The Long Road Ahead

[Melodia]

"The was only one. A big man on a chocobo, geared for a fight. Told me to steer clear of La Noscea and Heaven's Gate if I knew what was good for me. He told me that and rode into Ul'dah. He never gave a name, and his hat hid his face. But I'd know him again if I saw him."

 

He chuckled a bit, though his demeanor was still a serious one. "You can tell by my presence that I didn't much give a damn about what he had to say."

[Zhavi]

She frowned. Not as helpful as she'd hoped, but this one wasn't used to the underbelly, not from what she could see. Perhaps he would pick out the faint gleam of her teeth as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. She was grinning at him, the expression carrying its own share of recklessness. "Fair. I'm movin' ye. Pack yer things."

[Melodia]

He had caught her grin and the nature of it reminded him of faces he'd missed in Natalie and Liana. This one, Kink....another Miqo'te full of life and dangerous in her own way. The three Miqo'te women were so different and yet so similar....demanding respect and living life on their own terms.

 

He smiled to himself and when he heard her words, he was only confused for a moment, understanding her meaning. He began to pack his gear quietly, keeping his eye on her as he did so, still unsure of this one.

[Zhavi]

Nald'thal tip her scales and pinch her tail, the lalafell actually listened. Zhi had geared herself up for an argument, had been ready to tell him exactly what she thought of bravos who mistook idiocy for bravery or some other fool notion of honor. She was surprised. Surprised enough to find a lamp and get it lit so he wouldn't need to pack in the dark.

 

Zhi had found him first, and she was fair certain that the enforcers of Jaded wouldn't be prepared to deal with someone who ignored their warnings so quickly, so as far as she was concerned there was no need for secrecy. She liked making people uncomfortable, but when it turned from her own pleasure to work she chose practicality over amusement.

 

"What should I call ye by?" Not that she'd call him by whatever name he came up with, but such things were good to know.

 

She didn't offer to help.

[Melodia]

He thanked her for the lamp, expressing it quietly as he continued to gather his gear. He looked around the room an densured nothing was left behind. He mostly wanted to ensure he hadn't forgotten his bow or his sword in the rush.

 

He knew that he was in a dangerous place in La Noscea and decided it would be smart to have at least one contact, one friendly face. The thought of Suri came to him and he shook his a bit to clear it. Now was not the time to sulk about her. As he sheathed the sword on the bed he looked at Kink and nodded politely. "The name's Rurutani....most call me Ruru or Ru."

[Zhavi]

"Mm, fair. Ready?" She turned to latch the windows, and hesitated. "If ye want t'carry yer sword naked yer gonna get th'kind o'eyes ye don't want on ye."

[Melodia]

He looked at her and grimaced a bit. He took the sword and wrapped it in his bag. She was right...he didn't need to draw unnecessary attention to himself. Nor to Grace. And not to this woman, Kink. He realized he needed his cowl and threw it on drawing the hood over his head to conceal his face and nodded. "Aye. I'm ready."

[Zhavi]

Window latched, Zhi went to the door. Quick enough to unlock it, then she was out and holding it for Rurutani. She didn't offer to help him carry. "Ye paid up?"

[Melodia]

He nodded as he passed her quietly. "Aye...I'm good. I'll follow your lead." He paused and turned to her. "Wanted to say...well, thank you. I know you're just doing your job.....but thank you."

 

He turned and continued toward the front of the inn.

[Zhavi]

The words hit her cold. She ignored them, a different thank you echoing in her head as she shut the door and took the lead.

 

She had to be quick. She really didn't have more than a bell, but she knew it was going to take longer than that all the same. Pre-dawn there weren't very many options -- and that was why she'd hitched a ride out to meet him once Chirp had located him for her. That merchant was still offloading, but there was another or two preparing to make the daily trip in to Limsa's markets.

 

Zhi paid out a tip to allow them to cling to the back of the cart, and then gestured for him to get on. "C'mon, we're goin' t'the city."

[Melodia]

He looked about, taking in the scene and seeing the sun starting to rise he sighed and threw his gear up into the cart and stepped up onto it. He kept the cowl over his his head and looked down, yet keeping an eye on Kink, wondering where she was-

 

"Where are we going?" He asked, no longer willing to let idle thoughts remain so. "And what is the plan when we arrive?"

[Zhavi]

Zhi perched awkwardly on the side of the cart, avoiding the merchant's goods where she was able. The last thing she needed was some accusation that she'd broken someone's shit.

