• Closed • Will's Odd Job; Feat Silaqui

[Dula]

64 Ymiden 719¤

Today Dula had taken on a different sort of odd job. She was supposed to meet someone named Will at the docks before sunrise for what was some kind of extremely paranoid message left on the odd jobs board. Part of her was scared she would be solicited or something, that the whole thing was a ruse. But she refused to let her own paranoia get in the way of cold, hard cash.

So here she found herself waiting for this “Will”, picking and biting her nails while leaning up against some boxes waiting to be packed away in some ship or perhaps someone’s shop here in Desnind. Dula was wearing her fitted hood, brown linen dress, and her fancy pair of boots. Waiting wasn’t her strong suit and she was beginning to get impatient, shuffling around and scuffing her shoe. Didn’t Will say he would be here early? Maybe she missed him, she came before sunrise right before the docks started to get busy but there wasn’t a single other soul around. She shrugged and was about to leave for home to go back to bed....

That was when she heard a pppsssssttttt coming from behind a few other boxes not far from where she was. It could be dangerous. Should she go investigate? She looked awkwardly around for some guidance on the situation.

OOC

Basically she is just going to follow Sila, wherever Sila may be, to Will who is “pssst”ing them like a paranoid weirdo from behind the boxes.

[Silaqui Falone]

A certain amount of confidence came to her when she knew she was properly armed. The pun wasn't intended but suited. While she still lacked much of her left arm, and it was much seeing as it was from just bellow her elbow down, she finally had a proper fighting knife again thanks to Rakvald. A bit more hand axe and machete than her usual sort of kit but it could slash as well as any she supposed. She'd not bought or been issued a new set of clothes so her body glove and traveling cloak suited. Under it, her missing limb was hidden and that wicked blade Rakvald had paid her with was as well. A fine piece of steel.

The strange cloth she'd awoken with months prior was still with her. Rarely leaving her side for long as somehow it blocked the pain her body was normally racked with. Terrible injury and ruined eye be damned with that simple shred of clothe she felt whole-ish again. If that was a way to describe it.

Dula, or whatever he name was Sila hadn't learned everyone name yet, stood shortly off from her herself. Patience wasn't this girls strong suit and that was being polite. She fidgeted way too much and was a tad too noisy. Seen but not heard wasn't feasible for this female companion. Definitely not some she'd take on a dangerous outing where stealth and patience might be required. Still, the girl may have uses she'd yet to reveal.

Absently under her cloaks concealment Sila rubbed her left arms stump as she took in their surroundings. Analyzing points of egress, cover, potential ambush points, anything that should something happen here that might turn the tide in their favor should it come to it. Hunting was as much a mind game as it was the act of killing a beast or person. To effectively kill a target regardless of their species or whatever you had to get within their mind. Think like them and filter out the fake information that all beings put down. All while having three or more back up plans and as many or more escape plans established and enough potential advantages taken into mind should none of those plans or escape routes be enough.

The aid of this eye patch/handkerchief/piece of clothe allowed her to function closer to the mind set she'd had before her accident. She wasn't truly back to her 100% and perhaps she'd never go back completely but she could at least think clearly without her arm's throbbing or the stabbing pain interrupting her thought process. Every now and then, and this was mostly at night, she'd break the contact with her skin to the cloth and the pain would wake her up. It didn't however, prevent her from forgetting she had no hand there anymore. Many times she'd reach for something with that hand only to stare blankly at the object when she couldn't manipulate it till she realized her mistake. Worse still was when she did it in front of other people.

Eventually someone or something's incessant 'Pssst!'-ing aroused her interest enough, either through normal curiosity or thought plain annoyance, to go and check it out. Easing the blade from the sheath on the small of her back she eased herself around the corner keeping the blade and her hand concealed with her cloak and slightly behind her. If it came to it, and she doubted it would considering where it was they lived, she open the throat of whomever or whatever was making that noise.

[Dula]

¤

Unbeknownst to Dula a woman lurked in the shadows nearby, armed to the teeth. Had the other caught Dula off guard the Sev'ryn woman might have fled from the meeting, thinking some crazed murderer was going to get her! As it stands though, Dula was completely oblivious and proceeded to follow the psst noise.
"Will? Look I'm not going in there."
Dula said to the wooden boxes.
"You're here because you answered my odd job? I have something very important I need you to do and I need this to be a private conversation. Please come back into the boxes!"
They were speaking in hushed tones, but in the quiet of the dock if the other was paying attention they might be able to hear the conversation.
"I am NOT going behind a bunch of wooden crates to talk to some strange man. It's dark enough, just step out so I can see you and stay hidden enough then."
They argued like this for a few moments until finally Will came out of the shadows and into sight for Dula.

