Chilly

[Lillith Morgan]

It should have been a lot warmer than it was for noontime, at least in Lillith's opinion. Even for Dublin weather it was frigid, coming in below freezing. There were hints of snow in the air, and she for one hoped that there was a miracle and it warmed up. Call her crazy, but she just wasn't a snow person, mostly because it was so darned cold!

Mixing in being outside in the cold was even worse. Of course, it was her own choice to be outside.... the electricity to the block with her store was out, had been for a day now. With no choice but to close her store for a second day straight, she was just wandering in boredom. The river running to her left was frozen solid, though she thought crazy the ones actually going out onto the ice. What if it cracked?

For the moment though she wasn't sure where she was headed exactly. Lillith at first had thought maybe she would find a thrift store or two and buy up some of their books to sell, but that wasn't going to work. The nearest thriftstore was still a ways away, and no way was she going to walk all the way there and back in this cold! Then again, leaning against the willow tree hanging above her didn't help either, even if it did give her a pretty sight of the Liffey River.

Speaking of cold, and poor electricity... No electricity meant not being open, which meant no money coming in. She really hoped the electricity came back on by tomorrow... she might just end up using candles or battery-operated lamps or something and have shorter hours. Too much longer and she worried that it might get broken into, or worse. As it was, all around her were very visible signs of the chaos her city had spiraled into. Storefronts damaged, buildings over there burned down.... she had no wish for that to happen to her store. Everything would be sooo much easier if people just realized the fae are here to stay...

Lillith sighed. Yeah, wouldn't everything be easier if that was the case. But it wasn't... though she was seriously hoping to change that. Or help change that, she should say. Anyway, she should probably start moving sometime soon. Shivers were starting to work their way up her spine... stamping her feet to move her blood didn't do much either.

[Sita Verito]

There was something incredibly tempting about the people who dared to go on the ice of the nearby lake. Like she should toss an obstacle in their path to see how good they were at balance and co-ordination. Oh, and did they not realize that the lake wasn't solid all the way through? There would undoubtedly be spots that were weaker, particularly from direct sunlight. Fools to even risk being on it. Sita was practically waiting for the ice to cave in and swallow them up. Maybe they'd be lucky, they wouldn't have to continue dealing with the fractured world around them.

Rubbing her bare hands on her pants she considered her clothing, knowing in this weather it wasn't quite right. Jeans, some converse sneakers she'd pulled from a department store which had been robbed well and truly. Then there was her shirt which had a picture of Snoopy from that infamous comic. It was tight, like defining her shape tight, not that anyone could see much of it anyway with her over-sized leather jacket. The jacket was something one of her crew had lifted a few weeks back, he'd given it to her because it was too small for him but it was still too big for her. At least it was warm.

Then someone stopped underneath her. Yeah, she was off the ground, sitting in a tree. Her back pressed against the trunk and one leg outstretched along the branch she sat on, one leg dangled but she was high enough not to be obvious. For a moment she considered tossing a rock or something from her pocket at the trespasser, but decided against it. Her throwing skills weren't particularly good, her angles were all wrong and pressure varied. Too much risk that she might do actual damage and she wasn't nasty enough for that. "Hey! Go find your own tree." Given that technically no one could own this tree she knew it was a void statement but she did want to see how the blonde would react.

[Lillith Morgan]

Honestly, Lillith had no idea that there was someone above her in the tree. Maybe she should have been a little more observant, it wasn't as if the tree even had leaves at this point. Though.... actually nah, she would have still picked the same tree to lean on had she known. It was a convenient place to enjoy the outdoors for a moment, even if she was freezing.

But the fact was she didn't realize, and she jumped visibly at hearing a woman's voice. What the hay?! Looking up, Lillith scowled at the person above her. She couldn't see much, just a shoe and a leg. Whoever it was was pretty gutsy though - go find her own tree? Hah! She didn't think so.

"Uh... excuse me? Last time I checked this was public property - I can rest anywhere I want, to thank you very much." Okay, so maybe she'd snapped juuuuuuust a little. But hey, it was their fault - and if they didn't like it they could go somewhere else.

