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 Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 10:35 pm
          .::Stark & Rem & Luna & Geisha & Will & Drift & Mako & Siegfried & Argonne & Nariko::.Stark was in the middle of pouring out the last bit of soup in the last bowl when Gabriel mentioned them getting wasted at the Nightclub two days ago. He froze, the ladle dripping soup into the pot lamely, as though attempting to break up the awkward silence that now pervaded the room. Nariko nodded shyly. "O-oh..." she said, somewhat shocked that Gabriel was so open about their actions. She looked at Stark, as though searching for some sort of reaction, but Stark had shaken off his embarrassment by now and had recommenced pouring out stew. He nodded to Rem, who flew over, picked up the tray, and started serving the soup once again, starting with Gabriel. Will chuckled as he recollected that night. "Yeah, them's were good times. Up until we woke up, at least, eh, buddy?" he said, winking in Argonne's direction, who met his wink with a flat stare. Stark shook his head, then sat at his own seat, grabbing a napkin and wiping at Luna's mouth. She glanced up at him with an embarrassed look, then resumed eating. Stark turned to Gabriel. "Regardless of what we did when we discussed our terms, tonight is for dinner, then business. So, ah... go ahead. Still hot, so, be careful." He gave a friendly nod, then commenced with his own food. Siegfried took a bite of his own stew, then turned to Gabriel. "So, Master Gabriel, was it? You must be a very skilled warrior for Master Dravin to respect you as he does. Pray tell, where did you train? I am always looking for new places to hone my skills."
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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:24 am
Gabriel
Gabriel didn't seem to take much notice of the awkward silence, choosing instead to stare in the general direction of the food and the Dewott.
He gave a chuckle at Will's comment as the memories came back. Or, at least... What there was.
"I'd agree if I could remember a bit more. My memory gets shot when I get drunk. I was lucky I remembered the deal or I probably would've forced my way out yesterday morning."
Waking up in an unfamiliar place was usually accompanied by him running for one reason or another. You never knew if people would be as amicable sober as they were drunk at least.
He returned the nod with an appreciative nod of his own as he took a quick glance at the stew. It was steaming a bit... which meant it was still too hot. Being an ice type had some downsides.
"Ah, thanks."
Gabriel took hold of the spoon and lightly stirred the stew before him as he waited for it to cool down. It would take a little bit. Not long, but a bit.
He tossed the Heracross a glance at the question. He didn't know this guy... he wasn't on the mission. Best to be friendly all the same though.
"I was never trained. I lived in the Prey and Predator forest while I was growing up and I hunted all my own food. My jobs mostly involve fighting, too. I'm good at fighting because I fight a lot."
He had never had anything as nice or safe as an instructor, it was always just "kill or be killed".
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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:46 pm
.::Stark & Rem & Luna & Geisha & Will & Drift & Mako & Siegfried & Argonne & Nariko::.Siegfried nodded at Gabriel's comment, mentaly catalogueing the name, "Prey and Predator Forest" for future reference. He took another bite, then continued. "I see. Rather commendable as well- a more natural form of fighting, I should say. Perhaps we can spar sometime, compare notes, as it were," he said, smiling slightly. Stark took a sidelong glance at Sieg, refraining from mentioning how unlikely that scenario was, considering his double type advantage against the Weavile. He turned back to his soup and continued eating, the rest of the conversation dying off as the team continued eating their dinner, an oddly familial scene considering the nature of the team itself.
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:00 am
Gabriel
"Sure."
Though he spoke honestly, the reality was was that he didn't expect the fight to ever happened. They were good business partners and he'd be sure to come back to them if he felt the need but chances were he wouldn't be around often enough for the fight to actually happen. Mostly, he was just being polite. It helped when negotiations hit.
As the mood settled in, the Weavile took a careful bite of stew and seemed to recoil inside of his own skin. His tongue danced away from the hot liquid until he finally (and forcefully) swallowed it. It burned slightly on the way down and brought the tiniest of tears to the Weavile's eyes. He was really bad with hot food like this... his body just couldn't handle it.
