[Redd]

Nix huffed and drummed the tips of her fingers on the table, the sound of her gloves striking heavy wood and crinkled paper the only noise in the dark room. With a sweeping motion, she smoothed over the paper, hands gliding over intricate lines, numbers and frantically scribbled notes. It was a plan, of sorts. Unfinished, unfulfilled and hopelessly futile, at least alone. A frown crept across her features as her eyes darted from point to point, her mind working furiously through the options, the possibilities... and all the ways this daring undertaking could go horribly wrong.

She usually worked alone but even she could recognise that she needed a team.

She patted down her clothing, trying to remember what pocket she'd stored her cell phone in, and started dialling numbers.

"Heey guv, you- ah, right busy huh? Well. Enjoy the festival."

"Kaz! Personal time? Yeah yeah, say hi to the missus for me."

"Mate I- ah, you're already on another job? And you didn't cut me in? As rude as that is, I'll still wish ya the best."

And this continued for quite some time, until she settled on one last number, her final and least desired option. With a sigh, she hit dial and raised her phone to her ear one last time.

"Darlin', look, I know we don't see eye to eye and quite honestly it's a bloody surprise that you actually picked up, but you know I wouldn't bother you from your fancy scientist cover but... well, it's a big deal. One your actual employers might be interested in. Except, well, my usual contacts are busy, something about a goddamn festival goin' on in Aldrect so - as outright insultin' as that is - I need people. That's why I need your help. You got a lot of bloody help when your little mishap caused the skies to go grey."
Nix sharply drew breath, as she let her words sink in, steeling herself for whatever retribution came next but... there was none. Instead, the one on the other indicated for Nix to continue.
"Look. It's... you remember that kerfuffle at the festival last year, right? That big bleedin' lizard? ... Now now, don't you get hysterical, it's not like I'm about to send these guys on any sort of skeevy illegal heist, okay? This is totally above board, very safe. Nothing your boss wouldn't approve of.
All they gotta do is go into the sewers, I nip in and grab the secret sauce that our little dodgy scientist was playing with and then... well, I take it your boss wants this thing locked up?"

There was a noise of affirmation on the phone. Nix sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. So much for actually profiting off this heist but when you made a deal with this particular benefactor, you never were going to win.

"Alright. You do your thing luvvie, you know where to send 'em."

---

You could have been at the festival. You could have been doing the smart thing and enjoying your day. Instead, you were... here, in a dark room, staring at an ancient map, whilst some hooded rogue paced in front of you and eyed off you and other various figures that had been pulled in for the same reasons as you. Maybe you owed someone a favour or money, maybe a shady employer had sent you on a job, maybe you just liked skeevy illegal heists. But you were here, it was dark and this woman in front of you was maybe just scaring you slightly with her coarse mannerisms and blatant disregard for a proper lighting and aesthetics.

"Right. I don't know how you got here, don't want to know. But sunshine, I got two rules if you wanna get paid, okay? A. You work for me, so do what I say to the letter and B, you've never heard of me, alright?" Nix declared, meandering over and placing a finger on the page. "We keep this simple, okay? You breach the sewers here. There's an opening in the wall here, you can't miss it. Follow it down through to this... research facility here." She jabbed a finger at each spot on the blueprints, before resting on a final room. "Then, once you get here, grab whatever's in the containment unit, bring it back to me, and we'll be laughin'. Got it?"

Golden Thread Roleplay Event

Event Guide
- For this event, over the next four weeks you will be given a roleplay prompt that you must respond to.
- If you complete all four weeks, you will be eligible for a special prize.

Rules
- Threads must contain a minimum of 5 posts (7 posts for cooperative roleplays) per week to qualify for a prize.
- All threads for this event must have been started on or after the 29th of May
- You are restricted to one roleplay thread for the entire event.
- Pick your character/s carefully, though there is no limit on characters involved! This is an evolving roleplay prompt.
- Due to these roleplays being Event Roleplays, they cannot be used for Hunts and must have a minimum of 100 words.
- If you fall behind one week, you will not be eligible for that prize. You must also summarize the previous week's prompt in 1-2 posts.
- Please sign up here to participate and roleplay your sign up. You must sign up with the pets you intend to use. Sign ups close at 11:59pm Friday 28th May.
- All threads must be posted in Aldrect.
- Sign ups are important because I will be PMing you a new prompt every Saturday. Please do not start your thread until after you've received your first prompt.

