Closed Day One

[Kelmar Hedos]

5th of Winter, 512 AV Nitrozian Plaza Kelmar had fallen asleep relatively early the previous night to compensate for his early wake up. It was not often he scheduled meetings for the crack of dawn, but he was not opposed to it and for this he was more than willing to make an exception. Standing in the center of the plaza, the tall young man kept his eyes sweeping across the public location, looking for the familiar hooded face that he'd seen yesterday. The plaza was not too crowded yet as it was still pretty early, but for a busy city like Ravok that had nothing better to do in the Winter people were always up and about. Panning his gaze, Kelmar switched his eyes from person to person, methodically analyzing everyone who walking into the square. Mostly unemployed sods who had nothing better to do than moan about the loss of the CEB, but the young freelance agent remaind focused on the task at hand. "Who exactly are we meeting again?" asked Heldora for the fifteenth time. The young Hedos was about to reply - for the fifteenth time - when she cut him off again. "Oh that's right," she repeated upliftingly as if remembering, though she'd been doing the exact same thing for a few chimes now. "We don't know because you didn't bother to ask who she was." Standing together in the plaza, Kelmar and Heldora looked quite different. Not just in the way they dressed or their height, but in the way they acted as well. In fact, the actual similarities they had were dazzlingly few. One was a tall rich-born introvert, quiet and emotionless, hiding everything underneath a long dark cloak. The other was a very witty and sarcastic extrovert who couldn't keep quiet and dressed as if she didn't care that the world thought she looked like she'd just crawled out of bed. Conspicuous and hidden, loud and quiet, sarcastic and silent. It would be hard to find anything they had in common. "I told you," Kelmar replied, "who she is is not important, only that she is willing to learn and help. Besides, I likely know more about her than most people know about me." The young woman shook her head sadly, sighing. "Rhysol, the only thing you have on her is a name. How much do you actually know about her? She might not even be coming and this would all be one huge waste of time." "No," Kelmar stated flatly. "She will be here." "And what makes you so sure richblood?" Heldora asked a tad impatiently, looking right at him. The young agent turned and met her grumpy gaze with one of his own cold emotionless stares. There were calculations in his eyes, intelligence in the way his nearly pure black irises flexed. "Because I know her better than you think," he replied. "She will be here." Not satisfied with his answer, Heldora nonetheless dropped the matter, letting out a frustrated sigh. Kelmar returned to scanning the plaza, looking for the woman he knew would be there.

[Hazel Richardson]

5th of Winter, 512 AV
Thoughts encircled Hazel's mind as she ran. The same doubts and uncertainties which had swarmed her mind the night before, and had kept her from peaceful sleep. As she had laid in her bed, watching the dwindling flames as they began to die with the disappearance of the moon, Hazel had talked herself in and out of going to the Plaza. The risks were piled high with such a meeting - she had no idea, really, who this man was, other than a name and his appearance from beneath a dark hood. He had not seemed friendly, or anything really, other than cold and decisive. Although, his decisiveness was something she wished she could have borrowed, the fitful way she flitted from one conclusion to another was beginning to annoy even herself. However, by the time she had finally gotten to sleep, she was completely sure she was not going to go - no questions, no more persuading herself.

That was, at least, until she woke again. The sun was already beginning to rise and a flutter of panic rose in Hazel's chest. She knew that if she did not go the chance would be ruined, and so - after a few moments of mulling over the possibilities and outcomes - Hazel dragged her battered cloak from its spot by her bed and pulled it over her. She had little time for a measly breakfast before she set off from her home. She knew she was late, and that made her panic rise. At first she had walked briskly, but calmly, yet by the time her anxiousness had risen to an all time pique she was sprinting.

