Harper moved with the flow of the bustling Market District streets as the din of people from every walk of life filled the night air. Lanterns hung from awnings, lamp posts, and inside shop windows cast a shadowy illumination upon the faces of those he passed. The shop stalls were busy, tavern doors were open and music echoed from within, people from all walks of life filled the street in commercial merriment. It was the perfect time of night to go unnoticed, the perfect chance to blend in. This was a necessity, Harper had 'overstayed his welcome' in Sol City, and if the wrong person saw his face he'd likely end up in jail or... worse.

Harper's red curls were concealed under a flat cap, he wore a scarf in an attempt to hide his facial features. He was wearing a pair of dark trousers, old leather boots, a white shirt with a vest over it, and a long jacket. Over one shoulder was a bag filled with a... let's just say a very important set of items. In his right hand he held a journal, the tome itself was simple yet the locking mechanism was anything but. It had three keyholes and a strange puzzle mechanism to hold it shut. A strange quill was in his other hand and with the two he was writing furiously. He flipped through pages as he finished each with a furious hand.

The cool crisp air added to the tension of the night and gave him a welcome boost of energy. His mind raced to the duo he'd hired on for help with tonight's work, he contemplated every small bit of conversation they'd had, the clothes they wore, where and how they met. Each detail he played over in his mind until he could convince himself they were on his side, for the moment.

He ripped three pages from the book with a quick motion, folding each quickly and tucking them in various pockets on the inside of his jacket. These papers were forged documents. Each ready to be signed by a corresponding individual, and delivered to the guards at the end of the night. This was a key part of his plan to gain his revenge on a local crime gang known as The Lock and Keys. They'd taken something of immense sentimental value to him and he meant to have it back. On a side note they were also violent criminals...

The meeting place approached quickly, a side entrance to a forgotten storage shed tucked between two failing shops. Harper looked from side to side with paranoid eyes as he walked into the alley through a labyrinth of connected paths. After making sure he hadn't been tailed he stepped inside to greet his fellows. A tall woman, so tall that he'd require a ladder to look her in the eyes, named Izzy and a small bird named Fish. The two seemed as close to criminals as he was comfortable with, but they'd convinced him that they were loyal so far.

The room was of an average size, sparsely furnished and dimly lit. A single lamp sitting atop an old crate shined onto the duo as Harper entered the room, shutting the door behind himself and barring the door.

"Happy to see you're both alive and present. This show is about to be underway, shall we go over the plan once more?" He asked with no intent on awaiting an answer as he paced throughout the room to vent pent up energy.

"We'll be masquerading as black market dealers, I should be able to get a meeting arranged with their leadership. Once we find their base of operations you two get me inside, make a distraction and enrich yourselves on their behalf, I'll grab the thing, and we all walk out and meet back here." He spoke with a hushed voice brimming with excitement. He spoke so quickly that some of the words jumbled together.

"Got it?" He stopped his pacing, finally allowing himself a moment to breath, and staring at his companions with an excited smile.

From the rooftops, Fish trailed behind Harper, their steps unheard as they track across buildings.[1] Keen little eyes keep track of the man as he whisks his way through the crowd, Fish was going to be sure this wasn't a trap. Regardless of whether or not Izzy new this person, Fish isn't great at being a welcoming presence. Every unknown is a variable that Fish would like to factor out as quickly as possible.

The take a little slide down one roof and dive through the still opened window to slip in, closing the window behind them, and arrive before Harper does. They skitter down before getting on to a perch on Izzy's shoulder. Their ultimate intimidating pose.

Fish quietly looks the man up and down, head tilting to the side as the plan is laid out. It seems as if Izzy neglected to tell the man an important detail or two about the bird.

"Fish cannot talk, that makes for a bad disguise." They make the hand signs, their only method of communication, slow enough to see if Harper understands it. If he doesn't know sign language, the bird is about to be very sassy. The pacing and rapid speech was already setting off lots of red flags for Fish. This had to be a personal endeavor otherwise, just hire Izzy and them to do it and stay out of the line of fire. Fish didn't like this.

