Sorry, posted this to SB and SV but not here
**
“So,” Parian said over her green tea, “let me be sure I understand you correctly. You wish to trade materials that you can make, and in exchange you want me to make you each a costume, plus one other.” Taylor and I nodded to that so the cloth working cape continued with a question. “What kind of material are you looking to offer?”
“Spider silk,” Taylor answered pulling a swatch of fabric that I knew she hadn’t had before out of her fanny-pack. “This is just a sample, but I can get it made in bolts to varying thicknesses, basically whatever you deem necessary to make bullet resistant clothing, with pockets for bullet-proof panels.”
As Taylor spoke, I watched Parian’s eyes widen, and when she felt the undyed piece of cloth she smiled. “Very interesting,” she said after a minute before eyeballing each of us up and down. “We may actually be able to work a deal here, however, you are offering me quite a bit of trust for someone you just met.”
“You have a reputation,” I answered calmly. “You don’t play the games, and you try to stay out of the cape scene in favor of performing your puppet shows and creating breathtakingly beautiful fashion. Today was the worst it has ever been so far, but both the gangs and the Protectorate are looking to recruit you for various reasons rather than leave you a rogue.”
“Are you going to make me the same kind of offers they do?” Parian asked and I shook my head.
“No,” I answered, “if you choose to join the side we are on, you will do it of your own volition. We will neither pressure you nor inform anyone of anything we learn about you. That is the code isn’t it, even when you learn them, the civilian face of a cape is sacrosanct.”
Parian seemed to smile, (it was difficult to tell with her mask) before taking a sip of her tea through a straw. “One would think that yes,” she said. “The truth, however, is that power allows one to ignore that rule, especially if you have annoyed more than one person of power. The pair of you strike me as the heroic type so let me point this out. When you annoy people, you make them enemies, and in this city, there are three enemies you don’t want to have at the same time, The Empire, The ABB and the PRT.”
“And if you have the support of one of those three?” Taylor asked.
“Then the other two will generally leave you be to a degree.” Parian answered. “However, I simply wish to be my own person. That said, I will do this for you. In thanks for your help if nothing else, though I do wish to trade for your material.” As she spoke, she pulled an ink pen out of her bag as well as a sketch pad. “This is the name and number of a classmate of mine who acts as my face so to speak,” she said jotting down a name and number across the bottom corner of a page before carefully tearing it out. “You can call phone her after three this afternoon and she will be available to get your measurements and work with you on a design. Once I have the fabric it should not take much time to produce the costumes.” She smiled at us, “Unfortunately though I must leave now, farewell.”
Taylor and I both nodded to her as she got up and quietly left. “Well that went better than expected,” Taylor commented downing the last of her tea. I drank down my own, now cold, hot chocolate before nodding.
“I didn’t expect the Empire and the Merchants to show up though.” I answered. “What do you think though, will this work?”
Picking up the piece of paper that Parian had left on the table, Taylor looked at it and shrugged, “I don’t know, let’s ask Sabah in an hour or so.” Taylor handed me the piece of paper with the name Sabah ibn Salim written on it with what was obviously a cell phone number. I punched the number into my phone and saved it to my contacts.
“Yeah,” I said looking from my phone to the clock on the wall that was showing a little after two in the afternoon. “You want to deal with paperwork, or window shop the Lords Street market?” Taylor’s response was to laugh as she walked out the coffee shop’s door and turn toward the docks area.
**Taylor**
“Could I ask you two a question?” Parian’s classmate Sabah said as she finished jotting down my measurements and looking at both sets with an air of thought.
“You can ask,” Akane answered smiling,
“But we never guarantee an answer,” I finish with a smile of my own causing Sabah to smile as well.
“That is understandable,” the dark-skinned young woman replied. “Do you have anything planned for the Sunday after next?”
Akane and I shared a look before she asked, “Which one of us?”
“Both of you,” Sabah answered. I looked at Akane who shrugged at me before both of us returned our attention to the clothier. “I need to ask a favor of you, and I hope you consider it before deciding.”
“Ask,” I said wondering what she could want. She only had measurements and names, so she couldn’t know what we were going to be up to I consoled myself. “The worst we can do is say no.”
She looked between us and sighed, “The problem is that I need some help, and the two people I had arranged to handle it are now sitting in the city jail. Could the two of you model some clothes for me?”
“Model clothes?” I practically whispered freezing in place with my eyes wide and staring. ME?
