a man walks into a bar...

[willnotchoose]

In some ways, the world has changed a lot since Geralt first started out as a Witcher. The monsters are better at blending in, in a lot of ways have been far better at changing with the world than he has. People don't need his services as often, like being told they're in need of them even less, and when they do they don't like his fees. Time hasn't given him any particular advantages, no hidden cache of funds. Some years are better than others, and at least the past few have been less lean than most. Far better than the decade he spent in an asylum, too.

He's tracking a shoggoth, a hulking, slithering thing with far too many teeth that prefers sewers, but tracking it has proven to be largely fruitless so far. Which sewer system, or subway tunnels, they sprawl too far across the city, and the cloying stink of rot and aimless agitation that hangs heavy in the air dulls his abilities, even with the elixirs. He hates cities, has learned to hate them more as the world moved on, but the beasts he hunts have found it easier to hide in them.

There's nothing for it but to ask for help, so he heads to the bar, the one he knows might have the information he needs. Stalks through the door, yellow, red-rimmed eyes travelling across the patrons to find the men he needs before cutting across the room to settle at the bar.

"I require information. I'll take a beer too, while I'm here." It's only polite, not that he much cares about that, but it's easier than trying to bribe.

Comments

[willnotchoose]

The Witcher considered the words. Ages ago he would have brushed him off. Told them to go fuck themselves, half or nothing, and then stepped in to pick up the pieces and kill the monster when it inevitably overwhelmed them.

But time had moved on. That wasn't the way things worked anymore, so he grunted and grumbled but ultimately nodded.

"Fine. A third if you survive."

[badknockauphe]

Niko inclined his head a fraction, a stand-in for a nod. "Very well. I'm Niko, and this is my brother Cal." He nudged Cal, gently, but Cal kept his mouth shut. He was not going to say anything nice if he opened his mouth, so he just wasn't going to say any damn thing at all. He rubbed his thumb over the ring Niko had given him again, trying to be good.

Niko glanced briefly at him, sighed a soft, minute sigh, and continued on, tone perfectly polite. "We have worked out the general area where it seems to have gone to ground. We were going to make an attempt in two night. If you'd like to meet us at," he named a subway stop that was near, but there would still be some slogging through maintenance tunnels to get through, "In two night's time, around seven, that will be sufficient."

An attempt meaning Niko had mostly intended it as a kind of scouting run to actually pinpoint the damn thing and figure out what the hell it really was, but was prepared for them to actually meet it and take it down if they had to. This wasn't the first time they'd gone monster-hunting on vague descriptions and unreliable info. It wouldn't be the last.

It wouldn't even be the first time another monster-hunter had come and offered their sword in the same of killing monsters. Cal just hoped this creepy-eyed ass wouldn't double-cross them, like the last son of a bitch had.