[IC] Common Sense - A Post-Post-Apocalyptic Revolutionary Tale

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Sunie kept a close eye on the man. Granted it wasn't because she was afraid of what could happen, it was just because of her line of work and the area of town which her shop was. The moment you let your guard down was when the shit always hit the fan. It was best to stay on high alert no matter what, especially when it was someone you were not used to or didn't know. It was one thing if it was a regular customer, someone you had dealt with before but even then you still kept an eye out. New people, well, it wasn't every day someone came in asking for directions. So she watched, even if she tried to remain pleasant enough.

"No worries, take your time," she said as she stood there. She wished he would hurry up, she had work to do but it couldn't be helped right then. For all she knew he would want to buy something. Yet seeing his phone and just out of date it was she had to wonder if he was as bad off as the others. Could he not get a more up to date phone or was he using an older one because as technology advanced the defenses against older techs was usually forgotten. As if to say, well no one uses it anymore so why do we need to worry? Bad logic in her mind.

As he rattled out the address her brow rose. That wasn't an address she was familiar with. That in and of itself was odd, she had lived there for so long and she was pretty sure she knew most areas in the city backwards and forwards. Maybe her sisters would have known better, maybe something new had been constructed and she just hadn't been made aware of it yet. "I am afraid I don't know that one," she said honestly before pursing her lips. She needed to get back to work but she figured she could try looking it up. Damn it... "Let me see what I can find," she said as she pulled out her phone and tapped in the address he had spouted to her, seeing if it came up on a search.

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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Anthony leaned back in his chair looking at the news online, reading that the city official was impaled on the city's flagpole wincing slightly at the thought of himself being impaled made him feel uncomfortable. Reading the side scrolling text at the bottom of the screen, it was pretty much nothing that was interesting to him at least. Though he was pretty much bored at this point day was pretty slow so far, and still having several hours to kill before tonights meeting would start. He then randomly decided to go and see the site of the news story himself.

Anthony then started to grab his things once more stuffing his keys and wallet into his pocket, he turned and started to head out of his place. Anthony made sure that he locked up his place up tight, and turned around heading down the sidewalk to the closest bus stop that would eventually lead him over to the city hall.

[Dragoknighte]

July 29^th, 2371

8:42AM
_{Royal Family ETA: 34 Hours}

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@Lady Amalthea While the shop didn't have top notch, super high speed internet, it wasn't like the computer was using a toaster as a router. However, despite this, it was taking an abnormally long time to find anything regarding wherever this address supposedly lead. It would have been one thing for it to have just come up with no results at all, but this was something else entirely. As the time passed, the man went from uncomfortably shifting his weight from one foot to the other to looking around the room to occupying himself by biting down on one of his thumbnails. There was no telling how much longer it would take for the damn thing to finish loading, but it probably wouldn't be more than a few more minutes. Hopefully.

@Nallore It would be nice if one could just go wherever they wanted to, whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way, especially when one found themselves lacking necessary credentials. Even before getting within ten blocks of the crime scene, cops could be seen practically everywhere. They were almost more numerous than flies in a busy summer kitchen. When Anthony got closer to the front entrance, the sheer mass of the media surrounding anything they could get made progress occur at a rate that would make a snail huff in impatience. From what little he could see through the crowd, police were blocking anyone from getting much closer than 100 feet of the front entrance.

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Sunie groaned a bit, this was taking far too long for her liking. Her computer wasn't the latest thing but it wasn't out of date either. She had been able to easily run checks and such a lot quicker than this was going. The fact nothing was popping up made her worry and she ran a quick check and isolated the console she was on from the rest of her set up. Last thing she needed was a hack right then because some one needed directions.

"This is takin' a lot longer than it should. Hopefully not much longer," she said as she stood there leaned over the counter and drummed her nails against the surface as she waited. If this kept up much longer she was just going to cancel the search and wish the thumb biting man a good day. She had work to do and she wasn't getting paid for this shit. It had already taken far more of her time than it should have.

