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| The Hunt | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 16 2014, 05:06 PM (212 Views) | |
| Demoness | Aug 16 2014, 05:06 PM Post #1 |
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Deshi MathĂșna quietly handed his passport to the agent and patiently but tiredly answered any questions the agent had. He had nothing to declare Deshi showed him his tourist visa, his passport, and for good measure, his credentials as a Demonessian policeman. Deshi was of average height and build, though he was often underestimated by perpetrators because his muscular build remained slight no matter how much he worked out. In recent months, however, he'd begun to lose weight as worry began to eat away at his appetite. The blond policeman came to Pelhafor for one reason, to find his girlfriend Minka Zakhari, who disappeared there several months ago while on vacation. He didn't know why she'd gone - sometimes despite how long they'd known each other she acted like she didn't quite trust him and he'd learned to let it go - but she was studying to be a lawyer and he had at first assumed it was to interview for some sort of internship. Unfortunately, the day of her arrival back in Demoness had come and gone and he'd received no sign from her. He inquired with the governments involved, both his and Pelhafor, but they had been relatively unhelpful and he had a feeling he wouldn't receive the answers he sought. Instead, he decided to take a leave of absence and investigate for himself. He looked down at the paper in his hand. He'd managed to get a hold of the hotel in which she'd registered, but he couldn't get the desk clerk to even confirm if she'd checked in. It was a thin lead, but it was all he had and he headed toward the address. OOC: I purposely left the city unknown to facilitate your description. Feel free to put Deshi in whatever city works and describe it. EDIT: Took out references to his firearm. Edited by Demoness, Aug 18 2014, 09:33 PM.
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| Pelhafor | Aug 17 2014, 10:39 PM Post #2 |
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The most populous city apart from the capital Tsarya, it was called the jewel of the Empire. When foreigners from the west first came on their little wooden ships, it was hither they went. When the Pelhaforan commercial empire had expanded so that its ships could reach Demoness and faraway places like Eigamst and Cetatsenia, it was hence they sailed. It was the gateway to the East and all good and bad that had befallen the nation since the 20th century entered through this city, Karishin. Communism and jazz, English and smartphones, money and wandering souls. Like the rest of the country, Karishin had risen from the chaos of the 70s and expanded under the prosperity that followed. As the plane descended, Deshi pulled up the blinds and met with the blinding light of the morning sun in his eyes. Shaking it off, he could see the city in the distance -- up a few kilometers from the mouth of the Etugo River, a myriad spires and silver towers pierced up into the heavens, landmarks of Pelhafor's modernity. Stretching out in all directions from the glorious heap of modernism were rows of adjacent buildings that became shorter and shorter until the suburbs, cloned blocks of apartment buildings along streets that were smaller but just as busy. Bridges of steel over the Etugo River connected two parts of a bustling city. Deshi's co-travelers comprised of men and women in suits -- half were his own Demonessians and half appeared Pelhaforan -- as well as whole families who were either tourists or visiting members of the Pelhaforan diaspora. Some were Sudikans transferring flights. The intercom cracked and fizzled and a man's voice manifested, speaking Central Pelhaforan. Deshi was unlikely to have guessed that the captain spoke the standard dialect with a northern accent. The gist of it was, This is your captain speaking, welcome to Karishin... today is Sunday, the 13th of... the weather is nice... we should be landing shortly. After the captain spoke, the soothing voice of a female flight attendant repeated the words in English, then Morai. "Thank you for choosing Pelha Air." Citizens of the Empire to the left, and visitors of foreign nationality to the right. For an agent who handled international visitors, the Pelhakun seemed to speak little English. Perhaps college-level. He viewed the passport, then at the lone, gaunt-looking man. He clearly wasn't Pelhaforan, but he didn't look like a tourist. Yet there was no cause for alarm; in his head the agent placed the man in a number of movie scenarios, specifically the foreign movies he saw last night. The man with the strange name was perhaps a pirate... no, a wanderer looking for his lost love... or an undercover police officer looking for vengeance... Filled with sympathy for this apparent movie star, the agent let him pass. Since commerce between the Empire and the Dragon's Realm had flourished, flights between the two trade partners had almost always been booked. The businessmen with their suit and ties would retreat to their hotels and rest for whatever business they would have on Monday, while the tourists and diaspora members could afford to wait around for a tour guide or extended family member. Some high school students passed by Deshi, monkeying around the lobby. They'd likely have a better time than he in this foreign land. Edited by Pelhafor, Aug 17 2014, 10:40 PM.
