Note: This is a work of fiction! It is by no means a representation of what the game play of the RPG tales of Hepian is really like. This is a collaboration between the GM and the players to make this happen. Oh, and I love Denmark!
NEW CHARACTERS!
Allison Newman
Allison is a 22 year old mechanic who has lived her hole life in Ranstoc. She got her first taste of oil and steam at the young age of 5, when her father began to teach her the fine art of automotive and clockwork repair. Her father took her under his wing and made her an apprentice in the family's shop when she was 13. At 20 she took over the shop, and has been repairing autos and airships since.
Allison is taller than average for a woman and is lean and muscular. She can be most identified by her large, round glasses which she wears and needs to aid her in seeing.
Odile Black
Odile is a 27 year old prostitute who has lived in Ranstoc her entire life. Her childhood was a humble but miserable one as she grew up in the slums of Ranstoc near the cemetery. Now older and in control of her life, she decides to use her beauty to turn profit and joined in the world's oldest profession. She has learned that pleasing johns aren't enough to make ends meet and stoops to blackmail and extortion for money.
Odile is always dressed for success in her field of expertise. She is a little shorter than average, is plump but in all the right places, as some in a less polite company would say.
GAME PLAY!
The afternoon slowly starts to turn into early evening in the city of Ranstoc, the home of the 43rd World's Fair. The sun sits in the sky as she slowly sinks toward the horizon for her nightly slumber. The shadows start to grow longer, the sky is a shade less blue as gold and purple start to bleed toward the clouds, and all the little birds are finding their roosts for the night. Though, the birds are not the only ones who are choosing places to spend most of the night at. Odile is a professional woman and in the Hepian Empire that does not mean she is a head of a multi-million-pres company (even though there are women who are). She stands near the Lighthouse Bar, a place where she usually avoids but because of the World's Fair she has been having better business. The flow of tourists of both Hepian and foreign alike have made the Lighthouse Bar in the cross hairs of traffic. Lost people from the airfields head toward the lighthouse and then the usual traffic who come for more salacious activities.
Odile waits and watches the streets for a john and a future target. She does not only work with her johns but she also works over them. She watches toward the south as the sun sets and sees a man heading directly toward the bar. He is tall, dressed nicely, and has a marmoset on his shoulders. He holds himself in a commanding way, which tells Odile that he is either use to power or has had a taste of power at one point. She can also tell he is a man who can use his physique well.
She sees the marmoset, it is cute, fuzzy, and just begs for attention which is in contrast to this man's dangerous motif. She adjusts her clothing for maximum affect and puts a little more sway in her step. "Hey," she says as she gives a look which tells the man she is not coming up to him for directions.
The man is struck silent by the woman's beautiful body. It takes him a moment to realize his feet are still planted to the ground. "Hello," he smiles and says in a charming voice, "I am Ezekeal and you are?"
"Odile," she smiles and bats her eyes as she holds out her hand in the daintiest way possible to politely shake. He takes her hand and kisses it in a polite way. She smiles and blushes, "So, what are you doing in this part of town?"
"Looking for a mercenary job," Ezekeal says with some pride. "And you?"
Odile's hopes fade fast, "So you're looking for work?"
"Yes."
"Oh," She says with a sigh. One of the many sayings which many Hepian Prostitutes have is, 'a jobless mercenary is a penniless mercenary.' Though, despite her better judgment, he does look like he has money. She hopes that maybe she can distract him for a while and snatch whatever money loosens from his grip. "Oh, you don't want to go in there," She says as she leans up against him, "there's no mercenary jobs in there. You would be better off being with me. And maybe you could buy us some drinks?"
"Alright," He says with a lust smitten smirk, "Let's go inside and have a drink."
They go into the shabby lighthouse bar. The usual disrepair is there, but since it is night time and there are tourists in town so the crowd has become a little younger than the usual salt encrusted sailors. The old grisly bartender sits behind the worn and scratched bar counter, his long beard hangs from his chin like spanish moss. There are few old men sitting in the counter who are singing sea shanties which probably remind those men of their glory days. A person, who is either hired or has sympathy for these fellows, plays along as the off-tuned chorus belt their half-drunken harmonies.
"Greetings Ezekeal," The bartender shouts as Ezekeal gets with in sight, "Looking for a job?"
"No," Ezekeal points to his new found woman companion, "I think I am spending the evening with this fine lady."
