You! (Orion)

[Min]

Winter 30, 512 Three weeks had passed since she had first seen the dagger. Through one of her very, very few ‘friends’ here in Syliras, Min had managed to purchase it without the merchant being any the wiser as to who it was really meant for. Min still had a hard time believing her good fortune in spotting it amongst the man’s wares, at the Bazaar. But she totally did not believe his story – one that had changed ever so slightly when her friend had done the purchasing. She had thought it might – the tale the merchant had told her was so obviously faked up. If she hadn’t been so abrupt and imperious about it all, she might have been able to get the truth from his lying lips. The Myrian was learning that she lacked greatly in subtly and tact, and she wondered why her grandmother and mother had ever chosen her for this task. But they had, and if she had to turn herself inside out to be charming, or act dumb, or whatever major personality shifts it would take – she would do it. She had taken a vow. It was her duty. So in the hopes of eventually finding the one who passed the skeleton handled dagger on to the merchant, Min had first set her friend to eavesdropping on the man – and in the form her friend was able to assume, this had not been particularly difficult. She had learned that on this night, he had arranged to meet with one who oft times provided him with less than legitimately purchased weapons. Not knowing if this contact could be the one she sought, Min had hurried to the bazaar upon hearing this information and waited for the merchant to close up his stall and exit the great underground market. Patiently, she had followed him, using the skills she had learned during the mandated three years of military training, and a lifetime spent gathering medicinal plants in the jungle, to silently tail him. He had gone to his home, and thence to a tavern, and thence to yet another tavern. When he left this second place, his gait was the least little bit unsteady, and she began to think there would be no meeting this night. But as he parted company with two other drinking companions, he said outright that he was bound to his final destination for the evening, and he mentioned a name. It was the name Min had heard from her friend’s lips earlier in the day, so she took hope and dogged the merchant’s heels once more. His course took him through the twisting, narrow lanes of the city and she wondered how long they would keep on and where in the world he was headed, when once more their path spilled onto a broader main thoroughfare of the town. Dead ahead of them lay a tavern which was well patronized and typically hosted a good sized crowd of thirsty bar flies. It just so happened that on this night, the crowd within was not only thirsty, but a bit restless as well. Just as her quarry came flush with the entrance to the tavern, a patron came flying out, with another close behind. The two barreled into her man and sent him sprawling to the paving stones, both of them landing on top of him. The two, in fact, were in the middle of a hostile argument turned fist fight, and behind them, the crowd inside had come spilling out onto the steps and down into the street, to watch the impromptu wrestling/boxing match. Min approached with wide eyes, trying to spot her merchant, but the crowd milled and surged and she had to push her way through it physically. She got squeezed and jostled and cursed at, and just as she thought she’d break through, yet another drunk lurched into her and she lost her balance. Down they went, the idiot landing almost right on top of her. She struggled and pushed to get him off – more so she could get to her feet quickly and find her prey, that he should not give her the slip. But it seemed the more she endeavored to free herself of the lout, the more his limbs entangled with hers. In exasperation she let loose with a stream of Myrian curses, shoving with all her might, and adding her feet to the effort as well.

[Orion Michaels]

