Tall Tale

"For me, there are neither locks nor bolts," answered the thief, "Whatsoever I desire is mine." (( OC RP blog. Affiliated with Wishful Crossing. ))

[whycrowswhyold-blog]

“Erm, It might not be my business but… It looks like your uh, pet is..” She drifted off, staring over at the strange creature as he barged into someone’s window. 

[locksnorbolts]

“Whoops-- Peter, you know better than that.” - Yeah, you’re not supposed to get caught.

Quickly, Marshall scooped up the Aipom before the little guy could enter that person’s open window, turning to offer the girl a sheepish smile.

“Sorry about that.... Kiddo’s real daring sometimes, ya know? Doesn’t get when he’s going too far.”

[musicians-envoy-blog]

Saying that the person next to the blond wasn’t paying attention was a true and bold statement, she really wasn’t paying attention until it clicked in. Truth be told it was surprising a land run by ‘goats’ have places that actually run with humans “Heeh, we have a place such as this..”

Playing doofus at this seemed safe, as it’s not oblivious as in adorable, but it’s the one where someone calls you stupid, and apparently it was easier to do “Woooow. A detective has gone out of their league to blow up a place. Aren’t they just so-called investigators?”

That’s utterly amazing

[locksnorbolts]

“Ah, right? It was kind of scary~” Marshall spoke in a tone of feigned fear, coming across more as someone gossiping than someone telling a horrific story of a near-death experience. It was a tone weighed carefully, despite this. Goodness, this stranger shouldn’t catch on that it was his fault that had happened, should she?

“We were just hangin’ out in there, me an’ her an’ some others, when she suddenly started freaking out. Next thing we know, we’re all running outta there while she blows the place up.”

[sapiosexualinformant]

“Isn’t that exciting? A surprise more people didn’t die, huh?” He replied as he continued to text the unimportant gangster he was keeping up a dialogue with.

“Wonder what set that scary lady off that bad..” 

[locksnorbolts]

“Mmhm. It was a real miracle~”

“What set her off? Hmmm... I dunno!” Marshall shrugged his shoulders after a hum in thought. “She just suddenly started freakin’ out like she was seeing something we couldn’t. It was like she saw a ghost.”

[locksnorbolts]

“Oh my, my~ Looks like the community center got all fixed up.”

Marshall snickered, stretching his arms behind his head with an amused smile. The person next to him as he observed the building didn’t seem to be paying attention, but he turned to speak to them anyway.

“Can you believe that detective blew up the place with people inside? Pretty dangerous place, huh?”

[kaitouisms]

"The other party’s going to be a disaster," she muttered under her breath before smiling at Marshall. "You managed to get her to faint? Really?” And, if her judgment was correct, Naoto was one of the sturdiest members of the SPF, too. She whistled, impressed. “I take it you managed to find her fatal flaw? That’s sure something else.”

[locksnorbolts]

He could tell something about that party was a majorly sensitive subject for Sena, but Marshall wasn't about to pry. He could take a few good guesses anyway.

"Yep~ It was great. I'm amazed she fell for it so easily." Snickering, he leaned back against the wall and took a sip of his coffee. He probably shouldn't be so proud, but it was really amusing. "Y'know those posts from the Occult Club? I had Hansel make an illusion of that 'slit-faced woman'. Scared her so bad, she hit the ground."

[kaitouisms]

"Marshall? What are you doing here?" It wasn’t that Sena wasn’t glad to see him, but rather she was surprised to. She opened the window and let him in, taking one of the mugs from him. His presence was a nice distraction from the party-goers with spiked punch on their breaths, and the coffee was a plus. "Is there something you want to talk about? Or just here for a visit?"

[locksnorbolts]

"I noticed someone missin' from the crowd and thought I'd take the party to you." Of course, coffee and a chat wasn't much of a party, but it was more tame. With one hand free now, Marshall climbed in through the window, moving carefully so as to avoid spilling his own coffee. "Guess I didn't have much in mind- 'though you should hear about the scare I gave that SPF girl. It was great. She fainted."

[locksnorbolts]

While Marshall didn't typically go to parties often, this one had gathered a good portion of the people on the island, and he assumed it would be nice for information gathering, if not interesting in some way. However, he easily noticed the missing presence of a certain inhabitant of this house. And she seemed like such a fun-loving type. Either way, he slipped out of the party, and a little while later Sena would hear a tapping at her window. Standing there with two mugs of coffee, Marshall gave a grin.

