Closed Broken Thievery (Velvet)

[Trista]

5 Spring 515 It was time for some busking. Trista had set up today on a street with a reasonable amount of foot traffic. Her easel was in front of her, with some sketch paper on it, and her case of pencils and erasers set down next to it. Her satchel, which had a few extra papers, folders, and drawing tools, was at her left side, propped up against a wall. If she saw someone who looked like a possible client -- or at least, someone willing to put up with having their portrait drawn, the plan was to approach them quickly. However, no one suitable seemed to have strolled by. The Akvatari had horrible business sense, but she had gotten better at figuring out the kind of people who usually said "yes" to a portrait offer, and she hadn't seen anyone yet who looked like a good candidate. And so, in the meantime, Trista was busying herself with a sketch of the storefront that was (for today at least) opposite her. She was working on getting the shape of the awning exactly right -- which wasn't the easiest task, because it was fluttering a bit in the breeze. As such, the task was occupying most of her concentration, and the whole "looking for a customer" thing was taking a back seat for the moment.

[Velvet]

"No screaming savages coming to get me yet. Usually, Ionu would have given me screaming Myrians by now.. Where are they?" She muttered, all alone on this street. Velvet took a quick glance at the next street, seeing nothing. Nothing? That was worse than anything. That meant Ionu had something dangerous lined up for her, didn't it? Gods, please no.. She touched her slingshot, checking if it was there. She moved along the street, half expecting someone to jump out and scare the hai out of her, fingers still touching her familiar sling. Soon, she reached the next street, absolutely packed with people. Now that's where I'm supposed to be, she thought. Velvet rushed to the more populated street, putting her hands together. Hands worked better warm, not cold. She mixed in with the crowd, bringing out her hands, eyes looking for fat purses that were waiting for her. She kept moving, following a man whose pockets looked like they were stuffed, and she waited for the exact right moment to slip her hands to his pocket. Suddenly, the man stopped for some reason, and she quickly took advantage of it, slipping her hands in to his pockets. Once her hands were in, she felt the feel of coins everywhere, and for half a second, she wished she could take it all. She only took a small handful, and carefully took her hand away so to not touch him where he would feel it. She then moved the handful of coppers into her small purse, not quickly so a coin wouldn't drop. The man soon moved away with an amazed expression, and suddenly she understood why he stopped. What kind of creature is that..? Butterfly wings? Some tail of a seal? With a bit of a human stuck in there somehow? Drawing a storefront? Also, is that a free satchel on the floor? How dumb is this thing? Billions of questions had flew into her brain, with no answers. Velvet's jaw was dropping a bit for a moment, but slowly her face recovered. Two free things in a row. Wish days were as easy as this all the time.. She thought, grinning. She crept over to the satchel, keeping to the shadow and steps light, careful to not step on leaves. Soon, she reached it, and bend down, groaning a bit and opening it up, rustling through its things: paper, folders, drawing tools- but no mizas. She looked back at the Thing, eyes widening. The Thing had to see her by now..

[Trista]

Due to the fact that she was focusing intensely on what she was doing, it took Trista a long time to notice that anyone had approached. Indeed, it wasn't until the would-be thief had finished rifling through her bag that Trista finally looked up and turned around. "There's nothing in there worth taking," she said. Something close to a smile played upon her lips. "I'm probably the worst person in the city to try and steal from." This was, if not strictly true, not that much of an exaggeration. Trista almost never had any money -- not because she didn't make any money, but because she spent it almost as soon as she had it. Her art was valuable enough, but unless she was carrying a finished piece around, she usually had nothing with her that was of value to any non-artists. Indeed, the most costly thing she had was probably the satchel itself -- it wasn't easy to get something that totally waterproof outside of Abura. "I'm Trista, by the way." It occurred to the Akvatari that she should probably be angry, but all she felt was a sort of vague curiosity. It took an awful lot of fortitude to try and support oneself through thievery in a city like Alvadas Additionally, there was something in the woman's expression -- surprised but moody, her dark eyes set off by her streaked hair -- that interested Trista. She would make an interesting model, Trista thought, and then she impulsively spoke up. "Would you like me to draw your portrait? If you'll let me do that, I promise not to report you to the authorities." Trista wasn't even sure who the "authorities" in Alvadas were -- her grasp of political affairs was always tenuous, even in places she was more familiar with -- but it was worth mentioning. "I'd love to draw you." The awning across the street was forgotten now. The other woman was much more interesting from an artistic perspective.

