2017-03-29: No Shortages of Opportunities
- Log: No Shortage of Opportunities
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Kahm Yugh
- Where: Port Timney
- Date: March 29, 2017
- Summary: Riesenlied, Noeline, and Odjn muse about songs and love until Kahm conveniently joins them, having tracked an individual matching Riesenlied's description to Porty Timney. In the process, he learns of a potential threat to future operations named 'Agatha'..
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Port Timney is host to any number of seedy dive bars and reputations of ill repute, but Riesenlied isn't found in any of them today; rather, she's spending a bit of time in an upscale open-terrace cafe with her fond but somewhat absent companion, Noeline.
Odjn, a foot-tall dragon of mostly black and red coloration with chitinous scales, is not too far away, busy scribbling on a note with her tiniest of paw-like hands. "Shot through the heart... and you're to blame... uh--" A pause. "What rhymes with blame? Trying for like a-- you know, an energetic love song angle here. ARMs as a metaphor for passion? I dunno... it's not quite working out."
Riese, dressed in a rather thick cloak that's stylishly wrapped about her shoulder, is seated at one of the chairs at their table, a macaroon and dainty cup of tea from fine china sitting in front of her. Where the cloak ends, she's got a black miniskirt and thigh-clinging leggings that's adorned with filigreed armour. The horns are rather visible, as large as Odjn's, and similarly chitinous in nature, laced together with a black circlet of filigreed design. "I'm not sure I understand ARMs as a metaphor for any kind of affection...?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline does at least look more purely human than Riese does, with no horns or pet dragons in sight - though no less glamorous, lounging languidly back on her chair as if she owns the place and taking her sweet time in poking at a plated piece of strawberry shortcake. She looks confident enough to carry the role, at least, dressed in an seriously upmarket and over-the-top collection of fabric and lace with a distinctly red and black colour palette. From under a hairpiece pinned between two long tails of hair, crimson eyes glint with amusement at the tiny dragon's attempt to make a love ballad.
"'Dame' would be much too old-fashioned," she declares with a wag of her dessert fork, her speech rapid and airy. "I suppose you'd have to start lamenting, or something. 'Shame' would be a good one, though for heaven's sake, don't start thinking about trying to rhyme 'lame' with anything. I'm sure that wouldn't come out well."
With a pause, she sags her shoulders, before huffing out a sigh that could only be considered 'long-suffering' if it weren't so fake. "Riese, really. Haven't you even picked up a book? It's all about piercing through to someone's heart," she waves her hand again, this time at the woman across the table from her. "I thought it sounded a bit masochistic, at first, but I suppose it's all down to the importance of it."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"I wouldn't say lame in my song!" Odjn protests. "Dame, Lame, Game... ooh, game? Do you think it's just a game... no, doesn't quite roll off the tongue," the most musical little dragon grumbles. "Ugh, the opener's always the worst part, 'cause you have like twenty words to make it catchy. I have my first verse ready, though, and it's based off my feelings for Riese!"
"An angel's smile, is what you sell!
You promise me Heaven but put me through Hell!"
Riese frowns and exclaims, "Hey!" and sinks back into her seat with a sulk.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Pausing for a long moment in what she would never admit is surprise, Noeline's eyebrows finally draw upwards at about the same rate as her grin. "... oh, ~dear~," she croons, sensing the chance of a victory here as she leans forward with an arm on the table to prop her chin up. "Perhaps you're being a little too true with your feelings, Odjn - but really, Riese does put you through a great deal of worry, doesn't she? Tut-tut," hums the Crimson Noble in something like sympathy, nodding her head in the direction of a rare sulk.
"Oh, perhaps... 'do you think you've won this game'? - after all, I understand it's all about the back-and-forth, in the end. Better to give people the promise that the battle might be won, but not the war, hm?"
So saying, the girl has pridefully stabbed at a piece of her cake, bringing it to her mouth with a self-satisfied hum.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"No, it's still too long, it goes like-- Baby..." Odjn hums a bar, and scratches her oversized head as she agitatedly bobbles up and down. "It's snappy. It's catchy. It-- like-- it should be like, ugh! It's the name of the song! Something something dunna na-- baby, you have no shame!" A pause. "Nah..."
Riese sighs faintly as she nips on her macaron in turn, shaking her head. "As if I do not have enough to be concerned about with the both of you? The things I do sometimes..."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
EARLIER
Port Timney was a bit outside of Kahm's current operating range, but the circumstances of his current assignment made traveling there a necessity. The Captain took a moment to acquire some directions upon entering the city, consulting a small notepad to his side that contained some relevant details:
-Subject unknown
-Horns of unusual design, uncommon for known demihuman traits
-Accompanied by a small, winged reptilian
It was a number of traits exclusive enough that asking around had lead Kahm here. A few more locals ought to do it...the lambs were expectantly eager to describe those who didn't fit in...
