Henwen

May You Live in Interesting Times (A Murder Mystery)

Sounds like a cool idea and I cant wait to learn more. Count me in.

LWSC SIRIUS

"Ack!" Viva yelped as Anora gave her a shove, and Viva fell unceremoniously landed with a thump rump first to the floor in an inelegant heap. This reaction wasn't unusual though, Viva knew well her friend's desire for personal space and therefore loved to tease her about it, so the pilot was already bouncing to her feet when she caught sight of the merc's pistol. Her eyes darted from the man's weapon to Anora and back again as she slowly stood up, the tense atmosphere getting to her as she tried to follow the conversation between them. Talk of payment and jobs gone bad was never a good situation when somebody had an itchy trigger finger and Viva didn't know this fellow well enough to gage just how quickly things might escalate.

Her darting eyes caught sight of the familiar figure of Ardur, one of their guns from Sirius, and Viva tried not to let out an audible sigh of relief. If all hell broke loose they'd have at least one gun shooting for them and not at them, which significantly increased the odds in their favor in her mind.

"Woah hey," She said as the man continued to be belligerent, holding her hands out and open as he turned his attention her direction, "I'm not with her."

Aurdur then stepped in, his gun pressed to the man's head, and Viva grinned shamelessly, "Hey Aurdor, nice of you to join the party."

"Now there's no need for there to be a ruckus,"Viva said as she lowered her hands and picked up her bag,"We get the picture: you want to get paid, she wants to get paid- Hey who wouldn't? We all want to be paid eventually."

"We're all friends here- acquaintances, whatever." She slung her arm over Anora's shoulder in a casual gesture meant to steer the other girl to the exit, as she talked with her other hand, "So lets keep this friendly and put this on the backburner for now, cause right now my friends and I are on a bit of a time crunch. Exchange contact info or something, cause we gotta jet. Don't call us, we'll call you and we can get this whole thing sorted some other time. Sound great? Great, we'll be in touch. Later."

The Sunken City: A Journey through Fallen London

Brilliant! Either way i'm good! I cant wait to kick Miles to the curb- he's had too much good luck so far, needs to get the stuffing thrashed out of him lol.

Caverns & Critters

Marzipan had been one of the first people on the ferry that morning, and now one of the last off- busy helping coordinate the mob into some semblance of order and making sure that no-one was overly burdened or not carrying their share. Once such being the young Boyo, who had spent the night at the tavern (like so many of the others had) to avoid being caught by his old man and forced back on the farm. Marzipan had laden Fren with a backpack full of foodstuffs, water and wineskins full of ale for celebration. Who knows how long they'll be down in this cave treasure hunting- she made sure she had enough for a light lunch and supper that would be easily carried by one person. Not that that stopped the brat from whining about his load- he wanted to hunt for gold not be a pack mule.

She ignored his whining easily however, turning her attention to the rest of the group who were now disembarking on the bank. Making sure her thick work-skirts were well secured and tucked up away from the mud, Marzipan hopped down as well- testing her way with the tall and sturdy simply carved walking stick she'd found for herself. It was about the height of herself and thicker than a broomhandle around- perfect for testing the cave walls, floors and ceilings for weakness, leveraging rocks away, or bashing in heads... if the rumors about what dwelled in caves was true she wouldn't be without a weapon even if it was of the simplest sort.

Marzipan was roused from her examination of the cave's entrance by the Thomas lad, his sheepish expression as plain as the fact that he'd been cajoled into his apology by Jasmine. How the girl didn't realize her hold on him was beyond her, the young man was quite clearly infatuated with her.

"S'no matter laddie." She said, willing to let the incident slide as just another bar brawl, "Just see to it that it dont happen again. That Bard may be asking for a wallop e'ery time he opens his mouth but it's a bad habit to get into."

"Speakin of..." She said to herself as the young men moved on into the cave. Stepping nimbly through the mud she made her way to the Bard's side. He'd caused a ruckus with his ruddy snoring all night on the floor of the tavern- the drunken lout had been impossible to move or rouse until the dawn had just begun to break- and she was aiming for some swift retribution for the inconvenience.

"Good Morn Bard, " She said with a purposefully loud voice- not quite shouting but raised quite a bit, and as they were near the mouth of the cave now, a very clear echo of her strident tone was ringing back at them, "A Fine Day For Another One O'Your Adventures Now, Aye? How's The Head?"

"Ugh," Grunted Hogarth as he came up behind them and caught some of the resounding sound to his ears. He slogged through the mud with a familiar trudge and a rather sour expression on his face, his pitchfork dragging in the muck behind him. The man had been in a particularly grouse mood this morning- more than what the tavern regulars would have come to expect from the hung over hog farmer.

