Unintended Theft (Valtis/Miora)

[Lisenet]

Miora was having an excellent day as far as her days went. She’d found an apple that was only half-rotted under a bench and it had made for a fairly filling breakfast, as far as breakfasts generally went. She picked her way around the blue parts as she hurried from the lower part of town to the upper, to see if there were any tourists she could spot to pick from. They usually didn’t have the time or the inclination to stick around and report their missing bits of property to the local authorities. And the shorter they were here the less likely they were to ever see her again or try to see her. Things always went better when nobody saw her again, or at all. Sometimes she could get away without being seen at all—that was always thrilling.



Miora was as moral and fair about her pickpocketing as possible. She never stole from people who didn’t look like they could afford to lose a little, and whenever she could manage it she took only a fraction of what she found. Cutting purses was easy when they were in view. But she took pride both in being able to steal with selection. That and she refused to hurt people as much as her father had in his business, so the tougher steals it was.



Tossing the last, squashy, fuzzy side of the apple off to the side and dodging busy people as she wound between towering, narrow buildings and the slender gaps between them.



She hadn’t intended to run into the man—usually she was very careful about that sort of thing, and decently agile. But she tripped on her way out of the alley and slammed right into a brown-clothed fellow passing by.



On her way down Miora had many thoughts. First that she was furious for having been so clumsy. Second that this particular fellow was more wiry than he looked from the way the scarf draped over his shoulders, bulking them up a bit. Third that she could feel a pouch of coins in his pocket, and judging by the shape of them he could either afford to lose a few or he’d stolen them himself.



The second she’d tumbled down off of him she scrambled to her feet. “Oh my goodness I’m so sorry! Did I stomp on anything? Did I break anything? Oh my gosh I got you wet, I’m sorry.” Due to the curse she was always wet, dripping, and touching people generally got them wet too. Now there were handprints on his stomach. But she could feel close to half the weight of the coins she’d taken in the tumble stuck in the pockets of her apron already, so now she just had to make him want to get rid of her so it wouldn’t look like she was running away.

[Ven]

Valit had simply been attempting to exit the city when the girl had ran into him. He wasn't looking, his feet just trying to get to the exit of the large, compact town who's shadows loomed over him.  He disliked the feeling of such towns, though Valit was never exactly a city-person. The likelihood of being known goes up, and therefor city walls were far more dangerous than any forest for someone like him. He was wanted for murder- mercenaries tend to be, after all. 

Valit was surprised, to say the least, when the small child had slammed into his chest, and left water marks on him. The man gripped the handle of his dagger lightly, narrowing his eyes and giving an upset scowl to the girl in front of her. The small mercenary glanced down at his clothing to see where, exactly, he had been touched. He noticed the dampness on his pants, specifically the pocket that he kept money.

He spared no second to call Miora out on it, the frugal little vampire not wanting to loose his hard earned money. "How much." Valit hissed, though softness was in his expression. It was obvious he was trying to be gently to the young one, but it wasn't something he was particularly good at. He knelled down ever so slightly, sharp venom eyes shooting daggers at her.

The grip on his weapon attached to his hip was loosened and soon removed, deciding rather quick-like that he wouldn't need to use it.

[Lisenet]

Miora stood away from the slender man with a frantic and contrite look on her face, wishing she'd had the time to spread her snatches to safer and less conspicuous places than just her pockets. They'd clink if she ran. Usually stuffed down the top of her bodice was a good place.

When he spoke her frantic expression dropped immediately; it was clear he recognized the evidence of what she'd done, and people who caught her tended to take appreciation for granted. Just as everyone else took for granted how nice it was to not have to constantly dry their hands and arms off. Judging by his expression he was just as 'displeased' by her actions as she was, though for different reasons. Her was trying not to frighten her too much though, which she appreciated. She kept her eyes on his knife until he took his own hand off it, and only then did she glare into his eyes again. They were the brightest and strangest green she'd ever seen. When he lowered himself slightly to her height she hastened back a single step.

