Haven Base - Black Company HQ (Mu-Arishi)

"Always a pleasure to entertain old friends Lorelei," The Lord Captain said, giving her a respectful bow. "Now... Since you're the Chieftain and all... and one of my employers, I suppose I should ask if I can take my leave."

"...Oh! Yes, erm, you may take your leave, Lord Captain Cross," Lorlei says, recovering from her surprise well.

"Thank you Chieftain," The Lord Captain replied, bowing low but still giving the young elf a mischievous smirk. He was looking forward to help season the young Chieftain, and a little quick wit went a long ways towards doing so. He then took his leave, walking down the quiet street with his guards in tow, heading back to the giant tree where the auction would be held. There were no securer areas for an auction of such scale, and The Black Company wasn't eager to let anyone steal their paycheck.

He entered the ground floor of the tree, a large cavernous opening usually reserved for mechanical equipment and the various machines The Company used. For today, just like every month, they were pushed aside. Tools and machines were pushed aside and a ocean of metal chairs were set out with members of The Black Company looking down from the catwalks up above. And in near the end of the room was a small stage was set up, with several artisans prepping their tools. Master artisans paid to carve the stone into the chunks that would be sold, all in the open in order to give the illusion of fairness. The Lord Captain was confident though that it was common knowledge that The Black Company kept a portion of the stone for themselves, as to how much though... that would hopefully remain a secret.

He gave the stone to the chief Artisan who began shaving the stone down, just a centimeter off of the circumference, collecting the shavings and putting it in a small box that was given back to The Captain. Enough of these small shavings had been collected over the years that most mages within the company had at least 100mgs to draw from at any given moment. And this was just one of the reasons why The Black Company was slowly making a comeback in these modern ages. But that wasn't on The Lord Captain's mind now as he took his seat on the stage, and waited for those from across Erutios who would bid on the day's wares.

A motorcycle wheels to a stop outside the tree. Upon it sat two people, one in a weathered and patched green cloak that covered her smiling face.

"Remember when this tree...."

"Lyssindra." The man in an oddly bulky jacket of the same worn color as his companion's cloak with a revolver on his hip and a pistol upon his back gives her a warning tone.

"I know! I know! Geez can't even reminisce," she pouts as she slides lightly over one of two bags attached to the vehicle. Upon its back, just behind her, there's a bundle wrapped under a tarp.

"Let's just focus on the buying for now," he says as he slaps his riding goggles onto his cap with ear flaps revealing a sharp face with bright green eyes. Sticking a bit out from his hat, one can see bits of blazing red hair.

"Right! The buying," she says, regaining her mirth and bounce.

Together, the two enter, one with a small confident grin, and the other with a smile full of teeth, hidden beneath a hood.

A fireteam of four Black Company Mercenaries came up to the pair, in their battle armor and heavily armed. The lead of the team looking down at the two as his wolf like ears stuck out of his helmet.

"Would you two happen to be here for the auction?" he asked, the solider surprisingly polite.

"Yes, we most certainly are," says Lyssindra, twirling to face him, "I'm Lyssindra Aiya, and this is my twin brother, Maydra Aiya. A pleasure to meet you."

As she says this, she bends down to look up at you, cocking her head as she does it. That, coupled with the fact that you can't see her face, or even torso, come across as strange. But she doesn't seem to be forcing anything.

"How many else are here?"

The soldier's face was unreadable behind the face-plate of the helmet, but his stance didn't say he was surprised by the woman's lack of appearance, odder things were common in Haven and the man just switched his hud to pick up heat signatures.

"At the moment just you Ms. Aiya," he said, looking over to her brother as he made a mental note of the man. "Also we'll have to relieve you of your weapons for the duration of the auction Mr. Aiya if you plan on joining your sister."

"Right," says Maydra as he pulls out both his pistols, unloads them, and holds them out to the soldier. He then gives his sister a disapproving glare.

She, as if knowing exactly what he's doing, rolls her head in exasperation. Twin short swords with hooked blades and strange tassels on the ends drop from under the cloak and stick into the ground. She steps lightly past them and says, "honestly Maydra, it's not like I would have used them anyway."

