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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Oct 24, 2011 16:22:58 GMT -5
"I didn't have anything to sell the first time we met," Klepto said plainly, answering Sea's question as he sifted through his bag. He continued moving its contents around, trying to find the titles and artists on the various CD cases. "Beethoofen, Beethoofen... uh..." Klepto paused in his sifting for a moment. "I have Daft Pony, and uh..." He lifted one of the CDs out of the bag, squinting as he read the title. "Learning the Sousaphone in Ten Easy Lessons." Klepto shrugged, putting the CD back in his bag.
"And yeah, I guess you could say I'm kind of like a flea market," Klepto said, turning to the brown pelted colt. "Except I don't really sell fleas. But I tend to come across a lot of stuff I don't need. And if I can get something for it, I'll sell it." Klepto turned back to Sea Swell. "Anyways, you want something? You look like a filly who could use a little more sousaphone in her life."
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Post by penndixon on Oct 25, 2011 2:30:29 GMT -5
Penn paced, annoyed with his sudden turn of bad luck. He looked to the ground before looking back at his shop, and then back at the ground. He closed his eyes and snorted angrily, before something dawned on him. He opened his eyes once more and looked at the shards of glass on the ground. It appeared some of it had been moved along by something, as if the thief had dragged his sack of stolen goods briefly. He looked towards the general direction the stray shards led, and galloped as fast as he could.
"You'll regret getting sloppy, whomever!" He thought to himself as he sped along the sidewalk.
He kept his eyes on the ground. Luck seemed to be smiling upon him in his search, as shards of glass on the concrete worked as a vague path for him to follow. It seemed his target was in a hurry, and the shards eventually dropped from him as he fled.
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Post by mafipulater on Oct 27, 2011 18:11:38 GMT -5
Sea shrugged at Klepto's answer. She had no reason to not believe him, and it wasn't something that really concerned her anyway. Besides, she had already decided to trust him implicitly when she let him crash at her place several nights ago.
"Sousaphone in ten lessons? Forget rap, I'm gonna pick up the brass!" Sea exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. "Anyway, I like Daft Pony and all but I already have Pony After All."
Sea turned to the unicorn that introduced himself as Bygone and put on a playful smile. Aside from her initial feeling of annoyance, Sea thought Bygone seemed like a pretty alright pony, though she wasn't sure how well he was taking her teasing. But teasing him was just so fun. "History nerd, huh, Bygone? Figures you'd listen to Beethoofen. You like listening to anything that's not ten billion years old?" It was hyperbole, of course, but all that old music was the same to her.
But before Bygone could respond, Sea giggled to herself. "Nah, I'm just playing with you, mane," she said amiably. "So what brings you out here to Manehattan anyway? You an undercover agent after the Grey Shadow too?"
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Post by penndixon on Oct 29, 2011 1:57:38 GMT -5
His search had led him near a group of ponies, whom were all busily conversing about matters. Penn looked about the group before his ears dropped. The trail he had followed had gone cold, and he was certain he had made a wrong turn. He sighed in defeat and began to walk away, before words among the crowd peaked his interest.
"Sousaphone in ten lessons? Forget rap, I'm gonna pick up the brass!"
Penn snorted angrily before turning back to the crowd, yelling at the top of his lungs after gathering adrenaline and anger from deep within. He knew that no one ever purchased that product, and it was among the missing items.
"WHAT ABOUT A SOUSAPHONE?!!"
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Post by bygoneera on Oct 29, 2011 11:36:40 GMT -5
"I do lis- oh, you're just teasing... heh heh, I knew that," lied Bygone, his voice betraying him. "I wouldn't dream of listening to any of this newfangled mish-mash, anyway," joked the brown stallion.
"Well, I was just in town to visit my family while I'm on break. I haven't seen them in a while, since I just can't stand the hustle and bustle around here... not that Canterlot is much better, but hey, every little bit helps."
Feeling a lot less tense now that they'd been talking for a few minutes, Bygone couldn't help but add at the end "Of course, that's just my cover. If I told you my REAL mission, I'd have to-"
"WHAT ABOUT A SOUSAPHONE?!!"
The history student nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden outburst. After recovering from his shock, he turned to the pony that had shouted at them, a white, freckled stallion with a blue and white mane. Still somewhat on-edge, he spoke slowly.