The bartender can't help but scoff as Ezekeal calls Odile a 'lady,' "Well, you have fun there."
Ezekeal and Odile sit at the bar and look at each other. The thoughts of coming in and looking for a job have totally vanished. He finds that he enamored by her beauty.
"Why don't you buy us drinks," She says leaning close enough. But the word "sucker," slips out from under her breath. He ignores it though as he is so taken by her.
"Well," Ezekeal says as he tries to lay on some charm, "how about we get a booth that fits five?"
"Why five?"
"Me, you, our drinks and your big posterior."
"What?!"
"Uh," he thinks for a moment. "I meant that it is nice and big."
"Oh... thank you." She says as she grits her teeth and seriously contemplates leaving. But if she can get money out of this guy without "working" for it then it would be better. "You're so funny! Why don't we drink?"
"No, not right now." Ezekeal says as smiles, "Maybe you should tell me something about yourself."
"How about I just leave." She says with a sigh and she walks to the opposite end of the bar in a huff.
Ezekeal is not phased by the absence of Odile or that she is leaving the bar now. He drinks at the bar and waits for a few minutes. He watches the people coming into the bar and notices two men he saw before with a woman named Evelyn who has a bounty on her head. He doesn't much notice them as he is swimming in some thoughts but he gets up and goes up to the bartender.
"So, finally had some fun?" He says with a dry laugh because he had just seen everything played out. "What are you in the mood for? Protecting, killing, a little of both, or a little less?"
"How about protecting someone?" Ezekeal says with a smirk as he shrugs.
"Oh," he says with a smile as he pulls out a sheet of paper from his leather satchel. "There's this strange little country who wants this man protected. He seems to be a leader of a dance troupe. They seem very concerned for his safety."
"Oh what country?"
"I doubt you have heard of them," the man says as he eyes the words on the paper. Unsure he says, "Fisahes."
"Oh, yeah them," he says as he remembers some of his travels. Fisahes is a small country with little technological prowess but they are one of the major countries for mining. Some of the best diamonds and jewels come from this area and other countries always seek to take them over. The Fisahesian government have thwarted governments for centuries who have tried. One country particularly, Arbondas which borders them to their northeast, has tirelessly tried to take over Fisahes and neighboring countries.
Though, one thing Ezekeal could not understand is why would such a wealthy country be more worried about a leader of a dance troupe than their own officials.
"How much are they offering?" Ezekeal seems interested enough.
"Well," the old bartender scratches the side of his head and looks at the piece of paper, "it says 20 karats on here. And that's karats with a K."
"And when do I stop protecting this man?"
The bartender hands over the sheet of paper to Ezekeal, "It says on there until the end of the World's Fair."
"I think I will meet with them." He examines the form more thoroughly and sees that he needs to meet with the officials of Fisahes to be briefed. They are currently at the Princess Madeline Hotel.
------------------------------------------------------------------
For the last few hours Allison has been seeing a car drive past her mechanic shop. Being in the field of mobile machines, her eyes has been drawn toward to this car every time it has driven past. It is rather hard to tell what is the model or origin since it has been modified heavily, but the fact remains that the car is stretched out, any sharp edges have been smoothed out, and someone took time to put quality work in each and every aspect of it. For the last few hours it has been parked in front of a neighboring shop which belongs to a recluse inventor. She is not really sure of the inventor's name but she is sure that it is a man since she has passed the shop several times and seen a man sitting behind the counter toying with clockwork gadgets.
She closes her shop early to get out and stretch her legs. As she goes down the street, Ally decides to see if the strange car is still around so she could get a closer look. Though, as she turns a corner three men are there loading something in a black cloth bag into the back of the wondrous car. She looks at the bag and how carefully they are handling the bag. She starts to connect it to a moving picture show she once saw where the same thing was happening. The characters in the moving picture show had just killed a man and they needed to get rid of the corpse so they opened the trunk of the car, carefully loaded the bagged body into it, and sped off into the night. Her mind starts to race as the real life scene starts to play out in front of her.
