In the Great Land of 'What If's
It had taken all of ten minutes to completely fuck every aspect of their journey up.
Carb had ended up listening to a strange man with red hair down in Riften, and thought he was being helpful as he put the old-looking ring into the Argonian man's open display case. Since the case was empty for the moment, he had unassumingly thought it was some sort of courtship gift. Who was he to judge how the people of Riften courted? Alas, while the red-headed man had been speaking loudly he was being used to spin the wheels of an organization he quite disliked the thought of.
It didn't take long for the guards to catch on to something being amiss, and as Carb was being blamed for a crime he rather unwittingly committed - and Storm had to say that this really took the cake for being unwitted - On-A-Storm had decided to take the fall for him. Really, what was pickpocketing in comparison to other things? It wouldn't take her long to serve out the sentence and then the two of them could be on their way and continuing their journey to find riches in the frozen land. But no, nothing was ever so simple as that.
The man, Brynjolf apparently, had taken Carb aside and apologized for the problem. He then dragged Carb down into the Ratway and appointed him the newest member of the Thieves' Guild. Carb was less than pleased, but kept his mouth shut out of necessity.
Storm on the other hand, was being led to the keep when an assassin suddenly attacked the small group of criminals and guards. One by one they were taken out, and Storm almost escaped when one of the criminals blocked her path. They'd been freed of their bonds somehow, and swung an ax at her. She dodged, and managed to loosen her own bonds - quickly she picked up a sword from a fallen guard and killed the Breton who'd been aiming for her. Unfortunately, that led to her being knocked out by the assassin and she woke in a shack with a seemingly angry woman telling her that she had better repay her debt to them.
With no other choice - it was her or the executionees - Storm picked one and killed them as quickly as possible. After that she was told where to go and went - no need to make the woman angry again. Too soon she realized that it might have been better had she run from the criminal instead of killing them - her initiation had begun and she was sure that there was no way of getting out. "Welcome to the Dark Brotherhood, sister."
Within the month she and Carb had found each other, rather on accident by quite by luck, their targets coincided and once their jobs were done they spoke. Or rather, Storm spoke and Carb had to deal with an overly emotional Argonian woman who "never meant to kill anybody oh my Hist Carb it was me or them and I didn't want to die and how did this happen oh Hist I didn't mean to Carb Carb what do I do I don't want to be in this but I just keep doing jobs and-" and wouldn't stop panicking over what she'd done until he grabbed her by the shoulders and made her sit down on a nearby rock. "Storm. Storm. STORM LISTEN TO ME."
The green-feathered Argonian quieted at her companion's bellowing voice.
"Look, I know you don't want to do this but it will be all right. To be honest...I was going to join the Dark Brotherhood at some point to help both my skills and my monetary issues. We both know that you would've joined the Thieves' Guild had it not been for my-" "Incredibly stupid misunderstanding?" That was the Storm he knew. "Yes, that," He sighed, and gave a half-smile, "My point is that we'll both be okay. This job...it may not ever get easier, but I've got your back and you have mine." That earned a toothy grin from his scaly friend, "Damn right."