Post by Tout-Perd on Jul 31, 2013 12:58:18 GMT -5
A dashing young man stepped into the warm, buttery air of the coffee shop. The glass door swung shut behind him in a clamor of bells. The racket prompted glances from everybody in the cozy establishment except for one individual, a darkly coiffed lad with his back to the entryway.
The newcomer cocked his head slightly, took one glance at the menu written on a chalkboard above the counter, and then quickly scurried for the seat opposite the man who had ignored his arrival.
“Hello, Nopcsa. Still showing off that you’re a mind reader to those of us who already know you are?” He pulled out the chair and lowered himself into it, gamely making eye contact with Nopcsa, He steepled his fingers, and then swept them up to either side of his head, resting on his temples. “You’re going to get a tall latte and a raspberry scone. Fear my vast foreknowledge of the trivial things you’re going to do, for it is beyond your ken, mortal!”
“Actually, Terrian, you’re angling for an apple fritter, a small black coffee, and the barrista’s number,” Nopcsa responded, a smirk touching his lips. The three large scars across his jawline rippled with the expression.
“Actually, I’m angling to know why you’ve called me down here. I’m guessing it’s business, since most people don’t just jaunt out across several hundred miles of the Pacific for a cup of coffee,” Terrian pulled out the seat across from Nopcsa, but clearly made a point of not pushing it in when he sat down. It was prudent to have an easy escape route from whatever malarkey Nopcsa had on his itinerary.
“Pleasure, actually. Somewhat. Pleasure with a point zero two percent business impurity, I suppose you could say,” Nopcsa shrugged noncommittally.
Terrian simply nodded in response. His curiosity had been gnawing away at him since he got the text from Nopcsa about a rendezvous (“meet me at the cozy cup on shepherd street @ 10 am. gotta talk”), but to betray even slightest trace of interest would be letting the Order get their hooks into him again. The last job he’d done for them had been fairly unquestionably the worst night of his life, and he wasn’t eager to go jumping into another such endeavor.
“No, you won’t be working for the Order this time,” Nopcsa said with a faint smile, leaning forward in his seat, “But Auguste wanted to make a good will offering, to show that we still want to have a positive business relationship with you.”
“So, like, a present or something? Nopcsa, buddy, you’ve got to know by now that I have no shortage of socks,” Despite his apparent nonchalance, Terrian’s heart skipped a beat. The Order didn’t deal in mundane wares. Whatever they were offering wasn’t something you could waltz out and buy at a convenience store.
“More like a contract.”
“Oh? I have pretty solid memory of you telling me not to make contracts with you mystical types,” Terrian turned in his seat, getting ready to stand up.
“Not that sort of contract,” Nopcsa sat up a little straighter in his seat, and his lazy expression sharpened, “We wanted to offer you the first shot at a job. Nothing dangerous, just a fun little heist out in Violet.”
“Oh, why thank you for letting me break the law for you, and take the inevitable fallout for the Order. When it comes to gift shopping, Nopcsa, you are downright exemplary,” Terrian got out of his seat, and started for the door.
“Wait, it’s not like that!” The mindreader turned and rose, the legs of his chair screeching horribly on the tile floor.
“It’s not like what? Because it sounds like you and your pals are just looking to use me as a pawn again. I’m done with this,” Terrian didn’t even look towards Nopcsa as he walked away.
“Hey, wait! That’s not how it is, at all!” Nopcsa took hold of Terrian’s shoulder, forcing him to meet his gaze.
“Listen, I’m sorry about how things played out at Giguere’s place. Nobody could’ve predicted how fucked up that whole job would go. I mean, the one assassin, yeah, that makes sense. But the rest of that? That was seriously the worse shit I’ve ever been through, and I’m sorry I dragged you into it with me. I was figuring we’d just be in for a fun little romp, hang out in some sweet digs, and make a decent wad of cash for the evening. Instead, well-“ Nopcsa looked down at his feet in shame. It was quite possibly the first time Terrian had seen that expression on him.
“I’ll admit it. I fucked up. I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to put you through all that.”
“When I saw this job come in, I was hoping that we could go and do a fun little heist to take that bad taste out of our mouths,” Nopcsa shook his head, “The worst part about being a mindreader is knowing when you’ve hurt somebody who actually matters to you.”
Terrian sighed.
“Okay, I’m going to regret this, but I’ll listen.”
Nopcsa took his hand from Terrian’s shoulder, and almost instantly seemed to shift back to his usual level of swagger.
