mercenary jobs #3 — open to all

[unweave]

Who: Anyone interested in taking some mercenary jobs via Aranea Highwind's offerings. This log is focused on Wyver and can be found on job boards across the city as well as personal handwaved texts.
What: Mercenary posting!
When: N/A
Where: N/A
Warning(s): Possible sex threads based off heat-event for this month. This was posted early for the holidays, btw. Happy Thanksgiving, etc!

Thank you for stopping by to check out this month's job postings for Highwind Hires — a freelance mercenary group!

Aranea Highwind will ICly be contacting characters and offering them jobs based off the assumption she will receive 30% of the cut.

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JOB #1 — DOOR TO DOOR

With the abundance of new visitors, it seems there have been ample amounts of donations to the temple. Unfortunately, that is not enough. When you approach, you're stopped by a young woman named Igo who is requesting you help her: please pass out 100 pamphlets to refugees enlisting donations.

OUTCOMES:
- For all pamphlets passed out, the Shaman will pay you 100 Silver.

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JOB #2 — DRAGON DERBY

In the West, you hear about this month's Wyver Derby, a small event where dragons are put to race on a track. It seems the fan favorite is Fangface but the newcomer Wingslash ranked high in their first few races. You're hired for body guard duty, keeping the peace and ensuring no riots occur. Enjoy drinks as you watch the show, try to bet for the right one.

OUTCOMES:
- Wingslash wins by a nose, so anyone who votes for that dragon will win double their bet.
- Those who bet on Fangface or any other participant will lose their bet.

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JOB #3 — AFTERMATH

Tied to Job #2, the Derby went relatively smoothly... You're enjoying discounted drinks at the bar. It wasn't until you notice one of the ticketers cashing out a suspicious amount of extra money to a small group of people who very vocally complained about losing. As the small group leaves, you can either: report the ticketer or two, track them down.

OUTCOMES:
- If you simply report the ticketer, you'll be rewarded with an additional 125 Silver.
- If you track down the group, you'll find they're all in a small gambling ring, petty crooks that drank too much and most certainly had an inside connection. You must be ready for a fight — all 4 will attack you with fists and small pocket knives.

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JOB #4 — VILE LITTLE THINGS

You were contracted directly from Aranea Highwind for a monster hunt. A Vileling that was once kept as a pet grew hostile in the past few weeks before finally escaping its owner in Old City and reeking havoc on pet-owners. Your job is to track it down before more pets are killed. Aranea instructed you to 'take care of it', but upon your journey, the Vileling owner (Bekins) has insisted you save it and bring it back to Murkhollow alive. Of course, they offer a good price.


OUTCOMES:
- Aranea is offering a flat 400 silver to wipe it out.
- You can lie or oppose Aranea's order, you which will gain negative CR from the mercenary leader. Bekins will reward you with 140 silver and you must find a way to return it to Murkhollow.

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JOB #5 — RED NIGHT LIGHT

Bodyguard duty seems a bit more... mature tonight. With the week waning on and people acting on lust and emotions, there has been a bit more call for those looking to patrol the more savory areas of Wyver. You'll be paid a flat fee of 450 Silver for a night's worth of work.

There are three areas to watch over: a bordello, a herb shop, and a gang's rumored hide-out.


OUTCOMES:
- If you choose the bordello, you will find yourself playing body guard for one of the establishment's ... best worker and favorite client. You can peek in on the woman and her partner at the risk of being caught or you can escort them out afterwards. The woman offers a tip of 100 Silver and also the chance to have drinks with her...
- If you choose the herb shop, you will find yourself sensitive to the mix of aromas. A contact high ensures your inhibitions are loosened and with the lust in the air? Who knows what that means...
- If you choose the gang's rumored hideout, you will find illegal tusk and scale trading. You'll have to contend with 4 possible gang members all armed with weapons. Fight them or flee to report, you'll earn an additional 150 Silver.

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Have fun! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me! These are all loosely based on your choices, so feel free to go wild with them. The outcomes only are indication of what the jobs would offer. If you're interested in having your character offer a job in the future, please let me know!

Comments

[likethelight]

...? [ Lux?

Even with as much pain as he's in (as tortured as his face is), his expressions smooths for a second in surprise at that. That light touch—not a pluck in fear or to grasp in warning, but..

Oh.

..And he shifts then, subtly. Towards the light tug and shoulder brushing hers admittedly a little unsteadily, but like falling into lock-step side-by-side. Squared. And his mask, too... what he should probably have never let drop before, comes up like a living thing not to clasp against his face but hover just in front, warped and distorted like it's a part of his cowl.

