AU: New Age

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The second the job was done - her hands being free - the shorter weapon in her hand was almost immediately sheathed again. Far be it for herself to openly wander the city harbouring obvious weaponry in her hands, much less in the presence of someone she was trying to prove she wasn't intent on killing. For herself and the inevitable mass of people she would walk by.

A disconnect was made again, and Lucy forcibly raised her hand as far away as she could. She had no intention of making contact with someone who was so openly against it, no matter how helpful it could have become in growing hours. Or minutes.

"Eyes forward." Lucy offered then. Because it only took a few more paces before they were confronted by a series of burly bodies lining the wall at either side. The very people she had dismissed might have left the room, but they hadn't strayed far. She herself didn't stop, walking a bare pace behind the individual everyone had the intention of staring at. It mightn't have offered comfort, but that closeness existed for an imperative reason all the same.

"I will take her on my own." She added, like a statement rather than a direct order. It was information for someone far above his head; the very person who would know she had made this decision the second the sea of bystanders parted for two series of footsteps instead of eight.

A slight push, bare in its placement as she seemed to almost rest her hand against her shoulder, if only to continue directing her forward despite the way she fought before.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The men who had been with her as she entered hadn't strayed far. She did her best not to stall in her footing upon seeing them. The threat of death hardly affected Penny, but she was very much afraid of pain - after all, she was only human. And while she didn't like to be told how to act or even where to look, she took the advice given to her. Eyes front rather than those that stared at her.

It was so strange to be stared at, rather than looked through. She quickly determined she preferred the latter of the options if the choice was available.

Penny wasn't sure if this woman was brave or stupid. Even her own people wouldn't have left a single person with a grounder; and despite how small she herself was, so was she. Hands free, she could have put up a fight if she wanted to. Or perhaps, it was simply because this woman knew she had no interest in raising a closed fist with the intention of fighting.

So she kept walking with careful, precise footing. Even when a palm pressed to her shoulder, she barely needed the guidance. Yet she didn't move from the contact; with the men that surrounded her, that hand was ironically comforting.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Simple directions were the kind Lucy offered. The second they were free of those eyes, her own hand still remained where it was. It she couldn't hold her by the arm, she could at least try to lead in a more respectful way. She had a life in her hand now, and it was worth taking seriously from every available aspect.

Especially when they stepped into the heart of the city. Though bustling, I was still incredibly true to form. It was loud even when people knew an outsider waked amongst them. Eyes turned and people worked to quickly keep their distance, but no one felt daring enough to get in the way. It seemed as if things would remain clear that way until they left the city.

And she was right. Out of the readily watchful eyes of the towered concept of their Heda and finally, unsurprisingly, there were a set of steps willing to follow at a known distance.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

As they walked through the city, Penny could feel the growing sets of eyes that landed on her. A range of emotions from all directions. Hate - so much hate. But there was curiosity, too. Anger. Fear. All of which put a kick in her pulse. It made the desire to walk faster more prominent than ever, yet with a guiding hand and a cleared path, she kept up her steady footing.

Though once they had finally left the city limits - past the border that banned outside weapons - it was only a matter of time before two steps of feet sounded like three. Even she knew they were being followed. For such, Penny slowed her pace, coming up to a halt but still looking forward.

Her lips pursed as she glanced back at the person guiding her, eyebrows raising. She herself was unarmed - and she was there for her apparent protection. There was little she could do now.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The lack of city limits could provide both a comfort and an unwelcome awakening. Weapons were completely allowed and likely suggested for any kind of travel through here. Through the entirety of the woods as it was known. There, Lucy had her attention flagged by the way she stopped her footing before she could direct it.

When a set of eyes caught her own, she rolled her own almost harshly. It was frustrating to be here now. It was exasperating in its own way. She had her own name here, and it wasn't the kind to be followed unnecessarily.

She swung her arm around that set of unfamiliar shoulders, her attention drawn to the single person who carried a knife from before the walls where they were disallowed.

"This is not fair." It was always the way this started.

And Lucy fought; "No."

"Hundreds of our people died."

"No."

"My-" There was always someone important. Always a name and a reason and as such, a cause. "You have to let me."