She comes closer to investigate who these men are. She recognizes the first man off the bat, the recluse inventor and neighbor. Though he is very identifiable by his mechanical limbs. At the moment he is wearing his casual wear underneath a large leather apron, a welding cape, and goggles which are placed on top of his head. The other man is tall, gaunt, and has curly hair which looks like it is trying to escape from underneath his top hat. He looks like an eccentric with his eye patch, one gloved hand, and cane which is hanging off his arm since he is helping the other two with the bag. Slowly her mind comes to the conclusion that this is the world renown inventor of Larsmark, Fredan Tarlister. The other man is short, pudgy, and has absolutely no hair on his head. He doesn't seem to be very important.
She approaches even closer and Tarlister spots her. He starts to panic, "Quickly! We must get this in before she sees what we have done!"
She stops and thinks about this and she takes out a giant tool. With threatening motions she starts to scream, "Tell me! What you are doing?!"
"You can't know!" Erwin starts to wave his arms frantically, "You have to wait until the World's Fair!"
"Wait, what?" She says with extreme confusion, "You're displaying a dead body at the World's Fair?"
"No you daft girl!" Shouts Tarlister as they finally place it safe in the truck of his car. "It is a machine!"
"Prove it." Ally says defiantly.
Erwin frantically looks into the bag and opens up the machine. He takes out a part with a small yank, hoping that this would convince her. Erwin holds up the piece of machine in hopes that she will calm down. Though with the dimming light in the sky, she can't make out what it is except it is dripping something which she assumes is blood but in reality it is oil.
Tarlister snatches back the piece of machinery and puts it back into the motor area. He then takes it out and puts it on the ground. Ally does not know what she is exactly looking at. It looks like a large cylindrical canister with wheels at the bottom and a hose stuck onto it. He turns it on and it starts making a strange a strange noise of a fan running very quickly and air being moved. The hose starts to sway slightly as rocks, bugs, and other things on the ground start to get sucked into the hose. These objects start to rumble around in the canister and if anything was living, now it is getting obliterated.
Ally panics and starts backing away as she sees things getting sucked into the machine. She is under the clear thinking that if objects are going into the machine then they are probably going to come out with as much or greater force.
Tarlister is satisfied with the results and comes up to the machine and turns it off. "Well, my dear, I hope this is proof enough."
"Is that some sort of cannon?! Is that some sort of weapon?"
"No, it is quite the opposite," Tarlister says with a smile. He pats the machine and doesn't notice that strange liquid that is dripping from it. "This will make all of our lives easier."
Erwin though notices the strange fluid that is coming from the machine. He jumps toward it and Tarlister watches as Erwin investigates the machine. Feverishly, Erwin opens up the top and looks inside to only see to his disgust it is full of rocks, dirt, and dead animals. Apparently it sucks several large insects from the ground or flying past the hose. There are also what looks to be some frogs in the mix. The horrifying site also has a peculiar smell to it. Erwin dumps out the gruesome contents.
"We can clean the rest of it out at the fair," Tarlister says approvingly. "But we must hurry to the grounds!"
"You can't tell anyone about it," Erwin says as he helps Vance and Tarlister pack the machine back up.
"How do I know this isn't a weapon you're going to unleash at the fair?" Ally is rather unnerved by the strange machine and the actions it does. If it sucks up small animals and kills them, then what could it do to a human?
Tarlister shakes his head and sighs, "I think we can both agree you saw nothing." He hands Ally a bundle of Pres.
"I did not see anything," She says as she grabs the money trying to control a suddenly smile. She quickly counts the stack and see she was handed 200 Pres. "Yes, I absolutely saw nothing. I hope you gentlemen have a pleasant evening."
She walks off back to her shop and closes it up the rest of the way. She thinks about the money she received and that tomorrow she probably won't work because of the opening of the World's Fair. She thinks for a moment what she could do and comes to the conclusion that going to a bar would be nice. She travels to the Fish Mongrel.
The Fish Mongrel has been a place for many people to go. Usually those who are not fancy enough to go into the Ocean View Bar in the Fish Market. This is where the fishermen, the blue-collared workers, and the other average people go. Everyone feels at home here, it is filled with pictures of regular customers, pictures of ships which some of the visiting captains own, nautical themed decorations, and there is always a band. Behind the bar the always helpful Thomas Gedily stands to greet costumers.
This night Thomas is not greeting costumers but making drinks in a mad frenzy as the bar is busier than normal. Waitresses weave in and out of the crowd and people clang drinks together. Ally notices the tourists and it seems that all the foreigners have gaudy blue pamphlets which read, "Welcome to Ranstoc! The Most Wonderful City in the World!" This clearly gets a chuckle out of Ally.
