The Great Huntress Inn [Pirate-Hunter's Plot][Open]

"Of course I can! But you'll have to do something for me later."

Taking a seat on the edge of the desk, Yvaine turns to the woman conducting the interviews and smiles before taking yet another sip of her drink.

"So... what kind of proof do I need to provide? If you search my name on that tablet of yours, you would get a different result depending on which name I gave you. One saying I disappeared at age 17, and another saying I've been in the city for a year, but neither one will show anything about previous dealings with the law.

Standing up, she finishes off her drink extremely quickly before going over to Kasumi and whispering something in her ear.

"You really owe me for this. Acting nice is actually kind of difficult for me, if you weren't able to tell."

Turning back to face the interviewer, she wonders just what kind of proof she wants.

"If this is what she wants, then I want it for her as well. She may be young, but she does know what she's doing. Her motives may not be the most noble, but I know she will do whatever it takes to help your organization. And so will I, though in a different way... which I won't bother revealing right now."

~~Maverick~~
"Alright then, fair enough..." Yuuka said rather absent-mindedly, not really having expected much else. Everyone seemed to be deadset on joining, despite the danger and major commitments required. Were people truly this good, wanting to help stop the bloodthirsty pirates everywhere? Or were they this desperate, wanting riches and to be heroes even if it cost them their lives?

"I'll need your full name, and your motivation for joining this task force in as much detail as possible." She continued, losing focus somewhat, getting tired after a long day of paperwork.

~~Shinobu~~
"I'll be a part of the crew, yes, but as the overseer. Essentially I'll be the one making sure none of you get up to anything bad and stick to your job, along with handling all the bureaucratic nonsense that comes along with doing anything with any government," Yuuka said, smiling, happy that someone seemed to care about her, and not just as a way of getting into the force for money or whatever they wanted.

She accepted the contract, and filed it away with the others. As she brushed past one though she suddenly realised something.

"Uh oh... Okay, could you go out and find someone? I believe hus name was Zangretor, and hopefully they're still here. Tell him that we'll be meeting back here in a week at 8pm." She rubbed her temples in embarrassment, "I can't believe I forgot to tell him... I'm really not very good at this..."

Noticing she was still in front of someone, Yuuka almost jumped, but quickly managed to gather herself, "Umm, right! That applies to you to, so enjoy your last free days for a while!"

~~Kasumi~~
Yuuka didn't think that this new woman was very trustworthy - she certainly seemed like the kind that had multiple layers of deception set up, but it didn't matter. Though what she said was curious, about helping her group. Curious, but there was really nothing to get from it, so Yuuka filed away the words for later.

"Well... That's good enough for me I guess. No need to tell me your name, that's irrelevant unless you're joining yourself." She left out the fact that all she was looking for was proof that this girl wasn't just some overconfident kid who thought they were the best fighter in the world. Pulling out another contract, she handed it over to Kasumi, along with a pen, "Think things through one more time and then sign here when you're read, and after you've read the whole thing. Rest assured though, I guarantee you there's nothing hidden in fine print!"

Maverick, upon hearing what Yuuka had asked from him, did not react that much. He still kept his usual composure since he had enough time to prepare for answers regarding such questions. He had also sensed that Yuuka seemed tired, probably due to her being busy all day long with the recruitment. So he replied with an intention of adding a bit of lies to his answer.

"My full name is Maverick Avernus and as for my motivation... it's neither money nor glory but rather, I would like to be an aide to the community.", he said with a sincere smile on his face though it actually showcases his ability of deception.

He then added, "It pains me to see that people are being harmed by other people. This world where we already have to fight against the Grimm as one problem and then having criminals as another; it is not right."

True Motivation:

He then asks Yuuka in an attempt to also not have him explain further of his motivation, "You seem rather tired... would you like me to get you some coffee? Does this fine establishment sell any?"

A little bemused at Yuuka's innocent embarrassment, Shinobu couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"Well, I'll try to do just that. I look forward to working with you, Yuuka the Shepard", still smiling as she turned and began walking away.

After a few steps she stops,

"Oh. Zangretor, was it? The big guy? If I run into him, I'll pass on the message."


"'Till then."

She gave a wave as she strode through the door.

"Hmm... I know better than that. Look up Yvaine Lux to get some of the information you'd like... though not all of it. Besides that, I'll have Kasumi pass on the information relevant to me helping out your organization at some point in the future."

Walking back over to Kasumi, she makes sure the contract is in hand before grabbing her arm and slowly pulling her out the door.

"Come on Kasumi darling, you need to review your contract and I need another drink."

