[PP: F9:Complete] For Thirty Pieces of Silver [Lowenthal]

[Opal 0]

Opal's body didn't seem to want to fall asleep, not with the wicked nightmares still screaming loudly in her head on the night to night basis. She had fixed herself enough tonics to keep her body awake and active, but those times when she did sleep...the feeling of dread, anxiety, the trauma of the beatings and rape. It all replayed in her mental state in those sleeping hours and she could not suffer or stomach it anymore, even if it meant being sleep deprived. But even then, her mind would wander and she would feel the cold steel of chains around her neck once more, the pale hands that ran over her taut body, the scent of debauchery coming from those who have done her wrong. She always felt it waking up, in a cold sweat, heaving and gasping for air. Night terrors had become normal for her and what was she to do about them? Thoughts of suicide didn't escape her, that would be the easy way out. But Master Myoga taught her better than that. She trembled lightly in the dark cave, continuing to shield her face from her friend, to not allow any weakness to be seen. Lifeless eyes looked to the floor in submission to her thoughts, she shuddered from the thoughts that now kept her awake. She could not win this fight by any means...to drive those thoughts out, she would need to continue taking her specialized tonic formula, the only problem was besides being highly addictive, it made her memories of friends fade from sight...Images of happiness and love all seemed to be replaced with a void of nothing and carelessness...this was her life now. This is what she had been reduced to. 

Edited January 18, 2016 by Opal

[Lowenthal 0]

 Lowenthal kept a watchful out for anything suspicious. He frequently peeked behind him, checking on Opal. He could notice her shuddering, most like from night terrors or cold. Lowenthal removed his jacket, and draped it over Opal. "There you go. You stay warm." Lowenthal said, going back to his post. He knew that there was nothing that he could say to help her right now. He just needed to wait for her to open up and talk about it. Lowenthal opened his menu, and equipped his back up jacket. It was a wolf coat, and didn't have nearly as good stats as the coat he used to cover Opal. But, it was his first quest reward and he was sentimental in a way. The coat was white, with wolf fur lining the collar. Only thing it seemed to do was bat away the cold and the damp of the cave. "That [censored] kicked my face." Lowenthal whispered said, to himself. His face and ego still sore.

[Opal 0]

She felt a material drape around her shoulder, at first she was about to shoot her saya upwards and smack whoever attempted to 'bag' her. But she realized the scent it left off as it was one that belonged to her friend. She was thankful however, it didn't smell like an ocean...that was that man's scent, and she would never be able to look or smell that scent ever again if she could help it. It made her sick just thinking about. Lithe hands grabbed the edges of the coat and pulled it over her tightly, shielding her body away from the darkness the seemed to surround and devour her. Her eyes were half closed and stained with tears, yet she would not show her face right now. She did manage to give out a yawn, but she stayed awake despite being tired. Her tonic was wearing off and she had no more left, she shuddered now more form the withdrawal symptoms. She cursed under her breath, "Stay...awake...gotta...stay..." eventually she was unable to conquer her body, and she felt over in a heap due to sheer exhaustion. It was then that those nightmares started to surface and they came without remorse. 

[Lowenthal 0]

The night seemed to move even more slowly than before, but after an eternity it finally passed and the sun rose. Lowenthal's health bar was lower than what it was the night before. He had moved back into the cave, and at his feet a man dressed in ninja esque garb. His name tag had the 'unconscious' status effect, and he was tied up and bound with Lowenthal's white jacket. Lowenthal looked up, his face bearing a small red cut on his cheek, right next to his ear. He spoke as Opal woke. "Morning." Lowenthal said calmly, as he sat on the captured ninja. "Bought you a present." Lowenthal said, patting the ninja under him on the back of his head. "Hope you like it, I had to go through like, three of these damn things before finding one that matched your eyes." Lowenthal said, his lack of sleep had now affected his speech pattern, and hs jokes. He rubbed the back of his neck. Honestly, it was the fact that Opal's nightmares and her yelling that brought him snooping to the cave.

