I kind of want to get into the Curiosity House at night so that we can play with all the stuff there without getting kicked out. Having thought about it a bit though, it's possible that Calixto might show up at some point, which is nice because we would get to be accidentally heroic when we pop his head off, but if we've got others with us then they might get sneak attacked, and I don't know how well they can handle getting stabbed in the back. Thing is, though, where's the fun in going to a place like that alone?

The ideal night in my mind is:
-Go to Aventus's and scare the shit out of chat with an assassin.
-Lutecia doesn't get murdered in the process.
-Break into the Calixto's Curiosity House and play with his exhibits.
-Calixto comes home and stabs us in the face while laughing like a super villain. We beat him to death with Ysgramor's Soup Spoon.
-Lutecia doesn't get murdered in the process.
-We loot the place and find a parasol made from Mehrunes Dagon's toe (harvested after the Oblivion crisis).
-The city later finds evidence that Calixto is the Butcher while investigating his murder, and holds a festival to honour the brave, selfless soul who risked their life to stop this heinous monster.

So, how would I word that as a vote?

That sounds more like you want to write an omake.
 
My vote may cover that first part. Re: Assassins and not being murdered by such.
 
The Self-Guided Tour
That sounds more like you want to write an omake.

[⎯⎯∈] Take the self-guided tour


"Hey look, I'm deceptively powerful but ultimately not particularly helpful," you say as you don the so-called 'Grey Beard's Beard.' The notation stresses that it isn't the beard of a Greybeard, but rather a vestigial beard that grew from another, greyer, beard.

"Oh, wise and smelly one, mayhaps you will grant me use of your mountaintop hobo shack, that I may better reach out to the stars." Neither of you are sure how the large, wooden club that Lutecia is heaving about is supposed to work as a 'Prototype Astronautic Propulsion Device', but that doesn't mean you can't both have a good giggle about it.

Your revelries are cut short, however, at the sound of a rattling doorknob.

"Oh snap, it's the fuzz! Quick, act natural," you cry as you dive for one of the display stands and put on your best crotchety, old wino pose. Lutecia drops to the floor and throws a 'Baby Gargantuan Snowcat' pelt over herself.

"Muahaha, I return, dear collection, from yet another night of dastardly deeds. Soon I will have my sweet sister back, and we can all be together again," a man, fresh from his job at the local abattoir, based on the voice and smell, announces to the room. "That's right, old comrades," he says as he skips over to a shelf littered with metal hooks and calipers. "With each passing night and each passing soul I feel my goal move closer."

He executes a flawless 720° pirouette which places him in front of a plain wooden pipe, which he picks up and nuzzles against his cheek. "Ah yes, faithful companion, I miss her too, but our long wait is almost over." He lays the flute back down with the love and tenderness one would afford a newborn babe. "And you, my newest friends," he hops through the air and lands on a single toe, one leg supporting him and the other held out straight behind him, "I can't wait to introduce you to…" He trails off and his eyes bug at the empty bowls whose contents were now part of a lovely, glowing mural you painted on the kitchen wall. He takes several deep before walking calmly to a set of rusty silverware which he begins slowly stroking.

"Dear, oh, dear, what do we have here? It seems as if some inconsiderate snooper has been poking their nose where it doesn't belong." Almost faster than you can register, he spins, his hand flicks, and a large portion of your vision goes black. You shriek in shock and outrage as your hands move to pull the small shaft jutting from your ruined eye. With grit teeth and a savage grunt you tear the object free and hold it up to inspect it.

A fork. This imminent floor-stain of a man just brutalised you with a fork.

"Flandre!" Lutecia is up, a spell readying in her hands.

"Stay back, Lutecia." You consider drawing Laevateinn to deal with him, but decide against it. No, scum like this doesn't deserve such dignity. You prepare the fork in a guard position and focus as much hatred and rage as you can through a single-eyed glare. "He's mine."

"Ah, confident, are we? Well then," there is a flash and then he's holding a large, curved knife, visibly stained from excessive use, "I see no harm in humouring you."

You have time to see a smile split his face and then he's on you, using his superior reach to slash wildly from beyond your effective range. You manage to deflect his attacks, but aren't able to get any of our own through his assault. He draws back for a heavy blow and you take the opportunity to lunge at him, however the moment you plant your weight on one foot, his leg snaps out and kicks it out from under you. You raise your weapon to intercept his counterattack, but he once again proves his skill with a knife by swapping it to his other hand and raking it across your ribs on your blind side. You feel warmth flowing down your side and tally up yet another destroyed outfit.

