Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Printable Version +- Hydaelyn Role-Players (https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/mybb18) +-- Forum: Role-Play (https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/mybb18/forumdisplay.php?fid=27) +--- Forum: Town Square (IC) (https://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/mybb18/forumdisplay.php?fid=21) +--- Thread: Negotiating with a Battering Ram (/showthread.php?tid=6894)

Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 04-10-2014 ((Copy-pasta'd from in-game rp. Several days following the events in The Seeker Comes with Questions...)) *** Amaury Carceri sat in a chair, with his legs bent as one usually had to bend them to sit on a chair. He was very good at sitting. There was tea on the table and some toast. Those did not sit on chairs. Antimony paused at the top of the ramp leading into the airstrip landing's small bar to take a breath and gingerly rub her left shoulder before squaring herself off. She located Amaury easily – he was one of the only patrons - and approached with hands clasped in front of her. “Excuse me,” she cleared her throat. “Mister An... Alm.. oh, bother.” Names had never been her forte and she only had a vague recollection of D’hein even introducing her to this elezen. Amaury smiled. “No mister "Aim Bothers" at this table, miss Antimony. Just Amaury.” He stood and gestured to the table. “Please, take a seat.” Antimony's tail flicked and she gave the elezen an apologetic look. "Thank you." She sat as suggested and then seemed to chew heavily on some thought. Or many thoughts. “Tea?” “Ah...? Oh, yes. Thank you... again. I mean, that would be appreciated.” Amaury served some tea in the tea place called "tea cup". “The sugar is on your side. We can begin discussing your investigation of the Dodo tribe whenever you feel comfortable.” Antimony sighed, winced as the gesture sparked some sort of pain, and then offered Amaury a slight smile. "I'll admit I'm glad you thought to get in touch. I wouldn't... well, things have gotten so hectic that I just didn't..." She trailed off and pulled the tea close to her. “I understand. Life is often a storm but, like sailors, we have to work lest the boat be sunk by it.” Antimony blinked at the teacup, thin fingers seeking out its warmth. "Er... yes. Like sailors." Ignoring the sugar, she took a sip. Her ears fidgeted about on her head as though searching for something in the air. When she set the cup down, it was with an agitated tap of her fingers. “I've managed to re-do the summary report I lost to... the last incident.” Amaury took a sip from his own tea like the gentleman in a blue dress that he was. “Good. What did you find?” Antimony's brow furrowed in obvious frustration. "Everything I had known prior to attempting to contact the Dodos in person." She took another sip of tea to calm herself and then continued, "I've mapped out a money trail starting from their accounts, through a number of dummy businesses, to the Pearl Lane's Blades coffers and, likely, from there into personal accounts.” It all seemed so straightforward when said like that, but in truth it had taken almost a month to suss it all out, and the calculations involved had led to a number of sleepless nights. “Do we still possess the relevant documents to prove the existence of this trail?” Antimony's lips pursed. Amaury timed his next sip of tea with Antimony's expression. “Yes... luckily. But I need access to the tribe's records to confirm. It's why I... well, what I have now is enough to warrant a.. er, a warrant. But...” Her ears flicked out to either side of her head in frustration. “Are you worried about the incident repeating itself?” Antimony looked up at Amaury, shoulders slumping. "Of course it would repeat itself!" She half-cringed at how her voice rose and added quieter, "If I approach them as I did, at least." Amaury said simply, "Then we must take measures." He calmly took some more tea before continuing. "Which high-ranking Blade officers are involved?" Antimony shifted her ears back a bit nervously. "I... believe it's isolated to the command with jurisdiction over Pearl Lane. Though... accessing the Dodo's financial records would reveal if there were more." Her tail twitched, curling against her chair. "The Captain Lamandu Tyrmandu is at the very least involved. Possibly some, ah, employees." She winced and gave Amaury a sideways look. "He was the lalafell who... well, you met him in the... jail." “So there are no doubts about his involvement?” Antimony gave a small shake of her head. "He signed off on all of the transactions with the, ah, fake businesses." Amaury hid his smile with the last sip of tea. The older woman across from him watched uncertainly, just holding her tea. “That is perfect. We need to confront the Dodo tribe about their activities, and we'll use Llamandu to show them that this investigation is not something to scoff at.” Antimony's ears flicked up in surprise, along with her brow. "What?" She looked to one side, half expecting said captain to be standing right there, overhearing everything. "But how?" “We'll gently ask for his cooperation, hinting not so gently that we know what he's been up to. The Dodos rely on the Blades to hide their wrong doings. That's why they handed you to them rather than the Sultansworn.” The elezen delivered his explanation with precise nonchalance. “If we get the captain to cooperate with us, the tribe will feel powerless. And that's all you need for men to despair enough to abide the law, sadly.” Antimony let out a slow, only somewhat uneven breath, her fingers twining about her teacup. "Intimidation." She paused, looked uncomfortable. "Well, I... suppose it... makes sense." Amaury reached again for his teacup, but noticed it was empty. "If he doesn't, we will bring our findings to the Sultansworn. I don't know if the Dodos have any influence in them, but considering they relied on the Blades...I think it is unlikely." Antimony nodded after a moment, eyes on her cup, brow wrinkled. "Alright. I suppose they can't... well, there isn't much they could do against us with a member of the Brass Blades backing our request..." “And a captain, no less. I'd like to go meet with him right after you are finished with your tea, if you do not have any other plans for the day.” Antimony continued looking at her tea for several seconds longer, wringing her fingers about the smooth cup, and then nodded a second time. "No, I do not. I'd rather..." She winced, "... get through this as soon as possible, myself." “Good,” Amaury nodded. “Do you have any of the documents with yourself? I imagine the captain will want to see some kind of proof before he accepts our offer.” Antimony drew in a breath and shifted a satchel that hung by her hip, its worn leather resting against the chair. "I brought... well, I wasn't certain what you would want to know or, er, see, so... I have the full summary report - the copy, of course." Amaury chuckled. "Of course. I will prepare and hand a preliminary report based on that for the Immortal Flames. As much as I'd like to put all of my faith in the good Blades, we should prepare in case the Dodos have some tricks we do not know about." She gave a worried look to the dark-haired elezen. "What do you mean, tricks?" He gave her a solid look. “They could have influence in other sectors of the society. Influence in the Blades is a basic of sorts for criminal organizations. Or the ones that matter, at least.” Antimony fidgeted a bit and forced herself to drink from her tea. And then drink some more. And again until it was gone. "Ah," she said as she set the cup down, ears twitching. "Well. No time like... the present." Noting Antimony finished her drink, he stood up. “Do not worry yourself. If the Dodos were as powerful as other groups they would have had their hands in the Sultansworn more fully.” The miqo’te woman stared straight ahead a moment before snapping her eyes up to Amaury. "... I suppose." Her lips pursed and she was still for another beat before standing as well. He offered a comforting smile while he gestured to leave. "Shall we go, then?” *** After a brief greeting and introduction to the two secretaries manning the front desk of the Brass Blades’ Pearl Lane office, Antimony went with Amaury down a short hall to Captain Lamandu Tyremandu’s office. She approached the lalafell’s door with visible trepidation. Stepping up alongside her, Amaury knocks on the door. Inside, the captain paused in his busy filling out of paperwork to set his quill down in its holder before speaking loudly, “Come in.” Antimony hesitated, glancing at Amaury before drawing a short breath to try and calm herself, pushing the door open. She stepped through with a nod and a greeting, "Good afternoon, Captain Tyremandu." Amaury followed his miqo’te companion in and nodded at Lamandu. "Captain." Lamandu narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight of the pair, "Miss Antimony. I assume you are well after your unfortunate visit to the jails. I had hoped you had wrapped up all you needed. What brings you back?" Antimony managed a small smile. "I'm well, thank you." She paused then, smile dropping. "I'm afraid not everything is, ah, wrapped up just yet. You've been.. wonderful help so far, and I was hoping you would be so again." Lamandu gestured to the empty space in front of his desk, with chairs and the like, "Well, then. Pleas, tell me what I can do to help you be on your way. I'm sure your tired of stopping by this little office." Following the lalafell’s gesture, Antimony stepped forward to take one of the offered seats, her tail twitching uncomfortably behind her. “If you allow me, I'd like to start by giving you an incentive to provide us with your help. We know you have given the Dodo tribe in Ul'dah some ‘concessions’.” Antimony flinched at the rather abrupt segue into the discussion. The lalafellin captain frowned and folded his arms in front of him, "Certain people have different needs than others. What were you proposing, Mister... what was your name?" “Ah, well... What--what Mister Amaury means is that... I'm nearing the end of my investigation and... we would like your support when attempting to... approach the Dodos.” Pausing in her intrusion, Antimony gripped her hands together underneath the table and straightened her posture to put on as good an image as she could manage. Lamandu turned his head back towards Antimony, "And why would I wish to do that? The Dodos and the Blades have a long history. Before my time, certainly.” Amaury interjected, “Miss Antimony here will provide you with the copy of some of the documents, if you feel such a confirmation is necessary." He paused to smile. "But we both know that shouldn't be necessary. What we require of you is full cooperation. In exchange, we will mention that your involvement was unintended by you. Some sort of unwilling puppet." Antimony's ears shivered, and she closed her eyes a moment, letting out a short sigh, before opening them again to blink at Lamandu through her glasses. "The evidence is quite clear that someone... or someones have been moving money from the Dodo tribe to, ah, here. I ask for your help in approaching the Dodos regarding this." “I can't help but feel that this is meant as a threat,” the captain replied flatly. “I don't take kindly to those, you know.” To that Antimony could only manage, “It's a... necessary request.” Amaury smiled, “As you said, different people have different needs. This is our need.” Lamandu smiled back at Amaury, "And yet, given Antimony's previous issues, it would appear that you require my help, more than I require your thoughtful protection. Especially given that my assistance in this matter will forever drive a wedge in a relationship that is valued by more than I." The miqo’te woman furrowed her brow then and seemed to grow a bit bolder as she said, "The data I've gathered points rather firmly to you. I think the legal action following that would drive a wedge in any relationships, as well." “If you are unwilling to help,” Amaury began in a calm tone, “we will be forced to involve the Sultansworn. I ask you to consider the implications of having the Sultana's personal guard involved in investigating the tribe.” “The Sultansworn?” Lamandu hardly sounded impressed. “I think you may overestimate their efforts. They would remove the Dodos from the city, perhaps, but that is all.” Antimony twisted her hands in her lap and pursed her lips at Lamandu. "I doubt very much that they would ignore you and what the Brass Blades have done here." “Yes, you are thinking of the wrong implications,” Amaury advised the lalafell captain across from them. “The Dodos are civilians, so exile might be the worst punishment. But you are a man of law of not inconsiderate power.” “You're not from here Miss Antimony, so I don't blame you if are not up to date on the city politics,” Lamandu spoke with an almost patronizing tone, or perhaps that was all in Antimony’s head. “I will ask you though, what do you intend to have happen? The Dodos are an ecomonic power here in Ul'dah. For a representative of a commerce regulation agency, I understand your concerns, but you must consider the impact of their banishment.” The woman blinked. "That... is not my job, Captain Tyremandu." She sighed faintly. "It is up to the CRA and... who they turn the information over to, to deal with such things." Amaury scoffed. "Don't you hear that all the time when you catch unprotected criminals, captain? That they are 'actually helping society'?" He shook his head. "It is no excuse. And even then, it is unreal to believe that the whole tribe will fall for this. Only those actually involved in the activites we are following." At his firm words, Antimony glanced towards Amaury out of the corner of her eyes. Lamandu's frown tightened, "So you would absolve yourself of guilt then for tipping over the economic balance in this city? You may not like how it works here, but that is how it is. The Dodos buy their way into tribe leadership. If D'themia Nunh iand others are banished, the tribe will recover, but not quickly. And they would leave a hole, that other worse individuals may seek to fill." Antimony lifted her chin somewhat, forcing herself to look directly at the lalafell. "Captain Tyremandu, that is not my concern. I am here to do my job, and that is what I intend to do. I implore you to help me complete it so that you are not caught up in the consequences." “Your rethoric is tiresome, captain,” Amaury said. “The Dodo tribe has indulged in criminal activities. Do not try to manipulate us into a sense of guilt. They are an arrow in Ul'dah's side. One of many. We won't leave it there because pulling it off will cause some bleeding.” Lamandu glances over at the elezen, giving him actual consideration, "You remind me of my predecessor. And that is not a compliment. But, be that as it may... I would need assurances that this office will not be connected to this mess when it comes down. There will be enough fallout to deal with from the Dodos themselves, much less everyone else." Antimony pulled her tail to herself and looked to Amaury. The elezen’s thin features smiled weakly, showing some of his teeth. "I guess my word for it won't be enough, right, captain?" Lamandu smiled back, "No. I would prefer something more tangible." Looking between the two, Antimony furrowed her brow. "What are you suggesting?" Amaury stared at the table. "We could give you some of the original documents of the investigation if you can provide us with other links to follow into the Dodos." He raised his sight and one hand. "And if you accompany Miss Antimony and I into the Dodo commune." Antimony's ears darted up and she gave a surprised look to Amaury. "The original..? But..." Lamandu let his eyes move between the two of them. "That would do." Amaury nodded exactly once. "Good. I'm glad we reached an understanding" he said, adding a smile for effect. Antimony's tail twitched anxiously at her side. "The originals?" She repeated. "Of--which? How do you... that could jeopardize the entire investigation..!" Amaury looked at her very calmly. "Do not worry. The good captain will provide us with replacements. And if he can't, I'm sure his involvement will make sure the Dodos give them to us." She looked down at the desk, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but nodded in quiet ascent. “This is how these things work, Miss Antimony,” Lamandu was not exactly reassuring. “I need to know that the both of you will hold your deal. Or else it would be better for me on the other side." Antimony's ears lowered slightly. "... Very well. I will.. deliver to you the requested papers within a day. I would like to attend to the commune by the end of the week." Amaury interrupted, "No, the papers will be given to him once we meet in the commune. Otherwise you might misplace them and lose all motivation, right captain?” Feeling chastised by the correction, Antimony bowed her head in a sharp, brief gesture. "Of course." Lamandu shook his head, "I need them, to uphold my part of this. If you still wish for my own evidence, I need to know what you have." Antimony chose to wait for Amaury's response to that, instead of making more assumptions. “I think the summary we have will give you a pretty clear idea of what we have found.” She darted her eyes towards the elezen, then to the satchel she'd carried from the airstrip bar to the office that still rested at her hip. "Ah... I suppose.." “Then I will require all the original documentation that has been gathered concerning this office, you understand?” Antimony looked up at Lamandu. "All? Surely that's..." she shifted her eyes to Amaury, "... unreasonable? I can offer him this copy of the summary report, and... well, certain original documents incriminating him personally..." Lamandu shrugged, "If you were to hold up you're end of the bargain, what use would you have