aterat | What Mischief Spring Makes

Entry tags:

What Mischief Spring Makes

Who; Nida, Mono, Open
What; Stake Outs, Burglaries, Maybe Some Wishes
Where;Noble District, Markets
When; Mid March
Warnings; N/A

I. A Stakeout Team | Noble District (Closed to Mono)

This wasn't the job that Nida had wanted to take. There was trouble in the Harbor District, and there would always be a part of Nida that was drawn to the seas even as he was drawn to the skies. Plus if he needed to draw on Siren's powers, then even the fullest ones of them were most useful at the harbor.

Instead he was here, because there were some skills that Nida was good at that wasn't always the strength of the other guards. Which was why Nida was here right now, perched on the roof of a wealthy person's house that had already been burgled, waiting. His job was to wait, to watch, to seek. Want to catch a thief? Use a spy apparently.

Nida sighed as he shivered in his dark brown and gray coat, something he'd chosen to keep himself less visible. It was cold in the evenings these days, and while he had a small covered stove nearby to offer some heat, it was annoying him for not being enough.

"At least there's some learning going on," he said to his companion for the night, the one that was supposed to help him stay awake. Maybe he'd been working nights, but all night wasn't always right.

"So," he says to Mono, gesturing to the small bag of nuts and dried fruit, "you willing to pass that?"

Hopefully he'd gotten Mono a good enough rain poncho to keep him dry.

II. Tension In The Markets | Markets

The rain was getting to him, but it seemed like he wasn't the only one. Nida felt a bit soggy, but at least he had good boots to keep his feet dry. It seemed like the same wasn't true for everyone. People were wet and angry looking, and Nida was tired from all of the work that he was doing. Long nights, overnights, not enough time at home, and he still had to go do some market shifts. Was it a shock he was irritable?

"Ain't selling you that!" one merchant was shouting at someone that looked vaguely familiar. And it looked like it might be a fight soon. Damn.

"No fucking fights," Nida said as he stepped forward toward the merchant and the other person. "Just calm yourselves down."

III. Wildcard
[I have a plotting post here if you have other ideas you'd like to discuss. If you have CR with Nida it's also cool to just plop a wildcard down here. As he's working the Noble District most nights during this event, the best way to find him is tired during the afternoon/day, especially at home.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not a lot to see so far," Nida agreed, sounding a bit tired of this already. That wasn't something he expected success from, not in one night.

"I doubt there are even a lot of birds," Nida said as he considers the road. "But at least I can teach you how to notice people being sneaky."

Edited 2023-03-12 02:47 (UTC)

“Yeah, I think I saw one of those gull kinds, but that’s kinda it.” He agreed, not that it was a bad thing. Meant it was easier to focus on what they were doing, even if it might be exciting to see more stuff than that after a while.

That said, the boy was more than a little curious when Nida mentioned teaching him. Mono was, after all, always an eager student. “Really? That’d be kinda neat. I know how to be sneaky, but I don’t know how to tell if other people are being sneaky.” Most of the… people in the pale city were pretty obvious when they were after something. Hence why he got good at sneaking himself.

"Alright then, come over here," he says. And then, after a moment of thought, he grabs his extra blanket, damp though it is, and tosses it just a bit over Mono's head. "To hide the yellow."

Mono moves over to sit next to Nida, looking up when the blanket is tossed over the hat on his head. It made sense, though; it was a very bright yellow. “Makes sense. Was gonna find a different one, anyway.” He added, since it was meant to match Six’s raincoat… but he really doesn’t want to match her anymore, for obvious reasons. Yellow isn’t the favourite colour it once was. He kept it only out of practicality for now.

"First rule of being sneaky: never go pure black. The world is never pure black. Dark blues, blacks, browns, grays. Use them together. IT breaks up your shape. Nothing reflective."

Then as he's saying it, his head jerks up. Siren's voice a lure and call to him. Yeah, that's a thing.

"Magic," he whispers, his voice soft. He can feel it nearby.

“Oh, that kinda makes sense. The Pale City was dark, but it was also really gray and blue and stuff.” He agreed, having never really thought about that before. It was true, though, that even in the darkness, the world tended to have some colour to it. Whether it was washed out shades or darkened tones. “I’ll try to find something kinda dark and better than this for next time.” If Nida let him come along again, it was a kind of exciting to think he might get to help more.

