52 replies to this topic

[Liss]

"And perfectly happy with where I am." Liss said, though she was rather flattered that he thought she was worth trying to convince to be in a better place. "I hate being a slave to those people but here I can fight and there might be noble throats to rip out." She smiled and shook her head. "It's not that where I am displeases me, it's where I've been. I've suffered enough for seven life-times and now I wanna make them pay."

Her fingernails dug deeper into her skin and her smile grew more manically sweet. The pain kept her present, but it was growing harder. Now that she was thinking of her hate, it would not be easy to pull her mind off of it. The part of her that wanted to hurt Ricket for reminding her was beginning to overpower the part of her that enjoyed his company.

[Ricket]

Something wasn't going right. It just wasn't right to be so pained as to want to hurt yourself, and she clearly had more beneath the surface; one didn't grow up and watch teenagers without recognizing when there was something not going well. "Look, summat's not right. Just... speak plain talk. I don't reckon to know much, but you're not feelin' right. What is it?"

He never seemed to have a way with people, not like a doctor or a mother or a father. He could ask questions, but folks generally looked to him for a laugh, and little more of smiling than any of these hard talks. He just wanted to work, do his job, be a person and be on the river. For Liss, though, it seemed as though there was so much more at stake. He couldn't quite place it, which was frustrating, but he figured hearing it out would make the most sense of anything. If he could understand, he could try to help.

[Liss]

Liss continued to keep her anger within, hard as it was. "Wrong? No, not at all." She said, truthfully. "This is perfectly normal. I don't know what it is, but it is not unusual." She smiled at him, almost glad that he was worried. "I don't suppose that you would understand. Not even Della understood. The best I can do is avoid thinking about certain things. If you're uncomfortable, I can leave." She suggested, knowing that even if she enjoyed hurting people, not everyone enjoyed being hurt.

[Ricket]

That was the long and short of things, often.  He didn't know her, had no rights to be asking her what was wrong, (he was no kin to this girl, after all) but the long and short of it boiled down to something which had been said before, and would likely be said again: You wouldn't understand.  He'd grown accustomed to it, it was something he heard any time he asked a question or suggested a different way of doing things.  He was the fool, the joker who never had a solemn thought in the eyes of his employers.   And on top of everything else, he was just simple.  "No, reckon I'm not very clever, you're right."

He didn't know how else to be, though.  He just thought about things and said what he thought.  If there were ash falls, he talked about ash.  If there were boats, talk about boats.  But here, if there were troubles... I just don't know what to do.  He wasn't home enough to be a proper brother, how was he supposed to be the same to someone he just met?  "I... suppose I ought to take that bath now."  Unpleasant though it was, perhaps he couldn't do any good until after he'd tried to think things through.

Edited by Chautauquan, 21 February 2014 - 10:39 PM.

[Liss]

"I don't mean that it's beyond you. I just mean that it's...personal and explaining it would not go well for you." Liss said, feeling bad about it. "If I could explain, I would." She smiled at him and shrugged. Then she forced herself to move from the dangerous subject. She was still angry. The hate consumed most of her mind. She could get past it, though. It would be bad for her image to lose her cool in the main room.

"I can go ask about it." Liss said, knowing that now she'd have to explain to someone else that she'd been talking to someone that she wasn't even sure was really a rebel. He seemed genuine, but who knew.

[Daphne]

Daphne entered the main room of the brothel, and her eyes immediately gravitated towards the grungy man Liss was speaking with. He shouldn't be out here. Daphne only hoped the man was a rebel, and not some random skaa who had no place here. A second look alerted her to Liss's posture, and the tension in it. It looked like she had better intervene soon, to a avoid a potential spectacle.

"Ask about what?" Daphne asked, meeting Liss as she turned, trying to enter the conversation as naturally as possible. She did not want to put anyone on edge, and now that she was closer, the man seemed nervous as well. "Did I hear you speaking about a bath?" Daphne's gaze flicked back to the man. Now that she was closer, his face, though dirty, seemed vaguely familiar. Had she seen him talking to Trev once perhaps? Whoever he was, he had the reek of the docks on him, which meant if he was involved in the rebellion he was likely somehow involved with smuggling.

"I'm sorry, I've forgotten to introduce myself, my name is Daphne." Daphne did not bother to curtsy, knowing such a gesture would be lost on a man like this. Instead, she offered her hand to shake, reminding herself not to wipe it on her dress when all was said and done. Not only would doing so seem rude, it also could ruin the fabric. "Who might you be?" Daphne kept her smile warm and her voice soothing, trying her best not to spook the man whose conversation she had intruded into.

[Liss]

Liss had stood to go get Daphne when she saw her coming into the room. Liss was glad at it, and smiled. When Daphne was close enough and had entered the conversation, Liss spoke. "I'll let him explain, if you don't mind. But he says his name's Ricket, and he needs a bath."

She felt a little worried that she'd done something wrong. If Daphne didn't know who this guy was, maybe he really was a spy. "I probably should've come to get you when he first arrived, but I didn't want to leave him here alone, and I wasn't sure if you were busy." She looked down a bit, knowing that her excuses were bad. She had merely gotten distracted, but she didn't want Daphne to know that.

[Daphne]

Daphne saw Liss's tension increase, and immediately tried to put her at ease. If there had been any sort of transgression on her part, they could deal with that later, in private where Liss wouldn't be embarrassed. At the moment, Daphne wasn't even certain if Liss had done anything wrong or dangerous, and the answers seemed to lay with the dirty man in front of them.