Waiting by the window for Fish to come back, Izzy casually blows smoke outside. She knew Fish wanted to make their own assurances, and Izzy wasn't about to begrudge the flighty, young kenku that. Besides, she knew better. It was prudent, and Fish knew what they were doing. Harper was new, relatively unknown, but they got on well enough when the had run into one another looking into the same thing.

Certain people were relentless after all.

Izzy looks up at the kenku as they settle on their shoulder, grinning wide. The door opens and Harper enters briskly, clearly thrilled by the concept of his plan. Fish was more skeptical, which was their way; they knew their limitations, and preferred to be the unseen hand. She reaches up to give their little foot a reassuring pat. "That shouldn't be too hard," Izzy drawls, following Fish's hands so she could transalate. "Fish here doesn't talk conventionally. I can speak for them, but I think someone would prefer to be out of sight and inspecting, maybe?" she gives Fish a grin, and then turns the smiling mouth full of knives towards Harper.

"I am more than enough distraction, I can assure you," Izzy adds, her grin widening. That appeared to be true, by all accounst; over seven feet tall, bone-white skin and a cascade of red curls of her own, Izzy was a master at being the focus of the room. When she wanted to be.

She then gestures her hand at Fish, as if presenting the kenku as though they were a wonderful work of art. They were. "My recommendation; take Fish with you. They can open doors and they have a sixth sense for where to locate treasure. I should be able to carry the conversation with the mooks juuust fine to let you guys get in and do what you need to. What sort of distraction would you like?" She smiles down at Harper around a mouthful of smoke. "We have many different models to choose from."

Harper's eyes widened and his brow raised as the bird signed to him. Could he not speak? Harper had learned some basic sign language growing up in a family of criminals, it served a wonderful purpose in silent communication, but was also severely out of practice. He could only make out the words for fish, talk, and disguise. Using context clues he managed to fill in the rest but decided to play the part of having no idea what Fish was saying so that if they used it to plot against him he could discover their intent. 

"I... what's the bird doing with his hands there? Is he excited or something?"¹ Harper motioned with his hand towards Fish with a face of utter confusion.

Izzy's answer proved him correct in his interpretation, he'd have to watch carefully if they spoke amongst one another using sign. As for her proposal, that he and Fish enter and she provide a distraction, it seemed solid enough. They'd worked together recently and he'd only just re-entered the criminal world, trusting them seemed the best way forward.

"I've no better proposition, you two would know what works best for you and as long as my goal is reached the scheme itself is of no import." He smiled back at the two of them. 

As Izzy asked about the specific distraction he'd like he realized that these two could likely handle the job entirely on their own. She seemed to have both charismatic and physical force at her disposal and Fish had entered the room with silence and grace. If it wasn't such a personal mission to him, and if he truly trusted them not to double cross him, he'd likely sit the affair out. 

"As for the particulars of the distraction, I'll leave that up to you. Whatever strikes your fancy most, I suppose, will do. I have no regard for the lives of these men and don't plan on sticking around Sol City afterwards either, therefore I'm not concerned with keeping a low profile or clear record." He looked to her with a confident stare, trying not to look surprised or intimidated despite her razor smile, smokey speech, and massive stature.

Looking to Fish on her shoulder he spoke slowly and louder than normal. "Looks like its you and me then, little guy"¹ He had to que his mouth up awkwardly to avoid laughing at himself as he awaited Fish's response to the tease. 

1 - Smooth Talking - Used to convince the two Harper can't understand sign language at all.

Fish narrows their eyes still at the man across from them. Being inherently distrustful, they were slow to believe anything anyone said. Everyone lies even when it sounds like they are telling the truth which made Fish even a little more annoyed with this guy because the playing dumb act didn't seem to be an act.