[Opal 0]

The woman was roused but she felt like she had no sleep injected into her system. It was just hours passing by with her eyes closed. She mustered up the strength to stand up, clutching the saya in her right hand ass she walked towards their guest, "You know...his tracking data is gonna lead them to this cave if they find out he's missing. Why don't we just dump him off at a river and let the current take him? And why the hell did you bring him here in the first place?" Of course, Opal did not realize at the time that her rampant nightmares had caused her to scream out loud from the horrific events effecting her mind and thusly brought the Sensui Trooper to their small little alcove. Stretching her arms above her, she wondered what the plan of action was for brining this lout to the cave. Her honey eyes attempted to burn through Lowenthal's gaze, and with the lack of proper sleep she was beyond grumpy at this point. Every little thing was unsettling to her, even so much as to having to being watched and safeguarded throughout the night. But if they wanted any information regarding Sensui's where-abouts right now, this fool was the only thing that was keeping them from in between that knowledge. 

 

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal shrugged his shoulders. "Right, about that tracking data. Kinda made his hand erase his entire friends list. As of now, he's a ghost." Lowenthal said, patting the ninja again. "So, now that we have him here. And away from his friends, shall we get what we can from him?" Lowenthal asked his companion. He had only just started a crusade against this Sensui, but this was a good start. "I'll leave the honor to you, hell you might even know him." Lowenthal said, stepping off of the restrained ninja. Lowenthal stood across the way, next to Opal. "He's all yours." Lowenthal said, now moving to the caves entrance, to keep watch.

[Opal 0]

Raising a single dark brow over her expressionless face, Opal nodded towards Lowenthal, "That...was actually a pretty smart move. I could learn a thing or two from you, couldn't I?" She said with a minor shrug, fortunately though for her she did not recognize the faceless ninja. They were all the same to her, just some generic group of ninja that got trapped under the foot of a tyrannical overlord. The man wiggled about but was unable to move due to being constrained, Opal's honey eyes sat downcast on the man as she leaned forward gripping the turf of his hair rather roughly,"If you have a weak stomach Lowenthal, I suggest you leave." 

With that the woman peered into the blue eyes of her enemy, his face contorted with fear and rage neither one able to consume the other. 

"Where is Sensui?" she asked, commanding tone in her full voice. 
"Screw you bitch!" he than spat in her face, warm saliva trickled down the darkness of her makeup before she rolled a finger over her eyelid and flicked the taint from her perfect complexion.

"I asked a simple question...Where is Sensui?" she asked again, her tone steady as she asked, "TELL ME!" then the volume pierced the inside of the save. Yet the ninja remained silent. 

Opal lifted her body and revealed the blade of the Masamune in all it's glory, she lined it up with the man's neck, "Sensui doesn't pay you enough to die for his ideals. You have family, right? Friends back home? You would like to see them again one day, right? Thanks to your Boss, I have learned the ways of torture...Love has its place, as does hate. Peace has its place, as does war. Mercy has its place...As do CRUELTY AND REVENGE! NOW TELL ME WHERE THE [censored], SENSUI IS HIDING!"

The blade traveled down and cut the right hand off the fellow ninja, his mind washed with the loss of his limb as he was sent tumbling backwards when Opal placed a the tip of her Masamune down towards his chest, "Do I need to stab you a few times to get your attention!?" Raising her blade up an inch over his chest, the man shouted. 

"[censored]! [censored]...christ! Sensui. He's looking for something...a unique skill or something. He thought the old man had it! And then passed it on to you! This is why you are valuable to him! He wants that power for himself! I don't know where exactly he is though..."

Opal removed her blade from the man's chest..."A ghost you said, right? Then that is exactly what he shall be. We'll tie him back up, and throw him into a river. Whether the current takes him to safety or not...I could care less." 