The Weavile's spoon tipped slightly in the hair as it was held lightly in his hand. He would wait and let it cool down a fair bit before trying again. That last bite had burned and he wasn't about to voluntarily revisit that feeling. Let it cooldown, let it chill a bit and then maybe blow on it a touch before having any.
When he was finally content that the stew wouldn't cause him terrible pain, he took another bite and by all accounts he seemed to enjoy it. Though for obvious reasons it took him a fair bit longer to finish than anyone on the team. Starting late tended to make one end late.
Content and with his stomach full, Gabriel would allow Stark to make the first move in the negotiations. After all, it was his turf.
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Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:39 pm
.::Stark & Rem & Luna & Geisha & Will & Drift & Mako & Siegfried & Argonne & Nariko::.When all of those present had finished their food, and their dishes had been cleared away, Stark dismissed everyone except those who had come with him on the mission. He sat down, looking at Gabriel with a bit of a half-smile on his face. He had to say, Gabriel was an effective team member to have around- dependable. And civil, besides. He had been considering inviting Gabriel to join the team, but had held off for the time being. He didn't want to seem pushy, and besides, he was here for business. Stark left for a moment, then came back with the bag of rewards that they had received from the client. Stark emptied the bag out onto the table, revealing a Black Belt, a pair of Black Glasses, two purplish looking gems, a chest of some sort, and a trio of TMs, with labels attached to them- one was Calm Mind, another was Miracle Eye, and the last read Ancientpower. Stark looked over all of the rewards for a moment, then looked to Gabriel. "So, you have the PD from yesterday, I assume. This is everything that we received from the Guild of Rebirth as a reward for releasing the cult. Now, if there's anything you want to--""I'd like that one," said Argonne, pointing at the Miracle Eye TM. "It would be a nice thing for a Fighting-type like me to have. That is, if I can have it." Stark glared at him for interrupting, then continued. "Well, as I was saying, if there are any rewards you want to claim out of these items, go ahead and say so. And then we can get to negotiations."
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 1:26 pm
Gabriel
Gabriel waited quietly as the room seemed to expand. As the unnecessary team members filed out, the empty space in the room grew until it was just a small number of people. He relaxed in his chair with one hand resting lightly on the table as he slipped his claws out slightly. By all accounts he was simply occupying himself, but his glances around the room suggested that he was appraising the present individuals.
When the rewards spilled out onto the table, he only half-heard Stark's comment as he had quickly set to determining the value and uses of each individual item. It didn't take him long at all to realize just how useless the assembled pile was to him... he had no use for any of it. He preferred to fight head-on so the moves weren't any good to him... likewise, that meant that everything else on the table was worthless to him.
That meant that any part of the split he was going to take was either in items to sell or in monetary compensation from the team... so he had to value it all.
"There's nothing in there I can use. On the negotiations, though... I was paid ten thousand in raw cash and each of those is worth about five thousand a piece except for the chest and the TM's. Buying the TM's would probably run you about... seven thousand. So the total value of the pool is about thirty-seven thousand, twenty-seven thousand of which is in items. Is that a fair analysis?"
Of course, selling them would significantly cut that number down but that was a part of the negotiations.
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:55 pm
.::Stark & Rem & Geisha & Will & Argonne::.Stark nodded at Gabriel's words, logging the tally in his head. 37,000 PD was quite a sum, to be sure, but selling the items for cash would likely drop the price by about half at the very least. Which left them with about 12-13,000 in items after calculating. Still not a bad sum, but the trick was to make it even, now. "Yes, it's fair, except for one thing- we both know selling the items will cut their price. By half, at least. And since you're not going to use the supplies, I think that we need a compromise. To start- assuming everyone is in agreement to this- since you're just going to sell the items you get, you can take the whole of the 10,000 PD in cash, and then we can start talking about how to split up the items. Everyone okay with that?""Okay with that? You mean you're just gonna have made us bust our humps for absolutely nothing?" snapped Will indignantly. Geisha rolled her eyes. "Oh, settle down, it's not for nothing- it's fair trade. We get our share in commodities, since that's what we need at the moment.""Being that Master Gabriel will sell his share, as he has need- or rather, want- of money." said Rem, nodding. The team turned to Argonne, who appeared to be dozing off in his seat. He shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me, just as long as I can get something I like." The team turned back to Will, who sighed melodramatically, finally nodding in a defeated way. Stark nodded. "So now, we just have to come to an agreement about what we keep, and what you keep." Though, in all honesty, if things panned out how Stark wanted them to, technically it would belong to all of them, no matter who got it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:30 pm
Gabriel
"Half. At most. The Kecleon store will buy anything they stock at half the price they would normally sell it for. I went ahead and checked the prices in advance... five thousand for each thing in that pile except for the TM's. You'll get at least fifty percent for everything but the TM's."