"Excuse me, sir? Can we help you?"
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Nov 2, 2011 15:44:26 GMT -5
Klepto rolled his eyes at Sea's sarcastic comment, but continued listening to her and Bygone. The brown pelted colt was interrupted by another pony standing a short distance away, this one a unicorn with a blue mane. Klepto smiled at Sea after hearing the unicorn shout something about sousaphones. "Now there's a pony with good taste." He turned to the unicorn, moving his hoof through his bag and pulling out the CD as he spoke.
"Yes, sir, Learning the Sousaphone in Ten Easy Lessons. Available to you for the very low price of..." Klepto moved the CD in a small circular motion as he thought for a moment. "Four bits." Klepto was surprised he had already found somepony willing to buy one of the items. He had figured that it would have been a bit harder to get rid of the stuff, especially without raising suspicion.
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Post by mafipulater on Nov 4, 2011 12:38:40 GMT -5
Sea might have continued to poke fun at Bygone's taste in music but suddenly a blue-and-white-maned unicorn approached with a startling yell. The surprise caused her to quickly unfold her wings in shock, but she quickly calmed down and folded them back in.
"Hey, guy, it's not even a real sousaphone. It's just some kind of instructional CD or something. Don't get so excited, huh?" Sea started to feel annoyed again. What was this guy so worked up about that he needed to shout so loudly at them all anyway?
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Post by bygoneera on Nov 13, 2011 16:10:01 GMT -5
Bygone grew tired of waiting for a reply from the blue pony, so he turned back towards the other two.
"So, I know this is kinda off-topic from before, but do you guys think the gray menace is really doing this? I don't know about you guys, but I'd love to figure out whether he's real or not. Would either of you be interested in looking around with me?"
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Nov 14, 2011 16:21:24 GMT -5
"Huh?" Klepto asked, turning back to Bygone. "Oh, right. Look, regardless of whether it's the Gray Shadow or just somepony pretending to be him, whoever this is sounds like a real loser. I mean, six stores? Really? Sounds a bit desperate if you ask me."
Klepto looked back at all the detectives walking around before turning back to Bygone. "And I don't know what you plan to achieve by looking for him. Sure, you'd probably end up doing a better job than these guys, but catchin' a thief ain't as easy as it sounds. You probably couldn't even recognize one if he was standing right in front of you."
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Post by splatterpaint on Nov 14, 2011 23:23:07 GMT -5
(OOC: Terribly sorry for coming in so late!)
An overwhelming amount of noise coming from the street filled Splatterpaint's ears. She gazed up from her work, a new picture of something...that was really more of a mass of swirling colors than an object. She stuck her paintbrush behind her ear like one would with a pencil and walked over to her window. Splatter pushed open the glass and stuck her head out, looking at the scene she could see a few blocks from her apartment. She stood there wondering what the comotion could be about. Well, it didn't matter. Lots of people were there, so maybe there was a festival she had forgotten about. And a festival meant ponies who would, hopefully, check out some of her paintings. She slapped on her saddle-bag, and filled it with a couple of paint covered canvases. Not bothering to take off the paintbrush or clean up the paint splotches that covered her hooves, she trotted out and down the street to the crowd.
As Splatterpaint approached the hordes of ponies, she heard pieces of conversations about what was happening, and also hearing somepony shout something about a sousaphone. Something about a grey shadow, whatever that meant. She entered the clearing and stared in wonder at the detectives and police ponies. What on earth had happened? Had somepony...died? She hoped not. Splatterpaint pricked her ears (or whatever ponies do) and listened to a conversation nearby.
"Six stores, all robbed by Grey Shadow! Can you believe it?" Splatterpaint stiffened, remembering the tales her mother had told her about. The theif called Grey Shadow was supposed to only be a story! But he actually existed?! What if he robbed her family's shop? Splatterpaint looked around frantically, looking for somepony she knew. But there were so many ponies, she couldn't tell who was who. Splatterpaint whimpered, suddenly feeling very small, and very afraid. She also couldn't help but feel a little twinge of excitement. How fun would it be to catch the Grey Menace?
