Closed The Jade Koi Heist (Julia Tristal)

[Autumn Leithea]

"That's a pretty decent story girl." Autumn stated. "I've also had my bouts with guys, I guess I'm just a little bit too flamboyant. Half of them get a punch right in the face, but I haven't loved anyone more than I love Marjorie. It wouldn't matter if Marjorie were young, old, girl or guy, I'd still love her. Even if she were fat or too skinny, and yes there is such thing as too skinny. Jake and I had our bouts actually." Jake laughed. "It was a friendship that was supposed to culminate in us making love and becoming lovers and all that jazz... which was a mistake on my part. In the middle of..." "Don't spoil the story, I want to tell it!" "Fine, tell away asshole..." Jake said, Autumn gave him a look and he his, and then they burst out in laughter. "You're so fucking rude Autumn." "I know." They had been friends so long that they could say and do any myriad of things and still be friends. There had been a time where Autumn and Jake got in a drunken boxing match blacked out on whiskey and woke up with torn clothing and fresh bruises and said they were sorry and laughed about it. "...anyways we were in the middle of a good fuck and we stopped; it was just too awkward to be fucking a friend. We burst out in laughter while he was still in me, so we stopped and we both laughed for a bit and so we got our clothes on and went to go get drunk." Marjorie was getting moody hearing about Autumn's sex stories, they made her uncomfortable. The only one she would ever make love to was Autumn, and she had heard this story before and it pained her that she and Jake had that connection. "I used to be part of a harem since the age of fifteen." Everyone stopped. "...Jorie you don't have to..." "Shut up Autumn, you tell these stories in front of me like nobody's business, and it fucking hurts Autumn. I don't want to hear these stories anymore. I'm going home." said Marjorie. "Wait." "What?" "Do you want me to tell our story?" Marjorie sat down and looked at Autumn with a look. "Do you want me to tell our story together?" "... Yes." FlashbackThis will be a flashback for later... So they told their story together. Just as they were done with the story, a servant walked up to Autumn. "Mr. Boss Reya is ready to see you."

[Julia Tristal]

All this talk about sex was really... weird, but if that was the topic of the night, then she won't complain, though it seemed Jorie had something to say.

After their little story, it was really rather sad, but at least these two were together. They looked cute together, at least that was the impression she got from the two. "Right, if it's any consolation, I'm sorry you had to live through that, but it's past you now, things are looking up, right?"

Just then a servant had arrived. "Mr. Boss Reya is ready to see you." He said and led the way towards the back of the building, and through an elaborate set of double doors. He could smell some tabacco.

"Welp, be on your best behavior..." She whispered to herself... and as soon as she said that, she tripped on someone on the floor and landed face first on the hard wooden surface.

"Ow..." She mumbled and pushed herself up. "O-Oh, I'm sorry. Umm... Let me introduce myself. My name is Hulia Musmal, I mean Julia Tristal, Uhhh... I'm Autumn's crew." She introduced herself and looked over to her companions.

[Autumn Leithea]

They laughed. "Here ya go stumbly." Autumn said helping the young girl up and back on her feet. There was a man sitting across from them at the table, bald with a tattoo of a curled red dragon on his bare head, fierce in its own way. He was wearing a chain from his pierced ear down around to his nose, and had many rings on the fingers of his hands folded on the front of the table. He was smoking a pipe made of rare wood, and by the smell of it, very fine tobacco. He smiled as they took their seats around the table across from them. The man smiled a wry smile. "Autumn, Jake, Marjorie, and the newcomer Julia, pleasure to make your acquaintance." he said as he reached across the table to shake their hands. "Thank you for having us Boss." Autumn stated almost politically. "It's been awhile." "Yes it has Autumn. To business?" "To business." Autumn, Jake, and Marjorie said together. They all put their hands together and bowed toward eachother. 'Bow.' whispered Autumn to Julia. "Well then, I'll assume you heard of this job from a whisper on the wind?" "Yes, some of your business assistants came to me to say you were interested in our services a while back, I stated we had an interest in such a job. We just had to get a crew together." stated Jake. "Yes and I reserved it for you. There are better crews out there, but better costs money. For the quality of services and your payment request there is no better crew out there with such value." "Thank you." said Jake. "Well, on to business... There is a man who has something I've been looking for for quite awhile. This object is beyond valuable, and is very delicate. Dropping it or even mishandling to would result in its destruction. It is a Jade Koi figurine, a koi fish carved out of jade. It is called The Jade Koi. It is around five pounds, and is a foot in length, half a foot in width, and half a foot in height. The man who currently owns the Jade Koi keeps it in a place where only he knows where it is hidden; we do not know where this location is. He has red hair, an uncommon trait, weighs approximately two-hundred pounds, and is about six feet tall. He is a recluse most of the time, but is said sometimes to be out on Fridays and Saturdays to wander the streets daydreaming of philosophy as he walks. "Your task is to retrieve the Jade Koi intact and in perfect condition. Bring it to me and I'll reward you handsomely. I already have three buyers waiting, so this job would be best done soon, we don't want to keep the buyers waiting." "Understood." stated Autumn "Our business is adjourned." he said, and they bowed to each other all together again. "Now, drinks! A round of shots on the house!" Boss stated loud enough so his servants could hear, as was tradition after business.

