To Get Anything Done, Do It Yourself[open,hunters]

[Jocelyn[Spirit]]

A large female tiger sat in the middle of the room, her golden eyes glarring on the front door, her black and orange striped tail flicking and thumping on the floor in clear aggitation. She sat on her haunches, knees arched by her hips, front feet straight and perfectly parallel. Her coat shone in the light, for she kept it in imaculet condition . Besides her tail, she did not move.

Angelique Sharp, Hunter Elder, had been trying to get certain..tasks..accomplished. Apparently, the people she gives the order to, are incompetant. So, she has taken it into her own hands to give the message out herself. To skip the 'messangers' and go right to the doer. She knew this was a meeting place for them, and that they came here often. However she had already been sitting here for 35 minutes, and as another minutes passes, she grows more irritated.

She turned her head once and looked around the room. It seemed to have bene cleared out in the middle for use of the space. The edges of the room had tables and chairs, and even some other old furniture and boat stuff. She grimaced and rolled her eyes, not getting how anyone could work in here. Her eyes flicked to her large round paws. She lifted one, bringing it closer to her face as she saw the dust accumulating on her fine furr. She placed it back down, right in the same spot as it had been before. She hoped to god she didn't have to wait here any longer.

[Fulong|Clara]

After a few moments, a curious scraping noise could be heard from the roof. It started off faint but grew slowly and steadily louder, even as the source of the noise moved steadily off the roof and closer and closer to the room proper. Whatever it was, it seemed to be climbing down the chimney.

Suddenly the soot-covered face of a binturong popped out of the fireplace, its upside-down features mild and unassuming as it surveyed the room. It was clearly nearsighted from the way in which it was squinting, and it took a few moments before it noticed the majestic female tiger seated in the center of the room. Clearly it hadn't expected anyone else to be here, and it started a little, losing its grip and scrabbling for purchase on the rugged brick. There was a faint yelp as it bumped its head none-too-gently on the wood stacked in the fireplace, but it found its grip again quickly enough and wriggled out of the pile, shaking itself briefly and sending plumes of soot and dust into the air.

It eyed the tiger with surprising insolence--clearly it had no idea who the tiger was, nor did it particularly care. Yawning slightly, it shook itself again, trotted to a particularly nice-looking patch of sun by the window, where it shot the tiger one more bored glance before splaying itself out in a particularly undignified manner.

"You can stay," it said offhandedly, "just as long as you don't wake me up."

Within what seemed like seconds, it was asleep.

[Aras|Ofelia]

A grey goose drifted lazily down the river, letting the current carry it, occasionally kicking a webbed foot to avoid a jutting rock. These obstacles seemed like the only things preventing the goose from tucking its head under its wing and taking a nap. Unfortunately, waterfowl did not come with an 'autopilot' function, so it had to stay awake to prevent some potentially painful collisions.

It had been floating for the better part of a half-hour when it reached the boat dock. After a moment's consideration, it struck out for the bank. Giving its feathers a habitual shake as it waded onto dry land, it cocked its head to the side as it surveyed the run-down warehouse. It was usually many meters further back from the shore, but the water level had risen due to the spring thaw; it was just a few meters shy of the river at this time of year.

From where it stood, the goose could tell that the nearest window was propped open. With an air of 'what the heck, why not?' it waddled up to the building and attempted to fly through.

The attempt worked, though the results could hardly be said to be graceful. There was quite a bit of heavy flapping involved, punctuated by an undignified squawk as the edge of a wing hit the frame. Still, the goose managed to squeeze itself through despite the difficulties--

--only to land on something sprawled out before the window.

There was some more ungainly flapping and squawking.

[DesperateDark]

Sometimes, she just has to wonder why the greater talisman gods felt like they must give her a platypus for a talisman. Maybe it was something about her that just had to scream PLATYPUS? Either way, it wasn't the nicest joke to play on a person. Thankfully, the greater talisman gods did have some mercy and, even though she was a female, was gifted with venomous ankle spurs like the males. Or they had just thought she was a male in the first place because of her haircut.

Oh how cruel the greater talisman gods were.

So she was out hunting for breakfast this fine, fine morning. The platypus dove down to the bottom of the lake, searched for shrimp or any other edible little morsels, then came back up for air. After about an hour of diving, she only found about three shrimp and with an exasperated sigh, decided it was time to throw in the towel.

