Chowin' Down [Nel, Murdoch]

[Jaeden Kincade]

24th Day of Spring, 510 AV Jaeden meandered through the city as he looked down at a piece of parchment that contained a small list of supplies he would need. A casual glance was given over to a poster that advertised an upcoming play and festival the city would be holding. A celebration meant lots of people, and that meant the need for a lot of food. Jaeden had to prepare himself if he wanted to gather enough to be worth selling to those who would be supplying said food to the masses when they began arriving for the festivities. He had already boughten many of the things he had needed, now he was just nitpicking over possible impulse buys he would make. "Shyke, where the hell am I now?" Jaeden muttered under his breath as he reached up idly, giving a slow rub to his head. He was still looking clean and feeling very refreshed after his visit to the bathhouse earlier that week. He was dressed in casual clothing today, a short sleeved open shirt, brown hemp pants and shin high brown leather boots. Only his sword rested at his hip, his other weapons and belongings left back at the room he was currently staying at for a short time. As he stood there, slowly rubbing his head, he soon felt the tickle of light feathers brushing across his nose and cheek. Looking to the source, he noticed a pair of elegantly dressed women passing him by, the one closest to him, holding a feathered fan in her hand. He recognized them from somehwere. "Oh yeah, the Bathhouse. They were just coming in as I was leaving," Jaeden thought to himself. The way they dressed and walk suggested noble, they way they leered at Jaeden's arms suggested slumming. Jaeden certainly wasn't insulted and a perverted smile sharpened the corners of his mouth as he slowly turned towards the direction they were walking. He was about to take his first step when a sudden rumbling in his stomach suggested a more imminent need at the moment as hunger pains began to make themselves known. He looked to the women in slight disappointment before his gaze shot to his stomach. "I hate you," he simply muttered before he turned back in the direction he had been moving and began making his way to a food stand he had spied in the distance.

[Nel Sayo]

When Jaeden turned to carry on, he only made it one step before smacking headlong into another person.

That person being significantly smaller than he, she ended up stumbling and collapsing backwards onto her arse in the street with a muttered, "Oof," and then a grumbled, "Ow, crap." The rapier slung on her hip clanked against the cobbled stones.

She flung her arms up over her head in case he dropped any of the myriad items he was collecting, and they decided to rain down upon her and give her a concussion. Even in all-black, the creature huddled on the ground was hard to ignore for common peasantry; silvery blonde hair and lily-white skin -- what, that is, of her skin could be seen. Tapering fingers and the turn of a cheek beneath her arm. Every other inch of her was covered.

[Jaeden Kincade]

"Oops," Jaeden said looking down to the woman he had just ran into. "I gotta stop doing that." Jaeden then slowly began circling around the woman before his foot paused in mid step and his gaze began traveling over her frame. She didn't wear revealing clothing, but the curves were unmistakable to his trained eye. His steps took him backwards to his starting position in front of her before he leaned over, offering a hand. "Sorry about that," Jaeden said with a small smile. "I tend to be a bit clumsy in my travels."

[Nel Sayo]

She blinked, lifting her arms when nothing dropped, and Jaeden found himself the focus of a pair of bright, inquisitive blue eyes. And then she blinked again, and a smile simmered onto her mouth, slow and brilliant as a sunrise.

She reached out and took his hand, levering herself back to her feet.

"No worries," she said, laughing. "I fall a lot. Still don't have my land-legs. I wasn't paying attention, so it's probably my fault -- there's a lot to look at around here, you know?"

Though she probably had not been looking at what he was looking at. She released his hand when she was standing again, dusting her palms over her trousers.

[Jaeden Kincade]

"Really? I hadn't noticed at this moment," Jaeden said as his smile remained and a hand fell to his waist. Then another growl of his stomach echoed out as he suddenly rolled his eyes and looked down to the bodily organ tossing in it's two cents like a petulant child. "All right, I get it," he said to his own stomach, sure that he was still making a great first impression, before looking back up to the Konti woman. "Listen, my name is Jaeden Kincade, and I'm about to grab a bite to eat. Allow me to by you something as an apology for knocking you down?"

