|
Post by GoldenKitten on Nov 26, 2012 9:09:20 GMT -4
Alicia sat atop the roof of one of the many stouter old apartment buildings that lined the backstreets of Little Town in the early morning light. Her legs hung down from the edge of the roof as she swung them back and forth aimlessly, her attention focused on the rising sun across the Detroit River that Little Town sat along. Of course in The Pen “sunrise” had a different meaning from the outside world, midway across the river and indeed surrounding every side of what was once Detroit stood the three-hundred meter dividing wall.
When it had first been constructed it had been a measly fifty-meter hump. A hundred years of technological advancement (for the outside world at least) later, along with several escape revolts had led to what it was today. And every bit of that three-hundred meters was armed with automatic ballistic and laser weaponry, ready to reduce the city to ash in an instant, and that wasn’t even considering what lay behind it. So, when someone in the Pen talked about sunrise, they really meant the point in the day in which the sun finally eclipsed the rim of the wall.
Of course for Alicia that had been her whole life, this was normal to her and she hardly even saw the wall, instead admiring the sunrise like someone on the outside might have watched a beachline. Some might say she that those inside didn’t have the luxury of stopping to watch the sunrise, but if Alicia had learned one thing in her life it was that constantly focusing on the problems at hand would drive one mad. Plus, nobody would be giving her a job this early in the morning she thought.
By all regards Alicia was beautiful and young as well, but time in The Pen darkened all things even for those raised there. Her face was lined with dirt, and her hands well worn; bathing a infrequent luxury and hard work a mainstay of anyone hoping to survive inside. She was hardly eighteen but looking at her harsh face, eyes darkened from lack of sleep, one would have thought her significantly older. Her blond hair fell below her shoulders and was naturally curly, and her skin was well tanned from spending most of her working days outside.
As the sun finally rose above the dark monolithic construction that pulsated with red lighting beacons she rose to her feet. Bending down she grasped the old rifle that had been in her family for generations, battered and barely able to fire straight, but still of significant worth in a world where the gangs monopolized most newly crafted weapons. As she slung the holding strap over her shoulder and turned away from the river a beeping issued from a small shortwave walkie-talkie on her beltline.
She was temporarily surprised as she never received a call so early, but recomposing herself she unhooked it and brought it to her mouth, holding the button to speak. The device was as old as the Pen itself, everything electronic was, having been scavenged in the years following being boxed in and repurposed for whatever use the occupants could find. Unlike other “Reservations” that had contact with the outside world, and which even received government aid, The Pen hadn’t seen anything from outside save for the monthly “cargo” of new incarcerates in a half-century or more.
“Yes?” she asked simply.
The voice of a man came from the other end, Rufus, as he stated simply; “A package just arrived labeled to you.”
That in itself was strange, she was somewhat known locally for her business and minor exploits, but not that well known. You could find gutter urchins willing to take messages a short distance for a scrap of food, but Rufus wouldn’t be calling her for something so simple. He likely meant a REAL package, and to send someone something even a few streets over in Little Town, much less somewhere across The Pen would have taken a significant incentive. As far as she knew she wasn’t important enough to anyone to warrant such expenditure.
“Alright, I’m on my way back”, her mind was elsewhere trying to decide who could be sending her something.
She supposed it could be the Wolf Clan, one of the three power players of central downtown. The Bangerz controlled Backrow which was the ghetto (or, perhaps it was more accurate to say MORE of a ghetto than the rest of the city), the Bordeaux pretended to be aristocrats and lived in a faux version of 1920’s “High Society” in the glittering High Point, and the Wolf Clan controlled Little Town which was something in-between the two in terms of quality.
Everyone who lived in Little Town was familiar with the Wolf Clan, you either worked for them, or at least paid tribute if you operated your business there. In Alicias case it was a bit of both, she wasn’t a full-time member of their “Wolf Pack” but she occasionally did business for them to keep the “tribute” she paid out of her supplies to a minimum. She assumed that if anyone was willing to send her a message it was them requesting some job, it wouldn’t have cost the Wolves much to send something in their own territory.
As she walked to the opposite edge of the building which faced the street she looked down over its edge to ensure nobody was standing below. Five stories down everything appeared to be clear and so she stepped off and plummeted straight at the street, even faster than one would have expected. Then an instant before contact black shards of what appeared to be glistening diamond seeped from around her gloves and boots from the skin below, forming around them like armor. Despite the force with which she hit, causing a small boom and denting the surface below she didn’t miss a beat, the armor instantly retreating from her appendages as she turned to walk toward her destination.
As she made her way out onto one of the major streets that ran through Little Town she was quickly surrounded by others going through their daily routines. Some opening legitimate businesses, others were in less savory positions but you did what you could here, and still others were clearly on Wolf Clan business as they moved through the street in ordered packs, people making sure to steer clear of their way.
The Wolf Pack had arisen from one of the earliest groups to populate The Pen, finding its origins in “Mutant Pride” groups. Those who had rebelled against the system because they believed themselves superior to humans. Inside they played the roaming group of bandits for a few years, before eventually claiming Little Town (or “The Den” as they called it) and rising to their status as it was today. The nice thing about living under them over the other choices out there was they still prided themselves in having that old “Honor” their predecessors had. In the current world that translated into less outright violence on the populace, and a generally more favorable treatment of everyone in Little Town, though they still placed their own importance over others.
At any rate it at least meant you could walk down the street without fear of molestation, a mugging, or a sound beating…most of the time…if you stuck to the main roads. Thus even with gang members present the businesses along the street went on mostly as usual, several nearby prostitutes of both sexes making passes at anyone who dared look their way. Say what you wanted about their society, it had eliminated one thing, and that was gender roles. The mutant gene played no favorites with who got power and who didn’t, some of the most feared mutants in The Pen were female and this had utterly rewritten the power structure.
One needed look no further than Alicia for conformation of this, she wasn’t exactly a “power player” but she was well known enough in this subsector of Little Town that nobody willingly crossed her path without backup. Of course she wasn’t a cruel person, people just knew to keep their distance and not be aggressive. In truth she was as nice as this world allowed her to be, she wasn’t exactly a bubbly pot of optimism, but having an outgoing demeanor and good business sense had helped her to where she was.
She wasn’t rolling in funds but she did well for herself and it showed in her clothing. She wore a crimson beret, and a similar short skirt, though this was over full leggings; she wasn’t insane enough to show skin. Her upper and lower body had dark leather pads, as well as padding on her arms and shins. Her ability meant she didn’t need true armor like some might, but it didn’t hurt to carry some padding in case of emergency. Plus by being fully clothed she made herself less of a target for opportunistic perverts.
Of course being in relatively high quality garments, some with COLOR no less she did paint a different kind of target. Most of the shop peddlers and other non-gang occupants of Little Town could barely afford cheaply made tattered sheets. So while miscreants looking for trouble readily avoided her, hungry salesmen weren’t so impeded as she had to push many out of her way. One learned with time that you had to be a little rough and ignore them; giving them any attention even negative just heightened their attempts to push their wares.
Making her way past the market she arrived at her destination, situated where several of the main streets met in a prime business location. Rufus bar, Coldsnap, was a central hub for most of the locals come evening time and even saw light business during the day. It was a place not just for trading stories, and alcohol, but for information…assuming you could pay the price. Much like Alicia, Rufus had cut himself a nice little hole into the fabric of this society. Balancing the fine line between the many forces at play, much like everyone else he still paid his tributes to the Wolf Clan but he’d made his establishment and its services well-known enough to buy him some leeway.
Alicia rented a room above the bar for a set amount of goods and for a percentage of whatever business happened her way as a result of individuals visiting the bar. She considered it a fair bargain for a number of reasons; but mostly because its central location afforded her a degree of safety from the enemies she’d made over the years, and because while she’d always been good at drumming up business it was much easier to take a drunk man’s money. Sometimes if he had skills she needed he’d even tagged along on some of the tougher jobs, clearly not completely content to always play owner.
Opening the door a female employee turned to welcome her; the bar had customers at all times as even now there were a few men tucked away in a corner. However upon seeing Alicia she simply nodded to her and went back to stacking a set of menus at the baristas stand. A nearby man served as the daytime bouncer, though as empty as the building currently was he was lackadaisically leaning against a nearby wall arms crossed, returning the nod Alicia gave him.
Walking to the empty bar stand (the morning being the only time one would find it without people) Alicia stepped up and sat on one of the stools there. Rufus was standing behind the bar, polishing the shot glasses there and hardly gave her recognition, simply producing a sealed paper folder with her name on it before going back to his task.
“Thanks”, she stated before looking down at the object in-hand.
Alicia wasn’t sure what to think of it, it was a large manila folder and was heavy so there was certainly something in it. The problem was she’d never seen anything like it; the “paper” it was made out of wasn’t like any paper she’d ever seen that was made within The Pen. Someone from the outside world would have simply called it an everyday office folder, complete with a little tin tie, but it was unique to her. As was the marker ink the name was written in, most writing done in The Pen being done with pencil or charcoal. It also didn’t have the symbol of the Wolf Clan, which it certainly would have if it’d been from them, as they loved to be grandiose.
Having inspected as closely as she could without opening it she finally shrugged, unable to make out what it could be without actually looking. If it was dangerous the sender wouldn’t have wasted something so valuable, even if she didn’t recognize it as an object not produced in The Den she could tell it was of high quality by comparison to local paper products.
Undoing the tie she looked inside, scrunched her face up in confusion, and then retrieved the black object inside. Pulling it out she was virtually in awe, and she briefly noted that even Rufus had stopped what he was doing and was looking now. In her hand was a walkie-talkie, but nothing like the one she had at her waist. The one she had was older than her father, and had been repaired via patch-jobs a dozen times over, to the point it now looked like a dirty brick more than a piece of electronics.
But the thing in her hand was a slim black rectangle, made of molded plastics and not much larger than her palm. It had a small antenna atop which was a tiny block, she wasn’t a master of most electronics but her father had taught her a lot about radios, it was one of the biggest ways to stay on top in The Pen. She’d seen a bulky one when she was little, but it’d taken up a table, but if she had to guess the small block on top was a radio scrambler. It was no secret the military outside the walls listened to the broadcasts inside The Pen, and stopped any broadcasts from going outside the city, so those with the knowledge had come up with ways to keep them out of the loop…but nothing remotely so small.
She absentmindedly fiddled with one of the nobs on top and almost dropped the radio when a series of red blinking lights appeared along its top. It had been hard enough to believe when inspecting the other parts of the device, there were not many places or individuals that could have made such a fine piece of machinery in The Pen, and those that could were hoarded by the big gangs of Downtown. But the lights? Impossible.
She didn’t know much about the outside world, but she knew one thing for certain, this came from there. There were stories about some of the biggest names in the city making deals with officials in the outside world, but true or not it had little relevance on the average citizen. But suddenly it did, because looking at this there was no possible way it came from inside. And so the question had to be asked; why would someone send something of almost untold value to her? Coming to this question she shifted her eyes from the radio, to Rufus, to the radio, to Rufus, and back.
Then in a rush she picked the folder up and sifted through it to see if there was anything else. She retrieved only one thing from it, a piece of white paper of similar quality to the folder with a series of digits on it. She recognized quickly that it was a radio frequency and after mulling it over for a second looked at the nob on top of the radio; quickly figuring out how it worked she switched it to the proper channel.
No sooner had she hit the proper wave than a voice came over it, just loud enough for her and Rufus to hear; “Hello Alicia. I have a job I need performed, and will pay quite well. Assuming you live up to your reputation, more work may follow. Are you interested in hearing my offer?”
|
|
|
Post by Darkoda on Dec 2, 2012 4:22:55 GMT -4
The first rays of the sun filtering through the leaves caught her attention, but not enough to make her wake up. She had nothing of particular importance (to her) that needed to be done, nothing was going wrong to set off any alarms and she frankly felt like sinking deeper into the dirt around her and just basking in the sun’s life giving rays. But as much as that would be a blissful way to spend the day…well why not?
From the amount of light on her body now, it was at least a half hour later for the sun to have risen so high. Not that she minded it, but now her body felt too energized to just lay about slacking off and besides that, her plants needed her attention. With that in mind she finally got the will to pry herself out of her bed and start the day.
Obviously under normal circumstances anyone living in the Pen who heard of someone spending their time taking care of plants would believe that she had far too much free time on her hands but she was a special case within Little Town. This was practically her job after all, one that involved enough work that most anyone else wouldn’t bother and frankly most others here would likely screw it up in her heavily biased opinion.
Acacia like most residents didn’t look her age for some reason or the other and she had the dubious fortune of falling in the older than they look category. She looked young and slender, even with the dirt covering her body in her current lack of dress it was clear that she was missing the thin, hardened body, scars, scraps and calluses that most developed over the years. Of course she blended in quite well with the Pen in her own way; her green skin with its plant-like texture was a large beacon to where her mutant gene leaned. Her hair had no set colour, the long chest length messy strands resembling currently green leaves with a large and exotic violet flower sprouting from the right side of her hair.
Odds were good that she’d classify as the exotic beauty despite looking like a fourteen year old development wise. It would help if she got all the soil off of her first though.
