Prepare for the #LodanRespawn2024 Existing characters may choose to be displace from/have memories of different timelines, thereby allowing returning members the option to retcon their whole character. These changes are the result of the "Unnatural Fog" plot device that is running between now and the Respawn. The plot is simple: no matter where your character is, that place is shrouded in a thick fog that suspends time, but not thoughts or memories, so even if they're repeating the same day over and over again, they continue to remember, so each time feels like a new day. For those retconning OCs; this is where new versions of themselves have the opportunity to replace the old versions. Official lore and tree updates will be announced asap
Post by Caitlin Cockfoster on Nov 17, 2013 5:32:30 GMT
OPEN TO ALL The poster tacked up all over Central Square featured the portrait of a stately young woman, blonde and in her early twenties, dressed in a sophisticated frock with a slight frown. Her eyes look dull in the picture even for a copy reprint, hinting that wherever she was at the time and place the photo was taken... she was anything but entertained. Underneath her likeness printed in black ink was a title and name.
Missing Persons Mistress Caitlin Cockfoster daughter of Baron Marquel Cockfoster Reward for her return! Please return her ladyship home - Prize money well worth the efforts Contact his Lordship with any leads.
There was no mention of the fact that the Baron knew his daughter had left home willingly, or that she was involved in (much less leading) the Brotherhood of Rogues. The image itself was a hard thing to reconcile with the adventurous lass you might see on the streets, but if one were clever enough, they just might put together two and two, and with a little cunning effort... collect the reward money too.
She sat her glass down next to the decanter and leaned back. This was nice... like falling into a vat of marshmallow fluff. Calm, muffled, the rest of the world blocked out by the closed door to his cabin, and here they were safe inside. Safe from reality, safe from their own complicated lives. Safe from duty. Safe from context. Just. Safe. --Caitlin
Post by Tourin "termite" Might on Dec 6, 2013 3:04:37 GMT
Tourin was sitting on a bench across from the turning gears fountain, enjoying his morning newspaper when one of the baron's flyers soared through the air and swiped him across the face. He snatched the paper and smoothed it out to see what kind of liter it was. Seeing the photograph he gave a loud whistle.
"Well I'll be damned if that doesn't just look like the same lass..." he mused outloud, thinking of the one he'd minced words with in a bar not but a fortnight ago. Had the girl run away now? Or did the sourpuss need rescuing and brought back home where she'd be tucked away snug as a bug in her fathers estate? The old mechanic couldn't care less and wadded the paper up to toss it away. Then a familiar symbol caught his eye and he paused.
Unraveling the page again he read the remark about prize money. Now that was something he could be bothered to care about...
The azure maned thief shouldered her guitar as she sat on one of the walls of Central Square, tucking away into a freshly picked apple. And by freshly picked, she meant freshly picked from some poor noble's garden tree. After having legged it from their guard dogs. Got to keep the legs in gear. she thought to herself before catching hold of a piece of paper floating in the gentle breeze. Now the thief looked at all the scribbles on the paper, frowning as she couldn't make heads or tails of them... well, nearly not all of them. She could tell which were letters and which were numbers.
And the picture of her employer was a giveaway about what it was. "That's..." she said to herself, trying to force herself to understand the strange eldritch symbols on this piece of paper. One symbol she could make out that she knew was the same symbol for money. Kinda easy to remember since it was stamped on the back of every coin in Lodan. So, someone wants the Baroness for some cash eh? Not gonna happen. decided Ikuze when she spotted a hatted fellow on a bench with an eerily similar sheet of paper. "Oh no you don't." she muttered to herself as she unshouldered her guitar, made sure the pegs were in their proper place and just as she was about to belt out a power chord she remembered Caitlins words about subtlety.
Ikuze frowned and looked around before spotting the fountain, which the dandy looking bloke was sat next to. An evil little grin split across her face. "That'll do." she said before adjusting the tuning pegs once more, and began to play, letting the music from her strings mix with that of the fountain's waters. As she played, she lightly applied her Hypnosis magic, trying to implant the idea into the man's head to NOT go after this reward, to NOT go after Caitlin Cockfoster.
Post by Tourin "termite" Might on Dec 7, 2013 23:29:44 GMT
"That's new," he chuckled as a scab of a girl set herself up by the fountain and began to play. He didn't mind street entertainers unlike some, but he didn't have any coin on him to spare either. At least not yet but maybe if he ... if he got the um.. reward for..? something. huh, strange, it was starting to slip his mind. Absently he folded the paper in his hand and tucked it away in his breast pocket for later.