[Julia Tristal]

She smiled when the three of them laughed at her, at least it wasn't a tense situation like she imagined in her head. "Right, sorry. I'll let the others talk now." She said and went beside Jake and Autumn. They seem to have done jobs for the man before.

She watched them bow to eachother and she looked a bit confused first and just looked at the others. Then she heard Autumn say she needed to bow herself, she complied and bowed to the Boss.

"Yes and I reserved it for you. There are better crews out there, but better costs money. For the quality of services and your payment request there is no better crew out there with such value." The Boss said. Julia frowned a bit, did he mean that Autumn and the crew were the cheap? Or that we were worth it? It sent mixed messages to the youngest of the crew.

"Well, on to business... There is a man who has something I've been looking for for quite awhile. This object is beyond valuable, and is very delicate. Dropping it or even mishandling to would result in its destruction. It is a Jade Koi figurine, a koi fish carved out of jade. It is called The Jade Koi. It is around five pounds, and is a foot in length, half a foot in width, and half a foot in height. The man who currently owns the Jade Koi keeps it in a place where only he knows where it is hidden; we do not know where this location is. He has red hair, an uncommon trait, weighs approximately two-hundred pounds, and is about six feet tall. He is a recluse most of the time, but is said sometimes to be out on Fridays and Saturdays to wander the streets daydreaming of philosophy as he walks. Your task is to retrieve the Jade Koi intact and in perfect condition. Bring it to me and I'll reward you handsomely. I already have three buyers waiting, so this job would be best done soon, we don't want to keep the buyers waiting."

"Something dangerous when dropped or mishandled..." She muttered to herself, she was worried, she fumbles a lot when it's the worst possible time, but she wouldn't back out of this now, it's her time to shine. Maybe if she's good, she might get another job or get a bonus. Probably not though, bonuses aren't really a known thing here in Sunberth, but maybe this is different.

It seemed that the business was about to end, and the drinks were being brought out. A shot what she would assume to be a hard liquor or something. All she ever had was cheap ale, but whatever. There was a first time for everything, she just hates first times.

She grabbed the shot glass and raised it up. "Cheers! To a clean heist!" She yelled and toasted withe the others, she quickly drank the shot and placed the glass down again.

After the crew made it out and grabbed their weapons they were ready to think up some sort of plan. The night air chilled her to the bone, even though it is summer. "What did the boss say? 6 foot man, red hair, big, sounds easy enough to find. He also wanders around at night right? Kinda dangerous, Where should we start heist leader?" She said and looked over to Autumn and Jorie.

[Autumn Leithea]

Autumn, Jorie, and Jake turned to eachother. "Tomorrow we go scouting for the mark." stated Autumn. "Any information and trying to find him himself." added Jake. "Use any means necessary short of harming anyone." Marjorie said. "We'll meet up where you met us tonight, and then we'll break and go on a merry quest to get information on and find the mark. ...And lets start early ish, how about ten in the morning? Getting around to most of the city will take all day." said Autumn. "Alright guys, see you tomorrow... oh! And Jules, how'd your night go?"

[Julia Tristal]

Julia gave a smile as the three of them had made a plan. She smiled at Jake and Julia. "Right, so split up? Okay. Hmmm I'll go check around the Sunset Quarter and maybe around the market place." She said and started walking along the road.

"Alright guys, see you tomorrow... oh! And Jules, how'd your night go?"

Julia smiled and ran up to hug Autumn tightly. "I had a great time, we should really do this again! The hotsprings might be a good place to unwind after we're done with this." She said and looked over to Jake. "I'm fairly sure you would like that. Hahaha!" She laughed and hugged Jake and then Jorie.

