>>657059 >>657083
Generalize our hypothetical response to her asking who we are and make it a reversal; "A traveler, looking for things, people and opportunities of interest. You're pretty enough and talented enough to be interesting enough for that alone, and your trick for making money is as well."
I'd like to know why she doesn't use that trick to perform outright fraud or something else more lucrative, and instead merely pushes overpriced junk.

Don't buy her lunch.

What's a little money between us? Feign a sort of bemused insult at the implication. After all, we're both skilled purveyors of our shared craft.

Remember to stick her with the bill for something; its a professional courtesy.

>>657083
These ideas are also good. I like them.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/07/22(Wed)14:25 No. 657566 ID: 5a02f7
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>>657083

” I'll consider that the cost of admission, and the price to pay for letting down my guard.”

Dahlia’s gaze softened an immeasurable fraction, ”You didn’t answer my question.”

>>657138

”I’m a traveler, looking for things, people and opportunities of interest. You're pretty enough and talented enough to be interesting enough for that alone, and your trick for making money is as well.”

”So I’m just an interesting thing.”

”It's not every day one sees someone with your talents turning them to ripping off tourists. It's piqued my interest.”

”Well, you haven’t gone running off to the nearest guard, so I suppose that’s a good thing,” she relaxed into her chair, but her eyes remained steely: she watched me over the lip of her cup as she drank, ”What would you expect me to be doing with my talents?”

”Running frauds, large scams, targeting people with more money than foreigners browsing the market.”

”And why do you think I’m not doing that?”

”You could be lying low, or you could be new to this. People from out of town are good marks for someone with a semi-permanent base of operations. The above ground market is big enough to blend in, without the suspicion and oversight that would be garnered working down below.”

She studied me, ”You seem to know this stuff pretty well.”

I shrugged, ”Why do you think I do?”

”Either you’ve done things like this before, or you’re very good at catching people who do.”

I smiled innocently.

Dahlia let out a small sigh, leaning back in her chair, ”Fine, then. Let’s just talk plainly for a moment – we both don’t trust each other enough to actually say anything important, but we both want to know more. It’d be easy enough to say anything, but anything said could be a lie. What do you want?”

"I'm looking to get married and I figured a woman who would steal half my stuff straight off would save time with the divorce."

Then once the 'joke' has been laughed off or whatever, tell her you're looking for a job and she seems to be in the market.

>>657570
Joking that we're looking to get married and settle down like a good girl, of course, is pretty tempting.

>What do you want?
What does anyone want. You're new in town, and you're looking for an angle. (Which has the merit of both being true and sufficiently vague. Plus it doesn't compromise any scheming we might do under another identity to tell her that).

We don't have to tell her the truth, let's start building a persona.
"Same thing most travelers without a specific destination want: Learn something new and useful, a nice score, interesting company to enjoy it with, new experiences and maybe a place that looks worth settling down in when it comes time to retire.
"How about you?"

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/07/25(Sat)19:24 No. 658051 ID: 5a02f7
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>>657570

”I’m looking to get married, and I figured a woman who would steal half my stuff straight off would save time with the divorce.”

Dahlia blinked and raised a brow.

>>657725
>>657593

”I’m kidding. I want the same thing most travelers without a specific destination want: learn something new and useful, a nice score, interesting company to enjoy it with, new experiences, and maybe a place that looks worth settling down in when it comes time to retire. In short, I’m looking for an angle.”

”Chiaroscuro’s a good enough place to do that: it has enough flow that there’s always some new mark. There are plenty of nooks and crannies to lay low in when things get too hot. The Tri-Kahn keeps most of the major powers in check, but they’re always scrambling for more. As long as you don’t break any Delzahn laws and stay out of the way of visitors with too much power, it’s easy enough to play whatever you want here.”

Dahlia tapped a finger on the table, ”But it isn’t easy to get in. I’d be willing to help out with that, for a fee. I can introduce you to the people who own the turf if you’re interested in introducing yourself, a discrete buyer if yours is the work that produces goods, or anyone else in a specific business if you’d like to make contacts or connections. Like I said, though – dinars. Two hundred for each: half up-front, half when you get there.”

I mentally summed up my remaining funds. I could buy two leads from her, but that would be most of my funds. Of course, turnabout was fair play, and even if it weren’t, I’m sure the Dragon wouldn’t mind aiding this endeavor with a bit of His power.

>>658051
We're skilled with social situations, doubt we need someone to introduce ourselves. No need for a fence yet, maybe later. We're fast and stealthy, ask for someone who'd be interested in a discreet courier? With our Exalted charisma we shouldn't have too much trouble getting trust.

>>658091
Depends who we're talking about. For people paranoid, greedy and/or xenophobic enough no amount of social finesse works short of absurd situations like saving the life of someone they value. We'd need an introduction just to avoid instant attack with deadly weapons for being a suspicious stranger (potential assassin) or operating in their domain without proper introductions (threatening their turf and claim to profits from it). We'd also have to negotiate compensation agreements just to not be targeted for reprisal or outright assassination by crooks and semi-crooks in any place with established organized crime. Think 'feudal politics with lower ante and more assassination attempts' and you're not far off from how suspicious these people are of strangers.
But Edge, question for you. Apparently the Ebon Dragon is breathing down our neck something fierce, yes? Now that we have a point of entry into the criminal establishment of Chiaroscuro, let's review who else amongst the patrons might be able to convince him to let up if we did what *they* liked too as part of this marriage scheme. What do you feel up to trying? I'm guessing it'll be a bit difficult to arrange a death trap as part of our plans, but... hey... the salt-bordered zones of the hungry dead here in town could certainly qualify as a death trap if we leave someone tied up inside one.

Oh, and a response, right:
"I'm multi-talented. That means I really need to know more about the local difficulties and opportunities before I even know what I'd like to plan and whose services I'd want. If it's bad enough I might even fall back on a legitimate profession or three."

>>658198
Yes, I know. It doesn't matter. They're mortal, we're Exalted.

>>658207
Don't be too sure. Probably not too many celestial exalts, no, but there are countless other kinds of essence users that could be involved. There's dragon-bloods, god-bloods, ghosts, demons, fay and gods out there. We've apparently run into one of them involved in the local criminal hierarchy, who is to say there aren't more--or even a lot more--there besides 'Dahlia?'

>>658051
Of those three options, I think we'd be more interested in the turf owners. We're a social manipulator, and people with resources / power are a good place for that. We're not so much a thief who needs to sell things (although we could probably con people out of things). The third option would depend on a specific idea or plan, which I don't think we have right now.

>turnabout was fair play, and even if it weren’t, I’m sure the Dragon wouldn’t mind aiding this endeavor with a bit of His power.
What exactly does using the Ebon Dragon's power in this negotiation mean? Just that we can weasel better terms out of her? Or is it going to be as blatant as the use of her powers?

I guess what I'm trying to say is I have no problem using powers at her expense, but I'd rather not have her know we were doing it. That burns any bridge we established here, and makes her less useful in the future, either as a bride candidate or a contact.

(If she doesn't know we cheated to negotiate a better deal out of her, we might earn grudging respect or interest?).

>>658207
This seems a careless attitude that's going to trip us up the first time we do try something on someone who's a covert exalted.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/07/27(Mon)21:03 No. 658722 ID: 5a02f7
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>>658198

Bulitar spoke softly in my mind, You could always seek assistance from one of the other Yozis in alleviating the Ebon Dragon’s anger.

That’s true, I replied, Let me see if I remember them all…

Of course, the Ebon Dragon favors the Exquisite Bride Obsession, which demands I find a bride of any sex and marry them.

She Who Lives in Her Name prefers the Infernal Genius Declaration. To complete this Act of Villainy, I would need to capture an opponent and thoroughly explain my plots so that they might be in awe of my cunning.

Cecelyne is a bit more practical; She only asks that I perform the Fiendish Deathtrap Compulsion, in which I leave an enemy to meet their certain doom instead of dealing the finishing blow myself.

Malfeas, for all of His hatred of everything else, hates most of all Himself. Through Insane Death-dealing Provocation, I would have to murder in a way that would leave clues as to my identity and invite pursuit from those that would stop me.

I can seek assistance from Adorjan by performing the Kindly Lunatic’s Blessing. This would require me to somehow inflict a permanent madness upon one of the Creation-born.

By the power of Kimbery, through Agony-savoring Mercy, I can spare an opponent so that I might continue to torment them in future encounters.

Although Szoreny is not a major player in the Reclamation, He would intercede on my behalf if I were to complete the Best Enemy Recognition. Through this, I would create a rivalry between myself and an opponent and obsess over the relationship, working constantly to keep my opponent just as focused on me as I am on him.

… Thinking on this, it’s quite clear how the Primordials lost the war, isn’t it?

Bulitar did not answer.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/07/27(Mon)21:04 No. 658723 ID: 5a02f7
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>>658198

”I’m multi-talented. That means I really need to know more about the local difficulties and opportunities before I even know what I’d like to plan and whose services I’d want. If it’s bad enough, I might even fall back on a legitimate profession or three.”

”Certainly not that bad.”

>>658214
>>658091

”What about the local leaders? Do you think they’d be interested in hiring a discrete courier?”

Dahlia tapped a lip thoughtfully, ”Might be. I don’t talk with them much, but if you’re looking for the local lay of things, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to meet with them.”

I let slip a few motes of Essence into my words, channeling the slyness of the Ebon Dragon, ”Well, I’ve already paid forty dinars for this lesson – to add two hundred atop of that seems quite steep. How about one hundred sixty?”

”One eighty.”

”Deal.”

Dahlia’s eyes glinted as I passed over the coins; her quick hands had them stowed away before I had even put away my purse, ”Follow me, then – and try to keep up.”

-------------------------

Dahlia moved quickly through the winding streets and alleys. From the architecture, I could tell she was taking us closer to the Old City, as the rare glimpses of sky afforded a view of glass towers rising to the heavens.

Our destination was a small plaza off of a private residence. Hardy trees shaded the area, offering blessed relief from the burning sun. A small group of people were gathered there.

”Sienna, a pleasure to see you again,” the man who spoke was one of the native Delzahn, as his dress obviously indicated. Covering the lower half of his face was a gauzy red veil that served to keep the dust from his mouth. His chest was bare save for a red vest, and a similarly-colored sash hung from his waist. He carried a cane that he obviously did not need, but the large chunk of red Chiaroscuran glass that glinted on its head marked it as a symbol of station, ”What business do you have for me today?”

Dahlia – Sienna, apparently – jerked a thumb back towards me, ”A newcomer in town wanted me to show her the local big-shot, so here we are.”

The man apprised me from narrowly-slit eyes, ”Greetings, Miss. I am Abel Akhar of the Akhar family. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Well, uhm, shit. We didn't bring a gift or case the town well enough to know what we want to ask him that a regular person couldn't answer. Whose plan is this and what is the rest of it?!?
If the other voices whose bright idea this was don't speak up let's introduce ourself and ask what the city has particular abundance, lack, and difficulty with which may be lucrative.

>20 off of 200
The power of the Ebon Dragon is only good for a 10% discount? Geeze. Meets the subtle requirement, at least. I doubt she suspects that was magical.

>>658723
>red red red
Is he a leader in the gang Amaranth warned us our scarf could get us mistaken for? (Hopefully we have more leeway wearing red as a woman that we might have as "thuggish" guy).