Who was this woman anyway? Wanting to know who she was talking to, she shuffled around until she could better see who was up there. It wasn't much better, but it looked like some chick with red hair? The red hair wasn't hard to miss against the grey of the sky, and she wondered how she'd missed it before. "By the way, you know if you'd just kept quiet and not said anything," Lillith added, repeating her thoughts from a moment ago,"I was planning on moving on. It's damned cold out today."

The implied message was that she was not just going to move on someone's say-so. Maybe she would continue to enjoy the outdoors for a little while longer. It wasn't like she had anything else to go do, besides read - not with her store closed.

Speaking of the outdoors... a ruckus drew her attention back to the river for a moment. It looked like someone managed to break the ice, and everyone was scrambling to get away from the cracks. Idiots, they should have known it wasn't solid enough. She shook her head at the stupidity before turning her attention back to the woman up above.

((Hm. What do you think... build a backstory to them, or have this as a first-time run-in? I was thinking, might be interesting if maybe Lillith's run into Sita before... perhaps Sita stole from Lillith's bookstore before? I dunno, just a thought. xD ))

[Sita Verito]

Well, well. This one had her own claws, that was good. Sita merely smirked silently as she listened to the woman talking about her right to rest anywhere given the public property status. It was all true, after all Sita had only wanted to ruffle her feathers and they were indeed ruffled. Pressing her lips firmly together she stopped herself from laughing out right at the woman down below. What a reaction, how entirely entertaining, just what she'd been after. She hadn't even needed to cause any serious harm to someone, that was nice. People got a whole lot meaner if they were actually harmed, either that or they stopped talking at all and only pointed fingers of accusation. Not that she had a lot of experience in hurting people, she wasn't into hurting others, much.

This blonde woman was seriously getting her underwear in a twist because damn she wasn't willing to drop it. That was good, Sita wanted the entertainment and she liked that it had come so easily. "It is certainly cold out, I can see why you'd want to vacate the area. Run along, by all means." Sita said it in a bored fashion, like she wasn't at all interested or had even barely listened to the rant the blonde woman had just let out. She knew that usually frustrated people to no end, they didn't like it when they were interrupted and then ignored. Ah the little quirks of the Human personality. She had wiped her smirk off to say those words, looking bored and instead fiddling with a piece of bark she'd taken off the branch, like she really wasn't paying attention at all to the blonde.

Though her ears did pick up on the commotion elsewhere. Lifting her eyes, but not her head so as to appear disinterested in this as well, she noted the people scrambling off the cracking ice. "Idiots," She muttered under her breath before resuming her fixation on the bark in her hands. Memorizing the patterns on it, the depth of the grooves, the textures against the tips of her fingers as she ran them along the course surface. Now that one part of the ice had broken the rest would crumble to the pressure, the cracks would start small and deepen. Kind of like the bark as it had lived as a skin on the tree, the grooves slowly deepening before resulting in itself peeling off to allow a new layer to protect the tree.

((While interesting and normally I'd agree, Sita's not likely to have stolen from a bookstore. It's a place of learning after all and she tends to simply avoid those places.))

[Lillith Morgan]

((Alrighty. ^^ I wasn't sure, haha just mentioned it since I saw Sita likes to read.))

Oh, Lillith should run along, now should she? She didn't think so, nope not at all. "Run along? I don't think so, lady. Why don't you run along, if you're so eager to be alone? Right here is a lovely place, I think I'll just enjoy the scene those idiots down there are causing. Or maybe I'll read for a while, the fresh air will do me good." The nerve of that girl! Run along... as if! And even worse was how it didn't sound as if Lillith had gotten through to that girl one iota - or as if Lillith really didn't matter at all.

To prove her point, she plopped down onto the ground and pulled a small book from her purse. Pale Demon, read the cover. The series was one of her favorites of all time... there had been a new book due out next month, but she had no idea if that was still coming out or not. Most likely not, new books had mostly been put off indefinitely ever since the Collapse. Which was a real pity... she had soooo been looking forward to the newest!

Back to the moment... Studiously ignoring the girl, she opened the book and began to read. Or pretended like she was. More than anything she was trying not to shiver though. Whyyyyy was she staying here? If it wasn't for the fact that leaving now would make the girl up there think she'd won, she would have gone too.

