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Seeking the Shard Seekers
(2013-02-21 - 2013-02-21)
Sammy, on behalf of the Turks, goes looking for a group of heroes to deal with the China Incident.
Sammy Colt The early morning of Fluorgis, people are wandering about, doing their routine, getting their shops set up, saying hello to one another and generally being the equivalency of happyville. Cue the entrance of a small, suit-wearing figure with possibly the worlds most obviously fake moustache and a bowler hat. Samuel Colt, master of disguise (No, he isn't) walks up to the building known to house the Shard Seekers. In his left sleeve is a briefcase with the initials S.H.I.N.R.A. inscribed on them and in his right, nothing.

Stepping up to the door, Sammy gives the place the once-over and clears his throat before giving a polite knock against the entrance.
Leida While it may look like a normal day for those who aren't natives to the city, the tensions are running high lately with the recent monster attacks as well as the ugly rumors of aggression from the expansionist military nation of Baron that might be directly responsible for the weakening of the fire crystal. Ofcourse, the politicians do their best to quell this gossip and keep everyone calm but with the dark clouds looming all around that have cut off airship travel, the city's main method of trade and thus their livelihood are in peril.

On top of this it is hot; /absurdly/ hot. The city has always had the reputation for being a relaxing oasis in the scorching desert but that doesn't seem to be the case any more. The water flowing through the various fountains and ravines of the stone streets has diminished significantly and the heavy overgrowth of rampant vegetation is already starting to shrivel and suffer as a result.

Leida finds herself spending most of her time in the garden as of late, trying her best to weather the ridiculous heat by sticking close to the running aqueduct that passes through it. Her frilly pink and black dress is adhered to her body in several places, soaked with a mixture of sweat and water. She splashes some of the cool liquid on her face again just as the knock comes at the door.

With a soft groan of effort, the small girl pushes to her feet and shuffles out of the back into the lobby, pulling open the thick wooden portal with one hand. Her hair is still dripping when her corrupted yellow eyes drift up to peer at the strange man's face. Normally, the princess is all manners but with the withering touch of the sun beating down on her constitution all she can manage is a soft, "What?"
Rhiannon Zellen Approaching from behind Sammy is Rhia...who has done absolutely nothing to disguise herself whatsoever. Well, okay, the lab coat is absent today, leaving her shoulders and arms bare. That was probably the best you were going to get out of her!

On her face is the usual amused smirk, eyes narrowed in anticipation for whatever foolishness Sammy had planned now. In reality, Rhia was not actually all that interested in this S.H.I.N.R.A business, but rather, had come to see Fluorgis for herself, considering all the hubub about it in recent weeks. But hey, it would no doubt serve as a source of entertainment!

Thus, once Leida actually answered the front door, the scientist stood back, some ways behind her currently in disguise cohort, and ready to see just what was going to happen. All while suppressing the urge to start laughing already.

Have to wait for it, have to wait!
Sammy Colt Sammy doesn't wait for poor Leida to even open the door fully before her speaks at a machine-gun pace. "Hello, ma'am! I represent the Super Honest Investigators of New Reactors Agency and I'm here to offer your organization the project of a lifetime!" He states quickly as he brushes past Leida, briefcase in hand.

Entering the lobby, Sammy takes no pause to drops the case, which immediatly unfolds and opens into a self-contained projector and screen unit which unfolds and begins showing a high definition, but still black and white, film of the Great Wall of China. "We from The Super Honest Investigators of New Reactors Agency recently found THIS -" He states, no having a long pointer and slapping it against the backdrop of the screen.

"- in a place known as China. Where did it come from? Who owns it? Who knows! We at the Super Honest Investigators of New Reactors Agency don't care, all we know is it's a reactor, it's new and there are swarms of -" He presses a button and the screen flickers to another picture of a heartless with angry eyebrows drawn on for effect. - "These! We heard your organization is good at dealing with these and were wondering if you'd be willing to help us out."