>Dahlia – Sienna, apparently
Is it better to stick to the "Brilliant Hawk" alias, or do we introduce ourselves with another name, being more "honest" with him, and confirming to Dahlia / Sienna we were being as cautious as she was? Hmm. I don't really see an advantage to keeping the first alias. It tells her we either didn't take the precaution of lying to her, or we don't care if she knows we're lying to him.

>We didn't bring a gift or case the town well enough to know what we want to ask him that a regular person couldn't answer. Whose plan is this and what is the rest of it?
We'll have to rely on charm and wit and wing it. Worst case, we can at least try to net information that will be useful to Sky's Edge. You can learn from mistakes, and if we have to, we can afford to burn this identity.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/07/31(Fri)12:07 No. 659549 ID: 5a02f7
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>>658950

Is this the rival gang leader Amaranth spoke of? Bulitar inquired.

Likely, I quickly surveyed the others – each sported an article dyed bright red, It seems that is indeed his mark.

I dipped into a respectful bow, ”I am Mirth, from the city of Gem. I encountered Sienna in the marketplace and realized we had similar trades, so she has agreed to introduce me to the important figures I would need to know before plying my art.”

Abel smiled at the praise, ”You chose well, as did Sienna. I suppose I have some time while the sun is still high to discuss business. What would you like to know?

>>658731

”If you wouldn’t mind providing me with some basic information, what does this city have in abundance, a lack thereof, and any difficulties I should know about?”

Abel hummed thoughtfully, ”Well, many goods move through Chiaroscuro, so there is always an abundance of new people and things. Chiaroscuran glass is a local treasure, one that Sienna has chosen to take advantage of,” he nodded to her, ”The harbor is rich in sealife, and that forms one of our main exports. Currently, the slave market is a little oversaturated by Varangian traders.

”Water is always a rare commodity; more than one charismatic man has made dinars as a dowser. There is a slight shortage of dyes, sending prices up.

“There are two forces that you must be careful of – the Delzahn and the Dynasts. Delzahn guards will rarely care unless what you do impacts a noble. Dynasts are more concerned hunting heretics than thieves, and the Tri-Kahn does nothing to help nor hinder them.

“That is a general overview – is there anything in particular you wish to know more about?”

....
I got nothing, besides asking who else is in town in terms of criminal element and what particular services and specialties he's interested in. This wasn't my idea. Help?

Huh. A powerful gang leader is introduced to an out of town nobody and is willing spend his time providing introductory information? And at no cost? Hmm. I think my estimation of Sienna just went up a few notches. She clearly has more respect from the bigger players than I expected.

That and/or respect itself means a lot to him. He appreciates someone new to his territory approaching him this way, and makes this kind of time investment to keep things operating smoothly.

>is there anything in particular you wish to know more about?
Curse my lack of knowledge of this setting.

Well, we're a social schemer. If Edge / Mirth was going to run a larger, more profitable con than Sienna's market stall gig (like we mentioned to her before) what kind of person would we be targeting? The kind of person or institution Edge would consider a ripe target might be who we should ask after. (Unfortunately, that's relying on the character to fill in the blanks. Somewhere we could exploit the bureaucrat / dilettante angle to get in, be trusted, corrupt some people, and make away with funds?).

Or we might ask if there are any opportunities he thinks are being... underutilized. Plays he doesn't have the pieces to move on, or is blocked from by politics of some kind. This sort of doubles as flattery, since we're asking for his idea, and audaciously reaching for the chance to impress him.

>This wasn't my idea. Help?
Okay, the way I see it, we have several angles to try and play:

*Earn trust / reputation with a powerful criminal we may be able to use later (but only in this identity)
*Pick up information / opportunities we can exploit (in any identity)
*Try to impresses or otherwise relationship build with a bride candidate (for this identity)
*Building bridges with or getting info about Sienna for non-bride purposes. (She might be a useful piece in some other plot. She's capable and has a useful ability, if we can find a means to move her).

Which all boil down to trying to learn as much as we can here, and to look good doing it.

>A powerful gang leader is introduced to an out of town nobody and is willing spend his time providing introductory information? And at no cost?
I'd imagine not at no cost; the referral fee that Sienna charged probably goes mostly to this mafiosi. If not, we're likely still on the hook for giving him a gift worthy of his magnificence.

We do need to know more about the local supernaturals and what's available in terms of resources/aid for sorcery and magical items: Ability to kill mortals doesn't count for much and a lack of backup really slows us down. But how much time do we have for that, and is that something this person can reasonably help with?
It just seems premature for us to be meeting with this person; we don't have a detailed business proposal yet. In order to try and make use of him as a fence we need an idea of what to steal and where/how to get it. In order to borrow some thugs, pickpockets or other support for smuggling, counterfeiting, a con job, or what have you we need to know more about the prospective targets and local particulars. We still don't know what we intend to do with it if we get large amounts of money anyway, since most magic items and services of significance are one or more of not for sale, absurdly expensive, get us too closely watched, or are too much trouble to use, maintain and keep.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/02(Sun)15:38 No. 659896 ID: 5a02f7
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>>659645

”Who else is in town that I should be aware of if I do business?”[‘/color] I asked.

A look of distaste passed over Abel’s face. He jerked a thumb towards one of the posters across the wall, [color=#FF0000]”Rashel el Harid. He controls a lot of the Undermarket, if anyone can say to have a grasp on that place.” I scanned it: it looked like a wanted poster, and one with a sizeable reward offered, if the number of digits was any indication.

”He must be doing very well or very badly to have attracted that much attention.”

”He’s upset the Delzahn nobles, and thus the Tri-Kahn. He is an honorless dog, cursed with demon blood.”

… Well, then.

>>659809

”I’ve done some scavenging before, and I’m curious – what is the market like here for magical items?”

Abel leaned back, stretching, ”That is tricky. If you look closely enough, you will find a hundred Essence-powered coolers, maybe twenty of which will actually work as intended. Anything beyond that is rare, but the Undermarket has all things, if one is willing to dedicate the time and trouble to look.”

>>659745

”Are there any… underutilized opportunities that you’re aware of? I may be willing to assist.”

Abel studied me for a moment before grinning, ”How are you at dice, Lady Mirth?”

”Better than fair, and better even than that when not playing fair.”

He nodded, ”Yes, I think I might have something for you. There is a man, a Lookshyan deserter that has been plaguing one of our gamehouses as of late. He is cheating through some means, but I have not found how yet. I will give you a sum of money, and if you are able to see that he will not bother me again, there will be more to come. You can prove his guilt, take his money at the game table, kill him in a back alley for all I care – I just want him gone.

“Would this be a proper use for your talents?”

Seems nice. Change your appearance go in, find this guy, flirt with him a bit, gamble, leave with him, pull him to a alleyway saying you want him now, and how good are you slitting throats?, then change back(including fingerprints, don't want anyone to pin it back to you), and report he's been taken care of.

>>659897
We don't know how they're cheating or why these folks haven't disposed of this person themselves yet. Usually roughing up and throwing out cheaters is a standard part of the job for security in any gambling establishment. It is done showily at times to discourage theft as well.

"Potentially. If this person has been at this for long enough that he has become a notable problem what have your people already tried?"

....Cue finding out this is one of the ways Amaranth makes money.

Ooh, gambling den counter-espionage? That sounds like a good environment for a social schemer. Though I'd think exposing him or beating him at his own game would be more Edge's forte than murder. (Not that that's not possible, just that it doesn't play to our strengths as well, and if it goes wrong or turns to a confrontation, that could easily play to someone else's strengths).

In the best outcome we get paid twice- we get the cheater's winnings, and our payment for services rendered.

I don't think we can use another identity for this though- if Abel controls these places, he'll be watching to see what we do. (This is at least partially a test). It will raise undue attention if 'Mirth' never appears once, a nobody deals with the problem, and Mirth shows up to collect payment. That's as good as advertising we have some means to change our appearance, or to get people to act in proxy for us. We don't want to give anyone we're working or working with reason to start thinking along those lines.

But it might be prudent to ask why he hasn't already been dealt with, yeah.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/03(Mon)11:05 No. 660097 ID: 5a02f7
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>>659898
>>659907

"Potentially. If this person has been at this for long enough that he has become a notable problem what have your people already tried?"

Abel let out a long breath, ”A man comes into a well-renowned gaming house and begins to win. People take notice. He attracts hangers-on, others looking to share in his wealth. Before long, he is an iconoclast. Throwing him out without proof would agitate the other players. Killing him clandestinely wouldn’t make the point that I would like – although it is progressing such that I will have to resort to it soon enough. If you do not prove adequate to take care of the issue, I will put my less – tactful employees on the task. However, I would prefer the man leave in disgrace than disappear without a trace.”

I thought for a moment – this would indeed make good use of my skills, and the information I could gain from this endeavor would be useful. After a few long beats, I nodded, ”I’ll accept, pending the payment is good.”

Abel gestured to one of his minions, who produced a bag of silver. In plain sight, he counted out five hundred pieces and placed them into a separate pouch, which he handed to Abel, ”Five hundred at the start, one thousand more if you complete the task. If you manage to disgrace him publicly by out-playing him or revealing his cheating, I will add on an additional five hundred dinars,” the boss held out the pouch towards me, smiling, ”Two thousand, all told, if you do well. I trust that would be a fitting reward for your service?”

”Indeed,” I took the heavy pouch and tied it tightly at my waist, ”I’ll need directions to this gambling house, however.”

”I will do you better than that,” Abel snapped his fingers, ”Feng.”

A young boy – no, I spotted the shaved growth of a beard on his face; he was merely small, with a young face. He rose from one of the benches and scrambled to Abel’s side, ”Yes, sir?”

”Show Lady Mirth to the establishment, and see to it that she has whatever information she requires to complete her task.”

”Yes, sir,” Feng turned to me, allowing me to study him more closely. He had the darker skin of an Easterner, albeit closer to Abel’s native Delzahn than most: likely born from the Scavenger Lands. His hair, in contrast, was a dark blonde, and it threatened to escape from the red bandana that bound it back. His clothing was very simple: a homespun gi without sleeves and rough pants of undyed hemp. He wore no shoes, instead shodding his feet in the dust of the road. His eyes matched his hair, a bright yellow that seemed constantly alight with curiosity. As he turned to me, he raised a hand in greeting, ”I’m Feng, Lady Mirth. I’ll be escorting you.” Yes, definitely from the Scavenger Lands by his accent.

”Thank you for your graciousness, Sir Akhar,” I bowed once more to Abel, ”Expect to see me again soon with reports of a favorable result.”

”I look forward to it,” Abel grinned, ”Oh, and do be sure, whatever it is you choose to do, that you wear that scarf while doing so – I’d like people to know who it is you represent.”

My hand raised to touch the garment, and I nodded, ”So I shall. Farewell.”

Sienna had apparently slipped away while I was speaking. As I turned away, Abel and his men began to disperse: from the tilt of the sun, it was the waning end of Descending Fire, which meant business would be resuming shortly. Only Feng stayed at my side, and he watched me with his wide eyes as his toes fidgeted in the dirt.

”Lady Mirth, do you have any questions for me? Or would you like me to show you to the game house right away? Oh, I guess if you have something else you need to do before that, we can go do that, too.”

