Aug 23 05:10:45 105 PA

From Chronicles

Weather at Sun Aug 23 05:10:45 105 PA (15.21C, 59.39F):

The weather looks just as it feels -- somewhat cold and wet, but calm. Far away sounds are masked by the persistent but gentle sound of rain.Weather at Sun Aug 23 05:10:45 105 PA (15.21C, 59.39F):

The weather looks just as it feels -- somewhat cold and wet, but calm. Far away sounds are masked by the persistent but gentle sound of rain.

Bleary, dreary morning blankets the city outside in the grey before dawn and the working stiffs who call Kingsdale home start to stir and get on about getting on with their day. The morning shift in the Nut and Bolt is just starting as well, with a steady trickle of people in grease-stained overalls making up most of the traffic that stops in to get a cup of coffee or to get a thermos filled to take on the road. The lights are on, giving the place a much different and more humble look than it has during the night. There's no band, no music at all, and the noises of voices and glassware tinkling behind the bar carries strangely across the space.

Rebekkah's pulled the dawn shift today and looks like she's still not woken up herself. Blinking sleepily and sipping at her own cup of coffee between tasks, she works the bar and looks after the handful of patrons who've stopped in already.

In contrast to the creeping somnolence of the typical morning crowd of the Nut & Bolt, Aislinn bears herself with a disciplined, almost military alertness. When she steps in through the front door, letting in a brief gust of humid air that pushes the red waves of her hair forward to dance around the edges of her eyes, she does so with a marked preparedness that the drowsy masses aren't likely to muster until after a cup or two of their morning brews. It's not so much an appearance of being a morning person, but rather years of steady, disciplined rising, and it earns her a few envious glares. Many eyes that don't have jealousy's edge have curiosity's wonder, staring at the tall, armoured woman with as many guesses as to her purpose as there are faces turned her way--likely all wrong. She crosses the room in a few easy strides and seats herself in an empty stool at the bar, an expression on her face of open friendliness that she turns toward Rebekkah, the nearest obvious staff, as she waits patiently for her turn to be served.

Rebekkah is in the middle of a much needed but hardly deserved break when Aislinn comes in and, with her attention split between the vidplayer tablet in one hand and the mug of coffee in the other. She senses without really looking up that a new body's come to fill a stool and shambles her way down the length of the counter. It's not until she reaches the tall woman that she looks up from her display and it takes a few startled blinks of her heavily lined eyes to register what they're seeing. "Whoa," she breathes involuntarily, the irises of her eyes swirling and shifting from a sweet mahogany brown to a warm gold. "You are fifteen flavors of slickness! What can I get you?"

Aislinn's smile at Rebekkah's reaction bears the amusement of someone who has grown used to the effect she has on people, but doesn't find it bothersome. "Fifteen?" she asks, one eyebrow rising just a fraction. "I must be slipping." She spares a quick glance down the length of the bar, noting what others have ordered, and then turns back to Rebekkah. "If you could get me just some coffee, please, I would be most appreciative." Then, with a quirk of a lip, she asks in fairly fluent French, "You speak French, don't you?" It's not perfect, as far as accent and inflection go, but most certainly enough that she could get by.

Rebekkah sets her little player and her big mug down on her side of the bar and answers Aislinn with a short little nod of her head and a quietly spoken, "I do." She glides away, ponytail swinging with each step she takes - notably more lively than the steps she first trudged over with - to get the girl a cup. Her switch back to American is unapologetic. "I haven't seen you in here before, and I'd remember someone like you. That armor is so /glitz/."

"It serves me well, and does its job, but thank you." Aislinn replies with humble acceptance. "I hope my wearing it here isn't altogether improper?" she asks, since in a place mostly filled with the mechanic sorts it's a bit out of place. "Also, you're right, I've never been in here before. I've just arrived in town, actually, and I'm still making the rounds and learning all of the places." She lifts one hand, a bit rough from constant physical labors, and brushes red tresses from her face, tucking a few strands behind an ear.