The kenku was still of a mind to just do this themselves, but fine. Izzy wanted to foster new connections. They hopped down from the giantess' shoulder and onto a nearby crate. Fish flicks back their cloak to give a glimpse of their armaments, but also remove a few things. A flask with a strange smoky liquid, one that shimmered like a golden pool of light, and a wooden bottle that gives off faint clinking noises are handed to Izzy.[1] She would know what they were, but Fish would chose not to explain to the newcomer.



There is no response to the teasing because Izzy likely steps in before the bird can sink a crossbow bolt into Harper's upper thigh. "Keep a low profile or Fish will ensure the guards do find you. Fish will not have a mission jeopardized by a lack of professionalism.

---

1. Izzy is handed a Smoke Flask, Flash Flask, and Explosive Cask.

"They are doing sign, I recommend learning if you wanna get back into the field. Pretty damn useful, actually," Izzy suggests, expression still jovial. She doesn't blame him, Harper was a journalist, a respectable civilian coming back to the streets. Hearing that she had free reign over how her distraction would play out, the sharp grin spreads even wider, somehow. "OOooOoOoh, goody goody~." Izzy snickers. This was bound to be fun.

Though Fish still seemed skeptical, she notes. She watches them jump down and reveal their bandolier of flasks, lifting her brows as they hand her some. Izzy gasps, ember-like eyes sparkling with delight. Graciously, she accepts her bounty. "Aahh, Fish, it's like you can read my mind." She stows the flasks away, her smile reflecting the wonderful things she could do with things like this. "I shall make sure to be extra distracting in your name."

Hearing the tease from Harper, Izzy reaches out to put a hand on their small shoulder, to prevent the lifting of any weapons. Izzy was there, calm and watchful, non-plussed by almost everything. A perfect pendulum between the two. She watches them sign to Harper and snickers softly, before looking to the human. "Fish takes their job real seriously, and I can't say I blame 'em. They're like family to me, so keep an eye on 'em, will ya?" She winks, the hand on Fish's shoulder squeezing just once before she lets go.

Izzy's methodology was always that one could catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but the truth in her sentence was one that aligned with Fish's warning, which, as far as Izzy knew, Harper could not understand. In either case, she was acting as the intervener here. Which was an odd place for her, of all people, to be in, but she was a professional first and an agent of chaos... also first, those two went hand in hand BUT sometimes, one had to supercede the other.

"When do we head out? Anything I should know about who you're having me meet with?" she asks, brows lifting, looking sidelong at the door.

"Ahh, they, so sorry!" Harper felt a tinge of embarrassment, he'd intended to act an idiot but he'd do well to avoid antagonizing them with no purpose. 

"Sign language though! That is amazingly smart, the uses would be unending. You've just got to teach me that one day." He said to Fish enthusiastically.

The exchange of potions encouraged Harper, these two were prepared and his hopes for success grew with each exchange. Hopefully he could prove through action his own capabilities, so far he'd only managed to lower their expectations. As Izzy also warned him to be careful and not muck things up for the lot of them it was made even clearer, they thought him a liability...

"I assure you, though I've not been doing the type of work you lot have I've been in my fair share of danger. We'll make an excellent duo, you can trust me." He winked to Fish as he said duo, looking back to Izzy as he assured her of his ability to keep her friend safe.

The question of who they'd be meeting was easy enough, the only complication would be in achieving the same result he'd hoped for if he was no longer the face of things... Of course, it wouldn't take too much more than a signature from them...

"The Lock and Keys is the group, I'm not sure how familiar with them you are. They operate out of the southern side of the district mostly, so far as I can tell. We're headed to an old storefront tonight, Pierro's Bizarre Goods, to meet Pierro himself. Their leaders are, well, I don't know who they are. I do know someone a tad up the totem pole though, we'll be speaking to him about... This!" He pulled one of the papers from his pocket and presented it to the group.