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| Demoness | Aug 18 2014, 01:59 AM Post #3 |
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Deshi took the translation book from his back pocket and leafed through it. He'd read that people were more likely to help foreigners who attempted to speak the local language and he knew he'd need as much help as he could get. He set his suitcase on the ground between his feet and then spoke over the counter to the clerk behind. In halting Pelhaforan, he stated that he had made a reservation and was checking in. While the clerk did the necessary paperwork, he decided to start on his lead. He reached into his jacket and tucked deep inside a pocket was a picture of him and his girlfriend. It was taken when they had first met a few years ago but were not yet in a relationship. They had ditched a college party that had gotten out of hand and had decided to get some ice cream with friends instead. She had a wide smile, one of the few he'd seen her freely given, with blue eyes and auburn hair. Her features were mixture of Pelhaforan and Shuzoku traits and she was a bit shorter than him. He attempted to speak to the clerk in Pelhaforan again, but when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere he switched to English and spoke slowly. "Have you seen this girl? I was supposed to meet her here. I was a bit late. She has stayed here before and said she loved it." |
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| Pelhafor | Aug 18 2014, 01:05 PM Post #4 |
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It was Sunday noon; the businessmen and -women were relaxing in their rooms, while tourists largely eating lunch and readying to go out exploring the city for the day. The wide, brightly-lit lobby was sparsely populated and had an air of comfort and relaxation. Slow, soothing music mixed with bits of laughing chatter found its way to the lobby from the attached hotel restaurant in the back, alongside smells of grilled cheese and sausage. In the lobby, a young couple and two playing children in summer clothes rested on the semicircular conclave of sofas near the window wall. Other guests wandered lazily across the lobby on the glossy marble floor. On the side opposite the sofas, three young college-age clerks sat behind the desk, lazily shuffling papers. One was staring intensely at the computer screen and clicking around. One of the clerks noticed the approaching stranger and glanced at her co-worker. "Rashi, you're up." The young lady on the computer averted her gaze for a second and noticed Deshi. Seeming flustered for a second, she quickly changed the tab as the blond foreigner began speaking slowly to her in Pelhaforan. Hotel work had given the hotel clerks a better chance for learning English. The young Pelhaforan lady whose name-tag read "Birashi K" smiled courteously, back straight in her seat, and replied to Deshi's inquiry in stiff, accented English, "I am happy she enjoy her stay in Dragon Caesar's Inn. Are you friends or family of the guest? If I can have her name, I can look up her and call her on the phone." |
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| Demoness | Aug 18 2014, 09:37 PM Post #5 |
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Deshi nodded; communication was easier than he thought. "She is my girlfriend," he replied, deciding to forgo contractions to make it easier on the woman. "Her name is Minka Zakhari. She stayed here last October as well. She said she had a very nice view, but she did not remember the room number. I was hoping to book something similar as a surprise." |
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| Pelhafor | Aug 18 2014, 10:36 PM Post #6 |
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Birashi nodded respectfully as her perfunctory smile dulled and she fumbled with the keyboard. "Minka Zakhari... surname is Zakhari, correct?" It was a strange thing; foreigners placed their family names after their given names and called the latter "first names." To avoid confusion on foreign guests' part, hotel workers had the English transcriptions of their Pelhaforan names in switched, Westernized order. Keminat Birashi was her name; Birashi K was how they wrote it. "Z-A-K-H-A-R-I, is it?" Her countenance turned mildly troubled, as if encountering a minor issue. "Ah yes, Ms. Zakhari was here in room 404, but she checked out two weeks ago and has not returned. We have received no contact from her." Birashi looked up at the stranger. "If it is your wish, we may have that room reserved for you." |
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| Demoness | Aug 19 2014, 02:20 AM Post #7 |
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Hearing Birashi's question, Deshi realized he could have given Minka's name properly; he was too used to dealing with cultures that put the surname last. Demoness kept the tradition of having surnames first except when dealing with a potentially multinational audience and it sometimes slipped into Demonessian-Demonessian interactions. It never caused any confusion when that happened since natives knew which name was the family name, even out of unusual ones. Birashi's response, however, caught him entirely off-guard and he struggled to regain his composure. Minka had ceased contact with him last October, so had she been here the entire time? It seemed unlikely, given his government's involvement in her case, but then again she could have been purposely avoiding him. But why? It didn't make any sense. Perhaps this wasn't her or, more worrisome, perhaps it was her and she had ceased contact with Demoness for some unknown reason. "Ano, yes. I will take that room," he replied slowly, though this time was less for pronunciation than for his thoughts to catch up to his mouth. Yes, if she had indeed been there two weeks ago, she may have left something behind that would help him out. "Will you tell her I am here if you see her check in?" |