Rebekkah returns with a clean mug of coffee steaming in her hand which she sets down in front of Aislinn with a broad and pretty smile. "It's fake cream and fake sugar," she notes somewhat apologetically when she presents the wire caddy containing them, "but they do the job too. And don't worry about it, everyone wears their armor around when they first get here." She grabs her own coffee again and leans against the back counter comfortably but still close enough to easily converse with the redhead.

Aislinn returns Rebekkah's smile with one of her own, wearing her gratitude openly. "Thank you, fake cream and fake sugar will do just perfectly." She pulls the coffee cup over in front of her, and puts just a small amount of each of the two into it, then stirs it gently with a spoon while she converses. "Do they?" she asks, with genuine curiosity. "That statement implies that once they've been here a while, they stop. Are things so secure here, then?"

Rebekkah shrugs a little bit and swings her ponytail over her shoulder to fiddle her fingers through it as the two talk. "I think everyone hears the stories and shows up expecting Juicers jumping around between the rooftops blasting at each other and anyone else on the street and dragons eating innocent virgins on every corner." She laughs and lowers her eyes to her coffee as she brings it up and has a drink. "There's talk about crazy things, you know? As long as you stay out of the Dregs it's not bad here at all, though. I haven't seen anything at all since I got here."

Aislinn nods, taking in the assessment of the city's situation, and asks, "The Dregs? I can make assumptions, but I'd rather ask." She stops stiring her coffee, taps the spoon on the edge of her cup with a few sharp clinks to get as much of the coffee off it as possible, then sets it down next to the cup. "And how long have you been here?" She gives a charming smile then, and though she's nothing too beautiful to look at her open friendliness goes a long way. "I apologize if I ask a lot of questions, but not knowing can be dangerous and I have nobody else here, yet, to ask."

Rebekkah pushes herself out of her lean with a thrust of a hip and the momentum carries her across the little space between the back wall and the bar. She brushes her fingers free from her hair and offers the hand out to Aislinn. It's the wrong hand, her left, but she holds it upside down to be shaken normally. "Well I'm Bek. I've only been here... a month? Something like that."

Aislinn seems moderately surprised by the unorthodox handshake offering, but takes it none the less, her grip quite firm but not painfully so. Still, her hands are not the sort you'd want clamping down in anger. "I'm Aislinn," she replies courteously. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She releases her grip on Rebekkah's hand as she continues. "I've been here about ten hours, myself; just long enough to find a place to lay my head down, get a bit of sleep, and then start out learning the lay of the town."

Rebekkah's not quick to let Aislinn's hand go and she's caught between a drink of her coffee and a flush of surprise when she registers the story told in the redhead's grasp. "Oh wow," she gasps suddenly, her eyes growing wide and flowing to a stark emerald green color as she hurriedly sets her mug down and reaches to takes Aislinn's hand in both of hers. There's a fascination in the way she squeezes the poor girl's palm and fingers, feeling the solid strength hidden within them. "You're amazing," she coos while she satisfies her curiosity. "Can you crush someone's head? How did you get so big?"

Aislinn marks Rebekkah's shifting eyes with a monentary stare, but more at the curiosity of it than anything more. She seems amicable enough to having her hand studied, relaxing the muscles of her arms enough that Rebekkah can poke and prod. "I grew up on a farm," she says with an amused glint in her green eyes, and she laughs softly at the question about crushing someone's head. "That would most likely depend on the someone," she replies, "and on what they might have done to warrant it. I've never tried, though, so I can't tell you for sure, and I'll admit I hope to never find out."

"A farm?" Rebekkah repeats with near disappointment. "You weren't like a secret military experiment to make the perfect soldier or something?" Quite the imagination, this one. She finishes her study of Aislinn's hand and concludes with a light scritching of her short nails in the tall girl's palm. She gets her coffee back, takes a drink and smiles, staring at the other girl thoughtfully for a few moments. "Of course you'd never really do it, but it's nice to know you /could/, you know?"

