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 Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:20 pm
A PRIVATE ROLEPLAY IN WHICH
Saint-Cinq's Artemis Kalends instructs hellotea's Toshua Green in the fine art of pickpocketing.
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$ setting :: Imisus: Edgecrest
$ time :: mid-morning, close to noon
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 2:39 pm
It was late morning in the port city of Edgecrest and ships were already coming in at the port, the clanging of bells and scrape of crates and feet on docks announcing their arrival. Along the main streets the market was already in full swing: traders from the smaller, surrounding villages had set up their carts and peddled their wares from fruit to fabric, while established merchants were already calling out to gathering crowds, trying to draw the eye of the new arrivals pouring in through one of the city's gates with exotic imports at equally unbelievable prices.
Artemis Kalends yawned, leaning against one of the alley walls and belatedly covering his mouth and squinting at the bright colors of the marketplace. He'd been out late again, scrambling across rooftops with his ill-gotten gains, and he was tired. He'd anticipated waking up in the early afternoon, much later than this, but once the sunlight had poked through his grimy window, it had been useless to fall back asleep. He was getting hungry, for one thing, and he needed to do something to wake himself up.
Pickpocketing was perhaps among the meanest of his skills; it was a talent that he'd cultivated early on and only later mastered under the tutelage of his mentor, but it still served many purposes for the tired thief. Kalends preferred to think of it as a morning exercise, something he could do almost without thought after years of practice, like a soldier practicing his most basic parries. It was a small but necessary skill that cultivated swift hands and an easy, uninterrupting grace, two tools that were best friends to beginning thieves. He didn't consider it below himself: rather, it was as necessary as playing scales were to a musician-- without the practice of the basics, he would never reach his full potential with more complicated tasks.
And so, as he was with all facets of his thievery, Kalends was diligent.
He picked out his target quickly enough; he'd chosen a location near one of the gates in order to scope out new arrivals caught unaware by the onslaught of sights and sounds in the markets. Naturally, he'd also taken care that he was removed enough from the gate so as not to draw the attention of any Guardsmen.
Initially, Kalends had woven through the crowds in the direction of a sandy-haired man, but had stopped when a young young had tugged at the man's sleeve and begged him for sweets from one of the vendors. The man appeared to farmer taking a day off with his son, Kalends sniffed as he turned away, so he probably wouldn't have had much gold anyway. His dark eyes set quickly on his next target, who looked much more promising.
A middle-aged man decked out in fine cloth and giddily inspecting a gold bauble (a quick glance from Kalends told the thief that it was a fake) had his coin purse strapped to his side but out of his range of vision. Kalends doubted that this man had ever been in a crowded city before and then smiled. He would surely be in for a rude awakening.
Like a predatory fish, the thief navigated through the press of the crowd until he was close to the man to get a better look at the purse. The mistake most thieves made, especially young ones, was not assessing their target and getting too greedy at first. Noting the man sufficiently preoccupied in bartering, Kalends made his move. He lingered by a few stalls selling fruit as though debating between apple varieties, and then casually slipped an apple into his cloak. That was the first part done.
He walked by the man now, carefully aligning his step so that he "accidentally" ran into another passersby, dropping the apple under the stall which the man was bargaining at.
"Oh! I'm so sorry." Instantly, Kalends was all remorse. The passersby he'd walked into grumbled a bit, but after checking her pockets--wary, Kalends smiled to himself--left, satisfied that nothing had been taken. But that was not the object.
Kalends crouched to retrieve his apple, and gently loosened the ropes holding the man's coin purse shut, careful not to disturb his target. He doubted that this man would even notice if he messed up, so absorbed was he in his bargaining, but Kalends held himself to high standards. Once this was done, Kalends stood, dusting his pants off and dipping his hand once, twice! into the coin purse and removing two shillings before rubbing the dirt off his apple and then walking out of the crowd.
Two shillings and an apple. Not exactly riches, but the practice had been more important than the results. Kalends made his way through the crowd and, leaning against a wall, took out his dagger and began to peel the apple.
All in a day's work.
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:37 pm
"Nancy boy, nancy boy, why don't you call your mummy, Toshy-boy?"
Toshua Green grit his teeth in frustration and irritation, eyes gearing towards the group of boys who had followed him as he'd walked into an alley. Being as stupid as he had, the boy hadn't checked – he'd been dodging his personal guard and had entered the area in a state of euphoria and adrenaline. The euphoria, at this point, was mostly gone, to be honest. Almost immediately he started calculating escape options – he could climb up the metal pipe of sorts which ran up the building at his side, he could try and It was saying something that he was somewhat used to the routine already; Toshua was often targeted by boys like this because of his slender figure, his lack of any real defense skills, and above all, his wealth. Tosh generally got out unscathed, but dear god, he wasn't usually stuck in a dead end in an alleyway with nowhere else to go.
"Rufus." He bit out, because now he could recall the terrible blonde bully who had a penchant for talking to his victims as he stole their belongings. A... watch. The boy had taken a watch from him before. "Seems you didn't bring your intellect along." The boy tried for confidence; it didn't work so well, because he was a jumble of nervousness and anger and that was a terrible combination in any situation. "And shut the hell up." Tosh added mutinously.