Orion Now this was exciting. A good bar brawl. It was a rare occasion here in the walled city of Syliras. You'd find yourself being punished as soon as a knight found out it was going on. People would yell and argue, but they'd try and avoid letting it come to blows. But ale, oh magical ale, well, it could make people do stupid things. Whether it was Orion having a 10 turn into a 2 when he awoke in the morning, or the case of these two gentlemen. "That's my wife you vagik! Who do you think you are trying to pick her up!?" The man was unremarkable. Brown hair, a boring face. Average height. Average build. No one Orion would remember. "Your wife, huh? Well, I didn't hear her saying no, friend." The other man was more noticeable. A little bit of a ladies' man. Long flowing black hair, strong features, deep brown eyes. The first man took exception to his use of the word 'friend', and everything went down hill. They got in each other's faces. The shouted over each other. Orion couldn't see who threw the first punch, but the sound of it was unmistakable. A grin spread across his face as he maneuvered to see what was going on, but it seemed the entire tavern was excited as he was. Or maybe it was simply all the alcohol he'd been drinking. There did appear to be three or four of the same person wandering around the place. The crowd followed the fight as it made its way towards the tavern door and spilled out into the streets. "Get out of my way!" Orion wasn't going to miss this for the world. Besides, he could do some advertising for his services if someone was particularly injured. Everyone tried to force their way out the door at the same time. The blue eyed man was somewhat near the front of the crowd, so he saw as the brawling men knocked a passerby to the ground. "Kick his ass!" Orion yelled, really supporting neither of them, but just wanting it to go on as long as possible. Another, larger, patron ran into Orion at that moment and sent him stumbling forward into another passerby, tumbling to the ground on top of them. Orion's vision blurred, then focused as he heard a string of words he didn't understand come flying forth. They were vicious, angry, venomous. And from a woman. Dark skin. Familiar anger. "Good evening, Min. Many women dream of being in your pos-" Hand to the face. Boot to the gut. Gods this girl was rough around the edges.

[Min]

Life is odd. It often seemed imbued with a perverse sense of humor – some might have attributed that to the gods. At this particular moment, Min could not conceive of what god or goddess might have deemed it amusing to put this man here, right in her path – or maybe she had been placed in his. The only one that sprang to mind as she heard that voice – slurred as it was with drink – was Krysus. Perhaps the goddess was trying to set up a little blood letting. Min was sorely tempted to oblige the divinity’s predilection, despite knowing that would be something of a case of overkill. Orion Michaels didn’t really deserve to die – not quite. His skills were of use to humanity, that much she could grudgingly concede. And beyond that – well – that was about all she could say positive about the boorish oaf. So she contented herself with a non-verbal reply to his greeting which consisted of the heel of her palm smashing into his cheek and the toe of her boot connecting squarely with his midriff. She had been aiming for his nose with her hand but his head had jerked aside at the last moment. Too bad, she thought with some chagrin. A flattened bridge and a deviated septum might have given the good doctor a touch of rugged class – and she would not have minded at all leaving his pretty face with a lifelong reminder of her unwelcome presence in his little universe. All fantasies aside, however, she had business to attend to – urgent business, for her quarry might even now be moving on, into the night, in any direction. She shoved harder, with an imperious, “Get off of me! Get off!” and managed to get out from under the man with whom, it seemed, she could not have a normal, pleasant interaction. Scrambling to her feet, she looked about intently, scanning the crowd. The two combatants still rolled about on the pavement, and the one she had been following should have been right there. But he was not! Wildly her head turned this way and that, her long dark hair fanning out behind her like some weird black wave. But she could catch no glimpse of him. As she had struggled with her nemesis, her prey had vanished! Perhaps it was Vayt that shoved Orion into her – her own personal pestilence from which there was no relief! Being Myrian, Min was prone to hyperbole, and though stoic in actual pain and distress, she was certainly capable of putting on quite the display of dramatics when she was pissed. And now seemed just the opportune time for such an outburst.

[Orion Michaels]

Orion Such resistance, such anger, such energy. Orion wasn’t sure what to do other than comply with her request to move, but quick to do so he was not. Fury dripped from her expression, and while his reactions weren’t top notch at the time, slowly it clicked. “You’re looking for me? Finally fell to my charm.” A wicked grin spread across his lips as he moved them closer to her face. Of course, he was incorrect about her reasons, and she flailed ferociously in order to free herself from underneath the doctor. “Or maybe not.” Such a shame. The doctor could be quite affectionate when he was drunk. Maybe too affectionate. Orion squinted, staring down at the ground beneath him. She was gone, leaving him nearly kissing the dirt. His eyes moved upwards, lecherously drinking in every inch of the Myrian as he gazed up to her face. She looked around frantically, apparently searching for someone, and sadly, at least for Orion, it wasn’t him. With the realization that whatever or whoever she was looking for having disappeared, the blue eyed man could see her countenance change, one that caused Orion’s stomach to turn. Scrambling to his feet, Orion staggered away from Min, putting as much distance between the two as he could in his inebriated state. He’d heard of a Myrian’s temper, and wasn’t wishing to experience it himself. World spinning, Orion felt like he’d walked a mile, though the truth was far from it. Looking behind him he’d only moved a few paces from the dark skinned woman. “Shyke . . .”, he muttered, turning to attempt to move faster. This only served to accelerate his reunion with the ground. Face first he went, blurred vision and all greeting the floor again.