Granted she could have kept going through the files but for all she knew this person would see something and start asking questions, something else entirely that she didn't want to deal with. No, it was just best to give the computer a few more minutes to see if it decided to play nice. If it did, great. Give the man directions and show him the door. If it didn't - fine. Tell the man good luck and show him the door. Either way she was going to show him the door. Directions or not.

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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The bus ride over to the city hall was fairly boring as he sat in the back seat of the bus running a hand through his hair letting out a slight sigh as he looked out the window. Seeing the cars as they passed, as the bus made an occasional stop at another bus stop to pick up others to go to whatever destination it was that they were going to. When the bus did come to a stop where Anthony wanted to go, he made his way towards the crowd. Anthony looked around seeing various news reporters and people alike trying to get some kind of information on what was going on.

Anthony got into line as he looked around trying to get a good look at the crime scene, which looked like he wouldn't get much information unless he had some form of credentials to get in. The police were there pretty tight, and he wasn't really interested in getting shot at or getting arrested for trying to get into the crime scene, so he decided to turn around and then leave.

[Dragoknighte]

July 29^th, 2371

8:48AM
_{Royal Family ETA: 34 Hours}

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@Lady Amalthea The man nodded absently when Sunie told him that he wouldn't have to wait much longer. He could recognize when he was being given the customer service treatment. It took forever, but the net finally turned up a result. Turns out that the address the man had given her was valid, just not anywhere nearby. Or on the planet. Wherever he was trying to reach was in fact on the neighboring planet of Xinon in the city of Dandong. Whoops.

@Nallore Turning away from the entrance of the building, Anthony decided it wasn't worth the effort to try getting through security and the press, an entirely understandable sentiment. As he made his way out of the crowd, he could spot two figures similarly working their way against the grain of people. He couldn't really tell much, but from the silhouette they appeared to be both female, one was blonde, the other had black hair. They appeared to be moving away from the crime scene, but in opposite directions.

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Sunie drummed her fingers against the counter she was getting impatient at this point. It shouldn't have been taking this long to get a result. The place must not exist. Sighing she ruffled the back of her hair and turned to look at the man; about to tell him there was nothing and that he needed to leave at this point because there was nothing more that she could do for him. Then she heard the ding behind her and her brow perked.

"Of course..." she muttered under her breath with a bit of sarcasm to her voice. That was the way it always happened, just when you are through waiting and about to move on, something hits. Maybe she should have given up the search ten minutes ago? Sighing she went back to the screen and took a look at just what had taken so long.

"Well I found it...." she said as she looked over the coordinates. Jotting down the information on a slip of scrap paper she walked back over to the counter and slid it across. "You're on the wrong planet," she said as she left the paper on the counter for him. "Dandong, on Xinon is where you need to be."

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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As Anthony started to turn away from the crowd it was pretty much useless to try and get around the crowd either, figuring that he could probably find some other kind of information around the area. As he brushed passed the ever growing crowd Anthony started to notice two women making their way out of the mosh pit as well, a blonde and a dark haired woman. He was slightly interested now as he started to see the two women splitting up from one another in opposite directions.

Anthony stood there for a moment wondering which one to follow, trying to see if they were holding anything in their hands that was worth stealing. Maybe they had something valuable, that would be worth stealing and then selling off for some money, Anthony took a moment or two decide which one to follow. He then decided to go after the dark haired woman instead as he started to follow her, though he wanted to keep his distance so that he wouldn't be caught or spoke the person off he was also interested to see where she was heading off to.

[Dragoknighte]

July 29^th, 2371

8:49AM
_{Royal Family ETA: 34 Hours}

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@Lady Amalthea When the news was delivered about just how far off the mark the man was from the destination, the man paused mid fingernail bite. There was a tensing of the jaw, followed by an almost imperceptible cracking noise. The kind of sound akin to one would hear in films whenever the lead would attempt to travel stealthily through the woods only to have their hopes foiled by stepping on an errant twig. He removed his hand from his mouth and wiped it off on his shirt, a thin red streak left in its wake.

