TwoWomenOneCityIndex | HomePage | GameLogs | GameThreadsSummer2007 | TwoWomenOneCity Two Women One CityKrysta manages only a few strides away from Martin and Meriel before Noys catches up to walk alongside her. "I'm growing to realize that there are limits of your tolerance for talk, as opposed to action." Noys says sardonically, but with a smile as they approach the entrance to the city and the group of people seeking the same. "We don't have the time to waste. We've annoyed Tamora and she's playing by rules we don't know." Krysta shrugs lightly. "How do you want to play this, as far as getting in?" Noys asks as the line in front of them, and thus the pair, move closer to the entrance and the guards. "Who are we?" "Country yokels come to see the big city. We're looking for our cousins. They work for a lady named Tamora, if we have to go that far." Krysta is slightly distracted as she watches the crowd, looking for beings that may fit that type of description. A few small shifts to match clothing as much as can be expected would be nice, something somewhat hooded would be good as well. Her hand goes to Promise, seeking support, reassurance, guidance, whatever may be offfered.... The small shifts Krysta manages to make before reaching the gate are subtle but useful. Hoods that neither of them had on their clothes before allow them to keep some discretion as they reach the expectant and waiting guards. "Business in Ys?" one of the guards, a beefy figure with a cast and look that is vaguely porcine in nature, asks in a thick accent. At this moment, although its been quiescent thus far, Promise gives a subtle throb. Recognition? Support? Readiness? Its difficult to read the sword, after decades of having no clue of its greater mind. But a reassuring feeling of some sort does come through the brief contact. "Visiting relatives who work in the fair city." Noys says, covering any hesitation that Krysta has. The guard regards Noys, nods, dismisses her by looking away, and then regards Krysta. "You're no hausfrau like your friend here. What do you do for a living? What Bloodline are you?" "None that will claim me." Krysta allows her own bitterness at that situation to give her words the ring of truth, "although I'm seen fit to accompany her. It's a big city, and she needs someone to watch over her." The bodyguard role is a natural for her to fall into, and hopefully a female performing that task for a single female is not an unusual situation. She concentrates on "everything is normal and acceptable, nothing remarkable" in her thoughts and body language. The guard looks at Noys, and then at Krysta. His piggish eyes run back and forth and settle on Krysta. "Hunh. You look like her, kind of." Noys blinks. Finally the guard shrugs, and nods. "None of my business. You two may pass. Welcome to Ys. Relieved, Noys moves forward into the space beyond the gate. As she heads forward and Krysta has the opportunity to do so, she hears a side comment the guard makes. "Probably a bastard child of that optimate's House. She looks like she can use that sword, though." Beyond the guard, the passage opens up into a square where the pair can get out of the main flow of the people seeking entrance and exit. There are, predictably, merchamts, beggars, criers, and other individuals here. Perhaps its an aftereffect of Krysta's recent thoughts, but none of these as yet approach the pair. Krysta keeps her tone low, for Noys' ears only. "what do you think, religious or beaurocratic first? My guess is that we'll find Tamora in the religious areas, and I wouldn't be surprised to find prisoners there. However she seemed quite proprietorial, so could be a civic leader, and that's also where prisoners could be kept." She ignores the comments from the guard, both on her similarity to Noys and her profession. Noys considers Krysta's question for a moment, her eyes scanning, looking and trying to pick out the larger buildings that they can reasonably reach without much difficulty. "Religious, I think. This city might be a theocracy and we'll get both in the same net." Noys says. "From my studies of architecture and sociology, the largest buildings here should be either religious or political in nature. Or." Noys says. "the real source of power here in any event, which might be holding Pol and Dulcinea. In any event, let's choose one of the large buildings here and enquire. I think." Noys looks around at the beggars, merchants and other inhabitants of the square. "that if we don't move, we'll be deluged with offers we can and should refuse." "That complex down the main way." Noys indicates a cluster of large, cyclopean buildings. "Or that x shaped building down that way. Or, if you want to dare it, we could hire a tout." "Tout, tout, you need a tout?" three people overhearing the conversation cry, and move in the direction of Krysta and