Verinotte Hall

A warm look blossomed in the hooded mans golden eyes as Vance voiced his consent to the idea of working for him. He gave a slight bow which rocked him forwards as he acknowledged the agreement, though before he could produce the actual contract a voice spoke up that had as of yet remained silent. The last member of their company asked a very clever question that had as of yet been simply allowed to float in the air.
"How much food would we be paid in?"

The masked man raised a single gloved hand, his index finger pointed skywards in the same way a teacher would halt the inquisitive thoughts thoughts of a young student. His hand slipped back within his robes, this time opening them slightly to reveal his shirt was utterly covered in pockets and pouches of various sizes, though it seemed entirely impossible to tell which of them had anything inside of them. He reached into one of these pockets by his hip and pulled out a small box, roughly twice the length of his hand, which resembled a plain wooden music box with one notable exception, instead of one singular lid there were in fact two separate components. He lifted it up to the light so that all of them could examine it.
"This is how you will be provided with food, simply place an item of food with the left most compartment and within twelve hours it will be perfectly duplicated within the other compartment. In essence so long as you have something to place in it you shall never want for food, especially, and I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this, since you could if you so desired simply take the duplicated food and the original food and place them in the same compartment giving you an unlimited supply of food. This device will only work on food however, not drink nor items of value. Attempting to place anything other than food within it will cause it to cease to function, a sad side effect I'm aware but these things must be crafted with a very specific set of instructions if they are to work as intended. Now, as for the contract."

Reaching once more into his robes and another pocket on his shirt he pulled out a small roll of silk, breaking open the wax seal with one hand and then handing it over to Vance. The letters on it were written in a fine cursive and written in a strange silvery ink that fluttered and shimmered in the lights from the Ball.

To whomever it best concerns

The following is a contract of employment (Accepted alternative terms noted as serfdom, servitude, service, contraction and obligation) for an indefinite term with the express aim of locating, recruiting and establishing positive relations with persons of note or else persons of talent and ability. The employed will not be subject to placing oneself under undo harm nor is required to serve in a combative role that would cause undue harm to themselves or others beyond the jurisdiction of self preservation. The employed will not be eligible for hazard pay as offer of employment is for a non-hazardous contract. Additional non-combative roles may be requested from the contractor to the employed at a later date if required (Accepted alternative terms noted as espionage, subterfuge, spy-work, information redistribution and obtaining.). Employed will be granted an initial salary of a bag (purple velvet to clarify for identification) containing exactly two kilograms of twenty four carat gold or a desired equivalent currency of the employed's choosing to be delivered to a location of the employed's choosing on a weekly basis. Note, this pay is subject to being increased at contractors discretion for exemplary services. Should the employed terminate the agreed upon contract without the contractors consent then all prior payment will be forfeited and returned to the contractor effective immediately.

"As you can see, no hidden small print, no malicious intent. Plain, simple and honest work. I suppose you could call yourself recruitment officers if you wished to be public about the terms of your employment. All you have to do is each give a verbal consent to this contract and you will be bound to the terms of it just as I will be to upholding my involvement of it, believe me, if I tried to break the contract it would not be a pretty sight for me." Here his golden eyes flicked over to Boo once more. "And as for your questions Boo my dear, you will begin work as soon as the contract is agreed. Of course I do expect you to actually do the work in the contract, else the whole thing is null and void and by the nature of it that sadly would mean a non-consensual breaking of the contract on your side. Furthermore, this contract can be repeated to anyone who you think would benefit from my employ and so long as you inform them as to who they would be working for I will be able to extend this offer to anyone you wish to recruit. So, each of you must decide for yourselves, though I'm perfectly sure the three of you are smart enough that you don't need me to prompt you here.

Midgra's eye widened as he watched the man produce the box. He then squinted at the box, his ears pinning slightly back as he looked doubtfully into the box. Eyes darting between the box and the mans face, his hands began to wring together. He began to grin eagerly as the device was explained to him, reaching out his hands for it by the end of his explanation. He however pulled the box away and pulled out the contract. Midgras hands followed the box as his grin faded, and he grumpily went back to a neutral pose. Midgra turned his attention to the contract handed to Vance. Quickly moving behind him, he tried his best to jump up and down behind Vance to properly read the contract he now currently held. Little to no success... But he most certainly saw something.

"Purple bag... Two bars of gold... Every week..."

That's all Midgra needed to see. He stopped jumping, his heart beginning to race. Gold... The yellow bands and pendants that people adorned themselves with... Worth a lot of money... Two bars... A week? His heart raced faster as he stood perfectly still, almost in a state of excited shock. He had to remind himself to breathe as he loosened back up again. Almost anything this guy would want done would be worth that much, even just one payment! Hell... He might even consider killing someone for that price, but it would still be a tough choice... He snapped back to reality, cutting everyone else off as the man ended his proposition.

