— a-fu vs. sword
xxmingyan:
[ --- ] “ah. he escaped.” disappointment was barely an emotion that mingyan expressed, the disgust in her words easy enough to detect as the hooligan slipped away from beneath her sword and ran away, screaming on top of his lungs. that should teach him to respect a woman or two. mingyan preened to herself rather proudly, before turning almost vengefully at afu, glowering magnificently at the other male. “i was about to get information from him. you made me fail my mission.” her words were clipped as she resheathed her sword, the bells at her waist tinkling merrily. “what are you going to do about that?”
he wags a finger in her face. “pokin’ folks with swords ain’t gonna make ‘em talk. trust me on this.” not that he has ever threatened anyone with a sword for information -- he just felt like saying it so it gave him some merit, even though it’s feigned. “what kinda info were you tryin’ to get outta him, anyway? stuff ‘bout the demons?” y’know, what they’ve been instructed to find out.
bloody hand and all, he slings an arm around her shoulders. “i’ve heard many things,” he says, steering her pointedly away from the crime scene, seeing that people are still looking in their direction. “someone at the pub . . . or maybe it was the brothel---but someone in one of those places was sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout this huge creature. somethin’ called a phoenix or somethin’ ‘long those lines. never heard of that, we don’t have those over at the mounds, but i figured it looks somethin’ like a huge rodent with beady eyes an’ long buckteeth.”
to their left, someone scoffs. it’s a fair maiden, as youthful as mingyan, but without accessories and a sword. “don’t listen to him,” she says as she whisks by, robe fluttering behind her to make a statement. “it’s just pub talk.”
“pub talk?”
she pauses in her step, then turns around. “what you’re going on about. and what the other guy---” she tilts her head in the direction the other man had run off to. “---would’ve told you, had you asked. if you’re really here to help us, then get your information straight.”
a-fu blinks. looks at mingyan, then looks back at the other woman. “sooo this means you know what’s up with this phoenix-rodent thing?”
the woman purses her lips, looks between the two again, then rolls her eyes. “first of all, a phoenix isn’t a rodent . . .”
















