isleofavalon | [Closed] Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

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[Closed] Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

🧙 WHO: Claire Redfield & some CR
⚔️️ WHAT: Closed Quest Log
🕒 WHEN: February
🗺️ WHERE: All Over Town
⚠️ WARNINGS: Maybe violence and language, possible NPC death and talk of zombies.

A. Closed to Sherry Birkin

Claire didn't really like the notion of what they were being expected to do here, but the payment was really difficult to resist. She figured it was also a safer thing for Sherry to come along on, too, so she's asked if the girl wanted to help. And so they had set off into the forest, heading for the bridge.

"So, what do you think, Sher?"

About what, she didn't specify. She figured that she'd let her young companion talk about whatever might be on her mind.

B. Close to Harry Potter

Armed, locked, and loaded for potential Kraken problems, Claire and the Dog were waiting for Harry and his familiar at the edge of Camelot, heading out on the pathway towards the lake. They'd made arrangements to do this together, and she figured it was better to travel in pairs so she waited. They needed to come up with a plan anyway.

When Harry appeared, she waved, grinning at the young wizard.

"All set?"

[ooc: I'm just putting closed starters in here. If you'd like one for your character, feel free to let me know and we can definitely do something! PM me or shoot me a message on Plurk!]

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Harry is running as fast as he could to meet up with Claire and her familiar, waving back at her and the Dog, with Rose inside his jacket pocket and her head outside of it.

So once he got to their meet up spot, he is able to greet her, saying, “I’m ready as always. So what we are going to do right now?”

"We're going to rescue a Selkie from a bad relationship."

Obviously, that was the thing she was stuck on most. Claire hated the idea of anyone being tricked into a marriage...and that was a big part of why she'd taken on the job.

Harry is honestly feeling really sorry for the poor Selkie maiden that he wants to help her out alongside Claire. No one deserves to be stuck in a horrible relationship, Selkies included.

“That’s really brilliant: I want to help her out as well, especially with returning her skin back to her,” he happily chimes in as Rose squeaks in as her way to say ‘Let’s save a Selkie!’, “Even Rose wants to help as well. Got any plans so far, Claire?”

"Well, the easy option is to jump the guy, beat him up, and take back the pelt."

That's...well, she's mad enough to do just that. But the guy is apparently a hunter, and she's not interested in winding up in another situation like with Chief Irons, so that is a last resort.

"But we could take a less violent path, if you have any ideas?"

“Well, I could distract the guy by moving stuff around or sending a cart rolling down his path, making them look like they’re moving on their own,” Harry suggests to her, “On the bright side, I could always try to nick the chest key from him with my magic.”

"Either one of those could work. But I'm more inclined to have you distract him, and I can sneak in and get the pelt?"

She's not above a little Breaking and Entering. Not at all.

“That would be fine by me as well, Claire. Now if we can find a cart for him to chase down...” Harry’s sentence is then cut off when he sees a cart not far from the front lawn of the thief's house, along with several items such as logs, gardening tools, laundry, and baskets on the porch and on the ground.

A wide grin appears in his face as he speaks and points at the items out on the front lawn, “Hey, I found it along with several more things that I can throw at him! Now I can send this cart rolling down on a steep road from him to chase after and send items flying at him while you get the key from him.”

"Sounds good."

Harry's got that under control, so it's now her turn to start working on her end of the plan.

"I'll get into position, and what I'll do is send the Dog with you. He'll start howling when he thinks the guy's distracted, and I'll nip in and get the fur."

The Dog, her familiar, the nameless black beastie, trots up to Harry with his tail wagging. Lead on friend!

“Sure thing, Claire, let’s do it,” Harry chimes in before he turns his attention to the Dog, “Alright, Dog, let’s hide behind some bushes and distract the guy as much as we can.”

He hides behind a couple of bushes not far from where the cart is parked at with the Dog trailing in behind him and Rose hiding inside his jacket pocket, ready to assist her master at a moment’s notice.

As the thief approaches near his house, Harry flicks his fingers at the cart, causing it to slowly getting to move in the opposite side of the road and begin to its rapid descent down the steep road faster than him on the Firebolt on a sunny day. This will keep the guy very busy for a little bit. If he does return after the cart chase, he does have some more items on the lawn to throw at him.

As soon as she hears the Dog putting up a howl, Claire moves. She darts across the man's yard to a back window of the small cottage and tests it. It's not too hard to get open, all she has to do is jimmy it a bit and count her blessings for Chris showing her some basic skills like this.

Slipping inside, she casually weaves a curse against the door knob that will stun anyone trying to open it for several moments, just in case...and then begins to search.

Oh good, that cart is keeping that thief very busy while Claire is inside the house looking for the Selkie’s pelt. However, Harry is also staying vigilant for his eventual return, as Rose pokes her head out of the jacket pocket and squeaks concern.

“I know, I know, Rose,” he reassures her, “Claire’s at the house right now in search of the Selkie’s pelt, so we’re trying to keep the guy very busy while she’s searching.”