It was always the way. And it was always by way of wayward men. "Jomp em op en yu jomp ai op." And while she knew she didn't need to be specific after that, she also had to harbour some kind of understanding for the hardship of those who had lost someone. "So leave. Or you die. There are no other options."

And he did. Eventually. The colder kind of stand off was almost harsh within itself, but at least it had worked. She let her go the she felt proper freedom.

"And you wanted to go alone." Lucy offered her, adding a nudge to her shoulder for good measure.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Though the location of her camp was not unknown to these people, leading those that followed her to it did not seem like a strategically sound idea. So she stopped, and so she rolled her eyes. For someone so intent on being the morally better person here, she looked annoyed for having to go through the trouble.

The man made himself known, and again Penny found her personal space cut through. This time with an arm wrapping around her shoulders. She tried her best not to look as if it bothered her - this woman was protecting her, after all.

She'd seen - as well as she could, from an outsider's perspective - peace within the city walls, but violence was so prominent in this culture, too. Yet here they were, talking it out. She could practically hear the pain in his voice as he wished for vengeance for those that he had lost. For those that she did not kill.

Foreign words caught her attention, and while she couldn't grasp their entire meaning, within context there was something to hold onto. Something to store in the back of her mind when trying to piece together this new language.

Finally, he backed away, and she was released. She almost seemed smug about the peaceful victory, and for that it was Penny's turn to roll her eyes. "Jus drein jus daun." She spoke boldly. She'd heard it a hundred times by now. "Your people live by that." She still had yet to fully understand how she herself was still standing based on their record.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Familiar words from an unfamiliar tongue had her prepared to laugh, but Lucy kept it to herself this time. Now was not the time to mock a proverbial foreigner for using such a language, especially when it was only to try to make a point.

"I was not aware that you frequented villages with guns." She replied, but she was grinning in her own way. It was a sad event that took place more than once, and she shouldn't have been joking about it by any means, but that was not the reason for her humoured nature. "Or protective forces. Or hundreds of people inside a mountain. Or outside a dropship." Massacres, but they all had a point to this particular conversation; "Or perhaps just the singular people you find in the woods. Are they the people you kill?"

Because she was still standing, and while war had tarnished a great number of the people who looked the way she did, she didn't carry quite the same edge. After all, she herself was still standing. "I doubt you killed his; whoever." She didn't invest enough to know the answer to who, "If he has the nerve, he can find whoever did instead. Surprisingly, there is no real comfort in a figurehead death."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny had never killed another individual. The more time that had passed on the ground, the more she was starting to believe it was a rarity for anyone to have gone so long without doing so. Perhaps it put her in a different bracket than others, or - more likely - it simply meant she had little interest in being apart of any of this at all.

It was so strange to hear such a sophisticated concept come out of foreign lips. She had to wonder just who this woman was because she certainly proved she was more than a mere warrior like the most of them were. Strong, yet there was something behind those dark eyes that she didn't see in anyone else.

So her lips pursed and continued forward, but the direction she headed towards wasn't her camp.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Natural progression would have easily called for an argument between them. Though they had rarely spoken, the first instance had been something of a banter within itself. Now they were where they were, with Lucy arguing for her life over how she could have let a person take it without cause. There must have been safety in that, surely.

But there was little to no safety in the way she started walking in a different direction. Not back to Polis, and certainly not in the direction of her own supposed home. Lucy knew the way we'll enough to know that.

She stopped in her movements, feet firmly planted stagnant on he ground.

"Not this again." She forced out. The secret. The place. The thing worth dying for. "If you would rather get rid of my company, go home. Where I can leave you." Anything else meant she had to follow in turn.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

When there wasn't the sound of an additional set of feet following her, Penny still kept up the beginnings of her walk away from both the city of the grounders and the city of her supposed own people. She knew the way from here, and it wasn't until a strained voice called out did she stall, even going as far as turning to look back on the person sent to escort her to a different destination.

"You should know that the moment you bring me to the border, I will leave it again." If not immediately, than only shortly thereafter. "There's no point in bringing me there if I won't stay." She shrugged her shoulders, fingers curling around the zip of her jacket as she dragged it off. The clothes that were practically the flag of the Sky People.