“You know the Terminers?” He asked with a devilish gleam in his eyes.
“Yeah. One of the ‘super-rich’ families of the Archipelago. There’s not a soul in their household worth less than a billion dollars. The big patriarch of the family, Leopold Terminer, just passed away a week ago.”
“Exactly. It turns out there’s an interesting little tidbit about his will, though…”
“How so, besides the number of zeroes involved?”
“He went with an all-or-nothing arrangement. Whichever of his sons is in ownership of his family’s heirloom Bible at the end of the month gets his entire fortune.”
“And one of them hired you?”
“No, here’s the real catch,” Nopcsa said, baring his teeth, “His widow hired us. She wouldn’t even benefit from having the book, but she’s screwing over both her kids, looks like.”
“Maybe she’s trying to make a point,” Terrian noted, having ceased his momentum towards the exit.
“I don’t really know. However it goes, though, she wants me and two or three friends to slip into her son’s place, bypass the security, and make off with this thing. And that’s where you come in.”
“How many of these two or three friends am I?” Terrian quizzically pointed towards his chest.
“However many you want to be. But I was figuring we could make a party out of this, you know? Invite a couple of pals along, pull the heist, and have a night on the town afterwards,” Nopcsa beamed.
“There’s no way that could possibly go wrong,” Terrian deadpanned.
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun! No demons or assassins or psychotic midgets or deathtraps or cannibals this time, I promise! I already cased the joint. There’s nothing but three alarm systems to bypass, and then we’re golden.”
“If you hadn’t noticed, I’m not exactly adept at avoiding state of the art alarms. A dozen of me just means I can trip the alarms a dozen times over, really.”
“That’s what friends are for! I mean, don’t tell me that you haven’t missed hanging out with Helen,” The last two syllables rolled off of Nopcsa’s tongue with downright lecherous implications.
“No! I mean, well, she and Rhys are kind of an item… At least, I think they are?” Terrian put both hands up in front of his chest, as if to push away the conjured images of ridiculously short skirts and stocking clad legs.
“Then bring him along, too. I bet he’d get a kick out of this, honestly. An inside scoop on the fallout from the death of one of the greatest captains of industry? He’d eat that up! And besides,” Nopcsa lowered his voice conspiratorially, “I kind of owe him too, for the whole mess in Salt Lake City, even if he didn’t get it quite as bad as us.”
“I don’t know, wouldn’t Jonas feel left out?”
“Your call, man. The contract just specifies four people, any four that are willing to go along for this, provided we succeed. Hell, if you wanted me to, I’ll sit this one out, and let you do things however you want. After all, we were calling this a gift, right? It’s all in your hands.”
“Well, thanks, Nopcsa, for foisting all this responsibility and pressure onto my shoulders. I can not express enough how much I appreciate it.”
“I’m such a giver, aren’t I?” The mindreader grinned, “Of course, you aren’t accounting for all of your options. What about Rie? I bet she’d…”
He paused, and shook his head.
“I was going to say that she’d have a blast, but I’m not really certain if that girl actually, you know, enjoys anything. But she’d be incredibly handy to have along.”
Terrian nodded sagely. Whenever things did go sour, Rie knew how to handle herself better than anybody else he knew. To have her covering his back would be incredibly reassuring.
“Then again, you could see about reaching Alyssa?”
“Alyssa?”
“You know, that scared little waif of a thing that’s constantly worrying she’s going to explode and kill everybody.”
“Because inviting a potentially explosive civilian is exactly what I want in a delicate, stealth based situation.”
“I’m just saying, the girl could make due with getting out of the house more often. And afterwards, can you imagine her drunked up enough to sing karaoke? Come on, Terrian, that’s gotta be worth the price of admission.”
"Or maybe that Emily girl! I have to admit, she was pretty fun to hang out with, last I ran into her. It takes some serious moxie to make a cake for a bunch of people who tried to kill you at one point."
“Are we just turning this into a total party now? You know, instead of actually bringing people who might, oh, I don’t know, help us avoid getting caught by the police?” Terrian hissed the last few words through his teeth, making sure to keep his volume low enough that the other customers couldn’t eavesdrop.
“Good point, good point. Hey, how about that science chick?”
“Blaise?”
“Yeah, her! Good thing that her name came to mind so quickly. Means you think about her often, doesn’t it?” Nopcsa gave a cheshire grin, clearly gloating, “And now you’re blushing.”
