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+--- Thread: Innocence and Avarice [closed] (/showthread.php?tid=6812)
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 04-30-2014
Zhi immediately bared her teeth in a grimace, though the expression soon faded. She didn't know how she was supposed to act, but . . . surely it'd be more unusual if she didn't act like a streetrat? You'd be chewed up alive if anyone acted the way she'd acted in front of Lalataru. "I ain't," she muttered, taking a step forward and snatching up the bag. She backed a step and crouched, setting to opening it. She was hungry.
She looked over at the curtain at his words, and shrugged. "Ain't room t'live alone. Only reason it's by halves here is 'cause o'the stairs. Split four ways downstairs. Ye been t'the Reach before?" Zhi eyed the big man, curious despite herself. Not everyone who was street was destitute, it was true, but if he was . . .. She looked back down, suddenly nervous, and focused on the food.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 04-30-2014
Styrmsthal continued turning about lazily, trying to disguise his observation with disinterest.
"I been a time or ten. Good folk 'round here. Salty as ye like 'em." He chuckled and the low rumble of it filled up the room. "So...ye're studying with Taru?"
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 04-30-2014
Zhi rocked back onto her heels. She'd uncovered a clay jar packed with salted vegetables, and after cracking its wax seal found it to be cabbage and garlic. She dug into it with her fingers, eyes drifting half shut with the pleasure of it. "Some good," she amended for him around her mouthful. Her chewing stuttered to a halt as he brought up Lalataru, and she went stiff. "As long. . .fer as long as I don't piss 'im off. He scares me some, if I'm talkin' truth. Hey," she looked up, and then paused as she finished chewing, eyebrows drawing close together and forming a small wrinkle over her nose. "Ye work fer'im? Ye know what he's like?"
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 04-30-2014
"Aye, I do work fer the man time to time. Nothin' permanent or the like, see, but yeah, we've done our business here and there. Pays fair." Styrmsthal looked pensive. He continued, "He's a good sort, an' I wouldn't worry too hard 'bout pissin' 'im off; he's a hard man to upset, he is." He noticed her wrinkled brow. Worried? Suspicious? Of Taru?
He sat down on the floor across from the girl and leaned back on his elbows. "Hells of a drinker, too, that one. Drank me under the table right there with 'im a time or two. Dunno where he puts it all..."
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 04-30-2014
As Styrm started talking, Zhi looked between him and the food before begrudgingly pushing a loaf of dark, dense bread towards him. Sharing didn't come easily to those who suffered the pangs of near-starvation on a regular basis, but neither did talk come cheap. Zhi watched for his reaction. That was put to the side as she paused mid-bite, fingers crammed into her mouth. "Wot?" Mouth full, bits of cabbage sticking out, she stared at Styrm in open disbelief. "'E wot? Yeh -- nuhh."
Zhi shook her head back and forth, denying his claim that a tiny lalafell had drunk a roegadyn -- a large roegadyn -- under the table. Oh, she knew well enough not to underestimate one of the small folk, had had that lesson rubbed in thrice for every doubt she'd ever held, but that? She chewed, swallowed, flecks of cabbage falling to land in her lap. Cleanliness wasn't something that seemed to bother her overmuch. "Nuh-uh, yer yankin' me tail."
She watched him with the closeness of someone expecting a story; her eyes dared him to prove her denial wrong.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 04-30-2014
"I ain't so. Night I met him, matter o' fact." He waved away the bread. Taru paid fair, as he said, and the girl had more need of it than he, scrawny thing that she was.Â
"Was in Ul'dah, in the Quicksand. Eh..." he scratched his head, "can't recall how we got started, but this 'un right 'ere?" He indicated a short but deep scar on his jaw that peeked over the edge of his beard, "Got 'er fallin' face first on a pile o' mugs. Shattered 'em all. Drunk as he was, and he was just 'bout drunk as me, he tried workin' some magic on me bleedin' face," he explained. He fingered the little scar and said, "Not such bad work for castin' blind. Next evenin' when we finally dragged our arses outta bed, he had a job fer me and we been workin' 'em time to time e'er since."
He looked across at her. Sitting there on her haunches, munching and listening to stories she really did look just a kid. He watched her as though expecting further disbelieving protestations.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 05-01-2014
Zhi tucked her chin and snickered to herself, some inner thought lightening her mien. She didn't share it with him, though her lips turned up in a small, secretive smirk. She reached out and took up the loaf of bread, breaking off a hunk. More crumbs scattered. There was cautious consideration in her as she took a bite, chewed with her mouth open, and let her eyes roam over him and the room at once. "What sorts o'jobs ye work for'im?"
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 05-01-2014
Styrm squinted his eyes slightly and replied, "Ye're like him, y'know. He asks lots o' question too." And before she could retort, "I do 'im odd jobs. Watch his cargo, watch his people. Keep 'em safe an' the like. The occasional market run an' heavy sack delivery."Â
A great big grin broke his lips and he leaned forward and asked, "An' what's got ye so suddenly interested in me deeps an' darks, eh?"
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 05-01-2014
Zhi had, indeed, opened her mouth to retort to Styrm's comments, but he stymied her. Annoyance set into her expression instead, and she lifted her chin at him in obstinate mulishness. But she let the comment go, brought up instead (again) by the sidetrack he suddenly took with the conversation.
