MERC XVIII: Affordable Misdeeds and Friendly Canines

[Murkus]

[Somewhere Near MERC]

"A station for what purpose?" Maiel says, stepping a little further into the place as he looks this way and that. "Transportation? And who would ever use it?"

[Checkup]

"Um, thank you," Tina says to Astrana, trying to act casual. "I, uh, can't believe I haven't seen you around here before! Haha!" >_>

Kirk receives a small smile and a grateful glance. Unfortunately Tina sounds almost apologetic as she says, "I don't really know. The woman who kidnapped me did it. She was some kind of sorceress... but I don't remember much in the way of how. Just went in and out of focus for a while there."

[Deathkeeper]

[An epic Quest]

Willa will show the angel the map her spell produced.
”This is a map of he place. Can you do it?” she asks simply.

[Shadowcaller]

[Somewhere Near MERC]

The creature shrugs. "ehcustomers?Askbossya-verybigman!Onlycustomerthatcamedidn'tevenpay!" It groans and pulls its long ears. "stupidstupidstupidboss.noonepaytocomehere!" The imp complains.

[Checkup]

Astrana raises her eyebrows at Tina but doesn't comment at her 'casual act'. Ugh...

"I've actually looked into it, and she is actually a warlock. But Kirk should know this, I got the information from Miss Xifhara who I understand have a close relationship to both of you. From what I told, she has a keen interest in demons and angels..." She gestures at Tina. "Hence this, I'll assume. The key will be to find out what she did so we can undo it. I personally never heard of someone being turned into a angel before. Not without doing a great deal of good deeds first at least." She smiles. "So, either you've been a saint all this time without any of us knowing, or something else have happened. It's likely that something have been done to your souls."

Astrana's Office

Astrana looks concerned when their marks flare up and approaches them cautiously. "I was raised in a cult, but thankfully they never branded us. This looks a bit worse though, yet it doesn't appear that you have any other curses. Not from a quick glance at least." She pauses, looking between the two. "I probably shouldn't make you wait for much longer though, so is there anything else I can help you with while you are here?"

[Leostales]

Astrana's office

"Not now, but if there is later, and there might be, we'll come to you," Muun says as he and Anatya prepare to leave.

[Lord Magtok]

MERC Business With Magtok

Spoiler

Show

[MERC Business With Magtok]

"We need to probe Skyside a bit and find slavers who'd be amenable to this sort of idea," Dipsnig says. "Probably ones who put on appearances of legitimacy and high quality. Once we do find some, we need to act fast. People will poke holes in it if we give them too much time to think."

[MERC Business With Magtok]

"I actually have an idea regarding that. It would take a while to scout out slavers open to all this... so I suggest we claim we already have support. In Skyside, misinformation is the bread and butter. There are dozens of news sites that just tell the people whatever they're paid to say while also advertising their products. We could probably pay them to tell us whatever we want them to say. That's how we'll get Magtok on the screen either way. Others will pay other channels to dispute it, but that always happens. People will believe the person they like the most, and the truth becomes kinda unimportant at that point." She claims. "I expect it will become true either way once a number of slavers believe others are joining up."

"I'd suggest Wall-Chan, but it's time in the sun seems to have come and gone. People still remember the propaganda wars and aren't interested in reviving the platform," Magtok remarks, his tone making it abundantly clear that he knows exactly how responsible he is for that particular mess. Things were ugly back then, and there's really no justification for the kind of person he was in those days. Really, he's exceptionally fortunate that Dipsnig doesn't seem inclined to maintain a grudge over that stuff. There's more than a few things he's said about goblins in general that don't bear repeating.

[Morty]

[MERC Business With Magtok]

Dipsnig grins wickedly. Wicked grins come easily to a goblin, to be fair. It's those teeth.

