Taking Stock (Lux)

[Jack McCarthy]

Oh. The old familiar places.


In summation, Jack was a thief by trade, but not out of any particular skill or knack for stealing it was simply because he had no real other talents that would make him a value to society and earn him some kind of wage. He didn’t come from a rich family...or any family whatsoever, he was raised on the streets. He couldn’t sing, couldn’t play an instrument...He was starting to run out of options.


Stealing it would have to be, To be a successful thief one has to be ever so stealthy, calm in high-pressure situations, to be able to improvise on the fly convincingly and be able to sneak away and blend in with the shadows.


….Jack possessed none of these qualities and as a result, quite frankly he was damn subpar as a thief to the point where the local thief guild wouldn’t have anything whatsoever to do with him, even those they were likely to hear from him over and over again. Jack was OBSESSED with getting in that guild. Being part of that guild meant, security, meant. Safety. Meant food on his plate and a roof over his head.


What a strange and foreign concept.


So an argument could be made that Jack’s attempts to be noticed by the guild has been getting more and more desperate, which made his attempts at stealing more and more blatant….


Which is how he found himself held in the public stocks…


...Again


“HEY. FUCK OFF” Jack screamed shaking his head as much as he could in this hole and shaking his hands as wide as they can get now that they were locked in front of him towards a pair giggling kids throwing fruit at him Jack winced as an orange whizzed by it’s juices exploding on his face “Ha! Joke’s on you. You’re just feeding me mhhhhhh rotting fruit. MY FAVORITE.

[Luxanna Viera]

Luxanna had the night off and in turn, that meant walking through the streets in an attempt to unwind. Naturally, she found very little joy in roaming about without any real goal. Then again, what was there to be expected about a young girl such as herself which held no real power in a world quite like this.

It wasn't like she had anywhere to go, save for the inn she had grown up in and right now, that was the last place she wanted to be. She knew that her father loved her and wanted her to be happy, but she could see the worry in his gaze whenever he looked at her. He didn't know what the future held for her and soon, he'd want her to get married.

Luxanna didn't want that for herself. She wanted a life filled with adventures and travels. A life filled with magic.

Her green eyes fell towards the laughing children, then towards the character they were taunting. She recognized him and a heavy sigh fell from her lips before she rushed forward, waving her arms and telling the children to scram. They eyed her, but apparently decided that enough was enough.

Once they had departed, Luxanna knelt in front of the young man. "Oh Jack..."

[Jack McCarthy]

Well, fuck….


Jack really didn’t have all that shame. Whatever part of his brain that controlled the shame reflex and what made him behave with some consideration of how other people thought of him, he simply wasn’t born with it. Hell, he was homeless, dignity was a luxury and with every other luxury in life Jack couldn’t afford it.


But seeing the girl he knew so well slowly start to approach him from a distance, The closest Jack could ever get to shame was pulsing through his system.


It seemed like fate always seemed to do that to Jack, seemingly compelling Lux to appear just when Jack was at his lowest point. Out of everyone in the town Lux was the one that knew him the best. Since they were kids mostly, and Jack not naturally used to the kindness of people was always awed by just how….warm she was and yeah Jack liked to be around her, the brief chats they shared were often the highlight of his day…


This was less so, however.


Jack instinctively tried to avoid the eye contact for several prolonged moment before shifitng his dark brown eyes to hers “Hey….so....Hows it going? Weather’s great for this time of year huh?” Jack said in a light hearted tone as if he wasn’t locked into a stocks and he didn’t have rotton fruit totally covering his face

[Luxanna Viera]

The brunette nodded and didn't force eye contact with him. She could only image the feeling of being caught in a situation such as this. Jack was by far one of the most unlucky people Luxanna had ever met. It wasn't a fate she would wish upon anyone, not even her worst enemy. Well, she wouldn't have if she had had any enemies at all, but that was besides the point.

Lifting the front layer of her skirt, Luxanna started moving it across Jack's face in an attempt to clean off most of the rotten fruit from his skin. "It's been abnormally hot for being this early in the spring," she said, chatting along. "I suppose we can't complain. At least we don't have to worry about people freezing to death in the streets." She wondered how long they were going to put Jack like this. She could only hope he wouldn't suffer for long.

"What did you do this time?" she asked curiously as she continued wiping rotten tomatoes off of his face with gentle strokes of her fingers.

[Jack McCarthy]

Jack didn’t really think of his luck all that often or more accurate to say lack there of, sure his luck was….abysmal. The more he was convinced that it was BOUND to turn any year now, things...they couldn’t stay this way forever, right? Shit, that was a scary concept to consider, him just….homeless staving stealing for the rest of his natural born days. Will he be locked in these stocks in 60 years time? The idea didn’t bear thinking about so he preferred to think that at any moment his luck could turn. Who knew? Maybe tomorrow he might find a big bag of gold or maybe he’s some kind of long lost royal. A prince whose family has been searching him for decades waiting to take him home to their big warm palace and feed him until his stomach practically burst…


…...It was a nice thought….


Jack squinted up his eyes as Lux set about cleaning his face winching a little “Hey come on, you’ll ruin your skirt, I’m fine really. It’s meant to rain sometime today. It’ll clean it all off.” Jack said with a fair share of confidence. As always too proud to accept a kind hand….which in his current condition was laughable considering he was covered in fruit, in rags and thin as a stick. What the hell did he have to be proud about?