"Toshy-boy, I'm not feeling very playful today. I just want a little bit – just a little something – and I'll be happy enough, don't you think?" The older boy drawled, coming near and breathing a terrible breath in Toshua's face. The boy just held himself back from choking on the smell. Rufus signaled for the other boys to come closer, and then with an easy smile, surveyed Tosh's body as if he was looking at a piece of meet. His eyes came to a rest on the Toshua's neck, of all places, and Tosh groaned silently. "I'll just be taking – uh, what do we call this, this amulet of yours, won't I?"
Why the hell did this idiot have to talk like this? As if anything he asked were really a question. Tosh closed his eyes and bit his cheek hard enough that it almost drew blood. Fine. Just. Let them have it. He'd seen Rufus kill a street boy before, on accident to be sure, but beating another boy up so badly that he died... Toshua was brave, but not that brave. And normally he wouldn't even care – but that amulet, it was so important to him. His tutor, Pepe, had given it to him within the first weeks of teaching him. Told him that if he found someone who could use magic, he could fill it with something that would protect him forever. But. He had too much to live for, too much waiting for him at home – his mother, his father, and above all, his plague. The pumpkin within which a spirit sat dormant, sitting on his nightstand of all places. Nope. Just let them take it, Toshua.
The actual snatching was quick enough. Toshua winced as Rufus broke the thin chain around his neck (he was certain it was gold, damnit) and his silver eyes shone with contained rage. "Well, thank you, Toshy-boy. I'll be on my way now!" Rufus tipped the boy with two fingers to his head and then walked off with his goons in hand. That left him sprawled on the ground, which was thankfully mostly dry. Tosh waited two minutes after they'd left before finally standing up, patting himself dry and checking out the state of his limbs. God, he was such a coward.
The boy stumbled out of the alleyway with one hand combing through his hair and the other simultaneously touching up his clothes. He was just in time to notice a man, dark and almost unnoticeable, steal a few shillings from a older man's coin purse without the guy even noticing. Tosh watched, his hand in his pockets, interested; even more interested as the strange man leaned against a wall next to him and started peeling the apple he'd been holding. Tosh breathed in any hesitation he had, and stalked up to the man confidently – well, as confidently as a 15-year-old boy who'd just been mugged could. "Teach me to do that. What you just did." Maybe there was a way he could get that amulet back...
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 5:33 pm
Kalends looked up from the fruit and cocked his head at the boy, more annoyed by the interruption than interested. The thief quickly gave the boy a once-over: he was wearing nice clothes, looked young enough to start working but didn't have the worn-down veneer that a lot of street rats and child laborers around here had. His question was so open, so innocent. Probably not from the area. Or maybe he was just very sheltered. After all, what kind of person would willingly walk up to a thief and strike up conversation?
That kid would have to be cocky as hell. And sure, there was something in that face, some urge to know something, but either Kalends had misheard his question or the thief was still too tired to figure out why this boy seemed so adamant already because it didn't make sense.
Still, Kalends shrugged, took his knife to the apple again, and skinned the rest of it in one long red strip.
"What, you don't know how to take the skin off an apple?" Kids these days, Kalends sighed to himself. He didn't think that the boy had actually seen him steal anything-- in his mind, he thought (perhaps too arrogantly) that his skill was so good that none but a keenly trained denizen of the streets could spot him. This boy couldn't possibly be referring to his earlier actions, and Kalends was at ease. "You don't need me to teach you. Go ask your parents."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:57 pm
There was an air of nonchalance and effortless self-confidence that the man leaning on the wall exuded; it was almost intimidating, and he looked at Toshua with nothing but detached interest, a brush off. He squared his shoulders and tried to look as menacing as possible, which wasn't very much – he was all limbs and awkward angles at the age of 15, and that wasn't going to change any time soon. The man, though. He was elegant and dark and almost strangely easy to miss; normal but not-too-normal, an outcast yet not.
And then he started talking about an apple and that spoiled the mystery a bit. Mystery men weren't so cocky to believe that children couldn't peel apples or that he was such a good pickpocket that Tosh wouldn't have noticed his little deed. Tosh made a face that he was sure was some level of disrespectful. "What are you talking about?" He said, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "I know how to peel an apple." Tosh snorted, eyes narrowing. Well, he did, technically; somewhere deep in his memory Tosh was certain his father had taught him. Nowadays he generally asked the maids or whoever was in the house to do it, but still... The boy jutted his chin out defiantly and placed his hands on his hips. "I was talking about that trick you just pulled there."
A mischievous grin came to his face as Tosh looked up at the stranger, almost fluttering his eyelashes in an attempt to look innocent. "I won't tell anybody."
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:52 pm
That trick...? Kalends sighed to himself and glowered. He had a bad feeling that he knew what that boy was referring to, but, like any good thief, he wasn't going to admit to it unless he had to.
Hell, all he'd wanted to do was keep his skills sharp and eat his damn apple in peace. Kids these days didn't understand the importance of not going out to work on an empty stomach, probably because most upper-class runts had never worked a day in their lives. And while an apple wasn't bad for starters, Kalends had been hoping that he could get some honeybread and then pester his contact in the marketplace later. He had things to do, and unless this kid had a damn good reason to distract him from his food, he would sashay on off and take his apple elsewhere.
Still, this kid seemed persistent already. If he truly had seen Kalends steal those coins and was talking about that, then Kalends wasn't sure if he'd be able to escape without a confrontation or at least doing something to placate the boy and keep him quiet. But, he'd give escaping a shot first.
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." Kalends bit into an apple slice he'd speared on his dagger, the blade glinting coldly in the sun. "Perhaps you are mistaken, for all I've been doing lately is peeling my apple."
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