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Post by mafipulater on Nov 15, 2011 2:54:16 GMT -5
"Really? You want to look for this guy, Bygone?" Sea was a bit surprised to hear that Bygone wanted to look for the Grey Shadow. She had assumed Bygone was the bookish kind of guy, being a student and all. Not that she minded - in fact, she was glad to be proven wrong. It sounds like it'd be so much more fun looking for a legend with him than chatting about history or whatever!
"Hey, I mean, I'm down. Not that I want to, like, catch him or anything. But hey, on the offchance I get to meet or chat with a legend, why not? And I don't have anything else to do today. Or, like, ever, really," she said, grinning.
Sea turned to Klepto. "Aw c'mon, dude. This guy wouldn't have hit up six stores if he wasn't beggin' to be found, right? And besides, finding a thief can't be too hard. I have a good intuition about things like this, you know? I can tell a trustworthy pony from a crook like that," Sea said, snapping her hoof in the air.
"Wouldn't it be cool, Klepto? To try to find this guy, and maybe chat him up a bit? It'd be like, pulling a rubber mask off a villain. Except instead of turning him in, we just kinda shoot the spit with the guy, and maybe he'll hook us up with an autograph," Sea joked.
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Post by penndixon on Nov 15, 2011 11:01:40 GMT -5
Penn paced back and forth collecting his thoughts, and continued to do so for a time. Finally, after the group's focus had left him, he confronted the pony with the bag.
"Excuse me sir, I must apologize for my outburst...Today has been less than optimal. I wish to check your inventory for what you're selling."
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Post by flatfoot on Nov 16, 2011 20:57:01 GMT -5
"Actually I think I'd like to take a look at that bag as well." came a voice, a low murmur with a slight irish brogue. Coming up at the side of Penn and Klepto was a blue and navy colored pony with a silver badge as a cutie mark. He couldn't possibly look more 'police pony' even if he had a donut in his mouth. He stopped and craned his neck Klepto's sack with a raised brow. "I think I saw you offerin' a CD to 'at lassie over there, an' we jus' happen to be investigatin' a robbery at a music store..."
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Post by Klepto Moonlit on Nov 20, 2011 14:41:56 GMT -5
"Trust me Sea," Klepto said, looking at the pegasus, "It's not really gonna be all that you think it's cracked up to be. Why do you think they have to pay these gumshoes to do it? Because it's boring. Ya walk around the city all day, following leads that aren't really leads and finding clues that aren't really clues, running into dead end after dead end until you get tired and go home. Even if you did find him, he's probably just some jerk who wants you to leave him alone. Not every thief can be as suave and charming as a guy like me." Klepto finished his lecture with a smirk before turning to the white-pelted unicorn, the one who had asked to see his "inventory".
"Sure thing," Klepto said, beginning to look through his bag. "I got uh-"
He would have continued had it not been for a very obvious-looking police pony approaching them, also asking to see what was in Klepto's bag.
"Hey, hey wait a second," Klepto said, now closing and firmly securing the flap on his bag. "I don't have to show my bag to you. I got rights. You think I'm dumb, don't you, but I know how it works. You can't look in my bag unless you got a search warrant... or something." Klepto narrowed his eyes at the police pony. "In fact, how do I even know that you're a real police officer? You're probably just trying to find out what I have on me to see whether I'm worth mugging or not."
"Even if you were a real police officer, wouldn't you have... more important things to be doing?" Klepto asked, motioning towards all of the detective ponies walking about behind them. "Scratch that. You would have more important things to be doing! Just more evidence that you're an impostor."
"Good, good," Klepto thought to himself. "Put him on the defensive. Move the attention away from the bag."
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Post by splatterpaint on Nov 22, 2011 18:34:28 GMT -5
Splatterpaint watched the argument from a distance, not knowing whether to be curious or cautious. Choosing the curious side, she trotted over to the group of ponies and listened in on the conversation. It surprised her at how unwilling the pony with the bag was to let the officer search him. Why would he be so accusing towards the pony? He was clearly an officer, at least in her eyes. She tried to keep her muzzle shut, but couldn't help but speak up, "What are you so worried he'll find in there? He's definitely a police officer, and he'd have a hard time stealing something with all the ponies around." She looked up at the other ponies innocently, hoping they wouldn't be mad at her for getting involved.
She couldn't help but feel that this pony was hiding something. Splatterpaint would have allowed the officer pony to search her if he had asked, so what did the other pony have in that bag that was so important?
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