• Mature • Judgement Call

[Zana]

27th Ymiden, 717

She really needed to trust her instincts more. Zana hadn't felt comfortable about this particular situation but she couldn't put her finger on why. Normally, especially when someone came in who was new or who had unusual requests, Theo would 'screen' them as her handler. He'd also be close by or, if both of his girls were involved, he'd have the bouncer on standby. In the relatively short time that she'd known him, Zana had come to realize that Theo genuinely did take care to be cautious with his girls. She appreciated that; it added to the already protective ethos Peter had and it made working in the Lap of Luxury a good thing.

But this trial, fate had transpired it seemed and Zana couldn't shake a bad feeling as she led the two men to the room she'd been assigned. Four of them had come in, with an unusual request. They'd pay for a girl each, but they wanted one girl between two of them. Peter had been delighted by that, because it meant that he got double the amount, effectively. Zana would be busy for a break and get paid for twice in that time ~ normally two clients would take two breaks. Of the girls available, two of them had chosen her and the other pair had chosen Billie, Theo's other girl. Peter had made a great show of hanging the room key around her neck, but Zana hadn't felt comfortable at all.

She spoke to Peter about it, quietly and in private, but he told her that she was being silly, that she was nervous because of the situation and she just needed to smile and go do her job. Zana couldn't help but think that Theo would not have told her that. But Theo had gone out to the bank and then to the warehouse for more alcohol before their shifts started. He'd spoken to her and Billie before he left, telling them to be careful, stay in rooms close to the bouncer and that he'd be back before their first clients had left.

Except the bouncer hadn't turned up for work, they were busier than was expected and now she was down the end of the corridor, about as far away from Billie as it was possible to be, as Billie had been picked by the first pair and was already working, her room being closer. More importantly to Zana, the room that Peter had assigned her to was at the far end of the building and was far, far too distant from reception for her taste. But it was the last room available and so Zana took the key from the long necklace where it hung and let the two of them in.

The two clients walked in and Zana walked in behind them. Once she had closed the door, she turned to the two men with a smile on her face. It didn't last because as she turned one of them, the dark haired biqaj who was the larger of the two backhanded her across the face. The force of that blow coupled with the fact that she was already off balance since she was turning and she fell. Pain was ringing in her ears, her cheek was on fire and she could taste blood in her mouth.

Damnit, but she knew, she knew she should have trusted her instincts.

Her head was reeling, but she was struggling to get up on her feet when she felt other one, the blonde-haired human man, grab her by the hair and yank her up. She let out a cry of surprise and pain as he pulled her close against him. The hand in her hair twisted cruelly and Zana looked around desperately, looking for a mirror and cursing that there wasn't one which would allow her to look either of them in the eyes through that reflection. The blonde one pulled her up by the hair until she was standing on tip toe, unable to stamp on his foot which had been what she was thinking to do, and he whispered in her ear. "He's going to beat you for half a break, an' then we're gonna make you wish he was still beating you. You'll like that won't you."

Zana had once killed a client who had gone too far and she promised herself in that moment that she was going to do the same to these two. As the larger one stepped towards her she looked at him with wide, terrified eyes. The bruise on her face was already starting to show and as he got close enough she kicked him between the legs as hard as she could. The toes of her shoes were pointed and the howl he gave as she connected, hard, was loud enough that they'd have heard it in reception, she was sure.

I will unlock your darkest dreams. Then, I will make them come true

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

"You either hired me to act as their handler, or you didn't," Theo pointed out to Peter once he'd returned from the bank and warehouse, only to be told that both Zana and Billie had been sent upstairs, each with two unknowns. He was irritated and more than willing to let his employer know it in no uncertain terms. He had leverage on his side after all. The man had neglected to tell him from the start that one of his girls was a mortalborn. But now it was done, Peter would have seen that the arrangement was working in all of their favors. "My job is to be here, in part to screen their customers, and instead you made me your errand boy for the trial and sent them off with unknowns."

