Open Misticism.

[Gad]

26 Summer 513AV, Sunset Quarters Near the edge of the complex, the tiny shack city that comprised the Quarters, Gad sat with his head down, his back leaned up against a wall. The heavy moisture in the air was oppressive and drips rolled down the mixed blood's forehead. He pulled the shirt sitting on his head down to wipe it away, despite this, one of the salty water droplets rolled down to sting his eye. He winced his left eye shut just as his vision was refocusing on a figure. The form emerged from the hot billows of the ground covering clouds that had recently swept in from the bay and it stalked towards him like a Nuit shambling from the grave. Despite the initial image, with a little more resolution he could tell it was the shape of a woman. The shape of a shapely woman... He got more detail as she closed the distance. The woman was tall, with a voluptuous figure. Somewhere between five and ten years older than Gad, she was well dressed in faded blues, auburn hair, hardly bronzed skin indicating a naturally fair complexion that was covered mostly with make up, smeared as it was, and with full features. She had a tall and pointed, but not unfeminine, nose, a wide mouth and lips and a small but defined chin. He stood up as she came closer, and walked toward her. He figured if he could get a better look at her body and liked what he saw, he'd talk to her, if not he wouldn't. It didn't take more than a second after starting towards her to see she was injured. Almost as soon as he was up she began crumbling towards the ground. Gad sprinted over and caught her before she could hit the the ground. His quick reaction yielded startling results. As Gad wrapped his arms around her torso to try and support her he had to yank his hand back from the warm fluid. He rolled her over on her stomach and saw the knife stick out of her shoulder blade. It was probably not as a bad as it looked, but Gad had little (no) medical experience, so it looked pretty bad. She was shivering at irregular intervals from the pain, and she was saying something but with her head face down and her long hair draped over, he couldn't make it out. As he looked he noticed the sticky crimson juice was not just coming from the knife blade but from the several other lacerations zigzagged across her back as well. Of course, the dirty shank poked in her shoulder blade probably accounted for the full list of 'most pressing issues.' He reached out, then paused, to shift his eyes down to the unsuspecting woman and Gad's fingers wriggled with anxiety. Finally, it one smooth motion he pulled the thing out. It wasn't all that bad actually, only a few inches of blade on it, and it wasn't even that far in. It didn't make him cringe any less when the woman reflexively flinched and writhed, or at the dulled scream she let out. In any other place, someone might reasonably be expected to call for help at this point, it being clear that anyone with even a modicum of medical knowledge would be more suited to the task than Gad. However, this was not everywhere, nor was it anywhere else, it was Sunberth. So, the unlikely options for assistance were limited to "unlikely" and "limited" . The woman pushed herself up, and in between the hanging locks and strands of her hair, he could see an expression of anguish. Her brown eyes settled on him, and she looked like she was about to try and kill him with that expression, but instead she said "Help me up?" so sweetly. She put her hand around Gad's shoulder. He stood the both of them up and moved to set her against the side of the shacked he'd been leaning against. She cringed as her back hit the wood but ultimately settled. "I don't know why you're helping me." She less like an earnest question and more like a criticism on his table manners or something. "I'm still trying to figure out myself. You wanna tell how you got like this?" "How do you think? Muggers. Bandits. I got lured into doing a job out here. John wasn't even ugly or anything. Cute actually, about your age, taller, more muscle. Not that it meant he was any fun. Took me back to his place, wanted me to try some of his pulp. I told him, I'm more of a wine girl but he was pushy, insistent, but I was being paid to oblige so-" "-This is going somewhere?" "Long story short it was a set up. Him and three of his friends wanted a free ride. I threatened to get my procurer, but he'd left to see another girl and they knew. Things escalated to an argument, then it got more physical, soon they were saying I owed them, for the "good time,"" despite her condition, the woman threw a special liveliness into her sarcasm "and then John pulled out-" "hhph...pfft-" Gad suppressed the giggle. "- his knife and then his friends joined in. I barely made it away by slipping into the mists." Gad tugged his upper lip whiskers. "And then you came here. Which brings us back to question one, which is why am I helping you? Because to me it sounds like those guys are still looking for you, and if it's all the same I'd rather not have the trouble of being here when they find you. Nothing personal." "It is not all the same, and this is nothing but personal. Listen to me; when they were chasing me, I threw my purse off to the side, down an alley. In case they caught me and wanted to do....anything. If I lived, I could come back for it. Better than them robbing me, right? I don't have it on me, but if you help me get to my man, there's definitely something in it for you." "Well, that's easy. I just threaten your life till you give it to me. Come on now, tell me where you put it." He brandished he knife he retrieved from her back. "HELP, HELP, SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP! I'M BEING MUURRDERED!" "What the red shyk are your doing!? No one's gonna come help you, those petchwits are gonna come here and really really murder you!" "Or maybe you, when I tell them you stole the purse from me.They might wanna keep me alive at least for awhile. You? Who cares about you?" "Hey, a lot of people care about me, okay? I'm Gad." "Yara, now, Gad sweetie, what do you think you should do, hm?" It presented an interesting dilemma, but Yara the prostitute was convincing. Gad pulled her from the wall and she grabbed around his shoulders and he lifted her onto his back, piggy style. Being a human transport for a smelly whore wasn't the top of Gad's to do list so he figured that this was going to be a long day. "Maybe we should find someone to clean you up. You don't look like you'll make it there in one piece. And dripping blood everywhere is a dead giveaway, even in this weather."