"I like your thinking, Dena. Selling the biggest, most audacious lie with a straight face can do wonders. Doubly so in Skyside. I agree the Wall is best left forgotten, but I'm sure we can find some news stations amenable to saying what we want them to say. In Skyside, it doesn't really matter if something's true or not... as long as it's spoken about. We'll make some noise while we get our actual plan in motion."

[Shadowcaller]

[MERC Business With Magtok]

Dena let's out a longing sigh. "I miss the propaganda wars if I'm going to be honest. So much more pleasant than actual wars, and many times far more effective. We'll just have to find another tool to use them now, and I think I got just the thing." She snaps her fingers. "The question is if we want to sell the news before or after Magtok's announcement. I mean, we'll probably have to use the same studio for both unless someone blows in up in-between shots." Unlikely considering that would stop nothing, but there were plenty of violent idiots out there and KABAL had plenty of them on their payroll.
"We could also have Magtok interviewed by one of those hosts, after all they're all basically talk shows mixed in with quote, unquote, 'news segments' worked into them. "

Astrana's Office==> Xifhara's Dena's Office

"Alright, I'll give you a pass. But come back if you have more trouble in the future." Astrana tells them before they leave.

Returning to Xifhara's office, she seems to have been waiting for them, two contracts ready to be signed laying on her desk. "Well, well, judging by your expressions, looks everything went well." Dena says, offering a pen to Anatya first. "So just sign down there and we should done!"
Then she turns to Muun as she waits for Anatya to sign, the snakes which makes up her 'hair' now staring at him silently. "Say, Muun, you wouldn't happen to be good at subterfuge would you? Since there is a member-only job I might have for you."

[Leostales]

Xifhara's Dena's Office

"We will, thanks." Anatya says as they leave.

Anatya and Muun both sign the contracts, after which Muun responds, "Kind of, what's the job?"

[Gullara]

[An epic Quest]

Willa will show the angel the map her spell produced.
”This is a map of he place. Can you do it?” she asks simply.

[An Epic Quest]

The angel quirks an eyebrow, but doesn't remark on the location. "Yes. There will be a price. You were aware of that, were you not?" Her voice is full of condescension.

[Checkup]

"Um, thank you," Tina says to Astrana, trying to act casual. "I, uh, can't believe I haven't seen you around here before! Haha!" >_>

Kirk receives a small smile and a grateful glance. Unfortunately Tina sounds almost apologetic as she says, "I don't really know. The woman who kidnapped me did it. She was some kind of sorceress... but I don't remember much in the way of how. Just went in and out of focus for a while there."

[Checkup]

Astrana raises her eyebrows at Tina but doesn't comment at her 'casual act'. Ugh...

"I've actually looked into it, and she is actually a warlock. But Kirk should know this, I got the information from Miss Xifhara who I understand have a close relationship to both of you. From what I told, she has a keen interest in demons and angels..." She gestures at Tina. "Hence this, I'll assume. The key will be to find out what she did so we can undo it. I personally never heard of someone being turned into a angel before. Not without doing a great deal of good deeds first at least." She smiles. "So, either you've been a saint all this time without any of us knowing, or something else have happened. It's likely that something have been done to your souls."

[Checkup]

If Kirk has anything to say about them apparently knowing one another, he doesn't voice it. "And how do we find out what she did?" Kirk has a few violent ideas in mind, but maybe Astrana can make it simpler. The violence can be postponed.

[Deathkeeper]

[An Epic Quest]

Willa really wants to return that look but manages to reel in her ego.
”Yes I am aware of how this works.” she replied simply.
Ok maybe she didn’t reign herself in completely.
Wasn’t Libra going to provide her with something angels couldn’t resist? Willa hopes that happens soon.

[Leostales]

MERC Main Entrance

Metalhead returns from the Forlorn Cave, he looks pretty damaged. There's a big split in his head, a knife stuck in his arm, and one of his eyes is pretty banged up.

He goes to whoever is at the front desk.

