Completed The New Guy

[Jadlin Hayes]

77th Day of Summer, 514

Jad tried not to let his nerves show. For a stranger in town, getting a job was always a breakthrough moment. But holding ON to it after being arrested after only three days on the job was another thing. After the initial resentment had waned, Jad found himself feeling grateful to the Wave Guard for vouching for him. They had arrested him on understandable suspicions, but the murder two days earlier, while he was still in custody, had served to acquit him of the charges.

It had been necessary at the time for the Guard to keep quiet that they had a suspect in custody. At first Jad had thought that they were trying to eliminate the possibility of anyone speaking up on his behalf. The evidence was considerable, but of questionable neutrality, given that it came from two criminals that had fought with Jad just the day before he was arrested.

The fact was, the Guard knew very well that their case against him was thin. They kept it quiet for exactly the purpose that had served to benefit Jad in the long run. The real Mage Silencer did not know that anyone was in custody, so there was no knowledge that someone could end up taking the rap by simply waiting out the execution. It had been a very near thing, but the Guard had verified Jad's excuse for his absence by way of an apology. His employer, Mr. Pelthes, had accepted it, eagerly asking for details of the investigation once the Guardsmen had left. Of course, Jad was instructed to say nothing of the ongoing investigation, which had since doubled in scope, with the University matching the Sailor's Guild's backing.

He was just trying to forget it now. Evenings on guard duty, however, were not terribly helpful in that regard. Too many bells of quiet, still time to brood on the memory of facing down the headman's block. There was a small degree of variety though. There were technically two different stations he occupied in his capacity as private guard. Technically, his official employer was Tronus Pelthes. His last name was pronounced "Pelts", and fit well as a name to associate with his leather-working business, "Tronus' Pelts."

But Jad also served as guard for a storage building that housed materials belonging to several other businesses as well. There was an agreement between these merchants to share costs and wages, including Jad's. And he was eager to get this new chapter of his life underway. He'd escaped a childhood of enslaving enchantment, discovered the existence of a family, enjoyed an experience at sea, moved to a new city, found a place to stay, a job, and a gorgeous bondmate. Things were looking up.

[Jadlin Hayes]

Were he not so new to his job, he might have dared to perceive the irony. He might have pondered the possibility that there was an ulterior motive to Mr. Pelthes questions this day. But he felt it disrespectful to allow himself ANY sort of second guessing regarding his boss' intent. The man had called him in to his office "just to talk".

The subject matter had seemed curious, but again, Jad was not about to counter the man's question with ones of his own. 'Was he willing to watch the Warehouse tonight?' Of course he was!
'Had he ever served as a guard for a store of valuable goods before?' Well not 'stored goods', no, but he had no doubt it would be no different, really, than guarding an estate.

There had followed a bit of small talk regarding what estate Jad had guarded, and the young man described the Syliran compound where he'd been raised, leaving out the details of mind-controlling Sagallius worshipers that had been the ruling tenants there. The subject turned somehow to rescuing young women in distress and Jad confirmed that he would certainly risk life and limb to follow THAT example.

Mr. Pelthes' questions began to wax odd here, breaking into the realm of whether Jad had ever been allowed to leave his post before his shift was up. Embarrassed, Jad mumbled something about the need to use the privy, which got an amiable chuckle out of the old man. But he went on to ask Jad if there had ever been a time where he'd been LURED from his post through some deception. The young man assured him that such a thing had never happened.

Mr. Pelthes smiled and said that this was what he wanted to hear, because it was not only HIS goods stored there, but a number of other merchants' things as well. They took it in turns to provide guards in rotation, and these men needed to understand that there was nothing...NOTHING...that was allowed to supersede their duty. That these goods represented more than just monetary value. They were a part of the economy of trade and barter. A let down in security could upset the trust that neighboring people needed to be able to count on for societies to co-exist peacefully.

Jad could not agree more, and said so. He was not quite sure why this was being brought up. He felt it so basic as to be needless to say. But he reasoned that Mr. Pelthes, being the traveler and hunter he was, must have encountered all kinds in his life and took nothing for granted. This allowed him an actual measure of pride to give his word that he understood this perfectly, and would not let anything distract him from his priority.

Mr. Pelthes paused just for a curious moment, then smiled broadly and patted Jad on the back, voicing his confidence in the young man's focus and reliability. He walked Jad to the warehouse and showed him to his post, just inside the door, where a window allowed him surveillance of the street outside. Jad was full to bursting with pride in the level of trust he was being given.

Evening arrived a short while later with no incident. Jad saw drunks stagger by, merrily singing, or what passed for singing, odes to feminine entities of all levels. There were busy groups hurrying by, discussing business. Students, sailors and strolling couples, snuggling as they giggles their way past. Jad suddenly thought of Black and looked forward to the end of his duty. He shook that off, scolding himself inwardly for that indulgence. He needed to focus!

