(Flashback) Just Like Old Times

[Javial Kripsin]

22nd of Spring, 508AV Different men had different ways of keeping themselves slender and in shape. Starvation was one of them, but not exactly the approved method. Becoming fat and round was not only bad for business, but the best way of ensuring you were the 'guy left behind' when the wolves attacked. Javial seemed to have bad luck with angry forest creatures even when traveling with a large caravan in the past, and thus he preferred to keep his aerobic capabilities above the men and women he traveled with. It was a survivalist mentality, but it saved him from becoming a casualty all those years. His feet struck the broken streets of Sunberth as he passed into a place he had not visited since leaving for Ravok back in 502AV, the Sunset Quarters. Dressed far more casually than normal, Javial wore a simple pair of black pants kept up with a cord and a plain cotton tunic with leather ties. His hands rocked by his sides as he jogged, appearing to be doing nothing more than keeping his fitness level up, but truly he was always on the look out. His dark eyes stood open, watching everything in front of him. He keep a keen eye out for things of note, people that could be used as contacts on later dates. His ears remained prepared to receive any information in passing, perhaps some trivial gossip or some valuable rumor. Within the slums of Sunberth he noted the place he grew up in as a boy, The Orphanage, still standing just as it had when he left. No improvements of course, but the place certainly couldn't get any worse. It was home though, a place to go back to when no one else wanted you. Out by his path he noticed a few children playing with some 'ball' they had scrounged up from somewhere, or perhaps stolen from someone. Most of the little trinkets Javial had as a child probably belonged to someone else. Sometimes they were thrown away, sometimes they were left behind, but as a kid in the Orphanage everything you had was a treasure, even someone's trash. "Hey Mister!" a voice called out, that ball gone wayward and rolling across Javial's path, "Can you get that and throw it back!" it added, one of the boys in the trio that were passing the time, tossing the object back and forth to one another. Young kids, probably in their tenth or eleventh year, with a younger girl tagging along with the two. Watching as the ball came toward him, Javial ducked down and scooped it up into his hands, giving it a toss into the air to test its weight before it came back down into his palm. His forward momentum ceased and he turned toward those dingy children, rags of clothes mixed in with more whole garments probably passed down from others that had outgrown them. Like always, making 'friends' brought opportunities for business, no matter how young or old they were. Even now he could recall the vast array of things he heard and saw as a child, ignored, underestimated, and neglected by the whole of Sunberth's population. "Sure, catch!" he called back, giving it a soft toss to the taller of the two gangly boys, the ball catching him in the chest before rolling down into his arms.

[Javial Kripsin]

A faint bit of perspiration rolled down Javial's cheeks. From his head, a few strands of his typically tightly tied back hair had broken free, the frizzled locks splattering against the dampness of his skin. From his ear his 'earring' dangled inconspicuously, but upon it was his familiar, Shirelieu. As the dark haired Javial began to walk over toward the children, Shirelieu spoke up, as she did rarely. "Calculation: Your distance per time increment ratio is decreasing." she mentioned, speaking directly into Javial's head. In Sunberth, where mages of most types were hated or met with violence, Javial understood the purpose of utilizing rare and covert magic. Familiary had seemed perfect, if he could only find a familiar that didn't need to speak it's mind to everyone around, or didn't go off gallivanting around on it's own. Shirelieu was an appropriate partner in this respect, and finding her was not easy. The Irylid was often content to stay quietly with Javial and watch the surroundings, so long as she had some time to read when they arrived back at his home. "Yes, I know. I'm not exactly worried about how much distance I can run in a bell, it's just to keep the heart strong. I used to live here years ago. It's been a while since I've been back in Sunberth, and I'm curious to meet some of the new children here. Children carry a wealth of information you know, because many people devalue them. They say or do things in front of children that they normally wouldn't with an adult. The minds of children can be easily swayed as well." Javial responded to his familiar using similar telepathic means. It took a little while to get used to being connected so intimately with something else to the point of sharing a mental pathway of communication, but after spending some time with the Irylid he understood just how valuable it was in his line of work. "So, you kids live in the Orphanage?" Javial asked, putting on a bright smile and keeping his voice soft and pleasant. The children nodded in response, and upon observing that none of them seemed displeased with the man's presence he began to dip subtly into his Djed and activate his Hypnotism. His second form of magery, every bit of covert as his familiary was his trump card that aided him in 'the business'. For children, using the powers of 'suggestion' was powerful enough, "I used to live here you know, so that makes us kind of like family." Hynotism wasn't about overpowering a mind, or enslaving a person's will, it was so much deeper than that, so much more elegant. You needed to understand people. Understand what they wanted, what they needed, and how to best gain information from them. "You're like a super older brother then? You must be like fifty!" the girl finally spoke up, causing the two boys with her to burst into a laughter. "Ciha! He's not fifty, geesh, she exaggerates everything. She thinks the lady that runs the place is like a hundred." the child that Javial had originally thrown the ball to corrected his female playmate. The second boy wrestled the ball from the previous boy with one quick yank, causing the first boy to stumble a bit, "Hey, want to play with us a bit? It's not too often grown ups hang out with us."