The stationary was simple, somewhat poor in quality. The writing was inelegant, yet it was encoded with incredible skill. Attached to the letter was a simply cypher to decode it with, if it were lost, the letter would take incredible skill to decode. This, after all, was Harper's speciality. He handed the paper to Izzy with a triumphant grin. 

"An offer of services from one organization, ours, to another, The Lock and Keys. In exchange for an introduction to upper leadership with possibility of furthered relations upon service completion. The service is unimportant as we'll not be around to render it. What's important is that you convince this fellow to take us to his superiors. Oh, and that he, well, signs it." He stopped for a moment to catch his breath.

"I hope to forge the signatures we retrieve tonight and incriminate the lot of them beyond a doubt to give officials the evidence they need to act." He smiled as a strategist would at his battle plans, holding the paper with pride. 

Fish looks up to Izzy, switching to a seemingly esoteric set of hand signs just to test the man. It's a set of codes that Izzy and Fish had worked on if they ever found need of it, "If this goes badly, he gets burned first. Fish and Izzy take priority."

The kenku wasn't too worried about the tiefling's ability to get herself out of trouble, but Fish wasn't going to be held back trying to save a stranger. Not unless Fish had good reason to at least, something they didn't have at the moment.

"Being around danger is bad as a thief, danger should be avoided." Though if Fish held to that, they wouldn't continue to work with Izzy. She's danger incarnate given the right circumstances.

They look over the paper as it's handed to Izzy. Fish would have to give the stranger this, he came with an interesting job at least. Swipe and swaps are simple and routine work, blackmail took more leg work. It was an interesting plan, but it had it's risk. Things Fish thought they and Izzy could iron out.

"The service is important, Izzy should know what Izzy intends to offer. This is not a situation to play loose, Criminals are going to be susipicious." Pot meet kettle. "Also if Izzy is going to be offering a contract, it should be legible and presented cleanly.....Give the paper to Fish, Izzy can figure out Izzy's story."

Fish snatches the paper and hops over to a crate. They set out the paper, smoothing it out, before pulling out a less crumpled piece of paper, a quill, and some ink. The kenku keeps their eyes on what Harper wrote, but their hand starts writing. Fish's penmanship looks identical to if it was made by a professional scribe. If Harper looks, it is an exact copy of his code with no deviations along with the attached cipher. The paper is then folded and handled to make it look as if this group is not the first to be considering these services.

Catching Fish's cant code, she does not react or reply outwardly, save for a quick, assuring wink. I got you.

Satisfied that everyone was on the same page and that Harper was fully aware of his actions, Izzy grins. She could trust him? "Bet." Pushing off the wall, she saunters over to the table to have a look at what Harper is detailing.

"Can't say I'm familiar," she says regarding the group. The Lock and Keys. Smoking, Izzy listens in careful silence, absorbing all the information being presented in such a way that it might be studious, if she wasn't standing so casually, looking like she had zoned out. But that was what she liked people to see, of course. Let them assume she had tuned out, so she could listen unimpeded. Not that this was a concern here at all, but at this point, slipping into that expression was a force of habit.

She takes the paper without missing a beat, brows lifting, impressed. The documentation would fit nicely. Now all they had to do was add in what services they would be providing, yes? As Fish takes the paper-- Izzy chuckles quietly, letting it go without a fuss-- she removes the cigar from her mouth to think, tapping it idly against her bicep. "Fish thinks we should be wary of danger and that we should have something they'd want on offer. That's easy enough, I can come up with the story. I do my best work on the fly, but it if it will ease your mind," she looks over the papers Harper laid out on the table again. So, they were black market dealers.

"The service I'm selling, is, of course, one of procurement," she puts on her friendliest, toothiest smile. "The contract, of course, simply legitimizes the whole transaction in case the authorities should intervene-- minus any firm detail, of course-- but when someone needs, say, several Sol City manacles, illegally modified cross-bows, or perhaps a fine peice of art, our syndicate is the way to do. Why haven't you heard of us? Well, we don't advertise, plain and simple. Don't need to. Word of mouth means our reputation speaks for us, of course, and I'm the spokes person. There! How's that?" She glances between Fish and Harper, looking for feedback.