But it was not as easy as he first thought. The job became quickly tedious and repetitive. Just people...passing by...again and again...more people...singles...couples...groups...more of the same. He sighed and accepted that this was probably going to turn out to be the single greatest unpleasantness of his job. But he buckled down emotionally and told himself he could certainly deal with that "hardship". There were things far worse.

Then he saw such a thing. A woman, just a glimpse, as she was pulled back into an alley up the street. Jad's attention was absolute. He went to the door and stepped out. Focusing all his attention on the alley's entrance...

THERE! There she was again! She took two steps out into the broader street before a man assailed her from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth to stifle the beginning of a scream and dragging her back into the shadows.

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jad shouted, "Hey!" and pointed at the alley, hoping some of the passersby would notice and at least ask him what the trouble was. A few did look, at him, but did not appear interested in following the line of his finger or ask him what he was on about. He called out that there was a woman in trouble in the alley.

The responses were mixed. Some took casual looks down the alley as they passed it, shrugging and offering no conclusion. Some avoided eye contact altogether. And some told him that HE was the guard and that HE should do something himself, seeing as he was armed and all.

Jad stalled, reasoning that the folks that had looked and shrugged suggested there was nothing to be seen now. He hoped this meant the woman had escaped. A few chimes later, an entirely new crop of people were on the street. They knew nothing about what may have been occurring in the alley. Nor did they respond much differently than the first batch when the struggling woman made a brief, partial appearance again, only to be pulled back by an unseen hand.

This time though, there was a pair of Wave Guardsmen approaching and Jad was able to direct them to the alley. He felt great relief when they stepped in, surely to bring an end to whatever sort of villainy was going on there. To his dismay, they appeared, less than a chime later, to continue their unhurried gait down the street the way they had been going. One of them turned and shook his head at Jad when the young man called after them for information. They were soon out of sight.

Jad was perplexed. Were these people finding nothing at all? Or were they finding the pair in there, but seemingly engaged in some innocent activity. He was not a prude. He understood that some people liked to inject a bit of adventurousness into their sexual escapades. But this had not seemed to follow that routine. If anything, any resulting arousal would have had them back in a bed by now, not appearing, now a third time, in the mouth of the same alleyway.

This time, there were no passersby at all, and the man had hands around the woman's throat. Jad's gut burned in fury. Back in Syliras, when he'd had a brief instant of social relevance amidst the haze of his otherwise mind-controlled existence, he'd met a girl. His focus had been off as a result in the ensuing days, as had his normal level of cooperative spirit. Ten days later she had turned up dead. Strangled. Through hypnotic and chemically induced means, his masters had convinced him that HE had done it. Oh, accidentally of course. But nonetheless, his lack of focus and control of his Projection had somehow choked the girl to death.

...Oh they were so understanding of how bad he must feel...

When this came up at the trial, Jad had had to be restrained from launching an attack on the defendants from the witness stand. And now that same anger raged inside him. He charged from the doorway and burst into the alleyway to find it empty.

He swung around in exasperation, knowing they could not have gone far. With the woman offering what resistance she could, the man could not move quickly. But the alley had two exits, and there was no clear sign which way they'd gone. No scuffs, no discarded articles of clothing, no inexplicably kicked aside bits of refuse. He listened...

THERE! Yes...a muffled scream, from the exit on the left. He flew through the left corridor to find another choice of two paths. But one was blocked by a partially unloaded wagon. Jad decided in a flash that there hadn't been time for the wagon to have been unloaded to the point it was in the few ticks since he'd heard the scream. He charged down the other way, oblivious to the fact the the workmen doing the unloading didn't act as if they had heard anything...

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jad reached the far end of the alley and listened, hearing nothing. He took a left and walked quickly, listening but still hearing nothing. 'Had the man gotten the woman to run along with him?' he puzzled. The alley was really a narrow street, and it was too long for the couple to have cleared the end without running. Unless there was some niche they'd tucked themselves into.

Jad stopped to listen at some doors, but realized he'd look like some kind of burglar or something. he thought about knocking on a door or two to ask if anyone had seen or heard anything, but decided against it. He'd gotten here quickly enough that he couldn't imagine anyone having timed a moment outside to see anything he would not have arrived soon enough to see.

Jad could visualize the terrified woman, wide-eyed, a knife at her throat, the man crooning for her to be calm, all the while intending to rape and murder her. Fury rose again as Jad started running to the end of the alley and swinging around to circle the block. He came back around and saw the wagon, now blocking the alley completely, crates and burlap bags laying on the cobblestones to block crawling under it to save time.