Peter of course was unmoved. But so far as Theo was concerned, the extra nels to be gained meant very little. He didn't get paid more in this instance. But it was much more than that. It was his role to make sure that neither of his girls were put in situations that might harm them. It was already done however, and he could only leave it be and hope for the best. Until one of the other girls, Robyn, caught up with him as he was stalking off into his office, and whispered in his ear. Zana had objected, she told him, and even Billie had seemed uncomfortable. But Peter wouldn't hear of it. And in fact Robyn herself had been unnerved by the four men. She'd never seen them before, she added, and got the sense that they were new to Rharne or just passing through.

It was all he needed to hear. Theo wouldn't wait, but instead decided to head upstairs and at least knock quietly on their doors so they could reassure him that all was well. As a rule, when he was working he was armed with his pistol crossbow and dagger, both of them well concealed. Only his sword was worn openly. This time was no different when he walked up the stairs and reached the landing.

At first he heard nothing, but as he headed towards Billie's room first he heard a dull thump and what sounded something like a muffled cry. And not the sort of muffled sound he was accustomed to hearing behind closed doors. He sped up then and opted out of knocking, once he heard a chair knocked over on the floor and a string of oaths that could only have come from a man. "Open up!" he shouted but didn't wait for an answer. He'd found the door locked, which Billie herself wouldn't have done and kicked it twice before throwing his weight and shoulder against it.

The door finally cracked and gave way, Theo burst into the room and found in a wreck. There was Billie crumpled in the corner, bruised, clothing torn and bleeding near the mouth. One of two very large men had her in his grips and clearly she'd bitten him. The other one wore an angry set of scratch marks on his cheek. It was that one who spun towards the sound of the crashing door, but Theo had been ready, his crossbow already loaded and in easy reach. At close range there wasn't much need for careful aim and as the man cursed and lurched towards him, Theo raised his bow and fired, planting a bolt deep in his shoulder. The big man howled and stumbled back against the wall.

Ignoring him then, Theo lunged towards the man with Billie in his grips who'd just turned and uttered a curse of his own. Yanking him up with one hand and drawing his sword with the other, the maneuver turned awkward and allowed his opponent to draw a sword of his own. Billie still cowered, small as she could make herself in the corner. The one he'd shot had already abandoned his cohort and fled.

Several girls it appeared had followed him up the stairs and were gathered at the landing, and they screamed when the wounded man ran past them. Theo meanwhile was engaged with the lone man left behind, and while he wasn't much of a swordsman, they appeared to be too even a match for comfort. Ultimately they ended up in a standoff, one blade wedged against the other at close quarters. But Theo had been raised on the mean streets of the Dust Quarter and the other man had not.

"Beware the blade you never see coming," he'd been told once by a former Lightening Knight down on his luck who'd taken the time to provide him some lessons. Theo had learned that one well, and while two swords were locked in a standoff, them eye to eye, he reached down and drew his dagger, sweeping it up between them to press the point to the man's throat, just beneath his chin.

"If you want to live to see next trial, or the next one," he hissed between clenched teeth, "you'll follow the lead of your friend who's abandoned you and never show your face here again." For whatever reason, it dawned in the man's eyes that Theo wouldn't end him. At least not so long as he chose correctly. So lowering his sword and dropping it to the floor, he yielded. And when Theo let go himself, the man made a quick exit, down the stairs and out of the place entirely.

Billie was a mess but she'd be alright physically, and Theo's thoughts went directly to Zana. Could be she was fine but he wasn't taking any chances. Stalking out of the room, he called to the other girls who were at the top of the stairs. "Take care of Billie," he told them. "And block the door behind you." It was a good walk to the other end of the hall but he covered the distance quickly. And while he heard nothing to alarm him at first, again, he wasn't going to bother with knocking. "Zana?" he called out, hoping to hear her answer, one way or another.