The “we” in that sentence made it clear that Feng served the purpose of both assisting me and protecting Abel’s investment; I wouldn’t be able to lose him easily until the job was done.

First, split the purse in two. Buy a second one if necessary; either way it's good to hide exactly how rich you are and how much you bring into the game.

Then, let's get to that gambling house I guess.

>>660097
> won't be able to lose him
Hmm, that means no shapeshifting. Shame, that would have made this more fun. And opened more options. Oh well.

We definitely want to expose his cheating if possible. If we can depends on how he's doing it of course.

It doesn't mean no shapeshifting, far from it. In fact, we should seriously consider changing form for this: I'd almost go so far as to plan on doing so, except that the target may like light-skinned, women with short, silver hair.

"Yes, yes, questions. First, I need to know the game or games played well enough to play conventionally and cheat conventionally. Where do I start? Then I need to know what sort of person the target finds most distracting: Is it long-legged pale redhead women? Tall, brany black men? I have... certain ability with disguise that should be used for best advantage here."

>Sienna left
Well so much for impressing her. Although I guess she'll hear if we impress Abel, since she'll get goodwill / credit for introducing us.

>Lady Mirth, do you have any questions for me?
What's the game (played at the gambling den)?

What can you tell me about our target? I assume he's been the subject of some scrutiny.

>>660130
I would voice a strong protest against this approach. Our ability to shape-shift is our ability to wear multiple faces and identities. It's insurance to allow us to try something else (without leaving the city) if we screw up badly to burn one identity, and a means to collect information / favor from competing factions and play them against each other. It is an important element the bigger game we are playing here.

It is not worth exposing that for this smaller play. If we let someone smart and competent like Abel know what we are capable of, he may match us to other faces, and we will not be as easily able to disappear if we need to. And it also provides a clue as to what we really are we don't need to give them (We're not trying to impress She Who Lives in Her Name or Malfeas, here).

It also seemed to me Abel also seemed to have a poor view of his rival's demon-blooded heritage. He might not be so pleased to see a display of supernatural prowess, especially of the darker sort.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/04(Tue)14:45 No. 660299 ID: 5a02f7
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>>660107

Before we get to the busier streets, I divide my silver between my original purse and the new one, hiding the heftier of the two on my person, ”I’m ready to go now – lead the way.”

With an enthusiastic step, Feng began to walk.

>>660130

"First, I need to know the game or games played well enough to play conventionally and cheat conventionally.”

Feng tilted his head at me, ”It’s dice. You roll the dice and hope good ones show up. The house provides the dice, of course, to prevent cheating. I guess you could try to sneak another set in, but if he accuses you of cheating, too, and it’s something as simple as loaded dice, well, that doesn’t look good for your claim. I’ve played dice some with the others, it’s mostly just chance, but skill plays a little bit into it, too – knowing when to bet more, when to reroll what you have, and so on… That’s the part I’m not very good at…”

>>660132

”What can you tell me about our target? I assume he’s been the subject of some scrutiny.”

Feng crossed his arms behind his head as we walked, ”Well, like the boss said, he’s a Lookshyan deserter, so he’s probably pretty good at fighting, but not so good that he would wanted to stay in the army, or maybe he had other problems besides how good he was at fighting… Anyway, um, he likes his wine and his women, although we only allow alcohol at the game houses, not whores – you have to go somewhere more private for that kind of entertainment. He lives in part of the New City, close to the Outskirts. He shows up most nights during the hours of Water and Air. He had a decent amount of money when he came here, and he’s only made more since then. Um, let’s see… He might be a Dragon Blood, since he’s from Lookshy, but, well, not everyone from there’s a Dragon Blood, right? So he probably isn’t.”

“I think that’s everything that we’ve found out, unless you want to know really specific things – I might be able to answer those questions, maybe.”

"He likes his women, hmmm. How distracted is he by them, and how does he like them dressed? Is it worth putting on a wig and a short dress to distract him more?"

>It’s dice. You roll the dice and hope good ones show up
*Chuckle* Even a game as simple as dice have rules that vary from place to place. How many are used at once, what type, if doubles or any particular roll are special. You said rerolls are allowed under certain circumstances?

>unless you want to know really specific things
How does he conduct himself at the table- how does he behave with others present?

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/05(Wed)17:27 No. 660521 ID: 5a02f7
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>>660348

I let out a chuckle, ”Even a game as simple as dice have rules that vary from place to place. How many are used at once, what type, are any particular rolls special? You said rerolls are allowed?”

”I - didn’t think about that, sorry,” Feng admitted, ”Let’s see, there’re six dice used, each with four little symbols. There’s suns, moons, stars, and shadows – suns and shadows are on two sides each. You try to get a lot of one type – suns are worth one point each one you get, if you have two or more. Moons and stars get you two points each, but you have to have at least a pair of either. Shadows, though, take away one point. But if you can get a sun, moon, star, and shadow, you’ll get five points. You can reroll twice, any number of dice, but after two rerolls, that’s the final hand. Whoever has the most points wins the hand. If there’s a tie, whoever has the most shadows loses. If that’s still tied, well, the pot is split. Bets go in at the beginning; the winner takes the whole pot. You can duck out before you reroll if you have an awful hand or need to go, but once you throw the dice again, you’re in for good.”

I’m familiar with this kind of game, I silently informed Bulitar, You shouldn’t have to worry too much about the specifics, just general strategies and ideas how to best this guy.

”How does he conduct himself at the table- how does he behave with others present?”

”Let’s see, he’s real boisterous; people generally like him. He’ll sometimes buy his opponents rounds so there aren’t any hard feelings. When he’s playing, he’s really into the game, real intense – I saw him once chase off a lady who was getting a little too friendly while he was thinking. He has an awful mouth on him when he loses, but, well, it’s in Riverspeak, so most folk don’t know what he’s saying, but some of the stuff I’ve heard from him’s made even my ears burn a bit – certainly not the kind of language anyone should use around gentleladies.”

>>660308

"He likes his women, hmmm,” I mused, “How distracted is he by them, and how does he like them dressed? Is it worth putting on a wig and a short dress to distract him more?"[/color]

”Well, I don’t know if it’s worth it, since that’s something up to you, Lady Mirth. All I know is he frequents the whorehouses, so I assume he likes his women like whores – n-not suggesting you should dress like that at all!” Feng stammered out, waving a hand as though to shoo away the implication, ”Just saying – well, you know what I’m saying, right? Anyway, it’s up to you.”

This seemed like an opportunity, if I wanted it – or I could spend the rest of the time it took to get to the game house coming up with strategies.

>dice
So... 6d6, 1/3 sun, 1/3 shadow, 1/6 star, 1/6 moon. Shadows are negative, you need at least 2 of any non-shadow to earn points with them, and you get bonus points if you get a full house.

So... max score on a single roll is ****** or cccccc is 2*6 = 12.

○●*c** or ○●*ccc. +5 full house, +(2*3) stars/moons, -1 shadow = 10.
(Ties with 5 stars / moons).

Min score is ●●●●●● = -6.
(Extremely unlikely though, you'd have to get all shadow on every roll and subsequent re-roll).

>so I assume he likes his women like whores
I'm not sure this angle is worth playing. It's too hard to predict exactly what he'll be into without reconnaissance, and the main attraction of whores is they're on demand and available. It's harder to tease or distract a man with something he can have whenever he wishes.

Huh. How do the local whores dress anyway? In some places it's traditional for a lady dressing to distract while gambling to wear a shiny, thigh-length, sleeveless dress that shows off cleavage and clings to her figure. I suggest we get our minder to help us obtain such, it's obvious he isn't going to be much help with the probability chart. Asking him about mirrors for looking under the table and otherwise trying to catch him at sleight of hand would be a good idea; he may be cheating in a mundane fashion for all we know. I am unsure if we should ask about means of detecting the use of magic (essence?); we plausibly may be using a fair amount of such, and it would be embarrassing to get caught using demon magics through our own detection. Also, we should ask about intoxicating our opponent: Stronger drinks than he's expecting or additional intoxicants delivered as vapors, mixed in with his refreshments or applied through a needle would all make any method of trying to beat him work better so long as they have predictable results.

With those practical seek and fetch instructions given, it will be time to dust off our statistical mathematics skills and work up a contingent probability chart. Do you remember how or are we 'advising' you once again?
Highlights from that: A perfect roll would score either... twelve or thirteen points, consisting of the set of four and an extra moon and star to score for those pairs as well. Does the shadow in the set of four subtract from the final score despite being necessary to score the five points for such a set? Can we get extra points for having doubles of star and/or moon with that magic set of four? We need to confirm these things, because it may be that the set of four dice is just not worth going for unless it happens unexpectedly.
An alternative perfect roll would be a set of six stars or six moons, for twelve points, and depending on which you get more of in your initial roll it would be worthwhile to attempt for as many moons or stars as possible if you get at least two of either in the initial drop. I predict an average round score for attempting to roll suns of four points: That would be a conservative strategy and the way to recover from a bad initial set if you're committed to playing out the round. The expected score is lower if you don't have at least two suns in your initial drop, and it should really only be played for if you have that much.

As far as how to beat this particular opponent, we can use a probability chart to figure out the pattern of his cheating and predict it: Track how his rolling differs from the standard probability chart over successive rounds to trace either what his method of cheating is or predict his final scores before each round finishes. That proposal however would be slow at best, easily requiring dozens of rounds and possibly hundreds.
Alternatively, we can just cheat wildly ourselves using magic, the Ebon Dragon's talent for cheating is pretty much perfect for this sort of thing. This ought to be a very straightforward--and potentially quick--way to win big as long as we are a better gambler and cheater than this guy. Potentially risky, but also far quicker and showier than accusing him of cheating.
We can also screw with his head by flirtatiously teasing him through gesture, display and action at a distance while he's trying to concentrate. This is surprisingly straightforward and ought to work well since he can't chase one of his fellow gamblers away from the table while we're playing, can he? A tiny, shiny, showy dress that bares much and highlights the rest ought to be all the ammo we need to make such a scheme work.
We might be able to drug him either through a needle or adulterating his drinks. This may do nothing if he is a sufficiently powerful supernatural, but otherwise it should generally help us to accomplish any other plan of action against him.

I say we start with the first of those, playing straight at first to lull him into a false sense of security and gather data. Then we flirtatiously screw with his concentration once we've figured out something about his cheating. If and when we know he's failing it's time to break out the audacious cheating of our own to clinch the big wins that drive him to retreat in disgrace or erupt into an angry tantrum that gets him kicked out.
Any supplemental ideas, alternative proposals or criticisms?

I am tempted to combine this plan--if successful--with Infernal Genius Declaration, and Fiendish Deathtrap Compulsion, leaving him bound with chains for the undead. This is a premature thought however.

>>660556
This plan sounds good.

>>660556
>>660583
>When he’s playing, he’s really into the game, real intense – I saw him once chase off a lady who was getting a little too friendly while he was thinking.

Seduction seems ossible, given our social skill, but unnecessarily difficult and moderately risky. I agree that cheating would work best, particularly given the typical Ebon Dragon talents toward such.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/06(Thu)01:25 No. 660608 ID: 5a02f7
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>>660555

Probability table? What is this Malfean nonsense? Listen, I know how to play dice, so you don’t have to tell me what to do each round. I was just looking for some general ideas, like whether we should be aggressive or play things steady.

