A Merchant's Quandary(Bob,Mok)

[Antar]

30th day of summer, 511av.

Noth stood in the alleyway, waiting for the others to appear beside him in the morning's light. It had been a while since they last had met and he wondered whether any of them would show up. But his directions had been specific, the merchant who was asking for the job had left his house today like any other day and they were to meet him at his shop later on with the results of their findings. The merchant had told his wife he'd stay at the shop this night and it was a perfect time to attempt to track the woman's infidelitous relationships.

Biding his time, he watched the merchant leave the house and a slight nod came in his direction as he watched and waited, waited and watched...

[Bob Barton]

Bob did not want to come at all. The idea of an assassination was not one that he was looking forward to. But hopefully he had already made his point the other night he wanted nothing to do with it. If it was just finding out what the wife was doing or even capturing her cheating partner, Bob was fine with it. But not the killing. It was absolutely distasteful.

Why did it have to be so early in the morning. If you wanted to be sneaky, you had to do it at night. And Bob had to start coming even before the sun came up. All the strange people were still out when there was no light. Hopefully he can still do his job at Killroy's with his lack of sleep. Bob got harassed by two drunks on the street as he walked. But he ignored them and continued on. Right until he could not take it anymore with the jokes they had about his size.

They had successfully touched a nerve. Bob turned to face them. "Short stuff am I? You want to see something long?" he asked them as he began to draw his sword slowly and dramatically from his cane hoping to scare them off. "Better yet, I'll let you see it up close. Right in your face!" giving a sneer to make himself seem more threatening.

Those drunks must have been really drunk because they didn't seem to get the message. Saying things with a laugh about Bob trying to compensate for something. That was it. With the cane on one hand, he went up to the smaller drunk and swept his cane at the legs. They were already pretty disoriented so the attempt to trip him was effective and down he went. Before his friend could act on Bob he already had his sword going up with his other hand right at the throat. Two men but luckily they were so drunk that Bob was able to take them on. He pressed the sword on the man's throat until a little blood started to trickle "Do you get it now? Go home!"

When Bob reached Antar it was already pretty bright. "Sorry, I ran into two problems on the way" which he was lucky enough to scare off. But there was a third problem nagging his mind this whole time. "Again, I will remind you that you better not expect me to kill anyone."

[Mok]

“I will deliver the death blow then,” Mok rumbled quietly as he stepped alongside both men. Mok nodded to Antar, however the identity of the other man was unknown to the warrior. Hiding alongside Antar in a crouching position, Mok unsheathed his freshly sharpened blade and set it on his lap.

“What are we doing here then,” the myrian asked in a low voice. Antar had requested a very specific time to gather and Mok had willing accepted without asking why. He knew that his blade would be needed, but to what means? Quietly Mok listened to Antar’s explanation with no reply. Sounds simple enough. Hopefully this doesn’t take all day.

After waiting for half an hour nothing at all occurred. Mok had long ago drew his hood in order to shield his face from the morning sun. The myrian had experience waiting for long periods of time. This was not his first ambush, in fact Mok loved ambushes. The silent vigilance before pouncing on one’s prey was a sensation that nothing else could conjure. With each passing minute his blade’s thirst for blood increased. Within an hour or two his own mouth would be watering; the uncertainty of what was about to occur, the surprise of the victims, and the look on their faces.

Mok knew that Antar had much more patience than even himself, but what about the other man? The myrian grinned in silence as he envisioned the other man becoming restless and uneasy. Mok wanted to take a look, but he forced himself to keep his still posture.

Then something happened. For a split second everyone held their breath to see who was coming, but moments later they were deeply disappointed when only a stray dog appeared from the other street. Stupid dog!

Red = Myrian
Bold = Common

[Antar]

"Well," Noth sighed a little to himself, "I guess the other two aren't coming."

Turning his attention towards Mok, Antar nodded once slightly, appreciative of the myrian's presence as always. Then he turned towards Barton with a sligh smile, "I didn't expect you to kill anyone Bob, that's why I asked Mok here to come along."

Without another word he turned back towards the house they were watching, and soon enough, after a stray mut, a flying parrot, a pair of gaggling gooses from Brega's walking past, and just for good measure- an ardvark sifting through the trash as it made its way through town. Their quarry finally came out through the front door. She was a young lass, about nineteen in appearance with blonde hair and an hourglass figure. Someone , with beauty in spades. Turning to lock the door behind her she turned to begin venturing out amongst the crowded city streets.

