CH2: Dead Broke (Clear)

"Hmmm..." Annabeth inspected the many weapons up for display, all lined up neatly in a series of racks along the walls of the shop. The smith there seemed to run a respectable business, with a number of fine-looking pieces up for grabs, should one have the funds for them. There were even paintings hung up of warriors posing long, slightly-curved swords, likely made as a special order by the same smith. The section Annabeth was looking through, however, was rather small: One of a few pole weapons, ranging from staves to halberds and everything in between. There weren't too many there, but the variety was overwhelming.

In the end, she finally decided on a rather simple-looking glaive. The curve of its single edge won her over, really. The spears seemed too restrictive, and halberds were a tat bit fierce. The glaive, on the other hand, looked ready to cut down a target and look good doing it.

There was a problem, however. When she brought the weapon to the smith, asking to purchase it, she discovered that none of the tokens she'd brought from Oasis Station were valid for it. This place dealt in a gemlike currency called "munny", of which she had none, meaning she was effectively broke! And so, that was how she ended up where she was now, sitting on the outer steps of the building, kicking a stone to and fro, pondering her remaining options. She could apply for some sort of job somewhere, but how to go about it? Perhaps she'd say, "Hi, I'm from another world and I need some Munny." She'd get swindled before she could blink! There was that 'Olympus' place that she'd heard of. If they held tournaments for cash, then that might be a good method...

It has been about a year hasn't it? This place has never changed, but maybe this time, heh, it would go better than last. Vex Straightened out as he adjusted his hat, making his hair shift some. As the man walked from the landscape of the land of dragons, Walking though the roads. eventually he did find some woman, though he features where not of his sister she did, seemingly depressed from something. As a "good mannered" man, Vex couldn't just let her be. Walking up to the woman, Vex sat next to her and smiles. "There something you need miss? Or are you just gloomily sitting on the stairs for the fun of it?" He says as he looks to the street. Thinking of the multitude of ways he could kill her, from quick and easily, or slow and painful.

"Just so you know, the world is not the safest place to be just sitting around in. There are all kind of killers out there, and even some twisted people who will do.....other things." Vex says as his smile goes from soft and kind to a wicked look, his eyes looking intimidating from the shadows casted by his hat. "Luckily, I am neither of those things, so be glad. Because I can almost guarantee that I could have killed you as you sat here." As he says this he stretches.

As she thought through a number of potential ideas, recalling a few shops she'd passed as ways of employment, a man dressed in a strange sort of suit that combined the simplicity of black and red with seemingly random insertions of a checkered pattern, primarily at the shoulder. Though it didn't seem like any kind of outfit a sane man would wear in public, the use of checkers was oddly familiar. Now, where could she have seen that before..?

He took a seat next to Annabeth with little ceremony, asking what was troubling her in his own thickly sarcastic way. "I guess it's," she began, only to be greeted by an extremely persistent warning about killers and 'other things', tied together with a shadowed leer from the man next to her. "Um... Thanks?" She scooted away a small bit, suddenly feeling much less comfortable with his presence.

"...Anyway," she proceeded slowly, trying to ignore the newcomer's odd behavior. "I was hoping to find some sort of replacement for this thing-" She jabbed a thumb to the side, indicating the embarrassment of a weapon that leaned against the steps nearby. All in all, it was a toy fashioned from taping what looked like a knife to the end of a plastic model tree branch. "Problem is, these people use something called 'munny' for exchange, meaning all my Tokens are useless."

Annabeth fished through a pocket for a few of them, holding them out in a sleeved-over hand and giving them a look of disappointment. "All that grinding for nothing... I'm just weighing my options, is all."

Vex listened to her as she spoke, observing her shifting farther away from him. Being used to this, Vex simply let out a small chuckle. "Most worlds use munny, Though there are some special cases." Vex says as he looks back at her. She mentioned her "Weapon" if you could call it that. It looked pathetic, unlike his own weapons. Sighing he looked at her and looked into her eyes, as he did this he spoke. " The best way to get what you want is by thre......Persuading people. Though I guess you don't look very humble. If you want I can get you what you want." Vex says as he smiles once again. I should not openly admit to my methods. Makes there face look even sweeter as he does his actions.Vex thinks this in the back of his head, waiting for a response form the girl.

