Solo At the Window

[Ennisa]

1st Autumn, 519 AV, late afternoon

Having just woken up from a restless sleep, Ennisa's eyes were not accustomed to the sunlight from the window, yet nevertheless half her body was leaning out of the very same window as she tried to coax a baby crow with a lump of stale bread.
"Here, chickie chickie chickie..." She trailed off, waving the bread in as convincing a manner as she could. The bird, still only young with the naivety to go along with it, perched on an outcrop of stone and peered curiously at the strange young woman tetering at the windowframe. Ennisa painted a strange picture. Her ice-blonde hair rippled in the breeze, her eyes were wide with concentration and her knuckles white as she gripped hold of the edge tightly.

Why she was even trying to coerce the bird, she couldn't say. Certainly, her room-mate Itzi had no idea. She was lounging on the bed, scratching patterns onto a lump of wood with a knife, not really paying attention to Ennisa's antics. Haphazardly, she tore off a chunk and tossed it to the stony outcrop, watching it with bated breath... Dejectedly she let out a long sigh, as the bread missed it's mark entirely and fell down. Itzi snorted, most unladylike, and wise-cracked, "Well done."
"No-one asked you, Itzi." Ennisa narrowed her eyes, and tore off another, smaller chunk. All the while the crow merely stood, stock-still, observing.

Itzi parrotted back, "'No-one asked you, Itzi'", in such a ridiculous voice that Ennisa couldn't help but giggle. She returned back to her carving, and Ennisa back to her bird-charming. The crow ruffled it's feathers, and cawed once. She looked at it, at it's beady black eye, unflinching and strangely intelligent. Ennisa tore off another chunk, broke it up in her fingers, and leant out as far as she could without falling.

Her voice was soft and low as she tried not to scare her newfound interest away. "Here, birdy birdy bird, look some lovely bread..." The crow moved slightly, the subtle irridescence in it's feathers catching the afternoon sunshine. "That's it, you know you want it." She waggled her fingers a little, letting a few breadcrumbs drop free.

With a sudden squawk, Ennisa's study spread its wings and took off in flight. Puzzled at the sudden change in its behaviour, she looked around and..- "Hey, Itzi, you idiot!" Laughing, she pelted the last remaining lumps of stale bread at her best friend, who tripped over the rug and launched herself with a daft grin at the bed, all the while futilely trying to protect herself from Ennisa's focused pelting with bread.

"I was making a connection with him, idiot." Ennisa mock-pouted, but of course, she wasn't really ired. Itzi had a knack of being charming, no matter what idiotic thing she'd been doing. She gently shoved her, but then stood up and stretched with a long yawn.

"I was getting bored of your bird baiting, Ennisa. D'you want to go out instead, do a bit of the old sneaking around? It's a lovely day. I bet it'll be a lovelier evening." Ennisa considered her for a moment, head tilted to one side as she thought. But the bird was gone, that interest passed, and Itzi was right after all. It was a lovely day. With a wide grin, she winked and grabbed her shoes from the floor. "I'll race ya."

[Ennisa]

The race was on. Itzi yelped, a squeak of, "Not fair!", but Ennisa was already shoving her boots on and half-limping, half-jogging to the door. She pushed it open with gusto, wriggled her toes down into place in her well-worn yet comfortable boots, and began running towards the stairs. She could feel a giggle erupting, caused by the knowledge that Itzi would be behind her shortly, ripe with feigned indignation. She kept running, boots stomping hard on the Solar Wind's floor. A neighbour peered out his door, promptly saw who it was and rolled his eyes, but Ennisa missed all of that as she careened towards the stairwell.

Finally, Itzi emerged, bellowing with mock rage. Whatever she was saying was so incoherent that it made Ennisa laugh all the more, her laughter coming out breathlessly as she ran. Wherever she could, she grabbed the bannister and launched herself down faster, taking jumps that she could only just about land safely. Itzi, short but speedy, was catching up.

Ennisa was beginning to run out of breath, but she wouldn't stop, not yet, not until she'd reached the bottom first. The end was in sight- she and Itzi didn't live too far up, so it was only a short race, but that was what made it so much fun, and it was why the two women often did it.