Aislinn laughs, openly and warmly, at Rebekkah's disappointment about her origins. "No, no," she says, with a few more chuckles. "Just healthy farmer stock, growing up working in the fields, and eating home hearty home-cooked meals. I've never been in the military, and I'm no soldier, just a woman with some fancy armour who wants to do some good." She doesn't hurry to pull her hand back, once it's released, but finally uses it to lift her coffee to her lips for the first time since she got the cup. She takes a slow sip and then sets it down, her every movement deliberate and steady. "And no, actually, I rather hope I can't." She grins and adds, to give a bit of humour, "Though I'm sure if I ever had reason to need the skill, and found I couldn't, I'd regret those words."

Rebekkah boldly reaches across the bar and clamps her hand around the top of Aislinn's head. The squeeze she gives is nowhere near skull-crushingly strong, but it gets the point across well enough for her purposes here. "You'd be, like, craaaack. Ewww!" She laughs, cheerful in her morbidity, and surrenders her hold on the redhead. With a wistful sigh she leans down onto an elbow, gets close and lowers her voice with an attitude of secrets being shared. "It's nice that you're so strong like that."

Aislinn's response to the strange outburst from Rebekkah is calm acceptance, as she allows her head to be clamped down upon and squeezed. "Ewww, indeed," she say swith a raised eyebrow, not seeming offended but also clearly not seeing the amusement. When the bartender leans forward and addresses her conspiratorially, she leans forward as well. "It is?" she asks, her low voice not much above a whisper. "Why is that? Because I can pull a plow if something happens to the horses?"

Rebekkah pulls her lips and her brows in to an adorable moue and gives Aislinn's armor plated shoulder a light swat and a shove. "Nooo," she huffs, mildly irritated at having to explain this to someone who so obviously should 'get it'. "It's because you're, you know, tough and can take care of yourself without anyone helping." She draws her arm back, leans forward onto it again and slouches on her legs to take some of her weight off of them for a while. "You have to like it, I know you you can't get a body like that without lots of work."

Aislinn laughs briefly before she takes another sip of her coffee. "I need help plenty often, Bek. Everyone does, and anyone that tells you otherwise is lying to you. Quite possibly to themselves, too." She gives a shrug of her heavy shoulders then sets her coffee down on the bar in front of her again. "In any case, I haven't worked hard so that I could take care of myself. I do it precisely because I realize everyone needs help, sometimes, and I wish to be ready to protect those who can't protect themselves."

"That's sweet," Rebekkah remarks with a happy and bemused quirk of her lips. "But it's nice to be able to do that too, instead of needing someone to protect /you/." Her eyes drop from Aislinn's to peek inside her cup, and she sighs at the tiny bit left at its bottom before standing up straight and finishing it off. "So I'll bet you're not here looking to make a fortune in the mercenary business, huh?"

"No, ma'am," Aislinn replies with a shake of her head, the red waves of her hair shifting like breakers on a beach around her shoulders. "Like I said, I'm not a soldier. Is that what brought you here? Looking for work?" She lifts her coffee cup again and drains it, then sets it back down and pushes it across the bar. "If you go to get yourself a refill, would it be too much trouble to ask for one myself?" She asks more like she's a guest who doesn't want to trouble her host than a paying customer.

Rebekkah considers her answer to the first question carefully, bobbing her head from side to side as she regards Aislinn. The emerald green in her eyes fades and the warm golden color bubbles up in its place. "Sort of. I'm allowed to take work, but I'm really looking for people willing to work for me. Not really for /me/, but, you know..." She finishes with a smile, her entire face radiant, and takes both of the mugs over to fill up again from the pot. She's gone for a while, a handful of other patrons interrupting to get refills themselves and two new arrivals looking for the same, but eventually she returns and slides Aislinn's mug over.

Aislinn waits patiently as Rebekkah goes off to get the refills, apparently not at all upset by the delays. "Thank you," she says with a smile when her refilled coffee cup is brought to her. "I'm not taking up too much of your time, am I? I don't want to be a bother." She adds, after that, "And I'm not sure I do know what you mean. Not for you?"