[Velvet]

Oh, gods, why didn’t she bolt from the scene yet and why wasn’t she moving now? It took few seconds for the Thing to even notice she was there, and within those few seconds she could’ve ran. It smiled, turning towards her, telling her about how she was the worst thing to steal from. She doubted she was the worst thing to be stolen from- unless she was secretly planning to report her to the Womiyu. The Thing didn’t seem angry, though. Why wasn’t the artist angry? Was she secretly planning to report her and now pretending she was letting her go without any punishment? Trista. She tried the name out loud, softly. It sounded odd to her. The Thing- ah, sorry, Trista, was staring at her now, and she didn’t exactly like it. She imagined what was going on in Trista’s mind right now- imagining the mizas she might get for getting her captured. She resisted from making a hiss sound, and merely stayed quiet. Her appearance was strange, which made her easy to describe and remember- she couldn’t just dash off now, when she could be easily described and reported.. She groaned. Why did she have to get caught today? Right now, there seemed to be a ball of doom on her head, getting ready to crash on her soon. “Would you like me to draw you-” hah, of course she didn’t want to be drawn! To sit around for who knows how long, just sitting like a statue, face open for everyone to see? She scowled slightly. But she had to, or else she’d be damned to the prison or wherever the Womiyu put people after they were done with them. Hopefully Trista wouldn’t ask her to smile- she was in no mood for that. Besides, her smiles were awkward looking. “Fine.” She said, hatred evident in her voice. “Where do you want me to stand, sit..?” The hatred faded, trying to accept the fact that she was likely to be thrown to prison by tomorrow. Who would let a thief go back to stealing again? It confused her- it had no logic in it.

[Trista]

Her new acquaintance was obviously unhappy with Trista's offer, but she acquiesced anyway. "If you'll just sit over there, that would be perfect." The Akvatari gestured back toward the wall of the nearest building. The Akvatari then removed the sheet of paper with the half-finished drawing from her easel and put a blank sheet in its place. She did not request a smile -- or indeed, even a specific pose -- from the other woman. It would be a more interesting picture if she let her odd, sullen model just be odd and sullen. With a carefully practiced hand, she took a hard pencil and began sketching the woman's outline. She paid careful attention to the face, since her subject's hair and eyes, when combined with the glowering expression, would be the focal point of the finished drawing. "You're welcome to be irritated if you'd like," Trista said conversationally. "I'm seriously not going to turn you in or anything though, so you can relax." Trista was a follower of Avalis, so she believed in helping those in need. She wasn't a Syliran Knight or anything of the kind, however, and so she didn't feel a moral obligation to punish someone committing nonviolent crimes. Indeed, she thought, her memory turning back to Sondra, she'd done a bit of thieving herself, and so who was she to judge?

[Velvet]

Ticks went by, and the awkward silence hanged in the air after she moved to sit. She watched Trista draw her out, Trista looking intently at her once and while at her and then the paper. All the time she was wasting, here! She could see the fat purses of fat men and women, yet she couldn’t move or else she’d be taken. Trista’s word of ‘oh yeah, I won’t report you later’ didn't mean anything to her. People would often just backstab for mizas and just about whatever they could get their hands on, so why trust her? Rarely was there ever a person that was actually kind here. Awkward silence ticked, a question nagging her brain. Was Trista in reality an illusion? She never seen anything like this, and Trista looked insane enough for her to be a mere illusion. Butterfly wings, seal tail., and human mixed in. She finally just spoke, cutting into the silence. She hoped Trista wouldn’t think it was rude. She was just curious to see if she was actually dealing with anything that was actually real. “What are you, Trista? I mean.. as in.. race. I’ve never seen something like you before, ya know? And how long will this take, roughly?” She prayed to Ionu that Trista wouldn’t either get pissy or say that whatever she was drawing was going to take a few hours of her day.