On came more oddly willing advice, each word just as sketchy as the last, particularly the part about 'persuading' people. It was all too clear that he'd considered saying something completely different, though it was hard to tell exactly what. There was also the offer of him getting 'what she wanted' for her. Going by words alone, it would have seemed like the most innocent of favors, but Annabeth wasn't going to ignore his previous behavior so quickly, not to mention her own sketch-ometer, which was having difficulty containing his sheer readings.

Still, regardless of her judgement, there was this strange pulling she felt. As many reasons she was given not to trust this person, there was some type of warmth about him. A part of her remembered the 'bad boy' cliche in movies and novels, but there was some distinct, yet indiscernible difference here.

"I... think I'll pass," she finally replied, choosing not to take the chance. Warm or not, he reminded her far too much of the alley dwellers who'd peddle off items of questionable origin and use to gullible street kids. "No offense to you, really, but you're not givin' me the most comfortable feeling with how you... everything." She almost felt bad for being rude, but quickly reminded herself that this was the one who opened up a conversation by bragging about his ability to kill her. With that out of the way, she stood from where she'd been sitting and took hold of her not-weapon once again. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm thinking I'd be better off finding my own way to go about this."

Vex wasn't enjoying how perceptive this girl was. She seemed to have better over all social skills than most people he has meet. The scent of caution was almost oozing off of this girl. Vex couldn't believe she turned his offer down. She talked about how he didn't make her feel comfortable. She wanted to find her own way to do it? But why he was giving her a simple and easy way to get what she wanted? "You know.....Theres no reason to even try to decline my offer. One way or another, your either going to have to accept it or just accept you wont be able to get rid of me anytime soon." Vex says as his smile becomes wicked, becoming more of a smirk. "To me, I don't see why people don't take the easy way out of thing, even when offered. You never know when the hard way can kill you." Vex says as he uses his magic to accelerate a flowers aging, to make it bloom. "And even with the hard way and gaining a feeling of doing it yourself, you never know when some one will be around to snuff all your work out." Just as he finishes talking, he wilts the flower, and crushes it in his fist. For a split second Vex had a murderous look on his face, but it quickly disappears, and he stand turning from her, holding his face in one hand.

And now he was blatantly threatening her with supposed metaphors and imagery through a few magic tricks. What a gentleman he was. Annabeth gave him an unamused, deadpan look. "You know, you're only making that 'offer' of yours less attractive every time you say something," she pointed out. "A no is a no, man, and if you wanna stab somebody that badly, then maybe you should hit up Murderers Anonymous or something, get some advice."

Now, in hindsight, she probably should have been a bit more tactful with someone like this, but she couldn't help but criticize him. If he was trying to be some kind of villain, he wasn't being nearly as subtle about it as he thought he was. That wasn't even getting into how he couldn't keep a straight face. It was as if even he couldn't believe his own routine. There was the question as to she was being a bit mean, since he was probably new to the whole 'intimidation' thing, but she ignored it. In the end, her condescent just about completely overrode that feeling from before, and she no longer had any problem with refusing his offer.

Vex chuckles as he hears her mention that if he needed to stab some one badly to join murderers anonymous. To be fully honest, he doubted such a thing existed but he should probably go check it out anyways, Later that is. First he felt the need to apologies, apparently she took his warning as a threat. "No need to be so. I was only giving a warning, not a threat. There are people here that are not as....Civil as me. To be fully honest, I am looking for some such people, to.....sate my urges." Vex says as he looks away, feeling a ting of regret for his pass behavior. To be fully honest, he had no real want to kill this girl, he just wanted to kill something. "There may be a bounty on some of their heads, if you are willing to join me. Though from how I have been acting you probably thing this is another trick, so no matter.If you come you come." Vex says dusting himself off a bit as he starts a slow pace down the road, humming slightly to himself.

According to him, his targets were the real bad people, and that he simply used them to sate his 'urges'. Before she could argue, he continued on, talking about there being bounties on them, should she help him with the deed. He topped it off saying it didn't really matter if she did, after which he stood up and began strolling away. He even started humming, and she could easily imagine him grinning to himself, feeling oh-so-satisfied in how he'd been playing hard to get, and that she'd definitely come crawling after him, begging for a chance to come along with.

Worst part is, he was kinda right.