With a slight smile towards the two of them, Noth began to walk, merging his into the pedestrian traffic, following at a distance as the other two began to do the same...

[Bob Barton]

The other two huh...who were they again? Oh right. The lecturing isur who likes to drown little boys and the violent but attractive konti. Both with things which Bob would like to keep away from even if they seemed interesting. But he was wondering who was this new person he didn't meet before who was so enthusiastic about delivering the killing blow. Bob turned his head to have a look but saw that there was a shiny sword on the man's lap.

That guy should have better sense than showing his weapon in public. It was what Bob thought until his eyes went up to his face. Oh...that man. The one who had a sudden outburst in the tavern earlier in the season. If Antar was going for sneakiness and stealth here, why did he have to bring someone like Mok along? But it could have been worse. He might still have a glass in his hands.

It ended up better actually. "He-ll-o there!" he said softly to himself followed by a whistle when he actually saw the woman they were supposed to be following. Bob didn't mind having to stalk someone like that. No one had to tell him what to do because after the leader went into the sea of people, Bob quickly went to do the same. Always keeping his eyes on the pretty sight in front of him.

[Mok]

Mok followed Antar at a distance making sure that he mixed in with the crowd the whole time. His goal was to flow with the crowd as much as possible. He would walk behind any groups of people to make it look as if he was apart. Mok even made sure to look like he wasn’t following Antar. As they continued onward, it became difficult for Mok to keep up. Not because he was slow, but rather he could not sneak around and be fast at the same time. Shrugging, Mok decided that he was a warrior and not a thief so began to jog after Antar.

When he finally caught up, he noticed that the woman had ran into a building. As far as Mok could tell she had ran into one of three buildings; a beige yellow apartment, a beige yellow house, and a hovel squashed in between them. The myrian turned to Antar, “Which one did she go into?”

Red = Myrian
Bold = Common

[Antar]

"Good Question, Mok." Noth mused aloud to the other two as he stared at the three choices in front of him. The trip here had been mainly uneventful but he swore he noted the woman was a ginger. Aubern red hair was a dead giveaway to follow in a crowd, and he just wondered if it was a natural coloring. Licking his lips he considered the options. "Bob, I think you'd be best for finding out a little more if you want to go peeping in the windows. Might be interesting enough to be sure.Take the hovel, it's easy enough being only one floor. I'll take the house of the left, Mok the house on the right. Before we do anything we'll need to get together to discuss what we see..."

Without further ado, Noth walked towards the intended target house, and then past it to duck into a side alley. Already his eyes were scanning the area for any means of entry or sight into the establishment. A small window on the second story porch caught his eye and he soon spotted a flowered trellis to climb up. Translating his hand slowly tot he structure he pulled downwards to test its weight before starting his climb...

[Bob Barton]

If Mok thought he had problems tailing the woman, he should take a look at Bob. First he followed the woman keeping his eyes on the hot looking...red hair. Yes that was what it was. But the further she went, the more easier it was for the pedestrians to block Bob's view from the beacon not to mention he had to take great pains to walk around and beside them. No one was going to give way for a person smaller than them. That was when he lost her. Worried, he looked around and caught the sight of another beacon. The white haired assassin. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, Bob quickly ran up towards him almost ramming into another person. He might not be a hot...haired woman but Antar would have to do.

Now instead of looking at Antar for direction, Bob was looking at Antar with annoyance. Did he think Bob needed special treatment? He continued looking on as his partners broke off taking great efforts to snoop around their houses. Especially Antar. Why was he wasting time and energy climbing up when all he needed to do was...

...what Bob did when he was standing right in front of the door. Clearing his throat, he rapped on the door and waited. "Eleven...twelve...thirteen..." he counted down in his head until he was just about to rap on the door again when it opened by itself. Bob gave the most normal smile he could get out of him at the man who greeted him. He was not handsome per say. If the woman earlier was cheating with him, the merchant they were working for must really be something. Nevertheless, he was supposed to check out the house. How much trouble could that be? Its only one story and once he found any signs of a woman he only needed to report back.

"Wh't d' ya wan?" the man asked in a gruff tone at Bob's delay. What was he going to say. He should have thought of it earlier. Dammit, the pressure was enough to make him wet his pants. Wait, that is it! "I am hoping if I might use your...toilet?" Bob asked quietly like he was having problems asking something like this. "What?" the man asked louder. "I said, I want to use your toilet" he asked again more louder.

