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 Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:24 pm
Hadley knew opportunity when he saw it. So when the apparent foreigner came out of the church, he was immediately on him like a dog on a bone. Of course, he was subtle with his approach, choosing to stalk the man before he pulled one on him.
He certainly seemed rich, the exotic clothes pointed that fact out. But there was something wrong. He didn't seem "Rich" rich. It was something about the way he held himself, upper class people always seemed straight and uptight, with the air of snobbery around them, but this man was different. The feeling you got around him, it was more... Loose.
The thief tilted his head curiously, the only clue he was there were his footsteps, echoing about the church's steps.
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:32 pm
Alex wasn't really thinking of the here and now as he walked out of the church, and started to make his way back through the town slowly. No, his thoughts were on the conversation he'd had with the priest. Part of him felt let down the priest couldn't help him, but another part felt the priest knew something and didn't want to say, not yet anyways.
Either way, he wasn't paying attention to the person tailing him. Its not like he wore anything too extravagant in the open, but considering the design of his clothes, they did stand out. Goggles, his necklace, his digital watch (non-functioning), all would stand out, and then there was the wallet he carried in his back pocket with some photo IDs, a few pictures, and some paper money. And then there was the assorted items in his coat pockets too. Any of it might be a tempting target for a would-be thief.
Alas, the pilot still wasn't thinking about who was watching him. No, he was more coming to the conclusion he had no clue where to go. No real money, no work, no home to go to. "Well Mi Tian Gohn*", is all he muttered to himself.
* Chinese for a harsher version of the word Poop. I'm sure you can figure it out.
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Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:17 pm
Well, so much for talking some money out of the guy. He seemed to speak some kind of different language. Whatever, Hadley didn't speak all that well. Grab and dash was his preferred method of thievery anyway.
Hadley gave his mark another look, and broke into a run.
It was a fast exchange. With a quick bump to the shoulder and a swift hand in the man's pocket, he went off a little bit richer than he was before. He sped into town.
With a moment to catch his breath, he looked at what he snatched. A strange thing, little folded piece of leather. The thief stuffed the strange object into the waist of his pants, sprinting through town. He'll satisfy his curiosity after he lost the man.
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Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:12 pm
Leave it to being impacted with by another individual to snap Alex's attention from his situation to the here and now. He stumbled a bit, before looking over to see the person who just bumped into him. Worst yet, even as the pilot regained his footing, he watched as the person started to run. Now, Alex might not have been from around Loghedge, but he'd been in many a port throughout the south Asian seas, and what he was seeing now was something he'd seen before. A pick pocket.
"Wong Ba Duhn*! Come back here!", he said, pointing towards the elusive runner as he sprinted off."
The pilot had forgotten his problems of getting home, his conversations with the priests, and the locals. No, now he was focused on the hunt, the chase, and the fact someone had stolen something from him.
After a few minutes of running, the pilot stopped, panting heavily. Ok, he wasn't in bad shape, but the pick pocket probably had done this a lot, or at least was used to running faster than others. He looked around, trying to gather his bearings, trying to figure out where the thief had gone. Maybe he'd run the wrong way after the thief. Maybe he'd hidden. Maybe Alex's luck was just piss poor. Any were a valid option at this point.
* Chinese for "Son of a b***h".
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:58 pm
Hadley took refuge in an alleyway in town. He held himself on the wall and slid down into a sit. It seemed that he lost the foreigner. The thief chuckled quietly, opening the leather folder to see the spoils of his work.
He was extremely disappointed.
With a target this extravagantly dressed, he expected at least a jewel or something, but there wasn't anything here but paper, and tiny paintings, all of them amazingly detailed, but not really worth much around here. Serfs and bums alike didn't have much of a taste in art.
The coins, well, Hadley could tell silver and gold by the touch. They didn't feel like them at all, they felt cheap, flimsy. He was pretty sure that these coins would probably be only worth something to a blacksmith as something to melt.
Hadley was about to put away the pieces of scrap metal when one of the coins slipped from his fingers. The little coin made a desperate roll from his crutches, rolling down the street. He chased after it, running back onto the road.
And in the sights of his pursuer.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:18 pm
The pilot was a bit worn out from the run, even as he leaned up against the side of a building. He was lost, and the person he'd been chasing was no where to be seen. It was rather depressing, if one were to sit and think about it too much. Alex was desperately trying not to do just that. Not yet anyways.
There was a single 'tink' sound in the air, and the pilot turned his steely gaze upward to the street in front of him. And thats when he saw a single metal coin rolling along the stone pathway of a road, and someone chasing it. Not just any someone though. The Thief!
Alex grinned as he spotted his elusive target, and moved quickly over to try and grab the thief by the arm, in the hopes of getting his wallet back. Its not like he had much in it of value. Not anyone from the town anyways. "Hey you little crook! Give me back my wallet!"
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:53 pm
"Ey'! Geoff!" Hadley grunted, struggling without any prevail.
"S'not like any of it's worth anything anyway!" Though the leather could probably fetch something the more he thought about it.
He tugged at his arm again, trying to free himself from the man's grip.
"Just consider it a service..." Hadley, held up the wallet, "Junk like this shouldn't be in pockets of royalty and all."
Yes, he was sucking up to the stranger, he was rich, right?
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:21 pm
Rich? Alex? He would have fallen over with laughter if he wasn't reaching over with his free hand to get his wallet back, before letting the kid go. "Royalty? Kid, you picked the wrong guy. Just because I'm not covered in Mi Tian Gohn* doesn't make me a king or prince or something."
Alex thumbed through the cash, cards, and photos he'd had in the wallet, and once he was assured that it was mostly all there, he folded it back up and slipped it into his inner coat pocket, just in case anyone else decided to think he was an easy mark.