Shooting up to the surface like she usually did, she suddenly found head smashing into a large section of wood that seemed to be jutting over the surface of the water. A few choice words and a near drowning incident later, she swam around it and figured it was a boat dock, with a warehouse to boot.

The spring thaw and showers had raised the water level a fair amount, so the platypus scrambled up onto the dock and headed towards the rickety old building curiously. There seemed to be some squawking noises coming from inside, but being a platypus, was too short to reach the window. Curses.

And there was also another option: the doggy door, which the little mammal noticed after five unsuccessful minutes of trying to jump through the window. Curses. Twice.

With a start, she quickly scrambled through the flap-like door to avoid it closing on her, but instead ran bill-first into a tiger, only faintly noticing the graceless flapping and squawking had come from a goose near the window.

[Fulong|Clara]

The binturong snarled half-heartedly as it was jolted rudely awake, and it reached up and caught the goose with an irritated grunt. It took a few seconds of instinctive gnawing on the unfortunate goose's wing before it realized what it was holding and stopped, setting the goose carefully aside and turning a baleful eye on it.

With a faint "hnrrrrrr" noise, it clambered slowly to another patch of sunlight, this one positioned on top of a dresser, where it promptly dissolved into another puddle of happy fur and fell instantly asleep once more, heedless of the new arrival by the door.

[Jocelyn[Spirit]]

Angelique rolled her eyes at the animal falling out of the fireplace and landed on its bottom. But when it spoke to her, like she had meant nothing, was just another thug, she let out a deep growl, vibrating against the metal walls and concrete floor. Her lip twitched up and down, a natural reaction when a tigress was agitated. But it could not have gotten worse, until a goose came zooming in through the window, and then of course a...thing...came in a doggy door had ran right into her side. She let out a growl puncuated with a hss at the thing. She looked around at the chaos, and the timing that they all had. Were these the people that worked for her? Insolent fools.

Angelique let out a roar to get their attention, and of course to shut them up. She looked around at each of the critters and grimaced. Some fierce warriors they were. She open her maw wide and spoke.
Who are you? I want names, rank if you have one, and purpose.
she said with authority. She of course assumed they knew who she was, although she didn't leave the mansion often, so it was probably a shot in the dark that they did know.
I have a task for you, if you are adequate enough to accept it. Her thick striped tail thumped on the concrete floor impatiently.

[Fulong|Clara]

The binturong's ear tufts went straight back at the roar, but no other part of it moved for a full ten seconds afterward. Then, very slowly, it opened up one bleary, disdainful eye.

"The hell does someone have to do to get some sleep around here?" it said plaintively, raising its head a few inches. "Woss all this crap about names and ranks? This some sort of army or something? I don't like your attitude at all, lady." Its head lowered back onto its paws with a soft fwump noise. "Honestly, people these days...so rude...'s this world coming to, I don't know..."

It trailed off, its eye closing, and for a moment the others might have thought it asleep again, but then it twitched its tail slightly and mumbled, eyes still shut, "Cheung Onji. D'nno about rank, how about colonel? That's a pretty badass rank. And purpose...try and get some effin' sleep in here. Seriously, I find a nice spot for a nap in town and it turns into some war room or something. Hallo." This last directed to the goose and the platypus before it trailed off again, one paw flopping over the edge of the dresser.

[Aras|Ofelia]

When the creature it had landed on caught its wing and began to chew, the goose hissed and pecked at it, beating it with its free wing. A couple of downy feathers flew up to drift among the dust in the air. Only when the creature stopped gnawing did the goose realize what and who it was. It gave the binturong another halfhearted hiss before settling down to preen.

Preoccupied with straightening its feathers, it barely took note of the newcomer arriving through the doggy door. Only when a deep roar rang through the building did the goose deign to look up, clearly irritated with having been interrupted from its all-important task.

"I think you may have busted one of my eardrums." It clearly didn't know who the tiger was, nor did it seem to particularly care. The goose did, however, recognize the new arrival--seriously, how many other platypuses did it know?--and greeted it with a faint "'lo" before returning to its preening.

"Tsai An-qi," it said after a moment, and turned a baleful eye upon the binturong lazing on the dresser. "You messed up my feathers," it told the creature ruefully. "And I wanted colonel."

