Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine and Janius remained quiet. Neesa's warning was, to them, a conundrum. She had always appeared self-serving and unconcerned with the outside world before. If this was the one thing she wished left uninvestigated, they could only think that she either was lying and wished it purely for herself or that its danger was beyond any of their efforts to be careful investigating. Neither option was pleasant.

Lunise's reaction was to give Neesa and Meesei odd looks. She had her own thoughts about the Aetherium now that its existence was revealed to her.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Meesei, be careful," Sabine quickly warned before she stepped through the portal. She was relieved to see it open at all, though she remembered how it subtly disrupted her. She did not want Meesei to accidentally fall off a cliff face. Thankfully, Sabine's fears were unfounded. They only found themselves slightly off-target.

Most of them wished the walk home could be more of a relief. No one was relaxed around Neesa. Still, her comment had Janius curious. He readjusted his grip on the sack of bottles he carried and asked. "You know about this place?"

Tʜᴇ Sᴘʀᴀᴡʟ :: Running in the Shadows

Serge took a slow breath in and curled his lips inward when Jack flashed a knife. Serge suspected that he either didn't make it clear enough to her earlier that she shouldn't be fucking this up for them or she was just doing this to assert that she wasn't the one to take those kinds of instructions. In the end, none of them -- least of all, Jack -- could ignore the consequences of reality.

"Jack?" Serge intoned slowly and with no lack of frustration held back. "You want this job? You're gonna put away that blade." Only at the end of his words did he shift his eyes up to hers.

Andi's words were added as well and were likely more effective. Jack calmed down and Serge could finally turn his attention back to Mister Wu.

"You'll have to forgive my colleague. She's very passionate about work." Serge was partially defeated under his words, but waved a hand just enough while talking to keep Mister Wu engaged. "Now, to answer you properly, this...is not my first retrieval. I understand that matters like this can be sensitive for your employers. So, we'll retrieve this asset for you, in the manner you've requested, per our services. Before you know it, we'll have exchanged as invoiced, and we can both go some place far apart from one another and sip a cocktail for a good day's work done. That truck won't take that asset anywhere we can't get it."

>Serge stakes 2 cred on this mission.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Cyclone For the past few days, I've kept my progress public in my forum signature. Work has been driving me a bit nuts, but I'm past halfway through. Sit tight, my dude :)

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The pack had little else to talk about while they were left alone but the possible repercussions of Neesa's involvement. None of them knew exactly what Neesa was doing while absent from them. The half hour wait for her was still longer than they would have liked.

When Hal-Neesa returned, Lunise caught the sack she was forcibly given in her hands by reflex. Her surprise was quickly replaced with quiet indignation. The middle of her brow crunching down over her nose told of a distinct dislike for Neesa that she knew she could not act upon. Lunise's thoughts as to the contents of the bottles within the sack did not improve matters. After a disgusted exhale, Lunise handed the sack to Janius with one closed fist around the neck of it. Janius took the sack reluctantly, not knowing what else to do.

"Are we done here?" Lunise asked.

Tʜᴇ Sᴘʀᴀᴡʟ :: Running in the Shadows

Serge listened intently to Mister Wu. The others behaved themselves well enough that he did not have to break his attention from the man. The only real interruption was the waiter. Serge gave him a quick look, shaking his head and waving his hand in polite refusal. He wasn't hungry.

Once Mister Wu had finished, Serge nodded deeply. He took a quick breath. "What can you tell us about the asset? Description, dimensions, weight, hazard? The method will depend on what we're dealing with." Serge lowered his hands. "Not to mention our solution to how you want the asset ultimately dealt with."

These contacts ranged from stingy with information to clear and specific. It really depended less on their actual background knowledge and more on what they're willing to be liable for telling them. Either way, Serge was only halfway thinking of plans. The other half of his mind was running the numbers for whether the pay would be worth it once Mister Wu gave them a figure.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius finally neared Meesei and pushed up the visor of his helmet. The intensity of the previous moments still showed on his face. "I..." he let his breath go. "I had my doubts, just now. I have to say so. I am..." He shook his head and exhaled sharply through a pout. "...surprised to be alive right now." He swallowed.

"You beat her, Meesei," Sabine said as if she had seen the impossible. "Are you okay?"