Only then did it occur to Jad that the workmen were nowhere in sight. He'd have thought that they might have finished their job and gone into the building to sign out for the delivery, except that they wouldn't have left goods lying around in the street, bagged and crated or not. On an uneasy whim, Jad pulled on the tie cords to open one of the bags.

It was full of rags...

Sick realization struck him, and he knew he'd been had. He wasted an additional moment trying to get around the wagon before giving up and rushing the long way around. As he made the far end of the street where the warehouse was located, he saw the front door standing ajar. His one hope was that he could catch the thieves in the act; that they'd not already made off with some small valuable item.

He knew there WERE such items in the building. It was only a matter of whether or not the thieves knew where these things were kept, so they wasted no time looking for them. His hand was gripping his skirmish sword tightly as he raced through the door. He swung it up in a martial position as his eyes adjusted, ready to attack or defend in an instant. A voice sounded from the side and he spun, recognition coming an instant later. Shock and humiliation letting the sword clatter to the floor.

"Hello, Mr. Hayes." said his boss, Mr. Pelthes, his face registering no emotion whatsoever, "Good of you to return to your post, and guard against a robbery, several chimes after the robbery has been completed."

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jad sagged in humiliation. It was that much worse that Mr. Pelthes had rehired him after his arrest. Now he had failed him. And he was blatantly caught in his failure. Jad had nothing to say in his defense. He picked up his sword slowly, trying to face his impending dismissal with some dignity. "Shall I finish this day, at least, sir?" he asked in resignation.

Mr. Pelthes studied him momentarily, then suddenly burst out laughing, shaking his head and walking over to pat Jad on the back. "My boy, I'm not going to replace you. This was intended as a learning experience, and I believe it has succeeded wildly. I am, in fact, impressed that you restrained yourself as much as you did." The old gentleman turned toward a partially open door and raised his voice somewhat. "Come out then, Rachel...Kendal...meet the young man that was going to stop the one of you, and rescue the other."

Jad blushed furiously, looking away to avoid eye contact. "I'm very sorry...I had no idea." he mumbled.

"Well, no, I should say you didn't." Mr. Pelthes teased, then grew sympathetic. "But no, young man, I'M the one who's sorry. But this has been the most common ruse used to pull our guards from their posts. And we came up with this little scenario to give new men a chance to make this mistake without it costing the merchant group a bundle of stolen goods. Rachel is my daughter, and this is her fiance, Kendall."

"I uhh...I'm glad to meet you." Jad stammered, unsure of his sincerity. He extended his hand to shake theirs, still having trouble meeting anyone's eyes.

"Not the best circumstances to meet, I'm afraid." Rachel responded. "I hope you're not angry with this deception, but we've found it to work very well in teaching this unpleasantly necessary lesson."

The combined sympathy and understanding relieved most of Jad's embarrassment, and he found himself warming up to the couple. Kendall was, of course, a bit guarded where a strange young man and his fiance were concerned, but Jad was the exemplar of propriety and he was soon completely at ease.

"Anyway, I don't want you to feel picked on. You are not the first to fall victim to this charade, young man. Why that ONE ex-guardsman actually attacked father when he came back and found him here. Didn't even give him a chance to explain." Rachel snickered. "He didn't accept our apologies as graciously as you have done either. He stormed out of here without looking back. Didn't like being exposed as vulnerable to such a tactic, I guess."

"Well, I am always on the lookout for ways to improve myself." Jad offered. He looked down sheepishly, "I admit, I feel a bit the butt of a prank, but I understand its purpose. I will certainly remember this in the future."

"That's all I'm looking for, young fellow." Mr. Pelthes said cheerfully. "Oh, and you're on for tomorrow night as well, If you're not busy."

"Not at all, sir." Jad replied, feeling much better. The three left with kind exchanges and Jad returned to his post, feeling strangely successful for having completely botched his job.

[Perplexity]

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Jadlin :

Skills:

• Observation | +1 EXP
  Investigation | +2 EXP
  Running | +1 EXP
  Tracking | +1 EXP
  Socialization | +2 EXP

Lores:

• Mr. Pelthes: My Boss
  Mr. Pelthes: Possibly has ulterior motives?
  Mr. Pelthes: An Unconventional Lesson
  Guard Duty: Dull, Dreary, Needs A Lot of Focus
  Guard Duty: Getting Tricked By A Ruse
  Tracking: Following A Muffled Scream

Comments :

Howdy Jadlin! Well that's certainly an interesting way to learn a guard duty lesson. I strongly recommend that you actually write out the dialogue that takes place between characters in the future. I also recommend that you go more into detail about Jadlin's actions. This thread was enjoyable but I feel it has a lot of untapped potential. Feel free to message me if you comments, questions or concerns!