Arms crossed with vexation, Miora huffed, fetched out two of the approximately nine coins she'd foisted, and slapped them irritably into his hand. Before he could call her lie she spun and darted back into the alley.

(Working from my phone most of the summer, so sorry for shortness. Of he wouldn't naturally give chase I will edit.)

[Ven]

(Skillful school reply #japanese clas s)

Valit gave a small smile when the human returned his glare, feeling almost proud of the young child who had just stolen nine coins from his coin purse. He was quite wealthy, as a mercenary, but the man strongly disliked losing what he had. None the less, he had intended to let her keep the money, proud odd her attempt to take from him. Thievery was something that impressed Valit, the smooth movements involved in such an act.

The moment the child took off down the bustling streets of Jaegar, Valit followed after. His hands shoved down his pocket, stuffling the coins back in.He was fast, especially for someone of his height. A skill gained from all the times he had to flee from guards and knights that protected the innocent. His fingers soon gripped the girl's clothing, and a  loud booming laugh came from him. 

"Nice try, little one." He almost purred to Miora, running his other hand through her hair and ruffling it. "You don't steal from a vampire, especially not a vampire who has no problem with harming people. He dug into the ouch once again, handing her a total of 15 coins from the purse.

"I commend your attempt. It was good." He murmured, letting go of her and pushing the coins closer to her. "Are you hungry, little thief?"

[Lisenet]

Miora plunged into the filed streets, expecting her diminutive size to aid in her escape. And it seemed to for a while; she heard neither heavy footsteps not the shouting of shoved pedestrians. Now that she'd gotten a nudge of a distance from him though she diverted down another alley, bare feet thumping against dirt that had been packed down for generations until it was as solid as dusted stone. Surely she had lost him now.

Something grabbed her by the strings of her apron and yanked her to an abrupt stop, making her yelp with surprise. She whirled, slapping at the hand that held her and digging her feet in.

Until she realized that he was LAUGHING. The man she'd stolen from and gotten her cursed water all over--what on earth was he LAUGHING for? Miora stopped squirming and stared at him, baffled, still slightly hanging from his grip. Nice try? He mussed her soaked hair and she swatted at his hand for it, mouth a ajar. Was this fellow mad? Had he been at the liquor already? His next statement turned her instantly from wary to horrified.

"Well how in the bloody hells was I supposed to know what you were?" she demanded, pulling at his grip again but leery of attempting to actually hurt him in case he returned the favor. "You look just like everyone else and believe it or not I did not initially INTEND to attempt to bowl you over, you just showed up in front of me at a bad time." She tried to peel his fingers off his fistful of her clothes. It wasn't going well.

And then he went and showed her coins of the quantity she had last seen in her father's money box. Her eyes went wide and she stilled again at the sight of it. Nobody sane was ever this generous. He was just prompting her to take it so she could accuse her of even greater theft when he hauled her before the magistrate. "Is this some kind of JOKE to you?" she snapped as he finally let her free and she stumbled back several paces, tucking her fingers under her arms so she wouldn't be tempted to take the carrot he dangled, knowing there was always a stick involved too in matters like these.

She tore her gaze away from the lovely silver so she could glower at him some more. "Of course I'm bloody hungry--we're always bloody hungry." Along with many other things, Miora had lost her fancy speech when she'd been thrown out of her home. It came back when she needed it but for the most part she rather enjoyed cursing. She'd gotten quite good at it, when she was of a mood to be eloquent.

Miora hung her head so she didn't have to look at his confusing amusement any longer. "You've proven I'm not good enough, is that not enough baiting for you or shall you continue?"

[Ven]

Valit let out small hiss at her behaviour, not used to a child using such.. language at him. Sure, he had a colorful vocabulary himself, but such things from a kid wasn't something that he had grown used to. Her words were sharp- something he liked.

Along with that, he was honestly a bit surprised the girl hadn't recognized him. He was a criminal. Though after a bit of though on the matter, he came to the decision that he simply wasn't as known as he had originally thought.

