Post by Shinku on Mar 10, 2020 12:40:59 GMT -5
Rince sat atop the rooftop and studied the map Suzi had procured for him. The perky girl seemed to be around twelve years old, but considering how bad Rince was at judging people's age, she might actually be anything between ten and sixteen. Her wide grin and self-assured behavior was rather annoying to the cowardly teenage boy, but her map was useful, so he tolerated her.
„This place is mostly used by the whealty merchants that get frequented by the nobilities, so they too have some bodyguards although those guys are nowhere near the level of the fighers that work for the nobles.“
They were both leaning forward to get a closer look at the map and their heads bumped together. The girl just laughed and ran her hand through her shortly cropped brown hair, while Rince was feeling stupid and embarrassed. He still had trouble focusing on two things at the same time and the collision served as a painful reminder on how much he was struggling to keep awareness of his surroundings.
„Anywayyyyyyy.“ The girl went on and pointed at another section of the map. „This is where you want to bring the fight to. If you want to get the best fighters involved, it would be the ones living in this part of the town.“
„Soo...“ Rince took another good look of the map and studied the neighborhood that was visible from his roof. „That's basically over there, right?“
„Yep!“ Suzi gave him a hug simle. Annoying.
The teenager ignored her for now and started to make his way over the rooftops of Notice Town, taking mental notes as he did so. And of course the little girl followed him as if it was the most natural thing to do.
„Should you really be up here?“ he asked her, his voice implying that he thought she shouldn't.
„Of course! I am here to help you, where else would I be?“
„Um.. like... In the shelter with the other kids and the elders?“ He really didn't like the kid to be here.
That actually dampened her mood and she pulled a face. Her scowl was no where near as impressive as Rince's frown, but she was definitelly doing her best to show her displeasure at the notion that she should hide.
„I'm not a kid. I'm part of the GoV of the NIDF and I'm going to do my part for this fight!“
„The GoV of the NIDF?“ Now he was confused. He usually knew what words meant, but this sounded like gibberish.
„The Guards of Valor of the Notice Island Defend Force!“ The girl explained rather irritated, as if it was something he should have known.
„Ah.“ What else was there to say? „Does your mother know you've been walking on rooftops? It's quite dangerous up here. If you fall you might die... or worse, you'll break every bone in your body and stay crippled for the rest of your life.“ he tried.
„Me and the other kids of my group have been playing up here since we were little kids! I'm not going to fall!“ Her tone indicated that this was the end of that discussion and Rince could do nothing but sigh.
Kids always thought they were immortal, he just hoped she wouldn't have to find out the hard way that she was wrong.
After some consideration, Rince took out a pencil and marked various spots on the map.
„We need rope ladders connecting to the roof on this spots and some makeshift bridges to join the roofs here and here. If we want to place people up here, we need to make sure that they can move around.“
He pondered for another moment.
„Do you think we can make holes inside the houses that share a wall? Or at least between appartments that share a wall. We would be able to shift people a lot easier if they can go around secretly inside the building, rather than having to use the streets.“
Suzi shook her head, lifted her hands and let them drop again in a resigned gesture.
„Not a chance. Those guys love their property too much to damage it, even when it's going to save their lives.“ She told him.
„How about the houses near the shelter? They are not as... valuable as the ones here?“ They were planning to place the vulnerable people far away from the nobles where the fight was supposed to happen, but that meant the neighborhood in question was a little shabby.
„Well yes, but aren't those guys supposed to stay were they are, rather than to move around? What benefit would we gain from that? Like... if the pirates fight us there, there would only be more openings for them to attack us through.“
„If they find the people there, we'll have to evacuate, so having multiple exists will be handy. Not to mention that the pirates might be strong, but they lack manpower the way we do. They won't be able to cover all exists if we have enough of them. As long as we keep an eye on their movements, we can make sure they don't sneak into the shelter and take hostages.“
At least that's what he hoped. The best thing would be of course that the fishmen pirates wouldn't even get close to their shelter, but it was better to plan for all eventualities.
In a different part of the town, Bruce was conducting his observations. After the pirates left the shop, Bruce jumped on the counter and studied the burn that the poison had left there. Even now the fumes made his skin prickle and his hair stood up. The merchant's family gave him a puzzled look and Bruce waved at them reassuringly before hopping off and following the pirates in their shopping tour. Their numbers of helpers was growing and Bruce decided that he would be quite save amidst them, so he speed up then jumped up to a man who was carring a rather large bag with suplies and snuggled inside one of the pockets where he had a comfortable view and could listen in on what was going on without trouble.
