• Closed • Taboo Strikes II: Mental Elements

[Tio Silver]

Scalvoris Town
40th Ymiden, 717
Morning

When it came to the Elements, or any other form of law enforcement for that matter, Tio had a simple policy; stay well clear. Even when he wasn't committing any crimes he always thought it best to stay as far under the radar as possible, and so normally when he saw a uniformed soldier on the streets he would make sure to turn his face away from them and draw as little attention to himself as he could. All things considered this behavior was a little on the paranoid side, after all he wasn't particularly notorious yet and made sure to cover his face during robberies, but you never could be too careful. You only had to slip up once to get caught, and there was no way he was going to jail! He was to pretty for jail damn it! If he dropped the soap he'd be done for!

Today however was an exception. Instead of avoiding the Elements Tio was actually going out of his way to tail one of their soldiers through the streets of Scalvoris Town, sticking to the shadows and blending in with passing crowds to avoid being noticed. It was turning out to be good practice for the new abilities he'd gained from Syroa; by ducking into deserted alleys and calling on the power of the mark now tattooed upon his back he found that he was able to quickly change small cosmetic aspects of his appearance. One moment his hair was black and cropped close to his skull, and then a few seconds later he could emerge with flowing blonde locks and a tan.

His reasons for tailing this particular soldier had to do with something suspicious he'd seen a break ago. He'd been browsing the selection at a local bookstore when the soldier had come in and had a hushed conversation with the store owner, a conversation which from the looks of it the bookstore owner wasn't happy to be having, and then taken a couple of silver nel the owner had offered to him. The soldier hadn't noticed that he was there, and so feeling that something was amiss Tio followed him as he left, and a few trill later witnessed him entering another store and receiving another couple of nel from the owner there as well.

Clearly something fishy was going on here.

As he continued to tail him Tio saw the soldier enter more and more shops, and realised that the man was building up quite the tidy sum from all these people. The soldier didn't enter all the shops, which he would have done if he were collecting taxes, and there was no correlation between the shops he did choose to visit, so the chances of him being on official business were seeming less and less likely by the moment. After another break the soldier reached Element Hall, but instead of heading inside went around the back of the building. Tio followed him, but stopped and peaked around the corner when he heard talking.

"You finished your patrol?"

There were three other soldiers waiting around the back, all wearing badges which, like the soldier he'd tailed, denoted them as part of the Land Troop. They were huddled together in a group around an object in one of the soldier's hand, which Tio identified with no small measure of joy as a very large, very full purse.

"Aye. The blacksmith got all stubborn on me and refused to pay at first, but I put him back in his place quickly enough."

"Ungrateful sod. He should be happy that we're covering for a lawbreaker like him. What's a few pieces of silver to him anyway?"

Ah, now he understood what was going on. There were people like this in every military force; corrupt jerks who abused their position for monetary gain. Normally he got along with those sorts of people just fine, but that didn't mean he was above robbing them either. By the sounds of it these people had deliberately covered up reports of crimes committed by the shopkeepers and were threatening to uncover them if they didn't pay them a weekly fee, in short a nasty form of extortion.

Which, Tio suddenly realised, meant that they wouldn't report the theft of the money they made from their racketeering as they wouldn't be able to explain where they got such a large sum of money from without confessing to their own crimes and loosing their jobs. It was a target just begging to be stolen!

Tio slipped away back into the streets before any of them could spot him, vanishing amidst the bustling crowds of people. It seemed he'd found his next target for a job but he had some serious planning to do first, after all breaking into Element Hall was definately going to be no easy task.

[Tio Silver]

Scalvoris Town
41st Ymiden, 717
Midnight

After a few breaks of reconnaissance and planning, Tio was pretty sure that he had come up with a plan for his latest heist. Ignoring the fact that it had the highest Element presence of any building on Scalvoris Element Hall really was just like any other building, and just like any other building there was always an opening somewhere to use to sneak in. The Elements wouldn't be expecting someone to break into their headquarters of all places, so as long as he stayed undetected he didn't see why this heist should be different from any other.