The Sunken City: A Journey through Fallen London

Miles' eyebrow rose as the Pianist agreed to the slight change in plans, the only outward sign of his surprise at her willingness to do so- let alone how easily it was done. He would have expected near hours of haggling and negotiating the terms for any sort of compromise like this to come into being what with all the lawyer speak and magical seals. But, he considered, that might simply be because of the lovely lady chosen to speak to them. She was an artist, not a lawyer and therefore not prone to act as such... although that cast their anonymous employer into an odd light indeed. Why all the complicated jargon and rigamarole if you weren't going to use a law man to back it up? Miles couldn't tell if he should be relieved at the lack or more suspicious than he was before.

He met the pianists eyes, silent acknowledgement passing between them. They did ask for this opportunity after all...

Miles' eyes lit up as the Pianist addressed the terms of their task. A burglary! Well now, things were shaping up much better than it seemed for such a task to fall so neatly into his line of work. Chasing down criminals was the bread and butter of detectives, with theft right up there with the murder and mayhem they inspired. This, he could handle.

Sharpening his focus on the information the Pianist was bestowing, Miles leaned forward and listened intently as he tuned his ears to pick up the vital bits:

The Filt- Rooftop criminal refuge on top of legitimate (criminal front?) establishments Lower Filt and Doubt Street.
Stolen Item- 2 to 3 ft cube iron box. Locked- Extremely Secure. (what is inside? Is there a key? Multiple keys?). considered heavy and difficult to move and/or hide. How yet unknown.
The Theft- Recent, long term stolen item? Benefactor interested in its acquisition. (And what others?)
Thief- identity unknown, existing reputation of other notable thefts (He?)

The Detective sat back as he processed this information, thoughts turned inward as he reached for the documents and photos to look through them more thoroughly- just in case they held the answers to some of the questions rattling around his head at the moment.

Miles couldn't help a slight creasing of the corners of his mouth, a pleased smile escaping him. The thrill of the mystery, along with the anticipation of the chase to come, yes- for all the strangeness and oddities of this Otherworldly Underworld- this he could handle.

He glanced back up at the Pianist, his questions burning on his tongue as he tried to hide the eager shine in his eyes, and tried to ignore the subtle screaming voice in the back of his mind. The sound of caution and self preservation trying its best to warn him against the coincidental convenience- of a trap well bated before him. And the small sinking feeling that he was well and truly caught.

Caverns & Critters

Sall good Roman. LOL i love how neither of your guys can handle the amount they've drunk. Marzipan will be most amused.

LWSC SIRIUS

Ohnoooo, just saw Nariata's status and she had some kind of family emergancy. She says she could probably post thursday tho. At this point, we've waited so long i think we could wait for her considering yeah?

Caverns & Critters

"Hey!" Fren squawked and pouted as the mapmaker filched his mug of mead out from his hands, "I am too a man. I joost don't like the old man. He's always harpin on me 'bout sommat. Sides, Hoggy ain't so bad. He'll be commin' long to the cave too! Gonna get somthin' shiny for his shrew."

The boy babbled on, mostly talking to himself as the conversation moved on around him. Marzipan rolled her eyes as she moved around the table, "Aye, you won't be rid of me so easily. Somebody's got to wrangle this lot-"

She interrupted herself when she caught an eyeful of the Thomas boy standing drunkenly to his feet and going nose to nose with the Bard. The young man, as jealous a lad as she ever saw them, and before she could get more than a warning sound out of her mouth Thomas swung.

"Oi!" She shouted as the lad's friend lept to his feet and hauled his drunken buddy out of the hall, and she fixed them with a steely eye as they left. That Gerard was a good lad, he knew the rules well and would make sure Thomas sobered up some before he came in again.

"Awww," Fren whined as he hopped over his chair to take the one Jasmine offered, "I never get to see any bar fights. Oh, Hey Hoggy!"

With everyone's attention captured by the commotion, no one had noticed the quite drunk hog farmer carefully making his way to their table. He'd been thinking long and hard over his last cup, about the cave and treasure and had finally come round to a decision.

"Wystan," He said firmly to Roman, before blinking at him and turning to face the ferryman, "Wystan. Wystan you got room enough on tha' ferry o' yours for me? Cause I've been thinkin, an' you know Gertrude. Gertrude ne'er cared for pigs."

Hogarth nodded to them sagely at that, wavering with a ruddy rueful expression on his face. Leaning up he clapped a hand on the mapmakers shoulder, one parts leverage, two parts keeping himself on his feet. "I'll be there ifin you have me or no. No more pigs for Gertrude."
And with that odd parting remark he began staggering his way out of the tavern and towards home- most likely to give his wife the good news.

Caverns & Critters

Woop. I can post too, sorry bout that. Thought there was a few more that needed to post before me. I'll keep it short tho (well shortish) cause i'm all for moving the plot ahead! Cant wait to get into those Caves!

LWSC SIRIUS

Okay as soon as I find @Nariata I'm gonna hogtie her and nail her to the floor so that we can get our next post set out there. Totally didn't mean to be holding up the line like this, but in the meantime is there anybody else that needs to post? I thought we had a few more crewmembers that needed to post in. Like the photographer an somebody else.