rough winds do shake the darling buds of may | open, with starters

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Eyebrow Squad Gene, Jackie, Deon, and you!
Date: Throughout May
Location: Keeliai and the rest of the shell
Situation: General May drama and doings for Eyebrow Squad.
Warnings/Rating: None initially, but subject to change.

A. [Gene] Midnight Hotel | May 2 | closed to Tony

Gene hadn't taken the disappearance of the new influx of Foreigners well. But he'd taken it better than he'd expected; he'd always known, in his heart, that Bianca being back had been too good to be true. And Amelia hadn't returned, either. He'd been seized with a rather unusual and rather unfortunate sensation of missing all his friends who'd come and gone from Keeliai.

And it occurs to him that Tony might be feeling even worse. Howard had been swept away too. Gene hadn't been particularly heartbroken to see him gone - he still isn't too sure where he stands with the man - but he knows Tony's devastated by it. So he's tried to be as supportive as possible. He doesn't like seeing Tony upset.

B. [Gene] Sky Sector | early-mid May | open

Gene's been going around the Sky Sector and helping finalize some of the construction, making himself known among the kedan in the area, checking out the stalls in the artisan area. Sometimes he's putting the finishing touches on the little house he'd built for himself and Tony, and if he's not actively using tools - or secretly using the orange ring to manipulate matter, honing his control of it - he's probably open to talking.

C. [Jackie] Teahouse in the Water Sector | early-mid May | open

When he's not doing Snake stuff, Jackie's become quite fond of hanging out in a little teahouse in the Water Sector. Most of the time he has his Snake badge off, not wanting to intimidate any of the kedan, and just enjoying a quiet cup of tea. Tea had never really been his...well...his cup of tea, back home, but here he was starting to enjoy it.

D. [Deon] Metal Sector | early-mid May | open

Deon, meanwhile, is scouting out any technology he can find, buying up scrap wherever he can find it and writing out code by hand in a cheap notebook. Even if he can't test it, it's at least a decent exercise.

He's been dissuaded from dismantling a console - but he really wants to know how they work. Not worth pissing off the kedan, though; he's heard they don't take well to that.

But it looks like he knows what he's doing, or at least what he's after, either sitting on a bench and going over his handwritten code, the end of a pen in his mouth, or haggling with some kedan over some busted piece of looted Foreigner tech.

E. [Deon] Fire Sector | May 16 | closed to Shay

Deon's tired, and in need of a drink. He doesn't normally drink, but he's interested in seeing more of the kedan culture, and he figures that's worth the price of a beer or the local equivalent. Thus he sits at the bar, drinking an oddly sweet concoction that still has a mildly alcoholic fire to it, occasionally writing in his notebook as more ideas occur to him.


F. [Gene] House Iron Dragon | May 8 | closed to Tony

Tony's been acting weird the past day or so - more cagey than usual. Something's up, but Gene hasn't deduced what yet.

"You okay?" he asks, setting a mug of tea down in front of Tony, some concern in his voice. Still mopey over Howard, perhaps? The grief happens in waves, he knows that well.

G. [Deon] Stark Industries | late April | closed to NPCs

The staff at Stark Industries has been busy of late, but not too busy to finally see Deon for a job interview. He hasn't had one since college, so he's a little apprehensive, and visibly fidgeting.

H. [Deon] Wood Sector | mid-May | closed to China and Shay

Deon should really know better than to cut through gang territory by now. As it is, he's been cornered by some kedan from a smaller gang who are pushing him around and demanding his juulan. For someone so tall, he's a bit shit at defending himself or being at all imposing.

I. [Gene] Sky Sector / Earth Sector | early May 9 | closed to Skul

Once Gene manages to get his heart down from pounding like hell in his head, he grabs his radio and makes a call to Skul, like he'd promised Tony.

"Skul? I know it's late, but I need your help."

---

OOC Note: If you want another starter, please hit me up over at Chatvert and I'll pull something together for you! :>

Comments

[wrathfulkhan]

"I haven't," Gene says, and it's clear from his chilly tone he's counting it as an oversight. "Tony may want to take a look at it, when he's...when he's feeling better." His voice wavers a bit there, but he refuses to let himself believe that Tony wouldn't be okay.