[Zana]

The one behind her pulled her back by the hair, causing her to cry out again. He was taller than her and was pulling her hard; her feet skidded on the floor as she tried to keep them there, but he was lifting her off the ground by her hair and the pain was unbearable. She had to try and gain her balance, Zana knew, but all she could do was alleviate the pulling right now. She knew where her attacker's hands were and so she dug her nails into his hand, breaking the tender skin between thumb and finger and he let out a yell of pain and dropped her, but he also swung a blow straight at her. Even though she saw the fist coming, she just wasn't fast enough to stop it and as it connected, she knew that he'd split her lip.

The taller one of the two was standing and he let out a stream of verbal abuse which she didn't even hear and as she struggled to stand, Zana's hand moved to the bedside cabinet, where the stumbling half-fall from the punch to her face had taken her. Grabbing a small glass ornament, Zana swung it at the shorter man and had the brief feeling of euphoria as she connected with his jaw and his head swung around, blood spraying from his mouth.

It didn't knock him out, though and she knew it had needed to. His hands wrapped on her throat and Zana saw the bigger, dark haired biqaj one coming towards her. She kicked, but he was wary and her shoes had long since fallen off. The blonde one used his weight to push her against the wall and she felt her back impact with a detached recognition of how much it hurt. He was cutting off her air ~ she could feel it. Zana had trill, she knew, so she ignored the blows that came from both of them and used the only thing she could.

There was a window in the opposite wall, looking out onto Rharne. Zana figured that, if the howl of the man she kicked had not brought anyone, she had only one option. Black spots were appearing in front of her eyes and she wondered why the pair of them continuing to hit didn't hurt any more. She still had the ornament in her hand and she threw it, hard, at the outside window. The whole thing shattered and made the most gods-awful noise. Which was, of course, what Theo heard as he approached.

The door wasn't locked so, when he entered he saw the two of them; the blonde human man who was still taller than Zana had her by the throat against the wall. His face was cut and bleeding, his hand too was covered in blood as he tore at her dress. Zana was off the floor, hanging by his hand and the other man, a taller dark biqaj was raining blows on her. Having lobbed the ornament, which had made as much noise as it could, Zana continued to fight them, kicking and punching, using her nails where she could. She landed a good few blows of her own, but she wasn't strong enough to make them stop and she was losing.

As Theo burst in, Zana saw him but the other two didn't, since they had their backs to him and she redoubled her efforts, as much to keep their attention on her as because she thought it would do any good. If they couldn't see him and he could take care of it, she might just live through this, Zana thought and that in itself gave her a burst of adrenaline which might last a few more trill. As she kicked the blonde one in the stomach, which just seemed to amuse him at this point, she considered that she'd never been quite so pleased to see anyone in her life.

Woman of mass distraction

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

He he'd already been moving down the hallway at anything but a leisurely pace. But when the sounds of shattering glass reached ears, Theo broke into a jog, his crossbow already loaded before he reached the threshold of Zana's room. Unlike Billie's, the door wasn't locked and he didn't waste any time announcing himself. What he saw unfolding there meant acting on instinct. He caught sight of the tall biqaj, but it was the shorter, blonde haired one that was the most immediate threat to Zana.

Theo had never killed a man before. But his eyes flashed impossibly dark with fury when he saw the man's hands wrapped round Zana's throat, so tightly that she was lifted up off the floor, and he had no qualms about ending the man. He fired his bolt straight into the man's back, just between his shoulder blades. At such close range, it buried itself deep. The man gasped out a strange sound, his body went rigid, his hands loosened around her throat and he dropped to the floor like a sackful of grain. In just trills, he'd be dead.

It happened so quickly that when Theo spun round on his heel, dropping his emptied bow and reaching for his sword, the taller biqaj was in turn, just reaching for his. Something in Theo's eyes however, and maybe it was a shared heritage that made it more recognizable, caused him to think twice and he opted to flee instead. He turned and ran out the door, but after a glance at Zana to reassure himself that she lived, Theo determined that if he could prevent it, this one wouldn't escape.

