Search Posts
I imagine that we're waiting for Ranna to talk to our contact since she was the one that was directed here. As a fallback, Luce could talk to her. I really don't think we want Casia taking point on this conversation, but if that's our chosen option then just let me know. :)
2 MAY Casia moves into the room first, her eyes scanning the corners and cubbies for indications of an ambush. Only once she's confident that there's no one else in the room, at least, does she gesture for Ranna and Luce to slip inside. With her hands never far from sharpened steel, she takes a spot a couple of steps back from the conversation, continuing to listen for the tell-tale creak of floorboards indicating an approaching threat. Her mood hasn't improved since Luce's prodding yesterday and her attempts to find out anything about Elanda's habits hasn't helped. It seems that, surprisingly enough, no one is interested in spilling any dirt on the inspector. So she's been forced to make her own suppositions based on observation - and that hasn't been productive at all. Wait ... was that a footstep? Casia shakes her head. She's getting jumpy and needs to focus on the here and now.
27 APRIL, 847 IE Just Fluff: Casia moves through the narrow confines of the alleyway with trepidation. The environment is one that she's quite comfortable in. Even adding in whatever light leaks from filth-covered windows to the dim space isn't enough to pierce the vaporous steam that fills the air. No, it's not the environment that has Casia on edge - It's the destination. The alley opens onto a cramped courtyard that's illuminated by a single harsh lamppost. The area is crowded by tubs filled with steaming water kept hot by coal-burning braziers. A number of women labor away at the tubs scrubbing clothes against ribbed boards and muttering gossip between themselves. Taking a deep breath, she approaches a woman. The attractiveness she must have possessed in her youth has long been worn away by hard labor that's created heavy lines in her face and streaks of gray in her now-brittle hair. "What do you want, Cas?" she says, her attention remaining focused on the wet lump of cloth she's rubbing up and down against her washboard. "I ... I need to talk to her, Aunt Verona" she stammers out meekly. "You know she doesn't want to talk to you. Just go away." "I have to talk to her. It's about Fin." "What about Finraeth?" a shrill voice calls out and Casia stiffens while the tired woman's shoulders slump. Casia turns to see her. Mother is adjusting her faded skirts as she steps from another alley whose usage is best left unexamined. "Did you not hear me, Casia? I asked you a question. What about Finraeth?" The woman's face tightens. "If you're here to whine about him finally growing some sense and divesting himself of your toxic presence then you won't find any sympathy here. That would bring a tiny bit of cheer to the nightmare that is my life." "No, I ... He's ..." Casia begins, but finds that she doesn't know if she can say what she came to say. "He's what, Girl!" Mother snaps, stepping forward and grabbing Casia's shoulder in a claw-like grip. "What's happened to my boy?!" "He's ... he's in Ironhook," Casia manages to spit out and closes her eyes. "What?!" The woman releases Casia's shoulder and stumbles back, her hand now clutching at her chest. "No. NO! Noooooo!!!" she screams before falling to her knees. "My baby boy!" she sobs as some of the other ladies rush to her side. The rest watch on in greedy fascination as drama unfolds before them. Casia's aunt takes a tired breath and hangs the shirt she's working on over the edge of the metal tub. "Just go away, Cas. I think you've done enough here." She shuffles over to Mother's side and kneels down to take the woman in her arms. "There's no more damage you can cause." Ignoring all the onlookers and their thirst for entertainment, Casia simply turns and slips back into the darkness of the alley.
Casia's skills are much more applicable once we've discovered whom, at least, we're stealing from. The options offered for Lurk for Gather Information seem like they're much more directly focused. If anyone has any suggestions for how Casia can help, currently, though I'm all ears. :)
Casia's clock would probably be just a standard 4-part. Her story's not deep or convoluted. :)
Ranna's question catches Casia reaching for her own lukewarm mug sitting nearby on the table. A moment later and the young woman is cursing under her breath as she scrambles to gather up her notes from the spreading spilled coffee. "Sonofa ..." she spits out as tries to wipe up the mess with an old rag grabbed from a nearby table. She stills with the notes crumpling in one hand as her head hangs. "Fin's ..." she starts and stops as her voice cracks. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she gathers herself. "He's in Ironhook. Lyssa gave him up as a sacrifical lamb." Visibly clamping down on her emotions, she resumes cleaning up the mess she's made. "His continued good health is both the carrot and the stick for this job. She's assured us that he'll be there no more than three months. Beyond that, nothing else needs to be discussed about him." The remains of the spilled coffee now joining the patina that covers the battered table, Casia straightens out the parchments in her hand and glances down at them. "We don't have a lot more details to go on at this point. We still need to discover where the inspector has stored the evidence and that's the main thing we need to find out. We could really use our spider right about now."
