Pilfering purloin

As gait arrives to Beach net, he looks around for the Troup mentioned in the mission BBS. the task itself seemingly harder than expected given the rather cluttered nature of the bustling streets of Beach net. the air being filled with chatter and screams of various navi's enjoying beach activities, so much so that you wonder if there is any space left for the sea breeze to occupy, for one thing, the streets along the virtual cost couldn't be more filled.

"Damn it's noisy out here, where are those knuckleheads anyways?"[b][/b]

Gait reviews his small note written on a leaf with ink



Bah, sure would have helped if they specified a location on beach net...

"according to the note, there should be more than one of them gait, perhaps the group has a specific gathering somewhere here? Scour the area and ask anyone of interest that you find,...and you sure you didn't miss any details on the BBS?"[b][/b]

"They shouldn't be too hard to find.."[b][/b]

"Well...goodluck then.."[b][/b]

At that, Gait start to run along the perimeter of the streets, weaving through street goers to and examining every passing building and navi.

The coordinate data that the GNA had provided Gait led the ninja directly where he needed to go. As it turned out, however, even had he not accepted the coordinates, he'd have been in no trouble: a tremendous, obnoxious laughter rang out from atop a nearby life-guard's stand and the navi sitting up there was quite clearly hooded. Both aspects seemed to match the description of the navi who'd given him the offer.

As he drew closer, he found that the hood might very well be called the extent of the navi's clothing. The green hood sat upon her shoulders and tied below her chin, extending into a very small cape on the back. Her eyes were covered by a green eye-mask, like a superhero trying to protect their identity, including the obscuring of the eye's details. Her body was just barely covered with an olive-green bikini, adorned with large, artificial, green leaves in "strategic locations." Besides that, all she wore was a quiver and bow, both strung around her back.

Blond hair spilled down from both open sides of her hood, framing her face. Her body was highly distracting, owing to her wide hips and stupefyingly large and bouncing breasts. Somewhat hilariously, it looked as though the girl was on the way to a tan that would cover her body rather generously while entirely neglecting her head, due to the hood. One of her legs was crossed over the other casually, kicking up and down as she scanned the water with an old fashioned brass periscope. Her lips curved into a wide, ridiculous grin as she spotted something that held her interest out on the water. "Ha ha ha ha! I feel sorry for you, my adversary. I really do!" she chuckled to herself, lowering the periscope to take a sip from the straw of a lemon slush drink.

She didn't seem to have noticed Gait; it was unlikely that she had a description to look for him off of. What was she doing in a lifeguard's chair, anyways? Could she really be a lifeguard in an outfit like that?

Gait continued to run aimlessly along the shore, searching for something or someone of interest that might clue them in on purloin's whereabouts. After so much running, Gait finally stops, taking another scan of his surroundings only to find nothing important still, more sand, more ocean, more streets, more noisy people, and that lifeguard stand over at the beach.

"Gah..Where are those goons! I can't spot them anywhere out here. I can't believe I'm going to fail this mission..."[b][/b]

"There should have been coordinates on that BBS, did you see if they left a reply at all?"[b][/b]

"No, didn't think they would have after I stated that I was on my way."[b][/b]

"...wonderful...we are going to bomb this mission all because of you gait, just wonderful!"[b][/b]

Lawrence was at Beach town in the real world, hanging at an internet café while drinking a tiny cup of free water, he pauses to fetch another refill, then continues with gait. "We are going to have to keep looking Gait, you better hoof it before we lose this opportunity."[b][/b], Gait scoffs. "Easy to say when you are on your ass, drinking water, lazy....what was that?"[b][/b]
A tremendous, obnoxious laughter was heard not too far away, it was from that lifeguard stand off at the distance, as gait approach it to get a better look at the lifeguard, he was able to make out that the hood was the only form of decent coverage on her exaggerate female physique outside of the strategically placed leaves on her bikini, Gait stared for a bit, then states in a frustrated tone.

"ick, such contemptible display of such a beautiful aspect of nature! I'm giving that skink a piece of my mind!"[b][/b] He then begins to approach the stand before Lawrence could finish his response.

