#themoonlitmonarch

@themoonlitmonarch

"Mm? Oh... Yeah, I guess I'm probably not hiding anything very well." Not that it was a big deal since it wasn't someone he was trying to hide anything from. In general he wasn't trying to hide anything (right now!), but he was probably pretty clearly distracted. Ryker mostly knew him when he was focused. Attentive. Today his mind was elsewhere.

"You know about the kid I travel with, yeah? He's the leader of the guild I'm part of 'cause he's the one who made it. Obviously he's still just a kid, but he... grew up without a family or structure, so he's pretty independent. I know he doesn't like being treated like a kid either. Not on the last job we had that you were part of, but one after that, he wanted to do things as a leader."

Yuri paused, trying to figure out how to convey this to someone who didn't know their situation at all. "Okay, so back up a little bit - not much, just a bit, 'cause it matters for this. Some time back, he didn't wanna be treated like the leader. Didn't think he was ready. At the time, he just wanted to act like any regular member until he felt ready. That brings us to a recent job we had, when he thought he was ready. I... didn't. Not in general, but for that particular job. He insisted he really wanted to for that job. I relented and let him. He... got hurt. And I keep wondering, if I hadn't caved and I'd chosen his safety over his feelings, wouldn't he have been fine?"

As Karol got older, Yuri really did want to respect his decisions as the guild leader. Problem was, he was still really young and still prone to problems arising from inexperience. It might've been better for them to test the waters first - do some sort of practice drills or something to help him learn. Unfortunately Yuri hadn't really thought about that in much depth until after this happened.

"I've kind of... adopted him like a brother, and sort of like a parent. It's complicated, but... that's basically our relationship. I figured that... as what's basically his guardian, I can't just shield him from everything forever. That he does need to get out there and learn from experience. By doing things. Part of it was 'cause he was so insistent, but he's also getting older. He's a teenager now. I can't just hide him away from the world - especially not if he's gonna be a guild leader. I just... wonder if I should've stuck with my gut that I had in the first place. Even if he got upset and felt like I was underestimating him or treating him like a little kid."

As of now, he was doing okay. There was no immediate danger, and he was in perfectly safe hands with healers right now that Raven had handpicked. There was nothing to panic about to beat himself up over. It was just that... yeah, he got hurt. Yeah, he wanted to try to be a leader, and when he had... it went wrong. Wouldn't that, too, hurt him, just in a different way?

"It's not like we could've known things were gonna go wrong like they did, but it still wasn't... a job I felt comfortable with him leading for in the first place. I can't say I knew with certainty, but it's just sorta like... I had a feeling that it was a bad idea. But then... I let him do it anyway, 'cause I put his feelings first. It's not the same as what we did before with the job I had when I met you. We had a better handle on that and what his role was. I'm just... trying to figure out where to draw the line with this stuff. When to let him be a leader, and when to tell him he's too inexperienced and not budge."

getting chatty :: open

send a symbol to get my muse talking about a facet of their life

@themoonlitmonarch sent: ☀️ Hopes / wishes - for Sakuya!

"Betcha think this one's real easy for me, huh? Gotta be to make a whole lotta dough and open tons of businesses all up n' down Norad. Yup! We~ll. That's not exactly wrong either, I guess. Haha." The mirth of the question, a layer upon a warmer patch- carries through in her voice. Even if her flippant nature betrays some of the emotion. "I try that all the time though, and some of those projects are just for fun. We live in a sleepy lil village that's just starting to pick up on the business. A girl's gotta keep busy!"

Sakuya sways her head, the bells jingle like chimes in the wind- though the weather now was placid and docile. Quite unlike the swirling thoughts of devilish intent in her noggin.

"I wanna make my mom proud of me. That's the real hope and wish. Even if I never get to take over the inn, or make it big as a comedian or open all those shops I talk about. I. I just want... y'know... want her to ... be happy for me. There's a whole ocean between us and what all we're capable of, I know that. And even if she can see that I'm just swimmin as hard as I can, and she acknowledges that."

A nod, growing in tremor, as she finds that stride of acknowledgement even if it's just to her own words.

((Chloe or Jade sound like they would be fun? Or a muse of your choice!!))

Epic: The Musical starters

"Not with that attitude we won't."

The odds were against them, Chloe knew. She didn't know Ryker well at all, but she'd agreed to come with him when he'd mentioned wanting to venture. Not having a lot to do back home had led to her seeking something to do anyway. Of course, the monsters were out in full swing that day. They'd just happened to get trapped in a particular spot with a slew of them.

"Stay with me," Chloe said, gripping her sword more firmly than before. "If we work together, we can clear a path and make a break for it."

Did he have to fight it? Well, yeah, of course he did. He couldn't expect this guy to know the details, but Zephyr was fed up with "darkness". Unless he and this guy had two very different definitions of the word, he would never stop trying to fight it off. Heck, that was what he was here for. There were normally monsters in this area it seemed, but the seeds of ruin were also definitely influencing local activity. Even with humans.

But he would never accept it. Was this guy thinking he himself would accept it if he had a choice? Zephyr grimaced at the thought. He'd accepted it once, and look where that got him. Accepting was the gateway to being consumed when it came to darkness. He really hoped he wasn't dealing with a guy who simply thought darkness was a cool topic. It was dangerous and not something he'd advocate to be taken lightly.