26TH APRIL Casia frowns and looks down at the table. "I ... uh ... I should be apologizing to you as well," she says in a quiet voice very different from her 'all business' tone. "You don't know who we are and you were rock solid in the brothel. I have a hard time trusting, but that's not a reflection on you." She sighs. "Besides, it's not a lie to say that we've been laying a trail of blood behind us. That's not how I've wanted the jobs to go, but sometimes it all just comes down to you or the other poor sap." She shakes her head and draws a deep breath. "This job, though ... We should be able to come away from it blood-free. Lyssa wants us to lift some evidence that's being held by a local Inspector. And since some of that evidence points to us, we have some incentive to make sure that it 'disappears'." She turns the stack of notes towards Ranna. 28TH APRIL "Little Nessie," Cinna replies, giving almost nothing else away in those short words. "She typically hangs around in the Rosewater Inn. You can tell her that I sent you." When it's clear that Luce is waiting for more, she tips her head. "I like Casia. She's got her issues, but she's a good kid. When you work together on jobs like what the Mites take, then sometimes people get closer and things ... happen. I don't think things should 'happen' between you and her - you're all wrong for each other." She takes another sip of wine and Luce gets the impression that the woman has said all that she's going to say on the subject.
28TH APRIL Cinna reaches out and runs the tip of her finger around the rim of her wineglass causing it to softly ring. "I wouldn't recommend suggesting that Casia's a whore where she can hear you," she says, her grin remaining steady. "And I don't discuss who is or has been a client." She draws the glass to her lips and takes a slow sip, savoring the flavor. Her eyes never leave Luce's, though. "I can give you the name of someone that would probably be right up your alley. She likes being told what to do. Besides, you and Casia would never work out, so I wouldn't recommend trying to approach her in that sense. You would cut each other to ribbons. A match made in the deepest pits as one would say, so I wouldn't give it another thought."
26TH APRIL Casia looks up as Ranna enters the main room of their 'lair'. Her face is pale and there are dark circles under her eyes. Those eyes are surprisingly clear, though. "Glad you showed up," she says, gesturing to a number of pieces of scrap parchment spread across the table she's sitting at. "We have a job. It's fairly simple, but that doesn't equate to easy. Get in, snatch the target, and then get out. Best case is that no one will even know we were there. My best guess is that it will take us four days to get ready." She gathers the scribbled notes into a single pile. "Are you in?" She meets Ranna's gaze, purposefully ignoring the empty couch where her brother normally would be resting. ~~~~~ 28TH APRIL "I'm not sure if I should feel insulted or not," Cinna replies with a teasing grin. Though she doesn't hesitate in secreting the offered purse away in her dress. "Are you looking for something specific or just a little fun in general?" Her eyes narrow and the grin widens. "Let me guess ... You like to be in charge, don't you?" She chuckles. "That's why you two butt heads so much, you know? You and Cas? You're girls both cast from the same mold. Just different metals 'sall."
"Y-you what?" Casia stammers and the sharpened blade dips and wavers. "You ... you took Fin? He's ... he's in Ironhook?" Her voice wavers for a moment and her eyes flick from Lyssa to Jonah and then to the thugs who are still watching her every move. The wheels are spinning trying to find some avenue around this. Some way to avoid what's already happened. When none is found, the effect is visible in the young woman. Her body stiffens and her chin lifts. The blade vanishes back into whatever pocket it was hidden in before. "Three months - no more," she says in a rigid voice. "And not a mark on him." She turns and pointedly ignores the hired help as she strides towards the door. "Let's go, Jonah. We've got some evidence to steal." -- Once they've reached the street, Casia begins muttering to herself. Turning to Jonah, she snaps, "I swear right now that whatever torments Fin suffers in Ironhook, I'll visit upon her ten-fold. She'll learn that if you push people far enough, they push back."