Bollocks. Ikuze mentally cursed when the man put the paper away inside his jacket. She could tell by the look on his face that her plan had worked... mostly. He's forgotten about the money on Caitlin for now, but he'll probably remember it when he spots that sheet of damnable paper again... Time to pick a pocket or two girl, but gonna have to wait for him to move along.. Can't bloody well mark him if he's sat on a bench... least not in this kind of spot... Ikuze thought for a while on her next move, her fingers still playing away on her guitar, minus the magic of course. Didn't want to use it all up.
Something was ticking away in the back of her mind about this man... and then it hit her. He's that mechanic bloke from the market! She'd seen him shouting his wares a couple of times whenever she'd gone down there to swipe some new strings from a vendor, although she got the sneaking suspicion that the strings had always been a little too easy to nab each time she did so. Not that she was complaining mind you. Alright, now you've got a face to the face... what to do... wait... big head... yeah, that could work... mused the thief.
Ikuze looked over to the man shyly from behind her hair, then fumbled a little with a few of the notes, causing her to squeak a little, a blush rising in her cheeks. She glanced over at the man again before all too quickly looking away again. She then took in a slow breath, as if trying to calm herself, a hand rising and wafting air from her face, as if she were flustered for some reason. The young lady stole a glance again at the mechanic before shouldering her guitar and tentatively walking over to him. "Um... ex-excuse me... sir... I... I was w-wondering..." she said, oh so shyly, her fingers fiddling with one another. "Are... are you... Mingo Mechanic's 'imself sir? I... I've 'eard you... couple times down the market..." she said, her cheeks reddening further. "I... I was won-wonderin' sir... if.. ifIcouldhaveyourautographsir!" she squeaked out in a rapid fashion that was almost unintelligable and yet possibly still understandable. Her ingenious plan was to try and get the mechanic to use the paper he had in his jacket for the signature writing, so that she'd have his copy and he'd have no memory of it from her earlier spellcraft.
Post by Tourin "termite" Might on Dec 10, 2013 22:17:05 GMT
The music was flawed, and it caused him to shake his clouded head. But then the musician was right there in front of him stumbling over her words as much as her notes and petitioning him for an autograph. His face fell slackjaw for a moment. Sure he was a pompus man, and spent more time singing his own praises than anyone else ever did; but that was exactly why he didn't understand why such a young girl would take a fancy to him.
To say his ego was boosted would be an understatement. He cheesed a big fat grin and started to curl a heavy arm around the girls shoulder. "My dear if you were a fan of Mingo's why didn't you just say so?! Why I can give you the grand tour, show you our greatest wears, a back-stage-pass if you will..." He rose from the bench and tipped his hat to the girl, showing off his balding head. "What be your fancy young chitlin? I shall see to it you are shown the very best and leave wide-eyed and mystified by our grander and glory!" His ego was so fed that he forgot the little bit about a signature and went right into promo-mode. After all, a good business man is always concerned with return business. And if this little lass wanted to idolize his work, he'd better keep her in awe of it!
Ikuze let out a little squeak as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Alright, NOT the plan I had in mind... buuuuut this could work as well... just got to keep him distracted. she thought to herself. She made her face blush some more and hid behind her hair, whilst one hand went about trying to slip into his jacket as they spoke. "I... I d-don't know sir... I..." she stammered out. "M-machines... th-they tend to b-break ar-around me..." she slowly admitted, hoping this revelation would keep his ego-raddled mind occupied. If not, then she could always try to use another dash of her magic to make him give her the parchment... although where's the fun in that? "I... Th-that's w-why I... I like looking sir... b-but... one t-touch and..." she said, almost seeming it would appear to be on the verge of tears. Come on, where's that damned pocket... aha... there you are... come to mama...
Post by Tourin "termite" Might on Dec 13, 2013 0:37:19 GMT
His brows crinkled and he started to distance himself from the girl suspiciously. If she was one of those Anders-lot... not that he had anything against Anders persay, some made great merchants,(and a good lot of them great customers for potions and clothing, and dishes the like) but there were enough watches and cog and bobbles on his own personage that the master mechanic let alone his shops, he didn't like them breaking things and making him cleaning up after they carelessly visit out of ignorance or simple curiosity. It was always a stressful business.
"So sorry child, but I just remembered there is somewhere else I aught to be. But here," he reached into his own pocket for the paper, "let me at least give you that autograph you were asking after. I-" now where was that drat piece of paper?? He looked down to find his pocket empty.
Couldn't he just go for an uneventful stroll anymore? That had been the point of today's walk, just a slow pace through the city to clear his mind from the usual stresses that tended to pile up on his subconscious like papers on his desk. Those ungodly papers. Some days he would just as soon burn them as read them. Either way, his stroll had come to a halt as some street musician seemed to be accosting the man he recognized as Tourin. If Skye were a civilian, he might simply walk past this display, minding his own business, but he wasn't and the uniform and the oath he'd taken meant he was never off duty. One could not turn a blind eye and expect to hold rank or position over other men who were expected to do their duty as well.
