"Are you so bored on this merde assignment that you're keeping my time, Tarynne? I know you're after Fat Man, but I expected you to have more ambition than keeping tabs on his route," Thisbe said coolly.
For reasons Thisbe had yet to explain, Tarynne had always seen her as competition. Ever since she got her team she's hassled her at this checkpoint. The routine was getting monotonous.
"Little Boy was pissing me off. I ditched him. And the only schedule I'm late by is mine. It's okay not to know that. I know you lot abide by someone else's clock. Now, if you don't mind, I need to finish my route," Thisbe said as she made to move past Tarynne and on to her next stop.
“Keep your secrets then,” Tarynne replies with a smirk. As you move along, you notice with a quick look that she’s whispering to one of the other spotters on her team. Gossip is very much the norm within the Vice, and Tarynne seemed to always be in the middle of it, for better or worse.
-----
You reach the end of your Moonday run almost an hour after dark. Gabrielle sits across from the Clerk of the Cork, and while she takes notice, she doesn’t seem to recognize you until you’re nearly upon her.
“Thisbe?” she whispers as you approach. “It’s curfew now, you’re out late! I hope everything’s alright?” Unlike Tarynne, Gabrielle is a kind girl, and sounds genuinely concerned at the irregular hour of your visit.
Thisbe bit her tongue when her first instinct was to tell Gabrielle off. She'd had enough of this day and answering questions was grating on her. Gabrielle was always kind to her, though, so she swallowed her pride and paused, plastering on the best smile she could muster.
"Gabrielle, everything's fine. Just running behind today. Any updates for me?"
Thisbe was hoping to distract the spotter from pushing about the late hour by breaking into their routine. She needed to get back to Little Boy and Chauvin as soon as she could complete the route and drop off the day's earnings at the Honey Pot.
“Well, the Milanites are in a tizzy, if you haven’t heard,” Gabrielle shrugs. Her interest is easily deflected as you shed your expression of stress. “We heard they’re meeting tonight, but it’s gotta be somewhere south of the river. I know Anton hates it when the Milanites get all up in arms, but the meeting happened too soon to learn more than that. Whatever’s going on, they sure rustled up their folks in a hurry. Wish I had more for ya, it’s been pretty quiet otherwise.”
-----
Nightly revelry is in full swing as you round make your way through The Promise of Coin: the quickest way to the Honey Pot beyond. Each and every hand not placing a bet at a table holds a mug of swill or other spirits, a tactic the house uses to encourage increasingly foolish betting. Out the back, the Scum Garden is like a quiet valley between the two roaring venues.
The scene inside the Honey Pot is a plain reminder of why you make every effort to leave before sundown. Packed with drunkards (at least two-dozen), the Vice operatives play cards, sing songs, and pour all manner of alcohol down their gullets. You spot Fat Man sitting far away at the bar; his eyes go wide as he spots you, seemingly surprised at your attendance at this hour.
Deftly avoiding a few potentially wet accidents by other Vice members, you squeeze your way through the crowd to the back. You stand in the corner for a short while before Anton, who is similarly sloshed, manages to bring his eyes up from the scantily-clad ladies under his sweaty armpits.
“Thisbe! You’re late,” he shouts, his loud tone more fueled by alcohol than anger at this point. Florimond, whose eyes were buried in his ledger, whips his head up to stare daggers at you.
Thisbe was fixated on the Milanite meeting Gabrielle had mentioned when she wound her way between the revelers in The Promise of Coin and the Honey Pot. Why would the Milanites be meeting?, she wondered. With Pauline's rescue on the line, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what the Milanites were up in arms about. She would have to see if she could find the meeting tonight. Hopefully Little Boy would stay in line long enough for her to check it out before making it back to him and Chauvin.
She quickly made her way to Anton, knowing he would be waiting for her. If she could wrap up her business with him for the day, perhaps there would still be enough time to take care of the other tasks on her plate.
Putting on her best arrogant facade, she lobbed the day's takings atop Florimond's ledger, ignoring his glare.
"Not to worry, boss. Got a good sized sack for you today. Just needed to lay some groundwork in finding Chauvin this morning,"Thisbe said coolly, picking at her nails with a bored expression. "No news yet, but I've got a lot of irons in the fire. We'll get him and your gold back for you soon."
Thisbe eyed the two men from underneath her cap, hoping they bought her story and she'd be able to move on with her unfinished business this evening with little ado.
You mentally audit your known contacts for a Milanite connection several times over before reaching Vice headquarters. With the exception of the Sisters, the lay-worshipers of the Everbloom are strictly tight-lipped, and their clergy hidden. If the meeting were within Vice territory, there may be some folks you might reach out to in order to learn of a gathering happening tonight. As is, you figure it’s unlikely you could turn up a location in the next couple hours.
While the partial privacy of Anton’s back table offers your boss an edge in scrutinizing employees, your ruse seems to work fairly well. Florimond eyes you with his very characteristic suspicion, and Anton is unsurprisingly distracted by the Moonday’s hefty take. So focused on not betraying anything, you’re unsure if Florimond has picked up on anything, or is simply being his typical shifty-eyed self.
Anton finishes counting the day’s take quickly, far too quickly for him to have come up with an accurate number. He waves you away rudely and turns his attention back to his evening entertainment.