She walked along the various plants, receiving whispers of the night’s events as far as her garden went. It had taken her years of work and more than a few necessary sacrifices to manage to get the Wolf Clan’s blessing to use what was the ruin of a park suffering from neglect for her own ends. As it was she had only recently managed to work off the debt for the books and plant materials they supplied. It was still worth it though; everyone found their own ways to survive and Acacia found hers in taking full advantage of her talents to keep a reasonably constant flow of produce. The value of food was something all knew and fruits and starchy, filling foods were worth more than enough to keep her stable.
It also invited its own share of trouble; despite the inherent issue with interfering with something the Wolf clan had placed a considerable investment into, there were those who had no qualms with trying to steal some of the fruits of her labour. Desperation, entitlement, a belief that she could easily replace what was lost; she’d heard many reasons from before she had the clan’s official permission to keep on to now. If she was honest about it, it was far worse before that moment; back then they would simply attack her directly to force her to be their personal food supply.
She was partially to blame for that though; she should have known better than to let her hope overtake her reason and was very lucky to survive the run-ins with the rougher members of Little Town. It was still one of life’s small pleasures for her to manage to sleep uninterrupted throughout the night even if it came more frequently now. Another small pleasure was having enough of a water supply to afford the luxury of getting decently clean.
It wasn’t much longer before Acacia was making her rounds with a crudely made cart filled with various produce. As she walked along the main streets, she did her best to pretend that she was tuning out the whispers that started. It was still the same old rumours which was the way she liked it, after all the trouble she went through to set up the situation. It wasn’t obvious but most people made sure to move back a bit when she passed, even the peddlers not as enthusiastic about trying to get her attention; oh they still called out their goods, but not a one was quite willing to try to physically get in her way.
Acacia did have serious problems keeping her garden safe before, but that was before the incident. Before the night that her garden was filled with nothing but screams, before she showed up the next day with clothes dyed red and before the lack of answers or any witnesses and her own evasive answers led to avalanche of rumours as everyone forgot about the weak flower girl that was trying to grow some plants and she became Acacia, the monster in the guise of a girl that fed her living garden with the blood of the residents. That particular story was a fun one to remember and she made no attempt to correct anyone; the misinformation and lack of knowledge was a far more effective deterrent than any amount of details ever would be, the unknown being one of the greatest threats to one’s self preservation in the Pen and something she was more than willing to exploit.
So it was that despite being dressed in various massive leaves and petals intertwined in a colourful natural dress that made her resemble a particularly vibrant flower, she had the pleasure of being able to walk down the street to her destination without having anyone try to rob her. A fresh supply of foods and herbs was enough that only the rich could afford it normally but the person she was looking for was one of the few that she maintained a good relationship with. More importantly, he always had something to offer that was worth it. Books were a rare commodity but so were quite a few things she had. That and for all her ability to grow and maintain a garden, there were those who could transform her plants into fantastic clothes, wonderful dishes and all manner of alcohols and she had no qualms abusing supplier’s discounts.
|
|
|
Post by Zhiel on Dec 2, 2012 18:15:20 GMT -4
(OOC: Apologies for the sketchy quality, next post should be better. Don't put too much thought into every detail of the pub or whatever, a lot of it's still up in the air.)
A small house, barely fit for a small family of three. A young teenage boy, pale skin like death itself, terror etched onto his face. He held onto an older woman, skin turning blue and her face frozen in the grip of shock and pain. The boy let go and tried to back away from the older woman, fell backwards while doing so and watched with fright as the woman's frozen form fell also, a sickening snap sounding as the torso and legs parted upon hitting the ground, what little wasn't frozen solid spilling out over the floor. The boy could only stare in abject horror trying to reach out to his dead grandmother.
---
With his heart pounding Rufus opened his eyes in the near pitch-black room as he put his right hand on his forehead and dragged it over his face, before he took several deep breaths to calm down. The dream he experienced every so often was a reminder of his past, of what started the nightmare for him, despite being a young teenage boy the outburst of his power and it resulting in the death of his grandmother had been enough to warrant him to be sent into The Pen. Lifting himself up to his feet Rufus moved off the worn sheets he used as a make-shift bed before he walked through the dark room and opened a door on the other end, it lead to a small staircase with barely enough room to fit a fully grown man such as him between each wall, but it was functional enough.
Closing the door behind him Rufus began to tread up the stairs, the light from a miniscule lamp that had been salvaged and repaired innumerable times illuminating the corridor above, but also shining some small bits of light over Rufus near-naked pale form (Normally even having such a light would be seen as a complete waste, as little power as it took, but due to the corridor having no natural lighting it had been seen as a necessity). He was fairly tall by most standards, standing around 180~ centimeters in height and having a moderate athletic build to him, he had clearly defined muscles though at the same time he didn't appear as someone who relied on them to get through his daily life like many others did. To back this up he had very few scars around his body, which was of a pale constitution with little colour adorning his skin at all aside from the odd bruise. As he came up into the corridor the light shone right onto his reddish-brown hair that hung unkempt around his head, some bits being clumped together a little like spikes, not too uncommon given how rarely people got to cleaning themselves properly around there.
Walking in a sleep-like stupor Rufus soon found his way to a small kitchen, where at a table sat another man, fully dressed in tight-fitting clothing with a patched-up leather vest on his torso. He was a large man, almost two meters tall and quite broad with dark skin. Rufus wasn't quite sure what ethnicity he was from, but he had never bothered asking either, Jake was a good Bouncer and that's all that mattered to Rufus. The girl was a late teen, related to a previous Bouncer who had met an untimely demise one day. Rufus had seen it as his responsibility to take care of her after that, so he offered her a job as a waitress/handyman at his pub. She was a little clumsy and still had a lot to learn, but she showed potential and she was cute enough (In the standards of the Pen at any rate) which was always a plus for a waitress. Her name was Emma and she was of what Rufus assumed to be Asian-American descent, again he never bothered with such unimportant details as race, and she was a smaller lady of about one and a half meters in height, though her other 'assets' were just right.
They were two of the four employees Rufus had at the moment, two Bouncers, a full-time Waitress and Emma. It was fairly obvious that his business had gone well, though it had been a hard fight with many narrowly avoided pitfalls, the Wolf Clan had almost ran him off several times when he was still starting to get things in order ten years ago for instance.
Crossing the room to the partly rusted sink Rufus took a mug from a shelf and poured tea from a can into it. Rufus had converted the roof of the building into a garden of sorts where he grew many essentials for his pub even if it was mostly just basic things, it especially helped during the winter months when supplies ran low all-around, though tea was one of the few luxuries that he allowed himself and his staff to enjoy at mornings. Holding the warm mug between his hands as he turned away from the sink he smelled the contents before taking a sip, and a few seconds later gulping it all down at once. Done with his morning ritual the newly awoken Rufus nodded to his employees as he walked over to a wardrobe-like closet and picked out a worn but otherwise surprisingly clean classic bartender outfit and put it on before nodding to the two employees as he exited the door into the pub itself.
The establishment was surprisingly big for something not owned by the Wolf Clan, the area where customers would sit had a rectangular shape, being 5 meters wide and roughly 15 long before it made a 90 degree turn and continued another 10, giving it a nearly symmetrical look, with the bar itself being built around the corner. Tables were scattered evenly around the floor, the clearly more high-class area having matching tables and chairs that seemed of better quality than the other which where miss-matched and had seen plenty of repairs over the years. In order to increase the size of the place Rufus had knocked down a wall of the room and it was fairly obvious if one were to look up at the ceiling in the area, as it had materials nailed over a large stretch of it along with the walls, with a matt covering the floor. Along the bar itself was a number of stools and lined along several shelves behind it was numerous bottles of different alcohols he'd made himself, along with a few rarities in a cup-board he'd traded from the other "districts". The place was about as clean as one could expect from a bar in The Pen, there was almost no dust on the floor and it was cleaned regularly, along with the tables which had their share of damage from being older than the Pen. The only thing that seemed relatively new in comparison was the bar table itself which had been cleaned to an almost pristine quality.
Looking out the few windows that hadn't been closed off due to being broken Rufus could see the sun had yet to come up over the wall, which meant it was still a few hours before they would open for the day and it had been just an hour or so since they closed for the "night". It sometimes happened that a few drunks lingered due to getting so hammered that they would fall asleep, but Rufus had made it clear each time that should it happen again they would simply be tossed out come closing time and that usually kept them from repeating the same mistake. The pub room was empty at the moment, Emma and Jake having closed for the night so Rufus went about making things ready for when they would open again.
After doing some basic cleaning and sorting things out Rufus was now looking over the papers detailing their profits and expenses for the few hours Rufus hadn't worked late that night, though as was to be expected there wasn't much business at those hours as it was more early-morning than anything else and most had left. Given the dangers of Little Town at night he couldn't exactly blame them for it, even if it meant less business than he might prefer. Putting the make-shift book back into it's spot under the bar-desk Rufus pulled up a small stool from under it and sat down with his back against the concrete wall, dozing off for a bit as he awaited the time to open up shop. He briefly noted Alicia exiting the building but didn't give it much thought, she was more than welcome to come and go as she pleased, she paid for her time there and her living under the same roof meant people who wanted to use her services would be more likely to purchase something from him as well, not to mention her reputation probably did more to prevent any outright attacks on the place than the two bouncers he had combined, so it was all win-win in his book.
A short while later he slipped out of his dozy state when he noticed the other employees entering the room, recognizing it was time to get to work Rufus stood up while cracking his neck and noticed almost right away that there was already a few people gathered outside the door, not too unusual, they did serve food after all, and several individuals had provided things of such value that they had their tab taken care of for a long while more or less. However as they flipped the sign at the door giving the go-sign for those outside that they were now open Rufus noticed that one of them was someone he'd never seen before, something which at this point was unusual since Rufus had a really good memory for names and faces.
The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, he had short brown hair and brown eyes with a pair of aviator-goggles on his head, a brown denim jacket and a gray work jumpsuit underneath it with a belt with a multitude of tools such as wrenches but the only thing that truly stood out for Rufus was how certain he seemed of himself even as he was checked at the door by the Bouncer, by which Rufus could assume he was used to this kind of situation or was perhaps more than he seemed. Still Rufus didn't pay that much heed other than to memorize his features, no what caught his attention as the man came inside was the paper folder he retrieved from under his jacket as he moved straight toward Rufus with determination and placed it on the bar-desk "To Alicia" he simply stated, Rufus nodded and retrieved it from the desk and looked at it for a few seconds, it reminded him so much of things he had seen on his fathers desk at home, outside the Pen, could it possibly be...? "Should I relay anything else to her?" Rufus asked, noting the lack of a sender on the folder. "No, that won't be necessary." The man responded and then walked away leaving the pub, Rufus shrugged and put the folder on a shelf where he stored messages and packages, though it wasn't used all too often. Grabbing a walkie-talkie from his belt Rufus set it to Alicia's frequency and waited for her to respond to his 'call'.
Nothing much happened in the time it took Alicia to return, so Rufus had taken to polishing the shot glasses, the few things he had that were of truly good quality and so something he cared for a great deal. When she eventually arrived he nonchalantly handed her the folder and went back to polishing the last shot glass, he didn't like to pry in others business and despite how curious he was he tried not to pay much attention to it. However when she finally opened it and pulled out a small black object he couldn't help but pause in what he was doing and look at it, just like the paper folder it had come in the object itself which seemed to be a walkie-talkie of some description seemed to be pristine and new, it did not look like something from within the Pen, these suspicions were proven even more accurate when flashing lights appeared on it after Alicia fiddled with it some, heck he was so surprised he almost dropped the shot glass. A short bit later Alicia pulled out a clear-white sheet of paper from the folder and looked at it, before fiddling with the device again and just moments later a voice came through, clear but not loud. Rufus had to wonder just who this person was and why he'd taken an interest in Alicia... Either way, things were getting interesting.
