Raised Eyebrows and Shifty Eyes

<p><strong>Setting:</strong> Nameless street, farmer's market - late morning<br /><strong>Notes: </strong>Private for Nisorin</p>

<p>Jhy slung her bag over her bad shoulder, letting the sash cut across her body diagonally so she'd have her only hand free.  She shut the door behind her and locked it then stowed the key in the left front pocket of her jeans.  They had seen better days, but at this point Jhy just didn't care.  She was completely out of food and therefor forced to go out.  She hated food shopping with a passion, with the higher-ups monitoring her body chemistry at all hours of the day she received regular texts admonishing her for eating sweets or calls where she was yelled at for not eating. With no interest in her dietary health she ate whatever was around.  Sure, she could cook, but that took time away from doing other things that she enjoyed, namely menlo.</p>

<p>She scratched the back of her head just under her ponytail and found that the hair beneath the tie had looped and knotted from the many times she had tightened the stretching rubber band.  She pulled it out and shook her head, letting her hair fall past her hips as she ran her fingers through it. She looked around for the first time and saw nothing familiar.</p>

<p><strong>"Aw fuck,"</strong> she said to herself.  Somewhere she'd taken a wrong turn while she had been absorbed in thoughts of how food was the bane of her existence.  She turned around and walked back the way she had came.  A few footsteps later she realized she was still on her own street and quietly fuming she turned around again and headed off in the direction of the weekly farmer's market.  The higher-ups didn't like sweets, but they didn't say anything about fruit.</p>

<p>Just then, her phone went off.  She slid it out of her right back pocket and flipped it open.  The text was from an unidentified number and she sighed, opening it.</p>

<p><strong>You can't live on just fruit.</strong></p>

<p>It took effort for her not to snarl at the message.  She knew the chip couldn't read her thoughts, but whatever information they were getting out of it was more than she wanted to share.  Like hell she couldn't live off fruit, she'd been doing it for the last few months.  Okay, so she'd dropped four pounds already, but that wasn't her problem.  She looked down and sighed, thankfully as she lost weight her cup-size would go down.  She wished she was still an A, but puberty had played a cruel game on a girl who didn't give a shit, leaving her with no waist and a set of Ds.  With just the thought her back ached and she raised her one arm up, stretching.  She'd had thoughts of getting rid of her breasts as she'd done with her right arm, but if she did anything like that they'd bring her in again for who knows how long.  She was lucky enough they let her live away from most of the bases in the solitude of Aurius and just set a chip in her brain.  She was sure they could do worse to her.</p>

<p>She turned on to a busy street, it was closed to vehicles, but since the farmer's market was only open one day a week and it was the height of the morning she still had trouble getting through the masses.  For the most part she felt an overwhelming emptiness like a hum around her, but there were threads of annoyance, indignation and light anger that came in here and there.  She didn't focus on any one emotion, she had no interest in it today.  </p>

<p>Jhy found herself at an impasse, there was a line tree-hugger vegans bemoaning the evils of farming and how food shouldn't be taken from the earth they grew in. So instead of trying to shove her way through she turned to the closest stand.  An older arden smiled at her, though all she could feel of him was that great emptiness.</p>

<p><strong>"Can I help you?"</strong> he asked.</p>

<p><strong>"Yeah, do you sell any fruit?"</strong> she asked.</p>

<p>He nodded. </p>

<p><strong>"I haven't got much left, but it's all right over here," </strong>he pointed off to the side of his stand.</p>

<p>Jhy took a plastic bag and held it in her mouth as she filled it with random fruits.  She only checked the firmness of them to see if they were ripe, not really caring what they were.  She'd found some of the best fruit with this method.</p>

<p><strong>"Would you like some help miss?"</strong> the stall owner asked.</p>

<p><strong>"'m fine,"</strong> she said around the bag.  Satisfied with her choices she took the bag from her mouth and handed it to the arden to be weighed.</p>

<p><strong>"Um, miss, there are multiple fruits in here, the prices are different for each one," </strong></p>