[Sarah]

"How is this not the single worst idea you've ever had?" Tony had been complaining for two days straight. Brock had all but tuned out every sound that came from the billionaire.

"It'll be fine, Tony." Ah. The voice of reason. Brock knew there was a good reason he'd invited along the little witch. Wanda's voice was calm and soothing. "There's nothing we could find that we can't take down, and you know we need to find out what all this is about."

Brock was all too well versed in the underground. There'd been no hesitation when he'd been contacted about a heist. It was strange enough, and almost above board enough to involve some of his superhero contacts.

While Tony had relaxed some with Wanda's assurances, he still complained the entire rest of the way to their meeting place. It wasn't until they were around others that he finally shut up. Brock was glad for it. It would be best if their brightest team member focused on the task at hand. Brock listened to the instructions given while Wanda was busy observing the rest of the people involved and Tony studied the map and paperwork provided.

[zapdragon555]

Jigen Daisuke | Arsène Lupin III
^{[#0040BF] - [#BF0000]}

In a distantly past time of his life, this sort of job would be much more Jigen's speed than most of the fanfare-riddled showboating that he was often dragged into these days. But maybe he'd gotten just a little bit soft. Long ago, he'd been pretty content to crawl through the darkest underbellies of the city, getting his hands as dirty as it was required of him, be it blood or muck. Now, he found himself with a chill in his spine, standing in a too-cramped room with not enough light and a stone floor that gave away his nervous foot taps too loudly.

The air was so dank that Jigen had a hard time believing the cigarette in his mouth was going to light. He grit his teeth and cursed under his breath as his lighter sparked and sputtered, about ready to hurl the thing on the floor when another, lit lighter was produced in his peripheral. His gaze followed the hand holding it, up red jacket sleeve until he reached the slack smirk of his boss and partner, dark brown eyes lit by orange lamplight. It'd be downright romantic if Jigen wasn't so on edge, and if they weren't so surrounded by thieves and cutthroats who were probably already planning to kill half of the people in this room just to get more reward money for themselves. At the very least, the thought had crossed Jigen's mind once or twice.

"Thanks," he muttered softly, angling his head to light the tip of his cigarette in Lupin's flame. He puffed out a cloud of smoke, letting it obstruct his view of the hooded woman as she passed by him. Sunshine. "Hey Lup. She's talking to you," Jigen sneered in a whisper, playfully digging his elbow into Lupin's arm. The other man simply grinned wider, arching a brow. "Dunno how you can smile right now. It's creepin' me out. Unless you know something I don't."

Lupin hummed under his breath, shrugging his shoulders in a slow roll. "I've found that smiling like a loon all the time helps lower people's guard. Makes them underestimate you. There's a lot you can do with low expectations."

Jigen grunted noncommittally. He certainly wasn't about to start grinning. He raised the brim of his hat just a bit to quint through too-long bangs, staring at the blueprints as she gestured to them. "Remind me how you know this gal?"

"Oh, Nix?" Lupin chirped, sure to keep his words at a lower volume than hers. "It's not an interesting story. Just did some goods running for her when I was younger. Hadn't seen hide or hair of her til recently... thought this might be interesting to check out."

"Forgive me if I don't believe a single word that's flying out of your mouth," Jigen muttered, soured by Lupin's clear fibbing. Arsène Lupin III did not 'check out' things that were 'interesting.' There had to be a greater reason for all of this... and Jigen was hard pressed to ignore his own itching curiosity. For now, he'd be silent... and listen well enough to the instructions that Nix was barking out. Wouldn't be any good for either of them to slip up and get themselves killed on a job that was apparently just 'interesting' and worth 'checking out.' Hogwash.

[Celtic]

Ket rubbed his temples, lord this whole thing sounded utterly ridiculous. He knew he should have turned it down the second it came from him but ugh, a guy's gotta eat... Plus, Maus could use a couple tune ups and he just didn't have the resources for it at the moment. It'd been quite a slow year. Really his last big job was.... Around this time, at the festival. A hand absently moved from the temple to pet his little robotic friend under his shawl.

