'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Jadeblossom City, Kudzu Apartment Complex, Room 421

The whole thing had been broadcasted to everyone. Nora's roomie was in total shock at it. An assassin narrowly managing to screw up his big moment and get killed as the first blow of that bloody stupid blood sport, the Tempest Games.

Nora herself was not in total shock. If anything, she was too drunk to be in shock, and too unsurprised at the absolute failure to call the Toxicroak anything other than an idiot.

"Idiiiut," Nora sighed, clutching and chugging a bottle of cold beer. She would actually be more shocked if it actually worked. Between the window of the panel opening and the sword coming through, Nora could feasibly see herself dodging that. Sure, the panel sliding away would be near-impossible to hear over the ruckus, but Nora could still feasibly see herself hearing and feeling the subtle disturbance in the floorboards where there shouldn't be, and for those with the ability to pick them up, the obvious choice was to move-almost any direction would have made the thrust utterly useless.

The Toxicroak made a fatal error in his very execution-go for the glory, the flashy kill. Sure, an open theater like that would be excellent for assassination-even with twice the amount of usual guards those events were deathtraps for the hosts, open and visible, and his ability to secure a spot right under the boards was the stuff that an assassin would dream of... But that was the cue to pull out your sniper rifle and shoot them from as far away as the effective range allowed. Bullets, not swords! Ranged attacks!

In other words: The Toxicroak's failure was nothing short of unsurprising for Nora. Where people would have blamed Ante, Nora blamed incompetence. She wasn't surprised in the slightest. She was still heavily disappointed, though-that would have fixed so much.

"That's so... Augh, frustrating! I mean, these games are disgusting but that could have been it!" Said her roomate-an outright obease example of a Floatzel named Felicity Luna Sonata, in full. Nora's usual thing, in moving to a new apartment, was to study up on her fellows in her other apartments to make sure of their identities-who could be blackmailed and who was secretly a spy. Felicity had the misfortune of being born to parents of a rather... Exceedingly eccentric cult to 'the dark ones.' The cult was under the fanatical belief that their newborn children could house immense power given from 'The one below,' and thus they got together in excited rituals for birthing what would hopefully be the spawn of hell, which they also recorded for posterity. The night of her birth was when that cell of the cult was unceremoniously busted by a police raid and arrested one-and-all, and the young children were put under witness protection-but not good enough witness protection. All very interesting, and perfect blackmail material to keep her from spilling whatever inconvenient secrets she needed to. And she definitely needed to.

Nora hadn't spent much time in Jadeblossom City before some low class Black Lotus assassins tried to kill her. Felicity accepted the first random time some random Charmeleon jumped into the house with a knife was just a stroke of bad luck, and Nora was forgiven for ruining her sunday best in strangling the Charmeleon to death, praising her unexpected bravery and cunning. Then the second assassin came, and the third, and the fourth, all more clearly black lotus and more trained than the last, and then Felicity got suspicious, but if her suspicions were let out publicly, well, that would be just a darn shame. So Nora mentioned her charming relationship to a cult. Surprisingly, after the initial shouting about that dirty secret, the both just agreed that they wouldn't really be able to settle down if either of them said anything, so they just sat together, Felicity figuring that the assassins would start targeting her now despite having zero association with Nora beforehand. Felicity was nowhere near happy about it, but she and Nora both knew better than to doubt the thoroughness/pettiness of the Black Lotus.

And this they were now sitting on a couch in a dingy apartment, watching the proof that Queen Tanya wasn't joking about being a master swordmistress on live teleivsion. Nora just kept drinking the rest of the ceremony away, uncaring of it. If there was an operation being made by the Gracedia Order within the city, she wasn't a part of it. Yet. And clearly others weren't in on this. Either some freaky 'shadow network' dude that she's heard rather weak rumors of, or one of the other two factions.

A knock on the door. Felicity looked at Nora-the new arrangement, in accordance with the assassins, was that Nora would handle the visitors despite being totally drunk. "Gimmie uh sec," Nora managed, as she slowly got off of the couch and stumbled to the door, opening it.

On the other end was a relatively nonplussed and composed Leafeon, tall and strong-looking, in one of the most classy tuxedos known to Mon. Nora knew this Eeveelution well-this Leafeon was the one who had, thanks to her intelligence, ratted out the Quagsire spy within the midst of Jadeblossom, and was in general in charge of their more covert intelligence operations. And anyone with a brain knew that this meant Nora had a job, and considering he never came up in person for anything short of an extremely important job, Nora knew it was one of those jobs. The last one had lead up to her discovering that one of the Onyx Circle was a flipping Clefairy... Who had deliberately chosen not to evolve and had psionic powers to put most Alakazam to shame. With all the extensive danger that entailed.

Nora cursed under her breath. The Leafeon-Yesley Malan-would take it in stride. Nora basically made his career by giving him the info he needed to oust that spy.

"I trust you're doing well?" Yesley said. You'd have to strain to hear the undertone of sarcasm; he spoke so politely Nora could see him flattering Queen Tanya. And then bedding Qeen Tanya.

"Yeup. Lemme geuess. Job." Nora said.

"To the point, as usual, I see," Yesley said. "We'll be talking on the way this time, and you'll be working with others this time so you'll need to meet them."

