Bobbing for Apples

[Gabriel]

Orca's reaction didn't surprise him, and it barely even annoyed him anymore. Gabriel even managed a faint smile, nodding his head at the woman. If it had been anyone else, he probably would have shaken them off, but instead he let Orca cling to him. He listened, nodding a bit and that same smile on his face as he looked over at Orca.

Nodded again.

"Escke," Gabriel echoed. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Well, he had some manners when he remembered them.

"I'm Gabriel." He didn't acknowledge that Orca had repeatedly called him Gabby. Orca was nervous, for some reason. Smitten, likely, with her. Funny. She looked oddly small, fragile perhaps.

He shifted his attention back to Orca. The question hadn't required him to say anything he didn't want to, so he gave a small shrug. "Yea, it might be." Interesting, maybe. He had half a thought to ask Orca to come along, he might be useful. But then, Orca wasn't someone he bossed around. Sure, asked questions sometimes.

But he wasn't in charge.

Hmm.

Gabriel made a small mental note to ask about Orca's 'boss' later. Had he ever formerly met him? Gabriel couldn't recall.

"What about the two of you? Anything interesting on the street today?"

[Escke]

Uncomfortable, she shifted her weight onto her other leg. "It's, ah... A pleasure to meet you too, sir." It was odd how the simple addition of another personality could cause her own to change. She was conscious of it, too, but it was just a matter of how comfortable she was. It was easier to deal with a submissive personality like Orca's, but this 'Gabriel' was obviously one of a different caliber.

Interesting? On the street? Well, other than Orca, it had been a fairly average day for herself. She hadn't met anyone else peculiar, in fact, she hadn't met anyone at all. She'd barely spoken to anyone besides the polite 'hello's and 'how do you do's.

"Oh, not much... There was a stand selling some fairly high quality apples at a decent price." She was fine with sharing this gossip now, of course, simply because it was after the fact.

[Orca]

They were polite to each other, but in a manner that was came across as somewhat forced, even to him. His teal eyes ticktocked between them, nervous, unsure if he should make up an excuse and leave with Escke, or take off with Gabriel, or just leave by himself, anything to dispel the obvious tension. Gabriel responded there might be, which he didn't quite understand -- either it was or it wasn't -- then fired a question right back at him.

Anything interesting? His mouth opened, ready to answer, but Escke got there first. She said--

High quality? That was even worse. Especially if they'd been selling at a good price, she must've thought it was her lucky day and then he'd spoiled it by not looking where he was going for just a brief second. If he was the dog, he would be whimpering right now, but as it was he just drew a little closer to Gabriel, and his eyes, if it was possible, got bigger.

"I'm really, really sorry," he told her for the umpteenth time. "I really will buy you another apple, I promise." She- she wasn't mad, was she? Her voice seemed calm as she brought the topic up, but at the same time she brought the topic up. It was something Ma had always done to make him feel guilty about something until he 'fessed up, so he was inclined to think this Escke was using the same tactic. Not to make him admit to it, he'd already done that, but to... what? He wasn't sure. The only thing he was sure about was that he was gonna do everything in his power to make it up to her. Ma had always said the only thing worse than a cityfolk was a mad cityfolk, so he had to prevent that at all costs.

Even if it was over just an apple.

Oh, but Gabriel's question. "N-not really. Just here for a couple o' days, so I thought I'd go for a walk-" not as a human, but he wasn't going to say that out loud, "-an' see if there were any deals?"

Like fairly high quality apples at a decent price. He made himself busy looking down at his shoes.

[Gabriel]

Gabriel listened with only mild interest, resisting the urge to echo her again. 'Apples'. Hmm. He thought for a moment but couldn't think of anything he might be doing that would involve them. Still ...

"Thank you, I'll keep it in mind." He was trying, and failing, to lose the stiffness that came with his general manner. After all, it wasn't like he did it on purpose. Some people just drew that from him. At least with Orca around he could wind down a little. Once Gabriel glanced at his belt, as if checking for something, then remembered he had actually thought ahead and hid his coin purse in a much better spot.

