[open-ish] I'd ride in your pocket all day

[thereneverwas]

WHO: Fitcher, Barrow, and anyone else in the area
WHAT: SCORN
WHEN: return from jungle times
WHERE: the Gallows docks
NOTES: this is more of an open now. I told you I was a wildcard

They're back from the jungle, it has been a Time. Barrow is substantially thinner (and beardier) than he was when they left, and the one thing keeping him going as he trundles off the boat into the Gallows is the promise of a hot bath, a shave, and a proper meal.

But before he can get there, something else catches his eye. He deliberates for a moment, then approaches Mrs. Fitcher with a tired, sheepish smile.

Comments

i. I'm imagining the baths as a bunch of adjacent sunken pools nobody correct me

[sulahnan]

Athessa is also letting the hot water soak away some frustration, a lot less successfully. Folded up, crossed forearms resting on bent knees. Maybe the soak would work if she stretched out a bit.

But she doesn't. She gets so lost in thought that she barely registers someone settle into an adjacent pool, and several minutes pass before she turns to see who's there.

"Oh, hey," she says, and turns fully so those crossed forearms can rest on the lip of the sunken tub. She rests her chin on the back of her hand. "YA know, I'm kinda surprised more people didn't come down here to scrub off the jungle residue."

that's how I imagine it too so I won't

[thereneverwas]

Raising his eyebrows, Barrow angles his head toward her and relaxes a bit. He knows the girl, and doesn't recall that she was especially chatty or irritating.

"They've got other priorities, I s'pose," he muses, scratching his stubbly cheek, "though I can't imagine what they'd be."

[sulahnan]

There are plenty that would disagree with Barrow about Athessa being irritating, but she has indeed been getting progressively less chatty. She nods.

"Right? You'd think there was a war on or something," Her huff, a single breath of a laugh to say that's a joke as if it weren't clear, echoes weirdly in the bath chamber. Something about the water and the stone bouncing it around and warping it. "Least I can rule them all out, pretty much. You been to your room yet?"

If that seems like a sudden and odd line of questioning, it's just because it is.

[thereneverwas]

He smirks and nods, catching the barb, but recognizing it for what it is. He lets his gaze fall to the surface of the water for a moment or two as he considers that there is in fact a war on, but he's easily enough distracted by Athessa's question.

"Just long enough to get a change of clothes." The 'why' is implicit.

[sulahnan]

"So you didn't notice anything out of the ordinary?" Maybe the pilfering was limited to only a couple rooms. Maybe she should map the rooms and find out if there's a commonality between them, like if it was just the rooms on one floor or something. "Nothin' moved or missing?"

[thereneverwas]

He raises his eyebrows in mild alarm.

"Not, erm... that I know of," he replies, but is now trying to think back on whether anything was odd or out of place.

"I haven't got much to steal, truth be told. Someone get into your things?"

[sulahnan]

Athessa nods. "Yeah. Took some of the bath oils I got from Lakshmi, and moved some other stuff around. But not just took the bottles, right, I mean like they emptied the bottles out and then put 'em back."

Honestly, she cares less about the oil than the trinket the thieves propped on her pillow. Like she's being taunted.

"You might wanna have another look around just to make sure."

[thereneverwas]

"Huh."

He turns his face forward again, looking back into the water.

"Maybe I will."

That's the last thing they need.

"...you going to be all right?"

[sulahnan]

That...takes her by surprise, and there's a flicker of uncertainty before it's covered with a smirk and a laugh. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

It's not like she was presented with the possibility that she might lose the only physical reminder she has of her clan, or that the thought of her family being so thoroughly wiped out that the only record of them is her memory terrifies her or anything. No, nothing like that.

[thereneverwas]

He shrugs one shoulder. If she isn't bothered, neither is he.

"People get pretty worked up over stolen property, in my experience," he replies, "though I suppose it depends on the property."

[sulahnan]

"Hmm. Yeah that's true," She sinks a little lower to reintroduce her shoulders to the heated water and thinks. Sizes Barrow up with a sidelong glance. This doesn't feel like when she spoke to Lexie in the hot springs. Like she has to be on guard.

"D'you think it's worse to be robbed, or to know that someone could have robbed you but didn't?"