"So long as they deserve it, I guess I'll help," she announced once she'd caught up. "But I'm no criminal, you know! One thing feels off, and I'm out." As much as she might be willing to help take down, say, an evil mastermind, murderer or other villain, there wasn't a chance she'd become one herself, and so she made sure the rule was set. She was the good guy here. If he wanted anything morally questionable out of her, she wouldn't be sticking around to carry it out. They collect the reward, she finally gets that upgrade, and hopefully she never has to tolerate his sketchy behavior again once it's over and done with.

Annabeth Lee-Clement has joined the party.

Vex smirked when he heard her steps. Hero types can be so Predictable at times. as Vex walked, listening to her talk about how she was going to be leaving the moment she felt like it what was happening goes dark. Vex could only let out a smirk as she said so. "Don't you worry that head of yours. A corrupt guard 'gave' me some information about a trafficking of fake goods." Vex says, Using hand quotations when saying the word Gave. "So unless you think that stoping a black market dealer from selling his goods is a bad thing, then leave now and save me the extra body to watch over." Vex says as he takes a turn into a shady alley.

He finally gave her a proper explanation of what his objective was: Crashing some sort of fraudulent deal, apparently. From what Annabeth could tell, he'd used some of the persuasion skills mentioned before to get information from an official somewhere. There was a remark about leaving if crime-fighting seemed like a bad thing, and Annabeth barely stopped herself from warning him not to be rude. She hadn't followed that advice so well herself.

When they approached an alleyway between two buildings (The question came to mind as to how their could be such a location in a rather open, old-style environment) she stewed in her frustration over how, of all things to be similar to Oasis, the currency couldn't be such but the obviously dangerous urban features were. "Well, I guess it looks the part," she commented.

"Well yes, though from here on I might have to ask for you to stand a little back, don't want them to see you now don't we?" Vex says as he stops, looking at a wall. Putting his ear up to it, he can hear noise coming from inside, and could make out some of the words. Sighing, Vex backs up from the door and places his palm on it. "You might want to take a bit of cover, or stand back." He says as he uses his magic to blow the wall out, making a decent sized hole. visible though it was a militaristic man, giving money to a merchant, both of whom seem to be shocked by the sudden intruders. The Militaristic man is armored like that of a soldier, while the merchant is in basic cloths. Both of them draw there weapons as the merchant screams something in there native language. "I can trust you to take the merchant?" Vex says as his armblades appear on his arms, practically appearing from thin air. Before anyone could answer he was already attacking the soldier, one blade to parry the blade as the other went for the mans stomach.

Annabeth took his advice readily, taking a step in the opposite direction. Clearly, he was going for some sort of stealthy approach. A stakeout, maybe? Nope. Subtlety was thrown out the window completely as he simply blew the door open, somehow having done so with what could've been a loving caress. Inside were two people, likely the suspects of the leaked deal, and the more well-prepared of the two was soon locked in a tussle with the oh-so-gentle not-murderer who'd exploded his way into the room. Meanwhile, he called out to her, insisting that she 'take' the other.

"W-Wait, now?" Annabeth was taken off-guard by the sudden command, but the merchant seemed more than ready for a fight, charging her with a freshly-drawn sword of his own. Annebeth swung her 'weapon' up to intercept the incoming blade, only for it to shear through the plastic completely, taking the end of the model branch away along with the attached knife. Thankfully, the force served to screw with his aim a bit, and the blade was diverted as she stumbled away a few paces. She looked at the newly-cleaved end of what had almost been a glaive before, and couldn't bring up the effort to be sad about it. If it would break down in a fight so easily, then it would probably serve better as a staff anyway. It was still long enough to out-range a straight sword, so she'd just have to use it differently.

The merchant charged once again for another overhead slash, and Annabeth chose to approach the counter differently, this time swinging her staff sideways through the air instead of directly up. It collided with the side of the blade, and his attack was parried away. In the heat of the moment, Annabeth moved with the attack, circling around and thrusting that same end of the staff into the man's chest. It came as a surprise to her that, not only was the man stunned enough from the parry that he hadn't moved enough to evade, but the following jab had apparently come with enough force to knock him back a significant distance. Annabeth smiled, feeling rather satisfied with her newfound talent as she braced herself in a more proper position, holding the foremost end of the staff low and silently daring the merchant to attack her again.