No worries about thieves today.

Orca immediately seemed stricken, something to do with the apples. It didn't take a genius to deduce Orca had probably done something wrong, or at least rather silly. Hiding a smile, he looked sideways at his 'friend'. "I won't ask," he said with a roll of his eyes. It wasn't any of his business, and he had little interest in how they had met. It certainly didn't look like Orca had been on a job or something. But then, Gabriel wasn't very certain on what it was his companion actually did.

Hmm.

Sooner or later it would have to come up, but for now, they were just socializing.

"No talk about any rebellions or anything, huh." Some passing gossip would hear the word and in minutes it would be all over town. Hilarity was likely to ensue. Gabriel wondered if he would regret it. His face wasn't too memorable, save the scars, so he wasn't too worried about such a thing.

"Do you live in town?" He asked of Escke, tucking away the note to ask Orca where he was going the next time it came around to him. The shifter might not tell him, but it wouldn't hurt to ask, right?

[Escke]

Escke gave Orca a pleasant smile. "No, really, it's fine. I promise." It wasn't like she wanted to eat the apple or anything... But no, it would be okay. She had several inferior apples at home, after all. Besides, she could always find something else to snack on. It wasn't that hard.

Man, was this Gabriel guy a strange one. She was finding that she didn't like him much at all, and that was just from about four lines of dialogue.

"Rebellions?" She asked, thinking it over. As far as she knew, there were no such thing. She knew, though, if there were, it would come from the Academy of Magic. Was that something worth mentioning? She didn't want to reveal her little bouts of racism just yet, especially not to two strangers. That was talk for when they knew each other better, perhaps over a nice cheap wine or some non-flying apples.

"Yes, I do," She said, answering Gabriel truthfully. It wasn't too far from this area, but she wasn't exactly going to invite some random guy over or tell him her address, or anything. That would be silly.

[Orca]

R-Rebellions? Mentally, he echoed Escke, but didn't say anything aloud. Citylife was bad enough as it was, and now there were going to be rebellions? Maybe he should pass that information along to Azrael... well, not maybe, but definitely should. He'd have to make sure to watch himself on any future visits here, too.

Rebellions. Great.

Escke apparently lived in the city. Ugh. Poor girl. She seemed fine about it, though. She'd also seemed fine walking around on her own when he'd first met her, too. Maybe she was just used to it? If only he were that brave... Oh well.

Nothing had been asked to or of him, so the shapeshifter kept quiet, fidgeting slightly in place. They were talking, so that was good, right? As long as they weren't literally at each other's throats he could handle this. Maybe.

[Gabriel]

Orca seemed pretty depressed still about the apples. Huh. Wasn't all forgiven, why was Orca still sad - whatever. The girl, Escke, sort of ignored him. Eh. It didn't matter, there were always other days. Although the likelihood of him seeing her again was .. low. Gabriel rarely met people many times, unless he sought them out.

Like Orca.

Ah. Interesting. However, her living in town did make it difficult for him to think about anything terrible. Too many people to hear the action, and likely she had many coming and going from the area. She probably had neighbors, and that would make it rather ... difficult. Ah.

Nothing interesting at all, apparently.

Maybe he should have just kept walking. The whole conversation had accomplished nothing, just ... time spent? Gabriel wasn't much for chit chat. Ugh. But he didn't ... have a reason to leave ....

Oh hey you guys are boring, thanks, bye.

He glanced up, half expecting to see Eli, but found nothing. Ah, well.

"Where are you off to now?"

[Escke]

So, Orca was silent, and Gabriel was talking to him. It seemed her presence was no longer needed. Shrugging to herself internally, Escke took a quiet step away from the couple. She spoke quietly, not wanting to interrupt. "It was very nice to meet both of you! I hope we'll meet again soon, Orca." She smiled, wishing there was more she could do for the boy, but she worked best in a one-on-one kind of situation. With that, though, she left, slipping quietly back into the crowd. She wasn't sure what she was going to do next.