Naunet

K'deiki did not respond immediately. Her weathered face was turned to the bone beads in the bowl, the elongated shadows they cast across the smooth, shallow surface, like soldiers set to march to war under the Warden. She sighed. None of their soldiers had returned the same, least of all their firedancer. Clouded eyes closed as her head bowed. Surprisingly, it was not K'deiki who spoke first but K'jhanhi, the former nunh swaying away from the post he leaned against to lumber heavily over to K'luha, bare feet making subtle shiffing sounds in the sand. Both hands came to settle on her shoulders and faded yellow eyes squinted down at her from his still considerable height. "There are some things you must let go," he spoke slowly. There was a pause, where he let that statement settle and his age-thinned chest rose and fell with quiet breaths. "If they have both left willingly, then we will not suffer their foolishness. However... The matter with our firedancer must be resolved. As you wish to take responsibility for his problems, you will take responsibility for its solution. Go and find him, and if you cannot return his person, then strip from him the privileges he carries." He spoke none of this unkindly, but his tone did not leave room for argument.

((Follows directly after the events in Just Two Minutes.)) *** An Ul'dahn morning was hardly different from an Ul'dahn night or afternoon. The air was still oppressively thick with the smells of the destitute and the ill, and the walls trapped an unhealthy heat even this early in the day. The mess of it confused Antimony's already strained and exhausted senses, and her mind gave up trying to make sense of her direction for a time. She could still catch the lingering scents of K'ile and K'luha in her nose, could still hear their voices, mingling with Illira's and, more dangerously, others from years ago, and her feet could not stop until they left her at peace. Until the screams and flames faded once more. Limsa had not been far enough. An hour passed until she slowed to rest one hand against the shaded wall of a quiet alley. The coat she still clutched close to herself, the fur of its collar tickling her neck and chin. Her eyes were swollen and itchy and she could feel a dry stiffness upon her cheeks, though she couldn't remember crying. She had told herself she wouldn't cry. There in the alley, Antimony paused in her flight to catch her breath and hoped that her thoughts would not catch up to her in the meantime. No matter how fast her thoughts were, something else caught up to Antimony first. Or it had been there waiting, as if it knew where she would run. One way or another, something brown and thin stirred in the deep shadows along the wall not even a meter away from where Antimony stood. To say it stirred was to overstate the movement. It shifted. It mildly swayed. The same amount of movement one might get out of a large tree by brushing it with a reluctant breath, the thin brown form moved its face. It's voice was a whisper in the voice of a stone, "I understand." The words rolled through her like a frigid, stormy wind, and her ears pressed back flat against her head as her eyes darted up towards its source. It took several moments to discern the blue-grey-brown from the rest of the early morning shadows, but when she did, she could not help the shiver in her tail, nor the way her arm curled a bit tighter around the coat. He killed my mom. Was that true? "What--" She breathed out, shuddered, found herself split painfully across three divergent fears. Too much. "Understand... what?" The form lurched forward, leading with its shoulders and then swaying as the head and neck snapped into place. It stepped out of the shadows, light falling on the Duskwight's greasy heair, but leaving his face obscured. Dark lines settled into every crag of his face, left his eye sockets black pits from which silver eyes only faintly shone. There was no expression in those eyes, and the words were coolly informative. "I understand why I could not kill you in the Shroud, despite my many, many chances. I recognize your torment." "You recognize...?" The lurching of the Duskwight's form seemed more ominous, more threatening than it had in a while, though neither his appearance, or really his behavior had changed. It was almost enough to cut through the hurried panic, the desperation that had driven her steps away from people she knew held nothing against her, nor did she them. But that fire... "There is nothing to recognize," she uttered faintly, sagging somewhat against the wall. "I am fine." She would be. Just like before. She only needed to get away, far away. Just like before. "My family was immense," the Duskwight said. "Besides my brothers and sisters, nephews and neices, I had several children of my own. And granchildren, and more, and all of them are gone now. Except the one." Something twisted in her chest, something writhing and burning. She closed her eyes against it for a moment before dragging her eyes back up, brow creased heavily in confusion as she demanded, voice shaking, "Then why would you try to kill her??" With a sly, slow smile, Megiddo Desfosse said, "You know why. We feel the same pain, don't we? To answer your question, just ask yourself what you're running away from." "I could never hurt them! Don't you--don't you suggest--!" Her tail lashed wildly behind her, and that stinging had returned to her eyes, though nothing fell. Her hand curled into a tense claw about the coat. He could not know! How dare he presume and judge, when he'd done such horrible... He couldn't-- "I didn't kill them! I couldn't--I just couldn't stay! I... can't stay..." "You're far too gentle," Megiddo said, pacing out of the shadows and speaking patiently. "But I saw how they victimized you. Only family can do such a thing. Now one is disabled and the other clueless. if you'd like, I can make it so they'll never. Follow you. Again." With a small chuckle, "It wouldn't hurt, of course." Nausea dragged on her gut, distorted the walls of the alley until all she could see was the impossibly tall shadow looming before her. Her head dipped at the sensation, but still she could see Megiddo's form, in her mind now a jagged silhouette cut into the flames that bore down with their endless hunt. They would never... "No one has victimized me!" she protested, voice shaking. "Not them--it's not... it's not their fault! They couldn't save... I couldn't stop them. I will not do what you've done!" "Now let's calm down," he said, walking towards Antimony and reaching out to touch her shoulder. "You don't look to be doing well. Let's take a few seconds and steady ourselves, hm?" Calm. The only way she could find calm, find peace, was to /run/. Her body swayed to one side as though to fulfill that need, but Megiddo's touch on her shoulder lodged her feet to the ground. She recalled suddenly that numb, empty realization she'd had in the dunes, that acknowledgement that she could throw herself to the sands and let them do with her what they will. She wondered if the ice and snow of the north would be as forgiving. But she had told K'ile she would live. Letting out a faint, dizzy moan, Antimony's shoulders shuddered. "You can't kill them," she whispered. "You can't kill her... they're family." "As if you're not killing them right now," Megiddo hissed with an uncharacteristic bite. Then he took a breath and said more calmly, "That's what family does when things go sideways. The first people we turn on are blood. Some families are just more honest about it than others." "That's not true," she protested dully. She thought of the first time she had lost, then. The first time things had "gone sideways". Her mind skirted around it, terrified of the memories even now, of nightmares older than the fire but no less sickening. Nothing would have gotten her through that except... "They will take care of each other. Without... I just can't--can't stay. You don't have to kill anyone." Letting his hand slip off Antimony's shoulder, the Duskwight paced behind her, lumbering counterclockwise and staring at her head. "Your condemnation is not surprising, Antimony, nor is the hypocrisy. You're of two minds on this, maybe more. Which do I listen to?" She didn't bother trying to keep him in her vision, just let her head pull down on her neck, her ears hanging low to either side of her skull. The stone of the wall felt like ice on her palm. "You're wrong. It is wrong," she muttered, blinking past the burning ache in her eyes. The frames of her glasses hung awkwardly on her face at this angle. "It's better... better to simply leave than to... to kill anyone." "Nowhere is far enough," Megiddo said. "Didn't you learn that from my Granddaughter?" "I don't understand!" The words burst from her throat viciously. "How you could kill them! Only a monster destroys their own family!" "Loughree murdered my grandson, and her father," the elderly Elezen reported as he continued to pace. "Did she seem a monster to you? People use their families to advance their goals. If they cannot cooperate, they must compete. It is natural. There is a monster inside all of us." "Why are you saying these things," Antimony whispered. "I won't let you kill any of them. It's not... that's not what I want. I just need to..." Go. She needed to go. Everything Megiddo said here was wrong, and she could sense the fire approaching, hear the echoes of their screams. She felt herself push away from the wall and then swayed on her feet directionless. "That is your choice. I will respect it. After all," Megiddo stopped, breathed, "I had wanted to give such ways up myself long ago. If my Granddaughter had not done such terrible things, I would forget and endure. Perhaps I still can. Forgiveness cannot be so hard." There was a weight in her legs as though they were wrought of iron, dragging on each step she tried to take. One to the left, but there was the wall, to the right but then... "You still can," she spoke quietly, tail curling low against her legs. "You can... there is a far enough. There must be." Megiddo came up alongside Antimony and let his ancient face drop to her eyes level, looking sideways at her with a grandfatherly smile. "Did she mention to you, by the way, anything that is precious to her? If I am to convince her to forgive me, I must know what her soft spot is." Megiddo's craggy features in view once more, Antimony wasn't sure who to believe - or perhaps both of them spoke the truth? She shuddered, tucked her ears further against her skull as her hands shook against the coat in her arms. "... No." She thought of Loughree's fear, the anger Antimony recognized keenly as the other spoke of those she was responsible for. Children. Her stomach churned. "Ah, that is fine, then. Perhaps it's best to keep things between she and I for now." He stood away from Antimony, nearly double the woman's height, smiling. He said, "What are you going to do?" She tightened her grip on the coat until she was practically hugging herself. "You won't..." She couldn't trust that he wouldn't, she realized, and thought then to warn Loughree, but of course that would do no good. The woman already knew who was after her, and Antimony had no means of stopping him. With this acknowledgment, the panic she had been battling earlier seemed to surge forward anew, breathing a dizzy energy into her exhausted limbs. "I need to go." "Yes, let's not delay," the old man said cheerfully. "I think I'll have a bit of faith in family for a change and go pay a visit to my granddaughter right away. I don't think she's slept in a few days and she should be on duty about now. I bet she would like to rest." His great form turned away, leading with his rickety shoulders, to walk out of the alley. Chilling realization clenched around her heart. Antimony spun then, eyes wide with sudden fear from his words and cried out, "Wait!" She lurched forward, reached out to grab for his clothing, dropping the coat in the process. "You can't. Don't--do not kill her, please!" "You must not think very highly of me," the old man muttered, though mostly to himself, and then stopped to turn to Antimony, "Oh, another thing before we part! You should not fear Illira. The primary reason you got hired by the Agency is because I put in a good word for you with Ildur. And I've been working with the old man far longer than Illira has. I have more clout than her, I think." Antimony blinked, craned her neck to look up at the Duskwight. Her hand shook in his dirty clothes. "I... I don't fear her. I just..." need to go, her thoughts finished, the words begging, hammering in her skull. It was all she could think of, nearly drowning out the implications of Megiddo's own words on his employment. Dimly, she wondered how he had known all these things he’d spoken of. The old man said nothing to that, just watching Antimony's face passively. Forcibly, she released her grip on his clothes, the joints in her fingers moving with an aged reluctance, as though rusted over. Or charred to useless nubs. Antimony shivered and took a step back, one foot brushing against the coat she'd dropped. Mitari's gift. North would be far enough, right? She found she could say nothing else to Megiddo, only watching him back, her arms limp at her sides while her tail twisted in confusion and distress. With a strange, shrugging motion, Megiddo slipped from Antimony's grip as though she'd been trying to hold water, and began to walk away at his slow pace, his thin limbs seeming reluctant to move at all. "Good luck, whatever you do, Antimony." Antimony stood very still as Megiddo drifted away, and for a time longer after he disappeared, seemingly once more becoming one with the walls of the city. She didn't move, despite the fear clawing at the edges of her vision, the scents that spurred on memories that spurred on grief and loss. Then finally, as though struck by lightning, her body jerked backwards, then bent to gather up the coat. North. She needed to go north. The cold might hold the fire at bay.

Louree busied herself with cleaning up the mess she made as best she could. She had destroyed a table in the corner with her shield, so she now stacked slivers of wood on her shield, which sat on the floor. A pile of sticks was near it. She knelt, sagging pathetically, and her movements were slow and clumsy. Antimony entered her room with a short, polite knock first, pushing the door open with one shoulder. In her hands was a broad platter with a small loaf of bread, three small halves of what looks like some kind of gourd steaming hot, and yes - olives. She flashed an uncertain smile at Loughree's back. "I hope you like pumpkin... It, ah, seems to have been today's special." Ulanan watched the young Miqo'te's cleaning antics with great attention, expecting her to throw a tantrum and sharp wooden bits everywhere. She barely paid Antimony's entrance any attention. Lou flinched heavily when Anti entered the room, her tail still fluffed up wider than her leg suddenly sticking straight out behind her. She only lost a few splinters of wood as she turned back to look at Antimony, seeming to be half-expecting some kind of monster. When it's only Anti, though, she quickly tried to finish her cleaning. "I... yes. I'm almost done." Her brow furrowing, Antimony moved to set the platter down on the small nightstand at the foot of the bed to her left. "You don't... well, the staff here could have handled it." "I didn't want to be rude," Loughree answered, her tone clipped and fast. She pushed the wood out of the way and stood with a slight sway. Worry flashed in Antimony's eyes. "Sit. And eat. Ah..." She glanced towards Ulanan. "There isn't much in the way of chairs now, but the bed will do." "Cleaning is a course to comfort the consciousness." Ulanan nodded sagely. "And eating eases the inculpation!" Loughree turned to look at the food wearily, pausing for a moment. She then walked over to the door and pushed on it, making sure its locked and testing the strength of the knob. Antimony turned slightly to follow Loughree's movements, pressing her lips together as the miqo'te checked the door. "You're safe here," she reiterated. Ulanan did not add anything to that. "I've thought that before. Just hedging my bets." Loughree turned from the door quickly, and as she walked over towards the bed, she began to un-fasten the various bindings that hold her gauntlets in place. I don't know how armor works. Antimony stood awkwardly to one side for several seconds before moving to pick up a small plate on the tray and holding it towards Ulanan. It's piled with olives. She forces a smile. "I thought you might appreciate these." "I do! Thank you." she smiled, taking a few steps forward and taking the plate. Loughree snagged an olive of the plate and pops it in her mouth as she walks around Ulanan. Her gauntlets come off her hands and fall near the pile of ood off to the side. She speaks around the olive in her teeth, "I don't know why you're taking care of me." Attention pulled from Ulanan and the olives, Antimony looked up to Loughree and blinked. "Why wouldn't I? You're in need, and, ah... I can't help but feel a little responsible.." "What?" She looked over her shoulder, "The only reason you're involved is because I was busy arresting you when someone tried to off me. How does that make you responsible?" Ulanan pondered about that but found no good answer. So she chose to munch on some olives instead. Antimony winced. "Well, if it is Megiddo, I... ah. But regardless, it's... not as though I hold anything against you." "You don't owe me anything either. As far as you can tell I'm just some crooked Blade and a hiseous mess besides." Antimony frowned suddenly, looked away, and huffed. "That is hardly the point. You should be a bit more grateful if, as you say, I should have no reason to do this." "We are not expecting you to repay us in any shape or form, if that is what worries you,” Ulanan stated. Loughree spun to face the others, "I'm not ungrateful. Altruism is suspicious. I am going to repay you whether you like it or not, somehow." Antimony's expression softened slightly and she gestured towards the platter. "The first thing you can do for me is eat. It will help, I assure you." Ulanan nodded. "Start by accepting our altruism, then! There's no better reward for the kind than to see their kindness accepted.” Uttering a somewhat unconvinced huff, Loughree sat on the bed and began the process of removing her greaves. "I'll eat in a second. Not if I'm the only person eating, though." "I'm eating." Ulanan declared, raising her plate of olives at chin level and taking some with her free hand. "You're not eating it." Lou managed her greaves from her feet and then carried the heavy things over to lay next to her gauntlets. "It... I'm waiting for you to be ready. That's... well, it's polite," Antimony huffed. "I, on the other hand, have no manners!" And four more olives went into Ulanan’s mouth. "Different people have different manners. I was raised in the woods, so I guess I don't get it." She finally walked over and looked down at the plates of food Antimony brought in. "Then we can affirm that each one of us is being polite in their own unique way." "How else to ensure you get your--ah, just eat it!" She hesitated and then sighed, "Please," before moving to pick up one of the pumpkin halves and a spoon. Loughree grabbed herself some pumpkin and a spoon, sat on the bed, and went to town. Ulanan waited, watching Loughree go to town. After a moment, she frowned, for the Miqo'te woman did not go to town at all! She tried to strike a conversation, though: "So how did a woods-woman end in the Brass Blades?" Antimony paused at Ulanan's question, spoon stuck in her mouth. Her ears tilted towards Loughree. Pausing long enough to swallow what's in her mouth, Lou stabbed the spoon into the pumpkin and straightened her posture. She answered, "I grew up in the Shroud. I didn't like my life there. When the Calamity killed everyone I decided it was a good time to relocate. And I wanted to get very far away from Grandfather. I ran." Antimony frowned as she swallowed a bite of pumkin. "Grandfather. Why--" Her frown deepened. "I don't understand why he would... try to kill you." "Maybe he did not take it kindly that she would run away from him. Such is the logic of cruel men," Ulanan suggested. "Megiddo isn't cruel," Antimony protested and then looked very uncomfortable, either at her assertion, or the situation, or something else. Loughree looked sideways at Antimony, and said gravely, "And how would you know if he's cruel or not?" Hovering her spoon over her pumpkin, Antimony blinked towards Loughree. "I... well, he's never... except for the one time--but he didn't actually...! Ah..." Ulanan looked down to her almost empty plate of olives, shaking her head. "Antimony isn't very good at judging old men in the street, as you can see." She chuckled. At this, Antimony frowned, unsure if she should feel offended. Lou's tail shivered, her gaze remaining on Antimony. "He killed my mother. She was a good woman. He killed lots of my family, actually. And lots and lots of strangers." Antimony stilled, even her tail ceasing its slow swaying, and went very quiet for a time. Her eyes shifted down to the gourd in her hand, discomfort evident in her expression. "I... am sorry. I didn't intend to--that is to say, I... did not know." Dropping her gaze to Ulanan, she said, "I don't know why he's after me. I'm supposed to be safe in Ul'dah. It's been years. He isn't supposed to know I'm here." Antimony's ears drooped suddenly, her eyes shifting guiltily towards Ulanan. The lalafell raised one olive between two fingers. "The important thing is that he found you. What will you do?" "I don't know," she answered, taking the spoon and carving into the pumpkin. "Get rid of him somehow. I can't run again. I have... roots in Ul'dah." "Get rid of..." Antimony's ears hung lower; she rolled her spoon between her fingers. "I... still don't understand why he - or you - would... do any of this." Snapping her gaze to Antimony, Loughree shouted, "I'm not doing anything! I ahve to protect myself! I have mouths to feed who are counting on me! What am I supposed to do!?" "Sometimes the past catches up to you and tries to butcher you. And for no good reason,” Ulanan said to Antimony. Flinching, Antimony shook her head hastily, "That's not what I--I did not mean you were..." She looks up towards the ceiling, tail flicking as the lines in her face deepened with distress. "I don't understand how family could hurt one another in such a way." Going back to her pumpkin with angry motions, Loughree muttered, "You must have a really nice family, then." Antimony's fingers curled tense around her pumpkin, gaze locked away from Loughree. "That... is not a reason," she uttered lowly. Ulanan walked over the table and left her empty plate on it. Looking at Loughree, she said: "I imagine you have discarded telling the authorities about this?" "I am the authorities. Do you have any idea how humiliating it would be to ask Lamandu or the Flames for help? They can't do a damn thing." The lalafell frowned. "Then who can?" "It is not humiliating to ask for help," Antimony said firmly. "Perhaps there... if someone could talk to him..." She sighed and shook her head. Ignoring Antimony for the moment, Loughree grudgingly considers Ulanan. "Nobody I know of. I can't afford to hire anyone..." "I'm sure a solution will present itself sooner or later." Loughree frowned and put her food aside, "That's comforting," but of course she meant this sarcasticly. She rose and turned her back on the two, pulling at the buckles on her chainmail to make it fall slack. "There's..." Antimony worried at her food a bit, looking uncomfortable, and then, "It... would be better to simply rest tonight. We, ah, can't do anything from here." She hesitated a moment and then, "You... mentioned you have... mouths to feed. May I ask...?" "You can ask," Loughree said as she knelt near the bed. She began to shirk her chain-mail over her head, an obviously laborious task with all this heavy metal in one single piece. Antimony frowned, ears laying flat briefly. "Well." Her tail twitched. "Who are you referring to? Are children involved? Would Me--would he go after...?" Throwing her chainmail down heavily, Loughree answered tonelessly, "Yes." As she stood full again, posture rigid. At this, Antimony's eyes widened, her eyes darting towards the door. "What! N--where?? I should--they should be taken some place safe!" Ulanan kept quiet. "I already did!" Loughree shouted without looking behind her. She crossed her arms over her stomach and glared at the wall, silencing herself to mutter, "I sent her away It was the first thing I did. She didn't understand. I couldn't tell her that..." Brow furrowing in a mix of worry, confusion, and empathy, Antimony pressed her lips together into a tight line. Her tail shook behind her in agitation. "Children," she breathed. "He would really...?" Shaking her head furiously, she set her food back down on the platter. "I... am sorry. I told you to try and rest. This... does not help." Ulanan failed at words. Looking at the bed, Loughree said, "Someone was going to watch...?" "I will." Antimony nodded at Ulanan's words. "You will not be harmed here." "I won't rest too long, so you don't have to watch for too long." "Don't worry about it. Take whatever time you need. Right, Antimony?" Ulanan followed this with a smile. "Of course," Antimony agreed solemnly, features pulled into a slight frown. Loughree lowered herself to her knees. "Alright "You may, ah, use the bed," Antimony offered after a moment. "I'm not sleeping in your bed." Ulanan blinked once. "Will you accept at least some blankets?" Antimony blinked as well, off-put. "... Oh. Well, it's not my bed; it belongs to the Quicksand. But... ah, yes! You can borrow a blanket. And a pillow." Loughree took hold of the blanket on the bed and pulled it towards herself, observing, "This blanket smells like the guy who pulled the needle out of my eye," as she wrapped herself up in it, covering her head and much of her face as well as her body before flopping over on her side. Antimony winced. "Ah, yes, well... You did... he was injured, so I helped him as well." Ulanan smirked briefly and once she was done with that she took Antimony's sleeve and pulled her. "Don't chit chat when she's about to rest. Out we go!" Her voice muffled by the blanket, Loughree said quickly, "Antimony needs to stay in here with me. I can't be left alone." Ulanan just stated: "I shall be right outside the door," before turning around and leaving the room. Antimony blinked, took a step as though to follow Ulanan before processing Loughree's words and kind of wobbling between actions for a second. Finally she settled back into place and turned a concerned look on Loughree's back. Lou added after Ulanan left, "Just because you don't see him come in doesn't mean he isn't here. Don't leave me alone." Clasping her hands together, Antimony sighed. "I understand. I won't leave." She crossed the room to the table then, with its myriad papers, and settled into the chair. Loughree didn't respond. Her puffed-out tail had been thinning down for awhile and was now it's typical degree of fuziness. It lifted and fell as Loughree lay in silence on the floor, undled up as though it were frigidly cold. Antimony did not have much she could think of to say, but did have much to think about. She maintained an uneasy silence. That fuzzy blonde tail continued to swing up and down even after Loughree fell asleep.