>>660556

I like this plan, though. So we’ll start out simply, try a little flirting, and then cheat our way to all of his money. In the meantime, we’ll check to see if we can figure out how he’s cheating.

As for how to recognize Essence-fueled powers, I know Amaranth can do something like that, but I don’t think anyone less than a Solar or a Deathknight could do that, too, so we shouldn’t have to worry about being found out. Now, we do need to worry about calling upon the Ebon Dragon’s power too much – I’d say I can use it about five times safely; any more, and my anima will start to show. Using the Dragon’s power, I should be able to win the round easily – barring any unforeseen circumstances.

As for the opportunity, I was thinking more of flirting with Feng than the subject of our heist.

Is there anything else we need to get before we go? Or do we want to try talking with Feng more?

Huh. Given his general attitude... I wonder if we should consider the possibility that he's not cheating, just a really good player.

Eh, either way we've got to deal with him though I guess.

We do need help with getting the right dress and figuring out how to... position for varying levels of distraction. For best effect we will need to be able to fully reveal any particular part that the opponent finds distracting, but usually the most distraction comes from something being either slightly visible or just barely not revealed. When it's difficult to see what he wants to see like that he'll end up glancing more and staring harder so he can see better. We need to be able to sit at the table managing that without obviously appearing as though we are intentionally revealing hidden anatomy. We also need to be able to appear as though we are intentionally revealing ourself, when we move on to obviously screwing with his head while cheating.
You want to flirt with Feng? Ask him to help you practice showing off and not showing off: This would get him to look at your feminine attributes while he is expected to respond about what he sees. Remember the mirrors, we'll probably need his help to watch under the table to check for those kinds of cheating methods. If Feng is interested in, and distracted by, looking at you we may need to promise a private show after as a reward: You don't want him distracted by using the mirrors to look up your dress while he's supposed to be watching for cheating.

>>660672
That's not possible, he must be cheating or supernaturally lucky somehow. 'Skill' is a factor but a skilled dealer should be able to play perfectly. Heck, that's why we want a full contingent probability chart, so that we always know our odds of winning and what the best move (without cheating) will be for any arrangement of dice on the table.
"The house always wins." In gambling games of chance the game itself or the arrangement it is played in is structured so the establishment running the games always makes a profit over time. How that works varies from game to game and establishment to establishment; the two most common ones are a house-share from the pot of each round, and some kind odds favour like a tie-breaker rule that awards wins to the dealer. The fact that he is managing to win over multiple sessions despite the 'house advantage' means he has to be cheating, or someone else is cheating in his favour (I.E. supernatural luck favour granted by someone else, or a more mundane form of accomplice).

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/07(Fri)15:40 No. 660880 ID: 5a02f7
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>>660719

You want to flirt with Feng? Go ahead.

No, I corrected Bulitar, I’m merely taking note of an opportunity; after all, while this is a pleasant distraction, we are here for something else.

”On second thought, that might be a good idea, after all,” I mused aloud, ”After all, any edge we might have over our opponent should be taken advantage of.”

”Then should we go to your place to let you change?”

”I don’t have anything appropriate for this already; you can help me pick something out,” I flashed a smile.

”Well, I wouldn’t say I know much about women’s clothes – I could just –“

“Nonsense; you’re a man, aren’t you? You know what you like – just tell me what you like the most.”

The next hour passed in a whirlwind of bright silks and gauzy veils. I made sure to probe Feng for opinions with each new outfit, and while he was reluctant at first, he eventually opened up. I tried on a few outfits that were a little too inappropriate, if only to see his reaction – the boy blushed at the merest sight of a thigh.

I made certain that we pick up a few mirrors of varying size and magnification, and I instructed Feng quickly on how to use them. From the way he behaved, I didn’t think I had to worry too much about him peeking up my skirt during the match, but, well, depending on how well he does, I wouldn’t be adverse to giving him more of a show later.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/07(Fri)15:41 No. 660881 ID: 5a02f7
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So, what outfit do you think we should choose, Bulitar? I’m willing to let Feng hold on to my scarf for this, but remember – we need to display something prominently red to let our target know exactly who it is that’s after him. Other than that, well, the possibilities are practically endless.

If you don’t have something particular in mind, you can just describe it, and I’ll see if I can’t find something that fits.

We also need to decide if I should change my hair any; to do that, I would need to go back to the inn to have a reason to alter my disguise, but that might be a good idea, to pick up my bow. I don’t think fighting will break out, but it might be best to be safe rather than sorry.

>"The house always wins."
Actually, how exactly the house is winning is a good question. If it's just guests throwing dice at a table, money moves between them without any going to the house. (Unless there's a buy-in to get to the table, or per round? But if they were just taxing transactions they wouldn't be losing out if someone were consistently winning).

I guess there must be "dealers". House-bankrolled players. Of course, since there's no formal dealer position in the game, there's no built in mechanistic advantage for them. And a fair game of chance shouldn't be a net profit. I guess the house advantage is it can employ players of better than average skill, get the patrons drunk, and multiple house assets can cooperate / metagame- their goal isn't individual profit, but bleeding guests as a group.

Something to keep an eye out for, I suppose.

>>660880
You're pretty quick to mess with poor Feng there, especially after your reaction to Amaranth. (She could certainly laugh at your hypocrisy now).

>changing clothes
Wait, the loom-snarling deception changed our outfit (except for the scarf). What happens to illusion-ed / shifted clothes if we leave them behind?

I'd think we'd still want a scarf (either the same one, or a slightly different style?). As for the rest of the outfit- some kind of frilly dress? Kind of old west tavern-y seems gambler appropriate.

I'd be reluctant to lead him back to your hotel. Don't want to give them a link to a different identity.

Suggestion 2015/08/07(Fri)20:10 No. 660931 ID: cf6c80
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(This is really at the limit of my ability, I haven't done this stuff since the days of the Amiga.)

I'd say this is roughly what you're after. Maybe you want it in a different colour than purple, ideally it should be a colour that contrasts strongly with anything you're wearing underneath it, so anyone you display your underclothes to knows they are your underclothes. A shiny silver would be my second choice, red would be my first if we didn't need to wear a visible and notable red accessory. If you don't like chokers I see no reason not to just use your favourite red scarf instead. The boots are for the potential brawl or fight, and the dress is to distract pretty much everyone else at the table with your stunning, exalted attractiveness. If that doesn't work you can always flash them instead, which ought to scandalize and unsettle most people that aren't interested in staring at Mirth's form.

When dealing with Feng you don't have to give him a show. My thought was that promising him a reward 'in kind' would help him behave himself when we want his help watching our opponent. On the surface he doesn't seem to be that interesting, although if this crime boss set him to watch us perhaps he has hidden depths or surprising ability.
Do arm yourself, we don't know how big this cheating scheme is and it wouldn't do to beat him only to have him and his accomplices just outright rob the establishment and everyone in it. If you run into Graceful Blossom looking for Sky's Edge, well, you can always pretend to be your own cousin for her benefit, visiting to tell him you'd found another cousin working in town that he should say hello to. Also, I am curious what Graceful Blossom's reaction would be to you flirting and/or propositioning her as an attractive woman in such a dress.

>I'd be reluctant to lead him back to your hotel. Don't want to give them a link to a different identity.
Shoot, valid point. How do we arm ourself without giving away that Mirth has a connection to Sky's Edge when dealing with the criminal element?

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/08(Sat)20:23 No. 661165 ID: 5a02f7
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>>660927

You were pretty quick to mess with Feng there, Bulitar noted.

I’m here for one goal, and if I don’t accomplish that, it could very well be my life. I don’t have time to play around.

>>660931

I finally found a stall that sold actual clothing, none of this gauzy Southern silk or Realm knock-off fashions – an honest-to-gods corset, skirt, and boots. I got the tailor to slit the skirt a bit higher, and, with a red ribbon and a few matching unmentionables, my outfit was complete.

I saw the prudence in bringing a weapon, but the difficulty was how. My bow was back in my room. I could spend more money on another, but I would have to have Feng carry it. I could purchase throwing knives, but I was not as skilled with them as I was in archery, and the problem of where to keep them for easy access was still an issue. Finally, I could buy a simple dagger, which would fit nicely in my boot, but none of my charms would work with a weapon that wasn’t ranged.

Once the matter of arming myself was settled, if there was nothing else I needed to accomplish, I would be on my way to the gaming house.

Throwing knives can fit almost anywhere, including anywhere a dagger would fit. They seem a good compromise.

>>661165
Lookin' nice, although you might add some shoulder covering so you can remove it for optimal distraction value when needed.

I'm not sure how much range you'll have to use a ranged weapon if something goes terribly wrong at a small gambling table, surrounded by people.

Also, the gang is potentially as big a danger to you as your mark, depending on which way this goes. Having Feng carry your weapon doesn't help.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/09(Sun)16:51 No. 661386 ID: 5a02f7
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>>661245
>>661273

Before we leaft, I spent a bit more silver on a red capelet and a set of throwing knives, the latter which I stored in my boots.

-------------------------

The gambling den didn’t look like much from the outside, an adobe house with a placard featuring the same sort of dice Feng explained to me. The inside more than made up for that, with a plethora of tables both for socializing and for gaming. One entire wall of the room was sectioned off by a bar, and the selection of liquor displayed on the shelves behind impressed even me. The people populating the tables were exactly the kind of sort that one would expect to see at an establishment such as this: rough-and-tumble types, sporting all sorts of scars, muscles, and weapons. The atmosphere, though, was jolly, with a genial roar filling the small space.

The mark stood out instantly: he was one of the few non-Delzahn here, and the only one with the skin-tone of one from the Scavenger Lands. His skin was tanned and lined from many years in the sun, but his dark-blue hair showed no sign of gray. Indeed, his blue eyes were bright and attentive, focused at the moment on some other patron who is speaking. I could see why Abel pegged him as former-military; the armor he wore was shabby and not very effective, but he wore it as though he were used to more and heavier protection.

”That’s him,” Feng said needlessly.

Now that the mark was in my sights, I had some decisions to make. First, I needed to decide where to place Feng in all of this. Secondly, I had to come up with a strategy to get him to the game tables.

Ugh. That smug lip-piercing. He's not bride material.

>I needed to decide where to place Feng in all of this.
I'd think we'd want him out of the way. Unless we need a dope to play off of at the table.

>I had to come up with a strategy to get him to the game tables.
Huh. Didn't plan on it being challenging to get the gambler to gamble. I was hoping we'd have a chance to see him play before we started.

...I suppose we could always bait him into it. An implicit challenge if we sit down and start winning. That gives him a chance to study us instead of the other way around, though. And we start out on his radar. Don't really like that situation.

He's probably waiting for a higher stakes table/game to win money at, or too busy flirting. The pause before we have to get to work is a good thing for us: We have questions to be answered before we start concentrating on the target. We need to learn more about the staff, organization and how the profit gets made, so use this opportunity. We also might want rope and chain handy for if this goes really right (or really wrong).

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/10(Mon)13:02 No. 661493 ID: 5a02f7
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>>661396

”I’ll want you somewhere out of the way, once we make our move. If I put my elbows on the table, though, I want you to come over and play,” I passed Feng part of my silver, ”Lose to me.”

