Dames...
Went to the miner's guild to visit a lonely cat [Alice Valkenhayn] though she quickly left and then Rook got his hat stolen by another Miqo'te [Michun Staggeringclaw] who vanished, forcing Rook to hunt her down)Ul'dah. I swear is a city that never sleeps. People are always about seeking something; either trying to find aid in whatever crazy adventure they are planning or looking for some skilled craftsmen to make or repair something. Then you got people like me who are out and about sellin' themselves. Whores and mercenaries are not that different if you think about it, both sell their bodies for coin, though prostitutes don't generally go into battle nor do they typically hunt down beasts or people for profit. Reason I bring this up, is that Ul'dah both can be found with ease.Â
So I'm walking about and the night's sky looms above. Its a nice night but I'm not here to gaze upon the stars, no my head is grounded on this night.I heard rumors of events transpiring around these parts and a large bounty to be had. I've been sticking my nose into things and learned some things; about mishap in the mines and terrorism. . . all that fun stuff. I have to say, you know how hard it is to find a single Miqo'te? They are everywhere! So many damn cats running about, so many strays its ridiculous. Naturally, I go to where the booze is at. Drunkards always have the best gossip.Â
So I make my way through U'dah until I find the dancing girls and the booze. I'm not wearing my fancy clothes today, wearing my murder armor though I left behind the horned helm and in its place I got my lucky hat on top of my head. Left my gloves in the inn, won't be needing them since I didn't plan on fighting anyone. Good thing with being my race, you are already intimating enough. Anyway, I make my way to the bar and I take a moment just to relax and watch the girls warm up on stage. There is yet another Miqo'te sitting relatively close but she got one of those wizard hats on, I know they are not just for mages but its what I normally associate them with, and she has it pulled down pretty far blocking most of her face from my angle. As I about to order myself something to drink the small cat says hello to me and gives a little laugh as the show begins to start on the stage.
"At least this place is better than Astalicia."Â I chuckle as I turn to watch the stage.
"Where?"Â The cat asks me, must never visited that pirates den.
"Limsa Lominsa. Its a bar on a ship, full of pirates."
"Ahh right. Yeah. . ."
"Dirty pirates or half nude girls?"
"Half nude girls." The cat stands but a staggers a bit. "Ahh, well bed time. Night."
"Haha. Later."Â Must of been what I said.
I then begin to order some drink and pound them down as I try and get more information of the current affairs of Ul'dah, the whole mine mishap and the fighting in the temple. I get little information here and there, mostly rumors most third hand accounts that so and so's brother was there and seen it. With a bounty that high and the possible rewards to be had, I'd have to be a fool to pass it by. After getting all I could from the gossip and rumors to be had in there I decided to actually sit back and enjoy my time. It was the first time I've been stationary in awhile, I know I often bitch about being in one spot for too long but sometimes constantly being on the move gets tiresome. Decided to take a load off and enjoy my moment of relaxation. Yet, always something happening in my life.
As I rest against the railing and finish my I do not even remember what number glass it was. My hat gets knocked off my head. I stumble a bit attemtping to react to what happen.
"Now. . . that just ain't right."Â I bend down and pick up my hat and dust it off as I place it back on my head. I turn and see another cat leaning over the rails. Another ax wielding and heavy armored lunatic like myself. She notices I caught her being mischievous. Now, I could of react violently and backhand her to teach her some respect, but I choose to be civil and a gentleman.
"Heh." The cat laughs as she stand there with a mischievous grin on her face. "Nifty hat."
"I swear. . . this city has a stray problem." She gives me a frustrated look as she seemed pretty annoyed by the comment, so I pressed on forward. "Cats as far as the eye can see." I give her a laugh to know there no malice behind my words.
"I'm no stray! I happen to be most organized"
"We'e all strays, well if you're a merc or an adventurer."Â
"Well. I take my fair share in the adventuresome lot."
"Organized huh? who you with? Malestrom? Flames? Or some other band of misfits"
"And yourself?"Â We both spoke at the same time, me trying to discover whom this cat was with and her inquiring the same.
"Me? I'm my own boss. Merc by trade. Though I bounce from location to location seeking a job. Tried to be an honest man. . . doesn't pay too well."Â IÂ give a little sigh as I think back of all my attempts at going legit and failing, in my moment of self loathing she reached down and plucked my hat from my head and rests it on her own.
"Misfits? Aren't you a character."Â She laughs as she tries to balance the hat with her ears.
"Lady, I'm not a character. I'm THE character. The name's Rook. Pirate, warrior, drunkard, womanizer, bounty hunter, mercenary. . . the list goes on."Â I'm getting agitated by her action but also amused.
"Indeed!"Â She gives another giggle as she lets my hat rest on her head as she found a comfortable spot to place it.
"Everybody loves the hat but never the wearer. . ."
"Well Rook. I happen to be a witch." Â
"A witch? What kind? Magical or just spiteful woman? Eh?"Â I couldn't help it. I had to crack a smile and laugh.
"Magical. See before you I stand a woman of the ax, when I am really a woman of the dark arts. I love walks in the sun, and frolics by the ponds."
"Really? I love long walks on the beach!"Â I laugh as I love to be an ass, especially towards those who are disciplined in magic.
"Maybe sometime I'll let you see what I really look like. Instead of this disguise."
"So what? You'll turn into some Voidsent beast? Devour my soul and all that fun stuff?" I was not buying it. Mages are all talk, they are weak and puny without their spells. "Or just set my pants on fire for giggles?"
"Most definitively not! That would be simply awful. Â Firepants is nothing but a mess anyways!"
"I agree. That region is also very special to me. And the doc advice to keep fire away."
She snorted at me and began to start hop scotching around the banister area. I watched as my hat bounced off her head. She just went around hopping around.Â
"Hop hop hop. One must not burn himself you know."