|
|
|
Post by Tagz on Dec 3, 2012 2:55:21 GMT -4
knock knock knock ‘ …’ An old man with a blank mind lay asleep. knock knock knock ‘ … ugh…’ This world was unpleasant. Given that you were blessed with an uneventful night, sleeping was one of the greatest pleasures that could be found in this city. knock knock knock ‘ … don’t do this so early’ KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK “FINE~!” The lethargic old man cried out in frustration. Without the gift of curtains there were no barriers impeding trespassers. The wretched sun’s light placidly stepped through his windows and invaded his bedroom unabated. So not only did he have a wench at the door gallingly banging on the wooden slab, but was forcibly wakened to a fiercely illuminated room as well. It would be impossible to return to his sweet slumbers now; yet dragging himself out of bed was outright unendurable. The languorous man’s irritation was palpable. With a wrinkled nose and bristled eyebrows he sauntered toward his bedroom door. ‘ … sigh’ He didn’t want to open it. There was nothing behind this door that he wanted. KNOCK KNOCK KN— The wooden slab was whipped open “WHAAAAT?!!” The words violently flung out the mouth of a clearly tetchy young girl, much to the bewilderment of the woman at the entrance. She was aged. Her wrinkles were wrinkled further as she momentarily stood there, disoriented. She knew the young girl wasn’t a morning person, but this sort of hate-filled reaction was not her expectation. In any case, it took but a moment for her to regain her poise. She was a plump old woman with sinuous long hair. Combing her hoary locks with the fingers of her right hand, she outstretched her left and handing the young girl a sizeable parcel. “Some clansmen just came to give you this. I don’t know what sort of contract work you do for the wolves, but I hope you stay safe, Carmel.”With an audible exhale all the anger that was pent up inside him promptly dissipated. After hearing the elderly woman’s words of worry, he couldn’t bring himself to stay mad. She was far too caring. It just wasn’t healthy. Grabbing the package from her and setting it on the floor, the old man chose to speak in a softer tone. “I just do a bit of Intel work for them, nothing to fret over.” “Well, that’s good to hear. Still, I’d much rather you work strictly for me. If something should happen to you, I’d lose one of my best workers.”“Haha. Please, you act as though we’re not easy to replace. Anyone with weak powers or none at all could quickly be coerced into being a hooker.” “Excuse me? ‘Hooker’? That’s too unladylike. You are a ‘working girl’. Don’t forget that.”“Oi, don’t give me that. Spreading your legs for pay is already unladylike and I don’t plan on doing it for much longer.” “Oh? Is that right? Do you have bigger plans, little girl? You never really struck me as ambitious.”“Well, that just shows how little you know me. Anyhow, I’ll be leaving. Can’t say when I’ll return.” “Whatever, just know that it’s your money your wasting. You paid a monthly fee to operate in my brothel and you’ve only come to work on five separate days. You’re not getting a refund, you know that right? As long as you’ve paid the fee, it ain’t my business whether or not you make money here. Besides, it seems like you’re using this room as a bedroom rather than a work space.”“Honey, I have other jobs I have to attend to, I can’t just focus on one. Besides, I’ve paid for this room so I could use it as I see fit. Whether I use it for fucking or for sleeping is my choice.” “Well look at you, so young and so busy. Yet, you still find time to get snippy. Look, I’m just saying it’s a shame. You, of all people, can make a lot of money here and live about as comfortable a life as one can live in the Pen. Instead you choose to sleep in a brothel even when you shouldn’t have to, you’re a client favourite. People here like a variety of ethnicities so your caramel skin, dark red eyes, and flowing black hair are a pure delight. Or you could be smart about how you do your business. Rather than working for these low lives and collecting your meagre earnings until they reach a large sum, you could simply get close to one of the high ranked wolves. Gold diggers are always the most successful in this business.”“I appreciate the words of advice, but I have my own plan and mooching off a wolf isn’t it.” “Very well, young lady. I’ll leave you to it then.”With that, the door eased shut and the madam made her way down the hall. Moseying towards the dirty old mattress that lay on the floor, the elderly man sat down and began unravelling the package that he’d received. Within the cloth wrappings he found quite a bit of food. It was mostly fruits and vegetables with a few homemade condiments and small loaf of bread. The only item that wasn’t edible was a recording device that was about the size of two palms. It was all black and came with four batteries, only requiring two to operate. Quite the treat, he was given. Batteries were already highly expensive and rare, yet the Wolf Clan went so far as to give him a back up set. The aged gentleman smiled at his new gift, looking it over momentarily, enjoying what was given to him. After a minute or so, he began to fiddle with it. It was then that he pressed the play button and a familiar voice spoke out to him. ‘Hi there, Doppelganger. You completed your assignment quite well the other day and I thank you for it. The intel you gathered from the meeting has helped us greatly. Don’t worry, the man you impersonated has been found outside a bar last night, freshly and thoroughly burnt. We’ve given you two weeks worth of food that might even last a month if you ration it. Oh, and we got you that recorder you’ve been asking for. You’ve helped us out a lot, and quite often at that. I think it’s time you get to see some of the benefits that there are for those who aid the Wolf Clan. Keep up the good work, Doppel.’ With that, Doppel wedged the hefty device into his pocket before rising up. He then flung his arms up and behind him as his hands gripped each other for support as he leaned back and stretched out as much as he could. He was tired, but there was no way he would fall asleep with the sun remorselessly illuminating his room. With a quick shuffle of his feet, the old man stood over the wooden table in his room. There wasn’t much on it. He had a small pitcher of water, a cup, and a walkie-talkie. The walkie-talkie was also the size of two palms. There was no telling when one of his many clients would call him in for work so he stuffed it into his other pocket. Doppel worked as a jack-of-all-trades. There were many people who called upon him for vastly differing jobs. Some were mundane, others quite dangerous. He was paid accordingly. Therefore, his walkie-talkie was an essential item. Having the only two electronic devices he owned wedged firmly into his pockets, the elderly man ambled back to his worn out mattress. As he did so, he was slowly enveloped in a white haze. Reaching his mattress, Doppel grabbed the base of the window with a large and firm hand and chucked his massive body out the large window. His bedroom was on the second floor so surviving the descent was no grand feat. Landing with a light thud, the young looking man meandered down the street. His bulky form and confident stride would deter most aggressors. Sadly this strategy wasn’t always successful. Some people liked a challenge.
|
|
|
Post by GoldenKitten on Dec 3, 2012 23:25:14 GMT -4
For the briefest of moments Alicia was overtaken by surprise, coupled with the still lingering wonderment over the device itself. However she soon recovered and instead took a paranoid viewpoint, one didn’t survive in the Pen by just trusting anyone and this situation was suspicious no matter how you looked at it. Rather than immediately responding she instead tried to consider the various possibilities at hand, in the worst case it was a trap, in the best case it was someone who simply wanted anonymity in their transaction. In the end she reasoned that there was no harm in listening to what was said, it wasn’t as if she stood anything to lose from that.
Settling on a course of action she pressed the button to communicate and spoke in a neutral tone, “I’m listening, though I’m sure you understand that means nothing given the circumstances. I suppose it’s too much to ask who this is?”
It was a long shot, but worth a try if nothing else. A slight chuckle from the other end was all she needed to hear to know there was no chance of that before they spoke again, “Of course I understand this is suspicious. But all of us in this place have our reasons for doing what we do. In my situation that means maintaining an air of the unknown for the overall security of my endeavors, and for those who work for me. Assuming you understand that, then you also understand that at the end of the day my payment is just as acceptable as any others.”
She supposed that was fair, she didn’t like it but it was fair. It wasn’t as if this was the first time she’d had an offer from an unknown party, and indeed they were often some of the most lucrative jobs she’d had. But they were also rife with pitfalls, namely without knowledge of whom she was dealing with it was easy enough for them to back out at any time. This could be damning, either if she had already guaranteed payment to someone helping her, or if it got her in trouble with a higher power she did not realize was involved. When she was younger she had almost burnt her bridges with the Wolf Clan through such a deal, it had taken a considerable amount of recompense to get back to even ground.
Even so something told her to at least listen. Sending her the radio was a sign that they were serious, if it had been a trap, or if they hadn’t had the resources to back up their request they likely would have selected a cheaper means of contact. After all if she chose not to take their request she could have kept or bartered the radio off for a significant amount, which would have been their loss. This seemed to suggest confidence in their own ability to supply their claims, and that they further trusted her to take the job…whether that was good or bad, she didn’t yet know.
Of course that opened a scary possibility, that this was a request from one of the other large gangs in the Pen. After all, she couldn’t imagine any others that could have procured the radio. But at the same time she couldn’t reason why they would go out of their way to select her for the job, as obviously if it got in the way of Wolf Clan business she wouldn’t accept, and they again faced the loss of a fine piece of equipment. There were to many questions, not enough answers, and even if she was more educated than the average occupant of the Pen she still lacked the ability to reason all this out in a short time.
So she asked the most obvious question, “And what is the payment to be?”
“Two months of rations. And that promise of additional work in the future if completed soundly.”
Alicia who had kept a cool head until then had her response catch in her throat as she heard that. Her immediate survivors instincts and the natural greed of all Pen occupants overtook her at first as she coughed, her mind reeling at the response. The bewilderment was soon replaced with dubiety though as skepticism took over and the reality of the statement took root in the back of her mind.
Few jobs in the Pen were worth more than a few days’ worth of rations, even some of her best paid jobs had been worth two weeks at most. She already had a significant buffer of supplies, so any additional gains at this point would essentially be funds to purchase more immediately necessary items. And in the Pen where a loaf of bread could buy you housing for two days, or any number of more material goods; two months of extra rations was nothing short of life altering. It would be more than enough to purchase ten of even the best weapon the Wolf Clan would sell to civilians, or could even act as the funding for starting one’s own business.
And that was exactly why it was more than a little hard to believe. Even if there was someone in here that had that sort of excess to give away, why would they? Moreover if at all true it again brought up the possibility of it being one of the other gangs, which was a growing concern. As much as the previously poor street urchin inside her yelled to take it without a moments doubt, the realist grown-up in her was saying no.
As if reading her mind, as she was about to tell them no, the voice added; “Of course. I never said the task would be easy, I believe you will agree that it warrants such payment.”
Alicia grimaced; she wanted to be done with this here-and-now. She wanted to take this radio to the Wolf Clan, get what she could for it, and pretend the pretty little envelope had never showed up. It was dangerous, it was beyond dangerous to keep listening, there was so much that could go wrong and she hadn’t even heard what they wanted her to do yet. In any normal situation she’d have turned the device off and made good on that thought, but the presentation kept her enticed. Part of her recognized that sending the radio was still a gamble, if they couldn’t make good on this price then why send it to her?
That was the point she kept turning over-and-over in her head as she responded, “And what is the job?”
Perhaps sensing it had hooked her the voice wasted no time going into a full exposition, “I trust you remember the events of two weeks ago. When the Outer gangs took down that transport.”
She immediately knew what they were talking about; there was no cause to say more as everyone was aware of it. Every month several transport hovercopters came in from outside the wall with the newest batch of detainees. Usually they dropped them off on the roof of a department store building directly in the center of where High Point, Little Town, and Backrow met toward the middle of the metropolis. It was actually this drop-point that had drawn the territory lines, the three gangs reaching a consensus and each time a new group of outsiders was brought in the toughest, or the prettiest were split between the gangs as “property” using some sort of system not many outside the leaders were privy too.
It had been a dozen or more years since this cycle had been broken until last week. By-and-large the rebellions of the Pen were a thing of the past, most now recognizing they were stuck here. So it took everyone by surprise both inside, likely as well as outside, when the Outer gangs had fired upon one of the transports making its ingress into the city. Even more-son when the craft had finally gone down several kilometers outside of the city proper; afterwards it had been a mad dash by the main gangs to reach the sight though what happened afterwards was not known.
Most people like Alicia and those below her were simply afraid it would bring the outsides wrath down upon them, but with each passing day with no action taken things had returned to their normal rut with less concern of this occurring. With everything that happened on a day-to-day basis it had almost become ancient history at this point once there had been no further word, most people to concerned with their momentary survival to care what was happening outside, or even amongst the gangs elite.
So it was a surprise when the voice continued, “By the time the search teams of the Bordeaux and Wolf Clan reached the crash site it had been completely stripped by the Outer Gangs, both of personnel and equipment.”
Alicia began to see where this was going, and it was indeed dangerous, perhaps even more so than the proposed payment entitled. She wasn’t afraid to anger the Outer Gangs, she’d done so before, even though it was dangerous and she’d prefer to side-step them where possible. The true concern was that if she was right, and the voice wanted something from the crash, she risked angering the Inner Gangs who likely wanted whatever it might be as well.
“I’m sure you’ve heard of the Sire, the supposed supreme leader of the Outer Gangs. While he doesn’t exist in the same propensity as the myths surrounding him, I assure you he does exist in a more realistic form.”
She tried to wrap her head around that, and why the voice was bringing it up. The Sire was something of an urban myth, most believed he existed, some painting him as a god while others suggested a more conventional origin as the voice did. The Outer Gangs as it was suggested were a hundred small gangs outside the core of Downtown, inhabiting the wasteland of factories and suburban housing surrounding the city core. Unlike the Inner Gangs they lacked the manpower and coordination to make a serious claim on the inner city.
And so for a hundred years this had begged a big question, why then had the Inner Gangs not simply wiped them out and taken the whole Pen for themselves? The answer many suggested; was the Sire. Word was that the Sire was the leader of one of the strongest Outer Gangs, and in return for tribute much like the Inner Gangs he supported the smaller groups. Bolstering their defenses and stopping any excessive growth outward by the Inner Gangs, it was uncertain who he was, or to what degree his existence was accurate with the stories. But given several points of evidence it was almost certain he existed to some level.
The voice tied up why this was relevant, “One of the smaller gangs, the Bandolier took part in the assault on the transport, and were the first on the scene. They took most of what was on the craft and have made use of it to strengthen their influence significantly. Amongst the materials they retrieved was an EDT, an electronic drive transmission. A power source with many uses far more advanced than anything we have inside the Pen. Though they don’t know its nature, they know its worth and intend to hand it over to the Sire to gain further favor and power. Once in his hands it will be virtually impossible to reach, and so it must be taken from the Bandolier while it still remains within their far less fortified center of operations. The mission I am thus requesting of you is to recover the EDT.”
