RP:To Steal From a Thief
Summary: Edlin sees a figure skulking around in the night and decides inspect because he senses danger.
Duergar Wares
Entering into this secluded area via means of an unlit tunnel behind the bazaar, you witness various pieces of armor and weapons that a burly Duergar tries to pawn to those who are willing to lose a few pieces of wealth. The dark dwarf grins with delight as an individual purchases a few pieces, handing over a rather large leather bag of coin to the merchant for payment.
Meri | Nothing good happens after midnight, or so the saying goes, and tonight Meri would be proving that she is not going to be the exception to the rule. It was late, so late that some might even define it as early for in just two or three short hours the sun would be rising and people would start bustling about their day. The average person is probably in their bed, dreaming away until it is time to rise and start the day all over again. Meri was not amongst the average, she has long since abandoned the room she is renting and left Rynvale proper to go gallivanting through the forests toward the backside of the Island with one destination in particular in mind. Most days, the attire she selected while around Rynvale did nothing to shield her full-sleeve tattoos but tonight, to help mask identity and to help her blend with the shadows, Meri has opted to wear a black, long sleeved shirt along with her usual black pants and beat up boots. This outside is worn beneath a hooded cloak, the hood of which is not drawn up while traveling through the forest but as she gets closer to the bazaar, a gloved hand pulls the hood over her facade. Despite the extremely late hour, the bazaar is not entirely devoid of people. There are perhaps not merchants attending stalls nor customers shopping tents, but there are a few guards on patrol in an attempt to prevent theft from happening. They will have their work cut out for them tonight for the cloaked figure that is Meri is attempting to dodge the guards while weaving through the tents and stalls. There is a particular destination in mind, and end goal that she is seeking to achieve, or so one might think for while she is successful in avoiding the patrol thus far, she has taken nothing from any of the vendors. Silent steps will ultimately carry her away from the tented vendors and down a dark tunnel, toward the vendor that tends to deal in some of the more expensive armors found in the lands.
Irenic was doing well to try and keep himself hidden in his hideous monster form long black cloak and all. Even his footsteps were harder to detect as they are talons and he moves just as silently as a bird would. His good eye picking up on movement in the distance which is traveling stealthily and he watches for a moment and even follows to some extent until the spectacle disappears into a tunnel. He hates being trapped in earth, but oh well. A glance around as the guards go unbothered for the moment and his curiosity gets the better of him as he silently moves into the tunnel behind Meri. Making sure to keep himself at a distance from the stranger and wrapped tightly under his cloak as to not draw attention through scent. A peek around a corner would find the stranger, or who he thinks is a stranger, doing whatever dirty deed they snuck here to do. Once they gathered what they wanted or needed he would simply step into the middle of the tunnel once they rounded the corner and in doing so blocked the way, even possibly knocking them on their arse from the nearly seven foot cloaked figure. Silent as always at first allowing this stranger to lead the conversation.
Meri remains oblivious to Irenic tailing her, but it's not like he would have had an easy time with it for the woman was paranoid as it were about encountering any of the guards that watch the place. Still, a clever man could have easily ducked behind stalls and played the same game that Meri did and go undetected -- just as she had done with the guards. Down the tunnel she goes, with both quickness and purpose, but when she returns it is not with troves and hoards of armor. It seems as though the woman has selected only a couple of items, items that she perhaps wanted and needed for personal use. What exactly she has taken for herself? Hard to say for they are tucked away within a burlap bag that she carries over one shoulder. Even though her retreat from the Duegars' wares is a hasty one, she is not so clumsy and reckless that she would ram right into Irenic. No, she stops part way down the tunnel because even in the shadows it is obvious that there is something lurking ahead of her. Sight did not need to tell her this, Irenic was still a creature of mass and substance and the psion could -feel- that the tunnel up ahead was different than before, but the moon of the night still afforded her the grace of enough light to see shadows. Her voice would come out a low hiss, "You are not a guard," for his attire did not match theirs. They were not shrouded in hooded cloaks. "So stand aside and let me pass, you have no right to block my path." ....says the thief to the stranger.