He pursed his lips as Nix stopped talking, "Yeah, yeah. Sounds good." He mumbled, but he was trying to focus on the shoddy map she was pointing to. "You sure this is current and accurate? It seems pretty old?" As soon as the question left his mouth he answered it himself, Aldrect was pretty old. It made sense that the inner workings were mapped out ages ago and these records aren't exactly public knowledge.

"Hold on, hold on. Just whatever is in the containment unit? Nothing more specific than that?" A smaller man with slightly tanned skinned and almond shaped eyes seemed to just appear beside Ket, looking with the utmost scrutiny at Nix. "That isn't exactly encouraging. Or helpful." Ket rolled his eyes, he hated working with this kid. He was just learning the ropes of this kinda anything-for-hire work and he always, always asked too many questions.

Ket stepped one foot in front of the little guy, smiled and apologized. "No, we don't need to know any more than that, thanks." He spared a withering glance back at his companion. He was not going to lose this job, and this kid was not going to lose it for him either. The kid rolled his eyes at Ket and looked like he was going to speak but realized now probably wasn't the place. He had been told under no uncertain terms to listen to Keturah at all times and do everything he said. If he was going to challenge that order, it wouldn't be at the very start of the job.

Later, though, was a different story.

[SpringsSong]

The figure stood in the room, looking at the others in the room, arms folded. How they ended up there, they were not exactly keen to share. For now, they just stood and listened to the instructions. It sounded simple enough: get in, snatch the thing, get out, and - the natural assumption - don't get caught.

"Seems simple enough," came a slightly disguised voice, modulated through a mask that covered the person's lower face. What weren't covered were the person's bright red eyes - they seemed to almost glow in the darkness, but that was why they had a hood they could pull up over their head to cast a shadow over their face.

[Participating along with Azura Rayume]

[Azura Rayume]

"Nines"

"Look, Brek, you've gotta give me more than just a meeting place," Nines growled into his earpiece as he shifted from one foot to the other. Loitering in the hall wasn't getting him anywhere, but it was at least resolving a bit of his stress about the whole thing. Information, that's what he needed. Information was his whole deal, and not having enough of it was putting him on edge.

"Sorry, man. The voice on the other end came through garbled. Too much old wiring in this place, too much interference. "I thought you'd like the chance to check out that research place, but if you don't want to-"

"Research?" He cut them off, his head tipping to the side inquisitively. Nines spared a glance back through the doorway, down the hall, to where he knew the contact was waiting. "What do you mean research?"

"I dunno. Just heard through the grapevine that there's some kind of lab down there. Figured you'd want to check it out yourself."

He sighed. Of course he would; if Brek had led with that, the whole thing would have sounded much more appealing. "Fine, I'll do it. But whatever this is better not get me killed."

"No promises.

[Participating with SpringsSong]

[RiDragon]

"Fascinating."  Foria said, barely listening.  The only words she cared about was "pay" and "day."  Other than that, she was pretty much letting the details slide.  Rather, she concentrated on the map, watching the woman's finger trace the path she was to follow.  She was, truly, never one for "planning."  What's the point when anything can happen anyway?  Plans just make you sloppy and make you not expect things to go awry.  She would think on her feet, be silent, be vigilant, and get out with...  Whatever it was by the skin of her teeth just like always.  And if she didn't?  Well, then the Gods had to deal with her.

The Jirbii on her shoulder made a concerned sound as if it were reading her thoughts, and she gave it a reassuring smile.  She had met the thing on one of her adventures and couldn't quite shake it off, though it came in handy more times than she'd care to admit.  "You aren't scared are you, little guy?  You can always stay behind."  To this the creature growled quietly and huffed.


...
...

In a quiet corner drinking a cup of lukewarm tea that was much more cream and sugar than water, The Professor watched, wondering if he should get involved.  The answer was: of course he should.

[Adelie]

You'd think that after one round of giant lizard kerfuffle, she wouldn't decide to show up for a second time - and especially one that didn't even bother with the whole festival performance pretense, but instead straight-up advertised itself as a 'skeevy illegal heist.' Like, literal words.

That's irrelevant, though, because Chi is not a paragon of virtue and righteousness. Maybe Chi, the real-life graduate student, would be more concerned with the legality of whatever was going on, but Chi, the MMORPG character, is only interested in what's at the end of this quest chain. What are they going to do, throw her in game-jail? There's an entire run based on breaking out of that - and she'll have you know she wrote the guide for it, too.

