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One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 7:57 pm
by Narrator
Madripoor is an experience in contrasts. The glittering image the city wants to put forward was visible enough from the air, but Madripoor has no real middle class and the neighborhoods reflect that.

Unfortunately for Laura and Tereza, the one called Yukio isn't in Hightown. The rumors vary as to what she is. A thief. A masterless samurai. A disgraced member of a crime family. All of them might be true, but she bumped into Laura's erstwhile father enough times that it was a little suspicious. One thing was for certain, enough people wanted a piece of her that the only place in Madripoor she was ever seen was in the mazelike shanties of Lowtown.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 8:11 pm
by Laura Kinney
Laura hasn't said much during the whole trip. Not that that's particularly noteworthy, but she certainly doesn't seem happy to be heading for Madripoor and piloting the plane had given her a good excuse to pretend to be busy, even though Ashlie's auto-pilot system did most of the real work. Now the question was to whether to bother the AI to find a place for the plane after the two jump or to actually land it and deal with officially entering Hightown. She knows what she'd prefer, but this isn't her mission and she's not by herself.

"Hey." she shouts, turning her body towards the back of the plane. "How much are you bothered by jumping out of planes?"

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2017 11:58 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
"Not much. Did it when we came to get you out of Russia, but it's not a sport I regularly engage in. Why?"

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:40 pm
by Laura Kinney
"Cause then we don't have to deal with landing this baby."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:42 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
"Fine with me, unless you think we'll need a fast exit," Tereza says, moving towards where the parachutes are stored.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:21 am
by Laura Kinney
"Who knows. With this city, we might but as sneaky as this bird is in the air I'd rather not explain to Minamida why it was either impounded in Hightown or had it's wheels and engine stripped in Lowtown. If we gotta hustle we'll find something else." she says as she pushes some buttons on the instruments and gets up to join Tereza in putting on a parachute. As she walks over the sound of pneumatics fills the plane as the back hatch slowly opens to reveal the dark nightsky and the even darker mass of the ocean that's rushing past far below.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:28 am
by Tereza Rozanov
"Fair enough. You're the expert here," she says as she starts double and triple checking her parachute.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:34 am
by Laura Kinney
"Yeah, cause that's what people call me in for. My expert opinion." she laughs. Much like not wearing seatbelts Laura only barely pays attention to checking all the various straps and buckles. Not that faceplanting into the ocean is great, but it's less of an immediate concern than it is for most people. "Alright, here we go! Try to aim for the tip of the bay just outside the harbor. It's gonna look like it's empty but that's cause there's no electricity there. Try to only take down one or two shanties when you go down!" she says and breaks out into a sprint before hurling herself out the back of the plane.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:15 am
by Tereza Rozanov
"Right," Tereza says, taking a deep breath and chasing after her in short order.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:57 pm
by Laura Kinney
Ahead of her Laura has already shrunk down to a small figure against the backdrop of the island. From here it's easy to tell the disparity of the tiny nation's capital city. Up on the hills overlooking the bay skyscrapers are brightly lit and stand like pillars of light on a foundation of chaotic buildings that look like a maze. Slums and more solid buildings go hand in hand and even the better-lit parts look cobbled together. Neon-lights of varying colors seem to provide more light than the rare sections of streetlights and even those are rare. In the outskirts, on the outer lip of the bay where Laura seems to be heading are almost no lights except for the very edge of the water where the few lights of the buildings blend into lights strung up on the boats anchored right next to them. It's hard to tell where the land stops and the boats begin. Not that it necessarily matters much, the small ships sitting close enough together that one could easily step from one to the other.

Laura waits until she's dangerously close to the ground before deploying her parachute and proceeds to aim for the emptiest spot she can find, although it's almost impossible to actually land on the street and she accepts the fact she'll probably plow into at least one or two shanties.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:15 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
Tereza's bit more cautious than Laura, so her descent is slightly longer and slower than Laura's. She does her best to hit as much of the street as possible, but with these buildings, that's pretty much impossible.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:25 pm
by Laura Kinney
Once she's close enough to the ground Laura reaches for one side of the parachutes cords and with one swift motions cuts through them, making the chute collapse on one side and plummeting to the ground, right through a roof made of corrugated metal. Her knees protest a little against landing on her feet but she ignores them in favor of pulling on the remaining parachute cords to reel the collapsing canvas through the hole in the roof she just made, gathering the billowing mess in her arms before looking around for any occupants.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:53 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
Tereza's aim for the street ended up her collapsing some shanty's awning with a not insubstantial amount of noise and ending up tangled in her lines as she struggled her way free.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 9:43 pm
by Laura Kinney
After gathering up her parachute and shoving it into the arms of a very scared shantie-owner to make up for breaking their roof Laura steps out onto the street and swiftly makes her way over to Tereza to help her sever the last couple lines. "Not bad for your second jump." she smirks.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 11:10 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
"I would have preferred a more open landing space, but beggars can't be choosy I guess."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 11:18 pm
by Narrator
The neighborhood near the pier... smells. Laura is probably used to it if she's been before, but it's the first time since Tereza turned. Dead fish. Urine. Other things she'd perhaps rather not ponder.

