Who: Ping and Open to anyone in the market When: Tuesday, late morning Where: downtown/the marketplace What: Just a simple fella looking for some friends. And possibly a purse to steal.
Summer was the best time if year, if you asked him. It was a great, lazy time, when it was easy to trap rabbitsquirrels in the forest and find berries and nuts by the streams. If you didn't mind living outside, you could get a lot of lazing about done in the summer -- and Ping usually did. He was catching up on his lazy right now, point of fact, stretched out under a tree, chewing on a stem from the berries he'd just had for dinner. It was nice to have some lazy time. He was going to have to figure out what to do for the winter, though.
He yawned and shifted a little to lay on his side so he could sketch with on finger in the grass and dirt. The city was big enough he could find someone to live with and break up with and not have to leave next year, so that was an option. He could go out to the woods and go back to the old ways and bust a few heads and get money for a room for the winter... but it'd been a long time since he'd done that. He frowned and drew a big line through that doodle. He wasn't even sure he could bring himself to lift a knife anymore. Getting soft, Ping.
There was a third way, of course. A job, a real one, and maybe a room as part of the payment. He didn't even bother to doodle that one. Why? He didn't really have any skills. He could lift and carry, perhaps, but... hn. Work was not in the cards.
He nodded to himself, circled the doodle of the rich woman and pushed to his feet. He'd need to find one, first, and then get just the kind of pretty that would catch her eye. He found himself shuffling through the personalities he had stored up. The sheepish scholar. The saucy rake. The wounded warrior. Hm. He did like that last one, even if it was a little close to the surface sometime. Best thing to do, go to the fighting school and see who was watching the students with a little longing.
He paused at a stream to wash up a bit and get himself city-presentable. He had tidy clothes hidden in a cache, but for now he'd go in looking like a rough peasant. No one noticed them, after all. In and out without being noticed.
He waited by the side of the road, munching the last of the dinner berries, until a little pack of people came his way. He waved and called a friendly welcome, and before long he was walking with them, talking and joking like they were friends. His name was Zhu, he said, and he was just taking a trip to the city before harvest time. He offered to help them offload their goods for a few coins and got to ride in the city without so much as a glance from the guards, settled around the boxes and hay.
A quiet way in, money for breakfast, and now the city at his feet. He grinned at anyone the cart passed, with a wink for the ladies. An auspicious beginning to what he was sure would be a winter's succesful con, yes indeed. He waggled his fingers at someone that looked friendly and hopped off the cart to do the unloading as promised.