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| Another Rude Awakening; [FIN] [P] Eko | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sun May 26, 2013 3:33 pm (957 Views) | |
| Lady Eko | Sun Jun 2, 2013 4:10 pm Post #16 |
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Eko's heart beat a mile a minute. This was the first time Mohdu's had been compromised in such a way. Mind control magic was high on her long list of things she had spent countless nights worrying about, planning against, trying to anticipate. Now she knew that she could never anticipate any of these things, not really. She just had to act. A woman, one of the inn staff, came tearing down the hallway from the other side. Eko couldn't see her eyes well enough, but based on her strange behavior she just assumed she was a victim of the mind control magic, too. Wait. Was Mohdu's truly compromised if her goal was the exit? But Mr. Lamar... Jachin had lost his memory, too. The girl's grip tightened on her dagger as she took a hard left out of the open back door, hot on the woman's heels. She didn't know what was going on. What Eko did know was that she needed to protect her employees and allies, whose minds had been compromised by magic, as well as Mr. Lamar, who may also have been a victim of the mind control. Her fast-moving thoughts arrived at the conclusion that the mind control spell was jumping bodies in an attempt to reach Mr. Lamar and kill him. Needless to say, she was not willing to allow her people to be used as an assassin for someone else's business, to do a job against someone who seemed perfectly innocent. If she could find out who the mage was that was remotely controlling these people, she would really make them suffer. Eko felt a kernel of anger digging into her gut as she sprinted down the alley after her helpless, controlled staff member. They burst out into the street. Eko ran across and hurled her whole body up, running two steps up a sheer building wall to grab the overhanging roof, holding the dagger with her teeth. She pulled herself up with remarkable speed, keeping the fleeing woman in her peripherals. Challenging her to a chase across the convoluted city planning of Balefire was about the stupidest move that mind-mage could have ever tried to pull. Eko went barreling across rooftops, prepared to pounce on her fleeing prey. |
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| Lamar | Sun Jun 2, 2013 4:29 pm Post #17 |
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He risked a glance behind him. Eko had vanished after one of the turns. Did he manage to lose her? Was she taking another route? It wasn't as though this mind's mental map was as detailed as the wolf boy's, and he couldn't simply take those memories with him without memorizing them himself. He needed to focus. He tossed those worries out and pushed harder, pushing his burning legs and lungs to keep him moving. This body might have been fit enough for long hours of work at a tavern, but it was no marathoner. It didn't matter. Lamar could work past that. The body was capable of the speeds he needed, even if it wasn't willing. He searched as he sprinted, both for signs of that infernal Eko and for another body. There! In the alley! A man with long, shaggy hair pulled into a rattail. He was a gang member, as well. From the lazy way he was leaning against a wall, he didn't have Lamar's body in view, but it was much, much better than this body who was beginning to collapse. He leapt again, adjusted, and turned into the darkness of the alley as casually as possible, hunching over and rifling through this body's mind for hints of his goal. Behind him, the freed body of the woman dropped, shaking with exhaustion, barely holding herself up on her hands and knees, and vomited from the unusual exertion. Lamar barely noticed and cared even less. This mind had more information, the gate his body was heading toward. Instead of wandering the streets aimlessly, he'd head there. He simply hoped he'd get there before his body did, and Eko was finally thrown off his trail. Edited by Lamar, Sun Jun 2, 2013 4:32 pm.