She tossed it to the ground. "Does this make it better?" She question, though she knew the answer. Taking off a layer didn't make her look any less like an outsider. Modern clothes still clung to her figure. "You don't have to follow me." Penny stated finally and started walking again.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Initially Lucy watched the fact that she hadn't stopped. They were part way through a conversation, so at the very least she hoped they wouldn't get completely cut off from that. She might linger long enough to give some kind of snarky reaction, but she was concerned over the fact that it would just draw in her in even more. She had a job to do - one she had taken on her own over the help of others - and she had to get it done.

Apparently it didn't make sense. There was a numb sense of an explanation handed to her, and she almost rolled her eyes again. It was true enough that they weren't the most adept people at conversing when it was like this.

And then she was taking a jacket off. Lucy watched the way it fell, but never followed it to the floor. There was a tight, thin and unarmoured layer beneath that ridiculously alarming jacket. She stared, if only briefly. Because she still did it all the same.

"No." She retorted, perhaps a little too quickly for her own good. It didn't make it better at all. It had the armed individual in the pair making fast steps to catch up to her, knocking down long enough to hook fingers around the jacket she'd dropped. It could only grow worse if this thing was found on the ground so close to the border without an owner in sight. "And yes I do."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Briefly, she had lost eye contact with the woman who was so intent to bring her back home. Penny squared her shoulders as she quickly realized just where her eye contact had gone. Not to the jacket, but what was revealed underneath. She had no armor. Barely any layers at all. A simple, thin shirt that couldn't even keep out the weather.

It was why she picked up her pace; she was very quickly reminded of the first time she met this woman. This time, Penny was the first to roll her eyes as she tilted her head towards the person that was so intent on following her. She doubted anyone else would have gone though so much trouble to return her to her camp.

But she kept walking regardless. Determined to get to her destination. It was her choice to follow. "I'll be fine." She retorted. Where she was going, even Penny could tell it was a secure location. The only reason she found it it herself was because she had accidentally stumbled across it.

"Why does it matter where you drop me off? I'm not a child."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

For Lucy, she could only assume her staring was left in the dark. It hadn't been directly questioned; it was as it was, and now she was walking away. So as she tried to catch up, she briefly let her attention wander for a second time. Because at least this time, there was a low likelihood of getting caught.

But she was persistent to catch her, frustrated as she was by the fact that she still wasn't understood.

"I have to obey the order given." She explained, sounding as exasperated as she was for the fact that this clearly wasn't something she seemed to grasp. She could have very easily lied about the fact, but she could hardly see herself doing as such in the eyes of the proverbial commander. That was ridiculous. "The so called truce is so thin as it is. You going missing is not something I am prepared to die for."

So she followed. She walked alongside her. Because she knew exactly where they were going, too.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

It hadn't taken much for her to catch up with Penny, and though she spoke boldly, she wasn't trying to actively run away from this woman. Still, she kept her pace up. Her eyes forward despite the strange urge she had to look at her as she spoke. Instead, she let out a short, sharp breath.

"I doubt anyone has noticed I'm missing at all." Penny pointed out dryly. Though she managed to survive with the others from the Ark, she was often overlooked. It was something she'd grown used to over the years she lived in the sky; on the ground it was no different. Except now, of course, there was one particular set of eyes on her more and more often.

"Let me get what I need, then I will let you take me home." She explained then, because apparently it was the only way to get her off her back. "You can run back to your commander after." Penny wanted to shake her head at the thought. "But you won't tell anyone about this place."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"That is not a risk I am willing to take." Lucy replied quickly. Because really, that was the entire point of it all. Any one person could have found her in these woods on her own and ended her life without cause or care or interest.

And it seemed reasonable. Or perhaps she had figured out that arguing with a grounder was practically impossible. Lucy felt the rush of winning this fight, and it took no effort from her hands in the slightest. Running back to her commander was a fair enough comment to make, and Lucy took it as fact. Because it was fact, even if she wasn't entirely looking forward to it.

"Why would I tell anyone?" She asked, shrugging her shoulders, "If no one knows, no one else can find you. And I will always know how to."