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| Pelhafor | Aug 19 2014, 12:22 PM Post #8 |
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A crushing blow, like an invisible hammer, seemed to hit the Demonessian upon hearing the news. His face contorted painfully for a brief second and for a moment Birashi thought he was dying, frozen in misery. Then he seemed to pick up the pieces of his heart and looked really distant, really far-off as he became immersed in his thoughts. Deshi's pain was too visible; Birashi didn't know what had happened, but something serious did. Birashi's courteous smile became less of a smile and more of a troubled look straddling worry and sympathy. "Yes... yes, that will do. I will tell you if I see her," she responded to his slow request. She added rather unprofessionally, "I do hope you find her." Beside this drama, a short black-haired man with glasses and a suit approached the counter, speaking to one of the other clerks in an accented Central Pelhaforan. "Well, ah... I've lost the key to my room, so if you'd replace it..." "That's the third time already! You should be more careful!" nagged the other clerk, who was eating her instant noodles. "Name?" "I am very sorry, I do happen to very clums-- " "Name?" "Manrara." The clerk raised an eyebrow. "Toitu. Manrara Toitu. Room 407..." |
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| Demoness | Aug 19 2014, 04:04 PM Post #9 |
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Deshi smiled faintly. "Thanks," he replied. He didn't think adding anymore would help his story, so he took his key and headed up to the room. In Demoness, it was normal to take the elevator since the country believed in vertical rather than horizontal expansion and his room might actually be on the thirteenth floor. Instead, he decided to take the stairs to allow himself extra time to think. He was traveling lightly, with only a slightly oversized carry-on, so it wouldn't be much of a struggle to ascend four flights of stairs. Now that he didn't have an audience, he pondered more on what Minka's presence in the hotel might have meant and reviewed what he knew. She was half-Demonessian, but she hadn't immigrated to the country until she was nearly in her teens and by that point she had lost her father. She never spoke about him or where she lived before, always changing the subject, and after the first dozen times he stopped trying. Her eyes had always been filled with a deep sadness. She had been studying to pre-law while he worked a beat. She was much smarter than he was and he'd seen the stacks of books around their apartment. She murmured in her sleep when she had nightmares, but it was never in a language he knew and he assumed it was why she didn't speak about her childhood. In fact, none of the family spoke about her childhood and when Deshi went to see her mother after Minka's disappearance she seemed unwilling to help. She'd confirmed that Minka had gone to Pelhafor and where she planned to stay, but she seemed to know more. Minka's little brothers knew nothing. So the question was had she been here two weeks ago? If so, why? Had she been here the whole time, under her own name? He sighed as he reached the door and hesitated before turning the knob. If she had been here, any trace of her would have been wiped away by housecleaning the day after she checked out. He'd still inspect the whole room, but he knew that this lead would be a dead end and it would be better to do some foot work. He opened the door. |
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| Pelhafor | Aug 19 2014, 08:05 PM Post #10 |
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A housekeeper was on the other side, her expression carrying a millisecond's shock as the door opened in front of her; she appeared to be in the midst of leaving. She was dressed in black and white, somewhat similar to a stereotypical maid's outfit with the hotel logo on her apron. Her nametag was, like other hotel staff, written bilingually; the Latin letters on it read Sara. She was darker-skinned than most Pelhaforans and had frizzled hair that covered her minutely troubled, piercing eyes. In her hands was a duster. "Sorry. I was just cleaning," she spoke with an accent. Behind her, a neatly-arranged bed lay in the center of the room, the foot-side facing the flatscreen TV. To the right, right behind the maid, was a lit bathroom with soap, shaving cream, and everything else in order. The left was a little closet and a cabinet on which stood a small coffeemaker and several bags of condiments. The far side of the room was a window wall covered entirely by beige curtains. |
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