- [b]1PM City of Vale[/b] -

A groan, "No, I know they screwed me. Yes I'm angry. No, I don't-" He paused, annoyance growing in his eyes as the person on the other end of the scroll call spoke -- loudly. "Olivia..." he said in an impatient sing-song voice, "you're not listening."

She got louder, and he had to hold it away from his ear to save his hearing.

"Why are you mad at me? I'm not the bad guy. I don't deserve-" He scowled. "OK fine, maybe I 'deserve it,' but they didn't know that! And if I'm such a bad person, why do you want me to work for you anyway? I don't need your charity!" His face fell into his palm. "No, I'm [i]not[/i] starving and homeless... yet. They said alive [i]or[/i] dead! Dead is easier to transport! I didn't know they were gonna cut the reward that much!"

He grumbled silently under his breath as his sister's rant went on. "Look, just admit it, you just want to enslave me. You'll give me just enough to get by and nothing more because you hate me- And yes, I know you secretly hate me! Nice talking to you, too. Love you, bye." And he hung up.

Jett Chevron, veteran huntsman and freelancer was just about destitute. Work was becoming more and more scarce and he was probably going to have to move to cheaper dwellings soon. He sighed and just started walking through the streets of Vale. Soon he came upon the sight of police tape and shattered glass. There'd been, another, dust robbery the night before it seemed.

A teenage boy was standing off to the side. It was too long after the robbery for onlookers to still care, so Jett figured maybe the kid knew something. In fact, as he got closer, he could tell that the kid was a huntsman. Probably a student wandering around before the next semester started. The bandolier and weapon gave it away.

"Hey, kid!" Jett got his attention. The kid jumped like he'd been electrocuted.

"Uh, um, y-yeah?" he asked.

"Whoa, relax, what's your name?"

"Feli-, uh, I mean P-Pine. Evergreen. Why?"

Jett nearly did a spit take upon hearing the name, but managed to keep his cool. "What happened here? They get the guys this time?"

"Some of them." Pine nodded. He was notably keeping a safe distance from Jett. "The leader got away." Oh, that was good. That was a potential bounty.

"Really? Already got some of them?"

"Yeah. Something about a girl in a red cloak? Sounds like a huntress in training," Pine explained. "Um, a bit too soon for the details to really be all together."

"Ah, I see. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I-I just... kinda take an interest in crime. Err, st-stopping it that is. I had some free time... so..."

"No, no, I get it. Keep up the good work. And thanks." Jett nodded before quickly leaving the scene. [i]"Well... that wasn't awkward at all..."[/i]

Putting that [i]right[/i] out of his mind, he decided to head to the nearest bounty office to see if there was any work for him. An official one, this time. Not a secondary. Normally the government didn't pay quite as well... but at least they were less likely to shaft him out of his money.

(The reason he's freaking out about the kid is a detail for later.)