Operation Blind Vanguard: Target Lady Investigator [Closed]

It had been a long week, she mused to herself, feeling the waters of the shower run down her back. Her fingers ran through the purple hair on her head, passing the soap through and washing it thoroughly. Her hands moved the brush to every part of her body that she could reach, scrubbing away the dirt, the grime and the disgusting feeling that she had covering her. Today was a particularly humid day, which Solas hadn't appreciated that much. She sighed softly, shaking her head and rinsing the soap out of her hair, eyes closed. "Finding a mermaid was the last thing I'd expected." It had been a week, and despite all of that, Solas still had trouble understanding the reality that was in front of her. Melody was here, and she was real--there was an entire kingdom of these mermaids below the depths, and Solas had met what was effectively their princess. She had left home against her father's wishes, and had come to the surface to see what these people--these humans--were like. So far, Solas had done her best work to teach Melody what she could about the surface. She had taught her how to dress herself, and how to act around people. It hadn't really taken Melody that long, you must understand. The girl was, as far as Solas could pick up, quite a fast learner. It was nice. This whole thing was nice.

But all nice things had to come to an end. Solas wasn't sure where to go from here. She reached over and pulled the lever to turn the shower off, closing the water supply completely and stepping out of the shower. She nabbed a towel and rubbed a lot of the water off of her body, wrapping it around her torso and letting out an audible sigh. What was she going to do with Melody? She couldn't just leave her to be taken away by some assholes, but she had a job to do. She had to get back to Cieria at some point, else what was there to do? She'd have no more income, and would be left high and dry. What good was an investigator if she didn't investigate shit? With another sigh, Solas stepped out of the bathroom, steam billowing out into the small hotel room as she did so, laying her eyes on Melody, who seemed to be doing her own thing--as usual. Chuckling and shaking her head, Solas smiled and spoke up, trying to get her attention. "What're you up to, Mel?"

All that Solas could see of Melody was her long, beautiful hair poking up from underneath the covers of the bed. Melody seemed to really like being in a bed, Solas mused--it was a sentiment she really did share. Beds were amazing things, full of wonder, stories, and feathers. If she could stay in bed all day, Solas probably would. Instead, she had business to attend to pretty much every single day. So instead of spending all of her time snuggled up in a warm, fluffy blanket, Solas had to instead attend to working on her day job. Stupid as it were. Sighing and running fingers through her hair, she watched as Melody popped out from underneath the covers clutching a magazine, and giving her a huge toothy smile. Solas couldn't help but smile back, as Melody showed her what she'd been doing, "I was reading this! Well trying at least... Some of it went over my head." The hotel gave particularly scintillating reading, she sarcastically thought. Sighing and shaking her head, she folded her arms over her chest and watched as Melody told Solas that she found the magazine boring. "Good, it means that I would be able to show you proper reading back at my home. None of this weird stuff," she laughed again, stepping over to her bed and dropping the towel from her body, using it to dry every nook and cranny of her body. She looked back over her shoulder at Melody, who seemed to be just as naked as she was. Melody seemed more at home in the nude, which Solas couldn't help but appreciate--in more ways than one.

"So, is there anything we're going to do today?" Solas tapped her chin, unsure, and began to put on the clothing that she'd laid out on her bed. "I don't want you to feel like you have to keep watching over me, Sola... I am sure you have a life too, so if you want to go you can." She tilted her head to the side. Sure, she'd had toughts of leaving, but at the same time, she didn't really want to. She was enjoying her time with Melody. It was calming and nice for her. She liked spending time with other people, and Melody was just a nice person to whittle away the hours with. Her views of the world, and all of her ways of acting, gave Solas a nice warm feeling in her bosom. She wouldn't mind having someone to work with back in Cieria, and there was a chance that Melody might just work as an assistant. But Solas wouldn't ask that just yet--she'd let Melody make that decision on her own. Instead, Solas would shake her head, "I'm liking my time with you. I don't often get to interact with people, so it's nice." She smiled softly. "With everything you taught me, I can survive out there all my own!" She raised an eyebrow and laughed, "I'm sure you can, but I need to be completely certain before I let you off into the wide world. It wouldn't be right to let you go with..." She chuckled and stepped over toward Melody, getting her hair out of the way of her clothing, "Only half of the tools you need. As for what we're going to do today, I'm really not sure. We could move on to another town, if you wanted to. Of course, that's up to you."

