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GUARD BARRACKS - MORNING
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Louma drags herself, in a dignified way, through the front entrance, well dressed and upright, but looking somewhat tired, as if she'd had to fly partway across town before even getting ready for work. She gives a short salute to the guard at reception before unlocking her office door and coiling up behind her desk with a sigh. Her eyes drop to the large stack of reports from those trying to investigate the alley disturbance and the murder, her mildly good mood falling at the reminder.
Brunilda follows after Louma some minutes later, stifling a yawn. She in turn looks relatively well-rested, having (mostly) settled her thing with Fiora the day before. She opens the door to the office and salutes Louma: "Morning, Cap'n."
Louma has the first sheet of dozens in hand when Brun enters the office, looking up to her with a quick return salute. "Good morning Brunilda. Did you sleep well?"
Brunilda smiles as she steps towards her table: "Did, actually. Tired myself with a good sparring, slept like a log."
Louma nods, smiling as well as she leans forward, an arm laid upon the desktop. "Good to hear, I'm glad you can still manage a sparring match." Her voice sweetens slightly, though her eyes don't quite hold an expression to match it. "Would have been hard to practice with a bullet in you."
Brunilda starts nodding, then blinks and looks confused: "Yeah, I would have... huh?"
Louma nods, keeping her eyes on Brun. "Your adventure in the alley, with the bounty hunters. I heard all about it."
Brunilda pauses, but then nods: "I suppose it wasn't exactly a quiet incident."
Louma shakes her head, sighing as she leans back to settle on her coil. The end of her tail slips under the desk, pushing Brun's chair out for her to sit as Louma gestures toward it. "A lot of questions I still have that I'd like to hear the answers from you."
Brunilda sits down, feeling a bit odd about this situation: "Oh. Of course, what do you need to know?"
Louma thinks for a moment, looking aside before her eyes meet Brun's again. "Why were you with them?"
Brunilda shrugs, a bit of frown creeping on her face: "Fiora asked me to, and I thought it was a good idea at the time."
Louma tries to keep neutral, but a bit of irony tints her response. "Ignoring your status as a guard is a good idea? We're not here to act on foreign warrants, we're here to protect our own territory and it's people."
Brunilda blinks: "Ignoring my... status?" She then pauses, some of it sinking: "...wasn't thinking of that, I guess."
Louma sighs, closing her eyes for a moment. "I am glad that you came to your senses, and wanted to protect Strix." She pauses, looking at Brun again. "What would you have done if it weren't someone you knew?"
Brunilda looks aside: "I don't know. Whatever my gut told me was the right thing to do."
Louma sets the report down, resting her palms on her tail coil. "Your gut hasn't steered you wrong before, so hopefully the result would have been the same. I suppose now you know why I don't care much for bounty hunters, why I was concerned about you and Fiora getting friendly?"
Brunilda starts to nod, then blinks and gives Louma a look: "Well, no need to worry about that. We're just friends. Sparring partners. Nothing more." The bitterness in her voice is more than a bit obvious.
Louma notes Brun's tone, nodding. "I don't mean to tell you how to live."
Brunilda sighs, looking aside once more: "...was there anything else you wanted, Cap'n?"
Louma hesitates, glancing at the reports. "Well, yes, but less personal to you. The wolf, Gareth."
Brunilda frowns at the name, telling volumes her opinion of him. "He's still around, I hear."
Louma nods, crossing her arms. "Yes, fortunately. With Strix missing, I'd rather he be around until the kobold is spotted. Did he mention any other contracts while you were around?"
Brunilda shakes her head: "He didn't even tell me everything about the one we were attempting to do."
Louma hums, considering dropping the subject. "Were you with them the evening before the incident with Strix?"
Brunilda nods: "Some of it. Left to sleep on my own though."
Louma nods, leans forwad and resting her elbows on the desk, forearms crossed. "Before eight, I assume?"
Brunilda blinks: "Yeah... I think so?"
Louma glances again at the stack of reports. "Well, if you were going to stay and help with these, you were going to read about it anyways. An Orelan bounty hunter was killed in the bathhouse. Gareth is a suspect."
Brunilda blinks, then blinks again. "Wow." She frowns: "Just when you think someone couldn't stoop lower. I'm an idiot."
Louma tilts her head slightly, chuckling a quiet, dry laugh. "Brunilda, he's a bounty hunter and an ex pirate. If there's anyone that might be okay with ending another life in the name of money, that would be a prime example."
Brunilda gives Louma a look: "Hence the 'idiot' part. I trusted him despite that."
Louma hums, shaking her head. "True, but you're not an idiot. There's a good chance he didn't kill the other hunter, a few witnesses saying he left while Hatnay was still alive."
Brunilda frowns, but then just nods. She is quiet for a second before continuing: "...anything you need me to do?"
Louma taps her taloned fingers against her feathered forearms, considering. "Just keep an ear open. Fiora and Gareth seem to live in a bit brighter of the grey area that is bounty hunting. I'd like them to find good lives here, if they can."
Brunilda nods slowly, looking down: "Well, I won't take part in their business again." She just barely stops herself from continuing with 'Fiora is what I care about'.
Louma nods, smiling faintly. "I'm sure you'll find a bit of adventure elsewhere." She looks to the pile again, grimacing. "As for what you can do right now, if you feel up to it, I really don't want to tackle eighty reports alone."
Brunilda looks at the pile of reports, her posture deflating somewhat: "I guess that's the least I can do."
Louma nods, tapping her fist on the desk, a bit of false gusto in her voice to try and bring both their moods up a bit. "I knew you wouldn't abandon me in my time of need, Brunilda."
Brunilda gives an equally half-hearted laugh as she picks up a handful from the top of the pile, to start the thankless effort of trying to make sense of various guard scribbles.
Louma starts over on the report she'd been reading when Brun arrived, the two managing to organize the poor etchings and grammar into a decent summary by the time lunch rolls around. Louma opts to manage any regarding the alley, and the task at least nets Brun a free beer when they unwind at the Minnow.