"..What? The leaves? You know you don't hold the right to be the- Gait wait! Let's not start a fight ok?"[b][/b]

"Huh? Fine I'll try not to, but if she insists on that outfit, then maybe I'll just add a bit more coverage myself"[b][/b]

"N-no!..."[b][/b]

Gait then continues to walk up towards the lifeguard stand until he is where he assumes to be within earshot of her, he then proceeds to shout out towards her. "You! You are desecrating a beautiful piece of nature! I don't care if you're a wood navi or not, take those Leaves off those melons!"[b][/b]

The navi ceased laughing for a moment to turn her head towards Gait. She raised both eyebrows, then promptly opened her mouth for another gigantic, annoying speel of chuckles. "Ahaha hahaha! Boy, shorty, that's a pickup line if I've ever heard one!" she guffawed, misunderstanding Gait's comment completely. "Well, I thought the leaves of Sherwood forest might not be bad for modesty's sake, but if I'm 'obscuring a beautiful piece of nature,' then by all means, let's go all out!"

With a few quick motions, she took out the pins securing the leaves and threw them aside with an utter lack of disregard. Once they were off, the bikini secured almost nothing, showing an embarrassing amount of both skin and texture that would become indecent with a little further body motion. "There you are, ha ha! Now, I'm going to speculate a bit; you're a navi in all green, correct? Possibly a bounty hunter? Are you looking for a navi named Hood? Because I am she!" the navi announced proudly, spreading both arms dramatically and soliciting another uncontrolled heave of her bosom. "Your name's Gait, right? The GNA told me you were coming! Ha ha! You've heard of the famous Robin Hood, haven't you?"

At the sight of sudden female navi nudity, Lawrence quietly panicked as he realized he's in a public setting and could be framed for looking at pornography. he quietly shoves his PET in his bag and walks out of the cafe in a desperately inconspicuous manner, face red, hoping no one was around to see.

Meanwhile back in the net, Gait was satisfied that she removed the leaves from such distasteful placement, and oddly enough completely unfazed by What was being revealed. "So you are the client eh? well I've heard a few legends here and there, thanks for making things easy for starters. now, any news on where this purloin chick is?"[b][/b]

Gait stepped closer to the lifeguard stand.

"Ha ha! Purloin? I've been scoping out her location, watching her vigilantly! We're going to see that her wealth is redistributed to those who deserve it," Hood confirmed; she tossed the periscope down to Gait, then leaned back casually. "Take a look; you'll see her, over there on that yacht in the distance. They call her Purloin of Nottingham! She's not from Nottingham any more than I'm from Sherwood forest, but screw it, she's stolen my gig! Who even knows a Purloin of Nottingham from history, anyways?! Not I, ha ha!"

The yacht wasn't hard to get a bead on, given its size. Was Purloin really robbing people on the beach using something so inconspicuous as her base of operations? It seemed like doing so would really make it hard to escape with her catch or avoid law enforcement... Regardless, when he started catching the light glinting off of a diamond encrusted swimsuit, he figured he must have found the right person.

Face down atop a long poolchair on the yacht's deck (although there was no pool) lay another distinctly shapely woman. Her black hair seemed very similar in form and length to Hood's own; she wore a similar mask as well, although hers was black. Her outfit was less racey but just as gaudy: a black one-piece, studded with miniature diamonds. She was in the process of examining a much larger diamond using an appraiser's lense.

Gait also noticed another girl driving the ship, dressed in fancy purple and white robes with a silk hat and matching gloves. She was much shorter than the other two and more childishly built; her face was also that of a child, as was her hair, brown and bobcut. Given those features, the other girl seemed like a much more fitting nemesis for Hood.

"You see?! Ha ha ha, she even copied my look! I need you to get out there and use some of your ninja skills to steal anything you can find on that boat that holds diamonds; I'll give you my handy Robin Hood Wealth Redistribution Bag to help you carry everything you find. It's bottomless, just like the charity of my soul!" Gait's host explained, handing him an ordinary looking brown bag.

*Received RedistributionBag.DAT*

"Use my speedboat over by the harbor. Here's the key!" she further instructed the ninja, throwing him down a keycard.

*Received BoatKey.DAT*

"I'll continue scouting from here! At the first sign of distress, give me a signal and I shall come to your aid. Otherwise, I need to keep on doing my lifeguard job here, since er... I need some actual money," she coughed. "Just grab anything with diamonds are jewels on it and stuff it in that bag! She's obsessive over diamonds, so you're likely to find a lot."

Gait grabs the periscope as it is thrown down to him and takes a look out at sea; he immediately takes note of the glare coming from the huge yacht across the bright blue sea. Zooming in closer he spots another female figure wearing an only slightly more modest black one piece swimsuit, modest being in coverage as it being encrusted in diamonds is certainly not modest at all. The huge diamond she examines holds gait's attention for a bit before he decides to scan the rest of the yacht, where he soon spots the driver of the boat being that of a young girl in a fancy purple and white robe.