She surveys the crowd and notices the band, but this time it is a Cizinec band. It is a little different than normal but it works. Though the real difference is that there is a dance troupe dancing along, helping the percussion instruments with keeping beats. The women in the dance troupe are all being led by a man who is as dressed up and cheerful as the rest. Ally cannot identify how they are dancing, to her is seems Cizinec because she lacks a better word for the foreign dance.
She sits at the bar and starts to watch the dancers. The man specifically catches her eye. To Ally he seems very attractive but she cannot tell why. Perhaps it is his genuine smile, his open shirt with his exposed muscular torso, his well trim mustache, his long flowing hair, or the way he moves? She feels the need to get his attention,
She first makes a hollering noise, but this only blends in with the yowling which the women produce every so often and the cheering of the crowd. She moves closer to the man, but ends up bumping into another person who starts to yell at her in a strange foreign man. This foreign man is very large, muscular, dressed in furs, has a thick beard, and an eye-patch. He looks down at her and growls and starts barking more words.
She yells back at the man and the man shouts back, "IN ARBONDAS WE NO TAKE KIND FROM WOMAN!"
As soon as "Arbondas" is mentioned, the dance troupe leader turns and the music stops. For a split second no one moves then the dance troupe with the musicians run out of the bar. With that, other people start either run out of the bar or start to panic. Ally, on the other hands, stands in her place and takes out a wrench which she happens to keep on her for an emergency. Though, the man sees this as a threat and pulls out a very large knife. He starts to swing and clips the front of Ally's overalls. She pauses for a moment, holds the front of her overalls and runs out of the bar too.
As she goes out of the bar from the slower foreign man, she notices the dance troupe and the musicians running toward the east. She ducks away into an alleyway and hides. She peers out from behind some garbage cans only to see her pursuer running and calling out.
"You get skull crushed!" The man says in a gruff voice. "You not respect Arbondas!"
------------------------------------------------------------------
Erwin finally gets back into the car after loading the machine. The three speed off in the car up further the north face of the hill and then they travel down toward the outskirts of town where the farms and some of the poorer areas of town are. Erwin starts to think about women and the ones which are and were in her life. Suddenly, the name Ethel blooms a shock wave of memories which occurred this morning. Joe, Joe's custom part, and Joe's daughter who needs to get out of the house just like Erwin. Then a worse realization comes to his mind; he cannot stay with Tarlister all night long. He starts to think about how much time he has and guesses that he may have enough time to both get a good sleep and help Tarlister with his marvelous invention.
"I just realized," Erwin says as he breaks the silence in the car, "that I have an... appointment in the morning so I must leave immediately after setting this up at the fairgrounds."
Tarlister nods, "We will make sure that you get back home in a timely manner."
As they go down the hill, Erwin can see the fairgrounds in the distance. It isn't lit up except for lights which the crews are using. He can tell that the fairground is fairly huge, it is almost like they built a small village outside of town. There are several buildings, some of which look like landmarks which Erwin has seen in books on travel and exotic places. There is even a facsimile of the Hepian Capital Hall which Erwin has seen pictures of. More toward the eastern part there seems to be a bunch of buildings in a horseshoe shape and they do not seem they look like any buildings which resemble anything important. In the middle of this fairground is a artificial lake with an island in the middle of it. On the island is a large dome structure which has access by a bridge. From the top of this building are wires and tubes which are connected to every single building around.
They get to the gates and an Authority stops them. The chauffeur holds up a permit and the gates swing open. They proceed through the gates and down the roads. There are several roads leading down the lines of buildings which each country gets to show off their culture, technology, and power. Erwin notices that the roads are hand laid brick in lavish patterns and in front of each building the name of the nation is spelled out in the brick work.
"We are one of the last cars which will ride these streets," Tarlister says as he turns his cane in his hand, "before these streets are flooded with people on these fair grounds."
Erwin watches the names pass by; City States of Alfgur, Calig, Duras, The Toric Empire, Solop, Menitope. He has never heard of any of them. Finally they get to the Larsmark display which is a scaled down version of the Lars-Market and get out of the car.