She started walking back to her home after saying goodbye to the others. She had gotten lost a bit, but otherwise she had been unharmed. She had taken a turn through a dark alleyway and bumped into a tall man with scarlet red hair, he was large and was muttering something to himself and was lost in thought. "Oh, sorry sir. My fault, I should be more careful." She said and looked at the man, she felt like she knew him for some reason.

"Bugger off, child! Can't you see I'm busy pondering the philosophy of djed and the magic of world... and how to best kill those sorry mages!" He said, probably lying to her, a mage here would be killed without a second thought.

"Nice save... Trust me, you're secret is safe with me. Anyway, the streets are pretty dangerous at night, sir." She said with a smile. She still couldn't shake the feeling that she knew this man somehow. "Anyway, be careful. I'll be going now." She said and walked off.

When she was out of earshot, the man turned back and continued to mutter to himself. "I wonder how I could use that Jade Koi figurine for my purposes. If I could somehow harness that power, I could become something akin to a god in this godforsaken city!"

When Julia had made it back to her home, she quickly ran up the stairs and went to her room. She had hopped into bed and kicked off her boots. "Tomorrow will be quite interesting..."

[Autumn Leithea]

The sun was warm and a balmy air pervaded the entire city. It was a lovely temperature to go about regular business and people had flooded the city streets in search of necessities and such. Many were walking about conversing with one another in a light haze that reflected the weather about Sunberth. Autumn looked around and saw many open pockets to be picked, but instead of chancing a dangerous encounter with one of the many people out in Sunberth for a handful of copper, she waited with Marjorie and Jake patiently, knowing there were bigger fish to fry. Autumn loved jobs like this, and a necessary part of any job was to enlighten oneself as to all the variables surrounding the job itself, to be a master in knowledge of what it was all about. Autumn already had a general idea of what needed to be done and where to start on her journey about the city today, but she was moreso looking forward to the surprises in store for them all once they began their quest for knowledge of everything surrounding this heist. The more knowledge, the better the plan they could envision, the less they could be detected and most importantly, the less chance that anyone could be hurt, either them or anyone surrounding their target. That was why Autumn loved heists, its a thrill, you get paid heavily in gold, and nobody gets hurt. Autumn despised killing, or even wounding for that matter. She never really needed to cause harm to another human being; the art of her movements were to dodge and use another's momentum against them. It could be a funny scene sometimes, having someone try to fight her only for Autumn to make them use their balance and tumble to the ground before they knew they were falling, without harming them one bit, but Autumn was still fearful of a higher trained opponent trying to seriously harm her or her friends, and she was still in a worried constant debate if she would make an attempt to harm the assailant. She was courageous, especially when her friends were in danger, and she thought that for them she would definitely fight an opponent until they gave up, but she was still unsure if armed violence would be the answer. Autumn and Marjorie were running a small Kirili set while they waited, some people throwing copper down on the ground next to them as they danced. They were waiting for Julia to show up, and they hoped she wouldn't be too late. "The sun is about ten-thirty ish, where is that girl?" Jake asked. Autumn and Marjorie stopped. "We told her ten o'clock." Marjorie said. "Well it's ten-thirty now..." "We can wait, its not like the city will refuse to spill its secrets after the hours of ten-thirty." Autumn said jokingly.

[Autumn Leithea]