Her frantic running hurtled to a stop behind a small building. She paused - back pressed up against the wall - and took a second to control herself. Her breathing was still ragged by the time she had turned the corner into the Plaza, but it was only noticeable to those close by her and she had managed to flatten down her hair and straighten out her clothing. Hazel wore the same outfit as she had yesterday; plain trousers and shirt, masked with the oversized cloak. But she felt comfortable in them, and that was her main priority. However, her hood was down this time, allowing her red hair to spill over her shoulders and the full view of her face to be shown.

Gingerly, Hazel walked forward further into the Plaza. It was quiet, of course, for so early in the morning, and so it was a little easier for her to make her way around. Soon enough, after balancing on her tip toes and tilting her head from side to side, Hazel spotted Kelmar and his companion in the middle of the Plaza. She quickly took off after them, not giving herself the time to rethink her decision.

Hazel stared up at the two as she came towards them, the nerves were visible in the way she held herself, although Hazel did her best to position herself proudly.

"Hello, again." She nodded her head slightly to Kelmar, then smiled a little at the woman whom she remembered to be Heldora from her previous encounter with Kelmar. She dared not speak again until spoken to, for fear of truly embarassing herself with a stutter or a gush of words which made no sense at all.

[Kelmar Hedos]

The young agent was completing another sweep of the plaza when Heldora tugged his arm to grab his attention. "Is that her?" she asked, pointing at an approaching young woman whose red hair fell down over a thick oversized cloak. It was her, Kelmar could tell. For a short second, he was a bit disappointed that he had not spotted her first, but Heldora just grinned. She knew him pretty well. "You're a tall guy Kelmar," she explained. "Easy to spot." Instead of walking up to meet her, the two of them let Hazel cross the distance on her own, waiting for a chime after her greeting to look her over. Hedos wasn't too interested in where she'd come from or what she was like, but he knew Heldora would be curious at least. "You're late," Kelmar said straightly while his counterpart examined the shorter woman before them. "Did you have second thoughts?" As Heldora kept scrutinizing the young woman in front of her, she slowly stepped forward and held out her hand. "Heldora Genanis," she greeted, her introduction short and to the point. She may have been a witty sarcastic wise-cracker, but she was around an unfamiliar stranger who was not above crime, and that was always cause for caution until she knew more. "Kelmar tells me you want to know more about the art of theft." "Heldora is an old associate of mine," Kelmar interjected. "We've been working together for a few years now, and in that time she's demonstrated a decent skill for larceny. She should be able to teach you a few new tricks."

[Hazel Richardson]

"Only a few." Hazel blushed a little, trying to forget about her indecisiveness. She glanced up at the sky, where the sun was now fully risen, and sighed. Her running had obviously not compensated for the time she had wasted, so she tilted her gaze back onto Kelmar. "Sorry about being late."

Then her attention was taken away from Kelmar, as she glanced to the woman at his side. Hazel took her hand, smiling a little as she remembered using the same action the day before, and shook it gently. She bowed her head a little as she did this - the way her parents had taught her as a child - before looking back into the woman's eyes. "Hazel. And, yes, that's right."

Hazel nodded as Kelmar spoke, but was unsure what to say in response. She had never had a way with words, so she simply tilted her head to the side and murmured, "well, I'm ready when you are."

Hazel hoped the spectacular failure of her theft from the day before was not going to repeat itself today. She wanted to prove to the two of them that she wasn't completely useless and clueless. So, as she waited for a reply, she gazed at the both of them with simple curiousity, a small smile visible on her face.