To the disdain of all their neighbours.

With a hoot of victory, Ennisa slid to the floor at the bottom of the stairs, and moments later Itzi barreled onto her in a tackle, her ginger hair stuck to her cheeks with sweat. "That was not fair, you cheater, you're supposed to wait 'til we're both ready!" They tumbled, with Itzi trying to grab Ennisa's shoulders, and Ennisa trying to wriggle free. Both with little effect except to get them both worn out.

Finally, Ennisa ceded defeat, and let little Itzi pin her. Lying with her back to the floor was cool relief though, so it wasn't all bad. After all, she had won the race, whether it was fair or not didn't matter. But she kept that little thought to herself, as the two women scrambled to their feet and swung out the door onto Surya Plaza.

Beyond the foyer of the Solar Wind Apartments, the plaza was expansive and pleasantly busy. It was the first day of the new season; as a result, there were many people out and about, either hoping to see or get seen, or busking to earn a few kina and to make the most of the crowds. It was warmer than usual though, a sure sign that they were due another winter without Morwen, and as the two women were already warm from their race, Ennisa felt a little stuffy and uncomfortable.

[Ennisa]

For a while, the two women walked across the Plaza together. Due to their height differences, they couldn't stand shoulder to shoulder, but their camaraderie was plain to see. They conversed happily, their footsteps falling into sync in the typical way of people who had known each other a long time. Yes, they joked and shouted at each other, and occasionally called each other names, but they both felt the keenness of their friendship. It had lasted them a long time, in part due to their jokey nature.

Itzi seemed almost on the verge of forgetting the reason they had decided to go out that afternoon, but Ennisa kept thinking about the amusing notion of trivially disrupting the days of those passing by, and so after a while she remembered what had prompted them to leave the apartment, grabbed her friend's arm, and abruptly pulled her to perch on a low-lying wall.

"What?", whined Itzi. Ennisa poked her sharply between the ribs with her finger, a sure-fire method to get her to shut up, and pointed at a young lady she'd just spotted, walking demurely through the crowds. "She looks lovely, don't you think?" Ennisa wiggled her eyebrows. The woman she'd indicated did indeed look nice. Her hair was coiffured into tight, brown ringlets and scraped back to show off her pretty, pale face. The clothes she wore pinned her as being better off than both Itzi and Ennisa combined - although that didn't really mean much.

Itzi frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Just what do you have in mind, then? After so rudely poking me in the ribs you..-" Ennisa ignored the last comment and instead thoughtfully turned her attention to the stranger, who had stopped to have a chat with someone. Indeed, what did she have in mind? Ennisa grabbed her best friend's hand as the idea formulated.

"Quick, she hasn't spotted us. Come down here." Ennisa yanked her towards a side street that led to the Surya Plaza where it was a little quieter, and also out of the eyesight of the young, ringletted woman. Itzi was thankfully well aware of how direct Ennisa could often be and didn't protest the manhandling, but she did inquisitively study her friend's face. Ennisa grinned suddenly.

"Right! You keep an eye on the lovely lady. If you would be so kind." That was directed at Itzi. Ennisa felt immensely pleased with herself for the small idea she'd had and so she wasted no time in explaining. "I think we might try a little con with our curly-haired friend. I don't know about you, but she looks like a kindly type. Wouldn't you say, Itzi?" Itzi nodded. "And oh, aren't we so poor and pathetic, and we would struggle to feed our children tonight if not for the help of such a lady?"

Ennisa's grin broadened. "We should make it look a bit more serious though, of course, get a little dirty." She crouched and ran her hands along the floor, picking up bits of dust and grime as she did, until she lifted her hands, coated as they were...

...and placed them firmly on Itzi's cheeks with a resounding slap.

[Ennisa]

Itzi was always quick to respond and this occasion was not any different. She gasped and reached for her own bit of dirt, which promptly found its way into Ennisa's hair. Then her face. Then her clothes. Before long, the two women were breathless with laughter and utterly, utterly filthy. In fact, Ennisa reckoned, they had probably gone a bit too far, but it was too late to change anything about that now. A few strangers walking past had stared somewhat, but she felt confident that they had mostly avoided scrutiny, if only because they had chosen a quieter corner of the Plaza than where their target was not in sight.

