Larceny is Rather Unbecoming

[Isodol]

24th Trial of Ymiden, 720

She couldn’t see. Someone had turned the lights off in her head. But she could still think and all that was pounding inside her head, aside from the massive headache she had somehow gotten, was “WHERE THE FUCK AM I?”.

She couldn’t move her arms, couldn’t kick her legs and the lack of control screamed at her like an enraged newborn. They must have been bound somehow. The bindings were scratchy and itchy, leading her to believe she had been placated by some kind of rope. Panic should have been settling in her stomach right about then but the only emotions she was experiencing was confusion and utter frustration.

Few sharp and sporadic images suddenly invaded her memory. She could recall the sky: a deep shade of crimson coupled with hints of violet and deep auburn; the sun had been trying to go to sleep. She remembered walking into a shady looking building filled with people she knew her mother would have never approved of her mingling with. And lastly, she could see herself attempting to dig her hand into someone’s pocket, a pocket she had just seen stashed with bountiful amounts of coins. Coins she needed.

It clicked then, the reason why she was being held captive. This epiphany was her only accompaniment aside from her rampant thoughts, the darkness and an overpowering smell of musk and body odour.

She had gotten caught.

Panic decided now was the appropriate time to come crawling up her throat to which it dutifully constricted making it near impossible to swallow and even more so to breathe. The frustration dissipated with the confusion as she quickly realized she had no one other than herself to blame; she knew for certain what was happening.

The question was what would happen to her now?

Isodol tried to collect her thoughts and gather her bearings. Damn her unchecked recklessness. Damn her inability to be stealthier. Damn her desire to steal. She had even felt so confident then! But now here she sat, alone and without the knowledge of what would come next.

The itchiness of the rope was becoming unbearable, but thankfully for her it was looser than she had first thought. She relentlessly started to wriggle her arms. Up and down, up and down, creating a rhythm of shrugging. Luck must have been on her side then, because the binding began to give way allowing her to slip out of its clutches.

A door slammed. Increased pressure pushed directly behind her eyes. A brightness that could not have matched the sun’s shine infiltrated the threads of the rag that covered her eyes.

“Hasn’t your mother ever told stealing is wrong? Besides, thievery doesn’t suit you.”

The voice was masculine and gravelly; she was sure he was choking back rocks. Once her eyes had finally adjusted to the brightness, she saw a tall and slender man not much older than someone in their late twenties.

“Where am I?” Isodol spat, jutting her chin towards her captor.

The man feigned being taken aback. “Woah there, Missy. Lots of gusto from someone who has the shorter stick in this scenario.” He deftly pulled the shroud from over her eyes. The light sure was damn bright in here.

She didn’t feel like mentioning she could break free at any moment. That wouldn’t have given her the upper hand she knew she was making for herself, now would it? So she just narrowed her eyes as though they could spew ocular poison.

The man crossed his arms and matched her glare. “You know why you’re here. I can see it in your eyes.”

“That’s just hatred,” she retorted, rolling her crystal blue orbs.

He chuckled, brushing back his shaggy brown hair with his hand. “I got myself a hand full with you here, don’t I?” The question was obviously rhetorical but Isodol couldn’t help but push her luck.

“You must have some small hands if you need this rope to keep me still then huh? And you know what they say about men with small hands...”

Blinding white pain. A slap across the face can do that, but this man had used his knuckles. Vanity kicked in as she desperately licked all her teeth, searching, and thankful to have found that none had been dislodged from their rightful place in her gums. But the bitter metallic taste of blood made her cringe in distaste.

“Yea,” he replied with a chuckle. His smug smirk didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ve heard that one too. Funny stuff.” He crossed his arms again and regained his stoic composure. “Stand-up comedy is right next to thievery on that list of shit you’re not good at.”

Isodol closed her eyes and tried to will the pain away. Her head smarted ten times as worse now.

“You know why you’re here.”

Why did he keep saying that?

“Yea, I do,” Isodol muttered, spitting out the blood that was starting to drown her. “I tried to take some money from a brute like yourself.” She knew her honesty wouldn’t do her any favours, but what the hell did she have to lose?

The man was shaking his head fervently, a nasty grin replacing the straight line his lips had previously made. She didn’t like this new expression. It was cold and malicious much like a bear knowing it had finally had enough play time with its food.

“Nah. You took something. And we want it back.”

She snapped her head up, her eyebrows strewn together with invisible wire. “I didn’t take nothing,” she all but whined. “I tried to, but someone took me out. I swear.”

Wait, ‘we’? Who’s this ‘we’? Had she been attacked by more than the man she had tried to steal from? Now that she had begun this reflection, she couldn’t remember what her target had looked like. But it certainly wasn’t this fellow standing before her now.

“Ahh, okay, so then your buddy took it, is that it?” This interrogation was getting out of hand quickly. She had been alone, or so she thought. It had just been her, a dark room full of irrelevant people, and the man with a pocketful of cash. No one else. What was this guy playing at?

She didn’t know she was shaking her head until her brain started smacking against the sides of her skull, sending shock-waves of pain down the base of her neck. “I was alone.”

