run. [nel & lillis]

[Lillis]

I've been the leader, I’ve been the follower I’ve been the dreamer, I’ve been the wallower I’ll take the high road, I’ll take the low road Then right to the top When you hear me coming you can hear a pin drop. -- kate miller-heidke 41 Spring, 510AV She'd had a string of good luck. And as such, she used her time on the top of Fortune's wheel to procure a hot meal and a featherbed for the night. Lillis was traveling on foot through the city, having purchased lodging for her Gildling, weaving expertly in and out of the passersby, careful not to step on any cracks in the stone. Her purse gave a satisfying weight to the pack slung over one slender shoulder and she thought fondly of the room she'd rented and the thick quilt and fluffy pillows that awaited her after supper. She couldn't quite account for the increase in patronage over the last few weeks. Perhaps it was the shift in weather: she'd seen a lot of girls asking questions about sweethearts. She tried to give them good news; she thought often of Caelum. But when the sun shone down on her so strongly, she was confident that he was safe and well and warm, and she could smile at the thought of him without her brow furrowing up in worry. Chances were he'd escaped, like she had, or been freed and was looking for her and they would find each other soon and then -- Oh, a dress shop! She halted to a stop and admired an unfinished gown made out of golden silk on the mannequin inside, a seamstress hunched over it. Next to that was a completed gown, pale blue with navy piping. Lillis was utterly lost in her reverie when the thief snatched the satchel from off of her shoulder as though she had not been carrying it at all, as though it had been his all along. She spent the length of a heartbeat absolutely stunned before a panic set in -- her gold, her hot meal and her featherbed were all in that bag. She shot off like a bolt in hot pursuit of her offender, her hair a yellow trail behind her as she ran.

[Nel Sayo]

Nel had always had truly terrific luck...except, when she didn't. She would have said she was a very lucky person, except when she wasn't, and those times came rather hand-in-hand. In her life, she had been very fortunate -- meeting Syon, finding safety and family aboard the Bright-Eyed Mariner -- and very cursed...slavery notwithstanding, the ship sinking, and now Murdoch had turned her out on her lily-pale arse. If not lucky, however, she was exceedingly good-natured, and so even the dull ache in her heart over the master thief -- and the throbbing rage struck by the fact that he'd chosen to favor her nightmares over reality -- was not enough to entirely destroy her. No, a little heartbreak would not ruin her. Worse things had been done to her; she had endured the loss of more than just a mattress and a warm body to curl up against. True, awful horrors had befallen her in her lifetime -- emotional mutilations and physical destruction -- those were the things that struck her miserable and afraid. Not a row with a fat-headed nobody she didn't even like that much -- Syon had always said he was a twat, anyway. All these things, Nel was pondering -- as well as where she'd sleep that night, how much gold she had left, what she could afford to eat and how often, where to go next, if she had any friends anywhere, and was that apple curry she smelled? -- as she turned a corner... And the thief slammed directly into her. Being of a diminutive personage, the pale lady pirate went toppling backwards onto the ground, but she grabbed the thief by the collar as she went, taking him with her. They failed in a tangle of limbs for a moment, before Nel managed to kick him in the hip -- at which, he let out a yelp, and she realized he couldn't have been much older than she was. So she reached over and grabbed a handful of his hair, and gave it a mean-spirited twist. He yowled. "I felt that," she snapped. "And if you copped more than a feel, you had better hand it over or I'll see to it a knight shoves his longsword so far up your--" "I didn't!" the thief cried. "I took nothing!" Nel got to her feet, hauling him along with her.

[Lillis]

In her blind haste, she did not slow herself when she followed the thief around the corner, thereby causing her to collide with the back of him even as his captor hauled him to his feet and went about giving him a scolding. During this collision, Lillis managed to lift her hands up on either side of her head, turn her face away and cringe: fortunately for the lot of them, they did not all go toppling over. Fortunately for Lillis, she managed not to make skin-to-skin contact with anyone, and thus kept her eyesight and her general state of mind quite in tact. "Oh! Gods!" She exclaimed, taking a few stumbling steps backwards before reaching out to relieve the thief of the burden of her pack. She held it protectively, suspended and away from the grasp of he who had taken it. "Thank you," She said to the girl in front of her between panting breaths, "I owe you one -- don't think I could've caught the little bugger as a solo act." Then, to the thief: "I'll give you one thing, kid, you sure are quick." To this, the boy simply shrugged, having the audacity to smile without the grace to look chagrined. "Hafta make a living, haven't I?" "Haven't we all," Lillis muttered, slinging the pack over her shoulder. "Learn a bloody trade skill."

[Nel Sayo]

Nel was blinking roundly at Lillis, and she released the thief with a disconcerted shove once the woman had taken her bag back. The kid bolted even before Lillis had finished muttering, which left the two Konti women sort of...standing...there. "Uh, yeah, no problem," Nel murmured, even as she patted at her pockets to be sure nothing was missing. You never knew. "He ran right into me, I didn't really have to do anything." If she was staring, well. She'd never seen anyone who looked like her before -- not up close, anyway, and this was pretty close. She couldn't really help the staring at Lillis' white skin and pale hair, even the shape of her face was remarkably familiar. Like she'd looked into the mirror too quickly. Nel took a step backward. "Anyway. Don't -- I mean. Hold onto that thing, you know? Lots of slippery fingers in the city."

