The 13th Taped Crusade

The tavern had a dry atmosphere within the place and a noir smoke filled the air choking the life out of the bar that the young woman and the gruff mercenary had found as a meeting place for their masterful minds. Within the bar itself, the salt spitoon many a person stood in all sorts of corners in dark hoods, which made the young girl question whether or not this bar even had a shape, or it was some weird dimensional bar that made no logical sense. She didn't care to notice too much, after all, she wasn't here to deal with the odd construction, or all of the strange brooding idiots, no she was here to deal with that of a foul menace. A cult had been growing, their numbers believing in the power of a mighty substance. They were those who fixed all the broken tools, kept all the mouths shut, brought about sticky justice to those who were heretic's, they were the tapped crusaders, and they had to be stopped. Their skillful use in the art of duct tape magic, almost made Erika jealous, and she had almost considering joining the cult, hell she even sent them a letter asking if she could. They rejected her of course since they didn't want to rename it to The cult of Erika, formerly known as the Taped Crusaders, she refused to be a part of them. What was the point in joining if they weren't going to make her the main figure or worship? There was no point, and since they had said no, they had offended her, and she would stamp them out. Lighting a cigar the man she had come here to meet spoke up, his face covered in shadows, and only dimly lit by that which puffed against his lips.

"So, you ready to fight against the taped crusaders? They are a menace which must be stopped, lest the entire world be covered in their powerful duct tape."

"More importantly they told me no."

"Uh... I'm sorry but isn't saving the world a bit more important?"

"My good man, I'm afraid I don't understand your question, saving the world? There is something far more important than that on the line. I was told no, that automatically makes this far more important than any world ending event. They and all of their sticky fortitude will pay for their insolence against me."

"Look people get told no all the time, why does it matter in this case?"

"The post card they sent me had a wang drawn on it over my little heart that I drew. They will pay in blood for every spot of ink drawn over my little pink heart."

"Look, I invited others here maybe I should just go and chat with them when they show up..."

"NO ONE DRAWS A PEE PEE ON MY LITTLE DRAWING, NO ONE!"

This…came as an interesting request to the guild. One Mao still couldn’t quite fathom. ’Surely it was a spelling error of some sort. Why would someone call themselves the “Taped Crusaders?” Maybe they were the Shaped Crusaders? Oddly proportioned or really buff? Or…or the…’ no that was a bad thought, not that one, ’maybe the Caped Crusaders? No then they wouldn’t really be an issue…well okay maybe they’re not superheroes cause bad guys can wear capes too. They just need to be wary around airship propellers…hmm…Grape Crusaders? They could always stand for Grape Justice…oh if only it were that easy.’

Lost in her thoughts Mao’s hand tightened intermittently on Aiyana’s as her thoughts continued to churn and try to figure this all out. They wandered from different possible names to whether or not she’d be able to eat along the way because if tape was involved…it didn’t sound particularly tasty. She really hoped tape wasn’t involved either because that could be hell on hair, and so help anybody that accidentally (or purposefully) caught some on her tail…Mao would definitely not be a happy camper.

Harsh words might even be spoken!

They wandered into the very oddly shaped tavern as it seemed far too many people owned personal corner space for proper brooding action. One man in distress – also enshrouded like most corner dwellers – turned out to be their employer according to the bar tender who’d been warned to expect them. It seemed some two-toned woman started screaming about “Pee Pees” for whatever reason, though if that was true…that was awfully rude of whoever to draw it over her drawing. ’Something tells me a timeout isn’t going to suffice for her though…I wonder if she’s here about the…Crusaders too?’ Before they joined the table she placed a…”few” orders for some snacks, the man’s eyes bulging for some reason. ’I mean there are other people and they can have some too…surely that many plates isn’t that odd? Although not sure that small table’s going to be able to hold all of them…’

The request to defeat the "Taped Crusaders" was an odd one in her mind. Of all the things to be named, they had the word tape in it. What did it mean? Was it a double meaning? Or were they simply using tape on everything and causing chaos by taping peoples eyes shut? Time would tell, surely, and the woman wouldn't be going alone at least. A hand tightening on hers off and on would continue to interrupt her train of thought, Mao most likely thinking and doing so due to thoughts of her own on what was going on.

The two would slowly make their way to an odd-shaped building, looking like some kind of multi-faceted shape that left it with an amazing amount of corners; corners that seemed to be almost all used by dark brooding figures once they actually got inside of the shady bar. The main thing she noticed was that their contact was here and that another woman was yelling 'pee pee' the moment she walked in. "Ah! My kind of person over here. I presume you're here for this request as well?"