Strange Bedfellows (Daring Jo)

[Toph Bei Fong]

Harem-girl outfits had many useful applications.

Running from the law as fast as horse team can pull a carriage you're currently riding on the outside of in the dead of winter, was not one of them.

Though the snow had melted since Toph's last trip to the mountains, it was still cold enough to make the woman wish she had thought to being actual clothing. Or course, part of her original plan was to look vulnerable and needy when the highwayman she had been paid to find saw her, and to be sure to let her see just enough skin when said highway person brought her home and offered her some real clothing.

That plan kinda went to tits up about a league back, though.

The hell of of it was Toph didn't know why.

Not true. She suspected why, but she didn't much like that train of thought. No need to go down that track it until she had to.

So instead she focused on her primary concern now: staying warm.

Stopping was out of the question. She would have love to do so and get her feet on the earth and see how much ground they had gained, then scurry back inside the carriage proper. But any delay could end badly for them.

She just hopped Jo's mountain hide-aways were as good ass she claimed. Sure, she could take then ten men after them, and handily... but that would complicate matters when it came to returning to Venus. And she aimed to go back. She still had unfinished business there.

Shivering, Toph slid as close to Jo on the bench driver seat as she could. "I apologize in advance if I grope something!" she called out over wind and hoofbeats. She place a hand on Jo's thigh and traced upward to her waist. That found, she slid down as low as she could and warped her arms around Jo's waist and hugged her as close as she could without breaking the woman's grip om the reigs.

"Don't get any ideas!" she called out. "I'm freezing my ass off out here! And you're warm! Are we there yet?!"

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

The horses dutifully pounded away at the ground, carrying t he bejeweled carriage and it's two passengers along. To say that things were not going to plan was a vast understatement. Jo had planned on robbing a rich noble and steal some time with his lady-friend. However, that lady-friend instead turned out to be a bounty hunter who had decided to help her, instead of hauling her in.

That little turn, was something Jo found to be the better part of the awry plan. The rather attractive woman then started to grope around at her. Nothing to untowards was grabbed. Which was a bit unfortunate in Jo's humble opinion.

"Ah, how careless of me!" she said, clutching the reins with one hand she shifted her cloak about as best she could to accommodate the under-dressed Toph, "We're almost there, don't fret! But, please! Continue to warm yourself up as long as you please...I'm only happy to oblige."

She smiled as the horses cut a sharp turn. Eventually, they slowed to a halt. She thought for a moment as they sat there. While she certainly liked the carriage, it was soon going to be time to say goodbye.

"Well, here we are..." she said as she stood to her feet, "We'll just send these fine animals off on their way and we'll have a cosy...and more importantly, private...little get-away over there."

She pointed, needlessly, at some overgrown shrubbery that concealed an entrance with her cane.

[Toph Bei Fong]

When the cloak was thrown over as much of her as it could manage, Toph snuggled closer. You know. For warmth. And only warmth.

"That sounded a lot like an idea I ask you not to get," Toph replied at the offer to 'continue to get herself warm'. She was going to have to nip this in the bud and quick... but after they were safe. 'Hell hath no furry', and all that.

When the carriage stopped, and Jo stood, sliding out of Toph's arms, she realized in short order just how warm the other woman had really been. Or maybe how cold it really was that day. Either was, her shivering soon resumed.

"I'm going to assume you're pointing," Toph said wryly. "This might be a good time to mention: That "blind' part of of my nickname? Not really used for alliteration, Sweetie."

Toph felt for the edge of the seat with her feet, and once she was sure of it, she lept to the ground. She landed on a broad rock in low crouch, the tails of the veils dangling from her waist fluttering down around her afterward. Her feet in contact with the ground again, she nodded, though she was facing with her back in the direction of where Jo was pointing. "Oh," she said. "A cave." She stood to her full height. "I seem to be spending a lot of time in caves lately. I really should just move into one and call it home. Can't beat the rent."

Toph ducked into the carriage, emerging later with the small chest containing the gold and valuables that had been put up for bait.. and was also her fee. She paused behind the carriage, and spread her feet in a wide stance. With the chest tucked under one arm, drew her free hand back, then struck at the air with palm strike.

The ground before her, bearing the obvious marks of the carriage's passing, suddenly rumbled and shifted, until the impression were gone. The vanished track sped away from her, down their back trail until they passed out of sight.

Normal sight anyway. With her earthsight, she saw them go, then brought her free arm around in large pinwheel. Well away from them, countless other tracks began to break of from their actual trail, heading in random and misleading directions.