He was a waifish man, short and thin, with balding hair and spectacles which magnified his eyes. Clearly human, wearing a clothing style fit for middle class people of Rharne, he was slightly stooped and was ringing his hands over and over. Will dropped his voice a little, but depending on how close Silaqui was it to this odd couple it could be heard, and began telling his side of the story; the reason for the paranoid odd job post.
"I've been seeing... shadows. Out of the corner of my eyes. When I look back no one seems to notice except me. I've done work in the past for mages. I'm afraid someone has sent some big bad to come haunt me or stalk me, to try to get my precious work! See I am a scientist. I'm studying Desnind's fauna, particularly the plant-sentient being hybrids. Like the Mullier Colletis..."
Will shook his head as if dismissing a train of thought; then paused, as if he heard something, and looked behind him for a moment in time before continuing on.

"In any case. I see these shadows all around me now, they are consuming me. It's even gone so far as to break into my house a time or two. That's how I know I'm not crazy! My notes were scattered everywhere, my cupboards rifled through. Twice in this past season! I've had enough. What I want you to do, what is your name? Oh forget it for now... What I want you to do is follow me today through Desnind and look for anything suspicious. I need to know what you see and I need you to do this in detail. Did you hear that!?"
He gasped, jumping about a foot and a half into the air. But Dula hadn't heard anything and was beginning to have misgivings about the situation. She gave him a disapproving side eye and shook her head saying that she hadn't heard a thing. It was just her and him on this dock, but wouldn't be for long. The dock workers would certainly be out soon to get their day started, which Dula rationalized is what he heard.

[Silaqui Falone]

Silaqui slipped the knife back into its holder on her body glove. A certain level of disappointment washed through her but remained free of her expression as she heard the man speak. He'd been seeing things. Shadows or something. They'd all had to deal with that in recent months or some had. she'd only been aware of some people dealing with it and prior to this piece of cloth she used as an eye patch her mind had been too full of pain and discomfort to notice much of anything and if she had she'd chalked it up to her mind being so hazy from pain that she was hallucinating.

This man however seemed absolutely convinced that he was seeing things. That something meant him ill will. That something had breached into the confines of his domicile and snooped about. Perhaps he was right and he wasn't crazy. Maybe his words had a bit of truth to them.

Or maybe he was out of his head.

So they were to shadow him? Interesting. Something made easier in the cover of darkness for her personally but he wanted it done during daylight hours. Sila lowered her one visible eyebrow and looked sideways at Dula. This would be her call.

[Dula]

¤

A woman came from the shadows and joined them.
"Good, you're here too."
Said Will with a nod, in common.
Dula looked at the woman and noticed first her beauty, the woman was a splendor to look at. But the poor woman was marred, Dula took a double glance at the arm that didn't exist anymore before registering the missing eye. This mystery woman had been through some shit, Dula thought to herself as she turned her attention back to Will.
"Okay, here is a paper with my address on it. Meet me there in three breaks, but don't greet me! Stay far back and trail me. Be ghost like, nothing but a transparent sheen.I have some errands to run today, you guys are going to stay far back enough that anyone following me won't notice you. I don't even want to notice you. Period. Got that?"
He repeated this for Dula in Xanthea.
Dula nodded, not sure if she was exactly the best fit person for the job but eager to help out. Maybe she could make some coin? She stuck out her hand and in common told the maimed woman,
"Dula. Nice apologies. Common not good."

~~~~~

Like the man said, Dula was at his tree house three breaks later. She played her flute seated on a bridge far from his place, pretending to be busking, practicing a new song she had been writing called "Cloudless Cosmos". It was a whimsical tune, as all of hers were, with more high notes than low. Supposed to make the person listening feel transported to the stars. It wasn't unusual for her to be busking and she made sure to keep her gaze away from the man's house, just throwing up a few sly glances once or twice while playing. She looked around for the other woman, trying to act as subtly as possible, giving her a nod when their eyes met.

[Silaqui Falone]

"Sila, a pleasure," she responded. The other woman's common was bad as she had admitted.

Common was easy enough to learn but as with most things sometimes it wouldn't stick to certain people. A shadowing job was what she was gathering from this mans description of what he wanted from them.

Easy enough. Sila, by her nature as a former hunter was goodish at keeping herself out of site or less noticeable. She'd make her way to his house in about a break or whatever and take up a position where she could see his house and move when he did without seemingly being connected with him.

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

And so it went. Roughly a break later she'd seated herself on a bench and was absently tossing chunks of bread to the birds. Taking a chunk and biting into herself she sprinkled the crumbs from her hand onto the ground for the birds to pick at while she kept her eye partially watching his door. It was moments like this that she found herself wishing she had a block or rind of cheese and a mug of a stout beer to drink but cheese and beer were expensive and she didn't have all kinds of money to throw around. In fact she hardly had any and the fact that she was feeding bread, food she could eat tomorrow, to birds at this moment was agonizing.

At least she'd get sorta paid after this she supposed. Hopefully enough to make wasting bread worth it. She'd have to see.