Pickpocket [Seidaku]

[Dra-Sinsa]

Summer 30, 511 AV

Sinsa sighed to the night air as she stumbled along the stone street, only half-admiring the shimmering of the stones. She was hungry. And tired. And needed someone to beat up.
But mostly, she was hungry.
Her eyes twitched as she yawned, but immediately widened--the pupils dilating-- when she heard a door creak open. She turned her head in the direction of the door and saw a faint light on in the cottage.

She absently licked her lips, thinking how good food would taste after almost three days of nothing. She sighed softly and crept over to the window, listening carefully for the number of people in the place.
One. She thought wonderfully, sitting under the window and pulling a simple knife from the waist of her leggings, creeping up towards the door, nearly ignorant and stupid with hunger and fatigue.

[Seidaku]

Seidaku sat at his small desk, hunched over slightly and focused on his work. Humming a song he had heard the cobbles on the street singing earlier in the day, he rubbed a thumb idly at the corner of his mouth as he thought, leaving a smudge of black ink that faded as it reached onto his cheek.

The numbers were the key. If it were possible to modify the flow of Djed to allow for an inclusion of greater specificity into the Circle, then it should theoretically be possible to -

He stood abruptly enough that he almost upended his chair when he heard the creaking of the door behind him. As he turned toward the front of his home, a wide grin blossomed on his face. He could think of only one person who would just walk in. A glance at the windows - How convenient that I have windows today, he thought idly - showed that it was rather late for visitors, though. Of course, one could not reliably tell the time of day in Alvadas using the position of the sun and stars, except for the times that you could.

"Good evening, Vhan...", his pleased greeting trailed off into confused silence when he was left facing an empty room and a widely open door with no one on the other side. "Strange," he muttered to himself as he crossed the room to his threshold, "Wind's never done that before."

Reaching the door and still seeing no one, he stepped outside into the warm evening air and peered about. The first time his gaze passed over the young girl creeping toward him, the darkness hid her from his view, but on a second pass, he gave an obvious start at seeing his apparent visitor, barely visible in the light glowing faintly in the room behind him.

Blinking rapidly, he managed to recover himself enough to stammer, "Oh, hello, umm... miss. I'm sorry, I did not, umm, see you there."

His first impression was that she was positively gaunt. Poor thing must be more than half starved, was the first thought that came to mind. His second impression was, of course, that she was pointing a knife at him.

Later, if he ever had a chance to tell the story, he would have liked to have been able to say he responded valiantly. That he simply plucked the knife from her fingers. Perhaps that the sharpness of his tongue and the keenness of his mind left her amazed and incapable of doing him harm.

However, he did none of these things. Instead, he gave a panicked shout that was more of a scream and backpedaled into his home, tripping over his own legs to land sprawled several feet from his still open door.

[Dra-Sinsa]

Sinsa followed closely behind when Seidaku fell backwards into his doorway. With a slight spring, she was over him and looking wildly around for any kind of valuable item, wanting to be quick and be gone.

She glanced back at him every so often just in case he got the idea to try and stop her. Not like he couldn't. She wasn't the strongest thing in the world.

With a slight falter, she looked over at him again with an icy glare, her pupils shrinking until they were tiny.

"Coin." She murmured, her voice was hoarse from lack of use, but was still melodic despite this.

[Seidaku]

When the burglar leaped toward him with the knife outstretched, Seidaku's instinctive reaction was to use his forearms to protect his face. Instead of stabbing him though, she charged over him and into his home.

A quick glance around the single room would reveal very little of worth. A single, narrow bed, unmade and with worn sheets lay flush with one wall. At the back wall was a battered wooden desk with ink and quills atop it and crumpled pieces of paper scattered on the floor around it. A small wooden chest sat on the floor beside the desk, a simple wooden box with dull brass hinges.

Only two items would stand out from that inspection. The first, and most obvious, would be the intricately swirling spiral of arcane symbols drawn onto the wooden floor in black ink a short distance to the side of the desk. The second was a single book placed with care atop the mantly, bound in leather with the title, "Dreams of Oblivion", written elaborately on the cover.

While the intruder cased his possessions and waved her knife at him menacingly, Seidaku limited his actions to propping himself up with his elbows and trying not to hyperventilate. He did not want to give any provocation to use that knife she was holding. He did not know much more about knives than which end did the cutting, but as far as he was concerned, she held the knife like she could use it.

"Coin," her voice was a musically lilting growl, if that were possible. For the first time, he wished that he lived in a city with guards. Maybe Syliras, where knights in shining armor patroled the streets, protecting the citizenry and honest men did not have to worry about brigands robbing them at knife point.

He fumbled around at his belt with shaking hands before he was able to produce a sadly slender coin pouch. Not wanting to approach too close, he simply tossed it in the robber's direction, to land at the floor a short distance by her feet, "Please, just... just don't- don't hurt me."

[Dra-Sinsa]

Sinsa watched the man as he fumbled for his coins, afraid he would pull a knife on her, or worse.

She picked up the coin pouch and opened it, shaking the few coins out into her palm. She looked up at him, her eyes wide as she shook her head and put the coins back in the pouch. Sinsa walked over and dropped it near his hands.

"I...will not steal from...also poor." She said, having difficulty with the language and her voice.

Without another word, she stepped over him and vanished into the night, only glancing back at him once before blending in with the shadows.

[Seidaku]

When she picked up the pouch of coins and stalked toward him, Seidaku's life flashed before his eyes and he was sure that he was getting knifed on his own doorstep. Then, acting completely counter to his expectations, she dropped the money pouch back near him and informed him that he was too poor to steal from.

As the girl, who turned out not to be a burglar after all, departed in the same manner she had arrived, seeming to vanish into the shadows, Seidaku burst into relieved giggles. He was too poor to steal from. He was incapacitated by helpless, relieved laughter for over a chime before he managed to bring his amusement under control. When the laughter dried up, his head thumped back onto the wooden floor and he released a long exhalation.

Staring up at the ceiling, tracing patterns in the wood with his mind, Seidaku replayed his encounter with the surprisingly noble mugger. Freed from the panic of the moment, he was able to view the events with a kind of calm detatchment. In retrospect, she had been more gaunt than wiry, and behind the knife, she had been barely more than a child.

Laying there in his room, with the door still open to the warm night, he was surprised to find himself feeling bad that she had not taken the mizas.

[Bedlam]

Thread Completed!

Dra-Sinsa

Experience:
+1 Stealth
+1 Intimidation

Lores:
The Look Of Arcane Script

Seidaku

Experience:
N/A

Lores:
The Importance Of Locked Doors

Notes:

Sinsa, I appreciate the way you handled her difficulty with common, though I feel that someone with basic would have a little better grasp on common than you used here. Show her giving some real effort to learning the language and I'll be able to bump you up to fluent, so keep that in mind.

As usual, if you have questions about exp assignment feel free to catch me in chat or in PM.