Manhunt Willard 'Skinner' Johns [P]

_____Nighttime, Reaper’s preferred time to go hunting someone down. The setting was even more perfectly suited for his style of approach as rain fell from dark storm clouds and lightning arced the air cracking wildly. It was the perfect way to cover his footsteps and approach his target when it came time to do such. But for now Reaper simply watched calmly from the alley across from his target’s last known location. His black cloak and gloves allowed him to blend with the shadows as he shifted slowly to avoid someone with a lantern revealing his location.

_____Willard clearly had his share of close calls it seemed as the man constantly looked over his shoulder and avoided everyone trying to approach him. He enjoyed what many called ‘rat trapped’ targets. So desperate to find cover, but has the nagging feeling he was already caught. While it also made targets more prone to violence Reaper just had to wait for him to break from people to approach to keep himself out of focus. However as Willard moved into the more dense part of the docks Reaper could only growl in disapproval before moving out of the alley and tailing him.

_____Reaper had to close the gap as the amount of people grew more dense. The annoying part rose more as he had to weave carefully to avoid people reaching into his pockets looking for something to steal from him. Along with the now fading view of Willard placed Reaper in a tough choice, did he risk losing him the way he was tracking him, or did he cause panic to clear his route to his target and risk scaring him also. Reaper’s mind trailed back to his first set of choices, he should have just blasted Willard with some Arcane magic from a roof and dragged the corpse back rather than try to bring him in alive.
@Ashiore Evretto | @Ozwin Ahab

 

Ash grimaced and pushed her fringe out of her eyes yet again. There wasn't much use in trying to do anything else; the rain was horrendous at the moment. But the owner of the Sunken Maiden had indicated that tonight would be the best night to find Skinner Johns. So she had no choice but to be out on the docks of Druuk Island in this miserable weather, Naixi an equally soggy and displeased lump of fur beside her.

She gave Naixi a few comforting scratches behind the ears. "Don't worry," she told the lion, "We'll find him quickly and then let's go get you warmed up by a nice fire, okay?"

Well, that was easier said than done. She didn't have the slightest clue how to actually find Johns. At least having a lioness beside her was an excellent deterrent against pickpockets. After a few half-hearted attempts at walking through the crowd, Ash resigned herself to staying near the far end of one of the docks away from all the commotion. She found herself a spot under an awning near some fishermen, made some excuses, and sat there in wait with Naixi.

That was about an hour ago, and she was getting chilled to the bone. She was about to call it a night and try again tomorrow when she finally saw someone emerge from the crowd that matched the description she had been given: rather short, black hair, scars on the side of his face. That looked like Skinner Johns, alright.

Trying not to act suspicious, Ash placed a hand on Naixi's back as the lioness tensed. She remained there for a moment, occasionally watching to see which direction he was headed.

 

Okay so this guy was trying to skip town on a ship so Oz immediately decided to start looking around the docks... not that he had left them since arriving in the area. By looking around the docks of course he meant stepping out of this rainy night that only a fool would hang around and work in and hang out in the taverns drinking and rough housing with sailors. As it turns out no sane captain would dare try and sail out of port in the dead of a rainy night so he had plenty of time to ask around and see wish ships were planning on heading out first thing after the rain settled a bit and the sky started gaining light. Because he was such an industrious person he managed to hit every bar on the docks in only a few hours, so he was fairly certain that only two ships were planning to head out anytime before noon tomorrow and they were relatively close to one another. He passed a couple gold around to crewmen of these two ships to sing a real world shanty he taught them if they saw a guy on board with a particular appearance and walked out into the stormy night reaking of cheap ale but very little of the scent on his own tongue.

He didn't bother skulking about in the shadows or such. Dressed in his sailing leathers, a sea hunter's trident on his back and the walk of a man who spent more time on sea than on land made him belong on this dock as much as anyone could. He eventually found the two ships he was looking for though he was a little annoyed with how difficult it was to keep an eye on both at the same time... The one ship looked rather nice actually... Wonder if its captain happened to be hiring...

He sat on the porch of a storage house and hummed to himself a bit with a bottle of rum in hand, "Poor old Johnny Ray... Sounded sad upon the radio, he moved a million hearts in monoooo." And he continued to hum Come On Eileen and other old songs and drink for a while watching the ships for the fellow he was looking for... Did that miss over there have a lion?

 

_____Well now everything was going to get chaotic without Reaper doing much of anything himself. As Willard turned to see the lion and in the process seeing Reaper approaching him he turned pale and began bolting. People getting pushed out of the killer’s way causing Reaper to give up on subtle efforts. Quickly chanting some light curses to blast towards Willard to slow him down slightly as the cloaked figure began to rush the man.