Later that evening… Antimony idled by the table near her inn room's bed. In her hand, she fiddled with a small, bone-carved figure. On the table there rested a strangely headless doll. She frowned at the doll in thought. Not long after this scene began, a knock sounded from the door shortly before it opened. "Hello!" Came a small voice from near the floor. Looking up, relief briefly flashed across Antimony's features before she turned and headed to the door, opening it with an uncertain smile. She remembered to look down this time and caught sight of Ulanan. The lalafell was, as expected, basically a big bump in the entrance. She looked up and smiled. "Hello. How are you today?" Antimony’s own smile remained for several seconds before it fell to the same thoughtful frown she'd been wearing just prior. "I... am not entirely certain, Ulanan. Though, I suppose I'm glad you're here." "Something happened?" "Mm," Antimony replied and stepped back, gesturing for Ulanan to make herself at home - or at least as at home as one can make themselves in an inn room. "That... Well." She remembered suddenly the object she held in her hand and spun around, hastening to the bed where a small box sat and placing it inside. Ulanan closed the door behind her, stepping forward into the room. "Work woes?" she asked. Antimony shut the box carefully and gave it a considering look before she turned back around to Ulanan. Her forehead wrinkled with sudden worry. "No, it's not that. Well, at least it appears unrelated, but..." She pursed her lips, tail swishing behind her, and then made for the table she'd stood at before. She took the headless doll in one hand and proceeded to show it to Ulanan. "Does this look familiar to you?" The lalafell got closer to take a look. She squinted at the doll, extending one hand towards it. "It doesn't. What's so special about it?" "Well." She paused, frowned at the thing and shook it for no apparent reason. "Did not Megiddo purchase one that looked like this? On Pearl Lane, that night we ran into him while I was investigating." "I can't say I was paying attention. Maybe?" One hand tapped against her chin. "Even then, I'm sure there are lots of dolls like the one he got." Antimony frowned at that, her ears swiveling around as though searching for some sound. "Perhaps, but..." She grimaced, hesitated again, and then finally, "Well, there's nothing for it. Something did happen, Ulanan, but I don't want you fretting. I'm just... concerned about certain implications." She frowned. "I will fret anyway. So tell me." Antimony sighed, "I know you will." Her ears twitched; her tail followed suit. The fingers that held the headless doll fidgeted. "The details are not entirely relevant, so... Well. Miss Loughree had arrested me. I think. I'm not entirely--I mean, I was in a cell and it was--!" She coughed, cleared her throat, but only for half a second before rushing forward: "This doll appeared out of nowhere, but when Miss Loughree picked it up, it... it exploded! As though demon-possessed! Except... I do not think it was a demon." Ulanan did not seem surprised in any shape or form about Antimony being in jail. She extended her left hand, with the palm facing upwards. "It exploded? With fire and sparks?" For a moment, Antimony looked as though she were about to be ill as she recalled those dreadful minutes in jail. "... No. In needles. They... Well, it was not a pleasant surprise for Miss Loughree." Ulanan shook her still raised hand. "May I see it?" Antimony's tail shivered and she looked around the inn room as though expecting something before settling her gaze back on Ulanan. "Hm? Ah, yes. Of... of course." She held the doll out to the lalafell. Frowned. "Megiddo, he... only a few days before the... incident, I ran into him on the streets. He showed me a doll that... well, it was identical to the one I saw in jail, when it was whole. He'd fashioned it to look like a miqo'te." Ulanan took the doll with one hand and examined it. Mostly by poking and looking inside the hole where the head was. "What did he say? About the doll." "Oh, nothing particularly, erm, incriminating," she coughed, one ear flicking. "It was a pleasante enough conversation. He said it was for his granddaughter." She looked down at the doll on her hand. She looked unsure. "Next time you see him, ask him if he gave her the doll." "Do you... I suppose it's too much to hope that he simply misplaced it?" Once again, Antimony looked worried. A vicious knocking shakes the door, but aborts quickly. After a moment of silence, it's replaced by a much more timid knocking. Antimony blinked, looked up sharply, and then just looked confused. "Who..?" She headed towards the door. Ulanan turns to look at the door for a moment before returning her eyes to Antimony. "Were you expecting someone?" "No, but... Ah, perhaps it's just the cleaning lady." Opening the door, her ears cocked to one side as she peered out. When the door opened, Loughree flinched heavily, like a cat ready to bolt. Her ears stood up tall and swiveled, eyes wide taking Antimony in. She didn’t speak, just looks around. Very quickly she was looking over Antimony's shoulders, and when she saw Ulanan, she flinched again. She remained, though. The lalafell raised one hand in greeting. She didn't say anything, but added a smile for a greater friendly effect. For a moment, Antimony was silent as she looked across at Loughree. Then, with her tail twitching, she let out a faint, "Oh. Hello?" Flinching again when Antimny spoke, Lou looked suddenly to the side said, "I wanted...". She looksed back, examining Antimony's room again. "Is everything okay?" Antimony frowned, took a hesitant step back from the door, continuing to hold it open. "Ah, well..." She glanced back at Ulanan. "... Yes? May I, ah, ask what you're... well." Ulanan walked closer, stopping once she was slightly behind Antimony. She kept quiet. Loughree spat out, "I wanted to apologize. I wasn't going to arrest you or that man, for real. I was just trying to squeeze a bribe out of the situation." Blinking, Antimony pursed her lips. "Well. That's... rather forward. At least you're apologizing, I suppose." Ulanan realized she was holding the headless doll and decided to carefully hide it behind her back with both hands. "It's a very important step!" Standing awkwardly still for another moment, Loughree spoke carefully, "Where did that man go? You know. The one who... helped me." Furrowing her brow, Antimony seemed to weigh something in her mind before speaking, "Against my better judgment, he left." Ulanan was confused. "There was a man?" she asked Antimony. Starting, Antimony blinked down at Ulanan. "Eh? Oh, yes! Mi... Mitari. You met him. A very sweet young man." Ulanan lips became a circle. "Oh! Yes." Lourghree's ears twitched. "I see." And then she stepped forward into the doorway, pushing a hand against the door to hold it open. "What do you know?" A slight frown returned to Antimony’s face, more curious or confused than concerned though. "Know? About what?" Ulanan said nothing. Seeming to struggle with something inwardly, Loughree ducked her head. Her eyes flicked about the room. "About." Her head snapped up, ears swiveling in search of some distant sound. Finally she growled, "About what happened! The cells! That... doll!" "Uhm." Antimony took a step back. "I don't... think I know much more than you, I'm afraid." Ulanan tilted her head to a side. "This doll, you mean?" she said, and held the doll out between her hands. Loughree dropped into a square stance, gaze focusing on Ulanan fiercely and ears standing on end. Her tail puffed up to double its normal size, and in a moment, her sword was in her hand. "YOU TOOK IT!" The lalafell remained static. "I was examining it. It still has some needles inside." "I, ah..." Antimony's own tail shivered and she held both hands up in a soothing gesture. "I have to ask you to put your weapon away!" Loughree snapped at Antimony, "Why! I think having my weapon out is a perfect idea ever since a got a NEEDLE in my fucking eye!” "It's perfectly harmless now," Antimony countered anxiously, eyeing the sword in the other miqo'te's hand. "Please, just calm down." Ulanan spoke as normally as she could, which was quite normal. "Calm down. We are not your enemy." She added a nod to her words. "I was just examining it." Loughree spoke, at once guardingly and warningly. "What do you know?" Antimony sighed, gave Loughree a careful look. "Could you please just put your weapon away. It's not... well, it's rather hard to hold any kind of conversation like that." "With the looming threat of your sword cutting our heads. Yes, quite hard indeed!" Ulanan said. With a huff, Loughree complied, sheathing her sword but keeping her hand on it. Her shield remained on her arm, though. Antimony's ears, which had been pressed back nervously, relaxed away from her head as Loughree sheathed her sword. She ventured a small smile. "There. That's better. Now... ah." She hesitated. "I'm sorry to say, but my answer is still the same. I don't know much more than you, I'm sure." The lalafell pointed one finger to the doll. "There are too many people who could prepare a doll to work like this one did. Any thaumaturge could have done it easily." Scowling, Loughree bit, "You're lying. You're lying to me." "I am not," Antimony huffed, and folded her arms. "Why do you think Antimony knows anything more than you do?" "I didn't expect this from you," Loughree muttered. Her hand flexed on the hilt of the sword. "He won't get me. He can't hurt me. If he leaves me alone, I'll leave you alone. Deal?" Antimony blinked and then stilled. "I'm unsure... why you would tell me this, and not 'him'," she said slowly. "He who? Mitari? I don't think he's smart enough to make this..." Ulanan pondered, looking at the doll. Frowning sharply, Antimony shook her head. "No, it couldn't possibly be Mitari." Loughree shook her head, "Idiots! Why would I blame the person who pulled the needle out of my eye?" "I was correcting Ulanan," Antimony said, frown not moving. "But truly, I don't think threatening me will do you any good. I..." She licked her lips and then sighed. "I've no control over whoever did this." Ulanan pouted. "Why so mysterious? If we 'know' who 'he' is, then use his name. It will be less confusing." Barks at Ulanan, "Don't mock me! Megiddo! Grandfather!" Well, that got Antimony's attention. Her eyes widened, her ears twitched, and her tail fluffed out slightly behind her in surprise. "Grand...father?" She blinked. "But..." Ulanan threw her head back and then frowned. "See? That was clarifying." Loughree looked up to Antimony, her agression plain. But as she blinked at the woman, watching her, her expression softened, if only a modicum. "... You didn't know." Antimony remained silent for some time, looking troubled at a thought. Eventually, she simply stated, "No. I did not." Ulanan added nothing to that. Turns her glare on Ulanan, "And you didn't either?" "I discovered this development just a few moments before you appeared on this door," Ulanan said after a moment. Throwing one last look down the hallway, Loughree stepped into the inn room and shut the door behind her, leaning against it. In the same motion, she dropped her shield, and it thudded loudly to the ground. Despite her earlier ease, Antimony frowned uncertainly as Loughree let herself fully in. "I... am sorry that happened to you, Miss Loughree." Ulanan followed the shield's trajectory and its collision with the ground. She was not impressed by it, and quickly returned here yes to the Brass Blade. Eyes on the floor, Loughree asked neutrally -- her voice no longer threatening or demanding at all -- "Why did you take the doll?" Looking briefly down at Ulanan, Antimony pressed her lips together. She hesitated a moment before, "I... thought I recognized it and wanted it on hand." Ulanan simply looked between the two Miqo'te women. Loughree cursed under her breath. She covered her face with her hands and slid down the door until she was sitting on the floor. For a moment, Antimony stood still, tail swinging indecisively. Then, whatever she had been considering seemed to resolve itself, for she nodded and turned to make for the sink across the room and filled a nearby glass with water. Ulanan felt awkward. What was the social norm for crying people? She quickly remembered. "Why did he do this?" Apparently, she quickly forgot, too. Glass of water in hand, Antimony returned to Loughree and slowly knelt before her. Loughree was quiet for a few moments, just hiding her face. When Ulanan spoke, she said, "It's... complicated. Stupid. You don't know anything? Nothing at all?" "I'm not sure what you expect us to know, Miss Loughree," Antimony replied, doing her best to keep her tone calm, soothing. She held the glass in front of Loughree. "Here. Take a moment." “I'm afraid we don't. I'm sorry." Ulanan said. Keeping one hand over her eye, she reached out with the other and took the water, muttering a "Thank you," and then saying, "I don't know. I thought... It would've been convenient." Watching Loughree for a moment, Antimony nodded slowly. "I understand." A pause. "Ah, it's just... I don't quite know what I can do for you now, Miss Loughree." She frowned at a thought and then added with some disbelief, "Granddaughter." She held the water in one armored hand, but just held it. He lay her head back against the door, hand on her face, and said, "If I could just sit here for a minute. I haven't been sleeping since... This isn't the first time this has happened." Antimony's ears twitched and she managed a soft smile to the other woman. "Alright. Though, I don't think you have anything to worry about here." "Take your time. Would you like me to lend you my room? I reckon it will be more comfortable than the Blades' barracks, and you can sleep without worry there." "It doesn't matter where I sleep," Loughree groaned. "He'll find me when I'm alone, and that's when... It doesn't matter if I'm home, or at an inn, or even apparently how far I go. He'll find me." "Try not to work yourself up," Antimony soothed, placing a hand on Loughree's shoulder. Her features are also worried, though, expression directed inward. "Perhaps... Ah, if I had thought to ask him earlier..." She sighed. "There's no sense in worrying about what could have been done." Ulanan interjected. She looked at Loughree. "The Quicksand is filled with adventurers and mercenaries. Your gradnfather would be a fool to strike you here without preparation. You should be able to be safe here for at least a day." Looking through the fingers of her gauntlet with one teary, blood-shot eye, Loughree gave Antimony a suspicious glare for a moment. Then she hid her face again, muttering to Ulanan, "I'm not betting my life on it." And then, to Antimony, "Ask who? What?" "I don't think you'd have to. You will be safe here for a time." Then Antimony paused, catching the other miqo'te's final questions. She furrowed her brow in confusion. "Megiddo, of course." Ulanan folded her arms. Lifting her head from the door and dropped her hand from her gaze, Loughree growled, "What?" Her ears shifted back somewhat as Antimony echoed, "What?" Ulanan grimaced at the ensuing confusion. "We met a man named Megiddo. A duskwight" she explained. "In Pearl Lane, when he was buying a doll from one of the merchants. He said it was for his granddaughter." A hand raised, gesturing to Antimony. "That's why she thought she had seen the doll before." The Brass Blade seemed to spasm, knocking the glass of water off her lap and to the floor. She pulls her shield up to chest-level, both hands on it. A stream of tears that had been contained behind her eyepatch broke loose in a torrent down her cheek. She leveled Ulanan with a fierce glare, "You said you didn't know anything!" And then she turned that glare on Antimony, "That's what you said!" "I didn't!" Antimony exclaimed, leaning back slightly from the violent explosion on Lough's part. Her tail sweeps anxiously behind her. "I mean--I didn't know that... I had no way of knowing it was related until... well." "When a Duskwight speaks of family, you imagine other duskwights." Ulanan started. "We didn't know until you mentioned him by name just a moment ago." "Bullshit!" Loughree barked, pushing herself to her feet, "You're lying! What do you know!" "We are not lying," Antimony stated firmly and got to her feet as well, crossing her arms. Her tail gave away her nerves, but she kept her posture stubborn. "You see that we've only helped you here." Ulanan kept her arms folded, but was otherwise relaxed. "I'm sorry, but it's true. There's nothing else we can tell you about him because we don't know.." Trembling where she stood, Loughree's face scrunched up in anger, showing her teeth to Ulanan, "That's shit!" She took a few breaths, shouted at Antimony, "It's shit!" A deep growl began in her chest, build for a brief moment, and when it broke free, the tall Miqote threw her shiled at the legs of a table across the room, far past Antimony and Ulanan. There was a loud crash of metal and wood. Loughree threw her hands over her face and fell back against the door, dropping to the floor again. She wailed, "I just want to be left alone!" Antimony flinched as the shield crashed past them and, most likely, caused some serious damage to her room that she didn't want to think about paying for just yet. At least it hadn't been aimed at her head, or Ulanan's. Something in Loughree's tone caused her ears to twitch and she leaned forward and slightly to one side so that she could look at Loughree's profile, swallowed once, and then said with a reasonable smile, "As I said, you're welcome to stay here for the time. No one will hurt you." "I can keep watch." Ulanan offered. "And if I see him, I will have some very stern words with him." Loughree sat wordlessly with her hands clutching at her head, hiding her face from view. Her tail was puffed up so it was wider than her leg, and it shivered when Ulanan spoke. Loughree laughed and said, "Yes, tell him that he's being rude and I'm sure he'll apologize and just go away!" "It has worked before," Antimony mused to herself, humorless. She shook her head. "Regardless, I've every confidence you will be alright in this room, at least for now." She let her expression soften, and she bent down to set a hand on Loughree's shoulder. "It will give you a chance to sleep, and with sleep you will feel better." Ulanan said nothing more. She just frowned and gave a passive-agressive disapproving gaze to the floor. Not reacting to Antimony's hand on her shoulder in any meaningful way, Loughree hummed, "Only if I trust you." "You've no reason not to," Antimony replied in a measured tone. "I, ah, apologize for the incident at the fountain earlier." Loughree hummed and let her hands fall into her lap again. "Whatever. If he wanted to run off with me I'd have gone with him, too. Sorry I put you in a cell and then almost died in front of you. I bet that was annoying." Ulanan nodded sagely. Pushing out a rather weak chuckle, Antimony gave Loughree's shoulder a soft pat. "It seems you've recovered at least, which is encouraging. Now, do you wish to stay here for now? I will get us all some food if so." Loughree frowned at Ulanan, "Only if she doesn't try to pick any fights with me this time." Ulanan smiled. "I won't." "I don't know if I trust you," Lou muttered, before averting her gaze to the door. "Alright, I'll stay here. One night. But don't think I'm just going to let you be charitable. I'll pay you back." "Good," Antimony straightened with a short, matter-of-fact nod. "The food will simply go on my tab for now, so don't worry." She cast a brief, apologetic smile at Ulanan. "You don't need to stay, if you don't wish, once I've returned." Then she slipped out the door, shutting it softly behind her. Lou, who had been leaning against the door, scooted out of its way rather pathetically. "What can you tell me about your grandfather?" Ulanan asked once Antimony was out of the room. Watching the door close, Lou turned her gaze back to Ulanan and frowned at her. Her one exposed eye narrowed in suspicion, and she said, "Why?" "I am curious about what kind of person would try to murder his own family." the lalafell answered flatly. Scoffing, Loughree stood up. "It's a family tradition." She looked around, and balked at the sight of the mess she made. Cursing, she knelt to pick up the glass of water she'd thrown down.

The following day… Antimony walked with her head down, carrying yet another one of those ubiquitous envelopes. She was either watching it or her feet, but either way she wasn’t paying particular attention to where she was going, and a small frown pulled at her features. A heavily armored man stepped forward towards the inn. At least he hoped. He had meant to catch a certain woman there to apologize for his sudden vanishing act yesterday. But he had something he had to do now. As he stepped up, he almost completely missed the very kitten he was going to miss. He almost bumped into her and sharply stepped out of the walk, looking to the woman. "Antimony?" he questioned, surprised to have run into her. Antimony paused mid-step, which looked rather comical, and angled her head to glance curiously to her left. "Mm? Ah... hello? Can I help you?" Mitari chuckled faintly and pulled his helmet off. With a small shake of his head he tucked the helmet under his arm, mindful of the horns and spikey bits and gave a little wave. "I was looking for you just now." Antimony's eyes widened as she did a rather obvious double-take, looking Mitari over from head to toe. "What! How are you... what are you wearing?" Mitari took a moment to show himself off. “It's uh... well it's a dragoon's armor. This is the typical armor set. You didn't think I went around doing mercenary work in those linens did you?” He laughed. Antimony flicked one ear back and kind of chuckled along with Mitari for a second before amending, "Well, I... you did say you were having trouble finding work." Mitari grinned sheepishly in return and gave a little shrug. "Ah, well. Yes. Doesn't mean I get no work either." Antimony hugged the envelope to her chest and cleared her throat. "I, ah, apologize for the assumption. Or... well." She hesitated. "... How are you feeling?" Mitari frowned at the question and looked to the ground. "Well enough... but I think... I am going to go back to Coerthas." Antimony's ears pricked up. "Already?" She blinked. "I mean, that's wonderful! I... think? You found work then?" Mitari looked away, sulking. “Not... quite.” Antimony winced. “Oh no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... well, I'm sure you have very good reasons!” “N-no I mean... just... your um... friend... I want to go back and become more than just an honorary knight.” Antimony watched Mitari for a moment and then smiled sadly. "I see. I'm... sorry, he shouldn't have said that. It wasn't... well, it was a judgment that was unfair of him to make." Mitari’s ears flattened a bit, his tail swishing irritably behind him. "No I.. I'm not... I'm just as good. Even better than a real dragoon but... I don't... I don't officially have the title. They're just... so stubborn. No matter how I prove myself they won't admit I could be one. " Mitari explained, frustration clear in his voice. Antimony frowned and stepped forward, lifting one arm to rest her hand a bit awkwardly on Mitari's shoulder - or, a spot on it that wasn't too pointy. The miqo’te blinked and looked to her hand, and then to her face. “Do not place your own value below the approval of others,” she began, expression soft. “Especially those who have so far been unkind.” Mitari smiled weakly at Anti and gave a sort of half-hearted laugh. "Ah but... even your friend was so quick to..." He paused, ears falling and face turning away sadly. Antimony half smiled and then chuckled a bit embarrassed, "Besides, with the way you leapt about the other morning, I'm sure you have nothing to prove to them that they don't already know. Their own stubbornness doesn't deserve your worry." Mitari blushed faintly, a bit embarrassed but happy for the praise. "Ah... thanks. I've been learning ever since I was a kit." “It showed! I've never seen anything like it.” “You'd be amazed at what some of the others can do. And there's nothing in Eorzea quite like fighting a dragon.” Antimony paused, and her features softened again. "You should go to Coerthas only if it's for yourself. Those Ish... whoever they are--" she waved her other hand holding the envelope, "they don't matter." “I... it... it is for me. I have to... I have a promise I have to fufill there. I had thought I had done it but... maybe not.” Antimony smiled at that. “There. That's a fine reason! Just... take care of yourself, yes?” Mitari nodded, “I'll try. And, can you do me just one more favor?” Antimony's ears quirked curiously. "Of course." “I had... have... maybe, a sister. When I lost my family, I don't know what happened to her. I never found a body. She might have been captured or sold off. I don't know but. Her name was Cherishen. She looks similar to me with white hair and gold eyes. If you hear anything about someone with that description...” Antimony's brow furrowed with a pensive look and then, rather without warning, she tightened her grip on Mitari's shoulder and pulled him in for a - somewhat awkward with the armor - hug, patting him with one hand. "I certainly will. I'm so sorry something like that happened to you." Mitari Xerxes awkwardly blinked as he was pulled into a somehow... maternal hug? He smiled weakly after a second and tried not to stab her with his armor. "It's okay. It happened a long time ago now. But... if she didn't die before or in the Calamity, she might have been freed so... I stopped looking a few years back but... I think I will start my search again. So just send me a letter to Coerthas if you hear anything." Antimony Jhanhi pulls back somewhat and nods, then, with a look of confusion, "How would I get a letter to you all the way up in Coerthas?" Antimony Jhanhi: Do you have a... well, is there somewhere you stay? Mitari looked thoughtful for a moment. “You could send it to the Observatorium. There's an inn there I've made use of before. So, that's probably where I'll be again.” Antimony smiled and squeezed his shoulder, realized he probably couldn't feel that through the armor, and so let her hand drop to his elbow. "The Observatorium," she committed it to memory, lingered with a sad look for a moment, and then, "Very well. I wish you the best of luck in fulfilling your promise, whatever it is." Mitari nodded. “Thank you for all your help. I um... hope we could keep in touch. Is there somewhere I could send you letters?” Antimony returned her arms to her own personal space, folding them across the envelope. “Ah, well, I've got some time before I finish this work in Ul'dah, I think. After that, I'll be returning home, to Limsa.” “Do you have a home in Limsa?” Antimony nodded and smiled. "It's not much, but yes! You're... well, I suppose if you ever are around, you're welcome to visit." Mitari blushed. “Ah, a-alright. Maybe I'll stop by if I'm ever in Limsa.” “I'll put some real food in you, for once. If your eating habits I've seen so far are anything to go by...” Mitari laughed. “They're pretty bad.” Antimony pursed her lips disapprovingly. "So I've observed. I've heard it's quite cold up north. You must promise to take better care of yourself in those elements." Mitari motioned to himself. “This armor is surprisingly warm. But I'll try. Sometime you'll have to come up and make sure a dragon didn't eat me.” He let out a laugh. Antimony's eyes widened. "A... dragon?" Mitari nodded. “Of course. That's what I'll be fighting up north.” Antimony's fingers twitched around the envelope she held, her ears swooping back worriedly. For a long moment, she looked conflicted over something and then, finally, sighed. "If you must." “Of course. A dragoon fights dragons. If I want to ever fufill my promise, I need to fight them.” Antimony's tail swished behind her in agitation, and she added, "Then you must make doubly--no, triply sure to take care of yourself. And... perhaps don't rush the journey, while your head recovers." Mitari chuckled a bit and knocked on the top of his head lightly. "It's fine. I'll be wearing a helmet. I'll be fine." Antimony just sighed again and nodded. "Very well." Mitari carefully put his helmet back and and knocked up the visor. "You take care too. I have a feeling you worry so much about others you forget to take care of yourself. So don't forgot to take some time for you too." “Oh, I'll be alright. I've got Ulanan and... well. As long as I don't die of olive poisoning, I will be fine!” She chuckled faintly. “Why are all your friends so obsessed with olives by the way?” Antimony waved one hand. "It's only Ulanan, and I'm... not exactly sure. But there it is." Mitari shrugged. “Well, take care to eat some other things besides olives and bread okay?” Antimony smiled warmly. "I will." A pause, and then, "I... should be on my way. Unfortunately my work... well, schedules are unforgiving." Mitari nodded. “Thank you. For everything. Take care Antimony...” “And you.” Antimony turned as Mitari bid a quiet farewell, and continued on the direction she'd been heading, tail hanging low.

Antimony Jhanhi emerged from the inn rooms at the back of the Quicksand alongside Mitari, eyeing him carefully and critically as they went and rattling off a series of pointed questions, "And you're certain you feel balanced for walking? How are the lights affecting you? Any more signs of dizziness?" Mitari sighed as he followed Antimony out into the quiet tavern. He pushed his hands into his pockets, smiling a bit wryly. "Good enough." he replied casually as he glanced around. "It'll be fine." Antimony narrowd her eyes, not quite convinced. "I want you to eat something first. If you can keep it down, then you will be fine." Mitari smiled again at Anti and rubbed the back of his head. "Really, you don't need to make a fuss over some hobo like me you know." “You say that as though "some hobo" means your health doesn't matter,” she huffed. Mitari shrugged. “Doesn't really.” Antimony folded her arms across her chest, frowning. Then she would try another approach. "If that is the way you want to see it, then alright. I spent all night ensuring you didn't fall into a coma on accident. The least you can do is make sure my efforts weren't for naught. Or are you that thankless?" The miqo’te’s skin flushed deeply at that. “That's... I mean... not... n-no. I'm not. Thank you.” Antimony lifted her chin slightly. "Good. In that case, you'll see about eating, and /then/ you can go pretend your health doesn't matter." Ulanan very rudely, yet with a very polite demeanor and smile, stood between the two Miqo'te. Not close enough to be between them, but close enough to invade their field of views. “Hello!” Mitari grinned faintly, his ears flattening to his head with embarrassment. "Ah.. yes. Okay then." he agreed, completely and totally missing the fact that a Lalafell had stepped between them. At least until it spoke, at which point he staggered with shock. Antimony also hadn't noticed Ulanan - poor lalas! - until she spoke, at which point her ears twitched rather strangely before she looked down. “Ah, Ulanan! When did you... well. You're quiet today...” Mitari gave Ulanan a thoughtful look. “I'd say the city is seemingly siezed by sizzling. Who's your friend?” Ulanan smiled at Mitari. Mitari recognized the name Ulanan after a few moments and looked nervously towards Anti for an explanation. “Siezed by... what? Oh, ah, this is...” Antimony seemed to struggle for a moment before exclaiming, "Mitari! Yes. Good morning, Ulanan." “Pleased to meet you, mister Mitari.” Ulanan raised one hand in greeting. Mitari Xerxes cleared his throat faintly and raised his own hand in greeting. "Uh, pleasure to meet you too Ulanan..." Antimony looked between them both for a moment before saying a bit uselessly, "She is a friend. She came to Ul'dah with me." “So you said before.” Ulanan looked at Antimony. “I came to invite you to have breakfast with me, if you are not busy.” Antimony's tail shifted behind her and she smiled. "Oh, perfect. I'd just been impressing upon Mitari the importance of eating." A pause. "Ah, that is, if you don't mind a third...?" “Well, do you like olives, Mitari?” “Eh? Olivies? Erm... I suppose so.” Antimony gained an odd look and stifled something that could've been a laugh. Ulanan Ulan clapped her hands together once, despite what the universe might convey. Mitari looked suspiciously between the two but said nothing. “Then it's no trouble at all. Shall we find a table?” Ulanan declared, and Mitari stepped back and motioned for the ladies to go first. Antimony clasped her hands behind her, looking pleased, and nodded. A moment later, she moved forward, towards the seating area. She managed to snag a table that's relatively isolated from the main tavern area and took a seat after a moment, watching Mitari with a critical eye once more. Ulanan walked around the table and, after nodding pleasingly at its shape and materials, she climbed on it. Mitari looked from Antimony to Ulanan and dragged a third chair to the table before sitting down himself. Antimony's ears tilted as Mitari sat down. "Still no dizziness? Any weakness in you extremities?" “Eh? Oh um. No.” Mitari was not a very good liar and something was bothering him, but he didn’t move to say anything about it. “Is he ill?” Ulanan questioned. Antimony frowned and didn’t respond to Ulanan's question immediately, instead insisting, "You realize if you strain yourself too quickly, you could die?" She said this with a very straight, serious face. Ulanan raised both brows and looked at Mitari with curiosity. The miqo’te's ears flattened against his head again and he looked past Antimony instead of at her. "So you said. All night long." “All night long?” Ulanan echoed. “Precisely. And I was correct every time.” “...every time?” Ulanan looked throughly confused. “I didn't say you weren't right. You were. Just that I already know it since you said it all night,” came the somewhat grumpy reply. Antimony blinked at Ulanan. "What?" After a moment, the lalafell tried another route, “Ahm...we should order food. I recommend tea, bread, butter and olives. Or deep fried bread sticks! Fried in olive oil, naturally.” “Um,” Mitari began, “I hate to be the freeloader here but... I'm a freeloader. I don't have any gil on me.” “It's alright,” Antimony assured. “There's enough in my budget for incidentals.” She just would have to fudge exactly what this incidental was. “Ah... thank you.” Antimony thought for a moment and then added to Mitari, "If you do not feel alright, you must tell me." Mitari frowned faintly and shook his head no. "I will tell you. But i'm fine right now." Ulanan got the attention of an invisible waitress by standing on the chair and raising a hand. She ordered two toasts, two fried sticks, three teas and a "big sized bowl of olives". The invisible waitress wrote down the order and left with a nod. “What is exactly your ailment, mister Mitari?” She questioned afterward. Antimony frowned at Mitari for several more seconds, though not a mean frown, more of a worried one. Then she sighed and offered a small smile at Ulanan, "Ah, thank you. I was a little distracted." Catching Ulanan’s question, she looked strangely conflicted. Mitari's ears once again pressed back against his head. What was he going to say about this? "I got hit in the head. Antimony has been nice enough to take care of me." he finally settled on. Nice and vague. “Ah, yes. Just a bit of an accident. Nothing to worry about!” Antimony grimaced. “And you nursed him all night?” “Head injuries require a great deal of attention early on.” Antimony pressed her lips together briefly, her tail whacking against her chair. Mitari sat awkwardly between the two women and said nothing. “Right! I don't know anything about medicine. But that's very kind of you!” Antimony nodded at that, then hesitated and added, "It was the least I could do." A pause. "Not... that I would only be interested in doing the least... ah, curse that saying..." Mitari laughed. “It's fine. You've done a lot for me already. Thanks.” Antimony sighed, fidgeting her hands in her lap. Ulanan rubbed the bridge of her nose and after a moment, “So what do you dedicate yourself to, mister Mitari?” Mitari flicked his ears up and back down, trying get to comfortable. At least before immediately becoming uncomfortable. "Uh... well... I had dedicated it to becoming a full-fledged dragoon. But I finally accomplished that a few months ago and now I'm just... wandering." “A what?” Antimony furrowed her brow in confusion. “A dragoon,” Mitari repeated. “That sounds quite interesting!” Ulanan offered. “Why don't you tell us more about that?” She smiled. Antimony's ears swooped back in mild embarrassment. "Ah, I don't think I've ever heard of..." Ulanan smiled at Mitari again. “Dragoons are some kind of knight from Ishgard. Are you Ishgardian?” Antimony blinked at Ulanan, then at Mitari. "Eh?" Mitari blinked in surprise. Had people really never heard of them? “Well when I was a kid, my sister and I were rescued by a Dragoon. So I decided I wanted to be one. They're elite soilders of Ishguard. Hard to become one when you're not Ishguardian but, I managed.” Antimony's ears went lopsided. "Well, I suppose that stick you carry around is a rather fancy thing, but it still looks just like a spear, and... well, I know these Ishgardians aren't the only ones who know how to use spears!" Mitari smirked a bit and stood up from his chair. "Yes, but most people can't jump like I can." And as if to demonstrate, he jumped clear to the ceiling and almost across the room before jumping back. Antimony Jhanhi yelps in surprise, leaning back in her chair at the sudden action. "That is..." “If you do that in here they'll throw you out,” came a new voice from somewhere behind Antimony. Ulanan was about to say something about jumping and dragon hunting, but Mitari's jump intercepted her words. Mitari caught sight of an elderly Duskwight a short distance away and blushed with embarrassment. “Oh, right. Erk. Well.. too late now.” He sat down and tried to look very small and unassuming as if he hadn't just jumped about the entire room. Ulanan leaned to a side to look at the intruding Duskwight, holding her beret with one hand. She frownd. Antimony straightened very sharply at that voice and looked suddenly uncomfortable. The Duskwight smiled. "I understand the temptation of young men with able legs to jump. But temperance is far more difficult to obtain, and better-appreciated." Mitari coughed awkwardly, sensing some strangeness with the ladies at the table. "Um... yes well. Sorry. I'll g-go then. Stop being a bother I guess..." he mumbled, standing and scooting away from the table. Antimony's eyes widened then and she turned towards Mitari, "What? No! You can't go yet!" The miqo’te flinched. “E-erm... okay. Right then...” “We haven't had breakfast yet,” Ulanan explained. “Don't let a man ruin your appetite.” Antimony Jhanhi winced. Mitari mumbled something as he sat about going without eating being the usual breakfast but let it drop quickly and said nothing. The old Duskwight stepped up and leaned on the partition to his right, musing to himself, "Did I lecture? I must be getting old." Antimony managed after a moment a somewhat weak, "Ah, good morning to you, as well, Megiddo.” Mitari looked to Antimony. She knew him? Did everyone know one another here or something? He felt very odd and somewhat like an outsider... although, he mused that he was always an outsider as the only people he was 'in' with were dead. Ulanan pointed at Megiddo. “You are getting old. Want some breakfast?” Megiddo let the smile slip back onto his face and replied to Ulanan, "Only if there are olives. Which, knowing you..." He paced over towards the table, guiding his old, hunched frame along the partition. He put a hand on Antimony's chair, "Good morning, Antimony. You sound troubled." Antimony frowned, ears pressing back. "Ah, it's... well." Whatever she was trying to say failed her, so she just went silent for a moment. “You should find a chair Megiddo,” Ulanan offered. “Oh, and this is Mitari. Mitari, Megiddo. Megiddo, Mitari. Don't mind all the ems in your names.” She gestured to each in turn. Megiddo moved over between the table and the partition, leaning back. "If I sit down, there's no telling if I'll be able to get back up." He looked over at Mitari, "Good morning. You jump quite high for an injured man." Mitari grinned awkwardly at Megiddo and rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah well. Yeah." Antimony folded her hands in her lap, weaving her fingers together, then unweaving them, then weaving them again. She looked sideways at Megiddo, offered a brief smile, and then, "Shouldn't the food have gotten here by now?" “You need to work on the art of sitting and getting up, Megiddo.” Ulanan shrugged. “Some arts are much too grand for me to master in the time I've left, Ulanan. Such as, sitting. Furthermore, though, getting up.” Mitari Xerxes quietly noticed a somehow nervous static around Antimony. He wondered what would have caused it, and he could only think he was caused by Megiddo. Although, he had no idea why or what. “In any case...do you like toasts?” Ulanan waved again to the waitress, making some obscure hand gestures and frowning heavily at her. Probably because of the delayed food. Eventually, the invisible waitress returned! She served the invisible food. Toasts, a bowl of olives, some fried bread sticks and some butter. Then she left, invisible as she was. “Well...enjoy! And don't eat too fast,” the lalafell cautioned. Megiddo took a peice of toast and three olives. "I hope I took the poisoned one." Antimony looked over the food for a moment before also retrieving a piece of toast for herself, and a small pat of butter. At Megiddo's words, she winced. "Why, ah, why would you hope that?" Mitari carefully looked to the small feast on the table. It all smelled so good... he reached for a breakstick and carefully ate it, making sure it was okay to do so and that he wasn't getting dirty looks. Ulanan was too worried about placing olives on her own food to throw dirty, or clean, looks at anyone. “I can't tell if you are saying we are trying to poison you or that someone is trying to poison us. Both of them would be strange,” the lalafell commented. Megiddo offered Antimony one of those good-natured wry old man smiles. "It's a joke. I'm hoping for an especially bitter olive." Antimony took a careful breath and then just replied, "Oh." Ulanan bit into her toast. "What brought you to Ul'dah, mister Mitari? I don't think dragoons are common around these ceruleum and blood stained lands." Mitari bit into a breakshit and paused when Ulanan addressed him. "Oh.." he quickly finished munching and swallowed. "No. They're not. Mostly up north but... just... wandering I suppose." He shrugged at Ulanan. “It seems a very, ah, common past time,” Antimony noted uncertainly. “Oschon has a broad selection of wanderers across the world,” said Ulanan with a smile. “What I wonder,” Megiddo mused, “is why someone who succeeds at becoming a dragoon is not otherwise employed or conscripted for his many obvious uses.” “Too many adventurers running around stealing all the work,” he shrugged. “That and I don't really look to terribly reputable. Heh. No one seems interested in hiring someone like me long term. It's a struggle.” Megiddo shook his head, and observed, "Nno. A Miqo'te does not become an honored knight of the most racist nation in Eorzea and then get put out of work by adventurers." “Maybe if you liberated your limbs from that loathsome linen...” Ulanan muttered. Mitari coughed awkwardly as his ears flattened against his head. "Well... more like... It's just... you know... Not ALL of the houses like me. I'm only a Dragoon Knight for one of them. What's wrong with my clothing?” “It's linen!” Ulanan gestured in annoyance. Megiddo took an olive on a ride aboard the toast, straight to his mouth. Mmmm olives. “What's wrong with linen?” Antimony blinked at that, gave Mitari a curious look, and ventured, "Why couldn't this... house provide you with work?" “What house?” He looked to her. “The Ishgardian house? Oh. Well simply put, I'm an outsider. They don't want me there as much as possible.” Ulanan let her hate of linen drop, though she frowned heavily at the matter. Her head turned to face forward and focused on biting her toast with disguised anger. “I'm more like a knight of honor than an actual knight. But I got the soulstone and training and armor which was all good enough for me.” At his words, Antimony frowned. Megiddo chewed for a disproportionate amount of time and then said, "I do not mean to interrogate. I believe that Oschon brings people to me that I might get to know them. You story is odd, Mitari." “Eh well... I'm odd I guess.” “Not... not too much so! In a bad way. You're fine,” Antimony hastily reassured, looking anxious. “Except for the linen,” Ulanan Ulan muttere while chewing. Antimony paused and then added out of the blue to Mitari, "Eat more." Mitari muttered something about his clothing being fine and his armor being much better looking before munching on another piece of bread. Megiddo bent the toast around the remaining olives. "The part that doesn't make sense, is where you, alone, against type, become an honored knight of Ishgard. And are sent away. It doesn't make sense." Mitari thought for a moment while eating. True. It didn't really make sense. Then again... "Well.. not really honored knight. And not really of Ishguard. More like... honoary Knight of a house of Ishguard to make me get the hell away from camping outside their door. Also for helping them with an ambush." “Ishgardians are a complex people,” Ulanan offered. “They hate outsiders, but relly on them more often than they'd like. I'm not surprised they would train a man and then abandon him once he is no longer useful. Or until they need him again.” Megiddo hummed. After a moment, he said, "You are not a dragoon. How disappointing." Antimony gave Megiddo a sharp look, "That wasn't called for." Mitari opened his mouth to argue but shut it again and let his ears flatten againt his head. "I'm as close to one as I can get..." he mumbled mostly to himself before standing. "I'm going to get some... fresh air. I'll be back..." “Wha... Ah, Mitari! You shouldn't--” Antimony stood suddenly, turning as though to follow him. Megiddo hummed, a bit in confusion, and muttered, "He took that a great deal differently than I expected him to." “That was mean, Megiddo,” Ulanan said with some disapproval. “Hnn! He still isn't--I haven't yet--gah!” With a gesture of frustration, Antimony hastened to go after the retreating miqo'te. Megiddo looked over at Antimony as she left, saying quickly, "Yes, perhaps. I didn’t mean... Good, chase after him. Offense was not my intention." Ulanan frowned at the situation and stuffed more olives on top of a toast, then placed a toast on top of that one. “I guess sitting and getting up is not the only thing you are too old to train for.” *** By the time Antimony made it outside of the Quicksand, there was no sign of Mitari in its immediate vicinity. Wringing her hands, she looked up and down the street, even – after recalling the wild way he’d jumped about – up towards the roof of the tavern, but he was nowhere to be found. This unsettled her for a number of reasons, and she found herself entirely unwilling to return to the table with Ulanan and Megiddo. Especially the latter. She felt awful over just about everything and so instead decided to take a walk. *** Megiddo pondered, and dropped into the seat in front of Ulanan, toast still in-hand. "I've also been wondering, Ulanan. What you do to keep busy." Ulanan smiled at Megiddo. “I joined the Adventurer's Guild. I sometimes drop by and take jobs from them when I'm in need of money or to keep me busy.” “An unexpected job for such a tiny, harmless creature. I'm sure they never run out of work for you.” “I'm sure your line of work has an endless amount of tasks to be taken care of, too.” Megiddo sighed and leaned forward, "I try to avoid work, which is fine. I've been all but unemployable since Gridania, you see. My time is now spent pursuing personal interests more befitting my age." Ulanan bit the improvised toast-olive-sandwich. She took a tiny bite out of it; the rest basically crumbles. “Running into Antimony constantly is befitting to your age?” Megiddo chuckled, smiling, "More on the side of wandering aimlessly. You'll have to blame Oschon for that. And besides. How do you know it is not you that Oschon is constantly pulling me towards." “That is an interesting theory. We should run an experiment on it.” “What kind of experiment, Ulanan?” “It's an easy one,” the lalafell nodded. “At some point in time, I will have to leave Antimony's side. When that happens, we'll see where your feet lead you to.” Megiddo laughed at that. "Hm. I find it interesting that you never do leave her side. Why is it that you follow her so obsessively?" “It's not an obsession.” Ulanan did not hold back in expressing clear annoyance with Megiddo. “She's just in the road I take, so why not?” “Hm. Sounds familiar.” Megiddo stood from the table, the process taking great effort. "Thank you for breakfast. I'll leave so that Antimony may return and keep you company." Ulanan looked towards the exit. She sighed. “I don't think she'll be coming back. Have a good day, Megiddo!” Megiddo hummed in response, but said nothing, and walked off, hunched over like a poorly-supported scarecrow.

