I'm No Angel [Bee]

[Nako]

Brooke couldn't help but drag her feet as she walked down the streets of the Capital, pressing a hand into the small of her back to force it to pop. Selkie or not, there were no jobs to be had at the capital. Her only income for that day was one mostly of sympathy when an elderly woman allowed her to sweep her store for a measly copper.

But Brooke had a feeling that a copper was probably all the woman could spare. She forced her grudging thoughts down and accepted the payment. And was thankful for it. She had been clutching the coin like some lifeline, until she passed the baker's window. Though he had long since stopped baking the bread fresh, the smell of it was enough to twist her hungry stomach. A pity that club abilities had nothing to do with hunger. She'd take a full belly over insomnia on any day. Or at least, that's how it was nowadays. Now that she didn't need the ability to stay up for extended periods of time at exclusive Club parties.

Yes… the parties were over now.

But those thoughts were interrupted by the sound of soft crying. A small child, starving, small, and Club. Subconsciously she grit her teeth, beginning to pass the child by. Her feet couldn't continue the motion, and she stopped.

Couldn't do it. Damn.

"Here, kid." It was difficult to keep her face from looking pained as she handed her only coin to the child, a stream of curses going off in her mind so loudly that she could have sworn other people would hear it around her.

The kid stared, as if wondering if this was some ruse, and stared even longer when he realized just what had handed him the coin. "Are… are you an angel?"

"Never been accused of being one of those before. Heh… go on, kid. Get yourself something to eat."

The wide eyed child's mouth worked for the words of thanks, but no sound came out; just that bright expression on his face before he disappeared into the bakery.


"I… am such an idiot." Brooke mumbled, pressing her head against the glass of the bakery store, and was immediately even more irritated to find her words lacked the bite she wanted them to.

[Bee]

Phaedra was busily engaged re-organizing her notes. It was a certain habit she had. Well, one of a number of certain habits she had concerning her studies, but there was no such thing as more precise categorization. She could rewrite and reorder things a dozen times before she was confident she had absorbed enough information, put everything in the right order to begin structuring an essay, or just made everything as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Not enough people paid attention to the flow of words, she'd found. It was acutely distressing.

Equally distressing was the scene that played out before her through the bakery shop window. She had just set her pen down, rested her chin in her hands for a moment, staring out to collect her thoughts. A Selkie bipedal woman--amazing, what a rare sight that was, and how much rarer it would soon become--looking somewhat haggard, offering money to a grubby child who looked positively wretched. The woman then leaned against the bakery window, looking desolate. The child she'd offered money to skipped merrily into the bakery, immediately ordering a confection from the baker. She had never seen anything so sad and strange and a little grating.

"Excuse me," Phaedra told the child. "I will not stand idly by and let you spend that woman's money on raspberry strudel. Mr. Hopkins, please give him a meat pie."

The baffled child did not protest. Phaedra turned back to the window. What an idiot that woman was. Didn't she know that children could beg charity so much easier than an adult? Had she not just fallen prey to this urchin's grimy charms? At the same time, the triumphant altruist in Phaedra applauded her poor decision-making skills. Such stupid nobility was an even rarer sight than a Selkie. She walked over to the door and poked her head out.

"You're fogging up the glass," she informed her politely. "Have the decency to come inside and eat lunch with me."

[Nako]

Never had words made her want to slap someone so hard in her life. Nor did those same words inspire such relief. Her dirty tail twitched behind her and a shudder went up to rattle her spines. Then she laughed, an almost bitter tone.

"The decency, hm? Well. I certainly don't want to seem indecent." Cautiously, she turned her head toward the speaker, as if not quite trusting the offer. The Suit was an immediate relief. She hardly trusted everything a diamond said (Even nice diamonds. Brandy was always a wily bitch), and spades were just a black suit that liked to pretend they were better than clubs. Hearts. She didn't even want to think of hearts. They were the celebrities of the Card world.

She cleared her throat, quickly wiping a tendril of drool from the corner of her mouth with the pad of her thumb. Her expression was still slightly guarded, but slowly grew more curious. "I'm… Brooke, by the way, a pleasure to meet you.. I'd shake your paw, but I'm utterly filthy."

Perhaps offering her name and showing some level of civility would have this woman more open to the idea of generosity if she had said it just as a cruel comment.

[Bee]

Up close, the woman--Brooke--really did look like she could use a good and thorough bath, which Phaedra found somewhat curious, above and beyond the fact that she had probably just given her last bit of coin away. Was she homeless? She was a bipedal and a Selkie, and a Club besides--there was practically no breed of manual labor she was not equipped to perform. But then, perhaps she overestimated the job market; despite her small humanitarian efforts in the capitol, she was much less connected to the flow of ordinary civilization than she was to the pulse of academia, which always soldiered on.

Well, she was inviting her to lunch and Phaedra was nothing if not direct; she suspected she might ascertain the broader strokes of the situation soon enough, if fortune saw fit to satisfy her curiosity.

"Phaedra," she said, brightly. "Charmed." She pointed at her little table, strewn with notes and a lone teacup. "Don't fret about grime. If you like, you can wash up in the lavatory and come sit with me." And thus, she thought, altruism begot altruism. In a sense. She quite liked being an agent of instant karma, in any event.

[Nako]

Well, one thing was for certain; Brooke wasn't going to -not- wash herself up after it was suggested to her. For all that she'd admitted she was filthy, it was even more embarrassing to have some essentially agree with her.

