not_the_last | IC Inbox

[Oh, hey, unknown cabin occupant apparently now in possession of Rita's magicked magnet! As soon as she realized the tracked trinket had moved, Rita was off, following the magic that led her...here.

Ha! She's finally about to give the real prankster a piece of her mind! She cracks her knuckles, and then...

BAM BAM BAM

...loudly pounds on Cassandra's door.]

"Yes?"

Her voice is mild, giving no sign of either irritation or alarm.

(She's backing away from the door.)

"Your new best friend ring a bell?!" she grates loudly through the door, not even bothering to hide her annoyance. "Come on, open up! I know you're in there!" And that's not just because she already answered...

Well, this one isn't shy, whatever else she might be.

"You do realize," she drawls in a tone that reminds her of Percy at his most insufferable even as she speaks, "this isn't best calculated to make me inclined to open my door to a stranger."

Ohh, that gets on Rita's nerves, but she's totally patient--

Actually no she isn't, but she's just patient enough to provide a, uh, "friendly" ~~threat~~ warning. "Then try this: how about you open that door before I blast it open!"

(Behind her hip, Cassandra's hand tightens on her rapier.)

"Try this instead," and her voice is hard now, "how about you tell me who you are and what you want, and we'll talk this out like civilized people?"

A half a breath, and a moment's wild surmise --

"Is this anything to do with a small flat model of the ship?"

She has half a mind to screech something back about civilized and bloody shirts when the occupant mentions the model--for a moment, Rita falls silent in confusion, before she realizes it's the magnet.

"Finally realized it?" she taunts once more. "I put a tracking spell on it and followed you right here--you fell right into my trap!"

No, she's not trying to sound like a supervillain; it's just kind of coming out that way.

"Oh for Pelor's sake," sighs Cassandra, and opens the door with an exasperated look, holding out the little ship and the note in one hand.

(Still holding the rapier with the other, out of sight behind herself.)

"You followed someone else right here, most likely because they knew you enchanted it and wanted to get rid of it."

Rita immediately takes a casting stance--she doesn't immediately fire off a spell, but she wants to be ready in case a) the 'prankster' tries anything, or b) she loses her temper.

Standing right where she is, she scrutinizes first Cassandra, and then the note. That's definitely the magnet she used, for one thing, but--surely the culprit wasn't smart enough to notice it that quickly! "A likely story," she scoffs, but there's just enough flicker of doubt that she still doesn't move; this lady is kind of old to be pulling stupid pranks...probably. "You could've easily made that note yourself!"

"And why would I have done that," patiently, "instead of palming off the thing on somebody else so you wouldn't have a reason to suspect me?"

A beat. "Did she steal it from you, or did you plant it on her?"

Far less patiently, Rita snaps back, "How the hell would I know what's going through your head?!"

After a moment, though, she does at least answer the question--not that it necessarily means she thinks the culprit is someone else! "I planted it, of course. Put a spell on it and left it as bait, and the idiot took it." Her gaze flickers to the magnet, then back to Cassandra's eyes: see, and now the bait has made its way here, her expression practically says.

"Bait." A frown line forms between Cassandra's brows. "Has someone been stealing your possessions, then? And you were trying to catch the thief?"

"Ugh, no, it's just like," she starts, frustrated. This is such a pain...especially if this really is the second wrong lead she's had--which would be so bad for her pride...

"I got one of those notes too," she finally grumbles, "but it was way more suspicious."

Cassandra really doesn't want to admit this, but --

"In all honesty, it didn't occur to me that the one I got was suspicious at all. Not until you arrived. What was yours like?"

"Are you for real?" she asks incredulously, because sure, that note was less threatening, but-- "These things have suspicious written all over them! Mine was practically a threat--I bet they have no idea who they're messing with!"

She clenches one hand into a fist--not that it does much good right now, with no true prankster in sight. How annoying!!

"Well." Her mouth flattens for a moment. "Whoever it was clearly wanted to provoke some kind of reaction from you, and then tried to redirect that reaction toward me. I find I don't appreciate that very much."

It's not too dissimilar a sentiment from that expressed by the clenched fist.

"In the meantime, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Cassandra de Rolo."

Oh, this is infuriating--getting sent on a wild goose chase like this and wasting her time--ugh! Rita scowls and crosses her arms, as if her running over here and trying to start a fight with Cassandra wasn't at all her fault.

"Hmph...Rita," she finally grouses. "You seriously didn't think these notes were suspicious?"

She spreads her hands. "I seriously didn't. Though I suspect I would have if I'd seen yours."

"Talk about naive," she grumbles. "Is this the only one you received?"

"Just this and the one with the ship, that said hope you like it, see you on another night. Only a few minutes ago."

Naive? Maybe. She'd like to think someone lying to her face might have been less convincing.

"Why, how many did you receive?"

"Just one. But I set out that bait in case they--she came back." Because she remembers the laughter was that of a woman.

Still--how annoying! "Ugh, how the hell did she figure it out so quickly? I made sure to hide the formula and everything!" Hence the coaster glued to the back of the magnet...

"It was clever," Cassandra says. "If she's done this before, though, maybe she was expecting it. You might not be the first to try to track her that way."

A pause. "I don't suppose I could be any help in trying to track her down? She's rather annoyed me, I find."

She clicks her tongue in annoyance; as irritating as it is, Cassandra has a point--the prankster could have a bit of experience in toying around even with traps.

Rita is, at least, oblivious enough to not view herself as any source of annoyance to Cassandra, and she sighs. "You and me both. She's not getting away with it--so, you have any other information yet?"

She shakes her head. "Just what we have here."

Again, this literally happened only minutes ago.

"I did hear her voice -- it was only one word, but I might recognize it if I heard it again."

She huffs. "That's not a whole lot to go on..."

Ugh. She still can't believe she's tried to shake down the wrong person twice in a row. She really needs to go vent or something...

"Well, I'm in room 110, so if you do find out anything new, you can send me a message. I'm gonna think of a better trap."

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not_the_last - 2022-10-23 01:16 (UTC) - Expand

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lmao I'm so sorry for this mess...

no worries! :D

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