But she was not going to let this girl think she'd won. Nope, not gonna happen at all. Not even if she had to freeze. Which was more and more likely as the minutes ticked on... did she mention it was freezing? The thick jacket she was wearing didn't seem to be doing anything to stop the cold.

[Sita Verito]

Still fiddling with the bark in her hand she smirked at it as the woman basically had a go at her for saying 'run along'. People were so predictable, and it was always an amusement. Would the woman risk hypothermia just to prove a point? Apparently she would given her sitting and pulling out a book. Sita kept that little smirk in place as she eyed the piece of bark in her hand while watching the blonde from the edges of her sight. She read the cover quickly but didn't know the book, though it sounded appropriate given the state of the world around them.

"You enjoy reading books like that in a world like this? Why don't you walk down the street more often, you'll get to live your book, at least until the demons kill you." Sita commented, her tone sounding casual and somewhat bored. It wouldn't matter to her if this woman did get killed, plenty of people were dying all the time. Dropping the piece of bark, purposefully to land on the pages of the book given her altitude, she glanced up at the sky and then across at the people who had so quickly scurried off the ice when it began to crack.

Lifting her hands she rubbed them on her cheeks, trying to bring back feeling there given they were going numb from the cold. Then she sighed and moved, gathering herself quickly and then swinging down from the branch and dropping neatly onto the ground. "Well at least I know you're Human, your reactions say as much." Which was exactly why she'd chosen all her words. She hadn't been doing it only for kicks, though it was amusing. Fae tended not to react in the same ways as Humans, and given how predictable Humanity could be it gave her a way of telling who was who.

Sweeping her eyes over the form of the blonde now that they were on a more suitable level she tilted her head, brushing back a few red bangs behind her ear. "You shouldn't sit there, the cold will travel better up your spine in that position regardless of the jacket, you could get yourself sick." She didn't meet the other girl's eyes when she said it, no point in doing that, instead she looked slightly to the left, at the ground more than at anything in particular. Sita didn't do nice often, this was about as close as she ever really got.

[Lillith Morgan]

Lillith scowled when out of nowhere a flaking piece of bark dropped onto the open pages of her book, leaving little bits on the page even after she'd flicked the piece off with a sigh. Did the woman seriously have to be obnoxious? Though at least she finally was able to look at who she was talking to without having to crane her neck towards the sky.

Oh, so now the woman was worried about Lillith, was she? Okay, so maybe she was acting a little foolish, but still. Really? Talk about hypocritical, one minute the woman was being a pain in the petunia - excuse her, ass - and then the next minute she's acting like she actually cares at all?

"Don't pretend like you care; besides, it's really not bad." That was completely a lie, but she wasn't going to admit to freezing her buns off. Besides, a cup of hot chocolate in a bit and she'd be right as rain. She supposed the comment was at least non-hostile, unlike everything else, but it didn't matter. This woman just had to get off on the wrong foot, and it was going to take more than one decent comment to erase the impression of being rude and annoying in Lillith's mind.

"By the way, what's it to you what I read? It's none of your business, and it's not hurting you any now is it? Just some good classic entertainment; I bet you don't even pick up a book now do you? Such a shame, maybe if people read more they'd be less stupid." Not that she was calling the woman stupid, not at all. That was just a generalization; it was such a pity that reading was a dying hobby by her generation. Since the collapse and the iffiness of electricity and internet, more people were actually picking up hardcopies of books, but still. E-readers should never have been invented.

"And more open-minded. The fae aren't demons, by any stretch of the imagination." Sure, there were the bad apples, but if people would just give the fae a break, half this mess wouldn't even be around. Everyone had been thrown into a bad situation, and the fae were no more to blame than anyone else here. In fact, Lillith was willing to bet they could learn a lot from each other, if only people would stop and try to get along peacefully.

This time giving in to a shiver, she closed the book and rubbed her hands together. If only there was something nearby she could bring over using her telekinesis. A battery-operated space heater maybe, or a nice steaming cup of hot chocolate? Maybe this was a stupid idea; she was tempted to just let her pride take a hit this once and walk away. Mother nature really needed to get with the program; why couldn't it be a nice and decently warm day?