of it?" Amaury placed an elbow over the table and rested his head on his hand. He looked rather smug. “Do not push too hard, captain. These negotiations are taking our time, and I start to think the Sultansworn wouldn't be so demanding. You will receive enough papers to...prove your innocence. But only after we face the Dodos together.” “While you keep enough to connect myself and this office to Dodos? I will deliver dirt that we have overlooked on their request. It would certainly strengthen your case against them. I must protect my own little family here though. If you really wished to go to the Sultansworn, you would have already done so.” Antimony turned her frown on Lamandu once more. "I said I would give you the documents incriminating yourself, did I not?" “All of the documentation concerning that linked myself and this office, is what I require,” Lamandu insisted. “I do not see a problem with this, but you seemed to have?” “The problem, captain,” Amaury began, “is that you believe that documentation concerns only your offices' activities. But many of them are entangled with other reports and dealings. Giving you everything is simply impossible. We will minimize the involvement and nobody will bother to look into it further.” Glancing uncertainly in Amaury's direction, Antimony opened the satchel at her side and pulled out  a rather hefty stack of papers - thick enough that one would wonder how she managed to find time to sleep pulling them all together. She looked at the stack a moment and then set it down on the desk with a, "This is a start. It is a copy of the summary report I've written... rewritten." Lamandu said only, "Thank you, Miss Antimony. Then I am not certain that you are able to give any assurance. And I am not certain what good it would do to unearth old cases regarding the Dodos to supply you with new leads." She blinked in confusion. “Do you know what happens to a gate during a siege?” Amaury spoke suddenly. “The enemy sends a battering ram. If there is only one gate, they will send all their strength to it. If there are many gates, though? They will divide their attention. That's the good your help would do. It will keep your office free of...battering rams.” “If I were to give you other pathways, why would you need the ones that lead to this office though?” Unable to reign in her confusion further, Antimony interjected, “I don't understand. Is that not what we've agreed to?” Lamandu gave Antimony a slight smile, "Yes, though you're friend is arguing differently." “Hm,” Amaury hummed in thought. “I suggest the following: I will bring you the copies of the documents we have so that you can review them yourself. I will also bring some of the originals involving you personally, as a token of good will.” The captain raised his brows, "And the rest later, correct? I think we may finally understand each other." Antimony waited in anxious silence. “Yes, that is correct.” Lamandu unfolded his arms, extending one to Amaury, "Let us shake on it then." The lanky elezen stood up to reach his hand. "Trust is so hard to win nowadays, isn't it?" He didn’t sit down when he was down with the formality. "It was a pleasure, captain." Antimony looked between the two a moment and then stood as well, tail twitching close to her legs. She bowed her head towards Lamandu. The lalafell nodded his head, "I am glad that we could come to an agreement." “Thank you for your time, Captain Tyremandu,” Antimony uttered as politely as she could muster. “Have a good evening.” Amaury didn’t bow, but he did open the door and waited for Antimony. “Of course. I’ll see you both soon.” Antimony hesitated a moment, glancing to the stack of papers she'd left on the lalafell's desk, and then turned to follow Amaury out. RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 05-09-2014 Antimony arrived at the base of the commune's entry tower considerably earlier than the time at which she had agreed to meet Amaury and Lamandu. She had ordered a "morning tea" at the Quicksand before leaving to chase away lingering sleep from the past two near-sleepless nights and now alternately stood and paced near the door to the spiral staircase. The satchel that hung across her shoulder - the one that did not still ache from horrible things - was heavy with documents. A copy of the summary report. Copies of raw data. Of transactional documents. Everything she thought they could possibly need to throw at the Dodos to get them to give way. She could only hope the Captain held up his end of the deal. Even if she hated the deal. It made her feel too much like a criminal, as well. She stood and waited. Then paced and waited. Rubbed at the ache in her shoulder. Paced some more. Meanwhile, her thoughts bounced between the papers and their information in her bag and another, much more personal dilemma involving the Dodos. Lamandu carried with him a hard leather case, with tabbed and organized documents tracing under ground doings of the Dodo tribe. The sort of thing that under normal circumstance would have been used to levy charges against a cartel once enough evidence had been massed. These had instead been filed away, purpousely forgotten until they now had use. He was wearing his freshly pressed officer's garb, meant for formal occasions as he walked to the Dodo compound, an older, familiar face standing at the tower's foot.  Pressing a tight smile to his face, he nodded greeting to the woman. "I can see your... friend hasn't arrived yet. We are better for it, are we not?" Amaury was indeed late. He had probably slept more than he should have. Having an actual bed after twenty years in prison did that to men. Animony peered down at the lalafell, blinking behind the slight glare of a nearby lantern upon her glasses. Her weight shifted, her hands clasping low in front of her as she stilled her pacing. "Good morning, Captain." She thought back over his words, one ear twitching. "I hope you're not suggesting we don't require Mister Amaury." The Captain reached up to pull thoughtfully at his goatee, "Hmm? Now why would I suggest such a thing, when he gives out such good threats? I'm sure he'll fit right in with the Dodos." The corners of her lips pursed inwards and down. "I didn't... well, I didn't enjoy doing that to you." "Didn't enjoy threatening the liveihood of men? Isn't that what you do for a job though? I imagine that not many welcome you audits, including those that we are going to speak to now." Her ears splayed sideways. "That... is not... Regardless! We're waiting for Mister Amaury!" Amaury finally showed up, as if called, apparently carrying nothing. He was wearing the same blue robe and white boots he had used in their previous meeting. Buying a new wardrobe was not one of his highest priorities. Lamandu said quietly as the other man approached, "Well, you got your wish I suppose." "Good morning" Amaury greeted the other two as soon as he was close enough. Antimony gave a relieved look to no one in particular and turned to greet the elezen with a small wave and a bow of her head. "Shall we?" the elezen asked, more a statement than a question, accompanying the words with a slight gesture towards the Dodo commune. Drawing herself up as though to make herself taller, or appear more confident, or generally just be professional, Antimony took a breath and nodded. "Yes. We are as prepared as we shall ever be." She chanced a brief, uncertain glance down at Lamandu and then turned to lead the group through the door and up the rather impressive spiralling stairs. Frowning, Lamandu said, "You do remember the paper trail that you promised me?" he hefts the case in his hand, "I brought the replacements." "Good. I brought the originals." A hand slipped into Amaury's robe and then emerged with a large envelope, the papers folded and likely cramped inside. He handed it to him. "Do not mix them together. That would be so terrible." Looking back over her shoulder as she climbed, Antimony suppressed a grimace - either at the act of handing over such incriminating evidence, or their appalling lack of organization, or perhaps both. The lalafell takes them, smirking, "I'm sure you would be greatly saddened." He takes a peek at a few of the pages before stuffing them back into the envelope and tucking them into a back pocket of the case that he carried. "Well, let us do what we came to." "Climbing stairs is the first step,” said the Elezen. “Or the first few hundred steps, perhaps." Climbing the stairs was just as arduous a task as it had been the first two times Antimony had done this. She wondered if maybe she was slightly less out of breath by the time she reached the top, but more likely it was just her imagination. The rolling dunes of the Sagolii were a very different beast from a spiralling staircase, especially when one had been so long from the dunes as she. Antimony paused to make sure Amaury and the Captain were behind her before pulling in a steadying breath and opening the door. The guard standing just outside was only half a surprise, and a few seconds passed where she frantically tried to figure out if the guard was the same as the last time. Then she cleared her throat and, hopefully in a professional but demanding tone, announced, "I've come on behalf of the Commerce Regulation Agency and with the backing of the Brass Blades. I demand entrance and to speak with your nunh." Amaury took a few seconds to catch his breath before straigthening and looking like his normal self again. Wicking away droplets of sweat, Lamandu steps up next to Antimony, holding out his badge as identification to the guard. "We merely have a few questions for the man, if you would not mind." The huntress was a lumbering Miqo'te, taller than any Mitqo'te should be. She looked like she had the blood of an Elezen in her -- a very boring Elezen. Her very dark face remained neutral as she turned woodenly, like a potted plant being rotated. The lance on her back was a well-craftd Ishguardian export, her armor white. She blinked at Antimony, then down to the Lalafel. Then back to Antimony. "Hm?" "Your nunh, D'themia? We need to speak with him. Lead us to him, if you would be so kind." Darting her eyes down to the lalafell, and then back up to the towering miqo'te - she didn't think she recognized her - Antimony nodded. Her tail flicked once, belying her discomfort. "Yes. We have matters of, ah, business and finance to discuss with him. So if you'll please...?" Blinking again, the woman's tail flicked. She lifted her hands to rest htem on her hips, the movement glacial. She blinked. "D'themia is in a meeting." "If your tribe had been more friendly to the last auditor that visited, we might have been willing to wait. Sadly, your Nunh has been evading the matter for longer than reason would allow." Amaury looked at Lamandu, wondering if bringing the captain was going to have any effect at all. Lamandu spoke up again, having put his badge away, "This is Blades business, miss. You really don't have choice in the matter, if you don't cooperate, you'll have to be brought up on charges of impeding an ongoing investigation." Happy with both Amaury's and Lamandu's words, Antimony settled for just looking as official as she could possibly manage, leveling an expectant expression on the statue pretending to be a miqo'te. “He's in a meeting. Not here." She blinked again, large, dark eyes, and looked down at Lamandu. She stared at him for a moment and then looked sideways at Antimony. Finally, she spoe to Amaury. "You'll have to wait for him to return." "Where?" came the question from the elezen, looking unconvinced. Then he clarified: "Where is this meeting of his?" Antimony frowned. "That is what I was told the last ti--" She stopped herself, shook her ears, lifted her chin. "Take us to his office now, please." Lamandu added, “Or his meeting place, whichever would be more expiedient, if you would." "I can't disclose where he is meeting or for how long," the woman said. She sounded neither bored nor thoughtful. She was reciting the words from a script. "He does not have an office. The commune is closed to outsiders with no business. You can wait elsewhere and we will send someone to retrieve you." Lamandu shakes his head, "I believe that you misunderstand miss. This isnt a request, we are on Blades business and are here on the business of an investigation that D'themia is involved in. You may not deny us entry." "Please do us a favour and not make me have to haul you off to the hold." Antimony huffed, nodded at Lamandu's words, and tried to keep her tail from fuzzing out anxiously. "This is a legal investigation and you cannot impede us!" Amaury gazed at the woman with some pity. "Let me explain: if you do not allow us to see your Nunh now our return will be pretty loud. Just imagine it. Instead of two auditors escorted by our good diplomatic captain here, escorted by half a dozen noisy Blades with just enough legal justification to open this door and march inside your commune, with you in backpedaling in front, unable to stop them. Wouldn't that be terrible?" He paused and then shruged. "Or you can let us in and we will solve this matter quietly with the Nunh." Antimony's ears only spent a few seconds pressed back against her head at the thought of being escorted by a swarm of Brass Blades. The woman blinked again. Her tail twitched. Finally, she frowned. "I assume you came with a warrant?" "Did we come with--of course we came with a warrant!" She pulled herself back together and frowned expectantly at the Captain. He frowns, before reaching inside his lapel, "Of course. I had merely hoped for cooperation without it." Lamandu draws the folded sheet of paper out, handing it to the much taller woman. "Please don't break it." Amaury said to the guard, his words still pouring with diplomatic experise. "That would be illegal." The woman doesn't take the paper. She recites, "You may wait in the commune. It will be in a place out of sight from the rest of the commune. I can not tell you how long you will be waiting." Her tail shivered, and she took an inordinately long breath, but when Antimony spoke it was largely calm, "I should hope it won't be overly long. Or we... will leave and return with those my colleague mentioned." Instead of talking to the guard again, Amaury turned to the lalafell. "Captain, this woman seems to be under the wrong impression that our investigation is a joke. Maybe you should call your men so that we can enter and let the whole commune see and hear us." "She is just doing as she's been commanded, loyal dog, I'm sure. We can find our own way dog." Lamandu says to the guard. In a sudden motion, the woman ripped her lance from her back, swinging it down beside her and slamming it into the floor so hard that it cracks the stone and creates a hard metallic clang that echoes through the commune. Well behind her, near the found, well-dressed Miqo'te who had been in conversation pause and look over. Huntresses standing near the other bridges and towers glance their way. The hair on the massive woman's tail stood out as it flicked behind her, a furtive shadow about her calves. Her face scrunched up hideously, and her voice trembled in her chest. "Perhaps YOU are under the impression that this tribe is a joke! YOU have no place here. YOU will show respect and professionalism, for both your task and mine. You may enter as you are instructed or leave as you wish. If your beastkin brains cannot understand that, we have nothing to talk about." Antimony jumped at the sound, ears pressing flat back before she protested, "This entire issue could be resolved quite easily by simply taking us to D'themia Nunh so that we may resolve our legal matters! There's no--no need for any of this--this... well!" "And you are now threatening an officer of Blades and his associates,”  Lamandu said this as he perched his hand on the ceremonial sword strapped to his belt, “When you are legally obliged to let us pass and speak with your nunh. You are the one turning this into a joke and making a scene. Stand down or you will be arrested. That is a last warning, miss." Amaury sighed, rubbing one brow. "Smash that spear on the ground all you wish, for that is all you can do. You are not outside of Ul'dah. You and your tribe must abide to its laws. Not to mention it will be very awkward of you to explain to D'themia why you made such a scene once we have cleared our investigation with him." He then glanced at Lamandu and silently wondered if Blades used linkpearls. The huntress bit down hard on her teeth. "Obscene vilekin with no talent for negotiation. A warrant does not grant you unlimited access to the entire commune. Oh, no, and I cannot give you unlimited access to D'themia Nunh because he has not told anyone where he has gone. Is my INVITING you to wait in the commune not sufficient concession? No, no." "Of course it isn't,” Amaury said. “Let's assume he is indeed not here. Who's left in charge?" Antimony's hands flexed at her waist, "Now wait! Just--just wait!" She turned to Amaury, Lamandau. "Waiting for a short time won't hurt anyone, will it? And she's at least letting us inside, which is--well, it's more than... ah! If D'themia Nunh doesn't appear quickly, we can always press the matter further... yes?" Lamandu looks to Antimony, "Yes, of course." He turns back to the guard, "If you had mentioned this course of events earlier, we could have avoided unneeded drama. My assocaite does bring up a good point in this though, if D'themia is not around, we would speak with his second." “She... did," Antimony muttered faintly and then turned back to the guard-woman-statue with the scary weapon. "I will keep that in mind." The massive woman drags the point of her lance across the ground, making an extremely unpleasant noise, which the Miqo'te near the fountain cringe at. The other huntresses, mostly out of earshot, are at least wearing unapproving looks. "Follow. Do not wander. I assume you are capable of such a task." She stepped back and turned, the movement stiff, her weapon dragging as she moved. Amaury lifted a brow and prepared to follow by...following. "If I didn't know anything about Ul'dahn nobility I would expect those noises to be some kind of convoluted alarm." he commented to the other two. Unwilling to look a gift chocobo in the mouth, Antimony hastened to follow. She didn't actually have to hurry, thanks to the guard's stiff pace, though. She also very deliberately did not look towards the fountain, on the off chance that she might spy any familiar faces. "Let's not--let's not make any undue assumptions!" "Hmm." He follows without further comment on the matter. The very tall Miqo'te would lead them through the courtyard, around the fountain, past the silent, cringing Miqo'te women wrapped in fine silk in gemstones and trying to pretend they haven't notice what's going on. The sound of the dragging lance continues the whole way, leaving a long, ugly line in the floor. The other huntresses just watch her, wide-eyed, bemused and a little concerned. As the tree-like huntress leads them towards the bridge that would take them to the largest, most extravagant tower of the commune, she passes a much smaller huntress whom Antimony might recognize. A thick puff of hair like a dandelion bounces as the second huntress steps over and lifts the lance's tip off the ground, saying cherrily, "We're just going to stop doing this now." "Excellent. Our ears will appreciate it."  