NOW
Kahm sat quietly in a table adjacent to Risienlied and Noeline, his menu held conveniently close to obscure his face. Dressed in a consummate black ensemble of broad-brimmed hat, fitted vest, rawhide leggings, and lacquered boots, it wouldn't be the first time someone had mistaken him for a lawman. He knew he couldn't spend the entire evening with his face stuck in the meager options this cafe had to sell, however, and carefully laid it down as he spoke, "Flame." He said succinctly, perhaps a bit behind the overall conversation. "Rhymes with blame, that is." He added, slowly turning about as if their conversation were interrupting his perfectly good, lonely water-sipping, "If you're trying to compose a love ballad, that is. Fire is a popular metaphor."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
If Noeline is surprised or suspicious at the sudden suggestion coming from one side, she certainly doesn't show it - to the contrary, she even sits up in her chair, pointing animatedly at the man with a beaming smile. "Ooh, it's a good point! You've got to have that ~burning love~, Odjn. I imagine that if anyone were going to be good at that sort of thing, it'd be you," she nods, somehow... proud? Noeline, you had nothing to do with that suggestion whatsoever.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Flame!"
Odjn hops up and down again as she scratches at her notepad and writing down a little further. "Baby, you've snuffed out my flame!"
A pause, as Odjn peeks over to where Kahm's seated adjacent to them. "Hey, you're pretty good at lyrics, mister! Care for a song or two?" The cutest little dragon asks, while Riese turns her attention over towards the man who's been sitting there for a while, but paid relatively little attention to. "Ah, I apologise for Odjn--" pronounced 'o-deen' "... she's exciteable, but not harmful."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm shook his head, removing his hat to rest it on the table, "No worries." He said in response to Riesenlied, looking over the woman and her reptilian companion with a quiet sense of confirmation, "She is far from the most excitable individual I have met." Only then do his eyes slide over-briefly-to Noeline, with no apparent remark.
The offer of song is met with an agreeable shrug. "That was a lucky coincidence on my part; I'm not particular gifted with song." He explained, briefly looking towards the staircase a waitress had retreated down moments ago, "But i've already place my order, and wouldn't mind a song or two to go along with it. By all means." He spoke while gesturing, not terribly magnanimously
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Odjn perks up again and says, "Then by all means!" She takes in a deep breath and croons:
"I hear the ticking of the clock,
I'm lyin' here and the room's pitch dark...
I wonder where you are tonight
No answer on the Mem'ry Cube...
And the night goes by -- oh! so very slow...
Oh! I hope that it won't end though
Alone..."
Riesenlied looks to Noeline with a chuckle, and then sips at her tea very gently. "She enjoys her singing, and maybe I've encouraged her a little bit too much on that front," she expresses, in a tone that might seem a touch motherly. She tilts her head and glances to Kahm again. "Are you a Drifter, Mister..."
A pause. "Ah, my apologies. My name is Riesenlied -- a Drifter from quite afar, and this is my rather mischevious companion, Noeline." She gives her a knowing look and a smirk.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"It's not polite to simply say that outright, you know," the girl in rich colours shoots back across the table, obviously seasoned at sniping words back and forth with her companion. That said, she doesn't appear to protest the point any, a shrug of her shoulders leaving the comment forgotten as she waves it off with amusement.
"Noeline Carver," she amends, turning to bow her head with a pleased grin as she quickly scans the man sat next to them, chatting at some speed all the while. "One day, we might even be able to get Odjn some singing lessons, not that I'm at all sure they would stick. Really, you shouldn't wear a hat indoors. I hear it's bad manners, unless it's a fascinator," Noeline adds, seemingly flicking between topics in an instant.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
With no apparent outward reaction to Odjn's singing other than polite placidity, Kahm spoke to introduce himself, "Rider. Marcus Rider.". He supplied the pseudonym he had been slowly growing in his observational role, speaking again to clarify his supposed role, "And I work for the Smith & Luio Company out of Bledavik."
Nodding to both Riesenlied and Noeline in turn, Kahm mentally committed their names to memory as his head inclined with the tone of the conversation, "With an outfit and a broad enough musical selection, you might well have something people would pay to see for a tune or two." He said, referring to Odjn.