So, yeah. The definitely-not-suspicious hooded rogue is soliloquizing dramatically over a map that no one here could possibly read in the darkness, the quest summary definitely doesn't sound like a suspicious break-in for a specimen virtually identical to the giant lizard kerfuffle of last year, and of course, she's going to accept the job.

[amanda784]

Bay had been struggling to find her place in the world. She knew it was not with her family on the farm. She didn't like the long hours in the sun or being stuck in one spot. She knew it was not hunting like her brother. The traveling was a plus as well as the adrenaline rush, but she didn't want to follow in anyone else's footprints. She wanted to be original and legendary.

It was the oddest interview she had ever been a part of. She was used to the part time gigs where they ask you a hundred questions to see if your qualified even when the job is simple enough for anyone to do. She sensed this was a job requiring very specific skills, yet she was not being asked the usual questions. Instead of "what's your greatest strength?" or the dreaded, "what's your greatest weakness?" she was told conditions of the job. She had prepared all the answers for the expected questions like "my greatest strength is my ability to work with everyone" and "my greatest weakness is that sometime I go to far to help others, ignoring my own needs." Both lies, but so far solid interview answers.

She had planned to ask so many questions about pay and job requirements, but the serious tone of interviewer threw her off. She knew this was a shady interview to begin with, but somehow had still expected the bubbly "try to be your friend" interviewer. Instead of asking her important questions she found herself agreeing without any information.

It didn't matter, she was told she would recieve information soon. What had she gotten herself into? A mix of dread and adrenaline filled her veins. This may be just the job she was looking for.

[GrayGriffin]

Codex and Vane stood on Error's either side as they took in the conditions of this job. It had been much too long since the Errors got a proper job, one that might actually feed all of them properly for once. Error could scavenge electricity easily enough off various wires, and Codex could survive on blood for a bit longer, but Vane knew she enjoyed the taste of raw meat as much as the Mekkayena did, as much as she'd never admit it.

"Got it," said Error, keeping her voice curt and short to minimize the chances of her voice box acting up. That was also why Codex and Vane were keeping quiet and acting the role of bodyguards instead-Error's was the least likely to malfunction in the middle of a negotiation like this, and even she was playing it as safe as possible.

None of them flinched at all at the comment about having to travel through the sewers. Two of them were mostly mechanical, after all, and even if they weren't they were used to wading through filth. And the festival had never been intended for creatures like them anyways, the kind who had to skulk on the edge of society and worry constantly about their next paycheck and meal-two words that were basically synonymous.

[Freezair]

Bonnie didn't see it as "sketchy" or "dubious" in any way. No, she was far too intelligent to fall into that over-simplified line of thinking. She knew that to succeed in the world, you had to sometimes get your paws dirty. And this seemed like a fine opportunity to do just that. She could secure herself some useful capital to invest in her business, and if it all went well, why, it might be good fodder for a memoir she could get Reckless to type up!

Never mind that she was a chocolatier and not a spy. Details, details! She learned quickly.

Reckless dutifully followed along behind her, keeping his furry head lowered as they strode through the crowd. She wasn't cutting in line--she was asserting her authority! Reckless mumbled a few soft "sorries" in her wake, though he didn't like the looks some of these types were giving him.

"Yes! We heard you're looking for help with a little infiltration!" Bonnie boomed. "Well we're your folks, yessir! Me and Reckless here, we're ready, willing, and able to do anything you tell us to!"

"Um, within reason..." Reckless mumbled.

[crow]

It was a good thing that Lyra had come alone.

If any of the others were here, they would have had questions. They would have said something about finding another way to get the information, or how it wasn't worth the risk. She might have been able to talk them around; Akira and Luke were both thrill-seekers deep down, and Bastien had a soft spot for her... probably. But it would have taken time, and the woman talking didn't look like the patient type.

Lyra smiled. "That doesn't sound so bad. I've been in plenty of sewers before." Or just the one or two, really, but once you've visited one, you've visited them all, as far as she was concerned.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

It was rare for Nexus to attend jobs himself, these days; rarer still for him to actually take Tony along for the briefing, but something seemed slightly off about the whole thing. For one, working with others who were not part of his... organisation rubbed him up the wrong way, and for another, this whole idea of breaking into a research lab wasn't quite his usual cup of tea.

