Tsuiraku-town

[Kincaide]

"An old friend of Rhett's, the kind that owes him more favors than has years of age," Ritter said in an easy growl. All of his words growled slightly from years of hard living and bellowing orders.

"I met him just before I was discharged up North. He helped me get started in the family business. I figured Kitaura was not going to be easy to get to so I decided to enlist his help," Rhett steepled his gloved fingers in front of his face, "And now that he is here I feel somewhat better about throwing my weight around in front of Tsuirkan troops."

""The fact that ye were plannin it says quite a bit about the inside of yer head, boy," Ritter interjected.

"Come on Cap'n, give me some credit here, I'm not going to throw my life away for a scarp of information. Anyway, I'd appreciate any information you have on his usual haunts in Tsuirka-town and in return I'll be happy to try and ask a few questions for you," there was no guarantee he would be able to get to Kituara, even away from the consulate.

[Graybeard]

"Flora? Coffee?" Quince repeated, and momentarily, the waitress they'd seen earlier emerged with a steaming pewter mug. No pistol was evident.

Once Ritter was served, Quince continued. "Well, I'll admit, we have learned a few things about his movements in Tsuiraku-town. The Tsuirakuans can hardly keep everybody from Farrel out of there, after all; it's our city, not theirs, and the whole point of the place is commerce with us barbarians -- at least officially. So I occasionally have a few people drop by to see if there's anything new. If they happen to catch a glimpse of Kitaura while they're at it, well, what's the problem with that?"

He sipped his own coffee and resumed. "Mainly, if I remember what some of my friends were saying, he just seems to wander while he's in there. He usually goes with a couple of the consulate's internal-security thugs, and my guys don't try to get close to them; they're supposed to be among the few Tsuirakuans who are nasty in a hand-to-hand fight as well as being spellcasters. So they go walking around the town, just looking at what is going on, not stopping to talk to anybody, usually not even going into any stores. There are only two places, so they say, where they spend any unusual amount of time. One is the single large park in Tsuiraku-town. We've been over it with a fine-tooth comb, and we can't see anything unusual about it. He might be meeting snitches there or something, it's hard to tell.

"The other one -- and so help me Luminosita, I'm not making this up -- is the Temple of the Divine Dwarf."

[OOC: Start reading here for a sense of what a different Temple of the Divine Dwarf is like, the one in Volkanenborg far to the southwest. Of course, this one doesn't have to be like that at all ...]

[Kincaide]

((OOC: Oooohhhh, Rhett is going to have fun there. He may use a Dwarven blade but he is definitely not a fan of the Dwarves.))

"You're shitting me," Rhett said, thumping his head down on the table. The Temple of the Divine Dwarf was a place Rhett avoided above all others, he would prefer to go to the seediest whorehouse out on the docks before going to the Temple.

"What's so bad about the Temple of the Divine Dwarf?" Captain Ritter asked, accepting the coffee gladly, "You're usually in favor of leaving nutters alone."

"Anyone who has lived up North has a love-hate relationship with the Dwarven ruins. Half our tech comes from reverse engineering their trash. It pulled us out of a dark age, but... not many down here have seen what malfunctioning Dwarven defenses can do to a person, much less a kid. The fact that someone chooses to worship that crap is like someone worshiping a plague," Rhett explained bitterly.

"Well, if you want this Kitaura fella then you'll have to bite the bullet, boy," Ritter said, putting his heavy hand on Rhett's shoulder.

"Thanks, Quince," Rhett said finally and stood up, "If all goes well, I'll fill you in when this is over."

[Graybeard]

Quince smiled, saw the men out the door, went back to his stew as the waitress emerged from the kitchen. "What did you think, Flo?" he asked once he was sure they were out of earshot.

The woman sat, took some stew. "I don't know for sure. If you say the tall one is okay, I guess I trust you. The other one's entrance was a little more dramatic than I was comfortable with, but you know a man by the company he keeps."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence; he'll be okay," Quince said. "Rhett's a little full of himself sometimes, and having some muscle along has to help him out. The Tsuirakuans may be all polite and everything, but that doesn't stop them from playing rough."

"Indeed it doesn't. Now one thing I don't understand. You're sending them to two places in that viper's nest?"

"Ulterior motive," the man answered. "I honestly have no idea whether Kitaura goes to that park or not. But somebody does. There's some kind of action there that we've never been able to figure out. Like I told him, to all appearances, it's just a regular park ... but somehow I have the feeling that it's not. Just a feeling. Maybe he can pick up something we've missed."

"Fair enough," Flora said. Then she chuckled. "In that case, the contrast with the Temple of the Divine Dwarf is ... striking."

It was Quince's turn to chuckle. "Yeah, no shit. Even by the standards of the Divine Dwarf places, that one is weird, weird, weird. And of course, that makes it all the more interesting, because everything I've heard about Kitaura is that he's completely non-religious. So what's he doing there? Beats the hell out of me. Maybe Rhett will actually learn something about it, as well as the man he's after. We'll want to pump him when he gets back -- if he gets back."

He stood to go. "I'd better get back to my regular job. Thanks for the backup, boss lady."

"No charge," the woman smiled, and resumed cleaning tables as Quince headed back toward the docks.