~~Maverick~~
Yuuka took longer than normal to read over this man's profile, for it was longer than the rest in terms of important information. It seems the Vale Government had taken a particular interest in him and his company, and although they had suspicions and rumours, but nothing concrete that they could use to prove that he was doing anything wrong. But still... Why would such a 'distinguished' individual want to join a task force like this? And be alright with the time commitment needed?

Completely ignoring the man's offer of coffee, no longer trusting him, she pressed on, "Oh? I find it hard to believe that the head of the Avernus family and head of of a dust-alternative company would have the time to join a group like this. Especially not for the reasons you stated. I don't think someone like you would have an interest in doing something noble." She said, suspicious. The reports said that he seemed to be a man focused on power, and there had been many rumours of his families... strange traditions.

~~Kasumi~~
Yuuka sat there, reading the woman's profile on her scroll, eyes widening in surprise. Perhaps she should pass on this information to the government? Or maybe she could just watch and wait...

"I...Wha...Ok." She stammered as she allowed herself to be pulled out the door and into the bar area. So that's her name. Yvaine...interesting. She held on to the paper as Yvaine dragged her over to the bar, "Are you sure you need another drink?" She asked, trying to sound as non-confrontational as possible.

After Yvaine takes a seat and signs for another Vesper, she turns to Kasumi and glares at her before responding, "Yep... not even buzzed let alone drunk yet."

Staying silent for a while, she waits for her drink to arrive and takes a few sips before turning to face the girl sitting next to her.

"So... what happened before I arrived in there?"

Kasumi was skeptical about Yvaine's last statement but decided to let it rest. "Well," She said, "Nothing really. She wanted to interview me as, I assume, she did with everyone. She looked at my background and found nothing, so she wanted some proof that I wasn't just completely incompetent." She shrugged, "I didn't really have any other choice."

Taking another sip of her drink, Yvaine thinks for a moment before replying, "Well... no worries. You didn't really do anything wrong, though you really need acting lessons. And you do still owe me something... but I'll collect that debt later."

Glancing over at the contract in the girl's hand, she asks, "So... anything interesting on that thing?"

I'm certainly not looking forward to being in debt to her, jeez. Kasumi thought. She turned her attention to the contract she was holding. She gave it a quick read. There wasn't anything there that she wasn't expecting. Basically saying she'd be working with the pirate-hunters for the next few months with little to no down time. It sounded fine to her, she certainly wasn't going to be doing anything else in that time.

"No. It is really just formality. More or less just says that I'm working for these guys for the next few months."

Maverick, upon hearing the suspicions of Yuuka, sighed a bit and then he replied with a serious face, "I was raised in such a way where everything that I have learned was provided to me by my family. I believed that everything they have thought me was 'right'. I have stayed within the strict guidance of my family until I was 18; thus I did not know what was even happening anywhere until that time. The only people I talked to who were not a part of my family were my tutors and trainers."

He paused for a moment and then continued, "They finally allowed me to witness the outside world by the time I reached the age of 18. But regardless, I was still under strict surveillance and the knowledge that I acquired was still being controlled by them."

He then smiled for a bit as if he was remembering something, "When I was 20, I managed to escape their sights just for a bit. Then I actually saw what was really happening to the world. It's hard for me to explain but all I can say is that it was quiet a culture shock for me."

He then returned to his serious look earlier, "And then the elder of the family passed away... and I was appointed as the new head of the family even though I was still young. Probably because I had something that the elder also had".

"As the new head of the family, I did not know what to do thus I heavily relied on the advisers that were provided to me by my family. I was unaware of what their effects were and I simply did what they told me. But eventually, I started doubting everything they had taught me since I was constantly reminded of what I learned when I was actually free for a moment", he continues to say to Yuuka trying relieve the doubt towards him.

"Then by the age of 22, the advisers were withdrawn from their positions and I was left alone. They had probably thought that I already had a gist of everything and that nothing would ever change my insights. Obtaining this freedom, I tried to uncover things but then the family caught wind of it. Then they started monitoring me again, though I was still able to go outside on my own.", he said as he was further explaining his situation.

"I wanted to join this crew because I wanted freedom. I want to thoroughly learn what I was not taught and what is truly right. I am sure enough that they won't be able to watch me as long as I'm up there and I won't be under their strict rule. This is my only means of escaping their eyes" , he said with determination in his eyes.

It seemed as if that the Maverick that was in front of Yuuka right now was a different person. But apparently, it was a well developed mask and story that he developed in situations like these.

"Only a few months? That's not too bad..."

Stretching as well as she can while sitting, Yvaine tries to decide exactly what to do next.

So besides the acting lessons I'll get her in to at some point, she's done pretty well... not my worst investment yet, that's for sure.