There was a moment of awkward silence at the request then the man's expression changed for the better. "Why didn'choo say earl'er? Come in" the man invited, opening the door wider. Bob's lie worked, sort of. But he hoped he would never need to use it again while he walked in.

"At da back." the man said as Bob went in. Before walking on he took a few glances all over. Well, he did not expect to see any signs of a woman living here since she had a perfectly good house like he had seen earlier so he was not surprised to see what he saw which was exercise equipment, some old and worn furniture and some papers on the floor. Forget living here, would she even visit here often? Maybe Bob got the wrong house? Still trying to gather information, Bob looked around trying to look for more clues. There was a piece of paper near him. Maybe he can make out what was on it?

It took some time to decipher with the paper being upside down. "...kill...butcher...flesh..." he tried to repeat the words in his head. What kind of house was this? This was definitely the wrong one and those words really made Bob worried. It was even being shown on his face and after taking so long he was interrupted by "At da back." By then Bob was able to decipher another word which was cook. Alright maybe it was not so worrisome after all. Getting a little bit more calm, he said "Thank you" and headed over towards the back.

When Bob got closer, he could easily identify the toilet at the back. Only an idiot would miss it after using something like it almost daily. There was the place to wash your face and there was the potty even if Bob could see if it was a little dirty. But something else caught his eye. There was a closed door on the side. The house was not that big so if the woman was really here however unlikely it was, that would be where she was.

Alright fine, maybe it was time to play the idiot. It would not make him look any worse since he already asked a random house to use the loo. "Its over here right?" Bob asked out loud as he turned the knob of the door and walked in. Ah-ha! His efforts has paid off and he did not even need to do something as troublesome as Antar climbing around. Again he needed to play the idiot so he said out loud again "Its deeper right?" and stepped closer to the lump on the bed which he had his eyes on in that dark room.

"Now I've got you my pretty!" Bob said as he pulled off the blanket covering the lump expecting to find the woman in a position that he can admire the body more. Instead, what he found was a big, black dog. Ok that was very bad. From his experience at Killroy's these dogs were capable of even killing. The dog was not happy one bit being woken up by Bob's shouting and started growling as it got off the bed.

Lesson one, dogs can smell fear. Lesson two, don't make any sudden movements to the dogs. Lesson three, don't turn your back on the dog. Lesson four, don't do anything which can be seen as a threat. Maybe that was not the order but those were some of the things which came into Bob's mind when he was being taught on how to handle the dogs. Unfortunately all those lessons are useless at this point. Bob made the first mistake of raising his arms out and moving his hands up and down the same way he normally does when he tried to calm down people.

"Nice...nice...doggy..." Bob said trying to calm the dog down which only made it growl louder each time he moved his hands. The louder the dog got, the more scared Bob became and the fear translated into a quivering voice and arms which moved faster. "C-C-Come onnnn, I t-t-t-aste baaaaddd" he said trying to persuade the dog to not attack as he tried to back away to the door.

The dog followed baring its fangs. Oh crap, Bob just realized that he just failed lesson one and four. Time to bail out before things got anymore worse so he turned to the door and started running. That one move just killed off lesson two and three. Now Bob has no chance with the dog. He ran off, pulling the door behind hearing the satisfying "Thunk!" when the dog rammed into the door. Turning right he ran to the toilet. "What use was that now?" he mumbled to himself and turned around seeing that the dog was trying to push the door back by putting its paw on opening.

Bob tried to have another shot with the dog and went up to the door and went down to its head's level. In a quiet voice he asked "I'm sorry for waking you up, can you go back to sleep now?" while trying to get his hand forward to pet it. Before he even reached the dog, it started barking wildly. That turned out bad. Well, the dog is behind the door and Bob was safe in the front so he could try another method of getting the dog under control.

The other method he could think of was raising his hands above his head and baring his own teeth going "Rawr, rawr, rawr, ROAR!" at the dog as loud as possible. It become a contest that everytime he raised his voice, so did the dog's barking and then back to Bob in a cycle. Until he could not shout anymore that Bob slammed his hands on the ground with a "BANG!" "QUIET!" It was hard enough to shake the door and allow the dog ro squeeze in more getting his jaw close and almost biting. Looks like the scaring backfired and Bob got back on his feet and ran through the door looking at the laughing man one last time "Sorry, thanks, bye!" and went out again to regroup with his partners. At least that was not a waste of time. There was definitely no females in there unless the dog was a bitch.

