abandoned Wilted Lily (guy_sas x Headless)

[guy_sas]

The man turned towards her, with a quite obvious initial scowl, probably for disturbing his conversation. However, as soon as he looked at her, he suddenly started to smile. He stood up from the table, and walked over to her, and wrapped his arm over her shoulder. He waved to the others at his table, telling them to continue the conversation as he walked her off towards a more quiet corner. As he walked away he leaned over, in a not-so-subtle-attempt to look down her shirt.

"Well, of course you can join the Goldenleafs, friend," Henric said, he spoke very fast, it would be hard for a person who spoke at a normal speed to get a word in edgewise, "of course, we need to talk about your applicable skills. I think your current choices, are interesting, but perhaps a dress would fit you much better don't you think? Yeah, I think if we got you a nice dress then, there are several positions, that I think you'd fit right into. Wow, your skin is very warm, you're not getting too embarrass are you?"

[Headless]

Even Lily could understand a smile like that. She felt chills go up her spine, and not of the pleasant sort either, when he casually caught her in the slimy reach of his arms. However, she endured. She was shivering, yes, but she endured.

Lily had to suppress the urge to slap this man aside as his bald heat leaned into her, but yes... He was right. She was getting embarrassed.

Then again, this wasn't the first time she had to restrain herself under such touching. That didn't mean she was okay with it by any stretch of the imagination, but... she wasn't inexperienced, at least.

Henric was free to do all the speaking he wanted. It wasn't like Lily could even find the room to interject. His words came out at blinding speeds. Lily's slowly thoughtful words stood no chance. If she was allowed to get in a word after his long speech, Lily would shake her head and deny his suggestion, "No... I... want to do manual labor... Not... um..." She turned her head away from the man and down, as if she was incredibly embarrassed.

[guy_sas]

"What's wrong," he said as soon as she finished her response, "there's nothing wrong with it you know? It's a necessary profession for society to function, and there isn't any shame unless you put it there. I mean, some of my best friends are whores," he laughed out loud at his own joke, though there was a lot about him that might lead one to think it's actually true, "look, I'll be honest you don't seem like you have the body for manual labor. I think if you went with my option we'd both make a lot of money, and you'd probably have a lot more fun. How about you try it out first, and then if you don't like it, we can see if manual labor is a better fit, okay?" He seemed like he wasn't going to let her get away from his intention, if he could help it.

[Headless]

M-maybe this man didn't mean any harm? Though, whether or not he truly respected whores didn't make Lily any more likely to want to start in this new line of profession. She was, for the record, one of those people who put shame into the idea of such a profession, at least when it came to doing it herself. The women who could simply accept any men into their arms had a bravery Lily could never imagine having.

"Ah, no... I-I've been..." Silly Lily, she was actually starting to wonder if maybe this man did have the best intentions for her. "I've been doing manual labor just fine so far, so I would like to..." She was speaking so slowly, so painstakingly. Would he even let her finish? "find some steady work with manual labor, so can we start... with manual labor instead?". The more she refused, the safer she was... was the surface intentions, but there was also the hidden intent where the more she refused, the harder she played to get, the more force this man would need to use to make her submit. If she was lucky, then part of that force would be sending her to the slavers and their stones to make her submit. She didn't have the coquettish strength to draw information out of a bed fellow, so she took this gamble instead. Besides, if she wasn't lucky, Lily could basically survive the jump from any floor on this building.

[guy_sas]

He stopped dead in his tracks, and for a quick second his face jumped between several different expressions. At first, he scowled at her, and then his eyes widened as a thought popped into his head. His old smile returned perhaps a second or so after it left. He took his arm off from around Lily's shoulder, as he stepped around to look her in the eyes. He held his hands open at his sides as he talked.

"Well, I do think it's the worst option, but if you're mind is made up, then you're mind is made up. Well, I'll direct you to the right people, as soon as possible. Do you know where the docks are? There's a storehouse with a golden mark right next to the one of the doors. Don't tell anyone, but we use it as a meeting place sometimes, just low level stuff mostly. Anyway, show up there, around say, noon tommorow works for you," he asked, but continued before she could respond, "good," he turned for the door, "anyway, it's getting rather late, I should head out, get some sleep, and I suggest you do the same." He took a step towards the door, and turned back to look at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

 

[Headless]

Was she changing his mind? The change in his expressions seemed to say so.