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal turned back. "We done? Damn." Lowenthal said, looking at the one handed ninja. "Should've just told her man." Lowenthal said, crouching down next to the ninja. Lowenthal raised a foot, and brought it down across the face of the ninja, rendering him unconscious again. Lowenthal untied the mna, and dragged him further into the cave. "We'll just leave him here. He's just dead weight I don't feel like carrying around." Lowenthal looked at Opal. "Was, he one of the men who." Lowenthal began to ask, but couldn't finish his question. "Probably not. You would've killed him if he was." Lowenthal said, making his way back to the front of the cave. He picked his Stealth Jacket off of the ground and put it back on. "So, he's looking for a unique skill." Lowenthal said to himself. "Any idea where to go to next. We need more info than that if we're gonna do this." Lowenthal said, scratching the back of his head. "Let's start by figuring out who his men are. We know of Volcano, and there's one more left. We'll find him out." Lowenthal said, trying to get a plan together.

[Opal 0]

"Who what?" She asked, almost glaring at Lowenthal from his question. It didn't take a scientist to figure out what he was talking about, but rather when the question was aroused by the curious minds, she would dismiss the idea all together and ignore any part of it. "Showing mercy to these people...is not going to help our situation any. You think they will show the same compassion by just knocking us out and leaving us in a cave. Whatever..." The woman hefted the saya over to one shoulder and stepped out of the cave. Her eyes squinted from the sudden sight of the sun and she gave a low but audible disgusted sound.  "I KNOW where Sensui's hideout is. Much rather his fortress, however, he won't be there. He could be anywhere on this floor or the others by now. We'll have to wait until something happens before we can make our next move. I'm gonna head back to Urbus, I have a few contacts there that might be able to help me us out. You are welcome to come join me, but...Leave the talking to me." 

With that said, Opal had shifted her body forward and started to walk out of the clearing, it was fruitless to stay here when Sensui and his gang could be elsewhere. She was anxious for her revenge, but she had to play this smart. 

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal looked at Opal. "Well, I'm not going to murder him, or leave him for dead." Lowenthal said, explaining himself. Lowenthal agreed with Opal. "Alright, you take point. I don't mind playing second banana." Lowenthal said, shrugging his shoulders. Lowenthal would be the first to admit that, he wasn't the best talker. He learned that through his many chats that he had with Mari. If people had a silver tongue, his was made of lead. "I'll be quiet, unless spoken to directly." He said, giving out a small yawn and he stretched. "So, where's Urbus?" Lowenthal questioned. He didn't think that he'd been there before.

[Opal 0]

"Did you just ask me where Urbus is?" The woman looked to Lowenthal and brought a hand up to her lips and laughed, "You need to work on your chi-mon, Mr. Ninja." she said with a flick of her wrist over her slender shoulders to drag out the hair from beyond. She shook her head, "I guess for being a former pariah you may not know the names of the main establishments on the earlier floors. I've learned them...I had a lot of time to study while I was away," but that was neither here nor there for her. What made her curious was his lack of enthusiasm to kill a man who tried to hunt them down. Sure, Lowenthal could do what he said and not leave him for dead, but that just showed a mercy that no one believed in anymore. Those ideals would end up killing him one day, such mercy was not needed towards Sensui and his men. How many players will that man kill thanks to his mercy? 

She gestured towards him, "We are going back to floor two, that's where Urbus is located..." flicking a hand to access her menu, she started to sent out a small mass message to a few of her contacts, some shady people she got to know pretty well when hunting down information. She was no morale puppet, and would use whatever was necessary to gain the upper hand on Sensui...so that he would never be able to use his hands on anyone else.  

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal grinned as Opal laughed. It was a warming change to her now usual demeanor of frowning all the time. "Yeah, the worst thing of being an orange player was all the walking. I couldn't use the teleportation pads, so I had to traverse the dungeons from floor to floor. At least I got my cardio in." Lowenthal said, laughing. "And what's with that 'Pariah' nonsense? I had friends visit, and I still managed to do things." Lowenthal said, defending himself. "So, floor two. Sounds good. Who we gonna talk to first?" Lowenthal questioned as he followed behind Opal's footsteps.