”R-right,” he’s obviously unused to the kind of attention that’s being directed at the two of us, but he pocketed the dinars discretely enough, ”And you’ll want me to use the mirrors to check under the table, right?”

”That’s right, but first…

>>661407

”… I want to know more about how this is set-up. How does Abel make a profit off of this?”

”Well, there are a few ways – each patron pays to get in at a table, people buy drinks, and there are some really good players that he has on his roll. They win and give part of the money to the boss, which is why he’s a problem.”

“Are there any here currently?”

“Um…” Feng scanned the crowd, ”I see two, the short man in the far corner, and the woman off to the right. There might be more, but those are the ones I recognize.”

“And the bartender?”

“He’s one of Abel’s men, of course. The drinks are more just to keep people around; with as much as water costs right now, we don’t make a whole lot of money off of it.”

With those questions answered, I was ready to make my move.

Mental note to check into getting a small stretch of the coastline to build a condenser and make money. There could be a double profit bonus if we can make it into a salt-pan and sell salt while we're at it.
What's your move, Mirth? Ideally we'd start by watching him play, but if he's not moving we gotta either wait, prepare more or make him start playing somehow. Y'know, I dare you to walk up, sit in his lap and say you've heard he's a big winner. Then ask him to show you how he wins. Playing a giggly drunk ought to be just perfect for getting yourself underestimated if you can stomach the lost pride, hah.

Ooh! Good call on the capelet. That's really works. It's very you. Well, this you, anyways.

>>661493
Let's try establishing bait or a challenge for him. Start playing, but bellow your ability so he underestimates you. Work to start establishing a pot to temp him into trying to take it.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/11(Tue)16:59 No. 661755 ID: 5a02f7
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>>661602

I bought a cup of liquor and took a seat at one of the tables without one of Abel’s players. The entry fee was modest enough, even considering the current size of the pot. It took me a handful of rounds to drive up the stakes, which lost me more money than I would have liked, but this was all for show. I drove out the chump players, leaving me only with those that were willing to play for big stakes.

I leaned in to the dealer, making a show of asking, ”Who’s that guy over there?” I pointed blatantly.

She looked over with a sour face, ”Go ask him yourself if you’re that interested.”

>>661596

”I will, then,” I rose from the table, crossing the floor to where the mark sat. Without preamble, I landed sloppily on his lap and said –

-------------------------

”- wait, just like that?”

“What do you mean “just like that?” It was the easiest way to get his attention, and I needed his attention.”

Kamai gestured, searching for the word, ”But don’t you got any, I dunno – womanly pride or anything?”

“If ya’ve got any pride left after what we’ve been through, it ain’t worth a single cowrie,” Lintha remarked sourly, ”Let him tell the damn story.”

I swear I heard the Ebon Dragon chuckle at that. Kamai collapsed into a moody silence, and I continued.

-------------------------

”Hey there, mister. I heard you’re a big winner,” his hands instinctively grabbed on to me to keep me from toppling over. I leaned in close, ”Tell me how you do it, hm?”

A grin split the man’s face, ”Well, before I go spilling my secrets, might I know to who they go? I’m Embattled Justice, of no other name.”

What an odd way to introduce oneself, “I’m Mirth, of several other names.”

“And what might those other names be, hm?”

I giggled, leaning in further, ”Come play me, and maybe later you’ll find out,” as my vantage changed, I caught a glimpse of the bartender, with a stormy look on his face. Only a few quick words from a frazzled Feng stopped him from intervening; still, he looked unhappy with my behavior.

I shifted my position again, letting my purse bump against his leg, ”I have a table going on over here – I think it’ll be worth your time,” I stood, taking a moment to feign gathering my balance, before pulling him up with me.

“Well, I’ve never been one to refuse such a pretty lady,” Justice rose with only enough resistance to grab his drink before I pulled him away. I could feel the jealous stares directed at us as I walked away, but he seemed to either not notice or not care.

I guided him to a chair next to my former seat, reclaiming it for myself. The dealer continued her sour glare, but I pointedly ignored it, turning to Justice instead, ”So, how do you do it?”

”Well,” he leaned in conspiratorially, ”To tell the truth, it’s all luck.”

I laughed, letting a hint of the great deal of doubt I had about that claim leak into my voice, ”Really, just luck?”

”I was born under a lucky star, and, ever since then, Lady Fortune has watched over me. Of course, her attention comes and goes, as does any woman’s, so it’s not something I can call upon as I wish, as much as I wish I could. Only when the stakes are truly dire does my blessing emerge.”

While it was probably possible that was the truth, the actual likelihood of it was far-fetched, and even if he was “blessed by a goddess,” it was more likely he was a god-blooded with spirit tricks that made him lucky. Still, if such were true, actually proving it would be difficult given I didn’t have the ability to sense Essence manipulation. I would have to be subtle if I was to catch him – or I could just try to take all of his money and forget about proving that he’s cheating.

He likely thinks it's true enough. Amusingly enough, Exalts aren't always aware of their own abilities, particularly purely reflexive ones like luck. My guess is he's using Essence and just isn't aware of it.

Test it out and try a few hands with trivial stakes. See if his luck is any better than usual when it's not important.

I sincerely doubt he's nearly drunk enough to tell the truth about it *here* if he were cheating or knowingly using magic. Think about it, if he were to say that it was all trick throwing they'd send the thugs to grab his purse, drag him somewhere private, rough him up, kick him out and update the banned list with a description (and maybe a picture too). His story is less than one full iota on the scale of reliable information.
We already know what the plan is; play, try not to play either too well or too badly, and start the study. If it is something that he only pulls out for big-stakes rounds that is already useful information we can use to predict his actions, which is our general goal. Remember to pretend to be drunk enough to excuse behaving inappropriately. Things we want to know include, first finding out what level of stakes he considers big stakes without either winning or losing too much, and trying to study his play habits. Our second goal is to find out if he merely cheats his own throws or other players' throws as well. Our third goal is to figure out as much as we can about when this happens and what sort of changes get made. Fourth, we want to know how it works and what his limits are.

>bartender stormy
Hmm. I'm guessing the gang has rules of conduct for this establishment, you're wearing their colors, and you're breaking them. (They don't allow whores here, and you're being pretty forward).

Well, that, or he's just annoyed you're macking on the cheater they all love to hate.

>could be telling the truth about luck magic
>just take him, or try to reveal how he does it?
I don't think we should immediately take him at his word.

Spend a few hands (rounds? rolls? whatever the term) studying him. Playing to maintain position, not to win or clean him, yet. See firsthand what you think- if you can catch anything that might be a cheating scheme, or it truly is beyond your ken.

Based on the results of that, we shift gears into beating the pants off of him (bonus points if he actually bets his pants) or in trying to engineer a scenario explicitly to expose said cheating.

>>661811
> beating the pants off him, literally

YES. Make strip dice happen.
... after a few feeler hands, of course.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/12(Wed)15:50 No. 661874 ID: 5a02f7
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>>661759

Do you think he’s an Essence-user and just not aware of his abilities?

I don’t know how other Exalted get it, but my Exaltation came complete with a mouthy instruction manual – I kid, don’t take too much offense. It is possible that he simply is a god-, ghost-, or demon-blooded. Their charms would likely be much more natural to the wielder than the powers of the Exalted, I suppose. When I spend too much energy, I can feel it begin to overflow – that’s what the anima is. Those whose gifts come with blood don’t usually have that problem, as far as I know.

>>661786

We began to play. I kept up the act throughout, continuing to pester him about his “divine heritage.” His story became more elaborate as he continued, making it obvious for the lie that it was. Once or twice I caught him in a contradiction, but I kept my comments to myself, instead staring at him raptly and nodding when appropriate. He was a great storyteller, even to ears as jaded as mine. I found myself more than once waiting for his next word before I realized it was my turn to roll – that behavior, at least, I didn’t have to fake.

Not to say I completely neglected my studies. It was obvious at the start that he was a skilled player, perhaps even more so than I; I did not have to purposefully lower my skill much in order to project the level of threat I wished to portray. The trick was losing enough to keep his interest but winning enough so that I didn’t lose all my money right away.

After a few dozen hands, patterns began to emerge.

He would pause in his story and begin to focus when the stakes got high – usually only on pots of fifty dinars or more. I left him to his concentration, taking the time to study him, myself. The lines in his face would deepen further, and his thick brows would drop down; he was more handsome when he wasn’t trying to smile, honestly. If there was any use of essence or sleight of hand, I couldn’t detect it.

We cycled through several groups of players, none staying too long once the trends became evident. They varied in skill from novice to expert, but their throws all seemed relative to their skill and whatever luck the gods saw fit to grant them.

It didn’t happen very often, but I began to take note – when the pot became really big, he would seem to win. I wouldn’t happen unless the total was over about one hundred dinars, but he always seemed to make out with the win. Sure, he lost a decent amount of the small hands, but the big ones always seemed to go to him. In all, I could see how this would be a big drain on the resources of the gang.

It was now past the hour of Resplendent Water, and the sun had slipped most of the way past the horizon. The interior of the room had cooled pleasantly. I chanced a glimpse at Feng and managed to catch his eye. The boy shrugged and shook his head – it seemed he hadn’t caught anything either.

If he only wins when the pot is past a certain size, you could make him look bad by gaming the pot, so every hand reaches that threshold. If it's an involuntary effect, it'll trigger every time. A man who wins every hand will be accused of cheating pretty damn quick, and they might even buy the alleged magic luck at that point.

Downside is we have to bleed money to do that, and probably can't afford to. Also, I'm not sure it meets our mission's standard of proof for finding his method, and it sure isn't taking his money. Plus, if it's not magic, or he can control it, he can simply back off.

The alternative is to start playing seriously. Start taking his money, if you can. That's one objective, and it's possible if you put him under pressure, the cheating he uses to tr and fight back will become evident to you.

We don't know enough for me to recommend either continuing with the original plan or following the amended plan here. Please sort out what has been going on with more detail. How does he win those big rounds? Do his rolls get better, other people's rolls get worse, or both, or neither? Do other players' judgment calls get better or worse during the rounds with big stakes?
Hypotheses to check/test:
-He's a really skilled dynast exalt, maybe using tiny disturbances of the air to control everybody's throws.
-He's another charming supernatural blood doing something like what Sienna does to make other players perform more poorly when it counts.
-He's using supernatural boosts to skill to improve his throws, essentially making trick throws that don't look like it because he is too skilled for it to be obvious.
-There is another, supernatural presence that is adjusting throws to his benefit. (I could see an invisible demon doing this if he is a skilled sorcerer, for example.)
-(Other)

The original plan was to start teasing at around this point to see if we can disturb him when he is doing whatever it is that wins him rounds. We've seen the machine working without grit in the gears, it could teach us more and test how much whatever effect is under his control by distracting him.
>>661882
These alternative plans of either making sure that every round triggers his cheating or just trying to out-compete his cheating with our own cheating seem risky and premature I think. We should keep them in reserve, but we shouldn't really go ahead with any final plan yet because you haven't told us exactly *how* he is winning the rounds during which he is cheating yet. Tell us how was he winning: Was it better personal rolls, other players rolling poorer, other players making poorer decisions, some combination, or something else?