A sigh of relief when he accepted her demands. Some slow nodding to show that she understood. She almost felt bad for tricking him when he acquiesced with what she wanted, even though that was the entire point of tricking him.

Lily was when in the middle of breathing a sigh of relief, a valid reaction for her and for someone who had genuinely been looking for a manual labor job, when the man turned around in the middle of leaving. "Huh?!" she sucked her breath back in. An awkward pause as she stared. Then, a timid, "Um... Uh... Mary... The name is Mary..."

[guy_sas]

He looked at her a moment, searchingly, as if trying his beast to read her face. Then his old smile returned. “Alright, Mary, good to meet you. I’m Henric, I don’t think I mentioned that before. Remember the storehouse at noon.” He turned away from her and shouted something back to his table before he left. He hurried off down the street, as soon as he was out of the building, off in the direction of the Goldenleaf estate.

[Headless]

Lily had half a mind to shadow the man but... that would be too suspicious. Something about the look he gave her... Well, she couldn't read it at all, but it was just that he gave her a look that made her suddenly very worried.

Still, the night was young. She had been waiting for nightfall this entire time. Lily wasn't going to just let it go to waste. The shady deal with Henric was a good back up, but she hoped that was all it would remain to be.

The main plan remained to attempt to infiltrate the Goldenleaf main estate for information. Lily quietly made her way out of the bar and into the shadows of the alleyways. Taking the backstreets, she wound her way to the to her destination and observed it from the shadows. The first problem was breaching the walls, and since that was a problem, securing an escape route was going to be equally hard. Still, all of the security was human, and humans made mistakes. Lily knew that well. She made a living off of those mistakes, after all. 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Headless

[guy_sas]

The Goldenleaf main estate was three buildings all hugging each other closely, the largest one in the middle. As Lily approached it wasn’t hard to see the most of the windows were dark, except for one on the second floor of the center building. The wall seemed to have just one gate, that led straight from the main road inside. Other than that there wasn’t any visible way in, though it certainly wasn’t out of the question that there might be a couple back enterances inside. There didn’t seem to be that many guards, only two that would check then perimeter of the wall once very hour or so. The real question was, was there more guards out of sight?

[Headless]

The front gate was out of the question and so were the supposedly hidden gates since she didn't know where to find them. The guards on the walls were few... far too few, and that left Lily suspicious, but she couldn't just turn around and give up simply because she was scared of some suspicions. She wouldn't be much of a thief then. Leaving the main gate, Lily circled around the walls, observing it and her surroundings from the shadows.

Did the walls seem climbable at any point? Approximately how high up were they?

[guy_sas]

At no points were the walls more or less climable at any other point, but that didn’t mean they were totally insurmountable. Each wall reached about eight feet into the air, with decorative spikes dotting the top of the wall. Just jumping straight up the walls would’ve been difficult, but they could probably be climbed with some impressive acrobatics or just some rope. There were also a couple roofs of other buildings that got close. If Lily wanted she could try to run and jump from one of those to the inside of the Goldenleaf estate.

[Headless]

Impressive acrobatics was exactly what Lily had. However,  Lily also had modesty and rope, along with various other equipment for the heist, all hidden in... places. Mostly pockets. This meant that most of the equipment was tiny or easily folded, like the handkerchief that now covered the lower half of her face.  The rope hadn't been hidden at all. It had been tied through one of the belt loops of her pants.

Lassoing the rope over one of the spikes, Lily swiftly and stealthily climbed to the top, easily flipping over the spikes. Bringing the rope over to the other side, she rappelled down as quickly as possible until she made a soft landing on the inside of the wall.

She left the rope hanging where it was, hopefully inconspicuously in the darkness of pre-modern fictional Europe, and crouch-ran to the nearest cover to observe her surroundings from. Her goal was one of the three buildings, and if she remembered correctly, only the center building still had a light: second floor.