"Kid," the man started, biting his tongue not to start yelling at her. "Language." he finished after a small pause, stretching a bit before grabbing the small bag that hung around his waist. He grabbed the fish he had wrapped up in a small cloth- which was going to be his meal of the day. He gave little thought to it, handing the food to her. Valit knew that she believed this was out of pity, or spite. However, this was not the truth. While he is a violent mercenary, he had a soft spot for young children. Especially those who were starving- it reminded him of himself at that age.

"I was a damn poor kid when I was your age." he mumbled out, gloved hand wrapping around the back of his neck and rubbing it slightly. He glanced away before continuing, "I'm plenty wealthy now, my dear, I had afford to loose a handful of coins. Consider yourself lucky- I'm not one to simply give things to people. Money is what makes the world go round."

He flashed his fangs after the quick speech, running his tongue along them.

[Lisenet]

Well if street cant offended him she would do her best, at least  while in his concerning presence, to return to what she'd originally been taught. He hadn't given her reason not to thus far. But when she refused the very tempting money he offered something different, and this she had no qualms about accepting, even if as a rule she hated accepting any form of assistance at all. She liked being self reliant. It was one of the few things she could still pride herself on.

Miora leaned forward and hastily accepted the food before retreating a step again, just to be safe. This particular stranger was even more capable of hurting her than the usual kind. She wiped water out of her eyes and swiftly unwrapped the fish, sliding pieces off the delicate bones and popping them into her mouth both as neatly and quickly as she could. After swallowing she said, "How did you get out?" Most people stayed in the class in which they were born or they dropped, like she had. Not that the rest of her family had yet come with her. No, with her gone they were again happily upper middle class, now that the presence of their daughter no longer ruined the floors and mattresses the second she used them.

When she caught a glimpse of his sharpened teeth she skittered back another step, choking on a slip of fish and holding her hand out toward him in case he decided to help. She cleared her throat and bit down on her improper speech to berate him with the more correct language he had requested. "By all the gods, would you make up your MIND? Either frighten me out off my wits or help me but must you do both? I've been doing this for months now and I've always prided myself on being able to get a rise out of someone whenever I want but I do NOT approve of others doing it back to me." She kept his fish clutched close to get so she would drop it in the process of telling him off, eyeing him Sidelong because he was by far the strangest fellow she'd met in quite some time and she wasn't sure yet if this  break from the everyday was welcome or not.

[Ven]

The man chuckled slightly at her demand for him to make up his mind. This wasn't something he did. His eyes watched her unravel the fish, carefully and steadily. He listened carefully as she spoke, mouthing the words she spoke slightly. Valit felt a bit like some sort of saint giving food to her, but the simple thought of being viewed as such make him feel a bit sick. That was not something that described him, in the least.

"I first trained to be a knight." he told her, smiling lightly as he gripped her hand and yanked the small body up to her feet. For a small moment, he considered scaring her, or warping the story to make him seem a lot more capable than he is. He shook his head at the though, however. "It took years,  and I was always busy either training or attempting to get food. I think I only got into the knights because of my father, though."  He looked down at his hands, balling them up into fists and then letting go once again.  "He was a knight. I think he was a popular one."

"Knighthood wasn't the best for me. What pays the best is dirty jobs." Valit explained to her. "Though anything will do. You need to strike pity in someone! Become an apprentice of someone who gets paid a lot!" he shoved a fist into the air, getting fairly into it now. "It's a hard world out there- I'm probably only well off because of pure luck." 

[Lisenet]

When he caught hey by the hand and drew her forth and upward Miora cried out with startlement and kicked her feet, grasping the fish even closer. It would take more than a scare to make her drop her food. "Please stop touching me!" she insisted the moment her feet returned to the ground, and she then backed away to two arm's lengths. She strongly considered bolting. This fellow was inconsistent--that in particular made him unsafe. She could in no way guarantee her own safety as long as she was with him.

But at the same time he was interesting. One off the more interesting men she had ever met, and she had so little cause these days to exert her mind or full attention on anything. She'd missed the unexpected, add much as it unsettled her these days. It gave her something to do other than stealing. "How many people are leaping at the chance to employ someone who constantly drips water all over their floor?" she retorted to his suggestion. "I've TRIED that. There's nobody in this city who will let me darken their door. Can you imagine how difficult that makes it to accomplish anything at all?"

