[Tai-Lau] Like Catching Smoke

[Li-Yan Zhang]

Between the dull lights and the seemingly endless fog of smoke from the older men throughout the lounge, and the fact that there was little to no light to begin with, made staring at the paper in his hand a rather worthless effort.
There was the occasional moment where he managed to make out the lightly written scratch on the paper.

Her name is Aria--Though she's probably going by her real name now. Kana Saitou. She's tall. Dark, wavy hair with braids. Amber eyes. Fire Bender.

The paper had more things scribbled on it, some of which were less legible than the last. Find out where she is, but don't talk to her. Just track her down.

Zhang remembered the boy that handed them the letter. He was a scrawny, dirty little shit. Water Tribe, though not a bender. He'd rambled on about how his boss sent him to track the duo down and hand them a letter, but the boy had lost the letter and had to rewrite it himself. Zhang would have questioned the validity of the descriptions on the paper, if the boy hadn't insisted he also knew this Kana personally.

The sound of some overly drunken, overweight man across the lounge laughing a little too obnoxiously drew his attention away from the paper. He had to snort, shaking his head at the display, before his attention turned to the girl only feet from him, engaged in her own little investigation, no doubt.

[Tai-Lau Xinhua]

Of course she too was having just a lovely time trying to decipher the writing on the papers she was given, though to be honest she’d given up some time ago, reduced to simply running her eyes repeatedly and for no true purpose over the lines of text.

She’d only made out a little, just a small amount of information about a Kana Saitou, as well as pieces of instructions for a job, though to be honest she had little interest in taking it until she could see enough to read the part about payment.

The majority of her concentration was currently centered more around restraining herself from murdering the number of ridiculously drunk and excessively loud people in the lounge. She had little tolerance for these types of things normally, but this was pushing it just a bit.

At hearing the same fat drunk man laughing, she jumped just a bit and sighed irritably, returning her eyes to the papers to keep from hurling a boulder across the lounge. Before she could begin attempting again to read in the dim light, she looked up to meet the eyes of the man next to her, hoping silently that he could see her general annoyance.

[Li-Yan Zhang]

This place is a lounge. Why is it so loud? Zhang's hand shifted to his forehead as the thoughts rolled through his mind, thumb and middle-finger rubbing into opposite temples as he shook his head.

After a moment, he ran his hand back through his hair slowly, sighing as the nearly-blond strands fell right back into place afterwards.

He caught the girl's gaze almost immediately after she looked, and he had to stifle a quiet chuckle, a small grin curling on his lips. He opened his mouth just after, before something else caught his attention---the fat drunk man being forcibly dragged out of the lounge by two of the owners. Li-yan's brow raised high, before he simply shook his head, looking back over at the girl at his side just as the lounge grew.... considerably quieter.

"Well, alright then."

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[Tai-Lau Xinhua]

Before she got the chance to work up a glare in response to her acquaintance’s smile, she too was distracted by the fat drunk man being thrown out and couldn’t help a faint smirk of her own, though she was quick to rid herself of it.

She then sighed and tossed her papers down on the table in front of them, letting her long sleeves fall back down over her hands before returning her attention to the man next to her. "This job better pay a shitload." Simply out of curiosity she glanced over the papers again to see if she could spot those pretty little numbers, but to no avail.

Relaxing slight now that the noise level had fallen, she looked back up at the man next to her, her partner for all intents and purposes. "What should we do now?"

[Li-Yan Zhang]

"I don't know about a shitload, but we should get some good money out of it. They seem pretty hellbent on finding this girl." Zhang leaned himself back against the bar behind him, resting his elbows on the wooden surface. He'd given up at staring at the paper--though honestly, there was little more information he really needed. At least, not right now.

When she spoke, he let out a soft, low Hmm off the bat, glancing around the lounge for a moment. He relaxed against the bar, head tilting this way, then that way a moment later, before finally he seemed content with whatever thoughts were rolling around in his mind.
"Well. We could stay here, get a drink or two, watch the fools. Or, we could get a headstart on tracking this girl, even though she's probably inside, sleeping somewhere." One of his brows quirked under his hair as he spoke.

He turned then, simply waving his hand to the barkeep. Perhaps Tai-Lau was just under the drinking age, but the few extra yuans Zhang placed on the bar were enough to convince the other to bring two simple drinks over to the pair, one of which the Earth Bender picked up, sipping once from. "I'll follow your lead, but I'll be honest, I wouldn't mind finishing this drink first." His head tilted to the side then, a soft chortle rumbling in his throat, a sound only barely heard over the band playing across the lounge.

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[Tai-Lau Xinhua]

"That drink, as well as the next four, yes?" Tai-Lau allowed a very faint smirk to grace her lips before taking a sip from her own drink. She of course wasn't opposed to drinking at all. Honestly, it isn't as if she ever followed anyone's rules but her own.