Ennisa started and suddenly remembered that she had asked Itzi to keep an eye on the lady. In their little game they had both forgotten about it. With a sinking feeling, she earnestly peered through the crowd, but the brown-haired woman seemed to have gone.

Brief disappointment settled in her stomach. "Petch."

Itzi realised the error at the same time, and she quickly sobered up. Ennisa said, "I bet by now she's gone, so we have a couple of options, I suppose. We either search for ringlet lady and hope we get lucky, or we find a new target for our little scam." She found, after a few moments thinking, that she preferred trying to find the woman they'd chosen originally, if only because she had been the original inspiration for the scam. Even so, she let Itzi have her little think. After a while though, her impatience and 'I-am-right' attitude won through. Before Itzi could open her mouth, she butted in. "I reckon we should look for that woman. She is the best candidate after all. Who knows if what we have come up with will work with someone else?" Itzi frowned, disagreeing. "Ennisa, she could be anywhere now. It'll take ages to find her, and this kind of get-up," here she motioned their make-shift disguise, "To the right kind of person this would be an easy dupe, wouldn't it?"

Ennisa seized upon the hesitation without remorse. They were good friends, but sometimes Enni was blind to diplomacy to the detriment of their relationship. After all, she knew she was right. Dismissively she said, "No, I don't think that at all. That woman was the one I had this idea for. She won't have gone far. I'm going to look for her." With that she turned on her heel and decisively walked onto the Plaza.

As a result, she entirely missed Itzi's defeated sigh. Ennisa was caught up in seeking out the ringlet woman that she completely forgot to act the part she was supposed to be depicting. Before they had gone too far however, Itzi caught up and grabbed her wrist. "Hey, if you insist on searching this woman out, don't you think we should be acting, y'know, a bit more poverty-stricken? A bit like this?" She started limping and hung her head a little. Slightly defiantly, even. Ennisa didn't enjoy looking stupid, and here Itzi was one-upping her, so she said, "Of course I think that. I'm not stupid, I was just building up to it of course." She didn't see the brief hurt that crossed Itzi's freckled face upon hearing her sharp words.

Ennisa adopted Itzi's suggestion straight away, although feeling a little disgruntled about it, but it made it more difficult to search for the brown-haired society woman without looking suspicious. Her tangled hair was falling over her face, which obstructed her view, and the handful of leaves that Itzi had shoved down her collar was making her uncomfortable - and distracting her. Nevertheless, she scanned the crowds as best she could.

On several occasions she thought she saw her. There, through the gap. Here, standing beside the buskers. Over there, laughing with a man. Each time she was wrong, and that frustrated her. The sneaking suspicion that Itzi had been right nibbled at her mood until she felt positively grumpy. Finally, she muttered, "Gods sakes, she's gone," to no-one in particular. Dejectedly she flopped down into a seated position on the floor.

[Ennisa]

Although she was perfectly within her rights to say, "I told you so", when Itzi did just that, all Ennisa could think in that moment was that the small red-head was petching irritating. She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. Autumn wasn't getting off to such a good start. Even so, the bad mood wore down eventually. After a bit of timely moping, the two young ladies who after all had nothing better to do, decided to get up and make use of their makeshift disguise. Their muckiness would have been pointless if they didn't at least try.

Once they'd stood and started looking for a new target, Ennisa brightened further. Though she was smart enough to not say it out loud, she had absorbed Itzi's idea and made it her own, in true Ennisa fashion. When all was said and done, she couldn't abide being wrong. Much better to pretend she had come up with the idea herself.

Feeling slightly more confident, she began slowly hobbling through the crowd. She and Itzi began to separate, without any planning behind it, as each woman was absorbed in their own ideas. They would meet up in a while. For now though, Ennisa began by walking in a stooped fashion, the way she had seen beggars at the inn pestering drunks for a few, scant coins. Similarly, she held her hands out in front of her as she blindly walked around.

