Concert for the Corrupt! Odette and Cheri!

[Fox]

A teal haired person fluttered about on the deck of a ship that had been chartered for their client. Glasses pushed back their bangs from flopping into their face. Blaise took another look at their clipboard, holding down the pages that demanded to flutter in the wind with their thumb. They squinted, trying to read the text on the page without their glasses.

“Ah! Right, right…”

Blaise turned on their heel to approach a woman who had been idling on deck whilst the sailors scurried to and fro across the deck. They cleared their throat and pulled down their glasses to ensure that they were talking to the right person.

“Excuse me, Miss Cheri, correct? This way please!”

Gesturing for the woman to follow, Blaise turned on their heel and briskly walked over to the captain’s quarters. The captain of the ship was not currently quartered there in fact. It was their star that had been quartered there. Blaise took a deep breath, straightening their clothes and slicking back their hair. They turned and looked back to Cheri who had presumably followed.

“Ah, alright, a few things before you meet with Miss Valois. Some ground rules, if you will. Please refrain from being within close proximity - say five feet - of Miss Valois unless her safety would otherwise be in jeopardy. Do NOT touch Miss Valois under any circumstances with the singular exception of her life being in danger.”

Blaise glanced back at their clipboard thoughtfully, trying to wrack their brain. They didn’t think that they missed anything. So, they knocked on the door lightly.

“We’ll be arriving at our destination within the hour. Please take this time to become acquainted.”

“Enter,” came the soft angelic voice from the person inside.

Blaise opened the door, revealing the rather lavishly decorated interior of the captain’s quarters. Most of the décor was stark white and didn’t match the aesthetic of the rest of the ship at all. It had been redecorated for the express purpose of its inhabitant who sat idly at a vanity, examining her appearance in the mirror. Her clothes were her black, which contrasted with the white interior. Her short hair was snow white with a black headband running through it. Despite the obvious quality of the clothes she wore, the outfit was relatively simple and lacked excessive flair. Odette looked over to her two guests, her sharp cyan eyes piercing them both, and waved them in.

Blaise did not accept the invitation, recoiling out of the doorframe, but they nodded to Cheri to proceed. They had about a hundred more things to do before they arrived in port and only an hour to do them in.

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Odette | #7df9ff | Post Count: 1
Blaise | #2aaa8a

[Jade]

This 'Blaise' individual had, thus far, been Cheri's only point of contact with her newest client - a fact that had been annoying her to no end. Still, the pay promised to be good enough that she had kept her mouth shut on the topic. Good enough, even, to make it worth her while to come out into the Grand Line for the job.

One didn't work in the mercenary business for any length of time without hearing nightmare stories about the sorts of things one could find out in the sea some jokingly called "Paradise". Something about the funnel-like nature of the sea, with its broken polarity requiring special navigation tools that sent those who could keep their heads above water further down the route they had chosen, seemed to accentuate the wild, powerful, and dangerous - probably because everyone else sunk to their watery graves before long.

She stuck out like a sore thumb on the deck in her pastel pink suit, sitting atop a crate near the mast with her floral pink parasol held out in front of her, tip against the ground and both hands folded over its handle as if it were a cane. The sailors gave her a wide berth, thanks in no small part to the frigid glares she fixed them with if they even thought of getting too close to her - and also the equally chilly air that seemed to surround her. Cheri fixed her glare on Blaise as they approached, but kept her mouth shut - and when she was requested to follow, she snapped into a standing position. Her high heels clacked against the wooden deck of the ship as she followed, as directed; her parasol was left closed, though she swung it up to rest against her shoulder.

"Ah, alright, a few things before you meet with Miss Valois. Some ground rules, if you will..."

"..." The already chill air emanating from Cheri dropped in temperature precipitously. There was plenty she wanted to say in response to all of this - she had been hired for this job, and she was a professional. It was that second fact alone that got her to bite her tongue and refrain from needling Blaise about how absolutely ridiculous this 'Miss Valois' was being. To only have an hour to meet with her employer and client before the job would begin in earnest... Cheri tightened her grip on the handle of her parasol until her knuckles went white before she loosened it again. Ever since that incident with her last employer in the South Blue, she'd made a vow that she wouldn't so much as think about taking a job if the client seemed like an asshole, and now here she was, dealing with-

"Enter."

-some sort of diva.

Cheri brushed past Blaise, but did not take even a step further than what it took for her to cross the threshold. The door closed behind her as she quickly and coolly assessed the room that felt like it hardly belonged on the ship before her eyes settled on the woman at the vanity. The chill had followed Cheri into the room, and now that the door was closed behind her, the room itself began to slowly cool. "Ms. Valois." It was less a greeting and more a cold statement. "I am Gelato Cheri, your personal bodyguard. I certainly hope that we can get along for the time I am under your employ."

Oh, there was plenty of other things she wished she could have said - but no. Cheri was the professional here, and that meant not chewing out the person signing her paychecks for the next... However long this contract would end up lasting.

[Fox]

Blaise had not entered, but instead had left her with this woman whom Odette presumed to be her hired bodyguard. As the door shut, a gust of cold air seemed to fill the stark white space. As it settled, it actually only seemed to be growing colder as the woman in the pastel pink suit introduced herself to Odette. Hm. There was absolutely no warmth in the woman in front of her. No use of her stage name. Odette felt a flicker of annoyance, but quashed it promptly. It was probably best that her bodyguard wasn’t a fan of her work.

“Yes, that’d be best,” she replied, standing up from the vanity with practiced grace, “I suspect Blaise hasn’t informed you of very much. Even if they have, perhaps it is better if you hear it from myself.”

Odette looked back at herself in the mirror and adjusted her hair before stepping away and reclining on a nearby couch.

“I’ll be putting on a concert on Bupae Island. I don’t suppose you need me to tell you that it is a wretched hive of corruption and that you need to be on your guard, but… In addition to the concert, you will need to escort me to several business meetings with certain… individuals. Will you be needing any supplementary assistance? I expect you to be the one at my side, but if you need to hire others for other tasks, you have permission to hire as many as you like. Blaise will handle their payment, so coordinate with them.”

Odette leaned forward, crossing one leg over the over and netting her hands together.

“If you need anything else such as weapons or whatever, Blaise will similarly supply them at no cost to yourself. I’ll be expecting exemplary service from you. Are we understood?”

Odette paused for a moment.

“Any questions?”

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Odette | #7df9ff | Post Count: 2
Blaise | #2aaa8a