"I agree! I agree!"

Midgra yelled excitedly, practically jumping for joy, running up to the man in question in excitement. His grin turned into a full on toothy smile, dead eye even opening up with just a hint of slitted Iris showing. The greed he couldn't quite hide shone behind that dead eye of his.

"Now.... when did you say we were to get paid?"

He continued to eagerly look up at the man, but not his face, instead his gaze fixated on the box he held.

Vance was interested in the box and the potential of infinite food. Even his replication array couldn't do that without a never ending supply of matter to be converted into other things.

"I agree to the terms of the contract. I wish for the currency of my employment to be universal credits, they're more convenient than gold. As for location, you can add it to this account." He handed over a small metal card with chip installed in it. It was an untraceable account from his mercenary work.

He waited to see if Boo was going to agree, but he was pretty sure she would. He couldn't help but wonder what work he would have them doing and where he would be taking his new friends.

Boo watched curiously as the hooded man produced a box and leaned in so far that it looked like she might topple right off of Vance's shoulder. Only her tail, which aided in her feline balance, kept her level. "Wow! We can have all the food!" A bright smile was was given to Midgra then a thought struck the child. Boo sat back again and tilted her head. She opened her mouth to ask how they knew it would work, then closed it again. Not delivering on the food would be breaking the contract right? Besides, they could buy food with what they were paid if it didn't work.

When 'Hood-kun' handed Vance the contract Boo leaned in again as if to read it. Except... she couldn't actually read the script written in that lovely ink. Luckily Midgra and vance were there to fill her in on the payment. "Wha, two bars..." Boo whispered in awe before speaking up again. "Uh, can Boo has coins instead? Bars are heavy. Er, not that Boo couldn't carry the bars. Boo's really strong." The last bit was added quickly, lest the others think she was weak. Granted, two bars of gold would weigh the same as two bars worth of of gold coins but the coins could be split up and carried separately and would be easier to spend as well as easier to get into her magic bag. Being about the size of a house cat meant Boo had to think about weight quite a bit. "Boo can just come pick it up too yes?" Vance had a ship and gave Boo a room there, but Boo didn't have a real home or any accounts to use.

Midgra's excitement got a burst of laughter from Boo. Maybe he could use a shampooing and brushing... but the fox was still cute! With Midgra and Vance agreeing to the contract, it seemed it was now Boo's turn. As a child it was fair to say she may not know the significance of it all. She may not know what she was getting into; maybe none of them did. Still, Boo wasn't about to be left behind now! Adventure, recruiting, and spy work? What could go wrong? "Boo is in!" She announced proudly.

Shimizu quietly offered a small, and brief bow to the one who greeted him, a boy of some kind. Never the less the Emperor maintained his composure, his gravitas at the situation and offered a small, almost humble reply.

"Thank you, Mr. Revela, I am honored to be here." Shimizu said offering a warm smile, before he turned his attention to the rest of the guests.

There didn't seem to be much going on, and Akio was the only one to really great the Taiyou man.

First one, then a second and then a third readily agreed to the contract that the strange masked man had proposed them. A pleased look shone in the golden orbs of his eyes as they flicked across each of the his three new employee, doubtless he would have been smiling widely as each of them were more than happy to agree to the terms of the contract, who wouldn't have after all agreed to such a ready and inviting deal?

The silver lettering on the silk in Vances hands shone a brilliant jade green for a brief moment after they had all agreed to the terms of the contract which gently ebbed away into a gentle glow of blue light that just about managed to light up the page it was written on in the rare moments of low light. Impossibly the singular piece of silk paper had somehow copied itself into three identical pieces, one for each of them to keep hold of, which their new found employer simply waved away as though it were the most insignificant thing to happen.

Rather than address Vance he instead turned his attention to Midgra, the fox had after all been the first to accept his offer, and held the box out to the small being.
"Exactly as promised, a gift of generosity, one enchanted Box of Plenty. Just don't get overzealous and try to put something other than food in there, it takes an awfully long time to make these and I would rather not have to go through that again any time soon." Relinquishing the box he turned back to Vance and gently plucked the card from him, turning it over in his gloved hand as his golden eyes appraised it silently. "Hmm, as you wish, that won't be too difficult." He flicked the card over once more and then produced a blank copy of the card with his other hand from somewhere in one of the many pockets on his person. His eyes traced across Vance's card and the details upon it were repeated on the version that he had been carrying with him as he traced his thumb across the surface of the card. With a tilt of his head he handed the original card back to the blue haired figure and then finally turned to address Boo.