Terrian swung a light punch at Nopcsa’s shoulder, but the mindreader danced a step back, avoiding the blow.
“Whatever your intent may be with her, I bet she would be quite helpful to have along, and she’d appreciate the invite. And just imagine her doing drunken karaoke!”
Terrian paused, turning his eyes towards the ceiling. He bit his lip. Nopcsa joined him in contemplation.
“To be honest with you, I can’t.”
“Yeah, I’m drawing a blank, too.”
After a pause, Nopcsa spoke again.
“I could probably see about getting you a few people from the Order, if you’re interested.”
“Yeah, plenty of mystic goons with no ethics whatsoever, and maybe even one that’ll tear my heart out if I accidentally mention Natalie. Man, Nopcsa, that’d be a blast!”
“No, not that type…” Nopcsa got a sour look on his face, “I meant people more like you. Some of the part timers.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, like Garth, remember him? He’s actually been getting pretty good at handling himself in a fight these days, and he’s a nice kid. I’m not sure what use a gigantic flaming serpent would be for a stealthy infiltration, but you never know when something like that will come in handy.”
“You said there were others?”
“Well, one or two, that I could get on short notice. For one, there’s Telrien. You’d like her, at least until she made off with your wallet and your car keys. I wouldn’t exactly call her trustworthy, but on the other hand, this sort of work is old hat to her. She’s really into engineering and chemistry, and where there’s money involved, that girl is downright unstoppable. I bet she could do this whole heist on her own, while we played Angry Birds on our phones.”
“Sounds interesting, at least. And what about this other guy?”
“Oh, well, there’s Prime.”
“Prime.”
The pause was slightly longer than the one invoked by the image of a drunken Blaise Euler.
“I mean, I bet that cleaving the entire mansion in half is an entirely valid way of getting to that book,” Terrian murmured with slight awe touching his voice.
“Unquestionably. But yes, his lack of subtlety aside, I’m betting there’s nobody better for getting us out of there in a hurry once we’re done. And who knows, he might surprise you! I have to say, out of everybody I’ve ever met, Prime has more hidden depths than ANY of them.”
"Nopcsa, buddy, I'm not sure how willing I am to plumb those depths."
Terrian put his hand to his chin and began mulling over his options.
”So,” Nopcsa asked, “Who’s it gonna be?”
The newcomer cocked his head slightly, took one glance at the menu written on a chalkboard above the counter, and then quickly scurried for the seat opposite the man who had ignored his arrival.
“Hello, Nopcsa. Still showing off that you’re a mind reader to those of us who already know you are?” He pulled out the chair and lowered himself into it, gamely making eye contact with Nopcsa, He steepled his fingers, and then swept them up to either side of his head, resting on his temples. “You’re going to get a tall latte and a raspberry scone. Fear my vast foreknowledge of the trivial things you’re going to do, for it is beyond your ken, mortal!”
“Actually, Terrian, you’re angling for an apple fritter, a small black coffee, and the barrista’s number,” Nopcsa responded, a smirk touching his lips. The three large scars across his jawline rippled with the expression.
“Actually, I’m angling to know why you’ve called me down here. I’m guessing it’s business, since most people don’t just jaunt out across several hundred miles of the Pacific for a cup of coffee,” Terrian pulled out the seat across from Nopcsa, but clearly made a point of not pushing it in when he sat down. It was prudent to have an easy escape route from whatever malarkey Nopcsa had on his itinerary.
“Pleasure, actually. Somewhat. Pleasure with a point zero two percent business impurity, I suppose you could say,” Nopcsa shrugged noncommittally.
Terrian simply nodded in response. His curiosity had been gnawing away at him since he got the text from Nopcsa about a rendezvous (“meet me at the cozy cup on shepherd street @ 10 am. gotta talk”), but to betray even slightest trace of interest would be letting the Order get their hooks into him again. The last job he’d done for them had been fairly unquestionably the worst night of his life, and he wasn’t eager to go jumping into another such endeavor.
“No, you won’t be working for the Order this time,” Nopcsa said with a faint smile, leaning forward in his seat, “But Auguste wanted to make a good will offering, to show that we still want to have a positive business relationship with you.”
“So, like, a present or something? Nopcsa, buddy, you’ve got to know by now that I have no shortage of socks,” Despite his apparent nonchalance, Terrian’s heart skipped a beat. The Order didn’t deal in mundane wares. Whatever they were offering wasn’t something you could waltz out and buy at a convenience store.