Another smack to the face, only this time it was less intense. Or perhaps she was becoming numb to the beatings. Regardless, it still stung and made her eyes all but roll back into her head.

“A thief and a liar. Guess you can’t be one without the other, eh?” The man pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, muttering something to himself of which Isodol couldn’t make out.

Then he left the room.

[Isodol]

24th Trial of Ymiden, 720

Isodol had all but two seconds to come up with a game plan, one that would get her out of this hell hole and fast. But those two seconds were not nearly long enough. The man returned with a husky gentleman in tow. He had graying hair framing the sides of his chubby face. His cheeks were red like he had just run a marathon and his eyes were a shade too dark to be human. Even his skin tone was a sickly grey. However strange this fellow seemed now, she couldn’t help the realisation that donned on her like a thick robe. This was the man she had been attempting to rob.

“You look a lot smaller in the light,” he chortled, sauntering up to her. He was so close she could smell his acrid breath. It smelt like a mixture of coffee, jerky, and death.

Isodol swallowed grimly.

“I know your kind,” he continued. “You come in packs. Flank the sides of your prey, one of you to the front for distraction. Then you attack from the back hoping your target won’t know what hit ‘em. That’s right, isn’t it?”

He was still talking as though she had multiple people helping her. Why couldn’t these oafs understand that?

She tried to puff out her chest, make herself appear bigger than she felt inside when she knew she was shrinking after each and every sinister word had left the man’s mouth. His voice had an effect that made shivers spiraling down her spinal cord.

“I think I’ve seen you before in particular, you little rat.” It was the other man who was speaking now- the one who had first come in to introduce her to her new state of prison hood. Isodol was confused at his statement because he didn’t look recognizable to her at all. Was he mistaking her for some other amateur crook?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she growled. She hadn’t attempted to rob anyone before and knew now that she would never do so again. This was ridiculous. And perilous. And she had no confidence whatsoever that she would escape the impending disaster she knew was coming her way.

Suddenly the leaner of the two men snatched out their arm and grabbed hold of hers; he ripped it from its loosened bindings. Isodol bit her lip. All thoughts were now focused on her own sake, not on figuring out what other criminal was out there doing illegal activities with her face. Had they known she was trying to escape? She quickly searched the eyes of her two captors but found no sign of revelation. Instead, they were drawn to her now bare arm. She exhaled a sharp breath; a seething sound left her teeth feeling unnaturally cold. Her sleeve had been pulled up revealing a nasty past she had wanted no one to ever see. But it appeared to her that what they were expecting was not what they saw.

“Where’s the tattoo?” The heavy-set man snarled, eyes darting like lasers to his henchman. He got no reply for the other man had no words for his boss.

“You brought me the wrong one!” The ringleader all but shouted. Isodol could feel the chair she sat on vibrate as his deep voice shook the walls. She cringed, feeling her heart sink to her gut.

However, the other man remained unfazed; he was still staring at her exposed arm even as the boss man stormed out of the room with a quick huff and a slam of the door behind him.

The pregnant pause was unbearable. She wanted nothing more than to pull her shirt sleeve down and dash out of that room like the wind. But she wouldn’t, couldn’t.

“So, you’re into some kinky shit, huh?”

She started shaking her head like her neck was made of rubber. “N-no,” she stammered, wondering where her intimidating facade had gone.

From out his waist band he pulled a small dagger. The edge glinted in the bright light of the room. The lanterns must have been lit by the sun itself to have caused such a blinding luminescence.

All too swiftly he brought the blade down across her arm, the display on his face illustrating nothing other than contempt and utter disgust.

At first she didn’t even feel it. She was numb to the whole scenario; what played out in front of her had already been erased from her mind as though her brain already knew if it hadn’t redacted the memory immediately it would haunt her until the end of time.

But soon her flesh succumbed to a keen understanding of the situation and generated an excruciating sensation for itself to endure- for her to endure.

She didn’t dare look down. She didn’t want to, didn’t need to. She felt the crimson liquid already streaming down her arm and onto the floor. Instead, she held fast her gaze to the monster before her.

“What else?” The words hadn’t even registered in her mind that it was she who had spoken them.

The man’s eyes twinkled in a maniacal manner. He clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth and blew out a breath of air that seemed like it was tinged with smoke. She hadn’t realised that one of his hands was wrapped around her wrist holding it down. It was no wonder she saw something like a storm of grey mist coming from out his baleful maw. He was touching her and this touch of his was giving her a connection between them that allowed her to harness some semblance of awareness towards his feelings.

Time seemed to come to a standstill as she wrangled her thoughts, forced her concentration into focus and delved into the mass of mangled threads that clouded his mind. She could taste a bitter, acrid taste; smell something burning. But amongst those harsh and violent emotions was something lurking in the background. She reached through the mess with her phantasmal hand and grasped hold to the one string that screamed foreboding and pulled it closer to her. It breached the surface of dire, swam to the shore of consciousness, and it was then that Isodol knew she had given more awareness to the man. He, too, was suffering from something similar as she.