Antimony winced, bowed her head briefly in some sort of agreement, and then looked up towards the tower. "You're taking us inside, then?" She questioned the guard. Ah, progress! Dandelion-head pulled the lance from the tree-woman's hand -- which did not cause the furious huntress to pause in the least -- and then trotted along behind her as she fastened it on the woman's back on her behalf. As she did this, she said jokingly to Antimony, "Congratulations on not getting incarcerated this time! You still look like a beggar, but you're doing so much better!" As they approached the primary tower, the balconies near its roof would cast shadow over them. Vast windows decorated the tower, and the tapestries adorned with the rather indiscernible seal of the tribe hung on either side of the main door. "Erm," Antimony managed in reply, visibly flustered by dandelion-head's comment. Lamandu glanced around them, "That is because we are here with a warrant this time." The tree-like Miqo'te exhaled a growl, which made dandelion-head gasp and whisper, "Oh no. You've made her angry." The puff-ball-haired huntress stopped walking, letting the party move ahead of her, and said, "Warrants won't help too much if you do not accurately play your audience. Bye, now." "Yes, we will make sure to bow our heads and apologize." Amaury joked. Tail lashing once, stiffly, Antimony muttered, "Perhaps you should! You could at least be polite." "Politeness was my first approach. Unfortunately, that doesn't always garner results here," replies Lamandu. The tree-like Miqo'te growled once more as she pushed the main door open. As it swung heavily inward, there was a loud thud and movement as the woman evidently hit someone with the door, but she didn't stop to worry herself about it. She kept pushing the door open until whomever was behind it was completely trapped against a wall to the left of the entrance, and left it there as she motioned for the trio of interloppers to proceed into the foyer. The foyer was remarkably furnished. A large room with a marble foor and large, wide-open windows -- that did not look as if they could be closed -- was furnished with no tradiitional seating of any kind. The floor had three tiers, the lowest being in the center of the room and stocked with a number of pillows situated around low-tables. Bowls of incense, lit and burning, sat upon the tables, a few near hookahs or empty crystal cups near full bottles of water. Antimony wrinkled her nose briefly at the heady aroma of incense - no scent she could recognize - and cast her eyes about the foyer. Then to their escort, as she made to step past to large woman, intent on moving further into the tower. "How long do you expect D'themia Nunh to be?" she said as she did this. Lamandu answered, "I believe that she said earlier, a long time. Especially because she does not know where he is. In other words, we should make ourselves comfortable." The woman harumphed and leaned against the door, lance clacking against it, arms crossed. "You could let her answer!" Antimony chided the lalafell captain, already feeling antsy at the prospect of waiting in this place. Tail curling up behind her, she cast a half-frown in the tree-woman's direction. The short man shrugs, "She still can. I am not taking away her words." He glances back at the tree-like Miqo'te before walking over towards one of the tables with seat pillows arranged around it. Amaury chose remain standing, bowing his head slightly to the guard. "Thank you." he said unceremoniously before walking very slowly around the place, admiring the expensive room and almost feeling sick about it. The very large Miqo'te stood glaring against the open door. She glanced out the door to the bridge as though waiting for something, then returned her glare to the people in the room. An exceedingly timid knock came from the door against which the woman leaned, cueing her to step forward and throw the door shut. This revealed to rather thin, short Miqo'te man who had been trapped against the wall when she pulled the door open. He collapsed forward, freed from what must have been the crushing weight of the door and the massive woman. He nodded thanks for being free. The tree-like woman tried to ignore him. Lamandu sat down on the cushions, looking quite at home admidst all the finery and trails of smoke that crossed through the room on the breeze. "I..." Antimony blinked at the man, then at the tower-turned-woman, and back and forth a few times before shaking her ears and continuing, "I apologize. I never, ah, never asked your name...?" This elicited a huff from the woman. The man, on the other hand, dusted off his silk trappings -- more of a half-robe than anything, as if someone had taken tribal wraps and tried to make a modernized fashion statement with them -- and with a smile and lazy swivel of his ears hastened into the room to join Lamandu on the dispersed pillows. "Hello," he greeted, without hesitation. The lalafel looked over sideways, at the strange, formally squished man, "Hello. And... you are...?" Amaury couldn't recognize if the greeting was directed only to the lalafell or to everyone in general. So he chose to be polite just in case, nodding and then resuming his walk. Antimony persisted in watching the guard women for several seconds before sighing, her tail twitching rapidly at the tip. Thin fingers brushed some stray hair that had somehow freed itself from a braid and tucked it around her glasses as she half turned to blink at Lamandu and the... she could only assume he was a Dodo tia. Her brow furrowed just slightly as she searched for any familial resemblance to D'hein. The sandy-haired man with the fluffy ears and very thin tail dropped himself onto a pillow near Lamandu, grinning. "D'edy Nunh." He pushed the hookah on the table towards the Lalafel and said, "Try it. Very relaxing." Antimony's ears tilted at odd angles in confusion. "This is business, Captain Tyremandu. That would hardly be appropriate." Then a pause and, "Nunh? I wasn't aware your tribe allowed for more than one." The Captain didn't take Antimony's advice and accepted the nunh's offer, unhooking one of the pipes from its keeper. He took in a breath from it, before releasing the resulting smoke from his mouth. "It seems different nunh have different degrees of authority. I imagine D'themia doesn't get trapped and forgotten behind doors." Amaury commented. Antimony frowned. "That's not how it's supposed to..." The fuzzy ears bounced on his head. "Oh, it's not like that. I don't want to cause problems, so I don't complain. D'themia's good at things." The huntress muttered, "You're not supposed to talk about those things with outsiders..." But the Nunh ignored her. Antimony bit her tongue, unwilling to really question the chosen family-societal structure of another tribe outright. Still, it was confusing. "Good at what?" Her tail curled at her own words and she forced her green eyes to wander the room a bit. "Good at money and talking, I believe. But feel free to elaborate, D'edy." The lalafell leans into the pile of cushions. "That's pretty much what I mean!" The meager Nunh stood, spun, took up one of the decanters and a cup and poured a glass. "He's better at running the tribe and being respected and dealing with the women and all of that. Who's thirsty?" One of Antimony's ears twitched but, after a lengthy pause, she seemed to finally resign herself to at least some duration of a wait. The satchel she carried was slid from her shoulder to the ground, the action inspiring a wince and a ginger rubbing of her opposite shoulder. Then she just stood and fidgeted before thinking it might be rude to refuse the nunh's offer so she added, "I will take some water, if you don't mind." "I am good, thank you." the elezen said. Lifting a finger up, Lamandu let his wish be known, "A glass of wine would be lovely, thank you, good sir." D'edy Nunh happily filled a cup for Lamandu and set it in front of him. "So, why are you all here? Must be a good reason if you're... here." It's not precisely something we can, ah, discuss in detail with just anyone," Antimony ventured slowly, pursing her lips. "We're to speak to D'themia on legal matters." After taking in another breath of the hookah, Lamandu settled the pipe back into its keeper, "Unfortunately, he is in an unknown meeting, so we were brought here... to wait." Setting aside the decanter and reaching for one of the crystal flasks, D'edy poured another cup to offer to Antimony, saying, "Ah, yes, that's the basic idea. He's always in meetings. And I'm always here. I guess I could do a few meetings once in awhile but the wine is better here." The tree-like woman stomped her feet loudly, but D'edy continued to ignore her. "Where are the meetings held?" Amaury asked plainly. Antimony accepted the water with a slight dipping of her head and ears. She shifted her gaze towards their guard-escort-statue, looking unnerved by the woman's continued displays of displeasure. "And when might D'Themia be free, if at all?" "I don't know. I don't remember him going anywhere today." D'edy chuckled, returning the the decanter and pouring himself some wine. Then two more glasses without explanation. "He's probably having more 'meeting's with the women. That can take... hooooours." The tree-like woman stopped her foot again, growling at the Nunh, "You're not even supposed to be downstairs." D'edy trotted over in front of the woman, clearly afraid to get very close to her, and put one of the glasses of wine on the floor in front of her. "And this is for you." The Captain reached forward for his own glass, "Then might you be able to help us in his stead? As was mentioned earlier, we are on official business, as comfortable as it is in here." He motioned at the room, glass in hand, finishing off with the wine at the tip of his mouth about to sip from it. Spinning back around to Lamandu, Antimony nearly dropped her water. "Aah--I don't think that is a good idea!" She winced, ears fidgeting. "Everything needs to be done according to protocol or.. well, or the whole thing could collapse." "We won't discuss this with anyone but D'themia." said Amaury. He took some steps to turn around and face the guard, only a few meters beyond her. "If he does not receive us soon I will simply hand the paperwork to the Sultansworn and let them organize a meeting with us." "Well you all are very serious," D'edy Nunh dropped himself into some pillows and said, "You shouldn't leave until you've had something drink. That would just make the Dodos appear very rude, wouldn't it?" "I don't wish to leave until I've spoken with D'themia Nunh," Antimony stated plainly, though she did drink from her glass afterward. She liked to imagine it punctuated her statement. It probably didn't. She felt a bit silly after that thought and darted her eyes towards the guard woman and then D'edy. Lamandu sipped at his wine, "Well, so much for that idea. When Antimony puts her mind to something, that is that. Seemingly, anyway!" "Miss Antimony" Amaury started his inquiry turning around quickly on one foot. "Did the Agency issue you a linkpearl? And did you bring it?" "A link...?" She trailed off, blinked in some sort of confused surprise. "Well, now that you... yes, they did. Ah, I don't know if..." Dropping carefully to her knees, she began to dig around in her satchel. Amaury waited. Lamandu drank more wine, directing a question towards the Elezen, "What were you hoping to get from a link pearl... Mister?" "Amaury." the elezen completed the lalafell's sentence. "And I'm hoping to expedite my work." The tree-like huntress nudged the glass of wine that D'edy had placed before her and it fell over, spilling wine on the floor. The Nunh immediately rolled to his feet and dashed over to clean it up, sopping it up with the slack from a silken cinch on his clothes. He does this wordlessly, on reflex, the same way someone would automatically try to catch something thrown to them. Antimony's searching slowed momentarily as the nunh scrambled to clean up the spilled wine, her head and ears turning to watch him sideways. It occurred to her that he wasn't really behaving like a nunh - not any that she had ever known, at least. Her tail swished across the floor when her fingers brushed against something small and round lodged into one far corner of her satchel, and she retrieved it hastily. Eyes still half on the nunh, Antimony said to Amaury, "It seems.. ah, I have it, yes. What do you need...?" "Hmmph. Then please, do so,” Lamandu was saying to Amaury, “Though, I have to say, the waiting area that the Dodos have, is not so bad." “Yes, it's the kind of joyful place where you could lose track of time and forget what you came to do in the first place." said the elezen to the captain and then turned to Antimony. "Good. Keep it close to hand. We don't know how long it might take mister D'themia to...do whatever it is he is doing, if he ever finishes, so I will visit proceed with the next step in the investigation. Mostly to save time." He paused to get a long breath for no reason. "I'm sure the captain will keep you company." "Ah... What?" Antimony's brow knit together. "And what is the next step then? ... Amaury? This was the 'next step', or so I had thought," reasoned Lamandu. "I'll let the Sultansworn know about the financial... 'anomalies' and the 'incident' that had miss Antimony be in jail unfairly. That was the step that followed this next step we are currently in." he explained, not really sure of how that last part could be understood. "I have a pearl myself, so if D'themia decides to meet you soon after I leave please do inform me so I can reassess if this step is needed, or if more would be." Pushing herself to her feet, Antimony frowned at the linkpearl in her hand and then up at the dark-haired elezen. "I suppose that seems reasonable..." Her tail swung behind her in anxious thought and then a moment later she nodded. "I will keep you informed." "You haven't had anything to drink yet!" Protested D'edy Nunh from where he was mopping up spilled wine. The huntress said, "You intend to exit the commune? I cannot guarantee you will be permitted to return." Lamandu squinted his eyes at the man, unsure of why he was brought into this, if the Elezen had already intended to bring the Sultansworn into this. "We had discussed this before Amaury, the Sultansworn are not normally involved in this sort of matter. But you are of course, free to go to them." "I was hopping we could settle this matter in a much simpler fashion." he answered to the lalafell. "Your help is appreciated, captain. I won't forget. Please stay with miss Antimony and assist her as planned." He turned around and headed out. "Farewell, gentlemen. Miss Antimony." The huntress boldly blocked Amaury's path, "You can't wander around unaccompanied." The guard woman cut off whatever good bye Antimony had been about to offer. "Then you should accompany me, or trust that I know the way out." he smiled. The Captain patted the cushions next to him, "Come sit down Antimony, it looks like there will still be some wait ahead of us. You may as well be comfortable." The tree-like woman levels a glare a D'edy -- he smiles in response -- before instructing Amaury, "Come with me. And hurry. I won't have you wating any more of my time with your impatience while I restrain my own." Amaury just followed. As the two exited, Antimony remained standing despite Lamandu's initial invitation. Her hands wrung together by her waist, the linkpearl clutched in one, while her tail fidgeted behind her. "So!" D'edy stood and spun on his heels, "What are we investigating? Will it cause any fun drama? Get anyone in trouble?" Antimony winced, rubbed at the bridge of her nose with one hand. "Apologies. We... should not discuss details with you, I do not think." Sipping his wine, Lamandu gestured towards the elder woman, "This investigation is really her thing, I am merely a pawn in it, as you could be as well, D'edy, if you really wished to partake. I am not certain it is in your best interest though." He paused for a moment, thinking that over, "On second thought though... it very well could be in your interest to. It would look good for you in the long haul." "I don't worry too much about looking good. I just find it interesting that you're around." He pointed at the door, "What is telling the sultansworn about it going to help?" "As I said, it is in part a legal matter," Antimony began, looking uncertain about her