Tsuiraku-town, part 3

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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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: It's Joe, not Ace, who's acting as the "owner" of the dead liquor store, and while Ace is about 40 and looks it (if, as Layla would tell you, still handsome), Joe isn't much older than Leo, if at all. Really doesn't matter, though, so...]

Ace started to say something, but Joe cut him off. "The damage to the store isn't disastrous. We have coverage that'll repair or replace most of it." In other words, Peter, if he still wants us to keep this place open. "What I want to know is: who did this? I want the bastard brought to justice." Preferably, Gewehr-style justice. "And even more important, I want to know why. Now excuse me for a minute."

The rear of the store wasn't as thoroughly crisped as the front, and Joe made his way through the still-smoldering debris back to the offices at the rear. A moment later, he emerged with a bag. "That's a relief," he said. "The Tsuirakuan gadget with our business records is still intact. That'll make it easier to collect on our policy." He turned to Ace. "Let's get the hell out of here."

What was in the bag wasn't just "business records," but also the communications crystal ball linking back to Kugelheim ... but the cop didn't need to know that.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC Oops, sorry misread. I'm awesome for the minor oversights aren't I? :)/OOC

"Let's get the hell out of here."

Leo eyed the bag in the (former) store owner's hand with curiousity, but then again it was the thieving part of him that viewed every unassuming container as 'a secret bag of mystery'. He didn't have any plans to pinch it; he'd seen enough paperwork for one day.

'And, on the subject of business...'

He took a moment to lead Liepzeller away from the burned out store with a hand clapped on the man's shoulder as if they were best friends discussing a personal matter. A few seconds later to turned back to Ace and the storeowner as they made their preparations to exit the crime scene, feeling considerably lighter in the wallet as he did. He called after them.

"Excuse me? Ace? Are you, per chance, heading to see the Sorensen's now? I still have a matter to discuss with them."

'Damn the wordiness of diplomacy.'
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Hours »

Seishi:

It had taken a while for Seishi to get out of his predicament. As much as he'd gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble at the end of the day all he'd needed to do was to make a false statement and give a false address, naming himself as a traveller visiting Farrel and saying he was staying at a hotel outside of tsuirakuan jurisdiction. There wasn't much they could do to nail him down. The one seen fleeing from the bomb room was nowhere to be seen, and his appearance had changed enough from his second disguise that they'd be unable to directly point him out as the one who'd ran in before their first suspect.

A few annoying statements later and a discovery that the bomb was a dud (Sieshi had been wanting to get rid of that thing for a while, the blueprints he'd gotten on the black market were bogus) that was probably made by some crappy farrellian wannabe artificer left Seishi able to wander free and change his appearance back to what it once was. Opening up the portal sealed in his belongings and pulling out his sealed documents he sighed and decided to head for his next dead drop location...

Wallace:

Wallace sat outside the shipping container on deck of the Queen Anne's Revenge with a pair of tweezers and a bucket of sea water, washing his arms and hands, cleaning under his fingernails where little chunks of skin had taken to hiding. No one on deck seemed to be able to look square at the man, maybe it was that his rubber apron was splattered in a sticky brown mess, maybe it was that he'd been doing something sounding very thoroughly unpleasant in the improvised holding cell. The crewman who had been standing guard over Oshima in the container rolled a pair of wet sacks stained red over the side and into the port, if the fish found Oshima they wouldn't be able to recognise him even if they could put all the pieces back together...

'Tully.' Wallace said, standing up and calling over one of the cabin boys, handing over a wad of papers all covered with small diagrams and covered in Wallace's impeccable cursive, 'Take these up to communications. Call the shore base and have them relay that information to the Captain, I want us relocated back out of inner Seeadler waters with a shore rendezvous location plotted within the hour.'

Meha:

So far the local powers that be hadn't seen fit to visit the little office that Gault's men had setup. The Schwarzmarine Contracters had literally zero publicity and weren't even advertising what they were hoping to be contracted to do, that and a "closed for refurbishment" sign meant it didn't neccessarily seem likely that the fish would come biting on the first day... This meant that Meha had more time on her hands to deal with more clandestine matters than business fronts.

Today Meha had been playing messenger more than was neccessary. At least for the first one she'd got to dress up, but after the first matter had been attended to and fulfilled within a few hours she'd just had to ride around on the wagon and drop off packages here and there, this wasn't exactly what she'd imagined when she'd signed on as Gault's student, but it tended to be the fact that most of this lifestyle was more sitting around waiting punctuated between with short moments of exciting action. Her last package of the day was a bit further out than normal, but it was to be delivered straight to the Captain himself.

What Meha didn't know was that Gault had been struck by the wrong side of a bed at around noon, as such maybe the only one to hear the arrival of the supplies wagon was Layla {OOC: Or Maya... Whoever's around the vineyard this time of day. I honestly have no idea where Layla is so I'm guessing.]
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: We really need some consolidation here...]

"Excuse me? Ace? Are you, per chance, heading to see the Sorensen's now? I still have a matter to discuss with them."

Ace gave the man a questioning look. "Layla, anyway. We have no damn idea where Faye is. But yeah, I'm heading back there. Why do you ask? Want a ride?"

---------

Breastfeeding, Layla reflected, wasn't just the ultimate expression of love between mother and child; it also had an eminently practical dimension, for the opportunity it granted to clear her head and do some thinking.

