Completed Just Another Day

Another day in the life of Taris Orlanith as he wanders the streets of Sunberth, swiping food and picking pockets.

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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]

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Just Another Day

Postby Kynier on February 8th, 2019, 6:32 pm

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Each step had been carefully placed, as well as stretched as far as he could without displacing his balance too much. It wasn’t noiseless, but the boy’s attention was too focused on examining his prize to take note of it over the ambient sounds of Sunberth. It had allowed him to come up right on the boy without notice. Kynier snatched the parcel from the hands of the other. As the boy raised his head to look up at him the realization of being caught was plain to see. Without twisting his hips, the sorcerer had hooked his astral fist into the boy’s unguarded face.

Incorporeal knuckles caught the bridge of his nose, and he felt the bone give way a little. The boy toppled over with a shriek onto the ground. Kynier took a step back to be out of reach should the fellow flail at him. The astral hand was beginning to feel tired, so he contracted it back to a length to match his physical body. As the boy complained about his nose and rolled around, the sorcerer was resynchronizing his astral and physical forms. The boy rolled to his left and reached out for a splintered length of wood. Kynier was less than a quarter of the way through his synchronization, and his other hand still held the parcel, which was now partially open.

With two quick steps, Kynier circled around and kicked the desired weapon further from the boy’s grasp. Looking down he saw how the boy was likely in his mid to late adolescence. The youthful voice groaned about his options of survival before propping himself up on an elbow. Blood wasn’t necessarily gushing from the nose, but it was providing a decent flow of blood from the look of it. The bridge was also crooked, though Kynier never got a good look to know exactly how straight it had been before. “It is broken,” he stated. As he stared down at the thief, he felt a twinge of sympathy for him.

With one hand, Kynier managed to close the parcel without letting any of its contents slip out. Then he tucked it into one of the inside pockets of his vest. “There are plenty of options. After all, there are no rules, right? What exactly has stopped you from becoming anything else beside a thief?” In truth, he didn’t understand the struggle they boy was probably facing. Kynier could only speculate about it. But the boy had managed to survive this long, probably on his own. So, he must have a strength of spirit that few had.

The wheezing sounds coming from the boy’s nose pulled at Kynier’s guilt. He didn’t have to assault the boy, but he was, and still is, rather angry. If people repaid simple acts of kindness with petty theft and aggression, then nothing would ever improve. The cycle needed to be broken at some point. “I could set it back, that way it heals better. Otherwise you’ll have a crooked nose for the rest of your life. But it you attempt to steal from me again, a broken nose will be the least of your worries. Understood?” If the boy was agreeable, Kynier would squat down for a closer look at the nose. His right hand would no longer be hanging limp by then and he’d raises his hands to gently put a thumb on either side of the nose.

“What’s your name?” The question was to serve as a distraction. When the boy was answering, Kynier jerked his thumbs to force the nose back into proper alignment.

Credit for the boxcode goes to Luminescence!
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Just Another Day

Postby Taris Orlanith on February 11th, 2019, 2:00 am


“Well, first, I should have better clothes,” Taris began. “See? Rags. Holes. Mud. Who would hire me like this?” He shook his head. "Plus, if I stick my hand in the right pocket, I could end up with a lot more money than I would make at any job."

What is wrong with my voice? Taris wondered. It sounded all funny.

He moaned in horror when the man confirmed his nose was broken. No wonder it was bleeding so much! He kept his hand over his nostrils, but it didn’t help. Blood was going everywhere. Now he’d have to add blood to the holes and mud that defined his clothes. And how was he to ever get girls? Girls didn’t like broken noses.

He tried pulling his hand away from his nose to see how much it was bleeding. Blood dripped down and he quickly stuck his hand under his nose again. Not that it helped, blood was just going everywhere.

The man said, “I could set it back, that way it heals better. Otherwise you’ll have a crooked nose for the rest of your life. But it you attempt to steal from me again, a broken nose will be the least of your worries. Understood?”

