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#Post#: 3017--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Doesn't Even Matter
By: Broadshield Date: July 24, 2017, 7:45 am
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Broadshield's eyes continue to scan the dark alleyway, assessing
the possibilities as to where his target went. Straight ahead,
left or right. He has nothing to go on, and there is little to
no doubt that she's moving away from him, and he doesn't want to
lose his target.
His attention is diverted to the left path, where he hears the
*clink* of a piece of metal hitting the ground. Something light
by the sounds of it. He has no other options at this point.
"Alright, come out now. Let's not play this game." he calls out
to the left alleyway and awaits any response.
#Post#: 3018--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Doesn't Even Matter
By: Grace Date: July 24, 2017, 1:02 pm
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Grace supposed that would have been a bit too easy. She did,
however, figure the stallion’s refusal to blindly blunder into
her hooves and the unique sound of his voice ruled him out as
one of the mercenaries from the warehouse. The only pony she
hadn’t heard speak in some way had been the one at the door, and
she was convinced he was still stuffing his face with donuts
right about now.
How to handle this then? Well, she could try to just be quiet
and hope the stalker would get the impression that she’d left
him behind and leave himself, but then she’d be lacking any new
information regarding who had been following her. Grace hummed
quietly to herself and brought a hoof up to her jacket,
unzipping it a bit to make it easier to draw her pistol if need
be and clearing her throat.
“You should know we’re already playing,” she replied without
leaving her place, wishing to test the response and get a better
impression of who she was dealing with, “the game starts when
you get involved and doesn’t stop till you walk away. I
encourage you to consider leaving this be and am willing to
offer a chance else you might get wrapped up in something you’re
not ready for. I’d just hate for you to regret it later.” She
finished with a slight smirk, ears trained to listen for an
advance.
#Post#: 3040--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Doesn't Even Matter
By: Broadshield Date: July 28, 2017, 7:38 pm
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Broadshield can't help but let a grin form on his face. 'Gotcha'
he thinks to himself, knowing exactly where his target is. "Oh
really? My dear Grace, I can assure you I've been involved and
wrapped up in 'games' that you could only dream of. This is
nothing." he says, letting a few moments pass before continuing.
"That's right. I know who you are, your threats don't scare me.
But, now I'm curious as to what exactly you are... 'concerned'
in me getting involved in. Would you care to share?" he says,
his own smirk on his lips. The ball was in her court now.
#Post#: 3041--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Doesn't Even Matter
By: Grace Date: July 28, 2017, 11:55 pm
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Oh, so he knew who she was. Definitely not the mercenaries. That
made this somehow both simple and complicated all at once.
Complicated because it would imply he may have been following
her for far longer than she'd realized, her kicking herself
mentally at the thought and promising to scold herself later on
when she had the privacy. Simple because those sent after her
often did so for three reasons: Rob, kidnap or murder, and she'd
unfortunately become used to dealing with all three. The way he
bragged about knowing who she was reminded her of her uncle, it
being a favored tactic of his and one she'd personally seen him
use in the past. Her uncle preferred a slower burn however, a
creeping realization in the victim as opposed to outright
gloating about it like this stallion did. It was intended to
intimidate, Grace figured, though it didn't strike quite as hard
as he may have hoped.
She thought quickly from her spot, one she knew she'd need to
leave soon since the more she spoke the easier it would be to
close on her anyway. Depending on how much he knew she could be
in for a bad time, but his confidence and desire to rub her face
in his knowledge did give her an idea. What if she tried to go
along with it?
She allowed the silence to linger just long enough after he'd
stopped talking to give the impression that she was either
thinking over her options or unsure on what to do next then,
purposefully a little too hurriedly, she spoke.
"B-big things have small beginnings," she forged a small and
near perfect nervous tremble into her delivery and stopped to
quietly clear her throat again to act out regaining her
composure, her tone soon readopting her calm and controlled
cadence as she continued, "this may seem like nothing, but if
you really are so experienced you should know not to
underestimate seemingly minor happenings. You may not believe
it, but what I said may have had more warning in it than threat,
because this might be more serious than you realize."
She paused and heaved a sigh that she intended for the stallion
to just barely pick up on.
"Who would I even be sharing with? You know who I am," no point
in wasting both of their time trying to argue that, "but I don't
like discussing my business with mysterious strangers that could
just be waiting to run me through the second I step out. What's
with the stalking? This going to go south? Because I'd rather
just get it over with than jump through hoops." She tried to lay
on an extra layer of confidence there, though it was less to
build herself up and more to sound like a rich kid in over their
head.
