Completed A Day in the Life

A day in the life of a homeless pickpocket

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

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A Day in the Life

Postby Adriana Sparrow on February 15th, 2019, 3:34 am

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Winter 61, 518AV

It was hard to tell the time of day from inside their cave home. The light from outside only barely penetrated the entryway of the hole. Thankfully Adriana's natural clock was well trained and adjusted to the days workings. Her eyes squinted open and the darkness enveloped her. She looked towards the general direction of the entryway, searching for the dim light of the morning forcing its way through the dirt and darkness. After a moment it reached her eyes, a grey haze, just light enough to contrast against the dark dirt around her. It was very early morning, then. The sun's few rays bursting through the heavy fog created by the cold mornings near the rivers.

Her eyes slowly adjusted. The room was dark, but she saw the matches stored near the light, easy to find. She crawled over, careful not to disturb her brother who was still sleeping soundly beside her. Pulling a match, she struck it and a flame appeared and danced on the rough tip, slowly eating the ground that held it up. She opened the oil lamp beside her and dipped the match inside. Instantly flame engulfed the oil dampened wick. Light filled the room and she squinted her weak eyes against it.

Bae stirred in his sleep, the light assaulting his closed eyes, but he did not awaken. She would let him sleep as long as he wished. The boys dreams were better than his life.

She looked around the 'home'. The dirt hole was nothing to brag about. A few cloths lay about the floor, serving as sleeping places. A random piece of flat wood sat on the ground, acting as a table to set their foods so it would not get covered in dirt. They kept no food in the hole, not that they had any to spare, so they would not attract unwanted visitors. But other than the lamp by her side, and her satchel near her bed, the hole was bare.

She crawled over to her satchel. She slept fully clothed, the underground got cold at night. They had one blanket, and while on the colder nights Adriana tried to share it with her brother, most nights she let him have it to himself. So instead she slept almost fully clothed, in her dirty and torn sackcloth items.

She would need to start early, go out within the city to try and find some food. She pulled on her shoes and stripped off her shirt, careful not to rip it more. She grabbed her long strip of linen from where it rested in her satchel. Quickly finding the end she held it against the side of her bare rib cage, and with her other hand she began wrapping it tightly around her chest. Her breasts, which as a seventeen year old female, malnourished or not were developed and noticeable if concealed under just only her ragged shirt. So, in order to keep her disguise, she wrapped them, tightly and flat, so she could better pass a young boy, an interest to no one.

She ran a hand through her hair.It was brown and greasy, thick with dirt and grime, but short. Bangs swept her forehead, tickling her lashes. Her hand went through this longer hair and back to the nape of her neck where the hair was ragged and short, cut with a chipped knife. All a part of her attempt to fly below the radar.

She sighed, tucking the end of the strip of linen into the folds, holding it in place for the day. After a while it would become uncomfortable, possibly itchy. But it was necessary. Bae stirred once more, and she brushed a hand across his hair. She would be gone when he awoke, but he knew where she was at, and he knew not to leave the hole.



Code credit to Itt.
Last edited by Adriana Sparrow on April 24th, 2019, 2:00 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Adriana Sparrow
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A Day in the Life

Postby Adriana Sparrow on February 16th, 2019, 4:47 am

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She left then, crawling up to the surface, blinking hard at the light that was exponentially brighter when fully surrounded by it. As she suspected, it was still very early morning. The sun was slowly rising, but the thick fog from the nearby waters and cool air damped the rays quite a bit. The world was still plenty visible, and she made her way to the center of town, the Castle Commons. The morning was new and the city would be slowly awakening, people going off to work, shops and stalls opening. Now was the best time for scavenging, she had found. Not a lot of people around to see her in the act. Pick pocketing was better during the high peak points of the day. Ironically, the more people around, the better the pick pocketing time. No one noticed anything or anyone in large crowds, and wouldn't be bothered by bumping into someone, little did they know that the bump was actually a theft.

The streets turned from dirt to a ragged and broken cobblestone walkway ans she descended further into town. She thought of which shop to go and find food scraps at. One of her favorites was Bakers, but they usually didn't put their waste out until later in the evening, after hunters had brought in their kills from the days hunt and Baker had time to clean and cut them. The best places were taverns and the like during the morning. The keepers would start preparing the food they would use for cooking and meals during the day, and throw out the scraps they couldn't use early in the morning. In time for their guests to wake up for breakfast and wander down to the kitchen. This type of location usually meant burnt breads or moldy or hard cheeses that were cast aside. Sometimes there were rarer delicacies, but it was always a gamble. There was always the chance there could be nothing salvageable.

