melodiesoflife | Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men? [Open]

Who: Jack, Tsubomi, and You!
What: Jack and Tsubomi got carte blanche to go after criminals in Aqures Ixen for a Job quest.
When: After the return from the Lunar Gate quest, throughout the month of May.
Where: The rooftops and streets of Aqures Ixen.
Why: That's the question we're all asking ourselves.

Out from the night from the mist steps a figure...

No wait, wrong intro.

It just takes a minute, and you'll feel no pain...

Let's not, that goes bad places.

I am the terror that something something night?

Now you're way off.

What is for certain is that there is one more person prowling Aqures Ixen's rooftops. With the odd job combination of Dragoon and Archer, hiding his identity by dressing in all black light armor, a hood and mask for his face...

...and a really familiar World War II coat floofing over top of it all.

Jack, what the hell are you doing?

He's up here for a purpose instead of just brooding, for once, as he starts to lightly jump across the rooftops, following someone on ground level. There's a wide, excited smile behind that mask as he leaps the distance of an alley. Dragoon is turning out to be exactly as much fun as it looked.

So, if Biggs wants him to give back in a little service to the city in return for it? Fair's fair. Evil-doers beware.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ramza straightens up and rests a hand on his sword hilt, trying to convey, 'I have more than enough breath to deal with the likes of you, brigand' without having to say the words. He has his police badge pinned to his breast, and he has to uphold the dignity of his station.

"State your name and your business here," he demands instead. There has been that recent rise in criminal activity, after all, and here is a masked man sneaking about in the shadows.

Don't giggle. Don't laugh. You'll give up the game if you laugh. Exercise the tiniest bit of self-control that you have, Jack. Classics are the classics for a reason, "You can call me The Shadow." Nobody should get the joke, ~~after all, who listens to radio plays anymore?~~

"As for my business," Jack picks up his spear and points with it, down towards the street. "It's the same as yours. Take a look down there." There is a specific man that Jack is following, who is keeping to back alleys and unlit paths.

The Shadow? He raises an eyebrow at that, but does not contest the name. He lets the Shadow direct his attention to the figure on the streets below, probably more trusting than is strictly recommended for an officer of the law.

"He looks to be up to no good...but I could say the same of you, Shadow. What do you know of him?" He keeps his eyes on the man in the alley.

"If I'm right, he's a refugee. Maybe from the recent influx from Nabila? Maybe somewhere else. But he keeps paying particular attention to houses, places in the reconstruction zone that aren't well-watched."

"Either he's looking for loot, or, more likely, a place to stay. Maybe both." Jack turns to deliberately look at Ramza. "An officer of the law spots him looting, they have to take him in, toss him in a jail cell. That doesn't help him or his situation. A Hero of Light might have another option."

Forgiveness of crimes due to circumstances beyond the criminal's control? That is precisely what Sparks had been working on training out of Ramza since he'd first applied as an officer.

"I understand what you mean...but what reason do I have to trust that you would do better by him, and that sparing this man would not place others around him in danger?" He still does not meet the Shadow's eyes. These are the questions he has asked himself, in Crystallis and back in Ivalice. When he had first started out as a cadet, he had wanted to fight evil...but he had found that there was very little black and white and entirely too much gray in the world.

"What would you do with this man, if I stayed my hand?"

Jack knows these very doubts and questions, they're the exact same sort of thing that was running through his own mind when Gwen was starting to show him to care more about the people behind the Torchwood incidents, not just the cleanup.

"The city has set up charity for the refugees. And a way for people to get work building their own housing, rebuilding the city. I'd lead him there, if not all the damn way to the Village up North, if that helped." Jack crouches down, looks at the man more closely. "He might have been reluctant to take help. An affront to his pride, perhaps. But we need to show him that crime is not an option."

"The Law Enforcement here is not like...some I have seen. We send people to those programs when we are able." Ramza understands the Shadow's concerns, but he will not allow him to act as if the police force locks away criminals with no attempt at rehabilitation or aid.

"If he commits no crime, he will not be punished. If he does, he will have to make restitution before he walks free. We cannot encourage citizens to burglarize innocents in order to receive aid."

He finally turns his eyes away from the man, who was still peeking into various windows.

"If you wish to intervene, I will not prevent you. But if he harms anyone, or causes damage in my presence, I must take him in."

Jack nods severely. "Of course. I'm here to help him, but not at the cost of anyone else. It would cause far more harm if this butcher's stock was allowed to be taken. But I'm betting this man is so desperate he can't see that right now."

But. The best way to convince this man that he's not going to get away with this? Is to make a lasting impression. So, pardon Jack while he indulges his own flair for the dramatic.

The man has found a window that he has been able to jimmy open. He looks around himself again, one way, then the other, before he opens it...but he has forgotten to look up.

Jack takes two steps forwards, right to the edge of the rooftop, and leaps off of it, silently soaring into the air. He rises in a graceful arc, and then dives down straight into the ground not even a foot away from the would-be burglar. There isn't even a sound until he is right upon him, and the man lets out a startled yell as he falls backwards and recoils while his heart pounds in his chest.

Show-off.

Ramza follows the Shadow to the edge of the rooftop, but he does not jump down yet. He does not have the same job skills the Shadow obviously has equipped, and he would end up with, at the least a sprain, if not a broken bone if he took the leap. So he watches.

And the Shadow does put on a pretty impressive show.

Ramza braces himself for the jump. The moment the Shadow acts out of line, either by letting the would-be burglar hurt someone or by using unreasonable force, he will be down there, injuries be damned. But for now, Ramza will have a little faith in the masked man.

Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men? [Open]

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