This method didn't seem to bring her much luck. She was far too easy to ignore, just another stranger amongst strangers, a filthy one at that. Lhavitians were good people, but they weren't in the habit of being overly generous. It was likely that no-one in Mizahar was, really, though of course Ennisa's view of the world really only had Lhavit in it. She continued for a little while though, occasionally 'accidentally' falling over slightly and lurching against people, in the hope they would pay her just to go away. More often than not, she just got a shove and a kick, occasionally a grunt of disgust as well.

Five ticks later, and she'd had enough of the mild abuse. There must be another way... She stopped and sighed, with more irritation than a dirty beggar had any right to have. With a brief flick of her hand, she smoothed her knotted hair from her face and considered her options. Walking around didn't really work. Why was that? Ennisa thought for a while. Place yourself in their shoes. Would you want to give kina to a woman with her head bent down? She... I... would be much more likely to stab them than thank them.

So maybe these strangers needed to see her, so that they didn't think she would murder them. Ennisa smiled, genuinely brightly, as that idea was hers and hers alone, and it sounded legitimate. Her smile slid a little as she begrudgingly added Itzi's knowledge too- trying the scam on someone other than the brown-haired lady who had seemed so perfect was worth a shot.

Ennisa prepared herself and drummed the story into her head. I'm a poor woman, I have many mouths to feed, would you spare me a coin or two, kind sir/madam, etc. She tried to relax her features, so the slightly crooked grin didn't make her seem fake. Then she cast her eyes across the plaza, looking for a potential target.

[Ennisa]

She kept her eyes peeled, watching, for anyone who looked like they might be sufficiently gullible to fall for her amateur conman routine. It was trickier than it looked. On the one hand, she couldn't make her investigation look too obvious. The first time she was caught staring, the young man in question stared fully back, distrust writ large across his features, right down to the quizzical eyebrow. After that, she tried to avoid direct eye contact, even if that did make her look rather untrustworthy.

On the other hand, it was almost impossible to judge someone's character based on their appearance and their appearance alone. Even Ennisa's favoured brown-haired girl might have turned out to be a bad choice, now that she thought about it. She sat down near a gaggle of middle-aged ladies and earwigged in on their conversation, just to see if they might, perhaps, be the best demographic to target. Yet all she heard was bitching about some other poor woman that the gang had decided to lambaste, apparently for her poor parenting style.

Ennisa wandered on. Finally, after a little more thinking, she decided she'd dallied too long. The afternoon was wearing on, inevitably the dusk rest would be upon them soon, and most people would disperse. It was time to seize the day. It wouldn't matter if it failed.

The next person Ennisa saw that she thought might be worth a shot was an elderly man walking beside a young blonde girl, who was presumably his granddaughter. They would do. Maybe, if nothing else, the granddad would pay her to go away. Ennisa approached them in a roundabout kind of way. She felt that would be the safest way to appear unthreatening, rather than approaching directly.

As she came closer, she attempted to arrange a contrite, pitiful expression across her features. She brought her hands in front of her and held them together, almost like a prayer. She then caught the old man's eye. He smiled tightly - a good sign? Ennisa cleared her throat, and when she was close enough said, "Hello Mr, and young Miss!" She nodded and smiled at the little girl, who only glared up at her without so much as a polite 'hello' in return. Not to be rebuffed, she turned her attention back to the granddad. "I'm sorry to intrude, but can you help me? I..." Here she paused for good measure, "I've got so many young mouths to feed tonight. Can you spare any loose change for a struggling mother?"

Granddad hesitated. Ennisa could sense he was on the verge of refusing, but instead of backing down, she pushed ahead saying, "Please, good sir? Life's been so hard on a poor woman like me, when I had childers so young, an' with.. with my husband running off like he did. It's only to give my children a little food tonight. Please?" Feeling quite proud of her on the cuff lie, she smiled. This, ironically, seemed to tip the balance in her favour, and the old man said, "Okay, here, wait a moment," as he proceeded to rummage in his pocket.

Ennisa, feeling the burning stare of the little girl, turned to look at her. Blondie sneered, which was a strange expression for a girl of six, and haughtily turned her nose up. Ennisa, who could sometimes be as childish as a six year old, stuck her tongue out in response. Before Blondie could protest, the old man finally withdrew a small bit of change from his pocket and placed it in Ennisa's outstretched hand.

