Character Capital

West Side - Undercity Entrance

Eliza followed Moreena downwards, taking in the change of scenery at the same time.

Upon reaching the bottom of the ramp, she took one look at the surprisingly high ceiling before promptly pushing herself back onto two legs and resuming her mech's normal humanoid appearance.

"I expected these tunnels to be far narrower than they actually are," she said, "Not that I'm complaining. Quadraped mode is...kind of hard on the stomach."

After that, she glanced towards the shed and took a few steps forward to get a better look at it. After a couple moments of examination, she turned back towards Moreena. "Looks like this place doesn't get a lot of business. I wouldn't be surprised if it's abandoned."

She then took one more look around the immediate area. "At any rate, it doesn't look like there's much to see here. I imagine the more...intriguing parts are deeper within."

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Bus to New City - Near Meiko's Maid Cafe

Midori nodded in understanding. Even though she knew they couldn't slack, she still hoped she could get to know Sophie better as they traveled around together. The bus approached the cafe in New City and it certainly stood out amongst everything else. It was bright and lit up even during the day, a lucky cat statue on the top of it and lanterns strung across the front. It had two floors, the actual cafe on the bottom, the top with a bar with an online cafe. A large sign on the front read Meiko's Maid and Online Cafe in red neon lights.

"There it is!" Kiyumi exclaimed with excitement, pointing it out as the bus pulled to a stop.

"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"

[City Center]

Angua smiled broadly. "There should be plenty of things to do. I gotta figure tourism features pretty prominently in the local government's priorities. Lots of hotels, that big obelisk thing, great public transport... It'd be a little strange to have all that and nothing for people to visit." She shrugged. Then, a thought seemed to occur to her. She leaned in and spoke with a hushed tone, "I uh- I take it that your diplomatic credit line is open if we want to do any shopping around the city, eh?"

yey

Bus to New City - Near Meiko's Cafe

Sophie also nodded in response to Samantha. "Gotcha."

Samantha nodded in return, before Kiyumi's exclamation drew her attention to their destination. She glanced at it briefly.

"That's pretty hard to miss," she said, before turning back to Sophie and Midori. "Now that you know roughly where we'll be, I think it's best that we parted ways here. I doubt that this part of town is the best place to start searching, anyway."

She pulled out her remaining money and started counting and rearranging it. Once she was satisfied, she handed about half of it to Sophie. "Just in case you need it. Be mindful of where you spend it; I'd like to try making a profit here and I'm not going to be happy if I find you've blown it all at one place."

Sophie made a small, amused smile as she took the money and pocketed it. "I'd like to think I'm more responsible than that."

"You better be," Samantha replied, before giving the pair one last nod. "I think that's about everything. So...best of luck to you. Be sure to look out for each other, okay?"

At that, she turned back to Kiyumi and Naoko. "As for everyone else...I guess there's nothing else to do but see how this goes."

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[West Side (Autocab)]

"I appropriated the vehicle as an officer of the law to assist in the pursuit and apprehension of a fugitive," said Roderick, not looking up from his sheet. "It's legal. Still, yeah, we don't want to push the limits and try opening fire. And even if we do, it'd be good to aim for the tires."

He moved his view on the sheet around, trying to get a better look at the traffic of the surrounding area. "Personally, I'd hang back a little, maybe catch up to them later. But I don't know how long they'll be driving, and they might get suspicious if they see a taxi constantly pulling in and dropping off behind them." He twisted around to look at Gev. "Your thoughts?"

edited 18th Jul '15 6:28:11 PM by TeraChimera

[Desiccated Refinery]

"Genocide," he said under his breath. He spoke up then, "Yeah, there were a couple of them. One of them was a coward and shot himself when Berlin fell before the missiles. The other died in Moscow when a missile hit him."

Kommissar nodded. "If I had the chance, I would've killed several tyrants. Some people say when you kill 'em, you go down to their level. Thing is, I'm at their level. No, I wouldn't kill millions because of their ethnicity, but because they've made the world worse. I'd be doing a favor, really. Maybe if your tyrant was still around, I would've done the same." He paused in thought. He never smoked and never will, but he felt like the melancholic working men he'd seen at the bars. He'd seen their eyes. Full of contempt, rage, regret. No wonder why they drank and smoked. The German sighed, "Kind souls are needed, but sometimes men deserve to die. So they don't do shit again."