In spite of the current post, I don't intend for Casia to go down in a blaze of blood and glory. However, it would feel very artificial to have her give up her twin willingly. She needs to be talked down from the ledge and in the current situation, it'll probably have to fall to Jonah. It won't be difficult. I'd like to keep playing the character. :)
It takes a moment for the words Lyssa speaks to sink in. Another moment passes as her brain processes their meaning. After a few more moments pass as she tries to come up with some other possible interpretation, but fails. She finally laughs rudely. Rising from her seat, she reaches for the bottle that the woman had offered before. "You almost had me there," she says, ignoring the two thugs who are watching her for any excuse to intervene. "I didn't think you had a sense of humor for a moment." She takes a swallow from the bottle directly. "Now tell me why you're not laughing? This has to be a joke, right? You can't really believe that we're going to give up Fin to you, do you?" A dagger appears in her hand as if by magic. "Over my dead body."
25 APRIL "So no. I've never used you for knife work, and I'm not about to start now. You're shadows, and you have a rep for being daring in your burglaries, which is good because that's exactly what I'm looking for." Casia's lips tighten when her assumption is dismissed as being silly. And when Jonah steps in to ask the questions of 'What?' and 'From Whom?' - questions that she should have been asking - her pout doubles in intensity. Anything to cover up the fact that she's stumbling mentally. "And how much are we getting paid?" she asks, determined to show that her observational acumen isn't entirely dulled by drink.
Fairly confident that she's going to miss out on her evening of hedonistic pleasure, Casia's mood is not the cheeriest. "Didn't you hear the lady, Jonah?" she says with a sneer as she drains her glass of wine in a single gulp. "'Loose ends'. She wants us to cut them off. She wants us doing knife work." Setting the glass down, she looks around seeking the nearest exit and how many bodies stand between her and it. "Sorry, but that's not our type of work." Crossing her arms, her gaze returns to Lyssa.
22 APRIL - Casia/Finraeth/Luce: "I'm not the one that needs looking after," Casia grouses as Luce walks away. The lurk's eyes seem unable to tear themselves away from the sway in her walk. "Nice enough, I guess. Doesn't mean that I don't want to slap that smug smile off her pretty face." She takes another long drink from her mug. Her lip curls up into a smile and her gaze turns inward. "I bet she's a screamer."
Here's Casia's Vice roll ... Using Resolve (which is her weakest quality) gives Casia two dice and use the lower of the two.
That indicates that she'll clear 2 Stress.
Perhaps this remnant of a ancient goddess (or maybe it is just some harnessed memory within ghost field) has had more influence over Jonah than either he or anyone else has realized? Making him more prone to risk, more willing to shed blood, more susceptible to conspiracies and suggestions such as the Grinders being slavers. Whatever it is slowly turning him into an unwitting servant of destruction and death and certainly in conflict with his real goals of not causing more death and destruction. His studies into the Reconciled and saving Naty could then be the only way he can save himself as well.
This can't bode well. Can it, guys?
Casia's indulging her vice for one of her downtime activities. ... Well, you could at least pretend to be surprised.
22 APRIL - Casia/Finraeth/Luce: "She's a friend," Casia replies curtly. "I don't do more than 'friends' anymore." She frowns. "I mean that I don't do more than 'friends' at all." Seemingly annoyed that her mug is empty, yet again. She waves at the bartender once more. "How about we go get something to eat?" Finraeth suggests. Luce can tell that he's not happy about how quickly his sister is going through her drinks and the fact that she seems quite well on her way to being staggeringly drunk very soon. "I'm not hungry," Casia responds. "But maybe you and Luce might go get something." She gives Luce a less-than-subtle wink and nudges her twin. Leaning over, she whispers in Luce's ear, "My brother and I have very similar tastes, so I just know that he'd love to get you somewhere private and make you squeal." Her drunken whisper being less than discrete, Finraeth simply rolls his eyes and mouths the words, 'Sorry'.