Antimony took her time guiding Mitari to the Quicksand. It occurred to her that it might make more sense to find a local physician instead, but she had never quite trusted the medicine of the city-folk. Their practices were strange and, in her view, not nearly as thorough, and so rather than wander about Ul'dah with a potentially concussed Mitari, she took him directly to the room she'd been renting out for over a week now at the Quicksand. She only hoped Ulanan did not stop by for a visit right now. It would necessitate some rather awkward explanations. Getting the door open was a challenge, as her arms were busy both helping Mitari stay upright, as well as maintain a hold on the tattered doll. Thinking of the deadly object left her tail shivering in disturbed confusion, and the door swung open with a bit more force than intended, revealing a basic, one-bed room with a small desk table and two chairs on one side, and a sink on the other. The table was covered in numerous papers, including the envelope she had been carrying earlier. At the foot of hte bed, there lay a pack with the various supplies she'd brought with her for travel. "Easy now, I'm going to help you lay down," she broke the silence that had settled over the both of them for the duration of the trip. She kept her voice low and quiet, as soothing as possible, as she guided Mitari to the bed. "No sudden movements." If he were being completely honest, Mitari had no idea what was really happening as his head was hurting far too much for him to care about it. If he were being the somewhat cocky guy he usually was, he would just saying he was getting a free trip to a lady's room. Luckily, he was the former rather than the latter. Mitari half-helped hold himself up, using his lance like a walking stick. It was particularly useful for that at least. The shift from bright daylight to a colder darker room was a welcome one, and he could only grumble something unintelligible to even himself as she spoke to him. Laying himself down was fairly easily, although probably less smooth than Anti would have liked as the moment his head was securely on the bed he pretty much went limp and flopped the rest of the way down. Still, his hand gripped his lance tightly and refused to let it go, holding it like a crutch or a child holding their blanket. Antimony wince, hovering by the bed for a moment before stepping over to the table. She considered trying to gather everything up - almost all of it was classified to some degree - but hearing Mitari's faint shifting on the bed dragged her to a different action. Instead, she set the headless doll down at the edge of the table, eyeing it uncomfortably for several seconds, before moving over to her pack at the foot of the bed. "Do not allow yourself to sleep," she cautioned as she rummaged around. From the bottom of the pack, she pulled out a small, flat-ish wooden box that rattled when she lifted it. This she set to the side before crossing the room to the sink and wetting the rag hung nearby. She sighed as she wrung it out, ears drooping. "I'm sorry all of... this happened. I never thought... well." She smoothed over her anxious features as she turned back to Mitari and moved over to his bed, picking up the box along the way and then sitting down on the edge next to him. "Roll onto your side, if you can. You hit the back of your head, yes?" Far before Anti warned not to let himself sleep, he was already half-way there. He fell asleep easily on comfortable beds and dark rooms after all. It was only natural to start falling asleep whne he was finally laying down. He heard a muffled demand not to sleep and faintly roused himself, but not very much. There was some sort of muffled apology of some sorts as well and a silence hung between them after she stopped speaking. It really wasn't her fault. He wasn't sure why she insisted it was. Regardless, he carelessly rolled himself over further onto the bed and groaned at the movement. He didn't deal very well with head pain. Needless dramatics probably, but for him, any pain in his head felt like the end of the world. He simply didn't know a good way to deal with it. With his back to Antimony, he pulled his lance close to his body and hugged it. It was his lance damnit. That stupid lady couldn't have it. Antimony frowned vaguely at the miqo'te's grip on the lance, but it wasn't getting in the way just yet, so she didn't comment. Instead, she shifted on the edge of the bed until she could reach over him, moving her fingers through his hair at the back of his head and searching for any open wounds. Closing her eyes, she let out a slow breath and focused on something she hadn't really looked for in five years: another person's aether. She couldn't manipulate it, but she had learned to sense it, and it helped guide her search to an angry knot at the base of his skull. His aether, a warm, tingling sense, was agitated there, but not disrupted - a very minor concussion at worst. Her touch was practiced and gentle, that of a mother well used to dealing with bumps and bruises and scrapes. "No bleeding, at least," and she forced a small smile at that. "A pretty sizeable bump, though. I can prepare something that will reduce the swelling." She pulled her hands from his head and moved to try and pry his hands from the lance. "One of the needles got you, didn't they?" She suppressed a shiver, recalling the way the doll's head had exploded, peppering Loughree's face with dark metal. It had been a very long time since he felt that kind of touch. A mother's touch, searching for bruises and small injuries to make them better. The way Antimony moved her hands through his hair like that, for a moment, he remembered his own mother. But soft memories of her were always sharply polluted by her death. By her last words, words he was failing to live up to. "No, it was when I was pushed." Mitari interrupted his dark thoughts of an ancient time with Anti's question. He still held right to his lance, but shifted his hand so she could see the needle that had cleanly pierced though his palm. The skin around it was red and agitated, but nothing else. Antimony's chest ached for a moment, for a reason she was not willing to face, and so in retaliation to the feeling she smiled again and said simply, "Oh, that's not so bad. Can you move your fingers?" A pause and then lower, "I hope Miss Loughree is alright." As she spoke, she took his hand in her own, dabbing at the skin around the entry and exit point with the damp cloth to soften the skin there and clean up the bits of blood. The needle wasn't very wide in diameter, so the wound itself was not small, but removing it would still hurt. She frowned at the needle, again thinking back to the doll, only this time, she remembered it in the blue, wrinkled hands of an old Duskwight. A friend. Her tail twitched against the bed. Mitari unfurled his hand and curled it back open, showing that he indeed could move it with relative ease. It opened it again as Anti set upon cleaning the wound and presumably removing the needle. He wasn't sure where it had even come from. Something about a doll was all he heard both those screams... Mitari frowned and cast a hazy eye towards Antimony. "You don't need to do this." He mumbled. "Of course I do," Antimony replied, almost defensively. She did not give Mitari warning when she removed the needle, pulling it out swiftly in a single motion and then pressing down on the small wound with the cloth. She tugged at his other hand with a, "Hold this here for now," and opened the box she'd set aside. Inside there came multi-layered scents of herbs of various kinds. Resting atop them was a small pillar of bone that had been carved into the rough likeness of a miqo'te. The carving she took in one hand, looked at it for some time, before letting out a low sigh. "I'm sure Ulanan would call me foolish for bringing a stranger back here, but.. you wouldn't be hurt if I hadn't insisted on attempting to reason with Miss Loughree. It's the least I could do." There was a pause and then, "May I take a strand of your hair?" She really didn't. Mitari was insistent on that idea, but he didn't get the option to argue it as she swiftly pulled the needle out. Mitari bit his lip and muttered a stream of foul words before falling silent again. He did as she pused his arm to do, yet kept the lance close to his form. "Ulanan...?" Mitari pondered aloud before a short and confused, "Sure." She frowned for a moment longer at the bone carving, running her thumb along the fine grooves marking certain details of the figure. She hadn't made use of this since... "A friend who came to Ul'dah with me," she explained, shaking her ears and turning back to Mitari. In as straightforward and swift and action as she'd taken when removing the needle, she reached out and plucked a couple strands of hair from the other miqo'te's head. Hair and carving in hand, she then picked out a couple leaves bearing a pungent, bitter aroma. "I'm sorry, I don't have everything for a complete ritual, but... this should do." Using the hairs as though they were string, she tied one of the leaves to the carving's head, set it down next to Mitari, and then stood to make her way back to the sink, the other leave pinched between her fingers. Mita winced at the pull of his hair. What did she need hair for anyway? So this Ulanan thing was a friend of hers? That was nice. Then again, friends were supposed to be nice. Mitari deflated thinking of that man. Someone he had thought to be a friend but in the end... He blinked wearily and looked towards Antimony. "Ritual...?" He questioned, wondering what the hell she was doing. "You do want to feel better, don't you?" She reminded, as though what she were doing was the most obvious thing in the world - which it really wasn't, but that fact didn't really cross her mind, so ingrained was the habit. There was a cup next to the sink, which she took and filled with water before crushing the leaf between her fingers and dropping it in. Feel better? How did anything she was doing equate with feeling better? But he shut his mouth and just let her do it. It would be rude to do otherwise. "So...when am I supposed to feel better? I've never had a... Uh... Ritual for healing before." Mitari asked very awkwardly. Antimony frowned at the cup, thinking it really should be heated slowly for at least ten minutes, but... she didn't have that kind of equipment. With a sigh she turned around and made her way back to Mitari, offering him a reassuring smile as well as the cup. "Drink this - then just hold the leaf in your mouth for a time. It will ease the headache." "Ummm... Kay." Mita mumbled before sitting up slowly and taking the cup. He gulped down the water and left the leave awkwardly on this tongue. Watching his face closely, Antimony sat down again on the edge of the bed. After several seconds, she seemed satisfied with whatever she was looking for and shifted her attention to his hand. Her own moved to the cloth, seeking to peel it back. "Luckily you won't need stitches," she sighed and added, "But you really shouldn't move around much for at least a day or two." "Pft. And where will I go to not move for that long? If I don't move I don't work and then I don't eat. You think starving to death is better?" Mitari huffed back defensively. He had been a drifter for so long. Sitting still was nice, but it was for people who had Gil. He wasn't one of those people. "It's only for a day or two," Antimony huffed and then hesitated. "I... can cover your meals. It's the least I can do, after what I got you into." Mitari grumbled again and forced himself to try and stand. "No. I can't ask that of you. Not when I was the one who got involved in the first place. It's fine. Thanks for your help." He shot his best cheery smile at Antimony and tried to head for the door. Antimony winced, then as he started to move, launched into a flurry herself, hands going to his shoulders to try and hold him back. "No, I won't abide it! You'll hurt yourself more, and then it will truly be my fault. No, you're not to move!" Mitari winced and fell back onto the bed with a soft 'ooph' when Antimony threw herself at him like a raging... cat. Less like throw and more like grab his shoulder so suddenly his lost his balance and flopped lazily onto the bed. "Oh, come on. I'm the one who got myself into this mess to begin with and you know it. You don't have to cover for me." he grumbled, laying on his side on the bed again, although this time he was half on and half off it. Flinching as he fell back - not quite expecting such a violent result - Antimony looked away and then, after another beat of hesitation, dropped back. "I am sorry," she mumbled. "I was only trying to help, and look at what I've done..." She sighed and forced her posture a bit straighter. "At the very least please try to rest for the remainder of the night - but do not sleep." Mitari grumbled again and sat up, setting his land down on the floor at the edge of the bed. "Sorry, sorry, sorry. Stop apologzing! You've done nothing but be nice to me. So thank you." he smiled somehow grumpily. Her tail twitched anxiously, and she spared a glance towards the table with its mutilated doll, then to the bed. She blinked and dropped to her knees suddenly with a, "Oh no, where did it--" and felt around on the floor beneath the bed. Mitari blinked. What? Somehow this really... killed the non exsistant mood? Her search didn't last long as her groping fingers bumped into something small and vaguely cylindrical. Gripping it, she carefully got to her feet, using the edge of the bed as support. Her tail swished with relief as her hand opened to reveal the small bone carving of the miqo'te. "At the very least, this will help. I will keep you on its mind for a time." "It's...?" Mitari looked utterly confused for a few moments. What was with that little figurine. It was really... creepy. Antimony didn't seem to noticed Mitari's creeped-out-ness, for she just nodded simply. "As I said, I don't have the supplies for a proper ritual, but..." "What does it... do? Precisely...?" Mitari asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure he reallyl even wanted to know. Maybe he should have said no to the hair thing. Blinking at Mitari, Antimony was silent for a moment and then, "... Oh. Right. This would seem..." She chuckled a bit faintly before gesturing to the figure. "It's a representation of your body - well, mine originally, but your hair should give it enough connection that it should work..." "Like a... " Mitari tried to think of something it related to. But he had nothing. "That's... creepy." he coughed awkwardly at it and scoot away from Anti subtly. "So you could literally do anything to me with it and I would feel it or something like that?" Antimony frowned. "Not... exactly. It's more of a.. hm, a resonating chamber? It echoes the treatment of your physical body and can pull your spirit's--ah." She grimaced then, going quiet before, "I'm sorry, I forgot how you... everyone would see things such as this" "N-no, I'm grateful for the treatment just... confused. My mum was a healer but she never taught me anything like... well like this." he grinned sheepishly and coughed, trying to break the tension "This is the right way," Antimony replied firmly. "The best way. You heal from both ends." "Eh? Both.. ends?" Mitari questioned, immediately confused again. Maybe he shouldn't be trying to learn with a conconussion. Maybe. "Body and spirit," Antimony replied, as though this were the simplest thing in the world. She smiled. "Don't worry. It won't hurt you." "Ah... ok..." Mitari blushed faintly before shutting up and laying down. He was tired, and if Antimony didn't mind... he thought he might spend the night at least. She gave him a satisfied look and then moved to place the bone figure atop one of the bedposts. "No sleeping," she reminded, folding her arms and looking down at Mitari. "And how are you gonna stop me from sleeping?" Mitari chuckled faintly, closing his eyes and getting ready to sleep anyway. At this, Antimony frowned and reached out to pull on his ear warningly. The gesture was familiar. "You have a concussion. It is a mild one, yes, but if you sleep now, you may not wake up." Mitari grumbled at his ear being pulled on and lightly batted at her hand so she would move it. "I know." he finally answered before leaving his eyes half-open so he wouldn't sleep. "How much longer until I can sleep then?" "This one night should be enough to keep you out of danger," Antimony pulled her hand away, then turned to drag one of the chairs at the desk around before settling into it. "I understand this might be awkward," she added. "More for you than me, right?" Mitari retorted, ears flipping back and forth to adjust themselves comfortably. Antimony blinked and then chuckled, mildly embarrassed, "I've taken care of more than my fair share of sick and injured. Though... I suppose none of them were ever strangers before." "It kind of looked like it with how quick you were to take me here and not to a healer somewhere." He smirked faintly, tail curling around his leg while he looked Antimony over. "And we're fast becoming not so strangers hanging out this long you know. You're going to have a hobo for a friend if we keep this up." There was a pause. Another embarrassed laugh. "I think... that is becoming a habit of mine." "Making friends with hobos?" Mitari question, somehow concerned that was a habit of hers. Fidgeting with her dress, Antimony's ears went a bit lopsided as she shrugged. "Megiddo would call it the will of Oschon, but..." She trailed off and frowned, eyes moving to the doll on the table. "Will of Oschon...?" Mitari blinked again. This women was... endlessly confusing apparently. "To meet so many people like this." She waved one hand dismissively, "It's silly, of course. As though Oschon could have a will." Mitari shrugged again. Too confusing. Head pain. Fuck it. "Can I take this leaf out of my mouth yet?" Her eyes widened in mild surprise. "What? Oh! No. How does your head feel?" "Painful and headachy. Why not? It's weird talking with a leaf in my mouth." "Have you never taken medicine before?" Antimony gave him a knowing look. "Much of it was leeched into the water you drank, but keeping it in your mouth will pull out what is left into your system." "Not really, no." Mitari replied before sighing. "So don't sleep and keep a leaf in my mouth all night? " "Well, yes. Though not all night. An hour should give it enough time to take effect." She smiled then a bit apologetically. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything for... entertainment, really." "S'fine. You could tell me something about yourself maybe?" Mitari suggested. "That might be entertaining." "What? Oh, I don't think... There's nothing all that interesting about a simple accountant," Antimony chuckled and waved off the question. "How about yourself? Talking will keep you awake." "Hey, I can't do accounting. That's more intereting than someone with depressing history." Mitari countered, lightly lifted a hand to wave it about dismissively. There was a lull after Mitari's words where Antimony watched him with a quiet expression, and then her gaze shifted away towards one wall, though she smiled. "Ah, well, it does no good to dwell on 'depressing histories'." A pause. "I find it enjoyable. Organizing and aligning numbers. Though Ul'dah's regulations are new to me." She chuckled a bit faintly. "Ul'dah overall is new." "Ul'dah's not really new to me." Mitari countered, agreeing quietly against talking about depressing histories. "I've been wandering around for... a long time." Mitari looked faintly distressed when he actually thought about how long he'd been homeless. Ever since it happened... He shook his head wearily. "Are you sure I can't sleep?" "Do you want to end up in a coma?" Antimony leveled an arched brow at him. "Head injuries are a delicate matter. When my niece..." She blinked, stopped herself short, and then just cleared her throat. "The point is, you need to be careful or you could end up in a much worse state than you are now."