He shifted his sitting spot. "But uh, I want to quit. I've killed too many useless slackjaws and corporate nutjobs to make any difference. I realized it wasn't for ideals, it was for cash and that I was good at it. I would only spend money on travel and food- I could never stay in one place. I'd like to live far away where no one has to see the devil I am," he spat out the last sentence bitterly. He took in another slow breath. "Maybe we're not too different."

---

[City Center- Spire (60th Floor Conference Room)]

Jade stood straight, and did as needed. Jac had blushed from embarrassment but sat down as well.

Knocking? Probably a way to signal arrival. With our tech, it was probably needed long ago. The woman cleared her throat and said, "We apologize for that, Sir. Jac here is not too keen with heights." Well, elevators, since he worked in space just fine.

The Mezzarean adjusted himself, but kept his eyes low.

Darius appeared a bit young to be leading an organization. Jade kept a mental note of that. She began, "Anyways, we come from the Andromeda Galaxy, of the small government of the Neutral Planets Coalition. We're looking for allies or aid for our current situation. Long story short, we're expecting to halt a possible war because of a group of conspirators." She pulled out her module and placed it on the table. "If you are not open to this kind of dealing, I don't need to go much further," she finished, and looked at the module. It was facing up, where a hologram could be projected. The woman had set it up so that the Commander could be called by the press of a button.

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.

[Museum Park (Heading South)]

"Oh? I would have imagined it might," Qrlil said lightly. "There are, after all, only so many colors that plants could be." She bent down to sniff briefly at a group of flowers with a curiously dark tinge to their scent; it was odd, but not exactly unpleasant. "What color are they on Anwyn, then?"

Straightening, she gave Angua a Look, large eyes slightly narrowed. "You are not going to purchase half the city on my expense account," she said mock-sternly, then let herself slide into a more relaxed posture. "But yes, it should be. I assume the communications breakdown is only temporary, after all."

Off that thought, she brought up her backup to see if there had been any updates. She sighed. Nothing.

Tilting her head, she considered the Monolith once more. "I think that most visitors to this city are here more for diplomatic or business purposes than as tourists," she said. "But it does seem to have a fair few attractions as well."

She resumed walking in the direction of the waterfront. They could always look at the park later, and she suspected Angua, at least, might prefer more active activities.

Museum Park (Heading South)

"Red," Garkin answered. "The grass, the trees... even the ocean has a red tint because of all the microorganisms in it." He took a closer look at one of the local plants as he passed it, and scratched the side of his head. "It's just um, kind of surreal to be in a place where things you take for granted are so different. But in a good way, I guess."

West Side - Undercity Entrance -> Tunnels

"They couldn't give that thing a rotating chair or something?" Moreena asked before heading off into one of the tunnels. She conjured up a small purple flame to light the way, even though it probably wasn't needed - she personally had no problems with darkness, and Eliza's mech likely had some means of lighting it's way on it's own - and took a right turn once the tunnel split for the first time, following it downwards in a shallow slope.

"I wonder what Lara is hoping to learn from Sabaoth," she said. "From the way you described him it doesn't seem likely that he'll tell her much."

edited 18th Jul '15 2:00:34 PM by Corvidae

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

West Side - Undercity Entrance -> Undercity - Tunnels

Eliza shook her head. "This unit's simply not big enough for one. Rotating seats take up a lot of space, which would take away from the agility a Scout unit's supposed to have. They are, however, standard equipment on the larger units."

She switched over to her mech's night vision as she followed Moreena down the tunnels, not that there was any visual indication of this. "Your guess is as good as mine, really. At best, Lara's probably going to get a rant about his distaste of current Bleaksteel policy. This might go without saying, but he's not happy with the direction Darius is trying to take our organization in."

---

City Center - Spire (60th Floor Conference Room)

"If you wish to have assistance in warfare, then that is something we can certainly provide," Darius said after listening to Jade's explanation, "However, by the sounds of things you seem to be operating in outer space quite a lot. As there has not been a need for it in our world, we have not looked into space operations beyond the occasional satellite. As such, the assistance we will be able to provide will likely be limited to terrestrial affairs."

He clasped his hands together. "But you have my interest. Please do go on."

