Entrepreneur

[Bloodrose]

Closed to Nightstalker and/or Nightstalker's alts.

"I thought you had a rule about hiring lackeys?" Pembleton, the Company accountant, took a pensive draw of his cigarette, holding the smoke in his lungs and raising his eyebrows as if to say "Well? Don't you?" The tweed-dressed man was leaning against the wall of the inn lazily, waiting patiently alongside his employer.

"I do." Teric replied simply, pausing from his own cigarette. "But sometimes it can't be avoided."

"It can't?" Pembleton appeared bemused. "You have an entire mercenary organization at your beck and call, and you can't avoid hiring an outsider?"

Teric pondered that comment for a moment, going back to his smoke quietly while keeping his eyes glued to the front door. Eight o'clock at the Starlight inn - those were the instructions he'd given to Feagel, a low-tier mercenary handler commonly found in the Radasanth slums. The veteran had given the unsavory bastard a gold coin to find a capable but expendable young mercenary and pass those instructions along. They'd been waiting for more than an hour, and both Teric and Pembleton were starting to feel as though Feagel might have just ripped them off...

"It's complicated." The old warrior grumbled finally, dropping the smoldering remains of his vice and extinguishing the embers beneath the toe of his boot. "I put the word out to my people, but no one got back to me. Everyone's either missing or too busy doing their own things to handle this. I'd do it myself, but I've got more important things to worry about as well."

"Right," Pembleton put out his smoke as well, "like figuring out who's trying to kill us."

Teric rolled his eyes. "Me, Pembleton. They're trying to kill me."

"Yes, well, the knife was stuck in my door." The accountant sounded indignant - almost as if he was insulted by the insinuation that he wasn't worth killing.

"Don't start with me." Teric warned the accountant, exasperated. Regardless of who was trying to kill who, the fact remained that he was too busy to be leaving the city. That was why they were here, and that was why Teric was still hoping someone would show up looking to make themselves a fine amount of money...

[Nightstalker]

(Bunnying of Esmerelda by Nightstalker, and Nightstalker by Esmerelda approved for thread duration)
The Starlight inn, at nine-twenty, those were the instructions given to them. Nightstalker looked over at his female companion. She was a beautiful Akashiman, by all appearances. Her hair was long, black, and silky. She wore leather armor, and had thigh-high leather greaves on. Nightstalker had a suspicion she wasn't what she appeared to be. He had no grounds for his suspicions, but he had them all the same.

That was okay though, he wasn't what he appeared to be either. He was dressed as a simple farmer. His hair was colored yellow, and he used a similar dye, safe for the eyes, to color them green. Someone's laundry handing out to dry provided some extra padding to give him the appearance of being over weight. To all outside appearances, he was a slightly overweight farmer heading to the pub for a drink.

He stepped inside, and as always, was less than impressed by the poor quality inn. some walls were in disrepair, and mice ran about in the corners. Idly he wandered why this couldn't take place at the somewhat better "Laughing Donkey Tavern" just down the road.

He spotted Teric and his friend sitting at a table. He didn't seem like the type to give such an odd meeting time as nine-twenty, but Nightstalker was never one to not follow an employer's instruction. And so at exactly nine-twenty, Nightstalker and Esmerelda sat down at the table.

"I believe our mutual friend named Feagel spoke of a deal you might have regarding, my vegetables. I am after all, a very skilled farmer. Said you wanted to see my wife and I at Nine-twenty on the dot." Nightstalker said, tossing a scrap of paper on which feagel had written the directions on the table. Sure enough, in feagel's poor but unmistakable handwriting were the instructions for two assassins to meet Teric at the starlight inn at Nine-Twenty.

Of course it was possible Teric might not understand that Nightstalker was the person he sent for, even if he did have unexpected company. Of course, someone who ran a successful company of mercenaries, and was still in the position to hire outside help, would clearly understand that some Akashiman farmers were more than what they appeared to be.