[Nel Sayo]

"How can you not notice!" she cried, laughter stirring in her voice -- she totally didn't get it. Flung her hands up and out at the city around them. "Look at all this -- STUFF -- did you say eat?"

Now he had her undivided attention. Which could be a slightly overwhelming thing, as it rarely happened; Nel's attention was most often split towards at least a dozen things -- shiny things, noisy things, tasty things. With the full weight of those pale eyes on him, the smile on her mouth sharpened into a grin.

"I'm Nel," she said. "And I will totally forgive you for food."

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden gave a slow now as he slowly motioned towards a small stand a short distance up the road as he began to walk side by side. "It won't be some major banquet feast, but they usually serve enough to fill the stomach and quiet the hunger pains," Jaeden commented as his hand slipped to a pouch at his waist. Opening it up, he slowly meandered over the amount of coin he had left. "Hrmm," he mumbled out as he began to calculate how much he had left would last him. Stopping in front of the stand, a short human stood behind it, slowly flipping small pieces of meat along a large flat pan as it sizzled from the heat applied from the portable oven beneath. Most of the meats, along with cooked vegetables was served via long, narrow wooden sticks. Various types of meats were offered for those with picky tastes. Jaeden slowly looking over the selection before ordering six sticks for himself. He then looked to Nel. "So, what will you have then?" Jaeden asked, dropping a single gold miza along the cooks counter.

[Nel Sayo]

Jaeden had no idea what he was offering. Nel looked from him to the sizzling meats and back again.

"Um," she said, thoughtfully, tilting her head.

She ought to be reserved. She ought to just get a snack. She should not abuse this nice man's generosity and eat the entire cart which was, naturally, her first inclination because it was food and Nel Sayo loved to eat. Where all that food went once she ate it was a mystery, for she was practically a sylph in straight, narrow lines and fragile-seeming limbs. Syon used to say that inside her stomach there must have been a portal to another dimension, wherein hundreds of thousands of starving people waited for the food that Nel ate.

She sniffed; smelled delicious.

"I'll just have three. Of those." She pointed to one kind, and smiled up at her benefactor. Maybe if she saw him again, she'd eat him out of house and home, but not today. She'd just have to wait and make Murdoch buy her a big dinner. "Thanks, that's really nice of you."

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden quirked a single brow upwards slowly as he noted the hesitation before he looked to the stand's owner as he was preparing both of their orders. "She'll take ten of those actually," Jaeden then said before adding another two gold mizas to the cart's counter. "Keep the change as well." Jaeden then gave the young Konti woman a nudge as he smirked. "If you're hungry, don't act like you aren't," Jaeden simply said. "Besides, I gather most of my food out in the woods so I don't actually spend a whole lot of coin. Especially on pretty ladies such as yourself." Such was a lie, of course, as Jaeden had just previously in the week dropped forty gold miza on his time with Summer at the Bathhouse, which he thought was worth every piece. As the first sticks were handed to them, Jaeden took a large bite, taking a few moments to savor the taste and swallow the food before looking back to Nel. "So, you here for the festival?" Jaeden inquired casually, making small talk.

[Nel Sayo]

"Oh, no it's okay, I'll just--" She tried to stop him, but shut up quickly enough. A blush crept into the high, pale arches of her cheeks. "It's just that I'm hungry a lot, you know, not that I'm gonna starve, so thanks. Again."

Despite the blush, the grin on her mouth only sharpened. She took the first of the sticks, half-gloved fingers waggling delightedly as she grasped them. Pale eyebrows rocked upward when he called her pretty, but she didn't scoff or laugh or blush again. Like someone, somewhere, once, had told her that she was beautiful and to just forget about it. So she did. If she'd realized that Jaeden knew she was Konti just by looking at her, this entire conversation may have gone differently.

"There's a festival?" she asked, around a mouthful. "I didn't know that -- what kinna festival is it?"

Nope, not here for the festival, obviously. But the idea made her rock onto her heels and then back onto her toes, excited. Parties. Who didn't love parties? Maybe that's why Doc had been so late getting back to the apartment. He'd been at the party! Without her! She scrunched up her nose, thoughtfully.