[Mok]

Nodding the myrian walked towards the house on the right. A few strides later, Mok was at the entrance of the beige house. To his left, Bob had walked straight through the front door by just knocking. The half-blood smiled happily at the gambler’s actions. No guesswork for Bob, straight to the point. Mok loved this blunt style of operation. With Bob as a quick inspiration, Mok walked to the front door and opened it as casually as possible. He tried to look as if he had been living there his whole life. The door shut softly behind him.

The stale air of the room hit Mok in the face immediately. The putrid air smelt of onions. Motionless, the warrior tried to recall what the smell was. He then began to creep through the house trying not to make any noises. The first room of the house was strangely a kitchen. Except for a single broken brick in the middle of the room, this kitchen was completely empty. Mok opened a few cabinets and found nothing.

On the back end of the room were two doors. The left one was open, but the right one was closed shut. Peering into the left room, Mok saw a desk, a chair, a bucket, and another brick. Curiosity and fear began to creep into the myrian’s mind as he watched the abandoned room for a few more moments. Although, Mok’s mind kept telling him to turn around, the myrian kept moving forward, almost as if he was conditioned previously to do so. Walking through the door felt extremely strange. For some reason this room was off. It was wrong. Finally, Mok noticed it: the whole room was angled slightly downhill. The tilt on the room was so slight however that it almost felt natural.

Shuddering, Mok just continued onward and tried to push out the bad thoughts out of his mind. The half-blooded man was now actually frightened. Mok suddenly burst into laughter. He just realized how insane he probably seemed to regular folk; how could such a strong warrior be scared shitless by a little strange house?

Finishing up his pitiful chuckle, Mok drew his gladius and proceeded through the single door in this room and what he saw on the other side was completely unexpected.

Red = Myrian
Bold = Common

[Antar]

Even with thick gloves, climbing the trellis to the second floor was no easy feet. Long vines of roses intertwined in a leafy gordian's knot of thorns and brambles which caused quite the trouble even if they strengthened the wooden construction. Through his leather gloves some small pinpricks from thorn could be felt putting pressure upon his skin through the thick hide. The twelve foot climb to the balcony was a careful progression of checking where to place his hands and feet to ensure he wasn't injured further as he propelled his body upwards on sheer upper body strength alone over a few damaged segments of wood.

The entire trellis wobbled with his weight but with due time and care he made his way to the top. Hooking a leg over the second floor bannister and latting out a silent prayer to akajia, the rogue hitched himself up and over the bannister to fall to one knee. He bit down upon the discomfort this gave to his knee and began to think of the next step. Most of sunberth's porches didn't have any glass doors to access them... unless they were part of the bordellos, after all: what person passing by on the streets near them wouldn't appreciate a tantalizing glimpse of a free show? But that was besides the point. Close by , about chest high was an open window that was facing out towards the street and he instinctively flattened himself against the wall beneath it. His heart seemed to pound in his chest as his ears sought any sign that his climb had alerted anyone inside.

There was none... only the sounds of tinkling laughter which came to his ears from inside the domicile which was replied by a dull throaty chuckle. A female , and a male's voice to be sure. And close by. Cursing his luck he knew he had to check if this was target. Slowly but surely, he raised himself upwards to look through the window, into the room. The area inside was shrouded by light curtains but more and more laughter could be heard. Feeling a bit uneasy, he used his dagger to push them aside to get a view of the interior.

Soon enough the scene resembled a pair of figures, entwined in an embraced. A well muscled man in leather pants slowly kissing a red haired woman. He couldn't see her face from this point, the hair blocked the sight, but it was readily apparrent even if the two still had their clothes on.(Albeit in various states of undress.) This was the mark. And the mark was definitely double dipping with a man other then the merchant. Taking a look around away from the amorous couple he searched for any other form of trouble and spotted a longsword by the bed, and a set of daggers.

Those would undoubtedly be a problem when they busted in... but the job was a job, and they could easily breach the appartment from two sides. This porch door, and the front door by the stairs. Thinking it best to leave instead of outright attack, Noth crept backwards to the railing, and let himself hang over the side, dangling down before he dropped as silently as possible to the alley below before making his way back to rendezvous with his two assistants for this job...