"Ho ho, I don't know how you found out that I am the Butcher, little detective, but it seems you make a better gumshoe than you do a champion. You need not fear that your efforts will be for nothing, though; You and your friend will make for welcome subjects in my experiments." You can tell he's trying to rile you up with whatever nonsense he's spouting, and it is working, but that doesn't mean you can't use it to your advantage.

You let out a wordless snarl and leap forward. He smirks, thinking he's made you blunder into a fatal error, as he once again goes for your blind side. You're ready for it this time, though. You deflect his strike, sending sparks inexplicably flying from the contact, and allow the force to lift and carry you across the room. You plant your feet on the wall and feel the world hang for just a moment before launching yourself off and rocketing towards him. To his credit, he is able to raise his weapon and position it in the path of your good eye, but you're a ballistic vampire with a four pronged warhead, and whatever gods run this place decide that that his luck stat just isn't high enough to deal with that.

You catch his blade of his weapon in between the tines of your own and turn it aside as you introduce your fist to his nose. There is a delightful crunching noise that is accompanied by him rolling bottom over brow across the floor and into a twisted heap against the far wall.

"Heh, whose shoes are full of gum now, huh?" you declare victoriously. Suddenly, the self-processed Butcher's body becomes inflamed with golden light, causing you to hiss and shield your eye from the irritating glow.

"Yes, I'll admit that you are more formidable than you first appear," his mashed face says from a decidedly unhealthy looking angle. "But, then again," his head then rolls back into place of its own accord, "I've got some tricks of my own." You watch in fascination as his body pulls itself up like a limp puppet, broken bones audible straightening and resetting. The brilliant glow is then replaced by a dark purple and the scent of rotted meat fills the air. Lifting itself from a portal in the floor is a monster that looks like it was stitched together from the cadavers of various people and creatures, and you feel your jaw drop. Patchouli would no doubt be mortified at the sheer disorder the thing's form exemplifies.

You are still staring at it in disbelief when it rears its arm back and-

"Fus ro DIE!"

Lutecia brings the improbably large club down on the golem and pulverises it flat into the floorboards and then some distance further. If you were stunned before then you're outright flabbergasted now. The Butcher seems to share in your state and is standing limp-shouldered and dumbfounded by the cloud of pink mist that Lutecia's attack left behind.

"What? I thought this just became a two-versus-two. Did I mess up?"

"N-no, Lutecia. That was very good." You turn to face the Butcher but can't help giving Lutecia one more glance over your shoulder. "Remind me to invite you to the next zombie uprising, okay?"



The two of you skip merrily back to the inn together, too high in spirit to be bothered by the dark or cold. Lutecia was sadly forced to leave her club behind, as it was just too large and ungainly to carry around, but you are very pleased with your souvenir of the night's events.

"So, that was a pretty eye opening experience, wouldn't you say, Lutecia?" You brandish your fork's new accessory at her. "Hey, did you see what I did there?" you struggle to say through your giggles.

"Yes, I get it, now get that gross thing away from me." For a girl who just no doubt set a new world record in grinding meat patties, she was getting awfully green in the face about it. "Urgh, you know that 'eye for an eye' is supposed to be figurative, right?"
 
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Votes are not locked.
[X] Take Lutecia to the House of Curiosities.
- [X] Tomorrow, if you have time and weather permits.
1

[x] Skip to leaving Windhelm
1

[X] Take Lutecia to the House of Curiosities.
- [X] Right now. Break in if necessary.
1

[X] Take Lutecia to the House of Curiosities.
- [X] Right now. Break in if necessary.
--[X] Get directions from Agito/Lutecia.
1

[X] Trying to contact Assassins to kill someone? How? Might be worth killing some time to look at.
-[X] Lutecia might get into trouble if said Assassins do appear in the house, you should go now.
--[X] Get directions from Agito/Lutecia to the child's house.
1
I don't know when I'll lock the votes, but it'll be at least several hours from now.
 
Step one of The Plan is to try meet an assassin, so this will do for now.

[X] Trying to contact Assassins to kill someone? How? Might be worth killing some time to look at.
-[X] Lutecia might get into trouble if said Assassins do appear in the house, you should go now.
--[X] Get directions from Agito/Lutecia to the child's house.
 
[X] Trying to contact Assassins to kill someone? How? Might be worth killing some time to look at.
-[X] Lutecia might get into trouble if said Assassins do appear in the house, you should go now.
--[X] Get directions from Agito/Lutecia to the child's house.
 