"...That ought to be her, and that's a pretty hefty diamond."[b][/b]

He takes the periscope out of his eyes to look up at hood, then catching the brown bag and keys thrown down to him. "so I just nab valuable, stuff it in here, and bring it back to you; sounds easy."[b][/b] Gait then turns around and shoves his penspear nib first into the ground, leaving the brush end up in the air, stained with green pigment.
"I can change this brush's pigment at will even from far away, when it's green I'm doing fine, but by the off chance I happen to get into hot water, I'll turn it red"[b][/b]. He then promptly holds his hands forward and spawns a brand new one. "Really, I doubt she will notice me, she may not even notice her precious valuables were even taken in fact...hehe.. hope you don't mind me giving your boat a paintjob, I can restore it later."[b][/b]. At that, sea blue pigment starts to flow from the tip of his brush. He then begins to paint his whole body blue, to match the sea's color, spilling a bit on the sand. When he finishes he retracts the blue pigment, leaving the brush cleaner but with a slightly blue stain on the tip. With bag and key in tow, he runs off towards the harbor, it's a long ways to go but he continues to keep pace, ignoring the odd looks he is getting from everyone for his blue paint job.

Meanwhile Lawrence is at the beach town streets hanging out beside a bench in front of a swimsuit and inflatables shop, staring off into the ocean, his PET still besides him but a sketchbook in front of him. He is drawing the scene of the beach in color pencil, grabbing whatever colored pencil he needs from his shoulder bag. He carefully renders the concaving patterns of the creamy colored sand, the gentle blue sea and it's foamy waves...the bright blue sky with the occasional batch of seagulls in the air to-*SNAP!!*
His sky blue color pencil just broke on him while he was in the mood. Naturally upset, he reaches into his bag to pull out the pencil sharpener, a simple square sharpener that works by turning. As he pulls it out he fumbles it in his hands and drops it on the ground, *Plunk!!* The pencil sharpener split in half in the way it was designed to, spilling all its contents onto the ground in a grainy mess of wood shavings, wax clumps, and the ever so messy graphite of variable softness.
Lawrence sighed and stashed his sketchbook away to clean up the mess, only to see his PET and remember that gait still needed monitoring. He picks it up and begins communication with gait.

"Gait!...why are you blue?"[b][/b]

"All part of the mission Lawrence, no more questions now ok?"[b][/b]

"Uh..no, there will be more; and to start, what was our mission?"[b][/b]

"Rich Hood wannabe has stolen goods in her jumbo yacht and I've got a bottomless bag to store them all, I'm getting in, stealing it all, painting up phonies to keep them from knowing soon, and bailing. "[b][/b]

"and the blue paintjob?"[b][/b]

"for camoflauge against the ocean, what else? I have to get there don't I?"[b][/b]

"So you are going to swim out there?"[b][/b]

"Nope, Hood gave me a speedboat, I'm painting it to, all I hope is that it's not too noisy."[b][/b]

By the end of the exchange, Gait made it to the harbor with the speedboat, it seems like a standard speedboat, nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary. Gait proceeds to give the boat a generous sea blue cover, and when finished hops in to activate it. The boat gives off a powerful roar upon start up but mellows out just a bit. With the boat untied from the dock and running, he begins to make a bee line for the yacht, starting quickly, but slowing down as he gets closer so the engine wouldn't be too loud to detect. As he gets close to the yacht, he looks up to examine it and any possible way up the yacht.

As it turned out, the boat wasn't silent at all; the sound it made upon cranking up was so loud that it was clear that the boat was not only probably unintended for use in stealth missions, but also likely in poor repair. Still, slowing speed as he approached helped Gait keep out of sight, out of mind; hopefully, the crashing of the waves and honking of the gulls would keep Purloin from hearing. As if to emphasize the point of how crappy Hood's preparation was, the boat promptly broke down within arms reach of the yacht. He hadn't even managed to locate a ladder yet...

It did seem as though a window above him was open, but he'd have to latch on to the sill and pull himself up somehow. Alternatively, he may have his own ways to get on deck, or he may use the oar inside the boat to paddle around the yacht... but the yacht was moving (albeit slowly), so that might not work out so well. There was also the chance he'd find a ladder if he looked around a little more. Worse comes to worst, he could always call out for assistance... but that'd kind of lose the point of the mission, wouldn't it?

Closer and closer he gets in a desperate attempt to keep the noise bucket of a boat quiet enough to work,

"Lousy hunk of garbage! Gah...almost there..."[b][/b]

Just as he was about to reach the yacht, the boat's engine starts to sputter and wheeze, and soon he slows to a stop...so close but now becoming further and further away from the yacht as it continued to sail ahead of him.