It's turning his stomach inside and out, every time his instinct is to look towards something and it doesn't feel right at all. Don't throw up don't throw up—

—it's coming, don't throw up.

Especially when it rears suddenly into view with a roared hiss—spasming as it fights against the light that's tried to wrap around it and tears up the ground around itself. ]

[rememberher]

[ There's something reassuring in feeling him move, that even if he might not be able to fight, there was still a desire to do so despite the pain. But unfortunately, Allen, if she has her way of it, he won't have to.

Seeing the vileling writhe and rear up against the light binding, Lux takes a breath then, drawing her lips together into a fine line. She's never done this without something to focus through, so it's hard to say if it will work. But if she gives herself a moment of doubt, she will lose her chance. It's do or die.

And so drawing in a deep breath, she funnels what light she can into one point in front of her. Staring up at the thrashing worm in front of her, she narrows her eyes—

Then fires a beam of pure light at its head, the force of the blast pushing her back. Sliding back a few feet, she stops in a half-crouch, her hand stabilizing her before she looks up again. Did it hit?! ]

[likethelight]

[ Hit it does! Blasting the vileling straight in the face, what would surely have blinded it if it weren’t naturally so already. And it bellows for it, spasming and recoiling in such a way it’s hard to tell for a moment if she’s managed to take its head clean off or not.

Next to her, she might notice Allen take a sudden, sharp breath as well, trained towards the roars of the injured monster. Its roars of pain at whatever it was she just did; he can’t tell, but the sharp and ozone-like second-smell of energy (magic) in the air… amidst the continued roars and a thrashing that makes the ground shake…

-- his mask snapping tighter and Crown Clown’s cowl pulling snug around his face, bundled like some odd sort of downy eskimo, that would be the only warning. That, and how he reaches then for his own left wrist, touching it lightly as if to grasp a hilt. She’ll might be mad at him, but…

He can’t just sit still either.

So he leaps forward without saying a word, like some lightning bloodhound straight for the roaring monster--and begins to pull at his wrist. Drawing from it in such a way that, in a brilliance of light that flashes then, it’s almost like he’s drawing a sword from himself.

Probably because he is. A giant broadsword then, gleaming white and gold, as long and broad as he is, and wielded with his one remaining arm as if it weighs nothing. That he also leaps headfirst into the monster headfirst with as it rears up on high, its maw hanging loose and bloody as Lux has blasted most of its jaw off, not with a cry or shout, but merely gritting his teeth tight and bearing down with all his weight into the creature.

Which also falls forward onto the Exorcist with its remaining piercing clawed appendages with a shriek as he drives his sword up into the throat of its underbelly. ]

[1/2]

[rememberher]

[ The guttural, pained shrieks that come from the injured make her stomach almost immediately drop, her eyes snapping open as she watches the great beast thrash and writhe in extreme pain. It's enough to make her feel suddenly ill herself, as she was so sure that she would be able to take it down with one well-aimed blow. A beam right dead center, where its head was.

But it wasn't enough and she almost immediately regrets it. She wanted to protect the two of them and put it out of its misery, not make it suffer even more! Her gaze frozen upward, she doesn't at all notice the sort of snap-to motion that Allen makes not too far away from her, the way he seems to wordlessly decide to act despite his current state.

It isn't until she feels him vault forward with a burst of energy and almost ephemeral light that she pulls herself gaze away from the vileling down to him. ]

—!

[ There's so much going on and she doesn't have enough time to process even half of it. The only thing roaring in her head is that she needs to stop him. Pull him back and pin him to that spot in any way that she could. And she tries, nearly tripping over herself to grab for the ends of Crown Clown in an effort to hold him back.

But he's much too quick, burning bright as a full moon on a starless winter's night and holding a sword too impossibly large for his frame. Or perhaps it's because everything feels so paradoxically slow in that instant; that he hasn't leapt as much as floated up to meet the writhing monster like some angel of mercy. To charge quite literally toward the belly of the beast with the intent of showing it one last, silent kindness.

Lux takes in a deep, sharp breath then, watching the scene in painfully slow motion as he delivers the final blow— ]

[2/2]

[rememberher]

[ And it's a good thing that she reminds herself to breathe just then, because it's when the vileling crumples and falls that time painfully corrects itself. Slamming into her at full force with the enormity of what just happened, it knocks that breath out of her and throws the world off its axis. Feeling like she's seen something so wrong that she wants to vehemently deny that any of it has happened.

