At the back of the room (Open)

[Jiina]

6th Spring 511AV The Mhakula Tea House was a great place to find information about the people of Lhavit. It was one of the few places in the city where both tourist and citizen mingled, chatting. Tea seemed to loosen tongues in Lhavit, more so than ale, as she had overheard several interesting conversations throughout the day. She made a note that an old man named Jeo had passed away two nights ago, and there was a debate over the house between identical male twins. A girl too was getting married and did not wish to do so. Jiina sat alone, quiet. It seemed that the tea did not weave it's tongue-loosening effect on her. She debated what a good move would be. She had not attempted to find out much about the tea house before today - the first few times she had investigated patrons, instead of the house itself. Usually she avoided the place because her brother was known to come here after work at their parent's weavers - not her parents anymore. Her father was no longer 'Father'. Taeto was Father. Her interest in the patrons had waned. They had told interesting stories, and some were manipulable, though not very many would be of use to her in the long run. Perhaps it was time to investigate the House itself. Jiina got up, drinking down the last of the tea, wiping imagined dust off the seat of her leggings, in an attempt to seem casual. Casting her head, left, to right, she paused as a waiter smiled at her. She smiled back, hopefully happily, and watched as he turned his back. She waited two sets of breaths, in and out, in and out, and made her way over to the back of the Tea House. There was a room there, a room in which waiters kept popping in and out of. She was curious as to what was in there. She wandered aimlessly over there, smiling as she walked past tables full of chattering fools, unaware of the dictatorship they were under. They would see soon enough - see just how oppressive Lhavit was.

[Isette]

There was some sort of party going on in the back of the tea house. Such a thing did not concern Isette very much; it was not as though she was ever invited to such things. Isette was a loner without friends or family. But the party would provide one thing that Isette cherished very much. Free food. People were less likely to notice her skittering under the tables when the tables were all pushed together. Everyone was too busy eating and enjoying their time together to notice a little black cat dashing from shadow to shadow until—at last!—she reached her destination. It was not a lot of food, but it was enough. Her own store of food was diminishing much too quickly. To make it last, Isette often tried to satisfy herself by eating what others dropped so that she could save what she had for emergencies. It was not a glorious existence, but she made it work. It was better than the mice she caught anyway. Cooked food was delicious. And there were children at this party! Children were the best. They often snuck little bits of meat down to where she could get them. If there were no children, parties weren’t worth the risk. People did not like having their food stolen by a Kelvic even if that food was on the ground. Of course, most people didn’t jump to that conclusion. She was just a stray cat. Every once in a while, though, a sharp eye would pick out the small pendant that dangled around her neck and make a good guess. “Is that a cat?” Oops. It was no use trying to be sneaky once they saw you. Animals weren’t really supposed to be in the tea house to begin with. Isette picked up speed, getting ready to race for the door. Oof! She ran right into a young woman who seemed to be making her way towards the back room. “Shoo! Shoo cat!” A waiter came towards her, but Isette didn’t stick around long enough to let him get near her. She darted between the young woman’s legs and made a break for the door. A few people shouted, but no one cared enough to give chase. Her only outfit was hidden just around the corner of the tea house. When she shifted back, the dirty white dress was all she had to wear and the blue cloak was all she had to stay warm. It was better than nothing, she supposed. And at least she hadn’t lost it. Isette seemed to have a knack for losing things. She supposed she was just going to have to spend money if she wanted real food. Isette paused by the door of the tea house, hesitating. The food smelled so good. Was it worth it? Her fingers moved to finger the pendant, which was now tight around her neck. It was a habit of hers, one that meant she was trying to determine the difference between a want and a need. Internal debates such as that were often difficult for her.