Satisfied , she turned to Jo confident smile on her face. "Now, I believe I was promised 'cozy' accommodations...?

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

"Ah, right...although, it is quite ironic that someone who calls herself a 'Bandit' is making a living hunting those under such professions." she quipped, with a cheery grin.

Jo had no problem watching Toph in action. Seeing the bounty hunter remove the tracks, was almost as impressive as her looks. She propped a foot up on the top of the carriage and watched as the ground moved, almost on it's own accord. Resting her cane on her shoulder, she was quite glad that she wouldn't have to part ways with the carriage. It held up pretty well under the rough escape.

"My my, you certainly are talented!" she declared, then wrapped her can on the roof she was half standing on, "Ho ho! If you keep that chest of yours, then I'll be taking care of this here carriage...and today won't have been a complete loss. At least from a financial standpoint."

She hopped off the carriage and and led the horses off the path. Once she was fairly certain that she could obstruct it from the casual observer, Jo strolled back towards Toph, whistling a happy tune. The path, though, seemed to be seeing little use. Still, Jo was always adamant about being better safe than sorry.

"Now, my dear...shall we retire to my humble little home-away-from-home?" she offered an arm the enchanting bounty hunter.

[Toph Bei Fong]

Again, Toph hesitated, and this time she wasn't sure why. But she had made her choice, so there was nothing left to do but follow through with it.

Focusing more on what she had to say once they were in the cave than on actually getting there, Toph was frowning slightly, eyes downcast as she linked her arm with Jo's automatically "Oh sure, lets," she said to fill the silence. "Don't suppose you have an alcohol stashed away in there," she said as she allowed herself to be led inside. "I have a feeling I'm going to need it before too long..."

Toph shook her head. "As for the carriage, it was thrown together kind of fast for the job. Held up better than I thought it would, but I wouldn't count on it much longer. Might be better off sellin' the fancier bits and getting rid of the rest." She shrugged, then smirked. "Its your problem now."

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

"Why, of course!" Jo beamed with pride, "I always have a good bottle or two stashed away for just such an occasion! Makes passing by the time all the better."

With the bounty hunter in tow, Jo led a jaunty march towards the cave's entrance. She chuckled a little at Toph's quip. Yes, the carriage did do an admirable job at staying together, especially under the robber's care. And the fine decorations that had been a last minute addition were sure to fetch a decent amount of change once she got them to a fence.

"And what a problem!" she concurred, "But, well worth the trouble. Now then..."

as she trailed off, they had entered the dark cave. It didn't seem like much. In fact, it only took a few paces to reach what many would brush off as the "end". But, Jo was very fond of trick doors. Leaning down, she grabbed a piece of rock and gave it a twist. A section of the rock wall slide backwards and then slowly towards the side, allowing the two access to the private little chamber.

"...here we are!" she said, "I welcome you to my humble little abode. Perhaps not my finest residence, but it certainly is a comfortable one!"

She lead Toph inside, before closing the "door" behind them. And there certainly wasn't much to the chamber. Just a bed, beneath a canopy, a cabinet and a desk. Although quite dark, Jo was familiar enough to navigate the room with ease. Reaching the desk, she found some matches and lit a candelabra to provide herself with some light. She marched around the room, to finishing providing the rest of the light.

"Do make yourself at home!"

[Toph Bei Fong]

With her earthsight, Toph was neither fooled or surprised by the hidden chamber at the back of the cave. The darkness didn't bother her either, or rather, it was no different to her than any other room she had ever been in. With one, lovely exception: it was made entirely out of solid rock. Aside from the furniture she sensed, there wasn't a bit of the room she couldn't 'see'

Jo was making her way around the room, doubtlessly lighting candles. "Don't mind if I do!" she replied top the offer of making herself at home. She struck the heel of her foot against the ground, and large high-back chair made entirely out of stone suddenly burst out of the ground in the middle of the room. Toph flopped into it, the stone giving and contouring to her body, yielding like a pillow even as it remained hard as a rock. A stone ottoman also popped out of the ground in front of her, and she swung her feet onto them, crossed at the ankles.

"Nice place you got here," she said. "All cozy and earthen. How much you want for it?" she asked, a call back to her earlier joke of moving into a cave.

Toph knocked at the arm of her stone chair, and a pillar of earth rose beside it like am end-table . She set her chest down on it before finally placing her hands in her lap.

"So... I guess we've come to explanation time, right?" she asked. "I'd like a drink before I begin..."

