Al-Adin Glimpses

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin examined the car magazine. It was full of shiny shiny shiny cars. Red ones, blue ones, silver ones. All looking very impressive. Why did they put the orange woman on the car though? She blocked his view of the car. Silly orange women.
"Why are the women orange?" he asked Lipson. Holding up the magazine like a child displaying a finger-painting to a parent. Lipson whistled at the magazine, before asking al-adin to repeat the question. "Oh. Orange? You mean tanned. Though I guess these women are a little on the orangy side. They spray on paint that makes them look tan, but when they do it wrong they look orange." He said, knowing that al-adin wouldn't actually remember the answer, only that the question was answered. "Where is today's take?" He asked, his hand outstretched.
Al-Adin handed over several necklaces and a belt buckle, which lipson nodded non-committaly at. He knew al-adin was good, why wasn't he better? He returned with such...garbage. But he didn't ask for anything, and didn't make trouble. The fact that he was simple definetly helped smooth things out too. "All right Al. Its a pretty weak take, but it'll do. He then looks down and realizes that al-adin is offering the magazine too. "What, you stole this too?"

"Yeah, it was just lying right there, and no one was looking, so i pennied it." "You do know that putting pennies for everything is going to get you in trouble right?" "Nahh, no one can catch me, I'll outrun them all!" Al-Adin chattered on to himself, as Lipson shook his head. Fool

[DrDog]

"Mister Liiiiiiiiipsooooooooon" Al-Adin whined impatiently, tapping his foot.
Damnit kid, i'm a fence, not a carpenter. Mister Lipson thought as he drove the 4th screw into the table. Why the hell his weirdest thief needed a table with a giant piece of wood sticking up like a huge cock was not his problem. He was getting paid (at of course, a huge markup. The kid was rocks stupid) and the kid had promised some nice loot in the future.
"Mister Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiipsoooooooooooooon!" Al-Adin continued to whine impatiently.
Why do I put up with him again?
"ooooh! Whats this!"
"DON"T TOUCH THAT!" Lipson says, not bothering to look up. Anything shiny attracted the kid's eye, and his grubby little paws would put fingerprints all over the glass.
"o k" Al-Adin pouts.
Right, he's rock stupid, has no record, and hasn't even come close to getting caught. Thats why I keep him around.
There, done. Last screw in the table. It would have to be turned to fit through a door now, but that wasn't his problem.
"Alright kid. I'll take it out of your cut of the run."
"Thanks Mister Lipson!" And now the worst part. the hug. It felt like his ribs had formed a political action committee to support the Pain candidate, and were putting all of their effort into getting him elected chief thought. And like always, they succeeded admirably.
"Now go make me some money!" He growled at the kid's retreating form.

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin stalks through the streets, hunting after Faith. He engaged the darkness around him, drawing him into the shadows as he skulked around sacramento. He spotted her, and quickly ducked into an alley to hide. From there he jumped up onto the roof and continued to trail after her, sneaking along the roof, his tail twitched back and forth as he followed along her route, his eyes peaking out as he watched her walk down the road, occasionally turning back to try to spot him, but he moved back into the shadows of the night. Hee heee heee. I got you now! Al-Adin laughed in his head as she turned the corner into a residential district. He went too far forward, and she turned at just the right time to spot him as he dove over the alley gap, catching a glimpse of his taiR. "Chimp-boy?" She called out. He stayed quiet, saying nothing,gkeeping himself prone. Eventually her shoes clattered against the sidewalk again, and Al-Adin crawled up to the edge of the roof to watch as she entered one of the houses. After watcher her as she went through her evening rituals through the windows, she eventually went to sleep. Al-Adin sat on the rooftop and waited ill very late at night, then slipped down towards her apartmentÍdoor. A little lockpicking and the door opened silently.

larcenous monkey

2010-09-29 14:51:22 Al-Adin rolls 8 to Dex+larceny (10 Again) 10, 7, 3, 8, 4, 5, 10, 10, 7, 3, 5 4 successÑs

He snuck slowly through the home, and found the key* lying on the table. Very slowly he lifted them off of the tablî, placing them in his pocket, holding his left hand against thec to prevent them from jangling as he took out a penny and placed it where her keys were. Slowly, he walked out of the apartment, and shut the door. He walked calmly down the street, his keys ùangling in his pocket, looking to all the world like he had no 8are in the world.
Inwardly, there was one thought.
Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate.

