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 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:57 am
"AhHHem a-HHHhrrkkk hrk hm hem."
The travels of the two highbloods through Old Hemiesct had not passed entirely unnoticed by the shadowy population. The screams and shouts of the younger of the two highbloods had caused heads to turn, and figures to slip a little farther into the dark corners. Now however, one stepped forward, and leaned against the crumbling masonry of a wall. Their blood colour was indistinguishable underneath the large trench coat and hat, and they sported a luxuriant moustache that drew the eye almost magnetically. Looking around conspiratorially, the troll spoke in a hushed and surprisingly feminine voice, for such amazing facial hair. As it spoke, it waggled what could be seen of its eyebrows behind a pair of thick glasses.
"Ho there good sir and madame! A fine night to both of you. I could not help but overhear that you are seeking the location of the place known as .... the black market."
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:16 am
She sniffled as she stared up at him as he waved his hands. He was smart, he had a plan, right? Oh and what a plan it was! Her face broke into a shining, tear-stained smile as her his own hive to rest at. She didn't even notice how uncomfortable the prospect seemed to make him, all she knew was that he was offering and she was taking! However, before she could properly reply they were interrupted. Turning around her jaw dropped as Khanda recognized that visage.
"You!" she cried out before running up to the figure. "You did this to me! Change me back right now!" she demanded as she stopped and glared up into those glasses. Her expression might have been threatening had it not been stained with purple tears and coming from a small child. Here was the source of her misfortune! Here was what she had been searching for! She wasn't going to let them slip away again!
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:27 am
The agony and awkwardness of offering Khanda a place to stay for the day was quickly redirected to a new figure. This was probably not a very good thing-- or maybe it was a good thing considering the kid desperately wanted to find someone to get information out of.
This mysterious new troll had on a rather large trench coat, enshrouding most of their body in mystery (including their blood color). And a moustache. Huh, a moustache. That little detail seemed awfully familiar to Thalia. He thought that maybe Khanda said something about a moustache earlier in her gross sobbing.
Before he could ask Khanda about the matter, the little troll was rushing right up to this stranger! What a terrible idea.
"Wait! Khanda, are you sure!?" He called, slightly panicked. That didn't make sense to him. Why would the person who did this to her approach her directly? What purpose would that serve? And besides, this troll was offering up information!
Thalia followed behind Khanda and rest his hands on her shoulders before she could get into even more trouble. He glanced around and replied in a whisper. "Yeah, we're.. lookin' for the black market. One of your... associates do this to Khanda, eh?" Gangster was the current vibe Thalia would have to try and put on! That'd be legit in every way possible.
Wait, what was he doing? Did this mean Khanda really did get turned into a kid? That doesn't make any sense. He was utterly confused, but tried his best to maintain his smoldering gangster persona.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:50 am
Taking a step backwards, the entrenchcoated (it's a word now) troll threw up their hands in mock self defence at the small highblood's wrath. The parts of it's face that could be seen wore an expression of astonished hurt.
"Me? Me? I think there's some misunderstanding here, good madam. I'm a simple purveyor of legal and above-board goods to the discerning customer. Everything that passes under my nose is stamped by Her Majesty's Imperial Quality Board, I swear. The finest goods, sought after by any troll with discerning taste and an eye for quality."
It paused for a moment, letting the older troll reign in his charge, then patted the front of it's coat, smoothing out a few wrinkles. It sniffed a few times, scrutinized both trolls up and down, and in the tones of the unjustly accused, continued the speech it had so obviously memorized for this exact situation.
"Unfortunately, I too seem to be the victim of a most horrendous crime. I was duped, swindled, hornswaggled, and taken most thoroughly to the cleaners! One of my suppliers (in no way a troll I will ever do business with again, let me tell you that), loaded me with fake nutritional supplements, that yes, may have had a few unfortunate side effects. But let me reiterate, I am in no way the perpetrator of this crime! No blame can be attached to me."
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:01 am
Khanda was not having any of this. She shrugged off Thalia's hands and continued to glare at the other troll. This troll had wronged her and they would pay! Thalia may be flopping around like a fish, but she was standing strong! It did hurt a bit that Thalia thought she may be wrong in her accussing, but she knew this was the troll she was after. An odd looking troll like this was hard to forget! Stomping her foot she said, "It's still your fault! You gave it to me so you gotta fix this!" She didn't care if this troll had been the queen herself, they supplied the elixir so it was their responsibility to change her back. Whether they knew what would happen to her didn't matter. It was still their fault.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:08 pm
Oh, so it was this trench coat-encloaked troll who gave this elixir to Khanda! How could a merchant not know it would do something so horrible? The circumstances were very fishy for sure. And obviously this troll was looking for a scapegoat.
With the troll's working around the situation, Khanda grew even more mad! Thalia's hands set firmly on his hips once he was shrugged off by the angry little girl. That was pretty hurtful, actually... but that was something he'd have to deal with later.
