Two Sides to Every Card (Varde!)

[Lucca]

Fenzik must have been good at looking like he knew things, because Colin was completely fooled into thinking the Rat knew where they were going. He even let a small smile turn the corners of his beak up at the agreement. "Then let's go." Walking as quietly as he could, the Cardinal led the way towards the house. He, too, saw how overgrown the lawn looked...a lot of them were like that here, since the residents had 'more important' things to attend to then their lawn. He paused to dart in between some garbage cans and the side of the adjoining house, and turned to blink at Fenzik. He forced his voice into a bare whisper, barely louder than the rustling of his feathers.

"I was thinking so, yes. This is strictly a reconnaissance mission. We're not going to rush in and play hero." He frowned at the Rat's offer of splitting up. "I think it would be best to stay together, in case something goes wrong. If we're caught, THEN split up, to confuse our pursuer. Ready?" But no sooner had the words left Colin's beak than he felt a cold prickling sensation on the back of his neck, like they were being watched. He turned around and tried to muffle a cry of surprise as he came face to face with someone he never even heard approach.

The shadowy figure straightened, looking them over. She was a Torquehelm Feline with a missing ear and a suspicious expression. "Do you call that being sneaky?" She rolled her eyes. "You two breathe so loud I could have clawed you in the dark."

[Varde]

Fenzik followed Colin's lead, stepping as delicately as he could through the grass. (Meanwhile, Fen was amusing itself by taking revenge on the horse's lawn -- grabbing little clumps of grass and other assorted weeds, here and there, and ripping them out of the ground.) The rat's movements probably came across as rather comically exaggerated, as he really had no experience in this brand of reconnaissance. Typically, if there was information he wanted to gather, he would find someone who knew it and just ask them for it. Then again, in this case, he and Colin had, essentially, already tried that, and the facts they gleaned had been... less than complete. Hence why it was time to investigate first-hand.

Fenzik considered Colin's decision to stay together, started to respond, then decided against it for the sake of preserving whatever stealth they had. Instead, he simply nodded emphatically, attempting to with one gesture both convey agreement with the bird's reasoning and answer the bird's question. He had just started to move toward the trash cans Colin was hiding behind, when he heard the latter emit a sudden cry. "What?" he called in a worried tone, entirely forgetting to whisper. He rushed to the cardinal's side. Colin looked fine, but what was he staring at? Fenzik turned, and only then did he notice -- "Gah!" He physically winced, partially from the shock of seeing another Card here, and partially as he realized he was doing an impeccable job of blowing their cover.

He hung his head, his face feeling hot as the Torque seemed to scold the two of them. But this new arrival had presented a great many unknowns into the rat's mind, and his curiosity quickly overpowered his shame. "Who are -- what -- you don't live here -- do you? I mean, in this house?" he stuttered as several questions tried to force their way out simultaneously. "I -- we thought -- there was a horse -- and you're not a Corvie," he tried again, but it was no good. He was probably just confusing her. Shaking his head, Fenzik decided to try asking something more blunt. "Whose side are you on?" Nope. Still sounding stupid. He sighed and looked plaintively at Colin, hoping the bird's wits were in a little better semblance of order than his own.

[Lucca]

Colin sputtered, stared, and fluffed up indignantly before forcing his feathers to smooth back down. He frowned deeply at the Feline, and waited until Fenzik had finished sputtering out questions, digging his talons into the dirt and shooting a furtive glance over at the house (they were so close now!). "Excuse me, Madame, but who are you?" he hissed in as polite a tone as he could manage. He stopped himself from adding anything else, even though he wanted to demand who this ruffian thought she was to tell them off. (Despite the fact he had never noticed her approach despite the heavy iron ball he now noticed was attached to one of her legs).