[thereneverwas]

He lolls his head in Athessa's direction to look back at her, but doesn't seem bothered. At least not until she asks a very specific kind of hypothetical question.

"...to be robbed, I think," he decides, "people who could rob me don't every day."

[sulahnan]

Okay, that's fair.

"But what about...knowing they've been poking through your stuff enough to find something important to you and leaving a sign that--" This is getting too specific for hypotheticals. Athessa sighs and dunks her head under the water as if that'll reset her attempt at talking about anything. Then, she props her chin up on her arms again.

"Whoever got into my room rearranged some stuff that was important to me and I don't like thinking about someone knowing what's important to me and just keeping that knowledge on hand for whenever it suits 'em."

[thereneverwas]

Well that's its own whole new specific situation and doesn't work in hypotheticals.
Barrow looks out in front of him again, then back at Athessa with a small sigh through his nose.

"You're sure you're going to be all right?"

[sulahnan]

"I dunno. S'not like I have much say in whether I am or not."

Not much she can do other than move to a different room, get a better lock, set traps, go full-blown paranoid hermit with it all.

"If it was your stuff, what would you do?"

[thereneverwas]

"Well," comes Barrow's contemplative reply, "it would seem you're speaking to someone with experience protecting people and their things." He smirks.

"So were you of a mind to ask, he might be glad to lend a hand. Free of charge, of course, this being an insular organization and all that."

[sulahnan]

Athessa hums, mulling it over. She really doesn't like the idea that someone took the time to rearrange anything in her room, but Sister Sara had made the fair point that the lot were presumed dead. What's the likelihood that they'd try it again, now that everyone's back and very much not dead?

"Maybe. I mean I've done the protector role myself a few times but it's different when it's your own shit, ya know?"

[thereneverwas]

She is just.
Miles away from the conclusion he was hoping she'd take, and Barrow sighs at her, for a moment looking rather older than he is.

"Kid," he says frankly, holding out a hand to gesture toward her, "I'm offering you protection. For free. So you don't have to worry about it." He raises his eyebrows, like 'ok???'

[sulahnan]

And for a moment she looks younger (so, like, a toddler), blinking at him with wide, surprised eyes. Then, she looks embarrassed. She isn't the brightest, but she's doing her best, okay?

"Thanks, Barrow," she says.

[thereneverwas]

Once it's apparent that they're on the same page, Barrow goes back to smiling, relaxing back into the bath.
"Once we're both decent I'll come up and you can show me what got rearranged, what you want protected, all that. We'll figure out who did it."

[sulahnan]

"Well for a start," she says, drifting along the edge of the bath until she can reach the little phial of bath oil she'd had in her bag in the jungle. Now, the only phial left of what she'd had stashed in her footlocker. "If you find anyone who smells like this, they're either the thief or know who the thief is."

She slides it across the floor between the two pools, adding as an afterthought: "Er. Anyone other than Derrica and me, of course."

[thereneverwas]

He catches the phial and instinctively sniffs it, wrinkling his brow. It's not familiar, at least not yet.
"Can I keep this for reference?" he asks, giving it a little shake, "I'm no bloodhound, but there are worse ways to find someone."

As long as it isn't Derrica he finds, as he doubts she'd have any interest in discussing this or anything else with him.

[sulahnan]

She nods, yeah sure.

"It's pretty unlikely that anyone else would have the same stuff, since it used to be Lakshmi's. And I figure we can rule out anyone who was in the jungle with us," But his mention of bloodhounds gives Athessa an idea. Laura's got that crazy sense of smell, she could probably help, too.

She should probably finish washing her hair first. One thing at a time.

"Are you alright, by the way?"

[thereneverwas]

Barrow doesn't know who Lakshmi is, but it stands to reason she's someone important, and therefore the phial should be treated with care. He sets it next to him for now, careful not to let it fall on its side.

Athessa's question seems to surprise him, and he raises his eyebrows to look at her with a little smile.

"Me? Of course. Never better." The bath helps.

[sulahnan]

It's not that she's skeptical. That's not why she's giving him a look of appraisal. She's just trying to see if she can tell whether or not he's lying.

She can't, so she shrugs and goes about the arduous task of dealing with her mane of sopping curls.

"Jus' checkin', in case you needed to talk about somethin' or whatever."