"But I agree. Perhaps we should...talk to them, later, once this is sorted out."

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery tilts his head. "I was thinking now," he says. "They might be orchestrating the muggings. Even if they aren't, that orb must have been stolen from them, which makes them our best lead." His head straightens. "Unless you had something else in mind."

It's not quite phrased as a question, though Skulduggery certainly means it as one. He plans on talking to the emissaries regardless of how they find Tony's soul gem, but they can't afford to turn their noses up at shortcuts.

[wrathfulkhan]

Oh, he has something else in mind.

"Even if they are our best lead," which he hadn't known until about ten seconds ago so this is already very helpful, "I still think it would be worth chasing down the muggers themselves. They might slip up and say something the emissaries wouldn't, if we can lay the blame for these at their feet."

Okay but also he just wants to wreck someone's day.

[skeletonenigma]

"Then unless you know someone who could tell us what the tattoo means," says Skulduggery, "finding out who had the orb is the only way to find out who the muggers were. That would still mean talking to the emissaries, and the only reason not to see them right now is because it's the middle of the night. Personally, I don't care that it's the middle of the night. Until we get the soul-gem back, time is of the essence."

[wrathfulkhan]

"Let's find whoever took the gem," Gene says, eagerness in his eyes. "Maybe, with any luck, they'll still have it."

Again, Gene, since when have you ever been so lucky?

Timeskip is mod-approved and OOCly coordinated!

[skeletonenigma]

"That's what I'm counting on," Skulduggery says with a nod. That, or at the very least, that the muggers will lead them to whoever is after the soul gems in the first place.

It takes them a little while to track down an emissary willing to tell them anything. The orb, as it turns out, was stolen from them last month, which is about what Skulduggery expected. No one in the little group of ambassadors has any idea what the tattoo means, but the descriptions of the orb theft Skulduggery and Gene are given eventually take them to a small park in Earth Sector. A park which is empty except for one woman - a kedanese woman, Skulduggery assumes, though the closer they get the more obvious it becomes that she isn't kedanese at all. The problem is that she doesn't look like she comes from Khatronma either.

They don't have very much time left by the time they get there. Tony will have been missing his soul-gem for almost three whole days.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene is hyper-aware of the time limit, and he's been calling Tony on the radio frequently just to check in on him. And he's not doing so hot.

Gene is, very quietly, beginning to panic.

The woman says something that Gene can't understand; it doesn't translate like kedanese does, and he's momentarily stymied until he realizes that oh yeah, he can do something about that with the rings. He concentrates, and with a little mental flick, he can understand her.

He reaches for Skul, placing his hand on the detective. "I can extend the translation effect to you as long as we're in contact." Then he looks at her, holds up a sketch he'd made of the orb, and says, quite tersely, "Talk."

[skeletonenigma]

The woman immediately raises her hands in the universal gesture of surrender the moment she sees the sketch. She hesitates, and moves one of those hands in a supplicating manner, speaking slowly and loudly. "I don't understand your language."

The words, Skulduggery knows, make no sense to him, but through Gene's rings he can understand them anyway. "What a handy trick," he murmurs, then takes his black soul gem from his pocket and holds it out. It dangles slightly on its thin chain. "We're after this. The gem you took. Where is it?"

She sighs, irritated. "You won't understand me either, skeleton-man. If the weird jewelry's all you want, I can draw you a map, I guess. It's not far." She hesitates again, and peers more closely at Gene. "Can you understand me?"

[wrathfulkhan]

This is yet another of the things Gene hadn't known the rings could do until he tried it. It is quite a handy trick.

Gene looks at her, and nods. "I can understand you." She looks surprised. Good.

But a map? She wants to draw a map? She's giving it up without a fight? Part of him is disappointed because he's been spoiling for a scrap for days; the other part of him wants to yell at her to give him the map so he can get the gem back to Tony, now. "Tell me where." He hands her the sketch and his pencil, and watches her like a hawk as she draws a rough map for him.

"It's a short walk, if that's all you're after," she says as she draws. "Can't believe it takes two Foreigners to find me, I guess I should be flattered. We were always going to give it back anyway."

[skeletonenigma]

"We?" Skulduggery repeats, sceptical. "I doubt that. I don't think you care about whether or not the gems get back to their owners. Whoever hired you, on the other hand, does."

