The redneck's eyes narrowed, their warmth dying into nothing, their friendliness bleeding away into hostility and disgust as she passed yet another clump of humans swaggering along the street, another knot of them sitting. Disrupting the flow of traffic and business alike, chanting their rhetoric sometimes shouting it as a way to shame those who didn't join them instantly. Vitriol and hate thrown about with thick voices and eyes shining with fervor and zeal.
Spit too, and stones occasionally.
She felt it curling in her stomach, the sick dread that she assumed too many of the people from her home world had felt, once upon a time. Images flashed through her mind, strange fruit swinging in trees, holy symbols burning in the night. The sickly savory scent of tar and the dry, dusty scent of feathers. The screams of torment and fear.
Thorn sidestepped, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet as tension bled from her. Graceful and boneless as water over stones she sauntered in a manner that was both sensual and dangerous, promise and threat and dare all rolled into one. The smile that tugged at the edges of her lips held nothing of friendly warmth or welcoming kindness. Belled rings sang, chiming madly as she limbered her fingers. She drew in a breath like a swimmer leaving her mark and loosed it again half a step from one of the marching groups.
A whisper of sound, a whimper in the back of someone's throat stalled her, had her missing a step. The missed stepped turned to a skip, a shift in the dance. Amethyst eyes cast a narrowed look about, seeking. Her breath caught when she met the wide, terrified blue eyes of the child.
The boy's angular features and tilted eyes could still have passed for human, so could the rounded shell of his ears. Even the color could have passed, their vivid shimmer could have been attributed to sheer terror. But the delicate line of mottling that followed the outline of his face, thickening as they marched down his throat gave him out. No one would need to see his mother, half-sea elf with all the characteristically eerie beauty of her elven parent's kind to know him for Other.
"Well fuck me." Muttering darkly she changed course and target. The human protesters ignored for now as she gathered the woman and her child up. Herding them before her, chatting all the while as though they were old friends she pushed them into the nearest shop.
The woman and her child were stunned, too stunned in fact to protest or resist. The shop keeper relaxed once he realized they weren't with the protesters and had no intention of making a scene. His gratitude and silence were bought with a few coins of gold. The same coins paid for their exit out the back into an alley way.
" 'S getchall somewhere safe yeah?"
(Yep, tied into this. Quite likely going to be a couple, few more posts here.)
Spit too, and stones occasionally.
She felt it curling in her stomach, the sick dread that she assumed too many of the people from her home world had felt, once upon a time. Images flashed through her mind, strange fruit swinging in trees, holy symbols burning in the night. The sickly savory scent of tar and the dry, dusty scent of feathers. The screams of torment and fear.
Thorn sidestepped, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet as tension bled from her. Graceful and boneless as water over stones she sauntered in a manner that was both sensual and dangerous, promise and threat and dare all rolled into one. The smile that tugged at the edges of her lips held nothing of friendly warmth or welcoming kindness. Belled rings sang, chiming madly as she limbered her fingers. She drew in a breath like a swimmer leaving her mark and loosed it again half a step from one of the marching groups.
A whisper of sound, a whimper in the back of someone's throat stalled her, had her missing a step. The missed stepped turned to a skip, a shift in the dance. Amethyst eyes cast a narrowed look about, seeking. Her breath caught when she met the wide, terrified blue eyes of the child.
The boy's angular features and tilted eyes could still have passed for human, so could the rounded shell of his ears. Even the color could have passed, their vivid shimmer could have been attributed to sheer terror. But the delicate line of mottling that followed the outline of his face, thickening as they marched down his throat gave him out. No one would need to see his mother, half-sea elf with all the characteristically eerie beauty of her elven parent's kind to know him for Other.
"Well fuck me." Muttering darkly she changed course and target. The human protesters ignored for now as she gathered the woman and her child up. Herding them before her, chatting all the while as though they were old friends she pushed them into the nearest shop.
The woman and her child were stunned, too stunned in fact to protest or resist. The shop keeper relaxed once he realized they weren't with the protesters and had no intention of making a scene. His gratitude and silence were bought with a few coins of gold. The same coins paid for their exit out the back into an alley way.
" 'S getchall somewhere safe yeah?"
(Yep, tied into this. Quite likely going to be a couple, few more posts here.)