Lookin' for Trouble? Nope, just lookin'.

Thalia clicked the lock closed behind her.

She'd just been breaking into a supply closet. Nothing of particular interest was within--it was more an exercise for practice than anything. She couldn't have her wits getting dull on her or something terrible like that.

She hadn't actually taken anything, mostly because she didn't really want anything inside that particular area. She wasn't about to say that didn't disappoint her, she was hoping for a jackpot of something like extra lockpicks (she knew that Vetr Vyrrson had them produced frequently and hid the shipments somewhere she had yet to discover) or chocolate. 

However, now it was time to move onto a heist that would not only involve her stealing something, but also involve sweets, two of her favorite things.

Her mentor was pretty dang awesome, she had to admit. 

Thalia stood, stashing away her lockpicking supplies and then darting across the deck of the Drakonborg. As a rule, she always ran as quickly as possible over open spaces, more out of paranoia than agoraphobia. 

She didn't particularly like especially tight areas, but she'd be going to a very crowded region of the ship very soon. 

And by that, she meant the kitchens. Vikings were, as a rule, voracious eaters, meaning that the kitchens were a hotspot of activity. 

Thalia was still perfectly confident in herself and her partner. They were the perfect Tiro/Iduneus double team. Nothing could stop them!

She skipped around a corner and practically ran into the bread-munching Loureen.

"Hey! Sorry I'm a bit late. You ready?"

Her esteemed mentor had a chunk of bread sticking out of her mouth like some overly large pipe.

Thalia ignored that fact, instead deciding to focus on the job ahead of them.

Loureen turned to look inside the kitchen, Thalia popping in beneath to survey the busy scene herself.

"We're not gonna have much of an opening, are we."

"We... need a diversion. Something you can get away with and not be questioned, but something that will grab everyone's attention."

"Sounds great." Thalia paused. No idea what I'm gonna do for that, though.

"You got anythin'? I got nothin' except a plan to distract him while we take the cake."

The younger woman sighed. Training could be tough, even when you were a truant Tiro Thalia. 

"Not particularly." She paused, eyes dancing over the line of pots and pans, delicately hanging from hooks right beside one another. "Although... wait." She paused, then glanced around. "That Tiro hates my guts."

She nodded at Loureen. "I got something. Here we go."

Darting into the kitchen, she slipped through the people to right behind the Tiro. 

"Heyyyyyyyy," she drawled, dramatically humming out the consonant in a way so annoying that she managed to irritate herself before she ceased. "Whatcha up to, Svenny-boy? Waiting for your girlfriend?" She sidled up to him, arms crossed and eyebrow raised, lips open in a cattish smirk.

He growled, encroaching on her space bubble. "Thalia. I know you stole it."

She frowned, grin disappearing, sliding backwards towards the pans. "Stole what?"

"You know what!" He snarled, stepping forward once again. She, once more, glided backwards towards the pots.

"I honestly have no clue what you're saying. In fact, I think you're overreacting. You probably just lost it. You don't have the best memory out there, after all, with a presence of mind like yours."

She shrugged nonchalantly, making stead distance towards the pots, the Tiro following her. 

Thalia carefully eyeballed the length of his arm in relation to the length of the pots, then pressed herself against the back of the counter to give him the greatest chance of hitting one of them.

"What, were you going to give it to your dearest heart?" she asked sweetly.

With a roar, he lunged, fist leading. She narrowly dodged to the side, and his hand came into smashing contact with the pots, sending one and then the other down in a clatter loud enough to draw the entire kitchen's attention. Chefs and passerby alike rushed forward to help with clean-up.

Thalia was already gone, darting out the door with a hand holding onto her top hat and a wicked grin on her face.

She just hoped Loureen took advantage of her taunting.

Thalia'd seen her mentor disappear out a different door before she herself absconded. After the successful getaway, the Tiro spent a minute or so losing any sort of pursuit among the labyrinthine below deck halls. 

At last, she skipped down a corridor, and found Loureen sitting with the cake at the dead end.

She flashed a grin at the Iduneus, eyes lighting up eagerly at the sight of cake. Thalia flopped down at her teacher's side.

"Ahh, the pastry of our toils." She licked her lips. "All for us. Absolutely wonderful. You bring any cutlery, or are we just eating this with our hands?"

She had, however, already foregone any chance of eating appliances in favor of grabbing a pre-cut slice and digging in.

Each chomp brought her sweet, sweet sugar, fuel for the hyper, trouble-causing machine that she was. She was energetic and spastic, but she needed to feed herself a good stream of nutrients constantly, and then burn it all off. It was the only way to keep herself in shape with her lifestyle.