Antimony forced herself to take unhurried, even steps back down the winding stairs of Ul'dah's inner walls. Her tail twitched every so often in display of her anxiety, but she kept it close to her body so as to not whack the miqo'te, Mitari, with it. She frowned as she walked, thinking of the envelope and the gathered files it had contained - data on several key "businesses" along Pearl Lane that had turned out to be not true businesses at all. The names attached to them were even more incriminating, and the idea of the Blade lieutenant Loughree rifling through them was none to pleasing. It was fortunate that had not happened, thanks to the seemingly well-meaning if ill-advised actions of a stranger. "She will listen to reason," Antimony said as they walked, approaching an open area at the center of which sat a tall fountain. The water bubbled and echoed pleasantly against the round walls. Antimony found the set up odd, considering no natural light reached this area, only the yellow glow of the lanterns lining the city-cavern's walls. But it had been, until perhaps today, the most relaxing corner of Ul'dah. With this verbal reassurance, meant for both herself and Mitari following silently behind, Antimony stepped into the open space and glanced around in hopes of locating the rather intimidating person of Loughree. Mitari followed wordlessly, his hands in his pockets while he shuffled along after Anti's perfect steps. She was really graceful. That was the first thing he noticed as they walked. A clumsily graceful girl? Well, woman it seemed more like than a girl. He was only twenty four after all. He probably still looked like a little kid. And like a little kid, he followed Anti around and shrugged. Jail didn't scare him too much. He could make his way through it if he needed to. And that other brat brass blade? Someday he'd take her down a notch. As they entered the main around and looked around, MItari wondered why they came back here. No way a Brass Blade would stay put after they. They always went back to report at the office. "Umm... Miss Antimony? She'd probably be back at the main office...?" he suggestioned. Her ears swiveled back and then twitched, going a bit lopsided in some strange display of emotion. "... Ah. Yes! Yes, of course you're right." She shook her head, turning half way to look back at Mitari and smiling apologetically. "I'm not sure why I thought she'd still be here. I suppose I wasn't really thinking at all..." Shaking her head, she turned again, this time towards one of the branching halls leading away from the circular courtyard. "At least we will have the benefit of familiarity. Or I will. Ah... don't worry!" She added in a hurry, "I'll make this right," and made to move on. Mitari chuckled faintly at her cute flustered behavior. For being so serious, she didn't really think did she? Or perhaps it was just that her mind was on other things. He turned on his heel to follow her down the hallway towards, well he assumed she knew where it was, the Brass Blade's Main Office. "Don't worry about it Miss Antimony. I already fucked things up so it's no problem if I take the heat for it. Just make sure to come visit once in a while okay?" he chuckled awkwardly, keeping a leisurely pace behind her. The Pearl Lane offices couldn't exactly be called a headquarters. The Brass Blades had a sparse few rooms and one long hallway, with a pair of holding cells that were little more than rusty old cages far in the back of the building. But when Captain Lamandu was away, it was comfortable enough for Lieutenant Loughree Desfosse, especially since she tended to while away her time in the Captain's office. He liked to keep things orderly, so Lou would knock everything on his desk over, shovel his paperwork and then kick back in his chair. It was the only room in the building with a window, fogged as it was, and Lou liked how the black officer's chainmail caught the light. It didn't take too terribly long to cross the Steps of Thal out into the open-air market place of Pearl Lane. The lesser cousin of Sapphire Avenue, the place was lined with boarded up buildings. Most merchants here kept their wares on blankets spread out on the street; a few could afford stalls, usually little more than stacks of crates; fewer still managed to lease out some of the buildings. Antimony made her way down the lane with a brisk familiarity, worrying her hands in front of her, down by her waist. Her tail grew increasingly active the closer they got to their destination. Eventually, she stopped outside an office marked with the seal of the Brass Blades, and she paused to half turn towards Mitari, giving him what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "No talk of visiting jails now. As I said, it was all a misunderstanding. A simple talk will clear it right up!" She only half believed her own encouraging words, having seen the lieutenant's nasty side on more than one occasion now, but she said them all the same. With that, she turned to push into the office, smiling at the pair of lalafell manning the front desk and questioning, "Is Captain Tyremandu in?" One of them responded with a negative, but gestured her towards his office nonetheless, informing them that Loughree was watching things while he was gone. Mitari they gave a shrewd look, to which Antimony replied, "We're here on business," with a pleasant, if mildly strained, smile. The pair of desk jockeys either didn't particularly care or accepted her excuse and again waved them on to a door off to one side. Sparing a glance at Mitari, Antimony hesitated a moment longer before knocking out of habit and then opening the door to slip inside. Mitari followed, not paying too terribly much attention as they walked. He'd spent the last month or so hanging out in Ul'dah, looking for work and coin pretty much wherever he could get it. He'd been lucky to fight some strange Lalafell that furnished him with good coin awhile back for being 'stronger' but, other than that he hadn't had too much luck with jobs. There were so many adventurers and mercenaries that getting a job for yet another one was filled with competition. As they entered the Brass Blade's officer on Pearl Lane Mitari paused to glance around. He wasn't too familiar with their officers yet, and overtime he entered there was the faintest smell off... rust. Or at least, he thought it was rust. He wasn't totally sure yet. Still, he meandered in after Antimony and kept his hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. He tried not to growl as the strangers at the desk gave him funny looks, but instead smiled like Antimony and followed her away towards the office. Supposed office. If worse came to worse, he was pretty sure he could break the door down and use his lance to charge through and run for it. Or just Aetheryte to like... Limsa or something. The legs of the chair Lou had been leaning back in slammed down as she rose quickly to her feet, ears and eyes wide to watch Antimony enter. Her chain mail clattered against her sword and sheild, which remained where they were even as the chair swayed on the verge of falling. "Well," Lou exhaled, at first too surprised to express anything else. When she realized that bum from earlier was there as well, her lips dipped down and her eyelids drooped into a threatening glare. "This is kind of bold." Taking the glare in stride as best she could - that was, hesitating just a second as her tail shivered behind her before she gathered her wits - Antimony pursed her lips and lifted her chin, giving a short nod. "Perhaps, but I firmly believe misunderstandings as what just occurred shouldn't be left to fester." Mitari let his ears flicker at the sight of the... woman member of the Brass Blades. Bold? Ah well. Maybe. He bit his bottom lip and kept his mouth shut for now, his tail swaying behind him low under his coat. His lance still rested on his back, ready in case he needed to use it. "Sit down," Loughree instructed firmly, pointing at the chairs that sat in front of Captain Lamandu's messed-up desk. "Both of you." Mitari sat as instructed, taking the lance from his back and holding it across his lap instead. With a shake of her ears, Antimony looked first between Loughree and Mitari before folding her hands in front of her and moving to take the remaining chair alongside the latter. "I'm sure we've all had time to think over what happened, yes? And certainly, Miss Loughree, you realize you were out of bounds attempting to handle private documents. Likewise my, ah, friend did not react in a very positive manner, but... well, we were all rather agitated." Loughree steped out from behind the desk and walked over to the door to the office, closing it and throwing the latch, locking them all in the room together. Arms crossed, back against the door, Lieutenant Loughree Desfosse said very plainly, "I've got three months on the scab for assaulting an officer plus more for resisting arrest and maybe some on the side for interfering with an investigation. A week on you, Antimony, for assosciation. That's me being nice. You want to make a deal?" "Ain't no scabs here lady." Mitari hissed at the woman as she turned to lock them all in the room. There was still a window and he was still crazy enough to jump through it if he had to. "Better go look outside if you’re looking' for them. Or better yet, check a mirror." Antimony blinked hard as the door latched shut but kept her gaze firmly forward while Loughree delivered her... well, it certainly sounded like an ultimatum more than any kind of deal. And that was assuming-- "It's my hope we can talk this out as three reasonable people," she began, weaving her fingers together in her lap tensely. "Not deal making, just people coming to an understanding that no one dealt with the situation well. Might I remind you, that you attempted to take documents related to my investigation from me? That doesn't reflect well back on you." Ignoring Mitari's retort, Loughree sighed and spoke as though explaining something simple to a child. "I had reason to be suspicious, which gives me a responsibility to investigate. I don't go around looking to make enemies, Antimony. Now, listen, because you don't get it." She pointed at Mitari, "I'm going to try to arrest him, and he's going to run away. Then you, Antimony, are going to get pinned with aiding him. You'll be arrested. You'll lose your job. You'll fail." She crossed her arms again. "Do you want to make a deal or not?" "Could have fooled me, running around grabbing things from people like it's your own property. Disrespecting the law like you're above it. You're just like that rest of those scumbag Blades." Mitari scowled before picking his lance off his lap and placing it in Antimony's lap instead. "I want you to hold onto that for me, okay? It's special to me and I don't want them taking it. So please keep it safe for me while I'm in jail." he smiled cheerfully at Anti, not really wanting her to worry about some vagabond like himself. Antimony started as the weapon was placed in her lap, lifting her hands up above it as though afraid to touch the thing. She frowned at it, then at Mitari, and lastly the surly Blade lieutenant. She didn't quite understand Loughree's words. "No one needs to go to jail," she insisted, "Not over something as silly as a misunderstanding! This ma--ah, Mitari was not involving himself in any part of the investigation. I don't even... well! There was no need for you to take liberties with my materials." "Throwing a punch isn't a misunderstaning," Loughree replied. "It's assault, and it's a crime. So is running away from me when you know I'm talking to you." She opened the door and turned her gaze to Mitari, gesturing for him to follow. "Come on. I'll take some time off because you're coming nicely. No cuffs if you're a good boy." Mitari gave a somber smile at Antimony. "I told you she wasn't going to listen. They never do." And with a sigh and stood and trudged over to the door, moving to follow instructions for the time being. No point in arguing really. It would just agitate the situation and get Antimony into more trouble, which was the last thing he wanted. Her ears and tail shivering, Antimony made as though to stand but was stopped as the lance threatened to fall to the ground. She held it awkwardly, as though it would bite. "No, this can't be right. Blows were thrown, certainly, but... it was all over nothing - both of you! Miss Loughree, I will be speaking to Captain Tyremandu regarding your disrespect towards the privacy of the investigation!" Leaving the door open, Loughree said, "Walk with us, Antimony. We can talk." And turned to lead Mitari towards the very short hall that would take them to the holding cells. She weeathered the confused gazes of those who worked the office, and when one was about to speak to her, she silenced them with a glare. Lame. Jail again, huh? Mitari couldn't say he was disappointed really. He had been bored but now he was just going to be... well honestly he couldn't decide how he felt about it all. His tail swishing behind him, he followed wordlessly the women to the holding cells, following directions as prompted. Antimony wavered, torn between a need to protest further or protect her own livelihood. Not knowing what to do with the spear, she clutched it in both hands and stood with an unsatisfied frown to follow Loughree. "Talk of what? You made a mistake, and now you take it out on this man. That doesn't... well, it doesn't seem becoming of an officer of the law." The holding cells were a simple place: two rusty cages with a hallway in between. The things look like they might crumble if hit hard enough, but that probably just meant a lot of very disappointed inmates who had gotten their hopes up and failed. She led Mitari to a cell and opened it, gesturing for him to enter. She spoke to Antimony, "I'll let Lamandu know what happened. I don't even have the authority to pardon people. Especially for assaulting a Blade." Rusty cages? Mitari crinkled his nose. No wonder the place smelled of rust. Eck. Did they ever bother to clean these things? Distastefully, he entered the cell and glanced around at the 'amenities' if you could call them that. More like a rusty place for a makeshift bed and a rusting toilet Mitari didn't want to get anywhere near. "Seriously. This cell is going to kill me. Don't you guys ever clean this crap?" he huffed, moving to sit on the metal deathtrap of a makeshift cot. Antimony kept a healthy distance from the cell, eyeing it uncertainly as Mitari entered. His calm at the situation baffled her and did nothing to assuage the measure of guilt she felt towards getting him, a hapless stranger, into this situation. She didn't like what she could smell in this short hall, even if she couldn't identify all of it, and she wasn't comfortable leaving such a seemingly kind man alone here. "I never intended for you to end up..." she trailed off, pursed her lips, and then sighed. Her ears and tail drooped somewhat. "I suppose it was too much to hope, that we could simply talk things out." Slamming the cell shut, Loughree crossed her arms and walked over to Antimony, standing very close. "Talk is worthless. I offered to make a deal and you didn't. he gets three months for assaulting and officer, two more for resisting arrest, another three for interfering with an investigation. What is that, eight months? You just cost your friend eight months of his life because you didn't want to talk business." Antimony's eyes widened, her mouth dropping open slightly as her composure retreated. "I... what? What are you talking about, business!" Mitari frowned at the officer again. Really. What a colossal bitch. Eight months? What a waste of eight months. He hoped he wasn't stuck in THIS particular cell for eight months. Because that would REALLY suck. "Hey, leave her alone. She didn't tell me to do any of that so it's not her fault." Mitari scowled at Loughree, his ears flattening on his head. Eight months... wow. Sucks. "I meant a bribe, Antimony. Anyway." She grabbed Antimony by her collar. "I'm keeping you at least overnight. Like I said, I don't have the authority to pardon people, and that includes you." With her other hand she harshly struck the lance to try and knock it out of her hands, and began to pull Antimony back towards the other cell. "Hey! Leave her alone!" Mitari hissed, immediately getting up from his seat although he could do nothing to interfere. Attempting to lunge after the dislodged lance only jarred Antimony against Loughree's grip on her collar. She brought one hand up to try and loosen the grip but was rather helpless to resist the Blade officer's not so gentle urging along. Dragging, really. "W-wait!" She yelped, suddenly frightened, and tried to dig her heels in. "What are you--I've done nothing! What are you doing?" "You resisted my investigation and fled with a criminal who you knew had attacked me. You convinced him to turn himself in, and hey, you're a friend, so I won't keep you long. But I've still got to keep you." She opened the door to the cell and thrust Antimony into it. The act was neither kind nor cruel, but was very forceful. Not a particularly physically adept individual, Antimony stumbled towards the back of the cell with the force of Loughree's shove, catching herself on the far wall in time to keep herself from falling. Her tail was puffed out to an almost comical size, her ears pressed so tightly against her skull that they all but disappeared into her hair. She took several moments to recover before turning to cast a wide-eyed look Loughree's way. "I didn't intend to run!" She pleaded, keenly scared for the security of her job and, perhaps, her person. Antimony wasn't one to break even the smallest of rules, so to stand at the back of a jail cell as a criminal - it was too much. "Hey!" Mitari hissed again, grabbing at the cage of the cell and rattling it furiously. "She didn't run! I grabbed her! She never did anything wrong!" Chuckling, Loughree closed Antimony's cell and turned to Mitari. She smiled at him meanly and stretched, "Keep it up. I know some guys who'll pay good money to ride feisty ass. Feel like making some money while you're in there? I'll take a cut, of course." Antimony brought both hands to her mouth at that, staring at the back of Loughree's head in shock. Mitari reddened furiously and hissed at the girl baring his fang. With far more strength than any normal being had, as the cell door had never seen the tremendous strength of a dragoon, Mitari rammed his side into the steel cage and made a sizable dent, bending the bars apart enough to leave if he had chosen to do so. Her smile fleeing quickly, Loughree didn't miss a beat. She warned, "Just say no. If you start acting up, I might have to take my offers to Antimony." Mitari could form no words and only hissed hostility at the woman before turning his back to her and stalking to the back of his cage. The older woman made a small sound in the back of her throat and just watched Loughree's back with disbelieving eyes. Her smile returning, Loughree cooed, "That's right. I might like a ride myself if you want to take a month or two off." Humming pleasantly to herself, Loughree picked up the fallen lance and eyed it briefly before moving as if to exit. Her steps are paused, though, when she notices a strange thing on the ground in front of her. A doll. Made mostly of dirty white rags, it has yellow thread for hair, a thick strand of yarn for a tail and small paper flaps that imitate a Miqo'te's ears. It sat, posed cutely with its legs crossed and its arms in its lap, staring up at her. Spying such an out-of-place thing, undisturbed in the middle of the hall, she frowned and approached it curiously. It was only after a few seconds that she noticed several thin, black needles sticking out of the things face. Her eyes widening with confusion, she cringed at the disturbing sight. "... The hell?" Mitari banged his fist angrily into the ground and shifted to sit on the filthy floor. It was all filth and grime there anyway. What difference did it make? Still, he couldn't believe he had gotten such a nice women in such a bad predicament. And his lance... that bitch would probably sell it. "Sorry Antimony..." he called lightly towards the other cell, not noting the other's reaction to a doll he couldn't see. Antimony had flinched at the Blade officer's final insinuation towards Mitari, cringing and turning herself away as though to hide from the entire situation. The words left a sick feeling in her gut. Her dwelling on what she vainly hoped was a nightmare was interrupted first by a strange declaration of confusion from Loughree, and then by an apology from the unfortunate soul Mitari. She looked between the two, blinked with an odd expression at Loughree, and inched forward. "It's not your fault," she mumbled a bit faintly Mitari's way as she shuffled toward one side of the cell. "I am sorry I couldn't... I thought I could fix this." She kept her movements hesitant as though fearing some sort of retribution, but curious. She thought she'd seen... She blinked. "The doll...? How did..." Loughree spun on Antimony and pointed towards the doll, "Hey! Did you put this here?" She looked around. Her normally very fuzzy tail seemed a bit puffed out, though not nearly as much as Antimony's was. Her ears stood up and swivled around alertly. She saw the door to the hall was shut. had she shut it when she came in here? She couldn't remember. Her nostrils flared as she sniffed at the air; something didn't smell right. Turning back to Antimony, she said, " Explain this!" Antimony leaned away from the bars of the cell, stumbling two steps backwards. She cast a worried, helpless look in Mitari's direction, then back to Loughree. "I don't... I didn't! It just--I've seen--" She hesitated, blinking rapidly, and suddenly questioned the wisdom of saying more. Mitari really hadn't expected anything other than the worst situation to happen... damnit. He should have put his lance somewhere safe, but he had totally forgotten when he promised not to leave that spot for Antimony. He tried not to pay much attention to the apparent distress of the Blade member responsible for their imprisonment, but when she turned on Anti he quirked his ears up to listen more intently. A doll...? Strange. With a growl on her lips, Loughree said, "You've seen what? You've seen this?" She spun back to the doll and bent down, closing a plated fist around the dolls neck. The thing's head immediately burst, and the thin black needles flew directly into Loughree's face. She screamed, a hideous, crackling sound from her unprepared throat, and threw herself backwards. The now headless doll and the lance both went flying. Loughree's scream was silenced when her back hit the ground, but moments later was replaced by a sicker sound, an almost impossible screech as she plucked bloodied needles from herr features. One of the needles was stick. The single needle that had buried itself in her right eye was far too deep for her to get out. She writhed and scraped her face with her armored hands, leaving red marks in her own flesh. Antimony let out a cry of her own and fell back away from the bars of the cell, dropping to the ground in shock and fear at the sight. She brought her hands up as though to ward against something and shook as her gaze tore between the now headless doll on the ground and the writhing form of Loughree. Seen what? Mitari frowned wondering what it was she was talking about and where Anti had seen it before. He wasn't going to really look until Loughree screamed. It sent shivers down his spine in a terrible way and he sharply got to his feet and peered through the bent bars to see what was happening. Indeed there was some sort of strange doll but it was headless and nearby his lance. Mitari went a bit pale as Loughree's second screech, something of a sickening sound he had heard a few times before. He watched somewhat horror-stricken for a moment as she pulled the... needles!? from her face and scratched at her eye for another one. "Hey, hey, hey! You're making it worse! Stop!" Mitari yelled before taking a few steps back and ramming into the bent bars again with his full strength. The bars groaned before cracking finally, and letting Mitari crawl his way out of them. "Stop pulling at it!" he yelled again at Loghree. He was a Dragoon, but he was also a healer. Something his mother had taught him a long time ago. Something he had treasured and held close to him, trying not to let others know about his talent for it. But he couldn't just let her scream and suffer in front of him, even if she was kind of a corrupted bitch that had tried to get him to sell his body for time out of jail. So he knelt down next to her and tried to pin her arms down to the ground so she couldn't hurt herself any further. "You're going to blind yourself! Stop it!" he ordered fiercely. Loughree was a powerful person. But she was just a person, and she couldn't resist Mitari's strength, try as she may. She writhed under him, making desperate sounds, kicking her legs and digging her armoed heels into the old floor of the building. When she did manage words, it was only to cough out, "My eye... it's...!" "In your eye!? Okay, I got it! But you gotta hold still! I can't get it out if you're flailing and trying to grab it out with those gloved hands!" Mitari shot back irritably. "So don't move and I'm going to let go with a hand to get it, okay? I can push it out with some magic, but it will probably hurt. So I need you to not move, got it? Or you're gonna blind yourself." When Mitari had come bursting out through the cell, Antimony had cringed away at the force of it. When he came down on Loughree and began to bark out rough, clear orders to the woman, she curled her arms over her head and found she couldn't watch any further. Shielding her view from Loughree on the ground, Antimony found her panicked eyes drawn to the doll on the floor, tatters of stuffing poking out where its head should have been. Its familiarity was chilling. Unable to manage a verbal response, Loughree nodded and went mostly still. Only mostly, though. She still writhed slightly, her body riddled with adrenaline and panic. Every muscle in her body was tense, and she almost felt like she was trying to hold herself down instead of just laying still. She was a pathetic image on the ground. Obviously terrified, breathing fast and barely restraining herself from sobbing and screaming. "Okay, good." Mitari coo'd gently, trying to get the woman to calm down. His task would be utterly impossible if she wasn't calm enough to hold still without him pinning her down. He leaned close to her face to examine her eyes, looking for the needle. And indeed after a few minutes of searching his eyes fell on where he believed it to be. "Alright, I'm going to try and use a spell to have your skin push the needle out far enough so I can grab it. Okay? I need you to bear with the pain for a bit so I can get it out. Okay? I'm going to start." he breathed out slowly, trying to calm himself down in an effort to keep the girl calm as well. It wasn't as easy to keep calm when people around you were panicking. With a careful movement he placed his hand over the afflicted eye and allowed aether to gather for a few moments. His hand glowed a soft gee and borrowing the life energy in the Aether around him, he used it to try and regenerate the cells beneath the needle, in an effort to have the regrowing cells force it upwards and outwards. Essentially, the flesh inside of Loughree's eye was pushing back against the very sharp point of the needle. To Loughree, this felt as though the needle was being driven deeper into her eye, very slowly, and very painfully. Even besides the screeching sound drawn from her by the pain, there was the instinctive need to stop the needle. It was almost overpowering. Her fists closed tight enough to make the metal of her gauntlets keen, and very slowly her arms lifted to lay against Mitari's body and squeeze him, a expression of desperation she couldn't stop. Her vision shook and blurred, went dark and returned. All of her senses fired and went flat as though electricity were firing into her brain. Flecks of light and darkness stormed in front of her, and for a moment, she was honestly convinced that Mitari was actually killing her. There on the floor, of the cells, she was going to die. Mitari didn't pay much mind to the screaming nor the desperate squeeze. He was too focused, all of his energies settled on getting that damn needle out of her eye. The process was slow and imprecise. At first the needle just kept piercing through the newly grown flesh again and again. Mitari attempted a slightly different tactic by pumping more Aether to regenerate cells even more quickly. The needle's point pierced through some but by rapidly accelerating their regeneration process, he began to made a little headway with the needle. He could feel the aether begin to push it back, and then he could see it more clearly. A thin black needle point lodged in the corner of her eye. Mitari focused harder, trying to push it further out through the clumsy process he had been using. He was positive it hurt terrible and wouldn't be great for her vision, but it was either that or losing it so he was doing his best not to damage surrounding tissues too badly. Finally enough of the needle remerged that he stopped trying heal her and simply reached his hand down to grab the fine point and pull it gently out. Of course, grabbing such a fine point by and eye wasn't terrible easy and it took a lot of trying to even grab the dam thing in the first place. "Almost got it..." he mumbled, biting his lower lip as he tried to grasp it again. Her eye wanted desperately to blink, and so Loughree stared wide-eyed at Mitari as she shook. When he stopped channeling whatever spell he had been using, the pain largely subsided, as did the fear of death and the instincitve need to stop what was happening to her. She still waited, in a panic, but had enough control of it to bark at him, "Just get it out!" "Trying!" He barked back loudly as his nails finally managed a grip on the needle. "Got it!" And with a swift pull he managed to get the damn thing finally out of her eye. "Finally!" Mitari sighed heavily and examined the small black needle. Where had it come from in the first place? And why? He hated the Brass Blades, but not that much. At the exclamation of success, Antimony peeked out from behind her arms just slightly. She could definitely feel the needle leave her eye. The feeling was inexplicably powerful despite the slightness of it, very right that it happened though it left her feeling very wrong. The pain lingered, and her vision from just that eye was dim and blurry. Loughree closed her eye and pitched her entire body up at once to knock Mitari aside, her legs churning and arms scrabbling against the ground. "Get off me! Get away from me!" She tried to get away from Mitari, and would throw herself against the hallway's back wall if she could. Finally. Finally he'd gotten it out. That was really... difficult. He wished he knew an easier spell for something like that, but he really only knew what his mother taught him. And that was definitely not something his mother taught him. Still, he held the small needle in his hand, looking it over. At least for a moment before Loughree so gratefully decided to throw all her weight giants him and try to buck him off. As he was unprepared, Mitari flipped over backwards and landed with a thud, the needle he had just pulled out of Loughree immediately imbedding itself in his hand with his ungracefully landing. Mitari hissed, his head throbbing with its sudden throwback against the gross cell floor. "What was that for!?" Mita growled, nursing his aching head with his now injured hand. Loughree hit the wall like a fleeing animal suddenly cornered. She'd pulled her shield from her back without even realizing it, and found herself hiding behind it in a humiliating posture she couldn't help. "I don't..." Her unwounded eye was open wise and flicking about in a panicked searh, her ears turning this way and that, her tail puffed up to be as thick as her leg and wrapped around one of her thighs. "I don't know!" She shouted. "I don't know! Is he gone? How did he get in!" "What the fuck are you on about? He? Who's he? I didn't smell anyone else in here." Mitari ground, slowly sitting up and nursing his injured head, which game with a series of angry growls and grunts of course. Spurred by Loughree's own fear, Antimony sat upright and darted her eyes about the jail hall. She thought it was strange that she wasn't worried so much about where he was as she was the whys. Still, she huddled away from the bars of the cell, unwilling to risk exploration after the booby trapped doll. "I don't... understand," she muttered faintly under her breath. "It wasn't like that before.." Shivering against the wall, hiding behind her shield, Loughree muttered in response to Mitari's question, "...Grandfather." Not even a second after she'd said that, she lurched to her feet and pounced on the door to Antimony's cell. Her hands moved on the lock clumsily, shivering so much that she had difficulty working the mechanism. Eventually she got it open, and pulled it with such force that it creaked and slammed loudly. "I wasn't going to-" she began, and choked on a displaced sob, which she swallowed. "I wasn't going to keep you here. I was just being mean. You two need to leave." She stumbled over to Mitari's lance and picked it up, almost tripping on her own tail. The weapon shook visibly in her hands as she walked it to the man's cell. "You need to leave or he'll kill you too." Antimony stared at Loughree with no small amount of confusion, which flashed into baffled understanding, and then went almost immediately back to confused disbelief. She stood only after several seconds, when Loughree moved to return the lance to its rightful owner, and her legs wobbled for a time, shock draining their strength. "He wouldn't..." she started, then thought better of it and stepped hesitantly out of the cell. The doll lay nearby, and she frowned at it before kneeling to pick up its tattered remains. Mitari was too busy hissing on the floor and holding his head, which now had a migraine thanks to the blow. Leave? Now? But hadn't she been the one who...? Why was her grandfather trying to kill her? And Antimony knew the grandfather it sounded like? Too confusing. The male miq'ote simply hissed again and pressed his head to his knees. "Ow ow ow ow ow." Briefly staring at Mitari, looking more confused than anything, Loughree flexed her hands on the lance and turned to look over at Antimony. She blinked at her. "What? He wouldn't..." Her lips moved, her ears swivled. One hand fell and tried unsuccessfully to pull her tail out from where it wrapped her thigh. "Help him." She gestured to Mitari, looked at Antimony. "Help him. This isn't... It's dangerous. You need to leave." Holding the doll in one hand and keeping her eyes averted from Loughree's cowed form, Antimony moved wordlessly to Mitari, bringing her other up to his head, fingers seeking to feel out the skull beneath his hair. They shook noticeably, but that didn't stop her. "You should be alright to stand," she said after a moment, voice quiet. "I'll help you up. There are some supplies back in my room..." Mita felt a warm hand run over the back of his head and let his own hand drop to his lap so she could feel the ever growing bump on the back of his head. The softness of her words were appreciated with the raging headache and he carefully moved to start standing. "Lance." Mitari remembered abruptly and reached out, groping with a blind hand to find it. Loughree deposited the lance in his hand, made sure he had it, and then retreated as though she were afraid of him. One eye still wide open and one hand still trying to get her tail under control, she lurched across the hallway to Antimony's empty cell, through the door, and closed it behind her. She locked herself in the cell. Frowning, Antimony hovered close, acting on instincts borne from decades of training to lend support in Mitari's efforts to stand. She spared Loughree a concerned look but couldn't manage much more than that. The doll in her left hand seemed to carry an unnatural weight to it, though she knew that to be only her imagination, and the hall with its pair of cells seemed even more unwelcoming than it had minutes ago. As though the walls themselves were trying to push her out. "Not too fast," she cautioned Mitari and made as though to guide him out of the hall. Mitari grabbed his lance and the cool feeling of the metal on his hand gave him some much need comfort. The lance also acted very well as a sort of walking stick to help him keep his balance. Antimony also helped that whole process as she made an excellent guide and aide for standing. Still, his head was absolutely killing him and he couldn't way to lay down somewhere quiet and dark to sleep. Warily watching the pair leave, Loughree said, "Find somewhere safe. Don't come back," while she moved around in the cell. She took the cot and laid it sideways against the door with a heavy metallic crack. Her sword and shield both were in her hands then. She paced the cell.

((More plots afoot! Occurs after Soften them Up in time, though doesn't really follow it thematically.)) *** A young miqo’te man of white hair and humble clothing yawned as he walked into the courtyard in the heart of Ul’dah. It was all sorts of a dull and boring day, but he was alright with that today. Lance strapped to his back he flopped down on a bench and yawned again. "Hmm..." he hummed to himself, thinking what he should eat for dinner. Antimony kind of meandered towards the fountain, eyes on the water but thoughts at least several malms away. It's for this reason that when she went to take a seat, she didn’t bother to check if it was free or not. She did, at least, jump back in time to avoid, uh, embarrassing lap violation. Her tail fluffed out from surprise and the first thing she managed was a sputtered, "I am so sorry!" The man was rather busy laying back against the stone and staring up at the ceiling emptily. Food, food... what kind of delicious food should he eat? Maybe... hm. No. The question was a good one for him, and he almost didn't notice the woman walking towards him. At least until she was directly in front of him and nearly sat on him. He blinked and sat up looking to the women with a chuckle. "It's fine." He laughed. Antimony wove her fingers together - an awkward feat, for she carried a rather thick envelope in hand as well - and pressed her ears back. "No, oh, no, you don't have to brush off that... well, that was quite possibly the most humiliating... mph!" Closing her eyes, she drew a deep breath, straightened her posture, and then, "Apologies, I was just going to... in fact, I'll sit over... there!" The miqo’te man chuckled again at her response. Well. She certainly was a high-strung one. He carefully stood and brushed some of the dust off himself before offering his seat. "No need. A lady like yourself should sit where she likes. I'll move for you." Antimony's brows inched up towards her hairline from behind the frames of her glasses and she gestured with both hands, "Oh, no, please don't bother to--that is, oh no, you've already stood and it would be rude now to say no, wouldn't it, but I never intended to dislocate anyone, so you must..." She trailed off, blinking, and then looked down at the envelope that had, in her gesturing, dropped from her grip. She sighed. "Very well." He chuckled again. Really, that was quite cute of her. She seemed a bit frazzled, although he supposed he might be as well if he almost sat on a strange shady looking male's lap. So instead, he simply kneeled down to pick up her envelope and handed it back to her. "You alright there Miss?" Antimony accepted the envelope with a purse of her lips and a compulsive smoothing of the front of her robe. Her ears shifted out to point away from her skull, though still remained low set. “It's fine. I'm fine. You are... whoever you are, you seem fine. Ah, don't mind me, it's just the stress of work.” She chuckled faintly. Yellow eyes blinked blinked. First she was really cold and then direct and now laughing? He blinked, somewhat confused and gave a nervously laugh of his own. "Um... Mitari. You can call me Mitari." “Ah there! Mitari. I should feel better for knowing the name of the stranger I nearly... sat on.” She grimaced. Letting out a laugh, “It's quite alright. I guess I do blend in with the bench.” Antimony shifted the envelope around in her hands for a moment before nodding and extending one towards him with a hopefully more composed look, "A pleasure to meet you." Mitari took her hand carefully before leaning in to kiss the top of her palm. "It's my pleasure, Miss...?" Antimony blinked at her hand as though not really sure how to react to the gesture. "... Antimony," she replied belatedly, shaking her ears as though dispelling a thought, which she chuckled faintly at. Mitari grinned at the lady and straightened himself up. "Nice to meet you Ms. Antimony. Coming to this part of Ul'dah to relieve some stress? Or maybe just stress out some more?" Antimony pulled her hand back, folding it over the envelope and looks around as though just noticing her surroundings. “Is this... oh! Good, I'd begun to think I'd wandered a bit too far south of... ah, no! The former, to answer your question. A busy day demands at least one quiet walk, don't you think?” Without warning, a blonde miqo’te dressed in the garb of the Brass Blades walked right up and poked Mitari in the back, "Hey you." Antimony blinked past Mitari. "Miss Loughree?" Mitari nodded thoughtfully at Anti's response. "Yes, I would think-" He jumped lightly when something poked his back. He sharply turned around and looked at the other woman. "Uh, hello?" Loughree ignored Antimony for a moment, keeping her gaze on Mitari, "Ain't I seen you round Pearl Lane?" Antimony frowned slightly in thought, perhaps considering the other woman's question, or just considering her presence, or who knew what else. Mitari, for his part, looked thoughtfully at the intruder, his ears flickering up and down as he thought. "Well.. yeah. I usually hang out over there to look for work..." Loughree nodded, "Uh huh. 'Look for work'. I know what that means." She looked towards Antimony and walked up to her, "What're you doing out here? You've got no business uptown." Mitari frowned again, his ears flattening on his head. "Hey, what does that mean!? Don't-" He shut up as she promptly ignored him to talk to Anti. Antimony frowned between Loughree and Mitari and then, "I'm sure she meant nothing by it. You look like a fine... well, you look fine! And what do you mean no business?" “Unless you do. At which point I'm curious...” Without another word, the Blade lieutenant snatched the envelope out of Antimony's hand with a quick, harsh motion, and turned away, "What's this?" Mitari scowled and moved forward, moving to put a hand on the intruder's shoulder. "Hey now, what's with this? Don't go looking through people's private things. I would ask you give that back to Miss Antimony." Antimony's eyes widened and she reached out to try and take the envelope back. "What are you doing? You're not authorized to view those documents, Miss Loughree." Loughree looked sideways at Mitari and said, "Brass. Blades. Business. Don't be inserting yourself. Unless you're involved?" Her features pulled down in annoyance. “I am. So how about you hand it over? It's none of the business of the Brass Blades.” Antimony attempted again to reach around Loughree and extricate the envelope, "You really cannot be looking through those. It could jeopardize the entire.." Loughree pulled the envelope away from Antimony and knocked Mitari's hand off her shoulder, "Let me do my job, scab. Especially if you're involved." She tried to step away from them. “Name calling isn't necessary. I must demand you give that envelope back, or... I'll speak to your superiors!” Mitari fumed at being called a scab, the hair on his ears and tails bristling. "What did you call me you no good rusting tin can?" he hissed, stepping at her again. "You tryin' to pick a fight!?" Antimony cringed at the sudden aggression and lifted both hands in front of her in a hopefully soothing gesture. It likely didn’t do much good. Loughree narrowed her eyes and smiled. "Maybe. I bet a scab like you can't even bully the refugees out of their meals, right?" “I think we should all take a step back and calm down, yes? We don't want to be... ah, starting fights or... violating privacy clauses or anything of the sort!” Mitari bristled again, his face turning an angry red a few seconds before he shot a short punch at her face. "Don't insult my pride! I get my meals off beating people like you down!" Loughree caught the punch and tried to throw him down. Basic dodge-and-subdue stuff that a cop might do to arrest someone. If she succeeded, though, he'd probably end up kissing the bench none too kindly. Antimony yelped and jumped back away from them both, not wanting to get caught in the middle of anything. Mitari indeed ate the bench with his face none too kindly, but he wasn't a pushover. He was a mofo dragoon. And thus he swiped his leg across the woman's legs to try and knock her over. Loughree didn't expect none of that so she flopped very unpoetically right onto her back, dropping Antimony's envelope. Antimony brought both hands up to her mouth, looked around for someone who might intervene, and then started inching around towards where the envelope had been dropped. Mitari sharply scrambled to his feet and turned around. Spying the envelope he made a dash to grab it, and Anti's hand, and tried to run for it. "Let's go!" Antimony squawked in surprise and kind of stumbled along, not really expecting to be dragged off as though running from a crime scene. Loughree found her own feet surprisingly quick for all that heavy armor, but was too slow to grab Mitari before he got away. It all happened so suddenly that they were down and around a number of flights of stairs and other paths before Antimony finally gathered her thoughts enough to drag on Mitari's grip and pant out a, "Wait! This isn't... we shouldn't be running like this!" Mitari skidded to a stop on the stairwell and looked back to Anti. Well, it was a little incriminating. He stopped and handed Anti her envelope back. "Yeah, well she was going to take it and rummage through it you know. We can sort it out with the Brass Blades later. Just make sure you get that envelope somewhere safe if it's so important, right?" Antimony grimaced and bent over somewhat as she tried to catch her breath. "That... I never expected... you shouldn't have... ah! We're all criminals now!" That last bit was wailed out a bit sadly. Mitari smiled weakly and squatted down in front of her. He gave a soft pat to her shoulder. "We're not. Just get your stuff somewhere safe. I got this. It won't be the first time I spent in a cell anyway." He shrugged a bit and laughed nervously. "But you should know I only stole food before and that's why! I'm not really a criminal!" Antimony gathered both her breath and at least a sliver of her composure after several seconds, ears drooping and tail twitching anxiously. “You shouldn't have intruded in... you don't even know me! I'm certain I could have gotten her to hand it back. I am working with her boss and... Ah!” Mitari looked away from her, sulking, to which Antimony pursed her lips and gave him a worried look. Still sulking, Mitari’s ears pressed to his head. "Oh, she just... I mean... I'm sorry. Looks like I made a lot of trouble for you. Didn't mean to..." Antimony blinked at Mitari, then at the envelope, and then kind of wilted. "I didn't mean to... well, that is, I was trying... Well! I'm the one who should be sorry, that there was ever any incident to... involve yourself in..." She winced. Mitari disagreed vehemently, “No, no. I made trouble for you and I'm sorry for that. It's fine. We'll get it sorted out, ok?” Antimony shook her head, then sighed and nodded instead. The wrinkles about her eyes deepened in worry as her hands fidget with the envelope. "What does one do when they run from the law like that...? Do we need to turn ourselves in?" Mitari looked thoughtful. “Well.. normally you just... try not to get found or yeah... turn yourself in. Although, you didn't actually do anything. I'm the one who assaulted a.. officer of peace.” Antimony's eyes widened. "No! No, I'll... I will vouch for your character! It was all just a misunderstanding." She nodded firmly, gripping the envelope tight. "I will sort this all out, and you won't have to spend even a single night in a cell." It took several seconds for Mitari to calm himself down from a sudden bout of laughter to look at Anti properly. "That's really kind of you, but I don't think they're going to be so understanding. If anything, let's just try to keep you out of one, okay?" Antimony winced, looking away before eyeing Mitari sideways. "I can't believe that. It really was a misunderstanding! Miss Loughree just... well, she assumed all the wrong things, and you can't be blamed for coming to my defense and... I will make this right!" Mitari smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. "You're a really kind person Miss Antimony. I hope that we can." “Can?” “That we're able to, rather. I just don't think the Brass Blades will be very cooperative.” “Ah... perhaps not, but... Well. I will try. I can't stand for someone like you going to jail over something so minor.” She nodded again, with some finality. They would understand. Miss Loughree would be reasonable. Mitari smiled awkwardly and sighed, dropping his hands to his pockets. "Eh, well. I guess we should go turn ourselves in then?" Antimony frowned, looked back down the stairs, then back up at Mitari. Her tail swished low behind her. "Let me see what can be done first before you... do anything rash." Mitari raised his hands in surrender and shrugged a little. "Alright, I'll be quiet and follow your lead then." Antimony half-smiled at that. "First I should take care of these papers." Mitari nodded. “I can wait here for you.” Antimony blinked. "Right here...?" Then flicked her ears, "Ah, well. Alright. Just... stay out of trouble!" “Heh. I'll try.” Antimony pursed her lips, looking only half-convinced, before sighing and turning to move back down the stairs - at a significantly slower pace than what they had run up at. *** Antimony returned up the stairs after some time. The envelope she had previously held was no where in sight - presumably deposited somewhere secure. She frownsed as she made her way up the stairs. Mitari yawned where he sat on the steps, leaning against the wall and waiting for Anti's return. Maybe he should have put his lance away somewhere as well... Antimony looked briefly surprised at Mitari's continued presence, but she smiled quickly upon seeing him. The expression was only somewhat tense. "Ah! Now that that's all taken care of..." Mitari glanced up to Anti and stood. "That's good. Got it somewhere safe?" He stretched, a shiver traveling down his tail with the action. Antimony watched Mitari for a moment before nodding. This gesture was swiftly followed up with a frown, "I can't believe Miss Loughree would seek to intrude upon the investigation like that... she must understand her actions endanger her situation..." Trailing off she offered a smile again to the young man. “It will all be fine. You'll see.” He just shrugged muscled shoulders. “I'll just let you do the talking. Heh. After you Miss Antimony.” Antimony spent a few, suddenly frenzied moments straightening her robe before drawing a breath. "Yes, of course. I'm certainly not leading you--ah, us to legal doom..." Mitari could only laugh as Antimony headed on down the stairs, ears pressed flat against her skull, though she maintained a ramrod straight posture.