The Lars-Market is an open-air market that has been standing in Larsmark for over a century. The real structure is large and bulky and was made to last a cannon invasion. Though, the version which stands before Erwin, Tarlister, and Vance is smaller and probably could be taken down by one good cannon hit. The inside is vastly different too, as one would expect. The lively stands filled with merchants from all over is replaced with chambers which one side is glass so viewers can peer into what is being displayed. These line the entrance of the faux Lars-Market along with little plaques to tell any viewers to what they are seeing. Erwin pauses and reads one, "The typical modern Lendor Family." Erwin looks inside the booth and sees what looks like a typical den where a family would be, but there is no one in the booths. He goes to the next one, "Indigenous Lendor Mountain," there is a wilderness scene painted on the walls and it has trees and fake rocks, even a fire pit. The tents look like they are made out of leather and Erwin is expecting someone to jump out but there is no one there.
The trio make their way toward the back of the Larsmark area. A large banner greats them, "Welcome to the Tomorrow of Larsmark!" There are several different podiums with several different strange looking objects. In the middle there is a podium with nothing on it.
Tarlister points it out, "This is where we will set it! This is where we will put..." he pauses dramatically and smiles, "THE SCHWARZHAMMMER!"
Erwin feels moved that Tarlister decided to name the new machines after him. Though the thrill of having a new machine wears off as they all do one last double check on the machine. They also clean out the machine of any biological residue that maybe left. Erwin, Tarlister, and Vance all turn on the machine and test the suction of the hose and make sure they can still retrieve objects from it.
Erwin looks at his pocket chronometer and realizes that he needs to go. But Tarlister is busy with another devise at another podium. Erwin feels the need to explore and look at things before the awful crowds come in, so he first starts with around him. One thing of interest is an oven which uses ultra high intense light beams to cook. Erwin presses a button on the oven and a light suddenly comes on in the darkened cabinet of the oven. Then suddenly without warning several beams of light bounce around the oven, some even coming toward the glass! Though, the beams somehow are absorbed by the material the glass is made from. After the strange display and the light turns off, Erwin opens the door and sees that the source of the light is a plain luminescent tube.
He looks at an elaborate pulley system toward the back wall. It has clothes which hang from a line and it looks like the clothes go through several horrible looking devices. As they progress through this pulley system, they are twisted, slapped, sprayed, and ultimately heated until they are dry. Since the water is not turned on, Erwin does not play with this device much.
Erwin gets bored of the scene and goes out of the replica Lars-Market. Along the brick-laid street are several signs, each marked in several different languages. One points toward the entrance, an other points to something called "ULPIM," and then the other points toward the "Crescent of Food." The Ulpim does not sound as exciting as the Crescent of Food. Erwin walks past more replicas of great landmarks. He passes large archways, decorative pillars, union shaped domes, and some architecture which looks impossible to begin with. Finally, he finds himself on a wider street that is shaped like a giant horse shoe. Like the rest of the fair grounds, except where crews have set up lights for last minute installs of displays, the Crescent of Food is dark. This ads to the eeriness but so does the fact that there is no one about.
He looks at each of the booths and all of them seem basically the same. Menus hang from within the booth and decorations attract the eye to the overhangs of each booth. Large words are tacked on above each overhang, but it is too dark to read what they are. Each booth also has a display case, all the display cases seem like they could hold some kind of food but at the moment they lay bare. Also, it appears there are sheet covered statues behind each display counter. Roughly there are three of these strange statues every booth.
He tries to get into one of the booths. He notices that the booths cannot be entered by any way and the display counter is blocking the way and seems to be immovable without breaking it. So out of a frenzy of curiosity, Erwin leaps over the counter.
He lands right next to the cloth covered statue and takes a peak. He finds himself starring into a very happy face. An open mouth which curls into a smile shows off a false set of teeth as if the sculpture caught someone telling a hearty joke. The eyes seem to be almost the opposite, as if the joke this statue is about to produce is something that it would knowingly annoy the audience. The body is dressed up as a normal citizen and Erwin can make out a logo on a button which matches the logo above the over hang of this particular booth. Where a neck should be there are flexible tubes with a tightly meshed clothe outside. These run out of the head piece and into the top of the torso. These tubes also seem to run between bronze colored metal plating where most muscles of the arms are found. The hands look also mechanical and as complicated at Erwin's own mechanical hand.
Leading out of the back of this grotesque statues are a set of tubes and what seems to be a bundle of wires. These strands of tubes and wire seems to be running out of the back of all the cloth covered statues and they lead into one central hole in the wall.
