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"Well would you look at that." Vinny exclaimed with exaggerated, fake awe, motioning at the room. "This is, uh, practically big open spaces compared to all those hallways." He pulled out another explosive from somewhere within the folds of his jacket. "Hey, you, up there!" He called, waving one arm in the air for attention. "This might sting, you know, alot." He added, as he chucked the bomb towards him.
Vinny held his relaxed composure as the door burst open, his eyes the only indication that he had taken any notice. Pulling another device from within the folds of his jacket, this one square and trailing some sort of pulley rope, he juggled it between his hands. "So, aah, you guys got this, right?" He said, still tossing the device from one hand to the other.
"So uh, I may have, you know, dozed off during the briefing..." Vinny said, patting his pockets a few moments before drawing a new cigarette from one of his pouches. A moment of relief played across his face as he held up the tobacco, before he placed it between his lips. With a thumb he motioned towards the tall finely dressed man, striking a match with the other hand. "...Did I miss something about a rescue? Cause, you know, Slick here seems to think there was something about that in there." He lit his cigarette, taking a few long drags before exhaling copious amounts of smoke through his nostrils and the edges of his mouth. He looked around with a raised brow. "Well dont all, how do you say, flab your gums all at once."
"Thats a good one." Vinny commented upon Miras remark, pointing in her direction with what little remained of his cigarette. Pulling out one of his many makeshift explosive devices, he lit its fuse which sputtered and sparked, producing copious amounts of smoke in the process. Discarding the cigarette and stepping on it, he then hurled his bomb at one of the zombies.
Realizing the futility of trying to dent these obvious zombies with his crossbow, Vinny simply lowered it and watched, looking around in case any more would be coming from other directions. He was itching to toss something at them, but in their current surroundings, doing that was likely to cause a fire which would be rather difficult to explain. "If only." He mumbled, looking around at the opulence and imagining it all in flames. "Oh right, so, you know, zombies." He said, realizing what he knew might be worth sharing. "So, like, slash them. Going clubby clubby or stabby stabby wont work so well." He added, clubbing and stabbing with an imaginary club and spear respectively.
This whole opera scenario got me thinking about a scene from an old movie. It was a series of "heist movies" and this particular scene was in an opera house during a performance. Its in danish, but theres not a whole lot of speaking and you dont really need to know what they say. The full proper clip used to be on youtube, but all I could find now was a video with the norwegian copy playing side by side with it for comparison, but it will have to do.
Having never been seated during the performance, Vinny simply pushed off with his shoulders from the wall he had been leaning against. Shifting his cigarette from one corner of his mouth to the other, he drew his crossbow and loaded it, peering around the room with a slightly bored, yet alert expression. "Im guessing this whole charade didnt end up meaning much then, you know?" He said, pulling off the cheap colorful cloth which Maedhros had somehow managed to convince him to add to his own attire.
"Begging everyones, ah, pardons, but I think I will just keep wearing what im, you know, used to." Vinny said from his perch near the door, as usual leaning on a section of wall and tinkering with one of the many small devices strewn across his person. "I mean, I just got comfortable wearing this." He patted his worn and well used clothing. He smiled, chuckling softly and shaking his head. "Let the lords and ladies have their, how do you say, finery. Im going to stick with what I know." He chukcled again, a bit louder and more genuine this time. "If im telling the truth, I cant wait for all their dirty looks. How dare I be in their, whats the word, presence?!" The last sentence was said with exaggerated indignation, a mock parody of the nobility. Putting away whatever he had been tinkering with, he shrugged. "Dont much care what anyone thinks, I trust the rest of you can do the talking. Meanwhile, atleast I will be keeping everyone else, you know, distracted by my mere presence."
Aah, the oooold gallbladder. Yeah Ive had mine removed as well. I got an infection in it and the docs said it was best to just remove it rather than let it stick around to just get infected again. They did an ultrasound of it, and I had a gallstone about a third the size of the bladder!! They were pretty amazed how it had managed to grow to that size before I even started feeling pain. When I DID start feeling it though. oh boy. The day it started, when I finally had to go to the doctors office, I had to ride my bike downtown. Every little bump in the road shot up through the bike and hit me like a knife stab in the chest. Im with Shifty, that suckers got to go.
Chewing on his smoke with an annoyed grunt, Vinny switched it from one side of his mouth to the other, before pulling out another explosive. This one looked more like a vial of liquid, covered in what appeared to be rusty nails. "Good thing im not aiming at a barn then." He muttered, before chucking the vial at the pompous Quickling.
"I was waiting for some real, ah, action, but this is a bit, you know, clingy for my taste." Vinny quibbed, swatting as a flailing vine trying to grab him.
Yanking his feet free of the undergrowth, he moved toward the nearby rock, climbing atop it to escape the unwanted attentions of the greenery. As he moved, his arms deftly whipped from one pocket to the next. First, he pulled his tobacco to his lips, then proceeded to pull a black metal sphere from another pouch. It had a wick, topped with a small metal cap, which he pulled of, producing a hiss followed by sparks and smoke. Holding the sputtering wick to his mouth, he lit his tobacco and inhaled deeply with closed eyes. As he exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, he looked at the wick, as if weighing its length, then nodded, lined up his target and sent the metal sphere sailing through the air. "Heads up lady!" He called to Frost as it arched towards her and the Quickling.