“More like a contract.”
“Oh? I have pretty solid memory of you telling me not to make contracts with you mystical types,” Terrian turned in his seat, getting ready to stand up.
“Not that sort of contract,” Nopcsa sat up a little straighter in his seat, and his lazy expression sharpened, “We wanted to offer you the first shot at a job. Nothing dangerous, just a fun little heist out in Violet.”
“Oh, why thank you for letting me break the law for you, and take the inevitable fallout for the Order. When it comes to gift shopping, Nopcsa, you are downright exemplary,” Terrian got out of his seat, and started for the door.
“Wait, it’s not like that!” The mindreader turned and rose, the legs of his chair screeching horribly on the tile floor.
“It’s not like what? Because it sounds like you and your pals are just looking to use me as a pawn again. I’m done with this,” Terrian didn’t even look towards Nopcsa as he walked away.
“Hey, wait! That’s not how it is, at all!” Nopcsa took hold of Terrian’s shoulder, forcing him to meet his gaze.
“Listen, I’m sorry about how things played out at Giguere’s place. Nobody could’ve predicted how fucked up that whole job would go. I mean, the one assassin, yeah, that makes sense. But the rest of that? That was seriously the worse shit I’ve ever been through, and I’m sorry I dragged you into it with me. I was figuring we’d just be in for a fun little romp, hang out in some sweet digs, and make a decent wad of cash for the evening. Instead, well-“ Nopcsa looked down at his feet in shame. It was quite possibly the first time Terrian had seen that expression on him.
“I’ll admit it. I fucked up. I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to put you through all that.”
“When I saw this job come in, I was hoping that we could go and do a fun little heist to take that bad taste out of our mouths,” Nopcsa shook his head, “The worst part about being a mindreader is knowing when you’ve hurt somebody who actually matters to you.”
Terrian sighed.
“Okay, I’m going to regret this, but I’ll listen.”
Nopcsa took his hand from Terrian’s shoulder, and almost instantly seemed to shift back to his usual level of swagger.
“You know the Terminers?” He asked with a devilish gleam in his eyes.
“Yeah. One of the ‘super-rich’ families of the Archipelago. There’s not a soul in their household worth less than a billion dollars. The big patriarch of the family, Leopold Terminer, just passed away a week ago.”
“Exactly. It turns out there’s an interesting little tidbit about his will, though…”
“How so, besides the number of zeroes involved?”
“He went with an all-or-nothing arrangement. Whichever of his sons is in ownership of his family’s heirloom Bible at the end of the month gets his entire fortune.”
“And one of them hired you?”
“No, here’s the real catch,” Nopcsa said, baring his teeth, “His widow hired us. She wouldn’t even benefit from having the book, but she’s screwing over both her kids, looks like.”
“Maybe she’s trying to make a point,” Terrian noted, having ceased his momentum towards the exit.
“I don’t really know. However it goes, though, she wants me and two or three friends to slip into her son’s place, bypass the security, and make off with this thing. And that’s where you come in.”
“How many of these two or three friends am I?” Terrian quizzically pointed towards his chest.
“However many you want to be. But I was figuring we could make a party out of this, you know? Invite a couple of pals along, pull the heist, and have a night on the town afterwards,” Nopcsa beamed.
“There’s no way that could possibly go wrong,” Terrian deadpanned.
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun! No demons or assassins or psychotic midgets or deathtraps or cannibals this time, I promise! I already cased the joint. There’s nothing but three alarm systems to bypass, and then we’re golden.”
“If you hadn’t noticed, I’m not exactly adept at avoiding state of the art alarms. A dozen of me just means I can trip the alarms a dozen times over, really.”
“That’s what friends are for! I mean, don’t tell me that you haven’t missed hanging out with Helen,” The last two syllables rolled off of Nopcsa’s tongue with downright lecherous implications.
“No! I mean, well, she and Rhys are kind of an item… At least, I think they are?” Terrian put both hands up in front of his chest, as if to push away the conjured images of ridiculously short skirts and stocking clad legs.
“Then bring him along, too. I bet he’d get a kick out of this, honestly. An inside scoop on the fallout from the death of one of the greatest captains of industry? He’d eat that up! And besides,” Nopcsa lowered his voice conspiratorially, “I kind of owe him too, for the whole mess in Salt Lake City, even if he didn’t get it quite as bad as us.”
“I don’t know, wouldn’t Jonas feel left out?”