"Hey! It happen once! And they never let you forget it. . ."Â Yeah, I tried playing with fire and I got burn. Reason why I don't practice magic a whole lot.
"By the by, I am Michun. Michun Staggeringclaw."
"Well Michun. You're an odd one. I'll give you that. Luckily I'm into crazy."
"The one and only Michun!"Â She dances around.
"I'd hope there one of you, not sure the world could stand any more. Heh."
"I fight for Gridania and on the side I turn monsters into frogs. Cause I like frogs better than mean ol' monster." She continues to dance around the banister. "Michun. The frog maker."
"Right. . ."Â I was not believing any of this for a second. I was starting to think she was hit in the head too many times. She continues to hopscotch and begins heading to the door, with my hat.
"What a crazy dame. I swear. . . they always find me."Â Â In my buzzed state, took my a moment to realize that she in fact left with my hat and then it hits me. "Damnit, I liked that hat!" I give a chase as I head through the entrance and nearly break the door down but all was left was just a whiff of smoke as the cat teleported away. I bellow out my frustration. I vowed I'd find this cat. I decided I'd go to the one of the places I hate so much. Gridania.
I decided I'd sober up and get my head together before I'd head over there and go look for someone who I was not sure would look like. If I did by into the whole disguise and witch stuff. My goal clue was someone wearing a tricorne like mine and interrogate them. I was not going to let someone steal from me and just get away from it. Though I decided to be more cool headed about it. After all you get more bees with honey than vinegar or however that saying goes. First play the nice guy and just write it off as too much ale and if that doesn't work. Kill the bitch.
When I finally risen out of my slumber, letting my emotions cool over during a good night's rest. Decided I'd head over to Gridania as soon as possible and begin my search. Too many places for one to hide, more so when its a cat. I think it was midday as the sun just high enough to shine down on everything. Teleporting to Gridania was instantaneous, still don't know how those thing work and doubt I'd ever will. Magic. Well I had my finest clothes on. Nice red coat but it was not the same without my hat resting on top of my skull. The red in my hair was illuminated by the sun's rays, luckily I only needed to shield one eye from those damn rays. It was either and hour or two before I decided to stop and just take a moment to relax as my anger was slowly rising. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a cat in black hopscotching in the grass and then stop to pluck flowers and sitting on the cat's head was a tricorne, my tricorne. I glared at her as the cat continued to pick flowers trying to make a little bouquet, pausing every moment to smell them. Â
"YOU!"Â I shouted and pointed at the Miqo'te trying to get attention drawn to me. The cat in black turn and appeared shocked.
"Me!?"
"Yes you. How did you obtain that hat?"Â I made my way towards the cat as I shot a serious expression on my face, I stopped and crossed me arms.
"I got it last night from a pirate-y man." She gives a little dance. "Pirate Kitty!"
"So you weren't full of it when you said you weren't in your true form. Alight, you had your fun. Now return my hat."Â I tried to play nice, be the nice guy.Â
"Eh? But I like it! MINE!"Â She takes the hat off and hugs it tightly to herself.
"I'm not dressed to skin a cat, but I will if I have to."
"That's mean!"Â She was shocked at my threat but continued to cling to my hat.
"You had your fun and you forced me to come to this awful forest."
"I did not! You came all by yourself!"
"You know how hard it is to track down someone with no description of what they look like?"
"Well, well!"Â She sticks her tongue at me and begins to run.
"Damn strays. . ."Â Â I give chase as I pull out my ax, wanting to show her how serious I am. I chase her for a good few mins, people stopping to gawk and stare.
"EEK! Stay back!"Â She hollers as I finally cornered her.
"I'll give you this once chance."
She backs up into the vines on the wall, trying to hide behind them and climb them but to no avail.
"Return my hat and we won't have any problems. . . I'll even play nice and give you one free contract."Â Â Trying to be the better man, I even offered to give her my services free of charge.
"I want the hat!"
"Buy your own!"
She holds the hat tighter.
"I'm going to count to three and if you don't give me my hat back, I'm going to swing really, really hard. ONE."
She attempts a cute face, but I'm not buying it.
"TWO. Now cut that out!"
She tries again but begins to the waterworks starting to make me feel like a true monster.
"Cute faces won't save you! AGH!"
She keeps it up, making it look more sadder and cuter by the moment. Damn she's good at this. Damn Miqo'te.
"Fine. . . What will it take to get my hat back?"
"Not hurting me is a start!"Â She stops with the cute face and lets go of the vines.
"If you hand me back my hat, I promise I won't lay a finger on you."Â Well that wasn't the truth, but I wouldn't leave any marks.Â
"I want a cookie!" She spout out. Her eyes get all starry-eyes. "Cookie!"
"Cookie?"Â I couldn't believe it. Am I really having this conversation? She nods excitedly, like its free booze night at the local pub.
"Yes yes!"
"I don't have any damn cookies!"
"No cookie?"Â She begins the water works again.
"I do not have any damn sweets. I'm a WARRIOR damnit!"
"MEANIE!"Â She throws my hat at me and stomps in frustration.
"I don't carry sweets. . ." I tried to make myself sound less menacing but her tossing my hat cut me off.  I caught it but as I did she vanished again. I looked at my hat and it has nibble makers and some drool. I'll need to clean it when I get a chance. I give a sigh of relief and return my ax its resting place and then return my hat to its proper place. "I swear. . . I always find the crazies."
You might think that I'm odd doing all this for a silly hat. Well I had two reason; one, no one steals from me. And two, this hat means a lot to me. Lets just say it reminds me of a better time and it was a gift from someone who ain't around any more. Sentimental value as well as fashion. Now that this was settle, I can get back to tracking down that bounty.