Melody put her arms under her chest and propped up her bust. Solas, being of keen eye, noticed this quite easily and had to stop herself from staring, even if they were small. She couldn't seem to stop the red shade that rose up on her cheeks, and looked away from Melody for a moment before hearing her speak, "I can understand. You humans have complicated lives. How do you survive so long?" She laughed softly, "Luck. Lots and lots of luck. Oh, and a few other things. But mostly luck." Melody let her arms down as Solas turned to look at her again, and she seemed to move over to the bed and plopped back down. Solas let out a sigh of relief as the pale skin was mostly hidden from view. "Well, is there a town that's really cool? Or really scary! I'd want to see a town like that, if we were to leave this place." Solas nodded, she had every plan to leave Taria, "There are lots of towns out there. I don't know much about this land--about Arcadia--but back in my homeland of Cieria, there are grand cities with castles and forts, and beasts, and scary places, scary people..."

"Taria's nice, but I don't think I want to come back here any time soon. Too boring." Solas nodded in agreement. "How about your job? We can do something with that. You have one of those, right?" The woman blinked a couple of times and sat down. Now that she'd given it thought, she'd never really told Melody what she did, had she? "Yeah... yeah, yeah, I have one of those," her smile softened, "I don't have a job like a lot of people... I don't manage a shop, I don't cook for a living; no, nothing like that. I'm what people call a 'private investigator'. People hire me to help them find things, and sometimes to do other tasks involving those things..." She looked to the side, "About four months ago, I saved a lot of nice people from some really nasty people who were using them as slaves. I even made the building fall down!" she laughed, "It's really hard work, and really, really scary. Sometimes I wonder if it's the type of work I should keep doing, but then I see the smiles on their faces, and it's all worth it--you know?" She didn't know if Melody knew, but she hoped she did. "That being said, I could use an assistant to help me, if you want--" A loud banging resounded through the room as she said that, and her head whipped up to meet the door. She hadn't ordered room service; had Melody?

"We know you're in there Kearney." Solas swore in Cierian. Loudly. Apparently loudly enough that they continued to bang on the door, "Don't fight it. Just come out with your hands up. We're here to take you in," She sneered, "On whose orders?" The voice stopped for a moment, and then spoke again, "I guess it doesn't matter, but the orders came from the Berserker." Solas' eyes narrowed. That name was familiar... a myth? No, apparently not. She reached for her waist, and realized that she had no bombs on her. "Of course, they come for me when I'm unarmed..." Her eyes flit around the room, and Solas' mind was running a mile a minute. She had to protect Melody. She had to protect herself. Hell, she wanted to find out what was going on. "I know you're there now, Solas. Hurry up. We have the building surrounded. All other occupants have been evacuated. We can go all out if we need to." Her eyes widened further. They were telling her that--why? They could have just started bombing the place, and she'd have been more worried about saving the other people than just her own skin. Solas' bottom lip was bitten lightly as she thought, before she looked over towards Melody. "Whatever happens. Please, stay safe, and trust me." She let out a long exhalation of air and picked up a pair of underwear off of the ground, chanting as she did so. The underwear was filled with Arcane Energy, and as she approached the door, she opened it with the underwear in her right hand. "You know, you caught me at a terrible time." The man noticed the underwear in her hand and looked down at her, before looking back up, "I was just packing up to leave. I really don't' want to lose my security bond. Could you perhaps... find me in a few hours?" The man raised his eyebrow and started laughing, and Solas heard simultaneous laughter coming from around the door. "Listen here, lady. We got orders ta take you out. Got it?" Solas' eyes narrowed. "Yeah, got it." The underwear dropped from her hand as she closed the door, an explosion of Arcane Energy spreading out and knocking her--and the asshole--back. She rolled over and looked at Melody, before waving her off, "Out the back, now!"