There's a pause as Sammy's thumb presses the button again, showing a sad-looking chinese child who is on the edge of tears. "For the children!" Sammy adds smiling behind his moustache. He had practiced that speech well!
Leida The poor girl's eyes widen as Sammy barges in with nary a moment for her to even give him a half-hearted greeting. The fog of fatigue clouding her mind clears a little with this new distraction to focus on and she turns to stare at the strange contraption he lays out from his briefcase. "The Super... Investigator...wha...?"

Leida blinks and focuses on the picture being displayed by the projector. This isn't her very first time seeing a motion picture before but they certainly are not very common around the places she tends to frequent and, being from a feudal world herself, she still finds them extremely impressive.

She flinches a little when he whacks the screen but tries to pay attention to the images being shown. "It just looks like a big wall to me..." And then the Heartless are shown and she frowns a little, tilting her head to the side at the comical features drawn in. "I do not think they look like that." And finally a sad child! "Aww..."

Leida looks up at the strangely quick-spoken man, her hands balling up into fists as she bounces up and down a few times, getting pumped up - as pumped as she's going to get with it being this hot. "W-well, we certainly do fight the Heartless! But we kind of have our hands full with the crisis in Fluorgis at the moment..."
Rhiannon Zellen Rhia's smile widened at Sammy's act and she stepped in with much the same haste as he did, no invitation of course. With the presentation being shown, she had taken the time to look around from where she had stood, taking in any relevant details. Eventually, her attention returned to the presentation just as the image of a sad child was shown.

Well that certainly seemed to do the trick now. With Leida looking about as pumped as it was possible to be with this heat billowing throughout the city, the scientist inclined her head a bit at the girl, raising an eyebrow at her response. "Oh? Well it is no problem if you cannot assist us right at this moment..." A finger is brought to her cheek, taking a moment to think.

"How about once the problems in this city are cleared, you and your group can assist us in this most noble endeavor?" Sammy is given a quick glance and a pleasant smile. "Is that satisfactory now~?"
Sammy Colt Sammy looks to Rhiannon with an anxious glare. He's not too sure the Turks like the sound of being second in line, especially when this puts their schedule back until the 'unforeeable' future. The young Turk gives out a mild guffaw laugh as he nods, playing along with Rhiannon.

"Yes, yes, of course! Whenever this whole hub-bub is all taken care of, your little organization of adventurer could certainly assist the Super Honest Investigators of New Reactors Agency!" He states, suddenly donning a sad expression.

"I guess the children will just have to do without food, water, or heat for a while." He states solemly before perking up, "But! I see that your people have their hands /quite/ full, so no worries! So long as those nasty things don't syphon power out and go on a rampage, slaughtering all of the children, everything will be fine!" He states, obviously trying to pull on some heart strings.
Leida "A-aww..." Leida's expression becomes crestfallen for a moment and she lets her hands fall to her sides as her shoulders slump. Fortunately for the Turk he has found perhaps the world's biggest sucker who has so many heartstrings it's hard not to trip over them. He is, infact, playing them like a harp at this moment.

Her hands come together as she stares at the floor in a crisis of indecision, fingers worrying at each other in small circles for several long moments. She has promised to aid the Seekers with defending their home but on the other hand, with the waning of the fire crystal's power, this heat was becoming such a problem to her light constitution that she was already considering the fact that she might have to withdraw if it didn't clear up soon.

Perhaps this was the happy middleground she needed. Her efforts would go towards a worthy cause that no one could fault her for supporting and she'd escape this awful desert. It was win-win, really. Probably. She hopes.

"Um... well... I guess... I could help... now?" The others probably have this area under control anyways.
Rhiannon Zellen "Oho, excellent!" Rhia chirped, bringing her hands together happily. Sammy's glare was noted, but not addressed. Rather, Leida's acceptance to help was much more important right now! Oh the things they could do with this. But before all of that, she did have to wonder... This girl actually bought all of that?

Well then.

"With your no doubt invaluable adventurer's expertise, those poor children will finally be liberated from the suffering they have been subjected to!" Rhia nods calmly, feigning an emotional look at this turn of events. "Finally.....finally we will be able to do something to help..." She spoke to Sammy in a low voice, looking away to fake wiping a tear away from her eye.

