"All right, so we know what we came here to do, correct? Everyone is absolutely clear about our mission? Do I need to go over it again?" K' asked as he looked around the table as the ever so loud music of the Gold Saucer blared over their ears. Renault, his studious male Au Ra friend, managed to look up from the book he had. Ulu, the ever so hyper lala, managed to peel her eyes away from the sights of the casino to nod in affirmation. The only one that didn't seem to pay him any mind was K'tai, the ever so skimpily dressed miqo'te who had the attention span of a fish, "Gonna just take that as a yes."

"Do you mind running that by me again?" K'tai asked as she brushed back her dark crimson hair.

"How many times does this make it K'tai?"

"Look, you speak way too f**** softly and this awful music is giving me a headache," she said as she let out a growl. K' could only shrug it off.

"We're here to find the husband of this rich Limsa merchant and haul his butt back to Limsa. She suspects that he's been meeting with his mistress here and well...she's not having anymore of that!"

K'tai grumbled, "Oh great. Why are we doing this again? Didn't the hunt board have something more...heroic?"

"Well since you guys are like gonna sit here and go over the mission again and again and again and again, I'm gonna make like a chocobo and get going! No sense wasting time!" Ulu said and before K' could explain who they were looking for, she had sped out of the chair so fast, it was still moving around as he was still opening his mouth to speak. He watched her speed off and shook his head.

"Remember K'tai, the Warrior of Light often had to do menial tasks like fetching water for people, getting involved with children's little games or handing out uniforms to turncoats-"

"Well they sound like a real simp if they did all of that."

"We're getting away from the task at hand. We all agreed to take this job because it paid well. It's also not very dangerous and after our failed trip into the Lost City of Amdapor, I'm up for less dangerous jobs."

She took off her hat that she had taken from a trek into Brayflox's Longstop and scratched her head, "Yeah yeah, fine. Who does this mistress look like?"

K' reached into his coat and pulled out a picture of a tan roegadyn woman with jet black hair, "This is the mistress. She goes by the name of Falling Star."

"So apparently he likes them big."

"Well a roe woman will not be hard to miss at all," Renault said.

K' shook his head, "Maybe but the Gold Saucer is a big place, there are a lot of places where people can hide if they want. We should split up and try and find either her or him. Either one will lead us to the other."

K'tai grumbled, "I guess, this sounds so f**** stupid. Gods, I wish we could go do something more important and impressive. Chasing after a cheater is scraping the bottom of the barrel."

"It pays the bills and that's good enough for me. We know who we're looking for so let's split up and go look for them. The sooner we catch him and drag him back to Limsa, the faster we get paid."

"Splendid. I shall take a stroll over to Chocobo Square and start my search there."

K'tai yawned, "Well...I guess...maybe I'll go to the Triple Triad area or maybe some other area. I'll just figure it out," she said as she pushed away from the table and walked off.

"I just hope she actually looks around. She's probably gonna just find something that distracts her and that's that."

K' decided to start in the Event Square. It was a nice wide open area with benches all around and fountains that sent you up to the higher floors but with the large stage area being home to many GATES, it was easy for people to walk around without notice due to the other patrons being distracted by all of the games and a chance to do a GATE and win extra GP. If you wanted to get a secret deal done, doing it while adventurers from all over were flooding the stage in hopes of getting one over on Chupon, was the best option.

To his annoyance, a GATE was taking place in another part of the casino, meaning the Event Square was pretty quiet. Well as quiet as the place could be with all of the machines lying about and all of the people walking around. He walked over to where some of the Punch a Greg machines lay, walking around them in hopes of running into his quarry but instead he bumped into a pale au ra woman with long lavender hair, adored in a red spring dress, "Oh sorry, I was looking for-"

"Well well, here I was sooo totally bored out of my wits and like my favorite little potato in Eorzea has-"

"Oh buzz off," he said, cutting Himiko off before she could finish her sentence. She was a rival of his, often competing with them for marks on the hunt board or whatever job they had going on. She somehow had a way of getting involved or being in the area to mess with them.

She bent down to his eye level and attempted to poke him on the nose but he knocked her hand away, "Oh come on sour puss, I know you're totally happy to see me. What are you up to? It's so not like you to come to the Gold Saucer for fun, that's like not your style at all."

He folded his arms before he started to walk in the other direction, "I am here for fun, well I'm letting the others enjoy themselves while I walk around."

"So it totally doesn't have anything to do with searching for a wayward cheater or Falling Star who is totally his mistress, right?"

"I saw that bill on the hunt board but decided it wasn't worth the trouble."

Himiko tapped her chin, "So you totally didn't like visit the woman who posted the bill? Got a description of the man, his mistress and some places where they like to meet, right?"

