Two Sides to Every Card (Varde!)

[Lucca]

"Uh..." Colin's eyes narrowed in confusion as he watched the Rat's split tails disappear down the stairs. He wondered if Fenzik hadn't heard his question, but there was no sense in trying to yell down after him; all that would do was disturb the peace of the neighborhood. However peaceful a street in Corvistowne, residency of the Cards most likely to cause explosions and fires and other sorts of destructive phenomena, could ever get.

So he waited, a slight frown on his beak and his head slightly tilted toward the stairs, for all that his blue feet stayed firmly planted near the door. For a few moments, he heard nothing, and then there was the sound of clinking glass and he felt his feathers fluff up just slightly, hoping nothing had broken, but no further sounds were forthcoming until...

Colin blinked in surprise as Fenzik was suddenly right beside him again, tail grasping two odd-looking potions of some sort. "No, it's quite all right," he reassured the Rat. "You weren't gone long." Following him to the door and giving a brisk nod, the Cardinal paused right outside, on the front porch, and turned to eye the bottles curiously. "So...what, exactly, are we bringing?" Realizing that might have come out a touch more suspicious than he meant it, Colin quickly hasted to add, "I mean, I'm sure they will be useful, whatever they are, but I just like to know what we have to work with in a crisis situation." Though they were only going to look, right now, just to get information. They weren't looking for any trouble, so hopefully it wouldn't find them, either. There shouldn't be any crisis situation or any fighting at all, if things went well.

No matter how much rage boiled up in Colin at the thought of that smarmy Horse's face.

[Varde]

All traces of uncertainty dissipated instantly from Fenzik's mind as he followed the cardinal outside into the bright sunshine. He pulled the door shut and turned to face Colin, cracking a characteristic grin. After all this anticipation and planning, their adventure was finally beginning! "Yes, of course," he replied, completely missing any twinge of skepticism there might have been in the bird's voice. "A good question!" he declared without answering it, as he was preoccupied with trying to remember which direction down the path that presently lay ahead of them was east. He cocked his head thoughtfully, then, after a moment, pointed a claw tentatively in one direction. "That way... right?" he asked, trying to mask his poor skill at directions. At least this time he had a 50-50 chance of being correct.

"Ah, right, so, the potions," Fenzik reminded himself of the previous subject. "What are we bringing, indeed?" he echoed, as Zik brought the glass bottles forward so the rat could read the labels. Truth be told, he didn't know, as his selections had been made almost at random -- oweing for the most part to the low light and the time restraint, but also at least slightly because he thought it would be more fun that way. "Let's see, we've got... ah! 'Purple cow juice'," he read from the grey-blue vial with a laugh, looking quickly at Colin's face in the hopes of catching the bird's reaction to this descriptor. "That's my name for it," he explained, "as it's made using the purple angel and cowfoot plants, you see! The more common name you'll hear in shops for a substance like this is a 'peace potion', as it is known to drastically reduce all feelings of agression in the imbiber. Could come in handy if someone gets angry at us!" he added brightly.

"And the other one... is..." He said, trailing off as he looked more closely at the second vial. Much to the rat's surprise, its label was missing! Had it fallen off somewhere, or had he simply neglected to label the potion in the first place? "Uh... hmm," he mumbled, squinting at it. In addition, he thought he had picked a yellow bottle off the shelf, but the contents inside now appeared an unusual shade of orange. His mind raced. Was it an anti-avarice elixir? No, the color was too light. A 'date with destiny' drink? No, too dark. Some sort of fur-regrowth concoction? "I... I don't know what this is," he confessed at last, continuing to peer quizically through the liquid, no longer quite so convinced that he had brought along anything useful. "Well," he said at last, trying to sound as optimistic as before, "one out of two isn't bad..."

[Lucca]

Colin nodded encouragingly at Fenzik, waiting for him to answer the question...but, much to the Villa's confusion, his friend suddenly moved on to a completely different subject. He blinked at the Rat's paw for a moment, and then shook his head and pulled out the map, clearing his throat. "...yes. Yes, it is that way. So we'd better get started, since we have a lot of ground to cover." He started to walk down the edge of the badly-in-need-of-repaving road when Fenzik seemed to remember his previous question.

Colin paused, one clawed foot raised in the air, and slowly turned back to the Rat, wondering how in the world this fellow's mind worked. It reminded him rather of the little butterflies back up in the Villa, always flitting from flower to flower and never staying on one blossom long enough to actually get much from it.

Of course, this was all as nothing compared to his reaction upon hearing the name of the potion. Purple cow juice. Colin's beak fell open in shock as his eyes practically bulged out of their sockets in what was sure to be just as comical as Fenzik could have hoped.

