going, though. Pretty soon here too."

Steven stared at the valuables, then back at Vrtn. Then to the valuables again. Then at Vrtn. "Can... can I get a loan on some of these? I'm about to take off on a mission... it's gold... they'll take gold there, I'm sure, everyone loves gold," he trailed off slightly. "And if you'll find me I'll give you a shot later..." This was bizarre. "P-90 and such... not cheap ammo, you know." He would've pulled his Glock then and there, but it was a hidden weapon; he didn't want anyone knowing he was carrying it, including his teammates.

((WHERE IS JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOE))