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 Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 9:32 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 9:33 pm
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As evening fell on the coast of Alternia, the city of Civiset began to light up, shimmering like a jewel on the shore of the ocean. Its beauty was lost on a certain greenblood, as he made his way through well-paved streets and still-sleepy neighborhoods at a brisk pace. Larque had left his hive early that evening, but not for the usual reasons - he was not off to hunt or fish, or even to visit the pier and lurk around. His schedule for the night included something far more nefarious, a plot he'd been pursuing for nearly two weeks.
His eyes darted about as he made his way through the city, seeming to know exactly where he was headed. Though Civisect's layout had changed completely with its reconstruction, Larque had already begun to rememorize parts of it, some better than others. He took pride in such knowledge; eventually, he would know every nook and cranny of the forsaken place again. Where to hide, where to loot. Fingers twitching, he picked up his pace after being startled by the sight of a large canine lusus emerging from a nearby hive. With the glow of the sun just beginning to fade beneath the horizon, there was barely anyone up and about to see him on his way, as he slunk toward an especially upscale area. He had visited the place several times previously, in the process of stalking his target. The hives in the neigborhood were some of the largest he had ever seen, and soon he would get to see the inside of one of them.
The hive in question belonged to one Corusa Scinti, an especially obnoxious blueblood Larque had had the displeasure of observing on the pier one night some time ago. She was as bossy and ill-tempered as they came, and flaunted her wealth in a manner generally reserved for seadwellers. It had only taken a night of ghosting to find out the truly important details about her. She was a metal-worker, of all things, skilled at making anything and everything, from weapon blades to jewelry. She loved to brag about it, and apparently had a wealth of clients who commissioned her regularly for new pieces to add to their own gaudy collections. That was all Larque needed to know.
As the moons rose, the greenblood arrived at his destination, found a place to hide, and waited. Even hours after sunset, the neighborhood was generally peaceful, with trolls and lusii coming and going. He had picked a large row of hedges that bordered his target's lawnring, with the knowledge from previous snooping that she would indeed be spending a night out. Eventually, his patience paid off - she bounced out of her hive sometime around 9pm, decked out in jingling jewelry, and a flowing blue dress that shimmered with sequins. Her long, curly hair bounced as she went, and a small, horse-shaped lusus followed her out. Like its charge, it was also covered in flashy accessories.
Jackpot. Larque's eyes narrowed as they both made their way across the grass, before exiting through the gate and shuffling off down the street, the troll laughing as she conversed with her caretaker. He waited a long while after they were out of earshot, before stalking through the hedges, until he could see the back of the hive. The doors were all locked, no doubt...but Corusa had a balcony on the back of her hive, on which she loved to lounge and read.
In one fluid motion, Larque tossed one of his scythes up, slinking out from the bushes once the weapon found its hold. Hauling himself up and over the railing, he crouched at the glass door before giving it a tug - and snorted as he found it unlatched. The cockiness of highbloods never failed to amaze him, but he didn't wait to marvel over it as he pressed inside, stepping quietly onto the tile of what seemed to be a very fancy nutritionblock. He was in. All that was left to do was find where the blueblood had her loot stashed. Keeping his wits about him, Larque took a good look around (no jewelry immediately apparent) before moving stealthily into the hallway, footfalls silent.
Corursa's hive was absolutely lavish, decorated just as gaudily as the troll herself. Larque couldn't help but sneer at the decor, making his way down the hall and taking a peek into each passing room. Sooner or later, he would find what he was looking for...
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 9:46 pm
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As far as ideas went, this was probably a bad one. At the very least, Etsali was sure anyone would agree it was a terribly reckless one. Breaking into hives was always a risk, especially in a neighborhood as well to do as this one, and her lusus had always drilled it into her head that she needed to do a fair amount of recon before even considering such a thing. And even with recon, there was always a chance you'd get caught anyway, it had happened to her before. But here she was anyway, in a city she barely knew the layout of, about to sneak into a home she'd picked half on a gut feeling.
