Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-26130256-20170711055926/@comment-26130256-20171024073202

Edom respectfully nodded and shrugged his shoulders. Bolton's words about silent takedowns made plenty of sense, and he distinctly remembered how few times the Harlequins had willingly burgled a place with a Huntsman-tier opponent standing guard. Even during those times, Brine had usually assembled  a plan that either distracted the foe from the real target, or neutralized their ability to interfere with the heist in progress. Much easier to fight baseline humans or the hordes of Atlas-made security robots. Except the Dozer-bots, those could all go die in a fire.

The professor's words on the Army and Navy's approaches to combat also made sense, but not for the reasons he was claiming. The Cardamom family had been a name in Vacuo's criminal underground for around a century, which added up to a lot of criminal operations. In all that time, it was acknowledged by the entire family that nobody was smart enough to see everything coming, so the best course of action was to plan for as many eventualities as was reasonable. It might have taken a divine miracle for a Army man to lose his primary, sidearm, knife, tools, and armor, but it still happened, and Murphy was almost as big of a threat as any enemy force.

As for Fritz's story, well, the tree of life was self-pruning. Azzie had often seen his uncle charge into fights with what seemed to be horribly inappropiate weapons for the task at hand, but the head enforcer also had more fighting experience than all but the most grizzled military veterans, and that knowledge of how people would most likely fight was terrifying in the hands of one with the physical abilities to capitalize on it.

The rest of class time was spent in similar formalities, and the sun was just starting to set over the mountains by the time Edom emerged from the classroom building. It was still early enough to go and do things before sleeping, but he didn't really know what was worth doing in town, and jet lag was going to hit him like a train before too long. Maybe it was best to go find his dorm early and get situated. Maybe if he felt really lucky, he would switch his Scroll's drive and talk to Brine for a few minutes. But first, to find the housing where they stashed his bags...

Trigo Cardamom was having what his brother would charitably call "one of those weeks". Some of his sources had miraculously tipped him off to a small Black Dawn cell planning some sabotage at the Flagg factory in Vacuo, and in the spirit of honoring Flagg's generous protection payments, he personally led a crew of Cardamom figthers mixed with some of the Manzanita security staff. The operation went almost exactly as planned, until one additional enemy literally jumped down from the rafters and nearly sliced Fresa Maximino in half (The doctor said she would certainly live, but would probably never walk again as a result of her injuries). A Crusader, one of the Black Dawn's head goons.

This particular Crusader used a sword that could somehow phase through solid matter, plus a version of Hanneman's open-handed fencing style that Trigo hadn't seen in a decade. The Cardamom did manage to kill the man, but the duel was still one of the harder fights in his career, and the intelligence they found at the hideout implied this Crusader was only on his first mission! Trigo had zero desire to admit it, but maybe this was a sign he was finally getting old. After all, over at Flagg, there were now five graduated Eliminators who had beaten him in a tournament bout, and two of them had even done it twice.Growing old was a painful thought, but not nearly as painful as the "massage" one of the family maids was currently giving him to help speed his recovery.

"Eesh...OUCH!" he exclaimed as the girl's hands violated a portion of his left shoulder. The man's skin was positively festooned with scar tissue, each one a souvenir of a fight he had survived. "If I've done something to insult your family, please let me know and I will apologize.  Passive-agressively killing me is just inefficient."

"There's got to be easier ways to kill you than massaging you to death," she replied as she kneaded the muscles. "How is it you took a phase sword through the bicep and shrugged it off, but my hands are enough to hurt you?"

"Adrenaline, mostly.  Adrenaline and strong drink, which you won't let me have during this infernal massage.  Not even through a straw." He might have continued to complain, but his scroll on a nearby table began to vibrate in the "Shave and a Haircut " pattern. One of his secured addresses. "Hold on, that might be important." He rose from the bed and opened the mail, only to groan loudly at the contents.

"More trouble, boss?" the maid asked gingerly, playing with the cuff of feathers on her wrists.

"Yes, but a different kind.  I have an emergency board meeting at Flagg to attend." In addition to his duties as capo di esecutore for the Cardamom family, Trigo also served on the board of directors for the Flagg Corporation. The meetings were kind of a bother, but the stipend was great for the effort involved, and visiting Flagg's campus and harassing the students and employees was a joy all its own.

"Shall I call the airport and get your usual flight ready?" she asked as she tossed Trigo his shirt.

"Please do.  Depending on the times, I may have to ask Sienna to visit the Maximinos in my absence.  I'm packing for a week, but I have the feeling I might be there for longer." As he dressed, the boss quickly recovered his flask and drank about half of it in one gulp.

"Isn't Bolton teaching one of his close-quarters classes right now?" Trigo wondered out loud. "Maybe I'll have to pay him a visit whilst I'm in town."