After just a moment of indulging in the quiet peace of amusement, she eyed all the other inhabitants of the bar with distaste that she didn't bother hiding. "But, if I decide to kill someone I want you to know...It's your fault." She delivered the last of her words very bluntly, letting another transient smile slip past her impassive mask--it could possibly be said she did this often when in the presence of her partner.

After a second sip of her drink, she glanced at the papers again. "Why do you think they want her so badly?" She put her drink down, taking to studying the glass, picking out every little scratch her eyes could detect in the dim light.

Her fingers lightly plucked at the insides of her sleeves as she deeply contemplated the question herself. Her eyes moved away from her glass and back to the papers, flicking from coherent word to coherent word. Despite every dirty little secret she knew about Republic City and its inhabitants, she had yet to hear much of this Kana Saitou.

[Li-Yan Zhang]

His expression faded to a more bemused one, shoulders shrugging as he let his eyes half-lid, visual attention seeming to focus on a particularly interesting speck on the floor. Her words drew a soft rasp of a snort from him, before he looked over at the girl. "Just this one. I'm not the one that drinks a lot." Zhang's voice was flat, as the momentary amusement that stemmed from Tai-Lau's irritation dissipated into nothing.

"It'll only be my fault if there's no witnesses to confirm that you did it--Except, there will always be a witness. And I'll always say you did it." A rather smug smirk appeared once again on his lips, a smirk saved entirely for when he was teasing the other. Well, teasing in general, but it was rare anyone else was the butt of his jokes and jabs.

He began to sip at his drink, taking multiple draws between cycles of putting the mug down and picking it back up again soon after, only stopping this pattern once the other spoke again. He cocked his head at an angle, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes as he rose a hand, waving it subtly as he spoke. "Think about it: For one, they're from the Northern Water Tribe. If she was just some random person, I don't think they'd care to send one of their own, all the way down here to Republic City, for someone that didn't actually care about finding." He stopped then, moving his hand to take his drink again, nearly finishing off the drink before even realizing it.

"Not to mention--" Pausing, taking another quick sip, "The kid seemed terrified of whoever his boss was. So, chances are, this girl has connections to the boss. Maybe they're related. Or she hurt someone of his own." His shoulders rose and dropped in another shrug, as he finished off his drink finally, watching the girl afterwards, expression more lazy than anything now.

[Tai-Lau Xinhua]

"All true..." After a short pause, Tai-Lau shifted forward slightly and arranged the papers in a more orderly stack. What? There was no point in leaving them messy like that. She threw a quick glance at the one next to her, half expecting him to laugh or something.

Leaning back again, she took another sip of her drink, allowing her mind to drift as she tried to tune out the sound of the lounge before again her eyes shifted curiously to the papers, quickly cursing the light again in her thoughts. "I want to know more about this gang as well..."

Perhaps it was because she knew so little about the job at the moment that she was so curious. Normally she didn't get worked up about things like this; she just went through them impassively and with little effort. She had the faintest sense about this one, that it would be particularly interesting.

As she contemplated these things she took one more drink before her eyes turned again to the man with her.

[Li-Yan Zhang]

I want to know more about this gang as well... "So do I. I could make a few assumptions about them, but my assumptions are only right about half the time." He let out a sigh, leaning back against the bar once again, his elbows and forearms flat on the wood. He dropped his head back lazily, staring upside-down at the wall as his hair all fell away from his face.

"I don't think they're a very big gang. The big ones like to show off their power, so they throw their name around like ads. They probably haven't branched out of the Water Tribes, either. When I was a kid in the northern Earth Kingdom, I never heard about any Water Tribe gangs, so either they're new or just really small. Probably unstable as a group, have gone through a few leaders..." Zhang trailed off, before finally rolling his head back around, catching the bartender's gaze and waving for his second and last drink.

"To be honest, I have no idea. No idea who this girl is, or what her business is with this gang. We don't usually walk into jobs entirely blind like this." He sounded rather indifferent to the facts, all things considered, tone flat as he rolled his head around again, this time with the intention of popping his neck--which he did, with a rather obvious cracking noise breaking through the now quiet of the lounge.

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[Tai-Lau Xinhua]

Tilting her head a bit, Tai-Lau contemplated his words, one hand moving to toy with the jade piece hanging from her necklace. "True...however they can still be a big gang, just a smarter one...If I controlled a gang with a lot of power, I'd want to keep quiet so that the gang wouldn't become a target."

After a short pause she glanced at the papers. "For instance, sending a dirty little child to give us the job would suggest to us that the gang doesn't have the money or power to send anyone better. If we were to assume such a thing, we'd show much less interest in the gang itself, allowing it to remain hidden..." A faint smirk ghosted over her lips as she looked back at the other before taking one last sip of her drink.

"It's a strange theory but...with what little information we have, it's possible, don't you think?"