Re: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (Loli Defense Force and Konpeito)
To that Sharte blushed a bit, she wasn't used to such flattery being raised in the convent, "I am glad to do anything I can to help the needy."
"I appreciate the offer for your help, and as for alternative prices, I would much appreciate that offer as well. I am trying to preserve whatever funds I have so that I may continue my mission. What did you require... perhaps some healing or an undead problem?" she was eager to help and be guided to her destination without having to pay anything. Two birds with one stone!
"You can, but I'll tell you right now that it's not worth your time. The other scavengers have already been over this portion of the city," the guardsman said. "Besides," he continued, "Nothing survived that blast. You'd be better off finding some form of legitimate employment than you would be scavenging the ruins at this point. It's also not safe around here, given the instability of the terrain. As for your mystery attacker, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of demons in Acheron that fit that vague description. Even if you'd gotten a better look, we're a race of shapeshifters, so a description wouldn't be worth much. I'm sorry to tell you that you probably won't be finding whoever attacked you, though if you could tell me where you were attacked specifically I might be able to get some patrols organized for that area." Alice would remember the name of the tavern she'd entered to take cover, and where she had ended up cornered and raped, but whether she wanted to tell the guardsman that was up to her.
"Good looks then!" he said brightly when Sharte agreed to pursue alternative methods of payment, "And nah, I'm fine on healing. Wouldn't send a pretty little thing like you into an undead problem either, if we even had one to spare. Nah, for you...." He paused momentarily, eying her with a sharklike grin upon his handsome face, before finishing; "A kiss, upon arrival at your destination. What say you to that, pretty lass? Just one little kiss, and you'll be where you need to be with no trouble on your part!"
Re: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (Loli Defense Force and Konpeito)
"Well, in all honesty, I'll probably want to just hang around for a little longer, who knows what I'll find, right?" She tried to give the guard the best grin she could, then continued, "I was attacked at an old inn, I don't think there was much else there, I had just gotten lost in the dark and wounded up there, I was only asking cause I thought you might've known who had done that to me..." She looks at the guard, "How much longer till it is dark, by the way? And um... do you know how to get to this inn?" She gives him the name of the inn she had stayed in originally, hoping that she could get a better sense of how to get home from here.
Re: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (Loli Defense Force and Konpeito)
Sharte smiled, but didn't show the slightlest sign of relief. She was completely fine with handling undead problems or tending to the injured. She listened intently for what he would want in return and a slight hint of blush appeared on her pale face as he asked. Stepping to the side a bit, she averted her eyes but was quick to recompose herself in response, "A kiss... It is a common greeting where I'm from so it should be no problem at all. One on each cheek. I thank you for your generosity," she clasped her religious text in nervousness as she bowed deeply. She was uninsightful as to if this was a ploy or just a gesture of kindness.
"You won't find a thing," the guard said insistently and flatly, "There's nothing but rubble in this crater. It's best not to wander about the sections that we haven't cleaned up yet after dark, since we don't patrol those often and thus can't keep them safe." Looking up at the sky would be enough to tell Alice that it was mid afternoon, not close to sunset but not far from it either, and the guard confirmed this by saying; "It's late afternoon. What do I look like, a clock?" When asked how to get back to the inn she'd stayed at initially, he replied; "I can show you where it is, but you seem pretty set on staying out here. Lemme just give you some directions...." Giving her some loose directions to get back, the guardsman would then leave unless Alice had some further questions or requests.
"Eheh... Well, I'm afraid that it'll cost more than a little kiss on the cheek, milady. It's a kiss on the mouth, and no light peck either! " her would-be guide said, his voice gentle but still amused. "If that's really a problem, the only other option I can offer is a bit of coin in its place. A man's gotta make a living somehow, eh?"
Unless Sharte wished to go off on her own, once the matter of his payment was settled, the man would lead her off carefully, never venturing more than a few steps away from her and keeping her in his sight at all times. After passing beyond the small market at the city's entrance, the elven priestess of the star god would be treated to a menagerie of people unlike any that she had ever seen. An elf that had grown up in a Badarian convent, she had always been the oddest person in her home village, but here she was strange for her apparent normalcy. People of all shapes and sizes and colors, with some sporting features belonging to animals or insects or creatures completely unknown, and around them were sounds and smells just as unfamiliar to her. Music unlike anything she had ever heard competed for her attention with conversations in languages she had never heard either, and the alluring smells of strange foods from foreign lands was everywhere.
Eventually, assuming that she didn't wander off, Paul would bring her before a large building that was surrounded by an iron fence. The building itself, five stories and built out of wood, looked fairly new compared to the buildings that surrounded it, as if it had been a recent construction rather than a renovation. "Here we are! Elea's Mercy Hospital, one of the busiest medical centers in Acheron. Plenty of injuries, plenty of sick... at least for a city mostly full of people that can't get sick!" he said, turning toward her so that they were face to face, "Think this is to your satisfaction, or do you want to go inside and make sure first?" A sign confirming the building's name was sitting beside the gates, which were fully open and had people going in and out semi-regularly, some of whom looked like they were injured or had recently seen medical attention.