Irenic heard that voice before and in his beast form he remembers better than the daylight form. He cautiously steps closer and she might be able to pick up on her favorite scent coming from the Avian trait of him. The steps silent which brings him closer and closer if she allows and that low gruff and painfully sarcastic tone spoken through a beak, “making a late night purchase?” A short chuckle given as in the privacy of the cave he pulls the hood back and even though his resting birdface is unreadable his tone was not judgemental in the least. One might even say his tone has a tinge of interest in it, “so… You’re a thief?” Even if he didn’t see what she took, he would have to be quite daft to not piece it together that she was stealing. “What do you got there?” If he could smirk he would, but she might be able to sense his amusement. He heard a shuffling in the distance with his adept hearing in his birdlike form, but he wasn’t worried.
Meri | Was she a thief by trade? Or was she a thief in this moment? This is not a question that she is going to sit here and discuss with Irenic in the moment. There were a lot of reasons for this. What if one of those little Duergar bastards is an early riser and decides to come bumbling down the hall? What if it was one of the guards patrolling the place of thieves just like Meri? It would be impossible to see but red lips would twist up into a scowl and instead of stopping to play a little game of show and tell, Meri would twist, duck and slide her way right around Irenic and through the tunnel. It half-crosses her mind to just try and ditch the guy before he can keep asking her questions but she doesn't. That would have been the smarter choice. Instead once she has slide past him, she turns and begins to walk backwards so that she can offer up a bit of a feisty goodbye. "Look I am not going to sit here and chat it up. I'm going to scram. You can either tag alon-..." In her not paying attention to what is going on behind her so that she can exchange a goodbye with Irenic, so she is not totally rude to him, she backs her way right into a guard that happens to round the corner with such perfect timing. Irenic would hardly have the chance to warn her. Thankfully Meri's hood is still up, so the bazaar's evening watch has not even come close to getting a good look at her face. He does have one hand on the burlap bag that is slung over her shoulder, in a bid to force Meri to give it up. He's not very keen on letting the woman go either though, and his freehand moves to grab her by the arm to give it a twist and restrain her. "Thief!" he sounds the alarm to fellow guardsmen who will probably be en route very shortly. Irenic does not go unnoticed either for the guard starts shouting at him too, "Don't think you will be able to escape either!" But he is just one man and he's already having to deal with Meri, who is at risk of losing whatever she stole. She would blame Irenic, but no, it serves her right for lingering in the area as long as she did. She knows better.
Irenic was swift enough to at least come in between Meri and the guard as he starts explaining, “You see, she stopped me. This is mine, now,” He came nose to nose… Er, rather - nose to birdman chest as he looks his beak down at the guard in towering over him. Hurried motions take her burlap bag while untying his cloak which fell in a heap onto the ground so he may outstretch his wings in a distraction while they made their way out of the opening of the tunnels now. He was making a wall in the guard’s line of sight for Meri to make a run for it and seeing a nearly seven foot birdman was odd even in this land of fantasy. I mean, sure there are lycans, orcs, ogres and dragons, but never THIS. Large eyes bare down on the man he was towering over in hopes Meri trusted him enough to run off and hide at least until he can find her again, which wasn’t hard for him. The guard was yelling for more backup surely, but by the time they got there Meri should be long gone and they all hesitate at the unusual sight of Irenic. Luckily he had found a black long sleeve tee shirt to wear when she shifts this way so any ink patterns were covered up from their view in order to identify him on another day. Irenic does well to make an encompassing distraction as he had before, but even though this act seems familiar to him he doesn’t dwell on it long. He takes off flying off in the opposite direction of where he sensed she might have gone… He’ll meet up with her later.
