Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 12:57:23 GMT -6
Amonuro Stamina: 2 Strength: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 5 Mentality: 8 Special Abilities: Ethreal, Empethetic Link, Wind Immunity Moves: Telekenetic Powers, Wind's Blessing
- Character Profile -
The wise men of her tribe had a saying: your brilliance comes from your mind, but never forget to trust your gut. Together, the two find balance between emotion and intellect. While it was something always carried around at the back of her mind, it was none the less something of a shock to have it be proven so blatantly.
When the twin brothers began the description of the issue she was attentive, but thinking it nothing more than a misplacement of cargo (as sometimes happened in places where hundreds of boxes would go through daily). When the brothers got to explaining their suspicions, and more over their suspect, the sphinx might have just looked a tad lighter shade of golden brown.
“I’m sorry.. Can you go over that description again?” was all she managed after a few seconds of a long pause. It didn’t help. The second time was no better and as she took her leave, something wiggled in the pit of her stomach like an eel. When the shijin came up to coil around her neck, she gave him a pat, staring dead ahead, at the Docks in the distance.
“Guess we’re doing this after all.”
(1) Amonuro: 66 (1/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 12:58:03 GMT -6
Several months earlier she had visited the quest board as she normally did, but had found it crowded and impossible to pass. The thought of picking up a job for that day was almost about to pass, when a stranger had sidled up. To some it could have provoked curiosity, to other wonder, some might have even found it attractive.
Darky found every nerve of her body painting a big, red “Nope” sign and pointed herself the opposite direction as soon as the conversation had ended. It wasn’t fear, exactly, at least not in that traditional sense of being vulnerable. It was untold aeons of ancestors failing to recognise the same patterns of danger and collectively swarming her conciousness, urging her to listen, and impressing on her an instinctual impulse to leave and never look back.
And she had and she didn’t.. But some things have a tendency to loop back around and make you deal with them regardless. So, here she was, faced with (potentially) chasing down the very man all her senses said to avoid at all costs.
(2) Amonuro: 66 (2/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 12:58:26 GMT -6
Not to say it wouldn’t have been easy, even so. Someone who is able to sidle themselves up to people of interest with no consequence and make them a shady offer with an official seal on top, is someone who knows how to stay out of danger. The Docks weren’t gigantic, but they were still quite big, being one of the central nodes of trade if not in the region, then vital to the survival of the City alone. Tradesmen and cargo went to and fro from ships daily, even some land-side merchants perused the warehouses dotting the area beside the lake shore for their cargo, before taking it out to market.
The Labs needed materials and product, the City’s people need goods and sustenance. And the Docks were the doorway to all that.
The City sloped downward slightly, towards the shallow of the lakeside, and even from this distance, the sphinx could see where the warehouses began and how far they stretched. Some were clumped close into clusters, others stood aside or nestled between bigger buildings.
And she’d need to, essentially, search them all.
(3) Amonuro: 66 (3/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 12:59:06 GMT -6
There was, of course, the chance this mystery man had made off with the cargo and was hiding it somewhere else, but while the City was big, seeing a shipment pass through the street on carts wouldn’t go unnoticed, more-so when the shipment has been confirmed to have been stolen. The sentinels would have been on their guard and investigated any reports of strange boxes full of books being moved.
So, the easiest would have been to hide it right under their noses, without them knowing.
But before all that, they needed some equipment, so the duo turned on heel and head home, to pick up some essentials.
A few hours later, they were at the edge of the warehouse district, with all its pubs and workshops, and the air was thick with industry (and fish). The first steps was to ask around if anyone had seen or notices anything, but among the multitude of workers employed at the Docks, it wasn’t many who had any insights. Most had heard about the incident by word of mouth (and others who picked up the quest and were on the job).
(4) Amonuro: 66 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:00:05 GMT -6
No, the info was quite scarce, more rumour than truth. The sphinx wandered the main streets between the docking wharfs and shipping lanes for a time, before finally ducking into a smaller alley between two of the warehouses, back slumping into the wall and exhaling. For all the people that surrounded her, none seemed to be of any help. The needle still remained in the haystack.
Tilting her head back, she gazed up at the sky bright against the stony walls and roof edges of the warehouses. Then, her head tilted slightly, her eyes squinted and Amonuro poked his head up, realizing a thought was forming. He sent off a note of curiosity, to which the sphinx pushed off from leaning on the wall and walked to a stack of nearby crates. They were sturdy and heavy, probably carrying something edible, like fruit. Scaling them was a simple business and in short order, the roof of the warehouse was laid before her eyes. Grabbing the edge, she hoisted herself up onto it, and got to her feet, looking out across the scattering of rooftops around her.
