Land of the Machines
Thread Topic: Land of the Machines
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(after the attack. like Rasia would probably be in the city by now)
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(Ok, thanks)
Rasia wandered through the streets of Shicicliff. She had no idea where she was going. She knew she looked a little old fashioned, but that was because she had managed to find one of her mother's old dresses after the attack.
Her life had drastically changed after that. She was a princess, brought down to living on the streets in a land she knew hardly anything about. If anyone found out who she really was, she'd be killed the way her parents were. -
"Good morning, Nora!" a kind voice shouted from Alainora's right.
There sat an older man, maybe in his 50's sitting at a table with various copper parts laid out on them. He had a kind smile on his face, and his eyes shared that same warmth.
"Hello, Mr. Till!" Alainora greeted the man.
Her brown eyes glanced over the products he had laid on the table. Mr. Till always had the best and widest selection that was selling on Green street, and it was her favorite place to go when looking for parts.
"Got anything specific you're looking for?" Mr. Till asked.
"My water heater is broke. I'm looking for a part that'll fit the old thing," Alainora said, picking up a few parts and eyeing them.
After picking up and setting down a few pieces, Alainora found a part that would work. Cheerfully, she pulled out a leather pouch from her bag, taking out a few coins. After paying for the part and carefully putting it away securely in her bag, the two dived into a nice conversation about nothing and yet at the same time, everything.
While they were talking, Mr. Till paused for a moment, look out at something in the crowd of people walking around them.
"Huh. Do you see that, Nora? The girl in the dress?" Mr. Till asked, pointing into the crowd.
Normally it would be difficult to point out any one person in the large crowd that meandered around Green Street, but this girl was something else. Her dress was something Alainora had only ever seen in old paintings. Alainora had to struggle to keep a laugh in. Honestly, the girl looked ridiculous and stood out like a sore thumb among the crowd.
"She looks like she needs some help. I think I'm going to go talk to her," Alainora said, weaving her way through everyone and making her way toward the girl. -
Rasia saw someone come towards her. Could they tell she didn't belong there? That she was from their enemy country? She didn't know, nor did she care to find out.
Rasia made a sharp turn around the corner and walked swiftly, trying to go unnoticed. Although that was a hard thing to do, considering her garb. But she continued onward. Raisa had to slow down a bit. Her throat was dry and she was weak from lack of food. But she needed to get away. -
Though the girl had turned the corner, it wasn't difficult to quickly catch up after her. The dress was easy enough to spot in the crowd, and she wasn't walking very fast at all. Alainora wondered if the dress was restricting her movements at all. Normally, when she saw women wear dresses, they were at some fancy party where they weren't really needing to travel very far, so the restrictiveness of the dress didn't really matter.
"Excuse me, miss," Alainora exclaimed, quickly catching up to the girl and walking by her side. "You seem a little lost." -
"Thank you for offering," Raisa said, uncertain of what was going to happen, "but I'd rather find my own way around." And she continued walking.
Really, for this to be the only dress she could find. It had been her mother's when she was her age. She had sewn it herself, because her seamstress wasn't going to sew something that was so old fashioned. She had sewn it herself, then would act out the old stories about she had known and loved. It was a constume. A costume that had been the dress Rasia had to wear.
And it had taken its toll on her energy and restricted her. She couldn't walk as quickly, and she was plain worn out and hot. She was surprised she had been able to go on for this long. -
Drawing her eyebrows close together, Alainora kept up with the girl. She looked exhausted, and like she was going to pass out at any moment.
"Look, I'm just trying to look out for you," Alainora explained. "That dress looks like you got it at some type of convention. I've only ever seen people wear that in plays about times long before the war. The style really isn't... Shicicliffian, if you know what I mean."
Alainora paused before looking around. This girl really wasn't the smartest, was she? Or maybe she was a refugee and new to the city. Whatever it was, Alainora knew she wasn't safe wearing that.
"All I'm saying is that if the Oiri catch you wearing that, they're probably going to take you in and question why you're wearing it." -
Rasia looked at the girl. "The Oiri?" she said. She had heard about them. And she knew that if they caught her, she was done for. "I don't have any other clothes," she said to the redheaded girl. She bit her lip. She needed to get out of the city as soon as possible. She had snuck in with a group of travelers, but she may not be able to get out, especially if she left the city alone.