22 APRIL - Casia/Luce/Finraeth: "Well, I don't know about brains," Casia replies with a good-natured grin. "But he's certainly a handsome fellow. And as for why? I'm tired of him being alone. He needs some feminine companionship." Her eyes track someone behind Luce. "Speaking of ... Cinna! Over here!" Turning, Luce sees an attractive woman with blond curls turning to the trio. The woman smiles when she sees Casia and approaches the table. Casia reaches out and grasps at the woman's hand, pulling her close. "Evenin' Cas," the blonde says with a smile. "Handsome," she says to Finraeth. "And who might you be, Luv?" she asks, turning to Luce. The woman is obviously a 'working girl' by her dress and makeup. She's young, but Luce can tell that her eyes have seen a lot and continue to do so as she looks Luce up and down. "This is Luce," Casia explains. "She's part of our crew now. Luce, this is my friend, Cinna." "Oh, is she?" Cinna questions with a questioning gaze. "So you'll be spending lots of time with some o' my favorite people." "Speaking of spending time ..." Casia says suggestively, "What are you doing tonight?" "Sorry, Luv, but I gots to work tonight. No rest for the wicked and all." Cinna turns her attention back to Luce. "I expect that we'll see more o' each other if you're hanging around with Casia and Finraeth. So lovely to have met you." She leans down and presses a kiss to Casia's cheek before walking away.
21 APRIL "I assure you, doctor, nobody has forgotten anything. Least of all my sister, who still has nightmares about stabbing Hutton." Casia snaps a glare at her brother. At the perceived betrayal of revealing her vulnerability. She doesn't say anything, though.
Just realized that the extra XP that Wastrel pointed out is enough to get Casia another Special Ability. Daredevil looks perfect for her reckless nature.
Now we're cooking! Three/four separate conversation/event threads running at the same time! I love it! :)
21 April 847 IE Casia exchanges a look with her brother as Jonah spills the Mites' secrets to both Ranna and Luce. A conversation takes place between her and Finraeth in that simple gaze that no one else in the room would ever be able to interpret. An exchange built up from a lifetime of sharing every little secret. Every little event and milestone. Every whispered exchange in the middle of the night. It's over in two eyeblinks. "I'm sorry," Casia says with a sigh, turning to address Ranna. "You've done more than enough to earn our trust and ... " She sighs and rolls her eyes before glancing at her brother again. "Certain people would suggest that I need to eventually put my faith in something." She searches her pockets, eventually coming up with the flask that Ranna enticed her with back in the brothel. She takes a quick sip of the remaining contents before handing back to the leech. "Killing Hutton was not the kind of job we usually take and if we were given another option we probably would have taken it. It still doesn't sit well, but we made the choice that we made and we have to live with the consequences" Nightmares in the darkness. Waking in a cold sweat with the foulness of Hutton's dying breath in her face. The reek of his blood in her clothes. Cinna's arms around her in an attempt to make the horror recede. "Sometimes we have to choose between something horrible and something just a little less horrible and it's not something that we ... I ... like to talk about." 22 APRIL - Casia/Finraeth/Luce:
"It was my fault," Casia says abruptly to her brother's surprise. She takes another long swallow from her mug and her eyes avoid Luce's, scanning the rest of the room. "I put my ... trust ... in the wrong person. They had other intentions - malicious intentions - and my family paid for it." Luce can easily tell that Casia put more than just trust in this other person. Casia gives her twin another shove in an attempt to lighten the mood and change the subject. "But in any case, that's long past and not what we're here to talk about." She smiles and waves at the bartender again as she drains her mug. "So ... what's a pretty girl like you look for in a man?" she asks with a grin that might be partially subterfuge and partially the drinks that she's had. She reaches up and grabs her brother's jaw in her hand. "Isn't this a handsome face? Doesn't it just make you want to know what's going on in that brain upstairs?" ~~~~
25 APRIL - Casia - A Quiet Day?: Casia's spirits are unusually high as she makes her way through territory that the Mites nominally control. With plans to spend the evening in Cinna's pleasant company, there's a lightness in her step that's been absent as of late. Even the minor bit of guilt that normally slips in at taking the working-woman's time for free is noticeably gone as Casia's pouch is heavy with coin from their last job. She nods at a couple of urchins that do double-duty as invisible eyes and ears for the crew, but they quickly vanish. She frowns in annoyance. They usually acknowledge her in some way, she thinks to herself. She shrugs it off as maybe they've got somewhere else to be. Perhaps it's her anticipation of the evening's activities or maybe the distraction of the unusual behavior of the children, but in any case, Casia doesn't hear the footsteps behind her until it's too late. ~~~~