"I completed the job. Does your percentage include treasure I found along the way, or just the payment. Also, do I pay now or later?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[An Epic Quest]

Corvus nods, more to himself than anything else. Willa seems to know what she's doing, at least, so there's not really a reason to interject himself into the negotiation at this point. He continues to stand and watch, waiting to see what the angel will demand as payment.

[Shadowcaller]

Gym

"You guys ought to temper your hormones a bit." Dena says from within the toilet when she suddenly push the door open and steps outside.
She is now clad in what at first glance would appear like a black tattered two-piece leather outfit, though a less cursory look might give them impression that it was actually made this way.
The leather, which is firmly pushing up her chest, have tear marks in it that reveals even more of her otherwise bare cinereous colored front. The outfit just seem to barely cling onto her right shoulder and then almost seem to have been torn up diagonally towards her armpit, leaving her left shoulder and a good chunk of the upper part of her left breast exposed, smaller tears forming gaps that reveal even more without leaving her completely unseemly.

The leather top is decorated with small coins that seem to have been sewn into the material like buttons, the coins vary from copper to silver and gold, all carrying different brands of coinage suggesting that they're form different countries or even civilizations.

The bottom part of her outfit is similarly decorated and torn at several places, most notably a near complete split near her hips. However, the skirt does not appear to be made of the same material as the top even thought it appeared so at first. It isn't actually leather, but made of lighter cloth as to make it easier to move in. To add to this effect, there aren't as many decorative coins sewn into it. Yet if one listens carefully they might still be able to hear the sounds of coins smacking against one another as Dena moves to the center of the little gym.

Her feet are bare besides two pairs of golden bracelets that she wears around her ankles.

Though as one might expect, her face is partly covered, especially her eyes, as she is wearing a veil made of gold-colored chain-mail. The veil covers most of her face, only leaving her nose, lips and chin exposed. Yet the links of the veil are further apart near her cheeks, yet get denser the closer it gets to her eyes which are completely obscured as if she was wearing a chainmail blindfold. This leaves the veil largely see through with the exception of the area around her eyes, though a observant viewer might still get hints of a sinister red sheen coming from between the chain links.

Her serpents, similarly decorated with golden collars, drape down all the way past her shoulders, framing her face in-between their white scaled bodies. "Let me show you how." Dena declares with a confident smile as the music beings playing from the four loudspeakers mounted in each corner of the gym.

Immediately as the music starts, Dena's body starts swaying seductively to the dark tones, she is putting a lot of work into making those hips move from side to side as her hands starts running up her thighs, daringly lifting up parts of the tattered skirt as visibly let her hands sink into the soft dark flesh of her rocking hips.

As shouts and drums start sounding she switches gears and instead starts to rock back and fourth, assertively thrusting out her chest at each yell. Then as there is a series of drum beats in a short succession Dena makes a repeated thrusting motion to the beat, making her chest joggle before stopping dead in her tracks.

Then suddenly, she swirls around with her arms outstretched as the tempo of the music increases, letting Tina and Rein into a view of her behind as she once again stops in place and starts swaying back and fourth again. The snakes that can be seen sliding along her back are hissing aggressively at them, as if to add to the dark tones of the music. She bends her knees, causing her entire body to shimmy in a jerky series of movements as the drums comes do dominate for a few seconds. When a shout can be heard again she is suddenly standing facing towards them again, on one leg lift into the air and bent against the other for support. Her arms have switched position, now pointing inwards towards her chest as now her shoulders are the only part of her body that are moving to the music.

She switches legs and repeats the motion until the musics tempo starts to slow once again, she lets elbows meet her hands stretched upwards and fingers widespread as if she was cupping something. The snakes seemingly taking this opportunity to slither in-between her fingers, letting their long bodies rest upon her cupping hands until she slowly lets her hands drop. She spreads her legs, lowering herself towards the floor with her arms pointing outwards. Her legs take over the movement and she moves her hip in a circular fashion, moving faster and faster as the music picks up tempo once again.

