Blind Dates: Ren Brokk and Piao Bai

[Brokk]

"Yeah, but..."

Ren struggled to find the words to describe what she was thinking. This all looked nice, but take away the gears and it could not be. Never try to con a conman, it was said, and she knew a con when she saw one. But this...this was bigger than anything she'd ever done. They were conning the land into doing something it didn't want to do; something it wouldn't have done otherwise. It was both amazing and mind-bogglingly terrifying all at once. All of this, put together by mages and gnomes who swore blind that they knew exactly what they were doing and how nothing could ever go wrong, not really. Was that what all the others had thought? The magisters and the wizards and even the Changers themselves? Playing hoopaloo with the world, full certain that nothing would surprise them? She trailed her fingers through the water, looking pensive.

"I suppose, you're right," she said. "Maybe that is enough."

Maybe this time the price would not be so high. She was unconvinced, but frankly she'd had enough of this wistful nonsense for one evening. Too much thinking rotted the brain, that was her motto. Did she get where she was by thinking about it? Of course not. Open eyes, open mind, well-soled boots; that was how you survived. Yeah, they'd be fine here, and if they weren't then, hell, she'd be long gone at the first sniff of trouble. She was very good at that. She cast a sidelong glance at Piao Bai, standing there all bestbehaviour and wide eyed wonder, and grinned artfully.

"Want to steal some expensive flowers while we're here? I was going to suggest nabbing a songbird or two, but I don't think they'd let us bring those in the restaurant."

[Long Piao Bai]

Piao Bai sat back, resting his hands on his thighs. He regarded Ren thoughtfully and quietly, with his steady, golden gaze, thinking about her suggestion.

Slowly, he shook his head no.

"I suspect each thing has its purpose in this place. Let's leave it as we found it. There is balance here." Then, her pursed his lips. A slow grin appeared.

"Or, we could swim in the pond"

[Metarie]

Hihi closing this thread.

I've been struggling with the posts.