"I have someone I trust here with me. Fighting that darkness is why we're here. Unfortunately it made its way over to your little town here and our buddy picked up readings of it, so we came here and had a word with your mayor. Apparently there's already been a couple injuries here." At the moment they didn't know if the seeds had gotten to more than one person or if there were multiple ruinators. Just that, plain and simple, the seeds were here.

So far they didn't seem to have to evacuate anyone. That could change at any time, but Allen was already keeping an eye on that. Unless things got urgent, he was staying with the townsfolk to protect them while Zephyr investigated directly. Hopefully there would be no more major incidents of beings of pure evil being brought forth from this, but they couldn't disregard that possibility... ...especially when someone was as lax about it right now as this guy.

Expectedly, the man seemed skeptical of Yuri's offer. Of course he did if he'd been stealing things back from a thief and was being stopped. Yuri had been there to dissuade him by just being there for several nights since the first attempt. Thankfully it had worked, and he hadn't successfully stolen anything back since Yuri showed up.

This had been the best way to get him to sit down and not run off. Until now he was trying to get out of talking with Yuri, but his apparent attempt at justice was... well, obstructing justice. Yuri had hoped to just pull him aside and tell him that outright, but he would always run off before Yuri could properly talk to him. Being able to sit down with him and properly explain what was going on had been the goal of offering him ice cream, and given that this counted as part of his job, the pay was covered by his employers.

That said, yeah, he did technically buy it specifically for Ryker. If it helped Ryker stay calm enough to sit and converse, it helped a lot. "Yeah, I did; so eat it, or else I'm gonna have to so it doesn't go to waste. And then I'm probably gonna get a stomachache from too much ice cream." Thankfully, the look on his face seemed to ease and his eyes seemed to light up at the dessert. If he liked what he was offered so much, it might even at least help with his mood. Yuri wasn't trying to irritate him, but he needed him to be in a mood that was willing to listen to reason.

"Makes it easier that you're just asking me to get to the point, honestly. Look, I know the guy you're stealing from is a criminal. Fortunately, so are your local authorities. Unfortunately, you trying to steal back from this phony merchant is hampering progress. There are people on the ground dealing with it, but they're being held back by a third party taking the guy's 'wares.' That'd be you."

In some cases Yuri would agree with this. This was the sort of work Jiri did when he was a kid, although she wasn't typically targeting already stolen goods. Rather, she would steal from the rich to aid the poor that the rich refused to aid themselves. In a situation where law enforcement wouldn't help people with stolen goods, Yuri was absolutely okay with this sort of involvement. It didn't make Ryker a bad guy to him. This particular case was just more complicated, because law enforcement was involved already, and he may not have known that when he started targeting this merchant.

"The guy you're targeting isn't actually selling to regular citizens. He hadn't caught on yet, but he's actually just selling things to local authorities working undercover. They needed to confirm that this was actually the guy they were looking for, so they got a bunch of different 'buyers' to buy his 'wares' based on reports of stolen and missing items from the townsfolk. Basically, if something was reported stolen, they check this guy's wares and buy it back."

That part wasn't Yuri's job, and he'd been hired as more of an "on the ground spy". Just posing as a regular resident while keeping tabs on the guy to make sure he didn't flee the area before he could be detained. "Not so basically, the guy's sketchy and difficult to get into a position where he can be arrested. First, they needed to ensure this was their guy was by seeing the stolen goods firsthand. Once they confirmed that, they did try to arrest him... but he's sneaky. He knows he's doing illegal stuff so he's aware that he needs to look out for these guys. Arresting himself without commotion or harm to others is the goal here, and he's good at making that an issue."

He poked at his ice cream, portion probably more than a regular person would eat. Clear indication of a sweet lover, if nothing else. Good to have when dealing with an annoying job like this, with how aware the target was. "In other words, the people 'buying' from this guy are actually people who know he's selling stuff he's stolen and giving it back to the people who reported their stuff missing. Problem is, you, my friend, keep stealing back from him, so he's starting to not want to sell his 'wares' here, and you're risking him taking off with all his stolen goods. On top of that, it means the 'buyers' lose track of the reported stolen goods because now they've gone missing from this merchant's stock."

Again, he paused to poke at the ice cream. He knew it was a lot of information at once, and he knew Ryker was at least not trying to buy the guy's stuff to intentionally thwart the law's efforts. He'd been watching the guy for a few days now, and nothing indicated to Yuri that he was doing this purposefully.

"Authorities are trying to buy his stuff back for now to make him think his plan is working, so that he doesn't take off and thinks his crimes are literally paying off. Once they arrest him, they'll be able to take back all the money he got from 'selling' the stuff and hand the remaining stolen items back. Your little theft thievery is making it a hell of a lot harder for them to catch him in a position safe to arrest him, though. I know you're doing it for a good cause 'cause I've been watching you for a few days, but right now that good cause is coming into conflict with another good cause; aaand it's really only benefitting the guy if he decides to stop selling here and takes off with both the rest of the 'wares' and the money he got from the undercover agents."

For a last time before he finished, he took another scoop of ice cream. At least their ice cream here was really good. Made taking this job so far out of his way from home a little more worth it, aside from the pay and guild reputation building. "So... any questions?"