76th Winter, 514AV
"I reckon its ghosts."
Shakune threw a disgusted look to the male beside her. He blushed under her black gaze, then shifted his brown eyes from her face to the snowy ground. "It explains why nobody's seen owt." He grumbled, somewhat dejected at her blatant rebuttal.
"But ghosts? Really?" She raised an eyebrow to the taller, scruffy-looking male. Silver hairs peppered his otherwise black mane, which looked about as unkempt as his equally greying beard. "C'mon, Vince. I thought you were smarter than most blokes."
He replied with a sharp jab into her ribcage. The courier spluttered out a mouthful of warm air and spittle. "Such violence!" She cried, her voice mocking the high-pitched intonation of a damsel in distress.
The two walked in breathy silence for a chime. They were heading out of the city, towards the one place in the whole of Sunberth that could offer them warmth: the Hot Springs. It also ensured the pair - who tried and failed to hide their adulterous relationship in broad daylight - had some privacy without the possibility of Vince's haggard, very much still-married-to-him wife ruining it all.
Shakune came to a sudden halt when she caught sight of something bizarre out of the corner of her black eye. She called her companion over, and the two approached the strange pattern together, cautiously. "I've not actually seen one before." She muttered to the older male, who shrugged his shoulders and gave some unclear response.
The strange symbol was exactly that; a symbol, somehow carved right into the stone of the building, that was incredibly strange. It looked like nothing that Shakune had seen before; a complex tangle of lines and curves that all united together and then divorced away in a random pattern. She had seen some creative tattos before, and sometimes she doodled random pictures and shapes, but nothing quite like this. "It has to mean something." she declared, waving a hand to the grey stone building that had been marked, "someone wouldn't have just done that for no reason, surely." She could certainly think of numerous other activities that were more worth her time, and would be more entertaining, too.
Vince, however, seemed unsure. He sucked on his teeth noisily -- a habit that Shakune detested but knew was ingrained into his very being. "I dunno. There's some weird cults and factions 'nd that. But not in the 'berth, as far as I know."
The courier hoped that such groups of strange individuals would remain outside her city of residence. It was one thing to mark buildings with odd patterns, but it was quite another to enter a city and try to -- what? Take over? It was hard to imagine that the gangs of Sunberth would allow another group to take hold of any fraction of the city. But there had been some tension in the gangs as of late. The season had started with that horrid gang fight in the Market Square.
Shakune pushed the memory to the back of her mind, threw the mystery symbol a final questioning glare and turned away from it. "C'mon. If we're going to fit in more than one quickie there we need to hurry up."
Vince laughed heartily at her casual promise, but nevertheless the male broke out into a slow jog.
Shakune threw a disgusted look to the male beside her. He blushed under her black gaze, then shifted his brown eyes from her face to the snowy ground. "It explains why nobody's seen owt." He grumbled, somewhat dejected at her blatant rebuttal.
"But ghosts? Really?" She raised an eyebrow to the taller, scruffy-looking male. Silver hairs peppered his otherwise black mane, which looked about as unkempt as his equally greying beard. "C'mon, Vince. I thought you were smarter than most blokes."
He replied with a sharp jab into her ribcage. The courier spluttered out a mouthful of warm air and spittle. "Such violence!" She cried, her voice mocking the high-pitched intonation of a damsel in distress.
The two walked in breathy silence for a chime. They were heading out of the city, towards the one place in the whole of Sunberth that could offer them warmth: the Hot Springs. It also ensured the pair - who tried and failed to hide their adulterous relationship in broad daylight - had some privacy without the possibility of Vince's haggard, very much still-married-to-him wife ruining it all.
Shakune came to a sudden halt when she caught sight of something bizarre out of the corner of her black eye. She called her companion over, and the two approached the strange pattern together, cautiously. "I've not actually seen one before." She muttered to the older male, who shrugged his shoulders and gave some unclear response.
The strange symbol was exactly that; a symbol, somehow carved right into the stone of the building, that was incredibly strange. It looked like nothing that Shakune had seen before; a complex tangle of lines and curves that all united together and then divorced away in a random pattern. She had seen some creative tattos before, and sometimes she doodled random pictures and shapes, but nothing quite like this. "It has to mean something." she declared, waving a hand to the grey stone building that had been marked, "someone wouldn't have just done that for no reason, surely." She could certainly think of numerous other activities that were more worth her time, and would be more entertaining, too.
Vince, however, seemed unsure. He sucked on his teeth noisily -- a habit that Shakune detested but knew was ingrained into his very being. "I dunno. There's some weird cults and factions 'nd that. But not in the 'berth, as far as I know."
The courier hoped that such groups of strange individuals would remain outside her city of residence. It was one thing to mark buildings with odd patterns, but it was quite another to enter a city and try to -- what? Take over? It was hard to imagine that the gangs of Sunberth would allow another group to take hold of any fraction of the city. But there had been some tension in the gangs as of late. The season had started with that horrid gang fight in the Market Square.
Shakune pushed the memory to the back of her mind, threw the mystery symbol a final questioning glare and turned away from it. "C'mon. If we're going to fit in more than one quickie there we need to hurry up."
Vince laughed heartily at her casual promise, but nevertheless the male broke out into a slow jog.
I haven't seen an affair here yet!
(Keep in mind I can be slow with replies sometimes due to my offspring still being such a young one.)