[Min]

Her head whipped back around, in time to see the good doctor struggling to his feet. Eyes narrowed, Min was so torn. She wanted nothing better than to just lay into him and beat him even more senseless than he normally was. But at the same time, perhaps she might still catch a glimpse of her quarry if she made a circuit of the intersection of the two streets. She tore her eyes from the spectacle of Orion Michaels staggering away into the thinning crowd, and looked into each byway – as far as she could from her vantage point here near the center of all four. But each was quickly swallowed in darkness and she knew she could only guess at which path he might have chosen – 1 in 4 odds. For no real reason other than ire, her eyes flicked back to the doctor, just in time to see him falling flat on his face again. One angry eyebrow arched and she felt like going over to him and kicking him in the head – just for good measure. But at heart, Min was a sensible person and she realized there would be nothing gained by such expenditure of her energy. Let him lie in the filth and maybe some carter would come along and run him over – it would serve him right for being so very much in the wrong place at the wrong time – and ruining her night. Once more her eyes went back to a futile scanning of the surroundings, and once again they came back to the man who was actually a very skilled physician, though he bore no semblance to one at the moment. She was surprised to see two other figures moving towards the prone form of Orion, and though she thought that they would pass him by, they didn’t. One stood by, his head turning in a slow half circle, looking out into the street, as the other bent over the doctor, his hands going to the man’s pockets, no doubt. At least Min seriously doubted that the two were intent upon helping Orion to his feet. More likely their intent was to help themselves to the contents of his purse, once they found it. Honestly – it served him right, right? There wasn’t any reason for her to intervene – not on behalf of the oaf who had just messed up her surveillance maneuvers, right? Min watched, and huffed quietly. Her one hand moving to the short blow pipe tucked into her belt, the other reaching into her pouch for a dart – about an inch longed and tipped with a neurotoxin she herself had decocted from some of the various poisonous plants of her homeland, she called out to the two, “Leave him. He is a miserable wretch, but he has done nothing to you. Be on your way.” Her tone, as usual, was imperious as if she very much expected to be obeyed. OOCHope this is OK - feel free to NPC the two pickpockets

[Orion Michaels]

Orion The ground, it was a comforting thing, really. Especially when his world was a little upside down, as it was currently. Booze was comforting, too, but it was the cause of his current situation. The ground though. When he fell to it, there was one thing it promised that he couldn't provide himself. Beautiful, wonderful, stability. Flattened on the ground, he felt at peace. It, sadly, also made him a beacon of a target. While Syliras was a city run with a zero tolerance policy towards crime, there were always going to be people who tried to take advantage of a situation. Nipping a few coins from a drunken man was a simple enough way to go about it. He'd never know any better and just assume he'd spent all of his purse on drinks. They'd fatten their own purses, and move on with life just a little richer. And the Knights would never have to know. A drunk was likely to draw their ire on his or her own. Such a simple, easy crime to commit. Orion could be their golden goose. Or so they thought. Both men made as though to help the doctor up. Such good gents they were. They'd make off with the ten to fifteen gold Orion carried with him day to day as a reward. It was only fair, right? It seemed a dark skinned woman would have something else to say about it. One of the men, average height but with a bit of charm about him, nodded to Min. "He is quite the wretch, indeed. But even a wretch can use a lift from time to time, no? The fellow has been trying to find someone to warm his bed all evening and not a single lady, lovely or otherwise has bit at his offer. It fills me with such pity." The best lies were ones sprinkled with enough truth. The shorter of the two men had taken the momentary distraction to withdraw a handful of coins, placing them in his coat pocket, before helping the doctor to his feet. Orion turned his gaze on the man, narrowing his eyes. "Whaaa? Why..thank you good sir." Patting the man on the back, he began to scan the group of people, stopping on Min. "Oh. Hi! When'd you get here?" He was hopeless sometimes.

