Recudor: Party's House

It's late in the evening and the house is quiet. Clarent, Frazil and Hitomi are deeply asleep with the latter having passed out after some snacks. Sharpe is the only one left awake at the house, doing whatever it is he is doing and thinking about the soultrap heist.

He hears the scuffing of shoes approaching well before the door opens and Air and Jian step inside. The little white cat that had taken a nap next to Sharpe raises and tilts its head at the visitors.

Airgetlam and Jian have entered the Party's House.

After a quick welcome back and an exchange of greetings, Airgetlam explains the basic idea of the scenario. They went to pick up the bounty, saw the girl with the soul traps and decided to avoid her. Then made their way to the northern district to have the awkward conversation with the incredibly shady informant. From the description of the address it's very noticeable to Sharpe that the mans house is very close to the abandoned church and whatever other tunnels might lead nearby.

While listening to the description of their contract, Sharpe sits back, petting Mitsuki and rubbing her ears.

"Sounds like shit's cycling around. While I was in the tunnels, I ran into two men, one of which I snuck up on, and tried to assault me before putting my gun in his face. He dropped a box before I could get an answer. The box in question had what looked like an elaborate soul trap that I thought was Clarent's, but as it turned out it wasn't. Looks like they're on to me, but not to the rest of us. They might end up coming after me, so I might have to get another set of clothes so they don't recognize me. He didn't mention anything about my appearance though besides me having a gun? I'm honestly surprised, I'd think they'd at least give a good description. Ah well, who knows, maybe it some other sod with a gun and another girl who just so happens to fit that description! Though it would be hilarious if that was actually the case. Either way, you should probably keep looking into this, might get us some good info, I had a mind to get the city guard to help me route 'em out. Just in case, remind me tomorrow to go get a new outfit."

He pets Mitsuki a little more and looks back up.

"Speaking of that guy, he's in the north district, where he is looks real close to the church that had the entrance to the underground. Maybe guy's got a tunnel leading into the city with his house as the entry point."

Air shakes her head.

"No, he didn't really seem very keen on what the man he described looked like. And yes, we got the feeling immediately that it was you, the girl he described was exactly that of Clarent's features, practically."

She looks around and takes a seat.

"We'll look into it, yeah, but I don't want to get us in over our heads, that's just generally not smart and Jian isn't as versed as we are in fighting. For now though we should wait until the um... ahem, 'operation' is complete. Then some rest would probably be in order."

The three converse, with Air and Jian getting Sharpe caught up on the situation before everyone just goes about their own business. It's late enough for sleep, and the others should be back soon. As if on queue the three hear a familliar voice yelling in the background.... "I'm Sorry!! I'm Sorry!! I'm Sorry!! I'm Sorry!!" slowly coming closer before Jack suddenly bursts through the door, panting and wheezing in exhaustion, a leather satchel tightly clenched to his chest. He walks up to the table, resting the satchel on it and with a grin forming on his face pulls out the familliar silver soultrap. The family heirloom looks polished up and new, with its formerly dull gem now glowing a brilliant blue.

Sharpe slowly gets up from his seat and walks over to the table with the soul trap and holding it up, looking into it's blue hue.

"Job's done I see..." He says, then looks up at Jack, "I'm guessing you ran into some issues or did it go smoothly?" He says, keeping a rather straight face on. While he is pleased that at least they were able to get it back, his conscience keeps nagging at him.

"I hope you didn't get chased by the guards... or worse get a bounty put out on you." He says, crossing his arms.

He looks past Jack for a moment, spying no sign of Rich or Jericho.

"Where's RD and Jericho?"

Airgetlam elects to remain quiet. She nods to Jian, in a sort of acknowledgement. She focuses on the soul trap on the table, and wonders if it'd be a good idea to get the gem near clarent immediately. She absolves that the sooner the better. And gets up and lightly takes the gem in her hand.

"Going to administer the gem, better sooner rather than later." She says, and walks up the staircase into Doc's room where Clarent lay asleep. She walks into the room quietly, and lays the gem near her on the nightstand. Air brushes Clarent's hair gently and smiles, then leaves the room as silent as a content mouse. She walks back downstairs to see what has developed.