Taris’ eyes widened. He looked up at the man. “You’d do that? Yeah!” He waved for the man to hurry up and fix his nose. “Come on.”

The man seemed to hesitate a moment. Taris thought he might be wary, since getting close had been what led to Taris stealing from him before. Taris groaned and nodded. Tipping his head back, he wiped the back of his hand slowly and carefully along his upper lip, then put his hands on the ground to either side of him.

The man squatted down and put his hands on either side of Taris’ nose. His hands were gentle, but his touch still stung. Taris winced and squeaked in pain.

“What’s your name?” the man asked.

“T-“ Taris sucked in a breath. “Taris.”

The man jerked his thumbs and a new wave of pain lanced through Taris’ nose. The pain he had felt before faded at once.

“That’s, that’s a lot better,” he said. He raised his fingers to gently run them over his nose. It still stung, but it was straight now. And then there was… “My voice is back! How did you do that?”

He rubbed his nose again. It felt so much better. Also, was there, perhaps, a little less blood?

"Thank you. Now I'm sorry I stole from you," he told the man. "What's, uh, what's in the parcel that's so important? I tried shaking it and couldn't hear any gold clinking."
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Just Another Day

Postby Kynier on February 20th, 2019, 3:03 am

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As soon as the bone popped back into place, Kynier stood up and took a step away from the boy. He watched Taris work his way through the pain of having a loose bone manipulated back into place. When he spoke, his voice had changed back, and the boy appeared to be extremely grateful. Despite the urge to smirk about it, Kynier forced himself to keep a straight face. He crossed his arms as he spoke, “For a while I had lived with a healer. Sometimes I would ask him a little about medical treatments. Nothing that I would dare to attempt, but little things like setting a bone.”

A dry laugh escaped his throat at the boy’s apology. “Taris, I suspect that you’re only sorry that you got caught. Although I don’t think very many would have been able to catch you.” At the mention of the parcel, his eyes narrowed slightly. “Truthfully, I don’t know. I had barely stolen it just a few chimes before you did. My employer wanted me to get it for him. As a professional courtesy, I wasn’t going to look inside of it.” He took a deep breath before letting out a heavy sigh. “But now that it’s been opened, I suppose there’s no point in not looking, is there?”

Pulling the parcel out of the vest pocket, Kynier opened the flap with a finger. There were no coins inside as Taris had indicated, but there were several slips of parchment. As well as something else. Kynier reached inside and pulled out a ring. It was a silver band with a crest on it. The crest was an image of a holding a thunderbolt. He arched an eyebrow in curiosity. “Hmm.” He clutched the ring in the palm of his hand and started peeking at the parchments.

“Looks like a set of maps, and a ring.” The map itself looked like it was centered around the Rotten Ruins district. After a moment, he put all of the parchments and the ring back into the parcel. Then he tucked the flap in to close it off and put it back in his vest pocket. “That only raises more questions than it answers.” Kynier looked down at Taris wondering what he should do. Should he just leave him and walk away, or punish the boy? Or even try to help him? A verse of a meditation mantra ran through his mind. I am the Chaperon of the lost. At the realization, he sighed. Taris was likely a lost soul. One that the city would grind and twist into something horrid, like many of its citizens.

The boy’s thin stature garnered his attention again. Perhaps with one small act, he could make a minor change. One that could lead to something better in the long run. “Tell me Taris, are you hungry? Chasing you down has certainly given me an appetite.” Kynier turned down the alley way to start towards the Pig’s Foot Tavern. After a couple of steps he stopped to see if the thief was going to accept the unspoken invitation.

Credit for the boxcode goes to Luminescence!
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Just Another Day

Postby Taris Orlanith on February 23rd, 2019, 10:10 pm


Taris’ eyes widened as the man revealed the parcel’s contents. Maps and a ring?

“It is a treasure map!” he said. “And the ring is for… for… I don’t know.”