Okay, locking votes.
[X] Take Lutecia to the House of Curiosities.
- [X] Tomorrow, if you have time and weather permits.
1

[x] Skip to leaving Windhelm
1

[X] Take Lutecia to the House of Curiosities.
- [X] Right now. Break in if necessary.
1

[X] Trying to contact Assassins to kill someone? How? Might be worth killing some time to look at.
-[X] Lutecia might get into trouble if said Assassins do appear in the house, you should go now.
--[X] Get directions from Agito/Lutecia to the child's house.
3
 
Innocence Lost
[X] Trying to contact Assassins to kill someone? How? Might be worth killing some time to look at.
- [X] Lutecia might get into trouble if said Assassins do appear in the house, you should go now.
- - [X] Get directions from Agito/Lutecia to the child's house.


You stare at the ceiling for a few more minutes, thinking. How would a child go about contacting a group of assassins? Obviously he didn't do a good job keeping himself concealed if he was recaptured, but maybe whatever method he used to reach them is better hidden. You don't have much use for assassins, of course - if you want someone dead, you're perfectly capable of doing it yourself, and here particularly they aren't very useful, because you won't be here long enough to need their services. And Lutecia is going to see if the connection is still there, which means she might run into them, and they'll know she isn't their prospective employer, which means she's possibly in danger.

You frown. Lutecia is a wonderful mage, and she has Garyuu with her. Of course, he's not Meiling, but he's far above any normal human …. You shake your head. That doesn't matter. You made a promise, and that means you have to make sure Lutecia is safe. She's your responsibility, and you haven't had many of those. You're not going to let anything happen to her if you can possibly help it. You lever yourself upright and look over at Agito. She's hiding her worry well - she doesn't even seem bothered about Lutecia wandering around - and turns back to you as you clear your throat.

"You know where this kid's house is, right? The one he's contacting the assassins from?" She stares at you for a moment, then sighs and shakes her head.

"Look, I know Garyuu's not quite on your level, but nothing we've seen so far can fight him, and the people we've come across probably couldn't take Lutecia if she wanted to fight them. Even that mage you came across in the palace doesn't seem like much, especially since he apparently needs to chant to use his spells. She'll be fine." You blink, then shake your head.

"No, no! I'm sure she'll be fine, too, but I wanted to see the setup. I mean, it's useful, knowing how to contact assassins - it'll probably be fairly similar in other cities, unless the locals are really weird. There might be specifics to the communication that change, but the general setup should be pretty similar, and I want to see that." She stares at you some more, head slightly tilted to the side, then sighs again and leans back in her chair. "I'll be really quiet - Lutecia won't even know I'm there!" She glances at you from the corner of her eye before shaking her head.

"Okay, if you head east from the gate we came in, you run into a residential area. Streets are pretty crummy, but eventually there'll be a sort of bridge wall thing, with a few houses on it. The kid's house is the middle one, and it goes over the road, like a gate." You smile and rush over to give her a hug.

"Thank you! I'll be back soon!" You throw your cloak on and slip out of the room. You're pretty sure you know where that house is. At least, you'll be able to find it pretty quickly, and then you'll be able to make sure Lutecia is safe. You smile at the counter-woman and take a deep breath as you step outside - it's nice and cold, and quite dark, though not full night yet. You look around, making sure the coast is clear, and dart forward to one of the interior walls, away from the few torches that are burning, before leaping into the air and flying up over the city. It's a little uncomfortable with the cloak on, though, so you spend a few seconds slipping out of it and putting it away. You roll your shoulders and fly into the city, heading east.

You see the house - it really is rather distinctive, you suppose - and plummet to the roof, turning invisible and hovering just before you hit it. You slip down to the road after briefly inspecting the rest of the house, as the windows are all locked. So is the only door … you must have beaten Lutecia here. You consider waiting for her, but if someone is waiting inside, you should find them before she gets here, and if they wait until someone gets here, you'll have a good spot to ambush them from, if Lutecia needs it. But how to get in without leaving a noticeable display? After a few more minutes of searching the exterior, you transform into your bat form and fly down a small chimney. It's filthy, but that's not a problem, and you change back once you're inside. You take in the empty room with a glance and proceed to explore the house, searching for evidence of life and whatever setup the kid was using to try and contact the assassins. It doesn't take long, and you find … nothing. One of the back rooms has an odd smell - blood and something else, all covered with a much sweeter scent - but nothing that you can think would allow someone to communicate with someone else, and no one else is in the house. You shrug and head to the entrance to wait for Lutecia's arrival. And wait. Twenty minutes pass and your worry explodes.

You retrace your steps to get out of the house, then throw out your clones and have them search for Lutecia. They tear through the streets, darting this way and that, and when they finish sweeping the general area you loop them around into the other areas nearby. She might have gotten lost, or wasn't paying attention to where she was going …. You start to panic, and after an even more frenzied double-check and triple-check by your clones fails to reveal the missing magician, you dismiss them and blitz to the inn, only barely remembering to pull your cloak on before rushing inside. The woman behind the counter gives you an odd look as you push past the people in your way, and you hurry into your room, slamming the door behind you. Agito looks up from her journal, one eyebrow raised.

