Waiting for Pay in a Snowstorm

[Royal]

(( From live play with Nako's player. ))

"Christ..." There was probably more before that but with the snow, winds, and all? It's what she got out after giving another tug to the tarp covered thing behind her. She had been able to find an old wagon in the ghost town of Cadentia during her travel and decided to bring it along.. and with her Jeep stuck outside of the city due to the storm? She found reason to bring it along. She had traveled through the gates some thirty or so minutes ago, and she seemed pretty keen on the idea of taking whatever she had to the Hunter's Guild drop off point found in the Old Temple district.. and, thankfully, it was within the city square. An old and ratty looking cloak had hung over her shoulders and surrounded her body; something else she found in the ghost town -- and it was doing its part to help hold off a touch more of the cold than her coat and heavy clothes tried its best to fend off. Some other places she passed by were suffering from the worst of it - it seemed, at least here things looked somewhat paved; even with the dumping snow only making things more of an issue that needed to be handled later on.

"Oof." Tripping over herself, or more like loosing her balance because something caught on the wagon. She turned around after gathering herself up and reached to take the rope and give it a tug. Tug, tug! She felt the strain but nothing looked to be budging.. So she moved closer and bent down to take a look. Ah, the wheel had caught up on something -- and there's a claw now poking out from under the tarp and was dragging against the ground. She'll just take that and shove it back under the tarp.

Nako was bundled up like a polar explorer for an outing into the town, with a heavy winter parka with a faux fur lined hood, thick mittens and several layers beneath. The heavy boots even added an inch onto her diminutive height. She was peering around a corner, looking at a group of people struggling against the wind and taking a side alley. Before they vanished into the mouth she produced an camera with a big telescopic lens and seemed to snap a picture. She was so intent on whatever task had brought her out that she didn't notice the struggle with the wagon nearby.

"Great." The hood of the cloak is getting in her way, so she pulled it back. Those pink highlighted locks had been tied back, and by the looks of it - it had been a rush job, but she didn't really have much interest in haircare when it came to, you know, staying warm. Her face now feeling the bite of the cold while she pursed her lips. She lowered herself onto a knee and moved to get under the cart just enough to start trying to wriggle the wheel free.

With her mission complete, Nako had the time to look over and notice the stuck tarp bundle and the cloaked figure. Staring out over the snow covered streets and the places the wind was drifting the stuff up she came walking over, waving her arms for balance as a strong gust threatened to topple her short form over. "Hey" she shouted. "Need a hand?"

"Yeah!" The shout came in response. With the wind and being too focused on her task, she hadn't looked to see who was asking. With a grunt she seemed to get the wheel slightly loose, which had the wagon shifting some, but it still wasn't fully free. She set hands to her legs, gave off another grunt, and then moved to stand. Gloved hands found one another so she could wring them a little to try and give warmth.

Nako had to walk through a snow drift to get to the side of the wagon, taking a moment as she went up to nearly her knees stumping through the drift. She took off the mittens and revealed gloves underneath those, stuffing the mittens into her parka pocket to seize hold of the wheel.

"Thanks a lot, you're doing me a big favor." She's getting back down to her knees to help along. With two hands (more like four) now on the job, she was able to get the extra help needed to get the wheel free from the dip in the ground. It's then that she looked over to thank whoever it was that was kind enough to help her; and that's when she realized.. ".. Nako? Why the hell are you out during a storm?"

"Yoisho" Nako muttered as the wheel came free of the dip in the roadway. It was only when she looked up, brushing the ice from her gloves and reaching for her mittens that she saw who it was under the cloak. "Royal!" she laughed. "I was going to ask you! I spotted some cultist enemy remnants and followed them. Special delinquent mission" she said, patting the camera bag.

"Cultists?" Not that she's never heard or seen them in action.. Honestly it sent a small shiver down her spine -- but that could be just the cold winds. The cultists Nako had been speaking of obviously were of no relations either; so she tried to keep it at that. She looked around nervously anyway, but all she could make out were others trying to just get out of the snow.. beyond that, just blankets of white and bare streets. It reminded her a lot of Cadentia.. well, parts that weren't being used as temporary housing for other hunters. "Guess it's luck then, huh? Jeep got stuck outside the city, so I was about to have a fit if I couldn't free this either.. Shit, you must be cold. The drop off is nearby," For the items she's dragging. "If you need to keep going - go on ahead, don't let me keep you."

"Mhm! No worries. They didn't recognize me" Nako said, confident in the concealing powers of the fur lined hood and hat and scarf her happy eyes glittered from within. "I got my photo, so I'm all done with this errand." she said, one of the heavy boots twisting on the pavement a bit as she looked on at Royal. "Want me to come along? If it gets stuck again.." she offered.

"Yeah," Nodding. Getting back to her feet fully and reaching out to take hold of the rope to give the wagon a tug. There it went, going along slowly -- even with the strain of the snow. She had a good set of arms on her though, and a strong back, so she was able to start tugging the wagon along. "I just want to get somewhere warm.. I've been dragging this thing for, shit.. I don't know. It feels like more than an hour."