Erwin is fascinated with this and can't help but to start toying with the joints. But then from the distance he starts to hear water flowing. Then after that a giant turbine starts to spin somewhere within the park. Erwin can see in the distance that row by row lights are starting to turn on. With each loud snap of power suddenly flowing into thousands of luminescent tubes, music starts to churn out of some of the displays. The power starts to turn on in the Crescent of Food. Booth by booth, lights turn on and the statues in the sheets start to writhe. Lights start to shine from underneath the sheets where the eyes would be located. Finally the booth which Erwin is in starts to animate itself. The lines start to twitch, steam starts to fume from the mouth of the "statue", and lights turn on where there use to be cold empty eye sockets.
The being which Erwin once thought was a statue, turns toward him. He can clearly see within the "eyes" of the being there are lenses which focus on his fixed position. Internally Erwin can hear gears shift, cogs wind, and pistons start to pump. With a hiss and a puff of smoke the being starts to talk, "Hello Sir." The voice is slow, drawn out, and scratchy. As a child while riding in autos, Erwin always imagine engines to talk exactly like this.
The other two beings start to writhe to life and the sheets start to slowly slip off.
"What do you do?" Erwin says in amazement.
There's a pause of silence which suddenly is interrupted by strange clicking noises. The eyes of the being focus off and then on Erwin again. "I serve food." The things hisses in reply. With each word the steam puffs out of its mouth and eyes.
Erwin looks around and sees that not only is this thing is looking at him but every single one is looking at him. Despite having sheets over them, they all have somehow navigated their gaze toward his very person. Erwin thinks for a moment and deduces that this must be set up for a much larger crowd.
Erwin can feel his stomach to growl at the thought of food, "I could use some food. What do you serve?"
The being starts thinking again and more clicking noises a produced. "Ethically Correct Food of the Hepian Empire."
The thing lurches toward the display case and starts gripping at thin air. It turns around and hisses, "No food sir, try another booth."
Before Erwin can reply a man starts to shout from a distance, "What in the name of the goddess are you doing?!"
The man goes up to Erwin. The man is dressed in soiled overalls, is short, and looks displeased. "What are you there? Why are you here? Was it you that turned on everything?"
Erwin thinks for a moment, "I am the... inspection maintenance officer!"
"Listen here," says the man who looks less displeased by the moment, "I am the head of the maintenance staff! Get out of here before I call the Authority on you!"
"Well," he says as he jumps over the counter and starts to back off, "your machines are very fascinating! I better be off! May the goddess bless you!"
------------------------------------------------------------------
Georgie for the longest time has wanted to cute companion by his side. He's seen Evelyn with her mighty wolf, and so far has seen Bruno overjoyed by his grotesquely sized chicken. Georgie starts to form a scheme, as he usually does, which he could find a cute fuzzy creature to aid in his quest for easy money. He looks around the yard for something cute and fuzzy. There are kids, piglets, and chicks all around but nothing that will stay cute. "It is unfortunate," Georgie thinks to himself, "that practical animals are never bred for looks."
As Georgie looks, Bruno is still attempting to play the chicken flute in a manner so his giant chicken will obey him. So far he has produce noises which made Evelyn's wolf howl, made squirrels paralyzed and fall out of trees, and to make one of the neighborhood cats come. Georgie scowls and sees that the farmer is now long gone from the yard and has a bad feeling that the flute does not work.
"Here," Georgie says, "Let me try that chicken flute."
Georgie carefully blows into it, and the backyard stops again. The free chicken has stopped ignoring its new owners and is looking straight at Georgie. It is almost memorized by Georgie and follows his every move. No matter what Georgie is doing, the chicken follows at his heals.
"Well," Georgie says with a charming smile, "Looks like we have to stick together. The Chicken has taken a fancy to me."
Bruno looks at the chicken and at Georgie. Bruno knows he needs the chicken to woo his unsuspecting Disobian lover. Bruno also has come to the conclusion that Georgie is way more charming than himself. So, if Georgie has the chicken, then he might steal his woman-to-be.
"I think I will give that another try," Bruno says as he snatches the chicken flute. Bruno wets his lips, wiggles his fingers and tries to gently blow into the flute. The flute then produces the same exact noise. The chicken then pauses in its tracks and looks toward Bruno. It looks almost torn and confused because the flute has a new master. It looks between Georgie and Bruno several times to see if Georgie gains the power of the flute, but ultimately goes toward Bruno. At this point Evelyn is laughing hard enough she is having a hard time standing up.
