040

--TheirWorld--

Orle wiggle his piggy nose as he looked between Guin and the stack of wolf heads that she had unloaded onto his counter. Eyes narrowing, he peered at them, closer and closer. As always, he was looking for something to complain about, but the closer he looked, the brighter his expression got.

“Well’en! Ain’t these just fresh ‘n pretty now!” Orle said, lifting one of the heads and scrutinizing it. “Skinned ‘n all! ‘Aight then! ‘Ow many yeh got ‘ere? I’ll give yeh a silver fer each, as promised!”

Guin smirked as she accepted the two dozen silvers from Orle and went on her way. She headed to the main market with intention of selling her other goods to players who could use them — to build their skills if not for profits. As she walked, she took inventory of the items that were in her bags. Meats, bones; other beastly bits. She imagined that they could all be used for crafting, and as such, would have some value to someone. If a direct buyer couldn’t be found in the player market, she was sure she could put them up on the auction house for a fee. Either way, she hoped that she wouldn’t have to waste too much time looking for buyers on her own.

Strolling around to the merchant streets of the city in her new cloak, she saw a large number of flyers floating around and the people that were standing around and though some passing by her were intrigued by the look of her furs, most were happy to ignore the dirty looking girl with her rag-like appearance. There were an awful lot of them, Guin thought. People. There were often a great many people in the area, but there seemed to be some kind of buzz going around.

For starters, considering the number of people that were in and along the road, there didn’t seem to be much in the way of selling going on. Though Guin didn’t really think herself terrible familiar with the area, or with the crafters and the merchants, it did seem that the players around her weren’t the usual starter city fare.

“Did you see?” Guin heard a young witch decked out in an elaborate, victorian-style dress mutter to her tivarys friend as they passed. “Isn’t is exciting?”

“Maybe we can get an autograph!” the friend — seemingly a knight in full, intricately embossed plate and a very impractical long sword swung across her back — answered.

In other games, seeing high level characters in a low level area wasn’t really all that unusual. Even in TheirWorld it wasn’t terribly odd, though it was far more normal to see career crafters, gatherers, and merchants than warriors. But the number that Guin now saw gathering in spades that made her curious. Several more groups of well geared young men and women passed, urging on their companions, and muttering curious phrases like, “I wonder if we can get pictures?”, “Do you think he’s still here?”, and “I hope we can get a good view!”.

What is going on? Guin asked herself as she watched another group of girls run down the lane, pushing some others as they went. Some kind of event? A celebrity? In fact, the majority of the twittering, happy voices seemed to be coming from girls and women — yet, Guin saw disapproving stares coming from the sides of the street as she went on. Men or women; the merchants and trades people sat in their shops, glowering at the passersby — some even outright refusing to sell their goods to the well-equipped out-of-towners who tried to buy from them.

Some of the shop people she did recognize. Curious, and still looking to sell her goods, she headed towards a small group off to the side sitting in the stall of a young blacksmith she had seen selling his wares just the night before. Sitting with him were a young tivarys girl and her garuli friend from the shop next door, the novice chef she knew as TonkatsuMan who had his stall across the street, and a couple of others dressed in simple clothes.

The young blacksmith eyed her wearily as she approached. “What do you want?” he asked, brown eyes glinting in the sunlight. When she had seen him before, he was full of smiles and laughter welcoming any and all business. Now, his face was anything but welcoming.“We aren’t open.”

“Ham…,” the brightly colored garule started at his side, a seemingly permanent sort of worried expression on its face.

“What?” he asked bitterly.

TonatsuMan looked her over and said, “I think it’s alright. I think she’s from around here. You bought from me before, didn’t you? You aren’t one of… them?”

Guin shook her head and introduced herself. “I was going around to find buyers for my goods when I saw all these people. What’s going on?”

“A mess,” TonkatsuMan said miserably. “Everything is a mess. Take a seat. What goods are you looking to sell? We aren’t doing anything for the fame seekers, but we can see about helping you?” It was more of a suggestion to the other than a statement for her to take heed of, but the others nodded in turn and went back to staring at those passing in the street.

“Mostly animal goods. Meat, bones, et cetera,” she told him. “What kind of mess would bring in this many people? Sounds like they have some kind of celebrity up and around in here — but I’d imagine that would be good business for you guys, and you all don’t seem to keen on the new coin in town.”

