MERC XVI: Morality is Relative; Professional Standards Aren't!

[Cyber Punk]

((I've been trying to avoid that. What do you propose, exactly?))

[Dormitories]

"Alright, Xun. I'll be sure to take you up on that." Fixer says. "But no panther forms!" Felicity adds with a giggle.

"So... what's the trouble, Kirk? Fixer asks.

[Gullara]

((It'd be best if you waited until everyone else in the scene has posted before posting again. Unless you have a good reason for posting earlier.))

[Dormitories]

Kirk's face is stone, his red eyes are like rusted iron for all the warmth they have. He shrugs Dena's arm off his shoulder. "I'm fine." He insists. It's not very convincing, but it's also a warning against inquiring further. "I'm afraid I'm too busy for chit chat. I have business to attend to in Riverside. I need to prepare to be there for a few days." He informs them.

[Shadowcaller]

[Beast Pens]

"Every kid wants their own wolf pup. Even if they don't know it yet," Dipsnig says with conviction. "Training one as a household pet might be a little tricky, but Roxie should be able to help with that."

[Beast Pens]

Valente grins at Astrana. She is way too adorable. He looks back at Dipsnig, just as Jaazha catches hold of a stray strand of Astrana's hair and gives it a tug.

"We'd love to take one of the pups home. Whenever we can, I mean. I don't know if you need to prepare them at all for that." Valente looks down at the baby wolves again, wondering which one will be theirs. "I guess Roxie is some kind of animal trainer?"

[Beast Pens]

Astrana continues to cuddle the toddlers, letting Valente take charge of the wolf puppy initiative. She had decided that this was going to be his thing. "I think they're different from dogs though." She remarks to no one in particular.

[Murkus]

[Dormitories]

"Dena, stop, you flatterer," Tiny coos, waving a hand primly as if to dismiss her silliness. Her eyes flick to the Fixer, and the sudden appearance of their new friend. "Oh gosh, aren't you pretty," He says with a grin. What a color! Blue is positively Tina's favorite. "New friends, huh?"

Kirk, of course, puts the brakes on their happy-train. Tina turns on the scary drow. Ooooh. He is in a bad mood. A bit more genuinely, she says, "Maybe we could help you pack." Well, maybe Dena could help him pack while Tina blabs. Hooray for volunteering other people.

[Cyber Punk]

[Dormitories]

((I try to do that, Ghar. Sorry if I didn't do that before. ))

"Thank you! She said I'm pretty!" Felicity says, twirling around in the air. "Yeah, new friends! I'm Felicity!" Her upbeat mannerisms and attitude are a sharp contrast to Fixer's stoic demeanour.

"Good for you." Fixer says offhandedly to Kirk.

"Fixer! That wasn't very nice!" Felicity scolds, which simply elicits a grunt from Fixer. "Ah, Kirk doesn't seem too nice as well. Maybe you both would get along just fine, you moody-two-shoes."

"Fel. He said he's fine. That may be a lie, but a man deserves his space."

[Morty]

[Beast Pens]

"Finally, someone understands," Dipsnig says, as he distributes Xun's treats to the enthusiastic pups. People compare his wolves to dogs too often. "Wolves are different from dogs. Roxie is a pixie druid, in charge of all our beasts. She trained Viima for me, and then Kullervo when they mated."

[Gullara]

[Beast Pens]

"Hey, as long as they'll be good with the kids, whatever works for me." Valente takes a couple steps closer to the wolf cubs and kneels down. "So how should we do this? Should I pick one out now? Or come back another day?"

[Zefir]

The bar

((Plotclone likly from befor the current invastigation))

Fade returns to MERC, he is abit tired from walking around the city and just can't find anything usefull to do. Since the number of new contracts is low, he decides to take place in the bar. Maybe he meets some of the other members.

[Shadowcaller]

[Beast Pens]

Train? Must have been much more than just 'training' if she could tame a grown wolf. Astrana found it healthy to have a good dose of mistrust towards all kinds of magic. Especially magic that claimed to be 'good'. "Why not pick one right away?" Astrana just suggests to her boyfriend with a smile, not bothering commenting on whatever magic that might have been used on these animals.

[Dormitories]

These persons certainly weren't shy about giving their piece of mind. "Actually, yes. We probably should help Kirk-y pack up." She smiles at the rest of the group. "We should see you guys later, when people are in a bit better mood." She glances at the other drow meaningfully.

[Morty]

[Beast Pens]

"You can pick one now, I suppose. Then I'll talk to Roxie about how long it'll be before you can take it home," Dipsnig says. "They've just been born, so we haven't got around to naming them yet."

The five pups are currently clumsily playing with each other. There's five of them, three boys and two girls. Their fur has an indistinct grey-brown shade common for very young wolves.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

Krayger will arrive here with Areitheo after a short drive. The minotaur goes in first, holding the door for the boy.
"Take a seat in the lobby, lad. I'll see what I can do for you." he says, going to the desk.

[Earl of Purple]

Riverside Office

"Okay." The gnome, a fifteen-year-old with brown hair and eyes wearing a red check shirt, denim dungarees and farm boots, will go through to the lobby and sit down. Either in a chair designed for his stature (even a child's chair) or on the floor. He won't bother trying to clamber into a human-scale chair.

[Recaiden]

[Riverside Office]

If you're looking, you might see the dragonfly be plucked out of the air by a small black bird which flies off after the gnome and the minotaur.
If you're looking very closely, you might see that the bird's eyes are too shiny.