Quickly, he schooled his expression into a polite frown as the scientist continued, the expression slowly sliding more into genuine interest as the full purpose of the odd potion was made clear. "I...see. That does sound useful, if that fiend's temper is as volatile as it seemed upon our first encounter." Colin's own ire began to rise, slow and sure, filling his veins with pulsing fire as he remembered the incident, but he pushed it back down with an effort of will.

As the red cleared from the edges of his vision, the Cardinal picked up on what the Rat was saying. "You...don't even know what that is." Colin raised one eyebrow, turning to look at the weird potion in question. He couldn't even hazard a guess, with his very limited knowledge about chemistry. "Well, we'll just have to keep that one out of the way, then," Colin reasoned, turning and beginning to walk again (he had stopped to listen to the explanation). After all, they didn't want to be playing around with potions they didn't even know the effects of!

[Varde]

Fenzik just about doubled over laughing at Colin's reaction. He was subsequently pleased to see that Colin seemed to approve of his choice for the first potion. "I hope so!" he affirmed the bird's musings. "Well, that is... I don't hope his temper proves so volatile again, but in case it does," he clarified hastily. "We'll be prepared!" he said with a slightly over-the-top grin. At once, he worried that he was beginning to exasperate his cardinal friend, and his expression shifted to a more subdued smile. It simply wouldn't do to annoy the Card whom he was about to accompany on this lengthy trek.

"Well, hey, sometimes science is more interesting that way," the rat protested, now defending himself. As the cardinal started to walk away from the house, Fenzik hurried to walk alongside him, thankful that the bird had taken the time to check the map. "Unknowns are far more fascinating than knowns," he pointed out, although he doubted any non-Corvie would see eye-to-eye with him on this. "At any rate, I promise not to use it on you, all right?" he joked carefully.

[Lucca]

"Indeed," Colin replied, breathing out slowly. He had no doubt at all that the mysterious Horse's temper would be just as bad as it had seemed, but he saw no reason to belabor the point right at this moment. If Fenzik wanted to be cheerfully optimistic about it, well, that was his own prerogative, and something Colin knew he needed to balance out his own view of the situation. A counter to the rage threatening to bubble up if he just gave it half a chance. They were, after all, going to try -not- to bring it to a fight, if they could help it. That was the plan, and that was what they'd do.

A small frown did pull the corners of Colin's beak down as Fenzik argued against keeping the potion unused. He tended to rather disagree with the statement about unknowns, actually. He'd rather know exactly what he was going up against at all times. Otherwise, they might as well throw their entire plan out the window right now. But in the interest of not starting pointless arguments this early in the trip, all he said was, "I'm not sure how good of an idea it would be, at least while we're just going to look," and continued leading the way down the decrepit street. He didn't respond to the joke, other than to peek briefly over his shoulder at the Rat. "Good."

He paused at the end of the block, consulting the map and waiting for Fenzik to stand next to him. Really, it would help him feel less agitated if they walked side by side instead of the Rat trailing him.

[Varde]

"Of course, of course," Fenzik conceded, becoming aware that his Corvie humor was not going over well with the Villa. "You're right. This mission is primarily one of reconnaissance. Forgive me for getting ahead of myself," he apologized. "I do that a lot. I all too frequently find myself putting the cart before the horse," he mused, then burst abruptly into laughter once again. "Ha! I inadvertently said 'horse'! Which is exactly the type of Card we're going to see!" he declared jovially, as though this were knowledge to which the cardinal was not already privy.

When Colin stopped walking, the rat came alongside him. He saw that the bird was checking their map, and he took the moment to peer at it as well. Try as he might to concentrate on the task at hand, however, for one reason or another, his mind remained on the entertaining -- to him, at least -- mental images his previous statement had conjured up. "Although I doubt that this particular horse would relish being harnessed to a cart," he asserted, shooting a knowing smirk in Colin's direction.

Suddenly, while Fenzik was distracted, Fen made a swift grab for the map. The tail missed, but not to be so easily deterred, it tried again. This time it managed to grab hold of a corner of the map. This caught the rat's attention. "Hey! Stop that!" he scolded it, and stepped quickly backward to try to detatch it from the document. Fen, however, held fast, and tried to drag the map away with it. "Bad tail!"

[Lucca]

Colin was not normally one to appreciate such jokes, and while this prompted certain of his family members to make the silly claim that he had no sense of humor at all, the Cardinal would reply that his sense of humor was merely too sophisticated for the rest of the world to line up with most of the time. He decided that it would be better to just not reply to Fenzik's babbling, focusing instead on the map in front of him. But the Rat, it seemed just didn't want to let the subject drop, and so Colin finally turned to face him.

