Kobold Plot

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

From somewhere upstairs, there's the sound of crashing. Faint, at first, but getting louder with each passing second. Then silence. It doesn't last long, a few seconds, before a heavy ceramite boot kicks open the door down to the bar.

What comes through looks like a nightmare. The figure is clad in midnight blue warplate, one pauldron displaying a daemonic bat-winged skull and jagged painted lightning bolts winding their way across the armour. Scarlet eye lenses burn in a helmet decorated with a grinning death's head. Across the chestplate, there is a blackened gouge, mostly cosmetic damage. Grenades of all shapes and sizes dangle from leather and canvas belt pouches.

With a faint click, foot-long blades slide out from sheaths in the gauntlets. Somewhere deep in the ancient armour, a refractor field activates, and artificial lightning crackles across the superconductive metal of the claws.

"Alright!" Sahaal says, his anger palpable even through the static of the external address speakers, "Where is it? Who took it?"

(OOC: Just as a heads-up, Security may be needed. It's possible he could start a fight.)

Comments

[childofrebellion]

Cassian had been trying to find a good place to rest when Sahaal comes down and stands up with his hands open and empty, "What's missing?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal turns to Cassian, the familiar face calming him. A little.

"The Corona Nox. My primarch's crown. It's gone."

[childofrebellion]

“Someone broke into your room?” That’s a worrying development in Milliways. He keeps his voice steady to help Sahaal be calm.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Yes. Someone or something took it, and I don't know how. Who even knew it was there? Who?"

He told nobody. And besides, this is Milliways, who would steal it?

[childofrebellion]

"Was it hidden or out in the open? Does it look expensive?"

Maybe it was someone opportunistic though again that doesn't seem like something that would happen in Milliways.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"It was hidden, and well." Halfway up a ventshaft, in a sealed lockbox that only he knew the code to.

"Look valuable?" He laughs, a bitter chuckle through the speakers. "It's made of pure Nostraman adamantium, inset with rubies and diamonds. It's worth a couple of worlds, at least."

[childofrebellion]

"Kriff, did they take the box or open it?"

They must have been looking for it but Sahaal had said there wasn't anyone here from his world.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Take it. They took it, the whole thing."

No, there isn't. There's no one from the 42nd Millennium here.

[iprotectyou]

A giant of a man, armorless, is at the bar, ordering chemicals: potassium nitrate, charcoal, sulfur, firefly aluminum, and dextrin. Bar provides them in their respective containers in a large, plastic tub, which he hefts off the bar top with a smile.

The stranger's palpable anger surprises the man, who peers at him.

"What's missing? May the Force of others be with you! I'm Baze Malbus. Can I help?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"My Primarch's crown, his badge of office and my inheritance. Someone stole it from me, and unless you know who did it or where it is, then I don't think that either you or your 'Force' could help overmuch."

Whoever Baze is, he's certainly got some nerve approaching an enraged Night Lord.

[iprotectyou]

"Oh," Baze says, cocking his head to the side. He places his chemicals back on the bar top.

"Where was the crown taken from? Your room? Did someone break in?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"A lockbox, in my room. Hidden from anyone who would come looking. I don't understand how anything could have got in and stole it. How?"

He deactivates his claws, the tines sliding back into their sheaths.

[iprotectyou]

Oh, retractable claws! That the stranger saw fit to retract them is good, Baze thinks.

"Someone's stealing stuff. I'm missing some teacups I could have sworn I left on my nightstand, but they're not as valuable as a crown."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"No. Nowhere near. Do you have any idea who could have taken it?"

Warp-damnit. This cannot be happening, not here.

[iprotectyou]

"No, I'm sorry, I don't," Baze says, shaking his head.

"You should probably tell Security. Not that stealing is against the rules, but still."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Security. Right. And, what will they do?"

Sahaal seems calmer now, but underneath, he is a ball of white-hot anger. He really wants to handle this himself, with his blades.

[steals_yo_stuff]

If Sahaal bothers to check the notice board the next morning--or even if he doesn't--the notice is gone.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor has a different standard for looking like a nightmare, although his mun isn't actually sure if Sahaal's still looking like that at the point Thor comes in, or if he's had a chance to talk to a few people and calm down a bit. But anyway! Here's Thor, son of Odin, coming in through the back door in casual armor. (That means breastplate and vambraces and greaves, but no scarlet cape and no scale mail on his arms. At least for the moment. It also, of course, means Mjölnir in his hand.)

If there's still artificial lightning crackling around those superconductive claws, Thor will cast it the mildly approving, assessing glance of a professional who -- we're sorry -- thinks your equipment is perfectly good but his is better.

(This is no intended insult to Sahaal, whether or not Sahaal takes it that way. This is just Thor being confident, not to say arrogant, in his assessment of his own awesomeness, specifically about lightning.)