"Yup. Have fun with that bill," he said. Hopefully she would get bored and just stop bugging him. He didn't like that it sounded like she was working on it too, the last thing they needed is for her to stick her scaly nose into it.

"K', you're like the worst lying popoto in all of Eorzea. She told me that you were working on it and that I might run into you."

K' walked away from the machines as he could hear the Chupon GATE starting up in the center stage. Maybe this would be his chance to run into the two lovers, so long as Himiko goes away. Adventurers and patrons began to flood the area as the GATE was being set up by the Gold Saucer employees, "Yeah well she was wrong."

"You're still a very terrible writer, you know? Why don't you like admit that you're working on this?"

"Is it your job to stalk me or something?"

Himiko tapped her chin as he tried his best to ignore her. More and more people were beginning to pour into the area, making it that much harder for him to see if he could see either the guy or his mistress. She was a female roe but with all of the people about, that didn't really make his job that easier.

"My lot in life is to make your life more fun, I think. Totally."

He looked over his shoulder, "Sounds like you got a pretty terrible roll, have you considered rolling again?"

"You're totally gonna miss that super tall roe lady right there!"

His eyes began darting around the enormous room, while the music began to blare even louder as Chupon appeared to troll everyone with his little game. He had tried it once or twice and realized it was a bit of a gp sink, opting to never bother with it again, "What, where? I don't see her at all! Where are you pointing at?"

"Just kidding, she's not there."

K' shot her a dirty look, "I'm not here for your awful jokes, Scales."

"I'm not here for your insults popoto. Maybe we could totally work on this-"

"Together? Gods no, I'm already splitting this four ways, splitting it five ways is not how I wanted things."

"You're as difficult as a cranky opo opo, I thought you wouldn't mind learning what I know."

K' folded his arms, "If you're in a sharing mood, sure. Don't expect me to fill your purse with gil though."

Himiko shrugged, "Maybe I'm like totally doing this out of the goodness of my little scaly heart."

Why would she do that? They were pretty much rivals, they had competed for many a hunt before, why would she want to help them out just because? There had to be an ulterior motive, he just knew it, "I guess..."

He heard a loud snort as the first group of people were blown off the platform by Chupon's sneezes. Some people cursed the creature for their poor luck, some stuck around to see who else would get blown off but most of the people just shrugged it off and went back to the other amusements that the casino held, "So I've heard that Falling Star may not be what she seems."

"You heard?"

Himiko nodded, "Well it's less like I heard and more like I saw. She seems to be rather well off, I followed her to Uldah, where I found her having dinner with some of the rich merchants in the city, I mean even some of the Syndicate were there!"

He raised an eyebrow, "Well...unless she's a mistress to some high rollers, that is a bit curious."

"I really doubt she's a mistress to all of those people. I thought it was curious too. so I decided to do a little more investigating. Guess what I totally found?"

"What?"

"She seems to have quite a few high ranking connections. I found her meeting with some of the high houses in Ishgard and with some of the esteemed families in Gridania. I don't think this is some simple mistress, I think there is more to this story than meets the eye."

K' folded his arms. This could all be true or it's possible she could be messing with him just for the hell of it. You could never tell with Himiko, "Well that's all very interesting but...hmm," he started to say before he noticed Falling Skies. She was hanging on the edges of the room, looking a bit bored. She was dressed rather nicely, far too nice for a mistress to be honest. "There she is, I bet I can get closer-"

"I mean you could totally try but trying to get the drop on her is like kinda tough," Himiko said.

He ignored her as he passed through the crowds of people as best he could. Being a lalafell made it a little easier to get by undetected, except for the Gold Saucer where there was nothing but a ton of rich lalafells walking about. Lalafells dressed much better than him, causing him to stick out like a sore thumb. He stopped and had to jump out of the way to avoid an absent highlander guy dressed in a sailor shirt and some really bright tights. It was a bit distracting to be honest and he found himself staring off after the guy for a moment but when he looked back to where she was, Falling Skies was gone. He looked around the area, hoping to see where she went but he couldn't see at all. He stomped over to one of the machines and acted like he was gonna kick it before thinking better about it. One of the bunny girls walked by but he didn't really care. How had she managed to get away so easily? He hadn't taken his eyes off her for that long and bam, she was gone!

"I think she was headed toward the Lords of Vermillion area," Himiko said.

He looked over at her, "Oh that place? I totally forget it even exists."

She sighed as she shook her head, "You wouldn't be the first person to say that. I don't understand why people hate it, you get to play with a ton of minions! How could you resist an army of Fat Cats?"

He rolled his eyes, "I can walk through Limsa and see plenty of Fat Cats just fine. Everyone and their mom has adopted one."

