Trouble with Pranksters

((open RP invitation follows -- either present a suitable target for Halia, or illustrate to Halia that she is the target by getting the drop on her...))

Halia lurked, like the mischievous imp she often was, at the Ripped Bodice. It was a rowdy, loud night at the bar and people were clanging mugs together, dancing, laughing, and getting into trouble wherever one looked. Somewhere in that rowdy crowd slunk a dark green-cloaked figure. When she wanted to be, Halia was inconspicuous. So she was now. This wouldn't be the first time the slight half-elven trickster had hung out at the tavern in the hopes of finding someone to play a little trick on. Like so many tricks of Halia's, this one involved denuding someone without being noticed.

The girl had all her tools -- fingerless gloves with little hooks built into them that could pop out to slice clothes, a well-hidden knife or two, a tiny vial of clothing-dissolving acid, and more. On top of that, she'd woven a spell around herself to aid in avoiding notice -- the simple-minded would walk around her in an empty room without realizing she was there, while the sharp would probably just brush past her in a crowd and not think twice about it. That said, Halia was not the best there was. She was good, but anyone who had more experience, will, or talent than her was liable to realize what she was up to. The question was...

...who would end up getting pranked?

Velatha's eyes looked over the tavern's patrons, searching for anybody interesting or any valuables not being watched closely enough. Unfortunately for the infiltrator, there didn't seem to be too much of either tonight. Or at least not yet, or not in this particular part of the tavern.

"How boring..." she muttered to herself as she took a gulp of her drink. As she set the mug down she saw a figure trying to look inconspicuous. Something about the figure seemed familiar.

That's when Velatha remembered the excitable girl she'd worked with once or twice in the past. Always getting into trouble, that one. This didn't seem to stop her from seeking out more trouble whenever the chance arose, it would seem. A sly smile crept onto the elf's lips. If that girl was here, the night still had a chance of being interesting. And if not, Velatha could always make Halia the night's entertainment. For now, however, she wanted to see what the woman was going to do next.

Halia was an eager little one, but what she lacked in foresight she made up for with instinct.  And some tried-and-true tricks, of course.  Right now, however, it seemed like Velatha had noticed her, and she had not noticed Velatha.  The infiltrator tracked the dark green cloak and the lithe half-elven figure hidden beneath -- she was surely up to no good.

Drifting through the crowd, the cloaked figure made a flick of the wrist; Velatha well knew what the motions of pocket picking looked like, even at this distance.  Being the patient rogue she was, Velatha watched with curious amusement and perhaps pondered Halia's choice of marks tonight.  Was she going for quantity or something?  The few boozers she brushed past couldn't have had more than a few coppers on them.

Velatha watched some more as the busy little bee made her way around, otherwise unnoticed.  Within a total of fifteen minutes or so she had made her way across the room and was slinking her way past Velatha.  The trickster paused, her head glancing towards the ground, and Velatha spotted what she spotted less than a second later.  The subtle glimmer of a dirty gold coin on the ground of the crowded barroom.  It seemed Halia couldn't resist, and as she brusquely turned to address the coin, she bent at the waist to pick it up.

The impulsive action caused her little cloak to ride up on her thighs.  Velatha was treated to a glimpse of Halia's practically bare, cute butt; scant, sheer, lacy light-green undergarments scarcely obscured Halia's crevice as the avaricious little sneak struggled to pick the coin up off of the grimy floorboards.  This could be Velatha's perfect chance to do some 'damage'.

Velatha couldn't help but smile at the sight that Halia unwittingly gave her. There was just the issue of that pesky bit of green covering up the good stuff. THAT would need to be fixed.

Reaching into the hem of one of her gloves, Velatha produces a thin, fine razor. It would just take two quick strokes to sever the panties where they were thinnest. If she played her cards right, Halia wouldn't feel a thing as her undergarments fell away. If she did mess up, well, perhaps she'd just think some lusty patron gave her a quick grope. At any rate, Velatha was completely confident in her ability to pull this off without getting caught...