The entry point this time was the balcony on the second floor around the back of the building and the window inside of it. In order to get to it he'd packed his grappling hook attached to 50ft of rope in his backpack, but otherwise had brought nothing but the clothes on his back along with him, not even his thralls. In case this heist went badly he didn't want to be spotted as a necromancer, the Elements would look twice as hard for him if they knew he was a dangerous magician than they would if they thought he was just a common thief. He'd also chosen to wait until midnight to start his heist for the cover that darkness would bring, and because there would be less soldiers about at night than there would in the day.

However there was one terrible problem with this heist that no amount of information gathering had been able to fix; the exactly location of the prize was still unknown to him. Although he knew that the purse full of extorted nel was inside Element Hall somewhere, where exactly it was was a mystery. He'd have to search the place room by room and hope he could find it before he was discovered.

He could feel the condensation from his breath against his lips underneath his mask as he, in his Taboo gear, pulled himself up the climbing rope and onto the balcony as quietly as he could. Like a shadow he crept over to the window, and once there took a thin chisel from out of his jacket pocket and slipped it in the space between the windowpane, gently moving it around until it caught the latch holding it down and flicked it up with a quiet metallic click. Slowly he pulled open the window, and with quiet footsteps sneaked inside.

In was dark inside Element Hall, not surprising at this time of night, but Taboo could hear the muted hum of conversation from bellow him and saw light from the staircase as he moved into the hallway. Evidently the people still awake at this hour were downstairs together passing the time with conversation. That was good for him in that they weren't patrolling the halls and wouldn't come looking for him unless he made a noise, but since they were talking very quietly to avoid waking whoever might be sleeping in the barracks they were bound to be more alert to even the smallest noises he made.

He had just started checking the rooms for signs of his target when a ungodly loud crash, like a mirror shattering, rang out from the floor bellow him, and suddenly there was a pair of stomping footsteps charging up the staircase towards the floor he was on. Weirder yet though was that this crash didn't sound like it'd been caused by a member of the Elements; by the sound of it the source of the disturbance was the window on the other side of the building from him, and the sounds of chair-legs scraping across the floor and shouts of alarm from the ground floor suggested that the Element soldiers downstairs were just as surprised by it as he was.

The stomping footsteps reached the top of the stairs, and Taboo watched in shock as the person they belonged to ran into his line of sight. It was a man, a strongly built one at that, wearing what at first glance appeared to be an Element soldier uniform, although upon closer inspection had grey patches sown over every part where a crests denotation rank, troop or even membership of the Elements should be. The stranger wore a black bandanna over his head that went down to the bridge of his nose, though had holes cut around the eyes to allow him to see through it, a scruffy brown beard around his chin and around his back was a black sheath with a black-handled sword inside it. He too spotted Taboo, who was crouched down in the middle of the dark hall in a clearly suspicious manner, and they both froze and stared at each other in mutual shock as the same though ran through both of their minds.

'What the hell are they doing?!"

They were broken out of their trance by the sounds of footsteps hitting the staircase on the ground floor, and Taboo realised he only had about a dozen or so trills before the soldiers reached their floor! The stranger ran over to one of the doors in the hallway and tried to tug it open, but the lock on it held tight and the door refused to budge, something that going by his distressed expression Taboo assumed the stranger hadn't thought would happen.

It was time to escape, that much was obvious. He didn't know what that idiot in the bandanna had been thinking charging in like that, but thanks to him his heist was completely cocked up. If he left now he could still get away without a trace and would be able to try again another trial, but as he looked at him fumbling with the locked door Taboo realised this other thief didn't have any kind of escape plan. If he left him to it the man was sure to be caught.

It was his own damn fault for charging in like a maniac damn it! There was no reason why he should feel any kind of responsibility to help this idiotic amateur! But even though he tried to justify his reasons to ditch him Taboo couldn't help but feel a strange sense of camaraderie with the stranger; foolish though he may be the man was still a thief, and as a thief himself there was a strange feeling of duty that compelled him to help this guy out. Despite what people said there was some form of honor among thieves born out of a respect for the trade, and letting a fellow thief get caught when he was in a position to help didn't quite sit right with him.