<p><strong>"Just weigh it and charge me the total weight times the cost of the most expensive one," </strong>she said.</p>

<p><strong>"Are you sure? It'll be pretty expensive,"</strong></p>

<p><strong>"Doesn't matter, it's not my money,"</strong> she replied.</p>

<p>The arden shrugged and weighed it.  Jhy fished through the small pocket on the sash of her bag, pulling out a plastic card for him to scan.  When he was done he handed her the bag with a receipt. Her eyes widened briefly, that was a lot of money.  But like she said, it wasn't hers.</p>

<p>She swung her bag around so that she could put the fruit in the main pocket then turned it again so it was resting normally across her collarbone.  Her phone went off again and she sighed, but flipped it open.</p>

<p><strong>You have spent 400 khasi. 30,500 khasi remaining in account. Monthly stipend of 8,000 khasi available in 3 weeks.</strong></p>

<p>Jhy shrugged and put the phone away.  To keep her quiet and stable they gave her enough money to keep her occupied with material things.  What she didn't spend she could keep at the end of the month - she made a game of trying to spend as much as she could and still have enough left over for the electric, heat, water and high-speed internet bills.</p>

<p>The line of tree-huggers was still blocking the entire street.  She went up to one a little taller then her and tapped their shoulder.</p>

<p><strong>"Get outta my way,"</strong> she said, pushing them.  They lost their balance momentarily, but did not fall down.  She used the break in the line to get through and disappear into the crowd as angry yells followed her from the noisome group.</p>

 

<p>The yells of the tree-huggers fell on deaf ears, like with most things, Jhy just didn't give a shit. She began to scan the other stalls for one that specialized in fruits, there were subtle differences between those that grew them for a living and those that grew them to add colour to their stand.  She was getting ready to move off to the side of one when a small 'dragon appeared before her.  He seemed to be trying hard to keep himself at eye level. Ahh, so he was a fey, that made more sense.</p>

<p><strong>"Das sha vokc yos yv ni fui,"</strong> she said. It was basically the only Ramathian she knew.  One of her teachers had taught it to her to try and get her at least a little bit excited about learning colloquialisms.  She only knew enough of the language to pick out the words 'the' and 'or', but she was unaware of the rest of the sentence. From the way the fey spoke though she was pretty sure it was something flowery he'd picked out of a poem and run through an online translator.</p>

<p>She moved past him and to the stand.  The thill smiled widely at Jhy, but all she felt was that emptiness.</p>

<p><strong>"Finally come back for more Jhy?"</strong> </p>

<p>Jhy did her best to give a small smile, she didn't necessarily like the thill, not that she necessarily liked anyone, but she sold good fruit and since Jhy was a repeat customer she got a discount.  She took a plastic bag and followed the same scientific procedure she had at the last stand - that is to say she picked ripe fruits at random and shoved them in the bag she was holding with her teeth. When she was done she handed it over to the thill.  The young woman didn't even bother weighing it and punched in a few numbers in the cash register.  Jhy handed her the card, had it scanned, then put it back in the small pocket of her bag and took the fruit.  Her phone buzzed and she checked the message.</p>

<p><strong>You have spent 150 khasi. 30,350 khasi remaining in account. Monthly stipend of 8,000 khasi available in 3 weeks.</strong></p>

<p>She put the device back in her pocket and turned around, holding her bag of fruit in her only hand.  The feydragon was still there, warning her about how the tree-huggers were dangerous.</p>

<p><strong>"Thanks for the thought, but they're here every week and I push them out of my way every week,"</strong> she said.</p>

<p>The fey didn't say anything.</p>

<p><strong>"Besides, how do you know I'm not dangerous?" </strong>she asked, letting her head wings appear.  She'd have let the full six wings appear, but she didn't want to waste her fruit or ruin her bag.</p>

 

