Nautkia, and the South

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Drannin
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Drannin »

Argus raised an eyebrow. Interesting. "Please come in," he said gesturing to the room. "What can I do for you?"

And how do you know who I am? Argus wondered. Of course, the best way to find out would be to humor the man. He was rather eager to know just what in blazes was going on around here...
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Graybeard »

Nikolai walked into Argus' outer chamber, pausing for a moment to fiddle with something on a wall hanging. "Our mutual acquaintance, Captain Kitaura, sends his regards," the little man said, his voice flat, his expression reptilian. "He inquires about the health of your daughter."

----------

The young woman that Sister Rose had seen before came to the door of the servants' quarters. "Thanks for coming," she said. "I'm Lisebeth. I need to finish cleaning up the dishes from the fancy dinner. Care to follow me to the kitchen? It's ... quieter than here."

----------

And Sasha was having a conversation of her own with the mother of the small child who'd attached himself to her.
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Drannin
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Drannin »

Argus' blood turned to pure ice. He couldn't be. But he could. Argus had spent years navigating Tsuirakushiti's social scene, and had an ugly idea he knew where this was heading.

"I haven't spoken to my daughter in years. Not since the day of my exile," Argus said evenly. "But I suspect you know this already."

You son of a bitch. Argus was unsure whether he was thinking about Mr. Glasses or Kitaura.

(OOC: Oooooooh. GB's playing dirty now.)
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Graybeard »

"Ah! My apologies, Dr. Cleiviein," Nikolai said smoothly, throwing up his hands and spreading them wide with his palms displayed -- a gesture that any Tsuirakuan would have interpreted as equal parts very well, I will backtrack for the sake of diplomacy and face saving and you dumb shit. "Of course, I did not mean your lovely daughter Fayna. Captain Kitaura assures me that she is well, and is doing well. In fact, she has attracted the interest of a handsome young battlemage from Tsuirakushita. He is new to the Floating City --" subtle shorthand for he's too dumb to know that he's trying to date the daughter of a pariah -- "and perhaps, if the Weave permits it, they will be happy together. Who knows?"

Argus was looking like some particularly lethal spell was about to escape from him, despite his own efforts at civility (and face saving), so Nikolai got to the point. "No, I was referring to your other daughter -- the daughter that you do not acknowledge having, and perhaps, are entirely unaware that you sired. Or perhaps you simply forgot; it was a long, long time ago, and we men of the world don't always keep track of such things, do we?" His smile had a conspiratorial edge to it ... But it didn't last, as he continued, "And, I would add, the daughter who is now alongside you and me in our humble little city -- and even as we speak, is engaged in certain -- interactions -- in which you and I have a mutual interest. Quite the coincidence, isn't it?"

[OOC: D, we have some serious stuff to work out in private here; let's freeze this conversation until we've swapped some messages.]
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Drannin
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Drannin »

Argus' mind went blank. Not even 'burrrr' could be found within the depths of his thoughts; a certain religious cult would have been very disappointed. All Argus heard was 'other daughter,' and something along the lines of being unaware of her. Oh yes, and she was nearby?

Combined with the pure honesty coming from the man- he was telling the truth!- and Argus could only come up with one response:

"Huh?"

Not very sagacious for a former professor, really.
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Graybeard »

"Just a minute," Lisebeth said as she, Brother Miguel and Sister Rose reached the outside door to the kitchen. "They have security features all over the place here. Some of them, they equip the servants to deal with, but there are others they don't want us to know about. Taking care of them is more subtle. Give me a second..."

She waved her hand at the kitchen door, and a Ward of some kind lit up soundlessly, then subsided. That, apparently, was the "official" security system. There were more, and Miguel's Divination skills were beginning to make sense of them. Ex-military, all right; in fact, probably ex-special ops. He remembered being taught some of the techniques that he was seeing here -- and he had also been taught exactly the means for neutralizing them that Lisebeth was now using.

---------

"I see that I have surprised you," Nikolai said, bonhomie dripping from his voice, although his face still had that crocodile-watching-a-drowning-zebra look to it. "Permit me to explain, but first, a thing needs doing."

He extracted from the pocket of his dinner jacket a small crystalline gadget that Argus immediately recognized as being of Tsuirakuan manufacture. Holding it up to the spot on the tapestry that he'd been fiddling with earlier, he muttered an incantation that Argus also recognized as Tsuirakuan -- his native language and the Veracian tongue were different enough that even magical verbalizations weren't hard to pick out as to point of origin. The tapestry emitted the not-quite-visible sort-of-flash of a magical device being neutralized, and similar flashes seemed to be occurring in his peripheral vision around the room, or maybe not. At the same time, a wsshhh of white noise filled the room at a background level: something to occupy any non-magical sensors that might have escaped the spell, most likely.