She would head over to the Pigs Foot Tavern first. It was the largest and most popular inn in town, and therefore had the most guests that required feeding, leading to, of course, the most food scraps thrown away. The owner of the place was some old man. He seemed nice enough, he had never openly shooed her away from his tavern, that was nice. But she couldn't get a read on him, she was never sure if he cared or not if she stole from his trash. She could never understand why people cared in the first place, honestly. But the people of Sunberth can be easily offended, in such a lawless town, she did her best to survive, which meant attracting as little attention as possible.

Pigs Foot had a larger dumpster trash can than most of the other food places around here. There was simply a lot of trash that went into keeping a tavern, she guessed. Which, to her, meatn both the larger opportunity for a find, but also having to sift through things she didn't need. Brkoen glass was common in this pile. She had cut herself open more than once this way, she did not recommend it. She tried to be as careful as possible now.

She walked through town without attempting to hide, it was only when she got closer to the tavern, using the back way rather that walking right up to the front, less she get misunderstood as a customer, did she sneak more into the shadows. The Pigs Foot was a relatively low risk area, but being careful never hurt anyone any more than not being careful would.

The trash pile looked like the owner had taken out his morning scraps today already. That was good, the food would be near the top, easier to find. As the day went on it would fill with more glass, ripped and soiled cloth, and liquid wasted beer, which generally ruined everything else it touched, most importantly food. This way the morning trash was better, the people hadn't been drinking yet.

She knelt down next to the pile, and began to sift through the rubbage. A lot of from the night before, but nearer the top was the more fresh pickings. Almost instantly she found a small hunk of bread, about half the size of her small palm, just a couple bites worth. It was old and stale, she saw. It smelt of ash and beer, but seemed dry and relatively edible. She popped a piece in her mouth that she quickly broke off, and stuffed the other half into the her satchel. It was important for her to eat, but her main focus was feeding her brother first. It was hard to resist, though, when her stomach was tight and the food was in her hand.



Code credit to Itt.
Last edited by Adriana Sparrow on March 18th, 2019, 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Adriana Sparrow
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A Day in the Life

Postby Adriana Sparrow on February 21st, 2019, 2:35 am

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Rummaging around in piles was Adrianas go to source for food. It was an unfortunate way to live. High chance of sickness and disgusting foods. Both of which the siblings had dealt with before. But pickpocketing was harder, more risky. And while the reward was potentially much greater, she stuck to this most of the time. It was more reliable.

After she had finished up with the Pigs Foot trash pile, she circled the other food selling businesses in the area, such as the Bakers butcher shop. A couple of bells later and she had her sack filled with assorted, assumingly, edible items. Well, not filled, it was a big bag. But the kids would be able to ingest something today. Bae especially liked the bone from Bakers. The marrow was somewhat tasty to suck out, and Adriana was fairly sure that it was some form of meat, and therefor good for the young, growing, boy.

For now, though, what she had was enough for the day. Despite the risk and difficulty of pickpocketing, she still tried to attempt it every once in a while. Today was a good day, a big shopping day for the city. Adriana did not know why, but she had seen that people come out in larger crowds during days like these. Larger crowds meant closer quarters, and her potential victims would not take notice of someone 'bumping' into them, or in her case, carefully reaching into a pocket or bag to skim something.

She headed towards the center of the Castle Commons, where the stalls were set up and the people milled about. The gallows were close by and it seemed like they were getting ready for a showing. Adriana grimaced. Maybe this was why there were so many people out today. The city loved its executions. Adriana found then appalling, no matter what criminal stood on the block. She loathed the city and its love for violence, why couldn't people understand that the world wasn't supposed to be this way.

Well, it didn't matter to her.She would wait for the execution, the way the guards already stood poised meant it couldn't be too far away. The people would crowd and push together, all trying to get a good look, and small framed Sparrow would be able to sneak her way through the crowd, picking pockets along the way.