[Min]

The thief’s reply did nothing to stay Min’s hand. Casually she withdrew the ten inch blowpipe completely, and just as casually inserted the feathered dart into the end, all the while walking towards the men. It was dark, and she wasn’t the best with this weapon, but if she could get close enough to plant the dart into either of them, the fast acting plant based toxin would quickly affect their skeletal muscles to the point that they would simply fall to the ground. Two or three such darts, successfully placed, would result in all of their muscle function shutting down, leading to asphyxiation and death. But that was not her intent. “Yes, I can see why this is so,” she replied, keeping up the conversation to hopefully distract them from her goal. “He is not a man women would desire. He is very lacking in all things.” The one who had spoken to her leered and nodded in agreement. Perhaps he thought that this woman had some personal knowledge of the drunken sot’s “shortcomings”. Meanwhile, his partner was making himself busy, delving into Orion’s pockets, but then pretending only to be hoisting the doctor to his feet. Orion, with the classic owlish look of the very drunk, peered about and settled on Min. It was apparent he had already forgotten the drunken tussle they had just two minutes before engaged in – and for that, Min was entirely grateful. She merely glared at him, still angry over him botching up her hunting. But the men, with a wink and a nod one to the other, had turned Orion loose and made a brief good night to them both. As they turned, Min handily placed the pipe to her lips. In a second, one dart was flying the short space between her and the back of the neck of one of the pick pockets. It took her only a moment to reload with a second dart, and just as the first target let out a little “Oi!” she was already sending the next dart on its way. Another score and the second, shorter man was slapping at his neck. She had almost missed, but it had stuck in the flesh of the side of his neck. Both men whirled about but already Min had slipped the pipe up her sleeve and had her back turned to them. She was in part counting on the novelty of this type of weapon, in terms of its use here in Syliras, as further confounding the thieves as to what had just happened. It seemed to work. She stepped up to Orion, reaching out her hand to his arm to steady him, as he seemed likely to fall on his face for the third time in about as many minutes. “Wait here, Doctor,” she said in a low voice. “I think you have lost something.” She turned her head back over her shoulder slightly, and the two men were a dozen paces on, slipping into the darkness, when first the taller one stumbled into his mate, who shoved him back with a curse. The first one tried to speak, but his words were slurred and just as he toppled again against his friend, the shorter one pitched forward, as if his legs refused to carry him further. Down they fell together, in a heap, making some strangled sounds of surprise. Min waited another few moments, and then, cautiously, released Orion’s arm to go to the lump of bodies and limbs. Stooping, she first extracted the darts from each, stowing them back in their little pouch, and then she fished in the pocket of the shorter miscreant and brought forth the coins that clinked together there faintly. She could not be sure all of it belonged to Orion. But if there was excess, they could count it as interest for the time it had lain in their possession. She straightened and turned to look back to where she had left Orion standing in the middle of the street.

[Orion Michaels]