Leida. Run. Now.
Sammy Colt The Turk is more a little shocked by Leida's response. He lets out a nervous laugh, his moustache wavering with the chuckling. "Don't you mean 'we'll help'?" He asks, trying to prompt the girl into perhaps calling for some back up to assist.

And naturally, Sammy's good nature comes to the forefront. Why this kid was a Turk is anyone's guess (Except those that know him). "I mean -" His voice cracks from the salesman's charade before he clears his throat and assumes the role again.

"There /are/ a lot of these baddies down there." He says, pressing the button a few times as the slides play on the projector, showing sad children, sad puppies, sad children with sad puppies, a bakesale at ShinRa HQ, back to the Great Wall, and finally back to angry-eyebrows Heartless.

If Rhiannon doesn't shut him up, he's probably going to talk her out of it, knowing how much of a bleeding heart he can be.
Leida Leida smiles lightly back at the scientist and the Turk, her back straightening up again as it seems like this solution might work. However, when he mentions the others she just shakes her head. "Um... no I could not pull the others away from their tasks right now. The city needs them too much.

She tilts her head to the side and gives a thoughtful hum out loud, tapping a finger on her cheek. "I-I can probably handle a few by myself... but not a /lot/. I am not that strong on my own. But!" She gets excited again quickly and suddenly, "But, I will do my best... for the children!"
Rhiannon Zellen "Yes, yes, for the children!" Rhia exclaimed after, putting her hands on Sammy's shoulders and directing him away before he spoke his way back into a hole. "Now then my dear adventurer extraordinaire, shall we make our way to this nest of evil and purge it of the vile afflictions terrorizing...the children?"

The question was posed to Leida as she pushed the turk away, pleasant smile still remaining on her face despite. Why in the world was she even helping him anyway? ...Simple. The results would likely be interesting!

And that was really all that was necessary.
Sammy Colt "Bu-I-" Sammy protests as Rhiannon shoves him towards the exit. He's obviously not comfortable with sending the poor girl there alone - he wanted the whole crew to go and mop up the floor (For rock bottom prices). As Rhiannon gets him to the entry way, Sammy turns to speak, holding up the SHINRA briefcase for the initials to be clearly seen.

"Are you /sure/ you want to go at this alone?" He asks, trying to give Leidra a good old nudge-nudge-wink-wink.
Leida Leida has no idea who Shinra is so the semi-subtle attempt to clue her in to what she's walking into fails to accomplish it's objective. His insistence that she might need back up also has the opposite effect on the young princess than he was probably hoping for. She looks slightly put-off by his insinuation that she can't hack it on her own, arms crossing over her chest.

"Yes, I am sure! I-I can do just as well as any of the others...! (Well maybe not quite as well...)" No! No doubting now! She may be weak and scrawny but she's decided recently that she's going to put that life of timidness behind her and step up to seize her destiny! Or something like that.

The girl closes her eyes and nods sagely at the air to no one in particular suddenly. "Yes, I, Leida, shall assist you in this noble endeavor!"
Rhiannon Zellen "Excellent! Well then, my dear, you should go and prepare yourself. We will be waiting riiiiight here for your return." Rhia spoke waving Leida off with an eternal smile. Once done, she turned her gaze back to the turk before her and raised an eyebrow.

"My, with all the subtle cues you are throwing her way, it is almost as if you are /worried/ now~" She casually pointed out, bringing a hand to her cheek as she shook her head. "But of course, that can not be the case now, yes?" That had to be sarcastic. In fact everythingg she just said was probably sarcastic. Of course she knew was Sammy was up to.

But then again, it was not as if she really minded one way or the other how things went. Useful data would be gathered from the resulting shenanigans no matter how it happened now. ...Just as long as they managed to stay in trouble long enough for her to observe and record!

That was the important part.

 
This scene contained 15 poses. The players who were present were: Sammy Colt, Leida, Rhiannon Zellen