Code credit to Itt.
Last edited by Adriana Sparrow on March 18th, 2019, 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Adriana Sparrow
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A Day in the Life

Postby Adriana Sparrow on February 21st, 2019, 2:57 am

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The pressure of people slowly built around Adriana, and she knew, despite not being able to see over the heads of the anxious adults around her, that the show as about to start. It was when the enter crowd began screaming and booing all at once that she understood the prisoner had been revealed to the public. Now was her chance. Some might think the guards near the stage would be a threat to Sparrows attempts, but to be honest they wouldn't be able to see her, let alone discern her actions, in this type of crowd, and they also didn't care. Their focus was on the prisoner, and on anyone who would attempt to mess with the execution. Otherwise, that was simply not their job.

She began rooting through the crowd, thankfully she was only at peoples chests or shoulders, depending on their height. She was rather smaller and so not one really cared to move out of her way or take notice of her. The show, too, was much to exciting to be torn away. As she pushed her way through the rows in the crowd, she felt up the people she passed. Although they would feel her touch, most wouldn't think twice about it because of the close quarters. She was free to search them at will, however obscurely. Her fingers slipped in and out of pockets, searching for loose change or small coin purses. Her hands rummaged quickly through satchels and purses, all while her eyes and head turned straight forward, away from her intended victim of theft. Sometimes her fingers would touch something, and she had only a fraction of a second to either grab it or decide to leave it be. She had to guess what the item was, figure out the rough size of it. Was it small enough to conceal in her hand, light enough to quickly move it from strangers pocket to personal purse? Could it be something useful to her? Or would she end up wasting the space in her bag only to throw it away later?

It was certainly a sophisticated skill, despite what people would say about the sophistication of the act. Movements had to be quick and agile and thoughts had to run quick and unquestioned, eyes had to be always watching.

Soon enough the roaring around her died significantly, though never all the way. The cursing of the deceased would not ends for many more chimes. The guards enjoyed leaving the dead up for a while. For some reason Adriana could not fathom, to appease the public? Who knew? She could faintly hear the creaking of the wooden hanging post as it struggled to support the dead weight of its newest victim. One day it wold crack and fall, and the accused would suffer a long death, rather than the short one it was supposed to.

Adriana left the Gallows then, with some winnings in her satchel. They were unknown at the moment, but she would look at them when she returned home. Should be rather soon.



Code credit to Itt.
Last edited by Adriana Sparrow on March 18th, 2019, 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Adriana Sparrow
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A Day in the Life

Postby Adriana Sparrow on February 21st, 2019, 4:00 am

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As she exited the still dense crowd, her vision still blocked by larger bodies, she was almost pushed out of the crowd by sheer group movement and force of the angry denizens. Pushed right into a large wooden post that was located on the edge of the Commons. Thankfully she wasn't hurt, but she bounced off the board, shaking it a bit.

She was familiar with this board. It was a community post, fliers for wanted Guards or servants, missing loved ones or city wide announcements often got posted here. She sometimes looked at it, but she rarely had need or interest in whatever was posted at the time. The only reason she gave it a second look now was because her collision with it sent something flying off, and now the paper was slowly floating like a feather to the ground. She snatched it, just before it hit, and looked at the writing.

Sometimes Adriana was rather curious. No one had noticed her pickpockeing and so she had no need to rush away from the scene. And while the flier probably had no relation or interest to her, she was naturally curious, and so she took a read.

It was a old piece of paper, colored by the sun and stained by the rain. Wind had ripped at it and she assumed the only way it had managed to stay attached to the board was because of the other fliers that had been attached on top of it, trapping it to the wood. Somehow she knocked it loose, and it looked like the paper had been posted for a long time, perhaps a year or more.

As she read it she became more and more confused. The paper seemed to be talking about a Goddess. Morwen, the Goddess of Winter. Adriana knew there were a bunch of Gods that ruled over Mizahar, she knew there were a lot and they controlled or looked over, or whatever, a lot of different things in the world, but she didn't really know anything specific about them, like their names or something. It also went on and on about something called the Vantha, she wasn't sure what that was either.

As she continued to read she thought maybe they were some kind of people. They seemed to worship Morwen and were 'marked' by her? Overall she really didn't know what this this was talking about, but it looked pretty official and it seemed like it was telling everyone to kill these Vantha people because they liked Morwen and whoever wrote this was mad at that Goddess?

Morwen apparently abandoned her duties, Winter. Maybe that was why it wasn't so cold in Sunberth lately. This Winter had been pretty memorably calm. Adriana remembered colder weather and snow when she was younger, but she hadn't seen snow in a few years now she thought.