#Post#: 3065--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Doesn't Even Matter
By: Broadshield Date: August 7, 2017, 7:17 am
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"How about we just cut the horse shit and just get on with it?"
he says outright, simply cutting to the chase. Her talking about
this threat sounded very real. She was obviously very skilled at
talking. "I don't believe there really is a threat like you
mention. Call it paranoia, but I'm finding it a little hard to
trust you. Show me some proof about this threat and I'll believe
you. Until then, I'm calling your bluff." he says. As for who am
I? I can tell you that I am most certainly not one of those
mercenaries you're so fond of associating yourself with. Why
else would I shoot their guard with a 9mm SMG and leave them in
an alley? No, I'm much higher up than a few low-life mercenaries
who can't even defend a building adequately and make dirty
dealings with a pony much like yourself. I wonder what ponies
will think if they found out that a pony so closely associated
with Fae Exotique was making dealings with mercenaries? I don't
believe that it would be such a good look, now would it?" he
says, letting the sentence sink in for a moment before
continuing.
"But enough about that. You asked who I am, yes? Well, I could
tell you the whole truth, but I'd have to kill you." he says in
a dead-serious tone. He isn't messing around, if he did tell her
who he really was, she couldn't really be allowed to live. "I
don't want anymore blood on my hooves, especially the life of a
civilian. I can tell you however that my name is Broadshield. I
am heavily involved in Equestrian Military, not those Royal
Guards, but actual military. That much I can tell you that is
true, and won't cost you your life." he says. "To confess, I
didn't want you to know I was 'following' you. I don't like the
word stalk. I had hoped that this would be all clean-cut, that
you'd go about your business and I could do my job." he says,
finally stopping.
#Post#: 3066--------------------------------------------------
Re: It Doesn't Even Matter
By: Grace Date: August 7, 2017, 10:29 am
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Well, he could have shot him because he’s part of another crew
sent to do the same thing she’d planned. Grace wasn’t buying the
story of him having possibly killed one of the other mercs. She
very distinctly remembered hearing only a single gunshot when
making her exit from that warehouse, it being the one fired
after her as she remembered the destroyed shingle near her
hooves blasting her jacket with bits of itself when it took the
hit. It was of course possible that the weapon used had been
silenced, but considering how he’d been speaking before she was
comfortable in writing this up as another attempt to intimidate.
Still, she’d be wise to prevent things from escalating beyond
words as she was not prepared for a semi-automatic encounter in
narrower space such as this especially if what he told her next
was true.
The threat sounded hollow to Grace, she’d simply heard it too
many times being delivered by too many people for it to carry a
punch, but the reveal of a name and confession to a connection
to the Equestrian military was certainly fascinating. It had, in
fact, been the exact kind of information Grace had been hoping
to draw out. Now she had a starting point, and he can try to
sound spooky all he wanted but this wouldn’t be the first time
she’d been bothered by similar secretive entities.
“You can’t tell anyone that!” Grace blurted in regard to being
revealed to have vague “dealings” with the mercenaries, not
actually caring but understanding that the key to a convincing
act was consistency. In truth, he could take a megaphone to
every town square and shout about this till his throat bled and
she’d have little reason to worry. Her family was almost
untouchable when it came to slander and accusations of illegal
activity. With a single call they’d have the best lawyers in the
country at their command and enough money and tactics to
possibly even outlast the government in a legal battle. After
all, her father had been prepping for such occasions ever since
he rebuilt Fae to what it was today. She didn’t want to let
Broadshield in on this either but she felt he was lacking in
proof and witnesses considering she’d been in disguise and left
little behind. On top of all this, she was the only member of
her family to even be trying to build a positive relation with
the average pony so any who would recognize her name would
probably find the idea absurd.
“I was just- I can’t be- Y-you…” She sighed and mumbled some
meaningless words under her breath before beginning again with a
faux stutter, “… I-I was just trying to… Okay, fine, I’ll come
out just, you know, don’t get any closer or do anything too
quick.”
She rolled her eyes while she still could without being seen
then made sure her hood was pulled up over her head to keep her
eyes under a heavy shadow. She didn’t know what this soldier boy
- if he really was a soldier - could learn from having a view of
them, but if he was anything like her it could probably be a
fair bit. Better not to take the risk. She stepped out into the
ally albeit slowly and with a few glances over her shoulder as
if expecting an ambush or someone else to drop in from behind
her out of some unseen cranny. Once near enough to the center of
the alley to be in full view but still allow an option to dive
back into cover she cleared her throat and shifted as if
nervous.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” she insisted, like a foal with
their hoof in a cookie jar, “I didn’t hurt anyone, I-I… Alright,
look, I’m, not kidding when I say that following me right now
could be a bad idea. If you’re really as high up as you claim
then you could easily deduce that you wouldn’t be the only one
who would be digging into my life because of who my family is,
right? That maybe someone else on your supposed level could be
right around the corner?
“I’ll try to explain. Those ponies back there, those
mercenaries, they had in their possession something that was
stolen from someone I know, someone that wants it back, someone
you wouldn’t want angry at you since doing so would make your
life all kinds of difficult. I was just trying to get it back
before things got out of hoof and started to spiral. Numerous
ponies of varying import and wealth are wrestling over this
thing right now and, as you saw, muscle is starting to be hired
by some of them. It’s only a matter of time before they get more
bold, and If some soldier like you is stalking me I’m worried I
may be too late.”
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