”Why must people be flashy in games, it’s terrible for manhunts!”

_____Reaper cursed outward as he began to rush towards Willard faster while chanting a stronger curse to hopefully paralyze his pray. Eyes widening at the sudden sight of a blade crossing the bridge of his nose and causing Reaper to jump backwards defensively and lose his focus on the spell. A small trail of blood running down his face as he growled out with annoyance. ‘Fuck bringing him in alive!’ Reaper made up his mind fully as he stood ready for close combat while chanting another spell.

’I was going to bring you in alive Willard, but after that little stunt I think I’ll give you a nice slow death fucker.”

_____Purple light slowly began to flicker to life at Reaper’s hands as the two rushed forward to exchange blows. Reaper at a clear disadvantage as his one strike to Willard’s right shoulder cost two stabs into his left arm, and a gash across his right calf before the two broke for some distance. Reaper was now seriously regretting not blowing this fucker’s head off sooner as he lost focus on his magic again and had to restart, all the while backstepping and trying to avoid fighting another losing skirmish, if someone else wanted this guy caught they had better helped soon or be left one verse one like Reaper was at the moment.

 

Subtly minding one's own business was apparently not a look that one was possible to have if they were lounging with a lion. Okay, good to know. The next time Ash went on a covert mission--likely never again, after this fiasco--she'd have to keep that in mind.

A random glance around led to Skinner catching sight of her and Naixi. Ash also just so happened to be looking his way, so she saw him pale at the attention and swing around to another direction. But apparently, that was where a man in all black was approaching him from.

And then all hell broke loose.

People shouted as Skinner made a break for it with the mysterious stranger giving chase. Ash pushed herself to her feet and began following. "Come on!" she called to Naixi, and the two of them ran against the crowd to catch up. She shoved past people with hurried apologies but didn't look back, afraid to lose sight of Skinner and his pursuer.

She didn't expect to stumble upon a brawl in an alleyway, though--Skinner was fighting viciously for someone who was running just a moment ago. But perhaps it shouldn't have been surprising: cornered prey had nothing left to lose, after all. But it looked like the close quarters was giving his opponent some trouble, judging by the injuries she could see.

Ash quietly gave orders for Naixi to circle around as stealthily as she could to cut off Skinner's escape route. Meanwhile, she stayed slightly further back and channeled healing energy through her palms, tracing runes in the air to cast a healing spell on Skinner's opponent. She wasn't one for direct combat, but she could assist him at least with this.

 

The hell were the lot of them doing!? Well obviously he had found his guy... and well so had other people. People were obviously panicking from magic and blades and a lion popping up in the middle of the night. Chanting an aeromancy spell he began running towards the fight with a wind magic increased speed. "Out of the way! Please make room for your safety! No need to call the guards!" He pulled out his trident while running and used the blunt end to vault over the last bit of the crowd in his way and came to the side of the two fighting it out in the middle with the pointy ends of the polearm now locked with the blade of the target.

"If you keep trying to stab the mage you won't be able to stop me from skewering you, now drop the blade and surrender or prepare to become sea monster chum!" To be perfectly honest all his skills were at novice level so he wasn't entirely sure if he could win a melee with the man in front of him despite the weak appearance. Rather why was the mage trying to melee this guy? He hadn't played a game in years and knew that most magic users didn't go much deeper than mid line dps. And what was that miss with the lion doing over there? He locked eyes with her for a moment, looked at the lion and shook his leg briefly hoping to pass the hint along and went back to focusing on disarming the opponent if possible. People were always worth more living than dead... Uhm is this fellow stronger than he looks?

 

_____Reaper Was not exactly joyful with needing help but as the trident wielder stepped in and the girl started to heal him he had a chance to get out of direct attack and use magic. Reaper was not in the best social move so he just took a few steps back and started chanting his maleformancy, sure it was an ill magic to have by these other two but it could just make this a great deal easier. His chosen chant was for a very complex binding magic, so hopefully these two did not try to stop him this one time since he was aiming to make this a easy capture.

_____Ozwin would have his hands full as Willard quickly drew a second dagger and pushed the trident away slightly, his eyes moving frantically between the three of his apprehenders. Setting back on Ozwin he would try to rush the male to either wound him enough to give up chase, or kill him. It was a fight or flight instinct and it seemed Willard was a decent fighter and nimble on his toes as he tried for trust and slashes at Ozwin, his grip firm enough on his daggers to avoid a quick disarm, and his steps trying to keep him within close range to lower the uses of the larger weapon.

”If I can just get a bit more time… Just keep him busy and I promise I won’t miss, I've had more pressure when shooting a gun then this and from a lot further out.”