"Ye got summat worth hidin' away from me int'rest?" Her tone went cool and coy, the smile deepening between bites.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 05-01-2014
Was she trying to draw him out? What in the hells did she think he knew. He had nothing but respect for Taru, but he was a little nonplussed at being stuck between two schemers.
"Me? Ha! I'm an open book, Jozzie." He contorted his face into a parody of innocence and spread his long arms wide for emphasis. "With pictures," he added with a wink.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 05-01-2014
Zhi tipped her head to the side, the smile neatly overtaken by more food as she stuffed her mouth. "Hnn. Pictures, huh?" She seemed amused. "There a puppet show what follows?"
She wondered if she should be talking to him. She wondered if she should send him away. She wondered about his secrets, and Lalataru's, and things that could cause her ill.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 05-01-2014
Styrmsthal raised his hands out before him. "Ne'er met a puppet fit o'er these. Shadow puppets, mebbe." He laughed and eyed the girl's bulging cheeks, advising, "And save some for t'morrow, girl. Taru's not sending me e'ery day."
He looked at the window for a moment and said, "Gods, we're so low can't even 'ear the bells. Althyk hisself would lose track o' time."
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 05-01-2014
The rain outside had intensified, and the sound of it obscured nearly all else. For the moment it was just her and Styrm; if the couple on the other side of the curtain were present, they were unusually quiet. Besides, she'd paid good coin for them to maintain their silence -- but she still put the food down while she finished chewing. Once she'd done with it, she repacked the food and slid it sideways. She came down from her crouch, tucking her legs beneath her, and placed her hands on her knees. She put the weight of her upper body on them, her head lowering until it drew even with the line of her shoulders.
The sound of the rain was loud, especially when she couldn't bring herself to respond to him, not right away. She was lost in her own act. What a joke.
"Look," she said, and stalled. She licked her lips. Try again. "I ain't good wi' . . . swappin' straight talk wi'strangers in me home." She glanced away from Styrm as if to reaffirm that was where they were before looking back. "But I'll be straight. I ain't got a good past wi'the jacks. An' . . .y'know, ain't like -- I ain't crossed paths wi'the Gate. But ain't typical fer one like me t'go prancin' up t'their door. Master Lolotaru, well, he ain't called th'jacks down on me head. That's good. That's real good, but it still, well, shit gets taken out o'me every time I tread stone near that guild."
She was staring at Styrm, staring hard. "An' I know mebbe it's a risk fer him too, but I still gotta know, y'know. That he won't turn me in. That he won't . . . kill me, on accident or a purpose. That I can. . .trust. . .him."
Her voice was low and serious, her mouth working over the words as if she had to chew them to get them to fit on her tongue. There was two of her in those words, a mix of Joz and Zhi that contained things she didn't really want to think about. So she didn't. She pinned that intensity on Styrm: face down and eyes up: a cat ready to strike or turn tail depending on need.
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Goodfellow - 05-01-2014
Gods knew when the rain would let up again. Certainly not before he left. No matter, the rain didn't bother him so much on land.
What's got 'er so nervous all of a sudden? She hadn't seemed threatened by him so far, despite his size, and he'd been all sweetness. He made a noise of understanding as she described her relationship with the authorities. But she'd already mentioned that to Taru, so why bring it up to him? He was just the sort you didn't have to explain yourself to. Â
He was wondering whether he should head all the way out or try to find a place to sleep for the night when her words hooked his attention once again. Did she say 'kill'?
He stared right back at her. He wasn't nearly the clever sort that Taru was, but he put everything he could into keeping straight, into reading behind her face and her words. He leaned in close, his great face drawn shadowed in the dim candlelight.
And then he laughed. His face cracked and his mouth opened wide and his arms came to his sides and his great guffawing shook the boards beneath them. He slapped his belly and tried to open his eyes, to look at her.
"Taru?"
More laughter, and greater.
"Yer askin' me 'bout Taru?"
Chuckles continued to sneak out of him as he composed himself. He stood up and wiped his eyes and said, "Oh kid, yer sharp. Heh, a regular riot."
He lowered his head into his hands and shook lightly, mumbling to himself incredulously, "Worryin' herself o'er Taru, heh heh."
RE: Innocence and Avarice [closed] - Zhavi - 05-01-2014
He was laughing. At her. A shiver passed down her spine and out to the tip of the tail, built of her more typical urges, the kind that tended to roll off her tongue like knives. She wanted, for a moment, to tell him how stupid he looked, laughing like that. How ridiculous, all attention grabbing loudness. Distracting, that type of laugh. Loud enough that it was likely the neighbors on either side had heard him, much less the people in the squat building they were in. Yeah, definitely the type she took drinking and gambling. Not the type she liked to deal with for information.
She didn't like the way he towered over her, so she stood too -- not that it stopped him from being taller, but at least she didn't feel like he would stomp her all of a sudden. A very insincere grin contorted her lips. She was a hair off from glaring at him despite the smile, but she didn't insult him. Not yet at least. She stayed silent, arms folded, ears sideways and the tip of her tail twitching behind her. Waiting.