((Ulanan has a plan, in a dastardly follow-up to A First Drink, taking place not long after Vignette with a Doll.)) *** “I think you should order something besides olives this time, Ulanan. It can't be healthy...” Ulanan frowns at that, wearing disappointment like a blanket. "Nonsense! Olives are the most complete food in the world. But you can order something else, if the health of your bones is of no worry to you." “But I was reading a cooking book before we left Limsa and...” Antimony shook her head as they entered the Quicksand and moved towards a... well, it had been a free table only moments before. “I guess we'll be eating at the bar tonight,” Ulanan observed. Antimony frowned at a thought but seemed to banish it quickly, smiling down at the lalafell at her side. "I suppose you'll be closer to your olive supply that way," she tried for a jest. “There are advantages to every situation in life!” Without much preamble, Antimony took a seat at the bar. At least there were no argumentative Brass Blades to harm the mood this time. “You'll never guess who I ran into... or, well, who found me earlier today.” Ulanan sat and ordered a large amount of olives, naturally. And a tuco-tuco steak. “Megiddo?” Before Antimony could respond with her surprise, someone cleared his throat next to them, "Ahm. You invited me for drinks this eve?" “Indeed, I did!” Ulanan did not miss a beat, turning to the lalafell captain. “Please, have a seat.” “Excellent!” Lamandu Tyremandu hopped onto the stool next to Ulanan. "You have lost your reservations towards the stuff then, yes?" He waved briefly to Antimony. The woman blinked n confusion at Lamandu for several seconds, then at Ulanan. “What's this about?” “I will be honest to you. That Miqo'te underling you have creeps me out. I wouldn't drink the clearest glass of water in her presence.” Ulanan turned to Antimony then. “Oh, I invited the captain to make us company. I hope you don't mind.” Lamandu shrugged, "Lou is... Quite something, I suppose you could say." Antimony's ears twitched in surprise, and she peered at Ulanan curiously before looking past the lalafell to the other. "... Ah! Well, in that case... Good evening, Captain." Lamandu nodded his head, "And good evening to you as well, Antimony. I hope my presence is not a bother? I had assumed the invitation came from the both of you?" Antimony smiled after a pause. "Oh, this is a surprise, but a pleasant one. I only hope this evening... well! That it goes better than the last..." “Well, I was hoping we'd been done with dinner by this time, but...we got distracted with other things. Feel free to order something to eat too, if you want.” Ulanan smiled at Lamandu. The other lalafell nodded his head, "Yes, hopefully this does go much better than the last... outing. I do apologize on Lou's behalf. The girl has some growing up that she needs to do." Lamandu ordered a side of chips and an ale from the bar, before turning back to his companions. “Well! Best not to dwell on the past,” Antimony hummed a bit nervously. “Ah... How are... you faring, Captain?” Ulanan took off her turban and combed her flattened hair for a while before taking an olive out of plate and biting it. “Myself? Alright I suppose. We've had some vagrancy troubles down on Pearl Lane, you haven't run in to any troubles with them have you?" “Vagrancy? No, nothing of that sort. Only expected difficulties.” “And what would you mean by that?” Antimony chuckled and shook her head. "Bureaucratic things, mostly. You know I can't discuss explicit details beyond your own files with you for privacy concerns." Lamandu chuckled, "Of course. I merely wish to help where I can. That’s the only reason that I asked." He nodded his thanks to the barmaid as she brought his chips and drink over. “I would not doubt it.” Antimony smiled at Lamandu, and then turned the expression on the bartender before ordering a light meal of... some kind of food. Creativity is overrated. “Working whole words together about work? How worryingly woeful! We should be speaking of pleasantries. Though I gather you like your job, captain?” At this, Antimony tilted her ears at Ulanan. Lamandu nibbled on a chip, "Do I like my job? I suppose that I do. I've been doing it for some years now. I get to do at least a little good, which is more than some could say. Pearl lane has settled down a lot since I took over. Its last captain.... didn't do much good for it." He shook his head. Antimony straightened slightly, features curious. The tip of her tail twitched against one leg. "In what way do you mean?" Ulanan took a bite out of her steak. “Yes, pray tell us what measures you have taken. It sounds like an impressive thing to do, the bettering of Pearl Lane.” Lamandu took a drink, "The woman sent the whole district up into strife, sending more people behind bars than we could hold. And that’s not a good thing. She was on a crusade without taking the circumstances of the lane into consideration and seeking to better it. She couldn't see the forest for the trees. Nasty piece of work she was." Again he shook his head, sadly. “How long was she in command before you took over?” “No time at all. She was removed from her command,” Lamandu replied succinctly, and then, “Oh, you mean how long was she in...” Ulanan blinked, confused by Lamandu's confusion. He thought for a moment, "Less than a year, I believe. I would have to take a look at the records. She'd had a long history in the Brass Blades though." Antimony furrowed her brow. "I don't know if I'd say..." She seemed to think better of whatever it was she was going to say she wouldn't say, instead shaking her head and accepting her meal from the bartender. “Gossiping about how bad your predecessor was seems a bit untasteful. Why don't we talk about your achievements, instead?” Ulanan suggested. “Hmm? You were going to say something? You didn't know her, so please don't defend--” Lamandu cut himself off as Ulanan spoke. “Ah!” Antimony intruded, aware of some slip, though unsure of what precisely it was. “I'm sure Ulanan means no offense to your... opinions!” Lamandu took a drink from his ale, "My own achievements? I start off by saying that it was one, taking over and recovering from that woman, did I not?" “Yes. I was hoping you'd have achieved something more than that, though. Clearly, a man of your quality couldn't have reached this post unless you deserved it. Correct?” At Ulanan’s words, Antimony gave the back of the lalafell’s head a briefly bemused look. Ulanan continued: “We all know how unlawful Ul'dah can be. If you reached this place easily, it would put a big doubt over your quality that you do not deserve!” Lamandu chuckled, "You're as bad as a mother-in-law to be, poking me for my credentials! I'll have you know that I was formally recognized for my long standing service out in Drybone. Helped to bring a whole highway robbery chain to justice! Of course, they were doing it through subversive civilian camouflage. It was quite the operation!" Ulanan laughed. “One has to be, in this city!” Antimony's ears perked up slightly. "Mother-in-law to be? Oh, I'm sorry, that's personal..." Lamandu frowned slightly, "Yes. Well. We should all know how finicky they can be, yes? Never good enough for their little girls." Lamandu drank from his mug, looking unhappy. Antimony blinked bemusedly. "I... am not sure I understand.” There was a cultural subtlety here that simply passed her by, and it was frustrating. Ulanan ordered a glass of white wine, which was served quite quickly. She picked it up and raised it over the bar, smiling at Lamandu. "Let's drink twice for your achievements in the Lane and Drybone!" Ulanan did not wait for him to react and drank after a quick "Cheers!" Lamandu sourly raised his glass, clinking it against Ulanan's. "You've never heard about the horrors of mother-in-laws? Well you should have. They're the worst." Antimony's eyes widened slightly at Ulanan. "Are you sure you should be drinking that..?" “What do you mean?” Pulled between curiosity with Lamandu’s situation and concern for Ulanan, Antimony shook her head at Lamandu after a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the concept." “Of course she should,” Lamandu countered. “It’s the perfect time. You've had your own bouts of marriage troubles, haven't you Ulanan? I sense a fellow in suffering!” Ulanan turned to Lamandu and smiled. "Do you, now? Quite a perceptive man you are." Antimony furrowed her brow a bit worriedly, but fell silent for a moment. “So you have had such troubles then? Please share! Misery loves company, does it not?" Ulanan closed her eyes. “Indeed. He was interested in other women. That's a plural. I bet you can infer the rest.” Lamandu shook his head, drinking from his ale, “Yes, well. Some of us can be scum." Antimony cast a concerned look Ulanan's way before venturing, "Wouldn't it be better to focus on... ah, drinking to better things?" Ulanan expressed her disagreement with a firm toss of her hair. “What about you, captain? How woeful were your woes?” “No. This is now a drinking night. You should be commiserating with us Antimony." “Commiserating?” Antimony blinked. “Ah, I don't think that would be... well, I'll listen, I suppose.” “My woes? Well. I never did get married. Girl's mother called it off. Apparently I wasn't rich enough for their family. Not up to snuff.” Lamandu scowled, taking another drink. Not long after, he reached the bottom, and held the mug out to the barmaid for a refill. “That's sad. Let's drink to that!” And so she did. “Would that... not make your reference, ah... the mother-in-law that never was?” Antimony ventured. Lamandu shrugged, "I supposed. That is just technicalities though!" Antimony did not drink. She did, however, watch the two with some discomfort. “l3.” Ulanan looked confused for a moment. The drink must have hit her quite hard, as she was saying random letters and numbers now. “Ahem...I mean... How was she?” “So you really mean to tell us that you have no romantic woes then, Antimony? I know you Miqo'te don't marry the same way the rest of us do, but you’re a city Miqo'te, aren't you?” Lamandu queried. Antimony blinked, caught off-guard by the question, and was silent for several seconds while searching for a way to answer. Perhaps luckily (or not), Ulanan found one for her: “Nope! She comes from a tribe. They don't have marriage woes in those communities!” Ulanan laughed. Antimony frowned at her plate, then cast an apologetic smile Lamandu's way. "I'm sorry to disappoint." Lamandu shook his head, "Then why are you here? Since this has since turned into a pity party, apparently." “Oh! Well...” She fidgeted awkwardly and gestured a bit helplessly at Ulanan, "The... company?" “We were having dinner,” Ulanan explained. “It was a normal dinner until we got all sad and started sharing our terrible pasts with our spouses.” “Yes. Well, I did not bring that part up. So it’s not my fault.” “Let's drink to that!” And so Ulanan drank! To that! Cheerfully! Lamandu followed suit, while Antimony smiled awkwardly and poked at her dinner. Ulanan had forgotten all about her food. Except for the olives. She grabbed a handful of them and ate them. While she chewed, Lamandu narrowed his eyes at Ulanan, "So what ever did happen to your cheating husband? From the way you talk I'd say you aren't married anymore." Ulanan choked, coughed, and choked some more at that. “Ahm...he left with his mistress.” Antimony startled and leaned over to rub at Ulanan's back, saying worriedly, "Are you alright?" Ulanan coughed some more before attempting to solve her problem by drinking from her wine some more. The coughing lessened and after another sip it was gone. “I'm fine. Let's drink to that!” And again, down the drink went. Lamandu frowned slightly, "So you're still married then? Technically?" He did, however, drink as per Ulanan's request. Antimony looked unconvinced at Ulanan's assurances, hovering close, though she didn’t press. Her own meal was now largely forgotten. “I guess?” Ulanan shrugged. “I haven't heard of him since then. He could be dead, for all I know.” Antimony blinked down at Ulanan. "For all you... well, that's... isn't that something you'd want to know?" Ulanan thrust her hands out in vehement disagreement. “Some things are best left in obscurity! Besides...how would I know? It's not like I can send him a letter.” “I... suppose so.” Lamandu nodded his head, "You should look into it, Ulanan. Who knows? What if you meet someone else you would want to marry, but can't because your still married to a two-timer!" And he drank some more. “I should have to meet the correct person first! Let's drink to that, too.” Again, more drink, and Ulanan is joined in this by Lamandu. “Ulanan... perhaps you should, ah, slow down...?” “Mm? Nonsense! We, lalafellin, can take a great amount of alcho...alcah...of this!” Ulanan waved the glass over her head. "Right, Lamandu? Can I call you Lamandu, right?” Antimony blinked and cast a worried glance towards the bartender, who did not really seem all that fazed by the two drunken lalafells. Drunk people weren’t exactly a new thing at a tavern. Lamandu lifted his glass, "Yes, we are rather renowned champions of drinking. And of course! You can call me Lamandu, Ulanan! We are commiserating now, aren't we?" “We are! Drink!” Ulanan did just that. “Oh, I wasn't aware... just be careful, please.” Lamandu finished his ale off, motioning for another, this time requesting a glass of wine. “You know, I have seen your official office of official officering. Did you decorate it?” Lamandu chuckled, "Me decorate? Of course not! And it wasn't Lou either. Why? Did you like it?" He smiled at Ulanan. “Ah, not a decorating man. But a drinking man!” Lamandu, of course, drank, "Of course! It’s not a man's job decorate! It’s Ben's job!" “Ben?” Lamandu nodded his head, "Of course! Ben!" He frowned, "Or wait. You never met Ben. Antimony did though, he kept her company in the records room!" Ulanan flailed one arm, the one not holding the drink. "Bolt Ben! I can decorate for you! We can start with your house. It will be fun! DRINK!" Ulanan, after saying that, drank. How predictable. Antimony brightened a bit from her worry at a familiar topic, but that sense was cut off with Ulanan's exclamation. At that, she just looked thoroughly bewildered. Lamandu sipped from his drink, "But why would we would that? It’s already decorated! And I like it how it is!” “Did Ben decorate it?” Lamandu puffed his chest out slightly, "No, I did." “Oh, then I guess you don't want the expert touch of an exemplary trend-maker.” Ulanan drank once more. She had lost count, but only because she never counted in the first place. Antimony reached out towards Ulanan's drink, saying, "I really do think you should slow down. Ulanan, I've never seen you act like this before!" “Are you saying that you're an expert then?” Down went more wine. Ulanan was no match for the Miqo'te: her drink was taken away as easily as one would take a glass that was floating in midair. She leaned towards that side as it was snatched away, though she managed to keep her head turned to Lamandu, who was grimacing at the taste of his wine. Ulanan spoke, “I've been raised to be the perfect wife! Decorating comes to me as easy as breathing comes to everyone else.” “Are you trying to tell me that my style is not up to snuff then, Miss Ulanan?” Lamandu squinted. Ulanan shrugged. “I can't say! You had Ben decor-eat your office.” “Of course I did! It’s my office! Not my home!” “I'm certain she's not meaning offense, Captain Tyremandu. Only... that she's enthusiastic?” Antimony looked at the glass she'd confiscated from Ulanan with a frown. Lamandu only scowled slightly as he drank his wine, not looking entirely happy. Ulanan pointed to Antimony. "That!" Then looked at Lamandu. “I have to see your decoration so I know you aren't offending any sensibilities.” “You would only judge it! You society types always do,” Lamandu huffed. “Well, if I don't judge its quality, how can I praise it? I'm not praising you without evidence.” Ulanan pouted and tried to drink, but couldn’t find her glass. Instead, she remembered her food and took the olives. A white-haired lalafell, who had up until that moment gone unnoticed at the bar, looked to his reflection in his cup of tea, adjusting his hat in its reflection, giving a few puffs to the feather to keep it from dropping. Lamandu glanced over with a frown at the fellow Lalafell next to him drinking tea. "Why do you want to anyway! It’s not like you even like me. You're just passing through on business... No! I've worked hard to get here, and I won't be judged for it!" He finished the rest of his wine, which was rather a lot for one of his stature. Ulanan blinked. Antimony finally handed off Ulanan's glass to the bartender, wrinkling her nose at sharp scent of alcohol. The white-haired lalafell looked up in surprise as he watched Lamandu finish so much wine. "Er.... S-Ser... You may want to slow down just a tick, aye?" Lamandu turned his attention to the feathered man, "Why? It’s my right as a man to spend my hard earned money on drinks if I so wish!" Ulanan punctuated, raising one hand over her head. "Hard earned!" Lamandu waved at the bartender, to find her shaking his head at him in denial. The newcomer gave a confirming nod. "You are correct. But too much drink causes the feet to refuse to place one in front of the other... I'm not telling you to stop, I am certain you are more than deserving of some celebration... I would just rather not watch your friends have to carry you to your bedroll this eve." He punctuated his own statement with a sip of his tea. “Ah! So we can stay here and be judged as drunks, or go to your place and stop being judged for being merry responsible drinkers!” Ulanan dropped from the stool, managing to keep her balance quite impressively. She looked at Lamandu. "We should drink to that!" “Ulanan, you have a room at the inn. Perhaps you should...” Antimony trailed off uneasily and looked uncomfortable before just settling her hands in her lap. The white-haired lalafell slowly shook his head, giving a gentle sigh. "I judge not. I just... Er... I should probably keep quiet..." Lamandu frowned, squinting at Ulanan. "What are you suggesting then?" Ulanan extended one hand. "I can't get more wine in the inn room for oblivi... obvibio...obl...reasons! So we go to your home. I promise to not poke fun at your decor." Lamandu looked back at the feathered man, "And my feet work just fine! I'll have you know!" To prove the point, he hopped unsteadily off of the stool, using it as a leaning post. The lalafell gave a small gesture. "Good.... I just worry for your health, Ser. I mean no offense. But should it be taken, then I apologize." Lamandu frowned at Ulanan, "No poking at my decor? Just drinking?" Ulanan Ulan nodded. “Yep!” Antimony's ears angled back and bounced up and down in conflict. She made as though to stand in protest before shaking her head and sighing. “Be careful, Ulanan, please.” Lamandu waved a hand, "Oh she'll be fine! No one safer to be with." “Are you certain you don't want to just rest off the alcohol?” She tried worriedly. “Don't worry! I'll be back before you even notice my absc...absi...abi...mrm. I'll be fine!” Ulanan forgot to toggle walk. Must be the alcohol! Antimony just wrung her hands in her lap. Lamandu stepped away from the bar, offering his arm out to Ulanan, "Shall we then?" “Ah, Ulanan! At least... check in with me in the morning, please?” Ulanan took the turban out of her bag and wrapped it around her head. “Will do!” Antimony stood, looking for all the world like a mother worried for her child but unable to do anything to help. “Excellent! Let’s leave then!” Lamandu declared with a flourish. Ulanan stayed right there, looking at Lamandu. She frowned. "Well? Lead the way! I don't know where we are going." Lamandu let his arm drop, before using it to wave at Antimony! "Do not worry! I am a Captain after all!" He then walked forward, "You coming then?" Not needing further prompting apparently, Ulanan staggered after him. Antimony watched the two of them leave anxiously. After a while, her ears and tail drooped, she turned to pay the bill - or, rather, add the expense to her growing business tab - and then retreated towards the inn rooms in silence. *** Lamandu would wake up the following morning with a headache that would leave him wondering if he'd been trampled by goats in the middle of the night and no memory of what had transpired earlier. Later, when he managed to pull himself together, he would find a number of his belongings out of place, either moved about in some wild decorating spree. Or perhaps rifled through.

((Dolls are so innocuous... Follows The Price of Information.)) *** The setting was one of the many busy streets of Ul’dah, near a median populated by long-leafed desert plants and benches. Antimony moved slowly along the path, lost in thought. Her solitude did not last long, however, as a blue-grey hand appeared to hold a small cloth doll over Antimony's shoulder so that she could see it. It was the same doll a particular Duskwight had bought in Pearl lane the other day, only it had a small puff of whicker added to the head to imitate blond hair and a string that might be a tail. Two flaps of paper seem to represent ears. "What do you think? I've never tried to make toys before." Antimony stopped short and nearly crushed the papers she had been carrying previously with some care. Her tail bristled, but her ears caught on the voice and she sighed after a moment. “You are going to be the death of me one of these days...” Megiddo stepped around beside Antimony, holding the doll nearer to his chest. "I apologize. A life in the Shroud has caused me to quite forget how to normally approach people. A problem one accrues from a life of hermiting." Antimony smiled a bit uncertainly, glancing to the left and then the right before peering at the doll. “It's very charming.” Megiddo held the doll forward, "Can you tell it's supposed to be a Miqo'te?" “What? Of course. There are the ears, and the tail. Ah... it reminds me of...” Antimony pointed to the appropriate parts as she spoke and then shook her head as she trailed off. Megiddo made a curious hum, expecting her to finish the sentence. When she didn’t, he just shrugged, and turned the doll to face him. "Are Nunh marked in any specific way? Facial tattoos maybe?" Antimony blinked and furrowed her brow curiously first at the doll and then up at Megiddo. "Ah..? Well, I... suppose it would depend on the traditions..." “I'm not sure what tradition I would be looking at. Ah, but that reminds me. Do small representations like this bear any significance in your beliefs? I remember learning recently that you believed certain representations bear power.” Antimony's ears flicked back in a display of chagrin. "Ah, about that..." Her lips pursed and then, "Perhaps not in this exact manner." “Good, then I've nothing to worry about. The doll is a gift for my granddaughter, you see, and her beliefs are quite unpredictable.” Antimony's ears lifted slightly as she gave Megiddo a surprised look. "Your granddaughter? I had thought you and she were not in... well, that's not to say--it's a very sweet gift, regardless!" Megiddo shrugged. "I doubt she'll appreciate it in the manner of a traditional gift, but perhaps it will strike a chord with her. One can't blame an old man for trying." Antimony glanced down and slightly off to one side, offering a sad, brief smile to the space next to Megiddo. "It is good of you to try." Megiddo let the arm holding the doll drop limp to his side. He says, "Have you encountered much trouble in Ul'dah? Ulanan seemed very on-edge when last I saw you two. I'm beginning to think she dislikes me." Antimony shook herself and glanced back up to the duskwight, the height difference craning her neck back. "Oh! No... nothing too detrimental. I... suppose she's just anxious over the location of my assignment." “Yes. Of all things in the world, for some people being close to home is the most difficult thing of all.” “Ah? Well, I meant Pearl Lane specifically as it's... but I suppose you're right.” Antimony's ears dropped slightly. "Perhaps I should not have encouraged her to come." Megiddo smirked, "I doubt you could have left her behind any more than you could have left your own tail. Sometimes I wonder how it is that she has nothing else to do than to travel with you, but I'm glad that she does." Antimony drew a breath and took a moment to smooth out the papers she'd crushed earlier against her stomach. As she did this she spoke, "I am certainly grateful, especially with... well." She frowned, looks at the doll, "I'm sorry that she's seemed so aggressive towards you. But moreso, I feel as though I should apologize for... ah, it's just that it's difficult to leave behind a life's worth of habits and..." She struggled for several moments before finishing quietly, “... I should not have behaved so rudely to you.” Megiddo smiled a bit broader, "I'm not sure what you're talking about. Perhaps my hermiting has also robbed me of my ability to detect rudeness, but I haven't noticed any." Antimony shook her head and gestured towards the doll, then realized that was kind of a useless gesture and so just folded her hands in front of her papers. “With your... prank. Which is what it was, I suppose. I still don't agree with... well, I shouldn't have reacted so negatively.” Megiddo put a finger to his face briefly as he said, "I trust you had your reasons. Strong beliefs are good, even if they sometimes bemuse others." Antimony smiled weakly, her ears tilting to one side. "I worry I was maybe too judgmental. Certainly Ulanan... well, I didn't intend for her to just destroy your... costume like that." “Don't worry yourself over it. I'm not in the habit of having possessions anyway.” Antimony shifted her tail uncomfortably, "Still..." and shook her head. "Anyroad. Your doll is lovely. I do hope you can get it to your granddaughter." “I'm sure the doll is hideous. But it's the thought that counts, or so I've heard it said. Now, have I intruded into your evening enough? I can be on my way.” “Oh, I was just delivering... you weren't an intrusion! At least, not something with such negative connotations.” Antimony flicked her tail and smiled at Megiddo. “Duskwight are often said to intrude, so any connotations of the word are likely lost on me.” “Well you shouldn't worry in this case. I should take care of this letter, though. I'm sure I'll see you around...” “You do tend to.” Megiddo lifted the doll and made it wave one of its tiny arms, "Good evening." Antimony chuckled, relieved, and smiled warmly at the doll and then Megiddo. "You as well." She then moved to continue on her way down the street.

((A little something from the day following A First Drink...)) *** “I apologize in advance if this whole business bores you, Ulanan,” Antimony was saying as she walked the dirty, cobbled streets of Pearl Lane once more. “If you've got anything else you need to do, don't feel bound to me.” Ulanan shrugged. “It's alright. Ul'dah isn't the most secure city of Eorzea.” Antimony gave the walls of the lane an idle look as they moved and then smiled down at the lalafel at her side. “I'm not sure what I did to deserve your presence, but I'm thankful for it!” Ulanan smiled. “It's nothing.” Antimony twitched her ears a bit and shrugged at the 'nothing'. "Well, I hope I have better luck this time with the merchants here. It seems this street is not very good for business..." “This street isn't good for anything but torpor and getting mugged.” Antimony laughed despite the morbid statement, though her ears pressed back against her skull briefly. “Anyroad... who is next on the... ah, right! This way now...” Ulanan looked around boredly as they walk down the street. “Any dangerous folk we are meeting?” Antimony eyed the boarded up building she had checked the other evening and paused. "Though... let me just doublecheck this one moment..." At Ulanan's words, she shook herself from the distraction. "Hm?" Off to one side, ragged clothes and skin almost blending in completely with the drab walls and street of Pearl Lane, a woman sat cross legged on a spread blanket, the wares on it varying from small webbed trinkets to murky looking bottles. Her posture was not the most welcoming as her back leaned up against the dirty wall. She did make what seemed to be a vague attempt at smiles when folk passed by. “I hope we aren't meeting anyone violent?” Ulanan repeated. Antimony blinked at Ulanan for a second and then, "Oh! No, no. I mean... well, I hope not. It's not as though I'm going about threatening anyone, or acting threatening, or... You don't think I come off as intimidating about all this, do you? I wouldn't want to give the wrong message..." “No, I don't think you do. Even if you were wearing a bone motif on your clothes, you'd look friendly.” The merchant woman narrowed her eyes at the lalafel and miqo'te pair as they stood off down the road. Antimony's mouth quirked at a thought and then she shook her head. Her eyes went to the boarded up door and then slid to the woman hunched against the wall, surrounded by various items “Oh! I wonder... Miss!” When she moved, Ulanan once again became Antimony's shadow. Not literally, of course. Antimony approached the hyur and offered a smile, "Excuse me, do you have a moment...?" Elsa Amsel, the merchant, grinned up slightly at the approaching woman, "A moment?" She glanced around her blanket, making a show of shielding her eyes as she did so as though she were searching intently, "A moment? Surely. Though only fer business, you understand?" The woman beamed. Ulanan also looked around Elsa's blanket, wondering if there was any moment actually lying around over it. “Ah! Yes, business is precisely what I'd like to ask you about,” Antimony nodded. “How long have you been, ah... established on Pearl Lane here?” “Hmm? Not terrible long as of right now. But I've been in and out of the area a few years now. You... looking for something? Someone?” Ulanan looked around but kept quiet, as she had forgotten to ask Antimony what they were exactly looking for. Antimony, however, smiled. “Ah! Would you say you're familiar with the area, then? Which stalls are currently in business, and all that?” Elsa bowed her head in the affirmative, "As much as anyone else around these parts. Unless you wanted to wander into the..." She trailed, off, now shaking her head, "No, you're better off asking me." Ulanan tilted her head. "Into the...street?" Antimony smiled and nodded, though she was not quite sure what Elsa had side-stepped. "Right, well, a question to start - do you know how long ago this business was shuttered?" She gestured to her left, towards the boarded up door. Elsa smiled at the lalafel, "The street? Sure. That’s fine." She looked back up to the Miqo'te, "I...think it’s been at least four moons? I wandered back through here not long before then and it was a junker's trade. And they were bout in business fer a little over half a year, I believe." Antimony furrowed her brow in thought for a moment and then nodded. "Alright, thank you. Now, if you don't mind... you know of the Brass Blades unit that patrols this street, yes? I'm looking into a few matters for them and could use your further help." She smiled. Very suddenly, as though he had been there the entire time, a thin, rickety Duskwight crouched down beside Elsa's blanket. He pointed to one of the murky bottles and inquireds subtly, "What is this you're selling?" Antimony started at Megiddo's sudden appearance and pressed her lips together at some discomfort. Ulanan was not so reticent and expressed her annoyance with a gesture. “You seem to have a client. Do not let us stop your job! We can wait.” Elsa laughed, "The Brass Blades? What ya have interest in them fer?" She glanced towards the sudden voice coming from next to her, "Trinkets from travels. Got a few good ones from Ishgard if'n you have interest?" She glanced down at what he was actually looking at, the bottle, "That sir, is to help virility. Brewed it myself." Megiddo chuckled, "Not something I've use for, unfortunately. Ah well." Antimony sighed slightly and did her best to clear the vague frown from her features, looking to Megiddo, then Elsa, then back at Megiddo, and finally forcing herself to settle on Elsa. “You are an alchemist?” Elsa nodded her head, "Yes, ma'am. Among other things." Ulanan looked lost for a moment, as if she had phased out of existence. She shook her head and focuses on frowning at Megiddo. Antimony smiled at the woman’s admission, "How nice." She paused, glanced at Megiddo, looked conflicted for a moment, and finally back to Elsa, "Yes, the Blades. Do you participate in their, ah, additional security program?" Megiddo idly perused the items, ignoring Ulanan's glare and acting for all purposes as if he didn’t know the people next to him. Elsa grinned at that, "Nah, I'm too smart fer that. Don't let them hear me say that though." “That's good to hear!” Ulanan declared. Antimony's ears flicked a bit and she started bemusedly, "Why wouldn't you..." before shaking her head. “Because they might "convince" her to "join" their "additional security program",” Ulanan added air quotes to all those. Megiddo hummed to himself, and asked Elsa, "Too smart? Doesn't that just mean looking like you've got nothing worth taking?" “It’s a racket, if you ask me,” the woman said. “Worth it, maybe for those looking to stick around. Keeps them from hassling you a little less. And keeps your head from getting knocked in on occasion." “Oh, it's no matter! I'll just... ah, what was your name, dear? I know this is all coming off as rather informal, but I am here on business. Trying to straighten a few records up, you understand." Elsa nodded her head, "As I am here on business. I've got plenty of good collectables one like you might enjoy setting on display." “Have you been approached by any Brass Blades about their "Funnily Named Program of Security"?” Ulanan enjoyed air quoting too much. Antimony quirked her ears at Elsa's comment, then at Ulanan. The merchant woman lifted her winged brows at Antimony, who blinked back curiously. Ulanan eyed Elsa's wares. “Should there not be an exchange for the sake of business propriety?” Elsa finally said. “Right,” Ulanan pointed. “How much for that bottle of perfectly healthy and medically approved medicine this old man had no use for?” Antimony's ears flattened out in opposite directions in confusion. "Hm? Oh, I'm not here to shop, I apologize. I don't exactly carry much spending coins on me, you understand." Her ears bobbed as she chuckled faintly. "No, just a few questions and then I'll be on my way." Elsa looked towards Ulanan, glancing over her person, "For you two, 50 gil." She paused, "You're not here to shop? Then why are you taking up around my business?" “Fifty gil?” Ulanan sounded dubious. “That's what I'd pay to a proper apothecary. If the bottle was made of silver. And it was the last bottle of that stuff in the world. I'll give you twenty.” Elsa gestured about her blanket, about which there are strange and rather kitschy looking trinkets. Promienent among them were some cloth dolls, as well as beaded and webbed circles. There was also a lot of bottles of varying sizes, some of them looking a tad murky, while others still shone with bright clarity. The woman shook her head, "Everything for you two is 50, that is the price for what you're asking. And if you want to continue this business, you must buy something." Megiddo took one of the dolls, "How much is this one, for me?" Elsa smilesd up at the man, "That? Came from a little village in the Highlands. Don't see them around here. I would take... 5 gil." Ulanan rummaged through her bag, counting coins. Megiddo drew coins from his glove, counting them, "I'm afraid I have four." Elsa squinted her eyes somewhat at the man, taking in his ragged appearance. She then took the doll in hand, passing it to him, smiling, "Four would be fine." Ulanan muttered. "Information's kind of expensive around these parts." Megiddo nodded his thanks, "I think I'll give it to my granddaughter. You're very kind." Antimony had been caught in confusion for several long moments, and then slow realization, until she finally opened her eyes wide behind her glasses. "Ah, I understand," she said and then smiled apologetically, gave a polite bow. "I was honest when I said I don't carry much on me. I'll be on my way then, and perhaps we can speak later when I am more prepared." She took a few steps back from the mat, eyed Megiddo with some concern, and then just kind of wandered off without another word, her steps distracted. Elsa nodded her head, "Of course. I'll be around for a little while at least." “Ah...wait!” Ulanan hastily stopped her rummaging and followed Antimony. Megiddo stood and looked over at Antimony and Ulanan, watching them leave. He exhaled a thoughtful, "Hm," and then, to Elsa, "Thank you again for the doll."