"You two are drifters, then." He stated, blue eyes calmly glistening, "Pardon my professional curiosity, but what brings you to Port Timney?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Well met, Mister Rider. Timney just happened to be a stop for me," Riese explains rather easily, smiling luxuriously in turn. Her tone is one that conveys confidence, and her posture is relaxed; this was no woman who was skittish and anxiously thinking about the next step ahead. Is it confidence, or foolishness, one has to wonder?
"I have been travelling the region for a time, in search of artifacts in Ruins. They are something of a curiousity for me..." A pause. "Bledavik, hmm? You yourself are quite a ways out from the capital of Aveh. What does Smith and Luio trade in, if I may ask?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Simply drifting around. I come and go as I please," notes the oddly dressed girl with another of those light and disaffected waves, making the statement as if it were the most natural thing in the world to admit just like that. "Business meant I ended up around here, so I thought I'd check in, take a look around. It's good to keep up with things, even if those things are just 'this city hasn't exploded itself off the map yet'."
"A shipping company, wasn't it...?" she muses immediately afterwards in answer to Riese, her hand going to her mouth. It looks a bit like a guess, Noeline's memory twigged but not to any certain degree. "I think I remember something about desert crossings. Though--" she adds with another breath as she collapses back against her seat to skewer her cake once more, "--that does rather describe most attempts to eke out a living over in that direction."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Profit and exploration, motives not unusual for any who would call themselves Drifters. Kahm nodded at the explanation for each woman in turn, clasping his hands (And turning the rest of himself to face them with his chair after speaking for this long) and answering the same question in turn, "Shipping is one of the services they provide, yes. Protection of shipping, that is, along with with individuals of a certain caliber. They also specialize in general security and, less frequently, in the investigation of persons either missing or of sufficient notorious character."
Whichever one of those causes brings Kahm-or Marcus-to Timney is left unsaid, but neither of the pair would have seen any notable shipments coming in recently.
Amidst all this, the waitress returns with Kahm's order: A plain biscuit and butter on the side. "Ah, I think i'll have that placed at the table with these two, provided they don't mind..." He asked, eye turning towards either woman for confirmation.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"I see. It's quite the valuable services in today's dangerous world," Riesenlied muses politely, tapping her cheek with her long finger for a moment. She nods at the waitress to say, "Oh, yes, I don't mind."
She reclines with a squint of her eye to say, "Even after a successful Dig, a Drifter's work is never done, after all. The logistics of hauling and shipping one's find from a Ruin is an entirely different calibre of work..."
Riese pauses with a soft sigh. "I don't suppose your company would have had a shipment from anyone calling themselves 'Agatha' lately, Mister Rider? Though I really ought to not test your professionalism and company's privacy policy in that way... but it is a concern that is on my mind. She has been abusing couriers and shipping companies to do her dirty work as of late."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Aah, there was that sort of thing too, wasn't there? Really, that country has a few troubles to work through, if you ask me," Noeline notes in a rather haughty fashion, flicking out some of her hair as she makes the declaration. "Still, we've seen people come back from worse, I suppose."
She quiets again as Riese asks her question, watching the other woman across the table with an amused sort of hum that borders on the curious. "Hmm~. That's quite the shot in the dark, you know. Besides, I get the feeling that our man here is a little on the proactive side of things, wouldn't you say? Well, either that, or a long way from home and having dinner without his caravan crew. Both options are a bit of a shame, in the end."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"The nature of my work is such that I cannot disclose precisely what business brings me here today." Kahm said, his tone simultaneously courteous and unremitting, all the while laying a thin coat of butter over his biscuit with a supplied knife. "That said..." His voice softened a touch as he spoke, biting into the biscuit with neither hunger nor indifference, chewing and swallowing in due course, "I can at least say it has nothing to do with the individual you're asking about, nor have I personally heard of her."
Something about the way he speaks and listens suggests that man will remember it, however.
He doesn't offer anything about the current political state of Bledavik as Noeline alludes to it other than to say, "The office always has something for me to do." Whether intentionally shifting the subject or genuinely curious, he'll set the half-finished biscuit down and ask, "How is that you and..Odjn met, by the way? I have not seen such a creature before."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It's good enough.
With someone like Agatha, the most dangerous element she has subtlety, and raising awareness -- even as a discreet message passed between two individuals like this -- will be enough to help reduce the amount of avenues she has working for her.
"Of course, Mister Rider," Riese responds with a pleasant little smile. A pause, as she tilts her head to look to Odjn. "I discovered her in a mine a long time ago, far away to the east, in Elru, my homeland. She was nestled closely to her mother, who was long deceased... but the little one did not have the understanding to know so."
