Recoup

Kamar Deythal · Post by **Kamar Deythal** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:17 pm

Kamar followed a few steps behind, his eyes roving the street. He was only half listening to anything Chrishton was saying, and paying attention to any and all movements ahead and to either side.

Therefore, he saw the Captain step from one street and look in their direction, then plant himself. In less time than it took for thought, Kamar turned made a quick 270 degree turn, out into the street to scan for any type of ambush, then behind, then towards the buildings closest to he and his two companions. They were still only a few feet away from that building, so Kamar took two quick steps and hid in the indented doorway of a large warehouse that had closed up for the night.

His hand dropped down to the door handle, and found it locked. He quickly pulled his lockpicks from his belt and began working at the lock.

In the meantime, Chrishton had finally noticed the Captain and was several steps up the street. Kamar hissed between clenched teeth towards him and the girl.

"This way, fool! We need to avoid confrontation!"

Dorcas Tansy · Post by **Dorcas Tansy** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 6:58 pm

Dorcas had never actually encountered the captain; her crime was a misdemeanor too petty for his attention. The guard was perhaps an overeager force, but not for lack of more seriously prosecutable activities. They stuck to their priorities.

Therefore, she raised her eyebrows incredulously as Chrishton trailed off. She wanted to hear about the dragon girl she too had encountered. "After . . . ?" she prompted him with a grand gesture of her hand.

In the pause immediately following, two items struck Dorcas simultaneously. First, her gaze floated up to the spot where Chrishton's fell to regard the captain quizzically, and second, Kamar's hissed whisper came behind her. She had to look to see who had spoken. Kamar had dropped the goofy accent. Visibly confused, Dorcas faltered in the steps forward she was about to take, instead veering off towards Kamar's door. She stared at him, half-understanding, as she tried to put together the several pieces of information she'd been struck with.

Dorcas's cat continued to trot forward, losing speed gradually as he got closer to the nonplussed captain.

Camulous Smithson · Post by **Camulous Smithson** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 6:40 am

It was too ridiculous to believe. The captain had left his latest trainee behind, having given up on searching for Chrishton in this part of the city, and was heading back to the headquarters when he heard a racket down the street. He looked over to see who it was and couldn't believe his eyes. Had he been carrying his sword he would have dropped it.

There was Chrishton and Dennison, along with a girl he recognized by description as one of the five who escaped the prison cells. Chrishton was making no effort to be discrete. Quite the contrary, he was the loudest thing for blocks. The captain was either extremely lucky for stumbling into them, or extremely unlucky for having the responsibility of dealing with these characters. He didn't know which.

Nor did he know exactly what to do. He had no backup and didn't like his chances dealing with them all alone.

He stood his ground and stared bleakly at Chrishton. The burly man gave him a shrug back, as if denying responsibility for something that wasn't his fault.

There was no choice for Camulous. He had to do what he had to do, backup be damned. If they wouldn't come peacefully someone was going to get hurt. His eyes darted around, spotting nobody who would help.

He saw Chrishton start pulling back, following Dennison, and immediately drew his pistol. He pointed it at him knowing full well that at such extreme range there was little chance of hitting anything.

"Hold it!"

Chrishton Radu · Post by **Chrishton Radu** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:47 pm

Chrishton heard Kamar's suggestion and knew it was the right thing to do, but for some reason he couldn't help himself. It was too late to avoid detection anyway. He stuck his thumbs to his temples and made antlers at the Captain, aware of and unimpressed by the appearance of the pistol.

Camulous couldn't take it. The whole situation was a mockery of his authority. He fired the pistol, letting loose a lead pellet that cracked off the side of the building and sent stone and sparks flying a few meters in front of Chrishton. The burly man barely flinched. With the pistol still pointed at his head, Camulous started walking towards him and only then did Chrishton stop making faces and start making to hurry Kamar up.

"Feck it go! Gogogo!"