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| Lady Eko | Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:18 am Post #18 |
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Eko whistled loud through her fingers, then vaulted down the side of a building before catching herself on a ledge just next to some stairs. She positioned herself to clothesline the tavern worker as soon as she tore past, but the moment never came. Instead, the sound of retching pulled the girl out of her cover and made her feet move faster toward the poor lady. She apologized, placing a hand gingerly on her shoulder, torn between helping her employee or letting the mind mage get away. "Go," she said. Her hesitation cost her precious time and, more importantly, the magic had switched bodies again. During her frantic search of the area via rooftop, Ansha bounded up to her from street level, heeding her whistle. By then the girl was out of breath. She leaned over the edge of the building she currently stood on. "Ansha! We're going to play a game! It's called, 'Chase Anyone Who's Running Away!'" While her enthusiastic tone got the dire dog's tail wagging, it took more gestures and understandable commands to get her wandering off in search of the runner. Other employees of hers also gathered loosely in this time, looking up to her for direction after either catching up with her or spotting her shenanigans midway through. She managed to enlist three street enforcers in the job of searching within the span of a minute or two, and couldn't spare to waste more time than that. They had instructions to spread the word of the search to other enforcers and civilians, too. Eko had caught her breath and continued her acrobatic journey across the city, hoping she could find the current magic-infested person herself. |
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| Lamar | Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:46 am Post #19 |
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Lamar hunched his shoulders and worked his way back to the main streets, doing his best to not glance back for pursuit. Hopefully, he'd lost Eko in the maze behind him, and she was stuck with the dead end trail the serving woman left. From what he'd learned, there wasn't a magic in this land to trace his trail, nor tell from a distance which person held him. There was just the issue of the damn eyes. They couldn't be brown or grey or baby blue, of course; they had to be a shocking bright green. He kept his chin tucked downward and stared stoically at his feet, moving with purpose but not undue haste. This was a game of blending in, walking with the other humans in this black town. If he kept calm and kept walking, Eko would have no way to find him beyond getting right up in his face, and in a city of thousands, he doubted she could do that before he reached the gate. Of course, the issue is that while he could possess any pair of eyes he wanted, Eko had a number of eyes under her command. He first noticed them as they walked against the flow of the crowd, getting far too close to people, gazing at them straight in the eye, if only for a moment, before moving on. His current memories marked them as also in the pay of Eko. Why was she making this so damn difficult, he thought as he turned into another alley. He did nothing to anyone in her place of business, besides run that serving human ragged, and that was due to her own persistence. She'd seen two who'd fallen under his power. She knew there were no longterm side effects, at least she did if she knew what rapid sprinting could do to a body. Why did she care so damn much? It was time to shift again, just in case. He picked out a gentleman in the crowd, going who knew where. Lamar knew as he shifted again. To a lunchdate with a client. He was going to be late. Another one of the pesky street thugs was patrolling this way, as well. Lamar shifted again, into a young woman already behind him. He moved a few steps, then felt his knees buckle and had to grasp the wall beside him. Dammit. He was growing weaker, and each of these shifts was draining him more and more. He couldn't afford to keep leaping about, but he couldn't rush either, and he had to get to the gate before Lamar left through it and vanished who knew where. At least every native to the city knew where it was, even if they lacked the detailed maps of Eko's thugs. He quickened his steps toward the gate, cursing the insipid high heels hobbling his stride. He didn't care if his current host found them adorable. They were a hazard to his feet and poor design in footwear in general. He would burn them and the shop they came from if it was convenient. |
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| Lady Eko | Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:07 am Post #20 |
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Ten minutes later, Eko jumped down to ground level to meet with a couple of her enforcers. They shook their heads regrettably. Ansha returned to her side not long after. She pushed her nose under the girl's hand to get her to scratch her ears. This situation was frustrating enough that she muttered an uncharacteristically explicit curse under her breath. "We don't even know anything about this magic or how it works. Chasing it could be totally fruitless for all we know." "What would you have us do now?" She swept her hand through the air, frustrated. "Stop the search. Get over to the gate and meet with the men shadowing Mr. Lamar as fast as you can. We'll probably be too late, though." Godsdammit. She should've done that from the beginning. There had to be a connection between the mind control magic and Mr. Lamar. Or at least Eko would very much prefer that was the case, since that meant it was less likely to be the result of some malevolent intent to breach her headquarters' security. Her enforcers, starting to get tired, broke off running nevertheless. Eko stayed behind a moment, just close enough to dead on her feet that she wasn't going to enjoy tearing off the last stretch of freerunning. |
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| Lamar | Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:43 am Post #21 |
