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 Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:39 pm
Sure, money couldn't buy happiness-- but it could buy a person things to help encourage it, as Yossarian-Lang Romanovitch Vandrooghenbroeck the Thirteenth had discovered through the hard months of mercenary life. It really did make a difference being well off and, though the quartet's Shakespearian experience had (to say the least) been catastrophic, for the benefit they'd managed to gain, he felt it was still worth the trouble.
All it had taken was a fat enough coin purse to sway Vodenska's best apothecary into cracking out his most potent potions hidden in the back room of the shop. Granted, it still took a full three weeks of daily dosages (one spoonful of powder in a glass of milk every morning) to work its magic completely... but for a broken bone in one's foot, that wasn't terrible healing time at all!
They'd spent the first two thirds of said healing time in the city, too... mostly because it was just easier to stick around one quiet place while certain Koshka weren't perfectly mobile-- and of course there was still just enough work to get by on while they waited, too.
Yossarian had lapsed right back into the 'usual' fair of the territory, and most of his jobs consisted of daily crate hauling from fishing boats, stacking boxes, gutting fresh specimens to throw in freezers... All lame, but it payed enough, so he couldn't complain.
Shae, on the other hand, wound up getting resourceful and capitalizing on a different source of income in the city: gambling. Granted, she'd been out of commission for a couple of days following the 'performance' thanks to health finally catching up with her, but after that, the little female had just scrubbed off, thrown on her cap and coat, and gone off to the saltiest bar in the town to start infiltrating the local sailor's poker circle.
Normalcy had returned at last... but alas, no money trickle could be tapped forever, and the time had finally come for them to move on-- but where?
The solution had actually turned up with a bit of accidental eavesdropping by Yossarian at some point in the harbor one morning, listening to a couple of gruff old toms mumbling about... fat bounties and vigilante psychopaths on the loose. A little further questioning revealed that, apparently, some family up in Salig was offering absolutely RIDICULOUS reward money for the head of a guy who'd ruined their family... and naturally, being the opportunistic mercenary that he was (regardless of how badly he disliked Salig), the dark male had to propose it to the others.
Shae... hadn't exactly been thrilled over the prospect, but had kept her mouth shut, and from there it wasn't more than a couple of days before the group had set off again by air ferry for the COLD COLD NORTH.
(Sob, that horrible snowy city was even more frigid than she last remembered it. Did winter ever end there?)
But they hadn't dawdled, and it hadn't taken too long to find that familiar wealthy quarter of ungodly large building to find a manor just slightly less impressive than the Summerfield house, where... s**t, there were actually a couple shady people loitering outside, huh?
... Did that mean they weren't the only ones who'd answered this call?
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:19 pm
And if she'd had any say in it, Asteria had frankly thought the medicine tasted like s**t - and frankly she had every say in it, since nobody else was ingesting the stuff (as far as she was aware?). But it'd been enough to help her along at least.
Hell, it'd only been a couple of weeks before she was up on her bad foot again (albeit with some care and ginger treatment still) to cook dinner. Which meant she'd been back to 'YAAYY NOT JUST GIMPING AROUND ALL DAY!!' again sooner than she would have been otherwise.
Though it also meant that they could travel again.
Which hadn't exactly been the 'funnest' of all things... since it had been RIGHT BACK to Salig and the cold and shivering in her (technically Yossarian's) coat. Brrrrrrr. So..cold.....Sniffshiver. Hell, even Aster's nose was running - hilariously adorable, sadly.
Oh dear, she knew this district faaarrr too well a- that house looked REALLY creepy to her, in all honesty. Especially once she figured out that the shady people outside WEREN'T people who wanted the job, but.... part of the staff. AHH!
CREEEPPPYYYYY!!!!
But they'd made getting inside to speak about the job a little easier. Not that being 'inside' had been something to boast about.
Not the housing, as the manor was quite well kept and beautifully furnished... but the.. inhabitants....
