- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] All right.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] All right.
The Ballad of Aldo Atticus
Bromeliad
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
- Location
- NYC
Latto stands up."All right."
"All right." Paldo nods toward Adasi, who pads over to his table, pulls a slick black waxed cotton satchel from under it, and starts gathering the pieces of repeating rifle.
"He'll be with us." Paldo heads for the stairs up to the rooms. "Follow me, Beetle."
Upstairs, in his sparse, dimly lit rented cell, Paldo stretches out on a clay kang bed and puffs on a pipe full of foul-smelling herb.
There's a thin blanket across the floor where Latto assumes Adasi sleeps.
"Bad business, Aldo Atticus must keep," Paldo muses. "Attract this kinda company."
Latto folds his arms. "Don't know the man."
Adasi enters silently behind him and stands next to the kang, arms loose and sinewy at his sides.
"Lemme tell you a story, Beetle man." Paldo inhales deeply and closes his eyes. "The Ballad of Aldo Atticus."
"Didn't come up here for a story."
Paldo rolls one eye open and looks at Latto with a sleepy bemusement. "Well reckon you'd want to know more about the man with the gun."
"Yes Yes Yes!"
"Fine," Latto says.
"Aldo Atticus." Paldo's chin dips to his chest. "Just about the meanest, most rotten sheriff you'll come across on the steppes. For years now he's ground most of Chatterly into fine grain under his boot. Ain't surprising that just about everyone in his precinct wants him dead. Now Aldo was a Deputy once, up in Turilla. Second fiddle most all his life to Old Roundhead, most famous shot in the Tuli Steppes. Ain't easy to grow when you're in a shadow like that. Things often come up twisted. For Aldo the twist was the drink. Folk said he must have been half fish, way he packed the booze back. Roundhead tolerated it, long as Aldo wasn't afraid to crack heads for him.
"Now when Roundhead died Aldo lost just about the only friend he'd had in the world. He tried drinking himself to death but that took more money and commitment than he'd bartered on. One night on a bender he went and broke into his boss' old tomb, grabbed the revolver he'd been buried with. Some kinda Boleri tradition.
"Damn thing turned his life around. All of a sudden here's Aldo Atticus, sheriff of Turilla, true successor to Rondo Hadiei's legacy. That gun did something. Made him feel invincible. He cleaned up, put the bottle down, got him a wife, got her with child, fancied himself the kind of sheriff Roundhead woulda wanted. Cleaned the streets, right down to the gutters. Everyone knew Roundhead knew he was an uncompromising man. Saw things monochrome. Aldo made it his goal to outpace him. Well the city had festered in the time he was a drunk so he had a lot of catching up to do. For a time in Turilla there had a hanging near every Sunday. Built up an extra gallows just to keep the crooks swinging.
"Then Aldo got it in his head to go after Barson Dowels. You hearda him?"
Latto shakes his head.
"Damn, beetle." Paldo raises his eyebrows, lids still closed. "You really are a stranger in a strange land, ain't you? Barson Dowels is just about the meanest, richest son of a bitch on the Steppes. Runs about a half dozen of the biggest paddy fields in the marshes, got a mine in his name up north supplies most every nail that made this building. And as crooked as a dog's hind leg, as all rich folk are. He was just more obvious about it.
"Roundhead he was a cold lawman but he was a smart lawman. Knew to let folks like Dowels well enough alone. They had an Understanding. Aldo, now, he'd come up too quick. Too meteoric. He was the righteous hand of justice, and the hand was full of Roundhead's Own Thunder. He let it be known across Turilla he was bringing old Barson to justice."
Paldo shakes his head. "Bad idea."
Adasi shakes their own head in faint imitation.
"Shook out about how you'd expect," Paldo says. "Barson rode in with a dozen men, and Aldo met em right in town square, high noon, just like to stories. But he hadn't learned: just because you got the gun it don't make you the man. Barson's men beat Aldo bloody, then set his pretty new house alight and his pretty new wife and pretty new child inside with it.
"Broke Aldo deeper than Roundhead's passage ever did. He left Turilla alone and drifted his way like a shadow here to Chatterly. Been haunting the place ever since. Back on the bottle, you best believe it. He fell so hard he don't even have his code, now, and the memory of being a god with an iron has feathered his trigger something awful. Doesn't do much to bring in the lawbreakers around here, but look at him funny on the street and he'll have you strung up and fed to the vultures when he's done.
