A Stitch in Crime

Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:01 am

"It's all perspective, kid. To me you're utterly bizarre. You'd think someone would have taught you by now to remember other perspectives. They can be useful." As for Treadwell, he only continued to smile, turning the book he held just a bit further away from Elliot's eyes as he skimmed a few pages. "Figure that one out for yourself and I might be tempted to tell you what to do with the knowledge."

"You'll find yourself far less in need of avoiding those things if you have a drow-snot covered hanky." Suede stopped to rub at his chin in thought, staring towards one of the walls as if he could see through to the other side. "Of course just being fast works well enough, eh?"

"Good question. Tailoring is fun, and profitable, but I have a lot of business ventures that have nothing to do with it... or Myrken Wood." Which came to the reason he'd been rummaging through the book. His eyes dropped back to it and he made a noncommittal sound in his throat. "If you're doing pretty well, I wanted to see what you were capable of. Are you interested in a bit of work?"
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Glenn » Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:19 am

Other people's perspectives? See, that was Suede Roschen's problem in a nutshell (a cracked nutshell as the case might be). He wasn't from Myrken. He was from some other place where nice parents found a nice apprenticeship for you and a pleasant, hardworking master, and you got to do a nice, proper thing like be a tailor. Elliot on the other hand, left home so as not to be a burden on his family and found his way from the extremes of knighthood and ..problem solving. It meant that he didn't think of other people's perspectives. That was silly. The world was a certain way and why would anyone think differently. It took something really extreme, like Niall coming from a place that was EVEN WORSE, to get him to register such things.

So, the world was a horrible place and you had to do some nasty things to survive it, right? In that case. "Oh! You were behind the kidnapping weren't you? You kidnapped Treadwell in order to get the money!" Maybe this wasn't the direction Suede had wanted the teenager to travel in his skewed thinking. "You knew all about his routine and his day and whatever, and you used that to try to get the tax revenue!" It wasn't exactly accusation. If anything, Elliot seemed almost impressed. He'd done it and pinned it on Genny's brother. That was some kind of tailoring right there.

"And Agile." Elliot added. Fast and agile. It was amazing he even knew the word, but Solena must have drummed it into his head. That was part of why he was doing all those exercises, to dodge the certain death that could come at him at any moment here in Myrken.

There wasn't a need for money, not really, not even with Nova's relatively expensive tastes to cater to. A need to show off, though? A need to flex his youthful pride and prove himself. "If it's not some drow plot, not something like poisoning the lake or the chocolate, if it's just something... more ..." What was the word? The boy strained for a moment before compromising. "focused, then, maybe. Okay? Maybe I'm interested, depending on what's in it for me."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:46 am

Suede snorted at Elliot, a rather rude sound from the man. The tailor's lips turned down in distaste as he gave the boy another once over. "Perhaps I'm over-estimating you a bit. I stole the tax money years ago, several times. Without lifting a finger or anyone being able to prove it. Kidnapping? That's so utterly passe. I wouldn't waste my time."

And then the comment on the chocolate... again. He let out an exasperated sigh, closed his book, and stuck it back in his pocket. Of course, it was mostly a bit of a show, to bait the kid a bit more, but why not see if it worked and see how easily it would be to lead Elliot along. The tailor stood up and adjusted the cuff of one of his sleeves. "And I didn't poison the chocolate, that's stupid and a waste of resources. I did the lake to show the real culprit how to do it and clear reputation. He was making me look bad. And I think you might, too. If you can't even figure any of this out."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Glenn » Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:01 am

Passe? What did that even mean? Elliot just rather glared at him. "The chocolate hurt me. A lot. You have no idea." Months and months lost to it, feeling like years. Insane adventures and he never, ever would truly be the same again. So Suede said he had nothing to do with it. In some ways it didn't matter, because.. "what you did to the lake though? That hurt a LOT of people. That was a whole lot worse. You didn't aim at anyone at all. You just made everyone suffer, whether they did anything to you or not, whether they deserved it. I'm fine doing whatever to whoever, but not like that. Not to a whole lot of people all at once, not without at least aiming first."