As expected, there were several older-aged nobreed maids bustling about to keep out of their way (not even passing him and the other swordsman a swoon. Both relief and curious as he couldn't see what would keep them from looking at ANY full breed).
And then the young man standing at the top of the staircase....
"Mother! We have guests!"
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:44 pm
Even Yossarian had felt a certain chilly distaste for the weather, knowing that if his fur couldn't protect entirely against the chill, then those without such a thing (namely the girls of the bunch) would be suffering doubly for it. Thankfully, however, the first thing that greeted them upon throwing open those doors was a rush of warm air, and the atmosphere inside, while stuffy, was a much more palatable temperature.
The sight of the maids was more or less expected on his end, having grown sadly acclimated to the Summerfield house and its antics-- but the fact that none of them were acting up at all struck him as.... odd, for some reason. They didn't even make eye-contact, or speak up, or carry themselves with any pride or job satisfaction whatsoever... in fact, they seemed vaguely unsettled, and he didn't know why.
How very strange.
Shae had noticed the same thing, and for some odd reason, the appearance of the young stranger at the top of the stairs caused her muscles to instinctively freeze for just a fraction of a second.
Had the woman of the house not spoken up so quickly to distract her, the girl's tail might have even started to prickle out.
"Oh, more of them now?" came the curt response to her son, as none other than a slightly-snub-nosed woman came bustling down the stairs, her gray-marbled tabby fur groomed immaculately and dark ringlets all in place. "So, who do have here? Four of you... and not too dreadfully shabby looking, either. I'll take it that you are a mercenary group here for business, correct?"
She'd reached the bottom step by then and Yossarian, in no mood to dawdle, just nodded curtly at the front of the ranks.
"That would be correct, Madame."
"... Wonderful, just wonderful! Well then, let's go... hmm..." The odd forty-something creature paused to wax thoughtful, still discretely eyeing the group from her peripheral vision before she seemed to reach a decision. "Ah, let's go sit down to discuss business in the next room you see there-- to the left-- lovely fainting couches for us to use..." Then, another pause, slightly more hesitant. "Fyodor, darling, will you be joining us, or?..."
Shae... rather wished he would've passed that offer over, herself.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:53 pm
Pleasesaynopleasesayno..... As Asteria's own tail had prickled up JUST nicely. Then again, she'd glued her hip to Yossarian's side so seeing it wasn't an opportunity at the moment (thank god.....)
However, neither Asteria nor Shae would be getting their wish granted there.
"I'll join you, mother."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Yep, that had earned a stiffening in HER posture as she forced herself to NOT frown and looked off towards uh... shoot, left she'd presume was the direction the woman had looked in. So they were gonna head in there? Uhhh...
... Kanda could lead. Or Yossarian. Anybody 'not her'.
Which was Kanda, just offering a polite 'Very well, then.' before looking to Shae, then heading off into that ajoining room. It was comfortable looking, but Kanda didn't exactly throw himself into taking a seat.
Being 'polite' would mean he needed to wait on their host before he took a seat.
Less he look impatient 'yes yes, get to thepointnowrawwwwr!'. He didn't need to come off THAT way to someone who was going to offer them a loooot of money to go deal with a 'problem child'.
...
..... Or whatever the situation was.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:21 pm
He'd noticed Aster's prickling, too, and Yossarian's own tail nearly mirrored the gesture whenever Fyodor finally stepped in after them, waiting, like Kanda, until the two 'normal' residents of the house had taken their seats before sitting himself down as well. Perhaps for a more 'casual' mission he wouldn't have even bothered with such a formality, but given the money at stake, there was no room for insult or screwups.
Not if they wanted to keep the potential of such an incredible paycheck, anyway.
"... Ah, much better," the lady of the house had muttered upon perching at the edge of a plush scarlet couch, tail draped luxuriously over the edge, but keeping her posture otherwise rigid and watching as the little quartet settled in. "Now, I'll not waste our time with any idle chatter, so let's get right down to business..."
