Closed When Work Comes Knocking (Eleazar)

[Caela Dorin]

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The young man seemed to have accepted that she didn't want to be called anything other than her real name. As long as he managed to keep that in his head then they'd get on just fine. She couldn't do business with someone who couldn't follow that one simple rule. His comment earned a raised eyebrow and a brief glance in his direction but that was all. The dancer didn't bother to make any sort of reply. The thief could try to be smart if he wanted to but she wouldn't encourage him.

He followed her obediently like a well trained dog, trotting after her to catch up on her lead. She favoured him with a small smile at his approval of her arrangements, they made sense to her after all but it was good that he was pleased with them as well. Caela wasn't going to give him a chance to have any input in how he received the money and food but it was good to know that he wouldn't resent her for being tyrannical. As far as she was concerned she'd been extremely fair thus far. More fair than he deserved perhaps.

His suggestion earned a sharp, surprised glance from the young woman. Had he said write his reports down? He knew how to write? The blonde looked him up and down. He'd been a street urchin before now, had to have been, and yet somebody had taken the time to make him literate. He might have terrible handwriting but he could at least form his letters, could distinguish between them, something that the dancer couldn't. A brief attempt or two had been made to teach her such things but she hadn't been a quick learner and her teacher hadn't been very patient. Her mother had probably never known that she was illiterate as it had been a wish of hers that her daughter be educated, not that she'd ever had much time for that. No way was she going to admit that she couldn't do something that the thief could. She wasn't going to make her inferiority known to him.

"No, Merv doesn't have to know about my little side projects. He isn't going to know why I'm feeding you either but he can amuse himself by trying to guess for all I care. You tell me when you see me. You won't have any trouble finding me, I work every day, so isn't it handier to come to me?" the blonde replied slowly, thinking carefully to come up with a plausible excuse. It wasn't a lie really. She had no plans to tell her employer what she was doing. Merv wasn't going to know about her plans to jump ship until she was ready to jump. He probably wouldn't be too pleased to find out that his dancer wanted to leave him but he didn't have to know just yet and he wasn't going to find out through Eleazar or so she hoped.

She made her way towards her place of work, wending her way through different alleyways until she reached the more frequented thoroughfares. The young woman could almost find her way there in her sleep and so she could afford to look around her. There was looks directed her way, some of them full of curiosity and surprise while others held lust within them. All of them were familiar to her and she pretended to look through everyone whose eyes rested on her. A few of them were briefly interested in Eleazar but only because of the hunched posture he'd taken. He was probably trying to be inconspicuous but he was so obvious about it that it caused the opposite effect. He wasn't interesting enough for them although she was sure they were wondering what a scrawny urchin was doing with the likes of her.

They made it to the Pig's Foot without any troublesome attention and she noted the thief's change in demeanour. So he didn't like crowds but surely he should prefer them given his line of work. Crowds meant anonymity and for a thief that was a good thing. Maybe he didn't like having attention drawn to him. That was his own fault though, not hers. If he hadn't acted so paranoid, everyone would have looked straight through him even if they looked his way.

"Eleazar... what was all that hunching in aid of? You looked ridiculous. I should know, I was looking at you and so was everyone else," she told him simply before stepping into the tavern. She pointed him towards an empty table with a soft command of, "Sit," before approaching the bar to talk to her employer. It took a chime to explain what she wanted, now and in the future, before she went to sit beside her new spy. "Now your breakfast will be here in a few chimes so while we're waiting you can tell me anything that you might have heard recently. I'm sure you've heard something even if you didn't mean to so spill."
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[Eleazar Victor Syroin]