"There we go," the little man said, wiping his hands theatrically. "This seems like the kind of conversation that two men should be having between themselves, away from prying eyes and ears, don't you think? And now, as regards your daughter, search your memory ..."
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: In case I wasn't clear, the "conversation" that Drannin and I needed to have has now occurred, so this thread is 100% open for business.
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Drannin
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Drannin »

Argus thought about it. Since Cirella's death, he hadn't actually been with anyone; lap-dances notwithstanding. Those had simply been to dull the pain, and had failed miserably at the task. He had never cheated on Cirella, never even thought about it; with a woman like that, who would?! No, further back... After leaving the battlemages, his life had been mostly work until meeting his wife... ugh, painful connotations again. Damn him for making me feel this way. So, no go there.

While in the battlemages? Well, he had been called 'the machine' for a couple of good reasons (dammit, those were some good years!), but the military 'strongly encouraged' the use of prophylactic spells. In other words, you were damned careful when you found a nice lady and brought her back to your room, or your commander might very well arrange things so you never had children again. In any case, Argus had always been careful about that sort of thing, so he was pretty sure that there were no daughters from that phase of his life. No, positive. The prophylactic spell could be recited by heart by every mage in his unit. Earlier, then.

During his days at the academy? Well, it WAS the academy. He had gotten to know several nice young ladies... but his dorm had actually put a copy of the contraceptive spell on the blasted bulletin board there. Rather effective technique, actually. So, no chance there.

...Well, that was it, really. He couldn't think of a SINGLE sexual encounter where he hadn't used precautions. Well, maybe that one time way back...

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh, no no no.

Argus went dead pale while Nikolai smiled at his obvious discomfort. Argus' mind was sharp, although it did sometimes take a minute or two to make connections. All at once, everything snapped into place, and he realized what the man was talking about.

Oh. Shit.

(OOC: Aaaaand this little romp through Argus' sexual past is now at an end. We hope you've enjoyed your ride, and the TMI cards can be found to your left.)
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Graybeard »

Nikolai smiled broadly, the expression no less menacing than any of the others he'd shown. "Excellent! Congratulations, Dr. Cleiviein, on your new daughter, or I should say, your newly discovered daughter. She's quite a girl, wouldn't you agree? And what a pity that such a fine young woman should have been without a father during some of her most formative, and vulnerable, years. She must have had many, and powerful, enemies ... Well, you will be pleased to know that certain of my associates are in the business of, shall we say, protecting such vulnerable and endangered young ladies from some of those who would do her harm. And all that we ask in return is that you, her adoring if regrettably absent father, perform some small services for us -- also involving a form of protection and security, as it happens."

---------

"I suppose we should introduce ourselves," Brother Miguel said as soon as "Lisebeth" was done with the wards and scrying devices. "I'm Brother--," but the young woman cut him off brusquely. "Please don't. We know enough about each other to do business, and that's enough. The less we know, the less anyone can squeeze out of us if things get messy. I--"

Now it was Sister Rose's turn to interrupt, rather uncharacteristically. "Wait a minute. You seem to know quite a bit about us, but we know almost nothing about you -- not enough to know what, if anything, we can trust you with. Try again."

The young woman's shoulders drooped slightly, and there was a bit less swagger to her attitude. "Aye, aye, ma'am." (I think she just figured out that I outrank her, or at least used to, Rose thought; that bit of information might come in handy.) "I still have to follow my orders, though. Let's just say that my boss and your old one work together up north, on the other side of the guy laying down."

The Sleeping Sexton, Rose thought; that was a good step toward establishing bona fides. "Okay, I think that's enough," she said. "Why did you want to talk to us here?"

"Why do you think?" Lisebeth said, her expression suggesting that she'd expected Rose to be a bit more on the ball than that. "I think I know where to find the guy you're looking for ... and incidentally, you're going to need some help."
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Drannin
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Re: Nautkia, and the South

Post by Drannin »

Argus closed his eyes. This was just too much... he just dumps this information on me, and expects me to suddenly jump to protect someone I don't even know, without any evidence that it's even true?!

Damn him. He knows me too damn well. Even if Argus really didn't know this woman... even if he really couldn't be called "Father"... there were certain responsibilities he had to take. It was too damned much of a risk. Damn the man. Damn him. Damn him and his honesty.
Weave, he needed a drink.

"What do you want of me?" he asked without opening his eyes.
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