[Jiina]

Jiina was fully intent on the back room of the Tea House. The waiters kept popping in and out with tea laden arms, and it looked like somewhere that Jiina could use. Never know when one might need a room full of tea. In all seriousness, it was a great place to add to her mental map of Lhavit. But as she walked, casually, she began to think - how was she supposed to get into the tea brewing room, anyway? There were waiters and waitresses popping in and out almost constantly. There was no way Jiina could slip inside there without causing a scene. As she walked, mused, completely unfocused, she careened into a waiter holding a pot of tea. He cried out as the lukewarm liquid spilt out over his shirt, watching in dismay as the white fabric turned see through and clung to his abs. Jiina put on an apologetic front, wiping the shirt as if to clean it, but really trailing her fingers down his front, tantalisingly, teasingly, as if to get him to forget she had done anything wrong. "I am so sorry sir," she purred, sickeningly, disgusted with herself for the sugary sweetness that dripped from her voice. "I did not see you there! Forgive me?" She leaned in and landed a kiss on his cheek, smiling brightly at him. The man nodded dazedly, and turned to disappear into the mysterious room. Drat. Jiina could not follow him inside without it looking completely suspicious. Jiina was many things, but she was not obvious - she was subtle. She would not be getting into the tea brewing room today. That was a mission for the next time. As Jiina turned away, her eyes swept over, disdainfully, a group of children with parents watching over them. The signature sweet cakes of the Mhakula Tea House adorned the tables, scattered on plates, on the children's faces, even on the floor. Such frivolous nature. Taeto, if he had raised Jiina from birth - as he should have, he was her true father - would never have allowed such useless jubilation. There was no point to the celebration before her. Why celebrate another year on this world when it was simply another year under the corruption and damnation of the rigid structures of Lhavit? Jiina would never understand. As she watched, a black cat streaked under the table, grabbed a piece of cake that lay forgotten, and ran for the back door. There was something about the way in which the bumbling fools were outwitted by the basest of animals, a stray cat, that made Jiina amused. If they were outwitted by an animal, they could be outwitted by Jiina and Taeto. The cat seemed to have the right idea, amongst the commotion - getting out of the Tea House. Jiina had learnt all she could have for the day. She followed the cat, making for the back door. She slipped out, taking one last look at the patrons, and turned to face the outside world. She was surprised to find a woman standing where the cat hand run out to, wearing a dirty white dress and a blue cloak. The cat was fast, Jiina conceded, but there remained the possibility of the woman being a Kelvic - one of the shapeshifters. Taeto had told her of them, told her of the potential usefulness of having an animal undeniably attached to you, but that the animal would genuinely have to like you. Jiina would have trouble with that. Her muscles tensed up, and she almost tapped into the control of her djed to use the flux, but she restrained herself. There was no point taking the girl out - it was a waste of potential information. Instead she smiled, pleasantly, eyes twinkling. "Hi!" she brightly said, bowing a little, as was the custom of Lhavit. She hated every second. "Did you see a cat run out here? I have a thing for cats, and this one was especially cute."

[Isette]

“Hi!” Isette jumped, startled by being so suddenly addressed. It wasn’t that she didn’t notice the woman. Isette simply wasn’t used to other people noticing her. Especially with such a positive and friendly attitude. She turned her olive, slit eyes on the other woman and forced a smile. Flight or fight? Her body itched to flee. Isette would feel more comfortable in her other skin, far away from human interaction. "Did you see a cat run out here? I have a thing for cats, and this one was especially cute." “Did I—no. No, I…Cute?” Well that was eloquent. Isette blushed. She never had been very good at lying and the compliment had her flustered. To make matters even worse, her stomach chose that moment to growl. The Kelvic half-smiled and her expression became sheepish. This woman did not look untouchable. Why was she speaking to her so? That was not how things worked in Lhavit. Oh. Right. “So sorry,” Isette mumbled as she dipped her head into a light bow. “How rude of me. Forgive me, I…Am a babbling idiot right now.” This was embarrassing. How long had it been since her last real human interaction? A few days at least. And that was with a drunk man. Isette was handling this social situation very poorly. She was clearly out of practice. The Kelvic forced herself to pause and take a deep breath. She would not flee. She would stand her ground and salvage the situation as best she could. “Yes, I did see a cat. It went…that way.” She pointed in a random direction. Again, her lie was bad. Isette blinked a lot when she lied. It was a sign not everyone would recognize but, at the very least, it would draw attention to her eyes which were definitely catlike. Isette knew this and it made her nervous. Why was she trying to lie to this woman anyway? It was not as if she had anything to lose by telling the truth. Besides, the woman called her cute. That alone was enough to bring a light blush scurrying back onto her face. Her? Cute? The Kelvic was unused to compliments. She self consciously ran her hands down her dress in a vain attempt to smooth out its wrinkles. Then her wandering fingers, needing something to do, sought out her hair. She pulled the tangled mess to one side of her face and ran her fingertips through the ends. Self grooming was always a soothing activity.