[Kelmar Hedos]

Kelmar nodded his acknowledgement, looking to Heldora as she turned to face him. "I will return within the bell," he said, speaking evenly and lowly. "See what you can teach her in that time, then I will take her for some stealth training by the docks. I can teach better with a crowd to practice in." The woman nodded her agreement, and without further ado Kelmar disappeared into the city again, searching for information for a growing merchant family that had contacted him late yesterday. Turning back to face Hazel, Heldora suddenly smiled brightly, any shred of reservation vanishing. She'd sized the ginger up, and so far she liked what she saw. "Well, to business then," she announced, not exactly loudly but quite pronounced. "Fair warning, I've never taught anybody before so be patient if I don't seem to make sense." She thought on how to proceed, her mind running over what she did whenever she needed to pick a pocket. That was the easiest part of larceny, much easier than picking locks as that required a bit of knowledge and experience with the actual lock. Pockets were universal, and people almost always used them. Well, she would first make sure that the pocket was somewhere exposed, easily accessible, preferably loose so as to minimize the chance of the target feeling movement or change in weight. That said, Heldora didn't know how much this girl knew about this already. "So, um," she began uncertainly. "How would you try to steal something from someone's pocket? Maybe I can just make alterations to what you're doing."

[Hazel Richardson]

Heldora's change made Hazel feel a little more at ease. Her smile made her shoulders relax a tad, and she mirrored the woman's expression. Although she was still guarded, she felt a little less uncomfortable.

"Um.." Hazel thought over Heldora's question for a moment; she wasn't precisely sure what it was she actually did. It was more of a case of finding the right person, then chasing after them. Of course, she wasn't very specific with her choices, and she often just followed after someone with desperation rather than a well thought out plan. "I guess I'd pick someone who seemed quite distracted, and try to follow them. Then, when their attention has been fully diverted or I've entered a large crowd I just try to catch a few coins."

Hazel blushed a little, once again - she knew it wasn't a very strategic method, but it was the one she'd been using since she'd turned to theft. There was always a chance it would go wrong (a chance which was usually higher than the chance it would go right) but it had been enough to prevent her from starving. Things usually did not go as wrong as they had the day before, she found it easy enough to flee with her small build and natural speed, but it was obviously not enough. Hazel tried not think about stealth training with Kelmar - the little emotion he showed made her nervous, and she feared slipping up and acting clumsy. It was often a feature which brightened with her anxiousness, but she hoped to gain at least a little more confidence before she tackled him.

Heldora may have been new to teaching, but Hazel wasn't new to learning. She had spent hours training with the man who had employed her parents, even if it was in things less practical - reading, writing, absorbing knowledge from books rather than picking pockets. Although the man had been quite boring, she had seen passion in his eyes when she had delved into what he wanted her to know - each question had enlightened him. Perhaps, if she could overcome her shyness, it would make it a bit easier for her new teacher.

"Did you teach yourself how to pickpocket? Or did you have a teacher?" She knew it wasn't the most intriguing question, but it was the first that had popped into her mind, so she just cast a curious glance and a faint smile.

[Kelmar Hedos]

Nodding, Heldora smiled at the ginger girl before her. "That's a sound strategy," she commented. "Distraction is always a benefit to a thief. Of course, the more you have going for you, the easier it will be." She began thinking about ways to aid in that regard, for there was no reason for Hazel to stop what she was doing as it indeed helped. It was hard though, so she pictured herself doing it. She would probably wait for a while to make sure someone was distracted by a street performer or by work or daydreaming, in which case the biggest threat would be those watching. Depending on what the circumstances were, she'd probably either want to remain on the outside of the crowd or be right in the thick of it. Before she could get any farther along her thought process however, Hazel's question pulled her out. "I taught myself..." she answered quietly, her voice trailing off to unpleasant memories of her childhood. Starving, desperate, alone. The things she had to do to survive, not just pickpocketing, she had to sell herself on more than one occasion too. It was painful to think about, even after she'd been accepted by the acting troupe to perform street plays, when she still felt so alone. It wasn't until Kelmar came in and pulled her out, introduced her to Xerin. She'd been stealing her whole life just to carry one, but then she was doing it for someone else, and for some reason it helped. Her mind was wandering. "Sorry," she apologized to the ginger. "I tend to get distracted. There was no one to teach me, everything I know is self-taught." Returning her thoughts to theft, she began picturing the scenario again. "When your target is distracted," she began, "your greatest threat are the people around you. If I were to try to steal from someone who's paying attention to a street performer for example, I'd pretend to be watching the performer so people are less suspicious when I get close." With that out, she began thinking of other aspects of larceny. What else did she do to make a theft successful. "When you reach into a target's pockets, what do you do?" she asked.