That was a lot of information to take in at once, not the least of which reasoning was because this was a mission far outside the scope of her usual fare. And the more she heard and thought about it the more she realized who she was dealing with even if their exact identity remained unknown. This was somebody operating outside any of the usual parties, though she had no idea who else had this sort of funding to put forward. But if it had been any of the Inner Gangs and they had this information they would already have stormed the Bandoliers hideout with a full team of their own individuals. Only someone who operated independently would be outsourcing to Alicia, her being one of the premier people to go to if you didn’t want to deal with the Wolf Clan directly.
So it all began to fall into place, even though it was still a mess. She could see now that the offer was legitimate, the issue was that the dangers it presented still remained. Even if she avoided trouble with the Inner Gangs it still left retrieving the item in question from the Bandoliers base. They might have been a small Outer Gang she’d only ever heard about once or twice but they would still be a dozen men strong or more, not something she could do alone.
“How am I supposed to know what the EDT looks like? I’m no mechanic.”
It wasn’t until the words had left her mouth that she realized she was actually considering the proposal. The longer this discussion went on the harder she found it to refuse, it was a bit surreal. But more importantly upon realizing that the offer seemed genuine her brain had instead gone into risk-reward mode instead of pure skepticism; and the reward was high.
“It will not be hard to find. It is a cylinder, about twice as round as a glass bottle, and just as long. It will have a number of blue fluorescent lights along its length, with a polished chrome body. Obviously this will stand out, and it’s safe to assume it will be in guarded shed within their compound. Finding it should not be a problem, retrieving it might be, thus I hire you, and furthermore the reward you stand to gain.”
Alicia tapped her fingers along the bar as she considered what she should do. She’d need more than herself, and she’d have to use her vehicle which would require fuel expenses which were high, all to find something she didn’t really understand, possibly making enemies she didn’t even know along the way. The more she thought about it the harder it seemed to justify, it would require several powerful people she knew to join. That would require a lot of compensation, and it also left a lot of loose ends that could come back to bite her in the-
As if an answer to her questions the voice added, “As a token of good faith I can have a full tank of fuel delivered to the motorpool for you. Additionally if you need to request aid I can sanction an extra five-day supply of rations as payment to them for up to five people, beyond that you’ll have to take it out of your own share.”
Alicia bent her head forward, lightly knocking herself with the top of the radio as she added that information to the thoughts racing through her mind. This could go either way, but if they were legitimately willing to put a down fee in gas on her then that ruled out any chance of it being a false job, or a trap. That didn’t mean there weren’t still a thousand things that could go wrong, but it at least eased her worries about the payment end of it falling out. That left the logistics, which she didn’t think would be too hard, there were plenty of people she knew who’d be willing to take on any job for a day’s pay, much less almost a week.
In addition she wagered that if it crossed the Wolf Clans position in any way she could probably give this EDT they spoke of to them for a reduced price. She of course hoped that if the Wolf Clan hadn’t already moved on it then they were unaware of what had been in the transport. She’d been so wrapped up in trying to decide if it was a good business decision that she’d hardly had time to consider that the job was indeed to claim a piece of outside technology. She’d be excited but she was too focused on not getting a shit end of the stick to care, plus there were still the Bandolier to worry about.
Coming to a conclusion she spoke, “Fine. It shouldn’t take long to get a group together. I assume you have the Bandoliers location? And a drop-off point? Then I’ll get in touch with you when I’ve got the people necessary. My terms are that the pay is at the drop-off, along with the tank of gas you mentioned, and I’ll make it clear now that if this crosses the Wolf Clan I won’t hesitate to take it to them first. Is this a deal?”
There was hardly a pause before the voice responded, “Deal. I will remain on this frequency. I hope to hear from you soon.”
As the line went silent Alicia let out a sigh, releasing pent up anxiety she hadn’t realized was there. It had been so rapid fire she’d had no time to consider anything else going into full-business mode. She now had to ask if she’d made the right choice, but it seemed kosher as far as she could tell. The fact that he’d so readily agreed gave her hope, of course the man could just be playing her, but she had to go on what she was given. It wouldn’t occur to her until later how the man had known about the device and where it was located in the first place.
Turning the radio off she slid it into a pocket on her vest and looked at Rufus; “Well…are you in? Meh, you don’t need to answer now but think about it. Either way I’m going to go see who I can round up, just don’t tell them the full score at stake, last thing I need is someone getting greedy and asking for a bigger cut.”
She stood up, grabbing a cheap napkin that was sitting in a pile on the bar as she began to walk away from the bar toward the front door. Retrieving a charcoal nub from one of her pockets she began scrawling little notes on the paper and the tearing them into strips. Though much of the poorest caste didn’t know how to read and write it was still a relatively prevalent skill amongst those in the middle and above, and it remained current via the new additions that were shipped in monthly.
Considering who could be useful, and who would take the job was a relatively simple task. Of the dozens of people who she worked with narrowing down who had the abilities most useful for infiltration, and possibly a fight if necessary, didn’t take long. She also knew which ones were the sort to more readily take jobs; some of those she worked with were only in it for extra cash. Others were like her and were willing to take on any job as long as the pay warranted the effort. Within the next minute she’d narrowed it down to a dozen people, and she wasn’t too worried about splitting the reward as she knew she’d be lucky if half of them responded at this time of day.
With a dozen hastily scrawled strips of paper stating simply, “Big reward, big danger. First come, first serve” she opened the door and walked outside.
No sooner had she took a step into the growing daylight than she was met face-to-face with Acacia, one of the Pens more easily memorized faces. Unlike most she had no fear of the girl; rather she didn’t feel particularly any way about her, just another face in this world. She’d heard the stories, but then there were stories about her as well. It didn’t really matter if they were true or not, you did what you had to here, and if they weren’t true then she still understood the need for cultivating (hur hur hur) a reputation.
She honestly hadn’t considered Acacia for the job at all, but now meeting face-to-face it occurred to her she could be useful, and she’d taken some past jobs whether out of boredom or necessity she didn’t know. Contrary to what one might think the Pen was not desolate. True, it took more luck and skill to make edible things thrive inside, but everyday plants and trees could be found everywhere. In particular the factories and suburbs had been overgrown by plants that could live even in the cold winters over the past hundred years. This rendered Acacia a more useful ally than one might imagine at first glance; at any rate she could hold her own so it was worth asking.
Making a mock salute at the green girl Alicia let her in with a simple, “Hey flower power, got a well-paying job if you want to stick around inside.”
Shooting her a thumbs-up before turning away Alicia brought her fingers to her mouth and let out a whistle, raising her hand and waving at two kids on a nearby corner. The brother and sister combo could always be found there, willing to do small jobs for scraps. While she didn’t have much of a heart for most of the kids in this place, as they’d often go back on their word as soon as they got their side of the bargain, she was kinder to these two.
The two fell into the category of mutant that couldn’t hide it, both having fur and feline like features. Named Lil and Eve she made rather frequent use of them as messengers as they’d proven themselves loyal and hard-working, actually doing what was asked in return for their services. This was partly why they weren’t run off by local business owners as they’d gained something of a reputation for being trustworthy, and for that she could spare them a little sympathy. It was the same way she was able to build up to her current state after her father had died, doing small jobs around town until they turned into bigger, and bigger ones.
She handed six strips to each of them, leaning down and telling each who to go look for. Their feline nature wasn’t just for show as they were incredibly agile for children, it was small wonder they’d survived unharmed to this day when one saw how quickly they could scale a building. Thus they made excellent go-to’s, and their knowledge of who was where, and how to get there ensured most messages could be delivered promptly assuming the recipient was in. After promising them lunch if they delivered the notes she retrieved her old walkie-talkie from her hip.
Not everyone had a radio, though most in her circle of “do anything for cash” group used them. As such she knew at least a few of them would have them on, just in case a job came in. The first that came to mind was Doppel, though she knew little of who he really was, she knew he was loyal as long as he got paid and that his power would be useful for taking the indirect approach.
That was all that mattered as she switched to the channel he used and called in a sing-song, knowing he wasn’t the sort to actually be awake at this time, “Hey Doppel, Dooooooppppeeeeeelll~~~~~~!”, it took a while but when he responded she stated simply, “Got a job; dangerous, but good pay. Come to the usual place if you’re interested.”
She didn’t say more before she turned and headed back inside. It wasn’t safe to give details over an unencrypted radio, as anyone with a receiving transmitter could hear what was said. As she walked back inside and headed to the bar to see if Rufus had reached a conclusion she recognized that she was committed now. At this point turning back would only harm her reputation, so for better or worse the job was getting done.
|
|
|
Post by kensei on Dec 5, 2012 6:29:33 GMT -4
It was an almost unheard sound coming from a small warehouse on the edge of High Point and Little Town. Most if not all of the inhabitants had probably never heard recorded music being played. And yet from this two story building, it was playing loud and clear.
With a grin a man easily in his late fifties started to turn up the volume. It had been hell trying to get the ancient stereo system, but it was the kind of project that could only be done at the Kogashawa warehouse. A hundred years ago, Satoru Kogashawa was an Electrical Engineer by trade who had joined the mutant revolution before the lockdown, and was one of the original inhabitants when it started. Ever since then the Kogashawa family had been known for being the people to go to with any problem with electronics.
A younger man with a track runners build, who looked the thirty-three years he had lived walked up to his father, patting him on the back as he looked at the device with slight wonderment. “I can’t believe you actually got this thing to work Pops.” With a nod and a slight laugh the older man pointed at it. ”Well it wasn’t easy, had to rewire most of it, and replace two of the speakers. But you should know that nothings impossible for your old man Gen.”
Gen rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah.” He took a look around the warehouse. The front half of the building had a dozen different tables, arranged in two rows of six, each row next to a wall. Six of them where currently had different kinds of electrical equipment on them that where in the process of repair. The back half served as the storage area for them. They owned three different tool boxes, bundles of copper wire, and even a bookshelf with all kinds of electrical and mechanical how to guides and old college books.
The Kogashawa famaily was well off compared to most that much was true. Gen’s great-grandfather had been instrumental in setting up the power system for the three major crime families, and now they where the ones who kept it all running. Because of all of this, their home and place of work was one of the few civilian areas that had power. Not to mention that on any given day they had a half months ration worth of goods and supplies in total in the warehouse. Though the high cost for the supplies kept there own profits a lot lower then most would think at first glance.
Naturally, though this apparent wealth had made the Kogashawa’s home a natural place to look for would be thieves. But in a hundred years, only once had anyone gotten out of the warehouse with anything of value, leading to quite the reputation for them. Though Gen wouldn’t correct anyone if they associated him with the success rate, in truth most of the crooks where stopped by his father, a man better equipped for more personal encounters. Not to say he couldn’t handle himself, but in anything other then a one on one, wasn’t his cup of team.
Gen walked up the stairs in the back of the place to the second story. Along with being their workshop, the Kogashawa’s lived on the second story. The second story had seen a bit of renovation, with several sheet metal walls being constructed, the quality of which was questionable, into the different rooms. Coming up, the first area was the kitchen and dining room area. From there was a hallway between Gen and his father, Natsuri’s, rooms. And the hallway ended at a door to a large room that took up the front third of the warehouse as Gen’s own office.
Though Gen had learned his families’ trade he had opted to also set out for his own line of work on the side. He had become known for his abilities as a messenger. His unique skill set allowing him to get across the districts in minutes instead of potentially days as it would have for most other people. Gen could manipulate the air around him, which amongst other things allowed him the ability to fly.
Gen walked into his bedroom, grabbing an ancient looking pistol off the night stand next to his bed. He ejected the magazine, as he examined the ammo he had in it. “Damn.. Only four shots..” He whispered before tucking into the back of his pants and grabbing a black cloth long coat off the ground. He paused as he looked at himself in a slightly foggy mirror. He was starting to look more and more like his father, with his shoulder length black hair, a slightly out of order goatee, and his paler then normal complexion, a outcome from several generations of Caucasian mothers.
He shook his head and walked out back to the kitchen. Hastily he threw some food into a small sack of food before heading downstairs. “Hey Pops, I’m going to go take some food to Graps. If anyone comes for me let me know, I have my radio.”
The sun was just starting to come out as he left. It was starting to show itself latter and latter, a sure sign of the coming winter. It wouldn’t be too many more months before the whole town started to freeze. The winter always guaranteed less private work, but it was also when they got the most work from the Bordeaux and Wolf Clan to maintain there power grids. But it was always the hardest season to get through, no matter where you landed in the caste system. It was slightly depressing season, but there wasn’t much he could do about it, so he started to walking towards his Grandfather’s apartment.
Even though it was early, more then a few people where already getting about there business. Day time was a short commodity in the Pen, and an extra sale, or one more person asking to hire you could be the difference between eating that night or not. Survival of the fittest, or luckiest, as it where, and it was a lifestyle as natural to Gen as breathing.
It wasn’t often he chose to walk the streets, but he didn’t have anywhere to be for once. Though the distance between his grandfather’s apartment and there warehouse hardly even warranted any other kind of travel. Even just briskly walking it had only taken him twenty minutes to make it there. He knocked on the door when he arrived, as he yelled out. “Graps, its me.”