Working herself up back into a stranding position she lets her outstretched arms start to sway to the music again, though this time they get to see them from behind as she moves them from side to side. She is throwing her entire body into the movement, her shoulders lowering as she streches her arms slightly upwards, and rocks her hips in the same direction. First going to the left, then to the right, and repeat, the movement slowly gaining intensity as the music starts picking tempo again.

She makes another twirl, turning towards them once again as she repeats the same motions, her entire body now rocking to the tunes as the snakes all open their mouths and stick out their forked pink tongues and rocks their scaly bodies in the same rhythm. Right now they are acting as much as extensions of Dena as her arms and legs as they bob their heads up and down to the beat while still looking dangerously aggressive, as if ready to strike at any moment.

Now, as the music starts slowing down, the snakes in front starts to move up towards Dena's face and as she keeps swaying her hips to the slowly dying drums. As they all seem to be staring right at her she starts running her hands along the length of the thickest of the snakes. Caressing its scales as it hisses at her threateningly, its sharp fangs at full display.
But then Dena opens her mouth, fully revealing her own fangs and perhaps more notably, her own snake-like tongue and hisses back. Thus, as the music from the loudspeakers die down, the gym is filled with the sound of a strangely melodic series of serpentine hisses which soon dies down as well.

Letting the tongue back inside as she closes her mouth, she sits down on the floor, apparently finished.

[Dena's Office]

"Finding and eliminating evil shapeshifters that can spread like a disease. Very dangerous." Dena replies calmly. "There is a less dangerous job, but I believe this one has the most promise. So are you into that, or are your talents suited better for other things?"

[Leostales]

[Dena's Office]

"I'm best at heist or assassination jobs. This seems close enough to the latter so that it should work for me. I'd want more information before I sign up, though."

[Morty]

[MERC Main Entrance]

The person at the front desk as changed, and it is now a man who looks in all ways like he's undead. But he's quite well-groomed and all the more decomposed pieces of his body are properly bandaged.

"We do take a cut of any salvage and treasure found along the way, but it's smaller than from the job proper," he says in a raspy voice. "And it looks like you could use some patching up. Our medic can take care of that."

((The medic is an NPC robot. Also, for the record, paying MERC and other such formalities can be handwaved and assumed to happen off-screen in the future.))

[Leostales]

[MERC Main Entrance]


Metalhead pays his percentage. "Do you have anyone who could repair this?" he asks, showing the man a small metal sphere. "It's my time machine and computer. It used to repair me, but now its broken."

[Morty]

[MERC Main Entrance]

The undead mercenary examines the sphere with his sunken eyes.

"Is this object powered by technology, magic, both or something else?"

[Leostales]

[MERC Main Entrance]


"It's powered by a mixture of technology and death energy, which is gained by me," he explains.

[Lord Magtok]

[MERC Business With Magtok]

Dipsnig grins wickedly. Wicked grins come easily to a goblin, to be fair. It's those teeth.

"I like your thinking, Dena. Selling the biggest, most audacious lie with a straight face can do wonders. Doubly so in Skyside. I agree the Wall is best left forgotten, but I'm sure we can find some news stations amenable to saying what we want them to say. In Skyside, it doesn't really matter if something's true or not... as long as it's spoken about. We'll make some noise while we get our actual plan in motion."

[MERC Business With Magtok]

Dena let's out a longing sigh. "I miss the propaganda wars if I'm going to be honest. So much more pleasant than actual wars, and many times far more effective. We'll just have to find another tool to use them now, and I think I got just the thing." She snaps her fingers. "The question is if we want to sell the news before or after Magtok's announcement. I mean, we'll probably have to use the same studio for both unless someone blows in up in-between shots." Unlikely considering that would stop nothing, but there were plenty of violent idiots out there and KABAL had plenty of them on their payroll.
"We could also have Magtok interviewed by one of those hosts, after all they're all basically talk shows mixed in with quote, unquote, 'news segments' worked into them. "

Magtok nods along, even as it's becoming terribly clear here that MERC is calling the shots and deciding how this plays out now, and he's just the pretty face used to market the idea. That's fine, though. Let Dena and Dipsnig do all the thinking and plotting and scheming. It's one less thing for Magtok to stress about, and leaves him with just the public relations stuff to handle, his old specialty.