"Follow me!" He whispered sharply to the stranger, who looked up from the locked door in surprise. He could almost see the conflicting desires to stay or go in his eyes as they darted back and forth between the door and the staircase, but as the footsteps making their way up the stairs came closer and closer the desire to go won out, and he replied with a quick nod.

Tio ran back into the room he'd entered from and hopped through the window, the stranger hot on his heels. He leaped over the side of the balcony and grabbed the rope, sliding down it as quickly as he could and wincing at the rope burns it made on his hands. The stranger followed him down just as fast, and the second his feet hit the floor Taboo gave the rope a hard flick so that the grappling hook came off the railing and fell down to him.

Without a word Tio gathered the rope up and fled, running off into the dark streets of Scalvoris Town with the stranger by his side.

[Tio Silver]

Knight's Rest Inn & Tavern
41st Ymiden, 717
Midnight

"What in the spirit's name did you think you were doing?!"

After their quick getaway Tio had made a beeline straight to the Knight's Rest tavern, taking off his mask and switching his jacket back over to its red side before anyone could see him in it. What he hadn't expected was that the stranger he'd escaped with didn't seem to have grasped the concept of a getaway, and instead of running off on his own had blindly followed Tio back to the tavern as well. As it happened Tio had some pretty strong words he was dying to shout at the fool for ruining his plan but couldn't do so in the middle of the streets without drawing unwanted attention, and so hadn't said a word until he'd thrown down a few nel for a room from the night and closed the door behind him.

Now that they were in private though the full measure of his rage was unleashed.

"Of all the hair-brained, ill-witted, block-headed robberies I have ever seen, that one takes the cake by far! I mean what was your plan?! Did you even have one?!"

"Sure I did. Break in, beat everyone inside up and take the money." The stranger replied defensively.

"Oh well done genius. And tell me, how were you going to get past the door?"

The stranger looked away, his face flushed with embarrassment. "I, uh... well..."

Tio sighed. "You hadn't thought that far ahead had you?"

"Ah... no. I haven't really stolen anything before..."

"Spirits..." Tio sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands, suddenly feeling incredibly drained of energy. That had been a perfect mark, a large prize just waiting to be snatched up that wouldn't get reported at all! But now that Element Hall was on alert there was no way he could get it. The money was as good as gone.

Hold on a minute...

"Wait back up a second! You said money, but what money are you talking about? There's no money to be found in Element Hall, except for..." His eyes widened. "The coin purse I was after, the one filled with the extorted money! You were after it too?!"

The stranger looked up at him in shock. "Yeah I was. I found out about the extortion scam back when I was still in the Elements and tried to report them, but the bastards framed me for bribery and got me kicked out. Stealing that money is how I'm going to get my revenge... or at least, how I was going to."

"Well perhaps you still can." Tio replied, a smirk forming at the edge of his mouth. "What's your name?"

"Teddie Wrathbone" The stranger said, obviously confused.

Tio's smirk grew into a sharp-toothed grin. "Well Teddie my name is Tio, and I think I just might have a plan. But I'm going to need your help." He offered him an hand. "What do you say, partners?"

Teddie stared at him, looked down to the offered hand, and then looked back up at him again with a smile of his own forming. He took the offered hand and gave it a firm shake. "Aye, partners! So what's your plan then?"

"Well, it goes a little something like this..."

[Tio Silver]

A Little West of Element Hall
42nd Ymiden, 717
Morning

Since the break-in last night Element Hall had been on high alert, with double the amount of soldiers than usual stationed inside and around the area. As nothing had been taken and the intruder hadn't been around for long enough to read any military documents the investigators had concluded that the break-in had been nothing more than an act of vandalism, probably by some teenage punks looking to get a kick out of messing with the law. There was no evidence left behind as to who the vandal might have been, and so there was little to Elements could do in terms of catching the perpetrator, but determined not to show any weakness the higher-ups had ordered the staff to remain extra vigilant for the next few days in case the vandal tried to come back again.

"I gotta say I'm not sure this is a good idea. Are you sure this is going to work?" Teddie asked, looking skeptically at Tio as he held up a mirror for him. He cringed and shook his head slightly as Tio ran his fingers through his hair, which slowly changed in length and colour at his touch. "How are you even doing that anyway? That's some creepy magic stuff right there."