That said, the reaction as Nida hears something that Mono can’t gets the boy’s attention. His eyes dart up to the man with a confused, curious expression as he speaks up. “Magic? Where is it?”

"I... I don't know yet," Nida says with a whisper, moving closer to the edge to glimpse over it. "Siren can feel it, it's trembling in me. Someone is here, and they're using magic."

And that's getting his attention of course.

Mono moved from sitting into a crouch, trying to peer over the edge and looking into the darkened space below them. If Nida and Siren didn’t know, it must be something pretty weird, he thinks…? So the boy held the blanket over his hat a little more to make sure it wouldn’t be spotted as he glanced at the man curiously again. “Does Siren know where they feel the magic coming from?”

"It's... not strong enough for her to pick up on the specific location of. Not yet. So we need our eyes sharp on the road. Anyone moving slow and keeping slow. Dark colors. People that hide behind things."

That all matters.

Mono peered down over the edge at the street below, keeping crouched just enough to see without poking his head over the edge too far. Watching for people and things was something he was very good at, after all… And having to do so in the dark didn’t bother him overly much, considering it wasn’t really bright and the skies were never clear where he came from. “Dark colours and people who’re hiding. So trying to be sneaky like us, kinda.”

That said, to him that it was probably smart to be careful too, then, in case the sneaky people saw them sneaking too. His eyes searched the darkness, drifting over places that he probably would choose to hide if he didn’t want to be noticed.

Mono was a good hider, which would probably help with this task, which was why Nida was happy he was here to help. As it was Nida had shifted his position to actually squat on the very edge of the building. The shape meant he looked a bit like one of the statues up here on the roof, even if he wasn't in the proper place for one to be in. While that made him slightly more obvious, he was also in a better place to act quickly if needed, and he expected it would be needed.

His eyes cast around the tops of buildings, trying to focus there. He'd let Mono's eyes cover the streets. Which would be where the first signs of motion would come from, in the form of a dark figure slinking along the edge of a bush.

Taking his task seriously, he watched for any signs of someone there… Some movement or shift in the shape of shadows below that might indicate something was there, and it doesn’t take him terribly long to spot the movement of someone creeping along the edge of a bush. Bushes were good for hiding, though he didn’t like how they rustled sometimes. Rustling could make other things react like birds. Then they alerted the thing you were hiding from, ‘cause they were jerks.

Well, not really, but sometimes it felt like they were back in his world.

Still, there’s definitely someone there and the boy’s voice, low and practiced from his experience with not drawing attention to himself while coordinating with Six, tries to get Nida’s attention. “Hey…”

If there was one thing Nida was happy to say he'd never had to train Mono in, it was how to talk quietly. So many people thought that a whisper meant you were harder to hear, and failed to account for how the raspy tone actually carried pretty far. No, he just spoke low and in that perfect sort of pitch to make things not carry too far.

Were they not in the middle of what Nida's brain was immediately reclassifying as an intel op, he would reach over and hug Mono. As it was, kid was going to get so many gifts later.

He nods to Mono and makes a small gesture, quietly indicating he wants Mono to, slowly point in the direction of what he's seen.

Mono himself wouldn’t realize that it was all that impressive, given he’d learned out of necessity over time, but to make his sneaking/climbing teacher proud in some way would make the kid feel good about his abilities!

Seeing he had Nida’s attention, he nodded back and then slowly raised a hand to point at the bushes where the stranger was moving carefully in the shadows.

Once he was sure the other saw the person sneaking around, Mono resumed watching them carefully to make sure they didn’t move quickly all of a sudden, or towards better cover that might obscure them from view while he waited to see what the man was going to want to do next. It didn’t seem like they knew they were being watched at the moment, at least.

Alright then. A target found. What now?

"I have to go after him," he says lowly. "Watch him. If I lose the man, I need you to be able to indicate where he is, from up here."