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[Market Street] (Bazaar)

"What's a cashew?" Said Akira, curiously peering into the bag. "I'm Akira, by the way. And this is Miyuki." He gave a polite bow, but Miyuki did nothing. "Nice to meet you, miss... Uh... Lou-eese-etch, was it?"

"Flock." Said Miyuki, a bit abruptly. "You called us part of his 'miniature flock.' Tell me what you meant by that."

"Er... Please." Added Akira.

Not entirely dead.

Outside Meiko's Cafe

Kiyumi watched Samantha and Sophie say their goodbyes and turned to Midori. "You going to be ok out there? Even if we are working feel free to call or text us." she said and Midori nodded. "I'll be fine don't worry. Hope you get the job." She walked over to Sophie. "Are you ready to go?" she asked. Kiyumi went over to the front door of the cafe. "Let's get that job guys!" she said with a grin.

"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"

New City - Outside Meiko's Cafe

Samantha paid the fare for herself and Sophie as everyone got off the bus. After that, she waved Sophie and Midori off before following Kiyumi over to the cafe entrance.

"Hold on a minute," she started, "I asked this back on the bus, but I didn't get an answer, so I'm asking again. Do you think they'll let me keep my pendant and the Pleroma fragment even in uniform? While I hope it doesn't come to it, I might need the former in case something goes wrong. And in the latter's case there's no way I'm keeping it anywhere other than on my person."

---

Once they had left, Sophie turned to Midori. "Ready when you are. Although...." She frowned and looked down the road, where the bus had gone. "Maybe we should have stayed on the bus? I mean, if we don't want to start looking here." She shrugged before glancing around. "Samantha did have a point; this really doesn't look like the sort of place that'd have magical artifacts just lying around."

She sighed. "I guess we can just wait for the next one.... What do you think?"

edited 18th Jul '15 5:25:29 PM by Yomegami

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[Spire 60th Floor Conference Room]

Good. They accept it. "Noted. Our ships have gravity control, so grounded items and equipment will still work. We anticipate on-planet combat only anyways."

"What we need help with is getting people on our side- the other large governments, such as the Republic and the League of Allied Systems, don't believe in what we call a threat. We think they are involved with the conspirators, or at least a select few. So with the Coalition, we have to stop them before things come to worst."

Jac sat up, regaining his pale complexion. Why isn't she calling Kegan? he thought.

The woman leaned forward. "We have soldiers covered, but more is appreciated. I've considered that we also need machines, or as I believe, that you call mechs. Monetary support is also needed to pay for utilities, but I'm unsure of how it would work with our differentiated economies and currency. We could also use a better espionage squad or department, as we have known there is corruption and secrets for a while, but haven't made any headway."

The Mezzarean elbowed his partner.

She ignored him. She figured what he was referring to. Jade continued, "I'll patch you through to Commander of our main flagship, who will go through more. He will also make negotiations on what we can give in return."

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.

[Museum Park]

Trekesser had continued to maintain something of a distance from the conversation between the two humans, feeling like kind of a third wheel. He paid attention to the discussion, though, filing away a number of the terms, particularly the ones Orenue had used. As he had expected, none of them meant anything to him, but what was more interesting was that they didn't sound like they were all from the same language. And what was even more interesting then that was the mention of 'Terrantech', which sounded like a confirmation that Orenue's people were transplants of some kind.

Glancing up at the sky, he marveled again at how nice it felt to actually be under one again. I guess that's one advantage of growing up planetside instead of on a habitat; no matter how much time you spend in the void you never lose your ability to feel comfortable on the ground.

I also guess I should go ahead and set my backup to start recording. He had never actually needed it much for the purpose that originally gave it its name, thanks to his memory, but in this case it would be helpful when it came to his assignment here.

Idly, he wondered whatever had happened to that reptilian being he'd met when first arriving here. Rikael, I think. She'd had an assignment of her own, hadn't she?

He looked at Snow. "Now that does sound like the Galactic Alliance," he said in response to the other ship CO's description of the Federation. "Or the Alliance when it was first starting out, anyway." It was a bit more stable these days. "And I'm fine with any museum," he continued to both of the others. "Cultural, historical, technological - all of them would match my interests." He cocked his head. "Not so sure about the Monolith, though. In my experience Big Enigmatic Objects are usually either more trouble than they're worth or actually kind of boring."