[DesperateDark]

Once the little platypus was finished spitting out bits of orange and black fur, she was quickly deafened by an ear-splitting roar that rattled the walls of the shack. The mammal flinched, but other then that, continued to try and spit out the tufts of fur that became lodged within her bill. Once all the fur was gone, she looked up at the assortment of animals within the small space.

"Yo," she nodded towards the goose and binturong, recognizing them immediately. Rolling onto her back and gnawing at her own otter-like flipper absent mindedly, she rocked back and forth and said matter-of-factly: "Huynh Bian Ly, and why would you guys want colonel? In Canada, highest rank for the army is General. In Nazi Germany, highest rank is Reichsmarschall des Großdeutschen Reiches, but that's if we're talking about the Wehrmacht. If we want the SS, then we're talking Reichsführer-SS."

The platypus was doing anything but paying attention to the large tiger sitting in the middle of the room, it seemed. She paused, got up, looked around and proceeded to try and jump up on the crate An-Qi the goose was sitting on. Failing that, she settled for sitting down next to it with a very disappointed look on her face.

"Meh, purpose? Looking like something cobbled together by an orphanage of blind, schizophrenic children, that's what. I mean, look at this!" The platypus rolled onto her back once again, waving her flipper in the air. "I am so ridiculous that biologists refused to believe that I was anything but a hoax the first time they saw me! To put this in perspective, these exact same biologists believed that rotting meat spontaneously generated maggots and saw nothing wrong with pouring liquid heroin down babies' throats. Platypi are that ridiculous."

Okay, rant was over. She rolled back onto her four flippers and sat there, staring absently into space until something snapped her out of it.

[Jocelyn[Spirit]]

Angelique's eyes almost popped out of her head at the disrespect. She got right up from her haunches and walked over to the Binturong, she flipped it over on its back and pinned it down, placing a large paw, almost the size of the creature on its chest and roraring right in its face.
I am an Elder, how dare you speak to me like that? What kind of Hunters are you to not know who one of your Elders are!?
With one last growl she released the animal. She looked around, wondering if one of the others needed the same type of...eye opener. She gave a low disgusted hiss and looked around once more.

I am Angelique Sharpe. Elder of the Hunters, and your boss. For this of you who didnt know. As for purpose, I clearly ment misison. Have you, any of you, been given a job to do? Obviously no ranks.

She let her bottom slowly sink down to the ground and her tail continued to flick in irritation. She lifted her paw and began licking and cleaning it, trying to decrease her anger and to calm down, so she didn't kill any of them and loose 'men'. Although this bunch looks like they wouldnt be missed.

[Fulong|Clara]

Onji's eyes widened slightly as she was flipped over, but they quickly narrowed again as the tiger roared in her face. Not even a trace of intimidation showed on her face, and she remained calm as she picked herself back up again. For a moment it looked as if she would respond to Angelique, but then she raised one paw to smooth the fur on her chest and eyed the platypus with clear disapproval.

"Colonel," she said patiently, if still in the same half-asleep drawl, "is the highest military rank deployable in the field in virtually all armies. It's an unwritten rule that all colonels are automatically badass. Who wants to be a general when all you get to do is push a pen around all day? I don't care how many stars I got, I'd trade 'em all in for colonel in a heartbeat. I'd elaborate, but you've already lost the debate by invoking Godwin's Law. Reductio ad Hitlerum. Ich schließe mein Plädoyer ab, you might say."

The look of disapproval only intensified as she turned back to the tiger, this time deigning to sit upright. Her tail began to swish back and forth in time with Angelique's, though whether it was out of instinct or intentional mockery was difficult to tell. It was a moment before she spoke, her voice still drawling slightly despite the fact that there was no real malice in her tone.

"The three of us are new in town, if you can't tell. Elder you may be, but you're only Elder of this particular piece-of-crap town, and if you can't even keep track of which Hunters are under your control, and which are just passing through, I can't say I think very much of your organizational abilities. The Elders in Toronto were much more...professional, shall we say."

She smiled then, an expression that looked not a little out of place on a binturong. "A very wise man once said, 'An enlightened ruler does not worry about his people not knowing him; he worries about not knowing his people.' You might want to take a page out of his book."