From behind the door a half dozen different locks could be heard being undone, until the door finally opened slowly, as a wrinkled old man with long white hair that reached down to his upper back peered around the door, studying Gen for a moment before taking a few steps back and widening the door. “Oh good you brought food. I was wondering when you would show up. I have the most extraordinary thing to show you Gen!” He said as he motioned him inside.
The apartment was slightly small, but enough to accommodate a single person’s need. As soon as you walked in there was the main living room area, with a kitchen directly behind it, separated only by a bar, and a single bedroom to the right. But Gen’s eye was instantly caught by an odd looking device in the middle of the living room. His grandfather, Noboru Kogashawa, waddled over to it as quickly as he could, his arm hardly being able to bring the cane forward fast enough to keep up with his legs.
“Can you believe it Gen? I won this in a poker match with Henry Norman. It wasn’t working at first, but a few hours later and it is playing now!” Henry Norman was a well known collector of old technology, and was a frequent customer of the Kogashawa’s, it was in fact he who owned the stereo system they where repairing.
Gen started to scratch his head as he examined it. “I can’t? I guess. I honestly have no idea what it even is..”
“Nonsense boy! It’s a movie projector! When I was growing up a few of the theaters where still running, and apparently this had been salvaged from one of them. I haven’t gotten the sound working yet, but it will project now. He even included a few old films he had been collection over the years. Say, care to watch one? The generator is in the bedroom if you want to go grab it.”
“Um sure. Sounds interesting.”
It was more then confusing to say the least. Everything Noboru owned was an early 2000’s movie. And so he sat there for nearly an hour watching all sorts of things happen against his grandfather’s wall, but not a single sound was to be heard. It was a rather odd sensation to watch people talk and not hear it, and see people fight with no context as to why. But at the same time, seeing a wall made into a portal to some fantastic alternate world was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
But the experience was cut short as his father called him on his radio. “Gen. A message just came in for you from Alicia, seems she’s got some sort of big job. You gonna take it?”
He grinned to himself; it had been a while since he had anything challenging come up. The least he could do was hope it was a bit of fun. “Sure, I’ll hear the details. I’ll be heading that way now. I’ll let ya know what’s going on when I get home.” He said before standing up and helping his grandfather out of his chair. “Alright Graps, I’ll see you tomorrow. Gotta fly.” He said as he gave him a hug before walking out the door.
As soon as he walked out, he jumped over the railing, but instead of falling to the ground he was quickly ascending high about the city. Though he had learned from past experiences, flying to much higher then the roof tops warranted a warning shot, and then a kill shot from the walls century turrets. But at the rate he was moving, it wouldn’t take him more then ten minutes to get to the other side of Little Town where Alicia lived. Though given how far his place was, he had to wonder if he was going to be the first one there or not. Either way it didn’t matter much, he wanted to hear her out on this job, and he hoped it would actually pay a few days rations if it really was a big one.
|
|
|
Post by Darkoda on Dec 5, 2012 21:13:09 GMT -4
It wasn’t exactly a surprise to run into Alicia at the restaurant; after all, everyone knew that the woman lived on the top floor of the building and she had gotten herself involved in enough trouble that Acacia would well aware of who she was even if she didn’t see her every now and again when doing business with her clients. That and the people who didn’t flinch around her pretty much meant that she should pay some attention to them.
She had no comment to Alicia’s energetic message, both because she could see that Alicia was busy with her new job and that up to now, she really didn’t know how to deal with the gem girl. Acacia couldn’t make up her mind whether she was trying to be neutral, friendly, annoy her or all at once however that happened to work out. Still, Alicia’s jobs had the benefit of generally being interesting if nothing else and it couldn’t hurt to listen to the offer.
Acacia walked into the pub and past that massive bouncer, who quickly moved to get in front of her with more than a little trepidation – good, so he remembered what happened last time. Acacia simply stared at him and gave a beatific smile while he tried to figure out what to do from here. It did make sense; on one hand he would want to search her and her goods again but then when he tried it last week, he was unfortunate enough to run into Acacia in a bad mood and she might have accidentally made her body secrete a blend of Mala Mujer and Poison Ivy sap that she was experimenting with.
She did eventually cure him after getting a promise to never touch her again. Those psychology books were right, negative reinforcement was quite useful. “Move.”
And so he did. This was why she loved collecting books, so much useful information about how to get things done. Speaking of, it was time to get some more out of Rufus. Completely ignoring how she basically terrorized his employee (he was a bouncer, he knew what he was getting into) she took her cart to the bar and Rufus.
“Well now, I have your normal items and a few more interesting ones.” Her hand dove into the cart, bringing out a bag woven from leaves that opened to reveal a series of oddly shaped brown chunks with what looked like fruit scattered throughout. “I made quite a bit of progress with that last book.”
Indeed, a payment she had collected a few months ago had been a book detailing the manufacture of chocolate. It was not a fun process finding a source of chocolate pure enough for her to even begin trying to recreate what they called a cacao plant (she didn’t even entertain the thought of finding one of those) then she had to sample the bitter and likely stale thing a few times and go about the lengthy, tiring process of creating a new plant.
It wasn’t very hard to figure out that Acacia wasn’t limited by normal plant behaviour – the very fact that she could maintain and guard a park sized garden on her own suggested that she was doing something to keep things running smoothly and she was more than capable enough now to create plants if she knew enough about them. Of course this was easier said than done especially when she wanted something that she’d never experienced. It was one thing to go from an orange to tangerine, another entirely to equate candy to a plant.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t have the time though and while she wouldn’t doubt that her version had nothing on the real deal, the seeds of the fruit when mixed with some other plants gave something that was most certainly unique. The problem here was that she needed someone who knew what chocolate should taste like. That was where Rufus came in. It wasn’t the first time she asked him to test her creations and it wouldn’t be the last as long as she found outside things that interested her. She’d weeded out any potential poisons on the desperate and was certain that it wasn’t in anyway toxic, so all that was left was getting the proper taste.
|
|
|
Post by Zhiel on Dec 8, 2012 23:33:25 GMT -4
Although it wasn't customary for him to do so, Rufus stayed nearby and listened to the person on the other end of the walkie-talkie as Alicia did, normally he'd leave so as not intentionally eavesdrop but his curiosity was piqued and if Alicia truly wanted him to take a hike she would indicate it in some manner. Though he wouldn't call it friendship (Such a thing was hard to come by in a place like the Pen) the two of them had an understanding and respected each others, and they both benefited from the other, things which lead to a lot more trust than one might find in most places in their little world which was probably why she didn't mind his presence during the negotiations. Not being the one asked the hard question (that being if he'd take the job or not) Rufus kept his eyes open and made sure none of the few customers around got close enough to hear, as he suspected the information on the job itself would be valuable to some.
Naturally his thoughts drifted away to wonder about the job itself, it would have to be something pretty serious to be worth two months worth of rations which to most "middle-class" individuals would be life-altering, and even for Rufus who was on the higher end of the "well-off" scale it would have a severe impact.
When finally the subject of the job itself came up Rufus attention shifted almost entirely to the voice when he mentioned the crashed 'chopper. It had been an unexpected and to some degrees a very interesting period as most people had begun to worry about retaliation from the outside, and also rather profitable to him as the worry meant more people drowning it in alcohol. Rufus himself had expected some interesting things to pop up over time, either from the Wolf Gang themselves or the people who still scavenged old abandoned areas, though they were few (due to most things having long since been stripped clean) they sometimes uncovered something new, sadly that was not the case as even asking the Wolf Clan traders he dealt with every now and again if anything interesting had come up was only met with "you don't need to know". Which at the time he assumed meant they just weren't going to share it, but at this point he suspected they just didn't want to admit they had missed out on the good stuff to avoid looking weak.
To think that it had been the Outer Gangs that managed to get to the crashed 'chopper first... It seemed clear that it hadn't just been for shits and giggles at that point, it had been planned no doubt though if they were after something specific or just randomly grasping for whatever they could was hard to say, but either way it was scary in it's own way. Then the subject of the Sire came up, the supposed leader of the Outer Gangs and a god according to some, though Rufus suspected much like Alicia that whoever he was, it was something a lot more mundane than that. Rufus had tried to gather information on the Sire in the past, but information he got off the street was never credible and any attempt of hiring someone to enter the Outer Gangs territories to find out more met with failure, either through them never returning or simply coming back and refusing to talk about their experience out there... Eventually he gave up on actively looking.
The voice soon got to the actual task at hand, the recovery of something called an EDT from the gang called the Bandoliers. Even if he had suspected it would be something along those lines when the crashed 'chopper was mentioned it was now clear to him why the reward had been so substantial, yet it was obvious that this job would be incredibly dangerous and unlikely for just about anyone inside the Pen to be capable of doing on their own. Alicia would no doubt be forced to ask others to come along and that would split the reward making it a worse deal the more people she included, as a result he wondered if the reward would actually be enough to justify it... Rufus smirked when Alicia asked how she'd recognize the EDT, apparently she was at least considering the offer something which seemed rather uncharacteristic of her given the risk involved with this assignment and though he himself usually avoided situations where the danger was hard to judge, he couldn't deny that it excited him. Of course it seemed whomever this person was he had thought of everything, as before Alicia could voice any concerns about the need for crew the voice added they'd do a down-payment on gas along with providing additional rations for tag-alongs, now it was really starting to get interesting.
The conversation soon ended with Alicia agreeing on the (rather smart) condition of being able to hand it over to the Wolf Clan if it should be a problem. Naturally if it did come to that he suspected the person on the other line would be pissed even if he made no notion of it now, though one also had to suspect they were up to foul play but there were a lot of factors to consider in this regard and if that were truly the case they would likely have done this differently. Just the same the job itself was intriguing for many reasons, for one he was intrigued by being able to see outside technology once again but even more so if the Bandoliers had the EDT it was entirely possible they had other things that could be sold for a high price stored away as well.
Just shortly after the line went dead Alicia turned to him and asked if he was going to join up, along with keeping the actual reward quiet, something he thought was obvious but it never hurt to be cautious in the Pen, before she went to exit the pub leaving him to think about his answer. He had assumed he'd be invited to join the 'party', though when actually asked he was struck with indecisiveness, part of him relished in taking on risks and another reasoned he hadn't built up his place in their society by being reckless... Ultimately he felt that if he didn't 'live' a little then he might as well just lay down and die, it had been too long since he felt any real rush anyways, and as long as he didn't take unnecessary risks during this job he'd likely live to serve drinks another day.
It was only a minute later when Acacia entered the establishment and Rufus watched with hidden bemusement as she gave the bouncer quite a scare. It wasn't that Rufus didn't care about his employees, quite the opposite, in fact he had been just about ready to hunt the girl down if she'd left the man the way he ended up after her last visit, luckily that was never necessary. A bad mood was no excuse for not following the rules of his place after all, and she was lucky she was a supplier and not a guest in that instance, it allowed her a smidge more leeway. However that was not to say that Rufus disliked the girl in any way, in fact he respected anyone who could find their own place in this insane world and make it work, and she was pleasant enough more often than not.
Acacia then brought the cart she had up to the bar, at which point Rufus greeted her casually, she then mentioned having something unusual along with the ordinary, Rufus tried to hide it he couldn't help but gulp a little when she did so. The girl sometimes asked him to try the new things she somehow conjured up, likely as both a sales pitch and to get an 'outside opinion' so to speak. And while he couldn't say the taste was ever mundane, it wasn't alway he could describe it as "good" either... And he had gotten sick once, it had been pretty bad though thankfully nothing life-threatening. However Rufus had a policy to never serve anything he wouldn't eat or drink himself (Due to quality anyhow), so as a result he had to either refuse her 'extra offers' entirely or just deal with it. And he'd be lying if it hadn't boosted sales from the richer crowds, so he could live with it.
Acacia grabbed a leaf-bag from her cart and revealed a bunch of brown chunks sprinkled with fruit as she commented on the last book she had gotten from him, and if his memory served it was one related to the production of chocolates... Now this was intriguing to say the least, he hadn't expected her to get any results from that one that even remotely resembled the real thing, but here she was with what looked like a rough variety of the chocolate he had eaten in his youth (except for the fruit anyway). Picking up one of the chunks Rufus brought it up to examine it more closely, he wasn't about to swallow something unknown whole, even if he doubted the girl would intentionally harm him with a business arrangement (It was bad for business after all) such as taste-testing a product. Rufus then sniffed it a little to see if it smelled odd, but found it rather refreshing, likely due to the fruit bits in it more than the chocolate itself. Being satisfied with his examination Rufus finally took a small bite out of it, first letting it roll around in his mouth a bit before chewing a few times as he examined it's taste and it was quite clear from the get-go that he enjoyed the taste. Though he couldn't quite place it, it felt almost right, and it definitely wasn't anything wrong with it in it's current state. He then put the rest of the chunk in his mouth and was satisfied to notice it didn't noticeably change with a larger quantity (You never know).