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Lamar kept up his hobbling, brushing off anyone who paused in their business to get into his. It wasn't his fault this woman chose some of the most ridiculous, teetering footwear to take a proper stride in. If they really wanted to help, they could offer him a proper pair of shoes. Barefeet would be better! In fact... Now he could make proper pace! The cursed footwear were left to rot in a gutter as was proper, and he was free to move with speed. He couldn't help but give a self satisfied smile, swinging the parasol in hand. Even the annoying binding around his waist, the corset, could damper the joy of not having your feet arching onto tippy toes. And he was so close to the gate now. Hopefully, if his body had reached it, it hadn't gotten far beyond it. It'd be better if it was within town so he didn't have to chase it through the forest beyond. Luck was finally with him. His body was still meandering toward the gate, glancing about with a nervous air. He knew it was starting to catch on to his identity, so the furtive glances didn't bother him. Once he was back home, it wouldn't matter. He could head back to the inn, relax, forget all about this little event- And recall that Eko had sent others to shadow him. Dammit. He didn't know if they knew of his presence, but that was answered quickly when he spotted the shaggy mass that was her canine. No matter. He had to focus. Keep his eyes on the goal. Once he was home, he could deal with them in a body he was used to, one he'd been sweating his arse off getting it into some semblance of shape, one that would revive his wilting self instead of drain it further. He wouldn't fight them; there were too many, but he'd be damned if they caught him. There was still too much distance. He had to close in, and that meant barreling through what was likely a line of more Eko thugs. He furrowed his brow, unfurled his parasol to angle it to hid his face, and closed in. Once he was close enough, he kicked one of the thugs in the back of the knee and smacked a second in the skull with the parasol, cracking its brittle wooden shaft in splintered halves. He sprinted through the opening they left and rushed toward his body. He didn't trust himself to transfer again. He never wanted to push himself to that extreme in this land. All he needed to do was get close enough to Lamar, and he didn't even spare the energy to consider any of Eko's thugs stopping him now. |
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| Lady Eko | Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:13 pm Post #22 |
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None of the thugs had fought something quite like this before -- magic that could switch bodies -- and it showed. There was too much confusion in the woman's initial attack. People couldn't decide if it was worth it to restrain her or whether they would need to follow Eko's orders down to the letter by getting to Mr. Lamar as quickly as possible. Perhaps both were equally useless. Nevertheless, they didn't give up. There was chaos on the street as the crowd bent, security guards moving in two counteracting currents around hapless bystanders who themselves were so concerned with trying to get out of the way that they made the situation worse. The barefoot, corseted woman broke out from a denser cluster and aimed for the home stretch. Other guards that freed themselves were hot on their heels and would catch up with her in moments. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Eko jumped down from the rooftops and landed in the middle of an open patch, right between Mr. Lamar and the woman. She was badly out of breath, but had enough energy to take an intimidating crack with her whip. The black cord arced around her body, dark as a shadow, and came to rest on the ground around her. The girl's other hand was free. When the woman came within striking distance, Eko launched the whip in her direction -- more gently this time. If it touched one of her limbs, it would wrap tightly around her as Eko gripped the handle with both hands and tried to jerk her back. "Protect Mr. Lamar," she told the massing group of security guards around the gate. OOC
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| Lamar | Sat Jun 29, 2013 6:53 pm Post #23 |
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Lamar elbowed, kicked, punched, and kneed his way through, gasping for breath in the constricting corset. Before now, it hadn't bothered him besides making his back feel stiff, but it was impossible to draw a full lung of air with it on! If he'd known how much of an issue it'd be, he'd have at least loosened it before now. Shoving his way through the gang members intercepting him toward the others pushing his confused body away was not the time to deal with it, however. Besides, it wasn't to be his problem for any more than a few more seconds.... "Move! Come on, Lamar!" "What?" Lamar said, his head whipping around in confusion as people suddenly broke from the crowd and began shoving him, forcing him to wince with each rushed step. "What's going on?" "Just get moving! Now!" The bearded thug shouted, glancing back. Lamar followed his gaze to see a well dressed woman in bare feet and wielding a broken parasol scrabble and fight her way through more of Eko's people. She glanced toward him, and her eyes were focused and deadly, burning a verdant green. Lamar's face paled, and he tried to quicken his steps to match those of his guard. It was following him. It was there, and they saw it, too. He glanced back again to see it break through the line. Lamar began to shake. Eko lept from above, landing between himself and it, but Lamar, nauseous with dread, knew it was too late. It was too close, and he'd sleep again until who knew when. The sharp, cold, green eyes matched his. The lovely painted face of the woman grinned, even as she struggled against the whip that ensnared her arm. Lamar stumbled, and he was no more. Lamar opened his eyes, feeling new strength fill him. As much as he'd love to take over that Eko, laugh as he took her own dagger to her guts and leave her bleeding with a perforated belly, he didn't have the strength, and he certainly didn't have the time to free himself from Eko's whip. He left the woman, leaving her to scream in hysterics about the whip, the bruises, and the loss of her shoes, and felt his essence burn in the poisonous air until, finally, he was back home. Now he could flee properly, running toward the city gate and vanish in the forest beyond where- He'd hurt his damn foot? Dammit! His body couldn't even fall properly? Of all the insipid things to hobble him, it was his own body's escape plans that led him on this wild chase to begin with? He limped as quickly as he could anyway, trying to outstrip the escort around him. He couldn't afford switching again, not now that he'd run himself ragged trying to reach his goal. Just lose the lot of them and get out of here. He could backtrack for his things and a proper physician later He just had to escape that damn Eko once and for all. |