_____Reapers half attempt to explain his plan, and to give his ‘team’ the assurance that buying him time would end this a bit quicker. Reaper was not of mind to focus on where the lion was, and hopefully neither was Willard in the very off chance that he missed at such a range or something else happened.

 

Good, it looked like her healing was having an effect after all. Ash poured a bit more energy into the spell as the man backed away, hoping that that took care of the worst of his wounds. When the spell finished, she took a breath and focused on what was going on in the fight in front of her. During this break, she caught the eye of a man wielding a trident but wasn't quite able to make out what gesture he was doing through the night.

Well, it looked like he was here to help. He jumped into the battle, moving his trident like he would attempt to disarm Skinner. It wasn't working, but the extra distraction was apparently all part of the robed man's plan, if his shout was anything to go by.

Ash could do distractions. She started taking stock of what she had to work with. Not much; any plant life that grew here would likely be too small to be of use. So, time to rely on some old favorites. She brought up her vine restraint spell and began casting that.

Two thick vines ripped out of the earth and wrapped around Skinner's ankles. It likely wasn't going to restrain him for very long--he could rather easily either rip away from them through sheer physical strength, or slice them off with his knife--but hopefully it was enough of an inconvenience that either one of her two companions could do something.

Meanwhile, Naixi remained at a distance, ready to pounce if Skinner decided his chances were better if he fled rather than stayed.

 

Oh okay so the others seemed to have plans... That was good, it meant he didn't need to come up with one much more detailed than don't get dead. That was especially important now that the target pulled out a second weapon, which was rather unfair in his perspective. He stepped back trying to stay out of reach of the blades while keeping the man in reach of his trident. His rank wasn't novice for nothing, he was not terribly good at it. Rather he wasn't particularly good with any of his skill since they were all barely novice rank. Electric stun spell... what was the chant again? He had turned his spells to manual chat mode knowing he wouldn't really be able to access his spell menu holding his trident but he didn't really have the chants down yet. AH! His pants! His leg! Hot damn that hurts! Bad murder guy! Bad!

Unnerved a bit by the large tear in his pants and the considerable amount of blood the seemed to be coming from his new wound, the vines that came out of nowhere were an incredibly welcomed sight as he stumbled backwards for a moment taking pressure off his leg and stumbled through his Electric Stun incantation. As he completed the spell his weapon began sparking between its prongs and release a noise quite like that of a taser and swung it bluntly as the man's bound lower body before falling to a knee himself.

Ozwin was pale and shivering all over and deeply regretted putting his realism settings to their highest. This was quite painful and exhausting, putting the thrill aside. He had to stay focused though. If a gash in his leg hurt this much he definitely needed to avoid being run through.

 

_____Reaper’s magic was starting to take a bit of shape around him, black magic coiling his arms as he kept chanting the spell, it was not exactly fun for him as he watched his energy gauge keep dropping, now into critical with still some more to do to make sure this fool was kept under heavy lock and key. If they knew a thing about dark magic, that much energy for one spell meant it was dangerous on more than one fact as a skull formed in his palms and Reaper took aim.

_____When both the two fell down Reaper got the perfect shot and took it, the skull slamming into Skinner as he froze, his eyes turning pure black as Reaper exhaled and approached him. ”He won’t cause anyone much trouble for some time, I surely hope he enjoys nightmares. As for your suffered wounds there is not much I can do, unless you wish for me to end your misery, the women might be able to help you though. I’ll start heading to the drop off, if you two want to follow after you're done be my guest, if not I will inform him I had some help to bring him in alive.”

_____Reaper’s arm reaching to grab Willards collar and began to drag him behind him, the once danger now seemed scared to death as he looked to Reaper and began freaking out again. Dark magic was great at causing people to fall deep into their own darkest visions of reality, but his struggle never seemed to help him, rather aiding Reaper with dragging him along. It was rude to not stay and help the two, but considering dark magic was also a touchy magic, and his low energy from casting the spell he did not want to risk needing to recast it.

 

A blast of magic cut through the confrontation, and with that, it was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Skinner froze stiff and his eyes turned pure black, and the man in black robes viciously grabbed the fugitive by the collar and began dragging him away.

Well, that was that. Ash turned to the stranger with the trident, noting his cuts and wounds with a grimace. "Here, let me get those for you." She began charging up another healing spell, going over the worst of his wounds to close them up.

"Thanks for your help. I guess you were after the bounty on his head too?" she asked him, once he was patched up a bit. "We should probably go and join the other man. Better to be safe than sorry, and he might get in trouble if Skinner suddenly breaks free from whatever magic he was using."

