Solo The Shill

[Gad]

Winter 2 513AV, Location Gad was curled up like a baby in the thin linen cloth that served as a blanket, and he shivered in the early morning through nonsensical dreams. He didn't here Clancier come to the door and rap on it, or him walk in either. The short Ravokian shyster rested the cane he was holding in one hand over his shoulder and looked down at the sleeping Gad who was turning restlessly in the dawn chill. Clancy whispered; "Hey, get up. Gad. Gad. Gad. Gad. Get up. Gad. Gad, get up." Nothing. He swiftly slapped the top of his leather shoe into Gad's rib cage, and that earned more efficacious results. "YHAH!" Gad shot up, and rubbed the ridges on his side. "What the-" Noticing his employer and "mentor" Gad didn't loose any of the vinegar in his blood. "What the petch!? Clancy? What the petch are you doing here?" "Ah, ye know. Just in the neighborhood, thought I'd drop by." "Yeah? Drop by and kick the shyke out of me?" "I said your name." "Hrm." "I did! You didn't wake up, I thought you were a goner. Hypothermia." He pointed to the linen cloth Gad was using for covers. "What? Oh no. I like the cold. It preserves me, y'know? Keeps me fresh. I'm secretly a Nuit." "Who knew it?" They shared a chuckle. "Like what you're doing with the place. Putting out, decorations, and all that." A quizzical look from Gad bid the scam artist to continue. "Out front, I see you've got a nice little sculpture, I believe in the media of canine feces." Gad raised a brow and leaned to look around Clancy, spotting the brown pile aforementioned. "Oh, that. That's not canine feces. It's dog shyke." Gad rubbed the back of his neck. "You came by for something?" "Business. So you seen some dogs around here? Maybe some cats?" Gad burped. "Huh. Yeah. Why?" Clancier revealed a leather bag slid over his shoulder, and he opened it up to reveal that it was full of dull brown burlap sacks. Clancy displayed the bags to Gad, and then handed tossed them over to him. "What're these for?" "Animal control. Snag as many as you can, and then meet me outside the Commons by the thirteenth bell." A bleary eyed Gad rubbed his face. "What? What's this about?" Clancier laughed. "Hahaha! The same thing it's always about! Mizas!." The short Ravokian shuffled out of the house, sidestepping the pile of poo and tipping his hat as he left. Gad looked at the bags and considered going back to sleep. He fell back and looked a the ceiling, but suddenly heard Clancier's voice yelling "Oh! And we need them alive." Gad clasped his hand against his forehead and took a few breaths to collect himself before getting to his feet fully. He rose to his feet and dusted his clothes, which he'd been sleeping in, off. He rolled the kinks out of his shoulder and stretched out his body. He spun his arms around from the shoulder joint, his legs from the hip. He Clasped his hands together and reached for the ceiling, and felt his abdomen become looser. He bent down and tapped his toes with legs as straight as they could be. You never knew when you might have to run away, so all the best cowards knew to keep their legs loose. He mulled over his options for snagging some of the local urban animal life. It wasn't like the stray cats and dogs were overly friendly with the human population of Sunberth; if this Winter was bad enough, even the cats and dogs had long enough memories to realize they could end up food. And, the humans knew the same could happen for them, if they succumbed to the cold.

[Gad]

