[ OPEN ] Heart's on fire

[ombranera]

WHO: Character(s)
WHAT: Zevran Aranai's School for Rogues Who Can't Sneak Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too.
WHEN: Wintermarch, all month
WHERE: Skyhold: Courtyard, Stables, Rookery, Battlements, etc
NOTES: Sass, Stealth, and Violence

He had mulled over the notion for a few weeks now; watching the soldiers take themselves to task, the warriors practicing as best they could; the mages training in their spells and thought- aside from combat (and even then there were tricks soldiers did not always think to teach) how was a rascal, a scoundrel, a rogue to learn more tricks? A well trained operation of any sort had well trained members of all sorts; the bruisers, the wizards, the rogues. Perhaps it was high time someone did something for the sneakier sorts.


[ Courtyard ]

Every lesson starts the same- a quick lap around the courtyard as fast as possible, vaulting over people and structures, running along the wall, making use of all the same skills that kept him alive all those years in Antiva City. For those that did not know them? The tricks came as a brief primer after the lap was finished- even a brief demonstration is offered. Afterward he runs them through a few training locks set into empty chests, some of the them wound with ringing alarms for the sake of practice. Trip the wrong tumbler? Off goes the alarm. After that it's stealth and pickpocketing. Sneaking about through a field of tripwires connected to more ringing bells and powder packets, a veritable labyrinth. Any bells go off, any powder on your person? You go through again. One of the training dummies has been re-purposed with bells and pouches on it- each pouch has a bell attached. They're timed and told to get as many as possible without ringing any bells. Ring a bell? Run a lap.


[ Stables ]

Here there is room enough for him to demonstrate proper trap production and dismantling. Every wound spring, every steel mechanism. They start with the basic bladed traps- though none of the blades are sharpened and none of the powder explosions hold more than dye. Once they've made traps that are...decent or satisfactory, Zevran walks them through detection and dismantling. Some of the practice traps have trick springs and triggers- if set off they'll be dusted with powder instead of losing their fingers. Later he goes through a list of common poisons and venoms to create and how to build up a tolerance for them. He does not provide them with samples this early on.


[ Battlements ]

Rappelling and dueling and improvisational combat and you! Here Zevran shows them how to climb, how to fall, how to make their own ropes when they've none of their own, how to throw a rappel to make it stay, how to haul it down, and how to dual wield on uneven ground. Demonstrations with Isabela and sparring with whoever wishes to take their turn happens throughout the day as requested; Zevran also covers grappling, breaking holds, and how to fight dirty. An honorable rogue is a dead rogue after all.


[ Wildcard ]

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Comments

[ombranera]

"Now take the second and press in slow until you feel the first catch. There will be a bit of pressure, like leaning against a spring." He keeps his voice low, his eyes focused on the task at hand. "When you find it, tap towards the top of the lock gently to find the right tumbler. It will either move freely if the first pick is positioned correctly, or not at all."

[ombranera]

"You might be surprised. All it takes is the proper instruction and incentive. Oghren, now, wasn't terribly agile until there was ale on the line. Then? He floated like a leaf upon the wind. Until he crashed. We will not be covering crashing." Landing yes, crashing no. "One of the more skilled, yes. As a former Antivan Crow I've tricks aplenty."

[ombranera]

That is...a peculiar grimace indeed. He hasn't seen the like on a man that wasn't drugged in quite some time. As in ever. "Former Crow. I have been my own agent for a decade, now. And if you like I do have hourly rates."

[ombranera]

"Some purses and pouches are easier to cut than others. Some? You empty while leaving them on their person." The bells were rigged to offer this variation easily enough. He walks over to stand next to the dummy, hands in plain sight. "Watch me."

Slowly he goes through the motion. The slide in, the press of his fingers at the top of the pocket- the slick delving inward of his fingertips to grab the thin scrap of paper folded inside and out again, all without ringing the bell. He replaces the paper in much the same way and does it once more for her to watch. "Attempt it like that, yes? Slow first."

[ombranera]

"Ah, that. I learned with the Crows, it was one of our first tests." Succeed and eat. Fail and go hungry. If you didn't eat long enough you became too weak to keep yourself safe from the other children that knew enough to be cruel and cared more for your blanket than they did you. Ah. Childhood. "I imagine you learned more to satisfy your own curiosity, yes?"

[ombranera]

"You wish to show off." He crackled a laugh, unsheathing his blades. "And I do not mind helping you to do so. I would recommend everyone stand back; this will become a bit...energetic."

[ombranera]

Ah, so when business is at hand he can think beyond his desires. Interesting- and not entirely unexpected. Zevran tucked this away as he moved to arrange the most basic of traps, the springs, the wires, the blades. It was a simple enough thing with all of it's parts, spartan and simple. All of it boiled down to tension and being able to wind it properly.

Otherwise the trap would snap back upon itself or not snap shot hard enough at all.

"This is the bare bones of most any trap. Everything builds from this, the spring, the blade, the trigger. You have seen enough to have an idea as to what shall go where, but indulge me. How would you arrange them for a simple claw trap?" The blades were blunted and the springs weak to prevent the loss of fingers- but it could be a daunting task for anyone not suited to it.

[issala]

Reaching down, Kas takes the second tool and very, very slowly inserts it before he starts feeling around. Frowning, it takes him nearly a minute before he finally feels the catch, and he stops.

Biting his lip, he pushes the tool up rather than tapping, causing it to flinch and pop, nearly breaking the lockpick. Cursing under his breath, he pulls the tools out - but instead of complaining, he just goes back to the beginning again.

This time he taps.