Orion Orion licked his lips as Min approached. It seemed she'd finally succumbed to his irresistible charm. Or was that just the booze? "Hey now," he shouted, brow furrowing. "What do mean by that? I'm not lacking in anything!" Orion shook his head vigorously back and forth dramatically. That all too common evil smirk appeared upon his lips as he rested his view on Min. "Especially not where it counts." It wasn't confusing why Min would actually help Orion, at least to an outside observer. As Min dealt with the two pickpockets, Orion stood there, the drink swirling his vision. Though just speaking with her moments before, the doctor had since moved on in thought. "Gods I'm hungry," he muttered through slurred speech. Left to his own accord, he would head home and try and make himself a meal, and in his current condition, surely it would be but another bumbling disaster. "Potatoes...and......Oh, hi Min." He flashed a drunken smile as she informed him of his loss. "I've lost something? Are you going to help me find it? I know the perfect place we can go look for it." Yet before he could say anything lewd, she'd turned to go retrieve his coins from the downed thieves. It was probably for the better. Swaying back and forth, Orion waited patiently, like a trained pup, for her return. He watched her go over to the sleeping men and begin going through their things. Completely unaware of what had truly gone down, he slowly processed the situation. Those nice men are taking a nap after helping me...and she's going over there....no...it couldn't be...she's....she's a....SHE'S A "THIEF!" Orion shouted at the top of his lungs, stepping forward in a tispy and exaggerated fashion, bringing his arm back, rotating it over his shoulder to conclude with a pointed finger at the Myrian woman. It was so perplexing. The life of a medical professional was lavish. There was no need for petty thieving. "Why, Min!? Why?" And here came the dramatics as tears began to fall from the drunk man's face. Stumbling towards her, he shook his head the entire time as he spoke. "You're such a good doctor, Min. WHY?! You're better than this. I just don't understand!" A few paces further and down to his knees he went in a sniveling mess. "I'm so disappointed. I'll have to spurn any further attempts from you to bed me. I shan't lay with a common thief."

[Min]

Min could have kicked herself for trying to help him! She could just as easily kick him! What in the world had she been thinking! She should have just gone on and not bothered about whether or not Orion Michaels got rolled by some stupid pickpockets. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as Orion began to bellow, obviously under the misapprehension that she was the wrong-doer here. Then her head whipped around to see if anyone was paying attention to his drunken idiocy – or more importantly, if he was calling the knights down upon her innocent head. There didn’t seem to be any immediate threat, so as he began to stumble towards her, she also moved towards him. Not surprisingly, he didn’t make it more then three staggered steps before he fell again, this time to his knees. She was on him in a moment, ignoring his ridiculous statements, and half tempted to apply her boot to his jaw. There was something that stayed her, however. It would seem to be pity, but it wasn’t that, not quite. Although he was a jerk – both drunk and sober – he was a good physician. His talents had no doubt saved many persons, and she could respect that. On the one hand, if she simply turned and walked away now, Orion would probably come to no harm. She could hazard a guess that this wasn’t the first time in his life he’d gotten this inebriated, out in public. However, the fact that he’d been robbed – without even realizing it – was some indication that he was at risk for further harm. Syliras was a pretty safe place – the knights made sure of that, at swordpoint. But still… Min crouched down to eye level with the good doctor and looked at him for a moment, before slapping him hard across the face. “You are a sad, little man. Be quiet – and stop crying! I’m taking you home.” The slap, of course, had been to help him focus, and to clear his head, if that was even possible at this point. The fact that it felt pretty damn good and gave her a great deal of satisfaction too, Min chose to ignore, for now.

[Orion Michaels]

Orion The Myrian woman had clearly been caught in the act. Her reaction to his noble deed only confirmed his worst fears. She was a thug. Nothing more that common rabble, uncultured, unable to cope with the laws and rules of Syliras. His duty as a citizen of this great walled city demanded that she be brought to justice. It seemed that Min agreed, as she strode over to Orion in order to turn herself in. Maybe he'd get a reward for his efforts. "I'm glad you aren't resisting. I'll make sure to let the-" Smack! "...I do believe I've misjudged this situation." The stinging red mark burned on his face, as he moved his hand to tenderly touch it. A thief would have run. Drunk as he may have been, Orion knew a 'correction slap' when he got one. To Orion, a woman seemed to have a magical way of letting him know when he'd misjudged their desires or said something way out of line. That magical trick was a hand across his face. Many lessons had been delivered by powerful strikes to his cheeks, and it seemed that this here was just another brilliant example. "Taking me home, huh?" After the shock of the slap began to fade, a devilish smirk returned to the doctor's face. An opportunity too good to pass up had landed in front of his inebriated lap. Time to get back on track. "Finally fell for me, huh? Can't say I'm surprised. I'll treat you right, don't worry." Did his arrogance know no bounds?