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| Lady Eko | Sun Jun 30, 2013 7:22 pm Post #24 |
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The green dissolved from the woman's eyes. That was when Eko knew she'd finally lost their little game. She ignored the woman's tantrum, only letting her free from the whip. Tensing up, she turned around to see Mr. Lamar. He would be dead, or mind-controlled, she supposed. The only indication he was up ahead was the dense group of security guards surrounding a spot near the gate. They all acted at once, grabbing the man at the center roughly and fighting off some kind of struggle. The woman screamed something about Balefire or her faction, but Eko just walked up to the group and tapped the closest guard on the shoulder. She started at the girl's touch. "Be gentle," Eko said softly. The group parted to reveal Mr. Lamar, his eyes a bright shade of green. The magic wasn't jumping anymore. Eko coiled her whip deliberately, face blank. "I see. Your goal wasn't to make someone kill Mr. Lamar. You wanted to use him." She stepped closer. "Please explain." |
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| Lamar | Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:21 pm Post #25 |
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It seemed as soon as he came back to himself and attempted to lumber away - just what his escort was demanding - they suddenly grappled him and pinned his arms, threatening to knock him down. Lamar kicked and lashed out with his legs, but that was hobbled by the fact that standing on one leg caused shooting pain while kicking with that same leg threatened to aggravate his injury. How had he twisted his ankle? That damn blanket rope was long. It couldn't have been that far a fall. All this versus the manpower against him meant he was simply expelling unneeded calories. Unless they dropped their guards, he wasn't escaping. Without a signal he heard, they parted, leaving him in the center of a horseshoe with Eko - the damnable shedog Eko - standing at its opening, holding the serpentine whip in her hands. "I see," she said, coiling the whip again and watching him with a dead expression. "Your goal wasn't to make someone kill Mr. Lamar. You wanted to use him." She closed the distance between them as Lamar gawked. "Please explain." He knew how he should be reacting, according to his memories from his time away. He should be acting like a goofy, pandering spineless twit, just as he had when her dog lured him to her and he sought her help. But he couldn't. After the nice little gamut of hell she put him through, and for this reason for doing it, he could only stare blankly, trying to sort out this madwoman's motivations, then sneer. She knew what he could do. There was no need to hide it, at least. He might as well act himself, up to the point of physical violence. He was in his home body now. No reason for it when, even if he succeeded, it'd end badly for himself. "That's it? That's the reason you've been hounding me all this way when I was expressly trying to leave you alone? That's why? Because you thought I was out to kill myself? Do you honestly have nothing better to do with your time!?" He shook off the last of the limp hands holding him and stood up, straight and proud, despite the pain screaming from his foot. "Fine, you've won. You've caught me. Are we done now, or do you plan to make my life even more complicated for me beyond trying to keep me from my body?" |
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| Lady Eko | Wed Jul 3, 2013 11:33 am Post #26 |
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Eko weathered Lamar's outburst without any reaction. Some of her employees looked a little uncomfortable, and a few gawkers mulled around the background. Often when facing someone this angry, Eko found that the easiest way to steam them up even more -- and to throw them off-balance -- was simply to pause and continue to take the conversation at a leisurely pace. What they wanted was rapid-fire insults, usually, and that wasn't something Eko was ever willing to take part in. She clipped her coiled whip to a special apparatus on her belt and slid her hands into the pockets of her jacket, never breaking eye contact all the while. "Ah. A demon that requires a host. To be honest, I'm a little shocked you even left your host's personality intact." Saying that didn't mean she approved of it. Not by a long shot. Eko might have looked stoic, maybe even emotionless, but she could feel an ember of anger working through her stomach. It came through in what she said not long after. She shoved her hands deeper into the jacket pockets, squared her shoulders. "Try telling me that man who lives in 'your' body has agreed to be used like this. As nothing but a sack of meat you can use to interact with the world. Just try it after I saw him so scared and confused, thinking nothing except how to get away." She exhaled sharply through her nose: a disapproving sound. Eko's features hardened. "Claiming someone else's body as your home? You're disgusting. It would have been better if you were just trying to kill him." |
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| Lamar | Wed Jul 3, 2013 2:41 pm Post #27 |