Keeper would have had a fit, and maybe she wasn't the only one, but Etsali was absolutely thrilled to be back on the hunt regardless. She'd still been wrapping her head around the logistics of recovering all of her hoard from her old hive without being noticed, and while she hadn't drawn a conclusion yet, she had gotten an itch to get a head start on a new one, just in case. She'd followed that itch right to Civisect City with only a few second thoughts, because somewhere in the back of her mind that had always been the plan. She'd fought to help rebuild this city back when she was a kid, so it owed her one.
To her credit, the orangeblood might have picked a neighborhood at random, but she had at least picked a hive she'd seen the resident leaving. How long the highblood would be gone was a mystery and there was a chance that there was still someone else inside, but a little challenge always made victory that much sweeter, didn't it? Trying to subdue a grin and careful to stay as out of sight as possible, she edged in along the side of the hive, peering into windows and then at them to check how likely they were to open.
She didn't find an unlocked one, but she'd seen these kind of latches before and that made it an easy enough fix with just the very careful use of a knife. A little wiggling to push the window up and climb through, and then she was in. It got a little easier every time. She crouched where she'd landed for a few moments, listening for any movement and giving her eyes a little time to adjust. Nothing stirred. Perfect.
Now then, if she was a carefully kept highblood hoard, where would she be? Etsali crept out into a hallway, keeping her steps light, and wandered until she found a staircase up. It seemed like the better idea to check higher ground first, didn't it? She turned right at the top of the stairs, heading for the furthest door with the notion that she'd work her way around starting from the end. It was only complete and utter chance that she slipped by as the other thief in the hive was poking his head into another room. She never even saw his shadow.
Moonlight sifting in through the windows revealed that she'd found herself in a very fancy respiteblock. She resisted an urge to laugh as she moved towards a dresser. Another gut feeling gone right. She was so good at this.
Quote: Sorry for the wait! Had to make myself stop overthinking it, haha
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Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 6:44 pm
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The house was silent and empty, aside from the two thieves. Larque had made extra sure that only the troll and her lusus lived there - she had friends over occasionally, of course, but tonight the hive was supposed to be completely vacant, save for Corusa's treasure. That was why, at the scraping sound of the window being lifted, Larque tensed and stilled inside the room he had entered. After straining to listen for a moment, he shrugged it off as a noise from outside, and turned his attention back to what he had located.
It looked like some sort of work shop or hobby room. There was a long table pressed against the back wall, with an array of tools carefully laid out on one side. All sorts of pliers, scissors, small hammers, and other things. Two large containers made up of drawers on the other side of the room held nothing but wire spools, beads, and charms - where was the good stuff? With a slow exhale, the greenblood left to continue his search. What he wanted was on the lower level, perhaps. If she did metal work, there had to be a place where she actually stored her materials, and the products themselves.
Larque had a notion of where that might be. He just needed to find her respiteblock, the place everyone always kept their most valued treasures. Exiting the work room, he slithered down the hall, peeking quickly into each door in passing, until he finally got to the end. When he looked into the last room and saw a figure illuminated in the moonlight, his bloodpusher nearly stopped.
For a split second, Larque thought Corusa had somehow managed to come back into the hive without him hearing, but that was impossible. Wrong hair, wrong colors...the orangeblood must have come in sometime after he had. Lip twitching, his eyes remained glued on Etsali as he stalked up behind her...and pounced. Larque grabbed onto the striped scarf around her neck and pulled it taut, silently yanking her back and away from the dresser.
"I was here first." His voice was a low growl as he tightened his grip, leaving her just enough slack to breathe, ready to fight if she tried to struggle. It had been a long, long time since anything like this had happened. With the rise of the new city, there were more than enough places to prey on, and only a fraction of the competition there used to be.
"Who are you."
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:17 pm
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Leaving her back to the door had been another rookie mistake, but the realization didn't cross Etsali's mind until the very second that she felt the ghost of fingers at the nape of her neck. She inhaled sharply, body tensing, but then those fingers curled around her scarf and yanked. As she stumbled backwards, her hands flew up to her throat, clawing under the fabric and pulling frantically to counter her attacker's force. There was enough space to breathe, just barely, and she refused to lose it.