>premature
I suppose that depends on how much time and funds we have remaining in the evening.

The other problem I see is if we let this go on too long, eventually he's going to get bored or satisfied, and want to leave with his winnings. (And/or the pretty little red-shouldered thing who's been flirting with him).

We have deadlines, and I'm unsure how close we're getting to them.

If we have margin for it, testing for specific cheating methods as you outlined seems reasonable.

>>661899
A lot of what I described as specific possibilities should be things we can already eliminate by having watched the previous games, so let's have Edge tell us about that. You are right that we don't want to lose more money, so that's why it's time for phase two, attempting to win semi-conventionally. This is where we start trying to win by messing him up with distracting teasing while he's 'concentrating.' In order to do that we must consistently raise the stakes to the level at which he cheats, which was the whole of one of those two outlined plans. Hopefully at this point we will either start winning, or catch him cheating while he's too distracted to pull it off with the same skill because he's distracted.
What we do from there depends on whether we manage to win or catch him cheating through distracting him while playing: If we catch him cheating that may suggest a particular plan to exploit that. If we can't catch him cheating but distracting him works to slow down his winning streak then we go for broke and combine the teasing with our own cheating. If we can't catch him cheating and distracting him doesn't work that's when we continue with the 'make everyone agree he's cheating' plan and make his wins pile up suspiciously.
The only danger with that plan I can see is that maybe he's already close to the level at which he wants to quit for the night. That would be a risk no matter which plan we choose at this point however, so I ignore it in favour of balancing against the risks of; 1) that someone else detects us cheating, and; 2) that our cheating doesn't work well enough to be worth the effort because he's a more capable cheater.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/12(Wed)22:21 No. 661946 ID: 5a02f7
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>>661882

Do you have enough money to play a large pot every time? Bulitar asked.

Not for very long, and that would likely drive others away quickly enough.

>>661888

It seemed to only be his rolls that are affected; everyone else, including myself, did as well as could be expected. If there were minute manipulations of the air, they were too small for me to notice, although it did seem a little chilly in here – I hadn’t gotten used to how cold it gets at night after being so hot during the day.

>>661923

Despite the chill, I loosened my capelet’s tie to reveal more of my shoulders. I changed my pose subtly to better accent my curves and reveal just a glimpse of my cleavage –

-------------------------

”You’re an awful bastard, Edge.”

-------------------------

With the trap baited, I took a long sip from my drink and continued to play.

Justice’s attention was certainly focused more on me, now. When he wasn’t rolling, his eyes were focused on some part of me or another, and only sometimes my face. I slowly pushed the pot’s value up, and another player left the table. It was just four of us, now.

Finally, the pot was at the point that I expected him to act. He rolled the dice, and… turned up three Shadows, ”Ach! Well, that’s the nature of luck, ain’t it?”

I won that pot, replenishing my purse considerably, though not as much as I would have liked. Another player rose from the table, and both my purses were lighter than they had been when I had entered; if I was going to act, I needed to do so soon.

>>661946
> pot is right where you expect him to win
> he gets a terrible roll
He's on to you...

I wonder if we could bleed him out by keeping the pot under his instant win value? That might be a bad idea if he really is on to you, though, and not just taking a loss on general principle. (And he probably is, considering the gang affiliation flags we're waving about.)

Hnnngh. The problem here is this guy is a smart cheater. He knows when to take a loss to make his cheating less obvious to the layman's eye. I dunno what to do about him.

Okay, so if it's strictly his throws that he's been affecting--and not anybody's mind or other throws--that suggests that we could win this unless he's got reserve powers or backup.
I can't tell if he's baiting us using a deliberately poor trick throw, you have to judge that. This comes down to your ability to read him and guess how much better he can do than this. We're as prepared as we're gonna get, you decide if you want to play it conservative and make him win versus trying to psych him out and out-cheat him. Do you think you can beat him? All else being equal, I say go for it.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/13(Thu)18:26 No. 662116 ID: 5a02f7
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>>661951

I worried for a moment that he had caught on to my scheming…

>>661952

… but no matter how charming he was, I had more confidence in my skills than I did his.

It was time to stop playing around.

I nudged the pot upward again, playing conservatively to get it within the value that I would expect him to go for it. On the final throw, I let a trickle of essence flow from me into my hand, nudging the dice as I wanted them – a ten, a near-perfect hand.

He scored a twelve.

What power could best the Ebon Dragon’s cunning? For a moment, the smile fell from my face as I pondered the baffling idea. Only if there were a more specialized power being used or a similar trick of stronger essence should I have lost.

I played more aggressively, promptly betting a large sum of money. The last of the players dropped out, leaving only Justice and myself at the table. My gaze bored into his, daring him to take the bait I had placed before him.

He matched my bet.

This time, I let thrice the amount of Essence I had used before power my charm. I felt my anima on the verge of revealing itself, but I had to know.

Both of our rolls totaled to twelve.

”By the spirits,” the dealer breathed out, ”That’s… that’s a tie; the pot is split.”

Justice’s gaze fixed on me, and I caught the briefest glimpse of realization in his eyes before it was gone with a smile. He stuck out a hand to me, ”You play impeccably, Miss Mirth. It was a pleasure tossing the bones with you; maybe we’ll meet here again?”

I reached for his hand, almost flinching as I touched his skin – it was bitterly cold, ”Indeed.”

I glanced over his shoulder at Feng – he instantly gauged my mood and nodded; whatever I was about to do, he would follow my lead.

He beat or matched us when we burned essence to win- that leaves no other conclusion than that he was spending essence.

(That probably means he's exalted? I'm not sure what else would draw even a low-level exalt who was trying, and had charms specialized for that thing. If he is an exalt- does the cold hands mean he's a death hero too? Unless that could hint at something else?)

>the briefest glimpse of realization in his eyes
And of course you both know what the other is capable of, and you both know the other knows.

Obvious risks: the gang is a threat if we disappoint Able enough (although this can be mitigated by abandoning the Mirth identity). Justice could be a direct threat, and ditching identities might not lose him. Justice is also a more indirect threat in that he could attack us by trying to expose us, and he compromises this identity as long as he's in play.

Alright: options.

We could bug out, and not pursue Justice, either on the grounds that this is less of an unfair contest than you were prepared for, or because we think he might be more useful in and of himself than our current in with the red gang and Sienna. Obvious risk is this means Abel will be less than pleased (might have to abandon the Mirth Identity), and that leaves Justice in play and aware of us.

We could try and expose him. If he is exalted, he spent essence a lot more frequently than you did there. If we can force him to spend essence and his anima to flare up. His status as a cheating magic thing will be revealed, the enforcers here will fall on him. Problem is then he has no incentive not to try and out us, and it puts us at ground zero of a fight the gang members in this building may not be prepared to finish.

We could try and follow him and confront him elsewhere (or try and arrange we leave with him- frame it so he can't refuse with this audience). Less problems of a confrontation with the gang, but we're in a direct confrontation ourself. Not our strong suit.

Guessing based on the chill touch, he's either an abyssal exalt or a water aspect dynast. The dynast possibility is much more likely. Either way, that's scary because he's apparently been either making substantial use of persistent effects or spending a lot of essence on winning, and he hasn't aura flared yet. That means that he's likely a powerful essence user and may be able to kill everyone in this bar with aplomb if he's willing to flare up.
What did his touch do to us? Odds are that he either gave us a freezing touch as a warning threat, or that it was both that and an impairment effect delivered by touch. Either way, it looks like he anticipates some sort of fight or confrontation here, and has prepared using means we are unfamiliar with. That sucks, I can't plan against that or give a detailed estimate of what he can do.
The odds of scoring twelve on two successive rounds is absurdly low, so we could theoretically accuse him of cheating. That sucks because if we accuse him of cheating he can counter-accuse us of cheating. Tactically I don't like this, going up against an unknown opponent with poor and uncertain preparation and unknown allies. What I'd ideally like to do is go tell Abel Akhar that his cheater gave us an icy handshake, probably making him a rogue water dynast. He really requires an organized attack or some other significant effort to be rid of. It's a shame we don't know how competent Feng is, if he were at least a heroic soul with skill at arms that might improve the odds in a fight a bit but... it's all so risky and we are not a potent combatant with our preferred weapon handy operating under our preferred conditions of range and visibility.
Your move Mirth, do you feel confident in your ability to get this water dynast to aura flare without us doing so? If you manage that do you think we can survive that? Are you willing to deal with the possibility this asshole will pursue us as a vendetta if we do? I doubt Abel would like it if we struck first without warning, so I don't see any *good* plan for what to do here besides chalking up a stalemate and hoping this convinces him to go gamble somewhere else. We have acquired a significant antagonist now.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/13(Thu)23:33 No. 662203 ID: 5a02f7
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>>662183

Discretion was always the smarter part of valor, and I had too much to lose without much to gain. I didn’t think he did anything to me by his touch, just that his skin was unexpectedly cold – likely the sign that he was a Deathknight or a Water-aspected Dragon-blooded. Either was far too risky to confront in a crowded bar.

Justice continued in a low voice, ”Actually, I think you might have convinced me to tell you my secret – well, more detail about it,” he leaned in closer, offering his hand again, ”How about we step outside and talk a bit, hmm – secrets of the trade and all that?”

I was inclined to follow him, if only to clear up what could potentially be a troublesome misunderstanding, but what would my story be? How much of the truth could I chance?

>>662203
IT'S A TRAP! Obviously. Question is, are you confident enough to spring it?

Sounds highly dangerous, if there's a chance he can detect use of essence.

>>662203
Following this lead is a risk, but so is staying in the dark about this guy. Trying to follow the lead also looks better to the gang than giving up (unless they decide you're colluding).

Immediate problem is Feng will try and follow. You can't discuss being magic superhuman monsters with an audience. And ditching your tail makes you look guilty. Unless we can signal to him to stay back, and that you're trying something? Really, he just needs to be out of earshot. If he still has eyes on us, we might still get paid if Justice does anything overtly magical in our presence. (There you go. You saw how he was cheating).

Second problem. What's our context for a story? It's one thing if he made us as an essence user. But say, should we even expect Justice to know deathlords exist? (It's not common knowledge, but would might as an exalt, or one himself). Lot of fiddly in universe details as to what would make a believable background.

We admitted to using a false name before, and we teased he might get another. We can be honest about our current task, at least that's obvious.

Probably want to maneuver as much as possible to get him to talk first- he *did* invite us to hear his secret, didn't he. Reevaluate after that?

You know, this looks like pretty much a textbook-perfect plan for a dynast hunting for anathema to go find one and isolate it. We need backup if we are to even consider accepting this invitation.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/14(Fri)14:09 No. 662363 ID: 5a02f7
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>>662249
>>662268
>>662334

My instincts screamed caution. My eyes flicked back to Feng, who was half-off of his seat, prepared to rush in should things turn out poorly – but I had no way of knowing exactly what it was he was capable of. I cursed myself for not asking earlier.

”Don’t worry,” Justice said, seeing my reluctance, ”We’re just going outside. Your friend can keep an eye on us.”

For some reason, his words calmed me. I wanted to believe him.

>>662319

”Fine,” I took Justice’s hand and rose with him. Feng stared at me in askance, and I made clear signals to him – “stay,” “watch me.” He looked unhappy but nodded.