[guy_sas]

The nearest piece of cover Lily could find was a large box. The small gap between the wall and the buildings seemed to be filled with them. It took a second for her to realize that it was actually a bee house. However there wasn't any buzzing she could hear, either they box was empty, or the bees were asleep and she hadn't disturbed them. Either way, it was certainly best not to check.

From her cover, she could see that was closest to one of the side buildings, which seemed to have a great number of windows. Still the only light that was on, was the one on in the main building. For a moment, it was partially blocked out as a figure moved in front of it, momentarily. 

From inside the wall, it was clear to see that there were far more guards than on the outside, and far more alert looking, too. Just from her current hiding spot she could easily see eight, some walking the perimeter, others crouched on the roof, scanning the area. However, she had gotten lucky, none of them saw her. It would take a minute, but if she waited, she could sprint the distance between her cover and the nearest window without anyone spotting her. 

[Headless]

Oh gods. Suddenly finding out that she was hiding behind a bee house surprised Lily, but she quickly settled down as she remained unstung for quite a length of time. Having calmed down, she scanned her surroundings to find the guards: eight in total and in various positions. They crisscrossed and no doubt even the ones isolated on the roofs were on the lookout not just for the presence of unwanted intruders but also the absence of guards that should be patrolling. Takedowns were never a desirable first option for Lily, but even she had to admit that they were hard to pass up panic options. It was good to know that if she was forced to resort to such a panic button, she'd probably have only a few seconds at best before questions started being asked.

Though, maybe she would need to takedown the watch guards on the roof. Not kill them, of course, but knock them out cold and prop them up over the edge to fool any guards on the ground so that she had more room to maneuver between the buildings. It was a thought, but not one she necessarily needed right now. Having remained on alert as she thought through the challenges presented by this interior defense, Lily noticed an opening when she saw it, and she took that moment when all eyes happened to be turned elsewhere to sprint to the nearest window, open it, ad slide inside without a sound. That was, of course, assuming the windows weren't locked. If they were locked, then she would duck to hide behind the bee box closest to her new position by the windows and start figuring things out from there.

[guy_sas]

Surprisingly, the window was unlocked. Silently, Lily managed to slip inside the building, and close the window behind her. She found herself in a dark room, filled with barrels, slightly sticky floors and a faint sweet smell that lingered in the air. It didn't take much to guess that this was one of the rooms where the mead was made. It seemed like the Goldenleaf's were dedicated to the front of being a simple meadery, despite the fact how common the knowledge of their real purpose was. It wasn't hard to guess that all the paperwork, including the paperwork she was looking for was probably located in their offices. It also wasn't hard to guess which building contained their offices. Of course Lily didn't need to guess any of that, since she had been told it before, probably by her sister, if anyone. She also remembered that the important stuff, the stuff she was looking for was all contained on the second floor. 

Getting to the main building was easier said than done too. There was a door from her current building that led towards the main one, as well as several windows, and the space between the buildings wasn't longer than the space between the last distance she ran. However there would be more guards around to see her, and she wouldn't be able to see them all, from her awkward position inside the building. Not only that, but the space between the two buildings was well lit by hanging lanterns. She would either have to get lucky, or perhaps, cause a distraction. 

[Headless]

Maybe if Lily was of the chaotic bend, she would consider that alcohol was flammable. Actually, she did think of it, but that was a little too evil. Also, a little too obvious. Instead, she took a long, hard look around the room to see where all the doors and windows were situated on the first floor, both for her current building and the building next door. Though, she knew in the case of the latter that she was only going to be able to see what the windows permitted of her. Then, she moved up to the second, maybe even the third if there was a third floor, to get a better view of the space between buildings from a vantage point with less risk of getting caught. Where were the guards positioned? Could she get a better estimate on their numbers? Was there special protection, even something as simple as stationary guards, for the doors of the other building? What were the placements of the hanging lanterns and the threads that held them up? How strong did those threads (or perhaps ropes?) look? Which way did the windows open? Could she see anything about the space between the central building and the walls? The ideal end to this night would be advancing forwards with information on the Goldenleaf slave operation. However, even coming out with more information on the security of their estate without triggering any alerts that would cause a chance in that security would still be a success in Lily's books.