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Insult piled upon damned insult. That she guessed his nature was irritating, but in a world as chaotically malleable as this and with the evidence she'd seen, it was only a matter of time for someone to see through his paperthin deception. However, to think he selected this body out of all the strange and powerful and knowledgeable creatures he'd encountered thus far... "I did not-" Stop. Breathe. She was remaining cool on purpose. Negotiations and debate were as much a battle as any crossing of swords, or so his love tried to convince him. He at least recognized the tactic of keeping calm and deliberate to enrage the opponent, to make them more aggressive, but also slower to think and react. Breathe. He might not be a grand speaker, but he didn't need to fall for such a simple trick. "So, then, what will you do with me?" He said, spreading his arms slightly, trying to keep as calm and cool as she. "Will you let me depart? Will you take me prisoner, or, if you truly feel that way, will you simply kill me?" The last was a bluff, one he felt certain, considering her exposure and feelings with his body. If she did take him up on it, however, it would mean his death, he feared, but not before her own after facing an opponent she couldn't touch and who literally was left with nothing to lose. |
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| Lady Eko | Mon Jul 8, 2013 12:53 am Post #28 |
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This question made Eko face her own predicament. She couldn't tolerate such removal of someone's free will. Killing him was out of the question, as it would do nothing to help the body of Mr. Lamar. Neither could she tolerate doing nothing. A compromise came to mind. "By taking someone's free will, their most fundamental right, you've forfeited your own. I'll respect the body. The mind, on the other hand, owes a huge debt -- and I'm its collector." Eko flashed a series of hand gestures at the crowd around her. They converged around Lamar and grabbed his arms. She drifted behind his field of view. The last thing he would likely see was her brown arms wrapping hard around his neck, pinching him into an efficient sleeper hold. Eko was pulling up a chair just as Lamar came to. They sat in a homey little inn room, fully furnished. There were a few oddities, though. First of all, the window behind him was barred in a thick iron grate. Behind Eko, the locks on the inner side of the door had clearly been removed -- and were on the outside instead. Otherwise, the man was free to wander the room and use its facilities at his leisure. They had even placed his body on the bed, which was comfortable but a little too small for him. The young woman laid her jacket over the back of the chair and took a seat, crossed her legs and arms. The clothes she wore were different from their last meeting, suggesting that either quite a bit of time had passed or she had simply changed upon re-entering her headquarters. "You could try forcing yourself into my mind," she began, "but don't say I didn't warn you. There's a reason I'm not delegating your interrogation. Many, actually." |
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| Lamar | Mon Jul 8, 2013 1:36 am Post #29 |
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Lamar woke up. For once, he didn't know where, and that was angering him more and more. He recalled being grabbed from behind after another small signal from the insufferable Eko. He recalled pressure, instinctual panic, and then this, his awakening in a room, on an arguably comfortable bed, next to the selfsame Eko, lounging in a chair nearby and watching him. Looking around, the room and doors were all impenetrable. Likely they weren't for him, but with his body locked up, he might as well remain. He sat up after the assessment and set about mumbling and waving his hands around his hurt ankle, willing it to heal by magic. "You could try forcing yourself into my mind," Eko started her private conversation with him, using the same bored tone that disguised any emotion she shared. He had to admit, it was starting to aggravate him as well as bore him. "But don't say I didn't warn you. There's a reason I'm not delegating your interrogation. Many, actually." "Considering you'd likely warned all your underlings about me already," Lamar said, interrupting his healing, "I see no advantage to that." He spent a few more minutes healing his ankle before he spoke again. "So, if you aren't delegating this interrogation, who is? I hope I haven't been out too long. I've only rented my room for a few more days, and I refuse to loose all my things because of your paranoia." Edited by Lamar, Mon Jul 8, 2013 1:42 am.
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| Lady Eko | Tue Jul 9, 2013 8:46 pm Post #30 |
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Her head tilted. "I'm not delegating this interrogation to anyone because I'm going to give you a job. You remember what I said about your debt? A debt is a horrible thing, but you've earned it. I intend to have you work it off." What Eko didn't tell him was that during the duration of his stay, she would put all her resources to work finding a way to separate the demon from his host permanently, or perhaps kill the demon without harming the host. "You're basically mine, and that's terrible. You should feel sorry for yourself. But--" her eyes flashed from a loose thread on her cuff to him, dry tone unerring, "--I could make a deal with you? Our floor space is limited, I have many enemies that must be tied down more than you, and I do dislike making my employees prisoners. How about this. If you take the job I'm offering and perform it to the letter, without any funny business, I'll let you live wherever you want in the city. Provided you keep showing up to do my bidding, of course. It'll be like you're on house arrest." She gave him a chance to chime in, like he had some sort of say in the matter, but continued with her job description afterward regardless. "A half-orc named Benny the Tooth has been bullying the merchant stalls on and near Tetrarch Street and slandering my name. I want you to take over his body and make him utterly humiliate himself. Don't kill him. I just want him out of the picture as a legitimate threat to my business within the western bazaar. I also don't want it to look like I was the one who orchestrated it. It should be a realistic humiliation, based on any knowledge you can get about him." |
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8:19 AM Jul 11

