Lore of Leyuna RPG (FRPG)

[C S]

The climb up seven flights of stairs did help with getting away from winter. The school-tower kept heat inside its stone walls very well. This combined with the titular green coats of the Green-Coats, meant that Johnathon and Natalie were very toasty underneath the collar. The detective undid a few buttons to free his dress shirt underneath, and undid a few buttons of that to be able to breathe a little easier. He did the same for Natalie, though he hit a bit of an obstacle when it came to handling her dress.

"Well then," he had said inwardly.

Natalie shuffled her feet and folded her arms shyly. "Thanks, but this is good enough."

"Right."

[The Kingpin]

It was only a few minutes later that the remaining two attendees of the tower-top meeting crossed the threshold of the classroom. With a wooden mug full of steaming hot tea each, Andruil and Vix were set for whatever Viho had to tell them.

Andruil held the door for the Innkeeper, only stepping in himself once she'd entered. Glancing back and forth along the hallway and examining those in attendance in the classroom, he finally closed the door behind him, quietly so as to avoid drawing too much attention. "So. To what do we owe the pleasure?" he asked.

[Hopeflower]

Viho cocked his head at the phrasing - he wasn't sure pleasure was the right word for these circumstances - and answered as he took his usual seat on his desk. "Before we get into what I want, you should know there was more excitement last night." He'd become quick at summing up the important parts. And though he hesitated, he recounted the mistakes that led up to Charles' fate as well.

Vix shifted her weight from one hip to the other, folding her arms over her chest. "That's...unfortunate," she said quietly.

"Indeed," the psychomancy instructor agreed. "And it brings us to the matter I think needs handling as soon as possible. They're getting bolder." He glanced at the window Dahnae usually came through at the end of her letter route. "I don't want to give them the chance to keep escalating this."

[C S]

Something churned inside Natalie after listening to the facts. It was a struggle to reconcile the summertime woman with the one standing at the trailing end of winter. Somewhere in that gap, she felt a pang. Charles. She hadn't known many Charles' in her life, and while it wasn't the most inspired name out there, Natalie felt a yearning. One of the things she knew was in her memories, but she could not recall. It left her feeling very raw, and caught between remorse and contempt for this man.

She couldn't say anything. She just wanted to disappear behind Johnathon, or better yet: go back to the precinct and hide in one of the spare rooms.

[The Kingpin]

"I see," responded Andruil, his chipper tone darkening noticeably. "I am not the greatest tracker, but I can help, I think. The lessons and my usual methods, perhaps an update on any information you got out of...Charles? I believe with these things I may be able to help speed up the process," he stated, taking a sip of his drink. Scalding hot, full to the brim. Thankfully, he'd had a little enough amount of it that it didn't burn a figurative hole through his tongue as it had last time.

"Unless you have any other suggestions?"

[Hopeflower]

Unconsciously, Viho turned the slightest fraction toward Natalie. He studied her, gray gaze unreadable. "It would be welcome. If Arsenic would be willing to help as well, all the better. And we'll need to be able to draw the four of them out. Get them somewhere we won't have trouble springing a trap." Bait, he didn't say.

[C S]

Johnathon was right there with Viho in his thinking. It was not something he enjoyed much at all. His hunch that Natalie could make amends for her misdeeds had taken a turn, it appeared. "We still have Snicker's outfit," he stated flatly, making the woman look up from her shoes.

[The Kingpin]

"It would be a reasonable method of drawing their attention. Their comrade coming to light once more after her absence would turn a few heads. There is one problem, however," he stated as his free hand settled behind his back. "We are formulating this plan on the assumption that they would be aware enough of the goings on of Brodudika to be drawn in. This is not a small town or village, but a city... A lot of ground to cover for four people. Are we even sure they have that great an awareness of the circumstances on the streets?"

[Hopeflower]

"They've been aware enough to avoid the resident guards and the Green-Coats, for the most part," Viho pointed out. "But no, I don't intend to leave it to chance." He folded his legs comfortably. "They're hiding in plain sight. All we need to do is offer them something that will grab their interest and get them in one place."

And he turned now to Natalie. While his tone wasn't exactly rough, he was making it clear it was probably the best chance she'd get. "I will speak to Desrium about your freedom if you help us."

[C S]

The woman bit her lip nervously and squeezed on her hands. "I would... I want to help. It is the only right thing to do." Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat to get past the growing pressure on her chest. Fear. "I don't know how. The Snicker... for better or worse, is gone. I feel that once they get a good look at me and realize I don't know any of them..."

"A publicized sentencing, then." Seeing Natalie's wide-eyed expression of shock, he specified, "A mock sentencing, but very public. In the square outside city hall. A gathering as big as any Solstice celebration, with the worst of the weather behind us. They will either be there to see 'Snicker' meet her end, at which point our guard detail will sift them out, or they will try to free her."

