Elitecommander and hailfire collab:
Allaina followed as close behind Sharee as was possible without bumping and got even closer, practically attached to her, when they entered the populated city and the busy bar. The city seemed claustophobic, bright and chaotic compared to the open and empty spaces Allaina could remember and this became even more true inside. Allaina ducked her head down low, careful to avoid eye contact with any of these people. Those did come close she skittered around as hastily as possible utilising Sharee as a mobile shield as she did so. When the pair finally arrived in Sharee's room and were alone once more she let out a great breath of relief and began to look around.
As sharee had said there were clothes around and it took no time for allaina to strip down to her underwear. She was eager to be wearing something dry and warm regardless of if a tail-hole was present or not. Allaina picked out a pair of brown woollen leggings and a plain white shirt before throwing the coat she had been loaned back on. The bosmer girl hadn't even realised she had kept the coat and nor was she perturbed by the idea of keeping it. As far as she was concerned it was a very nice coat. Once dressed Allaina stood up, barely conscious of her underwear showing through the tail-hole, and began to root through the cabinet of food and drink.
Sharee watched as the girl selected a set of clothes to use, paying no mind to her state of dress as she changed, as Sharee did not share the modesty rules of the Imperials. She did notice the extent of Allaina’s tattoos, which were quite impressive. Usually, such designs would indicate that she was a part of some type of tribe or other group, though it was anyone’s guess which one. That, or she simply had exceptional artistic taste. Now that she thought about it, Sharee wouldn’t mind getting a few tattoos herself.
For once in her life, Sharee was going slow on her ale, as she wanted to be clear headed at the moment and avoid any unwanted headaches the next day. She had finally decided to go ahead with her plans, which meant she needed to recruit a crew, and Allaina seemed to be as good of a place to start as any. After all, she did say she could fight.
“Like I said feel free to take anything you like. That red wine in the bottom left of the cuboard is particularly good. When you’re ready, there’s a few things I’d like to talk to you about.” Sharee said with a smile.
Allaina smiled back at sharee, grateful for her kindness. She had already sniffed out a loaf of bread and had been braced to tear into it before the wine was recommended. Upon receiving the recommendation the girl stopped what she was doing to seek out the wine. Once she had done so she sat back on the bed and tore the cork out with her teeth before taking a swig straight from the bottle. It was nice Allaina decided, taking another swig before picking the bread up once more. Allaina made eye contact with sharee to signal she was ready for whatever the woman had to talk about. She ate the bread slowly whilst the argonian talked biting directly into the loaf to do so.
Sharee grabbed an apple from the bowl next to her on the table, then walked over bearing it and her ale and sat down next to Allaina on the bed. She maintained her smile the entire time, wanting to appear as friendly as possible, to make herself into someone Allaina would be comfortable around, someone she would trust. She took a bite of her apple, then gave the Bosmer a pat on the back.
“Well, naturally I think we should talk about you, and the prospect of your future. If you don’t remember anything, then I don’t find it likely that you even really know what you’re good at. You said you know how to fight, but is there anything else you can think of, any marketable skills you might be able to use to get a job somewhere?” She asked.
The girl continued to smile as she ate. For the first time since she had awoken in that marsh she was happy. The presence of a friend and a little food and drink had done wonders for her emotionally and, as she took a long draught of the wine, she began to feel happier still. When Sharee sat down beside Allaina and patted her on the back the girl reflexively leant in towards Sharee and shuffled in close. She snuggled up to Sharee almost as though she were a blanket and continued to tuck into her loaf of bread. She was eating it a little more slowly now as she found it was getting harder to chew the massive mouthfuls she was taking and was feeling a little more comfortable. When sharee asked about her skills Allaina stopped to think for a couple of moments. Nothing sprung to mind. She thought for a couple of moments before realising with a flash of sadness it would be unlikely anything came to mind at the moment. The sadness was quickly dismissed with another bite of bread and the girl shook her head rapidly side to side to indicate she couldn't think of any such skills.
Sharee placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring expression. “Well, luckily for you, I don’t think you’ll need any, at least not at first. You see, I’ve been thinking about it, and I have something you can do, something to support yourself. It’ll be dangerous, but it just so happens that the one skill you do have is fighting, and I’ll be right there with you to keep you safe. I don’t know if you noticed when we were outside, but there were a lot of ships at the docks here in the city. One of them is owned by a company called the East Empire Company. They’re a nasty bunch, or at least the ones in charge are. People like me, they call us thieves and criminals, but they do the exact same thing and call it “business.” They have a government mandated monopoly on trade, inflating prices to line their coinpurses, and keeping all the good people of the Empire in poverty. I am a “thief,” a thief who steals from those kaocs and sells the goods at much more reasonable prices, ones people can afford. What I want to do is get myself a crew, take that ship off their grubby hands, and sail the seas providing some “fair competition” to their monopoly. You join me on that, and I’ll make sure to take care of you.”
