The Jaeger

D

Doughguy

Guest
Elentin, Asteria. The third largest town on the southern coast of Asteria. Not significant in the grand scheme of things, it was unlikely the Prince or Saint knew its name or of its existence. But it was the berthing point of the Mermaid's Tit, a vulgarly named ship carrying a Jaeger to the nation's shores. The captain emerged from his cabin with a swagger, already tipsy from breakfast. Or 'a bottle of rum' as he called it. The crew scrambled round on deck, pulling in the sails, throwing lines to the dock and staying out of the captain's way. The last goal was harder than usual, as the man zig zagged back and forth without a care in the world.

"Aye Jaeger." he called out loudly, "Where you be at?" He stumbled around until he found the man, giving him a hearty slap on the back and slumping onto the deck's railing. "Found ye. We be here matey. Salutatious landing to you. Enjoy your vacation." With that the captain wandered off to harass his crew, who had been doing their jobs perfectly well before his interference.

The gangplank had already been dragged over to the side of the ship and lowered down onto the dock. Apart from the Tit there were only fishing boats berthed and two officials were quick to arrive at the ship, evidently having nothing else to do. One was dressed in a formal coat over some basic linens and held a thick book and quill in his hands. The other wore a shaggy uniform beneath a breastplate. A shield was strapped to his back and he leaned on his spear as he examined the sailors.

When the latter's eyes found Richard leaving the ship it seemed to inject some life into his body. He straightened up and griped his spear tightly. "Oi, you!" he called out, pointing to the Jaeger, "State your business here." He moved to block the gangplank and his free hand grappled with the straps holding his shield on. The Jaeger's inhuman senses would pick up the nervousness of his movements and a slight quaver to his voice.
 
Had Richard any other choice, he probably wouldn't have chosen to sail with a drunken man, but he couldn't argue with the captain's results...he'd managed to get to his destination without drowning in a river, sea, or ocean. That was about as far he could get with his praise of the captain...his crew seemed to know what they were doing, that probably helped.

Lover, scoundrel, that asshole, and now Jaeger. Richard sure had plenty of names to deal with in such a short couple of weeks. The man was nervous...and for probably good reasons, even without his Jaeger senses, he could tell that the man wasn't exactly military elite. He was jittery, nervous, and just as likely to turn tail and run from a Jaeger than fight him...still, there was something endearing on how he tried. He decided not to be too much of an issue. Quietly, he send Hawky up into the sky, less so for any purpose, and more for letting the falcon fly around and get used to the area, as well as search for anything blatantly out of the ordinary.

"My good man! no need to worry!" Richard exclaimed with an elaborate bow. "I am simply as any other man, I hear there was work available, so I traveled here in search of it, is such a tale really so uncommon among passengers these days?" Richard motioned towards the city. "A Jaeger is always looking for work, comes with the job you know. Tell me friend, know where one might find a place to get a drink around here? I'm dreadfully sick of sea food."
 
The man's eyes flashed up after the falcon when the Jaeger sent it skywards. As they conversed his eyes would switch between Richard and the sky, suspecting it would return at any moment. He managed to get his shield free by the time Richard was done talking, holding it directly in front of his torso to maximise the protection it offered. A useless position for fighting. But probably effective at blocking a fast strike that he wouldn't have time to react too.

His eyes narrowed and the guard was silent. The man was far more talkative than he had expected. "Where'd you send that eagle?" he asked, giving the sky a hard look as if it could be intimidated. "We got taverns yeah. Watery beer. Ain't get many traders these days. Inns too. Not much better." A few names and locations rattled out, the foremost amongst them being 'The Angler's Light' which was just off the dock. A popular site for sailor's who'd just arrived or were just leaving. With the list done the guard stepped away from the edge of the gangplank, giving Richard the option to leave if he wanted too.

"If ya want work ya better see the mayor. Better see him fast. Wouldn't want anyone ta think ya her for somethin' besides work." Between the Jaeger's words and his own sense of camaraderie pulled up by his own words the guard was sounding confident by the time he finished speaking. He turned to leave, paused, looked back at the Jaeger, opened his mouth, paused, closed it again, and kept walking.
 
Richard spent little time nodding a farewell to the guard and moving into the town. To a casual onlooker, he seemed carefree and relaxed, content to trust in the random stranger who just wanted nothing to do with him. someone who knew him more personally knew this is only be partly true. Richard had no qualms taking the man at his word, but the town was still foreign to him, so he scanned it on his way to the tavern. You can tell a lot about a place by walking through it, a truth often missed by kings and rulers and cost them more than they cared to know.

After his brief scan, Richard entered the tavern, eying the room up. He knew being a Jaeger would mean cold reception, but he had a simple if effective countermeasure should things start off on the wrong foot. For now though he'd play it by the books and mind his own buisiness. That tended to work about thirty percent of the time in convincing the locals not to start any problems with you.

"Who owns this here tavern?" he said with an inquisitive flair.
 
From his observation Richard would be able to tell the town was just as on edge as the guard had been at the docks. People moved quickly and there were few crowds, an oddity especially at the docks. Even the street orphans were rare. While there had been the one guard at the docks there weren't many patrolling or standing guard. It was almost like a city under siege. Also noticeable was the feeling the whole city was unhealthy. As if it needed to take a wash or change it diet.

