Closed He Scanned Their Trinkets [Valanir]

[Philomena]

Minnie squealched her whimper, but her breath still came quick in her chest. IT wasn't violence itself. Minnie had seen her share of that as a child. It was the madness, the lack of order. The sense of inhibition being gone. When a child in the orphange was beaten by the other girls, there was a certain knotted justice to it, a certain sense of 'you hit this hard, but not THAT hard', informal rules about what one could wield in the assault. But this, this was desperation it was that worst of things on the street - unpredictable.

Her chest rose and feel unevenly, as she reached in her bag with a shaking hand to draw out a sack of coins - dirty and worn and not terribly heavy, but mroe money, likely, than she could well afford. But this had to go away, this had to go away, now.

She began to murmur very softly under her breath, ever so soft, not enough to wake anyone, just enough to hear the ragged scraps of corners: a lullaby tune.

"Lully-lay, my child, Lully-lay..."

[Valanir]

Assailant gone. Money repurposed or lost; This was to be a bad day for the ethaefal. The pain made it troublesome to decide what hurt more, his hand or his head. The woman's squeeling did little to help. Why was she so agitated all of the time? Would've been smart to kneel down and try to relate to her state by trying to imitate whatever it was she was doing, but Valanir was too distracted to take up that solution so he just supressed a yell to as quiet as it could be, a whisper "Stop" and he would repeat himself as an arm extended towards the girl "Stop" and as if the thought had occured to him for the first time, he'd add in mild tone "Are you hurt?"

Trying to find the spear, Valanir was having trouble. Dark as it was and with distraction stil ringing in his ears, finding the damn stick became near impossible to the point where he wouldn't recognize it even if it was within his grasp.

[Philomena]

Minnie tensed slightly, reopening her eyes, to look at the man, and murmured soft, tense, "He is gone. He is gone. Come Dr. Lefting, stand. He is gone, now."

She clearly did not convince herself, staring at the strange spearman without the slightest shred of trust, and staying crouched on her hams. She pulled her bag around, with shaking hands, opened it, quietly catalogued its contents. She pulled a bottle of ink from the bottom, unwrapping it from its handkerchief to check it for links. Rewrapped it, replaced it as she spoke.

"Hurt?" she said the word, perhaps, a little louder than she intended. "No... no, we aren't... hurt... I'm fine. Fine. I'm fine."

This from a woman still crouching in the muddy street, clearly trying to regain control of her facial muscles. She straightened her glasses, and breathed very slow, rocking just slightly on her feet.

[Valanir]

Still tenative about coming any closer, Valanir would try and understand her uneasiness. Surprisingly enough, he could actually grasp at it. Not so long ago, this was all foreign to him as well, although it took a long way's fall to wound him in the same manner this little girl was getting worked up. It was just some coins, not even enough violence to raise a racket - what was wrong with her? Then he'd hear something that tugged at his sense of serenity. Did she just say we? As in we aren't hurt?! Could she be? Could she?!

"You'll have to forgive me for asking but.." and he'd hesitate just enough to make the whole sentiment sound more polite to him "Are you with child?" that would surely put a much diferent spin on the whole situation. Momentarily forgetting just how much he wanted to get out of there; children always had a way of upseting him. Given enough thought, he'd remain stunned for shamefully too long.

[Philomena]

Well... to be entirely fair, Minnie needed a good stiff shock to wake her up from her little reverie of self-pity. Yeah, and being asked if she's pregnant... eh... that'll do it.

She immediately frowns, and pulls herself to standing position, and opens and closes her mouth a few times, her eyebrows bunching up on her brow. Seh finally manages, "Am I... with child?" she adjusts her bag, and offers, "No... no, do I... do I look as if... nevermind... no, no, I'm quite alright. Sir."

With this, she resettles her heavy bag on her shoulder, and while her eyes still have the shadows of whatever demon was chasing her, the demon is suppressed now. To say that Minnie has been shocked into herself woudl be wrong - shocked out would be more accurate perhaps, for the departure and re-entry into her reasonable self makes more obvious how thin a mask the reasoning, calm face truly is. Or at least, how real, and inescapable the under-face is.

"And you... sir... you are alright, I hope? I know a midwife nearby who could tend those... those bruises..."

[Valanir]

Raising hands as if it was self-defense, Valanir couldn't resist the urge the try and correct whatever it was that upset the woman so. "No, of course not! You don't look... you're clearly thin, I mean...ahhh" huffing off a breath, he too would calm down soon enough at the treatment proposition. It gave them something else to do while having somewhere else to be which was quite promising given the situation.

Taking the hands down for a bit, he'd gesture towards her with both of them. She was welcome to lead the way, it would do her good to know that. "Yes, that'd be.. lead the way!" eyeing the street seemed to finally pay off as he could spot the spear. Slowly sinking in height, he had every intetion to pick it up now that he found it. Then he'd stop abruptly before looking back up at the human, she was jumpy enough before when he still held a weapon, and little had changed for the better since.
"I'm just going to pick this up and we can go. I won't hurt you." for a moment the ethaefal even pondered giving her the weapon itself in order to ensure she remained sane at least for a while. Standing up, he'd go with that. "If you want to, you can take it for now?" and then he'd extend the hand towards her while carefully making sure he pointy ends weren't pointed at either of them.

[Philomena]

The raised spear doesn't fill her with fear so much - she's seen violence, and knows well enough that if this fellow meant her harm, he'd have tried it already by now. The emotion is far closer to revulsion, she steps back a few stppes, and her hands pull close to her body, and the slightest curl of something like disgust meets the corner of her lips. She stares at the spear, with the same combination of compulsive disgust and embarrasment at not being able to look away that one might give a a massively disfiguring boil on someone's face. She opens her mouth to say something, but then closes it again. Nods politely.

"Well... come on, then. I'll... yes. We'd best take the high street, it dunny seem the back ways are t'safe tonight..."

And she begins to lead the man North, to take him to a midwife, so she can, finally, get home.