"Well my dear I'm afraid locating me would be far harder than it would be for me to locate you, so I do need a location in which to deposit your payment however I can more than easily place your payment into gold coins if that is more suitable for you. As for when you start work, enjoy tonight, though I dare say the majority of the Ball has concluded itself for the best part. However the terms of your collective contracts are effective as of this moment so I do expect you to begin performing work as soon as possible. And of course, when you find someone you wish to recruit to my employment simply produce the contract, get their agreement and they too shall be subject to the terms of it, all very simply work I believe."

The masked man clapped his hands together once, like a joyful businessman after a particularly good deal and slowly looked around the remainder of the Ball in a casual manor. As his golden eyes made contact with a pair of regal brown eyes the warm and happy look melted away into something far closer to malicious hunger of some great and starving beast before they flicked back to the three before him, the warm look once more glowing within his enigmatic gaze. "Now, if there are no more queries about anything I will take my leave, I intend to speak to the hosts of this fine gala before the night ends."

Seeing that he survived meeting with the Emperor, managing not to offend him it seemed, being respectful, without doing anything submissive, Akio breathed a sigh of relief internally. The goal of this ball was to gain influence, but not to diminish themselves. He had to employ a lot of showy magic. He didn't mind this, showing off could be fun too, but it only barely fell into the magic he was best at...magic that was older then most.

As the Emperor returned his greeting before going off to greet the others, Akio decided to move throughout the crowds. Daemala seemed to be missing, or maybe she was handling the large amount of press that arrived, and Zos was nowhere to be seen either. Akio was apparently left to run things, despite a discussion earlier where Daemala said she would handle the meet and greets.

Eventually, Akio came across someone...unusual. A man...no, Akio knew he was something else. Akio had been alive long enough to know that much. He approached the man with the cloak, his vision isolated. He maintained the calm smile he had shown this whole time, and it looked entirely natural just like before. Akio had over one thousand years to perfect this, after all. And he overheard some of the things said.

"You wished to speak to one of us?"

Meanwhile....

CR smiled at the two werewolves, before getting shocked after eating a large amount of ice cream.

"Ahh! I forgot to introduce myself didn't I? My name is Crimson Reaper! It's nice to meet you!"

And so Crimson introduced himself as the literal son of the very concept of death, and the very concept of life. The ultimate oddball of Eldritch creatures...of course, it all depended on if they heard enough about all that, but it was not hidden. In fact, it was very public knowledge, because when two Eldritch beings, above gods and deities, with no real concept of time or age, get married and have a son, even if they exist outside of reality, somehow people still tend to notice.

However CR was not as observant, which was why if they had run away in the middle of his greeting, he might fail to notice until a few seconds after.

Meanwhile, Ivera was chatting with Ondona, at least for now provided she had not run off when he looked away for a moment to see the Taiyou emperor come in.

"Huh. It certainly is an interesting gathering of people. I must say, this is actually kind of fun...its nice".

Ivera was getting caught up in the emotion of going to his first party, that even the normally calm and collected him got a bit emotional. After all, this was one of the first times in his whole life he could finally enjoy himself.

"Ah, anyways. Its nice to meet you. I don't suppose you have any recommendations yet for what to eat or drink?"

"Recommendations?...Well I usually have my own special tastes like everyone here. I usually enjoy some tea with some biscuits, and I like to eat small finger food as people call them...I am not a picky eater, but I do make sure not to eat too much or else I might gain weight." Ondona replied with a small smile.

"Oh! I managed to get off topic my apologies. I would recommend the sandwiches, they are good, for drinks...they have many selection of juices and alcohol but I stick to tea."

The blue haired werewolf raised his left eyebrow as he watched CR devour the ice cream like it was the only food on the planet. Taking another puff of his pipe as he blew the smoke upwards again. "Its alright. Temp and I don't really like to stand on ceremony much. I guess I just have one question for you, If I shake your hand, will I die?" His tone of voice was very....bemused. Enjoying himself, although he looked uncomfortable in the suit he was wearing.

Temperance was just standing there silent, shy, and kinda nervous. Normally she wasn't like this at all. Waiting for someone, or something, to acknowledge her presence was a weird thing. She usually just kept to herself.

Midgra took the box, immediately putting in on the ground and opening it. He took two sandwich halves he had stuffed into his suit pocket and eagerly placed them into the first compartment. He only wished he could watch the box work. Even if the thing was one third his size, he made sure he would never, ever misplace such a fantastic device. Almost as an afterthought, perhaps reminded by his cohorts, he called after Scribe. "Can I please have my bars delivered to the Jargon Cellars? They are not too far from here." His eye however, remained fixated on the box. "Let us say on the left side of the cellar, bottom row, in the very back. If that would work?" He said, looking up from the box.