Aiming. Elliot was good at that. His mind might not be sharp but the rest of him was surely getting there. Idly, he'd whip a palmed rock across the room, aiming for Suede's knee. It was a painful feint, and he'd shoot himself off the ground a moment later, trying to follow up with a snatch towards that pocket, trying to take that book from its hidden place whether or not the rock hit true.
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Wed May 02, 2012 2:47 am

The tailor saw the movement, followed it with his eyes, and there was a bit of acknowledgement that he didn't expect that sudden and active a display from Elliot of all people. Agnie? Certainly! This boy? Well, you learn something every day.

Suede wasn't there for the rock's connection, nor the follow-up from the boy. He was simply gone as he was want to do. It was several seconds later before he'd be across the room, standing straight. His feet were together and his arms folded behind his back in a stance that screamed anything but being prepared to act at the boy's next move.

"Perhaps you should talk to the man who's conveniently taken over Myrken about the chocolate..." A small smile played across his lips, such a friendly expression that was gratingly at odds with what had just occurred. "And again, you're thinking is far too narrow, little boy. Who said I wasn't aiming? Just because you can't understand a target larger than a plate doesn't mean I can't see the entire table. I play with big toys, and when someone insults my good name, I make it a point to encourage them not to."

A small tilt of his head and he glanced to the side, towards one of the windows. "You may be learning all the movements, but your teacher is failing miserably at the mindset."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Glenn » Fri May 04, 2012 1:30 am

Annoyance, but recognition as well. He couldn't wrap his head around the concept, not yet, not really. It still didn't click with him, that was, but he knew Solena could move like that. It was just a little different with Suede. It made sense, if what he said was true. Apprenticed to a tailor, but self-taught in everything else. Elliot knew a thing or two about being self-taught at things. The end result was sloppy, a mix of backwards redundancies (not that he knew what a redundancy was) and really impressive innovations. That describe Suede rather well.

Frustrating and irritating described him well too.

"Toys. Playing." Elliot just gave him a nasty little look. He was good at those. "People got hurt because you were playing a game. People who didn't do anything to anyone." Elliot brown may have been growing out of his morality but this he had seen first hand and the scope of it had been big. That was the whole problem. It WAS a big table. "You ask me, the 'good name' of anyone who hurts that many people just for the sake of his own stupid pride, is mud."

He was caring less and less about what was in that book by the moment. "She lets me come into whatever mindset I come into, all on my own." And it was that illusion of freedom that was driving him right down the path she wanted. "Maybe I should be careful about that, though. I think I can see pretty well just how that went with you."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Tue May 08, 2012 12:18 pm

The compliments would leave him blushing like a school girl if Elliot ever chose to speak them. "Then call me Mud Roschen." He arched an eyebrow and took three exaggerated steps to his right where he could lean his hip against a chair. "Of course it's a game. There are pawns, knights, rooks, everything. It's a convoluted mess and anyone who isn't someone you care about is just a faceless piece. You can't tell me you give a damn about the people that aren't playing for your team."

Truly Elliot wasn't prepared in the least for the world he was diving into. He'd have to talk with Solena about the proper curriculum for aspiring talent. It would be a shame if Elliot was just going to get killed at the first opportunity. "If you wind up thinking like a narrow-minded simpleton the way the rest of the farmers here do, you're not going to accomplish much."

"You're playing, imaging yourself as cool and clever when you can't even understand the rules. It's really adorable."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Glenn » Wed May 09, 2012 9:55 am

A fine line between childishness and suave sophistication. It was enough to have the boy scowling a bit. He wished Suede would decide to ask HIS age or to act Elliot's. One or the other. It was enough to make him want to throw a shoe... except for the shoes were new and nice and he didn't want to give them up when he'd probably just hit the air anyway. Still, the tailor was talking about games and teams and whatever else. "I'm talking to you, right now, aren't I?" He even asked some personal questions and Elliot wasn't one for small talk about anything more interesting than the weather.

