Kaori & Benjamin: The Idol(Mirror Mask): A Rank: Private

In the midst of the merry-making and alcoholic enthusiasm, Benjamin was loudly singing out of tune with the rest of the patrons of this fine establishment. He had already had a few beers and was clearly intoxicated, though not so much that he would black out any time soon. However, just before the green-haired gunfighter could guzzle down another pint of the swill being served to him, a couple of voices caught his inebriated ears, one familiar, the other not so much. His face soured for a brief moment, not entirely pleased by the prospect of someone bringing up business in the middle of a bar. He had always found such things to be in poor taste, believing bars to be places for the exclusive use of amusement. His amusement to be exact, though, the same rule applied to everywhere else in his personal opinion. Even so, this talk of such things in such a place at such a time in such a way was something the man didn't like. Not one bit.

Exiting the pub not long after Kaori, the drunken and armed gentleman of questionable mental stability sauntered on out into the public, somehow managing to stumble his way back to the guildhall. What's more, in what some might see as too coincidental a fashion, Benjamin barged through the door of the library, humming the tune he had been butchering earlier at the pub. "Hey there...uh...Cow-ree, yeah?" He slurred in a manner that somehow managed to suggest he would have spelled the name wrong. "I heard you were talkin' to this lady over at the waterin' hole. Well, iss more like I heards you talkin, but..." He trailed off as he noticed her choice of literature, stumbling over to take a peek over her shoulder. "Hey, watcha readin'?" He asked obnoxiously. "Hey, I promise not to tell nobody if its porn or somethin' like that."

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Benjamin sighed as the candy was placed on the table, one of many signs he had failed to elicit a sufficiently entertaining reaction from the little ninja. "You're no fun at all, are you?" He managed to get out before a book was thrust into his gut, a turn of events that would have knocked him over had he been well and truly drunk. He'd been wandering the worst establishments surrounding the cursed lands and destroyed many a bar in his time, even going so far as to drink liquor made within the cursed lands themselves. In other words, it took far more than a few beers to truly intoxicate the insufferable bounty hunter, even if he enjoyed putting on the act.

On that note, he sat down with a disappointed and incredibly bored expression on his face, turning through the pages with little interest. "Guy with shiny sword kills lizard, old lady gets eaten by Fido, dame at the ball breaks a shoe..." He lazily listed off different fairy tales as he skimmed them over, keeping an eye out for Kaori's talisman. "So, Ri..." He didn't stop turning pages as he misspoke her name. "What is it that brought you to this quaint little town, to say nothing of the wizard's guild you've managed to join?" There wasn't much excitement or intent behind his question, mostly asked to pass the time in a vain effort to uncover something interesting about his new cohort.

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Benjamin simply smiled and set the book he was holding down on the table and pulled a small pouch from his coat pocket, along with a small slip of paper and an unlit match. "You really think highly of these folks, don't you?" He asked as he set these items on the table, opening the pouch and letting the smell of tobacco enter the air. "You so sure they're so innocent? You think none of them have blood on their hands." Taking a measured pinch of the dried, shredded plant and placing it in the cent of the square slip of paper, his fingers moved with a the dexterity of both a skilled and experienced shooter as well as an avid practitioner of the process currently underway. "The self degrading types always assume that other people are innocent and pure; makes it all seem worth it I suppose..." Portioning out the tobacco evenly across the paper, he then partially rolled it around the substance into the shape of a cylinder, leaving one end of it loose. After licking the loose end of the thin paper as a form of makeshift glue, he pressed it down against the now complete cigarette. "One thing you oughta learn about Fiorans, they're awfully good at tucking away their darker secrets behind a happy smile." Now ready to smoke, he placed the flammable apparatus between his lips and took hold of the match he retrieved from his coat earlier, striking it off the table.

"As for me..." He muttered through his cigarette, holding the lit match up to the end and taking a few quick puffs to pull oxygen through the gaps in the shredded tobacco, creating a sustained burn starting at the loose stubs poking out of the paper and then igniting the edges of the paper itself. After taking one more long drag and snuffing out the match with a quick flick of his wrist, he blew the smoke into the air around him, filling the room with the scent of tobacco as he dropped the dead match stick on the table to be discarded at a later time. "Honestly, I just love a good show." Benjamin said as he held the cigarette in between his index and middle finger, smoke trailing off the end like a silver ribbon. "Don't much have anything else to my name. Far as I'm concerned, the serious stuff just ain't worth the trouble. And from what I saw of that little fiasco with Basilisk Fang, there's no end of fun around this joint." Now that his cigarette was complete, he casually flipped the pages of the book on the table, occasionally taking another drag.

"Now I got a question." He stated bluntly, as though she would hear it regardless of whether she wanted to or not. "What's so important about this trinket? I'm pretty sure this isn't the guild that's obsessed with fairies and you don't strike me as the sort that likes jewelry. 'Least not after all that blood bath talk."