Evelyn gains her composure and breaths so her face is not so red, "Well, it has been interesting but I need to go do a few things. I have a feeling we'll meet again."
"Goodbye," Bruno says with a small wave. "I need to go to the Lighthouse Bar. I have something I need to pick up."
"I think it is in my best interests to follow you," Georgie says with a smile. "Besides, I have to make sure you give me the rest of my money."
Georgie and Bruno go up to the Lighthouse Bar. When they get there they notice the prostitutes are out on the street corners. They are picking up johns, conning tourists, and trying to look appealing. Georgie looks toward the women and notices one specifically. Her name is, or at least he thinks her name is, Odile Black. They have met up once a few years back. Georgie had found the sweetest old woman to take advantage of who happened to be rewriting her will. At the time Georgie was pretending to have an organization to help replace limbs of sick starving orphan children, or something along those lines. So, when the old lady tragically met her end, he would gain all of the money. Though, Odile got in the way by extorting the woman's favorite son who also happened to be aiming for his mother's money. After some awry occurrences, bad luck, and craftiness, Odile got out of the situation with some money. The son was arrested and put in prison. And Georgie was left penniless.
"Oh hello," Georgie says with a scintillating smile, though really he wish he could strangle her. But his fake happiness and charm pulls through and Odile buys the act. He continues, "It has been a while. I am so sorry how we last met. It was such a horrid way to meet too."
Georgie looks her up and down and notices that Odile is clutching where she keeps her money a little tighter. Probably because she has gotten a little money recently and she knows that Georgie has a reputation for pickpocketing. Odile gets closer but keeps her distance from Georgie.
"Let's go in and have a few drinks," He says and motions for her to follow him and Bruno. "Oh, and this is my lovely large friend... er..."
"Bruno," he says with a small bow but doesn't touch her. Bruno can tell that she is a woman of the night, and his father always warned about touching these women. His father also claimed that women who sell themselves are also Cizinec and they also never deserve to be touched.
"Are you buying the drinks?" She says suspiciously.
"Yeah," Georgie nods.
"Okay," he says.
Bruno waves them on and checks on his motorcycle. He looks it over and breathes a sigh of relief since it has no scratches, dings, or anything that would spoil it. Though someone has carelessly put a mysterious box in the side car.
"Oh great trash," Bruno says and he is about to chuck it when he notices this strange wooden box is big enough to hold a liquor bottle. Inside, there is also packing material inside just perfect to protect a bottle of liquor. "Oh, this must be the will of Galau! This is a sign she wants me to be with my heart's desire!"
He comes inside and joins Georgie and Odile at the bar. Georgie looks at the box and recognizes the box. He sees that it is Negustor and recognizes the writing on the top from other Negustor made objects. The writing, if translated, says, "Made in Negustor." Georgie looks inside and sees from the marking on the lid and the light imprint of the stuffing that some very sharp knives are missing from it.
"Oh, that is a lovely empty knife carrying box," Georgie says with some curiosity.
"It's a knife box?" Bruno becomes slightly confused. "I found this in my motorcycle."
"Oh," Georgie says as he looks around suspiciously, "let's hope no one is threatening you."
"An empty box isn't that threatening," points out Bruno. "But I can use this when I get the bottle of alcohol for my lover!"
"That's nice." Georgie says with a wave as he surveys the crowd as a feeling of paranoia comes on. He scans the room and then spots Ezekeal, who is still standing at the bar. He tugs on Bruno's sleeve, "Look, that guy again. I seriously thinks he is spying on us!"
Bruno looks in Ezekeal's direction and then looks back toward Georgie, "By the goddess you're right!"
Odile also looks Ezekeal's way and sighs. "That guy?" She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, "I wouldn't worry about him, he seems harmless. How about those drinks?"
Georgie nods and goes to the Bartender after Ezekeal leaves from the bar counter. He makes sure he is out of hearing range from Odile. "I need some beer for me and my companions. But could you put something... special for the woman?"
"Oh... Odile," says the bartender, James Road, with a glare in her direction. With in the past few days Odile has rubbed James wrong. First by calling him Jimmy and second by accumulating a large tab. Georgie goes back and sits with the others and James comes with the drinks. He dishes out each person a beer and does not act suspicious at all.
