|
Post by KayKay on Apr 21, 2018 4:48:28 GMT
"Oh! N-no, not at all. How silly of me." T.J sat back down and clutched the bag between her legs. "Err, are you from Mival, by any chance? Your accent appears local but you mentioned you only had Mites."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 21, 2018 4:58:41 GMT
"Mival adjacent," the raven-haired woman replied as she plopped down in a sofa chair. "Couple of mates and I stay in a little camp near it. I do come from a London though. How about you, luv? This London yours?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 24, 2018 20:08:20 GMT
"It is," T.J nodded. "Though only barely. This city was taken to Lemuria hardly a week before some friends and I were planning to leave. We were to visit Florence."
"It's... strange to think," she said, fiddling with the bag between her legs. "A few days difference and we might have escaped this. But then, we would have also missed the chance to meet so many new and wonderful cultures. Gosh, I hope I'm fortunate enough to meet a Varul or Saurian some day."
She looked up at Vee, brown eyes gleaming in a sudden excitement. "What's your London like? In what ways does it differ from here?"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 24, 2018 22:19:47 GMT
Vee let out a long sigh. "It was nicer. Lot less... slummier. Was. Then a big alien tosser cut it in half. Took the biggest guns we had at the time and..."
The Vietnamese-British woman leaned her head back to think, causing her long, inky hair cascading down her back. "Five monsters to take it down. Oh yeah, we got monsters. How about you, luv?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 26, 2018 6:44:49 GMT
"We do as well," T.J nodded. "We've been repelling them for nearly eighty years. It's the reason London is this way; most people retreated from the countryside and packed into the cities where they could be guaranteed military protection. And, of course, the majority of our country's budget over the last several decades has gone into national defence, at the expense of infrastructure and public services."
Brown eyes glanced out the window, and stared for a moment at the skyline. "Being moved to a new planet has hardly improved our situation."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 26, 2018 6:56:13 GMT
"Eighty? Fucking Hell," Vee whistled. "We've only had ours for two. Well, least I know humans can survive then that long now."
The taller woman, relaxed into her seat, opened one eye to look at T.J. "Say, luv? If this is your London, you got family here?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 26, 2018 7:03:41 GMT
"Err..."
T.J shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, I suppose I do... but I'm afraid I haven't spoken with them in well over a year. It's complicated and we wouldn't see eye-to-eye on many of my lifestyle choices."
Her brown cheeks darkened. "I'm sorry. I realize many here must have lost family. Gosh, perhaps it was inconsiderate of me to speak of my own like that."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 26, 2018 7:25:54 GMT
Vee shook her head with a sad smile. "Oi, don't worry about it, luv. If you were really that inconsiderate, you'd never think to wonder if you were, right? Besides, everyone has troubles, specially here. No use fighting about who's worst off. Too big a pissing contest drowns everybody in the room. Though maybe the tossers who go around pissing that much won't be that missed, aye?"
"I miss my family," she continued, smile fading. "But I'm also glad they're not trapped here. They're probably safer there than here."
She leaned forward shyly. "Uh... if you don't mind me asking, luv, what do they think is so bad you don't wanna talk to them?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 27, 2018 22:11:03 GMT
"Oh, well, err..." T.J chuckled nervously. "I suppose you've seen citizens of the upper class around these parts of London. They're quite hard to miss. They wear elaborate dresses and suits; the men march with ivory canes and the women carry decorative parasols, and their hair is dyed in all the colors of the rainbow... err, like mine. Well, my family came from this wealthy elite."
T.J stared down at the bag and played with the straps between her fingers as she spoke. "What you have to understand is that reputation means everything to the upper class. They don't like anything out of the ordinary that can be seen as an embarrassment to their family – such would diminish their status. And, err, since I cut contact with that past, I suppose I've come to accept and express certain... peculiarities about myself. Gosh, that isn't quite the correct terminology... I suppose it's really quite normal. But in the eyes of the upper class – and my parents – gosh, I'd be seen as a disgrace to the family name."