"Knock knock. Did someone order coffee for two?"

[tantei-oji-blog]

It was way to late at night, but she couldn’t sleep. C-ta talking about apparent ghost stories and then her constant worry over Kanji was making sleep impossible. Her fear annoyed her to no end, ghost were illogical, there was always another explanation for phantoms (of the spiritual type) and poltergeists, it was all about finding what those explanations were.

Only, that got hard what you irrational fear was borderline phobia.

Shaking her head as she walked along she ignored the suddenly chill down her spine, placing it to the fact it was a cold night- Although something soon caught her attention, eyes going wide. Was that….?

Am I beautiful?

As hard as she tired to stay clam, her legs were shaking, heart beat quickening to such a rate it was painful in her chest. It’s just a prank Naoto, it’s not-

What if it is?

Doing her best to appear calm she swallowed thickly, crossing her arms in an attempt to hide just how much she was shaking. Someone was watching, she couldn’t show such weakness- Although her mind was spinning, there was a specific thing you were supposed to say, what was it? Should she just be honest?

"By beauty standards, yes, you would be considered quite beautiful" no, why did that feel wrong?

[locksnorbolts]

Of course she had heard mention of the urban legend before. Either she would have read the post from the occult club, or she would have heard word from that boy Marshall spread his little rumor to. The slit-faced woman was spotted on Solitude. That's what he had passed on, although it was absolute nonsense. Still, it had its effect. It was lucky he passed his amusement with a simple grin, rather than full out laughing at her visible signs of fear. Oh, she did a good job hiding it by most people's standards, but he could read into that fear, and it was just too good!

Anyway, if she had read the post, she clearly hadn't done such a good job of remembering the details. There was a way to escape from the slit-faced woman, but Naoto had only given the exact answer he had hoped for. She was walking right into it! How glorious!

Silently, the illusion shifted to remove her mask. As the white cover was brought down, a large grin was revealed on her face, bloody around the edges from having been sliced from ear-to-ear. One could easily see every inch of her canines as she spoke again, her gory, mutilated grin carved into an upward curl at the corners.

"Even like this?"

[locksnorbolts]

Rather than snatching up the belongings of others, the occult club had offered Marshall another method of making a nuisance of himself. That post they had put up inspired him- and so he quickly found his unsuspecting victim walking all alone.

Sticking to the shade of the woods, the thief remained in a deadly silence as his Gengar crept through the night's shadows, eventually settling himself in the one the poor detective cast against the ground. Hansel had already been told what to do, and so with the effects of a simple night shade attack, the mirage of a woman appeared.

The woman stepped from behind some trees, approaching Naoto as her long, black hair swept behind her. Although she wore a long trenchcoat, the most prominent object of her appearance was the surgical mask on her face. She came to a stop in front of the young girl and soon spoke up.

"Am I beautiful?"

[locksnorbolts]

The masked man slung his an around his shoulder. "Yo Marshal, ready to binge watch Bible Black? I got the popcorn ready"

"Great, then go choke on it." Well, Mr Masked Man, you're going to get your arm shoved away. It might be a wise decision to put some space between yourself and Marshall since you decided touching him was a good idea.

[locksnorbolts]

There's a little note stuffed into the coffee maker from a certain female thief. "Monsieur, I would like to request that I have my heart back, because you seem to have stolen it (along with the coffee maker)." At the bottom is a doodle of a tiny Marshall inside a heart.

"Heh. This girl's real amusin', isn't she, Elsie?" Marshall snickered, looking over at the Musharna as he held the note in his hand, though the Pokemon gave no visible reaction to his words. That made it twice that she had snuck into his room when he wasn't around. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she liked hangin' around here."

[amiablesolitxde]

She gives a nod, watching silently as he gives a demonstration. Her small, pointed ears twitch every now and again, as if trying to pick up any hint of sound in his steps. No wonder he seemed to know so much about sneaking--he was practically soundless in hi steps.

She does her best to imitate him when it becomes her turn to try, but even though she steps lightly, the metal imitation claws on the toes of her shoes dig into the ground, and so, give a light scraping sound.