Then he sees a bag of marbles left unattended next to him. How did it got there in the first place? Oh well, that can be very handy later on, though he’s more focused on trying his eyes on the thief and using the other items on the lawn. Harry places random gardening tools on the road to get him distracted quickly.

Inside the house, Claire's doing her best to search. She isn't shy about what she's doing, tossing and turning things over until she finds what looks like a chest. It's heavy, and locked, so she pulls out a bobby pin and starts fiddling with that.

Give her just a few more minutes, Harry!

Meanwhile, Harry is still hiding behind the bushes as he hears the man fuming and cursing between his breath over the cart rolling down the road on its own, though he is still staying low as much as possible to avoid getting caught until Claire gets the Selkie's pelt in the house.

As soon as he sees the thief returning back to the lawn, Rose squeaks in concern as the thief is almost nearing their location. But thankfully, Harry placing gardening rakes and hoes on the lawn proves to be handy as the man is then greeted by the handles of the tools giving marks on his face whenever he steps on them and he grumbles about his bad luck in the day so far as he walks backwards towards a large tree so far.

Harry is hoping that Claire is able to unlock the chest and retrieves the pelt soon as he sends the marbles to fly onto the road to keep the thief more preoccupied.

Brutal, Harry.

Claire's a pretty good lockpick, and manages to get through it in short order. Finding the pelt is easy with the help of the Dog's nose, the big beast having bounded through the open window. It's almost comical, hearing the man cursing outside.

Once she has the pelt, she does two quick things. First, she laces the doorknob with a dead-arm curse that will leave the man numb for hours. And then shoves the heavy chest in the threshhold to slow him down.

The Dog bounds out the window with the pelt in his teeth, and Claire slips over, pulling out her device to send a short message to Harry.

Got it. Heading out now. Meet me at the signpost up the road in about ten, if you can.

Phew, that was a close one as Harry watches the thief getting knocked out for a bit by his backwards walk towards the tree behind him. And by a bit, that would be around for a few hours. Hopefully he won’t notice the pelt gone missing by the time he and Claire get out of his house.

Then he gets a message from Claire that she is able to retrieve the Selkie’s pelt from the chest and tells him to meet her at the signpost. And good timing too as he doesn’t want to get into a fight with the man any time soon.

Wow, Claire. That is really great news to hear. I’m going to get out of the lawn as quickly as I can.

“Come on, Rose, let’s get out of here,” Harry tells the pink Pygmy Puff as he makes a quick dash out of the lawn towards the signpost meeting point and wait for Claire and the Dog with the pelt on hand.

Claire's already waiting, having run most of the way, just to be on the safe side. She offers Harry an appraising look as he makes his way up, a lopsided grin firmly on her face.

"You did a number on that guy, Harry, geez. I heard him cussing up a storm outside."

But, she has the prize. Raising the pelt, she waggles it.

"He never stood a chance."

“Well, the guy didn’t saw the garden rake coming at him and it leaving him with a handle-shaped marking on the face,” Harry smirks as he catches up with Claire at the sign post, “At least it will be a long while before he realises that the pelt is gone missing.”

Either way, they need to get to the Selkie maiden real soon before the pelt thief finds them. Rose lets out a squeak of relief upon seeing the pelt herself and then squeaks to her master about where the selkie maiden might be at, waiting for them and her pelt.

“Hm, good point, Rose. We need to find the Selkie and return her pelt back to her real quickly,” he also remembers the next step of the quest.

"It will be. Though, I put a curse on the door so his arms will be numb for at least an hour after he gets inside."

She's pretty savage when she needs to be. And people who abuse poor Selkies definitely deserve her ire.

"She said she'd be in town. So we can just head back and message her, I think? She should be able to pick it up from there."

“Right, let’s hope that he will learn his lesson eventually not to force people and creatures into a relationship without consent. We should get back to town and let her get her pelt back,” Harry nods in agreement as they walk back to town to meet up with the Selkie maiden and return her back her pelt.

"Yeah. Exactly."

And off they go! Mission? Complete!

Sherry had been quiet since they left the city proper, aside from the occasional question about something they were walking passed. There was just a lot of this job she didn't like, or maybe didn't understand? Some of it she could do, she knew. She'd gotten one of those crystals before, it couldn't be hard, right? But the rest...

She looked up in surprise when Claire addressed her. "What? Oh uh." She hesitated.

"I've been to this crystal thing before," she finally said. "Have you? It was pretty hard to get to."

What with the invisible bridge.

"I haven't yet, no."

Claire looks at Sherry with keen eyes, reaching down to rub at her back as they walk. She figured they'd make a day of it, and she had sandwiches and stuff in her backpack for when they were done. But, hard to get to? That's news to her.

"Tell me what you remember from the first time, sweetie."

Sherry perked up some as Claire's hand settled on her back, urging her to talk a bit faster, a bit more sure of herself.

"There's this, I guess invisible? Bridge. I think. Some people could get across it and some couldn't? I didn't really understand it. But I got across!"