Another crack resounded down the street and hit the ground somewhere off behind Dorcas. That made Chrishton wince and grab her by the upper arm. He manhandled her into the building after Dennison with total disregard for whatever protests she might make, gave the captain a good show of his middle finger and ducked inside.

Kamar Deythal · Post by **Kamar Deythal** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:22 am

It took only seconds for Kamar to have the door unlocked and open, which was enough time for him to step to the side and hold the door open before Chrishton came through the doorway with Dorcas. No more shots rang out from outside, but he imagined the sound of running feet coming towards them.

Or perhaps it wasn't imagined...

In any case, Kamar didn't wish to test his new authority as a battlemage on the Captain just yet, especially not in front of Chrishton. He kept his voice pitched low and pointed towards the back of the warehouse, where a window could be seen in the slowly diminishing light.

"Get out the back. I couldn't see anyone else with him, so I don't think this is an ambush or a trap. Go!"

Once the two were out of his way, he quickly shut the door and relocked it. A ladder-backed chair next to a desk just inside the doorway caught his eye, and he darted over to it. Hardly making a sound, he lifted it into the air and trotted back to the door. Quickly turning it in his hands, he wedged the back of the chair up under the door handle, kicking the front legs of the chair to jam it further.

Then he turned and sped after the other two.

Dorcas Tansy · Post by **Dorcas Tansy** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:02 pm

The first shot fired caused Dorcas's pet to finally stop in his tracks. The captain clearly hadn't taken notice of the mud-colored cat. With the firing of the second shot, the small beast scurried out of the road and leapt into the nearest hiding he came to. It was a very large, rotting wooden crate next to the very building Kamar was breaking into. Inside the filthy box was stacked a mess of wood waste too rotted to serve as kindling. There were other living inhabitants of the garbage crate, and if the pistol cracks hadn't been enough to rouse them, the clattering arrival of a shaggy beast was: a half dozen or more disoriented bats exploded out into the dusk. With high-pitched wheezes and erratic wingbeats like so much frantic clawing, the bats dispersed low in the sky. A few hovered near the doorway just before fluttering off when Kamar slammed the door. One or two circled dizzily in the air around Camulous for a few moments before disappearing their separate ways.

When shoved inside the building, Dorcas had given a surprised huff, which she followed up with a low howl of protest. "Ohh!" she whined, just after the door was locked. "Kitty, kitty. I jes' go' him back an' he's all alown again." She sulked as Kamar went about his barricading business. "'Snot like he means to run orf 'r anything."

Suddenly becoming more aware of her situation beside the matter of the cat, the girl's eyes widened. "You were braggin'," she said pointedly to Chrishton, "they couldn' fin' their awn arseholes, but now they've found the arse an' they're shootin' at it. An' what're we supposed to do now, huh?"

Chrishton Radu · Post by **Chrishton Radu** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:03 pm

"Bah!" He grunted at the girl and started talking over her. "'E got lucky is all. 'ats the cap'n o' the guard right there."

Chrishton trotted away from the door Kamar was now busy blockading and waved his hand dismissively in the air. He wasn't in a very big hurry and was unwilling to actually run. A brisk pace was good enough to put some distance between himself and the nuisance outside.

He glanced back and forth around the building, trying to figure out what the place was. Like most of the industrial facilities in Marn, it was full of pipes and belts and weird gnomish gizmos but this one was different. None of the stuff looked like it connected to fabrication equipment of any kind. The spirits floating around suggested it was important somehow, but they all had different opinions about why it was important and none of them gave any concrete information he could actually use. He used the hand he already had in the air to waft them away like a bad smell. The wafting had no effect. It never did, but it made him feel better and got his point across while only making him look mildly more insane than he really was.

About half way across the room Chrishton stopped and turned to look at the door again. He held up a hand to silence Dorcas who was sure to have something to say and listened to the room. It was mostly quiet except for a low hum. Suddenly the door jerked and thudded. The captain was trying to get in and couldn't. He tried three times, nearly snapping the chair in half, and then stopped.

