Solo Betting Against the House

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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]

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Betting Against the House

Postby Brisa on June 14th, 2022, 4:46 am


15th of Summer, 522

"Hurry up", Kane hissed, palming nervously at the sword at his hip. "This place makes me nervous."

It made Brisa nervous too. Her short, pointed ears constantly swivelled even as she kept her nose to the floorboards. Her breath was rising plumes of dust with every exhale. The house was a thin, rickety thing, two stories tall and leaning drunkenly against its neighbour. It was too narrow, with only one exit visible at a time and too many dark corners. It would be too easy for the two of them to be boxed in.

"Robert Loch, thirty-eight years old, male, human", Kane read aloud from the crumpled paper in his hand. "Last known location: two-story abode in the sunset quarter, upper east end, a block south of the Execution Square, between two derelicts. What the petch does that even mean. Petching Sunberth. What kind of city doesn't have petching addresses."

The floor was thick with dried mud. It was the same scent as the years of eroded dirt just outside the house, but Brisa thought she could recognize a salty tang in it, like there was a second, similar smell beneath it. There was another type of mud here, one mixed with seawater. Was it tracked all the way here from the port?

"Wanted for skipping last pay period", Kane went on, slipping into a Sunbirthian drawl he had unwittingly learned from her. "Sum total of loan, two-hundred gold miza. For, get this, 'extraneous purchases'." Kane looked up from the page to raise an amused eyebrow at Brisa, who swung one amber eye around to meet his gaze. When it was clear the Kelvic didn't get the joke, Kane scoffed. "Gods, you're dumber than a sack of hammers. It means this guy is a lush. He used it to buy whores, clothes and what passes for ale in this dump."

Brisa crossed the room, her nails clicking hollowly on the floorboards as she sniffed the space just inside the front door. Yes, the smell was stronger over here. How many times would the man have to be at the shoreside to grind enough mud into the floorboards to overwhelm the natural grime from the sunset quarter?

"But seriously, two hundred gold? That's pocket change for a guy like Goldfinger. Why is he sending us out for this? It won't even cover our wages."

Brisa wanted to tell him to look around himself and see what he could find. The guy they were looking for clearly hadn't been here for several days, telling from the state of the moldy wooden bowls on the counter. But she understood from the thrum of irritation stretching between their bond that Kane was working himself up to a state. If she derailed him now he would take it out on her, and then nothing would get done.

"It's not even a full two hundred gold. It's a missed payment from that loan. That must be, what, twenty gold? Fifty?" Kane crossed his arms over his chest, taking his hand off the pommel of his sword as he leaned against the counter.
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Brisa
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Betting Against the House

Postby Brisa on June 14th, 2022, 4:48 am

As she crossed the room a second time, Brisa pushed the flat of her head against Kane's thigh, gently persuading him not to stand fully upright next to the crumbling window of the house they had broken into.

"Get off", Kane swatted her out of the way even as he stepped to the side and out of the direct line of sight from the street. "Have you found anything yet?"

Kane squinted as a flash of light lit up the room, and Brisa appeared in her human skin. She scrubbed the back of her head with the palm of her hand as she considered the room around them carefully before she spoke.

"It smells like sea mud. He's tracked it all over the place." She pointed a chewed, mutilated nail from the front door in an arc towards the back of the house.

"This is literally a seaside city, Baby."

Brisa ignored him, her dark brows were knitting together as she considered.

"The Sunset Quarter borders the river. That's freshwater. The north is freshwater too. So unless he frequents the Den-"

"There's nothing in the Den worth two-hundred gold mizas. Excluding present company, of course", he smiled crookedly at his own joke.

"- then he must frequent Baroque Bay," Brisa concluded hesitantly, looking to Kane for confirmation.

"Baroque Bay is a big place."

"You said he's a lush? Where does a lush go? The Drunken Fish?"

"Not a chance. He's a native Sunbirther. You cowards don't step foot in the Fish. Too many outsiders."

"Slavers Row?"

"If this man is rich enough to make multiple trips to the slave market he wouldn't be begging Goldfinger for that kind of coin."

"Tall Johnny's?"

Kane paused as he considered this, his thumb stroking his freshly shaved chin.

"Two hundred miza could go a long way in a place like Johnny's", he admitted slowly.

"Maybe he's not a lush", Brisa jumped in eagerly, emboldened by the pause. "Maybe he's a different kind of high-chaser. A gambler."

"All this from some mud, huh?"

Brisa didn't answer. She stared unblinking into his eye in a way she knew he didn't like. She wasn't always right, but she had a good feeling about this one.

Kane met her gaze, annoyed, before he finally cracked.

"Fine, if this is all we got, why don't we just start asking uncomfortable questions in the church of the dice roll, full of trained killers." Kane tossed Brisa's tunic at her from the depths of his pack. "Petching brilliant."

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