He dashed for the door himself, but just as he crossed the threshold, one of the girls down the hall screamed. What followed immediately in that scream's wake was a curious sound. A loud, ringing metallic sound, a thud that followed it and all was quiet. Coming to a halt in the hallway, Theo took in the scene. There stood another of the girls, Robyn this time, with a heavy cast iron skillet in her hands. And the Biqaj was collapsed into a large heap at her feet. Unconscious, and not going anywhere anytime soon.

Robyn waved him back. She'd take care of this one, and Theo put back his sword and returned to Zana's room. He went to her, stepping over the dead man and took her in hand, looking over every inch of her. He didn't ask if she was alright. She wasn't, but he took her in hand and got her to sit on the bed so he could have a look at her. "He's been stopped. The other one," he said, just as Robyn came in and observed the body.

Theo glanced that way and shook his head. "I guess I should..." What? Speak to the knights? "Leave him," Robyn said. "You don't need to do anything. This sort of thing has happened before." The reason he hadn't heard about it, she explained, was because Peter and Fred took care of it and it simply went away as if it had never happened. And the men who'd gotten away, she added, would never say a word at the risk of incriminating themselves.

At least for now, Theo didn't ask exactly how they took care of things like this. Maybe he'd rather not know, or it was better for all if he didn't. There was another problem however. "What about the one on the landing?" he asked, and then turned back to Zana with a clean cloth in hand and a bowl of water so that he could sort out which of the blood was hers and which wasn't.

[Zana]

Really, the first thing that she was aware of was the loss of pressure on her windpipe and Zana slid down the wall with gulping breaths of air. She gasped in that most precious commodity and she landed on the floor as Theo glanced at her briefly and then turned and ran from the room.

There was just her and the dying man.

Zana felt pain in every bit of her. Her throat was constricted, bruised and battered and this man had whispered promises to her about what he and his friend would do. Her hands were shaking and covered with blood, but she reached out to find him, to find if he was still alive. But he was not. He had promised her that his friend would beat her for half a break, then they would make her wish that he had continued for the break. He'd told her she'd like it and had throttled her, or tried to and Zana pushed at him. "Wake up. Wake up." She wasn't clear, she wasn't thinking straight as she did that, because he was already dead but she wanted to hurt him.

She wasn't trembling, Zana realised, her body was convulsing and she didn't know how to stop it. Theo was there, somehow and he took hold of her hands. "He's dead," she slurred as Theo moved her to the bed. "They were hitting me." There were tears, she realized, tears pouring down her face and she didn't entirely know why. She was barely conscicous but she looked at him. The middle one, she thought, was probably the best Theo to speak to. What that meant was that she was looking off to his left as she spoke.

There was a girl in the room, Zana realised. Robyn, that was her name. They were all here now, but where had they been? "I told him, Theo. Peter. I told him. Bad. Not good. Made me feel bad. Where is he? On the landing." Unfortunately, most of the blood was hers and it was quickly obvious, even if it had not been when he came in ~ if they were beating up on Billie, they were trying to kill her. It didn't occur to her that pushing the bowl out of the way was a bad idea, or that standing up led, inevitably, to stumbling and reaching out a hand to steady herself.

"He enjoys it. Pain. Giving it, he enjoys it." Zana looked at Theo with eyes which were already swelling and closing up. "I'm going to stop him. You killed the other one." It was sheer, absolute determined stubbornness which got Zana out of the room. She stood and didn't walk out of there, she fell out, unless he helped her. But he was out there and she was not going to be ignored or denied. He was just starting to come into consciousness, the larger of the two and Zana moved with surprising alacrity.

Kneeling, she grabbed his head and lifted him by the hair. There was a mirror on the landing and all Zana had to do was lift him so that he was looking in the mirror. Then, she locked her gaze with his and twisted her hand in his hair. It hurt, and that was all she needed it to do. She used her ability, reflected experience, and she gave him pain. Not just reflected, but focused and amplified in a way that was fueled by her own pain and fury. Focusing the angle meant that it was more and more intense. The man who had been trying to kill her bits before screamed pure agony.

