Trinket walked off the skyship alongside a small family. She didn't know them, nor did she care about them. She simply knew that no one questioned her as long as she was walking alongside people who could be mistaken as her parents. It was how she got around Caido, essentially hitchhiking rides on any ship or skyship she wished to board.
She was back in Torchline this day. There was no particular reason to be here; she had simply gotten onto the first skyship she saw, and this had been its destination. She looked around, her dark, glassy eyes studying each person she passed. Normal people, going about their ordinary business in their ordinary lives.
Boring.
She walked along the docks, bare feet padding along the wood. She dragged her doll by its arm, the doll's porcelain feet bumping against the floorboards, its glassy black eyes, a match for Trinket's own, watching each person they passed. Not a muscle in Trinket's face twitched, her arms hung still at her sides, the only movement her eyes scanning the crowd and her legs carrying her slowly forward.
Children ran past. Boring. Workers carried boxes and crates on and off the ships. Boring. Merchants hawked their wares. Boring.
She stopped in the middle of the port, scanning the crowd, searching for someone interesting to play with.
Standing at the dock, staring intensively into the water, Freya was thinking. Was it worth it? Was she just making a fool out of herself? Or was she able to get it without doing what she was thinking about doing? Her goal at his very moment was easy. She had spotted something she knew out of books, but hadnt had time to experiment with on her own. Or at least she thought that she had spotted it. In reality she didnt know for sure, just as she didnt with so many things.
Her options were to get into the water herself, proably making a fool out of herself, just to get the desired plant, Pay someone else to do the deed for her, or to try to get it with her telekinesis. To be fair, Freya hadnt tried something like that yet, pulling something out of water. She didnt even know if it was possible to begin with. But unless she wanted to spend the rest of her afternoon in wet clothes, she would have to try. If that failed, she would try to do another approach. Stepping downwards towards the piers for fishing boats, she would get a few strange looks as she approached the edge, pulling her hand out towards the desired item. And sure enough, it wouldnt take long until it seemed to move and finally, being free from the soil, would swim up to her only to emere at the surface and then fly at her, until freya held the bundle of strangely hard roots and greens in her hand, examining it.
Trinket spotted something interesting.
A woman had climbed down towards the water. She stared at it for some time, then an unidentifiable mass of something floated up. Telekinesis, Trinket assumed.
Curious.
She walked towards the woman, dragging her doll along behind her. She stopped right next to the woman, looking up at her and the object she held. Trinket pulled her doll up and held it against her chest. She stood still, silent, staring up at the stranger.
The doll had the same black eyes as the girl. It, too, was still, until its head turned towards the stranger, staring right up into the woman's eyes. The sunlight glinted in the doll's eyes, tinging them red. An old, dried bloodstain marred the doll's otherwise perfect porcelain face. It stared at the woman through the blood, unblinking, unmoving.
Finally, Trinket spoke. "What is that?"
Freya wouldnt notice the girl that managed to creep up on her. After all she was much too busy staring at the plant, examining its every aspect. When she finally was spoken to, she slightly tensed up, as her head slowly drew away from her price. Mustering the girl in front of her now, letting her eyes wander up and down on her, hanging on the strange doll for a few seconds, befor she winally gave out:
"Oh... its just... a plant." Regainging a bit of her attention and composure, she would add up to her sentence: "...well, one that i have been looking for for sometime and that is usually quite rare. Who are you though?"
It was quite strange that the girl was standing there like that or had taken too much of an interest in her. After all, she was neither one of the people that worked at the docs, nor was she one that she had met before. Even if children tended to be quite perciptive, often moreso then adults were.
"I'm Trinket," she said, her tone flat and emotionless. She stared at the woman for a long time in silence. Weighing her with her dark eyes. Not a single muscle twitching. Not even blinking.
Eventually, she spoke. "Why were you looking for a plant? What is it for?"
She eyed the plant, unmoving except for her dark eyes studying the strange looking greens. They seemed unremarkable. Boring. She couldn't see what the stranger could possibly find interesting about a plant.
Her eyes returned to the woman's, her gaze drilling into the woman, endless depths of darkness staring out from a smooth porcelain face. The doll continued to stare as well, its eyes a mirror for Trinket's own. Trinket stood so still, so silent as she awaited an answer, that she might have been a doll herself. Her delicate porcelain face was marred only by a scar on her forehead, across the temple. Matched by the old bloodstain that marked the doll's face.
The more Freya was looking at the girl in front of her, the more she couldnt shake the feeling that something was very very off about her, even if she didnt mean it in a disrespectful way. Something just didnt feel right, so to say. Blinking slightly at the other girls question, Freya would take a leafe off of the plant and rub it between her index finger and thumb, making it release a rather oily and intense smell, before holding it closer to Trinket.
"Nice to meet you Tricket. Im Freya. Smell that?"