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Alainora looked the girl up and down. She was considerably taller than her, but she had a few clothes back home that were too big on her that she was planning to donate, anyway. Besides, even if they didn't fit her all that well, it was a lot better than wearing that dress. It would be enough to keep attention off of her.
"I have some clothes that you can have," Alainora said quietly.
For some reason, her anxiety was sky high. She only ever felt that way when she woke up at night to the sound of silence, or the sound of screaming steam releasing from the broken vents in her home. There was something extremely wrong going on, but she couldn't quite understand what it was.
"If you want to follow me home, you can have them, and we can get rid of this dress." -
"I –" Raisa wasn't sure if she should or not. She knew what her answer was going to be, but she wasn't sure if she should say it. The girl seemed to be trustworthy. "Yes, thank you."
What was different about this girl than everyone else here? Rasia felt like she could trust her, but no one else. Maybe it was because she was the first person to notice her and offer help? Or maybe she was just that desparate. Maybe both. Or she was just going absolutely crazy. -
A shining smile crossed Alainora's face, happy that the girl obliged to go with her. The day was already turning out to be extremely interesting, more so than she originally thought it would be. She felt her anxiety slowly melting away, and she pointed in the new direction the two of them would be walking.
"Great! It's not too far away from here, actually. We just need to head over to copper street, a few blocks away," she explained, beginning to change her course. "Oh, also, I don't believe I got your name?" -
Rasia smiled a bit, then hesitated. She wasn't sure if she should give her name. Well, she trusted the girl enough that she was on her way to her house to borrow some clothes, the least she could do was tell her her name. "Raisa," she said. "And what's yours? " She followed the girl. She wasn't familiar with the place, so of course she had to follow her.
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"Alainora. But, it's kind of a mouthful, so you can just call me Nora," she answered, carefully crossing the street to make sure that the two of them weren't going to get hit by the city steam cars.
"The city here is pretty big, and I'm guessing that you're pretty new here, so it's probably for the best that you don't go wandering out by yourself too often until you learn a little more about how things work. We don't have a lot of space, but you can stay with my brother and I if you'd like. At least until your government funds start transferring and you can get a place of your own. You have gone to the royal courthouse, right? To get your papers sorted?"
Tracing back her steps, the buildings began to get smaller and smaller, and the population of the people around them grew less and less. It was a telltale sign that they were making it closer to Copper Street. Though it was close to one of the city markets, it was probably one of the most rundown housing in the entirety of Shicicliff. Luckily, it was still relatively safe from the Oiri. -
"That's a nice name," Rasia said. "But...um...no, I haven't." She had absolutely no idea how things worked around here, or what this 'government fund transferring' thing was. But she felt that somewhere in the process of the transfer, her true identity would be revealed. "I actually wasn't planning on doing that." She didn't know what kind of reaction she was going to get. It likely was not going to be a good one.
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Confused, Alainora gave Rasia a side eye look. She wasn't planning on going to the Royal Courthouse? She would be undocumented, and would certainly be harassed by Oiri or even thrown out of the city.
"Oh, well, you kind of have to. I know it sounds like a pain in the ass, but you won't be able to really live here until you do," Alainora explained simply.
She was about to go into more detail, but something caught her off guard. There was a man sitting in front of a shop on the street. The owner of the store was yelling at the man, like you had heard walking through town earlier that morning. You couldn't believe they were still going at it.
Approaching the man and the owner were three men. They were each wearing identical red suits with black ties. These suits were a little different from regular dress suits, but looked roughly the same. On either side of their arms was a symbol. It had a dove on it flying with a snake in its mouth. Along the symbol were the words Wian Thego. Wian Ri. It was the Oiri.
"Sir, it seems as if you have overstayed your welcome," one of the Oiri men spoke up.
"Finally! I told you stupid f---ing Muhi that I'd get the Oiri on your ass if you didn't move!"
The commotion was starting to gather quite a bit of attention. Even though Alainora knew what was going on was terrible, she couldn't seem to rip her eyes away.
"We're going to need you to come with us, sir" the Oiri said again.
The man stayed silent as two men grabbed him, pulling his hands together so that the third could put handcuffs on him. Even from how far away they were, Alainora could hear the buzzing of the cuffs, knowing that with the push of a button, the Oiri could shock the man with the cuffs if they felt like it.
People began muttering in the crowd. Whispering about the man as the Oiri took him away. One word seemed to be said over and over again.
Muhi. Muhi. Muhi
"Come on," Alainora said. "Let's go."
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