[Jiina]

The woman jumped, twitchy, body tensed as if to run - tell tale sign of something to hide. Forced smile, unnecessary blushing. Yes, this woman either knew something about the cat, or perhaps was the cat. This meant Jiina was in the presence of someone who could potentially bond to her and be her devoted spy. She was not stupid, she knew that was not how bonds usually worked - but Jiina sure hoped that's how one would turn out for her. Of course, the woman might not even be a good candidate, given by the way she expressed absolutely every emotion on her face. Let it not be known that Jiina did not examine every opportunity and possibility. Jiina was subtly amused at the immediate deference this girl paid her. She wondered how much more deference she would recieve if she knew that Jiina was a part of the Twilight Family - the most intimidating family of Lhavit. Her Father, despite him not being immediately related to Weisur, knew him intimately and Jiina had met him on numerous occassions, and he had liked her. If the cat kelvic, for surely she was, knew this - well, there was no telling how much her attitude and stuttering would change. She smiled at the woman, nodding along happily, blindly, as if she truely believed the atrocious lie that she tried to force on Jiina. The woman was nervous about lying, what with the dress straightening and rapid blinking. Why, though? What did this woman with cat-like eyes have to hide from the world? It must be more than the fact that she was Kelvic - surely she did not think Jiina stupid enough to believe that baldfaced lie. Perhaps it was something to do with her hunger - her stomach was rumbling. Maybe the dress, for it would have had to have been stashed out here somewhere. Perhaps something even more deep than that? If it was not as simple as the food, what else would she have to lie about? Perhaps she needed to be at the Tea House for a specific reason. She could have been a spy ... already bonded? The possibilities were endless, and Jiina needed more information to fully process the girl's importance. She nodded at the girls bow. "It's okay. I'm sure there are lots of other kitty cats I can follow." Ugh, why was she speaking like a four year old? "So, who are you? My name is Jii--" A vision of her father flashed through her mind, his finger hovering in her face, whispering to emphasise the importance "Never tell someone your name unless you have to." "Jiisate."

[Isette]

"It's okay. I'm sure there are lots of other kitty cats I can follow." Isette raised a brow curiously. The woman had accepted her lie. Was she stupid? Or was she simply letting Isette off the hook? She really had no way of knowing what was going through the woman’s mind. The not knowing made her antsy. If only she could read minds. The woman—Jiisate—was not giving much away with her body language. She seemed so casual and laid back, not jumpy at all like Isette was. She envied that. Subconsciously, her body relaxed slightly in an attempt to mirror the other woman. “It is a pleasure to greet you, Jiisate. I am called Isette.” She thought the woman’s name was strange, but who was she to talk? Isette had made her own name up. Maybe she had too! No, that was silly. This woman looked much too…normal. She probably belonged to a good, average family. Isette was just looking for a commonality. It still baffled her that the woman was being so nice to her. Curiosity flared inside her. Who was this woman that liked cats so much? Was she a potential friend? Isette didn’t need friends. She did just fine on her own. But…maybe a friend wouldn’t be so bad? Maybe. “Uhm…Why are you looking for the cat? I mean, what would you do when you found her?” Isette blinked and quickly corrected herself. “It.” Because saying ‘her’ would imply that she knew the cat. Isette was still trying to work out whether Jiisate believed her lie or not. This conversation was giving her mixed feelings. Part of her thought it would be best if she left, returned to her little home and saved herself from the awkwardness of speaking to another person. Another part of her was bound where she was. She didn’t want to leave, even if she thought she would be better off if she did. Compliments were like poison to the friendship starved feline only because her subconscious was searching for some sort of connection. Her mind was not refined enough to know that though. To Isette, she stuck around because the nice woman was interesting and nothing more. Her urge to flee was at war with her urge stay. This annoyed her. Why did thoughts have to be so complicated? Why couldn’t she just want one thing at a time and stick with that?