[disgracedchampion]

Michel was not unfamiliar with trap making, though his were never this sophisticated and typically he could buy them, but knowing how to make them and more importantly the mechanics was a useful tool to carry around in one's arsenal. So when asked how he would arrange the items laid out in front of him to construct a claw trap the Chevalier set about the task, finding practical learning to be an effective tool. He didn't have the same deft and clever hands as one suited to this sort of task might have, but he had the mechanical mind for it and more importantly he had the intense drive to excel at tasks given to him. His arrangement was done in the methodical way of a warrior, which perhaps, wasn't the most effective method, but achieved the same ends. It showed that he wasn't simply listening to Zevran when he spoke, but he heard what he said when he was giving his lessons and he could apply it...if in his own way.

Well...it was a claw trap anyway, with painstaking devotion to detail, and perhaps the Chevalier thought about it more than he needed to, but that was neither here nor there, for now. He simply withdrew once he was finished so that Zevran could appraise it how he would and any flaws would find Michel devoting hours of his life to perfecting it regardless of whether or not he had the skill sets needed.

[el_tybs]

"Oh, well, that doesn't sound terrible in the least," he agrees with amused sarcasm at the variety of things they were learning/testing with. Poisons and traps? Maker.

Well if he really considered it magic wasn't all that much more or less dangerous - explosions... hair set on fire, and such.

"You seem rather proud by all that. Expecting it to not go so well?"

[the_effect_she_has]

She lifted an eyebrow at him, her mouth pressing into a thin line, before she balled up her fist and punched him in the arm. "How do you get people to sleep with you again?"

[easternseaqueen]

"Just because I'm better at it now that you were..." she teased. "Come on, let's show them how it's done."

She drew her daggers and smiled.

[ombranera]

They hadn't had the time, when he'd last been in Kirkwall. There had been crows and mercenaries, slavers and templars and...Marion. A fine woman that had a man's eye and Zevran knew when to roll dice and when to not. Tumbling into bed with the Champion and Isabela had been more than enough for him; though he would be lying to say Anders hadn't caught his eye at the time.

But he knows better than to be greedy. Knows what it is to deny himself something for the sake of sanity or safety. Anders? Has been aching quietly on his own for too long.

He pulls Anders in slowly, sweetly, inviting every slow twist and press of his mouth- every inch of him on offer without reservation.

[ombranera]

"You are a duelist, Isabela and I? An assassin. Very different skillsets." One is more for show, one for murder- though he'll be using more of her skills than his own for this.

[ombranera]

"By being charming and ridiculously sexy of course." He took the hit with a low crackle of laughter. "Some things I might teach you, but this? You will have to learn on your own."

[ombranera]

"Considering what I have seen? I was certain someone would have lost a hand by now. Or fallen off the battlements." They aren't horrible, these rogues, but their skills are so wide and learned in so many different ways- having a solid idea of that which they were capable of was difficult at best.

[foxsays]

"We started with the bells in a coat or a rigged purse, the docks are so busy that it was better for little hands who couldn't easily get to the places they stashed the chests." Some sailors will tolerate a young thief trying their luck, Castileans are nothing if not passionate but the richest parts are where the merchants go and they have the coin to hire thugs who like to make a child cry. "I couldn’t sit still as a girl, I loved a challenge too. Gambling was all well and good but there’s much more involved in planning a theft, how you would get in and out, doing some watching and listening. I still kept everything sharp, the last year I had different reasons to need to be the very best at it."

[ombranera]

"Very good. Learning how each lock feels takes time and practice, given time you'll recall what ought to be where and have no trouble. For now? Tap upward lightly until you feel it catch and hold- then move the pick deeper inside to find the next tumbler." He rests a steadying hand on Kas' shoulder, knotting up will only make this more difficult for him.

[ombranera]

Zevran stood back, arms crossed, eyes following every motion of Michel's hands. He cannot read minds but he can follow and extrapolate from the basic logic of most groups well enough to keep himself alive in a fight; but Chevaliers weren't often targets of the Crows. His pool to pull from was fairly low and currently Michel made up the bulk of it in Skyhold. They were not exactly swimming in him and his fellows.

But it was enough for him to grasp the logic behind the choices he made and to know that stepping in to correct him wouldn't earn him scorn. That was enough.

Step in to correct Zevran did- but on a few minute details. Where the spring might be wound, how to up the sensitivity of the trigger. "Not bad for a first attempt. I shall assemble one like this, slowly, so you might follow along with this."

[the_effect_she_has]

"Ugh. Two things I am never going to be good at." She paused, then smirked faintly, "... Okay one thing I am not going to be good at."

[sistertohermen]

He certainly has a way with words that has her smirking. "I haven't known crows to crash often." Or Crows. But then, she wasn't very familiar with Antiva. Or the Antivan Crows. Heard whispers, though, from others in the Carta. "Then maybe this will be good for both of us after all. Do you usually teach people how to pick pockets out in the open where those whose pockets shouldn't be picked can see?"

[samahl]

Cyril relaxes a bit to the touch of Zevran's bare hands. He thrives on that kind of attention. The joke about fun knots makes him chuckle.

"I know. I'd much rather have the fun kind, even more if the rope has been dyed some beautiful color."

[easternseaqueen]

"They started in the same place, in case you've forgotten," she purred, and casually tossed a dagger right past his head, sinking it squarely into a target behind him.

[ombranera]

"Two." Zevran corrects, reacing over to pull a twig from Katniss' hair. "Honestly. Do none of you know how to condition?"

[ombranera]

"They see a crowd being led by an elf, figure it means nothing, and move along." He shrugs. "It works in my favor for the most part. Those that are willing to learn, learn. Those that are not? walk on by."