The tavern he entered was almost exclusively filled with the sailors who belonged to the boats moored at harbour. Only a few locals who had nowhere else to go sat around the tables, looking miserable and keeping to themselves. The main topics of conversation amongst the sailors before Richard walked in were their next ports of call. Such an attitude meant most of the locals ignored his entrance and only those sailors closest paid attention. Very oddly there was a lack of any glasses on the tables, no one was drinking.

When he spoke the local closest to the door jerked a thumb towards the bartender, who was lazily sitting in a chair behind the counter observing the room. The man caught the action and faced Richard. "If you want a drink you better have a lot of coin." he said. There was a dirtily drawn sign on the bar, with the price of a beer at five times the normal amount.
 
"Well...not the liveliest place I've seen that's for sure." Marked the Jaeger with a dry remark. Pretending to across through bars was a proven effective tactic he employed...and enjoyed. Paying for drinks and interacting with some lively townsfolk usually made him some friends (and potentially enemies, but a vengeful drunk had yet to prove more than anything more than a minor annoyance. So little did they have anything other than bravado...or anger. Usually lots of that too.) even if that failed, drunkards were hardly the most tight lipped after a couple rounds of an impromptu drinking contest or two, and it was an easy way ti get basic information or gossip on the goings on both in town and throughout the land if the right sailors were in port and feeling particularly chatty.

Not having that avenue of approach did make things...complicated, to say the least. Richard wasn't even sure why it was that the drinks were priced up so high since he was flying blind about the war situation down in the south. Needless to say he needed to get to the bottom of this, if a monster was holding up the trade out of town he figured he'd be able to make a little coin and by bringing trade {and therefore ale) back into town, a lot of allies. His bird companion would have a report for him soon...but for now maybe just talking to the bartender would be a good start.

"Alas my friend, I find myself a bit short. It'd be why I came to town in the first place, looking for work as any honest man down on his luck would. I must inquire however, what would drive the price of ale up so high! Surely it be better to sell anything at all than the precarious position we find ourselves in now. Is there a beast that plagues this place?"
 
The man who had spoken to him first snorted and gave no more of a reply. There was a murmur the table next to his, followed by a short silence. Then the bravest of the trio of locals stood up, leaning his hands on the table, and glared at Richard. "Yah there's a beast around here. It's a bunch of ya non-human freaks ya ignorant twat." A drunk plied with alcohol might be an eager helper, but a drunk lacking his alcohol was quite the opposite. He spat on the tavern floor before slumping back into his seat. The man's companions sniggered at the insult but didn't go any further as the rest of the tavern failed to support them. Rather than a absence of hatred it was a lack of motivation that kept things under control.

"You can clean that up Jedders." the bartender called out, "This place ain't gonna be dry forever ya dirty bastard. If ya catch my drift." He gave the man a good glare which elicited a sullen sigh from Jedders, then turned his attention to Richard. He sized the Jaeger up, taking special note of the weapon the man carried. "Ya want ta make a difference here and earn some coin? Go see the mayor. That's where we send all our complaints so he can sit on his fat ass and do nuthing about them. Try killing a few pointy eared pricks for us." The man added in some quick directions to the mayor's house in the very centre of town.

One of the other locals sitting at Jedder's table growled, "Like the mutant would do that. Should kill 'im before he starts killing us."

"You want ta be cleaning your own blood from my floorboards for the rest of the year Keln? No? Then shut ya trap you dimwit. Get going Jaeger, before ya cause me more trouble." The man's final sentence made it clear his defense of Richard had not been out of friendliness but pragmatism.
 
Richard gave the room a bow. His normal tactics clearly weren't going to work here, and while the bartender tended to have a pragmatic side he knew better than to press his luck in a tavern so clearly pissed off against nonhumans. He himself thought he was one of a weird pseudo-human half category, but with rare exceptions the problem seemed to be that most people didn't see the world in shades of grey. Still, that was an issue for a different time. Rather than dealing with drunkards and barkeeps he should be focusing his effort on work...and talking to the mayor wouldn't be a bad start. He took no joy in killing nonhumans, but harassing a town for existing wasnt exaclty fair either. He'd conduct his own investigation and try to get to the bottom of this whole nonsense while Hawky scouted the area for anything hostile...or at least things he'd need to make note of later.

"Of course, I bid you adieu gentlemen, I hope your trade problem finds itself to a speedy recovery, mayhaps I will lend a hand myself!"

with that proclamation, Richard left the tavern and walked around town, scanning it as he went. He wasn't in a particular hurry to find the mayor, but influential people like him had a tendency to seek Jaegers out, it'd be simple enough. So instead of taking the most direct route, he drifted slightly, trying to perceive more of what was going on in town and making him selves known to the populace. Unlike most Jaegers, Richard loved attention...it was usually just a matter of making sure it was good attention. Eventually, he found himself to the aforementioned mayor's residence. Briskly the man knocked on the door four times before calling out. "Hello there? My name is Richard, I'm a jaeger. May I come in sir mayor?"
 
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