„This place is mostly used by the whealty merchants that get frequented by the nobilities, so they too have some bodyguards although those guys are nowhere near the level of the fighers that work for the nobles.“
They were both leaning forward to get a closer look at the map and their heads bumped together. The girl just laughed and ran her hand through her shortly cropped brown hair, while Rince was feeling stupid and embarrassed. He still had trouble focusing on two things at the same time and the collision served as a painful reminder on how much he was struggling to keep awareness of his surroundings.
„Anywayyyyyyy.“ The girl went on and pointed at another section of the map. „This is where you want to bring the fight to. If you want to get the best fighters involved, it would be the ones living in this part of the town.“
„Soo...“ Rince took another good look of the map and studied the neighborhood that was visible from his roof. „That's basically over there, right?“
„Yep!“ Suzi gave him a hug simle. Annoying.
The teenager ignored her for now and started to make his way over the rooftops of Notice Town, taking mental notes as he did so. And of course the little girl followed him as if it was the most natural thing to do.
„Should you really be up here?“ he asked her, his voice implying that he thought she shouldn't.
„Of course! I am here to help you, where else would I be?“
„Um.. like... In the shelter with the other kids and the elders?“ He really didn't like the kid to be here.
That actually dampened her mood and she pulled a face. Her scowl was no where near as impressive as Rince's frown, but she was definitelly doing her best to show her displeasure at the notion that she should hide.
„I'm not a kid. I'm part of the GoV of the NIDF and I'm going to do my part for this fight!“
„The GoV of the NIDF?“ Now he was confused. He usually knew what words meant, but this sounded like gibberish.
„The Guards of Valor of the Notice Island Defend Force!“ The girl explained rather irritated, as if it was something he should have known.
„Ah.“ What else was there to say? „Does your mother know you've been walking on rooftops? It's quite dangerous up here. If you fall you might die... or worse, you'll break every bone in your body and stay crippled for the rest of your life.“ he tried.
„Me and the other kids of my group have been playing up here since we were little kids! I'm not going to fall!“ Her tone indicated that this was the end of that discussion and Rince could do nothing but sigh.
Kids always thought they were immortal, he just hoped she wouldn't have to find out the hard way that she was wrong.
After some consideration, Rince took out a pencil and marked various spots on the map.
„We need rope ladders connecting to the roof on this spots and some makeshift bridges to join the roofs here and here. If we want to place people up here, we need to make sure that they can move around.“
He pondered for another moment.
„Do you think we can make holes inside the houses that share a wall? Or at least between appartments that share a wall. We would be able to shift people a lot easier if they can go around secretly inside the building, rather than having to use the streets.“
Suzi shook her head, lifted her hands and let them drop again in a resigned gesture.
„Not a chance. Those guys love their property too much to damage it, even when it's going to save their lives.“ She told him.
„How about the houses near the shelter? They are not as... valuable as the ones here?“ They were planning to place the vulnerable people far away from the nobles where the fight was supposed to happen, but that meant the neighborhood in question was a little shabby.
„Well yes, but aren't those guys supposed to stay were they are, rather than to move around? What benefit would we gain from that? Like... if the pirates fight us there, there would only be more openings for them to attack us through.“
„If they find the people there, we'll have to evacuate, so having multiple exists will be handy. Not to mention that the pirates might be strong, but they lack manpower the way we do. They won't be able to cover all exists if we have enough of them. As long as we keep an eye on their movements, we can make sure they don't sneak into the shelter and take hostages.“
At least that's what he hoped. The best thing would be of course that the fishmen pirates wouldn't even get close to their shelter, but it was better to plan for all eventualities.
In a different part of the town, Bruce was conducting his observations. After the pirates left the shop, Bruce jumped on the counter and studied the burn that the poison had left there. Even now the fumes made his skin prickle and his hair stood up. The merchant's family gave him a puzzled look and Bruce waved at them reassuringly before hopping off and following the pirates in their shopping tour. Their numbers of helpers was growing and Bruce decided that he would be quite save amidst them, so he speed up then jumped up to a man who was carring a rather large bag with suplies and snuggled inside one of the pockets where he had a comfortable view and could listen in on what was going on without trouble.