The thief twisted as she fell back another step, just enough to be able to actually see who those growled orders belonged to. Her mind raced through observations at a lightning pace, sorted through them in search of advantage. Greenblood, looked like he meant business, lots of hair and a niggling tinge of familiarity. Aggressive, but he hadn't accused her of stealing his things, just of beating him to his claim on them. A fellow thief, then? Ooh, that was bad luck, picking a hive someone else was looting.
Talking her way out of this was an option, she knew. He'd gone for interrogation instead of immediate culling, and that implied well enough that he wasn't terribly interested in killing her right out if he didn't have to. It was also, unfortunately, an option she wasn't going to take. He could claim he'd been here first all he wanted, but he sure hadn't found this room first. Breaking the rules of finders keepers meant he was trying to take loot that was already hers. Which meant that right now, in this moment, he was the one kind of thief she couldn't approve of.
"Woah, hold on a minute!" Her smile slid on apologetic and disarming as she considered how she wanted to do this. "I didn't even know you were here. And this is really no way to ask a fellow thief for an introduction, is it?" She laughed quietly and turned just little more towards him, just as if she was trying to open this up to be a proper conversation. The fingers of one hand slipped free of holding her scarf. "Give a girl a chance to make a dramatic entrance."
Her smile never faltered, but suddenly she was lunging at him, throwing all her weight into knocking him off balance. He still had the upper hand if he kept that grip on her scarf, but with one hand working to counter it, she was sure she could keep her breath long enough to break that advantage. Her other hand had curled into a fist, and as she moved, she pulled it back and launched a punch at the greenblood's face.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:42 pm
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Larque wasn't really interested in culling her, but he was definitely interested in defending his hard-earned prize. He hadn't skulked about, spying on an ill-tempered blueblood for weeks, just to be bested by some random rustblood at the last second. As Etsali twisted around in his grasp, his eyes caught hers for a moment, and he remained impassive, stone-faced as she tried to talk her way to safety. Her words meant nothing to him, and if she had come this far, she was likely willing to fight for the same thing. Lowbloods like her were squirrely, scrappy...not to be underestimated. His assumptions proved correct as she lunged.
The punch took him by surprise, and their close proximity prevented him from dodging it. He staggered backwards with a low snarl, only to react in an instant, using her scarf to yank her back and deliver a punch of his own, aimed directly at her stomach. If it was a scuffle she wanted, it was a scuffle she'd get. Knocking her out was an option, but scaring her off was a much more desirable outcome. Corsusa was supposed to be gone all night, but he didn't like to linger, and their confrontation was lasting too long for his taste. If it weren't for Etsali, Larque figured he could have made a clean getaway by now.
"Leave, or you'll regret it." Larque growled, locking onto her with his intense stare. He was tempted to take a glance around the room, but giving into distraction would spell the difference between failure and success. Without waiting for her to respond, he began to shove her back until she thudded into one of the respiteblock walls, before throwing a punch of his own, taking aim at her head.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:10 pm
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There wasn't enough time or room to dodge, of course. The blow to the stomach doubled Etsali over and she had to gasp in a breath to replace what she'd lost. Whoever this greenblood was, he wasn't playing around, was he? Even as she struggled to make a quick recovery, he was already backing her into a wall, another punch flying. This, at least, she was able to handle a little, tilting her head so it was more a glancing hit than a full one. It still rattled her a bit, but that was better than it could have been.
Leaning back against the respiteblock wall, she flicked her eyes back up to meet his and bared her teeth in another quick almost smile. "Gonna be kind of hard to do that from here." If he'd let her go long enough to put some distance between them, she'd take it, of course. But she wasn't leaving. He'd have to turn his back to that doorway to collect the goods the same way she had, and once she had time, it'd be easy to take him down.
"You sure you're not really fishing for company?" Forcing herself to ease up so movement would come more easily, she stayed alert for any more incoming blows that she might be able to catch in her peripheral and resisted an urge to throw another of her own. All in good time.