The tivarys girl snorted. “Oh, it’s good money to do business with them,” she said. “But it’s blood money. Us of the merchant street, we are a pretty tight knit group. I guarantee you that anyone making profit off of this is going to be blacklisted by every other merchant, crafter, and gatherer out there. Miko and I will buy those bones off you.”

“What do you mean ‘blood money’?” Guin asked as she took out the bones and handed them to the tivarys in exchange for several silver prices. The garule — who she assumed was Miko — looked through them eagerly. Finding a few he was happy with, he took out a carving knife and started working at carving one of the bones quickly but skillfully. The rest the tivarys girl turned to dust before their very eyes.

“It the VCU,” the smith told her, putting his hands behind his neck as he craned his head upwards. “The Oh-So-Wonderful Silver Hound and his crew. If only he was as good at his job as he was good looking.”

“Your just jealous,” the tivarys said, giving Ham a side eye.

TonkatsuMan waved at them. “The VCU is doing their best,” he told them. “It takes time. I’ll get that meat off you, Guin, if you don’t mind.”

“Time is people lives, Katsu,” Ham growled. “The longer they take, the more people die. What if it you, or me next? What if it’s all of us?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Guin went. “Back up. Is this about serial murders?”

“Yeah,” Katsu answered.

“The ones that happened in Io?” Guin asked.

“Exactly those,” the tivarys told her.

“One of the people killed was a friend of ours,” Katsu explained. “A member of this community here, and a few others in the Mist territories.” A chill went down Guin’s spine.

The tivarys girl leaned over with her head on the table. “The VCU is here conducting an investigation. And of course, where the VCU goes, so shall the Silver Hound.”

“Disrespectful little shit,” the smith muttered.

“And here I thought they said that there was no connection to TheirWorld,” Guin said. “I guess the VCU is involved in the investigation after all…”

Scoffing, Ham told her. “Oh, they always were; just not officially. That way they don’t need to start making excuses on the news as to the why they are involved. Fact of the matter is,” he continued, “The EPD doesn’t have a god damn clue as to what the hell is going on.”

“Considering the EPD is essentially made of students, just like every other part of the Enclave, which part of that is shocking?” the tivarys girl drawled. “Not like we can do anything about it.”

“Is what it is,” Kastu agreed as he counted out the meats that Guin had given him. “Did you want me to just cook these for you instead of gold? I’ll cook them all up and maybe keep a fourth as a fee for time and other ingredients? I can give you a fair selection; should last you about a real-time week with several different meals.”

“That would be great, yeah, thanks!”

“Give me a few.”

“It’s scary, though,” the bright little garuli said in garuli tongue. His green scales were patterned with bright yellow stripes, but his eyes were a deep, thoughtful black. “All these people… All these people here who are more interested in taking a picture with celebrity character than worrying about the fact there might be a killer in our midst.

“That’s just how people are,” the tivarys said. “No one wants to be in a train wreck, but they all sure as hell want to watch it.”

Katsu handed Guin the first meat stick, “Just in case you’re hungry,” and then knocked on the table, near where the tivarys girl was laying her head. “Don’t be so pessimistic. People aren’t that bad.”

“You say that, but do you know how often I’ve had trade health pots for sheeping pots to put assholes making fun of Miko, just ‘cause he’s a garule, in their place?” she told him with a scowl. Guin felt a twinge of guilt and shifted in her seat. “And let’s not mention the little boys and girls I’ve tricked into buying laxatives because of how they treat their ‘companions’. People are assholes.”

Ham and Katsu exchanged glances, before the smith chuckled and said, “Cynth, you’re bloody scary, you know that?”

As the table laughed, Guin heard the sound of dirt shifting under boots, and turned to see what she felt was a very unlikely character — though he was dressed very appropriately for the mess they were in.

“I thought I heard an annoyingly familiar voice with this sour looking group,” came the voice of Grim. The earar strolled up, wearing a long grey, black, and yellow leather coat with the VCU’s coat of arms perfectly attached to its left arm and breast. “I see you like meat sticks,” his ears twitched. “Does your boyfriend know?”