trans_9 | You drive a hard bargain [Closed]

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You drive a hard bargain [Closed]

With Howard's slightly unconventional means of information-gathering, the mission was now set to move forward. They knew where the artifact was and who could give them access to it. Now all there was left to do was bargain for it. And try not to lose the shirts off their backs while doing so.

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Zouichi frowned as Howard's sudden movement sent a cloud of glitter blowing up onto his skirt, attempting to brush it off as best he could without disturbing the meticulously ruffled lace.

"I'm sorry that this mission is boring you so much, Howard. Next time, you can be the one wearing the skirt, and I'll be the one who gets to sit down and do my best to ruin all the negotiations by being blatantly disrespectful to the parties involved."

Anwei reached into the crown of her hat - it was a stretch - and adjusted the skull clamps, sighing with relief as her pinched scalp got a moment to relax. She was hot in the heavy dress, the food was overcooked, and she had glitter in her hair and scratching her all over, and quite possibly in her teeth from the toothpaste this morning. She was heartily sick of glitter.

"Howard, I've attended meetings that would make this one look like a wild party. If it were possible I'd happily trade places with you. This hat is adjustable, you know; it would look charming on you. But they're close, I think; very closer to making a deal. I hope we can wrap this up within the next four hours and get back to the shuttle."

She appreciated that Zouichi was actually dropping out of character now that they were alone. "Let's hope that the disrespect will be seen instead as charming alien eccentricities."

"Okay, one, nobody cares I'm here. Seriously, I'm dressed like a migraine or a traffic cone or something and no one even looks in my direction. If it looked like they even sort of cared about my 'disrespect'-" he makes quotation marks with his fingers. "-I'd stop. But they don't. At all. I'm invisible."

"Secondly, honestly, I wish you weren't wearing that skirt so you could stop whining about it. I'd wear it, but even these morons aren't dumb enough to think I'm a bodyguard. The setting chose it, not me."

"Thirdly," he says, and for this he gestures dramatically with his hands. "Four freaking hours? Seriously? How many more ways can they come up with to beat around the bush?"

"You mean like this?" Anwei turned her face away and let her eyes roll outwards, peeking at Howard through her lashes. "Don't think that because they aren't looking they aren't paying very strict attention to you. Like it or not, here you're a part of the entourage, and I'm judged in part by the quality of my servants." That last word came out a little bitter.

She considered Howard in the skirt. "No, that many frills wouldn't do you any favors. Perhaps when we get back on the ship I could ask Reinforce Zwei to make you something custom-tailored for the next mission. How about tight, sleek wet-look satin, with lots of peepholes?"

"It's a part of the price of the Orb. If they said 'Fair price, here it is' wouldn't you think they were letting it go a little easily? And four hours is close to our limit," she frowned.

Since he's acknowledged Anwei's request, Zouichi isn't extending the act to their breaks -- unfortunately, this leaves him with nothing much to do. He leans back in his seat, resting one leg over the other in an unladylike fashion. From somewhere on his person, he produces a folding fan, which he snaps open, idly fanning himself. He's not giving voice to how annoyed he really is with this situation, but the body language should say volumes.

"If you hate it so much, how about thinking of some way to speed up the process? No bargaining strategies to share?"

Howard rolls his eyes again - it almost hurts, with how much he's been doing it lately - but doesn't have a smart comeback to that.

"How about we don't?" Not that he'd have a huge problem wearing that outfit, he just doesn't want to let Anwei get under his skin. Zouichi's already done well enough at that this trip.

"Yeah, I have a bargaining strategy here: we steal it. It's, I swear to God, somewhere in the Countess' ridiculous get-up. And we might not have four hours to sit around and talk about how awesome she is before we run out of time. So we should steal it, run like hell and take off ASAP."

Anwei shrugged. She'd gone from a culture where going out in public wearing less than half a dozen layers of cloth was a grievous social error, to mercenaries who wore uniforms or body paint. She really didn't care what anyone else chose to wear. Although the peepholes would have been cute.

Anwei fished her candy box out of her sleeve and started passing it quickly back and forth between her hands, then experimented with hiding it amongst the furbelows of her bustle. "No," she decided. "She wouldn't be carrying it loose in her pocket, and these dresses have enough padding that she wouldn't have room for whatever ceremonial container she has it in. It's probably with one of the Advisors.

"And Stacy didn't tell us to steal it, she said to negotiate for it. If she wanted it stolen she wouldn't have sent us, she'd have sent a magician or someone who can fly. No, I think we have to keep going. Of course, I could try swooning..."

"...however, perhaps it's an option we should consider, especially if we're unable to secure the artifact in time." There's always the possibility that they can hold the Countess hostage and force her to reveal its location. Of course, that would also require a quick escape. Maybe if it came down to that, he could get Anwei and Howard to return to the shuttle while he retrieved it himself.

"I think pretending to faint would only extend the negotiations."

"Yeah, wouldn't want them to expect Zou to carry you out of here, Anwei. I think some of the servants in the back would start hyperventilating at that image."

He chews on a fingernail, thinking about that. "The Advisor on the far right is positioned closest to the door in case she needs to make a quick exit, and her overcoat looks big enough to fit the Orb and its box. I'm betting if any of the Advisors have it, it's her. And honestly, if Stacy had wanted this done right, she'd have sent someone else."

"I said fainting because while everyone gathered around me, we could see who stayed back - because that person would have the Orb. If it's here."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them. "But then we have to all get out, through the Dawn Festival, through the city and to the shuttle. One comcall and they'll have Security blocking us from it. No, we would either need a really spectacular distraction, or to somehow keep everyone here from raising the alarm. And I am not prepared to slaughter that silly woman and her entire retinue for an Orb of unknown value."

Of course if the Orb were really vital, she might have been willing to go with the slaughter.

"The shuttle autopilot is set up to take the ship straight back to Stacy - I might be able to land and do a pick-up in the city, but it's risky. The fuel was pretty tightly allocated."

Zouichi closed his eyes, sighing. "If it comes down to it, we can go with your plan of fainting to try and draw out the correct person. If that happens, I can provide the distraction while you and Howard slip out."

He produced a black watch-like device from somewhere in the ruffles of his skirt, tossing it to Howard. "Catch."

"We could put my invisibility to the test. Zouichi, all you have to do is bend over and you'll provide all the distraction we'll need. These girls are hanging on to your every word."

He tries not to think about how casually Anwei brought slaughtering up into the discussion, even if she said she didn't want to do it. Um, no.

He catches the device deftly. "Communicator? Good plan. Okay, so if this ends up taking longer than we need it to, Anwei drops and Zou does a funny dance and we make off with the goods."

Oh, it wasn't his word they wanted to hang on. "Or maybe you could faint, and I'll say that you need breath-assistance to recover. While everyone's trying to revive you, Howard and I get the box and slip into the crowd. All I have to do is ditch this dress and I can pass for a child - and once we're at the shuttle...", but then she paused. "Right, we're going to get to the shuttle how? Too far to walk, we spent our other liquid funds on clothes, and I don't think we can trade a dollop of slop for a cab ride."

"I think we'd better save fainting and stealing for a last chance scenario. Which means," she adjusted her hat, regretfully, because all she really wanted to do was trample it into glittery flinders, "negotiating some more."

Ha ha, Howard. You'd better bring that communicator back unscathed.

"I would also prefer to have this resolved without having to resort to making a run back to the shuttle," Zouichi said. "But let's keep in mind that we may have to... improvise."

He fell silent, getting back into the act as the Countess and her entourage began to file into the room. Once more into the breach.

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You drive a hard bargain [Closed]

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