Noys. Krysta will let Noys take the appearance of the leader and keep in her role, while making the decisions. It's nothing against Noys, but she fairly screams inexperience. She looks over the touts. "I think this one looks dependable and will surely convey you to our destination without attempting to take any detours." She fixes the hapless tout driver with a look that states he had better do exactly that. The pale skinned man, with dark hair and an elongated forehead, looks back at Krysta's stare and flinches. He gives a brief nod, to Krysta alone, Noys perhaps missing it altogether as she looks beyond him to where the driver originated. "It will be easier for you than walking through this crowd." "You're right." Noys says. "It would be easier." The crowed disappears briefly to show that a tout is a shaded, pedal driven cart of some sort that looks like a cross between a bicycle and a rickshaw. Krysta turns her attention to the driver. "How much to take us to," she almost turns towards Noys, but keeps a close eye on the drivers, and the crowd, "what is that building where Cousine Tamora works called again?" She lowers her voice a bit on the name, no reason to let everyone know, but a few reactions would be helpful. "Um." Noys supplies helpfully. The tout driver looks poleaxed. When he recovers, he lowers his voice. "Your cousin has an auspicious name, to have the name of Tamora." "Why?" Noys asks. The man furrows his thick eyebrow at Krysta and Noys. "Surely, you must be from a far part of the Confluence, to have not heard of the Lady Tamora, the War Angel of the Theocracy College." Krysta smiles grimly, "that's the one. I can never remember fancy titles, and when she says get your tail up here, you don't stop to ask a lot of directions." If the man is willing, Krysta will "help" Noys into the tout and let him take him towards their destination. "Indeed." the tout driver says. "I would imagine that she is not lightly crossed even by those of you who are of her Bloodline. I will take you to the Theocracy College for a Hand of Bhats." "Pay him." Noys orders Krysta, adding a slight bored, imperious and cold tone to her voice. After Krysta pays the driver, and helps Noys into the vehicle, the trip begins. Given the distance between the driver and his portion of the vehicle from the pair, they have relative privacy for conversation. The powerful, stocky build of the driver provides a reasonable speed for the tout as it begins to make its way through Ys. Keeping her voice low, she asks Noys, "do you have a trump of Martin? I know he has one of me, but I don't know if he'll think to use it before the hawk is ready, and we may need them before that." A brief thought of the promised Trump painting from Jayson causes a pain that, while it's much less than the pain of losing Stephan and Calla, is similar. Her first friend in Amber is gone, and she was denied the chance to keep her word to help him. It's a bitter drop that will take time to absorb. But now is not the time, and she quickly buries it. "Unfortunately, No." Noys says regretfully, matching the low tone of voice. "Martin is parsimonious in giving out his own trump, and not because he has his technological trump toys, either." She turns to look at Krysta. "You did hear the story of him and Brand and the Pattern, yes?" she enquires. A quick search of memory, "about all I've heard is that Brand was trying to take over the Pattern or something" Krysta replies. "I'm fairly certain Martin has one of me. I only had the two copies, and I gave one to Jayson, and I think the other to Martin. They were fairly expensive in my eyes. I don't know that Martin will think to try me." Another quick mental scan of who she does have, "what about Dulcinea? do you have on of her?" Noys shakes her head again and gives a look of disappointment. "Unfortunately, she's too new to have trumps at all, except for Jayson, I suppose." And then she nudges Krysta, as the tout, turns a corner and approaches one of the larger buildings, set off from the others and fronted by a plaza with a fountain and staircases. A large cross dominates over it. "You wish to go into the College by the Shepherd's Gate, don't you?" the tout calls back, between huffs and puffs of his breath as he pulls the cart closer and closer to the sandstone building that dominates the area around it. "that sounds correct." Krysta comments to the driver, while examining the plaza. The plaza is an open two-tiered space, the levels connected by staircases which are on either side of the bubbling fountain. Noys looks down and starts looking through her trumps, and then looks starstruck. "Krysta." she says, holding up a card. Her tone is disbelieving, baffled, and confused as she hands Krysta the card. The style is not the same as most of the other trumps. Artistic, a natural at work that painted the subject, and painted