"So, since it sounds more and more like I'll need to know as this goes on, what exactly is KABAL? What do they want, and why? How'd they make enemies of MERC, when you folk are supposedly as neutral and uninvolved in everyone else's grudge matches as one can reasonably be?" It always helps to know as much as possible about your enemies. When his MERC bodyguards have been slain or distracted or just unavailable, he'll need to know exactly which emotional levers to pull or old grudges to mention to convince them not to shoot him dead.

[Morty]

[MERC Business With Magtok]

"KABAL is one part a mob, one part a mercenary outfit," Dipsnig says. "They take the kind of jobs we'd turn down from the kind of people we wouldn't associate with. They attacked us because we're competition, simple enough. Their goals are just money and power as far as I can tell, but there might be more to that. They're led by some colorful characters. Like a warlock who can summon spirits into machines."

[MERC Main Entrance]

"As our licensed member, you receive a discount in Erin's Emporium," the undead man says. "There's an alchemist there who might be able to help you with this."

[Gullara]

[An Epic Quest]

"Good." The angel says curtly. "When you intend to return here, you will create another circle and call for a particular being." She moves her hand and the image of a summoning circle appears before Willa. "Memorize it. This being will be accompanying you back to this world. You will not be able to return without it. Understood?"

[Dance Lesson]

A truck swings by the front of Merc and out climb a pair of flowery individuals. They waves back at the truck as it pulls away. Sakura ushers Laela in front of them as they approach the door. "Burr, it's so cold! Hurry and knock, sweetie." Laela does so with enthusiasm.

[Leostales]

[MERC Main Entrance]

"Ok, thanks." Metalhead says. He then leaves to get fixed.

ooc: I'm going to just skip Metalhead's doctor visit and take him to Erin's.

[Reinholdt]

[Gym]

Temper their hormones? Doesn't that make them sharper and stronger? Does Dena really want them to go at this harder? I mean, it's not like their clothes (what exists of them) are off or anything. Maybe a little disheveled at this point, but that's to be expected from any good make out session. After a few more moments, Rein will reluctantly go to pull away from Tina in order to watch the show they paid for. If cash hadn't been involved, Rein would probably have just tried to wave Dena off.

Though that would have been a disaster since Dena looks like a bombshell, and dances like one too. So Dena did really mean to raise the hormone count in the room. Yikes. Rein only manages to not spend the whole time fidgeting and adjusting on account of being too entranced and focused on the show. It was a fairly aggressive war-like tune that went beyond anything Rein normally appreciated, but Dena's dance does it justice. The snakes help tremendously and make the entire dance a thousand times more enticing. Danger makes everything better.

When it's over, Rein will give a vigorous applause. Though Dena sitting on the floor afterwards strikes him as odd. Normally you bow or something. Maybe she accidentally bit her admittedly awesome looking snake tongue and poisoned herself a little? "You alright? Wear yourself out?" A number of those moves looked like it took a lot of effort to pull off.