The Feline looked amused, and tilted her head at them, tail swaying a bit behind her. "I have no idea who the hell lives in that house, nor do I care," she said, flicking a glance over at the place in question. "M'name's Eldy and I was just passing through and happened to notice your pitiful attempts at sneaking around. If you're just gonna get all offended at me, I can leave." She shrugged, and then fixed them with a significant look. "Orrrr I could help you out a little." She looked back at Fenzik. "Which I guess makes it up to you whose side I'm on, huh?"

[Varde]

Fenzik listened with interest to the Torque's explanation. The dialogue between Eldy and Colin gave him a much-needed chance to set his own thoughts in order, and his eyes lit up when the feline indicated she might be willing to provide some assistance. "You'd help us?" he spoke up quickly, not wanting Colin to get in the first word and potentially drive her off with his impatience. "That would be excellent," he said with a smile, casting a glance at the cardinal to try to discern how the latter felt about this acceptance. "You see, there's a horse who lives here -- a Corvistownean, like myself -- and we have reason to believe that he mistreats Aces. So we came here hoping to... well, take a closer look for ourselves," he told her, feeling a bit sheepish at how silly it sounded when he explained it.

Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and continued. "So, how can you help?" he asked, genuinely curious what the newcomer had in mind.

[Lucca]

Colin ground his beak, the anger that he'd pushed down before threatening to rise up again at a new target. He -really- didn't like Eldy's attitude, and a simple glance at her Rank helped to shed light on why. Hearts. Pah. So full of themselves and acting like everyone else was beneath them, even when they themselves weren't even a very high Rank! He was about to protest, but Fenzik cut in before he could. Colin shot the Rat a tame glare, and waited for him to say his piece, taking deep breaths to force himself calm.

After all, they were just here to look, he reminded himself.

Eldy raised an eyebrow, looking between the two. "Mistreats Aces? Like...experiments on 'em? I thought all Corvies did that," she said, with a light shrug. Seeing the Cardinal's eyes flash, she put her paws up in surrender. "Okay, okay! Fine. I'll go scope out the house for ya. Stay here," she commanded, and turned with a swish of her tail to go towards the house.

She was silent as she darted along in the shadows, the heavy iron ball attached to her leg somehow not making any noise as it dragged along slowly behind her. She peered into windows and hopped up gracefully onto the roof, looking around.

Colin stood, watching with a frown on his beak. He snuck a glance at Fenzik. He wanted to say something to express his irritation, but he was actually somewhat impressed she could be so stealthy. Besides...he didn't want anyone -else- to hop out of the shadows to spew insults at them. He cast a nervous flicker of a glance behind him to the dark alley they'd just come out of.

[Varde]

"Not all of --" Fenzik started to interject, wanting to correct Eldy's misconception, but something must have crossed Colin's face that beat him to the punch. No harm done, though, since she was evidently still willing to help. But her command caught him by surprise. "Wait, you mean without us?" he tried to ask in confusion, but with characteristic feline speed she was already gone.

The rat watched as she made quite the show of scouting the exterior of the house, in spite of the weighty-looking metal ball that must have been her Torquehelm binding. He was duly impressed, of course, but also admittedly a tad bitter that she had left them behind. This was their plan! Fenzik had naïvely expected her to simply go along with them. "I -- I thought she was going to help us, not run off by herself," he griped to Colin, as Fen passed the time by prying open the lid of the nearest trash can.

[Lucca]

Colin nearly flinched as Fenzik spoke, and did flinch when there was a clatter from behind them...before he realized it was one of the Rat's tails. "She'll do whatever she will," he hissed back, blue eyes angry and bright and darting around at every shadow. "She's a cat, and she's a Heart." And to Colin's mind, that explained everything.

It was some minutes before Eldy came back, as silently as she'd left, ear cocked and eyes alert. "Hey," she said, grinning impishly. "I've had a look around. Didn't see any Horse, but -did- see the Aces. I could show ya right to 'em, if that's what you want." Her tail lashed and her ear flicked, and she was paying far more attention to what was around her than her calm expression would indicate.

