"Okay, all ready."
A deep breath and that was what she'd said to herself, very carefree, as she'd turned the key in the door-lock of Starry Cats. Of course, saying it in such a way was downplaying the preparations she'd made... just a little, much as the grimy little keyhole in the black-painted door quietly belied the multiple actual layers of defence within.
That was how LaTale tended to operate, though. Bemoaning or - well, as some liked to - boasting of the hardships she had to deal with, that was foreign to her. So she'd make a little smile come and get down to work; sooner you start, sooner to finish. Unfortunately, keeping her guests 'entertained' wasn't yet something she'd been able to automate, she'd lessened the daily workload but, it took a lot to account for some of the more... particular tastes.
Still, she knew a guy who knew a guy, so she'd called in a favour. That didn't best bear thinking about... not right now, at least. This was the time to be excited, to be happy. Free of responsibilities and a schedule for the first day in some time; yeah, too much time - she'd been going stir-crazy cooped up in there. This was her solitary day off, you'd best believe the girl was going to make the most of it. An adventure! She'd been mouldering like week-old pho broth for want of it.
A heart full of desires and arms weighed down with loot. Yeah, that was how this day was gonna go.
But, it'd taken her some time to actually get to Exdeath's Tower, that fuzzy-edged spike that strained and shook to touch the sky. It was a motley construction, but she liked it. Even if it 'stood for an evil', if you'd look, really look, you could see all the colours of the spectrum... flowing from floor-to-floor.
The neighbourhood needed a little clean-up, but when it went, it'd feel strange to see it go.
Getting sidetracked in her own thoughts again.
"When you've been inside for months, the fresh air itself makes everything seem beautiful."
LaTale had to focus too, though. She was almost there, and she'd caught an ear that there were most likely hostiles even in the tower's outer precincts. Plus, she was a little - encumbered. She never groaned under the weight, nor staggered for more than the briefest moment, but it did seem... not impossible... that she'd brought perhaps a few too many weapons than would be best advised.
Alright, alright. No-one could really blame her for that, yet again it'd been too long since she'd had a proper brawl on her hands. Glory wasn't exactly on her radar, but if you're going to fight: fight with style, yeah? It was just unlucky for her that, courtesy of her home, (which had at its fingertips the technology to put a multi-racial colony in space, and generate simulated parallel universes, but mysteriously couldn't figure out how ever to produce a decently-sized backpack) she had to haul
everything around the old-fashioned way.
The two small scimitars hanging by her waist as twin shards of the rainbow. A too-heavy, dented black gauntlet over her hand and forearm, ringed in rusty spikes and dragging her left-side down towards the ground. Crystalline cards stuffed into the collar of her embroidered imperial frock coat (unbuttoned, so the front was hanging out - she'd realised a little too late that she couldn't do it up with only one free hand). Over her back, a stone cudgel in the shape of... a tortoise's pudgy foot. And tied over that with a black leather belt (like many RPG characters, she seemed to have a limitless supply of these to hand) was... a cheap-looking electric guitar, the sort of thing you'd fob a seven-year old off with as a present.
So she looked bad and sounded worse, each step she took accompanied by two clanks and the awkward
twang of the tuneless strings. Would she have had it any other way? Probably not. But that didn't stop her from being concerned when she stomped into the hanging-open maw at the bottom of the tower and felt the chilled air of someone or some
thing coming her way, quickly.
LaTale reacted quickly, levitating one of the blades by her side to hover upright in the air in front of her.
Well, no. What she really did was squint hard enough to give herself an eyeache, and then after an awkward couple seconds the sword sprung out of its sheath and bellyflopped onto the floor; before slowly rising to about level with her kneecap, fidgeting in the dry air.
"Hmm, six years and I'm still no better at this." she murmured, before raising her voice - "Hello, who's there?" - and quicker than she'd been able to catch with her ears, there was a pretty (but obviously formidable to the eyes of anyone with two brain-cells left to rub together) girl standing a little ways off from her. She didn't look as LaTale would've predicted for an incursion into enemy territory, but then again, LaTale herself probably didn't look how the girl'd expected, either. C'est la vie, but...
"Oh! I think I've seen you before, somewhere." said LaTale with some surprise (enough to shake her concentration and drop the sword,
again, with an embarrassingly loud skitter of metal on concrete). "You seem quite familiar... have we met? If so, I'm sorry, I don't quite have the best memory for faces. Outfits, on the other hand... maybe that's what I'd saw. I don't often forget a good look, and you're quite striking!"
Now she was assured their were no horrible, slavering demon-things coming by this way (yet), she was conversational. "I'm LaTale. Here to wipe-down this messy table one way or another."
LaTale offered a handshake to twin with the introduction, albeit one awkwardly low-down because she was bent forwards, and could barely raise her freehand... she didn't really want to think about how she was gonna pick up her sword again - that is, without faceplanting the cobbles of stitched-together tarmac and tiles and knocking herself out-cold before she'd even hit-up the first encounter. Deal with that later, yeah. It's not like it was on her schedule, after all...