They had waited till eleven, Autumn and Marjorie still dancing a little kirili. "Hey!" said Jake. The two girls turned. "What is it?" said Autumn still panting from the workout. "She's not here, the sun is practically at midday." said Jake They thought out loud for a moment. "Well if shes not going to show what should we do?" Autumn said. "If we go search I'm sure she'll start on her own as well." Marjorie added. "Boss did say the mark liked drinking, we could try and meet her at the Pig's Head Tavern after dark. She should know." said Jake remembering their chat with their client. "Ooh can we get drunk?" asked Autumn excitedly. "This is business Autumn, not pleasure." stated Jake pointedly. "Well I'm getting drunk, I could walk a line from here all the way home after four pints." "Well I'm happy to hear that your tolerance is in good shape, but even so, this is business." "I'm getting drunk..." Jake threw up his arms and sighed. "Fine Autumn, get drunk tonight." "I will, after a heavy day's searching that is." she smiled. "Alright lets go." said Autumn turning toward the streets. "Wait." said Jake. Autumn stopped and turned. "What?" "I'll stay here and wait for Jules, I don't want to leave her behind." Autumn and Marjorie turned to eachother and back again. "Sure, happy waiting." Autumn giving her blessing. "See you at the Pigs Head Jake!" said Marjorie. They turned and began picking up all the copper pieces people had thrown on the ground before their spectacle of dancing exuberance. "We made 4sm and 6cm babe." Autumn said after she counted the pieces. Marjorie smiled a deep smile at Autumn. "Always love dancing with you babe." Autumn gave her a loving look. "You too." Autumn said lovingly. They turned and both walked toward one of the major streets of Sunberth, their arms together as they walked. "Beggars first." Autumn stated as they were in the thick of the crowd. "Good call." Finding the beggars was not very hard, many of them were strewn about the city looking for a temporary home or something to eat, begging for money that some would use on drugs over even shelter and food. Autumn had a place in the dark corners of her heart for the people who made money ruining peoples' lives with their addictive substances; it was chemical slavery. Marjorie hated slaving more than anything, even if the slaves had found good homes. People had no right to treat others like property. Most of the beggars were their friends, they had come to them many times and paid them quite a bit of money over the years; they were the best lead one could have on a leadless search. They came up to one of them on a side street. He was blind and holding a small cup with copper janging within, a coarse beard down to his chest and wearing tattered clothing covering his emaciated form. "Ortho you're lookin' a little more dangly than ususal hon." Autumn said greeting the old man. "Aww Autumn is that you? I haven't seen you in ages!" the old man said with a creaky old voice. "You've never seen me." Autumn said correcting him. "Well I hear you just fine ya clown!" said the old man with a creaky laugh. "What can I do ya for?" "Do you know anything about a red haired man passing through?" "My memory is a little groggy..." Autumn gave him 6 cm, and he bit into each one to get the taste of the rim. "Copper today eh? I haven't heard much." "How about someone important?" Marjorie asked. He coughed... "...I must still be drowsy, I can't seem to remember..." Autumn tossed him a silver miza, and he bit into it with surprise. "Oh, well then, you've jogged my memory. I've heard on the wind some people talking about a man who wanders the city at night with two bodyguards, so he must be important." "You think that's our man?" asked Marjorie to Autumn. "Its a decent lead, you know who said he wanders at night." Autumn said, keeping Boss's name from escaping into rumor through the ever watchful ears of Ortho. "Anything else?" "Nothing else really girls." Autumn threw him another piece for honesty, and another... "First one's for honesty, the second is to keep this conversation our little secret. I'll pay you another if you keep our little secret." "As always Autumn. Goodbye you two!" "Goodbye Ortho!" said Marjorie. "Bye!" Autumn said. They walked about the town to a handful of other beggars they trusted.... nothing... Autumn paying them to keep their questions secret. No one would want to ask a beggar for information and have the beggar spilling to any commoner that there were two girls looking for some man. "Ughh nothing!" "Ortho gave us the best lead we've got Autumn." "I know, wanna pull a Wisp on the Wind?" "We have to keep it quiet." "I know..." A Wisp on the Wind was an old ploy taught to Autumn and passed down to Marjorie. They would walk and talk like gossipy girls hoping to draw the attention of rumor-hungry women all about them. If that didn't get any attention they would walk up to a group of gossipy women and start a rumor about the information that they wanted, in this case, to see if they could glean some information about their mark. They would let the rumor loose for a few hours and come back, asking about the information and by then someone would have some information and the rumor would spill out everywhere and come back again for Autumn and Marjorie to reap. As they walked they had their ears open for anything about the mark. It took them awhile of listening to the whispers of the city to finally find one that had to do with them. "...red hair, and he walks around at night!" Autumn and Marjorie made their way towards the whisper and sat down on a stairstep right next to the three ladies having the conversation, acting natural. "At night!" one of the girls cooed. "Yes at night. He's a well off man, has two bodyguards with him at all times." "Oh well then he need not be afraid of these wretched streets." "Here here!" the other one said. "Apparently he's a philosopher..." 'Yes that's our man.' Autumn said under her breath to Marjorie. "A what?" "A phil-os-o-pher, it means you think a lot about the world." "I find that kind of man attractive!" "Here here!" said the other one... Autumn decided to make her move. "Hello ladies, we couldn't help but overhear you talking about a red-headed philosopher that wanders the streets at night." The girls looked horrified. One stepped up to Autumn. "You have NO RIGHT to listen to OUR conversation you little hood rat." Any other day Autumn would knock her the f*** out, but she was in character. "Oh I'm so sorry, its just, that man you're talking about sounds like our Uncle. He moved about a week ago, and we haven't seen him since. We don't even know where his house is! Please if you could tell us where he is or where he moved to that would be great, we miss him dearly." Autumn was holding back rage at this point, walking a perfect line to seem like she was as dim witted as the three of them. "Oh, thats so sad, I'm sorry. No what you heard is about all we heard. I'm sorry." "Are those flowers yours?" asked Autumn distracting them so that they would forget about their conversation. Autumn had a conversation about flowers for half an hour. When the three wenches finally finished Autumn said goodbye went to Marjorie. "Haha I was gonna sock that b*** right in the kisser the entire time, but sarcasm is truly a lifesaver. They had no idea I was making fun of them the entire time." "Good to hear you found an outlet for your anger Autumn." "Yeah... woooh, I can't act like a prissy girl for more than half an hour, it makes me want to hit something." Marjorie smiled. "You made it out of girlie world okay then?" said Marjorie with a laugh. "I feel great." Autumn said.