He let go of her faster than she could withdraw her delusory fingers from his mind. His eyes weren’t nearly as dark as they had been moments before; the storm that had been brewing was seemingly dissipating.

He blinked rapidly, his expression blank for only a second before returning to its natural scowl. He shrugged his shoulders as though trying to rid himself of an all too warm overcoat.

“What else?” He repeated, spitting the words like they were bile in his mouth. “Nothing.” He stepped back involuntarily, trying to create as much space between himself and her.

“You give yourself your own punishment.”

And then she was alone. In the dark. Just as she had been not less than an hour ago. But the air around her was different. It was stifling. And everything that had just happened forced a hot tear down her cheek.

[Isodol]

24th Trial of Ymiden, 720

She had to get out of here. And now that she was alone again, her arm completely free from its bindings, she could make the escape she had been dying to make all this time.

She cleared her head of the most recent moments; focused on her breathing amidst the stagnant air. No longer was it stifling, but the tension was still there. Her thoughts were still there and all too abundant. She tried to clear those from her mind too. She caught her breathing, forced it out of her lungs in long exhales and forced it in with even longer inhales.

Her stomach was grumbling, the mad insects fluttering their wings in protest, demanding to be let into her chest where the anxiety could puncture her concentration. But she wouldn’t allow it. What mattered now was freedom. And by the immortals was she going to taste its sweetness.

Maneuvering her other arm, she felt as the rope fell wistfully to the ground. She reached down towards her legs and began untying the bindings that held them. Once all her limbs were no longer in constraints, she heaved herself up from the chair and made herself flush with the wall.

The wall was cold and clammy, much like the back of her neck suddenly became. Her palms delicately pressed against the icy surface, her fingers spreading outwards. There was nothing to feel, but Isodol hadn’t entirely expected to feel much of anything. Had the walls shaken as they did when that ugly brute had shouted, she was sure they would again if he was speaking somewhere nearby. But he wasn’t, at least from what she could tell.

She silently tip toed to the door, managing only the faintest of sounds from under her feet, the ground a solid concrete with not much give, if any. She quickly placed her hand over the doorknob and held her breath, turning it ever so slightly and hoping for an optimistic resolution.

The door was unlocked.

Her breath was sucked out of her by a major sense of relief, but there was a small inkling of dread that pulled the hairs on the back of her neck up on end. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, and things thus far were seemingly too easy.

As quietly as she could, she pulled the door back and stepped through the threshold, merging with the outside. A dimly lit hallway greeted her. The walls were pocked with dents and scratches, but she paid them no mind. Her trajectory was to get the hell out of this place and thankfully for her, she was in no maze. The hallway only led to one door and to that door she quickly crept.

She held her cheek flesh with the wall beside the door and listened intently. Upon hearing no sounds coming from behind it, she opened it. Fresh air had never been so relieving to her until that very moment. But it was short lived as she heard a shout come from her left. The same man who had cut her was charging headfirst towards her. She booked it, running full speed in any direction that wasn’t there. Buildings flashed before her eyes and quickly disappeared behind her. The man’s angry voice slowly started to dissipate in the distance.

It wasn’t until she was certain the only thing she could hear was owl hoots and a myriad of pedestrian voices that she felt comfortable and safe enough to slump against an alley wall. She closed her eyes as tight as she could, her eyebrows knitting together in frustrated sorrow. She had no one to blame but herself.

She finally managed to look down at her wounded arm. The cut was shallow, and not nearly as long as she had first thought it to be. She had done far worse, unfortunately. She pulled down her sleeve and pressed into her wound to stop the flow. Soon, it would stop. Soon, she would return to her tent, disinfect it with whatever tincture or alcohol she had, and fall into a dreamless sleep.

[Praetorum]

Isodol

Points: 10
Magic: Empathy
Skill Review: Appropriate

Knowledges
Pick pocketing: The consequences of getting caught
Empathy: Bringing forth subconscious emotions
Empathy: Manipulating emotions for one's own benefit, Reopening a fresh wound from the past, The thrill of escaping a kidnapping,
Intimidation: Provocation using innuendos,
Empathy: Connecting with a target via emotional experience


Loot: Your freedom.

Injuries: Headache, bruises and a cut. They'll all heal within several days, but unless you get the cut looked at, you'll have a scar.

Renown: +10 for not being who they thought you were.



Overview
Smh this is why crime doesn’t pay kids.

I really like how evocative your writing is—there’s a real sense of tension as the scene goes on. There’s a couple phrases that feel slightly anachronistic, though. “Stand-up comedian” and “kinky” feel a little too modern for the setting, and rubber isn’t a common material at this time. It’s not a big deal, but just something to keep in mind going forwards.

Also, for future review requests, please put each knowledge on its own line. Having them in list form is a lot more convenient for the reviewers than a block of text.

Enjoy your rewards. We don’t have a thievery skill so I changed that to pick-pocketing, since it seemed the closest equivalent. You also only requested five knowledges, so you can drop me a PM to ask for one more, and I’ll edit the review.

I look forward to reading more of your threads. Isodol seems like a fun character, and I’m sure she’ll get into all sort of interesting situations in Scalvoris.

Word Count: 3129