Midgra was ecstatic that he was now going to be rich. Or, at least much, much richer than broke. But on a more subconscious level, he was even happier to have a little direction is his entirely aimless existence. He might not know it on a conscious level, but that was going to be much more valuable to him than the bars could ever be. The fact that he had new friends, or rather co-workers was also a huge deal to him. He could, and had several times before been entirely on his own for months at a time, but preferred at least short bursts of socialization.

Vance decided to take the rest of the evening to enjoy himself like the other two. "Okay guys, we got the rest of the evening to have some fun so let's meet up at the end of the party and I'll show you to my ship, Midgra. I got a safe when we get there where we can put that box so it doesn't get stolen." Vance smiled.

He went off to get some more food and some more of the purple booze and see if he could find something entertaining to do.

Midgra nodded, still holding onto the box with both arms wrapped around it. This would mean a few more hours to kill, but Midgra was very good at that. He wouldn't let go of the box, but still found his way to the drink station and had a few more purple drinks and tried to hobknob with confused guests, with little success. As the party began to filter out, Midgra returned to the space in which they agreed to meet.

After a few hours, Vance got bored with watching the elite and rich suck up to each other. He had drank a lot of the purple booze and was beginning to feel a little bit woozy. He went to the meeting spot and saw Midgra waiting there for him, still clutching the box tight. "C'mon, Boo knows where to find us. I'll show you the ship." Vance slurred. He was a little bit tipsy now.

He managed to get to his ship in one piece and Midgra was right behind. "Ravi, open the doors." The ship's door opened and Vance took Midgra inside to give him a tour. He showed Midgra the rooms and the medical bay, before he passed out on his bed. He wouldn't be passed out for long as his metabolism would burn through the booze quickly. They weren't going to leave without Boo anyway and surely she'd wake him up when she got there.

Despite having left a seemingly open question for his three new employees, the masked man seemed to no longer notice them, as one would a mote of dust, out of sight out of mind. And as a new figure began to approach them he turned on his heel sharply, black robes swirling around his lower form as he moved rapidly around, oddly enough it seemed as though he had turned before the being could even possibly make his presence known to the masked man, though surely that was impossible?

"You wished to speak to one of us?"

The hooded figure cocked his head forward in a strange half bow towards the far smaller being. No doubt if he were capable of displaying such an expression he would be giving a warm and friendly smile, though such a light did seem to playfully dance across his golden eyes as he looked down at the small parasitic creature. If he truly knew what he was speaking to he had no fear of it, or trepidation or even disgust, he seemed to look upon the smaller being with the sort of warm familiarity as a kindly uncle would a young child.

"Ah yes, how very kind of you to come to me rather than I having to locate yourselves. I came here tonight in fact with the sole purpose of locating your esteemed organisation, you see I would have a vested interest in becoming in some way a patron and associate of anyone or party who can arrange such a fine gala as this, especially with such fine hosts who... Well, let's say able to elicit such a particular display of abilities and talents."

As the activity of the ball died down, and guests began to depart one by one, Akio was faced with this being before him. He seemed to sense Akio before he spoke out, which might be odd given Akio's appearance. However, Akio himself had on purposefully used the powers bestowed to him as the wielder of the Wand of the Nightingale to increase his presence. Normally, it would be used to decrease or erase it entirely, as there was normally not much use on increasing it. But Akio could sense the...irregularities...of the being in front of him.

"Just a common curtesy, from one supernatural being to another".

Akio then reached out his hand to the side, and picked up a glass of some red liquid...it could be red wine, could be blood, and began to drink. Notably, there had been nothing there before, but Topaz showed up as he started to reach and offered it to him.

"It is a shame that the party seems to be dying down, not giving us much time to talk...but perhaps then, if it is for the best, we should meet again afterwards. After all, one should never rush these things".

And then, Akio handed him a business card. He had custom made them, and it had the Detente's name on them, a list of ways to contact them, and even an address. That last one might seem risky, but it was in the Cursed Wood. Anyone capable of effectively using that address to find them probably wouldn't need it at all, already had connections to that place, or was an exception to the norm.

"I do not think I got your name though. Mine is Akio Revela, it has been a pleasure to be your host this evening".

And as he spoke the words, the Chaos Ball began to come to a close.

Winne Rineswurth has left the area, heading out into Verinotte Square.

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the southeast. You can see something appear in that direction.

Esmerelda Bistreo materializes from the void.

Esmerelda Bistreo vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.

Esmerelda Bistreo materializes from the void.

Esmerelda Bistreo vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.