Chrishton smiled devilishly while the spirits confirmed his suspicions.

"Right. Back that way. He's goin 'round. Ain't no ambush. Just him."

(I included cam's actions in this post, so kamar, you're up )

Kamar Deythal · Post by **Kamar Deythal** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:01 pm

By the time Kamar had turned and taken a few steps to catch up to Chrishton and Dorcas, the two had stopped and were talking. He paused and gave them a frown, his mouth opening as he was about to berate them for stopping. Waiting this thing out in this warehouse, no matter how cluttered, was a good way to get themselves caught.

He only caught part of the conversation before the Captain began pounding on the door. The chair held, if barely, but Kamar doubted it would hold against a concerted effort of however many men might be waiting outside.

The Chrishton spoke and began making his way back towards the door after the thumping had stopped for a brief moment. What he said made Kamar pause again with his mouth open for beratement.

Instead of saying what he had first wanted to say, Kamar asked suspiciously, "How could you possibly know that?"

He frowned, but followed after Chrishton, only a step or two behind.

Dorcas Tansy · Post by **Dorcas Tansy** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:39 pm

For all her posturing, Dorcas was, after all, an adolescent, hardly more than a child. She didn't yet possess the faculties that provide patience and rationality in stressful situations, and as shrewdly as she might carry herself under perfect conditions, these were not such. The indignity of having her complaints ignored was a bother. The outrage of being spoken over was insufferable.

Heavy jaw jutting insolently, she turned bodily away from Chrishton when he spoke. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the large man looking about curiously at the equipment. He had a spooky way about him, the way he often looked at invisible information in the air, as mental as a house cat. He batted an unseen disturbance in the air, and there were certainly no bugs buzzing about in this still space. It struck Dorcas at that moment that his resemblance to her pet cat was not confined to his behavior; his largeness and general shagginess seemed to reflect that of the Forest cat. This notion bothered her, and she was about to spit an insult--"Buffoon!"--at his antics, when the door rattled sharply. She sucked the syllable in with a gasp instead: "Foo!"

The captain quickly gave up ramming. Chrishton seemed to know exactly what was going on, and Kamar seemed as skeptical of this as Dorcas. Still, his tendency towards hunches attracted her to follow along; he did eerily remind her of the pet she adored. She favored any solution that reunited her with the wayward cat, so with a huff she plodded after Chrishton to the door again, attempting with a nudge of her thick elbow to squeeze her way in between the two men. She didn't want to be the last one out of here.

Chrishton Radu · Post by **Chrishton Radu** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:13 pm

"C'mon now Denny. If I didn' 'ave a few tricks up m'sleeve they wouldn' 'ave a reason t'hate me so much, would they?"

He gave Dennison a wink and kept striding towards the back door. For once the spirits were being useful. In their bizarre, ethereal minds they all came to the conclusion that yes, maybe they should all agree on something that was factual in nature. A rare event indeed, and in the back of Chrishton's mind he suspected they might all be plotting against him and feeding him the same piece of disinformation.

That possibility didn't stop him from acting. If they wanted to play a prank on him so be it. It wouldn't be very funny anyway. They could come up with better.

He reached the door and quietly removed the chair, setting it down to the left side. He grabbed the handle and quietly turned it, pushing the door open a few inches to look outside. The captain wasn't there. With a big, stubble and tooth filled grin he wiggled his eyebrows at Kamar.

"Ya worry too much Denny."

Kamar Deythal · Post by **Kamar Deythal** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:45 pm

Kamar glanced over at the girl as she wiggled in between them, but said nothing. He didn't like trusting his fate to Chrishton's 'tricks', but if he was to learn what this man was capable of, and what those tricks were, then he was going to have to go against instinct and trust that Chrishton was capable of not getting them caught.

With the door open and no one within sight, Kamar indicated the doorway, a small smirk on his face as Chrishton commented on his worries.