[Kincaide]

Outside of the restaurant there was a strange sight. There was a boat, somewhat larger than a dinghy, moored to a hitching post. It floated and bobbed on the air currents blowing down the street, suspended by the gently humming engine that took up a little less than half of the rear of the boat. Two massive oars that ended in fins were strapped to the side, a hinged mast was also laying flush against the body of the boat.

Two men were already sitting in the boat to keep the curious locals from poking and prodding it too much. First mate Tristam and the deck hand Whitley were their names. Tristam was all bandy muscle, with a mop of dreadlocks hanging over and around his face. Whitley was more portly and sported numerous scars on his bald pate. The two men knew Rhett well, having left Sylvan at the same time Captain Ritter had. After a quick greeting the all piled into to floating dinghy and Whitely took it up above the rooftops.

"We're headed for Tsuiraku-Town," Ritter ordered them before reaching for a bundle stashed under one of the low benches, "Got your gear for you, Rhett," he passed the bundle, "Saw someone poking around your place, he ran off after I put a bullet through his ear,"

"Thanks Cap'n," Rhett said, opening the bundle to find his sword, Gram. It was an average length longsword with a half basket hilt. If you believed the stories, it had been made by the Dwarves and used in almost every war since they vanished. He checked the blade, the dull metal did not reflect the crisp sunlight that struck it. He strapped the blade to his hip and slid a pair of throwing knives into a hidden slot in his left sleeve, a dagger went into the back of his pants and another knife was slipped into his boot. Finally Ritter passed Rhett his rifle, which was secure in a bulky carrying case that disguised the contents completely.

"Set us down there," Ritter said, pointing to a clearing in Tsuiraku-Town's park, the flying dinghy settled to a comfortable height of about a foot above the ground. Rhett was the first one out, followed by the Captain. The other two men waited in the dinghy.

"Only park in Tsuiraku-Town," Rhett observed.

"Aye, let's have us a poke around," the Captain agreed.

[kagome_kino]

"oh but i wouldn't want to interrupt so I think I will let him finish smells really good though I can't wait. By the way about ealier do all kisses feel that way or do you have to practice i keep hearing mixed anwsers or is it maybe some people are born like that?"

[Sareth]

"Well, I think... that is... err... What?" I blinked. "Don't tell me that was your first kiss?"

This was something I could not believe. It was something straight out of one of those silly Tsuirakuan cartoons they kept translating and exporting. Girl meets girl. Girl kisses girl to piss off girl's mother. Girl discovers it's girl's first kiss. Next, an entire harem shows up and... Harem?

Hmm...

"Uh... They vary from person to person and depending on circumstances?"

[Graybeard]

"What now, boss lady?" Oskar asked as they arrived at the liquor store.

Damn good question, Layla thought. "You and Stevo just keep this place open, but I want you in contact, ready to move out on short notice if there's a need. I need to get back out to the vineyard. Things are getting weird there. If -- the guy I brought into town learns anything interesting, we may have some actions to take, but for right now, we play defense. Does that work?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say." Oskar wasn't one for grand strategizing; you sort of wound him up and pointed him in the direction of whoever you needed killed, or whatever you needed done.

"I think the message at that laboratory was that they still want me to study there," Layla said. "It just seems incredible to me, but the Tsuirakuans do things their own way. I'm not going back today, though. The message seemed clear enough on that part, and besides, the afternoon is wearing on and I need to get back out to the vineyard and feed my son. I -- what the hell is that?"

A boat was passing overhead. The two watched in silence as it chugged by, passersby gaping and pointing as it went. (The analytical corner of Layla's mind observed that the few Tsuirakuans on the street didn't give it the time of day. Did things like that happen all the time on the floating city? They certainly didn't in Farrel.)

"What was that, boss?" Oskar said as the flying boat disappeared into Tsuiraku-town.

Layla's eyes narrowed. "I don't know -- but I have a suspicion I know one of the crew members, and I'm damn well going to find out."

[Kincaide]

Rhett and Ritter were doing most of the searching, Tristam and Whitely stayed behind to watch the dinghy. While they could be replaced easily enough, they still cost money and Ritter as more than a little tight fisted with such assets. They swept the immediate area to make sure there were no surprises. There would likely be no real traps laid for nosy individuals since this was a public park. Rhett used the time to fill in his old friend on the situation

"Well, unless Kitaura was just a fan of well groomed bushes and feeding ducks, I don't see why he would come here," Captain Ritter observed, "Hard to imagine though, if this guy is half the Tsuirakan badass his reputation makes him out to be,"

"Hard to imagine a dashing sky captain such as yourself shopping for groceries but I've helped you half crates of shaving supplies onto a dinghy," Rhett replied, mocking the Captain a little, but the man was right. Unless there was something that the both of them were missing, the place looked completely unremarkable. That was the problem with looking for secrets, they were often hidden really well.

[kagome_kino]

Mya blushed "well if I am not supposed to tell you it was I'm not sure what to tell you then, I've never really had any suitors before it is a bit hard with the no seeing people thing." Actually Mata did have many suitors just that two very over-protective younger sisters generally chased said love interest off before Maya even found out. "I wonder if there will be any sides for lunch."