Meanwhile, the only one who seemed lucid enough to act upon what she saw was Lunise. Without asking Meesei's permission, she brought healing magic to her hands and saw to Meesei's wounds, frowning like a mother fussing over a scuffed child. "It could have gone worse, though we cannot doubt this turn of events will make your job just the slightest bit harder. There are not many innocent travellers back in the area around your home that they might pick away if they get peckish. It will be one of ours, yours, or...Marod's."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The axe looked the closest it ever could be to being the bane of a daedric prince. With their main mission accomplished, Janius and Sabine felt their legs urging them to head to the exit. Their will came easily to stay put while Hal-Neesa and her husband remained between them and the door.

Lunise pursed her lips, as much in frustration as concern. "Your allies will not like this," she said. "But we can solve that problem once we take our leave of this place."

Whether that was going to happen sooner or later depended entirely on Llarvan and Hal-Neesa. The novelty of seeing a vampire lord in shock was not lasting long.

Tʜᴇ Sᴘʀᴀᴡʟ :: Running in the Shadows

New Canton wasn't a place to carry an umbrella if you didn't want it stolen or swept away in a crowd. Serge instead walked amongst his colleagues with a clear plastic poncho that some street kids were selling for candy bars. The many oppressive droning sounds of the city were at least somewhat cancelled by that patter of water on plastic around his ears. Then again, he relied more on his eyes to navigate and watch his back.

The team today gave Serge mixed feelings. He raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder to check that they weren't lagging in the crowd.

Andi was skilled, but you could not rely on her to disregard what needed disregarding. She had a knack for expanding the scope of their missions together. Especially if something whiffs of Sinsek.

Siofra was an enemy that you would want to keep closer than your friends. Serge preferred to keep her close no matter their disposition to one another. As long as that little secret between eight and eighteen years old she kept was safe, she could focus. If half the shit she let Serge know about that story was true, he had other reasons to keep that detail out of the firing line.

And then there was Jack. When Serge first arrived in New Canton, he thought the local operators telling him he 'didn't know Jack' was a borrowed western slight against his inexperience in the city. They said it every time he underestimated their chances of something going arse-over-head on the job. He knows Jack now. Everyone does. She is as likely to reverse gravity on the tits of the mission as she is to blast enough heads open to make it all better. It was neither Serge's area of expertise nor his preferred method of doing things.

Freelance operators weren't picked for missions where their skills wouldn't be needed. That told Serge this mission was going to me rough. Though, he needed the job.

Serge wasted no time in pushing into the restaurant so his senses could be overwhelmed by something different. Even if the food could increase your risk of cancer around these parts, spices still passed hands occasionally. It was a much better smell than outside.

The contact caught Serge's eye in short order. He frowned at the others and nodded in the man's direction before peeling off the water-beaded poncho. His grey suit underneath was spotless as always as he approached.

When the contact spoke, Serge looked left and right and pulled a sturgeon face. "They must put something charming in the kway teow if it's that good," Serge said, gesturing to the man's many discarded bowls. "Mister Wu, I presume?" He extended a hand. "Serge."

Once introductions were cleared up, Serge took a seat, weaved his fingers together and leant forward on his elbows. "How can we help you today?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine sprung up standing and staggered away when Hal-Neesa discorporated in front of her eyes. So many moments beyond the realms of assumed reality had passed that she felt she was no longer on Nirn. Lunise stepped forward to support Sabine and gently pull her back two paces.

"Prepare yourself," Lunise murmured. Sabine could feel magic still held in Lunise's arms. The much taller woman did not let a single movement escape her eyes. She believed that Neesa would turn the fight into a brawl at any moment.

Molag Bal's voice made the entire scene freeze once more.

The pack was no more enthused with Neesa and her cult joining their invasion, let alone Molag Bal's own daedric underlings. The practical benefits of the arrangement were lost to the fear and tension left over from the previous life-and-death situation they found themselves in.

Janius snapped back into awareness the earliest. He looked at Kaleeth through his lowered visor and nudged her arm. He nodded to the altar. Wasting Molag Bal's time would not favour them.

Meanwhile, Lunise let Sabine go and walked closer to Meesei. "Is this something we have a choice in?" she asked quietly enough to only refer to Meesei.