Rebekkah steals a sugar and a spoon of cream from Aislinn's supply to dress up her own coffee with while she explains. "I'm the middle person, I guess? I'm not really even supposed to talk about it, I don't think, but you seem pretty ice. And you like helping people, which is good because we need help." She smiles again, covering an embarrassed flush that colors her pale cheeks but it does nothing to conceal the rapid shift of her eyes to a brilliant azure.

Aislinn finally asks, at this latest shift of Bek's eye colour. "Your eyes; I can't help but be fascinated by the complexity and beauty of them. Is that natural?" The smile she offers shows she asks out of respect for something beautiful. "As to your work, if you need help I'll hear what I might do, but if you aren't to talk about it then it's probably a matter left to other times." She spoons a bit more sugar and cream into her own coffee, and once more sets about carefully stirring them in.

Rebekkah presses a hand to her burning cheek and her smile only keeps itself there on her glowing face. "They're not natural," she confesses with a tiny sigh that says she wishes they were. "It's... they're biosystems. I guess they /are/ natural, but, farg, they were grown and put in." She blinks a couple of times - flutters her eyelashes more like it. "We can talk about it, but it depends a lot on how you feel towards the Coalition."

Aislinn smiles gently, and is going about her routine with finishing her coffee--tapping the spoon on the edge of the cup, etc--when the mention of the Coalition is made. She stops and looks up suddenly, and there's a fire in her eyes. Still, what she says next is delivered in the same measured and purposeful way she's been speaking the whole time she's been here. "I won't judge them all on my experience with a few. As a whole is more than the sum of its parts, so too are the parts not necessarily as the whole is." Her eyes soften again and she ammends, "I would hear the specifics of your case, if you're willing."

Rebekkah watches Aislinn's reaction with quiet attentiveness and nods at what she sees there, silently affirming to herself what she'd already suspected. "It's really delicate, Aislinn, and I can't talk about everything, but I'm supposed to find people here and go hurt the Coalition as badly as I can. You know about Whykin?" She gestures with her cup off towards the east and pulls her bottom lip under her teeth while she waits for the other girl to react again.

Aislinn shakes her head. "I don't, but I'm here in Kingsdale to learn." She turns her gaze in the direction Rebekkah indicated, not because she thinks that she'll see something, but just as mnemonic device of sorts, then turns back. "Would you meet me later, when you're not working?" she asks, her manner making it clear it's far more a humble request than a demand veiled as a question.

Rebekkah might be excused for misinterpreting Aislinn's question, or at least the intent of it. Her eyes flash to emeralds and she answers the tall girl with an excited little bobbing of her head and a bouncing ponytail. "Absolutely. I've been staying at the Raleigh Apartments, do you know where that is? Maybe, maybe I shouldn't invite you over right away, huh?" She laughs, self-conscious, and covers her mouth with her fingers for a moment. "Umm. We can meet in the park tonight, that's always nice."

If Aislinn picks up on the misinterpretation, she makes no show of it. She does smile, though, pleased by the acceptance, and stands up. Her second cup of coffee is, essentially, untouched. She looks down at Rebekkah from her tall height, but she does it in a way that is far from overbearing, making her seem to be on equal ground despite her height and strength. "The park would be wonderful," she says with a nod. "Say, 7:00? I'm afraid I don't know any landmarks to ask you to meet me by."

"The statues," Rebekkah supplies without hesitation, her head tipped back so that she can gaze up at Aislinn with something approaching pure awe. "You can't miss them. I'll be wearing... uh, what I have on now, actually." She laughs again and offers a pretty, heartbreaker's smile.

Aislinn locks her eyes on Rebekkah's for a moment, then gives another quick nod. "The statues, then. I don't imagine I'll have trouble finding them, or you, but if I do you'll probably have none finding me." She offers a quick, self-deprecating smile, then departs after a quick, "Thank you for the coffee." Location:Nut and Bolt Tags:aislinn, rebekkah