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Post by Linyü on Oct 21, 2020 22:38:15 GMT -6
It had gotten easier to just prepare the food himself. At least if he left it where Seveth could find it, Seveth would eat it, even if he did sometimes complain about ingredients he didn’t like. “It’s a costume party,” San said. “Will you dress up, or hide?” A year ago, he wouldn't have asked the question, but a year ago there would have been no question to ask. Harachiu weren't something you saw in Xinzhou. Rei gave the question some genuine thought. “I’ll dress up,” she said. “Can you find your own costume?” “Mm.” With the matter settled, there was nothing to do but await the day of the party itself. ----- The noise was audible long before they reached the location itself, party-goers laughing and chattering among one another as they gathered outside the tower. San wondered at the turnout; had no one else had any misgivings about this place? 16
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Post by Linyü on Oct 21, 2020 22:39:05 GMT -6
The invitation he had seen had not specified the nature of the payment, if indeed there was one, for attendance, but now he wondered if there had been some small crucial detail that he had missed.
San’s costume was simple: a robe that he had found on the secondhand market that bore a very passing resemblance to something that might have been worn in Xinzhou, and a mask that reminded him a little of the ones that he had seen sold at festivals as a young boy. The mask had the added benefit of hiding his face, and if pressed, he could say that he was a monster out of legend in his homeland, and cobble together enough details that it would sound convincing.
Rei… Her choices were more limited due to her size. Harachiu costumes did exist, but not in great variety, and many of the options presented posed practical problems.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 21, 2020 22:39:19 GMT -6
In the end, she had donned a fur coat, and they had managed to find a cat tail made in her size to clip onto the waistband of a skirt. San supposed that with her ears, it wasn’t the most outlandish costume, though it had come with a pair of ‘paw’ mittens that they had eschewed in favor of leaving her hands free, just in case.
The crowd surprised San with its size and apparent unconcern, but it worked to their advantage. It was easy, once they drew close, to blend in and escape notice. It wasn’t just humans, or even humanoids, in attendance here; as ever, people brought creatures with them, and not all were content with their situation. San kept a wary eye out as he wove through the crowd, though it felt strange to do so with Rei out in the open, sitting on his shoulder as if she had every right to be here.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 21, 2020 22:39:32 GMT -6
And in this city, she did. But this would have been unthinkable back in Ningjing, and San had only been here a few months. He hadn’t gotten used to it yet, and he suspected it would be some time until he did.
There were refreshments being served among the partygoers outside the building, but San’s goal was to get inside. He didn’t spare any thought for the crowd except to pay enough attention not to run into trouble. It was Rei who murmured to him softly and tugged on a lock of his hair, pointing something out to him. Following her pointed finger, he saw it: what he had thought of as merely a server was in fact some sort of shuffling… flesh golem.
It could have been a costume. But no, there was something off about the way it moved, an unnatural quality about it that set San immediately on edge.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 21, 2020 22:40:32 GMT -6
Fortunately it wasn’t anywhere near them, but now he felt his nerves thrumming with the same familiar sensation of being on a mission. Before, he hadn’t been quite sure that there would be a danger in coming here. Now, faced with reason to be wary, he felt his own focus sharpening on their objective.
Get in. Figure out as much as he could. And get out, with the both of them unharmed.
That was the goal, anyway. Getting out alive was good enough if they couldn’t escape unscathed. But if they attracted the attention of whoever was responsible for this, then there would be consequences later. As it was, with San still recovering, and with only Rei along with him for backup, he wanted to avoid a confrontation if he could.
The door was wide open when they finally reached it, with people milling in and out as they pleased.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 14:10:13 GMT -6
The fact that security was so lax wasn’t a good sign, though it was still too early to know what it meant. Maybe it was a trap to lure a group of people onto the premises for some purpose. Maybe it was merely a trap for one or several specific individuals, under the guise of a public event.
Maybe it was something else entirely. San didn’t know the locals, human or otherwise, well enough to make what he felt to be an educated guess. Back in Xinzhou, he was fed information from a wider network of spies and informants on an as-needed basis, and he operated in the same district of the capital his entire career. He knew the powers, the politics, the players and the pieces on the board. Here, he felt like a single pawn in an unfamiliar game, left adrift with no hand to guide his movements.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 14:10:51 GMT -6
You weren’t supposed to want to go back once you had slipped the leash, but habits were hard to break.
No one accosted them as they made their way into the building - a tower, a curious choice for a residence, and a little out of the way compared to the rest of the neighborhood. Inside, there were tables laid out with refreshments, including several large glass bowls filled with colorful drink. San avoided all of these; if there was something diabolical at work, then tampering with edibles was an easy way to incapacitate the guests.
He looked around the room, measuring its interior against the size of the tower’s base, and concluded that there were no other chambers. There was only one door, leading presumably to the stairs.
He glanced at Rei, who gave him a small nod. Then he meandered through the crowd, drifting towards the door. He had almost reached it when someone tapped his free shoulder.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 14:11:24 GMT -6
He turned to find a large man smiling down at him. He smiled back, letting a hint of nervousness color his expression.
“Are you lost, friend?” said the big man. His Common was accented, but in a way that San couldn’t place. He jerked his head toward the tables. “The party’s that way.”