The soldier finds, through his heat vision, a strange thing. From both Maydra and Lyssindra their heat signatures are completely and perfectly uniform across the body. This includes Maydra's head and you can't determine Lyssindra's features at all due to her hood, even if you got on a direct level with her face.

The weapons were taken by the solders beside the Ookami speaking to them and the man nodded.

"Thank you though it appears there's somekind of enchantment upon you correct?" he asked.

"Hmm, potentially," she slides up next to the soldier, breaking all his personal space and leaning against him.

The man didn't appear to be fazed by the woman's invasion, though the soldiers beside him tightened their grip on their own weapons.

"You will have to remove such enchantments before entering the Auction, we will allow no possibilities of... acting on ill intentions where possible," he informed, the man's voice quite stern.

"If you had wanted me out of my clothes so badly you could have just..."

She's interrupted by Maydra yanking her by the collar and dragging her away from the soldier. "Lyssindra."

"Maydra! I'm only trying to get them uncomfortable!"

"We will of course comply," he says has he strips his jacket, removing most of the issues and revealing a simple t-shirt. although his legs are still odd.

Lyssindra shrugs off her cloak, revealing a clever face with cat green eyes, round glasses, a freckled face with the same flaming hair as her brother, and a broad, toothy grin. Again, her legs are still odd. She's also covered in pockets and vials hung on straps of all various colors and shines.

"We also have shorts on underneath if this isn't enough," says Maydra, a soft grin playing across his face again.

"We'll have Goblin look you all over, though again... we'll have to take what clothes you've taken off," The Solider replied, seeming almost bored with his station in life. He'd had worse before, and likely would have worse still before the day was over. "Though I'm afriad the Alchemy set will have ti either remain out here or with us as well Ms. Aiya."

"Just so long as we get it all back," Lyssindra says as she begins to removes each and every device from herself. Including a small number of knives.

Catching his tone, Maydra sends the soldier a sympathetic look. "What's your name?" He asks as he also begins to pull a significant number of knives out of several pant's pocket. "And anyone we have to see is more than fine."

"Corporal Shank," The man said as he took the vial and knives. "And thank you for your cooperation, after going though a scanner to see if anything was missed we'll have Goblin look over you."

There was a slight whoosh behind the siblings as a hobbled elf with a goblin like face stepped out beside Lyssindra. He smiled wide, grotesquely wide as it was obvious his lips had been cut open on the side at one point. His skin pale and sickly even though his amber eyes held quite a bit of mischief in them.

"Did someone mention me?" the man said, his voice cracking as he leaned his weight on the old cane he used to support himself.

"Not a problem, how long have you been working for the Black Company Corporal Shank? May I call you Shank or Mr. Shank?" asks Maydra, "And yes, you're apparently supposed to look over us after a scanner Mr. Goblin."

"The name is quite fitting," says Lyssindra, casually accepting the appearance of the elf.

"15 years," The Ookami replied. "And you can call me whatever you want, I get paid the same to keep everyone here safe from each other."

"Ah yes yes!" Goblin said to Lyssindra, giving her a toothy grin as he looked her over.

"Not bad... not bad..." he said. "The enchantments on your clothing isn't half bad either."

The Corporeal snorted.

"Behave yourself Goblin..." he droned.

"And why is that? It's not like you can stop me anyway" that elf replied with a smirk.

Shanks didn't reply to that...

"Well I should hope I look at least half decent," Lyssindra said, "after all, I had a bath before coming here."

"Why doesn't it matter what I call you and, if you had the choice, would you be doing a different job?" asked Maydra.

"Kid... Those who join the Black Company are usually doing their best not to hide, at least in these parts. So no... I really would not rather be doing anything else," Corporal Shanks replied. "But even if I could choose... why would I? The pay is good, the front is quiet, and I have people I can actually trust here."

----

Goblin just chuckled a bit.

"Well you're doing better then me at least," he said, still with his creepy wide grin, holding out a hand to her. "But may I? I need a QUICK touch of your pants, promise to behave myself though."