[locksnorbolts]

Marshall watched silently, observing as she crept forward. As adorable as it was, he didn't really expect her to be entirely quiet in her endeavors, even without the claws on her shoes. That much took a lot of practice, which he doubted she had gained simply from trailing behind him all day.

"That's a good first try." He gave a grin and patted the girl's head, a friendly sign to reassure her she hadn't entirely messed up. "Next time, lose the shoes, but I think your sneak might be worn out from followin' me around. Take a break, alright?"

[locksnorbolts]

"There's sure a lot of detectives and thieves on the island, huh?"

Too many detectives, if you ask him, and they were pretty young from what he'd seen. Ah, well, at least those other thieves kept the attention off of him, so he could keep having as much fun as he wanted.

[kaitouisms]

"Hm." Well as far as conversations were concerned, Sena was going to make sure this wouldn’t be her only one with Marshall. Not only was he keeping quite a few secrets, but he was also, dare she admit it, an interesting person in and of himself.

"Six Pokemon, each with their own abilities, plus us and maybe a few other allies along the way. This could work." Of course, that was if their combined powers could possibly outweigh that of whatever was causing the island to be so…weird. “And gathering intel shouldn’t be too hard, not with a charismatic gentleman like you and a charming young lady such as myself.” Needless to say, one of her abilities was getting people to talk; political power or no, she was going to get to the bottom of the island with a few carefully placed words.

[locksnorbolts]

Marshall wasn't too sure how he felt about teaming up with one other thief, let alone the idea of possibly having others join them. Although he acted particularly friendly towards most everyone, the reality of the situation was that he despised nearly everyone. Ah, well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd ever worked with other criminals-- just the first time in several years.

"Charmin' gentleman? Well, aren't you sweet?" Sena, please. He's anything but a gentleman. The thought was amusing enough in itself, and he gave a little laugh before proceeding. "Of course, we're just tryin' to find out why we're brought here and by what right now. I wonder what sort of thing might draw 'em out of hiding? Hmm~" He hummed in thought, leaning back in his seat again. The amusement that played on his expression was actually genuine. "I dunno what we're dealin' with, but so far, I like this place."

[amiablesolitxde]

He gives her a complement, and her smile continues to brighten. Marshall was a nice man, just like Tiz..she liked both of these people.

He offers to teach her how to be even sneakier, to the point where she wouldn't get caught, and she looks to him in awe before giving a happy squeak.

"Can do? Would like learn that very much!"

[locksnorbolts]

"Of course. See, it's all about bein' quiet, so you gotta take real light steps. Slow an' steady, ya know?"

Giving the girl a smile and a wink, Marshall showed her an example, moving forward so lightly that there was practically no sound at all. Given his years of practice, it should be no surprise he could move like that so easily.

"Your turn."

[kaitouisms]

"It’s nice to meet you, then, Elsie," he curtsied towards the Musharna and listened to Marshall’s explanation. Pokemon seemed so efficient, if they were trainable unlike most animals on Earth. What she wouldn’t give to live in the world that Marshall came from now…

However, his other words intrigued her. “Eats nightmares?” She frowned a bit. “You have nightmares often, then?” It wasn’t any of her business, but it was hard to understand how somebody who seemed so light-hearted could be plagued by nightmares. No, it wasn’t hard to understand, but rather it was hard to read exactly how deep his smile actually was. “And you said the others. How many of these Pokemon do you have?”

[locksnorbolts]

"Me an' everyone else in the vicinity? Yeah, there's usually one or two nightmares for Elsie to snack on." Nice save. Although, it really didn't matter much if she knew he had nightmares. Anyone could have them, no matter how much they smiled. If she wanted to know how real his smile was or wasn't, she'd have to invest more than one conversation.

"Six, exactly." He pulled the remaining pokeballs from his pockets and showed them to her. He'd let them all out right now, but, well, it might get a little crowded in this room if everyone joined the party at once. "Elsie, Alice, Peter, Jack, Hansel, and Gretle." Not so much of a subtle naming scheme there. His fairy tale obsession runs deep.

[locksnorbolts]

"Hahaha. This island's really exciting, huh?"

He would need to avoid the SPF building for a while and postpone his plans to cause mayhem. It seemed like someone had made a lot in his place, and he knew better than to try these things now.