Waiting until the stranger had given an answer or smelled the plant, Freya would continue with her explaination. "Alone this one doesnt do much. But its a catalyst. It changes other things but always remains the same. Mixing this with other plants and eating it can get rid of a really nasty sickness, even if it is giving some other not too nice effects with it. At least so i heard. Usually they are rare. But maybe i have just been looking at the wrong places so far..."
Freya's appearance was rather uninteresting per se. After all, she looked like a attractive woman of her ange with braided, chestnut colored hair and a rather thin and lean body wrapped in a leather dress which was held steady by a belt which in return carried a scabbart and a sword. Aside from this, the only interesting things were the golden trinkets all over her dress in the shape of nordic and celtic designs.
Trinket showed no reaction to the scent, though she registered it and recognized it. She had an encyclopedic knowledge of all the plants in Caido. She just had never given much thought to them. Most of them weren't very interesting.
Dismissing the plant from her thoughts, she said, "That sounds boring. Do you want to play a game?"
She looked around, searching for something interesting to do. She was curious about this woman. She wondered what kind of interesting reactions she might be able to provoke.
Some men were walking by, carrying crates of foodstuffs. It gave Trinket an idea.
With a blank face and a flat tone, Trinket said, "This game is like 'tag,' but you don't use your hands. Try not to get tagged."
Without further explanation or a hint of movement, Trinket gave a command to the nails holding together one of the crates the men were carrying. She commanded them to open. The nails wiggled and shook, then popped out of the wood. The side of the crate spilled open, and a deluge of tomatoes stated tumbling towards the woman, ready to shower her with ripe fruit.
"Well... i guess it might be boring..." Freya would give out with a chuckle, before adding: "But it certainly is better then drowning, because ones lungs are filling with water. Anyways. What kind of game do you want to play?"
The proospect certainly had caught her attention and to be entirely honest, if she wasnt making medicine, she always had spare time in her hands. Naturally Freya agreed to it.
Laying her head to the side when Trinket proposed playing a game of tag. She didnt quite understand what the girl meant by her statement that she should try to not get tagged. Soon enough it would make sense however, when the crate started to disassemble itself, she knew that it couldnt be a random occourance.
Jumping back in a hurry and trying to use her telekinesis to help the workers, in a way that she picked uth eside of the crate up and pushed it against the flood of tomatoes, she would curse under her breath before looking at Trinket with a rather shocked expression, however not saying anything that would show the workers that she might be the culprit behind this. After all, they would liekly get into trouble for the few tomatoes that had spilled and Freya didnt like them to go off at a little girl. Naturally this included that she wouldnt retaliate against her, at least now. Not infront of the workers. Instead she would ask them:
"Heavens... faulty crate isnt it? Glad that you guys were so quick to react to it..."
"You have good reflexes,” Trinket said. "It'll be hard to tag you."
Telekinesis was an interesting magic. She wondered how good the woman was at using it. Trinket decided to test those limits. To see just what the woman could do.
Next she decided to try to tag the woman with something else. Lots of something else's. She looked around at the gathered workers, trying to get the crate back together. They wore hats, gloves, and thick boots to protect themselves as they worked. Those would do nicely.
Jump she commanded their hats, sending them leaping at Freya. Slip she commanded the boots, so they slipped out from under the workers' feet. Unbuckle she commanded their belts, sending the men's pants falling to trip up their ankles. Limbs flailed and clothing flew as the men fell all over each other.
Trinket watched without expression, silent, motionless. Giving no hint that she was responsible. She watched Freya curiously, wondering if the woman could use her telekinesis to block the flailing limbs and flying clothing all around her.
"It'll be hard to tag you"
Almost sighing when she heard those words, Freya would look all around, trying to spot whatever was now coming, in order to at least be prepared while she gave out: "Mind to play in a way thats not making the people here angry?", seemingly more to herself then anyone else.
Watching in both amusement as well as annoyance when sereval clothing items were part of the "game" now, she would look around how to protect herself. After all, things werent allowed to touch her, but maybe...
Having an idea slowly forming in her head, she would look all around until she spotted a piece of old sail, large enough to wrap around her. stepping over and wrapping the thing all around her, she would tear a piece of it down and sent it towards Trinket, in an attempt to have the cloth covering her eyes. After all, if she didnt see her, maybe then she would stop bothering the people. Aside from that, it would be enough to touch her, in order to have her tagged. As far as Freya was concerned about herself. The tiems wouldnt touch her physically, and the sail instead. And since it wasnt something that she had at the start of teh game, it hardly would count as viable to have her tagged.
While certainly hse could have tried to defend herself against the clothes sent against her, she didnt want to tear them apart, neither did she think she had the ability to stop so many items at once.
"Why don't we want to make people angry?" Trinket asked.
Angry people were interesting. They did unpredictable things. They were surprising. That always piqued Trinket's curiosity.
Her train of thought continued without interruption as the piece of sail landed on her head Trinket didn't move. Didn't flinch. She merely commanded the cloth: fall and it fell to the ground.