((Finally catching up to posting RP! Not long, at most a day, after Security Fees. As (almost) always, copy-pasted from in-game rp and reformatted to provide more narrative flow!)) *** Late evening left the shadows long on Pearl Lane, lending the already run-down neighborhood an even more sinister air. This went largely unnoticed by Antimony as she frowned up at the boarded door, then to the faded signage to the right, then the notice posted on the door. At this, she squinted and stepped forward to read it. “... Rent delinquency. Hm? But this was posted over a month…” She trailed off, muttering to herself and looked down at some papers in her hands. Ulanan had been following Antimony around all evening, a silent companion for the older woman. She leaned against the wall, keeping a watchful eye. On what she kept a watchful eye? On the windows, the doors, and the people moving across the street. But especially on all those who are not moving. On those she didn’t keep a watchful eye. She kept two. Antimony frowned, glanced to Ulanan, then back to the door. Her tail swished back and forth in thought. "That's the third business on the list already..." She paused, and then, “Ulanan, do you know if it's possible another individual could be running something out of this building perhaps on another day?” Not that far away down the lane, behind doors marked with the seal of the Brass Blades, Lamandu Tyremandu busied himself in his office, filing away paperwork; humming as he did so. After a short time, he finished filing the things, so got up, stretching as he slid off of his too big chair. He exited the office, locking the door behind him. Another ways down Pearl Lane, a miqo’te of pale hair and skin dressed in the Blades uniform might be overheared growling at a poor, innocent refugee who was just trying to work his way up from nothing. She was like, "I've heard the sob story before. Yesterday. Last week. If you've got merchandise you have something to pay your fines with. What's in the sacks?" “Maybe?” Ulanan was saying, “I don't walk down this street that often.” Antimony nodded, ears shifting about in conflict. "It's alright. It's just... hm. It should not be closed...” Lamandu nodded to the evening clerks and exits the Pearl Lane station then. He glanced along the dirty street, his mouth quarked. “Maybe someone 'payed' for it to be closed,” Ulanan suggested. “Or, rather, maybe they did not pay for it to be left open.” Antimony tilted her head. "That... I suppose it's... Deliberate? I'm not sure why someone would do such a thing." “What kind of business was held here?” Antimony took a step back from the door and gestured to the old signage. A few steps away, Lamandu Tyremandu lifted his eyebrows as he stopped to spot the newly familiar form of Antimony in front of one of the nearby buildings, he made his way over there. Ulanan squinted at the sign, reading, while Antimony explained, “A small apothecary. Of a sort. I'm not sure how legitimate the practice was, but supposedly it did deal in medicines.” Down the lane, the Blade harassing the merchant frowned at the man, "You don't listen well." She grabbed a bottle in one hand, "This is, what, ten percent of your stock? Undrinkable swill, right?" She grabbed another. "Twenty percent sounds like a fair fee." Lamandu cleared his throat then, and said, "Antimony, I thought you were to retire for the evening?..." Ulanan stopped squinting at the sign to squint at Lamandu as Antimony's ears bounced in surprise. She turned around. "What? Oh! Captain Tyremandu." She smiled down at the lalafell, who returned the gesture. “I'm simply looking into a few things. Work waits for no man. Or... ah, woman. I think that's the saying..?” “You have worked plenty for the day, have you not?” the small man smiled. “You should be taking in the better Ul'dah sights now!” Antimony chuckled and straightened the papers in her hands. "I've taken in enough, I think." The harassing Brass Blade leaned in and pointed at the man with one of the bottles, whispering at him, "Want to keep your bottles next time? I take Somnus at triple its value, so find a dealer." Then she turned to walk away. “Have you?” Lamandu hummed. “But you have not been here so terribly long. Only a couple of days by my count!” Antimony tilted her head to one side and thought for a moment, "Four." “The landmarks last as long as the landscape lasts.” Ulanan smiled at Lamandu. He laughed, "And on a work trip, four days is not many to explore!" Without warning, the Brass Blade walked right up to Antimony and thrust one of her confiscated bottles at her, "Gift. Take an evening off." Lamandu tilted his head towards Ulanan, before seeing the familiar figure walk up, "Lou... what are you..." Antimony blinked rapidly at the bottle as though unsure what to do with it. "Ah..." Awkwardly, she accepted it, nearly dropping the papers she held. "What...?" “I'm being nice,” Loughree stated. “That's a rude way of being nice,” Ulanan chastised. “But I guess the intention is what counts.” Loughree walked over to Lamandu and thrust the other at him, "Good stuff." Antimony blinked at the bottle, then at Loughree. "Thank you?" Then down at Ulanan. Her friend raised a hand to Antimony, directed at the bottle. “Hm?” “I'll hold onto that for you.” “Oh! Right. Of course. Thank... you.” Antimony shook her head, ears twitching, and handed the bottle over to Ulanan. The lalafell smiled and took the bottle before stepping to a side again. Lamandu accepted his own offered bottle it, peering down at it, "And why do you have this while on duty? That is against protocol, do we need to have another talk?" Loughree shifted her ears back, though the turban truncated the expression. She glanced at Antimony but responded to Lamandu, "Like the last talk we had?" At this, Antimony looked confused for a moment, and then worried. “Not quite, but along the same lines, in a more official capacity.” Loughree shook her head, "I get your point," and then moved to stand next to Lamandu, facing Antimony, looking soldiery. "How's your work, Antimony? Nothing missing?" Ulanan kept quiet while Antimony looked between the two and then smiled, "I'm not currently at liberty to divulge. But the investigation is running along." Lamandu frowned, tucking the bottle in his satchel. "Running along? You seem to be looking at local business, though keep in mind that much of the business along Pearl Lane tends to be of a transient nature." “How so?” Ulanan questioned. “Transient's a word for it,” Loughree chuffed. “There hasn't been a business behind that door in months.” “Not of a permanent nature, no. It is not uncommon for merchants to travel through here. Come and go, so to say,” Lamandu explained. Antimony looked to him and nodded. "I understand. I'm simply following up on... well." To Loughree she smiled, "That is the question, though." Loughree looked down at Lamandu and crossed her arms, "This door specifically? Well, I guess I'd have to check the books." And, to Antimony, "What's the question?" “It's nothing to worry about for now.” Antimony straightened the papers in her hands again and then carefully slipped them back into a satchel at her hip. “Are you sure? If it was not of concern, you would not be whittling away the evening down here,” Ulanan carefully pointed out. Antimony laughed a bit embarrassedly. "I'm afraid that's just my nature." At this, Lamandu smiled. “She's very dedicated,” Ulanan nodded. “Even then, though...investigations are like a ball of linen. You follow and untangle the mess of threads only to find they lead nowhere.” Loughree looked at Ulanan, "You're with her every step of the way. Except one. How is clearing up that paperwork coming?" Lamandu chuckled, "Yes, we are familiar with such things." “I guess you could compare it with wine bottles,” Ulanan added. Antimony blinked at Loughree and her ears shifted. "Oh! Ulanan's only keeping me company in the evening. And providing a bit of much appreciated safety. I'm not discussing anything of a business nature with her." “Oh.” Loughree thought. “Well, if you were worried about safety you could've let me know. That is my job.” Antimony smiled a bit uncertainly. "I apologize. It never even crossed my mind." “I am free and tested. You are unknown and probably expensive. I'm sure we are both just as effective, though.” Ulanan smiled at Loughree. Lamandu shrugged, "If Antimony feels safe with her companion, I'm sure that she has reason to be." Antimony nodded eagerly. "I don't want to speak poorly of your territory, but I've heard this street is not a place to be by one's self. So..." Lamandu shook his head, "No need to apologize, it is merely the truth. Pearl Lane is not always the nicest of place to be. Which is why I am surprised you linger here so late." Antimony shrugged a bit helplessly. "It's as I said.." Ulanan motioned to herself. “As I said, I'm quite tested!” “Yes, well.” Lamandu paused. “If you would be willing, I would love to buy the both of you a round down at the quicksand, that is where the both of you are staying, yes?" “A... round?” Antimony blinked. Loughree had nothing to say about this. She crossed her arms and relaxed her stance some. “He means a drink,” Ulanan offered helpfully. “... Oh! Yes. Of course.” “I do,” Lamandu nodded. “You could do to relax a bit I think, Miss.” Antimony looked to Lamandu and leaned her head, "Sir, you should know I don't accept bribes." Both Ulanan and Loughree burst out laughing at this comment, and the older miqo’te frowned. “… What?” Lamandu chuckled and shook his head, "Nothing of the sort!" Loughree shook her head as well, smiling, "Here on Pearl Lane we wouldn't know how to bribe if we took classes. The captain just likes an excuse to go to the tavern." Lamandu stroked his beard, admitting, "An evening at one, every now and then is nice." Antimony clasped her hands down in front of her and furrowed her brow uncertainly before looking between Ulanan and Lamandu, then back down to her friend. "Would you be up to such a thing, Ulanan?" “I have no objections if you think you are done here for the night.” “Ah, well, I've stopped by a number of businesses tonight. The others can wait for tomorrow, I think.” “Then I guess we will accept your generous offer, captain.” At Ulanan’s words, Antimony laughed briefly and then nodded. Lamandu brought his hands together in front of him, glancing up at Lou, "I suppose you’re included in my offer. Just the once! No letting it get to your head young lady." He waggled a finger at her. “Oh, no. I wouldn't even once pretend that my father figure would show any affection for me at all.” Loughree pouted at Lamandu for a moment. Then her features reset to neutral like a switch had been thrown. “...your captain is your father figure?” Ulanan sounded dubious. Lamandu rolled his eyes slightly, before turning his attention back to the pair in front of them, "Shall we then?" Antimony fidgeted her fingers with one another a bit awkwardly. “Ah! Yes. Let's.” “I had a troubling childhood. Deeply traumatizing,” Loughree said deadpan. She then turned and walked past everyone towards the Quicksand. “ ... What...?” Antimony’s ears tilted. Lamandu shook his head slightly, "Lou is... a difficult person sometimes. Try not to let her get under your skin." He gestured down the lane, "Ladies first." Antimony blinked in confusion for a moment before shaking her head and then moving down the lane. She spared a glance to the shutdown business once more before continuing on. Once arrived, the Quicksand proved as bustling as ever, with very few seats not occupied by people in various degrees of inebriation. “A drink demands using the bar, as social protocol states,” Ulanan declared, in no small part due to the fact that the bar contained the only set of four neighboring seats available. Lamandu glanced around the room for a place to set the group down, "Hmm... It may have to do for now." The lalafellin captain made for the short row of four seats at the bar without hesitation. Antimony looked around the Quicksand, brow furrowed searchingly, and then relaxed just a bit, before following to sit with the others. Loughree took a seat deliberately away from Lamandu. This had the secondary effect of sitting them in order from tallest to smallest, and wasn’t that cute? Ulanan frowned. Why Lamandu was next to Antimony instead of her was beyond her understanding. She shrugged and looked past him to her miqo’te friend. “What are the rules, Captain?” Loughree spoke up. “... Rules?” Antimony blinked. Lamandu raised a brow towards Lou, "Beg your pardon?" “I believe your subordinate thinks this will be a drinking competition,” Ulanan suggested slowly. Lamandu gestured towards Momodi, "Well, I had just been going to order us a round of Black and Golds..." Antimony looked a bit anxious, either at Lou's implication, or Lamandu's offer, or who knew what else. “Antimony doesn't strike me as the Black-and-Golds-type, so go right ahead,” Loughree declared with satisfaction. “The... what?” That did not help to clarify Antimony’s confusion or anxiety. Lamandu shrugged, "Unless Miss has another preference? I find them quite good myself." “That a bit too strong for a woman such as her,” Ulanan warned. “Why not some simple white wine?” “I, ah... I can't really... say,” Antimony fidgeted. Lamandu conceded rather easily, “That would of course be fine.” Ulanan nodded sagely. “No, that would not be fine!” Loughree declared vehemently. “You can't get shots of white wine. That's disrespectful. One little shot never hurt anybody.” “And who ever said anything about shots? Not I. Merely a glass of wine of a pint of beer,” Lamandu shook his head. “Yes,” Ulanan hummed. “Your subordinate is indeed thinking this is a competition.” Antimony winced. "I don't intend to be disrespectful, only..." “Hmm? Only what?” Lamandu looked to her, curious. “I'm not competing. There's a right way to do this.” Antimony furrowed her brow at Loughree. "A tradition? I've never heard of any... well.” “Tradition! Ritual!” Loughree exclaimed dramatically. “It's a cultural institution. Since it's my job to protect Ul'dah and its culture, I can't let anything but shots happen!” “That's an awful way to protect the city's traditions: by getting everyone drunk,” Ulanan observed. Lamandu shook his head, "Now, now. Just us not get carried away, Lou." Antimony turned back to the counter and pursed her lips. "... Only one." “One's fine! One's all it takes!” Loughree seemed happy at this. “And only because it is part of your culture.” The other miqo’te pointed at Antimony, "That's respect!" Regardless of this minor debate, Lamandu ordered Antimony a glass of white wine and a black and gold for himself. "So it sounds like perhaps there are other preferences?" “I will keep my white wine,” Ulanan said. “You three can drink whatever.” “Captain! Not wine!” Loughree protested. “A shot! You're doin it wrong!” Antimony glanced worriedly past Lamandu to Ulanan and then across the counter to the glass of wine set in front of her. The captain shook his head, "I said that we are not getting carried away Lou. A white wine will be good for her." “White wine will not me good. I'm ordering a shot.” Antimony frowned in thought. "Fermented grapes. I suppose on the surface it's not bad." Loughree ordered straight hard something or other lore appropriate but brown and gross. Lamandu frowned slightly at Lou, "You are on your own tab after that one." He then took his pint, glancing over at Ulanan, "Are you not getting anything?" “Someone has to stay sober in case your friend gets mine drunk.” Saying nothing in response, Loughree waited for her shot to arrive and put it in front of Antimony, taking her wine. Antimony blinked at that and opened her mouth to protest, shut it, and then went anyway, "Your captain did say..." Loughree daid firmly, "He is doing it wrong." Ulanan got off her stool and walked over between Antimony and Loughree. The former wrinkled her nose. She could smell the alcohol even from all the way where it sat on the counter. At Ulanan’s movement, she startled, “Ulanan! Is something wrong?” Loughree looked down at Ulanan, "Uh, hello? Did you... order anything?" Lamandu frowned at the relocated Lalafel, sipping at his beer. Ulanan stood on the tip of her toes, her eyes scouring the top of the bar. The next moment, she picked up the glass of whatever strong beverage Lou had put in front of Anti and drank it. Antimony's brows lifted behind her glasses. "Ulanan! That was Miss Loughree's!" “No, it was Antimony's,” Loughree clarified. “We can order another. How is it?” Ulanan put the glass in front of Antimony. "No, it was yours." She then looked at Loughree. "And remember the next one is on your tab." The lalafell smiled at Loughree. At this, Lamandu burst out laughing while Antimony could only wince. Loughree frowned, looking like she was trying to decide if she should be offended or not. "I'm sorry? Did I do something?" She slid the wine back in front of Antimony. “Now, now ladies. Keep it civil, please.” Lamandu motioned to Momodi to serve Antimony another glass of wine.” “You are making up traditions to make fun of my friend once she gets drunk,” Ulanan declared. Antimony gave the first glass of wine an odd look, transfered that look to Ulanan and, "... Are you alright? It didn't hurt you, did it? It smelled like a week old sandworm.” Loughree blinked down at Ulanan, then frowned up at Antimony, then directed her gaze forward. She ordered five more shots. Lamandu chuckled, "It was a little rough probably, but your protector seems quite fine." Ulanan looked at Antimony. "I need to wake up early tomorrow, so the strong drink will help me fall asleep like a stone idol in the Invisible City." “It's also a good way to be really insulting, if you're trying to save time,” Loughree added. Lamandu frowned as he saw Momodi prepping the shots in addition to the other glass of wine he ordered for Antimony. "Lou... what did I tell you about keeping it low-key?" Antimony pursed her lips at Lamandu, then at Ulanan in turn, and finally at the first glass of wine. She let out a sigh and then brought it to her lips to take a drink. Her eyes widened behind the glass and her tail shivered, puffing out a bit before laying flat once more. Ulanan frowned at Loughree, hands on her hips. "That wasn't insulting. This, however, will be." And then she moved away from her, past everyone, saying: "Don't accept anything that blonde voidsent gives you. If you do you will awaken in the Ossuary's fountain inside a potato sack." Lamandu turned his head to watch Ulanan walk by, "Don't worry too much. Lou isn't all bite..." Antimony nearly dropped her glass in her haste to turn and follow Ulanan's movements behind her. Loughree watched Ulanan walk away from her, with a frown. Then she stood, and took a few of the shots she got between her armored fingers. "Oh I'll bite the hell out of her. Easy to be a bitch and walk off isn't it? Come on. You can steal one from me, you can take more." Noticing trouble, Lamandu set his beer down, getting up and walking to the two. “I did not 'steal' it from you. You handed it to my friend, remember?” Loughree held the shots out to Ulanan, easily reaching over Lamandu. "And now I'm handing you this. Come on. Drink up, you little thief. All for you." “Ah, Miss Loughree, please... there's no need to fight.” Lamandu held up his hand. "Now. This is rather pointless, let it drop. Now," he said sternly, annoyance clear in his expression. “I don't need to get drunk to prove I'm a better woman. But if you do, then be my guest. Good evening!” With that, Ulanan turned around with the clear objective of leaving. Antimony frowned and moved to stand as though to go after Ulanan. Lamandu stepped deliberately in front of Lou. The miqo’t growled, and one of the glasses in her hand cracked as she squeezed it, "Cowardly little shit. Don't you...!" She glared down at Lamandu, "What? You fucking want em?" “Ah, perhaps I should... I'll just leave…” Antimony muttered in a quiet voice. Ulanan ignored that comment and asked for the key to her room. “Is there a problem here?” An unfamiliar voice intruded suddenly. Lamandu shook his head, "No. You bought them. They are yours. Stand down, or I might have to book you myself tonight." Loughree growled again, the fur on her tail puffing out a bit as it twitches. "I'm not an idiot. I'm not going to do anything." She turned her glare on the Duskwight next to her, briefly, then just slammed the shot glasses on the bar and stormed off, "You fuckers leave me alone." Lamandu looked over at the woman in white, "No, I've got it under control. Lou here just needs to take a break." “Mmmm...” The Duskwight, dressed in well-made armor, looked thoughtful. Antimony worried her hands into the skirt of her dress while Ulanan disappeared into the depths of the Quicksand! Also known as "the rooms". Lamandu shook his head, sighing. "I apologize for the disturbance, miss. Lou..." he tightened his lips and shook his head further as the woman walked away. Loughree paused then, and looks at the woman to her right in a bit of disbelief. "Don't talk down to me. Actually, why don't you go crawl back into your crags? Ul'dah doesn't need any more Duskies." The woman burst out laughing at Loughree. “I would do so, had mine tunnels not collapsed with meteorfall.” Lamandu looked to Antimony who had risen from her seat, "I'm sorry about that. Lou is... Lou. As you have rather gathered, I am sure. I really did mean for it to be unwinding for you to join for a drink." Loughree mocked sympathy, "Oh, no. Any of your family and friends get squished?" The Duskwight nodded to Loughree. Antimony watched where Ulanan had disappeared off into the back rooms. "... Ah. I... understand." She shook herself, ears shifting back anxiously. "Perhaps this was not the best idea." Loughree smiled, "Good! I hope it hurt." Her ears went flat on her head, "Leave me alone." Lamandu shrugged, "Again, I apologize. I'm sure it has not left the best of impressions.” “It seems you are intoxicated,” the Duskwight observed. “Or just a very disagreeable person, I think. In either case, I would think it better if you do not insult the dead, mmm?” Antimony winced and then forced a smile down at Lamandu. "It's alright. You hospitality isn't unappreciated, but... I think I should go." “What is your problem, lady?” Loughree prodded. “I believe it is that you have insulted me when I merely wished to calm you down, my dear miqo'te. I ask you the same, yes? What is it that ails you, mmm?” Lamandu smiled sadly, "Of course. Another time then. And perhaps without Lou..." He shook his head, "I really do not always know what to do with the girl." Antimony frowned at something Lamandu said, then shook herself once more, tail shivering behind her, and bowed slightly to the lalafell. "Have a good evening. I'm sure I'll see you again at the office tomorrow." “Right,” Loughree was saying. “Now my ail's a piece of crap Dusky talking like she can calm me down.” Lamandu nodded his head, "Of course. Rest well." “Would you prefer violence?” The woman, who had not introduced herself but was known to some as Tirisse Sunsinger, questioned. “I am not unaccustomed to forcing rowdy patrons in to unconsciousness because they could not keep their negative attitude to themselves, yes?” Lamandu let out another sigh before walking over to where Lou was now arguing. Reluctantly, Antimony made her way towards the stairs to the inn rooms. Loughree pointed at the Duskwight’s chest, "I'm a Brass Blade, Dusky. You pick a fight with me your ass is going to be in a cell." Lamandu shook his head at the two of them, "Lou... perhaps it is about time for you to retire for the night?..." “I am an Immortal Flame, miqo'te, and one of high rank at that, yes? I would be quite immune to your process, and the investigation would reveal exactly what has happened, no?” Lamandu shook his head, "There really is no need for that Miss. Lou just needs to walk off some steam." He directed his attention back to Lou, "Lou! Do not go waggling idle threats." Loughree squinted at Tirisse, "Duskies in power. Whose bright idea was that? Big surprise you're abusing it." She suddenly snapped at Lamandu, "Would you leave me the fuck alone!" “She is a most unagreeable sort, I am finding,” Tirisse observed. Lamandu shook his head, "You know I can't do that as much as I might want to. I do not have time to be dealing with the fallout of your night-time transgressions." He smiled tightly up at the Elezen, "Try working with her." “If you wish, I can beat her unconcious for you.” Loughree muttered, "There wouldn’t be any if people would just leave me be." She threw her hands up in the air, "Just leave me alone!" and she walked around Lamandu to try and leave again. Lamandu shook his head, "As much as that... No. I would be hearing about it from... nevermind." He watched Lou stride past him. "It is better to just let her pass for now. She is in an especially foul mood right now." “She merely needs to be humbled, but, as I would be the aggressor in this case, I will take no action.” Lamandu nodded he his head, "Yes, you cannot let her rile you up. She is rather good at that. It would not have ended well either way.” “Well for me, but not for her perhaps,” the Duskwight replied a bit haughtily. “It is not often I allow those to insult mine home without any backlash, yes? Please, infom her, that the next time she does that, I will most likely have to rearrange her face a little bit, yes?” Lamandu chuckled, "I think most people want to do that to her. She is rather used to bullying her way through things." Tirisse burst out laughing, “I am not threatening, I assure you. I am promising, yes?” “Then I might warn you,” Lamandu cautioned. “For your own sake. It is not worth the trouble. She has... connections. You might not come out as well as you would like, perhaps?" “I have no fear of Brass Blades, yes?” “I really do not care one way or another on this matter, as Lou is a thorn in my own side for some years. I am merely giving you friendly advice.” The lalafell smiled at Tirisse, who smiled back. “Then do me a favor and pass on mine to her, yes? If she is not prepared to pay for her actions, she should not be such a prickly peach, no?” Lamandu shrugged, "Sure, if it helps you sleep at night." He chuckled at this. Again the woman laughed. “I have no delusions.” Lamandu spread out his arms bowing his head, "Fair enough.” Tirisse bowed then, “Fare thee well,” before turning to walk away. Lamandu nodded his head, smirking slightly before heading off in the same direction that Lou went.

Yes, I know, but MMOs shouldn't have to all go through the same evolutionary process. When someone figures out something that works, especially on a customer service end, then others should follow suit rather than dragging their feet through the sludge of the dark ages.

Honestly, I find it really weird that Squee's policy on item restorations is so... restrictive. In WoW, you can submit for an item restoration once every 30 days, and that seems plenty reasonable to me. Losing an item is bad enough; no one should have to worry and fret over whether they should use their lone item restoration or not. It's not like restoring things takes all that much effort anyway. WoW's system is almost entirely automated (completely automated for items destroyed, disenchanted, or sold - if it's lost any other way, you have to have a customer representative manually restore it).