Even still, in better times humans and their domesticated creatures got along as you'd expect. People would leave scraps out for the cats to keep the rats away, and for the dogs to keep the other kind of rats away. Basically, the animals weren't afraid of people. So, catching a few strays wouldn't be as hard as say, hunting a deer. Most of them you could stroll right up to if you murmured sweetly, remembered to blink, and held some bait out. Easy. Gad thought where he'd most often seen strays congregate. He reasoned, they'd probably loiter around the back alleys of eateries. Anything not fit for human consumption (which wasn't as much as you might think to a 'berther) would probably end up tossed out for waste in the side and back alleys. Gad decided to head to the spot. It didn't take long, Gad knew the streets. Well, he knew where all the important places where, because that was fairly static. The streets themselves were wound up in redundant turns and dead ends, and were rearranged on a regular basis. Fire, floods and a lack of skilled carpenters would do that to a city. The business owners, however, took extra care of their buildings and even some of the adjacent ones. Business was best when there was actually some semblance of a road to your place. All things considered, it didn't take Gad long to reach his destination. He even jogged half of the way. Not enough to get really winded but he definitely made sure to put some pep in his step. He got to the Pig's Foot tavern in no time flat. He chuckled at the saying. He guessed it made sense; no time flat was probably quicker than no time slightly curved or, whatever. He popped his head in and looked around. Seeing no one familiar, he knew there was no one there he needed to be afraid off. With that in mind he moved to the bar and tapped on it. Merv continued his doings, polishing ornate bottles of Ravokian wine that had been many years emptied, and refilled with sweet Sunberther moonshine. Gad frowned at the back of the man's head. He knocked a little harder on the bar, and Merv shook is head slowly and sighed in acknowledgement. The bartender spun around slowly, and leaned over onto his elbows and forearms. In response, Gad planted right elbow straight down onto the bar, and rested his cheek on that hand, so that he was roughly at eye level with the man. "Merv." "Gad." "Gonna throw me out again?" "Gonna cause a ruckus by cheating at cards again?" Gad scrunched his face in mock incredulity. "Psh. Pfft. Huh. That only happened once," aside, under his breath "last season" "Once?" "Yeah once!... The other times it was dice. Look, that's not important. I have a question. You toss out, old bones, and what not to the back right? Like, your stinking garbage. Well, I mean, what you don't serve to patrons of your fine establishment." "You know Gad, one of these days, someone's gonna give you yours." "So's that a yes?" "Yeah, outback. Don't know what you'd want with the junk. Dogs're always back their in the garbage pile petching and shyking in it." "Great! That's perfect!" Gad bid the business owner farewell, and stepped out with a friendly wave. It was his mode to poke and prod all the city's local color, but it was people like Merv who really kept the city together, Gad thought. All you had to rely on in Sunberth, Gad realized, were the shopkeepers. The business they brought, and the mercenaries they hired helped keep the more volatile elements in check. So, Gad didn't begrudge Merv or his suspicious stew. In fact, he thanked the offal aroma that wafted off the thrice cooked meat and porridge gruel. It had attracted just what Gad needed. As he rounded the corner he saw two medium sized dogs with ribs defined by near constant hunger. It solicited something like sorrow from his heart. He'd been hungry, more often than he'd care to recall. Hunger wasn't fun, he doubted even for a dog. But, the dogs weren't important. They were too big for the bags Clancy had given him. Gad never knew the man to do anything by accident, and so he surmised something smaller was on the plate for this little excursion in animal husbandry.

[Gad]

