MERC XVII: You Can't Take the Pay From Me

[Zefir]

"You can think that, but I'm out of this." Says Jacob as a phone that wasn't seen before rings. "I have to take this call." He walks out of the front door. As he walks out he says to whoever's on the phone, "Jacob Rancor, what's your problem?"

[Main Room]

Fade didn't even look for a phone befor and he will take his leave through the front door as well. So he properbly walks right next to him as he takes the call.

On the other side, Fade's shadow stays behind and heads for the Office of Dipsnig.

[Dipsnig Office]

He knocks and assuming he got time he will enter.

"Matters have changed." the shadow starts with an echoing voice. "This Jakob guy left out on the contract."

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

Astrana once again opens the door. "Welcome back." She eyes Raril. "And you too, sir. You have memory problems, is that is?" She invites them inside the office/chamber.

[Artemis97]

[Astrana's Office]

Raril looks her up and down, once. Then again, double checking. He then leans over to Electra and whispers. "She's a tiefling." This seemed to be of some concern to him.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Astrana's Office]

Electra nods at Astrana, but then turns slightly, raising an eyebrow at Raril, one corner of her mouth twitching upwards into a slightly amused grin. She crosses her arms over her chest.

"So? She's not going to hurt you, she wants to help. Now, come on, let's not be rude and keep her waiting." She moves through the door, unconcerned, but keeping an eye on Raril to make sure he follows.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

Astrana gives Raril a odd look. "What do you remember about my kin exactly, sir?" She asks. She wasn't sure what Raril had whispered, but she could get a clue by the way she was looking at her. In her homeworld, she got the same look all the time. "I don't mind you saying it out loud. It will help me help you."

[Artemis97]

[Astrana's Office]

"Tieflings, half demons." Raril recites as he steps into the office. "Draegloth are similar, just drow instead of human, and I know I don't like those. I can't remember any specific reason why, just a feeling, you know? I can't remember anything before waking up to that chaos in the bar. I don't know why I know the things I do." The drow shrugs. "I'm sorry if I've caused any offense, I'm just a little paranoid, I guess. I don't know who I can trust."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Astrana's Office]

Electra stands to the side of the door once through, and closes it after Raril enters, then leans against it, crossing her arms over her chest once more. Her face shows mild interest in Raril's reason for being cautious about Astrana, though she knows part of it is that he probably doesn't remember that he's in the Nexus, either. Hopefully, Astrana can help him regain at least some of his memories. For the moment, she'll simply sit back and observe.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

"You'd have try a lot harder to offend me, sir." Astrana muses. "Back in my world, I need to wear a burqa while I'm outdoors just to not get chased off the streets. I can promise you can trust me though, I'm a professional and I don't like to fail in my profession. So the first you have to trust me with is putting on this necklace." She holds up a necklace made of the bones of different animals and offers it to Raril. "It will show me what sort of affliction you carry." She looks at him expectingly.

[Artemis97]

[Astrana's Office]

Raril looks at Electra, concern on his face. Why was she blocking the door? He didn't like that one bit. However, he does take the necklace from Astrana and slips it over his head. It will indicate that there's nothing physically wrong with him, aside from the holes in his back which are healing quickly. Oh and there is his lycanthropy. Lastly there's something weird with his soul: it's missing.

The drow freaks out a little when the bones indicating his afflictions begin to move. He doesn't scream, but he does go very still and his eyes go very wide.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Astrana's Office]

Electra raises an eyebrow when the bones begin to move, tilting her head to one side slightly, before pushing off the door with one shoulder and taking a couple of steps closer, just to get a slightly better look. She stays quiet, so as not to disturb Astrana in whatever else she might need to do, though she's obviously curious as to what the reaction means, the mild interest on her face giving way to deep curiosity. She makes a mental note to ask Astrana about what all the necklace can indicate later, once Raril's been taken care of, and the business with Adir has been concluded.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

"Don't worry, they're just telling me what bothers you." Astrana clarifies as the bones starts to clatter as if they were attempting to get away. She inspects them closely for a moment before taking the necklace to pull it off Raril. The bones immediately stops moving once they've been removed from his person. "You're afflicted by two diseases, one of the body and one of the soul." She remarks, showing with her fingers the number. "I think I must investigate each one carefully. You don't mind me taking a small blood sample, do you?"

[Artemis97]

[Astrana's Office]

"I suppose not..." Raril seems a little reluctant, but he had already shed a lot of blood today. A little bit more probably wouldn't hurt. Though a sorceress could do a lot with blood.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Astrana's Office]

"A disease of the soul? What's that?" Electra asks, unable to contain the question before it leaves her lips. She glances apologetically at Astrana, and clams up, apparently embarrassed at her lack of knowledge.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

"Do you have any wounds remaining, or do you want me to make a new one to tap from?" Astrana asks as she pulls up a black knife from her belt. She turns to Electra when she asks her question however. "Do you know what a soul is, Electra?"

[Morty]

Main Base- Shooting Range

"Well it looks really cool. Even if I don't think I can get an upgrade like that on a squire's allowance." says the teen with a grin.

"Sky's the limit, lad. This kind of weapon was outside my reach when I first came here. But now, I have work to do. Have fun," Dipsnig says as he leaves, the crossbow carried away with him.