"Farmer's here know plenty. They're still alive, aren't they, and that's something, right?" It was a question, though. The rogueling had run away from home. He had all the noblest reason for it, right up until the point when they no longer mattered. After that, he had seen too much to go back to a relatively simple farmer's life. "And I'm not playing anything." Then a pause. "But if I was, I think I'd be winning." There was a glance down to the nicer clothes Solena had procured for him, a big step up from what he'd been wearing before.
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Sat May 12, 2012 8:37 am

"You're talking at me, not to me." Suede became more disappointed with every word from Elliot's mouth. He sighed and rubbed at his forehead. "Listen, kid. You're a pawn, you're not winning anything because you have a new pair of clothes. That's stupid. And those farmers die daily for stupid reasons."

He moved the hand down to a cheek and propped his head lightly against it. "You're going to die too, because just like them you're too busy insisting what you know is right, instead of bothering to learn what's really happening. You're ignorant."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Glenn » Sun May 13, 2012 7:08 am

And most of those farmers who died everyday didn't have a nice set of new clothes. Perhaps he was more useful to Solena if he was kept ignorant, if she could control what knowledge he got and when. It seemed to be working well for both of them so far. "There's less chance of me dying than there was yesterday and less than the day before. I'm learning to protect myself, without becoming a stinky bog of poison."

Finally, the teenager would look at Roschen almost sideways. "I'm pretty sure I know what's going on, though. I've got my eyes and my ears." and a lifetime of good common sense hammered into him by superstitious midwives and farming matriarchs, which may have been good but certainly wasn't common... or may have been common but certainly wasn't good. "Tell me something then, something from that book. One thing. And then we'll see what I know." The boy was calling Suede out, was challenging him. Prove him wrong.
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Sun May 13, 2012 12:54 pm

"Being a stinky bog of poison means NO ONE wants to try and increase my chance of dying." Elliot's little charge had been more dangerous than the kid seemed to realize. And now he was demanding to know something from Suede's book? WELL. He looks faintly insulted, but he pulls the book out anyways and begins flipping through the pages.

He finds one he seems particularly fond of and raises the book to eye level, a finger set at the line he wants to start on. It was an excessive bit of performance made clear a moment later.

"Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock."

He snapped the book closed and gave the youth a cheshire smile. Apparently this was a nursery book he read to his son.
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Glenn » Mon May 14, 2012 1:24 am

Cold, hard stares from the boy. Roschen played games with him, Solena did not. Or if she did, they weren't this sort. And she was PREGNANT. What was his excuse? Oh yeah, insanity. A nursery rhyme probably for his abomination of a child. Was there some secret code in there? Some real truth that if Elliot just examined the words, he might find? It hardly mattered. The boy was not built for such things. Still, for a moment, he almost tried.

Finally, though, he shook his head. "I think about things sometimes, Roschen." All gusto and bravado. "I do. I think about the future and what I want, not a lot, but sometimes." He hesitantly looked away, even shook his head. "And sometimes, less, yeah, I think about what I DON'T what. And I'm not too sure, not always. BUT, one thing I'm pretty certain about is that I don't want to end up like you."
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Re: A Stitch in Crime

Postby Suede » Mon May 14, 2012 12:46 pm

"If you don't start thinking about things all the time you'll wind up just like me... or considerably worse." Suede tossed the book of nursery rhymes onto the floor between them, pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his fingers with, and tossed that after the book. "You're just going to be used like you have your whole life, wasted away, and if you're lucky be as insane as everyone seems to think I am."

"If you want to learn how to use that pea between your head, get in touch." And with that the tailor would turn on his heels and walk for the door without any form of dramatics what-so-ever.
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