<p><strong>"On Fiddekh and Jacaet..."</strong> she sighed to herself.  She hated empaths, generally ignoring the fact that she was one.  All of them lied, they couldn't really feel what they said they could.  Perhaps they could read her emotions some of the time because she was real, but everyone else, the jury was out for her. </p>

<p>What she really wanted to do was go home, eat some fruit, and fix her ranged Menlo suit, some of the aluminum was coming up around the fingers of the left hand and the wheels needed replacing.  She looked back, but no the line of tree-huggers was still in effect, it also seemed to have gotten larger.  To get home she'd have to go completely around.  As she was thinking she absorbed her head wings and tried to plot a mental course of how she'd have to get home.  She would need to go through the main streets since the alleyways were blocked off for the various markets that were open on the first day of the weekend.  She avoided these streets like the plague because the overwhelming emptiness was enough to drive her to have a physical need to wreck things and damage property.  She supposed indoors was as good a place as any to hide from the wave.</p>

<p><strong>"Three conditions," </strong>she said, holding up the correct amount of fingers.</p>

<p><strong>"Is it indoors? Is it between here and North 32nd street? And can I eat fruit while I watch?" </strong>with each condition named, she dropped a finger.  She was pretty sure the first two conditions were normal enough, but the whole thing really hinged on the third condition.  If she couldn't eat it was a no go.  Almost in response her stomach growled painfully.  She hadn't eaten anything in the last two days.</p>

<p>Her phone went off again.</p>

<p><strong><em>Typical, I bet they saw that on their fancy screens.</em></strong> she thought to herself.</p>

<p>The message that had come through was garbled.  It looked like someone had let their nioti try to spell.  Then the phone itself came to life and began to ring. She held up a finger to the fey, signaling she needed a minute.</p>

<p><strong>"Lay off, I'll eat something in a bit,"</strong> she snapped into the receiver, not waiting for the soft, probably meant to be soothing, female voice. She hung up and shoved the phone unceremoniously into her pocket.</p>

<p><strong>"So, Nisorin, what's it gonna be?"</strong> she asked, purposely putting the stresses on the wrong syllables so it came out neee-so-rinnn.</p>

 

<p>Surprisingly, Jhy actually knew of the instrument repair shop.  She'd wandered in by accident before thinking they fixed technical instruments rather than musical ones. She'd also managed to reconfigure an old turntable they had on consignment to work within her Menlo suit as an alternate set of controls tailored to her lack of a right arm. Once the fey had gone out of her field of vision she walked into the alley and through the door.  This time, instead of going into the other door just at her left, she walked down the stairs and into the club.</p>

<p>Since it was still early in the day it was completely empty.  The tables around the edges were uncovered and had chairs resting on them upside down.</p>

<p><strong>"We're not open yet,"</strong> a voice floated down from somewhere above Jhy.</p>

<p><strong>"A feydragon named Nisorin told me to come in, something about dancing,"</strong> she said to the empty air.</p>

<p>There were some shuffling steps above her, then a 'dragon hopped down from wherever he had been in the rafters above. He dusted himself off and inspected Jhy closely, his eyes flicking to her right shoulder before moving elsewhere. Something about his gaze made her vaguely uncomfortable.  She struggled not to backhand him as his eyes settled on her chest.</p>

<p><strong>"You sure you don't want to watch me dance?"</strong> the 'dragon asked.</p>

<p>On a closer inspection Jhy realized he was shirtless and well-muscled.  Plenty of women probably found him attractive, but she was probably about as interested in him as she was in a root canal.  She chose to ignore him instead and shifted her bag around so she could open the main pocket.  She pulled out a piece of fruit at random before zipping the bag and twisting it back around so it rested properly across her back.  She ate without answering him, glaring at him while his eyes kept darting below her neck.</p>

 

<p>Jhy really didn't care for the way that new folks kept appearing out of what seemed like thin air. She disliked surprises to begin with and with each new 'dragon that appeared wore on her nerves more and more. She did find the way Nisorin sat on the other man's shoulder humorous, but only enough to elicit a smirk. While the name the fey gave his lecherous co-worker was appropriate, something about it felt childish to her.</p>