Harper tried to act uninterested, looking away and to the side, examining his nails as Fish signed to Izzy. He blinked quickly as the sign was foreign to him, forcing himself to ignore it he returned to his feigned ignorance. Hopefully no one had caught that. Whatever they had been saying to one another it was understood, Izzy winked, not a good sign. He'd need to be careful with these two, he was an outsider in the group to be certain.

"I assume that was some harsh remark at my expense?" He forced a snicker, trying to play off his interest in what had actually been exchanged between the two.

As fish grabbed the paper and began to rewrite it Harper grew tense. The strategy displayed was genius, it increased their credibility, it was only when he recognized the effect that he relaxed once more. He had one of those quills as well... interesting. 

As Izzy ran through a proposal for their services Harper smiled confidently towards her before clapping his hands together twice with finality. 

"Beautiful. If they think us liars still it'll be no fault of yours." He turned to Fish before continuing. "I'll trust your instincts as we infiltrate the building, think of me as your larger and less experienced shadow for the night."

He raised his eyebrows, shrugged his shoulders, and extended a hand to each of his accomplices for a handshake.

"So, are we ready to move?"  He smiled at them with a face of excitement despite the anxiety roiling inside his mind.

The paper is handed over to Izzy as Fish tucks away the tools of their forgery. Fish is still not sold on the third wheel, what was this supposed to be? Some sort of tricycle? Nonsense, no one would ever ride those. As good as Fish was at advanced math and science, they didn't like working with variables they couldn't account for.

Izzy seems ready to go with it though. She tended to be a lot looser than Fish and much more willing to roll with it and deal with things as they come, so for all intents and purposes Fish was not surprised. If she had shown any hesitation, they both would've left by now. Izzy is crazy, not dumb.

Fish turns from the handshake and hops towards the door ready to go. This was less of an affront or insult to Harper and more Fish just missing a social cue.

To make up for Fish's lack of decorum, Izzy shakes both of Harper's hands, grinning broadly as her large hands encompass his own. "Ready as we'll ever be. Fish says good to work with ya. Yoink~." Izzy takes the contract back, winks and withdraws, blowing a stream of smoke into the air. She ducks underneath the doorframe as she makes her way forward to the rendezvous, practicing her character in her mind.

---

Izzy is by herself, as by design for this portion at least. She was unsure if Harper intended to speak with Pietro first, or if he had simply arranged for the meeting ahead of time, but in either case, she was raring to go. For Izzy's part, it doesn't take much to look like a fellblood on the look-out for something. She saunters in front of Pierro's Bizarre Goods, looking for the man himself so they could kick off this little soiree. The contract is folded neatly and stowed between her shirt and the light leathers she wore as armor. She looks in the windows and around the building, clearly, obviously, looking for something, before she approaches the door.

Before she can even knock, the door to the shop creaks open a crack, an eye just barely visible in the dark. It narrows at her. "Go away. Shop's closed."

"Oooh, don't worry, my good man," Izzy lowers her head so she can look the person on the other side of the door in the eye, smiling broadly. "I'm not here to buy; I'm here to make a deal."

The eye narrows slightly and the door opens a little further. On the other side is an older human man, a little round in the stomach from age, but with a wiry strength in his arms that seemed to foretell a man who had used them for labour for many a year. The eye he had looked at her with through the crack in the door was clearly a glass one-- odd, but Izzy could dig it. "You're here for the meeting?"

"That I am~." She flashes her toothy grin and straightens back to her full height. "You must be Pietro. Pleasure is all mine. Mind giving me the tour?"

With what is apparently great reluctance and suspicion, Pietro finally opens the door to let Izzy inside. She follows, alligator like tail swishing behind her.