Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Graybeard
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Graybeard »

It was only a few minutes after Leo's departure from Barker Lane, and Rufus' retrieval of the scattered papers, that Layla, Ace and Joe (and, of course, Zachary) arrived at the Silver Hands hideout.

"So that's the deal," Layla summed up for Rufus after Joe described what he'd seen. "The Oshimas are coming out of their shell again, and starting to poke around in the parts of town outside Tsuiraku-town. I think we need to keep an eye on that. If they ever find out what happened to the Torous, our collective ass is grass. They shouldn't; we were pretty careful not to leave traces, and I think the Seeadler cleaned the place up afterward also. But I think we want to put this guy under surveillance. Leo would be good for that, with his disguise skills. Can we talk to him about it?"

Uh, oh. "Uh, did I say something wrong?"

[OOC: Khoo will get into some trouble as soon as JR comes up for air and moves Leo along, as well as Rufus' response. Maybe some Anfisa action to fill the gap?]
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Alberich
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: Jack's move, I think; I'm keeping some of Anfisa's machinations - and some facts about Henseijin - vague on purpose so that, if Drusia gets involved with a new character as I hope she will later, she'll have maximum flexibility. Anfisa's next story break won't be until dawn - though I expect the adventure will extend well past the end of the story.]
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Leo's latest bout of self-involved, theatrical misery had taken him on a beeline for the run down house in the poorer quarter of town which functioned as the light fingered noble's sanctuary when he wasn't working at Barker lane. The mercenary ducked down a crooked alley and pushed open a rickety door into a sparsely decorated living room in dire need of a dusting. The surroundings mirrored his mood; dark and near empty.

"Well..." He murmured. "... may as well go the whole hog."

Leo disappeared into the hovel's closet of a bedroom and spent the next few minutes rummaging through a box under the bed. He needed an appropriate costume to match his mood, and his safehouse had just the thing. Buttons were popped, clasps undone, his usual finery discarded in favor of cheap cloth and a moth eaten wrap. Leo finished the persona with a streak of dirt and smear of fat in his hair to turn the mane into rat tails. The good thing about beggars, he reflected, was that people generally left them the hell alone.

So it was a much different figure took his leave from the handsome nobles property. A swaying, mumbling figure which was now heading for the nearest tavern.

....

"Uh, did I say something wrong?"

"Leo's indisposed right now." The old man replied.

"He's foping around like the whiny sissy he is." Eve snapped, raking an irritated hand through her short crop of blonde. "You know how down he got since Jade went off on her quest for the magic whatever. He's probably off getting hammered down Renshaw street." She shrugged. "If you need someone watched I suppose I'm available. The fop's useless right now by my estimation."
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Graybeard
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

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Layla considered Eve's proposal for just long enough to put a polite smile on her face. "Thanks, but from what I've heard, Rufus needs you more here," she said. "We'll cover it." She did not say that the kind of temper that Eve had occasionally flashed was not an asset to someone doing an open-ended stakeout.

"Renshaw Street, you said?" Joe asked. "Kind of a rough area. Maybe we should try to pick him up."

Layla nodded. "If he's going on a drinking binge, he'll be safer in our company ... not to mention he'll be drinking much higher quality wine."

------------

Leo wasn't the only out-of-towner with girl troubles now heading for a bar on Renshaw Street.

Part of his problem, Khoo reflected, was that Choubei could hardly have picked a worse person to go on the prowl looking for a dominatrix. (Well, actually, that wasn't totally true. Anna-Lisa, to name one, would have been worse ... but he didn't want to examine that thought too closely.) Such women were not his own style, to put it mildly, and he'd never been much of a bar-hopper either. There was also the point that it wouldn't be worth while to look in the Tsuiraku-town district; from all he'd heard, the man whose picture was now concealed in his Pocket Dimension would already have "tried out" all the suitable hookers there, and his orders to avoid repeat contacts were clear. (Not to mention what had happened when he'd passed through Tsuiraku-town himself on the airship-security trip; he shuddered involuntarily at the memory.) Problem was, that meant looking in a part of town that he knew little about.

"Well, let's just pick a place and get started," he muttered to himself, and headed for the seedy-bar district.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"Welco- oh, whaddayya want?" The bartender of The Salty Quail looked up from the glass he was polishing at the newcomer, curt politeness turning into near hostility at the sight of the unkempt man.

"Wnnn." The word was near buried beneath a harsh accent and a drunken slur, but the owner had heard worse. He spared a glance at the heavy-set and humorless individual who functioned as the security in the dive of a tavern. His look was returned with a silent nod and a tightening grip on the sword at his side.