As Goblin checks her out, a black luxury sedan enters the premises, before turning into the parking lot. The area around the car remains quiet for a moment, before a man exits the drivers seat, and walks over to one of the rear doors, opening it.

A middle aged man in a sharp suit steps out of the car, holding a briefcase. The man, whos main notable features beyond the suit are his grey hair and tall height, dusts his suit as he looks at his watch, probably wondering why the place looks much more empty than he thought it would be.

A couple bodyguards open their doors and step out of the car only a few seconds after the man does. They don't seem very heavily armed, but their weapons, a couple SMGs, definitely have a lot of enchantments.

"Ah, I meant no offense. I'm merely curious as to who you are. We travel quite a bit so I always make it a point to ask questions. Thank you for telling me, Shank," said Maydra, "and it seems more guests have arrived, so we'll be sure to get out of your way quickly."

"Weeell," Lyssindra mock debated it in her head, "since you asked so nicely, alright. But if you break your promise, I can't promise that gravity will bring you down again." She slides one of legs out in a slow graceful arc with her toe tipped upon the ground towards Goblin.

"Mr. Shine, a pleasure to have you here with us," A sergeant of the Black Company said as she and her 12 man squad came upon the man and his entourage of bodyguards. "You're earlier than we expected."

---

"Oh it's alright," Goblin said, grinning wide as he slapped the girl's ass, his hand passing right through the gal as she felt her nether regions tingle from the spell that was analyzing her clothes. "I'm not really here."

Then before anyone else could do anything, he did the same to Maydra.

For a split second, fast enough that, if no one is looking at her they'll miss it, her eyes narrowed to slits and she gave thin smile. It almost appeared she wanted to devour him. Then it was gone, and her cheery laugh replaced it as she said, "now Goblin, I gave you my leg and you had to so crude enough to lie and go there?"

Maydra spares Goblin a moment's glance with a slightly arched brow, clearly conveying the thought, really? He then turns back to Shank, "will that be all?"

What Goblin detects, shocks him, almost literally. There is an incredible amount of magic woven into the cloth. From your brief scan, you can detect resistance to all the basic elements, heat manipulation, and a strange spell. You can't define exactly what it does, or to what extend, but as your spell passes through the fabric you feel as if something in the enchantment scanned you.

The man looks at her for a moment and smiles slightly, before he says, "Well, you know.  It pays to be prepared."  He motions towards the other bodyguards.

Like clockwork, the body guards step towards the trunk, placing their weapons and other enchanted gear on the trunk.  They then step back from the trunk as the man says, "Admittedly," before he gives a short laugh and continues, "I imagined that this place would be packed by now, and yet,... well, there's only one other group here."  

He rubs his chin and says, "I haven't seen that duo before.  Not that I would want to, though.  There's something about them that just feels ominous.  I mean," and he pauses for a second, thinking, "they just feel like the kind of people you wouldn't want to be alone with in a dark alley, or maybe that's just me.  I'm probably just too cautious."

Goblin chuckled a bit, dissipating the counter spell with a level of ease that showed that he too was quite skilled with magic. Though he looked up at the girl with some measure of respect.

"Not bad... not bad... a little quicker on the draw and you would of had me there, next time weave that kind of spell into the enchantment, it'll save you a few nanoseconds," he said to the woman. "Oh and please... When you're a dejected and disgusting as I am you realize that such moments are all the more fun."

He then looked up at the corporal who looked like he was about to pass a kidney stone.

"And they're good Shank, just some basic camouflage to dissipate heat, some elemental defenses, and a spell that scanned my own that was used here. All fairly basic except for the last one, might be a newer version or something, but they're both clear. Send them on in," he added before the elf seemed to just dissipate into dust.

Shank just grumbled and shook his head, motioning for the two to follow him and his fireteam.

"Damn Illusionist Bastard..." he muttered to himself.

------

"We have an unusual amount of buyers using the newer holographic tech, seems like they all just want to show off how rich they all are by paying us to set up the necessary equipment... still other should be coming in person still," the Sargent explained as her squad began collecting the equipment, looking over to the two younger ones as they walked in. "As for them... they're new... no one knows what they're here for but... it's not our policy to ask. So long as no one goes making trouble."