It sits on a windowsill outside, if there are such to be found, watching, listening, pecking at specks of dust.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

Krayger waves to the ork behind the desk and uses the slightly more official phone to dial Dipsnig. It might be odd to call the head of the company over something like this, but the goblin had never shown any sort of distaste of hearing from his members.

[Earl of Purple]

Riverside Office

Arteitheo doesn't notice the blackbird, and otherwise has nothing to say so sits tight and watches. He'll look for a magazine to flick through whilst he waits, but if he can't find one he'll fidget a bit but otherwise be patient.

[Morty]

[Riverside Office]

Krayger will eventually be hear the grumpy goblin running the show on the other side of the phone.

"The boss speaking."

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

"Afternoon, sir. I've got a gnome teen here. Lost his parents, looking for family in Riverside. Do we have records of the businesses we protect in the city? Thought it might help him look. Otherwise, it looks like he's used to work so I offered him a job in the meantime. I figured I could find a use for extra hands but if someone needs minor things done more I didn't have anything specific in mind." he explains.

[Gullara]

[Beast Pens]

Train? Must have been much more than just 'training' if she could tame a grown wolf. Astrana found it healthy to have a good dose of mistrust towards all kinds of magic. Especially magic that claimed to be 'good'. "Why not pick one right away?" Astrana just suggests to her boyfriend with a smile, not bothering commenting on whatever magic that might have been used on these animals.

[Beast Pens]

"You can pick one now, I suppose. Then I'll talk to Roxie about how long it'll be before you can take it home," Dipsnig says. "They've just been born, so we haven't got around to naming them yet."

The five pups are currently clumsily playing with each other. There's five of them, three boys and two girls. Their fur has an indistinct grey-brown shade common for very young wolves.

[Beast Pens]

"Sure, uh..." Valente looks at the pups... He can't remotely tell which are girls or boys or... anything really. They're cute, though! "Do you recommend a boy or girl? I'm not sure if there's anything we should keep in mind." He can't help but sound uncertain.

[Dormitories]

These persons certainly weren't shy about giving their piece of mind. "Actually, yes. We probably should help Kirk-y pack up." She smiles at the rest of the group. [COLOR="#000080"]"We should see you guys later, when people are in a bit better mood."[[Dormitories]/COLOR] She glances at the other drow meaningfully.

[Dormitories]

Kirk's mouth is a thin line, but he doesn't protest. "Yes, I'm sure we will talk again." He says to Fixer. "Now excuse me." He nods and turns to go back into his room. There's nothing to stop Dena and Tina from following.

[Cyber Punk]

[Dormitories]

Fixer says nothing in response to Kirk. "Let's go, Fel."

"Alrighty! Fixer and I have to go now, but we'll all get to catch up, okayyyy?" She pecks both Tinay and Dena on the cheek, then flies after Fixer as he makes his way to Xun.

[Morty]

[Beast Pens]

"Girls are a little easier to keep around, probably," Dipsnig says. "On the other hand, with a boy you wouldn't have to worry about him getting pregnant," he adds.

[Riverside Office]

"You can find the list in the Riverside office, yes. Some smaller businesses might not be there, though. But it should narrow things down, at least. As long as he pulls his weight and doesn't cause trouble, the kind can work there," Dipsnig says.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

"Right. Thanks, boss. Just let me know if you've got something a new guy could handle." he says, presumably hanging up at that point.

He motions the gnome over.

[Earl of Purple]

Riverside Office

Arteitheo hops up from his chair and walks over. An organisation led by a goblin would have some goblin/gnome-sized chairs available, I'm thinking.

He smiles up at Krayger, but waits for him to speak first.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

Krayger knows not of the eeeeeevil that waits behind that smile.
"The boss okay'd you working here with us. I can get you access to the records of some of the businesses if you want to see if anything sounds familiar to you."
It should be noted that his actual family won't be on that list, given that if MERC was tipped off to their nature as a front they likely would not have bothered pretending to protect them, and they'd be listed elsewhere.

[Earl of Purple]

Riverside Office

His family don't actually own Fallow's; he's not part of my massively entangled gnome family tree tracing ancestry back to Great King Daath and his Favoured Consort, Madame Rii. His father's cousins work for the Fallow family, but aren't owners.

And Fallow's would have turned MERC down had they approached; he's got guards aplenty and nasty semi-domesticated animals as well in the pet shop half of his business.

"That's great. Thank you very, very much, Krayger." Arteitheo now considers himself in Krayger's debt, and the lawful nature of his family's patron deity means he was raised to remember all his debts, both those he owes and the ones owed him. The evil nature of the same deity mean that he was raised never to raise the subject of the ones he owes others, however, until they have been repaid.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

Krayger nods.
"I can get you your own room, though since you're not an official member yet it'll probably mean delaying your first paycheck a few days. We can't give those away without them being earned first. Still, we can get you settled in here, though any of the offices in the other cities are viable if you want to get out of this one." he says.

[Earl of Purple]

Riverside Office

"I lived Outside the cities, so I don't have any preference there. This one'll be fine, at least for now. A room here will be fine. What does a room cover? Like, just the space, or is it meals and bathrooms as well?" If he gets a room instead of his first pay check, he'll go hungry if food isn't included.

[Morty]

[Riverside Office]

Arteitheo can get a room and food in the office, although he'll be paid less if that's the case, until he can secure lodgings of his own.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

Krayger, for his part, simply relays the above information.

[Earl of Purple]

Riverside Office

"That's excellent. Thank you. May I have a look at the room?" Arteitheo smiles.

[Deathkeeper]

Riverside Office

Krayger nods, and does so. The room isn't anything big or special, but for now, it'll be his.