“..Alright..” she murmured, ears perking, “Alright.. We can work with this.”
(5) Amonuro: 67 (0/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:00:34 GMT -6
There wasn’t really time to count the warehouses surrounding them, but if they worked this right, they wouldn’t need to. Many of them were set quite close to each other, nearly roof top to roof top, and when you’re in need of searching a wide area, it doesn’t really get better than having a friend on hand who treats the physical world more like a suggestion than norm.
The two conferred for a few quick moments as the sphinx relayed the plan, and then they were off. The mammalian walked the roof towards a skylight, peeking in, while the shijin dashed through the roof into the warehouse itself and began to make rounds around all the cargo there. From what the sphinx could see, this one was fairly sparsely loaded, with only a smattering of boxes in one corner. The shijin snaked his way to them and began to fly through the different boxes, seeing what can be seen from the inside and whether anything held books.
It seemed a fair easier spot to start with, since the shijin could easily recognise books, even if the specific kind was more word of say and verbal description than any specific designs they could go off of. But then, somehow neither of them though there would be all that many boxes of books at the Docks.
(6) Amonuro: 67 (1/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:01:01 GMT -6
For one, the moisture alone would ruin them given enough time. Amonuro made thorough work of the crates, zipping in and out of them with ease, but mostly fixing textiles and materials for paints (Most likely headed towards the fashion and fabric district, or the Loom). So, not quite so lucky to find something right away. When the shijin popped back up to the roof, the mammalian nodded her head onwards and the two took off, one running, one flying.
With the running start, the sphinx leap across the gap between the warehouses and landed on the opposite roof, navigating towards the skylight again as the shijin sunk through it inside. This one was more heavily stocked, though the crates landed on the larger side. In short order the shijin found them to be filled with fruit to the last crate, probably heading for the food stalls. Another dead end, but they were certainly making more progress than the mammalian having to search each and every crate herself.
As Amonuro popped back up, the sphinx scratched his head, “That’s alright, let’s just keep looking.” already turning towards the next rooftop.
(7) Amonuro: 67 (2/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:01:44 GMT -6
Running across the roofs brought on a kind of memory from childhood, not so much long forgotten and just long not remembered or thought of. Her people were nomadic, so they never really dealt with building aside temporarily staying in the very few settlements they came across. But the Old Land was filled with ruins, and it made for an excellent place for young sphinxes to climb and roam atop crumbled walls, shattered columns and decaying arches.
Made for quite the sense of curiosity as well, as though the ruins were long since picked clean by treasure hunters and tomb robbers of old, one could never truly know what kind of small treasures or trinkets yet still lay hidden beneath the sand.
Thus it was that a person who grew up in the wide flat wastes had a fondness for climbing, in a land without trees or mountains. Who felt more at home on top of the roofs of the City than on the stable streets below.
(8) Amonuro: 67 (3/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:02:20 GMT -6
Warehouse after warehouse the two checked, not at all random, but with a system and measure in mind - down one row of streets, then a short hop across some buildings to the other side to begin anew with the adjacent row. Where the gap between buildings was longer, the shijin lent some wind beneath the sphinx’s heels, allowing her to coast gently across, though on occasion even that caused her to grab the roof ledge and hoist herself up, just slightly stopping short.
In the ruins she could (usually) count on the fine sand breaking her fall for the most part. Here it was just cold, hard pavement. Not that the shijin would let that come to pass, but the instinct was no less there.
Even so, the shijin’s wind powers had their limits, and some parts were almost a dejected acceptance, where she had to gently drift down, walk across the longer street to the other side, and then hope to find a ladder or another larger stack of crates to get back up again.
(9) Amonuro: 67 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:02:46 GMT -6
To be sure, it gave her a sight into the workings of the City like nothing before. Though her eyes couldn’t see through Amonuro’s, the shijin made sure to relay everything seen with his empathic impulses, almost a language of their own between them. There were crates of textiles, foods, dyes, machine parts, clock parts, timber, ore, fish, fine powders of all sorts of types and elements, barrels of liquor, juices, ales, grain, salt, even the coarse shavings of seashells from the southern shores for paint-makers..
The City breathes all these resources in, and exhaled a multitude of products, devices, artwork and culinary delights. But no books.. Least, not the kind they were looking for. Sure, the shijin found a small crate of pamphlets, but when the sphinx climbed down and checked the crate for herself, there wasn’t anything about Vai Min Mur or rare examples of tomes about it (Seems they were unused stacks for some fair of sorts).