That was fair enough by Shae and Yossarian both, to say the very least.
"My name is Lizaveta Baikov, and I am the leading lady of this manor," their patron told them, straightening up even more, "and this--" She gestured next to her son. "Is Fyodor, my dearest son. Now, some weeks ago, we had a small... incident, and my poor child was attacked by a dreadful brute I made the mistake of hiring to tutor him properly."
Shae couldn't really say how she felt about the story thusfar, but just as always, the little female-- camped out a little closer to Kanda's side than she would've usuall allowed herself-- kept those feelings to herself, and just nodded quietly, eyes partially averted to something on the floor.
"And... I'll take it you desire this 'brute' to be found and dealt with justly?" Yossarian prompted flatly.
Lizaveta noddded.
"That would be correct, young man. His name is... Nikolas Baikov-- but I warn you, he is extremely violent and not stable of mind in the slightest... killed one of our servants on the spot and damaged the property terribly!..."
And how charming that she almost sounded more concerned over the stuff than the lost life.
"Do you think you're all capable of handling such a person?..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:13 pm
And Asteria glued herself RIGHT to his side when he sat down, making sure to not look TOO clingy to him, not even trying to hold onto his arm or the like. Nope, just listening to the woman talk about the incident they were going to go and clean up.
Hmmm... dead maid (seemed very.... uncaring about that problem...), violated son.. so-s.dajfkjd;lfjd
jskldfj;asdjfk!!!! Okay, what was THAT look? Aster's tail was DEFINITELY prickling (though thankfully it was hidden behind the significant other again....) once she noticed Fyodor was making this face like a ...
....
...
Hungry animal. Uhhhhh.... Okay, little boy giving her creepy looks. AHH!
"I'm Asteria Georgelas." Asteria offered back her own name for politeness, before going one, "Are there others who are out looking for him, or will it just be the four of us?"
Oh good, the woman could ask INTELLIGENT questions. Good to know if they were going to have someone else run into them while they were attempting to do their 'smart thing' and end up warring between themselves.
Kanda looked to Shae, almost confused as to what the female TERROR of Fyodor was about, but sighed and just went on to add on a few more thoughts of his own -
"...Yuu Kanda.." THAT name would get a slight rouse, "also, is there any information we could have on this target? Previous housing, physical description, anything?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:59 pm
... Sadly, Shae couldn't have explained the so-called 'TERROR' concerning Fyodor if she'd tried; it was just an uneasy feeling in her instinctual core that left her edgy, and perhaps had something to do with that look he was giving Ma'am, too.
Yes, the 'hungry predator' look: something all too familiar and skin crawling for anyone used to the position of prey.
Maybe that was the reason she wound up failing to declare her name while Yossarian shoved his in there too, and kept her attention discretely feigned on less dangerous bodies instead.
"... Really, now." Indeed, the name 'Kanda' in particular had gotten a slight browquirk from Lizaveta, but like any good noble, she just smoothed her face out and went right on. "Oh, well... We've hired many independent bounty hunters already, but it seems that none have reported any success on the mission back yet...."
Surprise, surprise.
"Supposedly, he's been living in a residence out in the wilderness of the Bork mountains for some years now," she continued, "and as for his physical description... well, he's a pureblood-- as you might expect-- with a deep gray-black coat, yellow-orange eyes, silver hair, and several large tattoos on his arms where the fur is missing-- bright fiery red and gold, impossible to miss, really..."
Well, if nothing else, it seemed like their soon-to-be 'target' was pretty damn DISTINCT in appearance, which would make him easy enough to recognize in a crowd...
"I'll pay handsomely if he's captured alive, though if such a thing isn't possible... I'd reward the latter as well..." What, so she didn't care about her own flesh and blood (apparently, considering last names) either? "No sum of money is too great a sacrifice for the justice my poor son and household deserve."