[Green Elf]

[Outside of MERC]

Jacob says, "Of course, will do." He then calls someone else. He mumbles done instructions and then hangs up. He then calls ANOTHER person. This one would be Dipsnig.

[Phone Call]

"Hello, Jacob Rancor." He says as soon as the phone gets picked up. (Assuming it does.)

[Artemis97]

[Astrana's Office]

Raril thinks a moment and considers lifting his shirt so Astrana might get at the wounds in his back, but reconsiders. Making those wounds worse probably wasn't wise, and he still wasn't 100% on trusting a tiefling, so turning his back on a lady with a knife was just a bad idea. Really bad idea, actually. The drow scratches the side of his head nervously for a moment, before extending his hand to Astrana.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Astrana's Office]

Electra seems to consider the question for a moment, and watches as Raril extends his hand.

"I think my definition may be different than yours. Most of the scientists from my dimension categorized "souls" of my race more like the collected bits and pieces of a computer operating system. Memories and programs, to use the terminology." She snorts derisively. "Though they themselves weren't able to define a reploid's core 'program' or else we'd be no different from robots, without emotions. The closest they could come was to insert personality predispositions through the brain's initial info dump right after initialization. And there was never an exact definition given for humans, since they couldn't be detected." She pauses, then shrugs. "Things are obviously different here in the Nexus, so I'm curious how it's defined here."

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

Astrana takes a hold of his hand and makes a small cut in one of his finger with the knife, and his blood soon specks the knife. "That should be it. Now patch that up, there is bandages in that box over there." She gestures at a chest in the corner of the room.
She then turns to Electra once again. "Not too familiar with artificial souls, but souls tend to be different in each world, so its hard to generalize around them. A soul disease is like any disease, but it effects the soul instead of the body. But to be honest, it might not be a disease at all. I just know that something is wrong with his soul somehow." She walks up to the circle in the middle of the room, her tail swishing from side to side as she kneels down to place the knife within the middle of the circle. "Now I'm going to offer this blood to a spirit to find out more about it."

[Artemis97]

[Astrana's Office]

Raril makes his way to the chest with the medical supplies in it, deftly fishing out some gauze and tape with his uninjured hand and wrapping up his finger. As he does so, he turns around and watches what Astrana was doing, careful to stay clear of the circle. "What kind of spirit?" The drow wonders.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Astrana's Office]

Electra nods, Astrana's explanation making sense to her.

"I see. Interesting." The fact that souls can be detected, let alone contract ailments that can be diagnosed, is captivating. She stands back, and stays quiet as Astrana approaches the circle, so as not to disrupt her concentration. She does watch to see if the spirit Astrana summons is similar to the one she freed a few days ago on another job.

[Morty]

[Phone Call]

"What's the status on the Nadas mission?" Dipsnig asks, getting right down to business.

[Green Elf]

[Phone Call]

"What's the status on the Nadas mission?" Dipsnig asks, getting right down to business.

"Turns out Nadas is turning into a demon over time because of his parents and he hasn't been hunted for a long time." Says Jacob. "So, Nadas has been protected, but Fade doesn't believe me on this. I believe I've completed my mission and should get paid as soon as possible."

[Morty]

[Phone Call]

"What is the source of this information?" Dipsnig asks.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

"The one of a animal, a vulture to be precise. So I will need a carcass to offer it, so if you excuse me..." Astrana replies before she walks off towards a backdoor of her office, leading further into the tunnels below the base.
She soon returns dragging a the body of a gazelle behind her. She pulls it into the circle and then sits down next to it, starting to sing a chant. Nothing actually seem to appear in the circle, or eat the carcass, yet Astrana seems satisfied after a while. She pulls out the knife again and cuts open the gazelle's belly, causing all its intestines to spill out. She then rummages around in them as if looking for something. "It seems... like your soul is missing, Raril." She declares. "And you are infected by lycanthropy. That's concerning."

[Morty]

[Dipsnig's Office]

Dipsnig doesn't answer Fade yet, as he's in the middle of the phone call with Jacob.

[Green Elf]

[Phone Call]

"What is the source of this information?" Dipsnig asks.

"The source is from the demon hunter claimed to be hunting Nadas. Ilophen Xar'Cha herself. There were clearly no lies but I have no way of proving it." Explains Jacob.

[Morty]

[Phone Call]

"Indeed you don't, and Ilpholin wasn't always a demon hunter. She used to be a politician, and a consummate liar. Her word is nowhere near good enough for me to believe she's not hunting Nadas. So this is an academic question, really. Nadas is paying us to protect him from Ilpholin, and that's what we will do. It's not our job to ruminate on whether or not he needs it."

[Recaiden]

Nadas walks up to Fade. He's looking even less well than usual.
"Fade, do you have a moment? About the job."

He holds out a little widget.

"I found this when I was going through my books and clothes this morning. A tracking device. I don't know for sure that it's Ilpholin that put it there, but..."
He trails off, leaving 'who else would it be?' unsaid.

[Zefir]

Main Room

Fade looks at the device Nadas holds out. Not that he has any clue of what he is looking at.

"I see." he says in his typical voice. "We should give that to our technican. Maybe she can track it back to her or anyone else."