[West Side (Seon and Gwion's Taxi)]

Seon did his best to focus on the Resistance spokesbeing's voice, and not on everything else going on around him. He didn't see any immediate signs that they were being followed, but even if his personality hadn't tended towards both paranoid and pessimistic, he would have considered it too much to hope for that the seeming threat was really both him and Gwion just flailing at shadows. Though he wished he could see who it was, if only because it might give him some clue to who they actually were. It didn't have to be the Federation, right? Right?

He looked at Gwion. Is he calling for backup? I hope he's calling for backup. Suddenly hiring a single bodyguard - especially one whose combat augmentations looked a little backwards - seemed like an absurdly reckless move.

For a moment, he almost considered trying to remember what those three 'ninja' human girls had told him about their plans for the next day. Naoko, at least, had seemed like she might be somewhat capable in combat. But no; he shook his head. Not only were they all fairly eccentric - too much so to entrust with his safety - they were also children, and he certainly didn't like the idea of being responsible for their safety.

He refocused on his handphone, and took a few deep breaths. "I - I had actually been hoping we could have more - a more long-term, uhm, face-to-face meeting," he said, though he now felt doubtful about that idea. Clearly the Resistance took extreme precautions when dealing with its customers, which in retrospect probably made them more sensible than he was. "My employers would indeed be looking for, for large quantities. And a long-term arrangement, if possible."

He looked up, at the taxi driver, an idea coming to mind. "Make for the general direction of the City Center," he told the alien.

Maybe that will discourage... them from open violence. It was worth a try, at least.

[West Side (Autocab)]

"According to the dossier, Seon is very easily rattled," Gev replied. She brought it up on her backup, the text scrolling across both her eyes' fields of vision. "So he's probably already suspicious. But I'm not... I'm not exactly sure what that means his next move is." She heard the note of uncertainty creeping into her voice, and tried to glare it away. "It depends on whether he has a safehouse he can go to, or not. If there is, he's heading there, and we'll want to catch him before he gets there."

She banged the top of her head on the roof again as the autocab crossed a bump in the road, and her hands twitched into claws. Stupid bipedform standardization! "If not, he'll probably stick with his vehicle for the time being, and we can follow him more at a distance. But either way, we should stick with him for now."

She paused. She would have tilted her head, but there wasn't really the headroom to do it. "Is there any way you can tell where it is he's heading?"

[New City - Outside Meiko's Cafe]

As Sophie and Midori stood looking down the road, a voice called out to them. "Excuse me? Excuse me? Young ladies? Could either of you help an old sophont in distress, please?" A short being, swaddled almost entirely in dull black hodded robes, was making its way down the road from the other direction. Its voice had a faintly hollow, echoing quality to it, and it moved in a shuffling motion suggesting that it was ill or very aged. Though a faint red glow as if of eyes was visible under the hood, the robes left only its hands exposed, and they were buried in the folds of the black cloth (if that was what it was).

The being continued to approach, calling out again, "Excuse me? I am in need of help." Despite the words, its voice did not sound that urgent.

edited 18th Jul '15 6:50:43 PM by nrjxll

Taxi - Seon and Gwion

There was only the briefest of pauses then the spokesbeing for the Resistance spoke again. "A meeting can be arranged. Are you authorised to make deals on behalf of your employers or are you an intermediary?"

Once the funds were successfully transferred to Mr Jackson, Gwion got the names he wanted. He looked at Seon, still on his palm phone to the Resistance. "I hope your employers have deep pockets, because here come those expenses I mentioned."

He keyed in the first number and a woman's voice answered. "I have need to quickly find out information and a mutual acquaintance assures me that you are the best person to talk to. Are you able to get video of the area around 306 Grandway and the corner of Grandway and Barton from around fifteen minutes ago?" The voice opined that that would not be difficult. "Excellent. I am interested in the movements of a male human wearing a long duster - who he was with and what he has done since then."

The next call Gwion made was to the leader of a local gang. "I've been reliably informed that you would be interested in making a couple of grand."

[Market Street ~ Open-Air Bazaar (Near Apothecary)] (Akira, Buso, Kyana, Luíseach, Miyuki)

"Looked sick?" Luíseach mimed, her eyebrows knitting together in disbelief. She turned her eyes to Buso again, "He looks like a chump in a silly suit to me. Busi-boy, have you been feeding these poor, impressionable youths little white lies? Careful, you don't want that nose of yours to grow any longer." She glanced at Kyana again and whispered, "oh I'll bet he has, hasn't he?"