(And nice job excluding the servant there too, Shae noted. What a charming lady.)
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:18 pm
MMM, PRETTY LITTLE NOT-FULLBREED WIMMENZ. DELIIIIICIOUS. EVEN IF THEY HAD A BABY BY HIM HE DIDN'T HAVE TO ADMIT IT WAS HIS. EVEN BETTER.
Though Asteria was happy to NOT know what was going through that hungry 'want' look. She'd just... uhh.. pay attention to the information they were being told. Ah ha ha. Now... what would they do about all of that? Well.....
.....
Shoot. Bork? La-...LA'DOR? AHHHHH!!!!!!
She shivered a bit at the sudden thought that passed through her mind, frowning a bit and leaning against Yossarian juuuuust a little bit more. "Well, I imagine if he went anywhere else than that we can find out at the docks, yes?" she offered as a quiet suggestion to her other half, before looking back to Fyodor.
Who just sort of licked his lips.
.....
........
Huh, apparently the son had a little thing for Yossarian's woman. That was... special, at the very least. Hopefully he'd be smart enough to NOT just pull some stupid-a** stunt and...
......
That'd be disasssterous!
"That is sufficient information for us to work with, thank you. Would you like some form of contact on any further information we find on his whereabouts during our search?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:53 pm
Okay, okay, why did everyone and their DOG seem to have a thing for Asteria, again? Granted, she was a relatively attractive Koshka, and both of the group's males had suffered a fair share of fawning cling-ons in the past too... but with her, it seemed like a damn plague they just couldn't escape! He'd seen even more stereotypically 'pretty' Koshka with better luck in suitors than her!
... Maybe it was just there bad luck or something. He'd never know.
Shae was still secretly on pins and needles the whole time, but she'd done a damn good job of hiding it, and was just thankful to stay out of any admiring eyes.
Though the news that they'd be traversing (... AGAIN) into even harsher, colder, and more miserable terrain than ever had hardly been thrilling, and it took everything in her not to visibly frown. Somehow, in some deepest core of cores, she already knew none of this would end well. No, that would've been too easy.
"Oh, of course.." Lizaveta, all the while, seemed blissfully unaware of any grousing or pouting or licking of lips, just sporting a thin, tight-lipped smile and nodding lightly. "And really, contact will only be necessary once you've captured him, I think. Drag the wretched beast back and that's all I need."
... Yes, and if they happened to be SLAUGHTERED somehow on the way, she'd never know about it. Was that why she'd hired so many mercenaries in the first place? Carelessly hedging her bets in the hope that one might succeed while all the others were crushed in some way or another?
Seemed about fitting with her mentality.
"I think that's about all we needed to exchange, don't you?" she piped up again, giving the little group a forced 'sweet' look. "Now, if we've no more questions to get out of the way... feel free to begin your hunting! I do with you all the best of luck; it'd be just dreadful if there were more victims..."
Nope, Shae decided (with a heavy sigh), this wouldn't be ending well at all.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:06 pm
Honestly, she couldn't get out of that house NEARLY fast enought - sadly. But that could be taken for 'WORK ANXIOUS' and not 'OGOD THAT BOY IS LOOKING AT ME LIKE I'M A SHEEP. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH'. Which it sure as hell FELT like to her, sadly.fjas;dlfjdf.
Why couldn't she just be left ALONE?
SHE HAD A MAN, ALL THE OTHER'S NEEDED TO LEAVE HER ALOOOOOONE. Sob sob sob. Though UNfortunately, it seemed outside the borders of the town they went from freezing to OH ******** HELL, WIND.
sdafjlkf.
Yep, right back against Yossarian's side - shiver shiver shiver. Cooooold. Whine whine.
Kanda had at least the foresight to throw on a scarf, though not further 'coat' to his name. Though there'd been more scarf-offerings to the Shae as well (what, they had to take a break to sit down and BUNDLE to prevent the not-so-fuzzy ones from freezing)...
