Civic Duty

Civic Duty

Postby Glenn » Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:45 am

There is a certain tenseness in the streets of Myrken Town, what with the war and the Fiend and the recent coup. There have been better harvests as well. The weather was downright miserable this summer, and the stocks of wine and brandy from Derry are starting to dwindle which is downright disasterous for the good spirits of a large chunk of the population.

It meant that it was almost always good to see a smiling face. And here there were two smiling faces (and the bodies attached) approaching one another.

The first, dressed in the somewhat finer clothes he has been accustomed to as of late, is surveyor, mapmaker, student, and yes, youthful government employee, Glenn Burnie. The other is a boy about half his age, a good deal dirtier, in clothes that were just a step up from being rags. He looked as if he could use a few good meals too.

The boy walked forward confidently and clasped Glenn upon the shoulder. "Glennie! If it ain't my favorite customer. Movin' up in the world and all that too. Good for you. Good for you. What'cha got for me today, Glennie? Another letter to the ever exotic Miss Olwak? Or how about that mercenary lady with the big knoc..."

"No." Glenn's smile faded, but just for a moment. "Not her. Not her again. And you're too young to be talking about things like that. Hell, *I* am almost too young to be.. oh, nevermind." The smile was back, even though he was shaking his head. "Actually, I've got a bit more of a job for you, Thad, one that pays a whole lot better too."

Well, that drew attention. "Oh?" Moreover, it brought a look of wariness to the boy's face. He's heard that sort of tone before. "Dangerous, then, Glennie?"

"Yeah." No reason to lie about that. He'd be putting the brat into some risk. It was the necessary sort, though. "Sort of. I'll need you to find your way into a place and..."

"Whoa. Ho.. Whoa whoa ho ho ho, no." Thad was waving his hands in front of him emphatically at this point. "If you want something stolen, go find those snot nose little bootlickers who think themselves a real order of thieves when they're just... cheeky pus-filled toesucking bastards make me angry." He shook off that anger quickly though and shrugged at glenn. "You know that if it's like that, I can't help you. The messenger's guild frowns on that and so do I. We've got professional respect, scruples even! Plus, Scout would beat the snot out of me, you know that."

Professional respect. Scruples. Messenger's Guild. The ever mysterious and very poorly named Scout. Uh huh. Bunch of well organized orphan brats who were damn good at finding people. And the little thief brats weren't all that different, though there was a bit more of an adult influence there, a bit darker too. No, there was no way to even half trust them. He could half trust Thad by now. Still, no reason not to poke at the boy a bit, especially now that he was tossing a pouch of money up and down in his hand. "On paper, they look a hell of a lot like you guys, you know."

"WHUT!" The scamp was starting to fume. "Take that back, Glennie. Take it back now. We perform a PUBLIC SERVICE! And we do a damn fine job at it too!"

Glenn was tossing the pouch higher and higher now, seeming halfawy amused by the outburst. "Public service. Well, good. I'm glad you're so public spirited because that's exactly what this is all about. You an orphan, Thad?"

"Me, hell no. I'm emancipated." He spoke that last word as if he had heard it dozens of times but wasn't quite sure what it meant, and he knew it too, so he followed up almost immediately. "Means that I do what i want, when I want, and screw the drunk old bastard and the whore that..."

Glenn waved his hand. "Enough already." He took a nice shiny coin out of the pouch and tossed it Thad's way. "This now, half of the rest upon completion, and the other half when we can confirm what you tell us is accurate. And this is public service, Thad, real important. Tell me, do you know where that new Orphanage is?"

And didn't THAT draw a look from the boy. He nodded and walked forward and the two continued to converse quietly for the next several minutes before going their own ways.
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Postby Glenn » Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:40 am

Messenger's Guild

Trunk looked the slightly younger and much smaller boy up and down. He was Thad's direct superior and thus responsible for him, in almost every way. "You're sure you want to do this, Thad?" It wasn't like the boy to go so far out of his usual purview and take on a job like this. In fact, it was almost unprecedented. It wasn't about the money either. They did plenty fine, appearances nonwithstanding. Everyone in Myrken relied upon them, and for damn good reason. "You get stuck in there and we're not mounting a rescue. You know that's his decision on this. We didn't for Boost. You're on your own."

"Hey!" The dirty, black haired, streetrat grumbled and shoved Trunk hard on the arm. "Boost's an orphan and just got taken off the streets. She wasn't doing nothing like this when she got caught. Watch your mouth! No, look. I won't do any of that. I won't even talk to Boost. In, do my job, out. I've got pride!" That would be tough, not trying to get her out, but given the instructions Thad had been given, it only made sense that if he did good, she'd be taken out on her own soon enough. "Anyway, I hate that place. You know that it exists it all is real bad for us, Trunk!"

Trunk rubbed at a fat, runny nose and then inhaled a decent amount of mucus. "Yeah, sure. That's why I'm agreeing to this, Thad, cause you said you wouldn't try to get her out. We've all got pride. We don't got that, we don't got nothing. Don't you forget and don't mess this up. I lose you and it's on my hide with Scout, you know that."

There was a sharp poke into the larger boy's stomach. "Always. Now out of my way you fat tub. I'm an orphan today, and you ought to be kind and polite to me." Thad had to duck and cover on his way out as Trunk had launched a wild swing at him. It only had prompted the scamp to move faster, which was fine. There was work to do.
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Postby Glenn » Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:12 am

Thad

Well, this was it. This was the end. Why had he been so stupid? He had snuck on over the wall. He had snuck his way into the orphanage. He had hidden. He had mingled a bit, come up with a story or two for the other children, if you could even call them that anymore. He had spent around four or five hours there and had gotten the information that was needed. He had been ready to leave. It all had gone perfect. Sure it would have taken a bit longer to get out than in, but with no one looking for him, what was the big deal, right?

And then he had blown everything. Now he was running desperately for the edge of the compound. There was only one hope, only one chance and it was pointless, futile, but if he was going to go down, well, he'd go down proud and hopeful! They had pride. That's what they had. He made the whooping crane call, the pidgeon call, and the wolf howl. There was no reason to expect any response. He was on his own. That's what Trunk had said.

But then the only other possible thing they had past pride was each other.

He stared for ten long seconds, his shoulders slowly slumping a bit more with each one.

Then finally, the rope came flying over, he caught it and started to scale, but there was no need. Two boys and a girl were pulling hard on the other side and he was soon up and over, joining them.

"You came!" Thad enveloped about half of Trunk in a greeting only to get pushed aside, all the way to the ground. "I almost want to kiss you. Well, not you, but Wisk at least."

The girl, about the same age as Thad and twice as dirty just grunted. "Try it and you lose an eye!"

"Yeah, then he doesn't have to look at you, Wisk." Trunk grunted, picking the younger boy up with one hand and planting him back on his feet. "What happened?"

Thad shook his head, dusting himself off. "I got it all done and I thought, hey, why not try talking to Boost. See if she'll come with, right? Well, she sort of alerted the adults that I was there. Totally gone, all those kids. Zombies. Hey, speaking of that, can we go already?"

And the four rushed off into the night.
Glenn
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