Having finished tasting the chocolate Rufus nodded approvingly to Acacia. "I'm impressed, though I can't quite remember how the real thing tasted yours was close, and it's definitely quite a treat. With a bit more work it'll be quite the delicacy." Rufus said, a bit of enthusiasm showing in his voice which wasn't something you saw in him every day. Having said that Rufus dove down under the bardesk and a seemed to be looking for something, and a few seconds later came back up and put a rather large book on the table, no hardback and barely holding together but despite the shape one could easily read the title "Biology 123" under which was "An advanced beginners book on biology". It was an interesting book that while old with current standards would likely be quite fascinating for someone like Acacia who was both human and plant. "It doesn't need saying, but it's in pretty bad shape. Goes to figure the government would cut corners on the most important books for the future doesn't it? So if it interests you, be careful while handling it." And as he was saying this he noticed that Alicia was on her way back in once again, and as she came over to the bar Rufus looked at her with a smirk on his pale face. "I'm in."
|
|
|
Post by Tagz on Dec 11, 2012 23:42:57 GMT -4
Mouth agape, the big man yawned violently as he continued to strut down the densely populated street. Having such a large stature did have its advantages, but it also had its downsides. He was an easily spotted target for aggressive merchants. It’s been over a century since Doppel had seen the outside world, but as far as he could remember regular merchants were not this belligerent. Still, this particular merchant was insistent on getting Doppel to buy one of his broken shoes. The fact that it could probably last a few more weeks was its best selling point. However, he forced the man to retreat by simply picking up his pace. No merchant in this neighbourhood would be so stupid as to leave his wares out in the open. It was then that a saving grace called out his name.
And she called it out in the most irksome way.
“Hey Doppel, Dooooooopppeeeeeeeelll~~~~~~!” He couldn’t do much but let out a sigh. He didn’t need to ask who was singing on his walkie-talkie. Why was this young girl such an early bird? Granted “sunrise” was technically much later for the inmates than it was for the outside world, but that was beside the point. How could people be up this early? It had to be around ten in the morning. Who gets up before 3:00pm? Had his blissful slumber not been rudely interrupted, or his room not been ridiculously illuminated, he’d be sprawled out on his dirty mattress right now, dreaming about belly dancers and rum. Instead, he was yawning his way down the street with a high pitched voice singing on his hip.
He let out another sigh before grabbing his walkie-talkie.
“Damn it, Alicia What do you need?”
“Got a job; dangerous, but good pay. Come to the usual place if you’re interested.”
“Fine.”
He was immediately interested, but would wait until he was face-to-face with the girl before asking for more detail. Alicia was one of the few people he could work with. He trusted her to do what was best for her own well being. This meant that there were fewer surprises. Of course, there would always be the possibility that she’d have some secret side-deal made with an unknown party that she wouldn’t tell him about. So the prospect that what was best for Alicia’s well being would be a threat to Doppel’s is something that he always kept in mind. Nevertheless, their numerous past dealings have made him somewhat comfortable around her and therefore more willing to accept the jobs that she offers him. Still, she was relatively intelligent. Intelligent inmates were dangerous. On the other hand, moronic inmates were also dangerous. Worse yet, they were unpredictable. As well, this mission was apparently dangerous too. With all this danger around, the stocky man felt naked at the moment. The only firearm he possessed was a small six shot and though it was on him, it wasn’t the greatest insurance he’d have asked for.
Changing directions, Doppel made his way to the young girl’s house. She lived in the same building as the bar he frequently visited. Passing through an alleyway, he’d take a quick shortcut in order to get to that side of town. He was best recognized in that bar as an alcoholic brunette. Upon reaching the alley’s halfway mark, that was exactly who he had become. Now young and slim while standing at a cool five feet and nine inches, the large pants he wore as a six-foot-eight titan became gargantuan. A hunting knife, a needle, and a roll of string, these were things any shape-shifter should carry. With skill and finesse, he turned a mammoth’s jeans into hot pants and a triple extra large t-shirt into a small tank top.
Gliding out of the alleyway, Doppel reached the bar within moments, he hadn’t been very far when Alicia called in the first place. Once at the door, he was immediately greeted by the bouncer who would surely recognize him now. “What’s up, man? Life treatin’ you well?” The woman presumably known as Lydia would try to force a smile in the bouncer’s direction. “Lucky, cuz it’s been kickin’ my ass. Hopefully some early mornin’ booze’ll pick me up.” Digging his hands into his pocket he stepped inside the building. Hazel eyes scanned the scenery. There were a few people there, but it was relatively empty so it didn’t take much effort to find Alicia. She was at the bar with the handy botanist, Acacia. Doppel had bought many supplies from her before. She was a very useful girl to be acquainted with; however, she probably wouldn’t recognize him as he was right now, but would easily identify him by his universal moniker. Then there was Rufus who stood behind the counter sniffing some brown stuff.
Doppel began to make his way towards the three individuals. Apparently satisfied with the smell of brown chunks he began to nibble the thing. The particular chunk in his hand had some fruits in it. Brown chunks with fruit? What in the world was Acacia trying to make? What sort of concoction did she produce? Long, bare legs carried the ‘woman’ ever closer to Rufus. It was clear that he was completely fixated on the item Rufus was now tossing into his mouth with reckless abandon. The aroma of the chunks was quite strange. The smell of the fruits clearly dominated, but it was the texture that had grabbed his attention. ‘It couldn’t be…’
Sitting in the stool directly in front of Rufus, he waited eagerly for what the young man would say. It was clear that he was taste-testing Acacia’s newest creation. What was his final analysis? Was it good? Was it bad? Was it chocolate?
Rufus nodded approvingly towards the green-skinned girl. “I’m impressed, though I can’t quite remember how the real thing tasted, yours was close, and it’s definitely quite a treat. With a bit more work, it’ll be quite the delicacy.” His words were pleasant, but the latter half suggested that it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Doppel could assume that it didn’t exactly taste like a Nestle Crunch bar or a Twix, his two favourite chocolate bars as a child. However, curiosity began grating at him. He eyed the other chunks that remained in the bag made from woven leaves as Rufus presented Acacia with a biology book and began talking to the rest of them. The old man had come to the conclusion that this mock chocolate wasn’t as good as the real thing, but Doppel still wanted to try it; however he was hesitant. This was most likely Acacia’s first attempt. Perhaps giving Rufus a bit more time would be the wisest move. He may have wolfed it down without problems, but what if it played with his digestive track? For all anyone knew, Rufus could be glued to the toilet for the next week and a half. That wasn’t a fate Doppel wanted to suffer through as well.
Throwing caution to the wind, he whipped out his arm and snatched a chunk out of the leaves, immediately tossing it into the air. Cocking his head back he did as the invisible dentist asked him to and said, “Aaaaaaaaaaaaa~!” In its descent, the fruity chunk landed flawlessly into the elderly man’s mouth. Biting down on it was a poor idea. Had he done so the juicy fruits would have dominated the mock-choc’s taste as it did its scent, and yes, he now called them mock-chocs. So rather than biting the chunk, he sucked on it instead. Interestingly enough, the mock-choc’s texture was just right. It began melting in his mouth just like it should. The more he sucked, the larger the bulges of the fruits became. Within moments, all that remained were the bits of fruit that were, for the oddest reason, imbedded in the chunk of mock-choc. Now, he happily chewed on the fruits. His curiosity had been laid to rest.
“Y’know, there shouldn’t be any fruits in your mock chocolate chunks. If anything, you should try putting some caramel into it. Can you make caramel? Cuz I’m telling ya, that’d make your mock-chocs the best in the city. Oh, and while you’re at it, try making some crepes too. Or better yet, some cinnamon buns. Hoho, man. If you ever did that, I’d be your best customer. And you’d be my best supplier. Haha.”
Reaching into his pocket he retrieved two apples and rolled them onto the counter. The morning’s parcel was already being put to good use.
“Well, you’d be my second best supplier. Rufus will always be number one, ain’t that right ol’ friend? Get me the usual, please.”
|
|
|
Post by GoldenKitten on Dec 12, 2012 17:56:21 GMT -4
Almost as soon as Alicia returned to the bar Rufus responded that he was in with a small smile. She merely let out a ‘Hah’ sound and shook her head; he was easy to read in some respects. She was sure he had his secrets, but one thing wasn’t; for all he loved to play bartender at the end of the day he clearly longed for more excitement than he let on. It wasn’t but a few seconds afterward when Doppel showed up having apparently been close by, and that was when her attention was brought to the brown squares.
She’d been oblivious to it at first as while she’d acknowledged Rufus she’d still been in a preparation state of mind. Now that she’d noted it though her curiosity was piqued as it certainly didn’t look like any food she’d ever seen. In fact the more she inspected it the less it looked like food at all and the more it looked like something that came out of a person’s rear-end. With that and the image of Rufus and Doppel casually chomping away stuck squarely in her mind she stood up and walked off, left-eye twitching.
Reacquiring her target in mind she walked to a door that lead behind the bar, momentarily addressing Rufus; “I’m going to go through your logs and see if there’s anything on any possible assets that could be for or against us in this. I’ll be back in ten, or come get me if enough people show. You just keep eating…those…things.”
Her eyes pulled away from the horror from another world they were consuming and with a shudder she proceeded through the door, into a hallway, up a stairwell, and into one of the rooms on the establishment’s second floor. Rufus kept plenty of the juicier bits of information he learned locked away either in his mind, or a more secure location than this. But more mundane facts stored in this small “library” and kept alphabetized. Mostly tabs, who was who, and general information that could be discovered either for free or very little.
While technically off-limits to anyone but Rufus, Alicia had talked him into letting her in if the information gleaned stood to benefit them both. Sure enough it only took her a few moments of poking around before she located a small section on the “Bandoliers”, unfortunately several more minutes rendered no results on anything like the EDT though that wasn’t surprising.
And so for a short while she acquainted herself with what was there; which wasn’t much. One had to assume there was so little information on them because they were a small gang, the information available supported this, and they weren’t even a big deal in the Outer Gangs much-less in here. What did present itself was their location, their mind-set (“Pro-Mutant Strength” – no surprise there), and a rough estimate of their numbers being around a dozen-and-a-half. As he always did Rufus noted who the information had come from, apparently it had been hear-say from a group of Wolf Clan who had been in a short shoot-out with them not to long in the past. This information left a lot to the imagination, and indeed didn’t put them in a much better place than they had already been, but she at least knew where they were going even if she’d have the voice confirm it first.
If accurate then the location was going to be more difficult than the task itself. She figured they could outsmart a handful of members, or at least perform a hit-and-run with minimal loss. The issue was that if they remained in the building listed then they were quite a ways into Old Town. Old Town was a part of the Downtown skyline that had simply never been claimed by one of the major powers as it would have been difficult to defend. This meant you had many streets littered with debris, lined with hundreds of buildings that any stray bandit could have decided to make their home; thus making it a virtual minefield to move through.
Shaking her head she recognized this was quickly becoming a worse proposition than it already had been; it was no wonder they were willing to pay so well. It wasn’t impossible, far from it, but it was incredibly dangerous and required a good deal of skill and luck. Either way she recognized she wasn’t going to learn anymore here and decided to return below after placing the notes on the Bandoliers in their original location.
Once there she found that the only additional face was Gen’s. Her disappointment at the virtual no-show came across when she didn’t acknowledge him instead turning to Rufus, “Is this all?”
When he confirmed it with a nod she brought her hand to her mouth as she pondered what to do. If she was going to call it off, now was the time. Acacia wasn’t even guaranteed to be in, Rufus would go about his life, Gen could be back where he was in a couple minutes flat, and she could handle the verbal barrage the crotchety Doppel would give her. So it was a far better to take that road, than proceed and fail.
It was during that train-of-thought that she felt a tug at her waist-line, forcing her to look down. She had been ready to bury the pervert brave enough to touch her into the ground but was instead met with the expectant smiling faces of Lil and Eve. That they were already back was testament to their speed, though she was used to it by now. While she couldn’t say she was happy with the turn-out, that also wasn’t their fault, so she pointed to Emma who was within ear-shot.
“Fine, but if you order more than a sandwich you’ll both be doing my bidding for the next year. Got it?”
As they nodded and ran off to sit at a nearby table she threw her hands into the air in a gesture of giving up protest. Turning to the four of them there she said, “Well, I might as well give you the score and we can decide where to go from there depending on who’s in.”
She walked behind the counter to stand next to Rufus since there wasn’t enough room for them all to sit there and be discrete about it. As soon as they all pulled in close enough to hear, but not be heard, she began in a low voice. It wasn’t as if they needed to be concerned about being overheard since the majority present were employees, but when you dealt with a world of super powers you at least had to be careful.
“The job is this; retrieve a piece of technology from one of the Outer Gangs. They go by the name the Bandoliers, and should be situated in a building on the third street of Old Town. Payment is five-days of rations, payment is present on delivery. In addition if we get in and out without compromising ourselves I’ll throw in an extra day from my share to each of you. That’s the deal.”
She backed away from the listening group and folded her arms, jovially adding; “Best case scenario we case the joint, send Doppel in looking like one of their boys, locate it, and get it out of there. Worst case scenario I start knocking walls down….well, ok no. Real worst case scenario we all get caught and turned into anal rape slaves for the rest of our lives; but cut me some slack I’m trying to make a proposition here.”
