Inappropriate places

Emily raised her hands in astonishment. "What is everyone's problem with me and Golden Cat!"

Slackjaw clenched his fingers in exasperation. "It's a, well,"

"Don't you dare." Thomas muttered from beside him, before more loudly, "We're coming to you so she doesn't have to go in Golden Cat. You've made people vanish quietly before. We want you to get the Pendletons away from parliament; you don't even have to hold them for longer than a day!"

Slackjaw sighed. "Look, the Golden Cat knows there's a bunch of low-lives in the nearby alley's who'd just love to break in and…" Thomas looked at the gang leader pointedly. "Do…things-anyway, we have the key to a house right next to the Cat, heck, we know about a locked VIP entrance, but my men aren't going to get in without inside help."

Emily rolled her eyes. "So you want the singing scary empress to get you in, right?"

"NO!" The two guys looked at her in disbelief, before Thomas got up. "I'll do it." Slackjaw looked equal parts glad and worried that Emily would disagree. "There's an employee only entrance at the bottom of a side staircase. The key should be on Prudence. Think you can get it?"

Thomas cricked his fingers. "I can try." He was out the door before either of them could complain. Emily sighed. "So… what do we do now? Wait and worry?"

Slackjaw sighed. "More me than you. I just wonder whether I should try and get Rosie out or not."

Emily looked up at him. "Rosie?"

Slackjaw nodded, his eyes unfocused. "Yeah. My daughter. She… Works there, but it's a very unenviable job, even for a bottle street gal in the middle of the plague. Then again, if I get her out of there, what? She runs a gang with me? Lives in a distillery? Any chance that when I'm out my men'll… I mean it's no better than… well at least she gets paid pittance for it there. I shouldn't even be tell…ing… oh come on." Emily was gone.

._.

Thomas leapt onto a balcony overlooking the street in front of the Cat, ducking into the building when the guard began to look his way. He heard a strange humming from the room above, and clambered up the conveniently collapsed floor to see the source. And stopped dead. Before him, Emily was stood in front of a scary looking shrine, seemingly talking into thin air. Thomas grimaced. He knew what she was seeing, and he was dying to hear what it had to say. You will be dying. Insisted a nagging voice in his head, but he screwed up his eyes for a moment and concentrated. Squinting, he saw a blurry outlined figure in a suit saying something like "I wouldn't worry about your side objective, young one. Your two wants here are intertwined. I wonder whether you will manage to help everyone out alive… and if they stay that way." The figure of the Outsider then deliberately turned and winked at Thomas, before vanishing.

._.

Emily stood there for a moment, puzzling out the deity's message as she scooped up the rune, before hearing a sharp, pained intake of breath from behind her. She spun round to see Thomas there, grimacing and gripping his stomach. "Thomas? What're you-"

"What am I?" Thomas almost yelled. "I thought I said I would take care of it!"

Emily huffed. "There was something else that needed doing. Besides, I wanted to see Golden Cat."

"You are not seeing Golden Cat!"

"Will someone please tell me what's wrong with Golden Cat!" Thomas span to the side and rammed a bare fist into a wall, punching through a layer of the plaster. Emily stumbled back a step at the show of surprising aggression and strength. "Fine. You wanna know why?" He grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the room and onto the balcony. He pointed down at the street. Emily looked as what looked like a nobleman walked down the street towards the Cat. He was met at the entrance by a woman wearing clearly insufficient clothing. They conversed for a moment, the woman making odd movements, before he reached towards her-

Emily let out an "Eep!" As Thomas helpfully covered her eyes. She turned towards him, eyes blazing. "This…this is -"

"Brothel? Yup."

Emily was at a loss for words. "This is… this is wrong, why is it legal? Why are noble people going there?"

Thomas had a small wry smile. "Apparently, their wives are… boring, I suppose?"

"That's… I'm making this illegal."

"Then what?" Emily looked at Thomas in surprise. "Suppose you do close this place when you're empress. All those girls in there get thrown out into the street, where they get raped or get employed by a downtown, illegal brothel with far worse living conditions."

Emily clenched her fists, a strangled noise coming from her throat. "Why…why must it be so complicated? Why can't everyone be loyal, and kind, and-"

"Because most people aren't good people!" Thomas shook her by the shoulders for emphasis. "People like you, and your mother, and maybe me, are far outnumbered by the Campbells and Burrows'!"

Emily wrenched her arm away and leant against the wall, covering her eyes with her arms. She stayed there for a good few seconds. Then she breathed in, and turned back to Thomas. Her eyes were alight with determination. "Alright. You go in there, find whoever's in charge and see if they have a master key. They'll probably be in their room. Pickpocket it, and use it to let in Slackjaw's boys. I will scout out the layout of the place and try to identify the guard patrols and find the Pendletons and the VIP entrance. I find you with my void gaze, we meet, we get the Pendletons out. Oh, and look through the lodgers to see if there's a girl called Rosie."

Thomas nodded, grinning.

"Oh, and when I'm empress I'm enforcing a law that guarantees a certain standard of living to girls in brothels."

"…You thought that up while I thought you were crying, didn't you?"

"Uh huh. Come on then, hop to it!"

Sorry! I skipped a week didn't I? Well, that's because I spent my midweek brute-force learning french paragraphs and my weekend traipsing through the peak district. Jeez, life, let a nerd do his thing... anyway, here's some noble/streetrat BANTER. I hope you enjoyed, and next week will be on time. I promise. You've said that before- Shut it!