The man's armor was stronger than Vex thought, clearly now made from more than just the usual leather they had. The soldier was forcing offense onto Vex, in which Vex was easily blocking the soldiers attacks, his long arm guard on his blades made it easy to stay defensive. From out side of the fight, it would be easy to see that Vex was playing with the man, toying with him. After a short while Vex grew a bit bored, and decided to check on the girl whom he got to fallow him. He could barely chuckle as she defended herself with her "weapon" that was more of a glorified piece of plastic. "Oh, don't tell me I need to protect you from him, my little bird." Vex says as he parries the attack that came towards him. Chuckling, Vex used his blade technique blade dash, and in a second the man's stomach was now a gurgling mess, as vex wiped the blood off of his blades. Why do I feel unease? Did killing him not make the "urge" die down? Vex thinks as he makes one of the Armblades disappear,looking at his companion. "I thought you would be done by now, little bird?" he states as he looks at the crates near by, thinking about if he should take them away for himself.

Annabeth's 'companion' teased her as she took up a proper stance. "Hey, you know I'm not equipped for this!" she countered, not looking over just yet. The merchant came again and, in his haste to attack, didn't think to change his tactic at all, and as a result he fell for the same side-swing trick again. Instead of bringing the staff around and into his chest, however, she immediately swung it back into the side of his head. This time, the blow did a bit more than knock him back, disorienting him and forcing him to stumble. She wasted no time, bringing up the opposite end of her weapon into his jaw. At least, she tried to, but the shortened tip merely grazed his face instead.

Then there was more teasing, which frustrated both of the fighters. "I'd quite like it if you'd let me finish," she replied, clearly irritated, as the merchant shouted something at him in a language she couldn't understand. Seeing a moment of opportunity, however, she brought up her leg and planted a boot quite forcefully in the area below the man's beltline. Down went the sword, and the wielder soon after. He didn't leave the ground after that.

"Now, I take it you've also-" Annabeth turned to assess the situation across the room, but immediately turned her eyes back away once she caught a glimpse of what sort of mess had been left there. She held her mouth for a moment. "Oh, jeez... Could you warn a girl next time..?"

When the girl sent her boot into the merchants groin, Vex couldn't help but wince. Even if he was fine with slicing peoples innards out and such, even he wouldn't do something so low. When she looked around and noticed his little "display" Vex couldn't help but smile as she asked for a warning next time. "A next time? Does that mean your going to follow little old me? Well either way I should leave here, after that little entrance I did, they will probably be sending guard's and I am not on there list of people they wouldn't arrest, if you want to find me after you get your rewards, I'll be where we first met." Vex says as he allows his weapons to de summon, and walks away grabbing a small box on his way. "You don't think they will miss a little hat will they?" Vex says before walking out the hole he made, heading back to the steps, a smile on his face as he hums.

He caught her words well, and called out her unintentional implication of later cooperation. "I meant no such thi- Where are you going!?" To Annabeth's dismay, and quite a bit of frustration as well, he was already well out the 'door'. Her eye twitched a small tad as she paused to calm herself. Barely a day into this new life, and she was already contemplating murder. As good as her start was before, the warm fuzzy feeling was starting to wear off, replaced by whatever this was supposed to be, and she was surprised by how quickly some stranger's negligence was driving her to anger.

"You're right I'll follow you," she muttered in her brooding as she approached the exit, "And if you're not at least a small bit more polite at the very least, then I'mma shank someone 'fore the end of the day..." The downed merchant grabbed hold of her leg, and she promptly kicked him away. This stranger's behavior had swiftly rid her of what good a mood she had left.

Once outside, she looked to the left and saw him waiting at the entrance of the smithy, not too far away. After all, they'd only walked a couple blocks down the road, at most. She walked back with very little sense of rush, and was there rather soon anyway. "These 'rewards' of yours had better include some Pepto DiZmol after that lovely little sight earlier," she demanded, pointing her new staff over her shoulder at the scene down the road.

When she said she would fallow him, Vex almost stopped. Shrugging he guessed she didn't want to accept the bounty that would be given to her after the guards found her there. As long as she didn't blame him he wouldn't care. "Oh am I not being polite? I apologies greatly for my misdeeds, I shouldn't talk to one as so strong as you, mighty wielder of the Plastic branch." Vex says as he turns, doing a mock bow, before laughing. "Come, you deserve something better than that "weapon." take it as a reward from me, since I doubt the will belive you killed the armored one, and such." he says as he motions to the shop in front of them, holding a large bag of munny. Even for him, this was a genrous offer. He usually would kill people that "helped" him. But he felt that doing such a thing with her would be a smear on his "reputation". "Do with this bag of munny as you may. It's not as much of the bounty you left behind, but it is munny none the less, and enough to probably buy you more than one weapon.Oh and sorry, I don't think they have Pepto DiZmol here." He says as he opens the box he grabbed. In the box, was a hat, a fedora of sorts, lined with green silk and a dyed silk band around the base of it. Putting it on Vex smiles and decided to wait to see if she goes to buy something or not, or if she declines the munny.