Buso's shoulders rose slowly as he took a deep breath. "I've said nothing but the truth." He answered sternly.

"Truth stretched like taffy I'm sure." she scoffed. "A thin, flimsy truth. But that is your favorite kind, isn't it?"

She then turned her attention back to Akira. "A cashew is a tasty little nut, dear." she said, pulling one out in demonstration, then giving the bag another shake and offering again. "And Lwee-shach is the sound you're looking for."

She popped the cashew into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully, a large, playful—or perhaps devious—smile blooming upon her face. "As for Buso's flock, he-"

"That is enough!" Buso interjected, anger disrupting his normally smooth voice. Before Luíseach could retort, he stormed over and stood between her and the others, facing Akira and Miyuki. With a hard edge in his voice he said, "Miyuki, Akira, I would like to meet Luíseach Ó Murchadha. She is a sweet-talking underhanded schemer, the self-righteous queen of Indian givers, a- a- a manipulative gorgon, and she can not be trusted with your confidence." he paused, took a deep breath and—through what must've been gritted teeth—said, "and we are here to do business with her."

"You are here to do business with me, Buso baby." said Luíseach, who seemed nonplussed by Buso's little tirade. "The only reason your entourage is here is because you think yourself too exceptional to ever have to bother with anything yourself."

Buso turned around. "These people are here because somebody saw fit to steal all of my money and buchu. Someone who knows why I need buchu. Someone, perhaps, who wants me to be dependent on their own personal supply of all the buchu in the city."

Luíseach nodded slowly, her eyes narrowed, mouth slightly open in a sneer. "Oh yeah? Wanna add 'thief' to that cute little list of yours?" Her tone was becoming dangerously low.

In an equally low tone, Buso responded, "That list doesn't amount to a page in the book that describes how twisted you are."

They stared at each other in silence, waiting with evaporating patience for one or the other to break the still.

If either of you have trouble with typing Luíseach's name, you can just copy/paste. On computers, the alt-code for í is 161.

edited 20th Jul '15 2:06:52 PM by Ryuhza

every little word and every little step

[City Center]

Angua scrunched up her face. "It'd be better than stealing half the city, wouldn't it? You gotta remember, I've been a professional criminal most of my adult life, I got habits." She made a grabby gesture with the hand that wasn't linked with Qrlil's, then snrked.

yey

Outside Meiko's Cafe

Kiyumi turned to Samantha. "I believe you can keep it on you. I saw jewelry was allowed as long as it isn't large hoop earrings or very low hanging necklaces. You can just claim your pendant is a necklace. As for the fragment...the maid dresses have pockets so I don't see why you can't carry it with you in there. Especially if it's small, no one should notice." she explained with a grin.

Slowly she opened the door to be met with soft playing pop music, people at tables enjoying desserts, breakfast items, coffee and the like, and a young woman with black hair tied in loose hanging pigtails dressed in a purple and white maid costume. What really surprised Kiyumi was that she had black cat ears and a tail and yellow eyes. With a grin she came over and said, "Good afternoon. Table for um, three?" She was looking over Kiyumi's shoulder at Naoko and Samantha. Her tail wagged about playfully and her accent was French.

"Oh no. We came here looking for work." Kiyumi said with a wave of her hands. "Oh, vork? That's great! Ve need more waitresses and hostess'. Come in, come in." she said, turning away to lead them inside. Btw, this french maid cat girl is actually a real character of mine. lol

Outside Meiko's Cafe - Heading towards bus stop

Midori sighed a bit in agreement to Sophie mentioning that they should have stayed on the bus. "That's true, though we wouldn't have been able to say our goodbyes and make sure we were all set to split. And I was a little curious about the cafe." she replied. Her head shot over to the sound of someone calling for help and she saw a person dressed entirely in black nearby. She was a little nervous at first but wondered if the person was just dressed for a funeral. She turned to Sophie. "S-Should we go help?" she asked.