[Julia Tristal]

Julia felt like she was a ton of bricks weighing her down. She was tired, she was sleepy, she just wanted to sleep in, but the lovely singsong birds forced her up, she groggily sat up and yawned, wiping the sleep from her eyes. Her blond hair stood up in a messy disaster, pointing in all directions.

She stood up and grabbed her crossbow and aimed at the wall next to the singing bird that woke her up, without a second thought she fired the weapon and scared the bird off. "I hate mornings." She said and retrieved her bolt and returned her weapons back to where she found them.

She brushed her hair with her comb and walked down the stairs. "Da? What time is it?" She asked and took her boots and strapped them on. "I'm going out, Where's Ma?"

A voice came from their makeshift kitchen, mostly just a big old pot and a chimney. "Almost noon, Are you sure you don't want to eat before you go?"

"No! I Umm... Mean... I'm late, I really gotta go." She said, she wasn't exactly lying, she really was late. They agreed on the 10th bell right? She was extremely late if that was the case.

She dodged and turned through the noon traffic of people, making her way through the messy and filthy streets of Sunberth. She pushed her way through a rather large crowd, it seemed that there was some sort of auction or some special deal or something, most likely a scam.

She passed through the main streets and soon found her way to the meeting spot, she sighed and noticed that only Jake was there. "S-Sorry I'm late! Woke up late... You know, someone should make some sort of alarm system for waking up on time." She said and looked around to see where the other two were.

"Ummm... Where's Jorie and Autumn? Did they already leave? Why'd you stay? Were you waiting for me? Again, I'm sorry." She said and looked at him with big wet eyes. "Sowwy~ Anyway, where are we gonna search?"

[Autumn Leithea]

Jake smiled a warm smile. "Hah! I thought it would be a good idea to wait for you, you're awfully late hun." he said casually. "Autumn and Marjorie are already out doing some searching, we're supposed to meet up at dusk at the Pig's Foot Tavern at dusk, probably have a drink or two at that." He looked puzzled at the girl for a second, she seemed young and impressionable, yet with a feisty sort of fire rarely seen in a girl such as her. They were going to be good friends. "Well then, Autumn and Jorie took uptown, so that means we are going to be downtown today, down near the water." He turned and beckoned toward the young lass, her hair a hot mess as they walked toward the lower areas of Sunberth by the sea. ... "Nothing. We've got nothing to show after six hours of searching?" "We got what we got earlier today, that should be enough." "But NOTHING! Ughhhh this is so FRUSTRATING! Remember that mark last summer?" "Mhmm." "Guy might as well have had paid advertisement while holding a giant banner with his name on it sitting on his white f***ing horse!" "Good things don't come easily babe." "Ughhhhh." "Autumn, you gotta calm down or YOU'LL make a scene. Then nobody would want to tell the problem child in their midst a even a shred of whisper." Autumn sat down on some stairs, clearly annoyed. "And that little b**** of a girl probably stood up Jake!" "You don't know that! Now babe... come here..." "No." "Come here..." she said half mocking, half lovingly. "No!" Marjorie sat down behind Autumn on the stairs and wrapped her arms around Autumn's neck. "... Feel better?" "Mhmm" uttered Autumn in a frustrated silence. "Now we're gonna keep looking." "Mhmm..." "And we're not gonna call the new girl a b***." "Mhmm..." "And you know that Jake knows what to do, if she shows or not." "Mhmm..." "Feel better?" "Mhmm." said Autumn with a sorrowed spirit turning warm again. "Thank's babe." Autumn said as she turned to look at Marjorie. "I don't know what I'd do without you." Marjorie smiled and closed her eyes to give Autumn a warm kiss. "There! Feel better?" "Mhmm." Autumn kissed her again smiling. "You lead this time Jorie." Marjorie blushed.