Colin frowned at Eldy, unhappy that she was being so...commanding. He outranked her by several degrees! And, for that matter, Fenzik was even a higher Rank than she was! The fact that Eldy was actually being nice about this and hadn't actually commanded anyone to do anything since returning went unnoticed in the face of the Cardinal's building frustration and firmly entrenched prejudice.

[Varde]

Fenzik pondered Colin's words for a quiet minute or two. She's a cat, and she's a Heart. This didn't explain nearly as much to the scientist as Colin had probably assumed it would. He didn't generally pay much heed to the petty squabbles between the different suits, although he was aware that many Hearts tended to think more highly of themselves than other cards thought of them. Was there a similarly widespread prejudice toward cats? Or was it simply something Colin had developed on his own? While the rat was trying to formulate a tactful way to ask this question, Eldy returned, startling him again.

All other thoughts, including the bitterness from before, fled from his mind as the Torque reported on what she had found. "Great," he said excitedly, feeling less pressure to speak quietly now that he believed the horse was not on the scene. "That would be very helpful," he told her before turning to Colin. The cardinal looked much less pleased with the situation than the rat was. "What -- what do you think, Colin?" Fenzik added, hoping his hasty consent hadn't irked the bird further. This was more Colin's plan than his, after all, so he wanted the bird's input.

[Lucca]

Eldy's eyes turned to Colin, as well, wondering if the Avian didn't really like her or something. Whatever, she was helping them and she didn't have to. That meant he had no right to get all huffy, and if he did she'd just leave and go back to looking for The Hatter or something else interesting here.

Colin felt his eyebrow twitch. He was getting a headache from all the emotions he was trying to keep in check. But he managed to nod stiffly. Fine, if this was the way they had to play this...he could work with it. "Very well. Show us," he said in a commanding tone, nodding imperiously at the Feline and waving a wing towards the house.

Now it was Eldy's turn to twitch. Wow, but that Villa had an ego on him. She found that he hadn't told her his name. But she really didn't care. She tried to ignore the bird and smiled at the Rat. At least he wasn't acting like he had a stick up his ass the size of an Avington tree. "Come on," she said, and turned, tail swishing. This time, her walk was a little slower, so they could follow. She'd lead them around the back of the house and to a small, half window set right next to ground level and opening into the basement. She pointed a paw towards it.

Colin quickly knelt down to look through, peering in the dim light, and frowned. He shuffled aside so Fenzik could look too.

Inside was a large room. It was lit by a lone electric light bulb, which flickered peevishly every few seconds. The room had an examining table, shiny and metal, in the center, and one wall had a sink and several neatly organized glass-fronted cabinets containing various chemistry supplies. The other wall, across from it, was lined with cages, each just barely big enough for the Ace that was inside them, though the Aces themselves were hard to see, just nervously rustling shadows behind the bars. The walls and floor were made of concrete, and there was a heavy metal door right across from where they were crouched.

[Varde]

Fenzik cocked an eyebrow at Colin and barely stifled an incredulous laugh as the bird now began addressing Eldy as though she were a lowly servant. It was more unnecessarily over-the-top than he had seen the cardinal act before -- so much so as to be comical, but he knew Colin was taking this completely seriously. Was it just because she was a Heart? Was accepting help from a Heart really that objectionable to him?

Either way, he obediently followed the two of them around the house, although he didn't even notice the tiny window before Eldy gestured toward it. While Colin took the first look, Fenzik found himself feeling a little apprehensive. Who knew what he would see inside? Corvie laboratory spaces were an incredibly varied bunch, and not all of them were pleasant to behold. When the cardinal moved away from the glass, the rat stepped up to it, his short animal-form stature giving him an advantage for once.

At first, nothing struck him as out of the ordinary -- cabinets, tables, supplies arranged more neatly than his own -- but then he saw the cages. "Oh, no," he breathed. "There they are." He looked around for a few more seconds, but he had already seen enough. He turned back around to face the other two, his expression pained. "You saw the cages, right? That's no way for any sentient creature to live," he commented sadly, shaking his head.