It was in those moments that Theo might learn two things about Zana, both of which would probably be the kind of thing he'd remember. As her swelling lips snarled and her already-closing ice blue eyes clamped on the man who had hurt her, it became apparent that the longer she held eye contact, the more intense the feeling was which she gave. However, as she struggled once more to breathe and blood flowed freely from her nose, the man screamed in an utterly haunting, terrified and impossibly high-pitched manner and Zana did not stop. He had hurt her and she would not stop. Not until she very calmly, it seemed, lowered her hand to his belt, pulled the knife from it and plunged it into his neck.

"I told Peter." Zana said to Theo, as blood poured over the hand which had trill ago held the knife so calmly. She was now shaking for all sorts of reasons. "I made noise." With a complete lack of comprehension, she realized it was him and she frowned. "Theo? I thought you were at the bank? You'd have listened to me." With which she more or less collapsed into him, passing out as she finally allowed herself to relax now that he was here.

Why trust you? You never made a dream come true
Why trust you? Give me one good reason.

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

As Theo lifted her off the floor and sat her on the side of the bed, Zana was shaking from head to toe and the wild look in her eyes told him that she might not see him at all. Not really see him. She could hear him though even if she couldn't quite make sense of it. He grabbed a thick blanket off the back of a chair and draped it around her shoulders. It was Ymiden and warm outdoors and a blanket wouldn't fix what was ailing her. But it would help he thought by laying on some sense of security where there hadn't been any before.

"Yes, he's dead," he confirmed, and winced when he realized that most of the blood he blotted off with the damp cloth was hers. His eyes were stormy with flecks of black that hadn't quite faded away yet, and he wanted to kill the man who'd had hold of her a second time. The physical signs of fury in his gaze flared again if briefly when she talked of Peter and his refusal to hear her concerns. There'd be words with the man later, and more if he failed to check his anger by the time the opportunity arose.

Her condition and Billie's were the only things stopping him just then. But there'd be some kind of reckoning later. Whether or not his role at the Lap of Luxury survived the encounter remained to be seen. She flung out her hand and the bowl spilled water onto his chest, and he dropped the bowl when she lurched to her feet and stumbled against him. "Zana, sit," he said but she'd wrenched herself out of his arms and headed for the door. Theo thought she wanted to see that the biqaj had truly been caught, and he thought that maybe she needed to. If he'd known what she'd do? He didn't, so it was him that helped her there thinking she might not rest until it was done.

Once he realized what she was doing, Theo could have grabbed hold of her and pulled her up and away. But he didn't. It was no less than the man deserved, and maybe it needed doing. He learned a lot about her abilities then and what she could do with them. What they'd engaged in before was child's play. The screams didn't go without notice and catching a glimpse of movement at the bottom of the stairs, he saw Peter there. The man was watching, had seen all of it and there was a strange mix of guilt, horror and barely concealed fear on his face.

At least the owner of the Lap of Luxury had entertained the presence of mind to empty out the place of its customers before all the bloodshed, and screaming began. Wouldn't be good for business. Theo was fairly sure that it was what ultimately had driven the decision. When Zana collapsed against him, he scooped her up in his arms before she crumpled to the floor, and before he turned round again, he looked Peter's way again and there was an unspoken message in his gaze. Peter was gone again and not there to see it, but there'd be a reckoning later, Theo resolved.

Carrying her back to her room and laying her on the bed, he drew the blanket over her and sent Robyn to check on Billie. He'd be along shortly, he told her. Theo knew very little of medicine, and it was just as well that Peter or someone else must have sent for a healer that knew how to keep her mouth shut. The middle aged woman who was all business and compassion in one, chased him from the room and as he went, heading down to Billie's room he passed some men he'd never seen before. Large men carrying leather sacks who were busy cleaning up at the landing.