Still confused, but understanding that whatever this was was serious, she stuffed the flier in her satchel, wanting to study it more back home. And then she turned, ready to return home. However when she turned she was suddenly face to face with a man. He was dressed strangely, but more shocking was the fact that he was staring straight at her, and he was uncomfortably close, like nose to nose, except he was taller than her and staring deliberately down.

It was beyond freaky, and she stood frozen for just a moment, before instantly breaking out into a sprint, running towards the river, and then up it, towards home in the Rotten Ruins. The man had scared her so much, she didn't understand his deal, she didn't know what he wanted from her, but she didn't want to find out.

Soon her legs grew tired and she spotted a door, a shop, she thought, and burst in the door without much thought further. Anything to get that man off her tail, if he was on it at all.

Taking a second to readjust to the her new surroundings, she found herself somewhere dim, candlelight, but no windows, or covered if there were any. There was red fabric all over the walls, and there were a bunch of people milling around. The only sound was some music being played by someone she couldn't yet place and there were people sitting on red couches with others strangely close to them.

It clocked then, as she saw the strange outfits, or non outfits, half the people were wearing. She gagged, she was in a brothel.



Code credit to Itt.
Last edited by Adriana Sparrow on March 18th, 2019, 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Adriana Sparrow
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Posts: 126
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A Day in the Life

Postby Adriana Sparrow on February 21st, 2019, 10:27 pm

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She wanted to leave immediately, but she was still frozen in place, part by her shock at having arrived in this place and part by the fear she felt for the man back in the Castle Commons. Before she had a chance to react, a lady approached her. SHe was scantily clad, a red dress that went down to her knees, loosely fit, but had a deep V neck, down near her belly button, and long slits up both sides of the legs, the sleeves went over the shoulder. Her hair, a messy blonde, while her face was covered in pomade and other colors, fake and dry looking. She smiled strangely at Adriana, and approached, coming rather close.

"You looking for some company boy?" She asked her with a velvet voice. Her scrawny hand reached up to Adriana's face, a finger coming to rest below her chin, pulling her face upwards to look at the woman. She was still smiling, but after a moment the smile faltered and she squinted.

"Hold on second..." She trailed off and leaned her face in real close to Adrianas. Adriana snatched her head away, jerking it to the side and looking down. The woman stood back straight up, and put her hands on her hips. "You're not a boy at all, are you girl?" She said, not quite a question.

Not many people glanced at her so quickly and made her disguise. Though perhaps these kinds of women had some real talent in looking and watching. "I'm no one." Adriana replied defiantly, and began to turn to leave.

"You don't have to live out there in the dirt, ya know?" The woman called after her. "We sisters here, and we get paid real well. You'd be taken care of. You'd be fed." The woman almost sounded concerned, her voice tinged with care.

Adriana didn't care though, not for these women and certainly had no interest in becoming them. It did not matter if she got paid, if she got fed, if Bae got fed. She would never lower herself to this kind of work. The men in this city did not deserve to have the power over her they had over these other women.

"I'm no whore." Adriana responded simply, walked out the door from which she came, back into the light of the day.

She was shaking slightly. The confidence her statement assumed was not in line with her normal personality. She walked back out into the bright sun and squinted at the difference in light. She sighed deeply, expelling the taste of perfume and smoke from her lungs and breathing in the rancid stench of the streets.

She felt her satchel at her side, and smiled inwardly that it was weighted with food. She could go home now, the sun was already starting its decent and Bae would be hungry, just as she was.



Code credit to Itt.
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Adriana Sparrow
Player
 
Posts: 126
Words: 111649
Joined roleplay: January 24th, 2019, 7:23 pm
Location: Sunberth
Race: Human
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Medals: 1
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A Day in the Life

Postby Orakan on April 21st, 2019, 4:19 am

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ImageAdriana
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Skills
● Observation - 4XP
● Disguise - 1XP
● Stealth - 1XP
● Scavenge - 1XP
● Larceny - 1XP
● Logic - 1XP
● Running - 1XP
● Socialisation 1XP

Lores
● Disguise: Binding your breasts to pass as a boy
● Scavenge: Search tavern waste early
● Larceny: The bigger the crowd, the easier to pick pockets
● Morwen: Goddess of Winter
● Morwen: Abandoned her seasonal duties
● Vantha: A race that worshipped Morwen

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