"No credit."

The bum was unperturbed, instead awkwardly fumbling under the spread of his wrap to produce a coin pouch which he laid on the beer sodden bar.

"Bottle a' red."

Toby sighed quietly and adhered to the order. No sooner had the bottle clunked down it was hurriedly retrieved and transported to the darkest corner the place had to offer. The owner was grateful for that, the worst of the Quail's clientelle had a habit of lingering long past their welcome, which was usually the moment their pockets became empty.

The bar was pretty quiet that early in the day. The locals were mostly at work, or at least engaging in whatever unscrupulous activities passed as such in the poor district of Rinkaiel. The people doing the drinking at that hour were mostly out of towners, mercs and off duty guards, alcoholics and night workers blinking owlishly at the thin rays of Sun struggling through the dirty windows. The only concession towards a merry atmosphere being a card game being played by a motley group which had started around opening time and showed no signs of drawing to a close.

In his dark little corner, the newcomer uncorked the cheap hooch and began chugging like a man dying of thirst.

............

"...not to mention he'll be drinking much higher quality wine."

The Silver Hands captain gave a rusty chuckle and a nod of agreement at Layla's suggestion. His young protege made an annoyed clucking sound hut offered no argument.

"Well young lady, if you think you can drag young Leo out of his slump you're welcome to try."

"...but I'm going with you." Eve interjected, standing and casting about for her blades. "If anyone's going to drag Lord Drinks-a-lot out the pub by the scruff of his neck it should be me."

"Alas, I've tried to teach this one restraint for years but she remains uncooperative." Rufus remarked, indicating the tomboy with a tilt of his head.
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Graybeard
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

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The Salty Quail, Khoo read the sign over this disreputable-looking bar's door. Well, it didn't look any worse (or any better) than anywhere else on this street. There was also the point that, according to certain things he'd read (admittedly more in the ten-raku novel class than scholarly reference materials -- much more), "quail" was underworld slang for certain -- types of women. He could do worse, he figured, and walked through the door.

----------

"Very well," Layla answered Rufus, not entirely happy with the idea of taking Eve along for the stakeout, but if it made the old man happy, so be it. If we have to, we can always kill her and pass it off as a winemaking accident. No, that wouldn't do, she was thinking like the old days. Fact was, since the Torou affair, neither Layla nor anyone else at the Gewehr safe house/vineyard had killed anyone at all. Indeed, the place was functioning more and more like an up-and-coming winery and less like a Gewehr outpost every day. Part of that was by design -- her mission had always been to establish deep cover while she learned some magic and scoped out the city -- and part of it had been the mysterious disappearance of Peter, who was the main Gewehr capo who was following the operation.

And truthfully, she wasn't missing the Gewehr oversight at all.

"So where do you think we have the best chance of finding Leo?" she asked Eve as they turned to go.
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Alberich
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Alberich »

Leo, through accident or design, had placed himself where the listening was good. It didn't matter whether Khoo tried talking to the man in the gaudy tunic with the plumed hat over there (a likely bawd), the unaccompanied girl in the short skirt with the very muscular legs over there (a likely prostitute), Toby the bartender, or the motley group of cardplayers, Leo was bound to overhear.
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Graybeard
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

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"... I'll have an Old Peculiar."

Khoo recoiled, startled. He'd been mentally elsewhere, thinking about how he was going to detach from the clinging vine that was Anna-Lisa Po. (An ... entertaining clinging vine, he had to admit, but still.) The catch phrase seemed to have come from somewhere near a table where some form of cards was being played. (Khoo happened to notice an Ace of Swords sticking out of one man's boot, but this definitely didn't seem like the place to call attention to it.) it didn't necessarily mean anything; Old Peculiar, in his opinion, was the kind of impotable swill that one could easily imagine being served in a place like this. (Even if there weren't any kobolds around to consume it.) Still, the conversation might be worth listening to. His consciousness returned to the here and now.
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Alberich
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: Am I correct in my reading of this post that Anna-Lisa is back in Tsuirakushiti, so that Khoo's thought is about how to get her out of his apartment later, as opposed to how to get free of her right now?]

[OOC2: Go off on a quest, Wes; Take an airship, Kip; Use a strategic ruse, Bruce; And get yourself loose...Just take a warp gate, Nate; Don't think that it's too late; Use a glider to flee, Lee; Just get yourself free...]
Last edited by Alberich on October 7th, 2013, 10:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Graybeard
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Re: Tsuiraku - A Contest of Miseries

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: Correct.
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