The little talk interrupted with Jack bursting in like that, Jian shakes his head for a moment.
"You gotta keep it down a little. People are sleeping", he says in a fairly quiet, yet lightly stern tone. He would want to have anyone wake up from his arrival or the likes.
Jian then falls silent for a moment, eyes growing a little wider as Jack reveals the gem. It seems to have changed colour aswell now, so Jian is a bit confused about why that is the case. Air then nods to him, which he responds to with the same gesture. Moments later, with Air heading up to docs room, his attention goes back to Jack.

"So... Clarent's Soulgem, that was it's name yes? What... exactly happened? I mean, it looked different than before. And due to my magic-based lingo and knowledge being fairly limited, I can't tell more than, due to your reaction, it being a good thing... right? Is it... like recharged?"

Jian folds his arms, walking through the room for a few moments. He's quite tired, so he's doing that to keep himself in check while waiting for Jack's response.

"Jian"

Jack began to reply as he reclaimed his oxygen. He ignored Jian's request to lower his volume due to the dire nature of the situation.

"I'm as equally confused about this as you are. I too have no knowledge in the realm of the arcane. All I know is that Jericho said Clarent is dying, and she's dying fast. I need to give her this to stop her from dying. She's still upstairs in her bed, right? You didn't move her, did you?"

Jack was already halfway up the stairs under the assumption Jian was about to say yes. The only thing doing a poor job of keeping him still was confirmation as his feet subtly inched upwards.

Jack peeks into the room as Air is just about to leave, having left the soultrap with Clarent for the time being. The girl doesn't look any worse for wear and the heirloom doesn't seem to have any immediate effect. Chances are she will sleep through the night before anything major happens.

Sharpe turns, his arm outreached towards Jack but ultimately drops it. He sighs and shakes his head.

"She's been fine for the last few hours, coupled with your obliviousness to Air's presence. Either way, I would very much like my answer." He says, having retained his stern posture at the table.

He thinks to the other soul trap he found, and figures maybe after he gets his report he'll go and fuddle with it, or see if something can be gleaned from that. Perhaps it was a good turn that fate left it in his possession.

As Airgetlam goes to leave she slightly recoils at Jack going up to check.

"U-um, you know i already went up myself, but I guess if you really do need physical confirmation..." She says, and walks past him downstairs.

She sits back down with Jian, leaning forward with her chin resting upon the palm of her hand.

"Either way she'll be fine, hopefully having her trap will help, but we won't be able to tell until tomorrow at earliest. In the meantime I'm going to get into something more comfy." She says and goes on back to her room to stow her gear.

His hand rises up and three fingers push against his forehead with a sigh. Air has even announced bringing it upstairs but Jack seemed to not even acknowledge that in the slightest. Not too thrown off though, he takes a few more steps through the room. He is fairly tired, so the main option will be sleeping for him aswell.

"Well, I guess I am going to bed myself. Tomorrow will bring us some sort of development, I am sure.", he says, then moving towards the room with slow steps. "Good night to you, sleep well in advance.", then followed from him. Being inside the room he sits down on the bed, taking a look around. It's still empty and he hasn't gotten around to picking up any furniture either. He takes a deep breath and then slips out of his light armor. Putting that aside, he also puts down his backpack and slips from the other loadout he has. His body then drops back onto the bed and he rolls into position.

"I wish my brother would get out of my head for once. I gotta find closure soon."

That line said, he curls up a little and covers himself with a blanket, eyes shut with a slightly distressed expression.

Not long after Jian excuses himself, relieved about Clarent but worried about his other troubles, the door to the house opens and Jericho steps in, looking a little rushed himself.


The first thing he notices is Air sitting at the table with the girl's bag on the table. It then occurs to him that Jack didn't simply steal the soultrap but all the other posessions in the bag with it.

When Jericho sees the girls bag on the table, he face becomes twisted with anger. He looks around the house, seeing if Jack is in this room. When he cannot find him, he turns to Sharpe

"Where is Jack?" He demands. He voice is low but there is no hiding the anger he is feeling.