One, two little slices, and Velatha dexterously cut the waistband on either side of Halia's fancy green undergarments. The flimsy material snapped to the sides and fell instantly, pooling around her boots. The head of the hooded figure shot up before she froze in place; her nethers and round, tight lil arse were suddenly and totally exposed. Taut buttocks clenched a little tighter upon feeling the air, and her bare lips seemed to quiver between her pale thighs, perfectly framed.

Rather than covering her mound or shooting up straight suddenly, Halia turned her head to slowly look behind her. Her adorable face was poking out from beneath the hood, which was slipping back slowly, and while Halia was blushing she also had a strange coy expression on her face. Velatha felt a very tangible, cold sense of dread waft over her as she realized Halia was grinning right at her.

The half-elf pointed down at Velatha's chest before quickly shimmering and fading from sight, like a mirage one had gotten too close to. An illusion?!

One of Halia's tried-and-true tricks had worked -- which meant that for roughly fifteen minutes Velatha was watching a damned illusion pretend to pick pockets! What... what had she been pointing to..?

The infiltrator's eyes shot down to see what that sudden drafty sensation was, and to confirm that sinking dread she'd felt when Halia's illusion grinned at her. Velatha stared down in dawning horror, her bare breasts on display for any who cared to look. A neat little hole had been sliced in a circle from her top, allowing her tits to spill out while she was checking out Halia's illusory goods. Her nipples stiffened in the air, and she heard a few nearby guffaws from people who were slowly starting to notice.

As for the half elf, Velatha just barely managed to catch a glimpse of a green-cloaked figure hiding behind a large man at the end of the bar. She was watching. And giggling. And this time she seemed to tense up in earnest, as if Velatha had actually spotted the real her.

"Oh, you are very dead." Velatha muttered with venom. She stood up from her seat and crossed her arms over her newly exposed chest. Rather than advance on the half-elf, however, she stepped backwards. Never breaking eye contact with Halia, Velatha moved back and into the crowd of patrons around her. In the blink of an eye the infiltrator seemed to disappear.

"Think you're clever?" her voice asked, just next to Halia's left ear. The half-elf glanced left only to see empty air.

"I'll show you clever." the voice came again, this time to Halia's right. Again she looked, and again she saw nothing.

"I'm going to have fun with you..." Velatha threatened as menacingly as she could.

((No need to rush to involve my characters, do so when you see fit. The feud that's going on now is pretty great, so take your time, however you like it.))

Niniane emptied her tray of drinks, and went back to the bar for more. To her surprise, Minna grabbed her by the shoulder and gestured to the corner behind the bar. Niniane, perplexed, looked down at the dwarf.
"Customers been complainin about a cutpurse tonight. 'Ave you seen anything?" Niniane shook her head. "Well, be on the lookout. And when you find them, bounce them out on their sorry rear and teach them what it means to be takin our patrons drinkin coin. Whoever it is, slap 'em silly for me, because the tips are abysmal the last hour."

Niniane nodded, and looked around the room. "I suspect the boss can find out who it is from her quarters. Maybe signal 'er?"

Minna nodded. "We'll catch the bastard. We'll teach this thief a lesson."

"Don't worry," Niniane replied, "I'm on it." With that, Minna went back to the bar, while Niniane patted her trusty satchel at her side. A thief was probably faster than her, and certainly more agile, but she was stronger, and could slow them down with the contents of her magic satchel. Of course, she'd have to find them first. With that, she took a new tray of drinks and went back out among the crowd, warier now than before.

Halia’s eyes went wide. Her eyes shot to the left, and her body followed. A small gasp escaped her lips at Velatha’s words. Another whisper and she glanced to the right. Still no sign of the infiltrator. The girl was quickly growing nervous and decided that she might do best to leave while she could. Halia put in a lot of time at the Bodice and somehow had managed to not mess up her status there.

The half-elf spun towards the exit, not wanting to make a scene. Her little cloak whipped when she turned and she whistled innocently to herself as she began quickly striding across the room for the door. She kept her head on a swivel, trying to predict where the attack may come from. Her heart pounded in her chest; a few long steps and she’d be at the door...