They were going to have to break the news to Peter about the liquor store, and he was going to be seriously pissed off. On the other hand, he shouldn't be pissed off at them. Layla was pretty sure that there was nothing in the Gewehr's plans that had anticipated random attacks out of a clear blue sky, first by two low-lives who'd somehow got their hands on Tsuirakuan military weaponry, then by some random arsonist for who the hell knew what reason.

Which actually focused her mind considerably as regards how the conversation with Peter had to go. Has our cover been blown? And who would have the balls to hire that arsonist? Because he wouldn't have done something like that on his own. More fact finding was going to be needed here.

Meanwhile, the people at the store were going to have to relocate, and the vineyard looked like the only place for it. She made a mental note to have Joe gather up Oskar and Stevo and bring them in. Of course, they'd have to be alerted to all the traps around the place; their tradecraft was a lot better than the late Fritz's and Weed's, but there were still some highly non-standard tricks on the grounds. (Where did Jamie and Jasmine learn all that? she wondered, then decided she'd be better off not knowing.) And there was still this "Gault" to deal with.

At least the second hood probably wasn't going to be a problem. Before Ace and Joe went back into town, she'd heard a shot somewhere out in the woods, followed by the foooshh of a warp gate functioning -- whether the one at the shack or the even more puzzling one in the woods, she didn't know, and didn't really care. Plausible deniability was a good thing ...

Finished with Zachary's meal, she buttoned her blouse, put him down for a nap, just in time to hear a wagon arriving.

---------

[OOC: Strong likelihood of Faye, Jade and Jasmine returning shortly -- more people to keep tabs on...]
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

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"Layla, anyway. We have no damn idea where Faye is. But yeah, I'm heading back there. Why do you ask? Want a ride?"

"You read my mind." Leo quipped, meandering over the transportation and suddenly feeling a little self-conscious that he hadn't had the chance to clean himself up at the bathhouse.

"I just hope we can make it to your establishment without any more fireballs or yahoo's with yukki staffs." He said.
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

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Layla stepped out of the house to see the supply wagon coming ... just in time to see another unexpected sight, as Faye, Jade and Jasmine came up the path from the woods.

"And just where have you been? Or do I want to know?"
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Hours »

Gault:

As the other Gewehr left for their base, Gault didn't bother to try and talk his way into their hack when none of them actually knew he had business at the vineyard. Excusing himself and thanking the strange nurse, Gault took the time properly heal his wounds in privacy before tugging on a thread of time and vanishing from the vacinity of the clinic run by the temple of the divine dwarf, a few moments later he stepped into his little rented office space to see what was going on with his men.

Of course there was the obvious, he read the copy of the sealed orders left behind by Meha. Nothing particularly wrong with it but pretty bland, he burnt the evidence as soon as he'd confirmed it and plotted out a course of action, pouring himself out some tea to try and get over the buzz of that medicine. Wasn't effecting him so badly but even so he'd made a point of getting off the drink a long time ago.

Meha:

As the supply wagon arrived at the vineyard, the lone driver stopped to confirm the address and picked up her messenger bag, hopping down from the driver's board and stepping towards the vineyard house... At which point there was an odd twanging noise and a loud snap of metal on metal as a lead up to Meha's pained statement:

'SON OF A--!!'
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

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"And just where have you been? Or do I want to know?"

Jade waved a greeting to Layla as she exited the house. The blacksmith was already wearily unslinging the new arsenal that weighed her down; for all her recent exertions her body felt like lead.

"That's a long and violent story; the kind that should be discussed from the comfort of an armchair with a cup of tea."

She began skirting around the traps that led to the safehouse, wearing a smile of geniune relief as she did, they were back. Jade had been silently worried that the warp gate that she, Faye and Jasmine had thrown themselves recklessly into had been a one-way device, or even worse, that the return pad would deposit them neatly into the heart of an organisation who now had a reason to bear them a serious grudge.

"Is everyone around? I'm thinking we need a meeting, with cushions and maybe a bottle of..."

Her voice trailed off as she spotted the hack arriving and who was on it, specifically the long haired man who was perched on the back of it with his feet dangling over the edge like a bored kid. She was so fixated she barely even registered the unfortunate driver's 'accident' nearby the other vehicle. Her knuckles tightened so hard the cracked yukki staff resting in her hand made a grinding noise. Her next sentence was a whisper.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me..."
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on October 2nd, 2010, 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Hours »

[OOC: The supply wagon belongs to Gault and didn't pick up anyone. You're thinking of the Vineyard's hack.]
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Re: Tsuiraku-town, part 3

Post by Graybeard »

OOC:
Hours wrote:[OOC: The supply wagon belongs to Gault and didn't pick up anyone. You're thinking of the Vineyard's hack.]
I think there is confusion as to which wagon is going where, and who is reacting to it. The vineyard's hack is bringing Ace, Joe and a rather bedraggled Martin/Leo back to the vineyard. The supply wagon was going to the vineyard too, wasn't it? But not hanging around, and nobody but Meha was on it. Please clarify. Meanwhile, the three women are not arriving via wagon, but via shank's mare, walking up from the clandestine gate out in the woods.

Let's pause the action for just a moment and reset who's where before proceeding.
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