words, "and so they may be able to assist if there are any difficulties on, ah... that end." Bending, she dropped the linkpearl back into her satchel, comfortable in knowing of its presence. "I do not know what your friend has planned Antimony, this matter really is more Blades territory. I'm sure that it will be... interesting. You really should sit down though. And perhaps have a glass of wine with us?" "I, ah..." She blinked, thought back to that unfortunately tearful night in the Quicksand and then muttered, "I don't particularly want that kind of drink. I would rather focus on my job." "But you do not wish to try to recruit D'edy onto our purposes? What else is there to do at the moment? Do you wish to go over the files that I brought with me perhaps?" Asked the lalafel. "You just... standing there is making me a bit uncomfortable, you understand?" Swinging his wine-soaked sash around, D'edy muttered, "I bet D'themia would want to know if people were calling the Sultansworn into the commune." Lamandu seemed to have almost reached the bottom of his wine glass, and on hearing muttering, inquired, "What was that you said, good ser?" He leaned a bit towards the man, as if the miniscule distance would actually help him hear better. RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 05-09-2014 D'edy Nunh watched drops of wine fall from his soaked sash to the floor while he haphazardly swung it about. Puffing out his cheeks, D'edy caught his sash and tucked the wet end into a pocket, which was immediately stained red. He then dashed about in a small circle around where he'd been standing, using his feet to pull the dangling edges of his robe over the floor and soak up the little droplets of wine. While he did this, he stammered, "Uhm, nothing. I'm just thinking... See, I'm curious... And your friend did get rid of my keeper, so... I might take this opportunity to... Well...If D'themia doesn't show up I'll never find out why you're here, right?" Thin tail flying out behind him, D'edy spun and ran towards the stairs leading up into the tower, his feet slapping on the hard floor. "As long as I have a free second I think I'm going to be annoying. I bet I can find him!" The fuzz of his ears bounced as he jumped onto the first step. The strange nunh's antics across the floor distracted Antimony from much of what he said, such that she almost didn't catch him dashing off. She tossed a bit of a wide-eyed look Lamandu's way, grey brows arching up behind the rims of her glasses, and then scrambled to scoop up her bag. Her brain processed his last words several seconds later. "You know where he is? Or where he could be?" She lifted her voice insistently as she felt her feet carry her after the miqo'te's bobbing ears and tail. "We will go with you, then." Her own tail flicked behind her in an agitated manner. Why wait for that overbearing guard to return when they could just make use of this young man? "No, no," D'edy Nunh spun five steps up. He failed to stop his momentum, so fell backwards on landed on his elbows between steps, his wine-soaked robe making a wet splat on the stone. He kept a palm up despite this and said with only a mild cringe, "No, you can't come up here. That would be bad. Just wait for a second. And don't tell anyone where I've gone!" He pushed himself up backwards, crab-walking for half a meter before turning and ascending on all fours. No sooner had the echo of the Nunh's warning faded than the door to the tower was thrown open. It slammed inward, loudly, revealing the small, puffball-haired huntress. Her eyes were wide open, and the omnipresent cheer she'd had before was gone. "Hey, D'edy! What are-" she paused, her eyes flicking around, tail shivering behind her. She looked at Lamandu, then at Antimony. "Where'd D'edy go? What are you doing by the stairs there!" "Wait! It won't matter once he--" Antimony's words, and steps, halted immediately at the heavy thud of the door behind her, the noise shaking the walls and lodging solidly in her ears. She spun around, ears shaking to dispel the echoes of the sound, and barely held back a cring at the huntress's exclamation. "Ah, that! I was... just..." She cast a glance towards her lalafell companion, still lounging on his pillows, "... looking around! Here. Down here. The stairs' vicinity is pure coincidence!" Returning to a more upright position, the small man, who seemed so terribly out of place amongst all the Miqo'te found in the compound, spoke up, "D'edy? I believe he said he had some business to attend to. Had confidence that we could entertain ourselves in the meantime. We weren't about to go running around and getting lost in the place." He turns towards Antimony, who appeared far to curious for her own good, standing at the edge of the stairs as she was. "Really Antimony, I know you're anxious. Come sit down and settle out those nerves a bit. I don't know why you're so reluctant to. One could almost make the assumption that you don't know -how- to relax!" The woman's blonde tail flicked behind her. With the light of day at her back, she appeared almost like a caricature of a woman, wire thin at limbs and hips but the white armor making her broad at her shoulders. Her ears shifted about, invisible in her hair, and the movement manifested as a twitching of the yellow puffball on top of her head. Blue eyes flicked down at Lamandu, then up at Antimony, who stood very much like she was intending to take some kind of action. "D'edy," she hissed, stationary for a half instant more before her body shot forward, lance flickering sharply above her as she bent so low she was almost on all fours. She ignored Antimony and Lamandu as she went to the stairs, shouting as she went, "D'edy Nunh don't make me tackle you down!" She was well behind her quarry, though. "Wait!" Antimony found herself calling out again, though for a different reason this time, hands reaching out as though to try and stop the huntress, though not following through with the action. Her tail fluffed up, sticking almost straight out behind her. "There's nothing--nothing to worry about! He's only gone to... well, we must see D'themia Nunh!" "D'edy will return on his own, no need to rashly fetch him back." Lamandu was rather relaxed about this whole situation, still content to sit at his table, voice unraised. "He's perfectly capable of managing his own matters." "Just stay put!" The dandelion-headed huntress shouted, echoing the instructions given by seemingly every Dodo, as she ran up the stairs into the tower. Under her breath as she went were muttered threats to D'edy Nunh, ho was well out of earshot. She would once again leave the pair alone in the luxurious waiting area. "But we--" Antimony cut herself off as the huntress disappeared up the stairs, though her pounding feet were heard for many seconds after. The older woman stood at the bottom of the stairs, fidgeting with her glasses nervously, before casting a sideways glance in Lamandu's direction. One ear twitched. "... well," she muttered after a time, her tail still fluffed rather dramatically though it now hung down towards the ground. "That did not go quite as hoped." She sighed, tail swishing. "I hope that so-called nunh hasn't ruined our opportunity to speak with D'themia." "I'm sure things will work out quite alright. Not much we can do about it at the moment. We have no proof that these particular individuals are interfering in this investigation. If we find out later that they were... we can certainly charge them with obstruction, but as it stands at least we are inside and comfortable," responded Lamandu, shrugging. Lamandu's words may have been intended to calm, but they only spurred further thought from Antimony. Silence fell between them, broken only by the faint, rapid tapping of the older woman's foot against the floor. Her brow knit together, and she frowned vaguely towards the lalafell, churning over a number of private thoughts. She lasted all of one minute before spinning around towards the stairs. "No, I won't do it! I will not take being treated this way!" Pulling herself up to her full height and drawing in a deep breath, she made for the stairs. "With me, Captain. We will see this done, whether they like it or not!" Narrowing his eyes at the almost war-like declaration, the sense of gravitas did not come onto Lamandu as it seemingly found its way into Antimony. "And throw this progress that we have made away? No, patience is a virtue, I am surprised you have not learned that in your age. This is likely what saw you thrown into jail the first time, and almost saw us needing militant force at the gate." "I've seen enough at my age," the nerve of him bringing something like that up, "to know that they will not yield further unless a firmer hand is used. They will keep us here all day, waiting, in hopes that we will grow tired and... and retreat!" Her hands twisted about the strap of her satchel which she hadn't realized she'd taken up, wringing the leather until it wrinkled and cracked. She would not be driven away from this, through intimidation or through passive neglect, Antimony resolved, and ignored the small, internal suggestion that her single-minded focus was perhaps a touch too zealous and perhaps somewhat motivated by... other things. "Now get up here with me and do your part." She began to climb the stairs. Frowning, Lamandu considers his position, or rather that he wasn't really allowed to have one at this time. Even if she didn't realize it at this very moment, Antimony had the potential to make his life quite miserable if she so chose to. So, the lalafell dragged himself to his feet, following at the woman at as slow a pace as he could manage without actively seeming to be trying to lag behind, "Of course ma'am. This is your operation. I was merely playing the part of an advisor. But obviously you have no need for one." He followed that up with a mumbled opinion of his own, "Not that you haven't needed one in the past." *** "D'edy Nunh!" The puffball-haired Miqo'te lunged at the thin man. He paused and looked over his shoulder as the small woman came at it, even smaller than she was and thin besides. His shaggy ears bounced under his saggy hair, and for a moment he looked petrified, before a smile broke over his face like a crack in a mirror and he slipped away from the huntress with surprisingly deft movements. The woman fell to the marble floor with a huff. "Sorry, sis!" the thin Nunh announced, backpedaling down the hallway with light, dance-like footsteps. "You know how I can be once I'm interested in something!" He noticed Antimony's head cresting the top of the stairs in that moment, and waved to her briefly. Then, in an attempt to keep the attention on himself, he spun and began to careen down the hall, shouting, "D'themiaaa! Aren't you supposed to be in a meeeeting?" "D'edy shut up!" The huntress stuggled to her feet and gave chase again. "This is not the day for this shit!" Past several elegantly adorned stone doors lining the curving hallway, D'edy threw open a door through which light poured. He took a moment to cringe at the light, then shrugged and ran in. The huntress pursued him. *** Lamandu's protests fell on willfully deaf ears as Antimony started her way up the stairs. She could hear shouts above them - presumably the huntress and that pretend nunh - though the winding stairs bounced the sound around to make the words difficult to distinguish. She crested the top of the stairs just as the huntress's fluffy tail disappeared around a sharp curve in the hallway they spilled onto, D'edy's voice a fading echo. Holding the satchel to her chest, Antimony stepped into the hall and looked to either side, up the towering walls and to the doors. Several moments passed where the scene felt disturbingly still and silent, with Antimony poised at the front of the hall as she considered her next move. She heard Lamandu come up behind her and glanced down at the lalafell, managing something of an apologetic look. "I suppose it's alright to assume that man knows where he is going. Better than intruding on every room in this place," she gave a very brief smile and then was off again, her tail trailing behind her like a banner. The click of her shoes echoed strangely in the stone hall, but she could not allow the sense of being a foreigner to dissuade her. She rounded the same curve D'edy and the huntress had taken, caught sight of the broad door flung open and left invitingly a short ways further, and regathered her determination before continuing towards it. Lamandu followed with a sigh, he had rather been hoping that this entire thing would fall apart on the basis the Dodo's stall tactics. They were experts on the subject, unfortunately it seemed that Antimony was too obsessed with this whole bit, not that it came as a surprise. So he followed the lady at a slow pace, not particularly willing to speed the process up, "As you say Ma'am," he replied to her comment on pursuing D'edy. *** The door that D'edy had fled into was a portal into somber air. The broad room it opened onto recalled the "waiting room" where Antimony and the others had been left, albeit smaller and more intimately furnished. Its outer wall was a broad window, letting dry desert air and sunlight fill up the strangely shaped, only vaguely round-ish room. At the center ere odd pieces of furniture that seemed like soft tables or short daybeds twisted into irregular shapes, adorned in pillows and dappled with flat surfaces on which sat incense, decanters, or polished crystal cups. There were three huntresses in the room, dressed in white, before the dandelion-haired huntress chased D'edy Nunh into the room and became the fourth huntress present. The huntress immediately stopped, as though beached against the dire mood of the room, and whispered, "I am so sorry." D'edy vaulted one of the daybeds, trailing drops of red wine from his soaked robes, and landing in the middle of the room he interrupted a conversation that had been carrying in slow, heavy tones, between two men seated opposite one another. The thin Nunh with the fuzzy ears seemed singularly unaffected by the serious looks and tones of the others, spinning and falling back onto the red satin bed with a heavy thump that sent two pillows rolling across the floor. The men at the center of the room rose straight, lifting their heads from their discussion and giving the sandy cat confused looks. One of them was a Hyur in white and silver armor. The other, a Miqo'te with dark brown skin and light hair, twisted his craggy features in annoyance. "D'edy." "I'm so sorry," the Nunh said, mocking the tone of the woman that had chased him. He sat up and smacked the floor with his bare feet, grinning. "There are no naked women in here. Is this an actual meeting? Tell me what it's about!" The huntresses lining the walls exchanged looks, though they remained stationary where they were, with their lances in their hands and their stances relaxed. Dandelion-head slinked back towards the wall and tried to pretend she belonged among them. Meanwhile the craggy man snarled at D'edy. "Take a guess, Nunh." "Pardon," the Hyur leaned forward, gestured to D'edy, "Is this man-" "No!" The craggy Miqo'te snapped. D'edy pouted, though his ears popped up happily, "I am. I definitely am." Another growl, "Are what, D'edy?" "I'm not sure." "Wait outside!" Antimony continued her two-person parade down the hall, to the door, and then through the door without even a breath of hesitation. She had set her features into as firm and professional a look as she was possibly capable of, with a touch of impatience to drive home her point of no-more-messing-around-with-Anti. Upon entering the room D'edy had disappeared into, her eyes went first to the huntresses in white, and she stifled a flare of nerves before taking a few more steps inside. She could only hope Captain Tyremandu had not abandoned her and was right behind, prepared to offer the support of the Brass Blades. She wasn't quite sure what she would do if he had fled. Her eyes passed over the strange furnishings without really seeing them, snapping instead to the cluster of men further back in the room. One she recognized as the self-proclaimed nunh; the others were strangers to her. Well, there was really nothing else to it now. Antimony cleared her throat, put her feet together, drew her chin up, and announced, "Excuse my interrupting, but as a representative of the Commerce Regulation Agency and backed by the Brass Blades, I must meet with D'themia Nunh to discuss a financial matter of grave importance." Still trailing behind the small train of Miqo'te, Lamandu considered turning back and leaving Antimony to the Dodos, sure that she wouldn't last. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that the Elezen would track him down and make good on the blackmail threats. So he moved into the meeting room behind the woman, standing as tall as one of his kind could. If he had to do this may as well do it in full measure, his blades uniform in full view. He holds out a hand "We apologize for this interruption, we had not intended to in this manner. But you need to come speak with us concerning certain matters." D'edy Nunh let out a small, silent cheer in approval of the interlopers' appearance, and as soon as all eyes in the room turned to Antimony and Lamandu, D'edy was on his feet again. The fuzzy-eared, thin tail man appeared overwhelmed by a need to stay in motion, like a bird that would drop out of the sky if it quit spinning in circles. D'edy walked the open space along the broad, open window, where the white stone met the brown-yellow wall. Occasionally he stepped up into the gap of the window, swinging one arm out into the open air, but stepped right back down again. Of the two men in the center of the room, the first to stand was the Miqo'te man, his broad golden tail sweeping elegantly behind him as he turned and gave Antimony a bit of a wide-eyed look, though his features remained in check. His face was not elegant as his gestures, cast in dark, rigid lines, with deep, dark eyes and a mouth that seemed carved into a permanent frown. The man spoke with a tone of obvious restraint, surmounting his surprise at the woman's interest to say, "Ah. Welcome. It's..." he shook his head. "Antimony Jhanhi." He looked to the Lalafel, "And with her, the lauded-" "Lamandu Tyremandu!" The hyur man snapped to his feet, wide-eyed and open-jawed as though some long-absent nemesis had just entered the room. His silver armor clattered with the movement, light hair shifting over his features. "I hadn't thought these issues connected! Do you mean to tell me your Blades are involved in this, Tyremandu?" Walking along the wall, D'edy laughed at the hyur's reaction. He hopped up into the window and began to walk the thin line of the wall between the wall and the long fall from the tower to the Husting's Strip. One or two of the huntresses gave him sparse attention, but it was dandelion-head, still looking out of place, who hissed in a whisper, "D'edy, get down from there!" "Now." The Miqo'te man in the center of the room held out a calming hand to the Hyur man. "I will be pleased to welcome the Captain and the Witch of the Sagolii into this discussion." He inclined his head to Antimony and Lamandu, "I am D'themia Nunh, and my friend here is Bayard Learner of the Sultansworn. If you would please recall Mister Carceri, who I believe just left?" RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 05-09-2014 Antimony's determined frown deepened at the name D'themia called her, her tail shivering out of sight behind her. That K'aijeen would perpetuate such a hateful title before the entire Dodo tribe hurt, but that the nunh would refer to her as such in a professional context offended. Green eyes shifted to the hyur man, his armor giving him a distinctly official look if his title denoting him part of the Sultana's cohort hadn't already, and she found herself distracted momentarily by his implied involvement. She had not expected the Sultansworn. "Of course," she replied, tone stiffer than she may have liked, but the more she tried to imagine her daughter living under this nunh, the more her ire grew. He'd barely spoken more than a couple dozen words, but that and what she knew from her investigation were more than enough for her to condemn him in her mind. One hand moved to reach into her bag, retrieving the linkpearl after a moment's searching, and her eyes didn't leave D'themia Nunh or Bayard Learner as she brought it up and spoke somewhat awkwardly into it, "Mister Carceri, I apologize if I'm interrupting anything, but I would request your presence back at the commune. We've..." Her lips pursed, "... managed to gain an audience with the nunh." RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Ildur - 05-10-2014 The answer from the elezen wasn't short: "Excellent. I'm sure you can start without me. I'll be back in a few moments, though only the gods know how long it will take for the guards to allow me entrance again." RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Illira - 05-10-2014 Lamandu's eyes narrowed at the Sultansworn, not paying much attention to anyone else in the room, "Learner. I cannot answer that, for I don't know why you are here. I was asked to assist the C.R.A. with a matter that they have. Nothing more." RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 05-18-2014 "Thank you," Antimony spoke into the linkpearl. Then she hesitated, pursing her lips and lifting her chin slightly at the nunh and the Sultansworn. "He won't have any trouble getting back in will he?" Her tone suggested that there was a correct answer to that question. "No," answered D'themia Nunh, keeping his very serious but not ungracious, dark eyes on Antimony. "I must admit that the names Amaury Carceri, Lamandu Tyremandu, and Antimony Jhanhi have been known to me seperately before today. Never had they occurred together, though, and I would not have expected to see all your faces in one place." "It's unsettling." The Sultansworn Hyur said, his own eyes set on Lamandu, and not in a very friendly way. "You say, Captain, that you are merely assisting the C.R.A.? But how do you explain-" "Please," D'themia turned, extending a hand out beside him to block Bayard Learner's words. The Sultansworn shifted his glare to the Miqo'te, but D'themia Nunh said very smoothly, very gravely, "Let us not overwhelm the situation with disjointed details. I believe that we have been brought a tale, and evidence."  The man beckoned to Antimony and Lamandu, "Come and share with us what you have prepared." Meanwhile, D'edy Nunh continued to balance on the precarious windowsill, humming happily and swinging his arms to maintain balance. Every once in awhile he would spin to test himself. The shadow he threw across the room undercut the dire air which had predominated before his arrival, and the huntresses seemed annoyed by this. Reluctantly, the dandelion-haired woman separated herself from the wall, sneaking towards the window and hissing as quietly as she could manage, "D'edy! Stop it! You're going to fall!" "This," Antimony hesitated, adjusted her grip on her bag with its sensitive papers, and cast a short glance towards the Sultansworn, "is not quite something meant for public eyes." Though there couldn't be much harm in a servant to the Sultana overhearing it, right? Her tail shifted along with her ears. "The CRA was commissioned for an investigation into suspicious financial matters regarding the Brass Blades here, and our investigation has come to you, or your tribe." His eyes widening for just a moment, as his head snapped away from the sultansworn to Antimony beside him. "These are matters to be -privately- discussed with the Dodo tribe head, D'themia. Do not say anything more regarding the matter until then Antimony." The daft woman had practically just thrown him under the bus, 'suspicious financial matters regarding the Brass Blades here'. What other Brass Blade was here? And with the white-knight bastard two feet from them. "Oh, yes," D'themia nodded, sounding thoughtfully mocking. "Commissioned to investigate." "The time for privacy is over, Lamandu!" Bayard pointed angrily, his voice rising to a shout and his armor clattering with the effort. "I have a pile of corpses and no explanation! Starting now, you're under investigation!" D'edy stopped cold in his tracks as he walked along the window, head popping up, body going rigid. "What! Corpses?" At that moment, his foot slipped and he had to catch his balance, arms and tail windmilling in the attempt. The dandelion-headed huntresses flew into motion, jumping forward, shouting his name, and extending her arms to catch him. Just as she was about to catch him, though, D'edy Nunh' balance righted as though it had never been lost, he knocked the huntresses' arms aside and leaned forward to kiss the unsuspecting woman on the lips. She squeaked in surprise and went rigid. All of which fell below the attention of D'themia Nunh and Bayard Learner. "Corpses?" Antimony echoed, green eyes blinking rapidly as her furrowed brow lifted. "That... I've nothing to speak on regarding corpses! Just... money." She shifted her weight to one foot, was briefly distracted by the so-called nunh cavorting in the background, and then cleared her throat before adding, "I can only discuss this in the presence of assigned parties. This, ah, Mister... Learner...?" "It seems we are here about entirely different matters all together then. I do not know what investigation you are talking Learner, if you wish to talk about that with me, we can do so at another time." Lamandu's tone held a sharp edge, caught by surprise as he was by the insinuating sultansworn. The dandelion-headed huntress remained stock-still where D'edy Nunh had caught her lips with his own, the thin man teetering on meager partition that fronted the window. When the huntress cam back to herself, she snapped back, hiss and threw a fist at D'edy Nunh. The man's thin tail flipped about for balance as he evaded the punch, leaning out the window. "Your reluctance to discuss your business in front of me is noted." Bayard Learner crossed his arms over his chest with a heavy metallic clank, looking no happier. His anger had cooled, and his voice carried a threatening tone. "I will be noting in paperwork as well." D'edy fell out of the window with a small, panicked yelp. The huntress that had punched screeched when she realized what she'd done, her tail puffing out to an incredible circumference -- even the hair on her head seeming to spread as the ears concealed beneath it shot up -- and threw herself forward to try and catch him. Just as she leaned oout the window in a panicked attempt to catch the Nunh, D'edy pulled himself back into the room and kissed her again. D'themia Nunh gestured to the Sultansworn. "My friend here is excitable but an honest enforcer of law. If you trust one man in this room, Antimony Jhanhi, let it be him. As for the Brass Blade..." The puffy-haired huntress fell backwards into the room. "Thal take you, D'edy." Her face flashed bright red in humiliation before she crossed her arms over her head and rolled onto her stomach to press her face against the floor. D'edy Nunh left her like that, jumping over her and running towards the exit, laughing loudly and throwing his arms out to either side. Bayard finished for him, "He will need to accept that this is outside of his control, and that it is very unlikely that he will leave here with his career intact. If you truly do not want to be involved in my investigation, I suggest you present what you came her to present. Otherwise I'll have to assume it's connected." As D'edy ran past the center of the room, D'themia Nunh spun suddenly and caught the man by his neck, slamming him on the floor hard. The larger man's voice darkened as he shouted, "D'edy Nunh! Be quiet!" "Ow," the man pouted, his fluffy ears laying forward and pushing his hair in front of his eyes. D'themia shouted again, "Quiet!" D'edy Nunh kicked his skinny legs. "But you're all just talking about money and boring stuff!" Lamandu ws still in the dark about why the Sultansworn were here, and apparently about matters that they thought he was detrimentally involved in, "I do not take kindly to threats, Learner. If you must continue to do so, tell me at least what you are threatening me over. As I said, I am only here to assist Miss Jhanhi in her investigation, as she has run into hurdles that required local enforcement to see through." The ruckus going on the rest of the room was just background noise to him, as any relaxation that the wine afforded him was sapped by all the antagonism he had found in this day. Antimony gradually became aware that her mouth was gaping, her eyes having been impossibly drawn to the spectacle D'edy and the dandelion head had made of themselves. When D'themia and the Sultansworn spoke, the older woman only stood there agog for several seconds, blinking at the man pinned to the floor. Then her ears and tail shook, she coughed, and blurted out, "He is a nunh?!" She very nearly clapped her hands over her mouth at that unintended exclamation, but managed to keep them rooted to her bag. She coughed again, ears shifting back, and stammered out, "I mean, that is, of--of course he... Aah! Perhaps... perhaps I should just get down to it! Yes, yes, I'll do just that..." She could feel a heat in her face as she dropped her eyes to rummage in her bag for a particular set of papers. D'themia Nunh sighed, relaxing his grip on D'edy. "Finally. Let's see-" "I said I was a Nunh!" D'edy popped up to his feet as soon as he had half a chance. "Or, I thought I did." The larger Nunh growled at him, but D'edy appeared clueless as to why, looking behind himself to see if D'themia was perhaps growling at someone else. "You claim to not know," the Sultansworn said, annoyance still on his tongue. "There were multiple deaths near the Ossuary last night, and one of the Blades under your command has been arrested under suspicion. I come here investigating this, and then you appear with this woman? Too much coincidence for my taste. For your sake I hope your business is as innocuous as you claim." Thin brows snapped together, "Who was it? None of this has been reported back down to me, unless... Just tell me who, I believe that I have an idea though." It had to be Lou, she had been on suspension ever since she had locked herself in the jail sometime ago now, but he would rather hear it from the Sultansworn first. "Multiple deaths," Antimony echoed weakly, ears dropping as she retrieved her sought after papers. She shuffled them in her hands and failed at becoming any less flustered, "That... I don't have any idea what you're referring to! This is only--" She flicked her eyes between D'themia and the Sultansworn, "--only a matter of money! Not murder or any... such thing." The papers were straight enough. She hoped they were in the proper order. Her arm extended towards D'themia Nunh with the papers; the Commerce Regulation Agency's seal glared in a spot of prominence upon the top page. "The formal accusation, sir. Your accounts have been found connected to a series of monetary transactions using ghost companies to Brass Blade officers." "Oh, that's troubling." D'themia Nunh reached out and took the papers, his clawed hands curling over them as he pulled them to his chest and moved to sit down. "I wonder which officers they are, and which of my companies do not exist which I thought did?" He opened the papers and began to look through them, calmly. He had a few seconds of peace before D'edy Nunh joined him on the seat, landing hard and smacking his body against the other man's. "Are we in trouble?" D'edy said, looking at the paperwork. His question won him rolled eyes, a grown, and then he was ignored. Bayard Learner considered Lamandu for a long, quiet moment. "Desfosse. And don't pretend she has been out of contact." "The numbers I have collected do not lie," as Antimony spoke, she felt the wild hair from a moment earlier begin to fade, though Lamandu and the Sultansworn's interaction continued to disturb her. Miss Desfosse had been involved in murder...? But she'd already stepped into the waters with D'themia; that required now her full attention, however difficult it may be to give. Pursing her lips, Antimony added, "I require access to your financial records, and I recommend cooperation." Feeling more of a direct threat by way of Learner, Lamandu stepped towards him, off to the side of the conversation that Antimony had so long sought out. Lowering his voice he said, "Yes, as soon as you spoke of that, she was who came to mind. Loughree Desfosse has been on indefinite suspension, pending a reassessment of her mental fitness for duty. What you are talking about now, has not been brought to attention and she was not due to check back in with us for another few days. I may have information pertinent to her behavior, though." "You will be given your chance to cooperate." the Sultansworn kept his head high and spoke in a lofty tone. D'edy, reading over D'themia's shoulder, pointed at the page. "What's this one?" "That is a rare goods procurement agency," D'themia glanced at the thinner man and indicated something on the page. "It's a legitimate business, but see this number's just a bit too high for Antimony's liking." "Oh. And what's this one?" "That's nothing. It's empty page. Nothing is written there." "Ah hah. And what's-" D'themia pulled the page away from him. "Stop it." Ignoring D'edy's silent protests, the larger Nunh turned his gaze on Antimony. "Perhaps your numbers do not lie, and perhaps I will cooperate, but I am not sure it is you whom I will cooperate with. Learner!" D'themia lifted the pages. "I would have the Sultansworn's eyes here so that justice and truth can be known." "You could not have avoided our involvement, Dodo." The Sultansworn stepped away from Lamandu. "What is this regarding?" "Fraudulent accounts and bribery." D'themia's passive gaze remained on Antimony. "According to Antimony and Lamandu, my tribe is quite the corrupt entity." The lalafell frowns, not liking to be ignored, almost as much as he disliked being threatened, but not having a choice he joined the now dominating conversation at hand, "I do have a warrant on my person for the records, but it should be noted that actual cooperation would be looked more kindly on, down the road." Antimony folded her hands over one another on her satchel and nodded at Lamandu's words, though she kept her eyes on D'themia. She hoped she didn't look to anxious or over-eager; she certainly felt the former. The nunh's rough features were rather difficult to read as he perused the summary she'd given him, but she could predict the likely defensiveness. Swallowing, she tapped the fingers of one hand against those of her other. "Captain Tyremandu is correct. The evidence is there that someone with direct control of the Dodo tribe's finances was funneling gil through a number of businesses that no longer exist, all on Ruby Road, money that was then collected by Brass Blade members as part of their, er, standard local taxation. Now," she pulled her posture up tight, "where might I begin?" "You might begin by waiting," the Sultansworn answered, taking the papers from D'themia and turning his eyes on them. D'edy frowned up at him, "What's with all the waiting? This would be exciting if everyone wasn't being so cordial." "Stop it," D'themia grabbed the other Nunh by his ear, pulling him off center and making him fall sideways. "Cordiality is not my concern. Even if this fraud is authentic," the Sultansworn gave the two Nunhs a biting look, "And if it is an authentic fraud, we will discern so and prosecute accordingly," before looking back to the pages, "It does not excuse the incredible conflict of interest and sheer convenience of the timing. I'm afraid I