Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-26104528-20150928195402/@comment-26130256-20160115230412

"I think the term for those is 'kidnapping', but Stella makes sense," Azulius agreed, switching Roaring Moxie's ammo from a regular drum to a box of Ice Dust rounds. "But if these folks are as good as they think they are, don't be afraid to play hardball with them.  I've given the whole 'sorry your kid's dead' speech only once in my professional career, and I'm hoping to cap it at that."

Sienna studied the boy closely. It was an old trick to feign panic and nerves to help hide that you were lieing, but this kid seemed to be telling the truth, at least so far. And the idea that this was a Wounded Gazelle Gambit looked pretty slim, given that you didn't need two dozen wounded to pull off that con game.

"All right," the underboss sighed, lowering his gun a few degrees. "I believe you.  Or at least I don't think you're a liar.  Unless you try to cross us, you have the protection of the Cardamom Family.  We'll decide what to do once your associates are all stable." Sliding past the young Dust Runner, he gave the one-armed mage an light blow to the kneecap with Higure's baton form, then silently caught the man, removed his belt to use as a tourniquet on the bleeding arm-stump. "For the love of Dust, man!  Protecting your friend is one thing, but how much protecting can you do when you're dead?" He gestured for the boy to come keep pressure on the tourniquet until the bleeding stopped, then rose to find someone to assist.

On the other side of the room, one of the injured was on his last legs, the shock of the fight finally getting to him. He reached futilely towards Coral, his closest friend, before his hand slumped and his eyes close. Before she even had time to mourn, a hand stabbed the man just next to the heart, and he came back to life with a splutter and cough.

"I always hate it in movies when people save their big, sappy declarations for when they're dying," the man's savior observed, removing the knife from his chest, which Coral realized was actually a very thin syringe. "If you're going to tell a girl you love her, tell her while you have the time to enjoy it." The woman rose to her feet, and Coral finally got a good look at her. She was tall and thin, and even in her blue-with-speckles robe, she was definitely beautiful. Her long, black hair was formed into a bun, held in place with what looked like two very thin throwing knives.

"Stay with him for a few minutes until his breathing and pulse are stable, then let him sleep," she continued, quickly bandaging the man's remaining injuries. "Opal Cardamom, pleasure to meet you.  Love to talk more, but we have a few more pressing matters first." The mobster's wife moved on to another patient, ordering two of her maids to run and fetch some kind of medicine.

"Opal, darling!" Sienna shouted from the other side of the room as he, a butler, and one of the family's guards tried to stop someone's now-handless arm from bleeding out further. "I was worried you'd gone back to sleep." After the tourniquet failed to help, he was forced to borrow a Red Dust crystal from one of Master's former employees and ignite it to cauterize the stump. He burned his hand a little also, and bit back a curse as he tried to fix the damage with his Aura.

"Burning yourself, dear?  No idea why you'd want to do that," she laughed a little as she began cleaning someone else's cuts.

"It's hardly a burn, compared to what I get after you leave the teapon on for much too long," Sienna shot back, wrapping his hand around the ice spikes in another Runner's back as he slowly applied part of Trigo's Viton stash around the openings.

"Well, some of us prefer our tea to be hot, as opposed to merely lukewarm," she shrugged, not missing a beat in their battle of wits.

"There's a difference between hot and boiling as well.  Why didn't you tell me you were a masochist?  We could have had such fun together," he winked back.

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Opal laughed. The couple continued bantering as they worked, and based on everyone's reactions, this was evidently par for the course.

"Would you believe that this year is their twenty-sixth aniversary?" one of the maids whispered to a Dust Runner as she closed the curtains, making sure no one could see into the house from the streets.