Meri was cast aside during the birdman's approach for even though the guard wanted to apprehend her, he did not exactly want to be blamed for some woman being harmed or worse in the middle of a fight. Her guilt in the situation had not been fully determined and the guard was only further confused by the fact that Irenic was claiming that he was the thief. Would Meri stick around to figure out what happens? No, and her logic was not 'every man for himself' in this situation. She might have stuck around to try and exchange a few blows if she really believed that Irenic would be apprehended. He has wings, she is blonde but thankfully not dumb. Meri would use this distraction to make her escape from the bazaar completely, her exit was a hasty one but she still put stealth to use by trying to duck between stalls to avoid detection from the guards who have since been roused and may be on the hunt. Maybe. Their culprit is flying away so that does afford Meri sufficient distraction from the brunt of the attention being on her. Unfortunately for Irenic, since Rynvale is riddled with a variety of flying creatures, at least one of those guards is equipped with bow and arrow. Hopefully Irenic can fly fast, lest wings be shot, or hopefully guards have poor aim. As for the items that Irenic will hopefully be returning to Meri, likely at SoulsKin? A very expensive set of armored boots and a lovely dark mithril shirt. How fashionable. Meri's goal in this adventure was actually to only take what she wanted from this shop so as to not draw significant alarm. What is one or two items? Goal not exactly achieved, much attention has been drawn. The upside was that she did not get spotted and was not caught.
Irenic learned that those guards did have horrible aim as it seemed they were trying to go for the large ivory wings. It wouldn’t be a first, but the damn archer caught his calf muscle and though it didn’t effect his flying ability it hurt like the dickens. He gave flying around an hour or so before he landed and limped his way towards SoulsKin, but not without finding another cloak lying around. A pause in his travels so he can at least snap off the quill with a grunt given due to the pain and he eventually made his way to the front of the place. Giving a rapp upon the door after he was sure no one else was around.
Meri | With another hour passing before Irenic attempts to see if Meri might actually be within SoulsKin, the time before the sun rises is quite limited. Perhaps only another hour to go. Meri would indeed be in the shop but she would not open the door straight away. She would peer through the little peephole to see who was standing outside her door The door would be swung open, Irenic would be grabbed by his cloak and forcefully pulled into the shop. Meri would shove him several feet into the shop, and the shop door would close seemingly of it's own accord. But this is not the first time that Irenic has seen these tricks from Meri, at least this time they are not being applied to the avian himself. "Irenic!" Meri hisses out, keeping her volume low even though they were in the four walls of the tattoo parlor, which is a safe space. Maybe it was an attempt to keep from straight yelling, she looked a little irritated with how her night had played out, for it had not gone according to her plan. Even the best laid plans often go awry.
Irenic allowed himself to be dragged into the shop and once inside he gently set her burlap sack down while he allowed her to whisper yell at him. He pulled the hood back from his birdlike head as he glanced down at the awful wrap job on his calf to at least stop the bleeding so there wasn't a trail of blood. His mind is elsewhere, the sun, when is it supposed to come up? “Yeah, sure. No problem and you're welcome,” the low gruff tone thick with sarcasm. He knelt down to unwrap his leg so he can at least pull the other half of the quill out, “that guy saw you, I just got there first.” He knew what he was doing all along and that they would be looking for a bird and not Irenic, himself. So, he wasn't just following the figure out of curiosity, he was trying to help her from the beginning and just call it instinct that he knew it was Meri. It was the way she moved and his excellent bird sight he acquired in this form. “Do you have something I can clamp my beak down on?” He knew pulling the quill out would be painful and he wanted to muffle the sound of his own yelling.
Meri points at herself when Irenic goes into the whole 'you're welcome' bit, they may not be seeing eye to eye on appreciation right now. "If he had seen me," Meri counters, "I would have not made it down to the end of the tunnel and back and we would not have even had a few brief words. He would have sounded the alarm sooner. I walked into him because I was being careless." Again, blame is not being placed on Irenic but her own shortcomings, but they could probably argue back and forth over how that scenario had played out all they wanted. Wasted breath. Meri was a mule at times. On to other things. Doctor Meri was not but thankfully the parlor at least had the basic supplies for Irenic to patch himself up. As far as something to bite down on? He is given a choice: the wooden end of a paintbrush that is perhaps questionably clean or a white rag that definitely is clean. Look Meri does not disinfect paint brushes, she did not have to worry about contamination between. Irenic gets those items first before he is brought a clear liquid for the purposes of disinfection. Bandages are not brought over, would they even serve the bird man well? Meri has her doubts because of the impending shift. "But we did both manage to get out just fine and it seems you decided to bring my spoils back to me so I will at the very least thank you for not giving them to someone else or selling them for yourself." A beat, a brief one, as she is not going to let Irenic enjoy that thank you for long. "Do you need anything else? Bandages, for example?"