"He'd deserve it if he was," the Villa said calmly. "With how much he looks down on Aces, it might do him some good to be treated as one for a time." He was referring, of course, to the practice of Ace horses being used as beasts of burden, like they were just larger versions of their non-Card equivalents. Being put in front of carts of carrying riders or gear were some of the many things the Ace horses were roped into. Colin had no real problem with this practice, but the thought of the angry Corvie being brought down a few notches by sharing this fate brought a slight smile to his beak.

Of course, the smile vanished into a startled cry as the map was pulled from his feathery grip. Oh, to have the hands of a biped, so that he could actually hold things without either losing his balance or having butterfingers! He looked disconsolately at the 'bad' tail for a moment, teasing him by holding the map just out of his grip. He shook his head and waved a wing. "Oh, never mind, Fenzik...let's just--ow!" And he'd now smacked his wing into the side of a building. Wonderful. Grumbling under his breath and now in a decidedly bad mood, Colin walked hurriedly down the next street, expecting Fenzik to follow, no longer caring as much whether the Rat was behind him or beside him.

After a few blocks, the Cardinal had calmed down again, at least visibly, and he turned towards his friend to apologize. "Please forgive me, Fenzik. I believe I'm somewhat nervous about meeting with our...friend again, and it's affecting my mood." He scratched a bit at the pavement, sheepishly, but continued walking.

[Varde]

Fenzik and Fen engaged in a brief tug-of-war match before the tail decided it was no longer interested and simply relinquished its hold on the map. "Good grief," the rat muttered as he regained his balance. "I'm sorry, Colin, that was --" he started, but upon looking up, he realized the cardinal had, unsurprisingly, lost his patience with these antics and already resumed walking. Fenzik hastily folded the map and hurried to rejoin his friend, coming alongside the bird after a short while.

He hadn't thought it necessary for Colin to apologize for anything, but he was relieved to see that the bird was calming down a bit. "No, no, it's perfectly understandable. I am apprehensive as well!" he admitted. He thought for a moment about the meeting in question, then added, "It's not easy confronting... someone like that." Now was probably an appropriate time for some sort of cheesy inspirational statement or confidence-boosting cliché, but he drew a blank. Instead, he hesitantly held out the map toward the cardinal and said awkwardly, "Um, here you go. Sorry about that, again."

[Lucca]

Colin allowed himself a weary sigh, and gave Fenzik the closest to a smile he could manage right at the moment as the Rat at least understood their situation. And he wasn't mad. But then again, the Rat seemed a very cheery sort, and didn't let a lot of things get to him. It was this trait that Colin both admired and balked at, since it meant it seemed difficult to know when the Corvie was going to take something seriously or not. At the same time, Colin knew that he himself was much too easy to ruffle, though he was usually good at hiding such feelings for the sake of keeping social peace.

He took the map back in his wings and shook his head at Fenzik. "Don't worry about it. It's not really your fault." Though why the Rat had done that to his tails in the first place, Colin couldn't begin to fathom.

The two walked on for a little while, closely following the route on the map, and gradually got closer to the house of that miscreant. They kept up a slightly tense, scattered conversation as they walked, just to avoid awkward silences. Or at least, that was Colin's reason. As they approached the street that was clearly marked on the map, Colin slowed down, and he turned to Fenzik to whisper, "We're getting very close. I think it's that house just over there." He gestured with a wing, narrowly avoiding hitting a mail box with the appendage. The house in question looked...unremarkable. It was much the same as the other houses on the block; in a mild state of disrepair with an overgrown lawn. It didn't look much like the home of an evil mastermind. "We need to be a bit quieter from here on out, you know, so as not to attract notice." Colin peered down the street in either direction, and was pleased to see no other Cards about at this particular moment. That would certainly make hiding easier, because there was no one to hide from!

((I hope you don't mind the time skip. <3 If you want me to change it just let me know.))

[Varde]

Fenzik turned toward the house that Colin was indicating. "I think you're right," he agreed, nodding, although in truth he was relying entirely upon the cardinal's assessment. This was the correct area of the realm; he knew that much from his travels, but beyond that, he couldn't be much help. The rat made a point of peering over Colin's shoulder at the map for a moment, in the hopes of fooling the bird into thinking he wasn't actually totally clueless. He scratched his head with a claw, then nodded again with a sound of ambiguous satisfaction.

"Yeah," Fenzik acknowledged the need for stealth. The tall grass surrounding the house might help to that end. "So what should --" he began, then realized he was still speaking in his normal voice. "So what should we do?" he asked again, his tone now much lower and hushed -- perhaps unnecessarily so. "Sneak around the back and look in a window, or something like that?" He thought for a moment, and wondered briefly why they hadn't done more actual planning on the journey over. "Hmm. Would it be better to split up, or stay together? We want to minimize our probability of... getting caught... which..." he trailed off, still gazing analytically at the house.