"Alright," Thalia moved his head side-to-side, cracking his neck. "I'll go along with this game of yours fer now.." He swiped at his nose with his thumb, giving almost a sneer at the merchant. "Give us some info on this.. 'supplier' of yours if you wanna keep your head." Thalia stuck out his chin and rose his head up, so he could appropriately look down at the other troll.
Hopefully this show of bravado would calm Khanda down. Glub, who was he kidding, she'd probably just get even more mad! But he needed this information and he couldn't go mangling this merchant.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:38 pm
"Believe me, I would be the first to be hand out the cure if I managed to get my hands on it! For a modest price, of course. But I'm afraid no more bottles have been forthcoming, faulty or otherwise. It seems the troll who is in charge of creating the supply I gave has gone into hiding, no doubt due to the vocal outcry of dissatisfied customers such as yourself."
Looking up to the older of the trolls, then down to the smaller one, the mysterious troll seemed to grasp that this wasn't exactly the news they were hoping for. Pausing a moment to stroke that fantastic moustache thoughtfully, it leaned in closer, and dropped it's voice even further down, forcing the other two troll to lean in as well to hear.
"However, I was privileged to meet the very same troll face to face once, and if it may assist you, I have a tidbit of information that I could let go for ... say ... 20 beetles? A bargain at any price, I'm certain, since I hear rumour that the queen herself will be offering a reward on his head very soon."
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:49 pm
Though she was still quite mad Khanda couldn't help but look up and blink at Thalia in surprise. He sounded completely different from before! Was he threatening them? Wow, he was so cool! She was so glad to have teamed up with him! Feeling more sure of herself and the situation she returned her attention to the merchant. She didn't like that the said they'd sell the cure if they had one. No, they should give her the cure for free! The elixir had been for free! However they mentioned giving up information on the supplier. If the supplier gave them the de-aging stuff then they had to have something to counteract it, right? Without a word the small troll reached for her money bag again and pulled out the amount asked of and held it out with a stern expression. If this is what it took to get back to normal than fine, she could dish out money to this undeserving troll. 20 was indeed a bargain to get her old body back. She didn't much care about any reward that might come her way, she was far too engrossed in the wrong to be righted to worry about any monetary gain.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:56 pm
Now they were getting somewhere-- albeit, at a price, but it was a small price. Thalia half-wondered if he had become delusional and Khanda's childish scenario had come true somehow. However, it was starting to feel that all of this really was true. That was a very strange thing to admit, but Thalia guessed he'd just have to go with the flow of things.
Khanda calmed down and quickly whipped out her money. She was really serious about this! This was no game! Thalia didn't have much to say about the happenings, but he had to keep in character.
"Ya got your money. Now, spill." Thalia's upper lip curled with that command.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:08 pm
Leaning in even closer, the troll slipped the money into their pocket without even glancing down at it. First bending down to the child, then the teen, it whispered in each of their ears. Then, tipping its hat respectfully to each of them and grinning a little cheekily, it disappeared back down the alleyway in a flash. Gone so quickly that one would wonder if it had even been there at all.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:38 pm
Khanda blinked at the super secret information that was just delivered to her. She puzzled over it for a moment trying to figure out how helpful it was and if it had been worth her money. "But. . ." she started to speak up, but trailed off upon realizing that their informant had disappeared within the ruins of Old Hemisect. It certainly hadn't been much, but it was better than nothing! At least they had something to go on! She wanted to start the search again, coupled with this new knowledge, but looking up to the sky she noticed the star were dimmer than they had been. They needed to get a move on if they wanted to get back to Thalia's hive before daybreak.
Looking up at the seadweller she said, "They weren't very helpful, but at least now we know what to look for. We can search more tomorrow. I want to get back to your place before the sun comes up!" The thought of being stuck outside during the daylight hours was a terrifying one. The city was creepy enough at night, imagine was it was like while hoards of the undead shambled around, casting their grotesque shadows everywhere. She shuddered at the thought.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:13 pm
Well, that was worth the 20 beetles. (20 of Khanda's beetles, anyway). Before Thalia could say anything else with gangster machismo, the merchant had vanished. He didn't really trust this troll at all, but what choice did he have. It was a start in the right direction-- right-ish direction-- a direction.
Khanda so graciously pointed out the time of night to Thalia, however. Dawn was approaching and that was no good! He would have to plan and think about things later. Now was a time for getting the hell out of dodge and back to his hive. His gangster demeanor having vanished, Thalia shrugged in agreement. "Let's get moving, then! I'm not too far away!"
With that statement, Thalia took Khanda by the hand and rushed through the city as fast as he could. Finally reaching shore, he let go of her, wading into the dark waters. Thalia motioned Khanda over once, and then dove under the surface to finally relax in his hive.
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Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:19 pm
Khanda had a bit of a hard time keeping up with Thalia as he ran through the city, his legs were a lot longer than her's after all! Plus she was getting tired after a full night of walking around the city. Once they reached the beach and he let go of her hand she breathed a sigh of relief. However, she was a bit worried she might run into her lusus searching for her, but her hive was far into the ocean. Surely she wouldn't run into her on the way to Thalia's hive. . . right? Following after Thalia she dove into the water and swam after him.
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