K'ile Tia had learned too well how to pass nights and days like these. The strange, affectionate equilibrium he'd struck with K'luha hung like a polished boulder balanced on a pedestal in the center of the room. Elsewhere another pedestal roamed alone, out of sight, but K'ile could almost hear the creaking weight of the hold he and K'piru exerted on one another. The pillar he'd carved to hold his love for his sister was made of cracked ice, and the blistering heat of Dalamud had been searing away at it for five hears. The Tia had tried to dance with that fire, but even with all five soulstones on his wrist, he'd failed to control it. Hellfire poured from his fingertips, it seemed, and the pillar weakened. He should've just left those boulders in the sand, unpolished. Now their weight loomed. K'piru hadn't returned to her inn room. Not in the minutes he'd expected nor in the hours that he'd hoped, and as he began to predict the coming of dawn he sat staring at K'luha's broken body as though he were chained to it. Bindings wrapped his heart and throat, squeezing each a little more minute by minute. He felt cold even as his body sweat to try and compensate for the heat in the room. * It was both difficult and easy to sleep. She was too tired not to sleep, and yet concern for K'ile kept her awake. She was less concerned for K'piru, as the woman had seemed to make her hold on life in the city fairy well since leaving five years ago. She would come back... she had her things here. Important things. Even if it took a long time, K'luha was sure that K'piru would come back. And the reassurance to herself helped her sleep. Although her dreams were plagued with the backs of her family members and K'ailia's cruel words. She tried not to believe that she was the things K'ailia called her. She tried not to believe her own daughter disregarded her like so much dirt. But to her, it was pretty clear that she did. Did K'ailia really think that K'luha should just be okay with it all? The thoughts and half-lucid dreams of Luha made her blink away, startled when she realized something. "My linkpearl..." Luha mumbled, grasping for the necklace. It was gone. She must have left it in the other room before she ran. Luha frowned and looked over towards K'ile's form. She could almost see his body shaking and sweating with fear. "Not yet...?" With a blink, K'ile Tia's gaze snapped from K'luha's tail to her face. He rolled his neck to loosen his muscles, resetting his posture. The slight movement stirred nausea in his stomach, but he ignored it as much as he could and it settled within moments. He shrugged at K'luha and said, "Not quite yet. Something must've come up. She's a..." he searched for the words. "I don't know. She works with money. Ul'dahns worship money, right?" "An... accountant?" Luha offered. She'd heard the word before. She had hired one before as well, but they usually fucked her over. Metaphorically speaking of course. "And they do. I'm sure she'll be back." K'luha breathed out slowly, glancing up to the ceiling. "Could you check the front desk? I left my linkpearl in the room I was in before I..." K'luha trailed off and frowned. "Anyway, I left it behind. Maybe they have it at the front. Maybe you'll see her walking in if you check. You don't have to. Just... I do want to see if my linkpearl's still around." K'luha frowned quietly, still grasping for it at her neck but grapsing only at her skin. "I can check on your pearl," he said, though his very first thought was to hope the thing had been lost permanently. Though that would leave K'ailia with a direct, unmoderated line to Tahj. Like a demon corrupting the girl in secret. With that in mind, he said, "Yeah, we'll find it. No problem," as he stood and moved towards the door. "There anything else you need?" Something else... K'luha faintly realized that she was above the bed's blankets and the lack of movement had her utterly freezing. Hadn't Piru gone to ask for more blankets and such? Maybe that was the problem... "Didn't Piru go to ask for blankets...? Well... maybe she left a message with the front desk. See if you can't get an extra blanket. But wait... my pocket... ah... that's bad." K'luha realized she had left all her gil in that room as well. All her things were in that room... "Better idea. Go check the room. I had paid for it for a few days so maybe they left my things in there. And if not, see if you can't manage to get anything from the front desk. If they took all my gil, they could at least not charge us for having extra people in this room." Luha frowned faintly, also finally half realizing that Piru had pulled down to expose her hip injury... but that she was pretty much in her underwear which Piru had pulled half off. Awkward. Ah well. At least everyone was too tense to realize it. This was starting to sound a bit like a chore. K'ile grimaced and stretched. Sitting on the floor all night had not been kind to his body, and there was an ache radiating downward from the base of his tail. "Alright, alright. I'll find your stuff. I'll be right back, and unlike some people, I'll actually come back." He stepped out of the room in no great hurry, but closed the foor firmly behind him. His senses, once free of the intimate scents of K'luha and K'piru, were assaulted with the stink of Ul'dah. He shook his head against it and pulled on one ear, lingering for a moment, and then walked down the hallway, taking the turn towards K'luha's room. What splintered wood had lay in the hallway had been cleared and a piece of rope hastily strung across the entryway, a dangling sign that read "No entry". For once, something simple enough that he could actually read it. And ignore it. K'ile flicked the sign and fire flickered to life on either side, the soulstones on his bracelet glowing dimly for a moment. He pulled on the weakened rope and it snapped wasily, the fire snuffed as it fell away. He stepped over the pile of wood immediately inside of the room and perused what had been K'luha's accomadation until... What, K'ailia had attacked her? He was still had no idea what had actually transpired. When the Tia returned to K'piru's inn room a few minutes later, he carried a multitude of items. In one hand were a blanket and pillow, pulled conveniently from the bed of the broken room, and in the other was a satchel (presumably K'luha's) into which he'd stuffed everything that he found that might belong to the woman. Her gil was included. If the work-people at this inn weren't so lazy, they might've robbed her, but they apparently hadn't given the room more than a few seconds' consideration. K'luha felt bad for asking so much of K'ile... but maybe the task would keep his mind pre-occupied from K'piru's delayed return. She would come back... she would. Again, K'luha had to reassure herself that Piru would come back. Then again... The silence in the now empty room was somewhat deafening. Luha laid still and bit her bottom lip, her ands carefully grabbing her clothing and readjusting it for comfort. She straightened out her pantlettes and pulled up on her camise. Despite being cold, it simply felt more comfortable to have less shirt-like things covering her at the moment. In the rest of the ensuing silence, K'luha tried not to think about K'ailia's cruelty. She tried not to think of K'ailia at all. Maybe if she could just calm down, she could accept it. Maybe... maybe if they would allow tribe members to come and go more freely... maybe then K'ailia wouldn't have to be exiled. She could be free to be herself, and then she could still have her family. Truely, it was her own self-imposed exile and rejection of her family that most bothered Luha. If she could be brought back, even if she wasn't in person then... then maybe Luha could accept that. It would be easier for her if things were like that. Sometime between thinking and K'ile's return she fell asleep. The door's opening startled her awake again and she partially jolted to sit up, only to inhaled sharply and lay back down. "Owowowowowowow..." "Luha!" K'ile snapped when he heard her, half-expecting the woman to have decided she could do laps around the room and had her leg break completely off her body when that proved untrue. Seeing the woman still on the bed, K'ile huffed anyway, "Can you really not just stay still?" "N-no I-ow- just was-ow- startled when the -ow- door opened-ow." K'luha hissed and rubbed gingerly at her hip. She was too used to sitting up whenever K'ile walked in a room. She was really going to have to learn to lie still around him. Tossing the satchel off to one side, K'ile walked over to the bed and looked down on K'luha, "Maybe Piru has some kind of paralysis potion we can use on you for a month or two." He smirked and dropped the pillow on her face. Luha frowned, hissing taking deep breaths to try and stave off some of the pain. A paralysis potion? No way. She wasn't going to be paralyzed for however long this took to heal. She reached up and took the pillow off her face before pouting at K'ile. "No way. I'm just hoping it heals well enough to walk at this point." "This'll be a good experience for you," K'ile said with a chuckle, dropping the blanket on K'luha's face. "You can only walk once you learn how to not walk for a while." "This is horrific." K'luha pouted in return, grabbing the blanket he had put on her face and covering herself with it as much as possible. Which wasn't terribly well but better than before. "I can't move. How will I use the bathroom? How will I clean up? How can I do anything besides waste resources at the tribe?" She whined loudly and covered her face with the blanket. "Damnit." "It's not that bad, Luha," K'ile said, sitting down next to K'luha on the bed and then shifting on a whim to lay next to her, though he was half-off the bed in order to fit. "You're not going to be completely immobile for a day or two, I bet, and once the feast we bought gets to the tribe nobody's going to complain about you not being able to contribute." K'luha tried to move over a bit to let K'ile lay down, but swiftly gave up when it hurt. Instead she settled for dropping her arm on his chest and frowning at the ceiling. "Problem. The Brass Blades are holding our feast shipments in Ul'dah here you know. They sent me a letter in Drybone. We'll have to try and argue our food out." "What!" K'ile started, half sitting up, "That's bullshit! It's just FOOD!" K'luha's arm slid down to lay across his lap and she frowned over at him. "I know that. But now we've got to argue about it with the Brass Blades." Remaining rigid for a moment, his eyes flicking around in confusion for a time, K'ile slowly realized it wasn't something he needed to jump up and see to immediately. He eased back and lay his hand over K'luha's then readjusted himself so he was laying on his side and facing her. "The tribe's hungry. They need that food. Brass is flimsy. Can we just break them and get the food back?" "We could just buy new food." K'luha suggested, glancing back over to K'ile. While she wouldn't mind just breaking in and stealing their food back... "If we steal back from them, we'll be in trouble. We won't be able to come here ever again. And if we fail, they'll lock us in metal cages until we rot." "I don't understand," he admitted, "How can Ul'dah just take food we bought. That's our gil. They worship gil!" "Something about an investigation...?" K'luha pouted and patted his chest lightly. "I don't know... I hardly understand it myself." He let his head drop and lay next to K'luha's, muttering sadly, "I need that feast so I can be Nunh for you." "We'll get it back K'ile..." K'luha frowned, disliking the sound of him being sad. She reached over to take his hand and shook it lightly. "We'll get it. Or we'll get a new one. We'll figure it out. Okay?" Exhaling a sigh, K'ile breathed, "...Okay, Luha." He lay very still. His tail lifted and fell a single time. Luha bit her bottom lip and just watched him for a few moments. Did he really believe her? She thought so and yet... Luha reached up with a hand and pressed it softly to his cheek, turning his head towards her. She didn't say anything, but just looked at him, eyes shimmering with a deep and burning compassion. It was something she always had burning in her eyes when people really looked at them. The Tia blinked his blue eyes, his bright hair partially obscuring one of them. His hands lay limply against the covers that K'luha had wrapped herself in, his ears pitched back on his head in a sign of displeasure. His gaze, however, appeared contemplative, as he looked very closely at the curve of K'luha's nose, the circle of her cheeks, the two colors of her eyes. K'luha left her eyes lingering on K'ile's. They were stunning really. It was... probably her favorite feature about him. Those eyes. They burned so intensely that the fire was a brilliant blue. She felt like she could be satisfied just staring at them for a while, but her hands moved on their own, pushing the blanket to cover K'ile as well as herself. At least he didn't have to be cold if he was hanging half-off the bed. Smiling at the gesture, K'ile moved to fascilitate it. He reached one hand over K'luha's body and took holdy of her shoulder, pulling himself against her and pushing his forehead into her hair. K'luha smiled a bit despite herself and let out a soft breath of air. It was natural, being like this. She didn't feel like she needed more even. With K'yohko, no matter how close she was she had always needed more from him. The things she needed, he simply couldn't give her to. But it felt so much better with K'ile. She didn't feel like she constantly had to have his body. Just this the way it was, she was happy. *** Her feet ached. Antimony had noticed this well before she noticed night had fallen over Ul’dah, but it didn’t stop her motion. Her legs moved mindlessly, carrying her down an alley, around a corner, into another street, and onward through the circular maze of the city. She passed the Quicksand twice, but both times she could not bring her legs to stop or her feet to carry her back up those steps. Instead she continued to walk, paper-wrapped package held close to her chest and head bowed so that much of her view of the city was reduced to dirty, cobbled streets and a multitude of foreign feet. Sand and fire and loss dogged every step, voices and words she hadn’t thought of in years echoing in her skull. Coward. Selfish. They’re gone. I couldn’t save them. You couldn’t save them. Her pace quickened despite the pain in her feet that had begun to lace up into her shins, but there was no escape from any of it in a city that took her in nothing but circles. For not the first time, her thoughts flitted to the parcel in her arms, to snow and cold and a warm invitation. No one would come looking for her in Coerthas. She had heard it was as isolated as anything could possibly be. Even if she didn’t find Mitari there to greet her, perhaps the cold could swallow the memories better than ocean and books. But she had told K’ailia… Walking became significantly more difficult around the time she also noticed the shadows along the buildings shifting and gaining a grey-blue hue. Her head felt impossibly heavy, and on more than one occasion she found herself on a side street with no memory of the steps that had taken her there. But there was a blessing in this exhaustion: her thoughts and memories, the pain and loss, the sharp ache of guilt and the creeping illness that churned her gut and flung harsh, vindictive words, had fallen back, buried under the weight of a tired mind. One foot caught on an uneven stone then, sending her body lurching forward and the parcel flying from her arms to skid across the ground. At such an early morning, the street she had wandered into was largely empty, so no eyes turned to watch her tumble. She lay numbly on the stones for several minutes before grimacing at the needles lancing up her legs and the stinging in palms of her hands where she’d tried to catch her fall, and pulled herself to her knees. She blinked at an unbidden wetness in her eyes – a childish, instinctive reaction – and a moment later managed to stagger to her feet and scoop up Mitari’s gift. When nothing but a keen awareness of her exhaustion greeted her mind, Antimony let out a long breath. She could finally return. *** How she found her way back to the Quicksand, Antimony wasn’t certain, but the innkeep gave her an odd look when she walked past. The back halls passed in a blur, and when she pushed open the door to her inn room and stepped inside, she found herself blinking dumbly at K’luha and K’ile on her bed as though she’d forgotten they would even be there. When the door opened, K'ile rolled out of the bed in a reaction so sudden one would think he was about to be attacked. But it was just K'piru. Just K'piru. It was the last and most important person he'd ever expected to see walking through a door, barring his dead brother, and every sense he had, every drop of his attention, focused immediately on the woman. K'luha blinked as K'ile semi violently ripped himself away and off the bed. She was worried for a moment he'd gone and hurt himself, but then she realized the door was open. She carefully propped herself up lightly to note K'piru at the door and smiled. So she had come back after all. Thank goodness... Luha dropped herself back down on the bed and decided she'd done enough interfering for the time being. Sleep would suit her fine for now. Antimony looked between the two for several seconds before letting the door drift shut behind her. She could feel an echo of those gut-wrenching pains from before, but they were blissfully muted by the deep aching in her feet and the stinging in her hands. She wondered if she could just fall asleep standing and murmured a faint, "Hello," in greeting. "K'piru," K'ile darted forward to the woman, putting one hand on each of the woman's shoulders and saying, "Are you alright? You look exhausted! You're covered in dirt." Her ears shifted back when K'ile approached suddenly, the deep, familial scent he brought with him invading her senses. To distract herself, she adjusted her grip on the parcel in her arms and leaned to one side as though to move around him. "I... needed some air," she said by way of explanation, keeping her eyes averted. Feeling as though he'd been struck, K'ile pulled back his hands and stepped away from K'piru, trying not to notice the onrush of nausea. "I understand." He looked around the room. "How were you planning to...?" She stood still for a moment after he stepped back, as though unsure what to do with the space given. The weight in her arms brought out sluggish action after a time, however, and she moved to deposit the parcel on as empty a place as one could find upon nearby table. The air displaced by its arrival pushed at a precarious stack of papers, sending them scattering to the floor. A thin sound caught in the back of her throat at the sight, and she half bent as though to chase after them but stopped about halfway through the action. K'ile was all too eager to pick up the pages on K'piru's behalf. "I've got it, don't worry. You should rest. It's fine. I've got it." His teal flicked back and forth behind him. If K'ile hadn't said it earlier, K'luha wouldn't have believed that he loved her. But she took deep breaths and tried not to listen in on private conversations and sleep instead. Rest. Not with either of them here, not when she was breathing their scents and hearing their subtle sounds, and each moment was a struggle not to fall apart. If she slept now, the dreams that would haunt her would not allow for rest. Instead she murmured, "It is morning now." She watched his hands on the papers, almost warned him to be wary of reading them as they were private documents, but that life seemed so far removed from his existence that it hardly seemed necessary. At least, it had once been far removed. She found herself reaching out to still his hands with one of her own while the other picked up the remaining pages quietly. "I'm sorry," she sighed and leaned against the table when she straightened. It was pretty close to impossible to miss K'piru's state of weariness. Even her protests were weak. "You should sleep," he said. "If I'm bothering you I'll leave." The papers in her hand struck the table with surprising force, sending a short ripple through the rest of the disorganized pile, and Antimony blinked at them for several seconds, wondering who had thrown them down. Oh. "You will stay with K'luha," she said simply and forced her attention to the parcel she'd brought in, fingers moving to toy with the knot of twine holding its wrapping together. K'ile stood, took a deep breath, and frowned. He wished he had even a slight bit of understanding as to what the inside of K'piru's head was like. Maybe then he'd have a clue as to what she was getting mad about. "I have things to do anyway," K'ile said. "Apparently someone took some stuff we bought for some reason, and with Luha resting, it's up to me to find it and figure out what the Ul'dahns want with it." The knot came undone with minimal effort, and the paper followed, crinkling under her hands until fur and leather and red and purple cloth were revealed. She tried to feel grateful, but instead a strange, nervous guilt settled on her shoulders and dragged her tail down to her legs. K'ile seeing the gift made her want to hide in shame, as though it would tell him every horrible thing she had thought while walking Ul'dah's streets, every act she had contemplated that it had stood testament to. Where had the protection of her exhaustion gone? Her fingers dug into the fur collar of the coat, and she finally processed K'ile's own words. "Took?" She blinked slowly, frowned. "Who...?" "Uhm," He looked over towards K'luha, who seemed to be trying to sleep, and then back to K'piru. "Brass swords?" he guessed, mostly sure he'd gotten the words right even if he didn't understand what they meant. "Brass Blades." Luha corrected. “The Blades," Antimony echoed and then sighed. "Customs. Or..." The thought that her... that K'ile and K'luha had run into the type of individuals she was investigating made her uneasy. Yet it was likely. This was a problem, however, and Antimony latched onto it as a ready distraction. "Did they give you a contact to speak with to reacquire the goods?" Lifting the folded coat from the paper then, Antimony froze and paled at something beneath it before dropping the item hastily back in place. Luha propped herself up again and waved a hand at K'ile before whistling. "Skirt pocket. On the bottom. Yellow paper." "Lay down," Antimony said firmly, without looking fully at K'luha. K'ile stepped back and said, "Okay, you two know what's going on. That's good." He paced over towards Luha and spoke more or less at the same time K'piru did to say, "Lay down." Letting out a small sigh, still looking shaken from whatever she'd seen in the package, Antimony continued quietly, "If they did, it is good. Documentation means... it will be harder for them to justify losing it." K'luha sat up a bit further out of spite and reached over to try and grab her skirt. K'ile saw this coming and pushed K'luha back down into the bed, "We talked about this. You were about one inch away from adding on another day of not being able to move at all." He paused. "Probably." K'luha flopped back without much effort and snapped her fingers at him before pointing at her skirt. Frowning down at Luha, K'ile snapped back at her buit grabbed her skirt anyway, searching the pockets for... Swallowing confusion and an unhealthy degree of anxiety and guilt, Antimony stepped up alongside K'ile and made to take the skirt from him. "It will be a notice of search and siezure, likely marked with the local Blade seal," she muttered and removed a folded sheet of paper from one pocket. When opened, the page displayed a declaration of suspicion of unlicensed cargo shipment. Antimony blinked at it and tried to recall if any such regulation existed, but her knowledge of Ul'dahn laws was rather limited to the scope of her own work. Letting the skirt get pulled from his fingers, K'ile protested dumbly, "Search and seizure? But we bought it. What is wrong with Ul'dah that they make us buy things and then just take them?" Pursing her lips, Antimony examined the paper more, her eyes catching on a familiar name that brought a frown even further down her brow. "They monitor the goods going in and out of their lands for legal reasons," she explained distractedly and then sighed. "... I... may be able to fix this." "That's..." K'ile let his hands fall to his sides and grimaced. "You don't need to. Just tell me where to look and I'll find it." "It's not that quite so simple," Antimony spoke quietly, eyes down on the paper. "Suspicious shipment... if your... ah, food?" She blinked in confusion and then continued, "If it still exists in Ul'dah, you will need to clear it with the Blades. I... know the woman involved." "The woman involved?" Luha questioned faintly, against slightly propping herself up so she could at least see Piru properly. K'ile almost absent-mindedly pushed K'luha back down, having no input on the situation, too confused to understand it completely. "Stahp that," Luha grumbled, pushing his hand off her and trying to prop herself up again. "It doesn't hurt. It's only a little bit." K'ile stubbornly pushed Luha back onto the bed, "No. You don't even understand what 'stay still' means." "Miss Loughree. She is currently under... ah. It..." Antimony hesitated, worried the paper in her hands and flicked her eyes briefly towards the others before turning away once more. "Suffice to say, I'm certain I can resolve this." "I don't doubt it," K'ile Tia responded. "I just don't like that I seem to have brought you so many problems." Ears drooping, Antimony managed only a faint, "It is no trouble." "It's not about causeing trouble or not..." K'ile muttered, looking to K'luha for help. K'luha looked back to K'ile and sighed. "We... could really use her help though K'ile. I don't know how to wade through these legal things..." "I will resolve this for you," Antimony repeated lowly. The hand that held the notice dropped to her side while her other moved to rub at one temple. K'ile pulled on one ear in frustration and sat down on the bed next to K'luha, looking suddenly exhausted. With K'piru's return rendered and her inserting herself forcefully into K'ile's problems, he found the obsessive worry that he'd had over her... not gone, but distant. As if he had placed it in the hands of someone he could trust for a short time. With that weight off his shoulders, his tiredness fell on him like the rush of a sandstorm, and sagged under his own weight comfortably. He'd eaten very little and slept very little in his eagerness to get to K'piru, in his worry since then. "Thank you... K'piru." K'luha called, a small smile peeking out towards her aunt. Maybe things could be resolved finally. Maybe... everything could be okay again. Although, that sense quickly faded at K'ile sagged down and dropped onto the bed next to her. She carefully put a hand to his back and let her fingers soothingly run along his spine. "Hey, everyone needs some rest and food. Piru, I've got enough gil in my purse to cover a second room if you'd like some proper rest." Luha offered, staying flat on the bed this time. "There's no need." As she spoke, she moved back to the table and, after a moment, added uneasily, "I will need you with me to testify, K'ile." "Alright, I am stupid, but my turn to tell you morons something. Everyone sleeps and eats first before we do another damn thing." K'luha interjected loudly. His head popped up, ears standing straight up, when K'piru said she needed something from him. "What? Uh. Alright! I can do that!" His ears shifted to point at K'luha, and in a moment's time his tone shifted down, "That's true. You really need to take care of yourself more than you need to take care of us." "She is not in a shape to move, nor do I wish to sleep at this time," Antimony murmured, distractedly smoothing out the creases in the notice. *** A dark haired, lankey Elezen approached the Quicksand's receptionist. She exchanged a series of words with the man, causing him to frown considerably. He shook his head, causing the woman to set her hand down heavily on the counter. She pulled out papers from her dust covered satchel pushing them over the surface. After a few minutes, where the man ducked away from his post, he returned, telling her a room number. The woman nodded her head, tucking the neatly folded papers away into her satchel, and walked up the Inn's stairs. Walking with long, sure strides down the hallway, Illira Carceri scanned the room numbers listed on the doorway, eventually stopping at one at the end of the tunnel, near a stairwell. She looked it over, before planting her feet down and brushing off a few traces of sand from her red linen shirt. She took a breath before knocking firmly on the door. *** Sighing heavily, K'ile gestured over his shoulder, "Piru, when it's Luha telling you that you need to take a break, that's pretty-" He stopped suddenly at the knock on the door, turning to look at the doorknob as though it had been trying to say something to him. "You don't have to sleep now, just before you go out and try to deal with the Brass Blades." Luha continued after the initial silence of the door knocking. She glared at the door a little bit, but turned her gaze back to Piru after a second. Antimony looked up sharply at the knock, her ears shifting back further. "Ulanan...?" She muttered under her breath and gave an uneasy look over her shoulder in K'ile and K'luha's general direction. How would she explain to her friend what she had... She hesitated and as a result, took significantly longer to answer the door than was likely polite. In the end, however, her unwillingness to leave a friend hanging pushed her to action, and she moved to open the door. Her gaze shifted down automatically to greet her shorter companion but saw only a pair of long legs. She blinked at them dumbly for several seconds. Illira stared down her long nose at the older Miqo'te in front of her. She pressed her lips together tightly, the very edges of them turned upwards slightly in an almost sardonic manner. "Were you going to leave me hanging forever Antimony? For someone normally so eager to leave a good impression. This is not the way. Especially after last time." She turned her head up, looking over Antimony's head. "Oh, but you have company. How rude of me to interrupt thusly on such an..." She drifted off, casting her steely eyes over the other woman stretched out on the bed, "… obviously personal moment." It probably didn't help that K'ile wasn't wearing a shirt, which he never was, so he was ignorant of the implications of such as he stood from the bed and crossed his arms. He didn't know who the woman was, but he did not miss her tone. "Ah...?" Antimony's eyes dragged up the legs and then widened as her features paled significantly, her ears pressing tight against her skull. "Miss... Miss Carceri...! What are you... That is, I--Oh..." She fell back a step from the door, looking faint with sudden realization. "Oh no." K'luha grasped for K'ile's tail and quietly tried to make him sit down again. She too felt a little... intruded upon but, there was very little she could do. "Oh no is right, Antimony. Have you been using company funds on such... what is this even? A late-in-life journey of self-discovery?" She shook her head, braids flapping. "I sent you messages for news, after I recieved none. And thusly have dragged myself back into this... sad pit." Her lips clenched tighter at the last thought, looking as if she wanted to spit viciously at the mere thought. K'ile sat down next to K'luha, muttering to the woman, "I don't understand. Journies of discovery are good, right?" "I think so..." K'luha whispered back, nervously petting K'ile's back. More to calm her own nerves than his at this point. She hated being quite so defenseless when someone seemed to be on the offensive. Antimony's tail puffed up rather dramatically in distress. "Whaat?" She squeaked, coughed to try and clear her throat, and found her thoughts spinning. How could she have forgotten? How could she have possibly...! Of course, she knew how; every moment of every day in this city had seemed bent on splitting her attention until she just tore apart at the seams. And it seemed Miss Carceri was here to finish the job. "I promise you this is not--not what you are thinking it--I'm not... they are family!" She swayed a bit dizzily and looked up towards Illira, at a loss as to how to defend herself, knowing there really was no defense. Antimony wilted, bowing her head so low that her spine curved forward to join it. "The delay is inexcusable, I realize. I am deeply sorry," she managed weakly. At K'piru's distress K'ile rose from the bed without consideration, moving towards her. Illira lifted a brow, "Family? I apologize. But I do not believe that I have ever found myself in such a situation with my own." K'luha frowned as K'ile walked away from her. Goddamn it. She hated this stupid broken hip. "Though,” the elezen continued, “I'm sure that you'll say it’s not what it seems. And that would be mistaking my curiosity for care. Trust me. It’s not." Antimony winced at Illira's words. "It is not... ah, I was only assisting... she is injured!" She tried rather helplessly to explain, gesturing behind her towards K'luha. "Please, you did not--there was no need for you to have traveled so far to... I am very sorry!" K'ile inserted himself between K'piru and the newcomer, "Hey! For your information the woman over there was seriously injued and possibly dying. I don't know what family you come from that doesn't drop everything for that, but you'r not making yourself look good, miss... Ul'dah person." Something spasmed in Antimony's expression as K'ile thrust himself into the situation and chastised Illira. Her hands flew up as though to stop him but froze mid-air. Illira tucks her head in further to take in the shirtless man that has thrust himself between herself and her degenerate employee. "I rather think this is not your business, Mr... ladies-man." "Please!" Antimony burst out, hands still hovering uselessly in the air. "Just... allow me to explain, you must allow me to explain! I am simply helping them recover--recover her health and, aah, I was going to look into a lost shipment but only on off time and I wouldn't dream of using company funds on any of this, I swear I have not, I've been very careful, but so much has been going on since my report to you and I was nearly arrested but not really and one of the clients is targeted for assassination but I promise to you I was making very solid progress up until this point, I've only been distracted and--" She ran well out of breath at this point and gasped for air before squeaking out with an aimless gesture towards the table, "See??" The table, for inquiring minds, was covered in a mess of papers, one headless doll, and a folded winter coat just unwrapped from a mail package. Not backing down a single millimeter, K'ile leaned forward to focus his glare on Illira's chin, "Lots of big words, but she sounds respectful. You better be, too." K'luha just laid still quietly and cursed everything for it being a broken hip. Illira narrowed her eyes at the table, ignoring the man below her. "It has been three weeks since your last report. If you were having such trouble you should have reported as such and requested some back-up or for another to take over. As it is, you have wasted valuable company time. Time is money, Antimony. You should well know that. As it is... your... collection on appears to be a mess worthy of D'hein's own desk." K'ile hummed, and looked over his shoulder to gauge the woman's reaction, unable to discern on his own if the Elezen's words counted as rude or not. "Aah," a faint, worried sound escaped Antimony's throat and she brought her hands together in front of her, digits shaking. The room spun and she spoke again in rapid fire: "I know. I understand. I do. I know. I promise you. I've tried to--I've found a--I... nngh--" Her words cut off suddenly as she stumbled to the side and caught herself on the table. She felt light-headed, her thoughts fuzzy as she murmured weakly, "There will be no more delays." "I am here to help you, Antimony, if you need it. But I think that it’s too late to simply say, 'There will be no more delays.' It is not only yourself that is responsible in this instance, as I am responsible for you as your supervisor on this investigation." Illira shook her head again, before pressing her hand down on the man's shoulder, pushing him towards the inward swung door. Standing solidly against the pushing hand, K'ile knocks the hand away, gives the woman a smirk, and then moves away of his own volition, back towards K'luha. Sinking into the lone chair next to the table, Antimony held her head in her hands. "Too much," she whispered to herself, "This is far, far too..." She drew a shaky breath and peered up at Illira once more. "What do you wish me to do?" Stepping into the room, Illira looked around closer, taking in fully the pair of Miqo'te by the bed, and the lone woman now hunched over her desk. "To do the job that you are being paid to do. It is early morning, and yet you languish in your room with your... family..." She motioned towards the bed. "I am here to help expedite the process as necessary. But I cannot do your job. If you need something not directly involving those under investigation I may lend my hand. But this has to make headway. I can practically smell D'hein's fowl breath on the nape of my neck." "Of... of course," Antimony sighed, casting a strained look towards K'ile and K'luha without really focusing on them. Her ears and tail hung low, shamed, as she slowly returned her attention to Illira. "I... right away. I will get back to work immediately," she declared quietly. K'ile lifted the satchel he'd earlier tossed on the floor up onto the bed and gave Illira a frown, "Nobody's languishing and K'piru is exhausted from her work already. She needs to rest." "Oh? She's exhausted from her work is she? That’s funny. You know nothing of the matter except how to distract her. Such is obvious from her short, but already full history of such matters." "No, she is correct," Antimony shook her head at K'ile's words. "I've... obligations that cannot be ignored. I... had not intended to ignore them." She grimaced, rubbed at her eyes behind her glasses where an itchy dryness had set in. K'ile and K'luha had not felt so distant now since that night in the desert, so long ago; the thought chilled her. "Immediately," she repeated. "I recall I'd found certain individuals I need to... I can go now. I apologize, you shouldn't feel the need to linger here." And as heavily as she had sat moments earlier, Antimony pushed to her feet. Ignoring the Elezen woman, K'ile focused his attention on K'piru. "You have an obligation to yourself. How much real work are you going to get down without rest or food? You should know better than any of us." "And why do you purport that she is so exhausted? It seems that you, yourself has had such a part to play in these matters. She is not in town to entertain and attend your needs..." Illira walked over to the bed where the undressed woman lay. "You both cannot stay here. As this is paid for with company funds, it is single occupancy company housing." K'luha glanced over towards the satchel where her gil would be. Thankfully K'ile had sat it on the bed. She carefully reached forward and rummaged about it before picking up a small coin purse. "I can reimburse you for the room." Luha offered, picking up the nessacery coinage from her purse. Antimony straightened and made to protest, "I've already discussed it with the front desk - all... all additional fees are to be sent to my personal account! She cannot move with a broken hip." K'ile shook his head at the woman, "She doesn't care. She's just being a bitch." "K'ile..." Luha called, reaching with her other free hand and grabbing his tail. "Stop. Don't make it harder for... Antimony." The name sounded strange to Luha, but if that's what she was going called then Luha would respect that for the time being. Casting her hooded gaze back onto Antimony, "Even so, those papers that you have on your... desk are confidential in nature. And as your... friend is so eager to point out, you need your rest. And you will not get that taking care of an -injured- woman. That is not your job. That is a medic’s. Which is where she should be, if she is really hurt. Not tucked away in a tiny inn room meant to hold one person. I highly doubt the inn would approve of such stretched room occupancy." Shaking her head, she addressed the man. "If you insist on calling my personage names, perhaps you should give me your own, so that I might return the favour someday, hmm?" His tail straining against K'luha's grip a bit, K'ile thrust his finger at Illira's chest, "It's not a name. it's an observation. Name's K'ile Tia if you want, but I don't even want your name." Antimony rather shrunk at Illira's none-too-friendly lecture and turned away from K'luha and K'ile. Her hands shook so she clasped them together in front of her. She felt a chasm forming between her and them, driven on by Illira, but could not find any means to protest it, was not even sure she should want to. Instead, she kept her eyes down, sensing bits of herself fraying horribly and helpless to prevent it, and said flatly, "I will have them moved. I apologize." This wouldn't have all been such the problem if K'luha hadnt gone and... The injured woman sighed heavily. She just wanted to walk out of the damn room, but she didn't have the choice to do that anymore. Instead, she limply let go of K'ile's tail and hid her face away in the extra blanket. She really did not want to be in Ul'dah anymore. Illira nodded her head, thick brows dipping inward slightly. She did not look away as she said, "That is the right course of action Antimony. I would suggest moving your Tia out as well. He does not seem to have been a good influence on you, even if he is family, I surmise that that he is not blood kin. At least I should hope not, especially given what I know of Seekers." Placing himself directly in front of the Elezen, K'ile demanded, "What is wrong with you? Why is everyone in Ul'dah so crooked and greedy, just barging in and bullying and taking what they want? Dealing with everything sideways instead of straight on." "K'ile, stop," Antimony uttered lowly, a faint strain of pleading in her voice in the way it shook, not looking up or towards him. "Don't... make this... I... can help you find a physician for K'luha. I'm sorry." Illira brow furrowed heavily as she took in a heavy, steadying breath. Her jaw tight and squared, she said, "You've been out in the desert to long Tia. You obviously know nothing of work, much less Antimony's, or you would not be saying any such a thing. You think I like it here in Ul'dah? I am only back in the cesspit because my subordinate has neglected to even send a report in three weeks. I would not set foot back in this city if I did not have to, the very air within this place riles my blood, its corruption lies so deep. So do not speak with me about such matters. You will find none so forthright as me." Looking to the side for one moment, the short Tia very suddenly and with no warning whatsoever subjected the Elezen to one of his better uppercuts, a punch that harkened back to that one time he beat K'yohko half to death for treating K'piru in a similar way. "How's that for forthright, bitch!?" "K'ile, stop!" Antimony cried out uselessly, spinning around to close the distance between her and him and grab frantically at his hands. Illira's head was knocked back, as K'ile's uppercut caught her chin. She stepped back, catching the blow that if given to a person his own size, would have likely knocked them on their ass. In reality though, the punch thrown onto the much taller woman wasn’t able to do deliver such a knockout. She reached a hand upwards rubbing her jaw, as she moved her other foot back a step. "You should run back to your dunes little Tia. I know you mean well, defending what you believe to be Antimony's honor. But intention only takes you so far, assaulting me is neither the moral, the legal, nor the right course of action. I will forgive one such thing though as you are obviously so far gone to your baser instincts." K'luha's head emerged again as K'ile went for the aggressive. Yes the woman was a bitch but... She watched nervously, internally furious that she literally could do nothing but lay there and watch it all happen. What was there to do? The only thing she could do was get out of the way as fast as possible and talk with Piru later. Luha looked towards Piru and mouthed something that would have been missed by the others. Hopefully, Piru saw her silent apologies. Slowly, K'luha sat up and pulled the blanket around her form. Maybe she could catch K'ile's attention doing something stupid again. But either way, getting out of the way was her goal and a winning situation. Carefully, painfully, she moved herself towards the edge of the bed to maybe limp or hop out of the room. K'ile wasn't precisely sure what all of those words the Elezen woman was using meant, but he knew her tone hadn't changed any. He would've hit her again if K'piru hadn't gone for his hands. He didn't want to be violent anywhere within arm's reach of K'piru, so his arms fell quickly and he pulled himself away from the Elezen, letting her blathering continue. As he turned his face away, he could see K'luha moving, and he should've known she would. He pounced on the woman almost as fast as he'd struck the Elezen, grabbing Luha by one shoulder to stop her movement. He said sternly, "Luha cannot be moved. That is not an option. No cowardice, intentions or self-important vomitting can change that." K'luha halted when she felt K'ile suddenly stop her with a strong hand on her shoulder. She just... didn't want to be a part of this Ul'dahn nonsense anymore. She wanted to go back home to Tahj and fuck everything else. But she didn't move again when K'ile stopped her, instead pulling the blaket further around her form and almost hiding in it. Antimony fell back almost immediately when K'ile relented, twisting away once more to stare half-panicked at Illira. "He did not mean it, I--I assure you! Just... let me deal with them and I'll... they will not be a bother further!" She turned to the table and began to rather desperately try to sort through the papers there, searching. Still rubbing her jaw, "Then please see to it. She does not have to move, but if that is the case, then you must relocate. Though I would highly suggest that she see a real healer, if it is as bad as you believe. You are an accountant. Not a medical or healing arts practioner Antimony. I should step outside for you to clean up your own mess now and arrange for my own unfortunate stay." Closing her eyes, hands shaking so much that the papers in her hands rattled, Antimony nodded hastily. "Yes, I understand, of course. I'll... it won't take long, I assure you. Everything will be taken care of, and I'll--I'll get back to work." K'ile pushed K'luha back down into a laying position, one hand on the woman's back to make sure the movement was easy and slow. K'luha complied, laying back down slowly and continuing to avert her gaze and hide her face as subtly as possible. Illira walked towards the door, opening it back up, "We will talk later this morning Antimony, in a less... raucous environment if you would. I would not want to be the reason that your Tia is arrested for assault." K'ile observed somberly, "She just wants to be able to bully you without being called on it." Swallowing thickly, Antimony could only nod once more to Illira's words. She straightened the papers in her hand a fourth time without thinking. The elezen walks out of the room, closing the door behind her. K'luha listened to the woman walk out of the room, but the tension in the room did not lighten as she left. It felt to K'luha that it was only getting worse. "I'm sorry..." Luha called softly towards K'ile and Piru. "You didn't do anything," K'ile said to K'luha immediately, "Except try to move around. That was stupid." The documents in her hands blurred so much that she had no way of knowing what was what, but Antimony continued to gather them up, trembling fingers moving them to piles in hasty, jerky motions. "You do not have to move," she murmured after a moment, voice shaking just slightly on the tail end. "I will... take care of everything. Don't worry." A breath and then, "I'm sorry. I never should have... I'm going." K'ile stood away from the bed and walked over to K'piru. "Hey, are you alright?" Of course she wasn't alright. Luha could see it without looking. That was her boss and now she was in trouble because of them... because mostly of Luha and her stupid injury and her stupid child and... Couldn't things ever look okay for more than six seconds? Again, Luha pulled the blanket over her head and tried to be as small and out of the way as possible. The small stacks she'd gathered combined to become larger stacks; she couldn't remember when she'd managed to collect so much evidence. At K'ile's approach, she flinched and uttered again, "Don't worry. I'm going." One hand caught on the headless doll, and she gripped it white-knuckled. K'ile put a hand on K'piru's shoulder, "That's not what I'm talking about!" She turned to search for her satchel only to find K'ile in her way and blinked past the blur of her vision to his nose. Something keened in the back of her mind, a desperate wail that tore through a grief-stricken desert camp. "I have to go now," she repeated faintly. "You needn't worry. I'll pay for the room. She won't have to move." "Piru, I'm worried about you!" He put a hand on each of the woman's shoulders, holding her, "You're too tired and stressed for this. You don't have to let that woman bully you." She wasn't sure she would call it bullying, as she understood where Illira was coming from as an employer, but she knew K'ile would not understand that. Even standing face to face with him, Antimony found that whatever crevice Illira's words had carved now seemed insurmountable, terrifying in its vastness. Instead she shut her eyes briefly and tried, "I will be fine.” She didn’t know. “I can take care of myself well enough." A pause, and then a strained, "I need to go." Looking behind him to the form huddled on the bed, K'ile said, "Luha, help me out." Luha fearfully peered over at the two. She was trying to get out of the way, why did K'ile have to bring her back into the middle again? "I... I can understand that you have to work for your employer... but you should really make sure that you get rest as soon as you can." Luha looked nervously at K'ile. "If she doesn't listen to that women, she could lose her job and her livelihood. She couldn't live out on her own with no gil and no way to make gil K'ile... Employers get to boss you around... that's... just how the cities are. I've run enough jobs myself to know that..." K'luha was fairly certainly she didn't help. Probably did the opposite, but she wanted K'ile to understand that much at least. "But you should eat for sure... and rest when she allows you to..." Luha added after a moment. Antimony did not reply to this, save for a subtle shifting of her ears and slight bowing of her head. The stack of papers she held in her hands shivered K'ile released K'piru, turning back to K'luha and declaring, "She's not some Amal'jaa slave! She hasn't been tempered by her 'employer'!" Luha cringed visibly and slunk back as far away from the both of them as she could. She had nothing else to say. K'ile's assertion brought a pained look to Antimony's face. "It is not that simple. My obligations..." The words seemed to light a flame beneath her feet, as she moved then, to the side, in search of her bag, papers clutched to her chest. Obligations. For just a moment, the hearing that word come from K'piru's lips stung. She'd shirked every obligation she had to her tribe and family when she'd left him behind in the Sagolii, careless but for what she wanted to do. And now she would hide behind 'obligation' to some Ul'dahn as a reason to deny herself food and rest? No, there was more to it than that. K'luha's words, about gil and about how cities just were, did not make any sense to him. He couldn't imagine any person from the tribe -- much less K'piru -- humbling themselves before some alien master in exchange for coins dropped ccallously on their heads. "I don't understand!" He said, his tail swatting at the air viciously. Anxiety boiling in his gut calmed his words, but not his thoughts. "Do what you need to do. We'll be here, I guess." And K'piru, he was sure, would not be here. She would leave and hide in her obligations, fleeing from him again. Only this time, she thought she needed to lie. There, against the opposite wall. Almost blindly, Antimony crossed the room and began to hastily stuff papers into the bag. Her vision blurred again; her eyes stung with a biting heat. Too much. It was too much. She couldn't-- "Aah," the wavering sound choked from her throat before she could stifle it fully. Bowing her head to hide the wetness on her cheeks, she stumbled to her feet, back to the table, feeling the weight of K'ile and K'luha's eyes as some monstrous flame at her back, pushing and pushing and threatening to consume her if she did not go. The arm not carrying the bag snatched at the doll and the coat, the paper wrapping and letter slipping to the floor unnoticed. Miss Carceri's words loomed over her head like soot-laden clouds swelling from the fury of the flames, the haughty disapproval, the deserved judgment of her own failures. She had been a fool, she realized, fingers digging into the fur and leather of the coat. The texture of it sent a bolt of ice down her spine. She could not face K'ile, or K'luha, or anyone else who came for her, even when she thought she might, after all these years, have wanted to. They had clawed open a hole, an old wound wrapped around keening isolation, and she knew of only one way to escape such a feeling. She made for the door. And there was nothing K'luha could do about any of what had transpired. She was just as useless here as she was with the tribe. So she did nothing, which was all she could do. Not moving from where he stood, K'ile watched K'piru. he felt like iron spikes had been driven through his joints, a red-hot rod stabbed into his gut. "Please take care of yourself, K'piru," he said, and muttered, "I'm sure you're going to do just fine." Antimony fled blindly in a high panic, pushing through the door with the desperation of one fleeing a burning building. The action was irrational, childish, but she was not in a place to recognize that, just as she hadn't been amongst the sands, beneath the empty gaze of an absent god. She stumbled into the hall with all the self-awareness of a drunkard, turned one way and then the other. Long walls loomed menacingly in narrow, endless tunnels no matter which way she spun, and in the grain of their wood she saw faces twisted with pain, burnt nearly unrecognizable. A small voice reminded her of Illira, who awaited her papers, her words, her excuses and reports, but the whole of it joined the flames threatening at her back and drove her forward through the hall, through the tavern, into the city streets. The brief thought of the repurcussions for these actions only served to push her further. The snow would hide her, she thought. *** There was finally silence in the room as Luha and K'ile were left alone again. She felt the need to apologize, but somehow she felt like an apology would only serve to make things worse. She had managed to somehow ruin K'ile's reunion with Piru. And K'piru just ran like she had five years ago. Was family so torturous to her now? K'luha couldn't understand wanting to run from family. But she only knew now that she would probably never see K'piru again... and K'ile probably wouldn't see her either. And the latter was her fault for scaring K'piru away in the first place. She blamed herself, but she doubted that it made the situation any better to blame herself or voice that pain. She could only hope K'ile didn't blame her, and if he did that he would forgive her for it. K'ile Tia just lingered where he stood, stock still and silent, for a few moments. And then he said, "I don't know what to do." Luha peered up at K'ile's back, and pulled the blankets away from her face. "What did you do that last time she left?" she asked softly. He turned and looked at a spot on the wall right next to K'luha. His face was a plain mask, like something an actor might wear to obscure their character. The flame of his hair was dim and still, his blue shivering subtly. "I don't remember. I think I just stopped being for a few years." K'luha carefully lifted her hands and motioned for K'ile to come towards her. "Come. Sit." The idea of moving in that moment was bizarre to K'ile. She might as well have asked him to lift Dalamud back into the sky. If he could move maybe he'd go after K'piru. He'd tried to once. He'd waited five to try again. He hadn't even told K'piru the things he'd waited five years to tell her. If he could move now maybe he would leave, too. K'ile could imagine himself walking out of that woman, carrying all of his pent up feelings with him. Maybe if he were a little bit more like K'piru, he could just walk out and leave K'luha here and not come back. He would find someplace out there where he wouldn't have to deal with these things. "I hate that woman," he said. "She's the most selfish, cowardly person I've ever met. Maybe that's where K'ailia learned how to abandon people and pretend it's..." K'luha felt her chest ache. He didn't hate K'piru. He probably wanted to with everything he had, but those promises he had made were still holding him back. She motioned with her hand again. She couldn't reach K'ile. "K'ile... come here?" She asked softly again. There was no way to limp after him like she had before. She couldn't stop K'piru. And if he was going to go after her, she couldn't chase him either. All she could do was lay still, at the mercy of whatever torrent of emotions were assaulting him. In a swift motion punctuated with a stubborn huff of air, K'ile moved as though cut free from iron bindings. He took two heavy steps towards the bed and turned his back on K'luha, dropping to the floor and leaning back against the bed. It wasn't what she had really wanted, but at least she could reach him now. K'luha shifted herself over to the edge of the bed and place her hands softly on his shoulders. He could shrug her off he he wanted, but she wanted him to know that she was here. "K'ile... I don't think I could ever make up for what K'piru meant to you, but I want you to know that I'm here for you. I always have been. Even when you didn't want me to be there five years ago, I'm going to be here to help you however I can. And I'm not going to run away anymore. I can't run anymore. So I'm going to be here. Okay?" She meant a lot of things both metaphorically and physically, but mostly she hoped that he understand what she was trying to say. And it was going to hurt if he pushed her away again, but K'luha was going to endure it. "Meant," K'ile stated. "Not what she 'meant' to me anymore than what K'ailia 'meant' to you. It's what she means. She's not dead, she's just gone." "I'm sorry... I meant... means...." K'luha replied quietly, casting her eyes downward. She had hoped that a grammar error would be his sole focus, but apparently it was. Just like K'piru was his sole focus most of the time. She loud out a long breath and bit her bottom lip.