"I think I'm gonna head to one of my apartments... if you need a place to stay, just send me a message or call. My previous statements about calling me are removed from here out."

Throwing some money on the bar to pay for her three drinks, she gets up and starts heading towards the door.

"I...Alright then..." She said, watching Yvaine get up to leave. She stared at her back for a moment before shaking herself back to the present. That was a drastic change in her demeanor...Although I suppose I shouldn't complain. She was threatening to kill me before... She thought about this for a moment before remembering the contract. She took the pen that was given to her and signed on the required lines.

She stood and re-entered the room. She saw her interviewer staring at her device with wide eyes. She squeaked once before she stifled the laugh. That was dumb of me. She thought. She held out the signed paper and said, "I assume you looked her up?" Referring to Yvaine.

What could she have possibly doing entering the room while some girl was being interviewed? Aurelia watched as Yvaine left before she took another sip of rum. Something didn't feel right to her, but ideas weren't coming to her head at the moment. She decided to just sit back and continue observing for now.

IC:

Riley turned to Jettson as the continued walking towards the inn. "Don't do anything stupid. Don't bust our cover. Don't use your hoverboard. Keep it in sword form. And let me do the talking."

Was he nervous? A little bit. But unless these anti-pirates had a metatective on their side, he should be fine. As he pushed through the door, Jettson Lua following behind him, he quickly took in the glory of the inn. Completely different to the feel of the bar, which had only just been turned into splinters and dust thanks to a man who attempted to shoot tentacles at a girl.

Awkward.

Riley looked around, then smiled at the receptionist. "We're, uh....looking for the recruity-thingy. Sorry if we're late." The lady nodded, then gestured towards where a woman with brown hair was-

Wait.

WHAT?

Riley started to blush, his cheeks blending in with the redder colors of his hair as he slowly trudged through the room that might've been a temple or a museum, glass chandeliers shining down unto the rows of chairs and tables.

Whether Jettson knew of Asaka, that was confusing. But if he did, Riley prayed that as they attempted to get recruited, no 'offenses' about the recruiter being a model would be brought up.

That is, it had to only be praise.

Wearing no hat, a zipped jacket with a silly looking tie hanging out, and his hair a lot more orderly than usual, he approached the recruitment desk. As he did, he stared at the woman's facial features. Body structure, jawline, cheekbones, eyebrows, hair, nose, lips, eye length, everything. It was perfect a perfect match to the calendar.

"Ummmmm......Ms....Lady....We're here for the recruitment." Riley said, almost a full octave higher than what he'd normally had done.

"Don't do anything stupid. Don't bust our cover. Don't use your hoverboard. Keep it in sword form. And let me do the talking."

"Pfft. Please. I know how important this is. Besides, I can't really use it in here. I need space to go Grav.." Jett said. The boss spoke to the receptionist, while Jett walked over to the bartender.

"Rock glass of Mako sake and ale on the rocks, please. I gotta calm my nerves a bit." He watched his drink be poured while he listened to Riley's talk. He heard a few mumbles, not quite catching the words.

"Your drink, sir."

"Thanks." Jett downed his drink. The only way he could be in the same position longer than fifteen minutes was either with alcohol in his blood or when sleeping. Fortunately, he only needed a small blood alcohol concentration of .01 to do that. He could still see clearly past the ice through the bottom of the glass at Riley, who was being directed by the receptionist to some lady. Jett didn't recognize her, but apparently Riley, who suddenly froze up, did, walking towards her with a dazed look on his face. Jett left his rock glass on the bar with one Lein as he followed.

"Ummmmm......Ms....Lady....We're here for the recruitment." Riley said. Was his voice a little higher than usual? Jett thought. Eh. Remember to let the Boss do all the talking.

Important OOC:

~~Jet/Riley~~
((OOC: Going to be assuming that Riley went to the door after asking the barkeep, Jet got a drink and then the two of them knocked the door and opened it. Edit if you want, no big deal though))

Yuuka looked up from what she was doing, having had to file a lot of contracts and prepare documents. Aside form all the fighters that were being recruited here, she had had to hire the actual crew a few days ago and there was still work to do. Always more work to do when bureaucracy is involved. Stupid paperwork...

"Hmm? One at a time please, whoever's up first take a seat, I'll be with you after I finish up some work," She said calmly, not really caring about Riley's surprise. She had had plenty of people being surprised that their recruiter was a woman, and a lot that were just nervous and scared and just looked surprised.

'Ms Lady is a new one though... That man must really be nervous... Why were men always nervous? Cowards.' Yuuka thought absent-mindedly, not really paying attention to much besides the paper in front of her.

~~Kasumi~~
It took a few moments for Yuuka to notice that Kasumi had returned, but when she did her eyes returned to normal as she looked up from her Scroll.