"What can I say, I live a blessed life." Tio replied, pushing around parts of his face which molded like clay until eventually a completely different face stared back at him in his reflection. In terms of age and colouring the face was similar to his natural one, however with a few changes to its structure and length it now looked almost exactly like the face of one of the Element Soldiers that Teddie knew would be guarding the hall, an earth troop member called Gareth. Combined with an Element uniform Teddie had loaned him Tio was now the spitting image of this Gareth, a fact he was now counting on to complete his mission.

"Okay I'm all set. Let's begin."

Teddie nodded and pulled his bandana over his head, running off into the streets as Tio crouched down in the shadows of the alley he was in and waited. A bit or so later he heard a thwacking sound followed by yelling, and shortly after Teddie ran back past him with the real Gareth hot on his heels, leading the unknowing guard far away so that Tio could put his plan into motion.

Tio stood up and walked over to Element Hall, keeping his face neutral as the guards at the door recognised him and allowed him to pass inside with a nod. Once inside he headed immediately over to the stairs and headed up to the top floor, walking as steadily and silently as possible so that the other guards inside wouldn't pay much attention to him. As luck had it there was nobody else around on the top floor, and so Tio headed over to the door that Teddie had tried to bash down last night and crouched down in front of it, taking his thrall Raton out of his jacket pocket and holding it in his outstretched palm bellow the door lock.

He dug inside into the power of the spark, and as he channeled a thin stream of ether into the doll it came to life, observing the world around it curiously with its button eye. Tio exerted his will over the thrall, taking direct control of it and guiding it to pluck a pair of lockpicks out of its head and push them into the locking mechanism, manipulating them with its tiny hands with a level of precision most humans could never manage.

It wasn't too long before the lock clicked open, and the door swung open to reveal a simple office with a few stacks of papers and books about the place. Tio started searching the room, checking in all the desk draws and cabinets for the purse, but sadly the extorting soldiers hadn't been stupid enough to leave it out in an obvious place. So then where had they put it? These weren't smart people he was dealing with, so he doubted they'd have any clever concealed storage areas or the like. In which case they must have but it somewhere they didn't think people would immediately look.

His eyes were drawn to a suspicious lump under the carpet. He lifted up the corner, and sure enough there was the purse, its drawstring slightly open so that a glint of that beautiful gold inside peaked out at him. Was there a more gorgeous sight than sunlight reflecting off of the surface of a pile of gold nel? Somehow he doubted it.

"Gareth?! But you-... didn't you already..."

The sound of the door guards confused questions caught Tio's ear, and with a start he realised that the real Gareth must have come back already. Dammit, he didn't have much time. He needed to get out of here!

Somehow...

[Tio Silver]

From the sounds of the slightly raised voiced he could hear coming from the floor below him it seemed that the guards were starting to realise that they were being duped. Right now they were in a state of confusion, second guessing themselves as they wondered if they really had seen the same person try to walk into the building twice within a few breaks of each other. It wouldn't be to long before they became confident enough to realise they hadn't made a mistake and the one they'd seen the first time around was an imposter, and then they were bound come looking for himm. Tio reckoned he had about a break, maybe two, in which to escape before they began looking for him.

But how exactly could he escape? The guards at the front door would definitely grab him if they saw him again in his borrowed face, they were alerted to his trickery now after all, but he didn't yet have enough skill in his newly acquired abilities to reliably take someone else's appearance. His best chance here was to find another exit route, but where? If there was a backdoor he didn't know where it was, and considering this was a military building it would almost certainly be locked. A window then? Perhaps, but it was broad daylight, someone was bound to see him and even if he was disguised as an Element soldier climbing through a window was obviously suspicious behavior.

Unless he could draw everyone attention away from him! If he could make a big enough distraction in the streets somehow, something that'd get everyone to turn their eyes away from Element Hall, then he'd be able to nip out the window and be on his way before anyone noticed!

But he'd have to be outside to organise a distraction like that...

Or would he?