[Jiina]

The woman emulated Jiina's posture exactly, the slouched back casual pose. It merely served to further agree with Jiina's hypothesis, that the guilty emulated the right. Jiina was right - the woman was emulating her. The raised eyebrow also served to hint to Jiina that the woman was surprised at what Jiina had said, as if she had expected her to "follow" the cat - when Jiina didn't need to, for she was almost entirely positive that the cat stood before her in the guise of a lady in a crinkled white dress. A good disguise for any of the Lhavitian commoners, but not one that would outsmart Jiina Xi, daughter of Taeto Xi, a member of the Twilight Family. Smug satisfaction raged in Jiina when Isette, as the woman was called - strange name, probably not Lhavitian, would have to look more into that - identified the cat's sex, and then hastily corrected it. On the slim chance that Jiina was wrong, which was extremely slim, the woman at least knew something about the cat. She wasn't entirely sure why she was so interested in the feline - it seemed a little illogical, but the stories inside the Mhakula Tea House had been tame and expected. The cat however was not - and if it were a Kelvic, that gave Jiina scope to manipulate. "Isette, huh? Pretty name. Kinda strange." She hesitated, not sure if it were the best thing to pry so quickly - the woman might lose trust and bolt. She decided to go for it. The naming of a child often portrayed so much about the family in question - creativity, status, attitude towards the offspring. "Why did your parents name you that?" Her face was screwed up in absolute interest, though it masked the conniving aspect of Jiina that raged and plotted away inside of her. "The kitty cat? Oh, I just like cats. Father might let me keep one as a pet, if I can catch one. I do hope he does. Do you like cats?" She was almost amused at her wit in coming up with questions. It would be rather hilarious to watch the open young girl stammer her way through a lie about her preference in domestic pets. She could almost see her wringing at her dress, stammering out "O-oh, not really, uh, um, not the biggest fan of c-ca-cats?" She also wondered what her reaction would be to the keeping cats comment. A smirk threatened to break out onto Jiina's face - yes, little kitty cat, you're mine now.

[Isette]

Isette smiled when the woman said her name was pretty. It only faltered slightly when she mentioned it was strange. She studied the woman for a few moments, trying to decide how best to respond to her. Eventually she decided on honesty. Short, sweet, honesty. “My parents did not name me Isette.” Well if her clothes did not brand her as untouchable that statement surely did. Isette didn’t care, though. She had the feeling Jiisate wouldn’t leave her because of that. Most people turned their nose up when they so much as saw Isette. But not her. This woman was different somehow. “Your name is strange, too,” she added shyly. Her comment was not meant offensively at all. Isette liked that they had something in common. But maybe Jiisate wouldn’t. The Kelvic flushed. “It is very pretty.” Her words came out a little hasty, but at least she managed not to stutter. This whole communication thing was starting to feel a little more natural now that she’d been doing it for a few minutes. She felt like an utter fool in front of this woman. It shouldn’t matter, but Isette wanted to earn her approval. It was pathetic, wasn’t it? “Do you like cats?” That question caught her off guard. Isette blinked and pondered the question. “Sometimes,” she murmured thoughtfully, “It depends on the cat.” It was a strange thing to think about, the relationship between her and her own species. Cats were territorial creatures by nature and hardly ever friendly towards each other, but they could be social and did occasionally form bonds with each other. Some were mean and others were friendly. They were a lot like people except they were much easier to understand. And they were also more likely to talk to her than the proud Lhavitians. “Uhm…About the cat you saw…” Isette wanted to know more about the nice lady and her intentions. But how did she phrase her words so that they were not too obvious? “I have seen her before. I do not believe she is a normal cat. I mean, I believe she is possibly a Kelvic…” She watched the woman closely, trying to gauge her reaction. It was oddly important to the young feline. She watched Jiisate’s body language and strained to hear the tiniest inflection in her voice. Isette could be highly observant when she wanted to be and this was no exception.