<p><strong>"They're not ears, they're wings," </strong>she said. The way Nisorin spoke was beginning to get on her nerves. There was something pretentious about it that just rubbed her the wrong way. Surely no one actually spoke like that anymore outside of productions of old plays.</p>

<p>Having finished her piece of fruit she scanned the dim room. Behind the bar they were near was a large trash can, most likely left out from the early morning cleaning. She aimed and threw the piece of fruit. It hit the back wall of the can and bounced in, making a small 'thud' as it hit the bottom of what was probably a mostly empty can. Without paying any attention to the three ardens around her, she maneuvered her bag and pulled out another piece of fruit, it was brightly coloured and gave a soft pink glow in the lack of light. It was the cause of why her first purchase was so expensive and when she bit into it juice dripped on to her fingers. She shifted the fruit so she was holding it between her pinky and thumb as she licked her other fingers clean, ignoring the look she was getting from the shirtless man in front of her. The inside of the fruit was acting like a light, bright pink and slightly obnoxious.</p>

<p><strong>"So, I came down here because someone promised me a show,"</strong> she said. Nisorin hadn't promised her anything, but it was how she had interpreted his offer.</p>

 

<p>Jhy stepped further into the dim club.  She began hoisting chairs off of one of the tables, setting them down wherever closest - she may have been missing an arm, but she was by no means helpless.  Without bothering to push the chairs in, she sat on the table, letting her legs dangle a foot above the floor.  She shrugged out of her bag and rested her left hand behind her, leaning on her arm to support herself.  Unfortunately, after going through the work, she realized the stage had what seemed like rows of auditorium style seats.  She sighed and picked up her bag as she walked.  Not much one for chairs, she hoisted herself on to the stage and sat off to the side, legs still dangling above the ground as she angled her body so she would be able to see all of the stage.</p>

<p><strong>"I don't know if what I usually listen to is suited for dancing. I like beats, not songs, if that makes sense."</strong> she said.  It was a policy for her to be plugged into some kind of music while she did almost anything inside of her townhouse.  All of it lacked vocals so it ran into twisted classical or straight up electronica. She had found that vocals weren't much to her taste as they weren't easily ignored. If she thought hard about it, the music was probably fine for dancing, but because she wasn't one to dance herself she was unsure what Nisorin would want of a track.</p>

<p><em>Out of Character<br /></em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/Deem001">[Sampling of music Jhy would typically listen to]</a></p>

 

<p>The speakers in the club were good, though they'd have to be.  Jhy felt the bass pounding against her skin, it was less about the volume and more about the quality of the sound. In the dim light, his tailflame was almost too bright for her to look at as it grew and threw colours against the walls.  She didn't want to enjoy watching Nisorin, but she couldn't help herself. A tangible emptiness came from him as she tried to seek his emotions.  No one could move like that and be so empty, it wasn't possible. As his robe-like vestment burned away she admired his form.  There was nothing sexual about it for her, but she could admit when she saw an impressive physique.</p>

<p>She settled herself more firmly on the stage, drawing her legs up from over the edge and folding them under her as she turned toward the fey completely.  She had no skill when it came to movement.  It wasn't that she was clumsy, she just lacked the other-worldly grace she saw in others.  The closest she came to it was when she allowed the molten figments of herself out.</p>

<p>The quality of the beat changed, layering so that the bass pressed close, raining down on her as she sat enraptured.  No movement escaped from her, it was as if she had gone completely frozen, as though if someone turned away, they might not be aware of her presence - which was why she was so surprised when she found her hand clenching the material around Nisorin's ankle.  She wasn't aware of when he'd gotten so close, nor when her hand had acted of its own accord.</p>

 

<p>Jhy was taken aback when he spoke to her once more, something about how he was talking to her now vaguely bothered her. She pulled her hand back and after giving it a cursory glance she let it fall back to her lap. She was far less concerned with what Nisorin was saying than the fact he now stood still before her. She reached out again only to brush the stray hairs out of his face before she put her hand slightly behind her and sat on it firmly before it could move again.</p>