Claire's fingers gently scratched at Sherry's back, hoping to be more encouraging than even that. She always liked it when her parents offered that kind of affection so the least she can do is try with her own...ward? child? She was still figuring that out.

"Good. That's great. Do you know what was keeping people from crossing?"

She figures a curious kid like Sherry might.

"I'm not really sure," Sherry reluctantly admitted. She'd been curious about why, but she hadn't been able to actually figure it out. "It seemed like some people could just walk across, but for others the bridge just wasn't there?"

Sherry frowned.

"I didn't know anyone, so I don't know what made people different."

"Well, I read it has something to do with being pure of heart."

Which means that there's no question that Sherry can do it.

"Meaning that when we get there, you may have to go it alone until I can figure a way around. I've not tried to cross it, and I don't know the criteria."

She should pass just fine, realistically. But she doesn't know. She just knows Sherry will.

Sherry thought this over as they walked. "That might make sense. Some of the people who couldn't get across did look a little scruffy."

Sherry you are an awful judge of character stop that.

She frowned up at Claire though. "You don't think you can get across...?"

"I don't know what the standards are for 'pure of heart' so I don't want to assume."

Claire ruffles Sherry's hair and looks down at her with a soft expression.

"Pride goeth before the fall and all that. Better to prepare for the possibility that I won't and I'll have to find another way around to meet you."

"I don't think you'll have any trouble!" Sherry responded with that kind of youthful assurance that only came from being a kid.

"Otherwise you wouldn't have helped me back in Raccoon."

"Sherry..."

Claire shakes her head, running her hand down the girl's shoulder and giving her the one armed hug she deserves.

"Only a really bad person wouldn't have helped you. You're an amazing kid, you know that?"

"Maybe." Sherry wasn't really sure she agreed with that, because she'd seen lots of people running around not helping anyone. But Claire always seemed to know what she was talking about, so it didn't make sense to disagree?

There might have been some hero worship there.

"Oh, I see it!" She perked up as she pointed ahead to where she thought the invisible bridge was.

"Yeah? Show me how to cross, then. You're the expert."

She pats Sherry on the back, giving her a little shove on ahead to get her moving. It seems like it's the right spot. And hey, she can maybe get her kiddo excited about showing her something new.

Also, you know, she'd love to see the kid smile.

Sherry was already moving forward even without Claire's encouragement, though she slid to a stop at the edge, her eyes slightly narrowed as she tried to remember exactly where she had crossed before.

"I think it was..." She spoke to herself, before stretching her leg out, toe tapping at the air a few times before coming to rest on nothing. A very solid nothing.

And then she was bounding forward a few steps, her feet silent against the emptiness she was standing on. She was maybe a third of the way across before she turned back to face Claire with a grin.

"See?"

Claire watched, waiting at the edge of the boundary, just to be sure.

She inhaled, nodded to Sherry, and started forward with confidence she didn't quite feel.

One foot in front of the other, Claire she told herself, and after five long strides she realized that she had indeed made it. Three more carried her to Sherry, and she reached down to take her hand again.

"Well, I guess you were right, scamp. I'm more pure than I thought."

Sherry had no doubt at all Claire would be able to walk on the invisible bridge, but she still felt a little pang of relief when it actually happened.

"Told you." She smiled as her hand was taken, turning to hurry the rest of the way across.

She slowed down just as the reached the far side though, the crystals they were here for now in sight. Hmm.

And off they go. Claire grinned at the two crystals, a little bemused by Sherry's enthusiasm and everything.

"Silver, huh? That's nice."

She HAD heard about the bridge by now and how it worked. Silver was good!

"I guess we go in deeper, yeah?" she says, reaching into her belt pouch to pull out the vial of...something.

"...I'm not sure I like this idea though. What do you think?"

Sherry had been pointedly avoiding thinking about this bit of the request because, honestly, it kind of freaked her out a little. Giving a random person a strange concoction...

It sounded like something her dad would do.

"What if it does something bad to him?"

"What if..."

Claire had been starting to say, 'what if he's a bad guy' but stops, there's a huge leap between being a bad person that's causing trouble like Chief Irons and someone that's living alone in the forest.

"...I don't know, Sher. I'm thinking maybe we go talk to him. See what he's about. We didn't get enough details. But, I'm kinda leaning towards writing this off as a walk in the woods with you unless he winds up being like, Darth Vader or something."

Sherry was conflicted, not in the sense of wanting to give him the vial, more just that they had done most of what they were supposed to, getting the crystals. Shouldn't that have been enough, really?

"Okay." She finally agreed with a nod. "But we can't tell him, right? So we can't...really..." She trialed off. "I don't know."

"It's cool, Sherry. We'll know if it's right when we get there. So, chin up, yeah? And remember, if he's all weird, we give him the vial."

And, because she's feeling pretty conflicted and trying to make light of it., she holds out her hand and deepens her voice. Like Darth Vader, of course.

"Sherry...I'm going to destroy Avalon...!"

Edited 2021-04-23 16:49 (UTC)

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[Closed] Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

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