 

Rurutani wasn't hers. He was Thatcher's. She couldn't just take him and do what she wanted with him, direct him and utilize his skills. Rather, she shouldn't.

 

She smiled.

 

"Yer gonna need a new name," she told him as the wagon lurched into motion. "An' then we're gonna go fer a walk."

[Melodia]

As he heard Kink say the words he softly grinned under the cowl, sure she saw him, as she seemed to be a bit more aware of her surroundings than some might not give her credit for. But he knew better. And he didn't care if she saw. Those words rang through him with power, "Yer gonna need a new name."

 

He had been leaving Ul'dah to find himself anew. To rediscover who he was as a person and to leave behind the drunken, sad man he'd become in his home city. A new name....that was a damn good start.

 

"Aye.....looking forward to it Kink."

 

And he genuinely meant it.

[Zhavi]

The journey to Limsa Lominsa was horrible, mostly because it seemed like every time Zhi looked up she caught an eyeful of sunrise. Nald'thal might as well have been using his scales to reflect the sunlight in her eyes for all the good he was blimming doing her. Her eyes felt gritty, as with her mouth and ears. Her whole head felt gritty, and maybe that was why she dug about her person and pulled out a poorly rolled blunt. Flint and steel took care of getting it lit, and a quarter-bell was spent inhaling and exhaling off it like she needed it for the purpose of existing.

 

Some days it sure as shit felt that way.

 

When her eyes came back to rest on Rurutani, the spires of Limsa Lominsa were visible in the distance. Another half-bell passed with her keeping him in sight, either in her peripheral or by studying him directly. She was unresponsive in that time, jiggling her leg where it was propped against the cart. Her eyes were bright, too bright, and her ears and tail were in constant motion. She was rubbing the edge of her tunic between her fingers.

 

Finally, when they neared the gate she hopped off the cart -- waving Rurutani to join her on the ground -- and tossed the stump of the blunt to the ground. She rubbed it out. "Yer Vivikuso Lilikuso. I'm callin' ye Flit. Mid-twenties. Sword-fer-hire. No family, lost in the Calamity. Blah, blah blah. Ye been out o'work fer awhile. Last time ye were on a job ye were double-crossed, an' ye didn't get paid. Ye've heard th'gangs in Limsa don't stiff their swords. So now yer here. An' now I'm showin' ye gangs what are worth trustin'. Here." She tossed him a bandanna. It smelled like her. "Cover yer hair. We're gonna get it colored."

 

She studied him, hands planted on her hips, an air of nervous energy hovering about her body. The end of her tail was twitching endlessly, her ears turning every which way at the slightest audio provocation.

 

"Ye unnerstand? While yer here ye ain't gonna be Rurutani no more. Not 'till yer ready t'cross wi' Jaded."

[Melodia]

The woman was dangerous. He knew it. Could tell it by the way she handled herself. He saw the scabs, the scars, her tone, her air screamed danger. He was so used to the nobility of the Sultansworn and the order of the guilds (both the gladiators and the archers) that this was all foreign to him. His brain told him to jump out of the cart....to leave this woman behind and run back to Ul'dah, back to Kage on his knees begging for forgiveness. His heart felt different and it told his brain to shut up and stay put.

 

When they'd arrived and she waved him down, he did as he was told and listened to her rapid instructions, eager to not forget one detail. He would color his hair and wear the bandana....his name was no longer his....and then he realized one detail that could derail things. He reached up and rubbed his eyepatch slightly. "Aye....and what about this? Won't this give me away? And I need it..." He looked embarassed and blushed a bit having had to say the words. Had he become so latched to the piece of leather covering his scarred left eye?

[Zhavi]

"Aye, I'll find ye a new eyepatch. Or ye can buy one; it's yer own choice. Ye'll need new gear. Anythin' that's eye-catchin', we'll be changin' it. Fancy?"

 

She didn't wait for a reply. She started walking.

 

Zhi didn't expect trouble crossing into the city, and they didn't get any. Flit was given the ugly eye, what with his cloak and all, but single travelers were always greeted with less suspicion than those with the baggage of caravans or the stowaway possibilities inherent in local merchant-carts and wagons. Besides, most guards put on the gate at dawn weren't nocturnal, and most of them weren't up your ass with the best interests of their job at heart. They were tired, they were bored, they were cranky. As long as you were meek and didn't cause them trouble, they could not care less about you.