Finishing the fish, Miora shook out the bones against the wall, folded the cloth and stepped tentatively forward, just badly close enough she could stretch out her arm add far as itcould go to return the cloth to him while hopefully not getting too close. The rate he was going he was probably just going to throw her over his shoulder any minute and make off with her though. "Yes well if you feel like sharing any more of that luck you look me up. I know a number of people who could readily it."

[Ven]

Her yelp startled him, and Valit flinched when she did so. He pulled his hand back
violently, shoving it into his pocket awkwardly. He let out a small huff of frustration, before shaking his head. 

 "I would if I could." he told the girl, taking the cloth into his other hand and shoving it into his pocket forcefully. He looked down for a simple heartbeat. Valit wondered why she hadn't taken off once more, considering the uneasiness that she seemed to have for him. He though about himself at that day, he would've been gone the moment he was let go. Especially if he was considered inconsistent, at least by her standards. Valit would have to agree with that, none-the-less. 

"Perhaps leaving the damned city would be the best course, then." he suggest, squinting ever so slightly as he tapped his foot in a  rhythmic fashion. A song that his father had sung to him as a little one, not that it was clear by the soft smacking sounds that emitted from his boot hitting the ground bellow him. "Sticking to one space can... be bloody boring." Valit ran a hand through his hair "Not that this city is exactly... close to other ones. Leaving would be expensive and dangerous." 

[Lisenet]

"But I like this damned city," she protested. "It's pretty. Have you seen the architecture? Most of the buildings are put together so well there are no nails used at all, and they're all watertight and solid and everything. No other city can claim that." Her city was gorgeous. She loved it. She had never left it either though, and she'd always thought it would be fun to travel.

"I agree that it would raise my chances to look in more than one city but how would I get there? Plus I've never left the city before. And who's to say anyone in any other city would be willing to employ me? NOBODY wants me in their homes our place of business, I'm a liability and a hazard. I'm not worth the damaged floorboards."

She wouldn't admit it, especially to a stranger, but winter was on its way and she hadn't yet spent her first winter outside. With this curse on her how would she survive? She'd get hypothermia and die in a matter of days. But she'd figure something out, she was still playing with a few ideas. Blacksmiths rarely had wooden floors because of the fire hazard. Plus they frequently had fires burning. The only trouble was, of what use to a blacksmith would she be?

Miora crossed her arms. "Why, you need someone to shine your shoes for you?" She meant this purely in a sarcastic manner. "Will work for food." She cracked a wry, tired smile.

[Ven]

Valit frowned ever so slightly when the girl spoke of the city in such a way. Staying in one spot was absurd to him, let alone in the confinement of city walls. While the large, looming buildings were ascetically pleasing,  Valit was never a city person. Everything you do is seen, by someone, and he could never shale the feeling that the city was suffocating him with every step. He dared not challenge such reasoning, she probably want one to enjoy the adventure of the forest if these buildings felt right.

Upon seeing her smile, Valit kicked his boot out. He paid mind to her wish to stay away from him. He let out a small, muffled laugh before speaking, "better get scrubbing, girly, I haven't all day." he gave a nod towards the shoe before pulling it back. "As much as an apprentice sound appealing, I cannot imagine dealing with the same bloody child. Like, what if their a brat? You cannot just leave them on the road!" He rambled.

Valit spoke a lot, words always flowing out like some sort of river. Much different than how he was as a child. Perhaps it was pent up energy he failed to release in his younger days. "But how would I know? I'm just a short, angry vampire." With no friends, he thought about adding. He decided against it- he doesn't want pity. plus, it was rather inappropriate to tell someone you just met.


(Sorry for the wait- I wasnt having  a good day yesterday)

[Lisenet]

"I would you know," she pointed out after he retracted the boot, having been unable to pinpoint whether our not he was being serious. "Most of what I do every day is just running messages, and not too many people even let me do that." Paper tended to dissolve in wet hands, though she could keep gets dry with the proper attention and effort. "What so it's just dealing with the same child on a daily basis that frightens you? Not dealing with we strange children in general?" Well, everyone was welcome to their own opinions. "Granted there are some godsawful children out there," she allowed, contemplative. Some which might even deserve to be abandoned. At least where someone else could deal with them for long enough that hopefully no one died.