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

Jo paused to observe Toph making herself at home...by generating a chair, footrest and a table for her chest. It was a fascinating method and in the dim light, she could only imagine what else this power could do for the bounty hunter. She smirked calmly to herself, realizing that she would have been in a bit of a tricky situation. IF Toph had decided to actually collect the bounty.

"A drink?" She grinned, "But, of course! I have a rather lovely brandy, that I've been holding on to for the proper occasion?"

She opened one of the drawers of the desk and produced that very bottle, along with two glasses. Strolling over to the table, she set a glass down and cracked open the bottle. Pouring a generous serving to her guest and one for herself, Jo took a long "sip".

"Ah...very good..." she remarked, "Now then...I'm still quite intrigued by what you have to say, my dear..."

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph drank... and drank... and drank. The brandy burned on the way down, just enough to let her know it was there. She set the now empty glass down on her arms rest with a clink of glass on stone, and exhaled. "Good stuff," she said after a moment, then held her glass out for some more.

"Here's the thing, Sweetie," she began. "I fought in a war pretty much all my teenage years, and before that I was a tournament fighter. And before that, my best friends in the world were blind badgermoles the size of that fancy carriage. Bigger. I'm good at exactly three things: Fighting, killing, and finding things and people no one else can find."

With her glass fill she took another drink, not as long as the frist, but still nearly half. "When the price is right, I go out into the wild, find people, and bring them in. For justice or vengeance, or to reunite a family, it really never mattered to me before. But, oh sh*t, wrinkle I never noticed before, the people I've been sent after? The ones for justice or vengeance, they've always been bad people. Crooks and rapists and murderers. Had to put a few down along the way. Less bounty that way, but I don't lose sleep. Gaia will forgive me if there's on less child-didller walkin' Her earth.

"I'm in Terre de Conte to find Anactoria. The king is offering.. well.. a kings ransom to whoever can find her and being her home... but I'm outta leads, and I still need to eat. So I hear about a bounty for a highway-woman who digs girls almost as much as valuables." Toph finished the glass, but didn't hold it out for more. In stead she stated rolling it between her hands in a nervous motion. "She has a flare for the dramatic and a perchance for traps. Maybe you've heard of her?"

Toph sightless eyes looked straight ahead, but the heels of er feet keot scarping her footrest, sending out vibration to keep taps on Jo. "So why not appeal to all three points, I ask myself. A rich target, and escort to waylay with a clever ruse, and a beautiful, vulnerable girl to shelter and rescue. Doe-eyed 'Tabby' would fall into your arms, get your trust, find your hideout, then one morning vanish.. to return that afternoon with the city watch at her back. You get busted and Tabby gets paid, and can afford to get back to her real mission."

Toph stopped rolling the glass in her hands. "Only... when it came time to follow through... Tabby couldn't... I couldn't do it. Cause when you get right to it, Sweetie... I don't think you're a bad perosn at all. And that's kinda f*cking up my word view a bit. So, I come clean and here we are."

Don't ask about the freak out in the carriage, Toph though desperately. Don't ask about the freak out in the carriage. Don't ask about the freak out in the carriage...

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

The impending revelations about Toph's motivations were bound to be interesting. And boy could this bounty hunter drink. Jo smirked as she took a few patient sips from her own serving. When the glass was put forward, she gladly refilled. Toph went on and Jo chuckled a little as she continued to drink.

"Oh? I may have heard of this cunning thief..." she smirked and gave a tilt of her head. Her guest did not ask for another refill. Which was a slight shame, but she wouldn't impose. After all, she was learning quite a bit.

And that was quite the well thought out plan. Jo realized that as careful as she had been, she had still walked right into a trap.

'Oh well...they were bound to start using their heads at some point...' she thought to herself. Still, it just meant that she would have to be even more cautious going forward. At least she could take comfort in the fact that her charming personality was enough to win over this rather peculiar young woman.

She finished up her glass as Toph was wrapping up explanation. "Oh, stop! Why, you just may make me blush, my dear..." she lightly teased, "But...I appreciate your candidness. It's good to know that I've impressed such a noble soul, as yours...and even better that you no longer wish to run me in! Ho ho! That would not be pleasant!"

She was soon moving back to Toph's side, pouring herself a second glass and offering her guest another refill.

"And I must applaud your performance..." she added, "I was quite taken in, I'm afraid to say. You should consider a career in theater! I know I would enjoy seeing you perform, without the looming threat of prison."

No, she did not make an inquiry about Toph's episode within the carriage...at least, not yet...

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph smiled ruefully. "I was thinking the same thing. About being on stage, that is. I was quite proud of my little performance."

