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[img]https://i.imgur.com/Z4tbhP3.png[/img]
[color=FireBrick][h3]Captain Piper[/h3][/color]
[color=FireBrick]Level[/color]: 2
[color=FireBrick]day/time[/color]: day 3 - morning
[color=FireBrick]Location[/color]: From Ulfric's Tent to Markarth
[color=FireBrick]Word count[/color]: 1,022
[color=FireBrick]Interacting with[/color]: [@Zarkun], [@Holy Soldier]
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Piper wasn’t entirely sure how long it was between the moment Azura disappeared from sight into the dark forest and the arrival of twilight hour when the camp started to wake up but she was glad when it finally arrived, as it meant the wait was finally over. What had been a somewhat enjoyable evening getting to know some of the Stormcloaks had turned to one of worrying and second guessing herself as to whether she had made the right decisions with letting the singer go out on her own. Casual conversation with the guards was replaced with pacing too and fro or repeatedly doing maintenance checks on her equipment. Cleaning her blacksmith sniper, counting her remaining rounds, making sure her joints where properly oiled and so on.  She was not normally a worrywort, she sometimes sent her crew off on heists without her after all, but her lack of knowledge of both Azura’s capabilities and what triles she might face in this frigid place let her mid run wild with fears of potential disaster. Add to this the feeling of helplessness caused by sitting still in the same place in a stationary for rather than the mobile ship she was used to for several hours and it all added up to a rather unpleasant night. With light fast approaching she was glad she could now put those thoughts behind her and focus on the task at hand.  

Her sleepless night and forewarning of dawn's arrival by one of the last watch-women had allowed her plenty of time to prepare, and so she joined the others fully fueled up and raring to go, making the Boss the only person Ulfric actually had to wake up. Vent had apparently risen early and taken the time to change getup, while the boss arrived (eventually) in what appeared to be a foul, and somewhat disheveled, mood. She thought it might have been to do with Azura’s disappearance, but this was disproved when he only noticed this halfway through their march to Markarth, thought to his credit he did quickly figure out where she was, so Piper did not feel the need to bring up her prior knowledge of this.  

The match itself was a long and sluggish one, though Piper at least had the advantage of company. Being a mobile campfire got her quite the following, namly a huddle of Stormcloaks, some of them part of the night watch who had tracked her down specifically for company or warmth, surrounded her as they traveled, the group conveniently masked the warm glow emanating from her chest that could have tipped off any of the enemy’s scouts to their approach. When they caught sight of Markarth in the distance Piper finally got a look at the place they were going to [s]rob[/s] liberate. Bathed in the light of imminent dawn it was a considerably more impressive than the wooden fort they had spent the night in, a town seemingly carved into and out of the rocky hills it was built against. She took the opportunity, while they approached for a distance, to try and mentally match what she could see of the the actual city, the bits of it poking up from behind its walls at least, to the previous nights crude mock up of it. She did not have long to do so however as they soon had to take to hiding from the Forsworn guarding the front gate.

Her complete lack of stealth capabilities, from her bright glowing chest piece to her red “hair”, polished bronze body and novelty santa hat meant that she was unable to watch the sneaking missions of her two allies, let alone believed she could join in without giving them away, and instead she made do with the whispered commentary of a nearby nord who did not mind lying in the snow and creeping a little closer to spectate the proceedings. Not that there was much to report most of the time, as the woman somehow lost track of both the Boss and vent despite the bright purple atier the two were sporting today. The only two brief flurries of information she received where a poor attempt at describing the Bosses the boss’s athletic takedown of the gatehouse guards in real time and his subsequent touch flailing, followed by Vempt’s ninja strike on those down below.

As vent finished dispatching the guards at the gate only one Forsworn was left alive, one who had been taking a piss break nearby and who returned upon just barely hearing the quiet sounds of their comrades assassination to find their bodies strewn across the snow. Before they could raise their weapon in an attempt to exact vengeance however their head was struck, harmlessly, by a lingering red laser beam. Behind a rock several hundred meters up the road piper pulled the trigger of her blacksmith sniper that she was aiming at an entirely different rock. The bullet leaped out of the barrel, following along the path laid out by the laser sight, striking the other rock off of which the beam was inexplicably reflecting and then ricocheting off at a 90 degree angle, sailing off towards the head of the unfortunate Forsworn. They couldn’t see the hidden flash, but they heard the crack of the gunshot, muffled somewhat by stone and snow, moments before their brain matter was spattered across the ground.

Back up in her hiding spot Piper did not stop to ponder how exactly attaching a scope to a weapon added a laser sight function, nor how said beam allowed here to aim near perfectly at targets completely out of her line of sight and istead simply asked the watching scout:

[color=FireBrick]”Did I get them?”[/color] 

After receiving confirmation from the missions narrator she clicked open the revolver's cylinder, carefully removed and then replaced the spent cartridge with one from one of the pouches on her hips. After locking the cylinder back in place and giving it the traditional spin she stood from her sniping position and prepared to advance towards the gate alongside Ulfric‘s army.

[color=FireBrick]”Right then, let's get to it.”[/color]