"You're a strange, mercurial vampire," she corrected. "Angry people tend to be angry all the time and you were only briefly angry with me. Most people who catch me are quicker to lash out with a hand as opposed to reach out with a hand of food." She could be nice where niceness was warranted. Miora, when she felt the need, could be just about anything. A combination of native talent and recent study, she supposed. It was useful.

Miora's eyes flicked up and down his skinny frame, arms crossed, cogitative. Something about the odd stats and stupid in his speech and the tight, almost unconscious movements struck her. It was add if holding still bothered him or he was nervous or some such. She doubted the some such. But Miora rarely afford to think too much about the people She stole from other than to gauge how much of a risk they were. She took it for granted that she obtained a comfort zone, so to speak, fairly quickly in most situations. Could it be that the peculiar vampire didn't? But how would one ask such a question? Tact was not counted among her many talents. "Are you all right or are you just always fidgety?" she asked at last. She too preferred movement to being sedentary, but she didn't anyways have to be in motion.

(No worries. Feel better!)

[Ven]

Addressing the first question, Valit gave a small shrug. Movement subtle but still happening, adding to the list of his fidgets. He moved always, causing him to spend, or more like waste, more energy than he could if he simply stood still. "Fear of losing them. Fear of not liking them. I fear much, paranoid of life itself." He stopped, biting his lip gently "plus, I don't know is I could  even teach a child."

He stared gently at her, furrowing his brow "you're a child, my dear. This vampire has a soft spot food the young." He grinned gently, scratching his head. The dirty blonde strands, being tugged by his fingers for a short moment. She asked odd questions, said strange things. Her life raised her different- her morals and views of life so foreign compared to his own. "You also misunderstand, I am mad, but also rather amused. Anger can be repressed."

Valit was taken aback by her question about his movements and fidgets, and soon became overly conscious of them. "I, uh..." The words escaped him, for the first time all day. He looked up, thinking. "I do believe I am always moving. Habitual, from my younger days." He glanced back over to the child, "is it strange?"

[Lisenet]

She regarded him thoughtfully. "You know the more you fear the more likely you are too be faced with things that frighten you." Plus the better you were at hiding your fear from others the easier it became to hide it from yourself. Miora's brow furrowed again as she considered what he might teach if he did have an apprentice. "All those people you say you've killed.... Did they deserve it? Or did they just get caught up in the wrong people's battles?" She wasn't the type of idealistic saint who said everyone deserved to live. Stone people gave away that right.

"So I've noticed," she peacefully said, waiting for him to finish that particular thought. "I've noticed that too mostly on account of the fact that I stole from you and you caught me and I still have both my hands and all my insides." She gazed down at her hands a moment, noting the scraped knuckles and gray fingernails, which she picked the dirt out from underneath every night if she could. She scraped a chunk of dirt off the back of one knuckle and dropped her hands into her soaked apron pockets. To the I am mad statement she said "Yes I know." When he finished his sentence she added "Oh. Different kind of madness. The jury is still out on my definition though."

There definitely looked like at least a flash of uncertainty crossed his features then. "Well I have the same instinct, these days," she admitted. "Moving keeps us alive." The homeless ones especially. "I wouldn't call it strange though. Makes you stand out just a bit but it's not so bad in a crowd I bet as it is one on one. Have you tried getting just something small to occupy your hands with? People do that all the time and they stand out less than you do when you're waving your hands all about."

"By the way you don't have to call me 'dear', I'm just Miora. Who are you? Or are you very sneaky and not allowed to tell?" She then jumped when she felt something crawling up her leg, but when she caught it she saw that it was just a spider. "Hey there gorgeous," she said, holding it up before her eyes the better to see it before laying her hand on top off an old create to let it scurry off. She'd always liked spiders.