'Ere in Ol' Lu

Noodle:

Testy, testy. Just 'cos I can't pay you, yer going to kick me out? Fine. I see how it is.

I left the shop and wondered where I was going tonight. Where could I pick up some rich stupid idiot that would let me sleep on their sofa for a night, maybe two? And preferably someone with a big closet full of food...

Moko took a few slow steps closer. Her hand slid slowly into her back pocket and closed around her rarely used switchblade.
"Wha' you want?" She asked slowly, her speech soft and almost unaudible. Her black hair shielded her face as she came closer. She didnt want to fight, but would if she had to.

Bells

My eyes slid down her black hair, taking in her dark face and eyes. She looked rather animal-like. A contamination of Luna's bloodline, poor pathetic thing, so imperfect. If I let her live, it was treason. The people of Luna had to be perfect. Just like Skelet said. That's why I was his . . . I was perfect. She was worthless.

I was so ready to fight and kill it, my knife clutched in my hand like a good-luck charm. But . . . I'd never liked jobs like these . . . "You 'ave two options. Stand 'ere like an idiot and fight for your pathetic life, or run like an idiot, kill your pride, and just per'aps get away. You're in dangerous grounds . . . I'd run away from th' tower, if I were you." I paused, waiting, and lowered my voice. "I don't want t' kill you."

A little figure crouched in the shadow of a narrow bridge, right near a pawn shop. See, you can always count on people having things to steal when they're walking out of a pawn shop, save the moments when they'd aleady been cheated by the owners. He really did feel like a rat, picking off of others' unfinished work. It was a tough life. And the kid was proud of that, sometimes secretly.

Finally, he heard the creak of an old door swinging and the pit pat of footsteps as a lady walked through the silvery darkness. Aha. He set off swiftly as a ghost, bare feet not making a sound.

Dreadlocks . . . blonde, not ginger, decortated with beads and such. Pale skin. Good sign. Clothes were well-worn, but there was a lot of them . . . not super rich, probably, but perhaps she was hiding something.

He ducked into another shadow against a wall, glancing around for something to use as a distraction.

Noodle:

I thought I heard someone behind me as I started walking to...wherever I was going. I discreetly checked behind me, and looked around...didn't appear to be anything. Not that that meant much. Shadows hide a lot of things.

I decided to keep going in a direction, and just keep alert for...anything. Any noise, any little... anything. I'd just jump the next thing to make noise. Probably just end up scaring a cat...but, Can't afford to lose anything... I'd rather scare a cat than wind up more broke than I already am at the moment.

Oh bother. She'd looked around . . . well, perhaps he could still get away with it if he were careful. The problem with pickpocketing when there's not any people around is that it makes distracting harder. How to make it unobvious that there's a little boy fishing aroung in your pocket?

He'd once set a small stampede of rats free in an alley. That'd actually worked out well. The girl found herself standing in a flurry of furry animals, and he'd just taken her money and ran before she noticed anything besides the rats that was out-of-the-ordinary. But he didn't see any rats, and there wasn't even a cat in sight.

Alright! Time to play things by ear. No thinking involved.

He set out again, taking his time to keep from making a sound. Kid knew how to be quiet. After a few steps, he was just an arm's reach away. Pockets in sight. Lovely.

Noodle:

Ever get that feeling that someone is watching you? Or... you know following you to...whatever home happens to be on that particular night? That was the feeling I had at that very moment. To look behind me or not to look behind me? To indulge in the paranoia or not?

Maybe just walking faster would make it better.

No. No that wasn't going to fix this. I turned straight around, and there was some outlander kid standing there.

Well. I guess I wasn't paranoid after all.

"Ello... What exactly you think yer doin' out here...being all sneakylike this time of night?" I asked him, being all...fake caring. You know that tone of voice. That tone of voice.

Cricket

I gasped, stumbling backwards, instantly ducking my head down. I was dead. I was very, very dead. Stupid, stupid, stupid . . . Raven's crow! I whistled hastily, knowing it wouldn't be much use for an Outlander.

Wouldn't be much use . . . I was dead anyway, so why not? "A-ah . . ." I kept my eyes cast down, but stepped forward again. "Tag, you're it!" My hand flew in and out of her pocket in a blink, and not finding anything, I tried to dart around her.

"Then why kill if you dun want t'?" Moko asked softly, taking a small step back. She, in hesitation, let go of the knife that was in her back pocket and looked up at Bells. "We arent tha' differen' you know? jus' skin an' 'air is all." She told her, almost logically. Again, she took another step back. Pride? She had none. She ate from garbage bins and stole to survive. Where was the pride in that? No. She had none left.

Bells

My voice was sickly sweet. "Whatever thoughts ease your pain, love." I twirled my knife. "One. Waiting for you t' run, now. Go on b'fore I find my gun an 'ave t' shoot you, b'fore you run int' Skelet an' get your face rearranged. Two . . . three . . ."

Noodle:

"Not. So. Fast." I said, stepping over to intercept his running. "You were tryin' t' pickpocket me. " I told him. "An'... you know what? I don't much appreciate that. At all. An'... An'... Yer short." I would have pointed out to him that he was an Outlander as well, but... I figured that he probably already knew that, and that people told him that a lot.

Meh. Might as well point it out. "An'... you know I could kill you dead righ' here, and that would be th' end of that." I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him closer to my face to emphasise that point.

Though... Killing things... isn't really my style. Not as monetarily fulfilling as just robbing people blind. Because... you leave 'em alive... and they tend to make more money...somehow... so... You could basically rob the same poor idiot twice.

Cricket

All of a sudden, I felt completely exposed. I looked down beneath my curtain of hair, just not wanting her to see my eyes. Perhaps she couldn't even see me well in the dark, I hoped. Don't look at me, don't look at my eyes. I didn't like it when people did that . . .

'. . . Don't kill me . . .' I whistled, soft enough that I doubt anyone but her and me could hear it.

Moko took off running into the night. She scurried off into shadows and just ran. And ran and ran and ran. Something she always did. WHy? Because she looked different. Not even because she did something wrong. No, because she was too dark.
Her long black hair flowed out behind her as she ran. Her arms pumped at her sides and her eyes searched for a safe haven. Some place to call her own. to get off the streets.