That was the bottom line and he wasn't willing to waver from that. If it dipped any lower than 50% his split was going to drop. More specifically, getting a precise price down would be difficult because the other party could very easily say "but if we have to sell it for less..."
"Here's my proposal. I'll take a reduced split to compensate for the price drop. I'll take one of the little pieces there worth five thousand... I sell it for half and come out with twelve-thousand five hundred. At a bare minimum if you sell the rest you'll come out with about ten thousand. But if you can use any of it, then the value rises considerably... if you can make use of most of what you keep then you come out a fair bit ahead of me. If you make full use of everything there then you get to keep twenty two thousand in equipment and TM's to the fifteen thousand I took."
It was a reasonably generous deal on his part but the reality of the matter was was that it was worth more to them than it was to him. If they just sold everything and left it as-was, he came out slightly ahead. Chances are he wouldn't get better... possibly he could snag a TM in the negotiations but putting pressure on it wasn't worth while since he was more likely to get pushed from a great deal to a terrible one than from a good deal to a poor one.
"Sound good?"
He still by all means seemed rather relaxed. Gabriel wasn't one to get stressed or scared... the very worst case scenario was he walked out of here 10,000 PD richer.
That didn't mean he wasn't serious though. The extra twenty five hundred was quite a bit and he would like to have it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:49 pm
.::Stark & Rem & Geisha & Will & Argonne::.Stark pondered Gabriel's counter offer for a moment. It was a good offer, to be sure- Stark had already considered which item to give away- the Black Glasses- considering Stark was the only one who used Dark moves with any regularity, and he already had his Dark Globe to take care of his needs there. He glanced about at the rest of the Team, each of them mulling over the offer, except for Will and Argonne. Will was still bitching under his breath about being slighted from cash money, and Argonne, in usual form, was ignoring the conversation. Stark rolled his eyes, then looked at Rem and Geisha. They shared a glance between them, then nodded. Stark nodded. "Alright, then," he said, putting his paw out to shake. "You can take the Black Glasses and the 10,000. We'll take the rest. Sound good to you?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:12 pm
Gabriel
Gabriel didn't take the shake at first, his hand instead reaching forward slightly to pick the glasses up off the table.
With a simple twist from his wrist, the glasses fell onto place over his eyes and dimmed the room around him.
With the glasses now resting on his head, he leaned forward and took the Absol's paw for a quick hand-shake.
"Sounds good to me."
Well then... business was taken care of. He wasn't in a rush to leave his seat, but he had things to do and places to be.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 6:11 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:52 pm
Gabriel
Gabriel stayed seated, his eyes locked on Stark. It was obvious that the Absol wanted to ask him something.
He was a little bit surprised by the offer, not that he showed it outwardly. He hadn't been expecting that much, but his poker face was still solid as it had always been.
The offer was intriguing, but he didn't really have much interest in taking it. He had had the option to take the five of them in the past and reform the team, but he had chosen not to and that wasn't a simple choice.
He didn't like the guilds. He didn't like their restrictions or their rules. They were uptight about killing, he couldn't hunt in the guilds, he had to be careful to be friendly to everyone and... bleh
It was a lot of trouble to go through when he could get all the fun of the city without any of the trouble just by living the way he was.
That wasn't to say it was a boring offer though. If anything, he was curious as to where it was coming from.
"Why should I?"