Kamileunaire oh dang, no punching this time
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2016 7:34 pm
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Larque sneered at her joke, baring his fangs in what was decidedly not a smile in return for her sass. Fishing for company, indeed. As he held her pinned against the wall, he considered his options. All he needed, really, was a little time to get into the highblood's stash, and take what he wanted. He was confident in his ability to fight her off after he'd secured his own loot, and rather hoped she would simply settle for scraps. The possibility of sharing hadn't crossed his mind once, and he wasn't about to entertain it now. With a growl, he grabbed the front of her shirt and began to haul her forward.
"Here, let me help." Larque snarled, and turned, dragging her away from the wall before pivoting to attempt to toss her out the respiteblock door. He followed through by continuing to shove her back until he had a grip on the door itself. He remained alert all the while, knowing that she most likely had some kind of weapon on her. He was about to boot her out and slam the door shut in her face, before a different sound made him freeze in his tracks.
The front door of the hive slammed open, and Corusa jangled in, humming to herself and taking a moment to call to someone outside. She'd managed to forget something, but thankfully hadn't gone too far before remembering her mistake. By the sounds of it, her lusus was choosing to remain outside, for the moment.
"I'll be quick, just need to grab my jacket!"
In moments she was bouncing noisily up the stairway, only to come to a hesitant haltonce she reached the top, looking down the hall at her open bedroom door. Something wasn't right. She hissed and began to stalk forward, unafraid.
"What that actual <********>?! Who's there!!?"
Corusa bristled when she finally caught sight of Etsali's back in the doorway, instantly livid. Trolls, in her ******** lowbloods, in her hive. Without giving it a second thought, she slammed open a side door and grabbed a sizable hammer, her weapon of choice. It was almost too-conveniently-placed, one of several she had around her home, just in case.
"COME ON OUT." She snarled as she advanced, grip tightening on the handle of her weapon, not seeming to care that she wasn't dressed for a fight. No one ******** around in her hive and survived...especially some sniveling lowblooded thieves.
As quick as he'd tried to shove Etsali out the door, the return of the blueblood had Larque ducking back into the room, pulse pounding. He certainly hadn't anticipated getting caught in the act so quickly. "Great."
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:20 pm
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Ohh, he hadn't liked that, had he? The corner of Etsali's mouth tilted almost against her will, made her expression less a challenge and more an amused grin. But maybe he didn't like that either, because with a snarl he took a fistful of her shirt and began to drag her away from the wall again. She stumbled a little over her own feet as he pivoted and followed through with a series of shoves, but reached up to catch hold of his arm as soon as she realized he intended to close the door in her face.
Whatever plans she'd had to stop that from happening came to a sudden halt at the sound of a door crashing open downstairs. Etsali went suddenly still, sucking in a breath and holding it as she stared in a silent, shared horror up at the greenblood's face. Her grip tightened around Larque's arm, fingers curling into his sleeve, as the highblood noisily made her way up the stairway. She couldn't see the woman approaching behind her, but she could tell the moment she'd been seen by the sudden angry outburst.
Suddenly the thief remembered how to move. The first thing she did was rocket forward into the greenblood, not a tackle or attack but a desperate attempt to make sure he couldn't go through with throwing her out of the room. There was a flash of a thought of climbing right over him, and maybe that would be its own kind of hilarious later, but he was already retreating from the door himself and there was no need. Another thought was already chattering in to replace it and she twisted away from him to catch the door.
In the brief moment she stood there in the doorway again, she finally caught sight of the approaching threat and the huge hammer she now carried. She slammed the door closed without another second's thought, snapped the lock into place, and acknowledged that that would buy them barely any time at all. A free hand popped open the pouch at her belt that always held her knives as she turned back towards Larque.
"How quick do you think we can get a window open?" Her eyes slid across the respiteblock for any other sign of an escape and she more than expected that her fellow thief would be doing the same. Right now they were both targets, after all, and they could wrestle it out over loot once they'd gotten away if he still wanted to try it. Unable to stop herself at the thought, she glanced back towards the dresser, considering. Was there time...?
She darted towards that wall. Only one way to find out.
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