He bowed, donned some cheesy hat, handed her a sack and that was the end of their deal. Once he was finally done talking, Annabeth snatched the thing from his hand, taking a quick look inside. It was filled to the brim with small, yellow gems that looked at if they'd fill the role of dice much better than that of coins. This was the currency they used here? Who in their right mind suggested such a thing?

Still, she had what we needed, and she quickly headed back into the smithy to make her purchase. It didn't take long, and she soon returned with a somewhat lighter sack of gems in one hand and a brand-new, properly smithed Dao Glaive in the other alongside the staff.

Dao Glaive:

Annabeth looked to him once again, and considered what she might say. Sure, he was rude beyond measure, had a tendency to spew unnecessarily vague warnings and was downright negligent at times, but he did pull through with his offer, and that was all she'd really needed from him. "Thank you," she finally decided to say before slinging the bag over her shoulder and turning to go on her way. Now that she finally had a proper weapon, all that was left was to... What, exactly?

She stopped, taking a deep breath to vent a new deal of frustration. In all the excitement, she'd somehow forgotten what she was planning to do afterwards. In this new rage, she dropped both the bag and the glaive to the ground, swiftly turning around to raise the plastic staff, then chucking it with all her strength in the direction of the person who'd distracted her so much. Her aim was a bit low, but the force strong enough to impale the blunt rod in the dirt in front of him.

It was then that she paused, forgetting her anger. It wasn't that she'd suddenly regretted her decision. Rather, something about the staff she threw had surprised her once it was still enough for her to see it clearly.

Somehow, the plastic was on fire.

Vex sighed, seemed like she didn't want to tag along with him after all. Though at least she parted with a goodbye. Before Vex knew it he was starting to tear up, while he himself used the fedora to hide it himself. Whats this? I am crying? But why? How? Before Vex could figure it out, he decided to say his farewells, turning from her entirely. "Be safe little birdling, and may the worlds bare better people than me." He says as he starts to walk away, a feeling in his chest he was not aware of..... Suddenly though a whistle though the air made Vex jump forward, making sure what ever it was would not come anywhere close, as he saw a flaming stick...or it appeared to be a stick. Looking at the person who just woke up an unknown emotion, Vex smirked. Useing a strong gust of wind, he blew the fire out, and after that he would salute as he walked off and as he turned a corner his vision went dark, as he felt something wet on the back of his head, before he passed out.

[Exit topic]

(OOC:Well sorry for the short posts and the bad character..... He will be a better character over all hopefully if we meet again.)

He didn't react with much surprise. Rather, he seemed pretty okay with the idea of somebody having thrown a flaming at him. In the end, he just strolled off, as was his theme so far. The odd series of events got Annabeth thinking. First, how come she had been so quick to a physical outburst of anger? Sure, she was a violent person by nature- Everyone was, in their own way, but she wasn't one to just assault another person like that, even if they were that frustrating to have in close proximity.

Then, there remained the second matter. How had the staff suddenly catch fire like that? It couldn't have been that way when she held it. Her hand wasn't burnt, after all. Was it just normal for things to spontaneously combust here? No, that couldn't be the case... Thinking back, she did recall a moment when something clicked in her mind. Maybe not in the literal sense, of course, but there was some sort of tangible shift she'd felt. In hindsight, she could so vividly remember it, that she felt there might be a way to do it again if she really wanted to... Such thoughts could wait for another time, perhaps aboard the Venture, or in a hotel. Her mind soon drifted away from her worries about the cryptic not-murderer and random fires, wandering through other subjects, like whether hotels existed in these worlds, and what her next objective might be, all as she turned on a heel, walking herself away from the smithy and back toward where she'd landed her ship outside the city...


Acquired Fire Element (I).

Learned Fire Bond.

Annabeth Lee-Clement has left the World.


{Don't worry about a need to apologize. I'm just a nitpicky person, and get pretty eager to jump on the hatewagon if people start yelling at each other. Just know that there's always room to improve.}