Market Street - Open Air Bazaar - Near Apothecary

Kyana lowered her gaze to a glare at the woman. She didn't seem friendly, especially the way she was treating Buso. Even if he might have lied a little (which she wasn't sure if he did), she could tell there was something wrong with him that probably needed medicine to fix. Looking at Luíseach she said, "If you are the owner of the Buchu, how much does it cost? I promised to buy some for this man and I'm not going back on it." No matter what you say about him. she thought.

"Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?"

[Museum Park (Heading South)]

Qrlil threw back her head in another expression of faked annoyance. "I am dating a kleptomaniac alien. My parents would be so proud."

Actually, I wonder... She decided not to pursue that thought too far, though. It was fine just joking about it, but she still wasn't entirely certain what her family really thought of her... preferences now.

She glanced at Zerrimus. "Red plants? I do not believe that is that unusual. Not that it would be a bad thing if it was, of course. As you may have noticed" - she squeezed his hand - "I like the different and unusual."

For a moment, that brought her up short. Different and unusual is one thing, but am I... did I really just flirt with two different people within moments of each other? She tilted her head. I wonder if I will ever get used to this.

Then she tipped her head back in the other direction and resumed walking in the direction of a bridge leading over the canal and into the waterfront district. The sun continued to shine down on her, pleasantly warming her scales, and she decided to take more advantage of it. Pulling her hands free from the others, she stroked the sleeve of her robe in order to reprogram the smartcloth. Its colors darkened, while at the same time, the fabric thinned slightly to let in more heat. (Though it didn't thin that much; she hadn't forgotten her earlier discussion with Angua).

"This is a pleasant day," she said with a hiss. "Much better than yesterday."

[West Side (Seon and Gwion's Taxi)]

Seon gave a nervous, involuntary sort of twitch, triggered less by anything in particular that had been said and more by the situation in general. "Ah - well - technically I am referred to as an intermediary," he said into the handphone, "but I am authorized to negotiate on behalf of the - on behalf of my employers. I can also directly contact them if anything is needed for - um, that needs special approval."

Should I be nervous about that pause?

I suppose it doesn't matter, since I will be anyway.

He looked over at Gwion. "They don't have unlimited resources, but for the purposes of something like this? Yes, you, um, shouldn't need to worry about it." If paying for help on a single mission had been too much, the Dissident Movement would have been crushed long ago.

Though he didn't exactly look forward to discussing his expenses with Noxori once this was all done. Assuming he actually got to that point, anyway.

edited 19th Jul '15 10:51:47 AM by nrjxll

New City - Outside Meiko's Cafe

Upon hearing the voice calling out to them, Sophie turned to face its owner.

She wasn't sure what to think of the newcomer. It kind of reminded her of a fairy tale wizard given its posture and all the robes, but she did not have a good feeling about it given that those robes hid everything about it apart from the red glow from underneath its hood, and especially because it had decided to try talking to a pair of girls. On the other hand, it didn't look like it wanted to be hostile. In fact, it just said it wanted their help. Furthermore, it didn't appear to be in that good a shape judging by the way it was walking.

Ultimately, Sophie decided to go with her gut feeling.

"Well, what else should we do? Just ignore him?" she said to Midori, before turning to face the being. Just to be safe, she pulled out her pendant and made sure to keep a hand near it.

"Depends on what it is," she said to the being, "And...who are you?"

Of course a situation like this would come up the second their group would split up. She imagined this would have been a lot easier had Samantha and Kiyumi still been around.

---

New City - Meiko's Cafe

Samantha nodded. "Okay, good. One less thing to worry about, I suppose."

At that, she followed Kiyumi into the cafe. Upon stepping inside, she took a look around. She didn't say anything, but her general mood could easily be determined by the fact that she let out a long groan and wore an expression that just screamed "What have I gotten myself into?"

She did her best to hide her lack of enthusiasm once the staff member approached them and Kiyumi explained what they were here for. After all, if she didn't look like she wanted the job, why would they bother to give her it?

---

City Center - Spire (60th Floor Conference Room)

"Out of those, we can almost certainly help you with the technology," Darius said, before sighing. "But unfortunately, I am not sure if we will be able to help you with anything else. Our own organization...was not exactly founded with beneficial intentions in mind, and it was only recently that our goals have started to change. As such, we are very low on diplomats. As for funding...that is a very complicated matter, but chances are we will not be able to provide much help there either."

He remained silent for a moment. "Let me speak with your Commander, and I will see what we come up with."

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!

