Post by Jade on May 29, 2022 14:35:47 GMT -5
--The Costello Estate, Early Afternoon--The estate was a grand affair set in the tropical countryside just outside of Baterilla's main town, with an immaculately-kept garden for a front yard that stretched several hundred feet back from the entrance gate before it reached the three-story mansion proper. A high perimeter wall of stone pillars and iron beams, capped by elegant but foreboding spikes, served as both a clear marker of the estates' property and a deterrent against those who might come sticking their noses where they don't belong. The clearly armed guards standing at the gate, the doors of the mansion, and patrolling the gardens certainly helped to reinforce the latter point. Not an element was out of place; all was as it was ordered to be by the boss himself.
Or, well, that was how it was supposed to be. Today, however, there was at least one thing out of place - a young woman who was, presently, walking briskly through the inside of the mansion itself. She stuck out like a sore thumb, with her messy black hair pulled back into a high ponytail, partially open dull gray blazer worn over nothing underneath and dark gray pants adorned with matching vibrant orange swirling patterns, and the oversized, novelty-looking blue shades with one lens shaped like an "X" and the other a filled-in "O" all standing in sharp contrast to the slick and professional appearance of the guards patrolling through the place. And yet, at every turn where this interloper should have bumped into those guards, it seemed as if fate was on her side. At one intersection of hallways, a guard zipped out in front of her, his focus entirely on a small coin rolling down the hall in front of him; at another, a door slammed and caused the guard to turn and walk back toward it, oblivious to the woman walking through the place faking confidence in where she was going. And sometimes, things other than dumb luck carried her forward - like the guard who she made eye contact with and gave a knowing nod and a smile, who looked confused but simply shrugged it off, because if no one else had stopped this weirdo, clearly she was meant to be there.
The interloper nearly walked past the interior courtyard, open and visible even from her position a floor above thanks to the hallway transitioning into more of an open balcony in place of a wall that allowed one to see clear both across to the other side and down into the neatly cared for courtyard. But it wasn't the greenery or open air that caught the woman's attention - it was who was in the courtyard-turned-cell. "Bingo," the woman said to herself, and then slowed her previously brisk pace as she walked along the interior balcony until she was positioned in front of the person restrained in the courtyard a floor below.
"Hey!" The woman called out as she leaned her elbows on the barrier meant to keep people like her from falling down into the courtyard, eyes trained on the stranger below. "You must be Amasagi! How's it going? She laced her fingers together and put her chin down on top of them, even as a grin began to grow on her face. "Seems like you're in a bit of a bind, huh?"