22 APRIL 847 IE Casia/Finraeth/Luce: Following up on Casia's invitation, Luce finds the girl sequestered at a small table pushed back into a shadowy corner of the Limber Lady. Of course all of the corners of the dimly lit tavern are shadowy, but this one seemed especially designed to keep the identities of customers hidden. Not expected, but not really a surprise is the fact that the girl's twin brother, Finraeth is sitting next to her. His face isn't as pale as when Luce first met him, but he still looks only a couple of days out of a frantic leech's attentions. The smile that crosses his face, though, does wonders for his appearance. Casia nods at an empty chair and then gestures at the skeletal man behind the bar. "You made it," she says, take a drink from the mug in front of her. "I wanted to show my thanks for you keeping your cool during the job." She shrugs and grins at her brother. "That could have gone fifteen different ways wrong, but we got through it and came out ahead." She slides her almost empty mug back and forth across the table between her hands nervously. "And true-love won out as well." She gives her brother a playful shoulder shove. "Don't mind my brother," she says with a nervous chuckle. "Usually by now he's trying to charm you out of your pants, but he's still got a ways to go to get back to his lady-killer self." The thin bartender approaches, replacing Casia's near-empty mug with a full one and setting a tall glass in front of Luce. "So ... what do you do this for?" Casia asks.
Casia frowns and pauses in the process of wrapping some scrap cloth around her exposed waist to cover the slash the Silver Nail gave her. "The Grinders?" she questions, immediately suspicious. "Someone might simply say that a job was paid for and done proper-like." She ties off the dirty cloth and lowers her tunic. "Someone might also question someone asking too many questions about it." She glances at her twin with a raised eyebrow.
Casia would like to keep quiet about the job. Missing out on the rep gain would be preferrable to rising higher in the notice of the Silver Nails, currently. Desperate Roll: 1 XP Playbook Trigger: "You addressed a challenge with stealth or evasion." 1 XP "Beliefs/drives/heritage/background"? Probably only once - when given the choice of what to pocket in the vault. She chose family over her vice. 1 XP "Vice/Trauma"? Not this time that I remember. Sounds like 3 XP for Casia. Like Jonah, she'll drop 'em all into Special Abilities. Hoping that one of her downtime activities is for Ranna to stitch her back up. :) I'll have to figure out the other.
Happy to handwave. :)
Casia/Luce: Anger fills the small woman's face as she grabs Lotti by the arm, pulling her up from the bed.
While to the casual observer, the anger may seem directed at the shocked girl with the bloody lip, Casia's anger is mostly directed at herself. However, there's enough left over to give the unconscious Silver Nail a brutal kick to the groin. "Vicious f&@&er!" she snaps, grimacing a little and clutching her side. With her other hand she snatches the flask that Luce offers and downs a large swallow.
Casia/Luce: "No, no, no," Casia argues, waving one hand in the air and pushing into the room between the drunk and Lotti. Her other hand deftly palms her own dagger.
"Now listen here, b@+$%!" she snarls, turning to face the battered girl. "I booked time with you and either you make good on it or I want my coin back!" "And you!" Casia snaps, turning to face the dagger-wielding thug. "Get in line, because ..." Her words fade out as she looks down. She'd expected the man to argue back - not immediately go for blood. But the dagger in his hand coated with what she assumed was her own blood and the sharp pain radiating out from her side would indicate otherwise. "Ung," she grunts in surprise.
Casia has the equipment slots for the armor and she'll resist with Prowess. I'll put up a post for it.
Casia is planning on laying the blame on Lotti - who will be conveniently absent and unable to protest her innocence.
Casia has absolutely zero interest in leaving behind a Silver Nail as a witness that they were there and looking out of place. So she'll attempt to persuade him to not say anything via the only tool she has in that kit. Stabbity, stab, stab.
Works for me.
No Devil's Bargain. I can screw myself over without any outside influence, Thankyouverymuch. :P
Seeings as how none of us blend in with the 'it' crowd, Casia would go for stealth.
Casia frowns. "Samy's not going to let us leave without Lottie," she counters. "We all leave together or we don't leave." She glances at the others and then back at Luce. "I'll go with you. Let's go."