[Lillis]

Lillis blinked large, cobalt eyes in a decidedly owl-like gesture and quirked a brow at her fellow Konti. "What?" She asked, and lifted a hand to her cheek. "Do I have something on my face?" Cocking her head to the side, she stared unabashedly back at the girl in front of her. Though she had grown up amongst the Konti on Mura, there was something striking about this girl, some feature that she could not exactly place that rang familiar to Lillis as they stood there, gaping at one another. Then, as regarded the slippery fingers of the city: "Oh, no -- I mean, yes. I will. I was just caught in a daydream and pfft, out of nowhere. Spent so much time on the road, not another soul for miles that I forget. And there were these dresses..." she gestured vaguely, hooking a thumb back in the direction from which she'd come. "I'm Lillis, by the way." A smile: strong and dimpled at first, but quickly faded as her thief-catcher continued to gawk. "Ok, but seriously? You're staring at me like I fell in horse poop and you don't know how to tell me -- if I fell in horse poop, just say so already." And she peered down at herself, twisting this way and that in an effort to ascertain whether or not she had, in fact, fallen in anything.

[Nel Sayo]

"No, there's no --" Nel blinked at Lillis confusedly. "-- poop. On your face." She mentally shook herself; her eyes slid immediately elsewhere, away from Lillis. A shrug, and Nel rolled into a half-step in one direction or another, arbitrary. Like she might have been seconds away from fleeing. A shimmer of sunshine across spilling white locks, the clackata-clack of seashells as they swept across her back. "I don't wear dresses -- and anyway, you know, you should just always keep a hand on your bag, I guess. If you're gonna be daydreaming." She didn't say it with any amount of judgment; Nel was well-versed in the art of the straying thought. Except Syon had taught her not to wear a visible purse, or if she must, to keep one hand always hooked about the strings. "Just a suggestion. I have to --" She turned a little bit more. " -- sorry about the -- poop on your face, not that there is, just that you thought there might -- well -- bye." A wonderful first impression, no doubt.

[Lillis]

"Well, wait a sec," she said, taking a few steps forward and unconsciously reaching out her hand toward the girl. "You saved me a lot of trouble, even though you might not've meant to, necessarily." Lillis dropped her hand to her side, clenching it into a tiny fist. "So, I dunno... can I... buy you a... food?" Having no idea what it was about her that the girl found so off-putting, Lillis found it difficult to alter her behavior in a way that would make her more comfortable. Admittedly, however, she could've afforded to be a little bit less of an awkward weirdo. "That is, if you're hungry." She lifted the flap of her satchel and began to rifle through things, simultaneously taking stock of the many items held therein -- nothing seemed to be missing; everything seemed to be in relative order. "You're actually the first fellow Konti I've spoken to here, so I'd really just... love to talk some. Are you recently arrived from Mura?" Tilting her head back, she took stock of the street names and where they were in relation to where she might procure a hot meal and took a few steps in the appropriate direction, then paused: "You would look pretty in dresses. Just saying."

[Nel Sayo]

Nel took an additional step backwards when Lillis reached out her hand. There were a great many reasons for her to just turn around and run the other way; this woman was new to the city, she probably wouldn't be able to chase her. If she even cared to. A ramble of words, thousands upon thousands of words, piled up just behind Nel's teeth: a million apologies, excuses, some threats, a handful of lies, all kinds of things she could've said to just be on her way. "I'm starving," she blurted, instead of it all, because her tummy grumbled in the same moment. She flattened the fingers of one hand against her belly, surprised at its betrayal, but nevertheless gave it a pat, as though to soothe it, and smiled uncomfortably to Lillis. "I'm always hungry. Sure. Food. Talk. Yeah -- Mura? Oh, pft--" She scoffed as best she could, flapping a half-gloved hand, and turned to direct their walking down the street. "-- it's been -- forever, really. Barely remember the place. I left because I...hate...dresses. But thank you," She actually blushed. "For saying that I might look pretty in one. They just -- are bothersome. I'm Nel. There's a great food-cart this way, come on."

[Lillis]

Despite the quirk in her brow when she asserted that she'd left Mura because of a decidedly pointed dislike of dresses, Lillis followed closely on Nel's heels as she led the way toward the aforementioned food cart. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth when she caught the scent of hot, spiced meat on the air as they drew closer to their destination. "So, did you leave with your family, then, or are they still on the island?" She inquired as they walked, pausing only when they reached the end of the small line that had formed in front of the food cart. And when it was her turn, she stood up on tip toe to address the cook behind the cart. "Salt beef and bread for me and..." she gestured to Nel, a silent invitation for her to order whatever she wanted, even as her other hand fished about her bag for her coin purse.

[Nel Sayo]

"I don't have any family," Nel said dismissively, but it came out quickly, and she tacked, "Lemon chicken and bread, salt and pepper on both, little more garlic on the chicken? Great," onto it as though to cover it over in talk of food instead. Food was ever so much more pleasant, after all, than talk of things nobody could control, or things one simply didn't have. She fell therefore silent, for a while, until the cart chef started piling food into their hands, and when she could at last hide behind a stick of chicken when she chose to, she shrugged and turned pale blue eyes on Lillis again. Curiosity lingered in her eyes, and a sharply defensive sense of self-awareness. Whatever she saw when she looked at the other woman, it wasn't what she saw whenever she looked in the mirror, despite the similarities. "So why'd you leave Mura, then?" she prompted, after a minute. "And where's your family?"