[DrDog]

1 am. The darkness is welcoming to Al-Adin as he slips the lock on the window, stealing himself into the house. There is no sounds of breathing or movement, and the lights are dark, so the monkey moves with a bit of alaclarity, grabbing anything that looks shiny or expensive, replacing each with a penny. DVR, PS3, some jewelry lying on the counter, some bills (mr. lipson paid extra for bills. Al-Adin still didn't quite get why), a bit of cash.
And then he went to work.
The bedroom was picked through, but no safe was found. Then he tried the closet, again no safe. Must be a bachelor, as there was little jewelry lying around. No matter, a pair of expensive shoes went in the bag, as did some fancy belt buckles.
His run complete he put the bag by the window, then walked into the kitchen for lunch. Mmmmm strawberry banana yogurt. penny for the spoon, penny for the yogurt. Penny for the bag of chips. Penny for the soda in the fridge.
Mmmmmm. Good food is delicious. Free food is even more delicious.
He hums to himself as he eats, enjoying the simple pleasures in life. And then its 1:20, and he really shouldn't stay very long. Putting the yogurt, chips bag and soda in the trash, taking back the penny for the spoon, and grabbing the bag on his way out, he closed the window and scrambled onto the roof, looking out over his city.
And then he had to go before whoever it was came back from the bar or whereever. Not his best haul, but thats the downside of apartments. Now off to Lipson to give his stuff, get his check and then see if he couldn't find another place after the bars close.

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin held the note from Yata in his hand as he looked out over the park from his perch in the tree. The bowling alley where they had gone together and had so much fun was just over that way, a few buildings down. But now she wasn't here, she had gone out to get Izanagi on her own, without his help.

He had promised to help her. He had said that he would get nightfall.
And then he had to do a job, or got distracted with something else.
And now she was gone. And she didn't blame him for not doing his promise.

On the one hand, he was happy. She wasn't mad at him. He didn't like it when people were mad at him. It reminded him of dark things, scary things, from before.
But on the other hand (he passed the note to the other hand) he screwed up. And she probably was going to get in a lot of trouble. With him and Nightfall with her, she couldn't have gotten into trouble. But he screwed up.
He made a mistake.
Now what does he do about it?

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin, Speed 40

"My dear dear boy! I've been looking all over for you." The false human sits in a director's folding chair, a manic grin on his face. "If it hadn't been for quite a lucky occurrence on my part and your loneliness for another, I would never have found you. But now that I have you back, I have a new song for you for the musical number! It has you doing a solo duet-"
Al-Adin looked at the man who had caused him so much pain, so much terror and shame and confusion.

And bolted.

"WAIT!" The director called back, obviously shocked that his monlogue was interrupted. "Come back! We haven't done rehearsals!" Before the semblence of humanity fell away, and he turned to his other, more willing actors. "Bring him back. Prepare my conveyance."

And then the chase was on. Al-Adin tore through the hedge, jumping up and running through the branches, his footsteps shattering the weak boughs as he carved a path to freedom. He easily outpaces all of the other actors, leaping over their heads towards freedom.

He leaped high through a hole in the the weft of the hedge, and found himself sliding down a giant branch as it curved through the mad maze. Keeping his balance he scattered thorns and shredded away bark from his slide as he pushed faster. Below him he saw the carriage of the director bounce around on the twisting trails. But Al-Adin wasn't taking the marked paths. He was making his own, 40 feet in the air. The director was belting out a song that sapped all of Al-Adin's energy, as it echoed through the Hedge. So Al-Adin remembered the empty orchestra, remembered Nightfall, remembered all the great times he had with all of his friends, and sang quietly to himself.

"So I run forward
forward to the dawn
Dust and smoke behind me
cannot obstruct my view
I will keep on running
To where the sky is blue.

