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

[Gullara]

[Front Door]

"Oh, thanks. Mind holding it for me?" It's instantly clear why he needs that. The man beyond is tall and skinny, and so white he practically blends into the snow. Between him and the door is a huge baby carriage, one with four different sections. It's all covered up to protect it's little cargo from the cold wind. "I'm here to see Astrana. I'm her boyfriend, Valente."

[Deathkeeper]

Front Door

Krayger holds the door with a smile before going over to the desk phone and pressing a button to page Astrana.
"Astrana? Your boyfriend is here." he says.

[Shadowcaller]

Front Door - desk phone

"Val?" She replies after a moment. "...does he have the children with him?" She couldn't imagine Val leaving them alone, but then he had taken them all the way here.

[Deathkeeper]

Front Door- Desk Phone

Krayger looks up at the man, then back down at the phone.
"Yes. Yes he does." he says simply.

[Gullara]

[Front Door]

Valente pushes the stroller inside. It's a good thing that the doors are big enough! Now that they're out of the cold, Valente pulls the cover off the stroller. Four little girls. Even as far as babies go, they look very similar. Dark brown skin, curly wisps of black hair, brownish red eyes. Hopefully their parents can tell them apart, because Krayger sure can't. At least, if not for the outfits their wearing. One purple, another orange, the third green, and the last one yellow. Looks like someone was concerned about telling them apart...

The girls' dad checks on each of them to make sure they're comfortable. Green is fast asleep, so he straightens her blanket. Purple is wriggling her arm out of her shirt, so Valente tucks it back in. Yellow gnaws on one of her little shoes, so he snatches that up and replaces it with her crocodile plush. And Orange reaches out for him, so she gets scooped up into his arms.

[Shadowcaller]

Front Door- Desk Phone

"Just... just tell him I'll be right up." Astrana replies. "No, wait. Give him the phone instead. I want to talk to him."

[Deathkeeper]

Front Desk- phone

Krayger nods.
"She'd like to talk to you for a minute." he says, holding out the phone.

[Gullara]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"Oh, thanks." Valente takes the phone. "Hey Astrana. I hope you're not too busy right now." She can practically hear his smile in his tone.

[Morty]

[Main Room]

Dipsnig has put up a map of Northside and Westside on a canvas, with a number of places circled and numbered. He's currently reading some notes while holding a marker in front of the map.

[Shadowcaller]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"Hello love of my life." Astrana replies in a mirthful tone. "So what are my four, I'm sorry, five bundles of ethereal joy doing in MERC?"

The Kitchen

Dena follows the Espurr with her gaze. "...you probably should get some kind of hobby. Why don't we two check out MERC's thankmas event after lunch?" She suggests before grabbing yet another waffle and stuffs it in her mouth.

[Lost_Deep]

The Kitchen

The Espurr tilts its head to the side questioningly. No one told Memento about this!

Either that or he doesn't know why Dena wants to go.

Or he doesn't know what thanksmas is.

He's not a very skilled communicator.

[Shadowcaller]

The Kitchen

"It's a big party, lots of people, maybe even another pokemon you could hang out with." Dena shrugs, anything was possible in the nexus! "And you do need to get out. You haven't left the base since you came here."

[Lost_Deep]

The Kitchen

Memento opens it's mouth, closes it, and then looks off to one side casually.

You have no proof of that, Dena. Albeit, Memento trying to look casual is abnormal enough to pin him guilty as charged.

[Shadowcaller]

The Kitchen

"You can stay here if you want to, but you'd likely be bored out of your mind. This place is pretty dead at the moment as I'm sure you noticed." Dena replies.

[Lost_Deep]

The Kitchen

Memento looks at the waffles idly, and then makes that hiccup sound. It seems it is hard pressed to find a counter for that.

[Hattish Thing]

[Dipsnig's Office - Marciano]

"Shouldn't take too long. Our warlock doesn't have any pressing tasks at the moment, so I'll ask her to focus on the summoning for the time being. You should get both the dwarven crew and the starspawn within a few days," Dipsnig says.