 

Hear that, Azeyma? No one likes yer ass. Not really true, but it made her feel better. Sort of.

 

She kept an eye on him as they walked, studying his gait and his carriage. "Ye been t'Limsa afore?"

 

The city glowed in the morning light. It was at its best at night, of course, but morning lent it something dreamy and ephemeral. It was hard not to just stand there and drink it in.

[Melodia]

He walked with her, looking about the city. He was was looking for trouble and hoping he wasn't walking into some form of an ambush.

 

The dawn hours greeted him and while he ought to have been tired he was far from it. He felt alive for the first time in a while as opposed to the drunk shell he was when he'd bedded the woman from Heaven's Gate, the incident that had gotten him to this point.

 

As he looked about he heard her question and chuckled. "Aye....a few times. Mostly for fishing. But I did see a friend here once." His face betrayed his own desire to remain neutral and a sad expression flashed across his face but only for the briefest second thinking of Suri and Liana and he prayed she hadn't seen it. "Just once for that. And then the night I....opted to utilize the services of Heaven's Gate." He whispered the last and continued walking.

[Zhavi]

Zhi knew he'd been to Limsa before. He had to in order to be threatened -- but there were certain things she wanted to know. She wasn't scrutinizing his face, but his body-language, and the minute sounds in his voice. Miqo'te ears were good for that.

 

"Mm, then ye stayed in th'nice parts o'town?"

 

She directed them as they walked, cutting away from the plaza and the upper decks both. She chose instead a rarely-used set of old, worn stone stairs. Their voices echoed as they descended.

[Melodia]

He followed her down the stairs, and laughed quietly at her question because she was right.

 

"Aye....just the nice parts."

[Zhavi]

Zhi giggled, the sound muffled behind her hand. It wasn't quite what anyone could call melodic, but the sound warbled up and down. Musical, if not precisely pleasant. "Th'nice parts, th'parts wi'legal merchants an' their goods, that's all ruled by th'Admiral. So th'darker bits, th'ones where people get gil off th'good little merchants? Ye don't see it. That happens wi' smiles an' nice smellin', fancy rooms."

 

She skipped down the last few steps, hopping off and landing on her toes. She pivoted to look at Flit, her face flushed. There was a lightness to her that hadn't been there in his room; a sense of amusement hovered about the trembling of her lips, as if she stopped herself from laughing by force.

 

"Things ain't lookin' ugly there. It's all gilded an' shinin'. Ye have dig real deep an' look real hard t'spot th'rot, an' if yer not careful ye'll be floatin' off th'docks. But most o'th'city? It's ugly t'look at. Ye don't have t'look t'see it rottin', an' there ain't much t'try t'hide it. But ye have t'know where t'go t'see that part o'the city."

 

They were out of the stairwell. The sun had crested the horizon and broken free from it, light hitting the water and scattering a vicious glare that was nigh unavoidable.

 

"It's broken up 'twixt gangs and famliies o'this an' that. They control th'money. They put their fingers in it, an' they make th'rules in some parts o'the city. But there's rules, see? They treat wi' pirates an' smugglers, an' there's things that go too far."

 

She strode the docks like she owned them, her brassy strut ruined only by the horrific, giant wince her face had turned into. Zhi had never quite learned how to get along with brightness.

 

"Things always change, Flit. Remember that."

 

She glanced at him, shading her face so she could give him a solid stare.

 

"There's folk what make their livin' peddlin' 'twixt th'groups an' straddlin' th'dos and don'ts. They talk t'people, know people, an' keep a step ahead. Dangerous livin', but good gil." She stopped suddenly, turned to face him. She shaded her face again, and as she looked at him she wondered if he understood the significance of this little talk, of what it meant. For her. For him.

 

Her grin was cheerful. "How good are ye at fawnin'?"

[Melodia]

As he followed her and listened her could see her demeanor change, clearly at peace in the city and he knew she was someone to know for that reason alone. 

 

He listened intently to her words and took every one of them in. She was talkative here and this was a woman he could tell didn't waste words. When she ended she asked a question but he had a question of his own.

 

"Kink....you described people who walk the line between these gangs and groups....you're one of them I assume. I only guess because you seem to know an awful lot for just some average citizen or an employee of an escort service."

 

He mulled over question and shook his head. "I'm not even sure what fawning is."