Nora raised a confused eyebrow. "Wait, wut?" She asked. Nora had done a lot-but very rare were the days she worked directly with other rogues.

"Not now, later," Yesley said, dismissing it. He turned his head slightly away. "Oh, and you should know that you'll be taking an extended trip, so do plan to be away."

Nora knew that, of course, even she had made the preparations without any ado-but, working with others?

"Workin', with uthers? Yur' utta yur mind!" Nora said. "We do our work-"

"Let me explain, later, elsewhere." Yesley said, a bit more firm. Nora turned back to Felicity on the television-then to the television itself-then back to Yesley, now understanding.

"You're gonna-"

"Nora." Yesley said, not so much of a hint of agitation in his voice as a sharp, deliberate current. "... Come."

Nora sighed deeply. "Ucourse, ucourse... I'mma want'u see luuudes a green on this one, Yesley," Nora said. She suspected heavily of what the job was. The Tempest Festival was obviously related. Obviously related. But anything stealthy was best done alone, from experience. Or at least, it was her experience.

"You haven't even heard what it is yet... But this will be a high paying job, for sure. Your highest yet. Now, come along. You know I wouldn't fetch you personally if this was not of dire importance. And believe me. This is more dire than I can safely express."

"... I'mma be trevlen?"

"Tavern?"

"Travellin'," Nora clarified.

"Yes. I suspect you already packed," the Leafeon commented.

"Lemme get it," Nora said, shuffling off to under her bed. Lously good-for-nothing donkey of an Eeveelution, dragging her out of her enjoyable depths of alcahol while she dryly commented upon the dumbest sporting events of the year, all years. She dragged out her briefcase-filled with all the right tools she usually took in the right hidden compartments, as well as actual clothes because she wasn't going to go around nude. The only things she didn't pack, in fact, were her sunglasses-her favorite sunglasses-and her pistol-her favorite pistol. The sunglasses she put on-the pistol, she tucked into a small compartment in her shirt, a makeshift holster strummed together as inconspicuously as possible. The weapon itself was, however, so heavily and professionally modified that she could safely call it the most expensive pistol she ever laid eyes to-and she laid eyes on all sorts of weapons.

Nora's ears strained to hear it over her drunken stupor-but so often had she done it before that it wasn't as hard as just an average drunk. That was a window breaking a floor above her. Not too usual for a place like this, so clearly, something very bad. Nora did not put her pistol into its holster-she put on her sunglasses, grabbed the briefcase, and walked out precisely as a normal person did. Yesley knew better than to question why she was openly brandishing a pistol, most likely because he heard that noise a lot clearer than Nora did.

"Lesgo," Nora said, Yesley shrugged and agreed. Felicity, silent, walked to the door, her girth slowly moving to shut it, while both moved forwards, walking to the building's easternmost staircase.

A Black Lotus assassin-and a cheap, reckless, stupid one at that-at this time walked down the staircase, brandishing and aiming an automatic rifle with a deliberate purpose, to get a clean shot and go off. Some nameless Raticate that was desperately looking to get with the 'in' crowd at the Onyx Circle that he clearly wasn't a member of.

It was times like these that Nora really appreciated those tiny mirrors in her sunglasses. Made aiming behind her head all the less troublesome. Nora took her pistol, pointed it back over her shoulder, and fired. The assassin wasn't dead-heavens no, Nora had realized that consistent killshots with a pistol over your back, even one as tricked out as hers, were a dream-but Nora had learned how to make hitting shots in this manner consistent enough. The assassin was the dregs of the Black Lotus-he winced far too hard at the pain, even if it was a shot to the side, not outright fatal. It gave Nora the time she needed to turn around, aim properly (needing a bit of time to focus on the shot in her drunken state), and fire the proper killshot. It penetrated his lungs, rent flesh, and left him a relatively clean job for the landowner.

Yesley was used to quite a bit. The one thing he wasn't-and Nora knew he wasn't-was direct action. Yesley flinched-the sound was surprisingly loud for a 'silenced' weapon. "... Good work as always," Yesley said, an unflappable barrier being mildly flapped by that.

"No prublum," Nora said. "Felly, that's the fifth! Fifth time I've saved your filthy *** from Black Lotus!" Nora shouted.

"Nora, leave! Ugh, you're unbearable!"

"Oh, Felicity, sorry for all the ruckus," Yesley said. "Don't worry-we'll be willing to compensate for your, err, damages. It must all be very stressful, dealing with her unprepared as it is... Some financial aid will be forthcoming soon. And don't worry about the cops, just say I did it."

Felicity just gave a grunt of reluctant approval. Nora holstered her pistol. "...Now... Wuzzis job, Yesy?"

"In the convoy. You'll know soon enough," Yesley responded.

Nora had a really bad feeling this wouldn't be a job she would want... But this could be her big break. This was important. She knew it had to do with the Tempest Festival, somehow. It could give the Gracedia Order the edge it needed. If she was involved... There could be quite a bit of pay involved. And then, maybe, she could arrange for some of her favorite dealers to hook up the area and give her the lovely Swift she craved. It was just so hard to get good Swift around here-Nicotine and Beer only gets her so far. Maybe it could go even greater?

If nothing else, it'd be interesting.