These men must have been part of what Robyn was referring to when she said that all would be cleaned up and taken care of. And just as he passed them by, they paid him no mind either. Billie, it turned out, hadn't been nearly as brutalized as Zana had been. But while her body had suffered less trauma, not so her mind. The fair skinned girl with freckles and a mass of pale red waves was more fragile than the other girls, and more naive too. Many of her customers liked that sort of thing, craved it when at the end of the trial they went home to more domineering wives. But Theo had learned that for Billie, it wasn't an act.

She'd needed to be handled differently than Zana and it was a challenge that Theo hadn't faced before. He'd grown up in a place where violence and abuse was simply part of the job for the whores that walked the dirt streets and alleyways. They became hardened to it, or they broke. He worried that Billie might take the second path if not handled properly.

By the time Theo headed back down the hall, sent by the healer who'd finished with Zana, the body at the landing was gone and there wasn't a trace left behind that anything had happened there. The same was true of Zana's room. The men were gone, the broken glass was cleaned up and the bloodstained carpet had been removed, replaced by a new one. Robyn was right. The condition of the rooms and hallway made it appear that it had just been an ordinary evening, no different than any other. Except for the two girls involved, of course.

The woman who'd come had managed to get something down Zana that would keep her resting through the night. But although Theo had been assured that she'd never know he was there, that neither girl would, Theo didn't return to his rented home in the Glass Quarter that night. These two girls were his responsibility, and he was their handler. Eventually having dimmed the lamps and drawn the curtains, he'd settled himself in a chair through the night and nodded off now and again.

Neither girl was ever completely alone. While he sat in Billie's room, one of the girls took his place in Zana's. And when in Zana's room, the reverse was also true. It was possible that neither of them would ever realize he'd been there all along. But since Zana had slept longer, each of them when they woke would find him there in the corner of their room keeping watch before he'd finally given way to the healer who'd come to check on her patients.

[Incubus]

Theo

Knowledge
Bladed Combat: Dagger: Used dagger with a sword
Bladed Combat: Dagger: Beware the blade you can’t see
Bladed Combat: Sword: Drawing the sword in combat takes time
Bladed Combat: Sword: Using your environment
Business Management: You have to be able to do your job.
Ranged Combat: Crossbow: Close range requires less aim
Ranged Combat: Crossbow: Loading and firing quickly
Strength: Throwing all of your weight into a charge

NPC: Billie: One of the girls you have responsibility for
NPC: Billie: Got attacked by clients
NPC: Peter: Your boss
NPC: Peter: Short sighted & greedy?
Zana: Got attacked by clients
Zana: Killed one of the men who attacked her

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Fame: +2 Act of Heroism, +3 Killing "Bandits"... I might've missed it, but Theo only killed one himself, correct?
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15

Zana

Knowledge
Bladed Combat: Dagger: Drawing a blade in combat
Bladed Combat: Dagger: Stabbing in the neck
Endurance: The pain of a physical beating
Endurance: Adrenaline helps to improve endurance.
Psychology: Instincts can be useful
Unarmed Combat: Brawling: Front kick
Unarmed Combat: Brawling: Use your nails
Unarmed Combat: Brawling: Utilise the environment

NPC: Billie: Theo’s other girl.
NPC: Billie: Got attacked the same time you did
NPC: Peter: Owns the Lap of Luxury
NPC: Peter: Told you not to be silly
Theo: Fought off my attackers
Theo: Killed one of the men who attacked me
Mortalborn Ability: Reflected Experience: Can be made more intense

Loot: N/A
Injuries: "Zana has been badly beaten. She is covered in bruises and small cuts and abrasions. These will take 15 trials to heal fully and the psychological damage is likely to take longer."
Fame: +2 PC witness to act of heroism, +3 Kill a "bandit"
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15

Comments: That was intense! I really liked the pace of this thread and the way both Theo and Zana handled this violent adversity. Good writing, folks!

I corrected the wording on Theo's strength knowledge to make it more appropriate for the skill. Hope that's alright!