have to assume that these two issues are inextricable." From where he lay on his side, D'edy Nunh whined, "What's inextricable mean? This isn't fair! I don't understand!" "Conflict of interest?" Antimony managed offense in your tone and expression - not a particularly difficult feat. The nerve! "Sultansworn Learner, the Commerce Regulation Agency is a nonpartisan regulatory body. We have no special interest in this case beyond investigating it as a potential fraud." "And the incident last night is only related in that Desfosse, a suspect has a connection with my office; I think you are reading too far into things, Learner. Be that as it may, this is a CRA investigation, it is not the Sultansworn to prosecute." Lamandu reasoned, getting only more unhappy with Learner's presence the longer he is in it. Frowning deeper and exhaling a loud huff, Bayard Learner turned on Antimony and Lamandu. "You must think that I do not pay very close attention. It's possible that this fraud is a ruse to discredit D'themia, based on the fact that your investigation is the brainchild of one D'hein Tia, who would become Nunh if D'themia were incarcerated." D'themia Nunh leaned forward, clicking his claws together. "Being Nunh of this tribe means being in control of its fiscal resources, so D'hein Tia would gain a great deal of wealth were he to stage a successful coupe, though he is too cowardly to challenge me outright. D'hein Tia is also the man responsible for releasing Amaury Carceri from prison prematurely, and putting him to work on this case." "Antimony Jhanhi," the Sultansworn lowered his papers. "Loughree Desfosse spent several nights in your inn room recently. You and D'hein both also have a very close relationship with D'aijeen Thalen, whom was the person that brought the incident to our attention shortly before dawn this morning." D'edy Nunh stood and began to pace the room, smiling. "Ah, that's the interesting stuff! And she looks just like D'ahl, remember!" "By way of explanation," D'themia said, keeping his gaze on Antimony. "Very early this morning, D'aijeen went to the Sultansworn for help and brought them to D'ahl's body. D'ahl was terribly mutilated, as though from an animal attack. Given everything we know about your relationship with D'aijeen, the fact that you've made yourself look so like D'ahl, and that you had a very audible altercation with D'ahl inside this very Commune, more than a few members of this tribe assume you have something to do with her death." "Furthermore," Learner said, addressing his words to Lamandu. "Four bodies were found nearby where the Dodo woman was killed, all dead refugees, and your Loughree Desfosse is the primary suspect. Given everything I've explained, it would be ludicrous for me to assume the crimes unrelated. And now you all appear together to level charges of fraud against the chief rival of D'hein Tia." "Yes!" D'edy shouted, happily, spinning and giving Antimony a broad smile and a fast nod. "I told you it would be interesting! What's going to happen now?" His fluffy ears stood straight up, his thin tail swinging fast behind him. RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 05-18-2014 Lamandu presses his lips together into a deeper frown, "This matter concerning the financial dealings of the Dodo tribe were brought to my attention when she went through the Pearl Street records, and as the case was now pertinent to my office, I have had to join with her to see it through. Antimony's personal life has not had any reason to be my business. An incident involving her and Desfosse was what led to the later's suspension though."  Distancing himself from Antimony would be an excellent idea right now, given that the Sultansworn seemed to be ripe to spring some nasty accusations on the woman. Multiple times throughout D'themia and Learner's combined retort, Antimony attempted to stammer in a word edgewise, or two, or three, but their persistence overrode any sounds of protest she made. When they spoke of D'ahl's death, she paled, green eyes widening and ears pressing back against her skull. When they suggested her own involvement, her tail twisted itself into knots of distress. At mention of Loughree's potential violent actions, she swallowed. And Lamandu! Even the lalafell joined in, and she turned her head to stare at him worriedly for several seconds. "That--I have played no part in Miss Desfosse's antics aside--aside from offering her shelter from someone who sought to take her life!" Antimony cringed at that, realizing almost immediately she may have said too much. She wondered a bit shrilly how the nunh and this Sultansworn had learned of everything they spoke of, and tightened her grip on her bag. "None... my relationship to--Aijeen has nothing to do with this investigation!" She finally exclaimed, ears splayed out in anxiety. "It was assigned to me by Miss Illira Carceri, not D'hein Tia as you believe. These accusations of-of--they are improper!" He turned quickly towards Antimony, "Wait... Illira... Illira Carceri?" the name was more than a little familiar to him, "The Elezen you just brought into this, she's his family?" A laugh finds its way out of his throat. "This is a twisted little puzzle we have now found ourselves in, friends." "Illira Carceri," said Bayard Learner, still holding the papers of Antimony's investigation in his hand. "She would not happen to be related to Amaury Carceri, whom D'hein Tia freed from prison and instructed to participate in this investigation, would it?" D'edy spun happily, "Oh no!" In contrast, D'themia Nunh remained somber. "We are all mourning the death of D'ahl right now. D'aijeen has not been seen since handing over the body. Our attempts to extract information from D'hein Tia have failed. If you know anything of where she has gone, I implore you to tell us. I just want my tribe to be together in the aftermath of this tragedy." The thin-tailed Nunh vaulted over the dandelion-headed huntress who still lay face-down in humiliation. Bayard Learner watched him with a frown and said to Lamandu, "You mean to imply that you did not continue to stay abreast inappropriate interactions between your subordinate and the woman investigating your records?" Lamandu eyes narrow at the newest accusation, "Do not tell me how to handle my people. Lou and I have spoken on matters, though she is not the most forthcoming of people, and simply seemed to need some distance from the stress of the Blades to process matters. Hence the leave. At this time, Antimony had completed her investigation of our records. It was only yesterday that she returned to me about further matters and requested my assistance here. There was no cause to assume further interaction between Antimony and Lou." "Any further interaction had nothing to do with the investigation!" Antimony insisted, her tail writhing. She turned her furrowed brow from Lamandu to the others, pursed lips twitching. "This is--this is an affront. You are attempting to deflect the investigation by bringing up meaningless... inaccurate distractions! I won't stand for it." There was a soft murmuring from the huntresses around the room, and even dandelion-head began to stir from her humiliated repose on the floor. D'themia Nunh watched Antimony evenly, though his fingers curled somewhat. "Yesterday you intruded upon this Commune and confronted a member of our family, a woman for whom I am responsible. Today, that woman is dead, and another missing. You will stand for that?" The stirring women in the room went silent and still. D'edy Nunh did not, though he did not choose to speak. "Nothing will turn aside the truth in this matter." The Sultansworn man said, raising the paperwork in his hand. "One or both of you are trying to deflect, either from economic fraud or from the murders. It will not succeed. All of you are under investigation by the Sultansworn beginning now." "This is... this..." Antimony sputtered, wrung her hands about her bag, drew her shoulders up in a tense, defensive posture. "This is nonsense!" Then she expelled a long breath. It would do no good to go off the deep end here. She knew D'themia's accusations were ridiculous, and he must know her own were threateningly accurate. She needed to remain cool. Professional. Calm. Calm. Antimony was not very good at calm. "I do not have the authority to pass the burden of the investigation on to you, Sultansworn Learner," she managed after a moment. "This is under the purview of the CRA, with the backing of the Grand Companies. I request you let me complete my duties." "And I have told you the truth, Learner. I am not your enemy this, not that you care, obviously," responded Lamandu coolly. "You are correct that I do not care, Commaner." Bayard glared at the Lalafel, and then eyes Antimony. "The Sultansworn do not require the permission of the Flames to conduct a murder investigation that was brought to our very offices, especially when contractors of the Flames are suspects. That is one of the purposes of the manifold leadership of the Syndicate. I'm very close to arresting all four of you." "Three," D'edy corrected, with uncanny speed, his joyful meandering halted. "Antimony, Lamandu, D'themia. Three." The Sultansworn frowned at him. "You do not seem to mourn your dead sister." The thin Nunh flailed his arms and protested, "That's not because I'm guilty! I'm just a harmless psychopath!" D'themia Nunh stood and said coolly, "My friend, if you arrest myself and D'edy nunh, D'hein Tia will be left in charge of the tribe's resources." "Do you think that means that I'll leave one of you free?" Learner shook his head. "I'll just arrest all three of you, then." "Quite annoying!" D'edy observed. "On what grounds? Anything you are proposing is circumstantial at best, Learner. Certainly questioning seems in order, but... no. You must have more for an arrest." Lamandu would be all to happy to simply leave the Miqo'te to being arrested, but Learner was insisting on bringing him in as well. And for once, he really had nothing to do with it, just his luck. "This is absurd!" Antimony managed to force out the words she'd struggled with prior. Her nose wrinkled with a narrow frown. "Carry out your own investigation if you want, Sultansworn Learner," she was proud that her voice only squeaked just slightly at that, "but I will not have my own work delayed because of it. D'themia Nunh, I again request access to your tribe's financial records." The Nunh turned to her, "I will not resist your investigation, Antimony, but I don't think you're going to find that which you seek." "Spend your time wisely," the Sultansworn said, handing the paperwork back to D'themia. Once the man had taken it in his clawed hands, Bayard Learner turned to walk towards the exit. "For very soon I will be returning with a cohort of Sultansworn to take certain people among you in for questioning, and perhaps to hold you on suspicion." He gave the huntresses a glare, "I trust you will not be foolish enough to resist." "You will have our cooperation." D'themia turned and pointed at the dandelion-headed huntress on the ground, "You! Accompany the Sultansworn, and take D'edy with you. Make sure he goes." "Awwww no!" D'edy wailed, raising his hands and backing away. At the orders from her Nunh, however, the huntress jumped up from the floor and took D'edy by his robes, pulling the tiny man along towards the exit very easily. "C'mon, D'edy! We're going to go to work!" The thin Nunh continued to resist futilely. "But it's just gonna be paperwooooork!" "We're all looking forward to your return Learner," Lamandu said before addressing the other matter at hand, "Let us do what we came here to do." He gestures towards Antimony, "Please, ask D'themia what you will." Antimony watched the Sultansworn exit in tense silence, her hands worrying the leather of her bag until the material was horribly cracked and wrinkled. When he was gone, she rocked on the balls of her feet, feeling as though someone had tossed her out to sea. "This--" she began and then stifled her words, closing her eyes and screwing up her face until she felt calm enough to continue. Finally looking first to Lamandu and then D'themia, she spoke, "The dates of the suspect transactions are listed in the papers there. I will need your records from those same dates to corroborate the data." A breath. "Should they match, I will report such back to my superiors, at which point the investigation will be placed in the hands of another higher in the Agency." D'themia looked at the papers in his hand. He didn't read them, he just looked at them as though he wasn't sure what they were. He listened to D'edy's continuing protests as he was lead down the hall outside. D'themia glanced up at Antimony, down at Lamandu, around the room at the huntresses that still stood in silence. "I see." He looked back to Antimony, readjusted his stance, crossed his arms across his belly and said, "Why do you look like D'ahl, and what did you fight about, and why is she dead?" Sighing, Lamandu interrupted, "Those are all things that Learner will ask her on his return, I am sure. Please do not change the subject, and give her access to the documents that she requires." The lalafel reaches into his coat pocket, unfolding the thick, official looking paper before showing it to D'themia. The paper was a warrant for the requested financial documents. "This isn't an option." Antimony leaned back slightly, lifting her head and glaring across at D'themia. Something in his words pushed a heavy, red hot button in her thoughts, and suddenly the investigation fell away. Even Lamandu's weilding of the warrant did not return her attention. "And why have you," she marched forward, dropping her bag and lifting one finger as she stomped towards the nunh, "poisoned my daughter's mind with disturbed and twisted notions of what love is? Why have you not prevented her from continuing her evil magic? I know she is still summoning demons, I know it, and you and this tribe have done nothing to save her. You have only hurt and confused my daughter!" Utterly unmoved by the warrant, the Nunh kept his gaze on Antimony and frowned a little deeper. "Is that why you killed D'ahl? Because you blame her, blame us, for the woman your daughter grew up to be? We did everything we could for her. She cam here broken. You're the one who raised her to be what she was. We couldn't change that. And because it's easier for you to blame us, you kill a member of my family?" Heaving a heavy sigh, Lamandu pulled the warrant back into his pocket folded as he took a nearby seat. Apparently, he wasn't going to be allowed to escape this disaster anytime soon, though he did have one last plea, "Can we not go about the actual business that we are here for?" "I have killed no one!" She vaguely heard Lamandu's begging, but it was all too easy to ignore it, especially when this, right here - this was why she had truly come to the Dodo commune. She stopped close to D'themia, green eyes narrowed, her tail bushed out. "Your D'ahl attacked me in this place, but I have done nothing to her. She, however, has corrupted my daughter!" "You are the corrupting force here!" D'themia shouted, the muscles in his shoulders and arms moving so that for a moment it looked like he was going to strike her. The huntresses tensed. But the violence expelled itself in a rough growl as D'themia turned his back on Antimony and stomped away. "D'hein and D'ahl were stable enough, even enduring the loss of D'ahl's child, until D'aijeen came along, with her corruptions and perversions. The Nunh that preceded me was merciless to that child of yours! But he is gone now. I tried mercy and understand, and now D'ahl is dead, and D'hein plots against me, and the child is gone!" He turned and pointed an angry finger at Antimony. "This comes from you! She is your daughter, the spawn of the Witch of the Sagolii! The twisted creature you misplaced has cursed my tribe!" "You have no right to call me such a thing, nor speak of Aijeen in such a way," Antimony hissed and pressed after the nunh, his retreat feeling like a slap in the face, a rejection of her grievances. "She is a child and cannot be blamed for her actions. But you--you and every last one of your... family," she spat the word as though it were a curse, her ears shivering against her skull, "You can be blamed. She left me, but you could not help her! You did worse than help her - you hurt her further, you've driven her to--to do terrible things! What she did with D'ahl, what she's done with me, and everything else you have all turned a blind eye to in your--your quest for understanding...!" She reached out and grabbed at his arm as she snapped, "You horrible people have willfully broken my baby girl, and I will never forgive it!" RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Naunet - 05-27-2014 Pausing for a moment to glare at Antimony's hand on his arm, the crag-faced Nunh growled, "I have no need for your forgiveness!" He stepped towards Antimony and thrust his arm out at the woman, hitting her in the face with the backside of his knuckles. "Nor do I have any patience for your so-called investigation! A farce to throw suspicion off yourself at worst, but even at best it is mere annoyance concocted as an offering to the conniving Tia that beds you." Antimony staggered at the blow, her head snapping to the side from the force of it. Silence filled the space between them for several seconds as the hand that had once gripped D'themia's arm moved to cradle her face where a harsh, red mark was rapidly forming beneath glasses set askew. Her tail stuck out in a rigid line behind her and quivered almost imperceptibly. Then wide eyes glared back at the nunh and a moment later her opposite hand swung out. The solid slap of her palm on his cheek broke the silence, followed by an outraged, "You do not treat others in such a manner, young man. Nor do you insinuate such--such untrue things!" The huntresses shifted and