the iron in her heart

I didn't come here to make friends
We were born to be suburban legends

Kaiholo Port is unlike anything that Aithne has experienced previously, somehow managing to be simultaneously similar to and altogether different from Jack Tar Landing. Everywhere she looks, ships rock in the waves, brightly painted buildings stand against the beach, and market stalls choke the walkways. Various piles of barrels and crates clutter every path, forcing the significant crowd milling about to bob and weave their way through the chaos. Merchants and sailors shout, hels wheel overhead, and altogether, everything blends together in an absolute riot of color and sound that has Aithne momentarily staring.

It doesn't take her long to recover, and then she's slipping into the throng, allowing herself to be pulled this way and that with the crowd, keeping a careful eye on her scant belongings to make sure no pickpockets try their luck with her. Indeed, she quickly becomes the predator, relieving one distracted man of his coin purse as she ducks between two stalls and quickly disappears. Now she has money - a fair bit of it, thanks to her unsuspecting target - and that affords her the ability to browse the stalls and shops dotting the waterfront. Off she goes, a bounce in her step and a wicked grin on her face, tail flicking behind her with satisfaction as she begins to search for her lunch.

When you hold me, it holds me together
And you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever

Aithne

girls can be dangerous and still win

Today, Melita dangled her feet from a roof, swaying them back and forth in time with the breeze, humming along the throngs of people watching and eating bits of cinnamon bread. The latter was most invigorating, and the former just as amusing, because from there she could easily aim water balloons at specific targets – most that she found suitably annoying or irritating or quite frankly just because – before pretending it hadn’t been her.

Fangorn grumbled and she handed him another piece as Sila flew overhead, tracking – but there’d be no need when she caught the familiar toil and tumble of Aithne meandering her way through. A slight of hand seemed to gain new weight in her grasp, and the Honeybee thought about letting the Ancient drift out of sight, but then again, she was quite taken with the notion of being a little shit – so –

She squared up and launched a smaller water balloon, aimed to either knock the Grounder on the shoulder or carelessly, haphazardly flicker behind and hit someone else. “Hey!” she called from overhead, waving down with a bright, vicious little grin for attentive, announcing purposes.

Melita

she knew exactly what she was doing when she invited the wild in

I didn't come here to make friends
We were born to be suburban legends

Aithne moves easily through the throng, already long gone by the time her target realizes that he's been pickpocketed. She does not, however, seem to get away completely in the clear; something unexpected explodes in a shower of cool water against her shoulder, and the girl yelps, hackles rising, before spotting Melita's shit-eating grin from overhead. Snorting a laugh and waving in response, Aithne calls back a spirited, "Hey!" before picking her way over to Mel's vantage point and beginning to scale her way up to join the demigod.

It's a short, relatively simple climb, and then the girl balances near the redhead to peer down at the crowd below. "Oooo, what about that guy?" she asks, gesturing vaguely towards a young man dressed gaudily - new money, she thinks, and not afraid to flaunt it. Probably the kind who thinks he's owed something because he's rich now, forgetting what it feels like to come from nothing. By the time the words are out of her mouth, she has an entire imaginary backstory built for the poor guy, and she's entirely ready to hurl a water balloon at him just because of his imagined slights against humanity.

When you hold me, it holds me together
And you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever

Aithne

girls can be dangerous and still win

The yelp inspired another wicked grin across her features, watching the turn of Aithne’s facial expressions as they morphed from hackles raised to recognition – clearly only bothered if it had been someone else committing the water balloon crime. “Come on up! What brings you out this way?” she hollered from on high, ignoring the way some of the merchants glanced, rolled their eyes, or simply pretended not to notice. After all, the Honeybee’s shenanigans were nothing new.

But the Ancient wasted no time in scaling portions of walls and shimmying her way up the roof, so by the moment she’d reached the platform Melita was patting a spot of warm shingle beside her. Tilting her head, she snorted, gaze going out towards the indicated individual. One of those smarmy, haughty looking dudes – peacock-esque. Not a favorite.

Instead of doing the honors though, she passed one of the balloons over to Aithne, the enabling, encouraging grin following suit. “By all means. Go for it.”

Melita

she knew exactly what she was doing when she invited the wild in