"Well, Master Ricket," she said, keeping her expression warm and her voice calm, "How about the three of us move upstairs and see about getting you a bath, hmm? Then perhaps we can figure out things from there." The main room was too exposed for Daphne's taste. Anyone could walk in at any moment, whether they be a nobleman of the street, or Veil herself. If Veil came in, saw Ricket, and drew the wrong conclusions, Liss would be in a lot more trouble than if Daphne could get to the bottom of things first.

[Ricket]

'Master Ricket' was not a term the boatman was used to. 'Hey you', 'Stinky', 'Fish-breath', 'Whisker-chops', those were natural, easy to respond to, and all too often accompanied by a blow. But 'Master Ricket'? That was just another mess entirely, it implied some sort of respect whenever he used it, unless he was doing so in a mocking tone, and that was always obvious on his part, as subtlety was never his strong point. He shook his head vigorously at the mention. "Jus' Ricket is all I need. All I ever plan on bein', anyway."

The outstretched hand was almost instinctively taken, but he remembered his grime compared to her finery, (by his standards, at least) and brought it back. He was aware enough of his situation, and the grime and ash, while omnipresent, didn't necessarily need to be spread. "I--I reckon if I'm taking a bath, I might shake hands after that." The idea of going upstairs, at least, was welcome, and not being near the door was a better way of not being seen. "As far as accomodations go, I'm at your mercy. Do what you will. I'll hide under a barrel if needs be."

[Daphne]

Daphne nodded. "Ricket it is then." His speech was more indicative of his work than any scent could be. She could see now she had been mistaken to rely on courtesy. A man like this would appreciate talk that was straight and honest.

"Now, let's get you cleaned up. Follow me, please." As she led Ricket towards the stairs, she nodded to Liss over her shoulder, indicating she wanted her to accompany them. Daphne did not want word of whatever was going on here travelling before she got a better handle on the situation, and she knew things would go better if she could continue to keep an eye on Liss for the time being.

"Well, Ricket," she said as she began climbing the stairs, "If you don't mind indulging me, I'd love to know what brings you to our establishment today."

[Liss]

Liss followed Daphne quickly, still feeling guilty. She should stay quiet. She'd stay quiet, and focus on not losing her temper. She had a feeling that the talk would turn to dangerous subjects, and she didn't really like hurting people she even slightly cared about, even if she did enjoy it.

So Liss followed and tried to not talk, letting go of her arm and angling it so that no one could see the slight blood drawn from her fingernails. That would be awkward for her. She hated it when people noticed her scars and wounds. She fell into step behind Ricket and pushed her flaming red hair out of her face, and spoke without thinking. "He came in the back door. I was the only person back there at the time, but he knew how to get in. Said he needed to hide." She was terrible at not talking. She really should've let Ricket explain himself.

[Ricket]

Well, truthfully there wasn't much more he could add to that, but to try to keep somewhat discreet about the reasons for his arrival. Ricket never considered that there might be consequences or that he might ever get caught in a way that didn't involve him being immediately executed, so the idea of running away was still new to him. Naturally, almost anything involving running was a bit foreign these days, as he nervously scraped his peg across the floor. "Baldies at the dock, with my crew."

While the river man knew he needed to get better about using the proper hidden code-slang, he didn't exactly have a lot of practice. Obligators were normal enough, but he had no inclinations of trying to figure out why there were so many of them. "Too many baldies. I left, reckoned this was the closest spot, and that, it'd be better than gettin' caught." After the conversation which had already been had, his huffing and puffing had fallen a bit, and any sweat which could have been considered fresh was nice and mingled with all of the other grime which came with the territory of hard labor. "I don't make a habit of comin' round empty-handed, normally just drop 'n go. I ain't used to needin' help, just givin' it. But I need it now."

[Daphne]

Daphne felt her eyes widen and her posture stiffen as she interpreted Ricket's sailor slang. Obligators at docks? Lord Ruler could he have led them here? Luckily, she was still in the lead, so Ricket would not have seen the look on her face. That was good, as he finally seemed to be calming down, and Daphne didn't want to get him worked up again.

They passed a girl in the hallway, one of the workers who also ran messages for Veil and Trev in her spare time. "Send word to Trev and Veil, and to the lookouts, to keep an eye out for obligators in the area. There was some sort of investigation at the docks today." Daphne took the girl aside, and kept her voice low, but she was under no illusions that Ricket and Liss could not have eavesdropped if they wanted to. They were in a cramped hallway, after all.

The girl nodded and went on her way, nodding to Ricket and Liss and she passed. "Well Ricket," Daphne said as they reached a private bathing room, "I'll see what I can do for you. If the obligators really are after you, you were right to come here and warn us. Before you start your bath though, I have to know, is their anything the obligators that mind find that could trace you back to us?" As she spoke, Daphne opened the door. The bathing room was small by noble standards, but larger than anything in a regular skaa dwelling. It was meant for clients to use, and though Daphne would have to make sure it was washed well after Ricket used it, she had chosen it because it was large enough to accommodate a few chairs for bathing attendants, and a standing screen to block off the area around the tub. While she knew the finery would likely make Ricket uncomfortable, she needed as much information from him as possible.

Daphne entered the room, and set up the screen for Ricket so that she could fill the tub while he changed. "You can strip down behind the screen if you are modest," she said, keeping her words crisp and free of any hint of flirtation. Ricket was uncomfortable enough with his surroundings, she didn't want to add to it by making him thinking she was trying to seduce him. "If you need any assistance," she continued, eyeing his wooden leg, "Let Liss or I know and we can do what we can to help."