"I'm so sorry for wasting your time," he apologized. The man's voice trembled in the same way a person about to cry did. Or someone about to snap and break something of someone. Briefly his eyes flitted downwards to his clothes and his brow furrowed before his eyes lit with understanding. "...One last question, where's the closest restroom?"

@Nallore As he followed behind the raven haired woman, Anthony got the chance to notice more details rather than the simple fact that she was going against the grain of people and her hair color. The most obvious aspect was that she wore all black. There were little splashes of white or color here and there, but by and large, darkness dominated her wardrobe. A wardrobe that was fairly stylish, discounting the unusual choice of color. Whoever she was, she had more wealth than the average schmuck on the street.

As Anthony followed the girl, occasionally she would look over her shoulder, but it didn't appear that she was actively suspicious of him yet. Her travel path seemed to be heading towards the outer sections of the city, but at the same time there was a nearby metro station that she could be heading for. Getting too close would give him away (and potentially opening him up to claims of stalking), but if she ended up going to public transit while he was too far back he might lose her before ever learning where she was going.

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Sunie was half surprised that the man held together his frustration as well as he did. She would have been a tad more verbal if she found out she was on the wrong damn planet. Though it made her wonder just how in the world he had ended up on this one instead of another. Sure it took her computer some time to come up with the address but it had popped up eventually, had this man not even bothered to check when he planned to head out for this address? Well that was a question she wasn't even going to bother about asking. She needed to get back to work herself.

"Not a problem," she lied, as most would in that situation. It was courteous, in some ways, but more than that it was the simplest way to just move on. If she made a scene about it, it would mean he was in her shop even longer keeping her from her work even more. That she just couldn't have. Enough time wasted today as it were. Yet it seemed he wasn't ready to go just yet. Now he was asking for a restroom. Sure she had one in her shop but she had a strict no non-employees policy. She didn't want people wandering through the back of her store and perhaps either causing a problem or worse, steeling something. So she gave him the same answer she gave everyone else.

"Try the restaurant a few doors down. Just head out the front door and hang a right. Local spot, they've been open a while since they serve breakfast," she said motioning towards the door. She mentally crossed her fingers that would do it and he would leave.

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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Anthony continued to trail behind the dark clothed and haired woman, making sure that he would keep his distance away as much as possible, but making sure that he was close enough to see where she was going towards. As they left the crowd. Anthony continued to follow at a distance noticing that her wardrobe wasn't what an average joe usually wore on the streets. He noticed that she was heading towards the out parts of the city, he would occasionally look around to make sure that he wasn't being stalked either.

Then Anthony noticed her going down towards the subway, he would quickly try and catch up to her while still trying to make sure that she wouldn't see him. Anthony started to head down the stairs that lead down into the metro while occasionally nodding to whoever he was walking past trying to make himself look like he wasn't stalking someone.

[Dragoknighte]

July 29^th, 2371

8:52AM
_{Royal Family ETA: 34 Hours}

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@Lady Amalthea"I see. Thank you very much, ma'am." The odd man turned and left the store as he came in, with unsteady footsteps and more than a bit of agitation. With him gone, Sunie found herself alone in the shop again. Perhaps this interruption would be able to aid her work in a way. A bit of a break to refresh the eyes and work more efficiently. Still, that was about half an hour out the window, and who knew how much time she really had to get all the investigative work accomplished.

@NalloreAnthony managed to keep pace with the woman pretty well, and from the looks of things did not alert either his target or any of the random passerbys. At most, somebody would follow him with their eyes for a couple of seconds, but would look away and return to what they'd been doing beforehand. Progress continued smoothly until she got to a pay gate, where she stopped and began to dig around her person, presumably for a paychip or prepaid ticket.

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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Anthony continued to make his way further down into the subway as he passed by the other men and women who were getting on and off of their trains, or heading up the stairs. He ran a hand through his hair as he continued to follow the woman until they were at the pay gates, seeing her searching through her bags for a pay chip. Anthony made his way over towards one of the maps that showed the entire subway system, looking at the various stops that it made.

He would make sure to keep his distance trying to continue to make himself look like just a regular person who wasn't stalking a woman or anything like that. He would occasionally look over his shoulder as the woman searched through her bags, and if she looked back at him he would look away.