She felt her hands begin to sweat. She hoped Vee wouldn't judge her for this; she seemed like such a nice woman.
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 27, 2018 23:05:07 GMT
Vee opened her mouth to assure the woman- who had suddenly begun to resemble her much less confident baby sister- that, whatever she was, it was no reason to be ashamed, then a realization struck her.
So what came out instead was, "Oh! You're a dyke!"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 28, 2018 0:35:38 GMT
T.J's cheeks darkened. She hadn't entirely been expecting the other woman to catch on, and she certainly wasn't expecting it to be put so bluntly. A part of her felt relieved, however, that Vee had taken that particular burden off her chest.
"Err, y-yes, that's o-one way to put it." T.J didn't know if her stammer was due to the shock of Vee's words or the nervousness of her trembling lips.
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 28, 2018 0:55:57 GMT
"Hey, no worries, luv."
The black-haired woman smiled so broadly that her elliptical eyes were forced shut.
"We're both in the same club then."
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 28, 2018 4:24:28 GMT
"Oh my gosh! W-we are?" T.J stared at Vee as she struggled to speak, and her cheeks grew even darker. "O-oh gosh. And... and here I was afraid–"
She started to chuckle at her own misunderstanding, though she retained enough self control to keep it from full blown laughter.
"I feel so silly now."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 28, 2018 5:29:31 GMT
"Y- Yeah, well... I think I'm the silliest," Vee said, her own cheeks flushing. "You found me asleep in the hall. Not much of a first impression, huh?"
Her embarrassed smile faded. "Hey, I... sorry your old man and woman have a problem with it. But you said you cut them out before you came out?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 28, 2018 5:44:01 GMT
"Not initially by choice," T.J said, rubbing the back of her neck. "By, err, circumstance."
She felt her nerves returning. That particular circumstance had been when she had conspired to steal a stone rubbing of a museum artifact bought by Saberdex Industries, and found herself fallen in league with The Fox. She had become a member of the White Ravens not long after. Of course, she couldn't tell Vee that, but she had usually counted on Fox to lie for her.
"I, err, found work with people they likely wouldn't have approved of. I didn't want them to find out."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 29, 2018 2:01:24 GMT
"I sorta get that," Vee murmured, chin cupped in her hand. "My pop wasn't too happy when he found out I joined the army. Course, maybe that was cause I was just using it to run away. My bummy ass didn't have anywhere else to go. Luckily, I was good at it. Like it now. Well... liked it. Can't really serve something that you forgot back home, right, luv?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 29, 2018 2:12:05 GMT
"I suppose not," T.J answered sadly. "I've been, err, on the hunt for a job myself. Nothing particularly fancy, just something my friend and I would be able to get by on. When London was brought here the banks were naturally thrown into chaos. Much of the remaining money was devoured by the elite trying to regain lost fortunes. I haven't so easily been able to rely on my savings, and my pockets are beginning to empty."
She looked up to Vee. "If you're not a soldier anymore, what do you do for work these days?"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 29, 2018 21:37:24 GMT
"Whatever needs to be done in Mival," the woman shrugged, patting her hair to check if it was dry. "A lot of security gigs since I have the experience. A couple of service jobs where I'm pretty sure I was paid to let people look at my boobs, but money is money and they do that anyway. A bit of manual labor."
Shooting T.J. a cocky smile, Vee flexed an arm, bulging her bicep visibly. "Cause of these guns."
"What about you, luv?" she asked after laughing. "What's your area of expertise?"
|
|
|
Post by KayKay on Apr 30, 2018 6:16:50 GMT
"I was once a historical linguist at the Museum of Natural History. I love languages and how they've changed over time; gosh, I've afraid I've made a hobby of learning several secondary languages as I've grown older. I'm currently working on Second Speak. Err, you may know it as one of the languages of the varuls."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 30, 2018 6:19:07 GMT
Vee lowered her arm, and her smile shrunk with it. "You said you wanted to meet one, right, luv? But don't they hate us? U- Uh, humans, not dykes. Or I dunno, maybe they hate lesbians too."
|
|