[color=CD2868][center][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5500451][img]https://i.imgur.com/a2NKAnu.png[/img][/url][h2][b]🎕 Talia of Roses 🎕[/b][/h2][/center][/color][b]//O11 - Deserted Backstreets[/b]

Talia and her men had naturally just stepped out of their way. Not out of the fear of being bulldozed, the fear of dust getting in one's eyes, or anything like that. It just wasn't worth the effort. What were they going to do if they won a fight? Steal their pants? Deal with a monetary hostage crisis? Give him back his money and beg for a share? Though, Talia had a strange look in her eyes. The scheme of someone about to do what they really shouldn't do.

The slender man had found himself sprinting through an easy gap made by the thieves stepping towards the sides of an alley. Talia began to spin around her arm in a windmill.

The bulldozer met nothing but dust. Her windmilling speed increased.

The halfling dashed through the blinding dust. His first sight upon cresting the cloud was Talia's smug grin and spinning arm. The second he ran past her—WHAM. His bottom cheek had been marked by a malformed five-pointed star. It was an old trick of the bordello—one that a customer usually paid for.

The band of merry thieves kept their eyes on the fleeing group, but they weren't going to do a thing to stop them. They didn't have an enforceable claim to this territory nor were they guardsmen. Talia and her men were thieves through and through. They weren't about to stop an unsuccessful theft. That'd be hypocrisy! Plus, honour among thieves and all that. Really, there was a half dozen reasons why they weren't going to punish them. The gold coins in front of them was another reason why.

[color=CD2868]"Well then,"[/color] Talia said as she shook off her stinging hand, [color=CD2868]"I suppose we should talk about protection fees!"[/color]

With a brief nod to the other thieves, she approached the group of three on the other side of the alley with the muscular and ever-unbuttoned thief in tow. At where the white-haired merchant had been accosted by the halfling, she paused and turned to face the thief who had come with her.

[color=CD2868]"That nod was to watch the entrance of the alley."[/color]

[color=CCCCCC]"I thought we were-"[/color]

[color=CD2868]"No, that's what a brigand does. We aren't brigands. At least not right now."[/color]

[color=CCCCCC]"Oh. My bad."[/color]

The muscular thief returned to the other thieves. Talia turned back to the group of three with a smile and continued her walk towards the oldie, dragonkin, and accostee in a bouncy saunter, only to stop when she was within arm's reach of the white-haired boy.

[color=CD2868]"So, what do you think going to save your coin from thieves is worth?"[/color] She asked him as she ignored the dragonkin and old man. Their time would come. Plus, they didn't directly say anything to her so there was nothing to reply to; Talia felt it would be a little strange if she spoke to them first. It would kind of be like arriving to a ball and immediately making threats to a rival suitor. What was important right now is that they didn't get a leg up on her or screw her out of any possible protection fee!

[color=CD2868]"Of course, if you don't want to pay us coin, you could always repay our services in some other way~!"[/color]

Her tone was bouncy like the rest of her. While she was being playful, she wasn't making a threat. If it were, she would have brought some backup with her. Rather than looking at his coinage, she had looking directly at the white-haired boy. Her eyes, however, were looking at something deeper than his surface appearance.