With a wry smile (sometimes true humor was the best humor) on her face she backed up, “Alright, let’s hear your thoughts. I’m no fool, I recognize going that far into Old Town is dangerous, and was certainly hoping for more to show up; had those kids make the full rounds and everything. I need to hear if you’re in, and if you even think we can pull it off with just us. That said with there being fewer of us your shares have gone up.”
Ok…so that last part was a lie, and she wasn’t telling them most of the story. But nobody succeeded in the Pen by being completely transparent. If anything it was safer for all involved to know as little as possible.
|
|
|
Post by Darkoda on Dec 16, 2012 21:59:09 GMT -4
The plant girl studied Rufus’s expression as closely as he studied her chocolate attempt, impatiently waiting for him to get past the obligatory examination for poison – never mind how very bad for business it would be if she got the reputation for deliberately killing her clients for no good reason, though between the shapeshifters and other mutants running about paranoia was never a bad thing so she couldn’t blame him – nor could she really fault him for being a bit hesitant with the whole thing after that incident when he got food poisoning. That was when she learned the hard way that she couldn’t judge toxicity levels of her creations all that well by eating it herself, which in hindsight should have been obvious; she was a plant, what she could ignore might well mess with a more normal person.
She did get some good notes on ways to purge poisons though and he did eventually forgive her. He eventually got around to eating the thing and she examined him even closer – no signs of poisoning, no twisting in disgust, it looked like he actually liked it! The sacrifice of all those test subjects before was well spent. From Rufus’s words though, she still had some tweaking to do to get the correct taste though there was only so much she could do without access to the accurate ingredients. For instance, there was no conceivable way for her to get cow’s milk. Hell, getting milk at all was a pain and she was the one who grew the plants to pry it from! There was a reason she charged an arm and a leg for that.
That was for later though, now was the time for her to feed her growing bibliophilia habit (hey, it was a far healthier hobby than the alcoholism a few residents chose to pursue despite how their drinking habits provided a good chunk of her sales for the raw ingredients. Case in point, she actually knew the word bibliophilia). This book was pretty large and was clearly showing its age with the lack of any hard covering. She’d have to take care to keep it in one piece or more likely, hunt down someone who could repair it. Still, it was a biology book, one that looked decently advanced at that. She carefully opened the book, skimming a few pages to get a feel for the detail. So engrossed she became with this test run that she pretty much ignored the woman who came up and started chomping away at the chocolate (she wasn’t turning down more testers) and only showed a sign of interest when she started her critique.
“First you’d have to tell me what those things are, never heard of any of them. By the way, who are you?”
She still wasn’t actually looking at them mind, far more interested in her new book than those two chewing away or Alicia doing whatever. She next surfaced after Alicia had explained just what they were potentially getting themselves into. Quite frankly, if anyone else was offering this job she’d be wondering just why they were trying to set them up to be killed but Alicia was reliable enough in this case. Still…
“Just who can even afford to pay over a month’s rations?” This was a very important point; she was not about to jeopardise her relationship with the Wolves for any amount of rations and even if she was fairly sure that Alicia wouldn’t want to ruin her business relationship either, this needed certainty. “If we go through Old Town, odds are good that someone, whether thief, guard or otherwise will get in our way and anyone with outer technology would be beyond paranoid right now to protect it – any skirmish in the area would have them on high alert, which could be good and bad. Besides that, in the case of needing force, do you know anything about the gang? The less surprises, the less chance of us getting in some bothersome situation; we all have better things to do than becoming sex slaves.”
|
|
|
Post by Tagz on Jan 3, 2013 5:40:59 GMT -4
It took an tediously long time for Acacia to reply, and when she did, she didn’t have much to say at all. Wholly dismissing much of what Doppel had said. Apparently the young botanist was sickeningly ignorant about the greatest foods of all time. The old geezer’s face contorted to show his censure. Thinking it over, he couldn’t really hold it against her. Acacia was young. She had been born inside the penitentiary. Cinnamon buns and crepes were completely nonexistent. Though the shape-shifter had always been a denizen of Detroit, he was around for a good while before his hometown was turned into a prison. Cinnamon buns were a faint memory, but boy remember that they were delicious. Despite what they say, ignorance is not bliss. He would have to educate the young lass.
“Never heard of ‘em?! How could you shame yourself so? Cinnamon buns are absolutely delicious. Okay, hear this. First, it’s made with yeast dough that is flattened, floured, buttered, rolled over, and all that good ish. Cinnamon-sugar and a whole bunch’a other spices are to then sprinkled all over it’s sexy body. Usually there is none, but if you want you can even add other fillings like nuts, chocolate, coconuts or raisins. Anyway, you roll that shit up and pop it into the oven. When the shit cooks, you take it out and slap it with sweet icing. Hohohoho-man. It’s like heaven, fresh outta the oven. As for the crepe, sorry to say I don’t really know how it’s made, but I do know it had fresh fruits, liquid caramel, and ice cream on it. I also know that it is god damn delectable. That’s right, I said it. ‘Delectable.’ Man! That’s the good stuff, right there. So… yea… you should get to work on that. Y’know, after your mock-choc project.”
Alicia was quite busy. She had been gone for a good few minutes doing who knows what? However, when she finally returned, she did so swathed in disappointment. Clearly the job she had in mind was bigger a pain in the ass than Doppel realized and the golden-haired girl was hoping for more hands to be on deck. The ship was practically barren in her eyes and the group may even sink if they attempted to embark on their mission so shorthanded.
“Well, I might as well give you the score and we can decide where to go from there depending on who’s in.”
As these words flowed out of the young girl’s mouth, the elderly man became more serious. He had always been paying great attention to what the girl had to say. He took full notice of what she said before leaving the group. When she told Rufus that she was going to search through his logs to look for any potential assets they may have against the group she intended to oppose, the old man assumed she was going to hunt for more extensive information on the group. As she spoke however, she didn’t really give the group much information. Perhaps this meant that there wasn’t much information to give. After all, the Bandoliers were no big shots. Doppel had been gathering information for various people over the decades, but he had never been asked to do any digging on the Bandoliers.
Then there was the issue of payment; five days’ of rations per person that would be present upon delivery. All together that would add up to over a month’s worth of rations. Who was capable of delivering on such a payment? It didn’t look like it was one of the three major factions that were making this request. So who was so rich that they could provide a month’s worth of rations in exchange for some device. More importantly what was so special about this “piece of technology” that it would make someone even think about paying a month’s worth of rations to get it? That’s a bill Doppel had never seen. And even more important than that, why was Alicia willing to add a day’s worth of rations to each individual’s payment to sweeten the deal? That would be about four days’ worth of rations right there. If she was getting paid five days’ worth of rations, that’d leave her with only a day’s worth herself. So, counting the day’s worth of rations she was currently offering, everyone would be putting their lives on the line for six day’s worth, practically a week, while Alicia was putting her life on the line for a day’s worth?
No. She was a smart little girl. The thought was nonsensical.
Clearly she had been given the juiciest deal amongst the group, and knowing their relationship, Rufus was probably in on it.. The danger was being distributed evenly amongst the group, but the payment was not. What was Doppel to do about this situation? He did just receive two weeks worth of rations earlier this morning. He could easily turn around and go back home. It wasn’t as though he was all too desperate for work at the moment. However, if he earned himself another week’s worth, he’d have a surplus of supplies like he’s never had before. It was high time he splurged a bit. Perhaps it’d be best if he left the payment issue alone. Hell, if Alicia was willing to cut out four days worth of rations out of her own paycheque, that may actually be evening things out. A total of three week’s worth of rations was on the line here. The danger was high, but the old man would be living like a God amongst men for the next little while. His mouth was salivating just thinking about all the women and liquor he could purchase with that kind of cash. No doubt, he was most definitely down for this mission.
Oh? Alicia was only making it better. Since there were just a few people who showed up, Doppel’s share had been increased. Excellent! In! Definitely in!
Despite his internal excitement, his outwardly appearance showed no change. In a mellow, melodic tone, he spoke his mind just as Alicia had asked of him.
“Yes, Acacia raises a good question. How much men are we up against. Counting heads, there’s only five of us present. If worse comes to worse and we have to fight our way out, how much men do we have to knock aside? Do you have their names and do you know what their mutant powers are? Who is their leader? What’s the hierarchy of the group? Who’d be the best person for me to imitate? Do we kill the original or simply gag and bag ‘em?
And to the rest of you, how good are you all at moving stealthily? Stepping through Old Town without hindrance is nigh impossible. We could be attacked and killed before even getting to the Bandoliers. Wouldn’t that be fuckin’ hilarious? As long as there ain’t more than twenty dudes in their squad, I think we got a chance. But we gotta plan our shit out like crazy. Ally has already stated what my job is, and I assume she will be our wall-knocking-downer.
We need to utilize the amount of hands we have as efficiently as we can. Everyone must play off of their skills to the greatest degree. We also need to find a way through the minefield that is Old Town with the least amount of problems possible. When we get to the Bandie Boys’ hideout, we really do need to case the joint and find a way to use the environment to our advantage, escape route, back-up escape route, and all.”
|
|
|
Post by Zhiel on Jan 5, 2013 14:39:49 GMT -4
OOC: Sorry for the time it took and the shoddy quality. Will do better next time.
After affirming that he was going to join Alicia's crew the woman seemed ever so slightly amused, maybe he was just a little too transparent in certain respects. Moving on Rufus noted Doppel's words to Acacia, apparently he/she/it was fairly knowledgeable regarding treats from the outside world, hinting that he(or she) was either from outside or one of the few mutants who were still alive from before The Pen, and given he was a shapeshifter Rufus could see the potential for the later depending on the amount of control Doppel had over his physiology. He had suspected that he might be far older than one might suspect, but nothing like that, this was definitely going in the files.
Sure it might be rude to keep information files on 'friends' or 'allies', but in a place like the Pen todays ally was tomorrows adversary, and files like those he kept on Doppel and Acacia were more for personal perusal than something he sold, there were exceptions of course but he didn't like stabbing someone in the back without a good reason, and a days rations was not a good long-time investment for losing a potential future resource in Rufus eyes. "Never figured you as the kind of person that would have such knowledge, where'd you learn that?" Rufus asked after Doppel had finished lecturing Acacia on the awesome that was Cinnamon Buns, he was trying to pry some more data from the guy/gal though he was genuinely impressed he had such detailed knowledge of how to make something probably never seen inside the Pen for ages if at all, Rufus figured Doppel's memory had to be pretty darn good.
After a while Alicia returned from out back, at first he had been reluctant to let her enter the room at all, but it had been unnecessarily time consuming and overall annoying for him to have to do all the info checking himself when she wanted some basic info for a job, all he had to do was move a few more sensitive documents and then it was pretty much safe to let her use it however much she wanted. Though he still required her to let him know when she was going in there and it had to be for a job, while most of the information he kept there was barely worth anything it was still part of his business after all. The most important information he kept in his head, his memory was near perfect and all he needed to recall details about something was a slight reminder, which was why he kept a record for just that purpose, however to anyone else it would be nonsensical words and numbers that had no coherency whatsoever.
After Alicia explained the score to the others she was asked several questions, all legitimate given the situation, and Rufus was sure the woman would have thought of a response soon enough, she was smart and knew how to get her way though he wondered if her comment about giving them a part of her share if things worked out well would spark suspicion in some of the others, though maybe it was just because he knew the actual deal that he put any thought into that. Either way Rufus waited for her to answer the questions posed before he spoke himself. "Regarding getting through Old Town, I 'know' a guy who might be able to help. His names Randal, he's lived out near Old Town for a long time so he should know how to get around as well as recent developments, and if nothing else he's an extra body to our group. If you want me to I can try and get in touch with him." After which he turned to Dopple "My powers not amazing when it comes to battle, but if we're going for a sneaky approach then it could be useful in the right circumstances. Hard to say at the moment however." Rufus fully recognized he wasn't that great for jobs like these, though he had his uses. Few could kill someone from behind without making a sound as quickly like he could, nor make breaking through something as easy and (relatively) silent as he was capable. That and he was good at reducing the efficiency of heat-based powers around him, though that could be counter-intuitive in a group since that would mean anyone around him would be very cold as well.
|
|
|
Post by GoldenKitten on Jan 5, 2013 15:14:28 GMT -4
It wasn’t as if Alicia hadn’t expected questions and complaints when she asked for input. Quite the contrary she expected the flurry of thoughts that streamed from Acacia, and more so Doppel. It was only reasonable, anyone would have these concerns, and though she wasn’t sure exactly how old he was she knew the shape-shifter had knowledge as far back as half-a-century or more ago. So if anyone was going to be the one thinking this through as hard as she was, it would be him.
That said responding was going to be a careful balancing act. The group assembled weren’t exactly friends; they might not go hunting each-other down but they owed no allegiance. So she had to make the deal appetizing, something they would actively desire. But at the same time if she divulged too much they’d start wanting a bigger piece of the pie. Most present weren’t stupid, they’d likely worked out that Alicia was getting a bigger percentage than the rest, that just went without saying. Most deals of this nature worked that way, so it was often an accepted part of dealing with business, but if she let her tongue get to loose they’d start trying to get more than was on offer since they knew it was there.