Marciano nods at his desk, switching the phone to his other ear. "Alrighty then. I have an appointment to be at, m'friend, but I trust you'll get this all done quickly, an' efficiently, an' best of all... covertly. But, hey, I'm sure we understand eachother by now, hm? Ya know, first time I metcha I coulda sworn you were more 'obgoblin than goblin, Dipsnig. That's a good thing in my eyes. Now, I really need to be goin', kay?"

"See ya on the flip side, aheh."

The call ends.

[By the Fireplace]

"It's a lawbook, if you have some kind of email I'll send you a pdf of it to you right away." Dena replies, not showing any reaction to his odd behavior. "As to answer your first question, it's Westside. The one Tenebras controlled before they disappeared. Seems like a pretty easy deal if ya ask me."

The new member gently bites down at his lip, pondering over how long it would take to memorize the basics. He had no intention of spending all his time reading some old tome like this back to back. Who has the time for that? He'd never even found entertaining books that great. Caius does nod down though, before speaking again. "Yeah, thanks. I don't just yet, but I do have a phone. When I get home, I'll make myself an email and text it to you, alright?" With that, he sort of looks away for a second, before asking her another question. "Erm, right. Who's Tenebras? Again, sorry, I'm not used to this stuff."

"Explain?"

[Shadowcaller]

[By the Fireplace]

"Right. Tenebras. They're aren't really that relevant anymore but they were a bunch of vampires that played mobsters in Riverside. Seems like Malechenar maneuvered them out or something. I honestly haven't paid it all that much attention since Riverside haven't been very relevant to MERC until just now." Dena explains.
"But yeah, that should be alright. I don't care either way."

The Kitchen

"I'm gonna take that as a 'yes'. So finish those waffles and lets head outside." Dena tells the pokemon, gesturing at the remaining waffles.

[Hattish Thing]

[By the Fireplace]

"Right. Tenebras. They're aren't really that relevant anymore but they were a bunch of vampires that played mobsters in Riverside. Seems like Malechenar maneuvered them out or something. I honestly haven't paid it all that much attention since Riverside haven't been very relevant to MERC until just now." Dena explains.
"But yeah, that should be alright. I don't care either way."

Caius settles into his chair, looking a little bit more weary than usual. "Alright, thank you. I suppose I shall have some work to do when I get home then. Umm. Is there anything else you think I ought to know about this organization, or the job ahead? And when will I need to come in to start duty? Or is that information you're just going to send with the email?"

"Sorry if it seems I'm asking too many questions. Just sort of curious, and I like to know what's ahead."

[Lost_Deep]

The Kitchen

A few waffles eaten, a lot more in the fridge, and they should be ready to go!

[Shadowcaller]

[By the Fireplace]

Dena just smiles. "I don't mind questions, man. But you should know we don't take assassination missions." The drow pauses. "Buuut that's a pretty grey area. We end up killing people in our missions all the time. We just don't specifically are hired to kill someone." She now starts counting down on her fingers. "Plus we don't do missions for slavers or AMEN... that evil org up on the volcano. Other then that, just ask if you have any doubts. I'm always more than welcome to help."

[Hattish Thing]

[By the Fireplace]

Dena just smiles. "I don't mind questions, man. But you should know we don't take assassination missions." The drow pauses. "Buuut that's a pretty grey area. We end up killing people in our missions all the time. We just don't specifically are hired to kill someone." She now starts counting down on her fingers. "Plus we don't do missions for slavers or AMEN... that evil org up on the volcano. Other then that, just ask if you have any doubts. I'm always more than welcome to help."

Caius seems to appreciate her dealing with his onslaught of questions with probably rather obvious answers to all who weren't particularly new to the place. Though he was in reality a little more experienced in the ways of the Nexus then he let on, there was a lot he still didn't quite understand. At the assassination remark, his eyebrow raises slightly. "Ah? Just too, uhhh... Bad for the view of the organization, I guess? There's a better word for what I'm trying to say here, sorry. I just haven't gotten much sleep, and I'm... sort of stressed about a lot of things, lately, sorry." Caius is certainly seeming more and more talkative as time goes on. It appears he's getting rather comfortable with Dena's presence.