Allaina listened in silence as Sharee spoke not questioning what she was told. With her present level of social comprehension she would not have considered theft a problem unless, of course, it was something of hers being stolen and so she simply nodded along taking a bite of bread every now and then. When sharee had finished allaina took another sip of the wine, feeling a little woozy now, and nodded once more. "I saw the boats outside. They're big. It'd be difficult to steal one unnoticed. We'd have to be fast." She said matter of factly. She didn't even feel the need to say she was in. She felt it should be obvious as she lay against Sharee.
“Well, we’re going to have to do some fighting, as it isn’t completely unguarded, but yeah, we’ll need to be quick. I plan on hiring a crew though, and it looks like you are the first. I’m going to start searching for people tomorrow, you can tag along if you like. After that, we’ll need to figure out what kind of weapons you’re good with. I’ll acquire a few, then we can go out and practice with them. But you don’t need to worry about anything right now, I’ll handle all the planning and preparing. You just relax.” Sharee said, taking a swig of her ale. She was quite pleased that the girl was agreeing so easily; she was really as impressionable as she seemed. At this rate, Sharee would have a nice, loyal servant in no time. She was already cozying up to her like a hatchling would to its mother.
“You know, I really like those tattoos you got. Whoever applied them was an artist, and a good one. I wish you remembered how you got them, so I could get some myself.” She commented, finishing off her apple.
Allaina took a final mouthful of bread before putting the remaining half down and swigging the wine. Allaina had eaten far too fast and her stomach was feeling bloated and uncomfortable. She hiccuped as she put the bottle of wine down before considering Sharee's words. Allaina's resolve regarding the boat remained unchanged and she felt no need to enquire further about it. Allaina was willing to fight if she had to although she would prefer by far to avoid the danger. Upon the mention of Allaina's tattoo's she pulled her shirt up in order to examine them. The delicate patterns swirled across her flesh in bright contrast to her pale flesh and she decided she quite liked them. Well. They had bought her compliments so they must be good. Allaina looked up to sharee and thanked her before bringing her shirt back down.
Sharee chuckled. “Careful on the wine, someone of your size might not be able to handle much unless you’ve built up a tolerance for it. Unless you just want to celebrate, of course, then go crazy. Anyway, I’m sure those tattoos are significant somehow; it’s not everyday you find someone who can make something like that.“ Sharee observed, trying carefully to give the girl a sense of hope without actually saying anything useful enough to help find her origins.
Sharee yawned, stretching out her arms. It was decently late, and there was a lot to do the next day, so she decided it was probably time for her to go to sleep. She pulled herself away from Allaina, removed her satchel, then walked over and set it down on the table across the room. She did the same for her weapons, unbuckling the sheathes for her cutlass and daggers, followed by her crossbow and its bolts. She really needed to consider not carrying everything with her at all times, but her years as an assassin had made her unusually cautious, bordering on paranoid. Walking back over to the bed, she undid the straps on her chainmail vest and dropped it lazily on the ground, leaving her with only her leather pants as she laid down and rested her head on the pillow.
“It’s about time I go to sleep. You do whatever you like, just make sure you’re ready to get up early tomorrow. We have a long day ahead of us.” Sharee commented.
Allaina pondered the tattoo's relevance and decided to examine them in more detail when the opportunity presented itself. Meanwhile she realised she too was tired and caught sharee's yawn. She stood up feeling the cold air hit her bottom through the tailhole in her leggings as she did so. Allaina gasped and immediately covered the hole with her hands to warm herself. She was going to need some clothes of her own if she was going to go anywhere without embarrassing heself. Allaina looked around for somewhere to lie down. Her eyes flicked from sharee to the bed as she asked without words if she could sleep on the bed.
Sharee glanced over to Allaina, who was silently staring down her and the bed. She was amused by the girl’s general awkwardness. She would need to make a point to teach her how to behave around others, else she cause more trouble than necessary. “Yeah, go ahead. I can share, and I guess I don’t have anywhere else for you anyways.” Sharee chuckled quietly to herself again; this was the first time someone had been in her bed for “innocent” reasons in a very long time.
Allaina smiled and practically dived headlong into the bed snuggling into the covers. She rolled over once before pausing for a moment and rolling the other way so she would be facing sharee when she slept before rapidly falling asleep. She had been incredibly tired.
Letting out a sigh, Sharee started to regret her decision as Allaina practically jumped on her bed until she finally settled down and went to sleep. The Bosmer’s behavior was rather childish over all, and while funny, that would need to change at some point. It made sense, though, as she had no forms of social expectations in her mind; she was basically an entirely new person with some built in knowledge. With that in mind, Sharee started to take some of her behaviors in a new light. Ever since they had started back from the beach to Leyawiin, Allaina had seemed to want to be close to her constantly. Sharee had embraced it to help build trust, but it seemed like that trust had grown a bit more than she had expected. Sharee felt like anything she told the girl, she would believe, almost like the Bosmer was her own hatchling. She felt that this could potentially become very annoying in the future, but at least her influence was firmly cemented in the Bosmer’s mind. After a short while of contemplating, Sharee finally drifted off to sleep.