"You look like a woman that doesn't need anyone to flatter her, but yeah ... my brother would happily do that. Me? You're just a pretty pain in my arse." She chuckles. "And I'm becoming even more convinced that you think way too highly of yourself."
"Don't flatter yourself," she replies with a smirk, but her lip curls up into a grin and her cheeks stay pink. "Yeah, definitely Fin's type." "This way and we should be out," she says to the others, indicating the path ahead.
Casia frowns. "I wasn't ... Look, you're a part of the team and we take care of our team. I mean unless you want to leave." She looks away. "Besides you're my ... my brother's type. You should meet him. He'd like you."
"Can't imagine why," Casia scoffs. "And I'm sure there's a story there, but no time to hear it now." As they make their way down the hall towards the exit, she says to Luce in a softer voice, "You know she's gonna rat you - and by extension, us - out at the first opportunity, right?" She glances back behind them before turning her attention to the dark-haired woman. "There's still time to make sure that she can't sing."
"I'm not the one that was recognized by a girl in a pleasure palace," Casia replies with a smirk. "Something we should know about?"
Once the other women are around the corner she mutters, "If we had killed her it wouldn't even have been murder. At that level of stupidity it's assisted suicide." (Ranna tries to be a good person. However it's been a very trying evening and she has long since run out of f&$@s to give.) "It's not too late," Casia offers with a shrug, a razor-sharp dagger having appeared in her hand as if by magic. "People die in these places all the time. A frustrated trick taking out his self-hatred on one of the workers? Infighting between two girls? Someone taking their kink just a little too far?" She glances back to where the ladies escaped to before shaking her head. "Sorry. We should go."
Perhaps one of the ladies recognizes Luce from ... somewhere ... and decides that she wants a little more than just the few coins that Jonah has given them, with the threat that she'll snitch?
Casia accepts the bottle back with a shrug and indulges in another - longer - swallow before stashing it away. "Well, the longer we wait, the more likely it is that random chance is going to screw us over. Let's get moving."
"That doesn't have to be classed as the worst situation," Casia says with a smirk. From somewhere within her garments she produces a small brown bottle. Popping the cork, she takes a quick swallow before passing it to Ranna. "Verisimilitude," she says with a encouraging nod.
Casia pauses, her eyes flitting from the bottles that Ranna originally indicated to the bottles that promise sweet oblivion. A cloudy fog in which she doesn't see Papa's face. A quiet interlude when Mother's recriminations don't echo in her ears. She licks her lips and glances around noting that the others are all busy stuffing bottles, boxes, and satchels into prepared bags. One hand reaches up and brushes across one of the bottles. Even the cool of the glass is soothing and she can almost feel the burn of it trickling down her throat. "Those bottles of carbolic phenol. That's a potent antiseptic. I don't need it as much as the other stuff I've given you, but it's one of the best ways to prevent sepsis." Ranna shifts uncomfortably. "If anyone's willing to make a little less money and grab a bottle or two of that instead of the valuable stuff, I'd owe you for it. A lot." Casia starts and pulls her hand back to look quickly over her shoulder at the jars the woman is talking about. Sepsis An image of her brother, pale and sweating, on the leech's table comes to her. What would he think of her? Fin always had a strong sense of fair play. While it wasn't something that she shared, she had always felt the need to rise to his overly-rosy image of her. "No," she says out loud. "This is a debt paid." Casia begins to gather the bottles of carbolic phenol.
Casia accepts the papers with evident surprise. Flipping through them a grin spreads across her face. "Yeah, with these this should be easier than falling off a pier." Pulling a leather case from her bag, she kneels down near the lock and sets to work. Her concentration is broken by the sound of flesh impacting flesh and she looks up in surprise. Seeing Luce facing off against Jonah, she's about to rise to his defense when she notices his expression. He can take care of himself. Returning her focus to the task at hand, she's rewarded with a subtle click. A little more satisfied with herself than she should be, she takes her time returning her tools to their container before rising to stand dramatically before the door. With a grand gesture she pulls the main level back and is internally relieved to feel the latch open. "Ladies and Gentleman ..." she declares before pulling on the door, itself.
... and here's Casia's Finesse roll using her fancy lockpicks ...
Okay, yeah ... The circle is always turning. I'll post for Casia once Ranna posts.
Would the Infiltrator special ability apply in this case? |