"What was that!?" Solas shook her head, "No time to explain," She understood that Melody would be confused in this situation, but she had little that she could do about it. She needed to just get her out safe and alive; these people weren't here to play patty-cake, if that's what she'd be wondering, "What about our clothes and stuff?" She shook a little bit and sighed, "They'll leave our room alone when we're gone. We can come back for them once this is all over." She hoped what she was saying was true; she didn't want to have to re-buy half of her wardrobe. The men gathered themselves after the explosion and started to pile through the door, and Solas pointed out one of her shirts for Melody to pick up. She didn't really have the time to help her get it on, but Melody seemed to understand the jist of things and put the shirt on quickly. The girl was learning, that was something. She bit her bottom lip as the men clambered into the room, almost knocking themselves over to be the first to get in. They were somewhat untrained--or at least really wanted the kill. She muttered something about idiots before reaching out and taking Melody's arm.

"Let's move; out the back." Her voice was serious, much different to the usual Solas. "Wa-Wait! What's going on!?" Melody stumbled behind Solas, who turned around and--with surprising amounts of strength--lifted Melody off of her feet and started to carry her along. "Sola, you're scaring me!" She bit her bottom lip, "I'm sorry Melody, I will explain everything when I can. Just know that, right now, bad men want to hurt me. I don't know why. I haven't been working. But we need to get away from them. I don't want to hurt them." She nodded at Melody and started to carry her along, passing through streets and hearing the continuous march of men following. They didn't seem to have any ranged weapons, which confused Solas--did they not expect her to fight back? Strange. She found an alley and put Melody back onto her feet, pressing her back up against a wall. Her chest heaved with tiredness. "I... Melody... shit, I don't run." She leaned forward and wiped away sweat from her forehead. "We need a plan, and I need to keep you--us--safe."

She clenched a fist and looked around their position, hoping to find any kind of rubble to serve their purposes. She bit her bottom lip and noticed it, making a bright expression. "Ah, this will do." She ran up to a small wall, running her fingers over it and closing her eyes, "Show me the lines..." Lines appeared in her vision, converging into a single point. She nodded and pressed her fingers against it, drawing a circle while she continued to chant quietly. She could set this off to make the wall fall behind them as they ran. "Alright, Melody. Let's get moving." The circle was activated, and Solas lead Melody off--not at a run, but at a nice simple walk, the sound of crumbling stone behind them. This would, at the very least, throw them off their trail for a little while. "So, while we have time to breathe, do you want to know anything?" She tried to give Melody her most reassuring smile.

Things had finally calmed down, and the shouting in the distance was merely white noise in the background of Solas' mind. Her thoughts were running at a mile a minute, as she attempted to discern exactly why things had happened in the way that they had. She held a hand against her chest and waited for her heart to slow as she smiled at Melody. She had to try not to show how scared she was--though as Melody would eventually discover, Solas wasn't actually afraid of the men. They were rank and file amateurs. She had all the chances to escape from them. Maybe they anticipated that she'd just give herself up to save Melody? Unlikely, but entirely possible.

No. Solas was scared because she had no idea why she was the sudden target of a home invasion. She had not been working recently. She had a number of enemies, but none of them knew where she was. No... this seemed to be more than she expected. And she was frightened, because she had no control over any of this. "So, where are we going?" Solas looked over at Melody, and finally realized that the girl was crying. She stopped and reached up to her face, running her fingers over her cheeks. As the tears were wiped away, Solas gave a soft and reassuring smile. "Hey, Mel, I don't know. I feel like they might keep chasing me, so it's okay if you go away. I can take you with me as well. It's... really up to you. I don't know why they're after me." She didn't want to admit everything. She didn't want to admit that she didn't want to be alone right now.