On a boarded up windowsill above the two mongrels, sat three cats, side by side. The kits looked of the same litter, not fully grown but looked to be fending for themselves decently enough as a team. They looked hungrily and licked their puncturing teeth as the dog duo did in old bones and scraps and nosed through the refuse. Gad looked over his shoulders, left and right. It was still early enough and chilly enough that no one who didn't need to be was out. The cold was fine with him. It was motivation. All that aside, it would serve to mask his next move. The wizard approached the dogs and the cats and their pile of junk. They started, but he met their gazes with soft blinks and a down ward facing head. He'd managed to persuade them not to skit away, but they were now aware of him. It didn't matter, for he observed the short attention-spans of the animals when the dogs went back to chowing down and the cats went back to fantasizing (he assumed) about when it'd be their turn. Now that they would bee in his range, Gad set down the bags and opened them up so that they were flat on the ground, and as wide and open as they could be. He then stepped back enough, but was careful of the distance. Slowly, the red voice filled his head as it's hushed tone sighed with relief. He pushed his djed down to his finger tips, his first knuckle, second, third, then wrist joint. Patiently, he waited for them to unfurl from their cocoon. He focused on airy thoughts, wind, the breeze. He tried to make himself light, and weightless, intangible. Soon, he'd done it. His hangs hung loosely from the wrist, and were unresponsive to command or stimuli, they only did the involuntary movements that all hands did when they were held in certain positions. He breathed in, and out, not in sighing, but in a form of rudimentary mediation that kept him cool. Figuratively, as it was pretty chilly outside. One hand, the left, moved out towards the pile. Gad observed a choice morsel the dogs had so far neglected. Unbeknownst to either, he snagged it with his Projected hand. As he did all this he pointed his arm, limp hand included, in the direction of his hand, which he found made his reach easier and more effective. He lifted the snatched piece of meat upward, to the eye levels of the cats. Said eyes went wide. At first they stood there, but one enterprising one with a black coat and white paws and stomach, reached out with one claw to try and snatch it. His arm fully extended and his claws too, but it was just out of reach. Knowing he had the feline's attention Gad moved the piece slowly to the ground, between the pile and his bag, the bag being between himself and the pile. The Cat looked, eyes still big, at the dogs, who were ignoring them for now, and back at the meat. Gad watched this, and realized the Cat would need some form of incentive. Gad wriggled the piece with his projected fingertips and it got the cat to pounce down to the ground. It did so quietly to avoid getting the attention of the dogs. It slunk along swiftly to it's prize but Gad began to reel it in, towards the bag, making sure to accelerate it just enough to keep it out of the cat's reach. He moved the piece all the way over to the bag and let it go and the cat shortly followed, and sat in Gad's trapped nibbling on it's bait.

[Gad]

Gad repeated the trick for the next cat, and the next, until all three were sitting in bags chewing on morsels he'd managed to drag away form the pile. Keen not to get too close, Gad carefully used his projection to raise the sides of one of the bags and close it shut. The cat seemed to barely noticed until he pulled the drawstring tight, but by then it was already caught. The next cat was a little more skittish. By the time he'd moved to the third cat, it's face held a look of utter terror as it noted the conditions of it's brethren and their frantic meows. At the last moment as the drawstring was being pulled taut, it leaped out of the bag with it's morsel in it's mouth and stalked off to a safe distance. Gad didn't bother exerting himself with more effort on the beast and he moved his ghost hands back to their mortal coils, and reattached them to the flesh. There was a middle pins and needles feeling as numbness gave way to sensation. He stretched his fingers and rubbed each hand, as he often did after reattachment. Gad moved over to the rustling and meowing bags that tumbled inefficiently around on the ground. He lifted each up and had them draped over his shoulder until a stray claw managed to push through the stitching of the bag and needle him in the back a bit. After that, the kept them roughly at arm's length. It was barely the eleventh bell, and Gad hadn't filled all the bags Clancy had given him but he figured now was a good time to check in at the Castle Commons, where Clancy would probably already be. He figured if they needed more, they could be gotten, and he'd have some proof. Like the Pig's Foot, Gad made swift time to the Commons, and was quick to spot Clancy leaned over a stall hawking some kind of "Dhani Oil", not to customers, but to the merchants, who were lapping it up like kittens with milk. Gad would have to watch closely to learn the old hand's tricks. Gad strolled up to the ruthless self promoter, charlatan extraordinaire; Clancier Orczino. Gad raised the bags up to eye level with Clancy as he approached. The man did a double take and finished pawning off his last bottle of Dhani Oil to a merchant, who scampered away with the bottle, greedy grin on his face, as he dumped the greasy contents into his hand and massaged it into his balding scalp. Gad and Clancy shared a look and both burst out laughing when the man was out of earshot. "What'd, you tell him it'd grow his hair back?" Clancy chuckled low. "Nope. He thinks it'll help him get his pecker up." Gad frowned at first and then couldn't help laughing. "Oh...hahaha, poor bastard." "Yep, too much red meat'll do that too you." "Hey, got some cats here, two of 'em. Now, I can go get more if we need em."

