07-24-2013, 04:21 PM
Rune eased up a little as the man left. She watched him go until he was out of sight, but what she was watching for exactly was indeterminable. Thalia would probably chuck it up to a girl checking out a good looking guy as he walked away, and he was good-looking (and the accent.... ). Just about any other day of the week (or any other manner of talking to them) Rune would have happily carried on the conversation. It wasn't like she got to practice much when Uncle Seth was around. He was surprisingly protective for an uncle that gave his niece a pearl-handled pistol for her sixteenth birthday.
Rune plucked the card from Thalia whose dry joke prompted a little quirky smile to Rune's glossy lips. It seemed to tone down the defensiveness, and in that moment as her eyes darted across the writing, the tension in her shoulders melted, replaced by the bubbles of curiosity.
"Do you mind if I keep this?" She held the card up like a poker chip between two fingers and made to slide it into a pocket just as yet another stranger stumbled upon them.
This time Rune was on her feet instantly. Two surprises minutes apart from one another and she felt like things were going to jolt out of control any second. At least the expression sharpened to a studious mask. With her shortened hair, even the shaved fuzz across half her scalp spiked to wary, cat-like attention.
Yet she kept a hand in her pocket while the woman dusted herself off. Rune felt her fingers curl around a switchblade folded up in there and she made no move to seem to help the stranger. She simply watched her intently: the way she moved and the way she held herself. Were there similarities between her and the now disappeared Manix? Rune knew few ghouls in the world which would proposition their next dinner in the middle of a crowded daylit street, but this was Moscow. Uncle Seth warned her fiercely about this city's rumors.
But what ended up making Rune release the switchblade without ever having pulled it from her pocket, and what made her relax her posture, was the immensity of emotional scent wafting from the stranger. She was upset, frantic, and frustrated. A monster would be calmer... or more excited.
Rune backed up half a step and leaned against the wall alongside their table, wondering if it would appear like she'd meant to do that the entire time. It didn't matter though. Maybe exterminators were just jumpy... She crossed her arms and watched, the curves of her muscles rounder for the posture and was content to let Thalia do most of the talking for now.
"You feeling alright?" She called over to the stranger.
Edited by Rune Marx, Jul 24 2013, 04:22 PM.
Rune plucked the card from Thalia whose dry joke prompted a little quirky smile to Rune's glossy lips. It seemed to tone down the defensiveness, and in that moment as her eyes darted across the writing, the tension in her shoulders melted, replaced by the bubbles of curiosity.
"Do you mind if I keep this?" She held the card up like a poker chip between two fingers and made to slide it into a pocket just as yet another stranger stumbled upon them.
This time Rune was on her feet instantly. Two surprises minutes apart from one another and she felt like things were going to jolt out of control any second. At least the expression sharpened to a studious mask. With her shortened hair, even the shaved fuzz across half her scalp spiked to wary, cat-like attention.
Yet she kept a hand in her pocket while the woman dusted herself off. Rune felt her fingers curl around a switchblade folded up in there and she made no move to seem to help the stranger. She simply watched her intently: the way she moved and the way she held herself. Were there similarities between her and the now disappeared Manix? Rune knew few ghouls in the world which would proposition their next dinner in the middle of a crowded daylit street, but this was Moscow. Uncle Seth warned her fiercely about this city's rumors.
But what ended up making Rune release the switchblade without ever having pulled it from her pocket, and what made her relax her posture, was the immensity of emotional scent wafting from the stranger. She was upset, frantic, and frustrated. A monster would be calmer... or more excited.
Rune backed up half a step and leaned against the wall alongside their table, wondering if it would appear like she'd meant to do that the entire time. It didn't matter though. Maybe exterminators were just jumpy... She crossed her arms and watched, the curves of her muscles rounder for the posture and was content to let Thalia do most of the talking for now.
"You feeling alright?" She called over to the stranger.
Edited by Rune Marx, Jul 24 2013, 04:22 PM.