**
“So,” Parian said over her green tea, “let me be sure I understand you correctly. You wish to trade materials that you can make, and in exchange you want me to make you each a costume, plus one other.” Taylor and I nodded to that so the cloth working cape continued with a question. “What kind of material are you looking to offer?”
“Spider silk,” Taylor answered pulling a swatch of fabric that I knew she hadn’t had before out of her fanny-pack. “This is just a sample, but I can get it made in bolts to varying thicknesses, basically whatever you deem necessary to make bullet resistant clothing, with pockets for bullet-proof panels.”
As Taylor spoke, I watched Parian’s eyes widen, and when she felt the undyed piece of cloth she smiled. “Very interesting,” she said after a minute before eyeballing each of us up and down. “We may actually be able to work a deal here, however, you are offering me quite a bit of trust for someone you just met.”
“You have a reputation,” I answered calmly. “You don’t play the games, and you try to stay out of the cape scene in favor of performing your puppet shows and creating breathtakingly beautiful fashion. Today was the worst it has ever been so far, but both the gangs and the Protectorate are looking to recruit you for various reasons rather than leave you a rogue.”
“Are you going to make me the same kind of offers they do?” Parian asked and I shook my head.
“No,” I answered, “if you choose to join the side we are on, you will do it of your own volition. We will neither pressure you nor inform anyone of anything we learn about you. That is the code isn’t it, even when you learn them, the civilian face of a cape is sacrosanct.”
Parian seemed to smile, (it was difficult to tell with her mask) before taking a sip of her tea through a straw. “One would think that yes,” she said. “The truth, however, is that power allows one to ignore that rule, especially if you have annoyed more than one person of power. The pair of you strike me as the heroic type so let me point this out. When you annoy people, you make them enemies, and in this city, there are three enemies you don’t want to have at the same time, The Empire, The ABB and the PRT.”
“And if you have the support of one of those three?” Taylor asked.
“Then the other two will generally leave you be to a degree.” Parian answered. “However, I simply wish to be my own person. That said, I will do this for you. In thanks for your help if nothing else, though I do wish to trade for your material.” As she spoke, she pulled an ink pen out of her bag as well as a sketch pad. “This is the name and number of a classmate of mine who acts as my face so to speak,” she said jotting down a name and number across the bottom corner of a page before carefully tearing it out. “You can call phone her after three this afternoon and she will be available to get your measurements and work with you on a design. Once I have the fabric it should not take much time to produce the costumes.” She smiled at us, “Unfortunately though I must leave now, farewell.”
Taylor and I both nodded to her as she got up and quietly left. “Well that went better than expected,” Taylor commented downing the last of her tea. I drank down my own, now cold, hot chocolate before nodding.
“I didn’t expect the Empire and the Merchants to show up though.” I answered. “What do you think though, will this work?”
Picking up the piece of paper that Parian had left on the table, Taylor looked at it and shrugged, “I don’t know, let’s ask Sabah in an hour or so.” Taylor handed me the piece of paper with the name Sabah ibn Salim written on it with what was obviously a cell phone number. I punched the number into my phone and saved it to my contacts.
“Yeah,” I said looking from my phone to the clock on the wall that was showing a little after two in the afternoon. “You want to deal with paperwork, or window shop the Lords Street market?” Taylor’s response was to laugh as she walked out the coffee shop’s door and turn toward the docks area.
**Taylor**
“Could I ask you two a question?” Parian’s classmate Sabah said as she finished jotting down my measurements and looking at both sets with an air of thought.
“You can ask,” Akane answered smiling,
“But we never guarantee an answer,” I finish with a smile of my own causing Sabah to smile as well.
“That is understandable,” the dark-skinned young woman replied. “Do you have anything planned for the Sunday after next?”
Akane and I shared a look before she asked, “Which one of us?”
“Both of you,” Sabah answered. I looked at Akane who shrugged at me before both of us returned our attention to the clothier. “I need to ask a favor of you, and I hope you consider it before deciding.”
“Ask,” I said wondering what she could want. She only had measurements and names, so she couldn’t know what we were going to be up to I consoled myself. “The worst we can do is say no.”
She looked between us and sighed, “The problem is that I need some help, and the two people I had arranged to handle it are now sitting in the city jail. Could the two of you model some clothes for me?”
“Model clothes?” I practically whispered freezing in place with my eyes wide and staring. ME?
Wolf wins every fight but the one where he dies, fangs locked around the throat of his opponent.
Currently writing BROBd
Currently writing BROBd