Irenic is just a sarcastic arse and knew what he saw and knew he saw it better than her, but like her he lets it go so he can get the thing out before sunrise as they are really cutting it close here. He takes the rag because his beak would easily snap her brush and he'd just rather not have a splinter in his mouth since he's already got one in his leg, thank you very much. The tag gets balled up and shoved between his mouth and he beak clamps down as he gives a nod to the bandages with a muffled, ‘please.’ The guttural groaning began as he wasted no time in sliding the stick of a quill out of his calf muscle as it had made its way cleanly through it and a sort of manly whimper of relief came as it was all the way out now. He quickly moved the rag from his mouth to the hole in his leg which started to pour out blood until Meri made it back with the bandages… Too late to start at the moment and luckily he was already knelt down on the floor and he seemed to shrink down to it for her when he attempts to stiffly his painful groans again. This was always too painful though and he managed to ball up the cloak around him and scream into that instead while he lost grip on his wound in causing blood to drip on the floor. There were so many muffled expletives, but the sound that may stick with Meri on this night would be the sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh. He felt as if his wings were literally being torn from his back and just as quickly his velvety ivory feathers molted all at once to mix with the blood on the floor. A crumpled, moaning, and broken near seven foot Avian lay in a heap before Meri.
Meri has witnessed a shift in several creatures before. Werewolf. Naga. Dragon. Some of the changes were smooth, fluid, and seemingly free of pain. Irenic did not seem to have that luxury, his seems to be one of the more painful shifts that she has witnessed. And definitely one of the messiest. The woman cringes at what she witnesses. It has been a long night, Meri is cranky, and she was hoping to at least get a nap in before the shop doors had to open up for the day. These upsets are not expressed to Irenic, they were both sarcastic and sassy jerks, but Meri would at least try and be empathetic in this moment. His complaints beat out hers without question. She would not crowd Irenic, he would get his space because that is what she would want -- space. She also does not yell at Irenic for the mess he has made either though. "Irenic," she in a gentle voice, once he is just a heap lying on the floor in front of her. "Irenic go to the Barrel and get a room. Crash out. Tell Simon that I will pay for it." She was presuming that Irenic likely did not have gold on him, it seemed to be the usual case. "I need to clean this up before the shop opens...."
Irenic comes to stand slowly and mismatched bloodshot eyes rest on her a moment. He doesn't say much, but once he bandages his wound he would move to help clean up the blood and feathers before heading to the door. He stops a moment before closing the distance between them once more and asks slowly while motioning why she was stealing and if she was in some sort of trouble, “Pourquoi êtes-vous en acier? Êtes-vous dans une sorte de problème?” A sort of worried look comes over him for he's come to look at Meri as a friend and doesn't want anything to happen to her. He definitely shouldn't be trying to break anyone out of jail anytime soon either.
Meri actually happened to keep that book she borrowed from Brennia at the shop for when she had down time, but in this instance she did not need it to understand what Irenic was asking. Irenic may try and approach but Meri was not going to sit still, things needed to be cleaned up before Jax arrived. He may be the shop apprentice but there was a line even for him. "Did I have some sort of problem? Yeah...My problem was running with the warriors guild for a few of their missions." Larewen might even be able to tell him of a couple, but Meri did not know of that connection yet. Nor was she exactly Larewen's biggest fan -- for no other reason than there was something unsettling about that one. Even for Meri's tastes. "And I came to the realization that my armor is cheap. And crappy. And some of it even got ruined during some fighting. So there we have it...I wanted new armor that I could never be able to afford. I don't understand how some of those freaking warrior's can have such nice things when they don't even seem to -work-." And here Meri was curious spirit, but a job that usually barely afforded her ends meet. It depended on the months. She saved in preparation for those slower times. "Some girls are more spice than sugar and we do pretty well at getting us out of our own problems. But If I am ever really in trouble?" And tonight was not one of those nights, she will maintain! "I promise I will let you know."
Irenic watched her for a moment. A lingering moment until he limped his way back to the door and wanted to explain he's going back mainland until this little heist blew over, but they weren't done here. He gave a look over his shoulder as he pulled the door open and waved goodbye. He limped until he was waiting for a boat and then he limped onto said boat until he was back in cenril.