[Shadowcaller]

[By the Fireplace]

Dena waves away his concerns. "I'm used to it, the requirements of joining isn't actually to have a good nights sleep first." She replies with a faint smile. "But yeah, assassination organizations have a tendency to not be around for very long. It's not a very lucrative business for whatever reason. Don't worry though, no one will even mention it if you kill kobolt babies in a cave somewhere since that's 'adventuring'." She makes air quote marks to empathize her point.

[Gullara]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"Hello love of my life." Astrana replies in a mirthful tone. "So what are my four, I'm sorry, five bundles of ethereal joy doing in MERC?"

[Front Desk - Phone]

"I thought we'd stop by before you got off today for a little visit. The girls miss their mommy." Valente smiles down at little Rosabel in his arm.

[Shadowcaller]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"They must really be a handful, huh?" Astrana asks mirthfully. "I'm a bit busy with a ritual but why don't you look around a bit and I'll be right with you. Don't think my summoning chamber is the right place for four girls their age."

[Hattish Thing]

[By the Fireplace]

Dena waves away his concerns. "I'm used to it, the requirements of joining isn't actually to have a good nights sleep first." She replies with a faint smile. "But yeah, assassination organizations have a tendency to not be around for very long. It's not a very lucrative business for whatever reason. Don't worry though, no one will even mention it if you kill kobolt babies in a cave somewhere since that's 'adventuring'." She makes air quote marks to empathize her point.

"Hah." Caius a little bit before shifting in his chair, covering his mouth as he yawned a little bit. "That makes sense, hah. Well, I have no intention of killing anything. That's... not the life for me." This was a lie, but still a lie with a tiny bit of truth. The man certainly had a strong desire to kill, for the thought of vengeance against his sister's killer, and against Marciano drove him forward day after day, even when the thoughts were out of mind, and out of place. However, he rationalized his desire for death as fair revenge, a life for a life, eye for an eye. He'd never want to kill an innocent again, however, not after everything...

"You're much friendlier than I imagined you to be."

[Shadowcaller]

[By the Fireplace]

"Me specifically, or drow in general?" Dena wonders with an elegantly raised eyebrow, managing to convey so much in a simple expression. "Since I could see both honestly. Can't imagine we in MERC have much of a reputation beyond simple greedy, brutal thugs. Which pretty much sums up drow as well, if you'd include 'slutty' and 'arrogant' somewhere in there." She makes an elegant gesture with her hand and rolls her eyes a bit as to empathize the ridiculousness of her own race.
"But as I told one of my 'adoring' fans, I'm simply not that kind of drow, or mercenary for that matter. I prefer much more refined methods." She leans forward a bit, her chin resting lightly upon her hand as she smiles at him. "How about you?"

[Gullara]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"They must really be a handful, huh?" Astrana asks mirthfully. "I'm a bit busy with a ritual but why don't you look around a bit and I'll be right with you. Don't think my summoning chamber is the right place for four girls their age."

[Front Desk - Phone]

"You're probably right. I suppose we can take a little tour while we wait. Is there anywhere we shouldn't be going, or...?" Valente asks. He wouldn't want to get Astrana in trouble becaus he was poking his nose in places he shouldn't.

[Shadowcaller]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"As long as you don't open any closed doors or go into what's obviously someone's room and I think you'll be safe Val. There are beast pens here but the animals are usually not much trouble from what I seen. I'll be done soon though!" Astrana replies.

[Gullara]

[Front Desk - Phone]

"Sure, I'll take a look around. See you soon, sweetie." Valente makes a kissing sound before he ends the call and hands the phone back to Krayger. "She said she's going to be a little bit and that I could take a look around. Sound fine by you?"

[Deathkeeper]

Front Desk

Krayger nods and puts the phone back where it belongs.
"Sure. With Astrana's word I don't have any reason to think you'll rob the place. Go ahead." says the minotaur with a wave of his hand.