The woman rolled her eyes and tapped her head with her knuckle.

"Oh, I know," Skulduggery assures her. "You can't understand me. You don't have the patience, the motivation, or, quite frankly, the intelligence required to try and understand someone despite the language barrier. But don't worry. That wasn't for your benefit." He turns to Gene. "Is there any way you can ask her who hired her in a way she does understand?"

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene glanced at Skul when he went on his terse little dissection of this woman's motivations. He hadn't been aware that Skul felt this strongly.

But then again, he had a great poker face.

Meanwhile, the woman had been nattering on about the gem. "You Foreigners don't even know what you've got, huh, wish I'd been one of the eight lucky enough to be chosen to get one of those little trinkets of my own..."

Gene thought for a second. The woman likely wasn't going to let him get close enough to touch her to extend the translation field, or whatever it was, so that was out. Instead, he took his pouch of juulan, pointed at her, shook the pouch, and looked at her questioningly.

But she looked embarrassed now, and tight-lipped, and didn't respond.

[skeletonenigma]

The classic expression of a natural blabbermouth who'd just realised they said too much. Fair enough. As annoyed as Skulduggery was that getting a name wouldn't be quite so simple, chances were the woman didn't know a name to begin with, and she'd just said something a lot more interesting.

"Eight?" Skulduggery asked, holding up eight fingers and tilting his head in an obvious questioning manner. "Are you sure? Not seven?" He put down a finger.

The woman frowned and shook her head. "What? No. There were eight of them. Eight." She very nearly put up eight fingers to match, then thought better of it and stuck her hands behind her back, glancing up at the sky. She all but started to whistle.

"See?" Skulduggery said to Gene. "Not very intelligent. I wonder who the eighth one is."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene didn't particularly care who the eighth kedan was, at this point, so he let out a grunt just to let Skul know that he was listening. Agitation had begun to seep into his mannerisms the longer she took to make the map, and he was getting visibly antsy. As far as he was concerned, everyone ought to have soul gems, if only so he could extract his revenge by doing to the muggers what they'd already done to Tony.

Time's running out.

He held out his hand, stopping himself from shaking only through great effort. "Give me the map."

[skeletonenigma]

The woman gave Gene's outstretched hand a glance and shook her head. "I'm not done yet. Give me a minute."

Eight kedan, Skulduggery thought. The seven he knew of hadn't hesitated in coming forward, presumably because the Foreigners were the only ones in the city capable of understanding what owning a soul gem was like. They'd been well taken care of, too; anyone hesitating out of fear or caution should have eventually felt safe enough to say something.

They hadn't. What did that mean? Either the eighth kedan knew something the others didn't, or was in a position of enough authority to continue being afraid of what a public confession would do to them. Either way, Skulduggery needed to find that last kedan.

"Here you go." The woman finished her map with an over-dramatic flourish and thrust it towards Gene. "And don't say I didn't do anything to help you."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene opened the map and scanned it. It was rudimentary, but it would do. He looked back up at the woman, anger coursing through his veins at her cavalier attitude.

"Tell me who you're working for," he said coldly, and she rolled her eyes, tapped her head again, and muttered something about stupid Foreigners.

"Tell me who you're working for," he said again, half-snarling, and almost made to use the rings on her, before common sense stopped him.

He wanted to find out who gave her her orders, follow the chain up to its source and do dark and terrible things to whoever was experimenting on people. It reminded him too much of reading about Hydra in school, and it happening to Tony made him sick to his stomach. Tony was the priority right now. Revenge...revenge could wait.

Gene muttered an oath in Chinese and turned away. "Do with her what you like, Skul. I have to get the gem back."

[skeletonenigma]

Gene withdrawing ended the translation magic. The woman said something more, something that the expression on her face implied was an extension of her stance on the Foreigners, but Skulduggery didn't understand it. Without a point of common reference, any more questioning was useless.

Skulduggery looked at her, acknowledged what he wanted to do - not far off from Gene's desire, really - and then consciously put it aside in favour of letting her go. He waved a hand in the direction of the street behind them, nodded to her, then turned to follow Gene.

She wasn't kedan, Chihuelan, or Foreigner. Just one more mystery to add to the growing pile.