[Jiina]

Her parents did not name her Isette, interesting. Jiina made a quick list of possibilities in her mind, running through them like a checklist: parents had died, parents had disowned her, parents had let her name herself, parents were distant and did not care. The last two seemed unlikely, so it was a toss up between dead or disowned. It was a half half chance. Jiina would need to find out more if she was going to make an accurate assessment. "Why is your name Isette, then?" Jiina cocked her head 'curiously', widening her eyes, pulling out the puppy dog look. Jiina was pretending to be genuinely curious, like the little ones were on Midsummer's Day when the Taiyang did their fire dances in celebration of the city. A flash of almost-genuine looking hurt crossed her face at the woman's next words, and her head snapped up and her arms were crossed. "My name is not strange!" she cried, almost overdramatically. To see how far the woman would go to please her was a test - depending on the results, Jiina would either figure out if she was manipulable or needed to be intimidated into doing things. "That's really quite a rude thing to say..." Jiina conveniently ignored the fact that she had called Isette a strange name eariler - hopefully, if the woman was properly submissive, she would too. Isette surprised Jiina with her diplomatic answer when it came to cats. She did not expect her to be quite so thoughtful, so sincere in her response, and it almost threw Jiina off guard. Almost. The fact that Isette was putting so much thought into the question, that she was clearly still musing as she came up with a response, seemed to indicate that the question was a matter of some importance to the girl, that it could not be rushed with a hasty response, that true thought had to go into the answer. An honest girl such as she could not give a half hearted - or half true - response to any question, it was not in her nature. Jiina nearly jumped up and down in excitement and victory when the woman slowly, nervously, explained her "theory" on the origins of the cat. She had been right! The woman was a Kelvic! Of course, there was the extremely small chance that the woman was not a Kelvic and merely knew where the cat came from, but if that were true, there would be no reason for the woman to be so jumpy and bumbling in her manner and conversation. No, the woman was a Kelvic and Jiina had found that out herself. But the response must be cool or she would arise suspicion in the woman. "A ... A Kelvic? Really? Why do you believe that? How do you know that?" She hoped the amount of questions would not scare the woman off...

[Isette]

“Why is your name Isette, then?” The question made her uncomfortable. Nobody had ever asked such a thing before and Isette was not sure how to respond. She fidgeted and searched her mind for words. Any words. “I made the name myself.” It was honest and quick. That seemed to be the way she liked to answer questions that made her uncomfortable. It was information she did not want to revisit and therefore it would have to be pulled from her. Isette was honest but she did not have a loose tongue. Her mind clamped down on painful memories; pulling them into the present was not part of her nature. Suddenly, Jiisate’s presence changed. It seemed Isette really had hurt the woman. Her eyes opened and she instinctively took a step back, almost expecting some sort of violence to be thrust upon her. “I-I really am sorry!” she exclaimed, “I did not mean to offend, Miss Jiisate! The name is truly lovely. I only meant…I mean, I meant it as a compliment. I suppose ‘strange’ was not the right word. I meant…uhm…” She was not so good with human speech. What were good words? “Unique. Precious. Rare. It was meant as a good thing!” Isette felt terrible. The woman had called her cute and said her name was pretty and how did Isette repay her? But hurting her feelings. Maybe she shouldn’t talk to people anymore. She seemed to be very good at messing things up. Isette felt so deflated that her emotions were too busy to respond to the woman’s questions regarding the cat. The Kelvic sighed and leaned against the wall of the tea house. How did she manage to ruin everything so easily? Isette was her own worst enemy when it came to finding human acceptance and friendship. “Because the cat was me,” she said softly. There. The secret was out now. “I apologize, Jiisate. I did not mean to offend you or lie to you. I suppose I have been too long without human interaction. You have been nice to me and I appreciate it. Today will have been a good day because of it. If there is anything I can do to make up for my behavior, please let me know. Let it show that my intentions in speaking to you were not disrespectful or…shallow.” Isette did not look the woman in the eyes despite the fact that she was dying to read Jiisate’s face.