[Opal 0]

Opal's amber eyes slid towards Lowenthal's direction and her dark thin brows raised, "Nice try." she said shortly with no noticable change in her tone as to his question of who they were going to talk to first. She would not give up the names of her informants easily and even then doing so would lose trust to those she needed information from which could cause a headache down the line later. Coming up to the platform for the portal, the raven haired woman stood and flicked the tendrils of black off her shoulder with the back of her wrist and gestured her head towards the portal, "You go first. There is something that I need to get before I leave here. I'll meet you on the other side shortly." Opal turned her back on Lowenthal and seemed to blend in with the shadows of the city around her; disappearing altogether. As she moved through the city once more she had returned to the field once again to take care of something that should have been taken care of earlier. With her <<Sneak>> engaged, she took flight into the forest once more and took care of her business. 

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal placed his hands behind his head and let out a chuckle. "Heh, caught me." Lowenthal said, as they continued their walk. Lowenthal shrugged as Opal said she needed to grab something. "You didn't think of it till now?" Lowenthal said, scoffing. "Alright, but hurry please. I get lonely." He joked as he stood in the blue ring. "Floor Two: Urbus." Lowenthal said, as he was taken away by the games code. He arrived in an unfamiliar scene and place. To avoid mucking up somehow, Lowenthal opted to sit down on the ground just outside the teleporter. Lowenthal let time pass for a little while, before a thought occurred to him. Did Opal's business mean that, she was going to kill that man back in the cave. He sighed. "She said she was grabbing something, then she's grabbing something." Lowenthal said, as a way to reassure himself.

[Opal 0]

Opal had appeared in a blinding light as she was shuttled from one place to another, floor two Urbus Settlement. Lithe hands skimmed the ebony hair from her face as she found Lowenthal sitting on the ground, he was a peculiar person indeed...so relaxed and almost childlike. Was he like this before and she didn't notice it? Perhaps she was growing up faster than she thought. The woman of the past was a sickly image to her now more dominant and serious soul. Amber eyes caught Lowenthal as she stood behind him. 

"Let's go, Lowenthal..." Opal said passing him up as she shook her head once more as he sat on the ground. Turning her head back as to see if he was catching up to her, "So my informant is going to be around the PK Tea House area, have you ever been around this part of Urbus? Apparently there are a few Geisha places where ex oranges seem to hang out. A lot of people don't go middling into their business, but I have made it my business a while back to keep an eye on this city. A lot of bad [censored] goes down here and not even the basic core army can keep things civil. I shouldn't have to remind you, but keep your mouth closed and let me do all the talking alright?"

Opal had Lowenthal towards the western edge of Urbus. Night had fallen swiftly over the land and the crystal clear moon above was in full. There was a lot of drunken bastards around this area, many of them taking a peek at the two as they walked the area without hesitation. It was then that Opal stopped and signaled for Lowenthal to standby. Pinching her lips together, Opal made a low whistling sound of a bird and waited patiently.  

[Lowenthal 0]

After a few moments had passed, and three other people arriving, Opal had showed. Lowenthal stood up, his jacket catching the small breeze. "Alright, let's get moving then. You take point." Lowenthal said, following Opal again. "PK Tea Houses? I think I was invited a few times, but I declined." Lowenthal said. "I mean, the invitation was nice and all, just not my sort of crowd. Y'Know?" Lowenthal said, running his hand through his hair. Lowenthal crossed his arms. "Alright fine, I'll be quiet. I get it, sheesh." He said, leaning against the wall as opal let out her whistle. 

[Opal 0]

Opal looked at Lowenthal with the oddest expressions as she heard him say he was invited to one of them, a sickening thought had crossed her mind that could have ended up serving under him as a Geisha while she was working undercover for intel gathering. Shaking her head and letting her small bird call be heard, she listened for a reply. From the wind carried a majestic tone of another bird call. Opal nodded and swept raven bangs from her amber eyes, "Alright, we have to wait a little bit. There seems to be trouble with my informant, so we'll have to lay low for the time being." The Katana Maiden placed her hands on her knees as she slid back against a wall and her eyes closed with a heavy sigh escaping her red lips. Exhaustion and stress seemed to creep over her like a cold hand strangling her neck, it felt like her entire body was about to give out soon. But she was trained for these intense situations now. 