She shrugged and held out the glass for some more brandy. "Nearly slipped a couple of times to be honest. But I've always been good at thinking on my feet." The smile grew into a grin. "And why not? I do everything else with my feet."

Toph paused to drink some more. Another half glass vanished by the time she set the glass down again. "But you know what? There was a second ... and I'm talking like a hummingbird's heartbeat here... when the idea of Tabby as person sounded, or felt, or whatever, like a really good idea." Another drink, and the glass was mostly empty. "Whatever else was going on in that carriage, the idea of resting and that promised comfort... well I wasn't faking when I said that I didnt know what that even meant anymore."

Toph drained the rest of her glass. Straightening in her chair, she looked in Jo's direction. "So!" she said, all business again. "That's my story, Sweetie. I'll be on my way now. I'd stay away from Venus for a while if I were you. My promise not to come after you doesn't extend to whoever the Watch hires next."

Toph struck her heel on her foot rest, and slid back into the earth with out so much as a seem of rock out place to show where it had been. "Gonna be a cold trip back to Venus in this getup, she mused, waving a hand over her body. "But I've been though worse."

Toph stood, her chair sinking into the ground as well.

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

In flash of movement, Jo was at her departing guests side...almost instantaneously. An arm slipped around her shoulders in a rather friendly manner, as she armed herself with a sly smirk.

"Why so hasty?" she inquired, "I'd still enjoy you're company, dear...and with night approaching, I could not stand to let you venture out in you're current....attire. Things do get a bit chilly up in the mountains...why not spend a cozy evening, here? Plenty of brandy to keep you warm."

Sure, the bounty hunter had been interested in the thief for all the reasons that Jo had not anticipated. In fact, the original intent was not one she was particularly enthusiastic about. But, that was all in the past. And now Jo hardly wanted to spend the evening all by her lonesome. Not when there was such a lovely young lady already in her company.

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph's mostly bare shoulders tensed as Jo placed an arm around them. She was right, and Toph knew it. She was very aware of how gold it could get in the mountains. It would make more sense to take shelter here until morning. But if she was going to do that, there was something she was going to have to clear up with her host and sooner than later.

"I could use some more brandy," she admitted slowly, as if mulling it over. She spun on the balls of her feet gracefully , pulling her self away from Jo's arm, although not as far as she had intend to spin. "But before that, there is something you need to understand, Sweetie. I was going to offer my apparently very attractive self up as bait for the whole trap thing, but that's as far as it goes. I don't share your -ah- interest in other women."

There it was out. Yet, Toph was surprised that she didn't feel any better. "So, if I'm going to stay the night," she said no longer feeling so confident or sure of herself. "That's all that going to be happening." she finished lamely.

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

Jo stood stock still, her arm hanging in the air and wrapped around the space that was once occupied by her rather charming guest. It was a slight disappointment, although not as big a disappointment as her guest's "ground rules".

"Why, I have no idea what you're talking about..." she teased, before fetching her brandy to refill Toph's glass, "...But, if my charming nature is not enough to woo you, so be it...far be it from me to impose myself improperly on such an honorable guest such as yourself!"

She handed the full glass back over. It seemed that there would be some playing hard-to-get. Maybe. At least the tone behind the words were not as strong as the actual sentences they had formed.

"Even if I do find it a shame..." she shrugged her shoulders, but held a carefree smirk. Her words carried a similar airy and lighthearted flare. "Ah, but sit! Make yourself another chair, if you wish!"

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph nodded now that was finally settled. She brought the glass to her lips and half of it vanished in three long gulps.

"Think I will," she said after swallowing. Another kick at the ground with heel of her foot prompted he eruption of another high back chair near the stone 'end table' where her chest still rested. Toph flopped down in it with a kind of careless abandon, the hard impact with the rock not seeming to faze her.

"I'd pull you up a seat, but it probably wouldn't be very comfortable," she said with a smirk, a combination of drink and clearing the air going a long way to helping her relax. The rest of the brandy vanished and she held her glass out for more.

"So, Sweetie," she said, the smirk having graduated to a smile, "Who did you piss off that they sent The Blind Bandit after you? I'm thinking there's a story in that. Where I come from, its considered polite manners to repay one story with another." Her glass refilled, Toph scooted to the front of her chair, giving Jo her undivided attention Though her eyes were pointed more or less toward Jo's shoulder, her bare feet kept passing over the stone ground and Toph's earth sight was pulled in to lock directly on the other woman.

"So, spill. I told you mine," she added.