Odile and Bruno start to drink their beers and Georgie watches. He sits and waits for Odile to just drop, but he is unaware that Odile is resistant to what the bartender put in it. After a few minutes Georgie watches her.
"So how has been business?" Georgie asks as he grows impatient.
"Well enough, thank you. Why are you so curious?" She looks suspiciously at him.
"Oh nothing," Georgie says as he watches her movements closely. "Just wondering how things are going."
"It has been fine since that job," She is getting slightly irritated.
"So you haven't had business since that job?" Georgie laughs slightly.
"No, I have had business since then, and it has been fine." She starts to glare at Georgie.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Evelyn leaves both Bruno and Georgie. She is very assured now that Bruno is going to fair well in trying to impress his woman that he is trying to court. Even though she has her suspicions about Georgie, she has seen him not stab or try to steal from him so she deduces that Georgie as a companion for Bruno may fair well.
She mounts Zora, who all this time has been patiently waiting by the floral store. Zora gives her a trusting look and Evelyn pets her kindly. They leave and head toward the docks.
She starts to think about the current events which have occurred and how many times she has been picked out of the crowd as Cizinec. She thinks her garb is not so different from those who live around here, but apparently her thinking is flawed. Evelyn thinks about what she needs to blend in more to the surrounding and comes up with the idea of wearing a skirt. It seems that only laborers at the most strenuous jobs wear only jeans and the all the "proper" women are wearing skirts, dresses, or a combination of both pants and skirts. Evelyn feels if she is to do anything further in this town then a slight wardrobe change is called for.
Evelyn steers her large wolf companion toward the east and they head toward the docks. She remembers that toward the east there are boutiques and haberdashers for the tourists who are just coming to the city, also some toward the more posh neighborhoods. So she travels toward one in hopes that they are open and that they have something she wants.
She makes her way to a nice little boutique called Bay View Fabrics and Haberdasher. The outside looks nice and it has large front windows which display mannequins of the latest West Hall fashions. Luckily the brightly painted, hand carved, open sign is still in the position of open. The inside has racks full of clothing and signs directing people where to go. In the back there are mirrors and small booths to try on clothing. She wonders around for a moment and heads toward the section with a clearly worded, brightly colored, sign which says, "Women."
She looks around and sees lots of options before her. A man comes up to her, he is polished from his smile to his shoes. He wears a nice suit, wonderfully pressed trousers, and even has a handkerchief in his pocket. He straightens his bow tie and straightens his mustache and says, "Good evening miss, how may I help you?"
"What do you have for skirts?" She says gruffly.
The man looks at Evelyn and how she is dressed. He politely says in a smug way, "Are you sure you do not want a pair of overalls?"
A shadow flies across her face as a glare that could stop starving wolves appears, "I asked for skirts."
The man backs up a little and trembles for a moment. Though, he regains his professional demeanor and has her follow him to the skirts. He cautiously says, "What kind of fashion are you looking for?"
"What do you have," She says with a growl.
He takes out some and shows them to her and says, "Well, I do have this popular style which it mimics Hepian's proud nomadic ethnic folk."
She snorts at the idea that anyone would want to look like a Cizinec. She waves her hand, "And other than that?"
He starts to bring out fashion from the risque to the very elegant. Evelyn looks at each selection and waves her hand, which helps her resist the urge to plunge a knife into this man's throat and rifle through the whole shop herself. The man is getting worried and frazzled at each wrong selection, and starts to try to find something for Evelyn.
Finally before either is about to give up, he finds a very nice looking, knee length skirt. It looks like it could be loose enough to both fit over her pants and for her legs to actually move. It is a deep dark red and has some embroidered patterns down the side. Evelyn looks at it, but isn't enough of an expert to tell if it is really high quality or not.
"I hope this one satisfies you, miss." He says as he finally starts to lose his compsure again.
"How much is it?"
"This would be 150," He can feel his confidence come back since Evenlyn seems interested, "but if you want it specially tailored it will be 200."
"I'll take it for the 150 Pres." She says with an authoritative tone.
He agrees and hands over the skirt after receiving the money. She takes no time to rip off the tag and puts on the skirt.
"Okay," he says as he looks at the tag which lays on the floor now. He picks it up and tries to smile, "Have a nice evening miss." He then goes toward another costumers which he is sure is not going to stab him.
No comments:
Post a Comment