Although she didn't cease to eat, she did manage to speak regardless of the food in her mouth. "So. How's life?"

A few moments later, she added, "Oh, and any plans for what other capers we're going to pull off today?"

"Wurr eephing iss wif urr hamms."

"Thanks for confirming, esteemed mentor," Thalia replied with remarkable enunciation around her cake.

"We're like dinner and dessert, y'know?"

"As in I'm sweet and fabulous whereas you're kinda just there to help people survive?" She smiled, frosting smeared around her mouth. "In that case, I must agree with you."

On Loureen's order, she dove behind the cake beside her mentor, carefully shielded from the view of any passing Drakonrhedi who might try and report them. Trouble-making folk learned quickly and well: punishment was more easy to avoid the longer the time gap between your caper and your reappearance. Such a law had its caveats and limitations, of course, but it was a good rule of thumb.

"I want a steak. We can try and get to Midgardborg soon and get steaks. Or whatever you want. I'm sure there's a bakery or something."

"Mmm. More cake." Thalia nodded. "Sounds spectacular."

Loureen began to poke around while the Tiro stuffed her face with the remainder of the cake. Thalia had just begun to lick the frosting off of her fingers when her mentor spoke again.

"Where do they keep the good stuff? Bullets, and the like. I'm sick of having to go to the quartermaster for more bullets just 'cause I overkilled something."

Thalia nodded eagerly. "I seriously-" Lick. "-have no clue." Lick. "I betcha Vetr Vyrrson has 'em hidden somewhere clever." Lick. "Old Ced is always causing issues-" Lick. "-even when he's not around." Lick. "I wish I had his talent."

She cleaned off her mouth with the back of her hand, and then one massive lick later was finished with her cleaning process.

"We could get Ellie to take us to Midgardborg, if you really wanna go. It'd be a long trip, though. You up for it?"

Thalia nodded. "Totally. I'm always up for an adventure, except in the mornings or when I'm hungry."

She stood. "We going, then? Shouldn't be too long of a ride."

Thalia tagged along behind her mentor out to the deck, quite contented with the amount of sugar she'd ingested. She'd experience a brief phase of relative sleepiness as she digested the food, just before the rush kicked in, hopefully right when they arrived at the Midgardborg.

“Hold on tight. It’ll be too windy to talk to me, so just hold on and contain yourself until we get to Midgardborg.”

The Tiro nodded, usually it was too windy. On calmer days, Drakonrhedi could communicate from drake to drake, but oftentimes they had to shout or use a complex form of signals that she had yet to be taught. However, she had more than enough confidence that Loureen would impart to her the needed information to become a functional Drakonrhedi.

“Contain thyself, knave! Let's go."

She sighed. "Not the same effect, Loureen. I think you need to change your appearance... make your hair a lot bluer, maybe?"

----- OH LOOK TRAVEL TIME -----

Thalia sprung off Ellie before they touched down. It was a terrible, dangerous habit, but one that the sugar-infused Tiro wasn't about to lay off. It was much too fun tumbling from a drake's back safely to the ground to stop.

“Thank you, Ellie. Go busy yourself until we get back.”

As her mentor tended to her drake, Thalia had already sprung to the end of the dock and was bouncing up and down atop a crate, looking out over the heads of the crowd to discover what mysteries the city might hold on this particular day. Rarely was there a quiet time in the Midgardborg, after all--there were simply too many people for an uneventful day to happen. She scoped out several prime targets: a butcher, a cook, and some other merchants selling trinkets, before beginning to get a handle on their surroundings through scanning the crowd.

“Alright. I didn’t bring money. But I assume that’s not going to be a problem?”

Thalia turned to Loureen. "Of course not, ma'am!" she chirped in response. "I'm certain our charitable actions will more than earn us something to eat today." She winked back at her mentor with equal mischief.

"Steak, right? Cooked or uncooked?"

Thalia didn't wait very long for an answer, darting off through the crowds. She dove through the people, somehow managing not to interrupt the flow of traffic despite her reckless maneuvers through the crowd, top hat bobbing up and down as the slender girl danced between people.

She dashed into an alleyway and, spotting a dumpster, clambered up. She only paused for a moment to get a firm hold on the gutter of the building beside her, then pulled herself up, rolling onto the roof and scooching forward to peer down at a butcher's stand.

"We can get some uncooked ones there," she babbled to a mentor who may or may not be present. "Cooked ones'll be harder. But I could probably figure something out."