A pause, as her tone shifts back to normal. "I suppose I took pity, and have been travelling with her since, showing her the world."
It's the nice thing about her story with Odjn -- she doesn't have to lie about it. That's just how it is.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Where pity has become spoiling her terribly," Noeline chips in with a wave of her hand, though... well, even she can't really seem to muster herself for a really sharp jab when Odjn of all creatures is the target. "I suppose it's better to be spirited than spiritless, of course."
She leans on the table again, making a peace offering towards the little dragon - the last chunk of her slice of cake, pinned atop her fork. "Well, hopefully Adlehyde's a pleasant change of pace, hmm? This port isn't exactly the country at it's best, but you can find the occasional spot here and there. Better to be in a cafe like this than one of the bars at the docks," she sniffs dismissively. Imagining the froo-froo Crimson Noble in a sailor's hideaway is a bit tricky.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Elru.
The name of that blighted country was enough to cause the slightest of striation's in Kahm's routine, the hand that reached for his biscuit overshooting just a hair before his thumb manager to push the rest of the uneaten meal into his grip. Brief, but there it was all the same.
"I see." He said, having taken another bite while Risenlied proceeded with her story. It was a suitably touching tale if you were into that sort of thing, he supposed. "Tragic, what befell your country." He offers this by way of condolences, it would seem, staring a moment into the clear surface of the water he'd been drinking before absently sniffing the air.
"Adlehyde is...a quieter country, compared to Bledavik." Kahm said, though the undercurrent of 'for now' laid through his mind as he spoke. "It is certainly an interesting change of pace compared to what I was doing before."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"It is all right," Riesenlied answers in turn. "Elru has seen much hardship, but perhaps it may yet recover one day."
Ironically, she might not be lying there. It isn't like she's ever been guilty of accelerationism.
She finishes the last of her macaroons with a hum, and sips her tea. She certainly seems to enjoy her delicate little finger foods, having very fancy tastes. "It rather is, isn't it? Though with the upcoming Exhibition, a lot of rather menacing weapons will be on plain display. It is a ... statement, no matter how much they want to bill it as a cultural exhibition... how is Aveh taking the news?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Last I checked, there wasn't a terrible lot they could do about it. Or, rather, Adlehyde's taking care to make it ~just~ enough of a cultural event that Aveh can't rattle their sabres too much at it. I don't think even Aveh would want to risk fighting on two fronts like that." The lecture comes from the younger of the two women without pause and with a shrug of one shoulder, despite her butting in to the topic, before she settles into an easy grin.
She wags the fork again, even though this time it has a small dragon attached to it in place of the actual cake. "Though, with everything as of late, it would probably be fun to see them try. Lacour would probably pitch in, though, and they're kind of a Drifter's favourite right now. Could be a pretty interesting case of independent forces joining in, that sort of thing."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Well, that's interesting-to Kahm's mindset, these two seemed particularly well-informed of the political situation. He visibly knitted his brow at the question Riesenlied posed, his answer coming naturally on account of it being conveniently true, "The situation in Aveh is...conflicted, I would say, particularly on account of Adlehyde's dedication to theatrics about the whole thing." He took a sip of his water, "They keep insisting all they have to show are some queer, historical curiosities of much cultural value, but little else."
The Captain abruptly finished the rest of his biscuit, shoulders shrugging, "In any case, i'm thankful to say that what Prime Minister Shakhan chooses or chooses not to do is quite beyond my purview. I'm sure i'll be plenty busy once they do finally get around to showing the world what they've found, one way or another."
These words were certainly in no way ominous.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"No doubt," Riesenlied smiles rather sadly. "Such displays are bound to tend to disrupt political borders, opinions... it is a tumultuous time for all, but a Drifter tends to find their mark in the midst of such chaos."
She pulls herself up as Odjn finishes her song and sneaks in for a little scratch of the head. "It has been a pleasure to meet you, Mister Rider. I shall make a note to visit your offices if I ever find myself Aveh-bound, or if I am in need of a particular commission."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"I'm sure you and Miss Noeline will find no shortage of opportunities, whatever may come." Kahm said, leaving a generous tip on the table and donning his hat once again as he rose to his feet.
"Feel free to visit the office any time, though you may or may not find me there. It was a pleasure to make all your acquaintances." The man never quite dropped that professional tilt to his tongue as he spoke, nodding to the drifters in kind before taking his leave, "Safe travels on the road ahead."
After all, they weren't likely to get any safer.