"Arg! This piece of junk! Gah, I can't work like this.."[b][/b]

At that, gait searches the interior of the boat for something that could be of use, anything. He finds an Oar...but just one. With nothing else available, he decides on using it in conjunction with his penspear to row himself towards the boat.
Sadly, Gait's puny form and weak muscularity rendered him far too slow even for the cruising cruiser, as it continued to slowly get even further out of his reach. Concluding that the boat was now a hindrance than anything else, he drops the oar and leaps out of it and into the water, where he attempts to make a swim for it.
The Ocean waves tossed him around as he desperately tried to swim towards the boat, stroke after stroke he forces himself closer and closer to the yacht. As he approached the yacht's sill, he shoves his penspear into it nib first, lodging it in place, and climbing on top of it. He balanced on it just a foot above sea level, still retaining his blue coloration, and begins to examine the boat for any possible entrance.

Fortunately he spotted a window nearby, thinking it would be an excellent way to enter undetected, he spawned another penspear and forcefully lodged it into the sill towards the window a little bit higher, then hoists himself up onto it. He repeats this over and over until his head was finally at level with the window.

Deciding to play it safe, he tries to take a peek with the corner of his eye, so as to not reveal his head as much as possible...

The good news for Gait was that he managed to get up easily enough; the sea seemed to calm down as if anticipation of his tricky maneuver. Once he got up to a proper level from which to take a peek through the window, he did so...

Unfortunately, the bad news was that while nobody was inside the hold that he could see, the floor and mid-section of the room were crisscrossed with a grid of security lasers. The room was littered with various treasures of various origin... interestingly, few of them seemed covered in diamonds or gems as Hood had suggested they'd be. The lasers were likely attached to some kind of alarm, but the net being what it was, they could be any sort of security system.

Getting across the room safely would be an extreme challenge: the only safe method of navigation would be sticking to the tops of particularly tall artifacts line up near the walls and creeping towards the door. Even then, there was no telling if she might have more defenses set up further in.

At this rate, Gait could easily consider that he ought to try another window or otherwise look for a way on deck. A bit of net hanging off the side, waving in the wind, seemed to offer him a possible grappling point, if he could only get a little bit higher. Even then, however, he'd have to deal with being on deck with the one he was supposed to be stealing from. Close proximity would make him easier to detect.

"Security lasers!?! How did she get security lasers on this yacht? No matter, even if I could get in, odds are I'm not getting anything out of there... Knowing how the net works, that's probably a virus trap, and this hurts to say it but I'm not equip to handle any major virii yet. Hmm..."[b][/b]

Gait looks around from his position for any other way in, he then spots a net hanging a good ways above him, swaying in the wind as if to invite him up deck.
"...I could probably just climb my way up deck with that, but...purloins up there...I cannot believe I'm afraid of some chick navi in a diamond encrusted two piece, but regardless she's a navi and she could be packing powerful chips...dad made a good point when he said I ought to have invested more time in training, here I am playing chicken to someone I could easily have riddled with wood shurikens by now had Lawrence not have sold all my upgrades, Feh.."[b][/b]

The pen spear begins to kneel under gait's weight, angling downwards. Gait wobbles a bit but quickly regains his balance.

"..okay time to think fast, This windows no good and the deck is a no go...time to try that other window."[b][/b]

At that, he spawned two more penspears, one in each hand, and began to work his way over to the window to the right of him by shoving one penspear into the sill, swinging over, and shoving the second on in further away from the first; repeating this process while generating a new penspear each time to form a monkeybars-as-he-goes from one window to the other. Without gait's weight on the penspear he was standing on before, the penspear managed to stay in place and not fall off.
Suspended in the air and hanging onto a penspear, he tries his hardest to kneel in on the window to take a look at what's behind it without exposing himself.

Gait decided to try for the next window. It turned out to be a grueling distance to reach just by using penspears as hooks; the distance had looked a lot shorter when he hadn't been trying to navigate it. Once he made it over, he found that the inside was a very unremarkable hold full of old drawers and dressers. Maybe they were valuable too in some fashion? Regardless, there were no lasers and the contents of the room weren't nearly as interesting.

Still, it looked like a safe point of entry, at least compared to his other options. The only possible object of interest that he could see in the room, unless he wanted to try to smuggle an ancient dresser drawer out in his bag, was a palm-sized red box atop one of the dressers. It looked just the right size to hold a piece of jewelry, like a ring or bracelet.

"This is looking better, no lasers or hazards, I'm going in."[b][/b]

Gait then shoves a penspear into the sill below him to stand on, and then uses another penspear like a crowbar to try and pry the window open.