[Hazel Richardson]

Hazel nodded quietly as Heldora spoke, head tilted ever so slightly to the side to reflect her interest. Hazel noticed the woman's facial expression alter slightly at the mention of her past, and a little guilt spread in Hazel's mind at bringing the subject up. Hazel was not very good at being comforting, however, and she was sure that Heldora would not appreciate the guilt she was feeling; so instead Hazel left her face as a casual mask, although a small tug of sadness may have been visible for a moment. Obviously, it was not a good idea to bring such things up - something Hazel cursed herself not for guessing in the first place, she should know that the past of a thief was bound to not be pretty.

"So somewhere like here would be good? Or The Docks?" Hazel quickly responded. She herself had never had much time for performers, but she had seen them thrive almost all day, and sometimes night, in those parts. Now and again she would wander by and stop for a while, and would often have to hide her smiles as she watched children dance along to the music despite their parents' protests and kind members of the audience give up a small portion of their money in appreciation. At times like those, Ravok was nice to observe, on days when the small kindnesses could be seen.

"I guess... I just grab a coin and try to take my hand out without them feeling the change of weight. But also trying to be quick. Most of the time I just panic, I suppose, and end up grabbing their attention." Hazel smiled a little sheepishly. Obviously it was something she'd have to work on; there had been too many close calls where her hood had almost been grabbed or the victim had managed to spot her running away. She was safe right now, but it was only a matter of time unless she improved her ways.

"Is Kelmar a thief, too?" It was a question which she had thought over. He was good at sneaking about unnoticed, which she supposed would be quite useful to him if he were a thief, but then again, he didn't appear to be one. He had a way of holding himself which made him seem higher, although that could have been purposely done to hide his true self - thief, or not.

[Kelmar Hedos]

Heldora nodded. "Yep. The Docks are always busy with performers of some kind or another, so you're bound to always find at least a few people within sight that aren't paying close attention to their pockets. Though do be careful of other people watching, your target should preferably be in the middle of an audience, surround by people whose attention is also focused on the performer so as to have a lower chance of being spotted by a coincidental glance." It was clear from Hazel's answer that the girl didn't put much thought into how she retrieved the coins, which could prove fatal if she tried to grab a heavier coin like a gold miza, the heavy metal a significant change in any man's pockets. Though she did mention the weight, so this next trick might not be so hard to explain after all. "Making sure that they don't feel the change in weight is important," Helodra said. "One way to deal with it is to gently hold on the outside of the pocket the contents so that it is less likely that the owner will notice someone digging in. Of course, the challenge then is to make sure you don't completely nullify the weight or tug when you let go, but if done right this can usually earn you an extra few coins." Then, a smile spread across her face. "I can't help you with your panicking, sorry to say. I'm no shrink, so you're going to have to steel your own nerves next time you go hunting." While she said that, the experienced thief began contemplating what else she might do in a similar situation, though she was running out of ideas. "Of course, go for what's in their bags if they have any, whatever they're carrying outside of their pockets. Less chance of them feeling you. If you think that they might be getting suspicious, fall into them and pretend you've tripped. Bumping into people and using that as a mask works sometimes, but if you wait until impact then it doesn't give you a large window of opportunity to steal anything, especially since their attention will be on you at that point." As Heldora began trying to think of other ways to help, Hazel's question brought her back again. And she laughed. Actually laughed. "No, but he certainly could be with the way he moves," she chuckled. "He's got this thing where he values practice more than money, so he'll take jobs to get better at what he does more than to get paid. That labyrinthine mind of his won't just steal to scrape by, he needs to find a job to do that challenges him."