it of someone that the artist cared about deeply. The colors are vibrant, new, the slightly surprised expression on the blond haired woman's face conveys a sense of youth, newness and wonder. "Dulcinea." Noys says. "Although I have no idea how it got into my deck." Krysta frowns, "we have to go in now, and they are sure to notice three leaving instead of two. What skills do you have with those. Mine tend towards the practical. Will they be able to track us if we use that? Because grabbing her would be nice, but we need both of them." Krysta keeps her scan of the area, noting crowd bottlenecks, (hopefully places to disappear,) guards and gates that may not be used. Which side of the plaza has the quickest access to crowds, and where there could be off site guards, towers, etc, and if there is what seems to be a peace force quartered nearby. Krysta surveys the plaza and the exits with a keen tactical eye as the tout driver approaches the plaza and stops to allow disembarkation. Its apparent to her that this part of the plaza is not designed for conflict. She can see how she would design this space, better, if it were to be made to withstand an assault. Once the pair will leave the tout, Krysta can get a better sense of the tactical layout, with Noys at her elbow. One major door, but off of the side of the building, suggests a less than optimal entry and leaving design. People have to cross the length of the plaza and queue up to get in and out of the place. Getting lost in a crowd entering or leaving would be relatively easy. As far as personnel, the area does much better. There are a few guard posts scattered around the perimeter of the building on this side, and, although Krysta cannot see, would expect the loose elliptical pattern around the far side. The posts are relatively small, holding perhaps a few guards each at the maximum. If there is a larger force, its not visibly stationed or quartered on this side of the building. There appear to be a couple of doors for servants or service, set far away from the main door. "I have some modest esoteric talents." Noys admits. "I've been quietly working on learning the arcane rules of the shadow every since we've gotten here. I'm not as fast or talented as Martin is with his technosorcery and trump work, and certainly not as fast as Lorius." she adds modestly. "But I think I can give us an edge, especially if we get into a conflict. But perhaps you have a better idea for my skills that we might use?" she adds hopefully. The cry of a bird of a prey pierces the quiet as it soars overhead. "What would help you and I best?" she clarifies as she regards Krysta. "a trump of Pollux would be nice, but my guess is that is too much to ask for." Noys shakes her head regretfully as Krysta continues. "Barring that, is there any way you can tell if activating Dulcinea's trump will alert anyone here? I don't want to pull her out until we find both of them. I would hate to have them send Pollux deeper into hiding because we got Dulcinea, but I'll take what I can get." Krysta will help Noys from the Tout and look for a bench to sit at for a moment. "Let's discuss what we plan on doing for a moment before we just go barging in." There are plenty of benches and other places where two women, or a woman and her "bodyguard" can sit without being molested. Noys holds a response for Krysta until they do so, and get seated on one near the fountain. The burbling of the fountain masks their voices. "Trumps can and do exist outside of Amber and Chaos." Noys explains."However, its like an inverted bell shaped curve. Far away from both poles, the quantity and commonness of Trump Artists are in general, very low. And unless you know to look for it, its difficult to detect Trump energy by any means, esoteric or otherwise." "Given Tamora's ability to use that technomirror, though." Noys adds. "She might qualify, although I should think we can use a trump once or twice before she could ever catch onto what we were doing, even if she didn't know what it was." "Now...I've gotten a look at this building as we were pulling up." Noys adds. "I leave to you to see the physical aspects and the layout. I took a look at it with esoteric sight. It's shielded, which might be enough to block us from, say, Trumping her out right now." She looks at Krysta. "The energy contained in the shield is quite high." "However." Noys adds. "If we get inside, past the shield, we should be able to trump her, and pull her to us, unless she's physically bound in some manner." Krysta thinks for a moment, quiet in the sunshine. "Let's head in. I don't want to try and trump out here if it's shielded and call attention, so we'll wait until we get in. I wanted both of them, but I wonder if we are better getting what we can. If we can force them to move Pollux, that may be an advantage." "And give himself, or us, the