Hanging back with Mira, Vinny smirked as she handed over the letter. "Ah, a fellow member of the Exchange I see." He said in a somewhat lower tone than usual, though his normal tone was usually already fairly soft. "So much talk during the trip here and, how do you call it, faction allegiance never came up." He shrugged and put out his tobacco in his glove. "Anyway, ah, Mr. Boomropple, that letter concerns the possibility of trade." Both hands in front of his chest as he packed away the tobacco, he pointed to both sides. "I bet you could use help keeping this place really safe." He continued on for a few moments, noting the delicate nature of the forest and how the Exchanges patronage would see it well guarded and responsibly used, doing his best to sneak trivia into the conversation to show he knew what he was talking about.
"Well, ah, Marco, you see...." Vinny started, then paused, tapping his chin and taking a casual drag on his tobacco. "You know, its like..." He paused again, taking another deep smoke filled breath, his facial expression something akin to a school child taking a test he had not prepared for. After a few moments, his face relaxed into his usual disinterested expression, his shoulders slumping slightly. "I got nothing."
"Well..." Vinny said, dusting his hands off and coughing in the haze of black smoke that still floated around the building. "This, ah, isnt exactly, you know, starting like we could have hoped, eh?" Apart from that he didnt make himself much useful, instead sitting down on the bed, still coughing even as he continued to smoke.
"Aaah, damn it." Vinny muttered, looking about his person for an answer to the problem, before finally drawing his dagger with a sigh. Switching his smoke from on side of his mouth to the other, he gritted his teeth and stepped into the melee. "Hey, ah, pretty boy, over here yeah?!" He yelled, trying to distract it.
As the more eloquent members of the group tried to talk the unseen person down, Vinny casually strolled around the site of the swarms destruction, stamping out the multitude of small fires left in its wake. "Wouldnt wanna, ah, burn down the forest." He noted, stomping a particularly tenacious flame. "Im guessing that would make things, you know, complicated." He added, his voice as dry as ever, though he produced a sly smile at his comment.
Throught the proceedings with the Captain, Vinny stood idly by, lazily leaning against a wall and smoking. Every so often he would look as if he had something to say, but soon enough someone would ask the question and he would simply nod with a half smile, remaining silent.
Throughout the journey, the scruffy alchemist remained in a good mood, making small talk with his travel companions. At night, he would sleep under the stars, nothing more than his backpack as a makeshift pillow. He did however sleep right next to the camp fire, eliciting more than a few worried looks at the assorted alchemical supplies he had on him, so close to an open flame. As they arrived at their destination on the third day, only Vinny looked as he had when they left, his usual, worn attire hardly looking any different, despite the three day journey through the woods.
Having only just managed to light his tobaccoo as they finally reached their destination, Vinny gave a groan of surprise and annoyance at the sudden interruption."Thats a neat trick." He remarked at the explosion, before lobbing several vials at the swarm, the first doing nothing until the second shattered on top, a violent explosion of fire eruption from the impact.
"Ah, sorry little man." Vinny said, once more juggling chemicals with a dangerously casual expression. "These, ah, chemicals, they can burn, sure. But you need, what do you call it, a little special something to really make em pop, you know?" He shrugged. "Or maybe you dont. Im not sure I got it figured out either. What matters is, when I want it to go boom, you know, it does." Whether by design or accident, he fumbled the vial onto the ground, the chemicals sputtering and flaring, a few sparks jumping from the puddle before the whole thing went out with an unceremonious pop. "See?"
"So, ah, you got a devil back there?" Vinny asked with obvious sceptisism in both voice and face. "And how you just want us to deal with it? I mean, the way I work there might be some, ah, property damage involved..." He looked thoughtful for a brief moment before adding. "Unintentional property damage ofcourse. Not that I expect to use it though. With all that, ah, how do you say, fire and brimstone thats always in those devil stories, I doubt explosives will do much." He looked questioning again, realizing he should probably wait for confirmation before thinking too far ahead. "Assuming ofcourse it is a, ah, devil?"
Vinny blinked a few times in the wake of the traps explosion, a mixture of puzzlement and surprise on his face. Rubbing a thumb and index finger against eachother to test the permanency of the blue color, his facial expression slowly returned to its usual dry, bored look. "Well thats, ah, inconvenient." He muttered, getting out his tobacco and lighting it. "I mean, some might call it an overall improvement to my look, but I could do without having to, ah, explain this to everyone I talk to." He looked a bit annoyed at the prospect, taking a particularly long draw on his smoking utensil. Walking to their next destination, he shrugged at Weis suggestion. "Im listening if you have ideas. Im thinking alcohol to rub it off, or, ah, failing that, I know how to make some, you know, stronger stuff." At the last two words he made quotation marks with his hands, either deeming further explanation unnessessary or not wanting to get into the details of the kinds of substances he tended to make. As they continued to walk, he kept greeting people they passed, who stared, with wordless, sarcastically extravagant gestures either tipping his non-existent hat or performing deep sweeping bows.
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