Moonless nights and mindless men
will not trouble me again
Hunger pain and sorrow fade
as I share what I am paid
Running fast and running free
That is where I want to be
All the way to home"

And suddenly Nightfall is cheering him on, Terri is charging ahead of him, telling him he's got to catch up, Mrs. Rosemary is promising great food, Juno is laughing with him, Betony Rue sits back and dares him to keep going. All of his friends from the freehold, the ones he knew well, the ones he didn't know so great. They are all in front of him, calling to him, telling him to return, to keep going.
His feet are bloody and raw, but he feels no pain. His legs no longer ache, for his running fast and running free. His arms are not tired from all the lifting and balancing, they are light and energetic. He runs without pause, without sleep, without rest. He is Al-Adin, the fastest thief in all the land. And he is going to steal himself!

After what seems like an eternity of running later, off to the side, a great pillar of fire appears. Everything in the hedge stops to look on at this great dragon of fire appears in the distance. Al-Adin though, knows that his friends are calling for him, and he answers the call. He grabs hold of one of the vines, swinging way out over the carriage of the director before rocketing off in a new direction, rushing and crashing through hedge vines and thorns, never stopping, never resting.
Slowly, the great dragon came into closer view, and the hedge grew thinner, and the wheels of the carriage faded into the distance. And Al-Adin laughed. He had done it, he had done the impossible twice. He had faced his greatest fear, he had looked into the Director's face and he had escaped.
The dragon faded, but even Al-Adin could follow where it had been. He charged forward, and broke through one of the parks of sacramento. His face cut, his feet a solid oozing scab, his hands latticed with cuts and scars.

And the Joy of Spring had returned.

[Al-Adin]

"You can't do it. Its too high."
"Like you can talk, you can't get a decent head start on a track, let alone that bit of ledge."
"Shutup, at least I can jump high enough to snag that ledge."
"Yeah yeah, pick on the short guy. But that short means I can get fast enough to make it. If only it was just a bit closer in height."
"What about if you use the fire escape rail? It'll give you the extra distance for the jump?" A new third voice interjects, as Al-Adin makes his presence known to the two men arguing over a Traceur jump.
"Who are you? How'd you get up here?" The short one asks.

"I climbed up half a block over on the wall ledge with all the ivy and stuff, then chimmied up the windows and used the sign as a springboard to boost myself up. From there it was pretty easy to jump roof to roof." Al-Adin narrates the rather difficult journey with expansive hand motions and large whole body movements to convey every step of the journey along.
"And I'm Al-Adin!" He smiles a big smile.

The two look at him, look back at each other, before the short one breathes through two fingers, and the other one nods.

"So you think you can get the jump from the fire escape? Its weird to go down to try to come up." The taller one says, focusing back on the task at hand.

"Yup yup!" Al-Adin nods as he takes off running, taking an extra step down onto the fire escape before leaping off, landing on the opposite roof with nary a scuff on him.

  Parkour

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2013-06-09 18:04:04		Al-Adin rolls 11 to Dex+Athletics (Parkour-Jumping) (10 Again, Rote)		2, 8, 9, 9, 5, 8, 5, 5, 1, 3, 10, 5, 9, 4, 7, 8, 10, 10, 7, 3, 1, 6		9 successes

The two men look at each other, before the tall one shrugs and makes his own run. He lands hard on the railing, but pushes himself hard, and catches the edge, quickly scrambling up over it. "Huh, it worked." He murmurs to himself.

"Yeah thats great and all, but what about me? That roof is too damn high for me to jump, especially if I use the escape to go down." The short one grumbles. Al-Adin walks back for a bit, then runs hard and jumps back over to the other side.

"How high can you jump?" Al-Adin asks, his thinking face on as he struggles to find a way to make this work.

The man jumps a decent height, but not enough to make the jump from roof to roof. Al-Adin spends several minutes thinking and thinking and thinking, before a great idea finally strikes him.

"So why not have your friend help you? He's already there, you just have to jump to him, and he'll catch you right? If he puts his arm down, you can reach that easy."

The two men look at each other, distanced by the bridge in space between them. "I can do it man. Just jump, I'll get you."

Al-Adin nods, before showing the way, running and jumping to the next roof, before turning and watching the two men.

The short man accelerates quickly and does a perfect jump, his hands reaching up as his buddy catches him and helps pull him up.

Al-Adin smiles and runs off, making an absolutely massive jump before continuing on.

"I will not say anything corny like 'who was that masked man'. But what the fuck just happened? Who the hell is Al-Adin?"