"Seriously, I'm brand new to this area, so thinking I'm some rich slob thats never worked a day in my life is about as far from the truth as you're gunna get." He moved to lean up against the wall, to watch the thief with a weary eye. "Oh, and keep the coins. I doubt those things will do you much good here anyways. No one else seemed to think much of them earlier anyways."
The pilot adjusted the goggles sitting on his brow, then smiled, "Least you could do is introduce yourself, before you run off. You're lucky I'm gunna be a nice guy and let you go instead of calling the cops, or guards, or whatever, on ya." Never let it be said Alex didn't help anyone, even if it was only to not get them in a mess of trouble.
* Chinese slang for excrement.
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:26 pm
Hadley looked at Alex suspiciously, "Who are ya?"
No one, new or not, lets a thief get away with something. Past experiences had taught him that much. There was something suspect about this. He wasn't going to turn his back on this man and be on his way, this was way too easy.
"Wot's the catch?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:21 pm
Ah, everyone was suspicious of everyone. Alex wasn't one to take it as an insult though. There were worst things to be insulted about after all. "I'm Alex Barrett, cargo pilot from Manila." Alex was more than sure that the thief would have no clue what a cargo pilot or Manila was, just like all the others.
Heck, he couldn't even think of the kid as a thief. Hadley wasn't that old, and sure he stole something from him, but that still didn't mean he wasn't a kid. "The catch? Well, those coins are about as valuable here as a rock. And if they don't take that, they sure as hell aren't going to take Visa or Master Card."
"That kid, is the catch. As much as I have, here, I don't have two coins to rub together that are worth the metal they're minted from." The pilot adjusted his goggles once more and leaned against the wall some more. "You don't have to trust me if you don't want. So far today, that would make you Number Four or Five of folks who don't."
"So whats your name, kid?", he asks, his voice sounding like bits of the day are finally catching up to him. He's had a long day after all.
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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:46 pm
"Don' take me for a fool, I know my metal, I know." Hadley looked insulted, a foreigner lecturing him about something that was practically his way of life. b*****d.
He sighed, all aristocrats were the same, always thinking they knew everything, being... Well, rich. It annoyed him. Still, the man didn't seem to have that air of conceit that most high class people had. There was something wrong about him. He was speaking to him, probably the most anyone has other than his circle of friends, strangers don't introduce themselves to bums, the world didn't work that way. Perhaps it was a trap set by the guard, which was probably the case.
"Copper Pence." He spat out his alias at the strange man, "I don' deal with vanilla or piles or anythin' like that."
"Who are ya anyway? Not around here, I know that."
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Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:51 am
The pilot looked at "Copper Pence", tilting his head as he did. He had a feeling that the kid was lying to him, but most likely, he had a reason to, and so he didn't press him on the fact. He'd seen street kids before. It was hard not to at some point as he delivered cargo at various seaports around the Pacific. Sure, he was a long way from there, but some truths seemed universal.
"Who am I? Heh. You're repeating yourself, kid. Like I said, I'm Alex Barrett. And no, I'm not from around here. I'm from Manila." The pilot chuckled a bit, before reaching into his coat pocket for a plastic toothpick. He used the pick a bit, pondering his situation, then slipped it back into the pocket once more.
"Listen Copper, I don't know what you're going on about piles and vanilla, and to be truthful, I probably don't want to know either. And as for the coins, if you don't want to believe me, fine." Alex closed his eyes just a bit and sighed. "I've had a really long day, kid. I've been called crazy, a drunk, and now a lier."
He moved to sit down, leaning against the wall of the building, sitting on the mossy cobblestones there. Maybe it was just everything that had happened to catch up to him, but the pilot's facial expressions made him look tired. And so he sat there, before looking to the kid. "Why don't you just go Jio Weh Sung Chiuh*? You were doing a good job of it when you stole my wallet."
You know, if he was rich, he'd probably not be sitting down on the ground like that, trying hard to figure out what he did that got him in this situation.
* Chinese phrase for retreat or run away, that is the summarizing the last of the Chinese "36 Strategems," which extols the virtue of fleeing to fight another day.
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:42 pm
The whole pilot and Manila parts had threw him off before, but now he was back on even ground with the man.
This Alex person was beginning to lose that snooty aura of wealth, just the way the stranger acted, you'd think he was on the same level he was at. Hadley knelt down and smirked. Well, this man seemed to have it as bad as he did. He could be useful, somehow.
But first, a background check.
"So, yer crazy, a drunk, and ya lie." A pause, "Good, I coul' use someon' like you." Hadley shrugged, "I need someone' a bit older to help me out with stuff, ta' kids ken only do so much."
He looked into Alex's eyes, "Got nowhere ta go?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 4:29 pm
If the kid thief was trying to make him feel any better, he was doing a horrible job at it. And obviously the kid wasn't listening to a word of what he said and was just hearing what he expected to hear.
Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose, and slowly narrowed his eyes on Copper. It seemed like this kid wanted him in help assisting him steal stuff. Everyone in the town seemed to think he was something he wasn't. This was becoming a tiresome occurance, one the pilot was finding less and less amusing with each new addition.
"Bai Tuo, Uhn Jin Yee Dien."* The phrase may not mean anything to the locals but the tone of Alex's voice said it meant he wasn't in a good mood, and the expression of annoyance on his face didn't add anything.
"I'm not a thief, I'm not a lying son of a gun, I'm not a drunk, and I'm sure as hell not crazy." The pilot's voice had an edge to it, one that said he wasn't playing, or even considering playing. He slowly moved to stand up, dusting himself off, then turned to start to walk away. "It doesn't matter if I don't have anyplace to go. I'm not about to become a stooge for some kid."
Yeah, he's not really in a good mood. Go figure.
* Chinese phrase for "We will enjoy your silence now".
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