Mono listened carefully, rather than ask why he couldn’t go with Nida to help he gets it. Sometimes one person had to watch and warn the other person who was doing the running around if something changed or if there was something they needed to know. So having someone up high like this was best, and Mono liked having a job to do to help. “Okay, I can do that. I’ll make sure I watch which way he goes if he gets ahead or does something weird.”

Not to mention, Nida's a lot faster getting down than Mono is.

"If they come toward you and I'm not close, or they start to flee and I can't follow, try and follow. And stay hidden," Nida said. Hopefully the little guy wouldn't be upset.

Mono considered that carefully for a moment, taking another look around at the ground below and the layout of the streets… Watch for now, and follow while staying hidden if the suspicious person started to run and Nida couldn’t follow… Yep, the kid was okay with that plan. It sounded logical, and he was used to following people without being seen, anyway! It was still… kind of a thing he did around here sometimes. “Okay, I can do that.” He agreed, offering Nida one of his clumsy, tilted smiles.

Good kid. Nida smiled and reached up, patting his head. Well, the blanket that covered his rain cap that covered his head.

"You're amazing, Mono. You know that? Just damn amazing."

Mono wasn’t sure what he did that was so amazing, but the kid grinned again with a curious little glance up at Nida when the guy pat his head. Adults did weird things like that, but it was a nice weird thing. “Yeah? I just kinda try my best when there’s a good plan, that’s all.” He responded, before considering that he might need to change his hat out for something a little less obvious in the event that he did have to help follow the sneaky person. He’d take care of that if he did, but for now he knew he had to let Nida go try to follow the guy in the first place. “Good luck!”

"Luck, sadly, I can't junction for."

Which meant his was always rather crud. But Nida was going to try anyway. He lowered himself down the side of the building. Falling quickly, even in the rain, would make too much sound. He had to be quiet, which meant he needed Mono's eyes.

This was especially true because the little thief was continuing forward, past the manor they were directly across from, instead heading for one further down the road.

Mono was still under the impression it was good to wish someone luck, at least based on what he’d heard. Whether it actually helped or not, the kid had yet to see. So he nodded, watching Nida as he lowered himself down the side of the building before turning his eyes to the thief.

The boy tugged his dark brown hat out of his coat pocket, switching out the rain hat stowed under the blanket with it, even if it wasn’t as good at keeping the rain off. It would be better if he needed to be sneakier himself. The boy frowned as the thief began moving further down the road, crouching he moved along the rooftop to see which way he was going before signalling to Nida at the bottom of the building with a quiet, subtle gesture that the sneaky person was on the move in that direction instead.

It took Nida a little bit to get down, because all those dreadful potential puddles. And of course his eyes were first up toward Mono. Because yep, seemed like the person had moved. Nida nodded and made his own gesture back, hoping Mono would understand that Nida was asking him to go further down the roof to keep a better eye on their target.

It would be necessary too, because the sneaky figure was getting ready to turn down into a dark space that wouldn't be quite so visible where Mono was currently standing.

Mono felt a certain confidence at the gesture. It wasn’t hard for the boy to guess what Nida meant. Things like this, silent gestures and coordinating over a distance was something the kid was used to doing with Six when one of them had to do something for them to get ahead. It was almost second nature for him to move further down the roof while keeping his eyes on the target. Even if things hadn’t ended well with Six… It was hard to not feel a little like old times here and now, helping Nida out. And it felt good to the kid to be useful, and to help with a certain amount of confidence he didn’t have in general around this world, given how different he felt from the average kid.

His eyes narrowed a bit as he watched the figure moving to turn down into a space more shadowed. Probably trying to not be seen, staying out of the light. He gave another small gestured signal to Nida from his new vantage point, crouching near the edge but keeping himself back enough that the strange figure would have a harder time seeing him blend in with the roof’s shingles.

Good kid, bright too. He'd make a good SeeD trainee, not that Nida would ever wish that on him. On silent enough feet for now he padded after the thief, who had found a low wall covered with vines to try and scale to get into the grounds of their target. Nida only turned the corner after the foot of the shadow disappeared over the top, leaving Nida's eyes casting about for the person.

He was, frustratingly, almost too close to sense the lingering magic around the figure, and the rain was dampering other sounds that Siren picked out. Once more his eyes cast toward where he expected Mono to be, looking for guidance.

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