"That man has gone too far! It is one thing to ignore a somewhat solid plan not once but twice. But it is another thing to screw up the plan to the point were it could backfire and get us all into trouble! I have been working far to long and hard just to have some fool come around and put it all to waste! So I ask again...Where is Jack?!" Jericho says, still not yelling but his voice is louder then it normal is.

He then hears a noise coming from up stairs and glares up to where it was. He then turns and makes his way up up the stairs, passing Airgetlam along the way.

Sharpe jerks his thumb in the direction of the stairs. As he's about to speak with Jericho, he stops himself, as the man has already bolted up the stairs.

"Why's nobody telling me anything? Is it because I didn't approve of any of this? I'd at least like some kind of update of any kind..." He mutters to himself.

He looks over to where Jericho was looking... and notices the bag that was set down. He cranes is head forward a little but it's all too clear who's it must be.

"... Shit."

Air lays her crossbow against the foot of her bed and leaves most of her gear in one place as well. She removes her boots as well so she's just in pants and shirt, but before she leaves takes the book on protraction she was given to study. She walks back down, passing the door where Jack and Jericho are at, and passing Jian as he heads back upstairs, presumably for sleep. She finds someplace where she can comfortably relax.

"Well let's hope this doesn't turn into an absolute cluster. If the guards come looking I'll see about turning them away, or maybe acting like nobody's home if they catch me while I'm awake." She says to Sharpe.

"I guess I'll just stay up a bit longer and wait. That is unless... I am needed in another capacity." She flicks a few pages and retraces to where she left off.

While Jericho is listening to Jack, his anger growing with every word the man says. Just as he is about to respond, he hears Sharpe ask about what happened. He quickly turns to the man.

"You want an update?! Here it is!" Jericho spins back and points at Jack. "This man said he wanted to help us retrieve the Soultrap. So RD and I made a plan before we left the house. Apparently our plan was too boring for this man to listen! When we got to the tent, he ask what the plan was...So RD and I explained it...again...Then RD goes in and starts doing his job. I start getting the spell ready...and Jack just STANDS in the middle of the tent and STARES AT ME!! I had to rush the spell, Witch is VERY dangers! But I was lucky and was able to rush the spell and throw the spell...The man then charges the lady, rips the bag off of the girl, hard enough to snap the straps! He then run all the way here while SCREAMING TO THE WORLD, that he is sorry..."

It is very clear how angry Jericho is, his normal cool demeanor tossed aside replaced with rage. He then turns back to Sharpe.

"This was not part of the plan! This idiot has more then likely gotten us caught! There was a mage in that tent that was feeling the magic in the air. I made sure to take as many extra turns so I will not be traced...THIS GUY!!!" Jericho turns back to look at Jack. "This guy runs STRAIGHT here while screaming! Anyone will be able to point out who he is and where he went!"

Jericho's hands start to glow as he walks over to Jack. "I have no idea what you could of done in your past...but your 'terrible' deed or mistake hurt people...my mistake KILLED people! So you aren't going to get any sympathy from me or anyone else in this room! Saying 'I'm sorry' is not going to get us out of the mess you got us into! How do you plan on fixing it!?"

Jericho stands in front of Jack, waiting for an answer.

"Well when you're right, you're right, Jericho. Absolutely no point in asking for sympathy or pity. You were also right about saying sorry not being enough. More specifically, not enough words. What I should have said was 'I'm sorry I'm not murderer or a thief or a psychotic madman like you'. I'm sorry for being the only mostly normal person in this house other than Jian. I tried apologizing to you because I'm aware of my faults and how they could have jeopardized the mission, but if this is how you're going to respond then rather than 'expecting to receiving sympathy', I should be giving sympathy to you for being an emotionless blood soaked construct!"

Jack was one of those people who bottled up their emotions. It was only natural for a bottle to have its limits. He could feel his heart pounding inside of his chest. The adrenaline spike was enough to blur his visions, making him blind to the glowing hand of the angered sorcerer. When his sight cleared, the only thing worse than his fear of being struck by a library's worth of spells was the guilt of what he said. He did his best to hide both.

