strangetrip | [EP] a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life*

Yasmeen "refused to be bored, because she wasn't boring."**

She'd read that in a book in Gotham. But then, Gotham had a library, bookstores, and her Lady. Not being bored was a lot easier. So, when the city opened, Yasmeen all but bolted through the portal into the wet jungle heat in search of anything interesting to do.

It didn't take long for her to discover there were no airships, no weapons modern even by her standards, and very little for non-natives to do. But there was always work in a port city, even in a river port, and she knew how to find it.

On day two, she met Ek Sothea, a young woman with a gift for spotting an opportunity. By day three, she'd agreed to front her the gold for a salvage operation in the river. It barely touched the reserves of what Yasmeen had with her when she arrived from Gotham, but it was enough to finance the operation and get Yasmeen a tip on a bar by the docks where Ek Sothea had gotten the initial information and the name of the man who'd supplied it. Soksan.

The third night, she staked out the bar and by the fourth, she'd met Sar Peou and his contact Hu Chariya who needed an ancient and valuable map retrieved from the business partners who'd kept it after a deal went bad. Early on the morning of the fifth day, she'd slipped into the third floor above the Phann Raksmei bank, picked the locks on the safe chest, and obtained the map. On the evening of the fifth day, she met Sar Peou at Soksan, slipped into his back corner booth and delivered the map in exchange for a healthy payment that covered her investment in Ek Sothea's salvage operation.

Business transacted, she bought herself an ale to nurse while scoping out her next job.

~*~*~*~
* Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf
** Zelda Fitzgerald

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Even without knowing what the job entails?" Yasmeen stepped up to the line, flicked her dart with less deliberation but no less accuracy. In fact, her dart (intentionally) hit precisely beside his. "Either you trust my judgment or you're very very bored."

"Six of one, half dozen of the other." Ignis shrugged and tossed his second dart. The motion and aim was becoming thoroughly automatic, a sure sign that the value of it as practice was wearing thin. "In truth, I should prefer not to let my non-kitchen skills atrophy completely, and I expect wherever you go is unlikely to be dull."

Yasmeen tossed her dart nearly over Ignis's shoulder and the two landed in quick succession. They would fight well together. Perhaps not as well as she and Raleigh, but then she and Raleigh had other ways of synchronizing themselves.

"Points for honesty." Yasmeen chuckled and waited for him to throw his last dart, then again followed with her own. "Come and sit with me. We can discuss it over a drink."

"Non-alcoholic, for me. For the record." It was agreement without the actual word 'yes', but Yasmeen reminded him enough of Gladiolus that Ignis was sure she'd hear the agreement instead of the beginning of an argument. And like Gladio, she'd likely figure out the correct reason for his restraint: he relied too much on his balance and remaining four senses to risk dulling them without reason.

"And for me, more often than not." Likely for the same reason. When she did drink alcohol in public, it often seemed she drank far more than she did. By design. When blending required alcohol was when she least wanted to be impaired.

She guided him to the table by walking a step ahead of him and slightly to the side. If he wanted to touch her to follow in the noise, she was close enough, and if he didn't need to, she hadn't assumed anything. And when she'd delivered him to the table, she turned back toward the bar. "Back shortly."

Ignis nodded a brief affirmative and took a seat. The bar's ambient noise was much the same as it had been around the dartboard, but sharp ears an attention found that this corner was slightly more muted. More indistinct murmurs, less laughter, less glass clink. The bar equivalent of a quiet, private corner - neither quiet nor private in reality, but as close to either as one was likely to get.

He was not surprised, and it was probable that he'd enjoy the relative quiet even if Yasmeen's conversation, by some hugely unlikely mischance, proved not to be interesting.

Yasmeen returned a few moments later with a juice drink with ginger that tasted like it might have a pineapple sort of base, one for each of them. She set it in front of Ignis and said, "Mind the fizz if you don't use the straw. It's stronger than soft drinks."

He hardly needed the warning about the fizz, as he'd likely hear it, even over the occasional clink of ice cubes, but the straw wouldn't be immediately obvious and this way she didn't have to coddle him.

Ignis nodded pleasant acknowledgement of her warning as well as the subtle recommendation. It was the work of a moment, fingertips tracing the edge of the glass in his hand, to find the straw and make use of it.

Of course, she'd been exactly correct, to the point where the fizz was distracting. Was it really carbonation...? "And here we are with drinks in hand. What sort of work are you looking at?"

With Ignis, she felt no need to be cagey. He wouldn't try to steal the work out from under her nose, and she had already made her decision about him. Although it would not be with others, in this, the choice would be entirely down to him.

"I've been asked to find a man who has been missing for ten years. Either I will return proof of death, or the man--" Or proof of life if the living man refused to come along, as she had no doubt that she would find him or what was left of him. "And in exchange, I will be paid handsomely. The complication is that he went missing in the Land Out of Time, and few who venture in ever return. I believe it wise to take a party of 5 or so, and I'd like you to be one of them."

"I'm happy to help." If nothing else, it had the potential to be a pleasant outing, but... Ignis remembered doing much the same back home, from time to time. Either his whole group being asked to recover a lost hunter's tags so the hunter's family could have closure, or more recently Ignis alone.

After ten years, the man was almost certainly dead. A living fellow would have found his way back eventually. But an answer either way meant peace for the Captain's employer. "As it happens, I have some experience with such missions."

"I imagined you might. If demons are anything like every other monster, they probably make a lot of missing persons." Zombies did. Not that Yasmeen had made a habit of retrieving proof of death. It was a damned good way to get eaten by zombies.

"Many, yes." And not all of them missed. Not all hunters were official, nor all daemon-slain hunters. There were enough abandoned homesteads and rusting cars along the roads of Eos to make that much clear. And then there was the starscourge.... "Let's hope daemons weren't responsible for our target's disappearance."

"I suspect we're more likely to run into dinosaurs than demons," came Yasmeen's amused reply.

[EP] a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life* - backdated

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like