..
But then it'd been OFF TO NEVERLAND.
Or Bork-area.
Whatever. s**t, that'd be QUITE the walk.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:07 pm
Actually, it hadn't been QUITE as much of a walk as they'd initially dreaded.
Granted that even in Salig, most people in their right mind would simply laugh off a request to visit the Bork mountains and call anyone who did a lunatic-- but money had this amazing way of swaying even sane pilots to make slightly-less-than-sane flights out to the middle of nowhere, and together, the quartet had managed to find a particularly grouchy old captain willing to take them a good eighty percent of the way out.
Not that it would actually make the journey any easier since that last twenty percent of the journey would be HELLISH BEYOND ALL IMAGINATION, but hey, beggars couldn't be choosers (or something like that) in the mercenary business!
When they had gotten kicked off and finally 'out there', though, neither Yossarian nor Shae were against stopping to bundle up. The latter girl in particular was in DESPERATE need of as many layers as possible (and more than happy to accept the scarf Sir had offered), even bundling up the shuddery Del right against her neck so 'his' poor gears and guts wouldn't freeze solid before the trip was finished.
So, then... seemed they'd been dumped off in a strange little town (if one could call such a ragged and sparsely populated settlement as that) called Peiresc, with small, icy, standalone buliding structures and a thin trickle of residents who all seemed to be sporting ridiculous thick and fluffy persian fur.
"... Somewhere beyond this settlement should be our target's residence... in theory," mumbled Yossarian, his coat secured and his usual frown dawned unwaveringly as he gazed off into the distance. "Unfortunately, this seems to be the last shred of markedly inhabited territory for miles, though..."
Which meant that, from then on, they'd be hoofing it through the mountain passes and such on foot, with no possible external salvation.
Well, Shae had figured, at least they were able to pick up a few extra supplies, a bit more travel-friendly food, and collect their wits before it was time to finally PLUNGE INTO THE MISERABLE FRIGID NOTHINGNESS OF... the Bork?
Was that even the proper way of putting it?
Sure, Shae had kept her mouth shut most of the way and just focussed on making sure they were as prepared as possible but, as Yossarian led the charge away from the city's edge, she still couldn't shake this nagging feeling of unease.
It was like an avalanche of woe would wind up just... crashing down on top of them before the whole experience ended.
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Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 10:50 am
Well it HAD seemed like a longass time for HER at least. Nnnghkdfsj;f.....Cold AND full of wobbly motion sickness. It was another one of those times where everybody got to be greatful that she didn't heave the entire time she was on the ship. Ah ha ha. Nnngh. Sicky was sick. But only until she hobbled off of the ship into the snow.
Then she was just cold and miserable, wrapping her scarf around her face to keep her nose warm. And of course her face, but mostly she looked like she was failing at trying to be a ninja. But it was better than frostbite of the FACE.
Well, they were here in the middle of NOWHERE. Now to just.... Nnngh. "Well, we should eat before we go - as we don't know when we'll find another place to sit down and do such, pick up some heating pads and maybe some blankets for safety - I imagine such things are cheap as they're a constant buy out here - and maybe ask around a little bit to see if anybody out here knows about our target and can point us in the right direction?"
If he'd been prone to more comical outbursts, he might have gawked at Asteria's sudden burst of..INTELLIGENCE. WTFFF? Those had ALL been slightly smart comments from the girl.
Seriously.
Seriously. Uhhhh...yes. HMMMMMM. "I think they're all valid ideas, given the circumstances. It's not as though our target has anywhere to go besides here in any time spent doing such things."
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Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:51 pm
... Rather ironically, Yossarian had been getting pretty used to the woman making semi-intelligent statements by that point, and didn't even quirk a brow when she came out with it. Nope, he'd simply given a sigh and a nod, cool as ever, as if he'd practically been expecting it from the start.