"Oh, where ARE my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. I am Tsuneo "Nightstalker" Okayama and this is my wife, Atsuko Okayama." Nightstalker said by introduction.
Obviously fake names, but the only real one was Nightstalker's real name, given as a nickname.

[Esmerelda]

(Bunnying of Esmerelda by Nightstalker, and Nightstalker by Esmerelda approved for thread duration)

She had just escaped from an Alerar prison, and finally, was back in Corone. Alerar was after her for her body, but that's understandable, because Esmerelda was a machine after all. She was the most sophisticated technology on Althanas, so it only stood to reason that eventually someone would learn her secret, and attempt to own her.
Fortunatly for Esmerelda, Alerar was unprepared for Esmerelda, and so she escaped, but not before taking out a small contingent of guards and The Warden. Now a black ops group known as Arcana Et Machina was after her.

She had to do something for a diversion, plus she needed money, she felt it was time to upgrade the materials of her swarm. That was when the shady bum approached her with an offer for a job.

She accepted, and was paired up with an akashiman who introduced himself as Yoshi. She decided to alter her appearence to appear as his wife, a concept he seemed to take to immediatly.

When he introduced her as his wife, she smiled the sort of smile a real woman might, and feigned happiness. With scrambled emotion files, she had no idea just how happy to appear, but she tried for a descent amount of happiness.

She wondered though if the subterfuge was really neccessary.

[Bloodrose]

That lousy rat bastard. Teric's mind was grumbling, absorbing the numbers written on the scrap of paper tossed before him. Nine-twenty it said, not clearly, but surely. It wasn't even close to the time he'd originally given Feagel, and Teric made a mental note to never utilize the shifty man again.

"My name is Teric, and this is my associate - his name is not important." Teric offered in ways of an introduction, shifting his gaze instantly from the paper on the table to the two mercenaries standing before him. "This is a safe place, the people here know me well, so there is no need for false names or theatrics."

One Akashiman, and one... something. Teric's mind was busy analyzing even as he spoke, absorbing what little details he could about his two soon-to be lackeys. The man was of obvious Comb Mountains origin, and carried himself in a confident manner. He seemed hardy, looked to be in fit shape, and was as easy to read as a book. "Nightstalker" he called himself apparently, and from what Teric knew about Akashimans, that moniker probably meant the man guised himself as a ninja.

The woman, on the other hand, she was a bit harder to read. There was a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips, but the rest of her expression seemed eerily blank. She was so... plain that it was almost hard to describe her at all. Her's was the type of face that you could forget easily the instant she turned away, so non-descript were her features.

"So, let's get right down to business." Teric continued, hardly bothering to wait for his cohorts to even sit. "Your vegetables in this case is a rock quarry; limestone to be precise. It's about a half day's journey from here, south of the city walls and across the Niema river. The quarry is currently owned and operated by a man named Garret Frederick. I don't care how, and I don't really need details, but it my hope that by the end of the week the quarry will be owned and operated by Teric Bloodrose. Catch my drift?"

The mercenary slid a brown pouch across the table. Inside jingled a couple hundred gold crowns - the first installment in his lackey's payment, and offered up now to cover expenses.

"Two hundred now, the other six on delivery. Do we have a deal?"

[Nightstalker]

Nightstalker grabbed the coins and hid them in his clothes in a single deft move. Really it was luck that he didn't spill them all over the place, but Nightstalker had knack of believing himself to be more than he was. He stood, bowed, turned, and walked away without saying a word, though the message was clear, he'd accepted the deal and would deliver.

Already having gotten a room earlier by less than legitimate means, he'd flitched the key to a little used room in the back of the inn when the innkeeper was occupied elsewhere, he made his way back to his room. His partner and he shared the room, and didn't seem disturbed by the fact that it was room enough for only one person, two if they got rather cozy with one another.

He sat on the bed thinking about how they were going to do this.