Tio strode over to the window and scanned the crowd outside for the face he severely hoped would be there. At first his heart sank as there was no sign of the fellow he was looking for anywhere, but just as he was about to give up he spotted a fleck of a scruffy blonde beard in one of the nearby alleys and all but leapt for joy. There was Teddie Wrathbone, mask off and trying (and failing) to look inconspicuous. He must have come back to watch once his distraction fell through.

Tio waved at him madly in an attempt to catch his attention, and sighed in relief when the ex-element soon noticed and waved back uncertainly, clearly confused as to why they were waving. Now that he had his attention, Tio tried to think of a way to get across to his newfound partner in crime that he wanted him to cause a distraction for him.

He tried mouthing to him first of all, slowly spelling out 'make a scene' with his lips. Teddie however furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and mouthed back 'what', obviously not getting the message. Tio tried again, this time exaggerating his mouth's movements and making a gesture with his hands as if he were bashing a pair of cymbals together, however instead of clarifying things Teddie only seemed to get more confused.

The sound of footsteps making their way quite quickly up the stairs caught Tio's ear, and his heartbeat sped up as he realised they were coming for him. Damn it, he was running out of time! Why couldn't Teddie just take the damn hint already?! His gestures to Teddie grew more and more frantic as he tried to get the message across, but the idiot just couldn't seem to figure out what he meant! There was no time for this, he needed to change his tactic!

Tio rolled his eyes is frustration, then pointedly pointed at Teddie, pointed at the guy nearest to him, and then put his fist to his face in a imitation of being punched. Teddie's eyes lit up in recognition and he happily nodded once, then jogged over to the poor guy Tio had selected and immediately decked him right in the nose. As predicted the man's look of surprise quickly morphed into anger and with a yell he launched himself at Teddie, sparking a fight to break out right in the middle of the street.

The footsteps had just reached the top of the staircase when a call of "FIGHT OUTSIDE! GET OUT HERE!" rang out from somewhere below them, and after a tense few trills the footsteps turned back and hurried back down the stairs. Tio let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and slumped back against the wall, allowing himself a brief moment of rest as the tension bled out of him. Now that had been close, way too close.

Taking Raton out of his pocket again, Tio sent a spike of ether into the doll and had it jump to life, hopping straight over to the lock on the window and sticking its picks inside it. After a few bits of poking around the lock clicked open, and as Raton climbed back inside his jacket pocket Tio slung the window open and hopped outside, scaling down the side of the building whilst everyone around was too busy watching the nearby fight to notice. Fortunately Teddie had gone above and beyond the call of duty and the fight had grown from a two person brawl into an all out free-for-all that the Elements were having trouble containing, so Tio had plenty of time spare to slide down the wall without anyone seeing him.

Once he hit the floor Tio ducked into the crowd and searched around, finding Teddie in the middle of stomping on a random blokes foot and pulling him away from the fight and into a shady alley before the Element soldiers trying to maintain order could detain him. Once away from the fight Tio opened the purse and took out half of its contents, handing the coins over to Teddie with a smile.

"You did well today for a novice my friend. Tell me, have you ever considered a career as a thief? With a bit of training you might just make something of yourself."

Teddie laughed. "Ha! You know I might just take you up on that. I dunno, now that I've got enough money to get by I think I'll take a break, work out what I want to do from now on. If I do though I'll be sure to find you, we made a good team."

"Aye, that we do." He slapped him on the shoulder. "Take care of yourself my friend."

And with that the two parted ways, disappearing into the shadows of the city around them.

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

Tio Silver

Knowledge:
Stealth: Sesser is helpful for following people.
Stealth: Use nearby alleys when tailing someone.
Stealth: Walking quietly.
Lock-picking: Opening a window with a chisel.
Lock-picking: Smaller hands are better.
Necromancy: Using a fetch to pick a lock.
Intelligence: Eavesdropping around a corner.
Tactics: Organising a distraction.
Disguise: Impersonating an earth troop Element soldier.
Climbing: Using a climbing rope.

Loot: Stolen money.
Fame: Taboo -2 for criminal activity.
Devotion: +2 Syroa: Pretend to be someone else and sew discord.

Points: 10