"I suppose it couldn't hurt..." An understatement to be sure, and he was already eyeing their surroundings for any possible hint of a decent place to go. "The hour isn't too late for a little sustenance and supply stalking..."
One little hole in the wall "restaurant" was already in their sights, he'd noted, and while it was small, it looked relatively decent and together in comparison to most other buildings on the block... not to mention there were several locals (god, those fur coats were still ridiculous) loafing around by the door, some smoking, others lamely chewing on whatever scraps they'd purchased and acting like it was a sunny summer's day.
"... Well, let's not waste any more time than we have to," he mumbled, for lack of anything better and, without further ado, started off toward the little place. "Hurry up."
"... I'll go search out some supplies, Mister Yossarian," But wait-- dissent in the ranks? Not really-- Shae just knew that splitting off to do some solo work would make things quicker in the long run, really, and was more than content to just go find 'extra' things on her own.
"Are you certain, woman?"
"I wouldn't put forth the offer if I wasn't..."
"... Eh, so be it." He wasn't about to stop her, either, and just shrugged it off casually. "I doubt we can become too dreadfully separated in such a meager settlement, anyway... But return within the hour, clear?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:21 pm
Well, at LEAST she was observant about these things, ah ha ha. Not like it was 'OMG WHAT ARE WE DOING, AHHH!' around her as MUCH anymore. Though it was looking like it'd be a little bit of splitting up.
"Oh, you're not going to join us....?" Aster frowned lightly, then looked to Kanda as though HE had some sort of ability to just summon Shae back. But there was nothing from him, just a nod of 'go for it then'.
nnngh....
....
Wasn't he going to go with her at least? No, no... seemed he was just going to join them since there were people for him to interrogate when it came to hiding their group over by the foodstuffs. Nngh.
Siigh.
"Well, I just hope you eat SOMETHING before we leave." Asteria said, just leaving Shae to her devices before looking up to Yossarian in expectation of 'WELL, WE'LL GO OVER HEEEERRRREEE' from him.
Well, Kanda didn't seem bothered by Shae taking the time to head off on her own.
"Come back soon, make sure you eat before we leave. We'll look into our destination in the mean time."
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Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:47 pm
Yossarian had no quandries with the woman's departure-- although he was actually a bit surprised by the other swordsman's lack of initiative to go with her, even if he didn't say a word about it. Sure, Shae was a lot more self-sufficient and skilled at keeping herself out of trouble than certain other females (SORRY ASTER) were, but still, in such a foreign territory, was that-- ...
"I will..." But no, she'd be fine on her own, it seemed, and nodded quickly to both Aster and Kanda's remarks-- regarding the latter in particular with a thin half-smile. "I'll return within the hour, if possible... until then."
She didn't waste any more time than that before splitting off from the group, bidding a little wave over one shoulder before it was off down what would have been the street... if this place was bigger and more technologically sound, anyway.
Which left the other three (Yossarian leading) to head off and sidle into the door he'd been eyeing, discretely holding his breath when they passed a couple of smoking old toms who gave them funny looks (one of those obvious 'WHAT THE HELL, FOREIGNERS?' things) a-- ... oh, well, it wasn't actually such a dreadful atmosphere inside.
The place had a fireplace-- albeit a rather rickety one-- that was roaring quite soundly in the corner. An old woman with silver hair and whiskers (and long fur, but that was expected) was working the splintered counter, and the air smelled faintly of warm bread yeast. A baker, maybe? But no, it served people too, as there was another slightly-younger-but-not-really male (probably her husband) stirring a couple of soup pots by a wood burning stove, right in plain sight back there.
Naturally, both parties had stopped to give the trio that same dumbfounded look when the entry bells jingled.
"... Well, at least they seem to have warm edibles," mumbled Yossarian, glancing back at the other two. "Are you both ready to make your choices of fair?"
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