Sunshine Secrets [Finished!]

[Bee]

Thalia considered. Probably they should start off kind of small, while they worked out the particulars of their dynamic. Perhaps some kind of servant in a Court who might be privy to interesting gossip, or some rich woman hiding a multitude of tawdry affairs.

"Let's go make friends with the upper class," said Thalia. She paused. "Though I might wanna warn you, my power really only works at night. I think I've got about a four hour window, after midnight." She had pushed at the boundaries of her ability relentlessly after first discovering it, where she could go, and how often she could go. Trying to see doors before midnight had not worked; trying to see them after four in the morning hadn't worked, either. "So if we need to make a really quick escape, I can't jump us anywhere. I don't see the doors."

[Kiki]

Bee and Dark receive 2 tokens each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe. This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe. Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!

[Dark]

Iskra nodded as she assimilated the information, "It might be best if we learnt some offensive magick then, ya? What we're planning ain't exactly illegal, but if we get in a pickle we need a way out. Gotta play it smart."

Not an easy task; they would have to consider the sticky situations they might find themselves in at any given time and discuss what sort of ability would be best all around. And then the hard part: they would have to find a teacher, and there wasn't exactly a yellow page for that sort of thing.

Thalia was right, though. They needed a clientele base and there was no better way to do that then mingling with the upper class; Thalia would have no problem being admitted into the circles being the daughter of a court member and a high-ranking card herself. Iskra herself, though, wouldn't be so easily accepted. She would have to win respect through force.

[Bee]

Thalia's typical offensive methods were banging on her enemies with her assortment of appendages (a tactic that mostly succeeded due to shock value: a small child with extendable tentacles and semi-sentient hair tended to stun opponents into utter bewilderment long enough to get a couple of good hits in)or annoying them into submission (a child's natural gift), but she could definitely see the value of some strong magic if they wanted to do something of dubious nature.

Miss Gecko was going to be a bit of a problem, though. Not even Queen Rai would help a Lowlander get accepted into society--he hated them like a mad hating thing and would likely stab Miss Gecko in the eye just as soon as look at her. There was no good way to disguise her, either, that wouldn't be ridiculously obvious.

She thought momentarily of stealing her mom's bracelet, but that only worked on rank and suit. That wouldn't hide Lowlander rot.

Miss Gecko was going to need fabulous offensive magic, then.

"I don't know where we'd go," Thalia said uncertainly. She knew people who had strong magic, but not if they could teach it, and not if they would even be able to learn.

[Dark]

Neither did Iskra, and it bothered her that she didn't possess such vital information. If Thalia and she were going to trade information for a living they needed that sort of thing readily at hand. To be successful they would have to have their paws in a great many cookie jars, after all.

Iskra frowned, considering their current plan and seeing some essential flaws that might very well be the end of them. "I...donno that startin' with the upper crust is such a good idea, now that I think about it. We need connections with the seedy underbelly; contacts that we can exploit ta do the job. If we don' have the information, maybe they do. Ya know?"

And there was the distinct possibility in establishing such distrustful associates that they would discover a teacher of magic hiding somewhere in the less hospitable areas of town that might be willing to teach them for a sum.

[Bee]

Thalia perked up, at that. Her whole family worked in connection to awful people. She didn't know any of them, really, but she figured that nefarious dealings with the seedy underbelly was pretty much in her blood, what with Mom selling poisons and Mama selling crack to kindergarteners or whatever it was Mom said she had done to make money.

"We live in a neighborhood with tons of yucky types wandering around," she informed her friend cheerfully. "And our whole family terrifies them, so it shouldn't be hard to get them to work for us, right? On account of how they all think my mothers could kill them in a heartbeat."

This was true. Occasionally some new kid on the block tried to break into the apartment, but for the most part, the D'Alessio-Eumeleia clan had proven itself to be batshit loony and dangerous.

Thalia just needed to step up and claim her rightful place in the grand pantheon of crazy.

They had to take the plant home, anyway. "Let's go to my neighborhood," she announced happily.

She was going to be dangerous.

[Dark]

Iskra nodded warily in agreement, not at all sure how Thalia’s family would welcome the idea of their high-ranking daughter keeping company with the likes of a Lowlander. She was leery to ask.

Growing up in the Lowlands wasn’t something that had left pleasant memories—she had never been accepted by her peers or even the village elders, her father’s misdemeanors reflecting poorly on his offspring—and so she was used to, even almost expected, a certain degree of animosity from people. It wasn’t much different then the scorn she had encountered here in the city, actually. But it…mattered…that what Thalia and she planned to do was met with some level of goodwill from the girl’s family. They wouldn’t just be strangers on the street that she would never see again, after all. She didn’t need them making life difficult for her. Or Thalia.

Pushing her doubts aside, she focused instead on plans for the future; it would keep her occupied as they walked.

[Bee]

The change from the respectable part of the city to the little nook where Mom and Mama set up house was a gradual thing. Houses started looking a little shabbier, with cracked paint and poorly tended lawns. Untended children running about with dirty faces. The streets became grimier, the buildings moving from shabby to downright dangerous and dingy--the air smelled worse, too, like the little slum was some kind of spiritual child of the Bog that had its own poisonous atmosphere.

And deep in the heart of this shambling ghetto of germs was home. Thalia was very fond of it.

"Here we are!" she announced cheerily, leading Miss Gecko up to the front door--one of the many, many ways to get in. She needed to rid herself of the plant, maybe say hullo to the mother unit and introduce her new friend, and then they would be on their way to collect a gang. "Watch out for Monty. It's a sweet little bander, really it is, but sometimes it gets a little bitey and claw-y and kill-y."

[Dark]

The cheerful facade of the merchant and upper-class corridors with their manicured parks and picketed fences fell away as Iskra followed Thalia deeper into the true heart of the city: dank, twisting alleys, dilapidated buildings and empty warehouses, overgrown with ivy and decay. The itch under her skin that had been a constant since she'd arrived in the Capital lessened and gradually disappeared completely. Freed from the veneer and false pretenses of the well-to-do, she knew what to expect. It was comforting.

Faced with meeting Thalia's family, however, brought rushing back a completely different kind of unease. She wasn't at all looking forward to this interview--she couldn't imagine it being any less, and expected it to be much more. She was...not terrified...but there was distinct dread.

"Monty?" 'Claw-y and kill-y?' Did Thalia's family have some kind of vicious guard-bander? She didn't particularly care for the idea of being mauled.

[Bee]

"Hmmm-hmmm," said Thalia. "It's our pet. It's been around since Mom and Mama weren't old. Mom said that evil never dies and Monty will live forever, which will be kind of cool, I think, because it will be best friends with generations of the family. Anyway, welcome to the house!"

She pushed open the door to their multi-storied apartment. She would have to lead Miss Gecko to a safe location, because with all the weird rooms and bizarre staircases and deadly danger lurking around every corner, any misstep could be fatal. She had heard kids on the street telling stories to each other about bad kids being abandoned in the apartment and never being heard from again. Thalia liked to embellish the tales whenever she could find the opportunity--how the bad kids were disembowlled by banders or baked in the oven or shredded to sad little bits by mutant plants.

"Mama! Mom! Monty! I'm back!"