We stepped out into the night. The air wasn’t as brisk now that it wasn’t confined to a small building, but it was still enough for me to cross my arms under my capelet – not for the first time, I was thankful for having it. We stepped across the path, still in clear sight of the doorway. I could see Feng hovering discontentedly at the door, but the roar from the room behind him would likely make it impossible for him to hear our words.

Justice crossed his arms for an entirely different reason, ”Sorry for the chill – I would offer to warm you up, but I can’t right now, even if you’d accept.”

“I’m fine,” I said, perhaps a bit more testily than I meant.

”Well, I think it’s probably pretty obvious by now what I’m doing, and what it is you’re doing, if all that red and your friend isn’t just for show,” he smiled, ”Guess I got a little too much attention from the wrong sort of people, hm? I should’ve known better than to stay in one place for too long, but the getting was good here; I got too greedy,” he sighed, ”But you’ve got me intrigued – I haven’t met many who can match me when I’m really trying to win.”

“You told me you were going to tell your secret,” I said sternly, rubbing my arms for warmth.

Justice laughed, ”True, true. Well, it’s just what it looks like – a little bit of magic to push the odds in my favor, or to take it all when I really try,” he shrugged, ”I imagine it’s not too different from what it is that you do, really. But, still, I’m a little curious about the exact nature of your trick, if you wouldn’t mind telling me. I’d be happy to share more details in return.”

exact nature?
This to me sounds waaaay to much like he's meaning to ask what essence type we have...Which...Infernal is the LAST answer we wanna give if he's one of the other groups, if I know my lore properly.
Soo...I'm thinking if we wanna be safe, we just say no to trading info and walk away.
Problem is...High chance he's not gonna let it go, and possibly he'll have the advantage in a fight, or even in just causing enough of a ruckus that the authorities get curious about us.
I think the good move here might be to lie about our type. I'd say we lie and say Sidereal but...Dunno if we even KNOW about those Sidereals.

The safe answer to give is a bullshit answer: Pretend to be one of Luna's Exalted. We're far enough from The Blessed Isle that those wandering around are something an experienced Dynast would expect and know not to mess with unnecessarily. However, I am uncertain of our ability to be convincing were we to try to deliver that line.

>Well, I think it’s probably pretty obvious by now what I’m doing, and what it is you’re doing, if all that red and your friend isn’t just for show,” he smiled, ”Guess I got a little too much attention from the wrong sort of people, hm? I should’ve known better than to stay in one place for too long, but the getting was good here; I got too greedy
We can cop to that. We took a job to catch a certain problematic cheater. You're not going to get credit for cleaning out his winnings, but maybe you'll still be able to swing scaring him off into getting paid.

(Whether or not we get paid for discovering his method depends on what Feng witnesses, what Justice tells us, and if we think the money is worth exposing essence stuff).

>what tell him

>Infernal is the LAST answer we wanna give
Ayup. Short of making up a lie that's somehow worse. I'm a nascent titan!

>>662382
Pretending to be a different kind of exalt is an option, so long as presenting as an exalt at all is something we're comfortable risking. (And so long as we're not called on to prove it by doing what we can't).

Although if he is exalted, and we matched him at an essence battle, he already knows.

The two obvious problems with a lunar guise in particular is we don't have an animal form (we're busted as soon as the situation would expect us to use one), and he'll then expect we can shapeshift. This means he'll be much more likely to make or connect other identities to us, since the thought will have occurred to him. The first we can work around, but the second is very unfortunate.

I guess that's the default choice though? We can't pass as solar, our powers aren't obviously elemental enough to be a dragon blooded, Siderals don't exist... I guess we could pass as abyssal? Advantage is there's less gotya problems than a lunar, but abyssals aren't exactly well liked. (Still better than being infernal, right?). Depends on how many rogues there have been, and how they're perceived, I guess.

(Honestly, I feel out of my depth, here. Coming up with a good lie seems like it would require knowing the lore better than I do).

Here's a stupid question, would it be a worse idea to pretend to be an exalt of some lesser god, or to just be a god-blood maybe?
Here's another dubious idea. We could try to talk this guy into paying back the Akhar family and apologizing:
"Indeed, the Akhar family wants their money back, and they hired a little god-blood like me to contest an essence user cheating their establishment on their own terms. But you're either an abyssal or a skilled water element dynast, aren't you? As much for the sake of their employees who would be hurt--and the innocent bystanders--as for you I'll give you this warning: Now that I've failed they'll be sending assassins if you don't apologize directly and make a satisfactory repayment. Time to hop a ship out of town quickly if you don't have enough of your winnings left for that."
What do you think Mirth, could you sell that threat?

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/15(Sat)10:16 No. 662621 ID: 5a02f7
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>>662366
>>662382
>>662405

Several different possibilities raced through my mind, and I studied Justice for a long moment before answering, ”I’m a Chosen of the Moon; my abilities call upon Luna’s luck as my own.”

His brows shot up at that, ”One of the Moon – well, I’m lucky indeed to have met such an elusive creature,” he bowed again, ”As you’ve surely guessed, I have the Blood of Danaa’d within my veins, from Lookshy, originally. I call no Gens my own anymore, however.”

A Water Aspect, then. That made sense – I had heard those of Danaa’d were particularly slippery, ”So, what has a former noble of Lookshy tricking locals for spending money in a gambling den?”

He shrugged, ”The same reason I suspect you’ve aligned yourself with the folks in red – it’s not easy for people like us to make it alone. We need friends, or money, or enough power to keep away those that would rather see us dead. It’s a bit easier for an outcaste like me, but not by much.”

”Well, as you’ve guessed, you’ve worn out your welcome here. If they sent me to deal with you, there’ll be less friendly ones coming soon after. You should get out while you still can.”

Justice sighed, ”Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case,” he smiled, ”There’s another place I frequent, the Laughing Mare, that I haven’t spotted any people wearing conspicuous red in. I think I’ll play there and lay low for a while until the heat dies down – you won’t see me around here anymore. But if you’d like to try your skill against me again, we can have a real contest next time,” he winked, ”Maybe I’ll even earn hearing one of those other names you have.”

I chuckled, smirking, ”Maybe. I’ll see if I can’t stop by sometime.”

Justice nodded, ”Anything else I can do to make things a little easier for our friends, so they’ll know I’m honest, now?”

“Paying the gang back some of your winnings would be a good way to show you’re earnest,” I said.

He nodded again, ”I figured that’d be it,” he took out his heavy purse and counted out three hundred dinars, which he handed to me, ”There. That’s most of my winnings for tonight. Make sure it gets to the right people, okay?” his eyes held mine for a beat before they softened into a smile, ”It was a pleasure playing with you, Miss Mirth. I look forward to doing so again,” he bowed, taking my hand and placing a light kiss on my knuckle.

”You as well, Embattled Justice. I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”

With another rakish grin, Justice left.

I deposited the dinars in the more secure of my purses and turned back to the bar. Feng stood at the doorway, his eyes wide as he watched me approach – what was I going to tell him?

Not-Lunar quest is a go.

A lonely exalt in search of companionship / friendship / someone who can match him in a game in a potentially interesting angle to work.

The risks are I'm pretty sure he's stronger than you (the hands he won suggests he spent more essence without a flare-up), and that the more time we spend with him, the greater the risk we get caught in the lunar-lie.

>Feng stood at the doorway, his eyes wide as he watched me approach – what was I going to tell him?
Dump bag of winnings on him to keep him off guard.

Our friend had the sense to recognize what kind of game was being played tonight. You've got his winnings back. Not as satisfying as taking all of them, or exposing his cheating mid-game, but I very much doubt he'll be back. The ledgers here stop reporting losses, tonight.

I don't think it's worth outing him as dragon blooded. Justice is potentially more useful with his identity intact than the added bonus money we might get revealing the specific cheating method. Especially as we don't have hard proof, and revealing him comes too close to revealing us.

I think that chill effect is his anima flare if he's truly what he says he is: Maybe he's not so powerful, and soon would be a good time to attack him if Abel Akhar wants to take this further.
As far as talking to Feng, explain that was a dangerous bluff and you're glad he didn't call it. Ask what comes next, now that the job seems to be done. Ask him if the boss will want to organize an attack or if that's probably not worth the effort.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/15(Sat)18:40 No. 662783 ID: 5a02f7
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>>662638

I tossed the bag Justice had given me at Feng and spoke promptly, “Our friend had the sense to recognize what kind of game was being played tonight. You've got his winnings back; not as satisfying as taking all of them, or exposing his cheating mid-game, but I very much doubt he'll be back. The ledgers here stop reporting losses, tonight.”

Feng just barely caught the bag but quickly pocketed it, ”O-oh, that’s good. Um, here’s the dinars you gave me,” he passed my bag back.

>>662708

I took it, tying it once more to my belt, ”That was a dangerous bluff; I’m glad he didn’t call it.”

“S-so you aren’t a – n-nevermind.”

I eyed Feng, ”So you overheard that, did you?”

He ducked down sheepishly, ”J-just a little bit. Sorry, my ears are just really good.”

… Suspicious.

”So, what now?”

“W-well, that’s up to the boss. He said if you finished up, you could meet with him again tonight or during the heat of the day tomorrow, if you’d rather then.”

With how late it was, I suspected I only had time for one more thing before I needed to head back to the inn. I could either check in with Abel and get my money, or pursue any of the other leads I had as Edge.

>So you overheard that, did you?
Well, that takes the decision of exposing Justice out of our hands. On the plus side, that means we get paid for figuring out how he did it (probably).

>Sorry, my ears are just really good.
Through a noisy crowd, and far enough away that the practiced sneak and liar, and the older more experienced dude believed it was safe to talk openly?

Hmm. That is suspicious. Especially with his ears are covered. Could it be he's a lunar himself? If his ears are his tell, that would explain the hearing, why he keeps them covered, and his interest all in one go.

>what do
I don't think we're in a rush to meet up with Abel (or explain exactly how we did that). Picking up our money later gives us an excuse to get another job, too.

Hmm. Not sure what other Mirth-leads to follow up on, though. A Justice follow-up can't happen immediately. Sienna isn't around. That really only leaves Feng, if you want to hang out, or follow up on suspicions.

As for Edge-leads? Hmm. Probably too late to see Graceful Blossom. Myria's probably open, if we wanted to investigate her further, but we don't have a pretext for needing her services. Amaranth would probably be happy to see us, but we don't have a reason. Hmm. That leaves returning to our original plan- seeking out employment. Even if we've got a line as Mirth, we should still have a front-job for Edge to survive off too, right? Or a real one, if we can play multiple angles at a time.

"No hon, I'm not a Lunar. I'll have to ask you to trust me on that because I can't imagine your boss offering me enough to consider being his courtesan. Speaking of your boss though, whether I visit him now or tomorrow depends on whether you think he wants to follow up and chase that water exalt, and if he wants my help for that. I'd insist on being better armed for that than just throwing knives though.
"Also, it's interesting that you've been wearing a hat with earflaps in a town where it gets very hot. I won't ask, but I will say that if you're doing that to hide a tell it's a little conspicuous."

