#Savin Reep

[d20owlbear]

A scuffle of shoes were muffled on cold, brick pavement; it was damp, and lights reflected at the end of a dirty alleyway from the street. They didn’t reach far past the initial grime.

The rustle of clothing accompanied a low grunt as a man was pushed forcefully against an equally cold brick wall, nearly as grimy as the ground if not for the occasional rain leaving rusty stains from fire escapes above. A solid wall of muscle behind him pinned him just as surely as the brick before him did, with his right arm twisted around against the small of his back and the left instinctively thrown out in front of him to cushion the fall.

It hadn’t been much of a fall, not with the way the person behind him had controlled every part of it. The whole thing had been poetry in motion, if he’d anything to say about it. The grab, the twist upon the fulcrum, the power and control and economy of movement! There was not a single bit of effort wasted–

“I have a knife.” The voice behind him was low, pleasantly so. A sharp point pressed against his back, just barely, just enough to feel it through the wool of his three-piece suit, and oh that took a good bit of knowledge and practice, didn’t it? Presuming he only wanted to frighten some poor sod, rather than actually harm them, and there was no indication this would-be-thief was in any way violently inclined at this time...

He hid his smile with a curl of his hand on the wall, and twisted his neck just enough to look back at the towering man behind him, eyes widening so that the whites showed enough he might even look a bit frightened while he was at it.

The man had a hat on, and a hoodie over that, both of them black, which was cliché enough to almost be cute. But it obscured his face well enough to work, so perhaps it was classic for a reason, he mused silently to himself. But the man had a surprisingly delicate jaw, which threw him for a bit, he’d been expecting something a bit more rugged or defined to go along with that voice, but this man seemed to have a more naturally rounded face, more rounded shoulders too instead of squared, now that his eyes wandered...

“Don’t move, and I won’t have to use it,” the man continued, “where is your wallet? Tell me.”

Pausing for a moment, he couldn’t help but tremble as he bit back a laugh. What a wonderful delivery! Well done!

The man behind him sighed, and the grip on his arm loosened, just a tad, almost unnoticeable really, though the pressure keeping him otherwise pinned to the wall hadn’t changed, and he said, almost comfortingly, “I won’t hurt you, just hand over your wallet, or maybe a watch instead if it’s valuable, and you can be on your way back home, unharmed.”

“Oh no, that’s not–” and at that point he couldn’t keep it in anymore and snorted a laugh that was entirely out of place. The man behind him paused, he couldn’t say the man quite froze—as he didn’t stiffen up or anything like that, it would have been easier to pull off the next move if he had, actually—and pushed off the bricks in front of him with his left hand while pivoting towards his right to face the taller man. From there it was simple enough to catch him off guard, loop a heel behind him to pull a foot out from under him, and then happily kneel down on one of the few drier spots in the alley to give the man a winning smile as he groaned.

“Oh, pardon me,” he said jovially, leaning over to tenderly pluck the switchblade out from the man’s hands, “I’ll just hold on to this for a moment. I’ll give it back in due time. Now, if you like, my watch is on my wrist, and I’m happy to give that to you. As for my wallet, it’s in my suit pant’s left, back pocket, but I daresay you’ll have to fetch that one yourself if you want it.” He tilted his head to the side and his eyes narrowed to crescents with the force of his, if he did say so himself, utterly charming smile.

The man on the ground blinked up at him slowly for a moment or two before groaning again and letting his head thunk down to the brick pavement.

“S’alright. Can’t say I want it much anymore.” The man shrugged, and threw his arms up to fold behind his head as a cushion, making himself comfortable, even going so far as to raise a knee up and then cross his leg over it, as if to say he was fine down there and wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon, he wasn’t bothered by this turn of events.

“Well.” It was hard to keep the delight from his voice. And despite what he’d said about his wallet, he dug it out of his pocket anyway, and pulled a card from it, a business card to be exact. “My name is Savin Reep, please do give me a call. I’ll be waiting.”

Savin stood with another smile, and pushed his hair back out of his face from where it’d fallen free from its previously slicked-back appearance, and casually walked back out of the alley and merged into the after-work commute back home as if he were any other office worker on any other Tuesday night.

And he would be, waiting, that is. Even if that’s not all he would be doing, he’d be waiting too.

The man would have to come find him to get his wallet back, after all...