".. Thank you. I'll do that." Especially since it meant she wouldn't get chased out of an establishment for not buying something. That was more embarrassing than being filthy by far.

Her expression lowered as she passed by the baker, which had chased her away from his window at least once over the past few weeks, as she made her way to the back of the establishment to clean herself up. She did what she could, focusing on her face, hands and chest to look more presentable. Fur was a thing that was impossible to clean well during a short period of time, but she was able to at least make herself presentable enough to show her face again.

A part of her was surprised that the woman was still there, sitting over her pile of seemingly important papers. Waiting for her. Despite her formerly somber attitude, Brooke managed a smile as she seated herself.

"Are you.. writing a paper?" Brooke asked, attempting to be conversational. She had only gotten a glance, but the walls of text didn't seem to be tax documents or something of that nature.

[Bee]

"I am!" she said, glancing up. She had tidied up a little. Phaedra had too, containing the mess of notes so Brooke might have space to eat on. "Well, preparing to, anyway. I spend a sizeable amount of time in varying stages of publishing. The path of a student is fraught with essays. Not that it's an unpleasant path, of course!"

She did in fact cherish every minute of research and every word she committed to paper. As much as she hoped to revolutionize the world, she could also admit to herself that the life of an eternal student was a seductive one. Knowledge for knowledge's sake. On some particularly comfortable nights, curled up in a mountain of books with coffee in one hand and quill in another, she had to forcibly remind herself that she was destined for Great Things. And that in order to achieve Great Things she was going to need to graduate on the received timetable, not loiter.

She took her mind off of her brilliant future and settled back in the present. It also occurred to her somewhat belatedly that perhaps a woman of dubious fortune would not wholly appreciate her prattling happily along about the more or less cushy life she enjoyed. Being sensitive was difficult. "Ah, I was getting us lunch, wasn't I? Order anything you like."

[Nako]

"Well, pleasant or unpleasant, it certainly sounds to be the prudent path." Brooke replied, casting another appreciative glance over the impressive amount of paperwork as the sugar glider packed it all up.

There was certainly a wide array of things on the menu, most things being rather 'deli' oriented considering it was a bakery as much as it was a place to eat. It took her only a moment to make a rather calculated decision to buy the most volumous thing on the menu for the price it was stated as. With any luck, she'd have a bit to take home after she'd stuffed her face.

"I deal with numbers more often than words. I was an accountant for a while, but when I moved to the Capital… well. Hah. The job market is somewhat shot.." She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, realizing she'd just brought up her monetary issues without actually intending to. Really, she just wanted to talk about work she was proud of. She really couldn't do that.

"You know, they closed down the unemployment agency downtown just last week. A good 90% of them are clubs, two and up. I've even seen a ten wandering about that area needing work. It's a rough economy right now since the Capital got torn apart."

[Bee]

She chewed her pen thoughtfully. She had not been aware that the unemployment agency had closed down. She supposed there might always be work in disaster relief, but that was probably running more on a volunteer effort and what was left of the police force than anything else. Not something you could get a decent paycheck out of. And it wasn't like this woman could simply return to her home region, as Phaedra might have done in similar circumstances. The Selkie Lakes were a no-man's land.

Which left...

"Have you gone to the Court?" she asked, curiously. She had even less of an idea what was going on there, except that the Club Court had been much less inundated with trauma than her counterparts. A little more uncertainly, she said, "They might be helping out destitute members of the Suit."

Though they were definitely the most numerous Suit, and with so many of them without work...it really would be impossible to help them all. Phaedra felt a rising tide of indignant outrage. Unacceptable, she thought, completely unacceptable.

[Nako]

Brooke actually sputtered out a laugh at the suggestion, seeming to have though Phaedra was joking. "The Courts? Me? Like they're going to listen to someone of my rank.." She took a moment to actually look at Phaedra's expression, quickly realizing that it had not been a joke. Well, now she certainly felt foolish.

"… Well.. I.. couldn't imagine the word of the 'common man' to have any weight in the Courts. But I see what you're saying. It really should, shouldn't it? That's how the other suits see us anyways, right? Common. Numerous…" Feeling self-conscious, she ran a hand through her hair and looked over her shoulder. "I mean… that is somewhat the strength of clubs. The common man. I feel like all of the Courts are just trying to be Hearts sometimes."
--
"Aye. I couldn't agree more." A voice piped up from another table, the young chipmunk folding his paper to grin widely at the two women. Proudly Midori and with a strange set of wings on his back, he was at least an acceptably interesting sight on the street. A Jack of Clubs at such a young age! He was probably born that way. He couldn't have been from the Courts. There weren't any Midori in the Courts to speak of.

((Bah, sorry XD It seemed like a perfect time for Davy to be just… there… ))

[Bee]

Well, if they were all trying to be Hearts, there would at least be more positions open in the Court, she thought, and gave a wry little smile at the thought. It was strange, though, how little the Clubs took advantage of their most valuable asset. There was tremendous strength in numbers, after all, and simply because one was common did not mean one was inferior. And yet so many families were saddened by the birth of a Club.

The new voice caught her attention then, and she turned and gave the young man a look. A fellow Club, and a Face to boot; too young to actually be a member of the Court itself. She could not decide which was more compelling, the wings or the beard. She was going to settle on the beard.

"It is a little curious," Phaedra said, tapping her pen thoughtfully. "A little sad, I suppose, that that backbone of Card society should get so little of its respect."