[Trista]

"Akvatari." A sigh escaped Trista's lips. It had nothing to do with the other woman, or anything that she'd said -- it was simply that moments of racial self-contemplation were rarely happy ones for her kind. "Akvatar is an island east of Eyktol," she added, knowing that the simple name of her race wasn't likely to answer the question for anyone who didn't already know what an Akvatari was. "It's where most of us live. Unless you've spent time there, or in places like Zeltiva or Ahnatep that are on Mizahar's eastern coast, you're not likely to have encountered any of us. I haven't met another Akvatari in Alvadas, and I've never even talked to another one who's been here." She switched to a softer pencil now, using bold, broad strokes to capture the woman's unusual hair. Fortunately, if there was one thing you learned how to do while busking, it was to hold a conversation and work at the same time. "Maybe half a bell?" Trista's voice took on the faintest tinge of exasperation. It wasn't exactly the question Trista would have asked had their positions been reversed -- Trista would have been a lot more deferential. Nonetheless, by the next line, she was back to a sort of bland politeness. "It's a quick sketch, not an oil painting, so it shouldn't take too long." "And I don't think I caught your name?" She was pretty sure the woman hadn't mentioned a name, but Trista had been known to miss that kind of information before.

[Velvet]

With word of new places, Velvet’s face changed slightly- eyes lighting up for curiosity, the annoyed expression fading a bit. She had heard of a city, once, which had knights that apparently kept the peace easily called Syrilas, though that city sounded somewhat boring compared to here.. but she supposed peace was good, wasn’t it? “What’s your favorite city..? I’ve just been stuck here, for all of my life.. I’ve heard of a city called Syrilas, once. Full of knights and keeps everyone safe.. but that’s about it. ” There was a hint of wistfulness in her voice. Gods, she sounded old when she said that, but she was only the age of 3. Not like she’d tell Trista that, though. “Ionu does spice it up, yeah, but I wonder what life would be without illusions.. They’ve been here for all my life.” Illusions, to her was bigger brother. Teasing and annoying most of the time, but ultimately, always there when she was in actual serious trouble. 30 bells- not bad. Her face brightened, a soft smile growing. “Vel,” she replied.

[Trista]

Vel's oddly changeable moods intrigued Trista. Just who was she? Trista took a slightly harder pencil and began using heavy crosshatching to add depth and volume to her subject's eyes in the drawing. "I've never been to Syliras, but I've certainly heard tell of it," Trista responded. "As for cities I've been to...I have a fondness for Abura, of course, which is still where my home is. I visited Mura -- where the Konti live? -- twice, and that was probably my favorite aside from that. It's clean and beautiful, the people are friendly, and the ocean permeates the essence of the city." Now she was outlining the folds of Vel's clothing -- the idea was to get the lines in, and then use a blending roll to render them more loose and blurred. "But most places have something to recommend them, something interesting to see and learn. I've spent time in Riverfall, Yahebah, Black Rock, and Ahnatep, among others, and I've learned something in each city." She started sketching the background, using a very hard pencil to make the wall of the building fainter than the main subject. Curiosity struck her, however, and she looked up briefly. "Are you planning to leave Alvadas?" Trista didn't know why Vel was stuck in Alvadas -- "stuck" wasn't really something Trista had experienced in that way. It made her want to know the answer, and curiosity was both Trista's great strength and her abiding weakness.

[Velvet]

Places, places places. She liked hearing all these cities- so far, Trista listed how many? Ekytol, Akvatar, Abura, Mura, Riverfall, Yahebah, and so many others. When Trista said konti, her eyes lit up again, much like a child after getting free candy. "What do konti look like?" Did they look as different as her? She wondered, wondering about other races that weren't exactly human. How little she knew, being stuck here.. Sometimes she wished she could be a merchant, travelling along cities and seeing the wonders of Mizahar. Though there must be some cities that were dangerous- Mizahar was dangerous, filled with monsters and bandits. And Myrians. Was she planning to leave? She shrugged, thinking about the question. "Well.." She hesitated, trying to map out her thoughts. "I'm not, exactly, but it's always been on my mind. Seeing other places.. Sounds nice. Staying your whole life in a place, never changing, just seems.. Odd. You have only a little bit of life, yes? Staying stuck in a place seems like a waste. And I want to become an investigator-" She smiled a bit again- "sounds kinda odd, yeah, coming from a thief! But it's hard here to become an investigator, with the streets changing everyday and always some illusion coming after you. And sometimes, Ionu makes it hard to go out. There was a day, once, where the roads were made of ice. You can imagine how hard it would be to get anything done, yeah?" She just realized she was blabbering on like an idiot, after she was looking quite grumpy. Tempt me with knowledge and I'll take the bait. She thought, annoyance filling the thought, though she didn't know exactly why. It was fine to blabber once and awhile, yes?