OOCEnjoy the speech blocks. Anything he mentions has been mentioned in the Seasonal calendars thus I assumed was fair game. Most of it is also mentioned in his summer threads and solos anyway. Distracted by the city life about him, the teen didn't notice the surprised look the dancer shot his way before she answered. Reading, whilst not exactly common amongst the half-wit muscled bruisers in the city, was something he had grown up around. First his mother teaching him the basics after her any books he could steal then the library inviting him into new worlds of fantasy and knowledge. As Caela seemed like that confident knowledgeable type, Eleazar had simply assumed she was at least semi-literate in some form. Her explanation was accepted with a nod and soft hum as he mentally noted the relations between his new 'boss' and her boss. After all if things took a turn for the worst, knowing where to push could be his saving grace. However as soon as they arrived at the Pig's foot, something foul crawled under his skin when the blonde had finish teasing. Was everyone looking really looking at him? Did he really stand out that much? Frightened he began to shoot glances in every direction. Most people were minding their own business but that isn't what the thief saw. Gazes from every where seemed to zone in on his form that blocked the doorway, rooting his feet to the floor. If the teen hid they would stop staring at him right? Tense head to toe, his first attempt to move gave no reward. Feeling his breathing begin to become more rapid and unsteady, the thief tried to move further into the tavern succeeding this time in taking a single ridge wooden step forward. Caela's direction and order only had him nod obediently as his mouth was far too dry too properly form words at the moment. His movement slowly became easier as Eleazar forced one foot in front of the other eventually grabbing a seat at the table. Slouched over as he twiddled his thumbs nervously, the teen looked up the moment Caela sat down and began talking to him. Ah, food was on the way. Nothing like a good meal to calm the nerves- Heard something? Rumours. Hmmm. Eleazar's eyes tired to searched his mind for any thing of note he may have heard recently. His gazed returned back to his benefactor after a few chimes. Giving a few glances around at anyone closer enough to listen in, a hand came up to stroke the scraggly hairs on his chin. As he blabbed out the information, the thief's fingers began twirling the end of his scruffy beard in and out of little spirals in a rhythmic way. “Well, ya know 'e gang fights and squabbles last season? And all 'em accidents? And ya know Stumble Alley? Well, apparently a shop down 'ere 'ad some sorta frog or fish people slave 'ingy and someone stole it, killed it 'en dumped it dead doon by 'e docks. 'e reason 'e gangs were fightin' was cause apparently somebody wis sellin' 'e potion or poison or whatever 'at done 'e slave in. Also 'em folks doon in stumble weren't 'appy and later on some guy got 'ung outside 'e shop, but 'e 'ing 'is fingers weren't right. ” His meal arrived at this point. The waitress was thanked with a nervous smile that vanished the moment she was gone as the thief dove quickly into his food. A small sausage disappeared instantly, along with the portion of boiled salted oats offered before he continued. “'Ey were long and disformed. Et was kinda freaky. Some said 'at 'e poison done et, because it was magic or some shyke like 'at, and 'at people were goin' around slipping it into drinks around 'e city causin' people to 'ave accidents and become deformed. Also 'e reason a lot of mage 'unts 'appened last season. Not sure if it was magic or not myself but, and 'ere's 'e strangest 'ing, who ever went and killed 'at slave stole 'er during 'e night. Some lunatic managed ta waltz into Stumble petching Alley in 'e dead of night; break into a shop, steal a human-sized fish slave and get out again without being noticed or being eaten by any scary people eatin' monsters 'at might roam doon 'ere.” Pausing to here to devour the other small sausage provided along with give Caela a chance to mental take in all this, eleazar kept a careful eye on her expression to gauge how much this rumour was worth to her. Licking the grease from his finger tips, long thin fingers breaking the roll up in to small half bite chunks that he munched through at a slower pace chewing each slowly. With three more pieces of roll to go he resumed his jabbering. “Apart from 'at 'e most interestin' 'ing Ay've 'eard 'is season is 'at some fruit went missin' from some stalls 'en got found dumped in 'e bay. Don't understand 'at at all. Ay mean, if yer are gonna steal some'in' ya don't jist dump et some random place, 'at's a waste of food and 'e time, energy and skill ya had to use gettin' it 'e first place. Talented fool for not gettin' caught but still a fool. Selfish too. 'Eck in mi book someone like 'at is even worse 'en 'at 'ound guy from last winter.” Face soured into a pouty expression, the teen finished off the last of the roll. Meal finished, stretching his arms up made his back and elbows make interesting pops and cracks before he relaxed onto the table. They were folded under his head, hiding everything but the tip of his nose, his eyes and his eyebrows from sight as they observed his boss from the table.

[Caela Dorin]

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Eleazar looked ready to take flight at any tick. To say the man looked terrified would have been an understatement. Could he really be so nervous about being out and about? He looked so obviously like he was trying to go unnoticed made him instantly interesting to anyone looking on. It was a mystery that he managed to steal from anyone considering that he had the stealth of a drunken brawler. Which was to say he lacked stealth altogether. She shook her head slightly wondering how the man managed to do anything in public when he seemed to be so caught up in what she could only describe as crippling anxiety. Perhaps it was a mistake to expect him to spy for her. He had suddenly taken on the same usefulness as a vegetable,--no, a vegetable could be eaten--as useful as a dirt on the floor, no good for anything. The dancer wondered if she had just made a massive mistake.

She need not have worried however as information burst out of him in a torrent, the thief clearly eager to get it all out. It was difficult to follow it. His accent was thick certainly, which made some of the words blend together but each word seemed to flow into the next word because of the speed. She just managed to follow it all though. She'd heard murmurs of the strange sea creatures all right and had tried to do some digging of her own but she hadn't heard that someone had kept one or the reason behind the many scuffles.

He paused as the meal arrived, lashing into it with such enthusiasm that the blonde found herself leaning as far away from him as she could, disgusted. The information he provided once he continued was of great interest and it almost made up for his table manners--almost. Caela found herself founding how someone had pulled off such an operation in Stumble Alley without being spotted. Unless of course, the person, or people, behind it had been found and killed during all the excitement the previous season.

He had a point about the fruit. It was a strange occurrence and she wondered if it was somehow connected with everything that had gone on recently.

Eleazar finished the meal in record time, collapsing onto the table and staring at her. She wished he wouldn't do that. It was unsettling. Men leered at her most of the time and it was this skinny thief that made her feel uneasy. It didn't make any sense.

"You certainly seem to know a lot. Do you know any more details about any of it? For instance, were the people behind the robbery of this slave caught? Killed?" She paused for a moment, brow creasing in thought. "It's probably more likely that it was just one person though, doesn't it? I mean, if it was more you'd notice but maybe one person could manage to go unnoticed. I don't know how they could have dealt with the slave alone but it seems to make sense up to that point."

Soft fingertips, unused to physical work, drummed on the tabletop. It wasn't a sign of impatience, more something to do as she tried to make connections in her head and came up with frustration instead.

"What about the fruit? Could it be connected to this other stuff?" she waved a hand as if to encompass the rest of what Elea had talked about. "Interesting that they both ended up in the same place, don't you think? Maybe it was something to do with those fish people. Someone brought one of them back although it was dead and then... I don't know, someone tried to feed them? Lure them in? I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm just trying to make some sense of it. Probably trying to make connections that aren't there at all. What do you think though? Is it possible? Have you heard anything else?"
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