But it's right there in front of her. The beast silenced, and the Exorcist was... ]

ALLEN!!

[ It's painfully half-gasped, half-screamed as she forces breath back into her lungs, pushing herself forward into a clumsy sprint toward where the bloodied vileling fell. All the while her mind is doing somersaults along with her stomach, dizzy and nauseating and wrong. No. No no no, this isn't, he can't be—

This isn't real. Please don't let it be real. Let it be like the dream where they first met, where they're both safe and sound. Please, he can't be... ]

[likethelight]

[ Somewhere, dimly, he can hear her call out. In that foggy sort of sense of "someone's calling my name..." Perhaps because of how tightly bundled in Crown Clown that he is, perhaps because there is nothing else he's aware of except weight and pressure that he can even hear her at all. That he could at all hear enough to think too, "Ah... I've worried her," and feel strangely quiet then.

And the worm that's collapsed on top of him would begin to shudder then. Not in death throes, but... like it might be from a movement within? Something trying to get out?

—yes. Given there is a brief, lancing beam of light that shines through for a moment before the carcass would seem to rupture from within. Sliced what seems so effortlessly through it's as if it was carved? Basically as if it was carved, yes. Chunks of it falling aside in a spray of black blood from how the sword cuts through it almost as if it melts the flesh and armor away instead of cutting it, and revealing a completely bloodsoaked figure standing there. Almost perfectly still, like he's not even breathing. Before he stumbles a bit, staggers... and then lurches somewhat awkwardly forward away from the body. Bound head to toe even if it's hard to tell beneath the blood, white ribbons from his cloak wrapped so tightly from his boots all the way up he almost looks more mummy than man.

And over his nose too, which loosens a little then and he nearly collapses with a loud gasp, falling against his sword instead and digging the tip of it into the ground to lean on. ]

Haaaaah... [ That was scary, he couldn't breath. But he got it, right? They got it. It's quiet. He can't hear anything. He's scared to move any further in case he stumbles into something. Is it okay? It seems okay.

He feels dizzy.

It's why his mind finally lets go enough perhaps that his invocation slips and the cloak loosens, vanishing from sight quite abruptly in a faint glow (bloodstains and all) as he begins to collapse.

This is what relief looks like, right? This is relief... ]

[rememberher]

[ Seeing the worm shudder like that stops Lux in her tracks, rooting her to the spot in the thought that, even after all that, it might still be alive. That somehow he hadn't been able to stop it, and that makes her throat tighten and her mouth run dry as a crackle of light begins to weave between her fingertips. If it was not then she would finish the job, if not for that creature's salvation but out of anguish and frustration as well. If he lost his life and that beast was still alive...

But instead, something pierces through the vileling. For a moment she doesn't see the blood that sprays from the now quite dead creature, nor does she hear the gentle sizzle as it burns through bits of underbrush, and it's a good thing that she stopped when she did or else she might have been caught herself. No, her gaze is transfixed on the bloodsoaked boy standing there still as a statue. She doesn't even notice that she's holding her breath then, and it isn't until he collapses forward, grasping his sword like it's the only thing keeping him up. Like a marionette whose strings have suddenly been cut.

In that moment, it doesn't matter how dangerous or careless it is or that she might end up in worse shape than he is now—just that she reaches him before he finally collapses. And she does manage to make it in time, throwing her arms around him and letting the boy fall into him, lowering them both down slowly. Her hands tremble against his back, and she takes a few deep breaths. ]

I've got you, you're all right... It's over.

[ It's hard to say if those words are for him, or for herself. ]

[likethelight]

[ …?

It takes him a muzzy, almost sleepy moment to realize he hasn’t fallen, the ground isn’t pressed uncomfortably against his face. It’s warm and smells like … an acrid, terrible smell he can’t get away from because it feels like it’s inside his head, but beyond that--lillies. Maybe he’s imagining it. But it’s peaceful, like he could just fall asleep like this and that’d be okay.

Except that he seems to struggle against himself for a moment, attention fluttering in an almost panicked alarm as he realizes that and brings a hand up to graze her elbow. Almost like he means to grasp her arm to tell her it’s alright, he can stand, will stand, but has no grip to. So he just brushes her arm gently and seems to lose a bit of the battle, sagging lightly.

You're all right.

Shit.

Feeling his consciousness fade without even the sense to realize it’s going dark, he can only nod faintly despite his own disappointment before going limp. ]