"The bag is an easy fix. All we need to do is either use your fancy disguise spell again or get someone who hasn't been in the tent to return the bag as lost and found. If miss badass tries to contact the authorities, she'll be buried under a pile of bureaucracy. You might think our little robbery was exceptionally intricate, planned to the minor detail, but I've lived in theis city long enough to know that things like this happen almost every minute. The police have gotten so many robbery reports just like ours over and over again that the range of their capacity to care has shrunk to only those with a large enough wallet. I was only worried about being caught while the theft was taking place, but now that it's over, there's nothing to worry about, nothing to solve, and nothing to talk about."

Air tries to study the book, but finds she has a hard time grasping some of the concepts and ideas in the introductory section due to the commotion in the house. As the argument takes place, loud and furious enough to wake most people, the small white cat hops on to the table and stalks around the open bag.

Unnoticed to anyone but Sharpe and the Cat, a faint purple glow builds inside. The cat gives the bag a few curious paws, hesitant of the glow, and Sharpe takes a quick peek inside. His attention is immediately fastened onto a small black notebook of sorts laying between some money and various other casual items, with some unknown symbol hovering above the book.


He takes the book out and looks at the strange symbol. It's nothing like he's ever seen before. Definitely some magic, but no protraction he's heard of. After he turns it around to check the back; nothing. He continues to study the small book's ominous appearance but decides to open the book. The pages are empty. At least they seem so at first, but some illegible font starts to write itself across the pages; ""

Sharpe watches the symbols scrawl across the page but they are wholly unfamiliar to him in every way. He furrows his brow, the font and styling are unlike any he's ever seen. As he's looking through more of the pages, he turns around to Jack and Jericho, showing the book and it's front cover.

"Well, were it a normal bag of belongings I think the situation wouldn't be as serious, there'd be less commotion. However," He says, looking at Jack, closing the book and shaking it forward a tad, "this ensures that you really fethed up and we're looking at a veritable load of shit." He says to him.

He turns to Jericho, that though the man is having a rage-tastic outburst, decides to act with some jest.

"Thank you for the update anyway. At least somebody here was willing to tell me." He turns and pets Mitsuki behind the ears.

"Maybe you'll be able to assist us again."

Air closes the book abruptly and shifts to look over at the Jericho seething with flames of anger and Jack trying to play it off as not so much of a problem. She sighs, and gets up.

"If it really matters, I can get it back to her. You know my game and I can probably get it back to her without her even noticing I did it. So if that's how things end up going, fine. At least now you can learn from the mistakes here. Jack, you need to pay attention a bit better, and know what you're supposed to be doing. You are lucky this isn't a life or death situation. As for Jericho - perhaps this wasn't entirely the best course of action, given who was available and the possible outcomes. If you do end up needing me, I'll be in bed. Don't be afraid to wake me." She says, and begins walking up the staircase before turning around.

"If anything that's probably someone's next big score and you just robbed them of that. Something of that caliber is going to be keeping the guards on heightened alert." she says, and fully ascends the stairs to her room, wherein she undresses and hops in bed.

As people start looking around due to the ruckus, they see Frazil has awakened and stood up. She is rubbing her right temple and is clearly light sensitive, but what anyone who can see her notices immediately is that she is pissed off. While stomping past the group, she yells in a shrill tone, What the ever loving fuck is WRONG with you, Jack?!

A trickle of water slides under the front door, what little remains of her ice block outside, and makes its way to the kitchen faucet turning it on full blast. The new water source rushes to pool around Frazil's feet, leaving nothing wet in its wake.

As she reaches the opening to the kitchen she looks toward Jericho and Sharpe and states matter of factly,  I say, it's his fault, we let him fix it. Whle finishing the statement, the water rushes to Jack, coating him similarly to the way she makes her armor, and freezing solid. She has been nice enough to leave his head free, and large holes in the torso so he can breathe and stay warm, but without outside help, he won't be moving any time soon.