“Your call, man. The contract just specifies four people, any four that are willing to go along for this, provided we succeed. Hell, if you wanted me to, I’ll sit this one out, and let you do things however you want. After all, we were calling this a gift, right? It’s all in your hands.”
“Well, thanks, Nopcsa, for foisting all this responsibility and pressure onto my shoulders. I can not express enough how much I appreciate it.”
“I’m such a giver, aren’t I?” The mindreader grinned, “Of course, you aren’t accounting for all of your options. What about Rie? I bet she’d…”
He paused, and shook his head.
“I was going to say that she’d have a blast, but I’m not really certain if that girl actually, you know, enjoys anything. But she’d be incredibly handy to have along.”
Terrian nodded sagely. Whenever things did go sour, Rie knew how to handle herself better than anybody else he knew. To have her covering his back would be incredibly reassuring.
“Then again, you could see about reaching Alyssa?”
“Alyssa?”
“You know, that scared little waif of a thing that’s constantly worrying she’s going to explode and kill everybody.”
“Because inviting a potentially explosive civilian is exactly what I want in a delicate, stealth based situation.”
“I’m just saying, the girl could make due with getting out of the house more often. And afterwards, can you imagine her drunked up enough to sing karaoke? Come on, Terrian, that’s gotta be worth the price of admission.”
"Or maybe that Emily girl! I have to admit, she was pretty fun to hang out with, last I ran into her. It takes some serious moxie to make a cake for a bunch of people who tried to kill you at one point."
“Are we just turning this into a total party now? You know, instead of actually bringing people who might, oh, I don’t know, help us avoid getting caught by the police?” Terrian hissed the last few words through his teeth, making sure to keep his volume low enough that the other customers couldn’t eavesdrop.
“Good point, good point. Hey, how about that science chick?”
“Blaise?”
“Yeah, her! Good thing that her name came to mind so quickly. Means you think about her often, doesn’t it?” Nopcsa gave a cheshire grin, clearly gloating, “And now you’re blushing.”
Terrian swung a light punch at Nopcsa’s shoulder, but the mindreader danced a step back, avoiding the blow.
“Whatever your intent may be with her, I bet she would be quite helpful to have along, and she’d appreciate the invite. And just imagine her doing drunken karaoke!”
Terrian paused, turning his eyes towards the ceiling. He bit his lip. Nopcsa joined him in contemplation.
“To be honest with you, I can’t.”
“Yeah, I’m drawing a blank, too.”
After a pause, Nopcsa spoke again.
“I could probably see about getting you a few people from the Order, if you’re interested.”
“Yeah, plenty of mystic goons with no ethics whatsoever, and maybe even one that’ll tear my heart out if I accidentally mention Natalie. Man, Nopcsa, that’d be a blast!”
“No, not that type…” Nopcsa got a sour look on his face, “I meant people more like you. Some of the part timers.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, like Garth, remember him? He’s actually been getting pretty good at handling himself in a fight these days, and he’s a nice kid. I’m not sure what use a gigantic flaming serpent would be for a stealthy infiltration, but you never know when something like that will come in handy.”
“You said there were others?”
“Well, one or two, that I could get on short notice. For one, there’s Telrien. You’d like her, at least until she made off with your wallet and your car keys. I wouldn’t exactly call her trustworthy, but on the other hand, this sort of work is old hat to her. She’s really into engineering and chemistry, and where there’s money involved, that girl is downright unstoppable. I bet she could do this whole heist on her own, while we played Angry Birds on our phones.”
“Sounds interesting, at least. And what about this other guy?”
“Oh, well, there’s Prime.”
“Prime.”
The pause was slightly longer than the one invoked by the image of a drunken Blaise Euler.
“I mean, I bet that cleaving the entire mansion in half is an entirely valid way of getting to that book,” Terrian murmured with slight awe touching his voice.
“Unquestionably. But yes, his lack of subtlety aside, I’m betting there’s nobody better for getting us out of there in a hurry once we’re done. And who knows, he might surprise you! I have to say, out of everybody I’ve ever met, Prime has more hidden depths than ANY of them.”
"Nopcsa, buddy, I'm not sure how willing I am to plumb those depths."
Terrian put his hand to his chin and began mulling over his options.
”So,” Nopcsa asked, “Who’s it gonna be?”
A non-canon fic I decided to write. At multiple points throughout, I'll be offering you, the audience, a chance to vote and guide the plot. Voting for first poll ends on August 7th.