"Something the matter?" She can't be that oblivious, can she?

"Lutecia's missing! I went to the house, and looked through it, but she never showed up, and I went and looked for her and couldn't find her, and I don't know where she is!" She sighs and shakes her head.

"I'm sure she's fine - you probably just missed her in one of the streets." Your eyes widen as she dismisses your worry and turns back to the table. Snarling fiercely, you lunge forward and catch her by the throat, slamming her against the wall.

"Lutecia is missing! Don't you care? You -!" Your hand shakes as you choke the fairy, and she claws desperately at your arm, kicking feebly.

"I! I don't - know -!" You snarl again and your grip tightens minutely.


What do you do?

[ ] Kill Agito - if she doesn't know and doesn't care, she doesn't deserve to live.
- [ ] Rip the town apart until you find Lutecia.
- [ ] Find the child and make him explain how to get into contact with the assassins.
- [ ] Start killing people until you find Lutecia.

[ ] Let Agito live.
- [ ] Drag her to Ulfric and make him help you find her.
- [ ] Rip the town apart until you find Lutecia.
- [ ] Have her make the child explain how to get into contact with the assassins.
- [ ] Maybe … everything really is fine? Wait until Lutecia comes back.
- - [ ] Get upset when she comes back.
- - [ ] Act like nothing happened when she comes back.
- - [ ] Freak out when she comes back.
- - [ ] Sulk when she comes back.
 
[ ] Kill Agito. Kill the kid and his stupid house. Start killing random people and burning the city down. Find out that Lu ate something that disagreed with her and she's been on the toilet all night, too embarrassed to admit it. Consider writing it as another omake. Chicken out when you realise that your muse would demand that you think up proper onomatopoeias for the bathroom scene.
 
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[x] Let Agito live.
- [x] Maybe … everything really is fine? Wait until Lutecia comes back.
- - [x] Sulk when she comes back.

Man, this is why I don't like going for super paranoid choices. Flan often reflects the kinds of decisions we pick for her to go for, and the last thing we need is a paranoid Flandre Scarlet.
 
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[] Let Agito live.
- [] Have her make the child explain how to get into contact with the assassins.
-- [] If that doesn't work then, Rip the town apart until you find Lutecia.

This is what I'm leaning towards. Thoughts?

Cos Lutecia likes Agito and wouldn't be happy if we killed her. Plus she could be useful and we might need her later.
 
[X] Let Agito live.
- [X] Maybe … everything really is fine? Wait until Lutecia comes back.
- - [X] Get upset when she comes back.
Middle of the road response.
 
I'd argue that sulking and generally moping would be more appropriate. Especially if Flan realizes how bad she's overreacting.
 
[x] Let Agito live.
- [x] Maybe … everything really is fine? Wait until Lutecia comes back.
- - [x] Sulk when she comes back.
 
My thoughts on what could have happened, taking into consideration that we haven't been able to contact her:

-Nothing. She's just got lost and Flan either forgot to try contact her through telepathy or she has some legitimate reason for not responding.
-Slipped on the ice and bumped her head. Currently being cared for by a kindly, old couple who are in for quite a surprise when Flan shows up in no mood for explanations.
-Sneak attacked by the Butcher.
-Sneak attacked by one of the Brotherhood.
-Arrested for breaking and entering. Denied her one telepathic phone call.
-Found Aventus's assassination request and is currently on her way to Riften to fulfil her life's dream of becoming a hired killer.

Indiscriminate murder doesn't really help with any of these, so getting Ulfric to organise a search or just sitting and sulking seem to be the good options. I suppose there's also no harm in talking to Aventus, assuming there's no guards around to hear us asking about murder rituals.
 
[X] Let Agito live.
-[X] Have her check on Lutecia with telepathy.
- - [X] Freak out (tears and clinginess) when she comes back.
 
Votes are not locked.
[x] Let Agito live.
- [x] Maybe … everything really is fine? Wait until Lutecia comes back.
- - [x] Sulk when she comes back.
2

[X] Let Agito live.
- [X] Maybe … everything really is fine? Wait until Lutecia comes back.
- - [X] Get upset when she comes back.
1

[X] Let Agito live.
-[X] Have her check on Lutecia with telepathy.
1

[X] Let Agito live.
-[X] Have her check on Lutecia with telepathy.
- - [X] Freak out (tears and clinginess) when she comes back.
1
 
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