 

Ozwin was a simple man, some would say too simple. He was simply happy with the outcome of a pretty girl was tending to his wounds while the criminal was caught. Feeling the pain in his leg ease among other less afflicted areas he sighed a bit in relief. "Ah you are truly good fortune miss, that feels markedly better. You have the thanks of Oxwin Ahab."

Ozwin stood up the gave his best leg as he bowed for a moment, which also happened to be the leg she just healed. "Your insight is correct, I thought this man had the makings of a pirate so I thought to stop him before he got to sea to make my own work there safer. Let us be off after him as you suggest then."

Respecting boundaries though he stepped in line with the lioness between him and... and... "Ah miss, if I may, I would love to have the names of you and your pretty kitty you have here. I was a bit shocked at first when I confirmed that I did! I did tee a puddy tat!" Please get the joke and not be an NPC, please get the joke and not be an NPC. Heck, even not get the joke, but still be a player character! Most of the women, and the few men, that he has flirted with in this game so far have turned out to be NPC. Sure he supposed that could be fun in itself but it was making him call into question his identity as a people person that he couldn't tell them apart.

This stayed on his mind as they caught up to Mr. Spooky Pants.

 

_____Reaper was not fully rushing himself, with the person in tow he could not rough him up to much, or wanted to at the time since the better in tact the target maybe the better chance he would be trusted with more jobs to bring people in, the less people like him on the streets the more work for himself he supposed. Reaper was not however, above slamming Willard against a light post to knock him out as the rambling grew into loud shouting until he was knocked out, a faint trail of blood from his head hinted it was a bit hard of a hit.

”Pathetic to get corned after only one time they try to box you in… I sure as hell hope your not a player of the game or you might be seeing a not so kind version of me Mr. Johns.”

_____Reaper was not fully aware the two had been following him until he made his remark and looked back to see them. Shifting slightly before taking a slow turn to lead them to the doorway of the Sunken maiden with the owner standing outside with a pipe recently lighted. Reaper slowly tossed Willard to the man before bowing his head. The Owner looking down and towards the other two with a bit of a stubble expression, no doubt by their attire not exactly fitting for such a job.

”I thank you for bringing this bill skipper back to make sure he pays with interest. If yer ever looking for a quick drink I’ll pay your first round for this deed.”

_____Reaper turned to the other two before moving to pass them without a word, if they simply let him pass he would move his hand to open his UI and cause a bright purple flash behind them as he vanished into the darkness. He was not one for staying after a finished job, it was for the rookies, however as he crouched on the roof and reached into his pocket to get his next target out he grinned lightly.

”Maybe one day our paths will cross again and we might not be standing side by side, Anyways my next target was…”

-Reaper exit-​

 

She was relieved to see that Ozwin, as she now knew his name to be, seemed fine. "I take it you don't like pirates much, then," she commented.

As they walked, she made her own introductions. "My name is Ashiore, but Ash is fine. And this here is Naixi." She gave the lion a pat on the head. She chuckled at Ozwin's reference; though she wasn't quite familiar with it, she did know that it was from some cartoon or the other. "Yes, you did see one."

Naixi seemed rather put out as they walked, and Ash rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. I know you didn't get to do much this time, but you can go hunting whenever you want," she scolded her lion.

They caught up with the other man who was hauling Skinner along soon enough, and found themselves back in the Sunken Maiden. Fortunately, it seemed as though there wasn't any trouble on the way back, and the tavern owner looked to have everything in order. Job done, there wasn't much reason to linger around. The man in black certainly seemed to think so, and he was gone without another word.

Time to get out of Druuk Island, then. The weather was still utterly miserable, and she and Naixi would do better in some sunnier climates. Nodding amicably to Ozwin, Ash left the tavern again and started making way for the port to catch a ferry back to Dunnstads.

(Exiting)

 

Ashiore, Ozwin grinned at the young woman's name. A pretty name for a pretty lady.~ The atmosphere felt enjoyable too as she laughed at his joke. Mhmm it was worth getting up this morning.~

Unfortunately they caught up to spooky pants rather quickly and the mood was rather ruined. Ahh what is up with this guy? I have seen people be a bit shy before but he comes off completely dismissive. Rather he was definitely being dismissive of them, not even an ounce of friendliness. As such it was all Ozwin could do to not celebrate when Spooky Pants made his departure... Unfortunately Ashiore was also departing at this point.

He waved sadly as she left and handed a flask over to the client. "Top this off with something nice to go and you can count that promise repaid for me. I think I will try a sunnier port next." And soon Ozwin left for the docks himself, hoping to either find work or a ship to a port with work to be done.

Ozwin Exits​