He growled quietly at the exasperated tone of the hooded figure's voice; truth was, normally people owed him debts, but somehow he had wound up owing a favour and having his lackeys do the dirty work simply wasn't going to cut it if he wanted to be sure it would happen. That was why he had brought Tony along, after all.

Tony remained silent beside his boss, though he was acutely aware of everyone in the room. He was still nursing a black eye from his last encounter, and the stitches on his muzzle hadn't quite healed yet, but you didn't turn the boss down when he called for you - especially for something like this. Tony couldn't remember the last time the boss had been out on a job with him, but it was a tremendous honour to be his bodyguard - and Tony would make sure no harm came to Nexus, no matter the cost.

As the figure wrapped up its description of the job, Nexus tilted his head with eyes narrowed. The exasperation was a cover, he realised, and this person - whoever they were - really wanted or needed this thing to be recovered. He grinned his slow smirking grin, and Tony blinked beside him at the nasty tilt of his mouth. Oh, he could use this - it seemed that things had suddenly gotten a lot more interesting - even if it did mean going through the sewers. He could always replace his suit, after all.

[Moofius]

Safi --- Cussanke (Cuss)

"Hey, cheer up!" He gave the seraph a slap on the back, then grabbed her shoulder and gave it a shake, "I mean hell, you're the one who wanted to be here."

That made Safi's head snap up as she glared at the beared, grinning idiot next to her.
"I am not this is... I need to make sure this ISN'T related to to-"
"Well," Cuss said interrupting her as he steered them both out of the room, giving their well spoken and polite "boss" a quick wave, "you asked me here and beyond that I don't care. Isn't that half the reason you asked me, and not, I don't know? The people you went adventuring around with?"

Safi sighed and massaged her temples. Gods but she thought the chaos was insufferable when he was wrong.
"You're here because you owe ME a favour after you came to me for help and blew up my entire life." She reminded, which got an awkward laugh out of the burly man.

"Yeeah... and I DID say I was sorry about that!" He reminded, "Look, I'm not complaining, I just want to get this out of the way... And you do too! So stop, guh, literally dragging your feet!" He said giving her another shove that did have the smaller woman stumble forward and have to catch herself. He wasn't wrong, she WAS dawdling. She didn't want to do this, she had to, but that really didn't give her the right to complain.

They had both signed up, they were both doing this and she could be sure this wasn't connected... and if it was, she could make sure whatever this job was wasn't risking something like That happening again.

She put on a show of huffing and dusting off her skirt while Cuss crossed his arms and waited impatiently.
"Fine. For what it's worth I'm sorry for dragging my feet. Just because something is insufferable, doesn't mean we have to make others suffer our company on top of that."
"There you go."
"Though for a chaos who doesn't roll with a crowd, maybe you're as insufferable as I am." Safi said as she headed off towards the side streets to find a sewer entrance that wasn't going to be too visible an entry point.

Cuss paused and then rushed to catch up, "OI! Low blow! Quality over quantity," he said, giving the strange little seraph her space now that she was cooperating. He knew her better than a stranger, but he'd hardly impose the word friend or even work colleague on her. A shove to get her going was even a little more than he wanted to give... but he wasn't about to suffer a whiny twit either.

[Redd Comment: Is in a RP with Kodai & Kyrit]

[Jaykobell]

His hand tightened on the mobile phone. "Are you serious?" He had been sent on shady missions before, but this was... it felt different. "What?" The voice at the other end had spoken a name, and at first, he thought he'd misheard. There was a moment of silence. "Yeah, I've heard of her," he finally answered, shooting a few looks around. He was daring, and he was down for shady jobs. But this one, he just couldn't shake that feeling.

"You owe me for this one," he said softly in the phone speaker before hurriedly adding, "Gotta go. I'm here." Without giving the other party time to say goodbye, he hung up.

He listened to the instructions, for that shady job he had been hired to do. To take orders from somebody else... he didn't fancy that in the slightest, but it would pay well. And if it paid well, it was worth it, he supposed. "Fine," he said simply, and he added nothing more. There was no need to add more. She wanted her job done, and he wanted his pay for it. The faster he got to it, the faster everyone would be happy.