But she had been tagged. That meant she had lost the game.
"You win," she said, showing no sign of emotion, no disappointment or worry. "Let's play another game."
"This one is called "Catch." She took a few steps away, towards one of the vendor stalls that lined the docks. The stall catered to sailors that stopped in the port--the sailors sometimes had little cancer to make their way into the city, so vendors along the docks could make their sales before the sailors had to ship out again.
The vendor stall sold a variety of goods than men on the seas might need: clothing, belts, simple tools, rope, fishing rods, and the like. Nothing interesting. At least, not in itself.
From next to the stall, she told Freya, "To win the game, you have to catch everything. If anything falls in the water, you lose."
The vendor gave her a strange look, no doubt wondering what the child was talking about. Trinket paid him no mind. She merely glanced at the stall and began giving commands: jump in the sea.
One by one, items on the stall launched off towards the water. The vendor shouted in panic, trying to catch his goods, but they flew off out of reach. Only a long net, or telekinesis, would have a chance of catching them.
Trinket barely glanced at the items she commanded. Her attention was on the woman before her. She was curious how many objects she could catch at one time, as one it after another after another was launched towards the water.
"Well, because what follows after angry usually is a rock or worse to the face." Freya would responde with a slight chuckle. What an interesting child. Appearetnly she didnt know about the things that angry people wer able of accomplishing. Freya knew that anger could be a powerful tool and a dangerous weapon both to the wielder, as well as its creator. Appearently Trinket didnt know that however.
Regardless of that fact, Freya was quite surprised when she heard the girl give out that she had won. To be entirely honest, Freya had thought that Trinket might have called it cheating how she encased herself in the old sail, but regardless of having won or lost, having satisfied Trinket was good. After all, eventually she must run out of mischiefery, must she?
It just happened that this point wasnt due yet. Deciding their next game, this time not even asking if Freya wanted to play, Trinket chose one unfortunate specimen of vendor in her vicinity and made his stock not only fly, but also rush towards the water. While the way to win the game was an easy one, it was an unbeatable one. After all, Freya's abilities of Telekinesis were limited at the moment and even if they werent. All trinket had to do was to pick a direction and the items would fly there, while Freya would have to cover every vector, in case Trinket decided to go all out. A thing that was nearly impossible. For the time being however, the girl seemed satisfied with picking one item at a time, which gave freya some wiggle room. Deciding to choose the sail she had covered herself with, watching out not to get hit by a pair of boots or the likes, she would use the old piece of sail as her makeshift net to cath the items, barely keeping up with the pace of the girl.
While sustainability certainly wasnt a problem for her, control was. Something she definetly would need to adjust in the future. During all this, her eyes were in the sky, but her mind were with the girl, pondering about the reason as of why she was doing this, but also where her parents were. After all, a small girl needed someone that took care of her.
Trinket tilted her head to the side, watching Freya improvise with the sail. Curious. She had expected the woman to merely catch the objects with her telekinesis. Instead, she had come up with a more clever solution.
Curious indeed.
Before long, she grew bored of throwing away the vendor's wares. She stopped commanding objects to fly off. Freya's makeshift net was filled with a number of small objects. Trinket wondered what the woman would do if that situation changed.
One of the objects in the sail was a simple knife, a sailor's tool for cutting rope and carving wood. Trinket looked at the knife in the sail and commanded it: cut. The knife started sawing through the sail. A large tear started to form. Within moments, the sail would be cut clean in half and everything in it would fall into the sea.
Trinket stood back, watching dispassionately. She was curious how the woman would react to this. So far, this stranger had proven quite unpredictable. Unpredictable was interesting.
She hoped to continue being surprised.
While her plan seemingly had suceeded, and she was almost at the point of begging for the girl to stop now, or to at least change the stuff she was throwing to something that wasnt important to other people, the items being sent flying in her direction stopped. Lowering the sail towards the ground, careful not to spoil anything within it, she noticed how something inside of it began to shift and to cut it open. Rushing now to at least get a good portion of the sail over dry land, her head would frantically go from left to right until she spotted a propper net in a fishing boat now. Making the sail go up once more in a quick motion as it was continuing its service until it propperly was cut in 2's, she would grab the net with telekinesis afterwards and manuver it underneath the 2 sail halfs, this time clearly trying to get the merchants stock onto dry land.
Bringing out: "Heavens sake girl...", she would look towards the trader and Trinket, with the latter seemingly knowing that Freya was the one that was helping and Trinket being about as emotionless as when she had first met her. Calling out: "I betcha you are hungry after all that, arent you?", Freya tried to not only divert her attention from ruining other people's lives for the next few moments, but also to shift their game to something more pleasing, like who was able to eat more shrimps, even if a part of her didnt doubt that Trinket might find it funny to make other people nearly choke on their food either.
Regardless of that, everywhere where things couldnt get destroyed by being wet would be a start, or anywhere where people wouldnt turn hostile to the magical girl.
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