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Sunie simply nodded to the thanks and watched the man exit the shop. Once he was gone she turned to the monitor and cleared out the search. That had been a huge waste of her time it seemed. The man seemed agitated when he left but she didn't care. If could have been for anything from she wouldn't let him use the bathroom in her place to the simple fact he was on the wrong planet. Either way, it wasn't her concern anymore. He was gone and it was time to get back to work. She still had to finish going through the stacks comparing signatures before anything else.

Glancing at the time she shook her head slightly. Oh well, it didn't seem to have taken as long as it had felt but still a a chunk out of her day. Rubbing the back of her neck she made her way back into the main work area of the shop where she had the papers all stacked up; the curtain falling closed behind her. Taking a seat on her stool she took a gulp of a cold cup of coffee and set it back down carefully once it was empty before getting back to the comparisons. Hopefully there wouldn't be anymore distractions and she would get through this faster now that distractions were taken care of. If she found something great, if not, there was really nothing more she could do. Either way, come lunch time she was going to push it aside and get back to her real work, the one that paid the bills.

[Dragoknighte]

July 29^th, 2371

10:18AM
_{Royal Family ETA: 32 Hours}

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@Nallore Quickly enough the woman paid for her ticket and went on her way. Even if Anthony wasn't completely familiar with the lines, his time spent looking at the map paid off enough to cover any holes in his understanding. She started with the Red Line traveling South, staying on the train for three stops before she transferred to the Green line and heading West for another 2 stops before she finally hopped onto the Yellow Line North for a single stop.

The train rides weren't anything special. The inside of the cars smelt kinda funky, as if there was mildew all along the bottoms of the seats, and any body part exposed to direct sunlight through the windows would quickly find itself burning up. However, the day hadn't heated up enough yet to turn the car into a sauna of body odor. As long as Anthony stayed in the shade he was fine. Occasionally his query's eyes would look in his general direction, but she never seemed to look directly at him, only in his general direction.

The rest of the time spent following her went by in a similar fashion as the beginning of his impromptu trailing session until suddenly she stopped at a seemingly random alleyway. He could see her briefly looking around suspiciously before turning off the sidewalk and into the dark of the side street.

@Lady Amalthea It'd taken most of her morning, but she finally found a match in the files, one that dated back about ten years back, before she and her sisters ran the store. In fact, coincidentally it was just about the time of the big accident that left Sunie "orphaned" and an amputee. One Stacey McKinnon had ordered a simple handgun, 9mm. There was nothing about the order that seemed particularly off other than the timing. On the sheet was contact information from the original sale, a phone number and email address, but who knew how out of date those might be.

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Rubbing her face slightly, Sunie kept combing through her files. She was just about to give up when she finally struck gold. It seemed there was a file that matched the hand writing. It was older, one from before she had taken over the shop and from the looks of things a simple order. She looked at the date again and remembered when her mentor passed away. When she had taken over the shop. When everything had gone to hell. This order was placed not long before that. Granted there were other orders from that time as well, so it didn't set off too many alarms but in her mind there was no such thing as coincidence.

Looking at the email and phone number she had to wonder if they were still even in use right then. If they were, just what would she ask the person? Hey, found a note in my work shop with your hand writing on it... Yeah, great way to start. slipping the file and the note into her pocket she started cleaning up the rest of the files and putting them away. She had to think on this. She could always drop an email, she could call, she could do a cross search to see if she could find an address attached to the email and/or phone number. There were several options but this whole search thing had taken up enough of her time that morning already.

Once the files were put back away she grabbed her leather apron and slipped it on. It was time to get to real work, work that paid the bills and kept her family off the streets. This could wait a while. From the looks of dust that had been on the note when she found it, it already had. It could hold a few more hours until she got caught up with some actual work. And if anything, focusing on her craft helped clear her mind. Maybe something else would pop up, a name, something. For now she had orders to fill.