(10) Amonuro: 68 (0/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:03:14 GMT -6
On the one hand, not all too surprising. The Bukkukipas had a plethora of books at their store already, and most likely an extensive personal collection. There were only so many books they could order in in such numbers at a time. “Nothing,” the sphinx sighed, dusting her hands and climbing the stacks of crate back up to the railing of the warehouse, then hoisting herself out of the skylight. “Although if this thief did try to steal the books, I can certainly see how. They might lock the doors, but I don’t think they pay much attention to the ceiling.”
The shijin folded his brows into a sad frown, sending forth a sense of regret. Darky smirked, bringing him closer, “It’s alright, there’s still plenty of places to look for. And who knows? With most of the sentinels on look out, others might beat us to it and recover the books all the more faster.”
It was a hopeful thought, but it was left lingering in her mind for reasons she couldn’t explain.
(11) Amonuro: 68 (1/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:03:43 GMT -6
She looked down into the warehouse below, at the multitude of boxes and crates, each heavy enough to need two people. Books were something she had only learned in her recent life experiences, scrolls having been the more traditional form of conveying information back home.. But unlike scrolls, she knew books to be heavy. To make a whole shipment disappear would need more than one person.
The mouth slowly twisted to the side, the face staring down into the warehouse with deep enough pensiveness to concern the shijin for a moment. A note of curiosity passed, which broke the sphinx’s attention long enough to look at him, smirk apologetically and then nod back towards below them, “So if I was to steal a crate of something, it couldn’t be through the front door, because everyone could see. The skylight, sure, you can get in and out.. But you can’t really take the crate with you. Even if you take some of the books, they’re still quite heavy and no easy thing to climb with.”
Amonuro’s face twisted into a thought, the tail end coming up to rest on his chin. Deception, he felt.
“Exactly.”
(12) Amonuro: 68 (2/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:04:06 GMT -6
The two picked up their pace, jumping roof to roof towards a street of warehouses in the distance. It wasn’t unique in anything except for the fact that sometimes it housed goods with a more specific need to stay a bit more dryer than others. So grains, spices and alchemical compounds were housed in various places here.. And not so long ago, there was also a shipment of books.
Darky landed on the rooftop of the second warehouse from the street, skidding to a stop at the skylight. The inside was nearly immaculately been cleaned, largely because the Bukkukipas had standards and the sentinels wanted to make sure to leave no stone unturned. Perhaps in the process they had turned one too many stones, but still.
The sphinx carefully opened the skylight and drifted in with the shijin’s help. With a soft thud, she landed on the highest stack of crates there, situated on some shelves. Below, a jungle of timber and barrels tempted further investigation.
(13) Amonuro: 68 (3/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:04:42 GMT -6
Here’s the thing about deception - she was never very good at it. The honesty came too strong, the propriety too well ingrained. The somewhat limping social graces didn’t help. But she was an observant and curious lot, who loved taking in new experience, new information, new knowledge.
With another soft thud, the sphinx landed on the floor of the warehouse, shrouded in the dim light within. Eyes scanned the shelves and slowly she began to track her way forwards along the different labels and markings.
There had once been a fair she had visited on her way her. Quite close to the Labs itself, but still a few days’ ride from the City limits. There had been a mage there, of extraordinary skill, who boasted the ability to move things with their mind.
The labels flash past - too small, too heavy, too foreign, not quite the same description, wrong shop - as the sphinx scours one row of shelves after another.
(14) Amonuro: 68 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Aug 31, 2020 13:05:41 GMT -6
The mage held a presentation of this ability and proved that the table before them could be moved from one place to another, with just a blink of an eye. A shroud of cloth was required for this.
Things were looking favourable now, the shipments on these shelves were intended for some of the paper printers and the newsletters. They were getting closer.
To everyone the table was clearly shown, the cloth then shrouding the sight, and as soon as some magic words were spoken and arcane sigils incanted, the shroud dropped. Indeed, the table had moved, in the blink of an eye.
Darky stopped, finger tapping a label showing the information of the Dusty Scroll. She kneels and looks at the shelves on the ground, and the emptiness there. The hand reaches out, whisking through the air against nothing. Then a ping of alertness and she turns to see Amonuro point behind them, at the shelves opposite where a bunch of crates labelled “Recycled paper” stood.
It had been much later that the mammalian realized the trick was that the table itself never moved. The trick was making the audience think it did.
(15) Amonuro: 69 (0/5)
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