I love what you've done with your character, and I just wanted to say that it sounds like you've got some really great development building in the future. Kudos. Now, as for Antimony... What kind of stories has your character gotten into? Oh lord, where to begin... A string of chance encounters with a couple wanderers (and self-named acolytes of Oschon) led to a strange friendship as well as having to escape a rather unexpected assassination attempt. She's lost employment and regained it in a similar vein, though hopefully with fewer assassins. She continues to nurture a probably unhealthy habit of befriending hobos that happen to wander into her path. About a month ago, she was sent to Ul'dah to investigate the likely corrupt dealings between certain individuals in the Brass Blades and a mafia-like Seeker family, but the whole process has gotten interrupted by various complications, including the revelation that one of her hobo friends is both the grandfather (not by blood) of one of the individuals she's investigating as well as the person responsible for an attempt on said individual's life. There was also the somewhat related incident where she met another wandering vagrant who she's become rather attached to in a motherly sort of way but who ended up almost getting her arrested by antagonizing the previously mentioned individual. Oh! And some of the family she fled from five years ago managed to find her, which opened a whole 'nother can of worms and has led to some... uh, kind of rash decisions, because apparently running from one's problems does not actually solve them. Who'da thunk? How has your character changed since the game re-launch? I'm not a legacy player, but I did RP Anti in the betas, so I'll just base my answer off that. And the answer is: she hasn't changed a whole lot, which is actually kind of the point of some of the rp. Still an easily worried and anxious, highly meticulous, lonesome individual. She needs to change, but she's actively refusing, which has caused some significant problems. We'll see how that works out. What has been your favorite RP moment so far? Ooh that's a tough one... I almost want to cheat and mention the retro-RP I've done (there's been a lot of K tribe rp set pre-Calamity to help us get a handle on how our characters feel and interact with one another), but... that seems like cheating. I think it would have to be either the scene in which Antimony's superstitious tendencies (and complete lack of understanding as to what the All Saints' Wake holiday is) got in the way of a practical joke to the annoyance of Megiddo and Ulanan, or the highly emotional conversation she had with K'ile recently. What was the most shocking RP moment this year? It actually just happened, and I really didn't expect it because not a scene or two prior, Antimony was making plans (or at least, tentatively suggesting them) that were rather contrary to this moment. Suffice to say, her interactions with family have not gone well, compounded by the stress of work, and she made a decision I really didn't expect her to do that might actually end with her getting fired.... oops. What was the most surprising thing you found out about your character? For a while, I thought Antimony was actually satisfied with her mostly solitary existence. I didn't expect her to react so strongly to people. What relationships did your character build? She's developed a strong friendship with the estranged lalafell Ulanan, who is strangely overprotective of her. At the same time, she's kind of half-friends with the hobo-assassin Megiddo. I'm not sure if one can call it friends. I mean, he did try to kill her once, and he kind of scares her, but she's also been more than happy to invite him into her home or have friendly chats, so... who knows. A while back, she became kind-of-friends with an (ex?) pirate in Limsa... Ah, and to add to her hobo collection, she's become a sort of mother figure for a young, vagrant miqo'te who dreams of becoming a dragoon. She's developed professional relationships as well, with the CRA and the woman who has taken responsibility for her work, Illira Carceri. Old family relations both reignited and then, not long after, were very forcibly shattered. It's been an interesting time for her. What are you looking most forward to seeing in the future with your character's growth and story? I'm very interested in how her relations with the K tribe will develop, as well as what might change with her position in the CRA. But in a more specific sense, I'm very much looking forward to continuing the developments that have most recently occurred. Coerthas is a cold place...

For a moment, K'deiki simply breathed and let K'luha's words drift into silence, let their implications settle into her weary bones and the grains of sand beneath her feet in the same manner the yearly storms set in. K'ailia's loss stung, but there was little to be done about one who would willingly split themselves from family, as much as she would grieve for the hole left by the girl's path. K'ile, on the other hand, their firedancer who held much of their spiritual center on his person... "Your actions are not commendable," she finally said, and if K'luha were telling the whole truth, then this judgment was correct, if harsh. A kiss - well, it was not an uncommon quandary, and K'deiki had been young once, too. Young and supportive of a certain tia who now sat at her side with K'takka, all of them aged beyond their long years. "Meditation would not take days, though, child. The Amalj'aa extend their reach far north, do they not?" She couldn't stop the worry from creeping into her voice.

K'deiki's ears, the fur on them thin and patchy, lowered as K'luha spoke. The young woman's words hung heavy in the thick air of the tent between them, an aching silence following. Their firedancer and young K'ailia... gone? Closing her eyes, she recalled the way the girl had come to them with bold ideas and even bolder actions, speaking of a world well beyond the Sagolii, beyond even Thanalan itself. She had worried then that K'ailia had started down a strange path, but she had put her faith in the strength of blood and the guiding light of Azeyma. She wondered if it had been a mistake to allow the scouting party. "We will share your grief in your daughter's leaving," K'deiki spoke after a moment, clouded eyes on K'luha's vague shape. "To lose blood, and in times such as this... Having born witness to your daughter's words and goals, K'luha, I know there is no blame for you in this." "The girl has already made her decision and we cannot change it. There is no good in worrying ourselves over it," K'jhanhi said behind her, leathery skin creased into a frown. His tone is somber, heavy with the weight of the news. "But our firedancer," something shifted in his voice, "Did you not search for him? It is not his way to disappear."

*blinks* Am I the only one who sees zero difference between Raptor Blue and Seafog Blue, as well as Shale Brown and Aldgoat Brown? D: Thanks for the image though!

Well, I will say this, OP: Congratulations on luring so many...

"Your room is only signed out to one occupant, Miss Jhanhi," the innkeep replied quizzically to the weary looking miqo'te's request for an additional blanket and pillow. "We do appreciate your patronage, of course, but our rooms are not homes. If you'd like to add an additional occupant, I'll adjust your bill accordingly." Antimony's ears swept back and she blinked reddened eyes at the innkeep, silent for several seconds before shaking her head. "No, there was just an, ah, unfortunate accident. They won't be staying. Please, I'll pay an additional fee for the items." The lalafell squinted at her for a time, then seemed satisfied, for he flashed an understanding smile. "Very well. You have been quite the financial b--er, customer for us, Miss Jhanhi! Happy to assist." "Thank you," she replied, bowing her head. A weight pressed down on her shoulders at a thought. "And, ah, please, if you don't mind... let them know that I won't be back for a.. a time." Coward, her mind whispered, but in a different voice, one she hadn't heard in a while. Selfish. After settling the minor request with the innkeep, Antimony turned and made her way for the Quicksand's doors. Each step away from the inn halls felt as though she were dragging her feet through molasses, but the awareness of who waited for her back in the room simultaneously pushed her away. Her throat tightened, but she told herself she would not cry again. She passed through the doors into greater Ul'dah with the bulk of her attention drawn inward. *** K'ailia prayed a bit longer at the Sultana Tree silently, before finally getting up. She had calmed considerably, but she still had no inkling where to find her mother or K'ile. The only option she thought to herself, would be to go back to Ul'dah and wait. But before then she pulled her bandana off and looked at it. She'd been wearing the bandana for five years. Perhaps it was now time to put her past behind her. "That life is behind me now..." she said to herself, and stuffed it into her pouch on her hip. Turning, she headed back to the Gates of Thal. It was a relatively lengthy walk to get there, but she finally arrived at the market. Thankfully the goblin with their cheese were gone. But she wasn't concerned with the market. Instead, she made her way towards the Quicksand. Perhaps her mother or K'ile will be there? But she had a feeling her relationship with her mother at this point was over. Every time she tried to maintain a relationship with her mother, she'd be pushed away, yelled at and in one instance, even struck. These memories flooded her mind as she walked, not paying attention to where she was going now. Perhaps it was how full of memory her senses had been that day, or perhaps it was only chance, but a familiar scent pushed at her dwelling enough to bring her eyes up. She thought at first K'ile had followed her out of the inn and was prepared to beg or flee or apologize, whichever it took, but those urges fled when she caught sight of the small, young form of another. Someone she had avoided for weeks. Antimony paused at the top of the steps leading to the Quicksand, watching the young girl approach. Her jaw worked silently and her throat closed around words. She could feel that common panic building again; she thought she would run. As K'ailia passed her, Antimony shocked herself and reached out with one hand, touching the girl's shoulder lightly and uttered a quiet, "K'ailia, wait." K'ailia snapped out of her thoughts feeling the hand touch her shoulder. She turned and her mouth drops open, "K'piru?" She turned fully to face her former teacher, sadness evident on her face. She couldn't look at the girl, just like she hadn't been able to look at K'luha, or K'ile. There was a certain degree of guilt over that, but something in her chest twisted painfully enough that she felt... justified. Almost. Still, the way K'ailia had said her name... Her tail swung once in a slow, sad arc. "Your... mother will be alright. You should know." K'ailia's ears flattened against her head, "I don't think she will... She no longer behaves like the mother I grew up with. She used to be brave and strong... now all she does is run away." She let out a sigh, "I think she needs time away from me. If seeing me creates such anger and fear, that she is willing to hurt herself... then it is time I find a new home..." Now it was K'ailia's turn to not look at K'piru, instead she looked down at her own feet, unsure of herself anymore. Run away. She couldn't fault K'luha that. Or, it seemed, K'ailia, and yet... she hated the thought of them both falling prey to the same desperation that had driven her from family into self-imposed isolation. She kept her hand on K'ailia's shoulder, a light touch, not holding, just letting the girl know she was there, and spoke facing down towards the street, "Perhaps time will be enough." What had she intended by stopping K'ailia here? Her stomach churned itself into a dozen knots. A memory of the girl, far younger than she was now, flashed with painful clarity across her mind. It was a quiet memory, happy. Young K'ailia had always been willing and wanting to help, to care. It left Antimony's eyes burning and she added in a stiff voice, "I want to apologize. For what you've gone through. If you need..." She hesitated, struggled with words through a sudden rush of fear and that all-persistent grief she'd thought she'd outpaced years ago. "If you need anything, let me know. I... will try." K'ailia Yohko: K'ailia looked to Antimony, "I'd like to go somewhere... that isn't Thanalan or Ul'dah... to get time to think. I don't know..." She trembled a bit, remembering what brought her to this Inn to begin with, "K'ile had wanted me to go back to the tribe camp as an outsider... to represent the outsiders... but if it is going to make my mother go crazier... how can I?" Now tears were starting to well up in K'ailia's eyes. She had left the tribe to be free to do what was necessary to ensure the safety of the tribe from the outside. But the one she loved the most seemed to hate her. "Would you... be my teacher again? I been learning to read, with a little arcanum on the side... but the teacher I was learning from... I don't like his methods..." she looked at K'piru hopeful. It had been hard enough to call out to K'ailia, to reach out and touch her. When the girl put forth her request, Antimony thought for a long moment that she might crumble, simply break down into sand and blow away like the dunes of the Sagolii. Her eyes roamed the street in front of her but saw none of it. "I don't..." She should have expected such a request, should have heard that lost tone in K'ailia's voice, known what it meant. It was familiar, after all. Her fingers curled slightly against K'ailia's shoulder before her hand slipped down to hand limp at her side. "Anything but..." It was too soon. Too much. With K'luha and her agony, K'ile and his needy desperation, K'ailia and her lonely want for a mentor... Antimony had not prepared for any of that. She had never intended to. The older woman sighed, closing her eyes briefly before turning her head to look at K'ailia. She saw a smaller girl in her place, skin dirtied and burned, crying for her mother, crying for help. She hadn't helped then. "I still need time." A breath. "But if you... come to me in Limsa, maybe... I might be able to help you there." K'ailia nodded at that, "I had not considered Limsa... And I understand. I'm sorry if I ever made you uncomfortable K'piru." She gave her a reassuring smile, "Maybe I should consider moving there for a while. At least until mother is ready to see me again. But... I think she may of either lost the pearl I gave her, or threw it away at this point... maybe I should give one to K'ile?" "That you are considering means that you should," Antimony murmured and at once felt like a hypocrite. How many things had she considered and yet turned away from regardless? But K'ailia deserved to make better decisions. Her strength reminded her of... Choking down a sob that threatened at the back of her throat, Antimony coughed once and added, "Do not think worse of your mother. Or yourself." K'ailia's ears dropped again thinking, "I don't think either of us are bad. Ever since five years ago, everything changed. I've changed... but I do not know if it was for the better or worse." She looked up at the sky, "All I know is... what I've learned terrifies my mother. Why I do not know. But I've also felt deep within myself, ever since my trip to Gridania with her, that something in me was different..." She looked back at K'piru, "And when I went home to the tribe, I felt like I did not belong. I tried to continue on as though nothing changed before I left... but I couldn't." Using her sleeve she wiped away the tears in her eyes, "I felt like a caged bird. Loyal to the tribe, but yearned to escape, and fly in the sky. And it felt as though even Azeyma was pushing the circumstances to the point I did leave the tribe." K'ailia's words left Antimony feeling cold, even in Ul'dah's oppressive, wretched heat. The fine lines of wrinkles in her features deepened with a strained expression. "You left... K'ailia..." Had no one recovered from that night of fire and death? Her arms moved of their own accord, reaching out to grasp the girl by the shoulders and pull her to her chest. She held K'ailia for only a brief moment before a shaking in her limbs and a scream in her skull forced her to pull away, but the significance of the gesture remained. "I need to go." She turned her face towards the street once more. "Look for me in Limsa in... a few weeks' time. I..." She breathed out slowly. K'ailia took the embrace and felt for once, after five years, that for that brief moment, everything was like they were. Upon the release she nodded, "I understand. I still have things I need to do before I goto Limsa Lominsa. I will come in one month’s time... alright?" Antimony could only nod. The shrill panic she felt broiling in her gut earlier had built suddenly, without warning, and she felt terribly cornered. Not by K'ailia, but... "Until then." The walls of the Quicksand seemed to launch her away, down the stairs, and the crowds in the street below swallowed her readily. *** When Antimony became aware of a thinning of the crowds and a narrowing of the streets, she slowed her pace. The buildings here crowded in ungainly piles against one another, tattered rags hung out over some doorways like awnings - a weak attempt at class in a neighborhood far below class. Her steps slowed further still, and then stopped very suddenly when something large and white slammed into her chest. Letting out a small, "Oof!" she cast a shocked look down only to see a tightly wrapped parcel shoved up towards her face. "Urgent delivery, kupo!" cried a small, cheery voice, and then whatever had spoken was gone, the package left in her hands. She stood in a net of confusion for over a minute, clutching the package to her chest, before she managed to shake free enough to consider what had happened. The brown paper was tied snugly about something soft and heavy, but not overly so. A letter was tucked under the twine, which she removed with one shaking hand. Inside, messy but mostly legible handwriting read: Blinking still somewhat grief-swollen eyes, Antimony looked between the letter in one hand and the package in her opposite arm. "A coat?" She sighed. "Mitari..." In her mind, a vision of a mountainscape she'd only heard of played out and offered sanctuary in its cold, icey embrace. Someone brushed past her roughly then, knocking her out of her reverie and causing her to nearly drop the package. Steadying herself, Antimony hugged the item and letter, bowed her head, and then let her feet continue to carry her down the street.

Shuffling back a few steps to give K'luha some space, K'deiki thought first of the beads behind her in their shallow bowl, the weathered bone smoothed over by countless tiny gestures. She left a prayer in those bones as her old eyes squinted at K'luha, that Azeyma's light may give her guidance. "Do not draw it out, child," she encouraged, the affectation of K'luha's name spoken with comfort.

I sometimes worry what folk think of my alt when I'm running around on him... I swear, I just named him K'thalen Nunh because he was nunh before he died! And... I didn't wanna run around on a character perpetually named... something vague and unassuming like "Unknown Miqo'te" or whatever. Hopefully folk remember not to metagame that knowledge and don't judge me as a poor roleplayer for it. D:

Maybe because we feel that sex is a private thing, and we don't want to engage in it with people not our significant other, even if it's only in words? ERP all ya want, but don't go judging the folk who decline as though they're not RPing to the fullest.