She responded to Acacia first, “The dealer is going anonymous. It’s not the first time I’ve seen such behavior, and given the sizable payment it’s a reasonable thing to do. I’ve thought it out and decided it has to be someone outside the three head gangs, there’s just no logical way to conclude it’s anyone else. I thought about it possibly being a trap or means to incite violence through a third-party by the Bordeaux or Bangerz, but if you think about it that makes no sense. If they wanted it themselves they could easily put the manpower together to eliminate the Bandoliers, and if they were trying to start something they’d pick someone more politically unstable than I am.”
She’d been fiddling with the bar-top as she spoke drawing invisible circles with her fingers, “My position with the Wolf Clan is solid. If for whatever reason they wanted this tech I’ve bought myself enough grace room with them over the years to turn it over to them for a reasonable price. So I’m not a valid target for creating chaos, nor are most of the people the contact would know I’d call on such as yourselves.”
She stopped drawing and looked up, “So the clearest thought I can have is that we’re dealing with a well-funded individual who’s survived by keeping their total asset worth a secret, and intends to keep doing so. They’ve already placed a down payment in fueling my vehicle, and you know that’s no small feat. I can’t promise this isn’t something that won’t go bad, but the cards seem to be in place for a solid, if secretive exchange.”
As she finished she turned her eyes to Doppel who was dropping questions ten-times faster than Alicia could answer the first question in detail. Thankfully they were of the less bothersome sort. The origin of their recruiter was going to be a sore spot through the entire operation if it came to pass, but explaining the details of that operation was far simpler. Doubly-so when Doppel was imbibing, she was no fool he could hold his alcohol and it may have partly been for show, but she suspected it’d effect his judgment to a degree.
“They’re small, confirmed at a dozen-and-a-half members. That certainly outnumbers us and I do not have an intel on their power base, but I’ve reason to be confident this isn’t a concern. Think about it, the Bandoliers are one of a thousand smaller groups that comprise the Outer Gangs. If they had ANYONE of power they would have already seized a higher position in the Outer Gangs, rather than holing up in some ruin on third-street. The Outer Gangs are based almost purely on who’s the strongest; this suggests that even if things turned ugly I could engage the majority of them while the rest of you performed a snatch-and-grab.”
She thought carefully about how much she should say next as she tapped her finger for several seconds before adding, “Additional evidence is proven by the fact that the contact suggests the Bandoliers intend to use this piece of claimed technology to raise their ranks in the Outer Gangs, not something a group with powerful individuals would need to do.”
What she said next was a total lie, but none but Rufus would know it. The girl had grown-up in the Pen and she did what it took to survive, like-wise the others would be watching out for their own, but none would have been able to tell the lie from her face or actions.
“Now what the contact hasn’t been clear on is the origin of the device though they’ve given a description of its appearance. Given this, the situation I’ve just described with the Bandoliers, and the payment I think we can wager this is a piece of outside tech. I could be wrong, and even if I’m not I don’t know how it got here. But it would explain pretty much all our questions.”
She turned around and pulled herself up so she was sitting on the bar, acting naturally; “Given this I don’t plan to pull punches. As for getting in I think we’ll take a round-about route in my car, play it cool and smart. If we just rushed to third-street it’d be suicide, but there are many ways there that aren’t so heavily infested with bandit activity. And you know me and my baby can play it quiet when we want.”
Rufus spoke up about his contact at that point, Alicia was confident she could get them in but more man-power wouldn’t hurt, “Only if he’s good with the deal, and I’m not offering additional incentive to an unknown. Do what you think is best there.”
Regaining her previous joviality she shot them a thumbs-up, “So if you’re onboard then you just leave getting there in one piece to me. We’ll have to come up with a more situational plan once we’re on site, as naturally we have no way to know their exact camp layout. But all we need to do is keep our heads low, think this through, and live like kings for a few weeks.”
She slid off the bar and put her hands on her hips while cocking her eyebrow; “Does that sound like a good prospect to all of you? Because, if so, you should go get whatever you might need. And meet us in the motor pool in thirty-minutes.”
---------
It had taken a few more words than that, but eventually they’d come to a consensus, something Alicia would not have bet highly on. She suspected her skills of manipulation must have been improving, which was never a bad thing in here, even if she knew not to get cocky. Amidst it all she had been so focused on getting the support needed to carry this out she’d almost missed out on what exactly they were doing. Now that the business was out of the way she found herself able to focus on the actual mission at hand, and realized it really wasn’t too far off from the line she had fed them.
Once she’d bought herself a few moments from the prying eyes of the others she retrieved the new radio, and in very short terms confirmed the knowledge she already knew. The Bandoliers were where they thought they were, and the voice told her that the mutants present were of the rank of “Foxtrot”, lead by a “Charlie”, and that the compound was not well defended.
When they talked about “ranks” it further increased Alicias curiosity about who she was actually working for, and reinforced that she wasn’t dealing with the Inner Gangs. Inside you usually just called someone strong, or weak, or made some joking allusion to their power. Ranks were something the military gave mutants, particularly back before the Pen had been built. If Alicia hadn’t read a little of what literature littered the place from time-to-time she’d not even have understood what they meant, but she at least got the gist. During the war those of the “Charlie” and below ranking were essentially cannon-fodder, meaning the Bandoliers would not prove troubling if outright combat occurred, as she was aware that their party was of higher ranking on that old scale, particularly her when it came to punching things.
With that information in hand she became more confident in their course of action, knowing that even should they fail to be secretive there was a high chance they could blast their way to their goal. And as the voice went silent this allowed her to plot out how they were going to make it to Third Street. As she thought about this she made her way to the motor pool.
The motor pool as the name suggested was an old multi-story car garage for some nearby business that it was no longer connected to. Naturally much like weapons and food vehicles of any sort were a rarity in the Pen, at least working ones. Thus you couldn’t just park your car outside your house; it’d be vandalized or stolen within the hour. Thus the Wolf Clan offered the service of housing ones vehicles under tight security…for a fee of course. Everything cost something in this town, Alicia was just thankful that for the time being she had the funds to pay for all of this, because her jobs would have become far less efficient and far more annoying if she had to walk everywhere.
When she reached the parking lot she didn’t have to do much more than nod at the security to pass through. She was a frequent comer-and-goer here so few bothered to question her presence though one of the Wolf Clan who’d been sitting around a lit barrel, smoking a cigarette (or what passed for cigarettes nowadays) looked up from a game of cards they’d been playing, “Who you working for today Alicia?”
She shot him an incredulous look, “Now we both know it’s best I don’t answer that question.”
He shirked a bit and waved his hand, “Sorry, sorry, making small talk.”
As one would expect the car pool didn’t have many vehicles in it, the number of non-Wolf Clan that could afford a vehicle were few-and-far between, and the clan themselves had a more secure location for vehicles. As such Alicia’s “car” was toward the front of the batch of misshapen pieces of scrap that could be called vehicles here. What she talked about when she said car was more akin to what the outside world would call a dune-buggy, the rollbars of an old car of some make roughly hewn into the shape of vehicle, with wheels strapped on. The engine and all its components were open to the air, and six metal seats had been soldered to any free area rather than being in a uniform position.
The first thing she did as she approached the rear of the vehicle was pop the top of the canister that worked as the fuel tank. When she’d last used it a week ago she’d been running on fumes, and indeed how she was going to get her hands on the Pens working brand of self-made propellant had been a big question. It was readily available, but for a significant price. She could have made the payment of course, but she’d need to have been careful in the following weeks with how she spent to make up for it, but now here she was staring at a full tank.
Both joy and skepticism ran through her at once as she grimaced. On one hand this was a huge boon, on the other hand it meant the contact was serious, and they were indeed going to try this. As she tightened the cap on the lid she looked over at the Wolf Clan who had returned to their game, “Hey, has anyone come in here recently?”
The man from before looked up and shook his head, “Of course not, that’s what you pay us to do! Keep people out!”
Alicia fake-chuckled back, “Haha, yes…yes…of course.”
As the man returned to his game and Alicia stood up, still grimacing at the car she wondered just what she’d gotten herself into. This was the predominant thought that crossed her mind as she leaned against one of the metal bars the car was made of and stared off into space, awaiting the rest of the group so they could get on their way.
|
|
|
Post by Darkoda on Jan 10, 2013 2:10:22 GMT -4
Acacia stayed quiet, considering Alicia’s answers to the barrage of questions she received. An anonymous dealer wasn’t exactly surprising given the circumstances and she did have a point about the difficulty in using them to try to attack the Wolf Clan. If nothing else, this mystery entity’s willingness to provide fuel costs upfront said that they were quite serious – fuel was hideously expensive which also said that what they were retrieving was quite priceless.
The reasoning for the Bandoliers not being particularly dangerous was a bit shakier though. Sure, a strong gang would not need to use Outer tech to improve their standing, but if they weren’t strong, how did they manage to get their hands on Outer tech in the first place? It could have been sheer luck but it was something to keep in mind.
It was quite dangerous but no matter how she looked at it, that much rations would mean that she could effectively make an investment into another of her projects. She did just get a recipe from Doppel about those cinnamon buns. Flour, yeast, caramel and sugar were easy enough to obtain. Cinnamon would be troublesome as she hadn’t worked out all the issues from that yet. Butter was effectively impossible, that would need a substitute.
Of course just because Acacia was satisfied enough she couldn’t just leave things at that, you wouldn’t get anywhere in negotiations if you didn’t try to wring out everything you could. Things did eventually come to some manner of agreement though which left her with the task of dealing with her garden. Of course it was a given that occasionally she had to leave the area for extended periods of time. When she was still in Little Town proper she could rely on most people not being that stupid but to head to the Outer limits meant that somewhere, someone was going to be tempted and she didn’t need to return from their excursion to find that she had to repair her garden yet again.
She did have measures in place for these times; for one the plants themselves were their own security force and the Wolf Clan were not going to just sit by and let random thieves damage their investments. On top of that, Acacia found it prudent to get her own mercenary force mixed in. She walked through her garden in search of said mercenaries and sure enough, she found what looked like a short woman sleeping on top of the oversized flowers. A quick thought had them tilting, sending the girl on a path to the ground before she caught herself with her wings.
“Jill, you’re on guard duty.”
Jill was another mutant whose condition was quite obvious. Looking like a cross between a butterfly and a human, their first meeting wasn’t on particularly friendly terms, Jill and her crew being a group that out of desperation during a few winters past thought that risking her wrath was better than starving to death otherwise and when the operation quickly failed (during winter months she was especially wary precisely because of what the lack of food does to people) she was foolhardy enough to try to stay back and fight her for her friends to escape - brave yes, but quite pointless given where they were fighting her.
Needless to say, Jill lost quite quickly and Acacia herself, weary of having to deal with yet another lost night of sleep, cut a deal with her – Jill and her group would not only get to survive this incident, but she’d keep them alive during the winter. In exchange, she effectively owned them until summer and their first order of duty as her slaves were to keep watch and stop any other idiots from sneaking in. No one entertained the thought of them lying and trying to sneak off; if they were desperate enough to come here in the first place, they had nowhere else to go and all knew it.
Acacia only expected to get a couple months out of them until they bailed but surprisingly enough, Jill stuck around and became a live in helper. The insect girl had proven herself to be useful over time and overall hadn’t given her cause to regret it yet – but then it took a new level of desperation to be willing to beg to live in what was effectively outdoors in a place that had a tendency to attract dangerous idiots. At the least she valued her room and board enough that she was quite willing to work to keep it.
“I’m going to be gone for a bit. It might take more than a day.” She kept walking, not bothering to wait for Jill who, used to this floated after her. “If I’m not back by tomorrow, tell anyone who comes by that they’ll get their delivery at a later date. If you eat out all of my cherries again I will string you up to a tree upside-down when I get back.”
“But they’re so tasty…..”
“I’ll tie you to an outer tree naked high enough for anyone to see.” Tasty or not, Acacia didn’t want to have to spend the energy regrowing all of those in the span of a couple days. They were going out of season soon and as was typical, she had a bunch of late orders coming in from people who wanted to stock up before she stopped being bothered to produce more for the next few months. “I’m sure that there are enough perverts who would get a kick from that.”
“I doubt that but fine.”
That wasn’t very reassuring but she didn’t have time to drill into her skull to leave things be. It could be that Jill thought that she wouldn’t do it but then she of all people really should know better than that. Idle threats made people stop taking you seriously. With nothing more to be done, she grabbed her standard supplies for troublesome trips and headed to the car pool.
She’d never been here before – sure she’d seen it walking by, but given her lack of a vehicle and lack of any reason to even bother trying to get one, it wasn’t a place she had any reason to enter till now and the guards of course did their job and stopped her as soon as she approached. “What brings you here Acacia?”
She shot an annoyed glare that wasn’t directed at him, but directly at Alicia who evidently neglected to tell the Clan that she was expecting guests. “A meeting with Sparkles over there.”
|
|