Sunshine Secrets [Finished!]

[Bee]

Thalia forgot about her brother entirely (there would be time enough to find him later if they needed him), and her brain focused itself back on track with the original plan. "Oh, sure," she said. "There are plenty of places they like to hide. There are a couple of abandoned warehouses around here that are pretty popular."

Thalia had even been invited over once by one of the members who had been impressed by her pickpocketing skills. She had informed him that she already had a con artist partner, thank you very much, and that she vastly preferred working with Tosiek.

She led her friend out of the apartment building and back onto the grimy streets that surrounded it. "I've even stolen from a couple of them. A lot of them are stupid kids who think they're so street, but a few of them could be worth the while with some coaching. Timmy, him and his gang are a couple of blocks down, and he's pretty sneaky and quiet."

[Dark]

"Timmy" was a rail-thin (flying)squirrel of undeterminable heritage that couldn't have been older than fourteen, though it was hard to tell under all the dirt. He looked like he might have a little Golfram Marsh and Raemblen Bog in him, but there was a certain reddish cast that suggested something else, and the bone earring was more than misleading. What really caught her attention, though, were his eyes: brilliant blue, hooded, and wary with cynicism. Timmy was going to be a hard nut to crack.

His wingmen consisted of a small female fox with a sharp smile and an older male falcon with calculating eyes. Several others were spaced along the perimeter of the building, fingering various weapons and for all intents looking like the gang Thalia claimed them to be. Iskra, however, saw the curious eyes of other, younger eyes peeking out from where they were probably supposed to be hiding and recognized them for what they were. They were probably orphans, every last one of them.

Timmy and the others existed to keep the rest of them alive; they weren't in it for the profit or the thrills, and Iskra couldn't think of a single thing that she or Thalia could offer that would tempt them.

[Bee]

"Timmy," Thalia said in cheerful greeting. "It's been a while! How are you holdin' up?"

Timmy stood stiff and guarded in front of his crew, eying Thalia and her Lowlander friend warily. "Well as ever," he said. "You aren't plannin' on poaching anything, are you, freak?"

"Not today," Thalia said, looking around. Most of her thieving was an involuntary action on her body's part, something she wasn't even aware of until she noticed that her tentacles were full of strange loot, and the gang didn't look like they had anything interesting laying around anyway.

"You finally decided to join the crew?"

"Nah," she said. She paused, and put on her Adult Voice. "Not strictly speakin', anyway. My friend Iskra and I wanted to talk to you guys about a mutely advantageous business venture. You game?"

He didn't lose any bit of his air of caution, but he did nod in the direction of the couch. Thalia gladly hopped over.

[Kiki]

Bee and Dark receive 1 token each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe. This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe. Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!

[Dark]

Iskra didn't care to put herself in a potentially vulnerable position--they might only be children, but the lean look they had about their eyes was reminiscent of wild dogs--opting to sit on the very edge of the dilapidated couch as politeness required and caution dictated. She wanted to be able to move very swiftly towards the exit if things didn't work out.

She faced Timmy, making certain to keep his wingmen in her peripheral, as she considered terms. Obviously, Thalia and she didn't have a lot of funds, which would work against them in negotiations--if they let that little fact be known. Iskra could only hope Thalia would keep her mouth shut in those regards.

"We're lookin' ta form a partnership," she ignored the looks of his wingmen, "that could be mutually--beneficial. Ya don have ta do anything different then now, but if ya hear anything interesting on the streets... ya pass it on ta us, and we pay ya for yer troubles."

[Bee]

Timmy looked skeptical--it probably did seem a little sketchy that a Lowlander and a child were claiming to have enough money to keep a pack of street urchins on their side, but they did have one thing on their side: the mystery and terror of Thalia's family. No one in the neighborhood was quite aware of what her mothers did.

"Trust me," she said, with a tiny little smirk. "We'll pay up."

Thalia had a couple of options for placating them. The first was stealing money from Mom, which probably wasn't a wise idea, because when Mom found out all the little Thalias would likely be summarily put to death. The other option was Mama. Like Mom, she had been involved in some shady stuff, but instead of poisoning people, she just gave them bad money. She could probably get Mama to give her fake money. And it wasn't like Timmy would be able to tell the difference. Mama's forgery must have been pretty good to have never gotten caught.

[Dark]

It was early evening when they finally escaped from their meeting with Timmy, and Iskra stepped into the cooling air with no small amount of relief. She hadn't completely realized the full extent of the gangs' collective gaze until she'd been free of them; Iskra was never the most chipper person, but those children had been downright depressing with their Old Soul eyes and cynical frowns. She felt almost liberated.

"I suppose that went as well as could be expected, eh?" Timmy hadn't expressly promised anything; he hadn't been particularly pleased with the prospect of only getting paid for information they deemed relevant, and they'd had to make a concession. Timmy and his gang would get paid a set wage for weekly reports, with wages to be paid upon delivery. Overall, as long as they could come up with the funds, Iskra felt it would work well enough for the time being. If Timmy consented.

"What next?"

[Bee]

Thalia grinned. "We wait."

And wait they did. Using Timmy and his crew to gather information was like tasking a ton of lures into the water and hoping that one of them managed to hook something interesting. When something caught at all, it was usually something trivial to be amused with for a moment and then thrown back into the dark and mysterious waters of society. Thalia found out that Miss Fanshaw three blocks over danced naked to the sounds of an old Victrola when she thought she was alone and that Mr. Carpenter was far too fond of his pigeons, but that information was merely entertaining, not useful.

Finally, though. Finally, they got something they could use. Mr. Eckles was not a man who lived in their neighborhood, but he occasionally made his way into the slums to do what might be called charity work. His goal was to educate the uncultured urchins who roamed the street and perhaps one day integrate them into society. He made most of his money, Thalia knew, tutoring the offspring of very wealthy people.

But Timmy delivered into their hands a much different sort of knowledge. It made Thalia's tummy feel flippy and icky. She grimaced.

"Really?"

[Dark]

Mr. Eckles lived in a modest townhouse off Hickory Lane, a street that liked to rub elbows with the well-to-do and their opulant mansions just down the way. Mr. Eckles townhouse was small in comparison to others on the street, but he liked to make up for his modest furnishings with an extensive cellar of very expensive vintages. His peers thought of him as refined; a select few new differently.

Iskra observed the house from the alley across the lane for the second week, observing who came and went. Mr. Eckles lived alone except for the maid who came every Monday to tidy up the place; he had sessions every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with the children of his rich patrons. He reserved the weekends for his charity work; the children he picked off the streets to educate came in the front door, and left through the back.

[Bee]

Thalia was mostly content to let Iskra handle the finer points of spying; she was a tricky gecko, after all, and while Thalia was very adept at pick-pocketing, she had all the natural grace of a block of wood.

The information they had picked up was in perfect accordance with what Timmy told them, and they had a pretty good idea of Mr. Eckles's schedule; now it was just a matter of assembling enough proof to make blackmailing possible.

To that end, Thalia had managed to pocket enough of her moms' money to purchase a camera. It was not exactly the most portable of devices, but if they placed it in the right spot, they were very likely to capture exactly what they wanted to. She was quite excited by the idea of all their careful planning coming to fruition. Additionally, she thought that, after they had gotten what they wanted and proved they could, they might just turn him in anyway.

Because really, the man was despicable.