It wasn't a loaded question. There wasn't any violent edge. It was just a question.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:55 pm
.::Stark & Rem & Geisha & Will & Argonne::.Stark was surprised at the question that came after Argonne's comment. Not by the question, but in how it was asked. There was no edge, no malice, no dodging in the question at all. It was asked in a simply questioning tone, as though he was genuinely curious about the reasoning behind the offer. It was heartening at the same time- he seemed open to the idea, at the very least. Stark figured there was nothing to lose now, so he went for it. "Well... to be honest, I don't have a lot of reasons. Most of it was the mission itself- we worked well with one another, and believe me, that happens but rarely. You kinda... already felt like part of the team. As you can see, we're pretty close, but we're not stifling each other. We're all pretty autonomous. I just thought it would be a bit easier for you to do what you wanted if you were a part of a team. It can't be enjoyable sleeping on the ground all the time, anyway.""Eh, depends," said Argonne, still resolutely keeping his eyes shut. Stark shot a sidelong glance, then went back to Gabriel. "I just feel it would be to both of our benefits if you were a part of this team." He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Look, I'm not holding you at knife-point or anything- it's your decision, obviously. I'm just throwing out my case... So... what do you think?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:43 pm
Gabriel
It was an interesting offer, though a good few parts of his arguments stuck out as bad assumptions. Most of his nights were spent sleeping in a bed and those that weren't were usually out in the wild which he found suited him just find. The soft ground and nice grass was hardly something he could complain about, especially since a small number of pokemon would actually actively attack a Weavile. He'd had a few rude awakenings, but he'd never come out with injuries from any of them so it wasn't really a problem.
And, again... teams were restrictive. The rules were a hindrance for him. The necessities, the expectations and the formalities. Especially how up tight they were about killing at times, he didn't like that. Killing was so much easier. Fighting was a lot more fun when he didn't have to worry about getting bitched out about something.
But on the other hand it would make his life a lot easier. There really wasn't much more to the offer than that. He got along with the team well enough but he wasn't going to jump at the chance to live with them. But it was still ultimately a life of convenience so long as he danced around the usual rules and regulations however much he disliked them.
Gabriel closed his eyes for a while as he mulled over the idea, though the glasses hid the fact. The Weavile's arms crossed and the only sign of movement from his body was him absentmindedly scratching his arm. It wasn't something to consider lightly and it wasn't a proposal he was fully willing to accept. The idea of being back in a... "team" seemed restricting.
After a few minutes of silent thought, he settled. With both hands he carefully pinched each temple of the glasses between his thumb and forefinger and gently pulled it off. With a quick snap, the temples were back in place against the lens and the glasses were held lightly in his right hand.
"I'm not letting it hold me down, but I'll join. I love the city and what it holds but I'm not a city pokemon. I spend some time in the wild and sometimes I'm going to take work on my own. I'll respect your leadership and I'll try to stay within the boundaries of the guild, but I'm going to work my own way and if I don't like what's happening I'll leave." Gabriel leaned forward slightly and began gesturing with his hands as he spoke to try and get the point across. Though it was only the tiniest of pauses, he stopped speaking to hold up the Black Glasses. "And you can have the glasses back if you want, for the team's armory or whatever but I'm keeping at least half the cash. That isn't guild work--that's mine."
Gabriel placed the glasses down on the table lens up before leaning back, somewhat more relaxed.
"This isn't me changing myself, this is me changing where I live. You're a fun guy, Stark. Your team seems great. But life is fun and I'm not going to stop having fun just to join a team."
The Weavile seemed resolute. He was genuinely against changing the way he lived, at least significantly.
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Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:41 pm
.::Stark & Rem & Geisha & Will & Argonne::.Stark smiled, partially at Gabriel's assent to join the team, but mostly at his guidelines for doing so. He sounded a lot like Stark had when he had joined the Guild in the first place. Team Blacksteppe already operated on a bit of a maverick agenda- Gabriel would find no problems being a part of this team. "Believe me, the last thing I wanna do is tell you to be someone different. And keep the glasses and the cash, consider it your cut, just like we agreed." Will rolled his eyes, but otherwise said nothing. Stark ignored him and continued. "And I wouldn't worry about fitting in too much. We don't always operate within our... guidelines, anyway, as you can see... But the last thing I've gotta tell you is this- I wasn't asking you to join as a superior to a subordinate. I was asking as a friend. So relax. You're among friends here." He smiled and sat back, nodding at their new member. "So, then. Welcome aboard."
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