[Garin Campbell]

Garin eyes the pair quietly. He, being in one of his moods, considers going to help, but he changes his mind quickly. Instead, he listens to the whore's story. He didn't believe it; it was probably, in his mind, some elaborate ruse to trick this Gad into getting himself robbed- and possibly killed.

His pale, lithe figure begins following them quietly, hand on his knife. Should it come to it, he'd be ready to save his ass.

Dear gods. I feel like that damned doctor.

Doing his good deed of the month looked like it might be a long and annoying process. Perhaps he should just sneak off and get a drink, possibly a whore of his own...?

[Gad]

It was a shame Gad chose to operate on his wits, because they were usually in short supply. Here he was, aiding and abetting a woman with the stink of death on her, an aroma that he knew rubbed off easy. Pretty smiles and promise of coin were quick catalysts to action for the knave. The mud and- other stuff- clacked close to his sandals as he trudged along the winding path between the wooden shacks and he hummed an ominous tune that fit the mood of the environment. As he marched along with his prostituted backpack humming his low song, he realized that he wasn't exactly sure where to go. "Uh, am I going the right way?" "Mm, like I said, I'm all turned around hon. Is that towards the North side?" Gad's brows furrowed as he recalled and then he nodded. "Then it's good enough. I'll tell you where to head when I start to recognize things. Just- just whatever you do keep going. They weren't too far behind me, and I don't want to run into them again." Gad nodded again. He wasn't in favor of physical confrontation. Ever since what had happened earlier this season he was trying to stay low and incognito. The duo moved on for a bit more, and Gad stopped to rest his legs, tired as they were from fighting against the suction of the red clay soil over-damp with the season's moistness. Yara sat on a barrel as Gad stretched out his back, twisting left and right until there was a satisfying pop. He heard it, out there in the obscured space, the sloshing of shoes. Someone was following them, and what's more, it seemed they didn't want to give themselves away. Gad frowned. The wizard ducked off around the corner, trudging around the back alleyway of a nearby building, while leaving his meal ticket behind off on the barrel. Creeping through the muck, Gad had managed to position himself behind his tail. He contemplated, for a bit, what he'd do to handle this. He could see the man, and it was just one man, from where he was. He wasn't sure what do to. Finally, Gad decided that the only course of action was to pounce on him, and shut him up before he could call for his friends. Gad stepped forward from the ground level clouds that made hiding so easy. He sprinted to the man, running, not yelling or breathing too loudly, trying to get the drop on him. When Gad was close enough he leaped to the man, tackling him to the ground.

[Garin Campbell]

Garin really hated trying to be good. He followed the man, to try to help him, and what happened? The idiot attacked him. Of course, he himself probably would have done the same thing.

After he was tackled, he lied there dazed for a moment. Then, Garin slammed his elbow into the man's gut, rolling him off. He was quickly on his feet, drawing his dagger.

"Hey! I'm not tryin' to hurt you, so back off!"

Garin sunk into a fighting stance, just in case.