Cloaks were a good way of obscuring one's identity, but Velatha avoided wearing them much for one very important reason. Dangling fabric was essentially an invitation to be grabbed and used against the wearer. When Halia whipped around to start heading for the door it was trivial for Velatha to grab a handful of the green fabric and follow behind. A few steps into Halia's attempted escape, Velatha gave the cloak a sharp tug backwards, sending to half-elf off her feet and crashing onto her back.

"Oh my, are you alright miss?!" Velatha asked in feigned concern as the half-elf's fall made a spectacle.

The infiltrator knelt down beside the prone woman, apparently to help her from an observer's perspective. In truth, one knee pressed Halia's arm tight against her body, while Velatha's comforting hand on Halia's other shoulder held an iron grip.

"Let's see how you like your own medicine." Velatha whispered to the woman below her. Exposing her chest, Velatha's free hand roamed Halia's outfit, seemingly checking for injuries while in fact looking for one of Halia's own gadgets to use against her.

Velatha deftly and smoothly swept Halia off her feet, which went out from beneath her. The light girl landed on her back with a little “oof!” Her cloak clasp loosened and let the garment pool around her body as Velatha knelt atop her. She groaned and squirmed, trying to wriggle her arm free from its uncomfortable pinned position.

“Can’t breathe!” she gasped, exaggerating and letting her mouth gape open like a fish. Her eyes were still wide with fear, realizing what was about to happen. She vainly hoped someone would help her out before the other rogue got the best of her.

Velatha ran a hand along Halia’s lithe form. Beneath her green tunic she felt taut abdominals and perky little tits under a bra. Halia shivered. The trickster was loaded, otherwise, with a variety of tools for Velatha to choose from.

There was a little vial of clear fluid in her belt pouch with a little label depicting a melting dress.

There was a very fine, small set of scissors that were otherwise unremarkable.

Her fingerless gloves had little spring-loaded blades in them.

She also had a bundle of arena-steel razor wire tucked into her cleavage. The exceptionally thin wire would slice through cloth rather easily...

She also had other tools on her as well, if Velatha was feeling creative... ((make up or creatively use a traditional thieves’ tool?))

Upon spotting the vial, a wicked idea hatched in Velatha's mind. Putting her hand above the pouch holding the vial, she firmly pressed down until she heard the glass crack and break.

"Oh dear, I think I heard something break when you hit floor!" Velatha said, deftly opening up the pouch and tilting it to pour the contents out onto Halia's outfit. "I do hope it wasn't something valuable or important! I know how much alchemical creations can cost!"

The infiltrator was enjoying her little naive act. She made sure to speak loudly so that the two of them were the center of attention. As soon as the vial's contents made contact with Halia's clothing, Velatha watched eagerly, ready to loudly declare her shock and surprise at the woman's disappearing modesty.

Halia squirmed and squealed, her eyes popping again in dread as she heard the ‘pop’ of her vial snapping into pieces. Sure enough, people were turning to observe the commotion, muttering comments and pointing interestedly.

“Holy shit, that one’s tits are out!” a man pointed and chuckled. Velatha felt the heat rush to her face as her hands made swift work and her breasts jiggled with each motion; she dumped the fluid straight from the pouch onto Halia, along with some other little tools and vials.

“Ohh, what a cute little thing!” a woman cooed with a hint of lasciviousness in her voice. “Hope she’s okay.”

Halia gasped again and tried to squeal a “help me!” but she found Velatha’s hand over her mouth as the clear clothing acid saturated her top.

The disappearance was noticeable and fast. Little holes appeared in the green fabric at first, widening into big gaps that revealed soft fair skin beneath.

“No no no..!!” Halia whimpered quietly with mounting dread. A hand came up to try and blot the moisture, only getting onto her glove in the process. Her right glove began to visibly crumble as the majority of Halia’s bra came into view. The light green lace cupped her small, perky tits, but Velatha could tell it was giving way slowly. The straps loosened and sagged a bit, and the outline of her tiny pink nipples started to show through the fabric.