"Oh c'mon, not everyone has adopted a Fat Cat! Some of them have made Wind-Up Titans, yet others have adopted small-"

"Less talking and more walking! We don't want to lose track of her!"

K' entered the Lords of Vermillion area and found it pretty barren as usual. It had been hyped up as a new attraction for the Gold Saucer but it wasn't long before patrons complained of it being far too complex to grasp and not that engaging to begin with. He had tried his hand at it a few times and found it kinda fun but without much competition, it wasn't worth playing. He looked around for Falling Skies but didn't see her around, "Drat, I hope she didn't change her mind."

Himiko looked around as well before walking over to one of the tables, "Maybe she did. Maybe she noticed a little popoto trying to shadow her."

He folded his arms, "I'm rather good at shadowing people I'll have you know. I spent some time with the rogue's guild in Limsa learning that."

She shrugged, "Ya know, I totally hear people telling me that and then I find out they are like so awful at it. Just the other day a pink haired elezen told me he was an expert at shadowing others, yet I kept catching him trying to do it. He was really awful at it, you could see him...hey, that red haired bunny girl looks awfully familiar."

He looked over in the direction she was pointing and could see the red haired miqo'te standing by one of the tables, pretending to serve a lalafell couple engaged in a game of Lords of Vermillion. She looked pretty bored doing it and kept staring off in various directions until her eyes met his. He realized it was K'tai, and he decided to walk over to see what she was up to. Normally his eyes might wander seeing a miqo'te dressed in such an outfit but since it was K'tai and she was more dressed than usual, he couldn't even bat an eye. She looked over at him as he approached and left the table to speak with them, "So just why are you dressed up like this?"

K'tai put a hand on her hip, "It's called going undercover."

Himiko looked her over, "So like just how undercover do you plan to go?"

K'tai glared at her, "Gonna pretend I didn't hear that one."

K' shrugged, "Who cares, just tell me what you found out."

K'tai looked over at the lalafell couple who didn't seem to have noticed she left, "Well I was asking around about her, seeing if anyone knew anything about her, like how often she came to the Gold Saucer, what kind of attractions did she often visit, things like that. I haven't gotten much traction though, people seem to just clam up!"

Himiko sighed, "Well it's not like she has a lot of totally high...wait that came out wrong."

"What this doofus meant to say is that Falling Skies has a lot of friends in high places. We're talking rich merchants, members of the Syndicate, people from the high houses of Ishgard, I think you get the idea."

K'tai nodded as he kept firing off the names and then she shook her head, "So asking around might have just made our job harder. Like how was I supposed to know this?! You think I'm some sort of bloody f**** primal that can scan your thoughts?"

He rolled his eyes, "Calm down cat. First off the information came from Himiko and I didn't want to trust her. Second...uhh, well we just didn't run into you earlier to fill you in."

K'tai looked at him and then at Himiko, before looking at him again, "Wait wait, since when did the two of you start actually working together?"

"I'm tolerating her presence."

"We're totally working together, he's just being his usual self."

"My usual self would have told you to get lost already-"

"You sure are being really ungrateful for this information I have so willingly shared with you," she said. He wanted to argue back but man did that sound like a compelling statement. Without that little tidbit of info, they'd be up the slopes of O'Ghomoro without a map. Of course he still wasn't sure if he could trust her but so far this was all they had so far. If it turned out she had mislead them, he'd ask Renault if he knew of any curses in his books.

"Fine, fine. We're working together for now."

K'tai frowned, "Well...I guess. Does that mean that creep Itrex is close behind?"

Himiko giggled, "Oh him? No no, he's out in Ishgard, having to attend some special function with his family. He wanted to come, said this function was gonna be totally boring and all but he had to go so-"

"And R'xie?" K'tai asked. To be honest, if the blue haired moon miqo'te had opted to show up instead of Himiko, he wouldn't have minded one bit but that was way too much to ask.

"Busy, couldn't come help. Luckily I'm here!" Himiko said, causing K' to just sigh in defeat.

"So what do we do now? If word got out that we've been asking around about her, she might high tail it out of here!"

"There is still the husband. I doubt she's met up with him yet. If she had, she would have left already. She's probably still searching for him, we can try and find him first before we catch her," he said.

"I guess it's worth a shot. If I run into the others, I'll let them know," K'tai said. "I'll let the two of you work together on finding the husband."

He felt like rolling his eyes as K'tai walked off, "You know, we should totally pretend to be a c-"

"Nope," he said, cutting her off before she could finish her thought. He already knew what she was getting at and he wasn't having it.

"Everyone totally knows that we dislike each other, wouldn't it throw everyone for a loop if we pretended otherwise?"

He looked at her with an annoyed look, "No."

"You're more difficult than a pair of Myotragus billies in heat."

He slapped his face and let out a groan, "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."