He didn't need to talk about what could -- what would -- happen if that came to pass.

[The Kingpin]

The Knight nodded, intrigued by the suggestion. "Controlled, focused and effective. I believe in a situation like that the thoughts of our band of ne'er-do-wells would be all but screaming out to a trained psychomancer. Viho and Arsenic would have no trouble tracking them down. Indeed, I believe even I would be able to find them in such circumstances," he agreed, pleased with the plan.

He decided not to bring up Vix's standing in this. As it was, the plan seemed not to require her, aside from an extra pair of hands, or blades, as the case could well be. Much as she insisted she could handle herself, he knew that a headless serpent flailed and floundered all the more fiercely for its panicked death throes. He did not want to imagine what one that still had several sets of fangs could do to those still within its reach.

"I suppose we need only speak to Desrium for an approval. Though someone will need to see to it that the sentencing looks genuine but is not...With as few sharing in the plan as possible. It would not do for news that the sentencing is a ploy to part from a pair of loose lips."

[Hopeflower]

"No, it wouldn't." Viho drummed his fingers on his knee. Vix was giving him a piercing look, as though trying to read his mind without the gift of magic to aid her. When he met her stare, she tilted her head.

"It's your show. I'm just wondering why you'd let me know about it."

He rolled his shoulders in an easy shrug. "Two reasons. Arsenic is still reluctant to trust me, and it never hurts to have another pair of hands on standby."

Her lips quirked. "You aren't worried I might be a person with loose lips?"

"If you were, I doubt you would have found your place among the company you keep."

[C S]

While thoughts were on discretion, Johnathon was thankful that Dahnae needed no lengthy persuasion to be somewhere else while the plan was being thought up. Ironically, she would have been the best one to get a message out to the benefactor about the Stalker problem, in terms of speed and confidentiality. Confidentiality in that she did not read the letters she delivered.

Hold on, there.

"Viho, what do you say about giving your courier-student a letter to deliver to Desrium, personally?"

[Hopeflower]

Viho stiffened a little, then forced himself to relax. "I think she'd be wiling, and certainly she'd get the job done quickly." He wasn't so sure of her ability to be discrete. Then again, having the ability to shapeshift into a cat did lend itself toward stealth...in theory.


Firel was handling the girl in question with his usual limited patience. "Remind me to ask you how you figured out where I live sometime," he'd sighed, and opened the door to his room wider to let her in. He'd been in the middle of yet another letter home, having found himself with the free time to write.

[C S]

"Excellent. All that we need to do is provide a letter to be delivered in her usual rounds, and we can get word out without any other being privy to it," said the detective. "She has been to city hall many times, I gather. She may not think anything of needing to meet the benefactor in person for it."


"I used me nose," Dahnae replied in a blatant disregard of reminding Firel asking her anything. She tucked her nose into her coat as she stepped into the room, eyes peeking out over her collar.

[The Kingpin]

That gave the Knight pause. "...May?" he asked. It was one thing to entrust possibly the most important letter presently in the city to someone the Stalkers actively wished to hurt. It was another to entrust it to someone whose curiosity could get the better of her and compromise the mission. "Considering she is not even here, would it not be wiser for one of us to deliver the letter?"

[C S]

"Can anyone amongst us match her ability to traverse the city and track down recipients?" Johnathon responded, shrugging. "If we want to be as inconspicuous as possible, we may just have to rely on the... cat."

[Hopeflower]

"Nobody will look at her twice, at this point," Viho agreed, "nor will she look at the contents of the letter. I'll slip it in with her deliveries." At the very least, that part of her routine could go uninterrupted.


"Naturally." Firel shut the door behind Dahnae and turned to face her, folding his arms loosely. "So," he prompted after a short silence, "what's bothering you this time?" The only other time she'd sought him out like this, she'd been trying to soothe his ever-present short temper.

[The Kingpin]

"Then I believe everything is in order," stated Andruil, satisfied with the explanation he was given. Holding his mug up to his lips, he took another sip. "When will this letter be sent out?"

[C S]

"As soon as possible would be best. Has she done her job for today?" Johnathon asked Viho.

Natalie looked between the three, slipping further and further into a spot where it seemed things were outside of her grasp and control. It was difficult to not feel like they were making drastic decisions that they could have at least asked her input on. Even if she couldn't refuse it, a little sensitivity to how absolutely terrifying this was for her would have been nice. The burden of the Snicker. Being the center of attention and out of place all the while, she looked to Vix, the only other woman in the room, and searched for...

Something. Comradery? Someone to relate to?



"Classroom decoration told me to find you." Dahnae pulled her face from her coat and looked around. Not much had changed since she was last here. "It was pretty easy to do, even without me nose. You're a bit predictable, grump-pants."