Also of note: Thor's got a Security badge on one shoulder.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Thankfully, Sahaal's had some time to calm down. A bit. He's still angry as all the hells, but he's not homicidal. He's sat at the bar, a bottle of bourbon next to him. Half of it is already gone.

One of his claws is hanging by his side, active. No real reason for it, more because he can't be bothered to turn it off. His helm sits on the counter, facing him, and his goggles cover his sensitive eyes.

Sahaal hears the footsteps coming from the office, and he jerks his head up to meet them. Uncombed black hair falls away from his face. He's never seen this patron before, but the badge makes who he is obvious.

"I suppose you would be from Security, then."

(Yeah, no offense taken. Space Marines are often described as demigods of war. Thor is a literal god. Of course he's going to have better equipment. And, his lightning is natural, Sahaal just gets a power source in his warplate.)

[mjolnir_retriever]

"I am." Thor's voice is resonant, and also genial.

None of the style of this guy's armor and equipment is familiar, exactly, but the broad strokes are clear. He's a warrior, and from a technologically advanced society, and all of that is enough to make Thor feel a certain friendly kinship right off the bat.

"I'm Thor, son of Odin. Do you have a problem to report?"

He could also be just noting an observation aloud, but that's not Thor's first guess, based on the general mood of stormy and heavily armed anger.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal looks at Thor, son of Odin. Really looks. He's certainly interested. The armour doesn't look advanced, but it is. Whatever metal it's made out of is not something terrestrial, or even an alien substance he's familiar with. The same with his weapon of choice. No way that's a regular hammer, but Sahaal's not surprised. If thunder hammers can exist in his universe, they can exist in others as well. Out of everything about the Security being, it's the runes that get his real attention. They look Fenrisian. Some sort of counterpart culture to the Space Wolves, perhaps?

"Oh, I have a problem to report, all right." He deactivates the claws, the blades snicking back into their sheaths in his gauntlet. "Someone or something broke into my room and stole the most valuable thing I own."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Yeah, isn't it amazing how Thor's armor looks kind of like something a really good special effects shop might create out of things like leather and resin and thermoplastic? Weird! But it is indeed highly advanced.

He's comfortable under Sahaal's scrutiny. (And grins, a little, when Mjölnir is being studied. Thor loves his hammer.) He also does Sahaal the courtesy of returning that scrutiny -- and it's not just courtesy, of course. This guy's weaponry and equipment are different than what he's used to seeing either at home or around Milliways, and interesting. The general pattern of them isn't so far off what Thor knows from some corners of the wider galaxy, but the details are different.

In response to the claw deactivation, he sets Mjölnir tidily down on the bartop, and folds his arms to listen.

"Mm. There are cleaners, but they don't steal."

"What was the item, will you say? Do you know who might have wished to take it?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Mark IV warplate and artificer lightning claws aren't exactly common, but, true enough, there's plenty of counterparts to them all over the multiverse. Sahaal appreciates the attention too, or at least, when it focuses on his blades. Unguis Raptus is something he's rather proud of.

He didn't actually know Milliways has cleaners, so that's something. If they're anything like the wait-rats, that means that Thor is right. No interrogation needed.

"It was a strongbox, marked with the sigil of my Legion - a bat-winged, daemonic skull. But, that doesn't really matter. What does is what is inside it. The crown of my Primarch, my commander. The Corona Nox. A spiked circlet, made from high-purity adamantium and adorned with rubies, with a single diamond as the centrepiece. As to who took it..."

He shrugs as best as he can in full power armour. The previous words have been spoken with a sort of focused energy, a desire to give whatever information could be helpful in getting his treasure back. Now, his words are more weary than anything.

"If we were in my universe, I could think of a hundred suspects. Rivals in my Legion. Agents of the Imperium. Collectors of the strange and the esoteric. Eldar psykers, for their plots. But here? No one. Yes, the Corona is valuable, but it's not the sort of thing you could sell on a black market. The materials alone are worth more than most cities."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor is a man who understands the importance of things like crowns. (And sigils of the groups you belong to, and adamantium.) His brows draw down.

"Yes, I understand."

Hmm.

"Theft isn't technically one of the rules that Security is bound to enforce. It's rarely committed here. But I am inclined to take a broad view. If it's not outside business, it remains harm done to you. We will do what we can to see it returned to your hands from whoever took it from your room."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal heard the same thing from both Cassian and Baze. About theft not being common. It makes sense, but right now, he's wishing hard that there was some sort of precedence for things being stolen in Milliways.

"Thanks. I know you might not be able to do much, but still. Thank you." He pauses.

"And, in turn, I promise not to hunt down the bastard myself and rip him, her or it limb from limb. I understand that is rather frowned upon here." Sahaal says all that with a little smirk. The kind that suggests that he's not really serious but that he'd do absolutely that if he had a chance of getting away with it.