He shrugged. What would the ring be for? Putting that in the parcel didn’t make much sense to him. Unless, maybe, it was a sign for whomever the parcel was for—originally—that it came from a friend.

Yeah, he thought. That must be it. A friend telling another that this was the map.

The man was right, though. The parcel did raise more questions than it answered. Whose owned the ring? Who had the parcel been sent to, originally? And the man had an employer who wanted him to steal it. Why?

Only one thing was clear to Taris. If more than one person knew about the map, then that meant it lead to some big treasure.

Another thought entered Taris’ head. If he helped find the treasure, would the man and his employer share it with him?

He looked up and found the man considering him. Taris swallowed. Would the man walk away, just leave him there? Or, was he going to beat him?

But, why would he set my nose only to break it again? he wondered.

“Tell me Taris, are you hungry?” the man said. “Chasing you down has certainly given me an appetite.”

Taris’ eye widened again. Hungry? This guy must have been new to the city. He was a street kid. Of course he was hungry!

He almost leapt to his feet. Yet, the lessons of the street held him back. He had seen this enough times to know better. Someone would offer bread, a coin, a safe place to sleep. And, yet, they always wanted something in return. What would this man want?

The man had turned his back and begun to walk away. Taris’ belly rumbled. Food. He couldn’t just turn it down. Whatever the man wanted, well, he could do it. Or, if he couldn’t, he could just run. He was good at running. The man had said so, after all.

Taris stood when the man looked back at him. “Yeah,” he said. “I could eat!”

He ran to join the man and, together they left the alley. Taris looked up at him. “So, you know my name. What should I call you? And, uh, you’re not planning to sell me to any slavers, are you?”
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Just Another Day

Postby Orakan on April 19th, 2019, 1:00 am

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ImageTaris
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Skills
● Observation - 5XP
● Tactics - 2XP
● Intelligence - 3XP
● Negotiation - 1XP
● Socialisation - 5XP
● Investigation - 5XP
● Logic - 4XP
● Subterfuge - 1XP
● Larceny - 3XP
● Planning - 1XP
● Running - 3XP
● Unarmed Combat - 1XP
● Escape Artist - 2XP
● Endurance - 2XP
● Rhetoric - 1XP
● Medicine - 1XP
● Interrogation - 1XP

Lores
● Tairi: Your sister and saviour
● Tairi's Home: Your refuge
● Tactics: Choosing transient marks to reduce risk
● Intelligence: Using crew sheets to select marks
● Negotiation: Bargaining for more time in bed
● Negotiation: Sweetening the deal with promises
● Location: Seaside Markets
● Observation: Noting the wear of daggers and knives and their grip
● Investigation: Analysing a dagger and knife stall display for a choice item
● Logic: Knives and daggers can give you an edge in a fight
● Intelligence: Choosing marks that looks like they have money to spend
● Subterfuge: Appearing to browse a market stall to get close to a mark
● Larceny: Using one hand as a distraction and the other to pick pockets in close range
● Larceny: Stumbling against someone to distract them enough to pick their pocket
● Planning: Mentally preparing how to react if a mark gets hostile
● Unarmed Combat: Throwing a defensive punch
● Tactics: Finding a place to hide from a hostile mark
● Escape Artist: Weaving through crowds
● Larceny: Stealing from a stall while the merchant and guard are distracted
● Investigation: Searching your surroundings for anything that could be used as a weapon
● Medicine: Diagnosing a broken nose
● Endurance: Enduring the pain of a broken nose
● Logic: Stealing is more profitable than working
● Endurance: Enduring the pain of getting your broken nose reset

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Oh man, I absolutely love your writing. It's so fun and clever and really makes me want to keep reading more. Enjoy the grades and thanks for the read! Do let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade and don't forget to delete/edit your request in the grading queue.
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“The means to every crime is ours,
and we employ them all,
we multiply the horror a hundredfold.”

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