[Gad]

"Mm no, no. I've uh, already acquired a few of my own." Clancy gestured to his combination cart/stall where a number of bags were hanging by ropes from nails hammered into the frame. Each was wriggling, and looked to be tied very tight. "Good thing you came when you did, that was my last bottle of that stuff. You know how I hate downtime." It was true. Clancier always had that "sell sell sell" attitude. If he wasn't making money then he was thinking about making money. Gad liked the security of having a little -or a lot- of coin in his pocket. Clancy, though, seemed to just enjoy being around the stuff, as if the gold itself was the end, not the means. It could be unsettling on his bad days, to see what Clancier was willing to do for a few gold Mizas. Still, that was the kind of person it didn't hurt to work for. "Alright, hand them here." Clancy said. "Good, now, where we going is over by the Tent city, you know the routine, that's where the rubes are. On the road into town, that's where we'll get em." Clancy reached behind the counter pulled out another wriggling bag and set it upon the cart. He opened the bag to reveal a little piglet with it's feet bound, oinking up a storm. Gad quirked a brow, but then a sly grin came over his face as he got what was going on. "Gad, meet our associate, Porcino." Gad chuckled and took the pig up by the rope around it's ankles. "Now, very simple plan," Clancier said as he began briefing Gad. "You are gonna be the shill. We go through the Tents, making a scene. You come through whenever there's a doubter, and buy the pig." Gad nodded, but regurgitated the plan just to make sure. "Alright, so, I'm gonna hang back, and spot anyone who looks a little too skeptical, then I'll come up to you all 'Hi, nice ta meet ya, nice pig blah blah' and you drop our friend Porcino into the sack, and I circle around and bring him back to you?" "Exactly, now, get the cart, let's move." Gad took up the cart and started pushing it along. While they moved Clancy made sure to gag the two cats Gad had caught and tossed them back into their bags. It wasn't far to the Tent City, where the number of unsuspecting rubes was at it's highest. When they started to see the smoke from the cooking fires, Gad turned the cart over to Clancy and split off from him, running ahead to scope out the day's suckers. He spotted a good number of transients, or what looked like them to him. He overheard their conversations, about which taverns were the friendliest to visitors, which brothels were the cleanest (trick question, they're all filthy, except the Muted Maiden which they all agreed shouldn't be counted) and how to make sure not to get your pocket picked. He heard them boasting about their conquests abroad and in town, and one man was retelling the story of the gang of muggers he took down which started as three men and ended as roughly a dozen Akalak. This was the perfect crowd for today's exercise, Gad thought. The right combination of bold and stupid that made them think they could take on Sunberth.

[Gad]