[Javial Kripsin]

"Observation: The children seem to enjoy your company without the need to expend Djed." that soft, cool tone passed through Javial's mind. There were times, although not often, that he would hear the voice of his familiar and dismiss it, due to the soothing tone she carried. Her voice was never raised in anger, nor was it dropped in sadness. Instead it simply conveyed information to Javial, or requested answers to the questions Shirelieu had about this world so foreign from her own. A paradise compared to the frozen wasteland she came from, devoid of air, atmosphere, or anyway to survive save for ambient absorption of the enormous amount of Djed. "Kids like these...it's hard to live when you aren't sure if anyone wants you. I thought about things like that myself, when I was their age. Things like 'why me?' Or 'why didn't anyone want me?' I suppose is more precise. But it is always best to put the odds in our favor as best we can. We can't afford not to make contacts in a place like Sunberth. You and I, we can get involved in a great deal of things, but having extra pairs of eyes and ears all over the city will greatly help in our business." Javial responded to his companion. So far he couldn't fault their relationship. A great many tales, most disturbing, of mages whom were enslaved, tortured, or even died because of the manipulation of their familiars had been passed around. For the moment, Javial could find no particular distain thrown in either direction. "Acknowledgement: Business does seem to be very slow. Calculation: At this rate we will not be able to afford a library of books as you had eluded to." Shirelieu tossed that little gem of information at Javial. She was also quite skilled at making a remark of their income, or rather, lack thereof. The information business had been unusual stagnant, with work not as plentiful as he remembered it in his youth. He kept telling himself that it was just a matter of time before he happened upon an extremely profitable business venture, he just had to keep his eyes and ears open. "Sure, that sounds like fun." the soft touches of Djed oozed from his mouth as his aura of charisma expanded. He understood what he had to do, play their game, make himself look like the man whom saw value in them. There was value there, especially as they grew up and ventured out into the world themselves. If they made it that far. Holding his hands open the boy tossed the ball at Javial whom jumped a bit to retrieve it, his heels leaving the roadway just momentarily before touching down. The boy whom originally held the ball called for it, running longways as Javial pitched it toward him. "So, what do you want to be when you grow up, hm? I remember when I was your age I wanted to be a wealthy merchant. I wanted a vault of gold piled to the ceiling, so I could buy anything. Do anything." he asked, keeping the conversation focused and directed. There was a direction that he had predetermined in his mind, and although keeping children focused could often prove a hassle, he had found that some small touches of Hypnosis gave him an edge.

[Javial Kripsin]

"I want to be a famous assassin!" one boy said cheerfully as his buddy passed the ball toward him, the lightly padded globe bouncing off of his hands and onto the dingy ground, only to be subsequently reclaimed just a split moment later. "I want be a Velispar rider!" the second boy replied, curling up his hand and pointing a thumb toward his chest. "Um, I want to be a musician." the girl finally responded after what seemed like a period of internal struggle. Although the girl didn't seem all that interested in participating in the game, she did at least put her hands up to block the ball when it came her way, accented with a hastily yelled 'catch!' "Haha, a musician. That's crazy!" the first boy having most recently thrown the ball exclaimed. "How are you going to be a musician!? We don't even have any instruments." he added, making the girl's head drop a bit, her gaze swiftly moving toward the ground. There it was, that chance to become even the slightest hero in a child's eye. That was the type of thing that brought you some rapport with youth, the chance to become apart of their lives by gifting them with things they didn't have. "Well, what if I brought you an instrument? You promise you'd practice with it? You wouldn't just toss it away? You'd keep it safe?" Javial's dark eyes turned toward the girl, the slight lilt of his Suggestion accenting key words within his dialog. "Observation: The children of this city are morbid. Hypothesis: Malnutrition and pollutants within the drinking supply cause mental dysfunction." the calm words traced their way though Javial's mind. Shirelieu was very observant, but she still had much to learn about the world of Mizahar, especially since her and Javial's thoughts were not yet synchronized enough to flow freely from one to the other. "That's how children work. Everything is bigger and better when you're a child. The simplest things become treasures. Freedom is the most important commodity, even more than food or safety sometimes to a child. Children want to be free to do whatever they want, but if you can encourage them slightly in the right direction, you can win little bits of their heart." Javial answered some of the presumptive observations of his Familiar. Sometimes it was difficult to understand if Shirelieu was content with a response, or just had nothing left to say on the matter. Either way Javial was met with silence, which meant you could concentrate further on the development with these children. "Hear that Flip? I can become a musician! Yes! I would...I would take care of it, really I would. You could do something like that for me?" the girl's eyes sparkled with the realization that her dream might actually come true. For the boys, learning an instrument seemed more like work than having fun, but true enough to their chum, be she male or female, they seemed interested if this man could pull through on his end of the deal.