"And now here I am." Paldo removes the pipe and taps the ash onto the floor. "And you may ask yourself why."
Latto shrugs.
"Aldo Atticus has taken out a contract on Barson Dowels," Paldo says. "He'll empty Chatterly's coffers for the one who brings him his head. Barson Dowels, having heard his old pal Aldo ain't learned his lesson, has returned the favor. He'll pay about as much for whoever brings him Aldo, alive or dead. And me I gone and double-booked myself. I figure whoever I cross won't be around to give me a harsh performance review when I'm done. Now if you're here asking about Aldo and his gun, and you're the hard kind of man I take you for, I can see a few ways we can come outta this situation to our mutual benefit."
[] "If I help you bring Barson to Aldo, think he'll pay my share of the bounty with his pistol?"
[] "If I help you kill Aldo Atticus for Barson, will you give me his gun when you're done?
[] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
[] "I ain't helping you get your blood money, bounty hunter."
[] Cast a spell:
[] Write-in
"All right." Paldo nods toward Adasi, who pads over to his table, pulls a slick black waxed cotton satchel from under it, and starts gathering the pieces of repeating rifle.
"He'll be with us." Paldo heads for the stairs up to the rooms. "Follow me, Beetle."
Upstairs, in his sparse, dimly lit rented cell, Paldo stretches out on a clay kang bed and puffs on a pipe full of foul-smelling herb.
There's a thin blanket across the floor where Latto assumes Adasi sleeps.
"Bad business, Aldo Atticus must keep," Paldo muses. "Attract this kinda company."
Latto folds his arms. "Don't know the man."
Adasi enters silently behind him and stands next to the kang, arms loose and sinewy at his sides.
"Lemme tell you a story, Beetle man." Paldo inhales deeply and closes his eyes. "The Ballad of Aldo Atticus."
"Didn't come up here for a story."
Paldo rolls one eye open and looks at Latto with a sleepy bemusement. "Well reckon you'd want to know more about the man with the gun."
"Yes Yes Yes!""Fine," Latto says.
"Aldo Atticus." Paldo's chin dips to his chest. "Just about the meanest, most rotten sheriff you'll come across on the steppes. For years now he's ground most of Chatterly into fine grain under his boot. Ain't surprising that just about everyone in his precinct wants him dead. Now Aldo was a Deputy once, up in Turilla. Second fiddle most all his life to Old Roundhead, most famous shot in the Tuli Steppes. Ain't easy to grow when you're in a shadow like that. Things often come up twisted. For Aldo the twist was the drink. Folk said he must have been half fish, way he packed the booze back. Roundhead tolerated it, long as Aldo wasn't afraid to crack heads for him.
"Now when Roundhead died Aldo lost just about the only friend he'd had in the world. He tried drinking himself to death but that took more money and commitment than he'd bartered on. One night on a bender he went and broke into his boss' old tomb, grabbed the revolver he'd been buried with. Some kinda Boleri tradition.
"Damn thing turned his life around. All of a sudden here's Aldo Atticus, sheriff of Turilla, true successor to Rondo Hadiei's legacy. That gun did something. Made him feel invincible. He cleaned up, put the bottle down, got him a wife, got her with child, fancied himself the kind of sheriff Roundhead woulda wanted. Cleaned the streets, right down to the gutters. Everyone knew Roundhead knew he was an uncompromising man. Saw things monochrome. Aldo made it his goal to outpace him. Well the city had festered in the time he was a drunk so he had a lot of catching up to do. For a time in Turilla there had a hanging near every Sunday. Built up an extra gallows just to keep the crooks swinging."Then Aldo got it in his head to go after Barson Dowels. You hearda him?"
Latto shakes his head.
"Damn, beetle." Paldo raises his eyebrows, lids still closed. "You really are a stranger in a strange land, ain't you? Barson Dowels is just about the meanest, richest son of a bitch on the Steppes. Runs about a half dozen of the biggest paddy fields in the marshes, got a mine in his name up north supplies most every nail that made this building. And as crooked as a dog's hind leg, as all rich folk are. He was just more obvious about it.
"Roundhead he was a cold lawman but he was a smart lawman. Knew to let folks like Dowels well enough alone. They had an Understanding. Aldo, now, he'd come up too quick. Too meteoric. He was the righteous hand of justice, and the hand was full of Roundhead's Own Thunder. He let it be known across Turilla he was bringing old Barson to justice."
Paldo shakes his head. "Bad idea."
Adasi shakes their own head in faint imitation.