I'm a relative unknown here. Give me the bag. Air sneaks a few blocks down, throws some of its contents around in the gutter a little ways away so that it looks like there was a scuffle, and I'll return him, and what "contents I could find" she does air quotes to the authorities. I would suggest those contents include that glowing book Sharpe is messing with.

Murderer. Thief. Psychopath. Madman.

Those words ringed and circled in Jericho's head. He had blacked out, the last words he heard being 'emotionless blood soaked construct'. It was not the first time Jericho has been called these things. Names get tossed about when someone tries something new, something bold...But that didn't mean they didn't cut like a razors edge. The last person to call him something similar to that...a monster...It had been the moment that RD and him split up. Words similar to them always hurt him...and Atrium. He couldn't help but see that he shared a trait with the man he hated. Jericho could feel the pain of the words reach his heart. There was a flicker of sadness, betrayal and guilt. But those feelings soon got flooded by anger, rage and hatred.

Jericho snaps out of it and looks at Jack. He starts pulling more energy as she starts casting a spell. As he does so, his eyes start to glow silver. He is not sure when or how the man got covered in ice, but it was perfect for him.

"A madman...A murderer? Is that what you think I am? I am sure there are those out there that would agree with you. As I had said, it was a mistake that lead to a few untimely demises. A MISTAKE! But you wouldn't understand that, would you? After all, you are 'normal' and not a 'emotionless blood soaked construct'. You are unable to feel the pain I do, the burden I do, the...the regret I do."

As Jericho speaks, his hand grows increasingly brighter as his spell near completion. When it is ready, Jericho lifts his hand up and holds it out like he is telling someone to stop.


"Let me give you a taste of the pain I feel."

With that Jericho fires a beam from his hand. The beam shines silver and travels quickly, hitting Jack in the middle of his chest. It is a painful hit that knocks the man back a bit and Jericho watches as Jack hits the ground hard, being unable to dodge or brake his fall do to the ice. Jericho walks over to the downed man. He looks down, his eyes showing hatred.

"That was a simple concussion blast. You don't have any broken bones nor are you bleeding, you just feel pain. Just like I do everyday when I wake. What you are feeling is just a very small fraction of the pain I feel, witch may be hard for you to believe since you are in a world of hurt....It's not easy being a madman...But I guess I need to be one if I am going to cure death its self."

And with that, Jericho turns and looks at everyone staring at him. He does not care. They can think poorly of him if they wish, everyone does eventually. He walks over and takes the glowing book, not noticing it before. The symbols on it seems to be ringing some bells in the back of his mind but he cannot place them. When he speaks, his voice is nothing like it was. It is low and soft and it is easy to hear the sadness in his voice.

"You people do as you please. I will be of little help. Do to the events of today, I can only now cast simple spells, my energy being low. I am going to study this book. It intrigues me."

He then turns and starts making his way to the stair case. If no one stops him, he will walk into his room and shut the door.

More than before, Jack regretted his words. While Jericho claimed he as completely fine, Jack felt as though his internal organs were pounded into schnitzel. Jack truly pitied Jericho for no reason other than the fact that pity was the only thing Jack was capable of giving Jericho. Maybe he was exaggerating, maybe he wasn't. The only thing Jack could deduce is that someone in that much pain was numb. Was it mental pain Jericho was trying to portray? Was it physical? The curiosity that rattle his brain as usual was the only thing to help ignore the pain. He silently laid there staring at the ceiling. Perhaps he should just stay there on the ground. Everything he's done has been screw up after screw up after all.

"I know it doesn't seem this way but you got to believe me when I tell you this is all good in the long run."

It was the sound of his brother's voice in the back of his head. It sounded comforting, but Jack could figure what it was referring to.

(AUTHOR'S SIDE NOTE: PLEASE DON'T HATE ME FOR THIS, BUT I ORIGINALLY HAD A PLOT ABOUT ROBOTS AND OTHER SHIT PLANNED. AFTER REALIZING HOW STUPID AND CONVOLUTED IT WAS, I RETCONNED IT)