[guy_sas]

The current building she was in had only two levels. Most of the guards seemed gathered around a specific building, where they sat once they returned from their rounds and had a sip of coffee. She could also see more guards on the roof of the main building, three specifically, two one each corner and one in the middle. She could guess that there were two more on the roof of the building she was in. That was combined with four guards at the camp, with two that would loop around from their paths. The windows all seemed to open inwards, and there didn't seem to be any special protection for anything. The lanterns were hung up by a single rope, connecting them to waist high posts that lined the path. There didn't seem to be anything notable between the central building and the walls.

While she was making her way up to the second level, she managed to find a wardrobe that contained what appeared to be worker outfits for the mead workers. Unless she was feeling really confident in her abilities to smooth talk the guards, and explain why she was still at "work" late at night, in the dark, when no one had seen her enter, it would probably be best to not use them, right now.

[Headless]

Mead worker uniform get-to! Lily took out a set of the outfits for use on a later day stuffing them into a burlap sack she found nearby because... those could be found rather easily in a place like this, right?

The clothes would be for later. Now, observing from the second story, Lily had to figure out how she was going to pass discreetly through this gap. With the frequent patrols and eagle eyes from above that she had no way of fully seeing, it looked like her only option was to create a distraction. The difficulty was how to create a distraction that didn't look like something artificially made.

After a few minutes unsuccessfully racking her head for ideas, Lily acknowledged that there was nothing she could do right now from this angle, maybe at another time of day or with more tools than the bare necessities she carried on her right now. Since there was nothing more to see up here, she slunk her way downstairs back to the first floor and looked to see if there was some sort of basement or cellar where the Goldenleafs stored even more of their mead. If the only building she was going to be able to search tonight was this one, then she was going to search as much of it as she possibly could.

[guy_sas]

Eventually she found a small latch in the center of the first floor. With a bit of effort she managed to pull it up, and a ramp leading down into a basement was revealed. The basement had no light, except for what light came in through the gaps in the floor above. Lily could've lit a torch, to see around down there, but it probably wasn't the best idea. Barring that, she would have to stumble her way through the dark. Though even as she went down, she could see the outline of something in the dark, it looked like a door. There was a chance that it might lead through to the main building, and it might not've been guarded, since the surface was so heavily covered. However, if there was even a single guard inside, there would be no way to hide from him. 

[Headless]

So this is what the basement was like. Hardly interesting save for the door at the end. Lily considered opening the door, pressing her ear flat against the wood. No dice. She couldn't hear anything on the other side, but this was a thick door and a good guard didn't move around too much. Lily looked at her surroundings. She probably could create some random noise to draw the attention of anyone on the other side, but that was risky. This was a chance to go further in... or she could be happy with this much knowledge during her first foray and head back.

After more thought, Lily decided to head back for now and see where the new connection she formed tonight would take her. She had a basic idea of some plan where she fibbed about her job slightly to gain access to the Goldenleaf estate, possibly in connection with the mead worker costume she had also obtained tonight. Quietly, Lily snuck out of the basement and back in the direction she came from, hiding in the shadow of the bee boxes again as she patiently timed her exit to coincide with the blind spots in the security. Hopefully, the leave wouldn't cause any problems? Or maybe I should have stopped and waited for reactions?

[guy_sas]

As Lily effortlessly climbed over the wall, there was no sign that anyone had noticed her. While perhaps not the most productive trip, a far more narcissistic person could've easily found value in how perfect that infiltration was. In and out with no one noticing. With that done, there didn't seem to be much else to do but head back to her home, and get some sleep before her meeting at noon. Perhaps, if she woke up early enough she could've scouted out the location, before the meeting, or maybe just get a chance to take a nice bath and grab a good breakfast before her interview. If she glanced back as, she left, she probably would've noticed that the light in the second story had gone out.

[Headless]

Lily did glance back. She did notice that the light in the second story had gone out.

Just there wasn't anything she could do about that.

. . .