"Here you go, young lady, get those children of yours something nice. Gods bless you." Ennisa grinned, pleased as punch, and hastily nodded her thanks. Then, before she could get ratted out by his precocious granddaughter, she legged it in the opposite direction, coins clanking in her pocket, as she headed back to the apartment to catch up with Itzi.

[Ennisa]

Ennisa was surprised to find her heart still beating like a drum, even after she was a fair bit away from her target. Asking a complete stranger, and risking looking like a fool, was more difficult than she would have pegged. Even so, she was grinning like a fool. As far as she was aware, she had gotten away with it. The ruse was a simple one, but it had been fun. Next time though, she would pick something other than being a beggar woman. The tangles in her hair would probably take bells to comb out properly.

When she arrived at the apartment, Itzi was nowhere to be seen, so she went and rested her elbows on the windowsill whilst she waited. Outside, Lhavit looked positively radiant. The sun was shining, a light wind was blowing, and the buildings dotted across the slopes occasionally twinkled. It felt more like summer than autumn, not that Ennisa minded that really. She was not observant enough to care much about the plight of Mizahar's seasons, even though whatever happened would affect her. In a way, Ennisa lived in a bubble. It was a bubble of her own choosing, but still just a bubble, safe for the moment but liable to bursting at any slight prick.

She didn't realise any of it, of course. Ennisa was much too absorbed in looking out for her newfound bird friend to spend time on introspection. That might come later, or it might not, but she would live for now in the meantime.

In the time she spent waiting for Itzi, the crow didn't reappear, but finally Itzi returned at the start of dusk rest. Ennisa had washed her face whilst she had been waiting, but she hadn't yet made a start on her bird's nest of hair. Itzi was similarly messy, but even though she had recently washed, Ennisa leapt up and ran to scoop her into a quick, happy hug, all disagreements forgotten after their time away.

"Itziiii!" She squealed, and set her down again. "How did it go? Look, here's what I managed to get. It wasn't much, but wasn't that fun?" She grinned and let Itzi speak. Itzi had caught Ennisa's infectious smile, and beamed in response. She withdrew a handful of coins, a little bit more than what Ennisa had got. The two young women set about sharing their stories, legs crossed, sat on the bed, their misbegotten kina spread in front of them. The money seemed to take on a special glow all of its own, if only because of the method in which they had acquired it.

Finally, after spending the rest period chatting in the comfort of their room, Ennisa curled up and rested her head down on the pillow. Itzi grew distracted by whatever it was that she was making, whilst Ennisa slowly started to snooze. Both women would go and wash later on, but for now, Ennisa needed to sleep. With the window still ajar from earlier, and a cool breeze blowing in across her cheek, it took only five ticks for Ennisa to fall into a contented snooze.

[Luminescence]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
YOUR GRADES HAVE BEEN GIFTED
ENJOY!
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Ennisa

Skills

✦Animal Husbandry +1
✦Socialization +4
✦Observation +5
✦Running +1
✦Acrobatics +1
✦Wrestling +1
✦Planning +2
✦Disguise +1
✦Leadership +2
✦Acting +2
✦Begging +2
✦Subterfuge +1

Lores

✦Animal husbandry: Trying to charm a bird with bread
✦Ennisa and Itzi: Menaces of the Solar Wind Apartments
✦Ennisa: It doesn't matter what's fair as long as you win
✦Planning: Plotting a scam
✦Disguise: Making yourself look poor
✦Ennisa: Doesn't like looking stupid
✦Ennisa: Always has to be right
✦Acting: Pretending to be a beggar

Other

✦+2 Kina

Notes
Congrats on your first thread! Please keep in mind that the type of poverty you describe here pretty much is nonexistent in Lhavit. Yes, poverty exists, as do beggars, and there are some people who are better off than others; but homelessness is not allowed, and there are free public bathhouses, so it is almost unheard of for beggars to be so dirty and ragged. Something to keep in mind moving forward.

As always, please don't forget to edit or delete your grading request in the queue! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grades, don't hesitate to shoot me a PM; I'll do what I can to fix whatever the issue may be!