[Shadowcaller]

[MERC Business With Magtok]

Dena raises her hand. "I'll take this one." She clears her throat. "KABAL was founded by a goblin called Anton Kelligan like a century ago. Back then, they were apparently only active in seaside. They were made up by a bunch of former adventurers that had found out that that their job market had been oversaturated. So they started selling themselves to various factions, mostly pirates and tribals, often using excessive force to get their way. They actually had major success and became a force of their own, or that's what I assume considering Kelligan got his own private island. Either way, after they blew up the wrong building the gobbo-government down there classified them as a terrorist organization so they had to set up shop elsewhere. Which is when they came to Skyside where they started to work for slavers and other scum. They then tried to spread to other cities, which is when they came in contact with us. Apparently, they believe in some kind of highlander rule exist between mercenary companies, so they started to cause a lot of trouble for us. Especially when we tried to settle down in Skyside. They kidnapped Tina of all people. So as far as I can tell, they want the usual stuff, money, influence, power, and aren't afraid to walk over corpses to get it. Their people are mostly recruited from Skyside, so they know how to point and aim a gun, but little else. Besides Kelligan, there are two lieutenants, Tellysandra Tesumi a rich bitch who also happens to be a warlock. Then its Shazhan who I don't know that much about except that hes' into technology."

She eyes Magtok. "Does that answer your question?"

[Dance Lesson]

The door opens by itself, but it seems like Dena is already waiting for the two in the common room. "Look whose here." She greets, smiling at the two. "You managed, despite the snow. I know the weather has been awful lately. Pretty good for snowmen though, or a snowball fight."

[Dena's Office]

"I'll give you a quick summary. Some half-dragon has led a group of shapechangers into Inside looking for something. They spread by infecting people, turning more people into more of them, mostly by infecting them with prolonged contact and blood as far as I can tell. They hide among the populace now, and we were planning to secretly investigate them. However, now that I told you that, would you mind taking a blood test? Just in case. We need to take some precautions after all." Dena replies.

[Leostales]

[Dena's Office]

"Sure, I'll take a test. And the job. Though I'll have to ask that you destroy any blood samples after testing them, just so that I don't leave a trail for Tymaret to follow." He says.

"I'll take the test as well," Anatya adds. "Would this be a job for only one person, or could I join in if I wanted to?"

[Gullara]

[Dance Lesson]

"Hi Dena!" Laela chirps excitedly. She takes off her jacket as she runs across the room, abandoning it on the floor halfway there. "I'm ready for dancing!"

Sakura tsks, but let's Laela get away with it this time, stooping over to pick up the jacket. "It wasn't so bad. Adir's truck is very good at getting around."

[Morty]

[Conference Room]

In one of the more private meeting rooms down in the tunnels, Dipsnig is awaiting Electra and Kirk. Dena is preoccupied and thus absent. There's a map of Riverside on a board and many documents on the table.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dance Lesson]

Dena chuckles. "So am I! You look ready to move those little hips of yours." Looking up at Sakura, she can't help but to grin however. "Sure your mom wouldn't want to join as well? I mean, if she's as half as good as you are, Leala..." Dena winks at the little girl. "Think she'd do any good?"

[Dena's Office]

"Of course, we won't keep any blood samples without your permission." Dena replies before turning to Anatya. "This job is supposed to be secret and for members only. The only reason I'm even allowing you to be in the room is that you're married to him. After all, its crucial under these circumstances that we can confirm that everyone partaking in this mission is who they claim who they are. Not to mention that I can't really demand blood samples from non-members. I'm technically not even your boss after all, not in the usual sense of the word at least. Either way, I can't let non-members into this."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Conference Room]

Electra saunters in carrying a thick file of her own. She's dressed in somewhat more formal attire today, a black skirt, trimmed in gold, a black, long-sleeved blouse with gold buttons, and formal shoes. Her hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail that starts at her shoulders instead of being pulled tight against her head, and she nods to Dipsnig as she comes in.

"Got a lot to cover today, don't we, sir?" She asks, practically rhetorically. They could be here for days if they really wanted to be.

[Leostales]

Dena's Office
"Thank you," Muun responds.

"Fine, but if it becomes too dangerous, there won't be much you can do to stop me."
Anatya warns her.

"Hopefully that won't be an issue," Muun adds hoping to cofort her. "So uh, where will we do the test."