Lily had been a fool. The warehouse incident was anything but wholesome and helpful. Well, that wasn't completely true. The sleaze, Henric, had set up an ambush for her, one that Lily walked into with much trepidation but also without any particularly specific suspicions. That is, no particular suspicions until she noticed all the men and all of their gazes. By then, even someone as dense as her could tell something was wrong. Somehow or other, she fought her way out of the thing. Rather, fought her way through it and held Henric at knife point. That was going to get her into hot water in a matter of time, Lily was certain. However, she got the information she wanted and successfully proceeded with the heist from there. She noticed that the Goldenleafs were on the lookout for her, were trying to ramp up the security in the face of the information breach, but that man Henric was too worried about saving his own skin to give all of the information that was needed to fully secure the security. A bit of a foolish move because he was unable to stop Lily, and if the news of the sudden disappearance of a hefty bag of slaver stones ever reached whoever was in charge of Henric, then there was no doubt he'd be receiving an even more severe punishment while Lily was given the chance to survey the slave establishment while stealing the stones. She'd secured herself several new routes into the place, and hopefully at least one would stay intact even after the security increase.

. . .

As she had specified, Lily appeared at William's door a week from their first meeting. It was a stately mansion that a kid from the slums like Lily would probably have stared up in awe at... if she didn't make it her occupation to steal from mansions similar to this one. Consequently, Lily didn't feel comfortable just... entering the estate like normal. She did ask for William at the door as she had been instructed to, but she didn't reach the door through the mansion's main gates like a normal person. No, instead, she had snuck into the estate's grounds and hid her presence all the way up until she knocked on the door. As William promised, a servant came to greet her and would, presumably, lead her to William's office once Lily gave her name and business.

[guy_sas]

"Master William, a certain miss, Lily, is here to see you," one of his servants nervously said, from the entrance to William's reading room. 

William closed his book, and stood up, "excellent. She has been directed to my office, right?"

"Yes, sir."

William thanked his servant and made his way through the halls, towards his office. Unknown to Lily, she had already helped him get his hands on Slaver stones. He had a short meeting with one of those Felton fools. The man seemed paranoid about some message, and wanted a way to track the person who sent it. William had simply proposed that the man store all of his stones on William's property where they could be safe. The man refused, until news of the Goldenleaf attack started to spread underground. He came back and said that while he wouldn't give William all of his stones, he would sleep easier knowing some were safe guarded. And they would be guarded well, William after all, was a professional. Lily wouldn't be exposed to them, yet, but by the end of the day, he hoped to change that.

"Hello there," he said as he entered the room, and saw Lily already seated, he walked around and sat at the other end of the desk, "here you are, as promised. Very impressive. Did you also get those stones you mentioned?"

[Headless]

Stiff and visibly uncomfortable, Lily warily eyed William when he greeted her. She returned his greeting with a silent nod before nodding her head towards his desk, where she had already placed an indiscernible sack of something. It contained, as one would expect, the slaver stones Lily had stolen, and if William opened and counted through them, he would find that Lily had brought a decent amount. Lily could have probably brought even more, but she had played it safe, and for good reason. Security around the stones and the slaves were no joke, and Lily... may have found herself more than a little distracted at the horrible conditions and conditioning she saw the slaves endure on her way throughout the complex.

Lily alternated between staring at William and at a random spot on the wall as William did whatever counting and checking he wanted with Lily's shipment. It was hard to tell what she was wary of, very possibly this entire building, but there was also no doubt that William held a good deal of her uncertainty. Henric's attempt earlier in the week did not help Lily with her nerves as she struggled to determine if William was a good guy or a bad guy.

[guy_sas]

William took a look at the stones at the desk. He took one out of the bag to closely examine it, before he placed it back inside. He grabbed a scale out of his desk, and placed the bag on one side. Slowly he started to place silver coins on the other side of the scale. He took his time to add the coins and reach the exact weight of all the stones. While he worked, his eyes glanced over Lily, he silently studied her face. 

"You look troubled, did you have any trouble in getting these to me," he took a moment to see her reaction, "see a bit too much? I've heard stories, but never seen it myself. I can imagine though," as he spoke his face remained unreadable, "that's why we're doing all this though." Finally he had the coins weighed out. He placed them in a bag, and handed it across the table to her. "And one more thing," he reached under the table, and got out an unopened bottle of wine, "to a, hopefully, long and prosperous business relationship. That concludes our business today, however, if you're still bothered by what you saw, then perhaps you would be interested in discussing plans on getting slaves out of their bondage, and onto a better life?"