muttered when Antimony struck D'themia, a thing they had not done when their Nunh had hit the woman moments before. There was the click of armor and shifting glances as the dark man glared at Antimony, seeming to only belatedly notice that she'd hit him. Like mishandled clay, his face cracked into a smirk, and he exhaled a low chuckle. Then he stepped forward and struck Antimony hard in the gut, this time to knock her away. "If you think I require so much as a pretense of patience, or to entertain any syllable from you I do not wish to, then you are failing incredibly at understanding your situation! You may evaluate our finances if it entertains you, for there is nothing to find, but it will not save you when the Sultansworn discern your motive in this meddling. And believe me, it is not difficult to understand." Any words that may have been on the tip of her tongue fled Antimony, along with her breath, as D'themia's hand collided with her abdomen. She fell back with a wheezing grunt, landing hard on her tail, and there was a thin clatter of her glasses skittering across the floor. She blinked rapidly, arms moving instinctively around her waist in both a defensive gesture and a reaction to the flaring ache there. Her tail felt like it was on fire, so she rolled to one side to ease the pressure off it. She didn't immediately respond, shocked into silence by D'themia's violence. "Hey now," Lamandu said, standing up from his seat, though the difference seen between the two was not great, "No need for any of that. You are both rather distraught over obviously personal matters. I'm not certain as though you were entirely truthful to me about why you needed to be here so badly, Miss Antimony. Though I think I am entirely clear now as to the reason." He felt bad for the poor woman, truely, but this was nothing that he wished to be involved in, especially now. "I have stated my position with sufficient clarity. The matter may be closed for now." The Nunh stepped back and spun away, petting his knuckles as though they had been wounded. Or perhaps trying to wipe off some invisible dirt. "Lamandu, I suggest you urge Antimony to go about her investigation and speak of her once-daughter no more." Unused to the effects of such physical attacks, it took a moment for Antimony to recover enough to struggle up, green eyes wide. "Captain, I assure you, it is not what it--" she began at Lamandu, but stopped short and twisted her neck up towards D'themia, then winced her way to her feet, "I will not just abandon matters concerning my daughter, and you have no right to demand such of me." "You can either let it go now and see about the business you brought me here to see, or you can continue discussing your family matters with D'themia alone. There are other things I have to do with my time," Lamandu rather hoped she would choose the latter, he was not keen to see Learner again when the man returned, though he was sure that the likelihood would be large that he would get chased down afterwards. "I think you should consider," D'themia said, standing still where he was with his tail shivering behind him. "That this is the only time I will ever invite you to make this inspection. The opportunity will never present itself again." Antimony glared defiantly at D'themia's back, her tail curled gingerly against throbbing at the base of the limb where she'd landed on it. This lasted for several seconds before her ears drooped suddenly and she shifted her gaze to one side. "We will continue with the investigation as intended," she said and then added in a low mutter, "But I will not abandon the issue of my daughter." D'themia thrust a hand at one of the huntresses. "You!" The woman perked up in mild surprise, but then her Nunh amended his instructions, turning and sweeping his hand through the room. "All of you. Escort the Captain and the Witch to the records room. Make they see everything they want to see, and alter nothing." The first huntresses he'd motioned to nodded and moved in silence, stepping away from the wall with the click of her spear against her armored calves. As she angled out of the room, the other huntresses separated from the wall, watching Antimony and Lamandu, waiting for them. Nodding towards the Dodo nunh, "Thank you, D'themia." Lamandu started immediately to the door, stopping when he reached the guidewoman. "Are you coming Antimony?" Best get this done soon, before Learner returned with more overzealous accusations. Antimony turned reluctantly, wincing at the lingering ache in her gut and the way each step made her tail throb. She paused a moment to retrieve her bag and, after some searching, her glasses, and then made to follow Lamandu and the huntresses out the door. *** The huntresses did as they were told, leaving the room the Nunh occupied in stoic silence. But once they were out of D'themia's sight, their composure slackened, and the three who walked in the rear began to mutter among themselves. None of their words were shared with those they escorted, though they spoke with an audible mix of confusion and frustration. The foremost huntress lead them dutifully down the hall and through a locked door into a musty interior room that did not bear any of the eccentricity of the rest of the Commune. The walls were plain and windowless, the oil lamps burning yellow with an unpleasant odor, and the room filled with rows upon rows of cabinets, drawers clearly labeled by date and subject. From here, the huntresses helped Antimony find what she needed to see, just as they had been instructed to. And they watched, just as they had been instructed to. They were neither friendly nor hostile, though there was obvious shortness with any requests. Their eyes perused Antimony's appearance and mannerisms, and they whispered to one another in moments of stillness. D'themia, in the meeting room alone, waited for what he felt was far too long a time. He paced and muttered to himself, glared out the window, glowered at the door. He considered the hookah but didn't partake. He considered sitting down but choose to stay in motion. His patience drained with his footsteps, though, and then he would wait no longer. He made his own way down the hall, his footsteps echoing in the emptiness that on any other day would have been full of Miqo'te. That Antimony and Lamandu would try to convince him that it was mere coincidence that they would come investigating on this day out of all of them, was laughably ill-advised. He could only be grateful that the Sultansworn would be present to see their blatant gambit. The Nunh pushed into the records room with a huff, the door slamming open and the echoing sound of it silencing the huntresses. They returned to their straight-backed, stoic postures as though struck with thunder. D'themia stomped forward, "You've had enough time! I am not obligated to entertain your presence beyond reason!" Antimony worked largely in silence amongst the filing cabinets, drifting between an old desk and the rows of stashed paperwork as necessary. She would occasionally come to Lamandu with a question regarding the Blades, but otherwise largely left the lalafell captain to himself; his primary purpose had been to help gain her access to these records and that had been served. She did her best not to think of the bruise she could feel forming along her cheekbone, or the one surely blossoming hidden beneath her robes; nor did she let herself dwell on the matter of her daughter. At least not too much. Despite these distractions, it didn't take long to recognize that what she'd tracked down from the Blades' end was point for point replicated on the Dodos' side - and then some. With the meticulous method that had earned her such high regard from her last employer, and won her work with the CRA, Antimony pulled and notated each indication of money transfer - from whom, to whom, how much, what it had been earmarked for if anything, which accounts were involved, and more - and built up a rather fortified and undeniable picture of financially subversive Dodo activity towards the Brass Blades of Pearl Lane. When the Dodo nunh burst into the room, Antimony was working through her final triple checks of calculations. She frowned at the black marked paper beneath her fingers, took a steadying breath, and spoke without looking up from her work and with as firm a tone as possible, "You are obligated to conform to the letter of the law, which in this case includes my and the Captain's presence in this room." While paperwork was a day-to-day thing that Lamandu had to deal with in the Pearl Lane offices, it had never been among his favorite of activities. It seemed to do a great deal to calm and steady the older woman who was neatly shuffling through papers, pulling and refiling the information that she was looking for. He wished she'd hurry up, but when D'themia returned demanding that they cease then, he had to side with Antimony. He was already buried in this mess, and so had to see it through, especially since in exchange for the use of his credentials she was skirting around the fault that lay within his own office. Or at least thats what she had better be doing. Not only that, but now that the Sultansworn were throwing themselves into the middle of things with loose, circumstantial accusations, their having legitimate business was a necessity.  So he stepped in the path of the Nunh, stating firmly, "The warrant I have allows us entry here, unless you want to be charged with the interference of an official investigation? You had said, that we could see everything that we wanted to see." RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Illira - 06-03-2014 "I am voiding your warrant! It's time for you to go!" The crag-faced man didn't appear concerned about the Lalafel's sudden presence, continuing to march forward as if he could simply step on Lamandu or kick him aside. He was about to try and do so, in fact, when a crackling voice called from somewhere on his person, "Themiaaaa!" The Nunh stopped short as though he'd stepped on a nail, wincing likewise, and with his eyes pinched close and his tail shivering he twisted one of the ornate rings on his hand and held the affixed linkpearl up to his ear. Sounding somehow more vicious than when he'd struck Antimony earlier, the Nunh barked, "What!" D'edy's voice lamented from the pearl. "It's boring! The killer turned himself in. Just some psycho hobo killer or something. So Lamandu and Antimony aren't implicated anymore and Learner's... Oh! It looks like we're coming home now." D'themia's expression twisted. "What?" "Give yourself a kiss for me! See you soon!" "What?" No answer came from the linkpearl. "What! Gah!" D'themia slammed his fist into his open palm and shouted into, "I'll rip your tail and gift it to Lolorito you emaciated, obnoxious-" He fell suddenly silent and snapped his hands to either side, where the shook for a moment before his fingers unfurled. The Nunh turned his frustrated gaze to the ceiling, joined his hands behind his back, and exhaled a long, slow breath that might've been dragonfire if his anatomy suited his demeanor. The huntresses in the room shifted subtly and renewed their stoic composures. Finally, D'themia's gaze dropped. First he looked at Lamandu, his nostrils curling, and then to Antimony, "Has your investigations yielded their expected results?" Antimony forced herself to watch her work for several seconds longer, steeling her nerves against D'themia's tone, before very deliberately setting her pen down alongside the papers. Her tail twitched anxiously, but this was luckily out of view where she stood behind the desk. Pursing her lips, she lifted her head and met the nunh's gaze with her own, purpling bruise and all. To her credit, she maintained her composure. "I am just wrapping up," she acknowledged, paused, and then nodded. "I will need to take these records to the CRA for report. You will likely hear from them via other channels soon." Lamandu let out a breath. So Learner wasn't going to come after him on flimsy, trumped up charges. Not that they would have stuck, given that he legitimately had no involvement in the matter. But he and his office were coming under enough scrutiny of late. He didn't need anything else, no matter how petty and pesky the matter was, being raised against him. But good, it looked like Antimony was done. Good new all around, "Not that you could have stopped us, you cannot simply void a warrant by saying the words," he said, addressing D'themia. "I could not have stopped you?" D'themia muttered hoarsely before putting his heel to the Lalafel's chest and pushing the tiny armored man away from him with all his weight. "If I have you beaten beyond recognition and thrown to the refugees for meat, the supposed tenacity of your paperwork will not be much comfort to you!" In response to the Nunh's anger, the huntresses shifted, leaning slightly forward and easing their arms away from their sides. It was a pose of readiness, eyes wide, unsure when they would be expected to act on D'themia's threats. The man growled at Antimony, "You will show me your results. Do not make the mistake of pretending that you will not." The older woman's ears shivered close to her head at D'themia's threats. She cast a concerned look towards Lamandu, worried for the small captain's safety as the nunh shoved him forcefully across the floor. Surely he wouldn't act on such threats, though - it would only get him, and anyone else involved, into even greater trouble. She had dealt with belligerent clients in the past, and D'themia Nunh was just a particularly bad one. Resting her hands flat atop the papers, she pulled them into a single pile. "I can only tell you that we've enough that you will be contacted again soon, I'm sorry. A formal write up will reach you soon to allow time for legal defense on your end." She swallowed, looking to Lamandu, and then added tensely, "And I should remind you that physical assault of investigators will be included in the report." The breath was knocked out of Lamandu as he was brushed heavily into a filing cabinet, numbly recognizing the threats leveled at him and his blackmailer. He drew out his sword, long as it had been since he'd done that. It had been a long time since he had seen any real action. D'themia did not know that though. So as stood straight, Miqo'te towering over him, he cleared his throat. He hadn't even heard Antimony's protests; but his voice was firm, "That was an assault on a Brass Blades Officer," he said brandishing his sword, "If you do not let us leave quietly with our work, you will have to be placed under arrest for assault and obstruction of an investigation. D'themia Nunh was entertained by Lamandu's valiant stand. It was always valiant to him to watch a Lalafel try to defend himself with something other than laws or ethics. All that armor and his little sword made him about as threatening to D'themia as an oversized Scorpion. The tiny Brass Blade's growling tone had come with the satisfying click and shift of the huntresses around him taking their lances from their backs; the Nunh didn't have to look at them to know their ready stances, their wide eyes. Women were predictable like that. Strong Miqo'te women, once armed, needed only a word from their Nunh to assert the will of the tribe. "Who will arrest me, tiny soldier? You are well outside your jurisdiction here. The only law is... Well, my law." He gestured to the huntresses, their white armor and ornate lances. "So who will arrest me? Who will witness the crime, and who will report it? What judge will oversee the trial who will not understand and pity the plight of an affluent man such as myself? None of these things will happen, and even if they could, they would not happen in time to save you. So, tell me," he leaned forward, his smile fading, "Am I not being generous -- oh, very diplomatic -- when I request merely to see the results of your investigation into my own tribe's monetary affairs? For I am not obligated to request, or to restrain my women." Antimony tensed, her hands stilling over the stack of papers briefly before she took them up. Her eyes flicked briefly to the satchel sitting next to her feet, then back to D'themia. Captain Tyremandu's words and actions bolstered her somewhat, knowing that he was alright and that he was not presently backing down. "You know what we were looking for," she spoke carefully, her nerves showing themselves clearly in the way her ears twitched and her tail quivered, curling against the back of her legs. "I can say that your records reveal a, ah, suspicious parallel to what we found in the Brass Blades' archives. It is not my place to level official accusations, however, only to pass on my recommendations to the CRA." Blood pumped erratically through the small man's veins as the D'themia's guard began to surround him. He was screwed every which way. Screwed if he defended Antimony. Screwed if he didn't. For once in the past few hours, he actually wished that Learner was going to come to arrest him on bogus charges. "You aren't above the law in this, D'themia. Your tribe is allowed to exist in this compound because it benefits trade; but that doesn't mean that an attack on officials will be overlooked. Learner certainly won't." "If Learner were not a fool he would not have left you here alone." The Nunh chuckled. "He believes that I am the victim here, can't you tell? And it is true, for a woman of these tribe lies dead this morning and the Witch of the Sagolii comes here with lies." He pointed towards Antimony and barked, "She has found nothing! Divest her of her work and tell me what mistruths she has constructed!" The huntress that was immediately next to Antimony spun on the woman and approached her with fast, hard steps, leading with the shaft of her lance held before her. She was prepared for Antimony to resist or to flee, and the huntress's businesslike gaze did not give much hope that either would be