Taking in a deep breath, she heard yet another faint bird whistle. Then moments later, another one from what appeared opposite, "God damn it...Someone is trying to lure us into a trap. Are you any good with tone depth?" she had asked Lowenthal staring at him with her sharp colored eyes, "Let me know if we should follow the first whistle or the second after I give mine..." 

Opal puckered her lips once more giving out a melodic bird song and then waited. First came the bird whistle that seemed to appear from a few feet away but there was no one around. The sound of the first whistle seemingly matched the tone of her own, but then came the second. It came from further away so the wind and the air could have easily distorted the sound over time to the ear. They both sounded correct, but only one of them was the informant while the other was a trap. She looked to Lowenthal, "My guess is its number two. What do you think?"  

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal closed his eyes and listened closely. "I hate to be different, but I think it may be the first one." He said, giving out his two cents. And besides, it wasn't like the trap could be any effective. They were in a safe zone, they couldn't be openly attacked unless they agreed to a duel. "Yeah, I say the first whistle. Gut feeling." Lowenthal said, resting a hand on his hip. He let out a small yawn, starting to get fed up with all of the secrecy. He followed Opal, keeping an eye on the rooftops above them. "Look, I understand that you don't want to tell me anything. But, if I may ask, what did you go back and grab?" Lowenthal questioned.

[Opal 0]

Opal had made her guess as to which whistle they should have followed, but Lowenthal had given a different answer than she had been expected. She bit her bottom lip and narrowed her eyes and nodded in approval. "We'll go with that gut feeling...Hopefully we don't get fucked in the ass because of it. Then again, it would be more so my fault for taking your advice..." she had said and and they started to move towards the first whistle once more. As they had traveled through the darkness of the night and kept to the shadows of the buildings, Lowenthal had asked about something that she had done before coming to this floor. Already ahead of him, she rolled her eyes at the question and didn't answer immediately and lowered her thin form against the wall of a building only to look out to the side to see several men walking by.

It could have been normal players, or it could be someone else that she thought could be a threat, just because they were in a safe zone didn't mean there was other ways of abusing the player. She had found that out the hard way...

Looking back at Lowenthal, she sighed and shook her head, "You may not ask. This is not the time to ask about trivial things like that." Opal climbed upwards using her knees and erected her form, a soft whistle escaped her lips and she waited for an answer. A few moments passed and she heard the call once more much closer than last time. 

"Come on, it's safe now....or should be...Unless we walked into a trap."

As they came out of the shadows, the woman smiled as met up with a tall, handsome gentlemen with long red hair, to his side was a thorn whip with a rose and she spoke to him softly.

"Good to see you again, Kurama. I didn't think I'd get a chance to say thank you for helping me that one time. I was wondering if you had any information on The Package." 

"Hello, Opal. Who is your...friend?" he asked, his green eyes that were warm as emeralds had dulled into low slits of jade, "He's a trusted friend. There was another bird in the area and it was his choice to follow the Robin. His gut feeling was right," she said looking over her shoulder back at Lowenthal. Excusing her eyes from his visage, she continued to speak lowly with her contact. 

[Lowenthal 0]

Lowenthal followed until Opal had stopped. A man that looked a lot like Tristian stepped out of the shadows. When he asked who Lowenthal was, Opal spoke before he could say his own name. When there was a pause in their conversation, Lowenthal spoke. "I'm Lowenthal. Pleasure to meet you." Lowenthal said, hoping that saying his name was all he was aloud to say. In Lowenthal's defense, he knew this Kurama's name. It was only fair that he should at least know his. Lowenthal held a hand out, offering it to Kurama.