“Oh this?” Jack questioned his eyes wandered to where his hands were locked As if just notices them for the first time while he tried desperately his skin tingling sharply where Lux's fingers trailed  “This is nothing....It's actually kind of a funny story Just a mild misunderstanding with local law enforcement. Involving, my hand accidentally...kind of...sort of….maybe found itself in the pocket of one of the admirals” Jack said doing his best to brush this off as humanly possible “We both agreed it was in my best interest to stay here and consider all the life choices that lead me here…..right now, I’m at that time when I was seven year old and I stole a boy’s coat to keep myself warm and his father chased me all over the city so I working my way through it fast. Don’t worry though, They’ll calm down and let me out in a few hours…..unless they forget…..again” Jack added his voice a little downtrodden remembering the LAST time he was in this position

[Luxanna Viera]

Luxanna issued a sigh; sometimes she wondered why she even bothered. Jack had such a screwed point of view of the world and she had to ask herself how on earth he managed to stay alive. Of course, it was fairly obvious that Jack didn't come from this world. Everything about him had always been alien. He was goofy and kind, yet had such unrealistic expectations. Sometimes she wondered if he was stupid or simply self-destructive.

"One of these days you're going to have to face facts, Jack," she said, her tone low. "You should quit this silly dream of becoming a thief and get yourself some honest work. It might not sound like a luxurious option, but we all have to start somewhere." She looked him dead in the eye. She would have offered him a job at the Lazy Drake had it been in her power, but she already knew what her father would say. Due to Jack's long list of not so noble deeds, he wasn't exactly the kind of person many would hire.

"Don't you ever want something more?" she asked then as she looked around. "Don't you want to be more than a thief that has to beg for scraps?" She turned to look at him again, her hands falling into her lap. "I worry about you, you know."

[Jack McCarthy]

Jack honestly never considered his viewpoint “Sewed” or strange or anything of the sort. If you were to ask Jack straight to his face he would tell you without blinking an eye that he was as sane as anyone else -He’d look you straight in the eye but odds are he would fidget an LOT Jack really rarely ever kept still and he did have a habit of flailing her hands around while she talked. In fact being held down by the stocks resulted in the stillest Jack had ever been in his natural born life- It wasn’t like Jack was actively trying to act out, It wasn’t like he walked out the door trying to be the person that he would. It just sorts of happens, naturally. For his entire life Jack never truly fit in and he really didn’t understand why.


He was just...him. That’s the only way he could really explain it


Jack forced himself to look up at Lux again this time in clear surprise with both eyebrows raised as far as they can go, blinking rapidly “You think this is a dream for me?” He asked dumb surprise on his face “I don’t steal because I WANT to, I do it because I have to...being a thief is awful. It’s either this or go talk to that weird old guy who leers at me and tells me I have good bone structure for his….work” Jack said shuddering his head or as much as he could when he was held in place,


“Yes. All the time. There’s never a time when I’m not thinking abot something better he answered even before Lux had forced the whole sentence out answer as honestly as he really could, alfter all he could never try and lie to Lux, especially when they were making eye contact. “I’m getting out of here Lux….yeah” Jack started muttering to himself rapidly nodding his head like he was speaking total fact “...That’s what I’m going to do...I’m going to get out of here. People are going to REMEMBER me. I’m going to find gold. Slay Monsters, live in a guilded palace made of rubies and diamonds....You can even come with me if you want And right there? Right in the town square? There’s going to be a statue of me. So tall it reaches the sky. Made of solid gold….or silver I’m not picky...That’s just a working plan though” He admitted with a grimmist “But don’t worry about me Lux, I’ll be fine. I’ve been trying to steal things all my life and I still have both of my hands. I take tat as a mark of pride. Not every thief can do that you know. Don't believe me?  Go ask stumpy Pete to count to ten for you”

[Luxanna Viera]

Once again, Luxanna felt herself fall into silence. She simply watched the boy in front of her as he rambled on - which he often did, she'd come to realize. She supposed it would have been sadder had it not been Jack. Jack had a shitty life - that much was obvious, but he always found a way to make it sound easy. She supposed she envied his freedom in ways she couldn't begin to explain - though, Jack also made her realize that just because all of her dreams didn't come true, she could have been worse off.

"I can't wait to see that," she replied with a smile. She sincerely wished for Jack to have a wonderful life. A life he could be happy with and proud of. She doubted he would get very far, even if that went against everything she stood for. Jack was the kind of person who managed to be both lucky and unlucky at the same time.

"I'd tell everyone of my friends to go see it so that they could pay your statue its deserved respect." Not that she had a whole lot of friends to begin with, but she supposed it was a pleasing thought.

[Jack McCarthy]

Well, Jack wouldn’t exactly classify his position as being free. Even though he would suppose had had quite a lot of that, the problem with that is, he didn’t have a lot else, but with the freedom that he did have he used that time, to dream and scheme and plot and to find any way to make money, to make something of himself and he would. Of that he was sure.


….All he needed was one moment. One moment of luck. One moment of the planet's aligning and he never has to go hungry ago. His dreams would come true for the simple reason that Jack refused to stop fighting for them. Something had to give eventually right?


Right….


Jack tried to nod in appreciation but once he did the back of his head whacked off against his restraints with a dull THUCK swearing under his breath “Right. Stocks. Head moving. Bad” he muttered to himself making a mental note that odds are he’d never follow. He never learned from his mistakes. It was apart of the reason he was still here after all.


“You can come with me if you want….” He said a hopeful tone in his voice “I heard from this guy. Who knows this guy. Who knows this other guy whose BROTHER has a map to a cave that has a chest of Goblin Gold inside. Come on. We can go get it...easy...What’s the worst that can happen...besides...you know...the whole death thing...