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Benjamin's grin widened at the sound of laughter, glad that the person he was sharing a conversation with wasn't in a perpetually sour mood. If there was anything the man hated, it was people that took things far too seriously. He'd had to deal with plenty of that sort from the Rune Knights, one of the many reasons he resigned from that organizations of stiffs. "Good to know that your full of surprises." He said, eyes still squinted as they usually were. "I really can't stand boring, predictable types." It wasn't long before his cigarette began to reach the end of its life, prompting him to snuff it out in the pile of ashes that had formed on the table. As he did so, he suddenly stopped turning the pages of the book, sliding it over to Kaori without turning his head to look at it.

"This what your looking for?" He asked as if to indicate the page he had left open. "You know you shouldn't knock those old stories." A single, yellow colored eye fully opened and peeked out from under from the brim of his hat. "There more often true than you might think. At least in my experience."

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Benjamin tilted his head as the piece of paper fell out of the book in his hand, sneaking around behind Kaori and all but reading the request from over her shoulder. "I think I might've heard of this guy." He said, nonchalantly despite his position. "He even pays for people to go out in the cursed lands, if you'll believe he takes stuff from out that way." What Benjamin hadn't mentioned was that he had in fact done business with this collector, mainly due to his own extensive experience in regards to the curse lands. Of course, this negligence was not at all intentional and there was absolutely no malevolent purpose behind it, the gunfighter incapable of such motives. He had simply not felt there any purpose in stating this fact, more specifically that such an act did not produce any form of fun or entertainment for him.

"Sure, I can come along." He said, maintaining his smile, a pleasant hum in his voice. "Might be fun to head out that way." As Kaori went off to prepare, the former bounty hunter simply rolled another cigarette, lit said cigarette, disassembled his pistol, and wiped down each individual part that did't require a screwdriver to unravel with an old cloth. By the time Kaori returned, he was down one more cigarette's worth of tobacco and his pistol was fully reassembled, complete with a slightly glossier finish. With any and all necessary and/or unnecessary preparations out of the way, the two headed out to the ninja's nuclear powered motorcycle, to the sight of which Ben let out a long whistle. Sitting on the spot behind Kaori's seat, he left both his legs on one side of the bike as thought he were sitting on a normal chair, rather than straddling the vehicle like a normal, sane, well adjusted human being would. As the absurdly fast bike sped down the road, Benjamin showed now sign of disturbance on the part of the wind, as though the laws of this worlds physics were simply ignoring him or at the very least cutting him an extraordinary discount. While one might expect his hat to be lost to the enormous amount of air rushing past the duo, the accessory sat comfortably on his head as though it were bound to the spot by some otherworldly force. Before they managed to exit Hargeon, Benjamin reached his right hand out and swiped a fresh mug of ale out of the hand of a bystander along the way, causing the poor man to curse a world in which his beer was stolen before he could get the first sip.

"Ah, that's a fine brew," Ben moaned as he took a long gulp of the alcoholic beverage, a layer of foam on his upper lip. "Nice to get a drink on the road like this, does the heart good and all that." Upon the completion of his fit of rambling, the drunk turned back his head and rapidly drained the mug of it's contents, tossing it behind the motorcycle as it sped along and wiping off his lips on his sleeve. Unfortunately, the mug maintained a great deal of the momentum gained from its rather brief trip, causing it to collide with the back of some poor fools head and knock them out cold.

Eventually, or rather, quite soon after departing, the two emissaries of Lamia Scale arrived at the collectors abode, the gunfighter hopping off the back of the bike as though he were arriving at an amusement park. All but prancing to the door, Benjamin gingerly rapped his knuckle on the door, as though he were a chauffeur here to pick up his passenger. As quickly as the door opened, just a enough to for the owner to get a peek at his visitors, it was nearly pulled shut. Before this denial of entry could be completed, Benjamin's black boot found itself it between the wooden barrier and it's frame, keeping it jammed open just enough for him to reach in and undo the chain latch on the inside. After that was accomplished, forcing the door open was child's play, as the building's owner was no warrior and the green haired loud-mouth was stronger than his lanky frame would suggest. "Bobby!" Ben exclaimed as though he were greeting a long lost relative, his smile ever present as always. "How kind of you to let us in for tea! You always were the generous sort of guy." He turned his head towards his current companion, intent on dragging her into the conversation as well. "Isn't he just the best?" Not waiting for a response from Kaori or any sort of response from the person who's home he was currently invading, Benjamin let himself in and looked about the place. The entryway, along with the rest of the building, was filled with relics of all kinds, either hung from the walls, resting on pedestals, or enshrined in protective glass casing. "Ah, um...Benjamin, wasn't it?" The somewhat short, timid looking man said, his eyes darting back and forth between Mr. Kelly and the many priceless artifacts throughout the room. "Um, actually...actually, my name is Edward." Meanwhile, the intruder began looking over an urn, likely hundreds of years older than anyone in the room. "Oh, Bobby-boy," he said merrily. "You're such a funny lad. The cheery young soul I came here with should be able to give the details."

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