Soon, Clancy came strolling along ringing the bell on the cart and calling out in his hawker's voice, and he drew enough attention for a few saps to gather around him. He showed off the small piglet Porcino, and then dropped the pink little meatball into a bag, behind the cart where no one could see. He then picked up another, cat filled bag, and handed it off to the first costumer. Gad spied all of this from his position a little further ahead, but he made sure to keep his eyes down and not give away that he was watching what was going on too closely. When he thought about it, he realized that with such a scene being made it would be more conspicuous to not pay attention, and so he stopped pretending like he was oblivious to the pork seller, and started to show signs of noticing it just in case anyone was watching. The trick worked like a charm, and after "seeing" Clancy put a pig in a bag once and hand it off, people were more than willing to take the bags without stopping to look inside. After the rush died down and Clancier had handed off half a dozen "pigs" -half of their supply- then he quickly moved on to a different area of the camp and didn't waste any time. Gad forged ahead and spotted a few young fresh faced types, who had weapons but looked like on supplies. Gad estimated them to be some kind of young adventurers, and given their varied and rough appearances, judged them to be far from home. They also seemed low on supplies, as they were all sharing a scant meal of some kind of watery porridge. Gad subtly caught Clancier's eye and gestured in their direction. Soon the cart was being pushed up near the group's cooking fire and they were discussing the prices. It turns at Gad was right about them being down on their luck. They were a group of young mercenaries, none of them over twenty, and they'd hit a dry spell and were looking for a bargain. Well, Clancier certainly had one for them. They were about to buy when one of the more sharp eyed members of their outfit noted how all the little piggies were already bagged. Before he could asked to see one, Gad swooped in. "Hey! I've been trying to catch you!" He shouted to Clancier, coming in from around a tent a ways off from the group. "I heard you got a mean deal on some pig meat? Well?" He said, approaching the stall. "Lemme see whatcha got." Clancier had a look on his face as if he'd never seen Gad, and this was all very sudden. He reached down and pulled up Porcino. "Well uh- a-alright then. Well this one work for ya?" Gad scratched his chin appraisingly and inspected the piglet's legs and ears. It wasn't like he was looking for anything, of course, but the people watched didn't know that. Finally Gad crossed his arms and let out a huff, and looked down his nose at the animal. "Hm. Yes, yes he'll do. I'll give you four for him." "Sir! Four? I have to eat too you know. Seven, sir, it's a fair price" "What, do I look like I'm made of Mizas!? Four and five." Well, I'm afraid we just can't do busine-" "Alright! Alright already. Five, flat. My final offer. Deal?" Clancier sighed, crestfallen. "Well, my good sir, I suppose, but you must understand, now all the other customers will want the same low price!" Gad tossed the coins rudely at Clancy. "Not my problem. The pig." He stuck out his hand in the universal sign for 'gimme' and Clancier bagged up the creature, while maintaining a beleaguered look on his face. Clancier tied the bag up tight and handed it off to Gad, who slung it over his back and made his way back in the direction he'd come. Over his shoulder, he could hear the group, with a new level of self confidence, haggling Clancier down for their own little pigs. Of course, once they got him down to such low prices, they didn't bother to look in the bags. Gad thought on it and grinned. Why would they? They already "proved" how much smarter they were than Clancier by getting him to such a low price. Surely any man selling for that low was just a fool to be taken advantage of. That's what they wanted to think about themselves, at least, and all Gad and Clancy did was to let them. They bought up half the remaining stock, and as soon as the coins were in hand Clancy made off to the outskirts of the camp. Gad had circled around, and managed to pass of the bag with the pig in it to Clancier without being noticed by anyone who cared. When they got to the edge of the Tent City, Clancier was quick to pawn off two more cats. He gave them away at the first prices offered and as soon as the money was in hand he started heading back to town, and fast. The last cat he took out and untied, but tied the bell from the cart to it's neck before setting it on the ground and giving it a not-so-gentle kick in the rump that sent it trotting off. Soon he and Gad where back in town, ditching in some forgotten alleyway. Clancier sifted through the coins and gave Gad his pay, but to the lion's share for himself. The sun was setting and neither man was long for pleasantries and so they bid each other adieu. Clancier set the piggy underneath his left arm, jacked draped over it, and tipped his hat to Gad. "If you're looking for me in the next few days, check around the Seacow. I'll have something for you to do." Gad nodded, and tucked his earnings into his own jacked before heading to the Drunken Fish. All this work had made him thirsty, and he judged he'd be less likely to bump into any of those "customers" in the Fish than in Pig's Foot.

[Zandelia]

Gad :

Skills
Observation – 4
Persuasion – 2
Hunting - 1
Acting – 2
Socialization – 3
Running – 1
Projection – 2
Stealth - 1

Lores
Clancier: Employer, Mentor
Clancier: Purveyor Of Odd Goods
Pig’s Foot Rear: Dog’s Dinner
Projection As A Cat Snaring Sport
How To: Shill

Notes :

I liked this thread. Jaunty, original. Excellent. Keep it up

Any questions about my grade? PM me at any time. Keep Writing!