(ooc: discord collab between Lynn and Bonnie where Bonnie starts out and each space swaps writers. It was a lot to copy so I didn't go through and check too much for punctuation and typos, and I didn't color code Lynn's speech, but if you see anything major let us know. Enjoy.)
The ankle bracelet might have been gone, but that didn't necessarily mean Lynn didn't still have the chance to get it. Unbeknownst to her, the new owner of the jewelry had his eyes squarely on her. He knew she had her eyes on it. She knew that she was willing to pay for it. And he knew she had the money for it. So why not take the chance? If nothing else, he could always fence it to one of the dozens of outlaw organizations that so infested this city. Lynn felt something tugging at her sleeve.
Lynn notices something tugging at her sleeve that pulls her attention away from the fireworks "hm?'" she turned and saw what she believed to be a young boy below her. "Oh, hello there!" she said as she floated back down to talk to the kid, still seated on her staff.
The "kid" kept his head down, face obscured by the peak of his cap. Wordlessly, he produced the ankle-bracelet from his coat and held it out
"Oh, I couldn't possibly... wait. Isn't that the one from that man's stall" she said as her eyes widened a bit "look, i appreciate the offer, but i cant buy that from you.... unless..." she thought for a moment. The kid was obviously just trying to get by, she felt like she had to do something. "how about this. We take it back to the shopkeeper, and ill buy it from him, and afterwards i'll get some food for you and give you some of what I made from singing today. It's not much but it should help you more than me!"
"No." He said laconically. "You buy it now, or it goes away"
"Twenty coins." Again, very laconic. Almost like he doesn't want her to hear his voice too much. Then again, it makes sense. He is a thief after all, and it wouldn't do much good for a thief to be recognisable
"Alright, on one condition. I take you somewhere to get some food before you go" she said as she looked in her pouch for coins. She had about forty in total, meaning tbay she wouldn't be able to but it from him
He hesitated for a second. Lynn could practically see the cogs turning in his head. On one hand, he could afford to let her see his face, lest she report him to the authorities. On the other hand, he needed to eat. Without something in his belly soon, he'd surely starve. "...fine"
Lynn's ears perked back up with a smile, "Ok, I'll be right back." she went back and returned the bracelet to the owner, explaining that she found it on the ground but no longer was able to buy it from him again. When she came back she was glad to see bonnie hadn't run off yet. "alright, how about over there at that stand? It looks tasty! Unless you had another place in mind."
Of course he stuck around. Lynn had offered him food, and from the looks of him, he damn well needed it. He was all skin and bone! Those ragged strips of cloth that only the most bitterly sarcastic individual could call clothes gave him no production from the elements whatsoever, and his skinny frame was shivering in the cool night wind. His tail, a neon turquoise colour, flitted from side to side, the only part of him that actually looked healthy. He nodded softly, unwilling to speak
"Ok, food stand it is" she brought him to the stand and ordered something forbthe both of them, leaving her with only 10 coins for travel. While they waited for the food to cook, she turned to bonnie. "So, how old are you?"
He looked away from her. Shyness? The uncomfortable shuffling of his feet said yes. "Nineteen..." He barely whispered
A look of shock came over her face when she heard his age, "W-wow, nineteen! That's only a year younger than me, and you look so young!" She leaned back on her staff as she thought about the idea of it, " You know, that must mean you will age pretty well!" The food came out and Lynn took them, handing one to Bonnie, "Here you go. A meal as promised, hope you enjoy! By the way, my name is Lynn, what's yours?"
For the first time he looked at her. And oh god, did Lynn wish he hadn't. For starters, he was emaciated. Hollow cheeks, tired eyes, and a grave expression all marred his features horrendously. What made it worse was, it was plain to see he'd actually be very cute without that. Kinda pretty, actually. Second, he was glaring like she'd just insulted his mother. For the food? Wow, sort of rude..."Too many questions"
"O-..oh...sorry," she replied, smile fading, moving stuff around on her own plate. "I didn't mean to pry..."
The little Oro turned back to his meal and pounced on the ate. He ate like an animal, using his hands to pull off chunks of food and devour them. He could do with some better table manners... And maybe a bath
Lynn wasn't sure where to go on. She had so many questions, but maybe that was the problem. Only thing she has done since she has left Tearia is ask everybody questions. Though it was only because everything was so new to her. She looked down at her plate, there were even things there that she didn't recognize which she poked experimentally at with her utensil. Maybe she should talk about herself to ease him up a bit? "This the first time I've left Tearia," she started, "I plan on traveling and seeing the world. Everything seems so strange out here, its amazing."
"Bad place to come." The boy grunted in response. His mouth was full of food.
"Well I can't say that I didn't want to see the festival, but it was kind of a forced visit. I was sent with the Queen as part of the medical back up for her escort. While they are having their banquet though, we are able to roam around and see the city. I wished I could have looked around the nature some more though."
He stopped. He looked up at you. His face turned white with anger. "Fuck the Queen." He whispered, and his tone had a dangerous hint to it
Her eyes went wide at the reaction and her finned ears flared out at his sudden angry yet quiet outburst, "Well that is quite uncalled for, not to mention ruuude! Besides, she is the reason I was able to make it to the festival in the first place." She looked back at her plate at another unfamiliar item, ". . . . . Do you know what this is?" She asked quietly.