[Aras|Ofelia]

An-qi raised her head long enough to catch the spectacle of the bug-eyed tiger, which was quite an entertaining sight. It didn't take much to ruffle this woman's feathers, so to speak--further proved when the tiger strutted up to the binturong and pinned it to the ground, screaming in its face. An-qi felt bad for her friend; carnivore breath was highly unpleasant, no doubt.

Whatever the tiger was saying was lost to her (though was no chore to guess what the outburst was about) simply because it was so damn loud that her ears rang with a continuous buzz that made discerning individual words nigh-impossible. The goose's irritated hiss was lost among the roaring, and it shoved its head under its wing to grant its ears some sort of protection.

Only when the infernal roaring stopped did An-qi lift her head again, glaring rather ruefully at the tiger. She noted with not a small amount of satisfaction that On-ji, casually smoothing out her fur, barely even looked fazed and proceeded to lecture the platypus on the merits of colonel. When the binturong began to lecture the tiger, An-qi looked as smug as her beak could allow her to.

"Look, woman, we just arrived in this backwater cluster of buildings you call a town. Barely even know where the grocery store is. And you, as an Elder--" the title was uttered in a surprisingly flippant tone-- "should very well know whether we've been given jobs or not."

[DesperateDark]

The platypus didn't notice the binturong's disapproving look until she spoke, only then snapping out of her spacey daydream. "Aish," the little mammal shook her head. "You win again, On-Ji. I owe you a twenty or a free night at Oceana, take your pick." Another shake of her head. "This, you see, is the difference between attending an actual university verses going to an art school."

And then, almost dramatically, the platypus' head whipped around to look at the tiger whom identified herself as Angelique Sharpe. Being youngest of the three mismatched animals in the shack, she patiently awaited her turn to speak after the binturong and the goose had their turns. When it came around to her, she had already flipped onto her back and was rocking back and forth.

"This is a town? No shit, really?" The platypus gnawed on her flipper for another moment before speaking up once again. "For a minute there I thought you guys were going urban! Has anyone ever actually caught an Innocent in this town before? Other then accidently?"

"Tsk tsk, such incompetence!" She clicked her tongue in her bill the best she could, rolled over onto her belly and began to waddle circles around the large feline. "Being Elder, you should know who comes and goes from your brood of Hunters, tsk tsk." More clicks before she went back over to the same spot she had been moments before. "And what do you mean 'job'? Do I look like the sort of platypus who could handle hard labour!?"

[Jocelyn[Spirit]]

Angelique sat there, eyes closed, tail twitching, trying not to loose her temper. Afterall they were right, no matter who rude they were when thy said it. She had always been the boss of the boss. She told them what to do, and then they told the Hunters lower then them to do it. so she never really had direct contact with all the Hunters that actually carry out her orders.
I...apologize. I let my temper get to me. How can I be of assistance to help you get more comfortable in this town?
Angelique had to bite her tong to try to be polite. They obviously didn't know anything about respect for their Elders in this town.

She let her body transform, the fur disappear, tail shrinking, and legs shifting. She soon stood before them an older, classy dressed woman with white grey hair. Yet her face looked younger. She pulled her sunglasses up and placed them in her hair.
I would like to hire you all. After we get aquinted, that is.
She walked over to a winder and leaned against the window pane, after wiping it free of dust. She crossed her legs over at the ankles , pulled her glasses off her head and placed one end in her mouth to lightly chew.

[Fulong|Clara]

The binturong looped her tail around the corner of the dresser and hauled herself back onto it, transforming with surprising speed into a bespectacled young woman wearing a turtleneck, jeans, and an obscenely colorful scarf patterned with happy frogs. She sat cross-legged on the dresser, tilting her head slightly at the woman.

"Apology accepted," she said, her voice a little clearer and vaguely more professional than it had been before. "For starters, I'd like to know the situation. Number of Hunters versus number of Innocents, popular opinion in town of the goings-on--I can't imagine anyone's been exactly subtle when it comes to turf wars, and there's got to be some people who haven't got talismans in town. I want to know how you organize your ranks, how you carry out missions, if there are any notable Innocents or Undecideds to look out for in town. And I want to discuss payment up front. I don't work for free, and my friends don't either."

She sneezed briefly, yanking out a tissue, as she continued, "More importantly, Tsai's right. Where the hell is the grocery store?"