[Zhavi]

"We'll find out," she said, and turned them back off the docks and onto one of the many tiny stone-pillar islands that formed the city. Here, peddlers hawked their wares in an open group. Some had portable awnings and carts; it was not officially allowed that such commerce go on on the landing of any of the numerous docks, but it was tolerated. Many things were tolerated.

 

"Here. Pick a color." One of those grouped was selling various sorts of stains. Were they specifically made for hair? Maybe not. Had Zhi done her own experimenting with them during a particularly dreadful phase?

 

That was better left alone.

 

"We'll color yer hair an' get it cut, then we'll be off t'see a man I know. He's important. Yer gonna wanna get on his good books, an' seein' as how he ain't real friendly wi'me, ye'll need t'be. . .charmin'."

[Melodia]

He looked in surprise at Kink and shook his head slightly. Going to see a man who didn't like her to much and he was supposedly be charming? He supposed he could do his best. 

 

He looked a at the wares and chose quickly. He pointed to one of the colors and it was black. "That will work."

 

He aimed to remake himself. To become a new man and by all means, to be charming.

[Zhavi]

Coloring his hair alone took up more time then Zhi had been ready to give him at the outset. Hair was a messy thing to deal with, but once they were done she was satisfied with the results. One less of Thatcher's who was like to be singled out and taken out before they were ready. Check.

 

Zhi nodded to him, looking him up and down, and took back her bandana. Finding him an eyepatch that he was comfortable with would take more time then they actually had, but she found a temporary one that was different then the one he had used. True, one-eyed lalafells were not incredibly common, but so long as there was reasonable doubt at first glance. . .

 

At least they'd made an effort.

 

The next stop was Yayabuko. The first inkling that they'd found Yayabuko was the nearly-shrill word aimed in their general direction. "No." Yayabuko had such a nice tenor when he wasn't acting like a churl.

 

He was haunting the docks, as he usually was. He had just stepped out of one of his regular early-morning stopping points: a small shop that sold fishing tack and a few worthwhile bites of information -- if you had the right rep and coin, of course. Zhi walked them right up to him.

 

"This's Yayabuko, Flit. He's th'one what knows all manner o'people lookin' fer swords."

 

"I said no."

 

They were soon within throwing distance of the lalafell man, who was very clearly restraining himself, though he bristled like a porcupine in the process.

 

"I was thinkin' he'd do well wi' the Heavy Handers," Zhi said, her tone overly bright and chipper. She was watching Yayabuko, ready to dodge or run if necessary. "He's got shorted afore, an' th'Handers always pay their debts, a--"

 

"Get out! Get out. So help me if you do not vacate my presence immediately I will --"

 

"This is Flit," Zhi gestured to him, taking exactly one large step back.

 

Yayabuko had his knife in hand. It wasn't a weapon; it was a tool, primarily. A tool that just so happened to have a very sharp edge.

[Melodia]

He had felt the long hair locks being clipped and it felt odd. He'd not had hair this short in years and his head was feeling as if it had been shaved clean, though he knew that wasn't true. He could feel her hands working, applying the hair color  they had picked up and he was genuinely curious as to how he would look with the shorter black hair. When she finished and they'd gotten the new eyepatch, he felt like a new man. He felt the breeze on his neck and smiled in a silly manner for he'd not felt wind against his neck in some time and it was refreshing.

 

As they approcahed the docks he was happy to see a familiar setting, for he'd fished in the area few times before. As they approach Yayabuko and he's shouting "No!" to them, he knows that this was the time to turn on the charm as she had warned.

 

Watching him pull out the knife, he scanned it quickly, thinking to his training as a Paladin and knew it wasn't a weapon-grade knife, and yet was sharp enough to kill if Yayabuko wanted the job done.

 

"Oy there!" His voice was sharp, commanding, and it's sole intent was to get the man's attention off of Kink. "I know you may have had some dealings with her in the past....but I'm not her, sir. And I'm simply here for work. Only reason's she's here is because I'm new t' the city and needed someone to show me about. Why don't we lower the weapon and talk like businessmen?" His voice had become calm, resolved, a tone designed to soothe and calm rather than incite. He had raised his arms in a motion suggesting he was not a threat and smiled at Yayabuko, praying internally that the man would listen to him....to reason. He hadn't looked back at Kink, hoping she didn't disapprove of his attempt to control the situation.