opportunity to get free in the transfer, perhaps?" Noys says, as if asking a tutor in martial and military science. Krysta will reach under the bench before standing, searching for a discarded robe, similar to what she and Noys are wearing, it's quite likely in the warm day that someone has taken one off while sitting here and it fell unnoticed behind the bench. It is indeed likely in the bright sunshine that falls over the city of the Ys that someone might have shed their robe, and what is more, accidentally leave it behind, underneath the bench. And so, without looking there herself, Krysta explores the possibility by touch alone. After a few seconds, her hands come on fabric, and the discarded robe reveals itself as she pulls it out. Illumination rapidly comes across Noys face as Krysta produces the robe. "Perfect." she says enthusiastically. "We get in, pull Dulce to us, dress her in the robe and walk out as if we had just finished out religious obligations and then try and see what we can do about Pollux, or at least coordinate with Martin and Meriel. Right?" And at this point...Krysta gets a relatively unfamiliar feeling in the back of her head... A Trump Call. Krysta hesitates for a moment, not wanting to be obvious, she will sit back down next to Noys, "with any luck, this will be Martin telling us he has Pollux and we'll only need to concentrate on Dulcinea." She will release her block on the call, "yes?" Noys nods, and looks alert and attentive at their surroundings, as Krysta takes the trump call. As the trump call continues, and Krysta starts to look alert about the plaza, Noys whispers in Krysta's ear. "Two officers have been watching us while you've been taking the call." Noys makes a very subtle gesture so that Krysta can see, some way down the plaza, two uniformed bipeds, about 7" tall, and although mostly human in their appearance, having a gorilla like cast to their features as well. They are casually looking at the two Amberite women and speaking to each other and punching each other in the forearm. Krysta allows a slightly grim and forbidding look to cover her face. She stands, casually offering the cloak to Noys. She looks around to see what other visitors are doing. She doesn't want to go in until the Hawk arrives. Is there any kind of water or juice vendor? The call has ended, freeing Krysta to concentrate on her surroundings completely. Noys takes the cloak gratefully. As far as the visitors, they are divided into those looking at the building in wonder--call them tourists, and those who are heading directly toward the entrance, many of them with bowed heads or making gestures as they do--call them the parishioners. There are roughly 3 parishioners for every two visitors. There are some food and drink vendors of various types, of a low tech sort, selling cheese, and possibly something which is the local spirit, and other things. None of these are on the plaza itself, but are further down the road from where the tuk-tuk had let them off, but not far away, either. The two guards seem to come to a decision and start to amble openly in Krysta's direction.They are long armed enough that they might be able to go on all fours as well or better than on two, to Krysta's judgement, but they remain bipedal for the moment. Krysta senses it just before Noys opens her mouth to speak. In addition to the two simian guards, Krysta's senses tell her to look around. In a much more subtle manner than the pair, but dressed in a better cut of a uniform, a third simian, somewhat further away from them than the pair of guards, is making his way, subtly, in Noys and Krysta's direction. "Damn, somehow they sensed it." She stands, and turns to bow towards Noys, "let me help you up." Suiting her actions to words, Krysta extends a hand to Noys, cupping her elbow. "let's move a bit slowly, as if you are tired, but be ready to head for that back corner. " Krysta indicates the direction, a corner exit that looks to be the least observable of the gates. Noys complies, taking the frailty bit to heart as Krysta suggests. Assuming the guards don't call a halt, the two women head for the temple, attempting to appear as if she is helping her tired and frail companion. Hopefully seeing them head for the temple will relax the guards, as should their demeanor of being exactly what they appear, uneventful, typical and no threat in any fashion. It is perhaps more than just the actions that do it. With the idea of projecting a frail companion and her aide in their minds, desire becomes reality. They guards see it, and then they start to believe it. They slow their approach, and then stop, watching the two of them as they move toward the gate. They do not molest Krysta and Noys as the gate slowly draws nearer, and nearer... Just as they are about to reach the gate, Krysta hears the cry of a hawk above their heads. |