The bed, as was mentioned earlier, was intended only for a single person to sleep on, and was partially eaten in spots by moths and rats. The sheets, which were clean and white at one time, were now rumpled, and yellowed, peaking out from the thin ragged comforter atop them. The one pillow on the bed was then, flat, and not at all comfortable to sleep with. The floor was dirt, but a large paving stone held a single dresser in which a large population of rodents lived. It had a dirty filthy mirror on top. Spiderwebs and Cobwebs filled the corner and hung lor from the ceiling. All in all, just the sort of place one would expect a pair of small timers like Esmerelda and Nightstalker to hide in.

Nightstalker lounged on the bed, one scenario after another running through his head. One thing was clear to him, he'd need to get the current owner to draw up a document offically handing the property over to Teric. But then, how?

"So, my dearest wife, any ideas?" Nightstalker asked as Esmerelda came in.

[Esmerelda]

Esmerelda's smile faded completely as Nightstalker took the coins and walked away. She sat their for a moment, looking at Teric and Pembleton, her face completly blank, and devoid of all emotion. Inside, her programming was updating itself. If Teric or Pembleton had sharp enough eyes, they could actually see words flickering across her eyes, tiny points of light most people would mistake as reflections of light, if they weren't green.

... Starting Mission Directives.EXE
>>Add Missions
>>Obtain the Niema river Garret Frederick Limestone Quarry.
... Ending Mission Directives.EXE
... Starting Strategy Engine
>> Add plan to Niema Mission? [Yes/(No)]
... Ending Strategy Engine
... System reboot neccessary for changes to take effect, Keep Swarm configuration? [(Yes)/No]
... Shutting down

So it was that as Nightstalker left without worrying about Esmerelda, she completly shut down momentarily infront of Teric and Nightstalker. She lost part of her color, turning steel grey, and even melted partly, losing a quarter of her shape. Her eyes closed as though she were asleep. It was perhaps the best clue Teric would receive for a long time as to what she really was. Other Patrons looked at the woman like she was something evil, and several made different holy signs to ward off evil spirits. Suddenly her color returned, as did her shape, and she stood up, nodding to Teric and Pembleton as she walked out after Nightstalker.

Unlike Nightstalker, she didn't return straight to the room, instead she shifted her appearance to look like a local beggar she passed as she moved to the market. Her hair became grey and ragged, her skin wrinkled, and instead of leather, her nanites shifted into a ragged set of robes. She hunched over, as though bent with age.

She went to a stall where a merchant was selling earthenware pots. When his back was turned she grabbed a medium sized one and moved down a nearby alley, where she reverted back to her akashiman appearance, having skin like nightstalkers, long black silky hair, and almond shaped black eyes. Her ragged robes reverted back to their leathery appearance. The pot was just small enough to fit inside her storage compartment, placed where a real person's stomach might be.

It was concealed just in time, for as she closed her door, the merchant came running around the corner.
"A beggar woman ran this way with a pot of mine, where did she go?" the angry man demanded.
Esmerelda pointed him down a corner as she walked past him, unconcerned and unworried that she might be caught. After all, she looked like a beautiful female warrior, not an old wrinkled beggar woman.

The merchant ran off, and Esmerelda returned to the room she shared with Nightstalker.
His intonation of "My dearest wife" lead Esmerelda to believe he expected her to sleep with him later that night.

She went to the corner, and took out the pot, setting it down in the corner.

"I don't know, but I'll have my processes run the problem while I'm engaged in sleep mode." She said, not particularly worried with the fact that she never explained to nightstalker what she really was. It never crossed her processors that he might have possibly freaked out when she took out the pot and set it down, then spoke so strangely.

No, instead she stood inside the pot and melted into goo, turning herself off in the process, to regenerate her energy. The air trapped inside her body for cooling slowly bubbled it's way to the surface, giving off the impression that she was breathing in her liquid state, which she was not.