“Hnnnh, please no, not here! I-I... I’ll do anything,” she whined and whispered. “Just please let me go!” she mewled as she squirmed to try and get free from under Velatha.

Before long, the clasp in the middle of her bra popped open and flew to the sides, showing off her delectable, pert breasts. Her chest heaved and her back arched in her struggle, only serving to present it more in her attempts to get away. People were laughing and gathering around now in a growing audience, shouting suggestions.

“Shake them little tits for us!”

“Make out!”

“Help that poor girl up already..!”

The last suggestion was met with boos and thrown drinks.

Halia was still pinned, for now, and that which was left of her clothing above the waist was officially in tatters. Feebly, she covered as much of her breasts as possible with her one free hand and shut her eyes tight.

Velatha's hand stopped its roaming of Halia's body as the acid did its job. Instead Velatha now covered her mouth in mock surprise.

"Oh my! What a horrible thing!" the elf exclaimed, though the devious glint in her eyes gave away that she knew exactly what she was seeing and knew exactly where she wanted to take things. "What were you doing with such a dangerous thing in your possession?"

Velatha then made a very obvious glance down to her own exposed breasts. Blushing (something she didn't have to act to make happen in these circumstances), she quickly crossed her arm across her chest as best she could. Her eyes went wide and the tiniest bit of moisture collected at the edges.

"W-wait... miss, are you... are you that notorious prankster that's been running around? D-did you do this to me?!" Velatha cried in a trembling voice. "Why else would you have something to melt clothes?! You're a pervert!"

With that, Velatha put on her best display of crocodile tears. Through her act she kept an eye on the surrounding patrons. If she could turn the crowd against Halia, well, there was no telling what kind of fun she could put the half-elf through!

There was a commotion in the crowd, as Niniane came through. Handing out the last two drinks on her tray so she could get through the group collected around the two girls, she approached, and crossed her arms over her chest, tucking the tray under one arm. "Now what do we have here. There have been reports of a pickpocket tonight...you two wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Halia was off-guard, but being the trickster she was, her mind began quickly working to get her out of this potentially nasty situation. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and tried to keep a hand over her chest.

"P-prankster? Pervert?? The prankster just went that way!" Halia shouted loudly, pointing across the room. Predictably, the curious crowd glanced in that direction, craning their heads and murmuring in momentary confusion. A few people didn't immediately fall for it, so she added: "And she's naked!"

A few more people turned their heads and that's when she turned suddenly and made a break for it. In a full-on sprint she went to dash into the crowd, only to smack face-first into Niniane. Her head bounced off the generous bosom of the larger woman, sending her off her feet. The half elf fell right onto her butt, her hands shooting out to the sides to break the fall. Her pert little mounds bounced as people glanced back towards the scene, realizing the desperate attempt at deception. People began to immediately murmur loudly in anger and resentment at what was adding up to look pretty bad.

"She lies!" Halia blurted, pointing at Velatha. "She's a thief too!" she said, her eyes going wide and her jaw dropping almost cartoonishly as she realized what she'd said. Various shouts rang out, suggesting random impromptu forms of justice...

Silently offering up a small prayer for her luck, both in the form of the woman that had blocked Halia's escape and the half-elf's unintentional admission of guilt, Velatha wiped away her theatrical tears and sniffed weakly.

"Y-you... you cut my top open, and then you accuse me of being a criminal? You're so mean!" she whined, squeezing her arms over her exposed breasts for emphasis. "What did I ever do to you?"

"Sh-she..!" Halia stammered, losing her cool in the moment. Her eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth as a plan just... sort of came out. She glanced Velatha up and down briefly, as if checking for something.

"There!" she pointed to Velatha's crotch, awkwardly covering her breasts with the other hand. "I saw her stash someone's jewelry in there -- it looked fancy, too! If she's not a thief then she'll show us what she's got down there... right?"

Velatha certainly hadn't been ready for that strategy. The blush on her cheeks and the stammer in her voice went from faked to decidedly real after Halia made her accusation.