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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As Anthony looked back from the metro map he watched the woman quickly paying for her ticket and making her way into the train that she was taking. He followed her doing the same thing as he went and got onto the train, he walked over finding an empty seat that was in the relative safety of the shade. Anthony would just pretend that he was minding his own business on the trains, when she looked at him he wouldn't be just either looking at his phone the entire time or just looking at the men and women who were on the train. Anthony also noticed how dirty the seats and floor were, but he was pretty much used to the metro trains constantly being dirty and how much use they got every day.

When the train came to her stop Anthony continued to follow the woman while hiding within the group that was getting off the same stop as well. He walked along the sidewalk for awhile until he saw the woman turning towards an alleyway, Anthony leaned up against the wall staying just outside of the alleyway. Anthony turned his head though and looked down the dark looking alleyway, he wasn't really sure what the woman was up to.

[Dragoknighte]

July 29^th, 2371

12:18PM/10:21AM
_{Royal Family ETA: 32 Hours}

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@Lady Amalthea Sunie found herself working far more efficiently than she usually did. She hit a good work flow almost immediately and managed to keep it up. Everything just seemed to work. If she managed to keep it up for the rest of the day, those first few hours of research/waiting for the internet to load might not end up reducing the overall volume of work she would normally produce. As the day approached lunchtime, there was this buzzing at the periphery of her perception. A buzzing that was distinct from the humming of machinery or the fluttering of wayward flies that had happened to make their way into the building based on the comings and goings of customers. It was only after the buzzing hadn't ceased after several minutes that it became evident what that buzzing was: the company phone had been ringing for quite awhile.

@Nallore Deciding that caution was the best plan of action, Anthony opted to choose a position where he would be least vulnerable. When he poked his head out to check out the alleyway, he found the woman he had been following looking out towards the street, feet at shoulder width and planted firmly into the ground. In her hand was a black pistol pointed forward. It took a second, but she spotted Anthony's head and trained the barrel of the gun from where he was hiding.

"Show yourself. I know you've been following me." Her voice was tense, but Anthony could tell immediately that it was mostly suspicion and anger with a good helping of anxiety. She was working with anything but a level head right now.

[Lady Absinthia]

Sunie Marks

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Sunie got to work and found her zone as someone had once called it. It was the time she found her groove and work seemed to fly around her. She really didn't notice much that was going on around her as she remained focused. Moving from station to station in her workshop to mold, grind, and more. IT was rare these days she was able to actually get this type of work done without being bothered. Her sisters were usually under foot and it kept her from actually focusing 100% on the task at hand. Yet, with them out of the shop until the evening and the man who she had to tell was on the wrong planet out of her hair she found the place in her work she enjoyed the most. Silence.

That was until the buzzing started. At first it didn't register as any thing more than just the usual machine drumming in the background as she worked but as the seconds ticked by it became more and more apparent that it wasn't her machines. Well it was a machine just not the ones she wanted to hear. It was the phone... Mumbling under her breath she turned off soldering iron she had been working with and set it down before pulling her gloves off. Reaching over to the phone she picked it up and rested it against her shoulder as she lit up a cigarette. "Custom Pieces, Sunie speaking, how can I help you?" she said right fast.

[Nallore]

Anthony Ryder

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Anthony saw the woman turn around to face him, and instantly noticed she had a handgun pointed right at him he quickly pulled his head away in case she did shoot him. Anthony wasn't sure what to actually do, if he came out fully then she might end up shooting him, he looked up the street it would be an easy and quick get away if he decided to make a run for it. "Hows about you lower that gun of yours, I'd rather not be shot at the moment!" Anthony yelled back, he wasn't stupid at all if the woman wanted to shoot him he'd rather hide behind the cover he had now.

If the woman did end up shooting, she could miss and hit the wall he was leaning up against, he thought for a moment she could be the woman that he was looking for. He took out his phone and then brought up the picture of the woman his friend wanted him to search for, he kneeled down making sure that his head wasn't exposed and skidded the phone over towards her feet. "I'm lookin for that woman, was wondering if you know or seen her. For a friend of mine, you know hes desperate to find a pretty girl." Anthony said hoping that she wouldn't be a trigger happy type.