"Shook out about how you'd expect," Paldo says. "Barson rode in with a dozen men, and Aldo met em right in town square, high noon, just like to stories. But he hadn't learned: just because you got the gun it don't make you the man. Barson's men beat Aldo bloody, then set his pretty new house alight and his pretty new wife and pretty new child inside with it.
"Broke Aldo deeper than Roundhead's passage ever did. He left Turilla alone and drifted his way like a shadow here to Chatterly. Been haunting the place ever since. Back on the bottle, you best believe it. He fell so hard he don't even have his code, now, and the memory of being a god with an iron has feathered his trigger something awful. Doesn't do much to bring in the lawbreakers around here, but look at him funny on the street and he'll have you strung up and fed to the vultures when he's done.
"And now here I am." Paldo removes the pipe and taps the ash onto the floor. "And you may ask yourself why."
Latto shrugs.
"Aldo Atticus has taken out a contract on Barson Dowels," Paldo says. "He'll empty Chatterly's coffers for the one who brings him his head. Barson Dowels, having heard his old pal Aldo ain't learned his lesson, has returned the favor. He'll pay about as much for whoever brings him Aldo, alive or dead. And me I gone and double-booked myself. I figure whoever I cross won't be around to give me a harsh performance review when I'm done. Now if you're here asking about Aldo and his gun, and you're the hard kind of man I take you for, I can see a few ways we can come outta this situation to our mutual benefit."
[] "If I help you bring Barson to Aldo, think he'll pay my share of the bounty with his pistol?"
[] "If I help you kill Aldo Atticus for Barson, will you give me his gun when you're done?
[] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
[] "I ain't helping you get your blood money, bounty hunter."
[] Cast a spell:
[] Write-in
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- Location
- Pasadena
[x] "If I help you bring Barson to Aldo, think he'll pay my share of the bounty with his pistol?"
- Location
- Brazil
[X] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
[X] "If I help you kill Aldo Atticus for Barson, will you give me his gun when you're done?"
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
[X] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
- Location
- Pasadena
So, are we killing both of them?
[X] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
- Location
- new jersey
number 1. taking the head off the nest of serpents will do some good.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] "If I help you kill Aldo Atticus for Barson, will you give me his gun when you're done?"
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
I like this. I also find it amusing how bloody and amoral the story is. And I wanna recreate that scene from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Kill 'em both.
I like this. I also find it amusing how bloody and amoral the story is. And I wanna recreate that scene from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Kill 'em both.
- Location
- The Usual Room
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] "Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone, here. The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
Crossed Bounties
Bromeliad
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
- Location
- NYC
"Sounds like there's an opportunity to kill two bastards with one stone," Latto says. "The death of one will bring us within range of the other."
"Suppose it might, Beetle." Paldo puffs contemplatively. "Suppose it might."
"Here's my only stickin' point with that plan, there:
"We got Aldo Atticus all holed up in his pretty office surrounded by his deputies. We got Barson Dowels all holed up in his pretty Steppe House surrounded by his hired guns. Two targets and neither of 'em soft, and I don't relish killing. I do it for coin. I go after two men I'd want the bounty for two men. And I can't cash nothing into a dead employer. You want my help to kill 'em both we need to see how I can go about collecting for them both."
[] Write-In
[] "I'll sleep on that. Let you know come morning what I've come up with."
[] "Suppose we ought to just go for one or the other, then."
[] "Never said I was looking for your help, Bounty Hunter."
[] "You want my advice you'll take your business elsewhere. Neither of those men'll be standing by the time I'm through."
"Suppose it might, Beetle." Paldo puffs contemplatively. "Suppose it might."
"Here's my only stickin' point with that plan, there:
"We got Aldo Atticus all holed up in his pretty office surrounded by his deputies. We got Barson Dowels all holed up in his pretty Steppe House surrounded by his hired guns. Two targets and neither of 'em soft, and I don't relish killing. I do it for coin. I go after two men I'd want the bounty for two men. And I can't cash nothing into a dead employer. You want my help to kill 'em both we need to see how I can go about collecting for them both."
[] Write-In
[] "I'll sleep on that. Let you know come morning what I've come up with."
[] "Suppose we ought to just go for one or the other, then."
[] "Never said I was looking for your help, Bounty Hunter."
[] "You want my advice you'll take your business elsewhere. Neither of those men'll be standing by the time I'm through."
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] write in: think what we know about collecting bounties/ask this guy exactly what he needs to collect.