"Is there a problem here?" Faolin asked with a hand on the pommel of his rapier. This girl seemed to be nothing more than a normal street urchin looking to pick someone's pocket for a bit of coin, but one could never be too careful in this city. Those with alien blood could be anyone and anything these days. He'd fought the Anders, and he knew how dangerous they could be. Let one get inside your head and it could be the end of you.
Ikuze suppressed the urge to roll her eyes when the mechanic started backing away from her after her "confession." Yeah, saw that one coming. Oh well, got what I needed anyways. she thought to herself before squeaking slightly at the sight of one of the police. And not just any old member... it was the head honcho himself! Well... time to leg it then... thought the thief to herself. But just to be on the safe side... She laced her voice with her magic as she spoke, attempting to make the two of them forget she was here, at least long enough for her to make a get-a-way. "No problem here at all sir. None at all." With that said, she started to walk calmly away, her prize being shoved down her blouse between her tiny breasts, before she broke into a run. Now I gotta get to the docks and warn the Baroness about this thing...
Post by Tourin "termite" Might on Dec 15, 2013 1:57:47 GMT
"Not'at'all good fellow," Tourin beamed at the officer, "Was just about to give the young musician my signature since a tour was unfortunately out of the question, time constraints you see..." he stuck to his lie and sent the girl a false apologetic glance. Thats when he noticed she was a half-dozen steps away. Dismayed at losing a member of his dwindling fan club (the young people of this city just didn't appreciate the wisdom of its forefathers these days).
"Hey lass, wait," he called out and reached for a page tacked to a tree next to his bench. He ripped it off and pulled a pen out of his jacket pocket ready to sign. "Would you be a fellow and.." Tourin gestured to the commander with his hands, pantomiming turning and using his back as a surface to write on. Then the portrait on the paper he was waving around caught his eye and he stared at it in disbelief.
He let the girl run off. She hadn't broken any laws that he knew off, and for a moment he even forgot that he'd been talking to her, but he shook off the feeling as Tourin ran after her, grabbing a paper from a nearby column. Skye watched him go as well thinking the man was either daft, or his ego was too big to consider that she'd been trying to pickpocket him. Faolin knew the type, posing as street performers and beggars. Seeming innocuous as they picked out marks and watched for patterns they could take advantage of.
Well, if the tinkerer had a desire to have his pockets picked, far be it from Skye to stop him. He'd done his good deed for the day. Now it was back to the barracks for a bite to eat and a stack of paperwork that awaited him. If only the previous High Commander had been around to warn him about all the paperwork. How they expected him to keep an entire city safe from behind a desk was beyond him.
Ikuze looked back once, just to see if the head of the police was giving chase... and he wasn't. Yes, maybe Lady Luck's on my side toda- Oh you could have just said no you know?! she mentally yelled when she caught sight of the tinkerer collecting another poster with the Baroness' image on it. "Screw it, gotta get to the docks. Now!" the young thief growled before she put on more speed and started to sprint through the streets and alleyways, her one goal in mind.
Eventually she reached the docks, panting and doubled over as she tried to regain her breath. Sweat dripped from her forehead, along with bits of tomatoes and bread from the various shop-goers and baker's boys she maaaay have run down in her own haste. Ikuze looked around, trying to find someone who was on Caitlin's crew, or even Caitlin herself.
Post by Tourin "termite" Might on Dec 27, 2013 20:50:44 GMT
"eh Commander chap," he nudged the other man. "Remember this snarky lass?" He held up the paper for the commander to see. After all, last he'd seen the girl, had been at the bar settled up next to the law man. He was taking a gamble showing off the reward poster to a man of means, but there were so many copies he was bound to spot one eventually. Perhaps by giving him a lead, he could share in the profits of bringing the bitty home.
He certainly did not remember her as snarky, though he could see where Tourin was coming from. She hadn't been an image of ladylike charm in the bar. Still, what was this posting about. He held out his hand and took the paper from the mechanic, reading over the details, as a frown developed on his face.
So, she hadn't been lying about wanting to avoid her father's men. But it hadn't been about the embarrassment of her father, it had been about not wanting to return at all, and now this. Was the Baron daft? If he wanted his daughter back safely there were other channels besides plastering her face all over town and offering a reward. He was just as like to get her killed as getting her back in one piece. The man should have come to him instead. It took only minutes to file a missing persons report and his men would be scouring the entire city looking for the girl. Instead he was going to have to post extra patrols to deal with the idiots that were likely to get themselves injured or killed by others of their ilk looking for an easy pay day.
Skye handed the paper back, "Well Sir, if you are planning to look for her I urge caution. All manner of men are likely to be on this hunt."
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