Laura's seen situations like this before. The foolish people are staring at them. The smart ones are already hurrying inside.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 11:52 pm
by Laura Kinney
"Xiǎng yào zhàndòu? Ránhòu kuài diǎn." Laura tells the onlookers in broken Chinese and takes a challenging step towards one of the closer ones. She has no intention of actually hurting anybody but this is easier when people don't even think about messing with them.



(("Want fight? Hurry then."))

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 12:25 am
by Tereza Rozanov
Tereza just licks her teeth idly as she finishes bundling up the remains of the parachute before tossing it under the collapsed awning. She does her best to look unconcerned by the people in a roundabout way of backing up Laura's threat.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 9:11 pm
by Narrator
Ultimately even the dumb ones are smart enough not to push their luck, and go scurrying.

Then, as if on cue, there's a sound of thunder just before it starts raining.

It doesn't help the smell as much as one might hope.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 9:40 pm
by Laura Kinney
"Welcome to Madripoor." Laura mutters as she takes a look and starts making her way down the road. Closer to Hightown is where things are less poor and more seedy, but that's their destination for now.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 9:42 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
"Thanks. It wasn't really on my bucket list," Tereza says, following and looking around cautiously, "And I don't think I'll add it to my vacation destinations."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 8:41 pm
by Laura Kinney
"Really depends on what you're looking for. And for many it's better than the alternative. Plenty mutants come here cause they got nowhere else to turn. Or at least they used to before that whole Russia thing. Not hard to make people think there's something better than this..."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:05 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
"Even if you know it's crooked, if it feels like the only game in town..."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:47 am
by Laura Kinney
"You got it. And sometimes people got a good reason to run from the law. Not everyone here is terrible. The people who try to help are just few and far between."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:09 am
by Tereza Rozanov
"We can just hope that help is not a thing we need, I guess."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:18 pm
by Laura Kinney
"Trying to find somebody in this place usually involves getting some 'help'. But fortunately that's the kinda thing you can beat out of someone if you need to."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 3:39 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
"Play to our strengths, I guess," Tereza says with a smirk.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:16 pm
by Laura Kinney
"I know what I'm about." she grins as they make their way out of the shantytown and towards the parts that more resemble an actual city, albeit a seedy one filled with bars, brothels and casino. It's one of the former that Laura makes a beeline for. The leather jacket she's wearing is worn out enough to not make her stand out immediately though she does have bit of a recognizable face. She's just banking on anybody who does recognize her also knowing better than to get up in her face, but you never know. She makes her way to the bar and gestures at the barkeep for two glasses of what passes as whiskey in this place.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:40 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
Tereza moves to the bar next to Laura, eyeing the 'whiskey' slightly dubiously before taking a drink of it.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 12:34 am
by Narrator
A group of men are carousing at a nearby table. One of them looks at Laura and blinks in confusion, recognition spreading slowly across his face. He excuses himself and gets up, heading over towards them.

He's a local, that's for sure. A bit cleaner than the people down by the pier, and clean-shaven.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 12:45 am
by Laura Kinney
If Laura notices the man she's not showing it, instead throwing back her drink and slamming the glass down on the counter.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 12:53 am
by Narrator
"<Am I going crazy, or did Patch never tell me he had a daughter?>" The man asks in Chinese as he approaches.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 2:04 am
by Tereza Rozanov
Tereza glances at Laura as the man speaks. She obviously doesn't understand a word of it.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 2:51 am
by Laura Kinney
Laura understands enough to get the general idea, even if the odd nickname escapes her notice.

"Man gets around enough he's bound to leave behind a legacy." she responds in English before turning around in her seat and taking a look at the guy.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 3:36 am
by Narrator
The man notices Tereza's confusion, and Laura speaking English seems to drive it home.

"Ah, I am sorry. Excuse. But yes, Patch has been around. Always kept his cards close to his chest, though."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 4:03 am
by Laura Kinney
"Everyone's got secrets and he had plenty. But still, he made some friends here, from what I've heard. You wouldn't happen to know how to find any of them?"

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:39 pm
by Tereza Rozanov
Tereza half-turns to regard the man, keeping a side eye on his friends at the table.

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:07 pm
by Narrator
"Everybody was Patch's friend when he was buying the round. What kind of friends you looking for?"

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:37 pm
by Laura Kinney
"Pale woman, white hair. Figured maybe one of Patches' old connections might be able to help."

Re: One night in Madripoor makes a hard man humble

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:00 pm
by Narrator
"...sounds like the Russian. Runs with Yukio sometimes."