"Your tricks, you go first." Kamar copied Chrishton's waggling eyebrows, the smirk remaining.

Dorcas Tansy · Post by **Dorcas Tansy** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:15 am

Dorcas glanced back at Kamar, wearing a peculiar expression. She was biting her bottom lip as if nervous, but the furrowed brow over her intensely staring eyes gave away her skepticism. She was still unsure of the nature of the situation, unsure of how much caution to show. Her expression toughened with Kamar's vague comment on 'tricks,' and her upper lip stiffened unattractively.

She turned back to the doorway and lurched forward slightly to peer out into the street. "Tuk-tuk-tuk," she murmured, calling for her cat. When she caught sight of him, he was not responding to her, but staring at the air from which the bats he'd stirred up had dispersed.

"Well," she hissed behind Chrishton, "get on with it." She was annoyed that she couldn't push past Chrishton's big frame, while taking Kamar's rank had been easy work.

Chrishton Radu · Post by **Chrishton Radu** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 2:23 pm

Chrishton shrugged impassively at Kamar and strutted out into the street, full of confidence in his own immortality as usual. Sure enough, or rather luckily, nothing happened. He did a good job pretending he wasn't still in pain from the preceeding night's torture session. He winced to himself with his back turned to the others.

The captain was nowhere to be seen, and none of the few people within eyesight appeared to be looking in his direction. If anyone was looking, he would be plainly visable.

Once standing in the very middle of the street, he turned around and folded his large arms to wait for Dorcas to deal with her feline friend and take the lead on to her place.

"Y'all dun got no..." He started to say when he jerked his foot back with a grimmace. "... Faith..."

Casually, trying to cover up the embarrasment of the situation, he pulled a piece of glass out of his right foot and flicked it away. The industrial district was not an ideal place to be wandering around barefoot.

"Get yer stupid cat'n les go, girly."

Kamar Deythal · Post by **Kamar Deythal** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:52 am

Kamar paused outside the door, then turned and slipped back inside. He closed the door quietly and re-jammed the chair against the handle to hold the door shut. A quickly muttered spell, and Kamar slipped across the dusty warehouse to a window, oddly without leaving a trail of footprints in the dirt, dust, and debris littering the warehouse floor.

Once at the window, Kamar murmured another spell, lifting the window latches and pushing the window out on rusty hinges that didn't squeal at all. With a quick glance over his shoulder, Kamar slipped from the window and landed lightly on his feet in the street again.

With a small smirk at Chrishton, Kamar closed the window until the latches caught. He then turned to face his two companions, crossing his arms over his chest. The whole episode had taken less than a minute.

"Let the good Captain try to sort that out."

He looked towards Dorcas, then back to Chrishton. "We aren't going to stand here all day and wait for him to come back, are we?"

Dorcas Tansy · Post by **Dorcas Tansy** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:57 pm

Dorcas didn't seem interested in whatever charlatannery Kamar was up to when he disappeared back into the ill-fated room. She threw a skeptical look in Chrishton's direction. He had just tossed a half-hearted insult her way, and as much as she'd like to argue, she thought better of raising her voice just now.

She stalked heavily over to her waiting cat and knelt down on the cobblestones to scoop him up. The hem of her dress and her apron swept up some grime from the ground, adding to the general filth they'd soaked up over time. The street was not exactly sanitary, and probably not the best place to expose an open foot wound. She winced in something close to sympathy when she saw how Chrishton's foot wept blood.

Kamar presently came out the window of the building and looked like he'd accomplished something, but what exactly Dorcas was unsure of. She rolled her eyes heavenward as she got to her feet, as if the very effort of standing up to these people was a trial. She didn't understand the habits of these people around here yet.

Not uncomfortable in her annoyance, however, she carried on in the direction intended before their detour. She spoke in dry, round tones. "I hope we shant be igspectin' such obstacles on ivery city block on th'way? Or am I t'be mistaken?" She continued on with an airy sigh and her cat held high against her chest.