[Javial Kripsin]

"Of course." the man said reassuringly. He certainly didn't have all the money in the world, but you had to spend some Miza's to make Miza's now and again. he could best think of it as an investment. Gaining the children's friendship now could potentially aid him when they were older and a bit more street savvy. He knew well enough what it was like to live in the slums. Eventually you either learned your way around, or you became someone's prey. It was a fifty fifty chance, but a proper Information Broker needed contacts from all walks of life, and from all places inside of the city, the slums were no exception. "Query: Why gain the trust of children. Fact: Children have very little to give in return and seem unreliable." his familiar was quick to comment. Those facts were true enough, given their current ages the use of any information they could provide would be sketchy, thought there might be the occasional useful sliver here and there. Shirelieu had not yet learned to look past her immediate observations, and the concept of an 'investment' was completely lost to her. "I was a child once too, children turn into adults. As adults they have a tendency to remember things that impacted them as children. The contacts I make now may do me well down the road. It's not an immediate thing, the results occur over time." he attempted to explain inwardly, although his bond with Shirelieu was still too shallow to understand best how to describe a very Human reality to her. Putting it out of his mind for now, he stood up tall, "I make a little coin here and there. Friends help each other out, right? I'm Javial, by the way." his second statement came laced with the powers of Suggestion. They needed his help, and he needed theirs. They were friends after all. "I'm Carlo, that's Ciha, and that's Flip. You're pretty nice for a grown up. What do you do for money?" the one boy whom had not yet had his name revealed spoke up. Immediately Javial tried to think best on how to describe his line of work, "Oh, a little of this and a little of that. Mostly though, I trade 'secrets'. You all know what a secret is right? Something important that not everyone else knows. I try to find secrets, and then I get money that I can buy fun things with..." the next part was the most difficult part. It was like adding fertilizer to a freshly potted plant. Too little and the planet grew weak, too much and the plant died. Just the right amount and you had a plant far superior to one without proper nurturing. "...say, do you guys want to help me? If you get me some good secrets I'll have more money to buy neat things with for you. The thing is though, the secrets can only go to me, and we can't give any of our secrets away, especially not our deal. You can trust me." and there it was, that last statement, perfect for an Emotional Response, the feeling of comfort. The feeling of ease, there was nothing more important than to get this children to trust him.

[Javial Kripsin]

"Secrets?" Flip remarked, tilting his head back, "Ha, we know tons of secrets." he said, although reality could have been very different from the boys own self confidence. Still, confidence was an important thing, as was the self pro-activity in finding secrets. It was entirely possible at that age that 9 in 10 secrets were worthless, but that final 1 made things all balance out. As time went on, Javial would need to reveal more and more things to these children. He would need to educate them on the unsavory underworld so diligently operating within Sunberth. That underworld was what gave him a way to make a living, but you had to know what information to give out, and most importantly who to give it out to. Money was one thing, but Javial had a desire to also stay alive and in one piece. "Great, we're all friends then. Friends help take care of one another. You do these things for me, and I'll do things for you. The next time you see me, Ciha, I'll have your instrument, that's a deal." he said with a wink to the scrawny black haired girl. He could feel her excitement. Awaiting a present was almost unbearable as a child. That would keep her thinking of him though, and that was a good thing. He had to ensure that life was better when he was around than when he wasn't, hopefully that would slowly condition these children into proper contacts in the future. "Observation: Children seem quick to believe." Shirelieu commented, and never was there a truer statement. Even as poor as life was as a child, everything seemed bigger and better. Javial was always willing to believe in lore and legends. As he grew older, those legends started to recede, time needed to be spent on more immediate and real concerns, like making the almighty Miza. "Yes, for that reason children can be easily manipulated. But for that reason they are also vulnerable. Children must be my most secretive contacts, less they be squeezed for information by any of my competitors. Children don't have the willpower to hold out, and often frighten easily. I don't like those scare tactics though, I get better results with a good attitude." the man threw some reasoning his Familiar's way. Only time would tell just how good of an investment these three were. Leaving a child empty handed was a sin when trying to win their favor, even with the promise of something upon the return. Digging into his pockets, Javial removed three silver of the typical five he carried in the morning for his breakfast meal. "Here, one for each of you. Hide it, don't let anyone get a hold of it, that's yours alone. Save it and one day you'll be able to buy something you want. Just like I said..." the slightest touch of his Hynotism continued to manifest in his words as he tossed a coin at each child. Flip and Carlo snagging theirs from the air, and Ciha's bouncing off of her chest before she reached down quickly and pulled it up, "...friends help each other out. See you kids around."

[Ink]

And in the Aftermath . . . The Rewards are Revealed. Javial : Skills: Running 1 bodybuilding 1 Familiarly 4 hypnotism 4 Lores: Layout of the Sunberth Slums The Value of the Devalued Understanding an Orphan Contact (Carlo) Contact (Ciha) Contact (Flip) Notes: The thread was great, loved it. If you will give me a week or two I will get these orphans put in so you may actually use them for information. They'll just be around the town npcs. Written in the ink : If there are any concerns or problems with my grading please feel free to toss me a PM. I am more than happy to explain my reasons or reevaluate them if you feel I've been unfair.