"I-I'm not gonna take my pants off in front of all these people!" she protested. "This is just a mean spirited accusation to humiliate me more than you already have! B-besides, these pants are too tight to hide something down there! Come on, nobody's going to believe such a ridiculous lie!"

Niniane furrowed her brow..."It looks like we have some kind of disagreement ensuing here." She gestured to the crowd. "Don't let either of them get away, and we'll adjudicate this fairly." The crowd followed, as she led them into a side room, still crowded with bar patrons. At the center were a pair of pillories.

"You see, we were asked to crack down on trouble here, so the Queensguard allowed us these tools to help keep things under control. We'll get to the bottom of this." She gestured to the crowd to help Halia into one of the pillories.

"So, you're accusing each other, but," she said to Halia, you said she's a thief TOO...so we know where you stand on this issue. We'll take care of you in a minute. But this other one..." she gestured to Velatha.

"We'll check your...um, treasures...but you're right. What if it is just a thief blaming her victim? We'll check them back behind the bar."

The crowd booed a bit at this.

"In fact, Minna?" she said, gesturing to the bartender. "Can you take a break and check this one's...um, treasure box, for stolen goods?"

Niniane stayed with Halia as the crowd started to help her into the stocks.

"No groping. Well, not unreasonable groping anyway...she was perhaps picking your pockets."

Minna took Velatha to a room behind the bar. It had a large desk, with lots of papers on it, and bookshelves. There were no obvious exits except back through the crowded tavern. "OK, madam, I'm sorry we're going to have to do this, but aren't you glad that we're not doing it in front of that lot out there. Just pull down your trews and I'll um, have a little exploration around your..abutment." Clearly uncomfortable, the dwarf was speaking in the language where she felt most comfortable--mining terminology.

((Feel free to write for my characters to keep this going. They are mostly just looking out for the reputation of the bar as a place not to get robbed, and a place to have fun (catching pranksters and putting them in pillories might count), they are honest, but they consider themselves pretty tough and don't take any guff.))

"Wh-what?! No-nonsense! Squeeee!" Halia yelped and squealed as she was roughly handled and yanked around by Niniane and the crowd.

"I'm not-no! I'm a good patron of this place! I spend a lot of money heeere..." she whined, finding herself increasingly naked as random hands grabbed her and unceremoniously stripped the rest of her damaged clothing -- recompense for suspected thefts, perhaps. Her smooth, pale legs kicked, all of her little freckles exposed now, along with her bare tits and recently shaved pussy. The stocks closed over her hands and neck, leaving her bent over at the waist in a very vulnerable position. Her face had gone beet red and she shut her eyes, mortified.

This was not going well for Halia. At all times, though, she was looking for an angle of escape. She might have to... endure, though, before her opportunity presented itself.

"You still don't have proof I stole from anyone here," she complained, out of half-reasonable arguments.

"The woman back there says you, um...stole a hole out of her top. And I have some pretty credible tips from management. t's a shame to see you fallen to this, you have been a good customer. So, what shall we do with you, call the guard, or teach you a lesson here?" Walking around behind Halia, Niniane clapped her hands loudly so Halia could anticipate her intention.

Halia let out a "meep" and swallowed hard.

"I... I don't think there's any need to call the guard," she said miserably.

"I'm sorry to have to do this. This is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me." Niniane pulled her hand back, and smacked Halia's cute butt. Halia winced--the big girl was strong! But Niniane kept it going until both pairs of Halias cheeks were red, and her eyes were starting to tear up.

After a few minutes, Niniane turned to the crowd. "Well...if any of the ladies here can tell me what;s missing from their purse or person tonight, she can have a go with the spanking back here. Or," she sais reaching into her bag and removing a cream pie, "do you think our little darling here needs dessert? Or both? My, what's taking Minna so long searching that other woman?"

((Apologies for taking so long to make a post. Work tends to fry my brain a bit, and I work weekends, so that tends to result in these quiet spells. I'll do my best to get a proper post up sometime Sunday.))

(No worries, feel free to use Minna to advance the plot. I wasn't complaining it was slow by Niniane's comment, just prompting a space for writing it.)