But Bonnie wasn't listening. He rambled on. "Hoity Toity bitch steals our money and for what? So she can send our fucking men on big wars so they all die off. No money left for stopping bandits. No, when some foreigner wants to take over, it's all fucking hands on deck, but when some bastard starts taking slaves and selling whores and rolling in it, then they become a fucking noble. And they get land for it. More people for them to enslave. Is that fair, miss? That some dolled-up tart gets to tell us what we should do, drill us, diet us, treat us like cattle, just cause she came out the right royal cunt!?"
"Well....if that's the case then no, they aren't doing their duties I'd say. It isn't quite like that at home though. Sea dragons and technology are used for most work. Crime is fairly low, and not many people would try invading the sea. Our queen is selected by a trial, not blood, though I can say we don't see our Queen much as she keeps mostly to herself." She was beat red with Bonnie's choice in vocabulary, "I....I'm sorry I brought it up."
"Well, no one ever asked me who should be king..." Bonnie huffed. And like that, he had gone back into his quiet state, silently eating away
"I don't want to go back though..." she said in a low tone. "I thought of running away before the queen took us back so I could stay, but that would mean I would have to leave the infirmary behind. I'm not sure I can just do that. Not on my own."
Bonnie's pointed ears twitched a little "You're a doctor?"
Lynn nodded slowly as she lifted her hand, a strand of water flowing out of her jar forming into a small bubble that started glowing with a faint teal hue. "Mhm, I work with my mother at our infirmary, I was asked to accompany the the escort because I could breath and walk outside of water."
"That's good. Too many selfish bastards these days. Nice to see someone who cares for once." He spoke in short, quick sentences, but his tone had definetly changed somewhat. He sounded just that littlest bit warmer
"Well... I suppose I'm a little selfish. I could have stayed home and kept working but instead I've been out here, entertaining thoughts of leaving only to satisfy my own curiousity. I wish I could make a copy of myself to do both." This was obviously something she had tossed around in her mind more than once, unsure which path was the right one to take.
"It's not a bad thing to think about yourself sometimes" Bonnie murmured, having cleaned his plate out "You're important as well. You're not made of clockwork"
Lynn smiled a bit as she turned back to her food, feeling a bit better now that the conversation wasn't so hostile. "I know, but I feel like I would be letting someone down. If I had a reason to leave that would be one thing, but right now it's just my own craving to explore." She still didn't know what half the things on her plate were, and honestly wasn't as much hungry as she just wanted to make sure he ate something. Now that she saw his condition, she lost her appetite wanting to be certain he had a good meal first. "Here," she started, "You can have the rest of mine as well. I would say save it for later, but I'm not sure how well it will keep."
Hey, he wasn't gonna object to the extra food. As before, he pounced on it, devouring huge chunks Lynn wouldn't have believed someone so small would be able to stomach. Through a mouthful of food, he said "You'd let more people down if you collapsed of fuckin' exhaustion, wouldn't ye?"
"It's happened before actually. I had a person who was badly injured by a sea dragon, had a poison that had set into their body as well. It took me four days of nonstop healing. I had to use enchantments on myself just to stay up. I fell out for a week afterwards but the man survived. We were short staffed at the time so we couldn't swap out."
The boy scoffed, as though you'd proven his point "Well, there ye go then"
Lynn laughed a little at the thought, looking back at it. She was almost always tired when she was back home. "Oh, but where should I go first? I hear there are grand sights to visit all over." she thought for a minute while Bonnie was eating "Do....do you have anywhere to go besides here?"
"Lady, I'd maul a cunt to get out o' this shithole" Bonnie grunted "If you got a suggestion, I'll fucking take it"
"I don't know. If you want to leave here maybe we can bring you back with us. We could always use another hand at the infirmary."
Bonnie looked at her like she had grown another head "Ye mean travel back wi yon Queenie bitch?"
"Makes traveling easier"
"No. Nae force above or below can convince me to sit five minutes wi' a royal"
"Don't be silly, we don't sit with her, the escort is rather large. I rode with them on my staff on the way here so I could see the sights."
Bonnie snapped "I'm no going wi yer Queen Cunt, Alright!?" If Lynn looked closely, she would see... his horns and tail had turned red
Lynn went on, this time overlooking his petty anger,"But we would have to find you some equipment if you were to live there. Even with the right protective clothing, it would probably be too bothersome trying to live underwater. Even with a dry room under there, you probably wouldn't be very comfortable." she stopped for a moment realizing his mood changed again, seeing the red color in his tail and horns. Her eye went wide and she perked up, but not in fright, more like fascination. "Oh wow! You changed colors! That is so cool!"
His eyes widened as he looked back at his tail. Internally, he cursed and took a deep breath. Come on, fella, calm down. You're not in any danger here. Not yet anyway. Just calm down. Calm. Down. He let out a sigh of relief as the neon red slowly faded into yellow, then back to green. It never went back to its icy blue, though "Ye shouldnae ha' seen thon..."
Her head tilted slightly, "Oh...Well...its quite amazing either way."
Member