“I’m, ah, looking for the bathroom,” San said. “I didn’t see any other doors…”
The man scrutinized him for a moment, then turned to whisper something into the ear of a broad-shouldered woman. She shrugged, and he sighed. “Come with me. I’ll escort you. But don’t wander off again, alright?”
“I’ll stay here,” said Rei, tugging on San’s collar as she spoke. Under the watchful eye of the man, she flitted off from her perch on his shoulder, and before anyone else could say anything, she ducked into the crowd.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 14:12:21 GMT -6
The woman watched Rei disappear and clicked her tongue in frustration, but in a place like this, trying to find Rei again would be like finding a needle in a haystack. She didn't move; evidently she had decided it wasn't worth the trouble.
It had been a good call. The man had already seen her, so Rei wouldn’t have been able to slip away once they were inside. In all likelihood, she was very close by, and ready to dart in after them as soon as the man opened the door.
Now San’s job was just to keep the man’s attention on him.
“Sorry,” he said, smiling apologetically. “She’s a little shy.”
“Is she,” said the man, though he didn’t put much effort into feigning interest now. “Alright, come along, let’s get this over with.” He unlocked the door - strange that it would have one, and that it would be sealed.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 14:12:43 GMT -6
Maybe this wasn’t a residence after all. Pushing the door open, the large man beckoned San through, then walked behind him as they made their way up. San had clocked another staircase descending down, but he hadn’t had a chance to do more than glance in that direction before the man ushered him bodily forward.
That there was something to hide here was abundantly clear. The question was just whether San or Rei would be able to get at it somehow.
But for that, he had to trust her to do her job, and focus on doing his.
The bathroom looked fairly ordinary when he finally reached it. His guard was still standing just outside, and San felt the regret of not having any sort of surveillance device to leave here, but he supposed a bathroom wasn’t really the ideal location for that sort of thing anyway.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 17:08:54 GMT -6
And there had been no way to know prior to his arrival whether this place would be worth looking into; not to mention he didn’t have access to either the magic or technology anymore. Even back in his Watchful days, that sort of thing had been rare. More often, they had had to make do with smuggling either Roku or Rei inside.
“Rei,” he whispered.
For a moment, nothing. And then her familiar voice came through the comm: “Basement. I don’t see anyone.”
“I’m about to leave,” said San. “Pull out with me.”
He doubted he would have the chance to come back here again during the party; he had already done so once, and the guards knew his face. But it wasn’t worth leaving Rei trapped down here for who knows how long with no way out, possibly to be discovered by something or someone dangerous.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 17:09:50 GMT -6
Whatever she had managed to find out in the short span of time that he had bought her would have to be good enough. If need be, they could always prepare and come back again later.
“You alright in there?” said the man at the door.
“Ah, just a minute!” San busied himself with washing his hands, then straightened himself and walked out. The man arched an eyebrow at him, to which San responded with an awkward smile. But the man said no more on the matter, and simply led him out.
He couldn’t see Rei, but knowing her, that was more likely a good sign than a bad one. If he couldn’t see her, the guard couldn’t see her either. Still, as soon as he got far enough out of earshot not to be suspicious, he checked in.
“Rei,” he said again.
“At the door,” she said.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 17:10:01 GMT -6
San frowned. He had wanted to reconvene, but the fact that she specified a location rather than simply coming back to him was, if not necessarily strange, also not what he would have expected.
She alighted on his shoulder at the door, then leaned in to whisper into his ear. “We need to go,” she said.
San was on alert at once. He didn’t question her, though he also didn’t make a mad dash off the premises. It would look suspicious if he were the only one doing it. “What did you find?” he murmured quietly. If she could talk about it here, she would; and if she couldn’t, then at least he would know that much from her response.
There was a pause, which he read as hesitation rather than reticence. Then she began to speak again. “I don’t know,” she said. “But I saw something moving. Big. A smell like rotting meat.”
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 17:10:25 GMT -6
So they were keeping a monster in the basement. San wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. It was common practice here, he remembered, and on the face of it, it shouldn’t have been so unusual. But then he remembered that Rei was a native of this city too. If her instincts told her not only to get out herself but to take San with him, then something else must have been wrong.
“We'll debrief when we get back home,” he said. She nodded, and they spoke no more on the matter. The important thing now was to get out without inviting any more attention or suspicion to themselves. In all honesty, it would have been best to spend a little more time here, since arriving at a party only to use the bathroom and then leave would look suspicious to anyone who was paying attention.
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Post by Linyü on Oct 24, 2020 17:13:33 GMT -6
But if Rei told him to get out, then he got out. That was how it worked.
They were almost at the edge of the crowd when a bellowing roar sounded from behind them. San wheeled - eyes wide, mimicking the reactions of those around them. It spoke to the strangeness of this city that even a roar of this magnitude was not immediate cause for panic.
And then there was an answering roar from the opposite direction, as a massive green blur shot by, resolving itself into a long reptilian shape as it landed, claws scrabbling for purchase, on the side of the tower.
Panic set in. The crowd screamed, most of them fleeing. A part of San wanted to stay, to see what was happening and how it would play out, but after so many years of training and work, he knew better than to waste such a perfect diversion.
He fled. If there was anything to glean, he would hear it on the rumor mill in two days' time.
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