Nako seemed about to offer a turn, but seeing Royal looking strong at the rope made her watch a moment longer. "Well, you're turning this in.. let me take a turn pulling and rest a few" she offered. "Then if you want we can go to the Pachinko Palace. It's warm and there's lots to eat and the power will be on no matter what" Her piping voice was raised a bit as the wind gusted again.

"I'm guessing my place is pretty snowed in.. and with it being right by the beach, shit.." Maybe she should've thought about it more, but she already was leasing the place month-to-month and put down money for the first three. She then shook her head. "Nah, girl.. I got this, you've helped me a lot already -- and shit, I'm staying with you tonight too, right? I can't have you do everything." There's a tired grin there. She really wanted to rest, but she needed to get this handled! She could see the lit lamp off in the distance, along with the tell-tale sign of the Hunter's Guild association.

"Yeah, all that area is probably already hard to pass." Nako said thoughtfully. She giggled, just barely audible through her scarf and the wind. "If you're sure. I can pull though! I'm strong for my height" she said in good humor, moving over to vainly try to form a sort of windbreak at least. "Yes, you should definitely spend the night!" she agreed. "I was worried about you last night when the storm was starting to come in!" she chimed as she slogged her small feet through another drift heading toward that lit lamp.

"I was pretty safe down south.. Cadentia's getting hit too, but it's not as bad compared to here. Only a few left the place behind to come back to the city.. and, well, I guess I was pretty stupid.." A sheepish laugh there. "My poor jeep though.. I hope it doesn't get too damaged, it shouldn't - right?" Maybe, hopefully! "At least the bike should be fine.." It was covered inside the trailer that was hitched to the jeep and all. "How'd the first bit of it go? Wasn't too right, right?" The snow, still falling, had been cleaned up enough around the Hunter's Guild drop off point. A warmly dressed woman came out to inspect what Royal had brought in. The woman with the pink highlights bent over to undo the tarp to show the corpse of a small red wyvern, but the larger scales that were tied to the top of it must have belonged to bigger prey. "Took this one down with a poison arrow.. but the bigger one," She began to tell the guild worker who was jotting down things here and there in a notebook. "We'll take it inside for weighing." She explained while gesturing for a few larger men to come out and take the small wyvern inside. "Sorry, it's pretty small inside so you'll have to wait out here." Royal was happy enough to finally be done dragging her finished hunt and rubbed her hands together before crossing arms under her cloak. A look to Nako. "You said the power didn't go out at your place?"

Nako listened, her head tilted up a bit with a hand shielding her eyes from the wind. "Jeep will be fine. Just have to dig it out and maybe give it a jump start when the weather clears up" the delinquent guessed. "It was cold and very windy. I guess the worse will be coming in tonight though" While the hunter guild representative was out, Nako reached to her pack behind the camera case and took out another bag of the giant rat tails. "I got some more of these too!" she chimed, handing them over. When they were left outside by the hunters guild reps, Nako stepped up to stand close to the chilled Royal, letting the bulk of her polar gear help warm the hunter up. "It did, but the parlor has a pair of big heavy duty generators and a whole breaker board with them to keep everything still running" she explained. "You can stay over, be warm, have some hot tteokbokki and we can even watch TV" she reported cheerily.

"Ugh.." Not liking the sound of the worse will be coming in tonight. Hot-anything sounded good to her, and she even thought about it while they waited outside. Her form hunching a little in to try and stay warm; thought they wouldn't be waiting for long. The lady returned with two bags, one which she handed to Nako and another to Royal. The weight of her own had been enough to bring a smile to her lips. She'd be pretty fine for the rest of the month -- hell, maybe into the next two by the feel of it. There was a few brief words from the rep, things along the lines of weights and what not and how things were calculated. Royal didn't seem to care so much about that, not after getting paid and having to stand out in the cold! With a bow the woman turned and quickly headed off to get herself warm, which left Nako and Royal once more still outside. "Done deal. Let's go?"

Nako remained close, trying to shield Royal from the cold as best she could being more heavily dressed. "No worries. There's even a shower in the locker room in the basement" Nako cheered in her mellow piping tone. When the lady returned she was happy to take her smaller bag of money, tucking it away and looking around reflexively, though it was doubtful that any more muggers would be out in this kind of weather. She looked to Royal and nodded. "Yes, let's go warm up!"

"I just want to huddle up in a blanket and sleep forever.." Same from her as she tugged up the hood of her borrowed/found cloak and prepared to head off. "Here," Reaching out with a hand to take Nako's own to draw her close. "So we don't get separated. I might get blown away with all this wind." Making a joke out of it as they headed off to Dockside.

"Well, you'll do it on a nice soft bed" Nako said with a giggle. Her hand reached to find Royal's, taking it in a good secure grip but still soft from the layer of glove and mitten. Her form was at least warm as she was drawn close to Royal for their walk back to Kabuki.