[Gad]

It went about as well as you would expect. Of course the guy had a knife. Gad was on his feet pretty quick. Now that he was closer, he had a better view of the man, and could tell he was a rough sort, not unlike Gad himself. He said something about not being out to hurt anyone, and even over Gad's rushing pulse, the man sounded persuasive. Gad copped the man's claims on nonviolence, despite his apparent fighting stance. "Yeah, so? What are you doing here, creeping around? Who are you, and what do you want?" Gad observed the man, down the length of his nose, with a healthy measure of suspicion. However, as he was busy eying a potential threat, an actual one was brewing. One of Yara's disgruntled clients, or charity cases as she told it, had been tailing Garin. The young man had been stalking through the mists, and when he saw Gad break away from the woman, he slipped around and snatched her. It was just a few moments after Gad had asked his questions that they heard a scream through the mist. Gad sprinted back towards where he'd left the woman, his sandals suctioning up the wet reddish clay as he went.

[Garin Campbell]

Garin growled, and left his fighting stance. "I heard her story. I was covering your ass." He seems pretty sincere, and, grudgingly, he is. "If I heard correctly, there could be a lot more trouble than one person can deal with."

Then he heard the scream.

He paused, eyes widening, then took off after Gad.

[Gad]

Gad rounded the corner, Yara was there swinging a plank off wood from one of the shacks at the guy. Gad ran up quickly, and punched the man in the back of the head, knocking him over. The girl managed to hit the guy with the board a few times, and Gad kicked him in the face, but he got back up fast and started swinging a knife around. Garrin came running up behind him now, and he stabbed the guy with his knife, in the back. Well after that it was pretty much all she wrote. The punk dropped his knife and Garrin stabbed him a few more times while Gad held him. He stopped struggling and fell over. "That was pretty gruesome." The guy was there on the ground. Gad looked at him twitching in pain. Yara had picked up the knife, and she stuff in the sash around her waste. "If you don't mind gents, these boys are after me. It'd be nice to have some stabbing capacity." "I wouldn't be so sure you need it. If they heard you scream they'll come looking this way, so we better split. But when they find his body, they probably won't think it's worth the risk anymore." Gad looked at the pooled blood around the body and got an itchy feeling in his hand, and shoved them into his pockets. Shit. I always get rolled into this dumb shit he thought, as he reached for the dice in his pocket. "If they have any kind of sense they'll stay away. And by they way, dear princess of the streetwalkers, how much further is this place?" She had a haughty sounding laugh. "Calm down, killer. It's just a bit further, fifteen chimes away, at most. Besides, I'm feeling a little better, I can walk on my own, let's go." She started walking. Garrin Campbell came up to Gad and whispered. "Alluva sudden she can walk fine now eh? And awfully convenient that guy's dead, now it's just her side of the story." Gad took a less serious tone than his compatriot. "Heh, really? I mean, we killed him -Garrin- YOU killed him. Some diabolical masterstroke?" The man scrunched his face up. "Well, she's suspicious. And besides, once you ran up on him, you dragged me into your fight as well." "Aw, my hero." Gad snarked. "Look, you heard her say she's got some of that money laying around right? You're handy in scrap, so let's say we split it, if you're going to tag along." Gad assumed if he'd heard Yara's tale then he'd known about the money too. Gad would've been suspicious of the man he didn't think he was just after some of that money, so Gad figured he'd include him in the plan from the start, so there was no unnecessary violence later. In his pocket Gad gripped the dice. He really was trying to get this coin, with out having to resort to violence. Things were already getting ugly.

[Garin Campbell]

Garin's frown turned into a grin after the brief conversation. He didn't mind killing, really. He enjoyed doing it, sometimes. But, typically, he liked to get something out of it, other than just the simple satisfaction of saving someone's life- whether he's trying to accomplish his regular 'good deed' or not.

"Alright then. Let's go."

Garin motioned for them to lead the way, his blood-covered dagger still in hand. He kicked the corpse, jut for good measure. "Hold on. I'm gonna try to send them a message. Go on, I'll catch up."

As they moved away, Garin stooped down and drew an eye in the man's neck with his knife.

Sure, it's not the Night Eye's style, but these are just common thugs. It should throw them off.

He jogged to catch up.