permitted. Ears laying flat back against her head, Antimony squeaked in surprise as D'themia's words commanded a huntress to stomp towards her. The older woman's tail twisted, curled between her legs, and she frantically grabbed her bag from the floor before backing away from the oncoming huntress. "You--you will do no such thing! That would be tampering with evidence and interfering with an officially sanctioned investigation. More--more marks I would have to report! D'themia, this nonsense will do you no good." One of the huntresses stalked past him towards Antimony in an obviously threatening manner. Crazy it probably was, considering his company; but the desperate adrenaline was pumping throughout him. Lamandu struck out at the woman, sword slicing at the back of her knees. "You will do no such thing!" He announced. He was probably dead. But better that than rotting in a jail cell with no money or prospects. Yeah, Lamandu was probably dead. The woman he'd attacked cried out, knowing immediately what had happened to her and who was responsible. She managed to fall away from him and roll, trailing blood as she did so. The other huntresses, already in ready stances, had moved before their compatriot's knees had even hit the floor, lances and growls bared as they rushed at the Lalafel. D'themia, in surprise, dropped all guise of fury and backpedaled from the confrontation, staying well away from any weapons. One moment ago Lamandu had been an oversized scorpion, but now he was hostile, and it was up to the Huntresses to deal with him. The Nunh paused on his heels when he was far enough away, for only an instant, before he pivoted and broke into a run, vaulting a desk to skirt around the violence and get to Antimony. For a large man, he was fast, his tail extended high behind him as he dodged furniture like it wasn't even there, throwing himself onto the table Antimony's paperwork had been on a moment before, and crouching there in front of her. A Lalafel in armor was one thing, but D'themia Nunh knew how to deal with a disobedient woman. He growled, "Last warning, witch. I've already come this far, so I might as well go for broke." Antimony let out a yelp, of both surprise and fear, when Lamandu struck out at huntress - a fear that became wholly realized when the others around the walls of the room mobilized towards the lalafell. "Captain!" Her voice cracked in warning but cut itself off when the nunh landed with a heavy thud on the desk in front of her. Flinching away from the man, Antimony glared and snapped, "Cease this pointless violence!" Blood dripped from the sword as the struck huntress rolled away, at least one of her hamstring sliced judging from the way she moved. He turned to face her sisters, bearing down on him as they were. He brandished his sword in front of him, unsure of where to point it as shadows threatened to overwhelm him. Antimony's shrill voice carried over everything happening at once. As one of the huntress came too close, he stuck out, firmly in his intent, but rusty in practice. "Violence? Oh, this isn't even violent yet." D'themia smiled, looking Antimony over. He slipped off the desk and then lunched forward to take her by her one ear, pulling her up and forward. "This is what violence feels like!" He turned and slammed her face flat on the desk he'd just vacated, following this up with a hard elbow downward on her head. He left his arm there to hold her in place. "Shouldn't you know better than to talk down to the Nunh?" The huntresses had the advantage of range on Lamandu, two surrounding him and using the points of their long lances to threaten him while the third woman pulled the injured huntresses away. They seemed more interested in controlling him than killing him, though they also had a vested interested in hurting him, and they told him so as they took turns stabbing at the openings in his armor. Long lances wielded by experienced bodyguards against an out of shape lalafell Captain didn't yield much of a fight. He'd taken the one by surprise, but it wasn't long before his sides were bleeding and he was keeping himself upright by leaning against the cabinet D'themia had thrown him up against. His short sword only managing to knock aside the occasional stabbing. Antimony barely had time to react to the sharp twinge in her ear before her face hit the desk with a crack. Something snapped in her nose, sending a tingling numbness across her cheeks and up her forehead, and then stars lit up across her vision as D'themia's elbow slammed down on the back of her head. Her limbs went limp for several seconds in shock, sending the papers she'd held scattering to the floor below her and beneath the desk, and then began to struggle, pushing up from the desk. "You are not my nunh," she spat in a kind of horrified anger, her tail flicking behind her, whacking D'themia. "Get off of me!" "Oh, I'm not? When you came into my commune, I became your Nunh." He pressed down on Antimony's head and grabbed her tail, pulling it up towards himself as though he could fold her in half with it. "Now shut up!" RE: Negotiating with a Battering Ram - Illira - 06-03-2014 The doors of the records room broke open, throwing white light into the yellow room and making the stale air move with the outside breeze. A miqo'te man hopped into the room as though he expected to suddenly be center of attention, arms high in the air. "We're back! I hope you all behaved while we were..." D'edy Nunh dropped his arms and slapped his side, fuzzy ears standing straight up and thin tail fluffing up pathetically. "Hey! Hey, stop it! Everyone stop what you're doing!" The huntresses were not deaf, to D'edy's entrance, pausing in their assault. Lamandu was well in-hand, by then, so they turned their attention away from the Lalafel long enough to look at D'edy. Their ears fell flat at their head and they withdrew their lances when they saw the figure that loomed behind him, a hyur man in shining silver armor. They cowed away from the captain, then, and one of them actually muttered, "D'themia told us to..." "Stop it!" D'edy yelled into the room again, glaring at D'themia. Then he snapped forward, bare feet slapping the ground. He jumped up onto a desk, then leapt to the next one, and then to the next. "I said knock it off!" Finally, D'themia Nunh glanced up. "What!" D'edy jump one more time and slammed knees-first against D'themia's craggy face, knocking the man hard to the side, causing him pinwheel on his heel and then fall hard to the ground. Landing on his face next to him, D'edy Nunh spat, "Ass!" Bayard Learner stepped forward, casting a larger shadow into the room. "Someone explain this!" He delayed only an instant before his sights settled on Lamandu and he began to march in the direction. The huntresses took one look at D'edy, one look at learner, and retreated far from the Captain. Antimony's toes curled at the electric jolts of pain that shot up her spine when D'themia yanked on her tail. Then very suddenly the pain was gone, as was the pressure on the back of her head, and she dropped to the floor behind the desk, onto her knees. Her hands moved to her face, felt warm blood dribbling from her nose down to her lips, though her nose and cheeks remained numb. Twisting, she saw both nunhs sprawled on the floor behind her, then heard the authoritative bark of Bayard Learner on the other side of the desk. Reaching up with one hand, she pulled herself to her feet, her other hand still clutching her face as she spoke in a somewhat nasally voice, "Unprovoked assault, Mister... ah, Sultansworn." Her eyes widened when she spotted Captain Tyremandu and followed up with a startled, "He needs medical attention!" The sword fell to the ground with a dull thud as Lamandu had let it go to clutch at his sides that borne the worst of the stabbings. His breaths were labored as he heard the booming voice of the Sultansworn above him, "Assault and Obstruction... Learner." His whole body felt like it was a pincushion. Many of the wounds were shallow things, but all told his armor, more ornamental than anything wasn't meant absorb much. As the Sultansworn approached Lamandu, healing magic was already alive in his hands, throwing the pseudo-conjury of Paladin healing at the Lalafel. He turned and barked at the huntresses, "Get out of here! You will be called to answer later!" He dropped to a knee beside Lamandu to offer the man aid. "Let me close these holes and then we'll get you to a proper healer." The huntresses appeared unsure, looking over to the Nunh who were both standing up. D'themia opened his mouth and began to shot something, but D'edy popped suddenly off the ground and placed his knee right against D'themia's teeth, making the other man snap back and fall again, blood splattering on the floor. As D'themia clutched his face and shifted about in prone fury, D'edy Nunh brushed the blood from his knee. "Ow. Why are your teeth so sharp?" He looked to the huntresses, "Yeah, you guys might be under arrest later. Go take a shower and have a nap or something. Bye bye." One of the women lifted her ears. "But... D'themia said..." "I'm the big Nunh now!" D'edy pointed at himself with both thumbs, tail flicking back and forth behind him. "Or something. Just move your tails before Learner beats you. I bet he reeeeally wants to." The thin man's fuzzy ears popped up in surprise as he noticed he was standing on papers. He hopped back, but the sheet stuck to his feet, so he hopped on a foot trying to pluck it off. "Dammit, D'themia. Why do you always have to make such a mess?" From where he knelt beside Lamandu, the Sultansworn said, "He won't be making much of a mess in a cell." D'edy pulled the piece of paper from his foot, looked at it front and back in curiously. "Oh, this doesn't look very good!" He walked over and put it down in front of Antimony. "This is yours, I think? I don't think I should be looking at it." Antimony turned to blink at D'edy, watching him set the paper down on the desk - one of the many that still littered the floor about her feet. A ringing in her ears drowned out his words and she drooped, leaning against the desk. "Yes... Thank you," she mumbled out around her bloody hand and lowered her gaze to the other papers. Silently she dropped back to the floor and began to fumble with one hand to gather them all up again. Lamandu could feel his skin begin to knit itself back together, it hurt worse than the actual lances piercing his skin. He looked up at Learner crouched next to him, "You just had to come in and play the hero didn't you?" He asked, bitterly and out of breath. Looking away he pulled a hand from his side to put up on the Paladin's shoulder, leaving a bloody handprint. "Thanks for saving my sorry hide anyway," he groused, the adrenaline leaving its system, blood-flow stymying. At least he'd live to see another day, and it looked like it wouldn't be from a jail cell, after all. "It's just the shiny armor," Learner said. "Sparkly things scare cats. Brass, not so much." D'edy pulled his sash from his robe. It was still stained with and smelling of wine, but it had dried. He dropped it on Antimony's lap. "Here. push that against your nose and try to stop bleeding. Let me help you with those papers. I promise not to look at any of them!" Just as D'edy was crouching down to start collecting loose papers, D'themia Nunh surged to his feet, shouting around the blood in his mouth. "D'edy! You did this!" He extended one finger in accusation. "There should be nothing illegal in our ledgers unless you were doing it behind your back! And you brought the Sultansworn here knowing I would take the fall!" "Uhhhm." D'edy stood, bouncing his head at D'themia. "Nobody told you to stab the Lalafel, Themia. You did that aaaaall on your own." Bayard Learner's hand clamped over D'themia's extended wrist suddenly and firmly, yanking him hard to one side. "It appears I do get to arrest someone today!" He spun the Nunh around, ignoring his protests, taking both hands and shoving them high up his back. He looked around him to Lamandu. "Unless you felt up to doing the honors, Captain." Antimony accepted the cloth gratefully, though with a twinge of guilt for sullying something not her own as she wadded it up against her face. Pressing the cloth against her nose made the whole front of her face throb, leaving no question in her mind that it had been broken. With a wince, she continued to gather up the papers, ears sticking out low to either side of her head. She listened to Learner as he moved in on D'themia with some hidden satisfaction. Barely standing, Lamandu shook his head vehemently, "I still have a reputation to uphold, Learner. Plus... I do far too much paperwork already. Glory is all yours to take." He had already taken far too much of a necessary risk, getting involved already. While such a high profile case might earn him accolades with people like Learner, it would turn many more of the wrong eyes towards him. If word got out that he was the one who arrested D'themia, he'd be done for in a whole 'nother way. Out of the frying and and into the fire. It was a metaphor for this whole damned day. "Then I guess I'll take it." The Sultansworn slammed the struggling, cursing Nunh down face-first onto a table, binding his arms behind him. "Oh, Themia!" D'edy Nunh called out, lifting a hand briefly. "Since I'm the big Nunh in charge now, I'm going to schedule a fight between you and D'hein for the role of Nunh tomorrow. I sure hope you can make it. Remember, a no-show is a forfeit!" D'themia Nunh barked such a dense set of curses that it sounded like a bestial, maddened roar. D'edy pulled his thin wrist back to his body. "Oh, well, you know a Nunh in prison is useless to the tribe. Just do your best to be there, okay?" He then crouched down beside Antimony to help collect the errant pages. "I can offer the tribe's healers free of charge, if you want, but I'll forgive if you just want to scuttle on away from the Commune." Antimony swallowed, then regretted it when she tasted blood that had trickled down the back of her throat, and dragged the last of the papers into a sadly thoroughly disorganized pile. Green eyes glanced up towards D'edy, and she tried for a weak smile around the cloth against her face. "Thank you. I... Someone to set my nose would be appreciated. Ah, some things you just can't do for yourself..." Scooping up the papers in one hand, she dropped them into her satchel that still sat nearby and then stood carefully. Her brow furrowed as she half turned towards Lamandu. "Captain... I am so deeply sorry for... you are alright...?" The Captain's long hair stuck against the sides of his face from the sweat that he'd exuded, while blood was dotted and streaked around his light armor. But he was standing thanks to Learner's first healing pass. He pushed himself off from the cabinet that he'd become all to acquainted with. "Yes, yes." He started to walk slowly, limply towards the door, before he stopped and looked her straight in the eye. "Just remember what we talked of before all this," he said, voice steady and deadly serious. He then broke his gaze from hers and looked back at the Sultansworn. "I'm sure you'll want my statement, Learner. You know where to find me." "Expect me in the near future," Learner said, much of his energy being consumed by keeping D'themia restrained. He took a moment to whisper a threat into the man's ear, and it was likely a very terrible one, as the Nunh ceased his struggles a moment later. The Sultansworn then lifted his gaze to Lamandu once more. "Captain, while you are quite imposed upon already, I would ask that you escort Antimony out of here. Given recent events, I'd rather she not be alone in the commune." "Oh," D'edy looked up, ears standing high, "I can take good care of her." "I also rather do not trust this tribe's Nunhs." "Oh." D'edy's ears dropped. He seemed to consider making further reply befor turning to Antimony and grabbing her head with one hand, his other reaching for her face. "Let me. I can set it. Noses are super easy." Antimony had enough time to utter a confused, "What?" while her ears pressed back in surprise, and then she let out an involuntary yelp as D'edy's grip on her face tightened very suddenly, followed by a dull crack. Her hands moved up to her face, swatting D'edy's away, and touched her nose gingerly. The nunh she gave an annoyed, if grateful, sideways stare. Watching Antimony's nose get set against her will, Lamandu just let out a tired sigh. He gestured towards the woman to follow him, "Let's go then, Antimony. There's an appointment with a healer that I need to keep." "Pop!" D'edy proclaimed, as Antimony's nose snapped into place. "That was a really good crack! Thanks a lot." He then stepped back, smiling broadly and gestured towards the door. "You should get going. Oh! There'll be a big party tomorrow night because I say so. If you want to come by I'll make everyone give you things and say they're sorry! Then there's going to... not be a fight. But D'hein will get up in the middle but we'll all cheer and clap and pretend he did a good job. You can bring a guest!" The Sultansworn stood D'themia up. "I'm going to wait until you two are gone to haul this guy out so you don't have to look at his tail the whole way." Antimony wasn't quite sure how to take D'edy's words, recognizing the familiarity of the ritual he described but not quite sure how seriously he intended it - or the invitation. Still, she licked her lips and bowed her head, managing a faint, "Thank you. I appreciate the... offer." Then she gathered up her satchel and turned to walk over to Lamandu. Lama merely sniffed in derision, though he stowed the knowledge away for later as D'edy had shown an excellent penchant for the sort of recreation that he enjoyed when he was able to. Vaguely aware that Antimony followed him, he slowly led them out of the tower. They only got lost a few times before finally exiting the tower.