We have just spent time dealing with the criminal element AND a terrestrial exalt with unknown acquaintances: I think we should spend some quality time getting lost and changing appearances until there's no way someone could follow us home. I'm also curious if we made enough of an impression on Graceful Blossom that she's called on us or left a message when we were out. If worst comes to worst, we have bored auntie/uncle Amaranth to entertain with stories of our blundering incompetence: He/she did promise us help in exchange for entertaining stories.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/16(Sun)12:09 No. 662999 ID: 5a02f7
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>>662802

"No, hon, I'm not a Lunar. I'll have to ask you to trust me on that because I can't imagine your boss offering me enough to consider being his courtesan. Speaking of your boss though, whether I visit him now or tomorrow depends on whether you think he wants to follow up and chase that Water Exalt, and if he wants my help for that. I'd insist on being better armed for that than just throwing knives, though.”

Feng looked surprised at “courtesan,” but he recovered enough to answer, ”I don’t know what the boss wants to do, but I don’t think he’ll want to chase after that guy. I-I mean, he said he’s not gonna come back, so it should be fine, r-right?”

>>662787

I nodded; that made sense, from what I had read of Abel. A lot of the Mirth leads were dead for the moment, unless I wanted to hang around Feng. It would probably be wise to use some time to cycle through some faces to make sure I wasn’t followed back to my inn. But first…

"Also, it's interesting that you've been wearing a hat with earflaps in a town where it gets very hot. I won't ask, but I will say that if you're doing that to hide animal ears, it's a little conspicuous."

Feng freezes.

By the Yozis, I didn’t actually think I was going to be right.

”I-it’s not animal ears! I’m n-not a Moon Beast!”

“Feng, never play cards – you’re an awful liar.”

He worried at his hands, looking unhappy. It was a long moment before he reached up and removed his bandana.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/16(Sun)12:09 No. 663000 ID: 5a02f7
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What was revealed wasn’t a tell, but instead a growth of brilliant amethyst sprouting from the tips of Feng’s ears.

”I – when I was really young, my da and me lived near a place where the Dragon Lines crossed and the energy of Pasiap was really strong. He says that’s probably why I ended up being a Dragon-blooded. B-but before I Exalted, all the energies changed my ears to be like this – they aren’t Aspect Marking, I swear! I’d have to be, well, way too strong or old or something to have something like that. I-it’s just a Wyld mutation, but if Dynasts or Legionnaires saw it and found out I was a Dragon-blooded, they’d definitely snatch me up. I… I don’t want to be a soldier. I like living here in Chiaroscuro with the boss and everyone. So that’s why I hid them. S-sorry I didn’t tell you earlier – the boss said I should keep it a secret from everyone…”

… The Maidens must be laughing.

Ooooh-hohoho...
Ladies and gentlemen, I propose we hold on to this tip...Almost might be worth trying to make him our bride and spiriting him away, and Definitely our-back up if something goes wrong with Graceful Blossom...

>I don’t think he’ll want to chase after that guy. I-I mean, he said he’s not gonna come back, so it should be fine, r-right?
Probably not. Abel struck me as more practical than vindictive, but I've only met the man once.

>>663000
Man, this town is just lousy with the exalted, isn't it? I we're going to need to significantly adjust upwards our expectations and estimates of the capabilities of those around us. I'm putting much better odds on Graceful Blossom, Myria, and Sienna being exalts that previously. Heck, Crimson too.

>S-sorry I didn’t tell you earlier – the boss said I should keep it a secret from everyone
There's no need to apologize. Your boss was completely right- that is something you should keep to yourself, and not immediately share with a stranger you were set to watch.

Being more than you appear can be useful, Feng. The trick is to not let on, or bring up something you have to cover for. The easiest lie is one you never have to speak. Try not to tell people when you overhear things you're not supposed to.

Don't worry about your secret spreading. I've no wish to see the ranks of Dynasts or Legionaries swell.

...you know, the ears are kind of cute. (Yes, we scared him, now fluster him).

>>663008
Yes, I think we have another possible angle to play. Though I'd feel guilty dragging him into a mess when all he wants is to stay in the life he's protecting now.

Blackmailing someone into marrying you so they can avoid military service seems very much like the Ebon Dragon's thing. Also, this gang defines itself as a family, and what better way to join the family than a wedding?

Crack a smile and giggle something about "what a coincidence that all three of us in this little alley were exalted by the favor of one dragon or another, and for one reason or another concealed our gifts, it must be fate that we met thus" and then pop the question.

>>663033
Inxay on the eingbay exaltedyay.

>then pop the question.
Way, way too soon. We'd have to work him over for longer than this.

Plus, if Abel is at all protective of his people (or at least a potentially valuable dragon blooded working for him) he'll probably react badly to what looks like us Feng doing something stupid or our stealing / exploiting Feng (and/or abusing Abel's generosity). I don't think we're in a position where we want to anger or offend Abel if we want to keep using this identity.

The maidens are laughing at you looking for a bride and tripping over a boy who would probably be an easy lay now that you know about his ears? They are worth considering, how much do they know about what you are and what you do?
Yeah, he should cover those ears back up in public. Unless you want to either meet with Abel now or tease Feng more it's time to leave though: We haven't given enough thought to what kind of story we'd tell Feng about who and what Mirth is yet. Here's a suggestion for a new secondary objective: Have Feng wrapped around Mirth's little finger, doing your bidding. If you like this objective, I suggest you blow him a kiss and wiggle your ass when you walk away so that he's staring with lust at your backside.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/17(Mon)13:57 No. 663420 ID: 5a02f7
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”Laughing Maidens? I haven’t heard that expression.”

Kamai answered for me, ”It’s when fate does a funny thing that’s too coincidental to be happenstance. Since the Maidens draw everyone’s fate in the stars, they must be giggling when they put that in.”

Lintha frowned, ”That’s dumb – none of us have got fate in the stars of Creation any more.”

”It’s an expression,” I said, sighing, ”Don’t dwell on it.”

-------------------------

>>663008

This was useful information, and definitely something I could use to my advantage. I would have to keep it in mind, regardless of what my plans ultimately ended up being. While I thought of what to say in response, Feng passed me back the bag with my other clothing. I reached inside and wrapped my scarf around my neck again, feeling more secure with it close by.

-------------------------

”What’s the deal with that ratty old thing, anyway? I never see ya without it.”

“That’s another story – let me finish this one first.”

-------------------------

>>663017

”There’s no need to apologize. Your boss was completely right – that is something you should keep to yourself and not immediately share with a stranger you were set to watch,” I smiled, ”Being more than you appear can be useful, Feng. The trick is to not let on, or bring up something you have to cover for; the easiest lie is one you never have to speak. Try not to tell people when you overhear things you’re not supposed to,” I put out my hand, ”Don’t worry about your secret spreading. I’ve no wish to see the ranks of Dynasts or Legionnaires swell.”

Feng’s eyes filled with something like admiration, and he nodded enthusiastically as he retied his bandana, ”You’re really good at this, Lady Mirth. Almost like – n-nevermind.”

I let it slide with enigmatic smile; let him think whatever he wanted to think, “… You know, the ears are kind of cute.”

That got him blushing. He stammered out some nonsense before finally deciding on a quiet, ”Thank you…”

”Let Mister Akhar know I’ll be by tomorrow at midday. I’ll see you again, then,” I winked and blew him a kiss, adding an extra sway to my hips as I turned away.

> Intimacy gained towards Feng

-------------------------

Taking the time to switch through a few faces and backroads took more time and essence than I would have liked to spend, but the surety with which I walked back towards the inn made it worth it. I was wearing my other face again, like a favorite garment returned to after a long time away.

This late, the only person still up would be Amaranth, or I could just go back to the inn and get an extra hour of sleep.

>>663420
>Lintha frowned, ”That’s dumb – none of us have got fate in the stars of Creation any more.”

Speak f'y'rself! Loom-Snarling Deception weaves a false-but-functional thread into Fate as an intrinsic part of the disguise.

>That’s dumb – none of us have got fate in the stars of Creation any more.
Well, unless the maidens planned ahead for the bits they wouldn't get to oversee directly.

>What’s the deal with that ratty old thing, anyway? I never see ya without it.
I guess we're getting the scarf though this mission unless we want to cause a time paradox.

>midday
Back to Mirth pretty quickly. Although I guess we still have the morning to do Edge-stuff.

>another intimacy
Welp, we've officially got multiple irons in the fire.

>This late, the only person still up would be Amaranth, or I could just go back to the inn and get an extra hour of sleep.
Hmm. Well, I certainly don't see anything to be gained by verbally sparing with her, it would mostly be for our own amusement at this point. The only currency we have to trade she might be interested in is the personal secrets of the two dragon blooded we discovered, and I'm not so sure I want to do that right now. I'd rather find uses for them in our plans than let them become tools in hers.

I have to agree there's no point in just *giving* Amaranth information about two terrestrial exalts without getting something comparably useful and valuable in exchange: We can only guess how she would make use of that information in ways that would come back to haunt us or use up our opportunities. Unless you can think of something you want from him in exchange for that information I'm more interested in the chance Graceful Blossom at least left a note for us.

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/17(Mon)17:50 No. 663472 ID: 5a02f7
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>>663434
>>663457

Knowing about a pair of Terrestrial Exalted was valuable information, something that I shouldn’t just pass on to Amaranth without a good idea of what I wanted in return. Since nothing came immediately to mind, I continued on my way.

Before I retired, I checked in with the innkeep, but no messages had been left for me. Pity.

Once in my room, an intense weariness overtook me. I got as far as stripping off my outer layers before the motivation left me, and I collapsed on my mattress. It was not long before sleep claimed me.

-------------------------

He wasn’t like the others; he might have been young, but his eyes were ancient. He remembered all of it, every blow exchanged until the last one fell who he used to be. It was too heavy a burden for such a young man. I reached out to him to welcome him as our companion, but he always stood distant. After everything ended up how it did, I wondered – did he perhaps have an inkling of what was to come?

No, certainly not. None of us thought that they would betray us.

It was nothing but blood and screaming, interspersed with bright flashes of sorcery. I saw too many familiar faces on the opposite side. Perhaps it was pity that was what truly brought us down. They thought we were monsters, but we weren’t monstrous enough to kill them all.

-------------------------

Something pulled me from my dark dreams. Before stood a Delzahn woman, beautiful and nude. I recognized her by her deer feet and sunk into a bow. Some small part worried that this is how it ends for me, if the rumors were true of what she does to men.

”I heard the most curious thing,” said Mara, as nonchalantly as one would discuss the weather, ”I was speaking with Fortune’s Fool, for whatever reason I decided to tolerate her presence. Gumela came, and they started talking about stars of all things – stars! We are limitless beings with infinite time, and they discuss astrology.

“Janequin had saw an interesting constellation the last time she was summoned to Creation, and Gumela quickly plotted it against the Malfean sky. He was delighted to find a wonderful snarl in the Loom where it had been. The two of them went on for some time about its particular qualities and exact degrees of tangledness. I looked up to see what all the fuss was about, and, sure enough, there was a knot. But I recognized those stars as those that belonged to my Master.

“Those stars were yours.”

Exquisite Bride Obsession Meyichi 2015/08/17(Mon)17:50 No. 663474 ID: 5a02f7
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“I thought it would be prudent to inform you, so that you might be ready for whatever it is this forebodes. I look forward to the result of your mission – no matter how it ends, it’s sure to be interesting.”