[West Side (Autocab)]

Kevin kept following, but stayed off. The car ahead had begun heading east, possibly towards the more well-off areas of the capital. Shit. They're on some course now.

He decided to voice his thoughts, "Are you sure we should keep them going like this? They're probably getting backup or plans. I bet they know they're being followed at this point."

The detective already got his ideas, but it was reckless.

He instead said, "Seon- he might be jittery and maybe neurotic, but I think he's smart. His bodyguard's gotta be smart too. If they weren't, we would've caught them by now. We gotta make plans fast." Kevin took his foot off the accelerator. He was gaining on them a bit too quick. "I've gotten involved with men before in chases. Usually they get others to rattle the cops, or try to lead us away in some way. For these two, I don't know for sure."

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.

Museum Park (Heading South)

Garkin smirked as Qrlil squeezed his hand. "Yeah, I sort of figured that you did," he said in a slightly cheeky tone of voice.

He noticed how her robes changed, and regretted that he hadn't brought any off-duty clothes with him. Perhaps he could fix that problem at some point during the day?

The trio continued down the path, gradually getting closer to the next canal.

Old City - Undercity (Tunnels -> Catacombs)

"That seems rather likely, yes," Moreena responded to Eliza's comment about Sabaoth. "What's your own opinion on the future of the Bleaksteel?"

As they moved further into the tunnels, the rough stone walls slowly gave way to intricate (but mostly broken) masonry. Eventually they reached a wide archway that was blocked by heavy iron gates and decorated with tiny skulls carved into the stone.

"This looks promising," the goddess said, and casually opened the way with a wave of her hand and a simple spell. She remembered a situation some time ago when she had been forced to break open doors with her hands.

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

[New City - Outside Meiko's Cafe]

Though it could barely be seen inside the darkness of its hood, the red glow of the black-clad being's eyes had briefly darted to Sophie's pendant as she had pulled it out.

"Wrong question. Wrong question," it muttered, as if to itself. "Shadows and vagueness. Yes." The echoing effect to its voice seemed somewhat more pronounced now.

The hood looked up - though it was still angled to keep the girls from seeing anything of the face under it - and the being spoke more clearly. "I am just an old sophont in need of help, miss. You see, I find myself stranded here, without the... what is the word... the fare, to pay for public transportation. Could either of you help a poor qrtxian, please?"

New City - Outside Meiko's Cafe

Sophie raised an eyebrow in response to the being's muttering. Wrong question? Was it talking about her, or itself? The good news was that its request was...actually rather mundane. She still didn't know what to think of the being, but it certainly wouldn't hurt her to spare some change.

"If that's all, then certainly," she said with a nod and a reasonably pleasant tone of voice, "Actually, my friend and I here," she motioned to Midori, "were just about to get on a bus ourselves, so it actually works out rather nicely. Where were you thinking about heading, if you don't mind me asking?"

Although she was slightly less wary of the being, she kept her pendant out all the same. She wasn't doing anything with it until it was clear that neither she nor Midori were in any danger.

---

Undercity - Tunnels -> Catacombs

Eliza sighed. "I'm not optimistic. While I agree with Darius's decision and fully support his efforts, it's pretty much divided the Bleaksteel in two; one part who agrees with Darius and one part who just wants to stick with the intent our organization was founded for. Even disregarding external threats, chances are we're just going to tear ourselves to bits."

She took a close look at the gates and archway as Moreena opened them. "Interesting architecture, though the skulls don't exactly give me a good feeling. Let's just hope that it's a graveyard or something rather than a warning."

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!

[West Side (Autocab)]

"Can't say where they're going," said Roderick. "Don't know the area well enough. And if there's a chance they're calling for backup, then you might want to just floor it and try to spin them out with a PIT maneuver." He began moving his view around a bit more, trying to find any cars in the area moving faster than usual.

Then something popped into his mind and he frowned. "On the other hand, if they're heading towards the city center, then if they try to call anyone to try to shoot us, a police response will be fast. Once they hear the story, they'll want to help us, because a planned, attempted hit in the middle of the city isn't something you just lightly dance around."

Then he blinked. "Or we could skip the middleman and just preemptively call the cops on them." He put a fake phone to his face. "'Yes, hello, this is Officer Burke, and I'm currently tracking a known fugitive at This Street and That Avenue, any chance you could assist?' That might work."