<p>For just a moment, she felt herself go completely blank. No thoughts or threads of any kind of emotion passed through her, she was a conduit for the music to slip through, but there was nothing of her within the confines of her body. As soon as she realized this a wave of fear crashed into her, but was gone as soon as it had come.</p>

<p><strong>"Keep dancing,"</strong> she said softly.</p>

 

<p>Once again, Jhy wished Nisorin would stop talking like he just walked out of snooty literature textbook. She didn't really have a mind for the deep, earth-shattering questions. The way she figured, the answers would come to her eventually; and if they didn't, well then maybe she didn't need to know. So she ignored the question, and pulled another fruit from her bag. She bit into it carefully to score the rind and then peeled it without looking, instead she continued to watch the arden move.</p>

<p>She ate with little enthusiasm, not paying attention to the fruit as Nisorin danced with a lithe grace. All of a sudden she was hit with an idea. She watched him even more intently, paying attention to his legs and the way he carried himself. And then she could see it. This was what was missing from her training. Her coach had told her that while she could skate with technical perfection, there was a missing attribute. They hadn't discussed what the attribute might be, but it was no matter because now Jhy was seeing it. She might not have physical creativity like a performer, but if she knew anything about herself, it was that she could fake it, make people believe that she was feeling that extra bit of emotion to make the technical look polished and alive.</p>

<p>"Nisorin," she said as the music began to slow and finally stop. "is there a way you could teach me to move like that? I don't necessarily mean to dance, but really <i>move</i>," </p>

<p>Without a doubt she could say that what was missing from her Menlo maneuvers was the casually disconnected ease of movement. She had the confidence and the competitive nature to intimidate her opponents, but she was intense by nature. If she could just figure out how to move with a level of calm serenity she could hone her deadly strategy within the battle while striking a level of self-doubt within those who were watching.</p>

 

<p>She laughed, it was a good laugh, the kind that would make men turn their heads to get a good look at the body it came from, but it was pretense. She cocked her head to the side and thought for a moment.</p>

<p><strong>"I don't perform, I fight, though I guess it can be a performance. I mean, 'dragons line up to watch it," </strong>she thought for another moment. <strong>"I'm the most promising amateur that the sport of menlo has seen in years," </strong>That much was true, she had sponsors lining up to slap their name on her suit, but she refused them all and that only made her name go around faster. Not many 'dragons had heard of the sport, gladiator battles in mechanized suits that were essentially customizable to no end. Her suit was barely legal, but it wasn't a design that could be easily copied because she wasn't owned by any companies, they couldn't leak her controls.</p>

<p><strong>"Funny, I'm also an empath, but I've been told my skill is broken, I can't pass any qualifications beyond basic. I don't think it would help me the same way it would help you," </strong>Her empathy was truly beyond broken, even though she supposedly couldn't feel the positive emotions the emotions she could pick up weren't keyed the same way they seemed to be for everyone else. While most empaths could barely stand the stink of fear to her it was wonderful, it didn't stink at all, it was fresh and clean and it energized her. Part of why she loved menlo so much was because of the high her opponent's emotions gave off, she could feel their adrenaline pound against her like a heavy rain.</p>

<p><strong>"I could let you see my supposed performance, though even if you know menlo, I guarantee you've never seen something like me," </strong>she winked, a reckless grin on her face.</p>

<p><em>Out of Character<br />The way I figure, typical menlo is like traditional mechs done in miniature. Jhy's machine is set up very much like the ridebacks from the anime "rideback" however she doesn't use the hand controls, all of those have been replaced with the turntable and the mouth control she has inside her helmet<br />Video example: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3biplYD4M&amp;feature=channel_video_title">[link]</a><br />Picture example (With proper colours):<a href="http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k81/Rathskeller/menlo.jpg"> [link]</a></em></p>