Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-26104528-20150518191206/@comment-26130256-20150630014548

Getting out of the car, Azzie noticed Akiba on edge. It wasn't all that hard; the boy probably needed to have more expressive body language to make up for being mute. But what was it?

"You seem on edge, champ," the magician wrote on his scroll, showing it to the orange swordsman. "What's going on?  I ain't Hemlock Sholmes, so if I missed something important, let me know before we all regret it.  My ego's squishy, it can take a beating."

________

A wise old dead man whose name Azulius had long since forgotten once said that the best way to hide a tree was a forest. It was this strategy that guided him as he pulled the villagers out of the hall for his personal interviews. For every person he felt was uneasy enough to have something important to say, he pulled two people out who looked normal enough.

Besides learning a fascinating new recipe for scones and the proper way to shear a sheep, Azzie found some genuinely useful information. According to the inkeeper, a handful of construction workers using fake-sounding names had rented rooms using cash. For being so close to Vale, it seemed like an unessecary expense. Then the construction foreman, after some serious persuading, admitted that some of the workers had been doing something with the construction materials and threatened the foreman's family if he squealed. Also, Leon had left not long ago through the north gate to help someone find their missing sister. To calm him down, Azulius had to call Violet ("You don't work with the police as long as I have without finding friends in high places," he explained.) and have her send a Cardamom strike team to the man's house in Vale just in case there was some weight behind that threat.

As he escorted him back to the town hall, he noticed something else not good. A few seats away from the foreman was a man Azzie recognized. He was prowling around the yellow tape at Grei's apartment in Vale, and here he was now. He walked over to Oliver, gesturing to the opposite side of the room, while whispering his findings and pointing to the man using his Semblance like a laser pointer.

''Oh, NO. Wait a minute. Leon left to help some guy find his sister. Man plus sister equals two. At Grei's place, the barista said there were two workers with the off-schedule garbage truck. Also two, and then this guy shows up at both places. Something ain't right...''  Then it hit him, the recognition on his face only being hidden through years of training. Using his Semblance again to "whisper" to the ears of the whole party of heroes, he explained.

"I just realized something.  Grei's in trouble, and we need to move now,"  he whispered to them all. "I need backup.  Anyone who can sneak away without drawing suspicion, meet me at the north gate."

It makes perfect sense, he thought to himself, charging towards the gate as quietly as he could. ''If I wanted to make a hit on a Huntsman, and I had the gear to make it happen, and I wanted it to be secret, first thing I'd do is get the mark somewhere with no witnesses, prefferably far enough away I don't run the risk of anyone hearing. Exactly like these woods. If these two people are the same ones from the garbage truck, Leon's a sitting duck, and he may have no clue at all.''  Azzie looked behind him and explained his ideas to those who had followed him.