"Yes... Your... Friend, is a very interesting individual. The kind that would probably be arrested if there was any evidence... But I have nothing against either of you I guess." She said, taking the contract and filing it with the others.

"Well, everyone that signed up is going to be meeting here at 8pm in exactly a week, you should make sure you're here, a lot of important information will be given." She said with a smile, despite the girls very interesting friend.

~~Maverick~~
Yuuka sat still, thinking for a few minutes. She had been thinking a lot lately, come to think of it, thanks to having to conduct all these interviews will all these slightly shady individuals that she wasn't sure if she could trust. For all she knew they could be criminals trying to infiltrate the crew, or maybe just people who wanted to use them or their ship to their own advantage, neither of which is acceptable in the slightest.

"...Very well, I'll give you a chance. Hopefully I wont regret this, but here," She said, handing over a contract and a pen. However, this one was slightly different. It had an extra line stating that breaking the contract forfeits all titles, materials, properties and anything the signer owns to the Government if the contract is broken by the signer betraying the task force or deserting it.

~~Maverick~~
Yuuka shrugged, "Nope, that line is on all the contracts, just there to help reduce the amount of deserters. There's going to be some pretty valuable stuff and important jobs so it's better not to risk anything." She lied.

"Anyways, meet back here in exactly a week, 8pm and we'll discuss more specifics with everyone together."

IC:

"Um....OK." Riley sat down first, though he did turn around to look at Jett. Nothing was said, but the eyes said enough - don't fail this.

"Awesome." She said, giving the woman a dazzling smile, "I'll see you then." She spun on her heel and left the room, giving a small laugh to herself as she left. It's nice to have powerful friends. She thought as she approached the bar. She ordered another white russian and decided to hang around for a bit. She sipped her drink as she gave the rest of the room a look.

It seems like there's a few people here to sign up for the pirate-hunting. She thought.

((In Yuuka's Office))

"... Keep everyone on task and together, do the paperwork, and take the blame when things go horribly wrong?" Ami looked up, frowning. "So... all the worst parts of being a Captain, and an executive officer, with none of the resulting prestige, influence, or pay?"

Ami looked at the form and contract, looking for something specific.

"... Do they not have the word 'special' in quotes on here because of those regulations they passed a few years ago? Or... did you willfully take the worst job ever?"

After finishing xir search, xe continued filling out the form.

"It's okay. Sometimes, this job attracts people like that. There was a gunner on the Phoenicia whom I thought was just a screw up, and corporal punishment did nothing to stop him. It wasn't until we found a ball gag in his locker that we realized he was screwing up on purpose. ... Except he wasn't, but I let him wear the ball gag when he screwed up because the boatswain's mate pissed me off, and it made him hate his life and want to die."

Ami stopped writing, sighing wistfully.

"The last thing the boatswain's mate did before transferring off the Phoenicia was to attend his going away party. He barely avoided being court marshaled for assaulting a superior officer when he opened my going away present and saw a ball gag. The captain was... well, I couldn't tell if he was choking with anger, or laughing too hard to breathe."

Going back to work, Ami began whistling, pausing only a moment.

"Probably both."

~~Ami~~
"Nope, I just dislike being paid to help out. Makes me feel like a common mercenary or something. I'm helping out here because I want to stop these pirates from terrorizing innocents and thinking they can do whatever they want to others without incident, not to earn money or rank or anything." Yuuka said, not even bothering to react the Ami's kind-of-taunts anymore, although they did make her want to bang her head on the table multiple times. Despite the womans flaws, she obviously had experience, and at the very least more experience than anyone else she had seen so far.

"Also, if things go wrong you're the one that takes the blame for it! Then I get to clean up the mess behind the scenes! Assuming you do want the captain job, of course." She said, still unsure if Ami was going to take on the job or not. She seemed rather... unstable? Weird?

Probably both.

~~Riley~~
"Right, so do you know what you're getting into with this job? Big commitment, both time and contract, danger, good pay, yada yada." Yuuka said, obviously distracted with the paper in front of her, and beginning to get tired.

'I really should've just gotten someone else to do the interviews... This is definitely not my thing... I definitely need to do something fun after all this...' Yuuka thought to herself.

IC:

"Yeah." Simple response. Then came the trickier thing.

"Hey, were you ever a model or something?"

Yuuka was surprised by the man's question - it was probably the first question she had gotten that was unrelated to the whole recruitment process. It was nice in a way, finally something fresh to talk about.

"I'm sorry, but no. I'm a huntress, not a model. But thanks for the compliment, I guess." She said with a smile, though as she recalled the incident earlier today, she involuntarily blushed just the tiniest bit.