[01.04.35, evening] Up In Smoke [Siba]

[Nalin ibu Avani]

It wasn't as if Nalin lost his sister on purpose. His avasha couldn't be too angry, could she? Padma just had the nerve to wander off while he was in the changing room. It wasn't his fault. Even if ava had wanted him to stay home with her and not go out at all, it still wasn't his fault. He needed new clothes before the New Year festival. Nobody could blame him. How old was she now, anyway? She was old enough to get around by herself, he knew that he had. But then again, Nalin at ten or twelve or fourteen never wandered off alone into anything nice.

He'd peeked over the edge to changing stall out into the clothing floor -- see, it's not like he'd been ignoring her favor slipping into new underthings -- she'd been there and then gone. Clever little thing! It was only after many long minutes of scampering around the clothing boutique to find nothing, nothing at all, aside from wonderful deals on new underwear in all sorts of eyepopping shades of gold and purple that he ignored, quite valiantly if he'd say so himself. She wasn't in the racks of sarongs, or hiding among all the filigree scarves. Padma was awfully talented, because Padma had disappeared.

The bored shopgirl claimed she hadn't seen the girl, but she'd had no problem lounging on the counter and watching him, cat-eyed, as he trundled around the store. "How 'bout you check under the shoes? She could be there?" the girl offered, huffing out a plume of smoke through her nose. Her tits were precariously balanced on the counter like melons for sale.

Nalin blinked up owlishly from the piles of tassled fabric, honey eyes big as saucers. What weird suggestion, he thought. She certainly couldn't be there. Padma was small, but she wasn't so small she could fit under a shoe -- oh. Ooooh.

That wasn't met with anything more than a face sour as a lemon and very dignified (if he said so himself) straightening of the back of his sarong. He stomped out of the store without buying a thing -- but not before saying thank you -- but his indignation was still -- his mild annoyance was -- perhaps he shouldn't have smiled a tad when he said it, but he hoped his disapproval was clear enough. People could look all they wanted, but it was so rude to say anything about it.

The clamorous noise of Zinzana blared beyond the doors, but it was familiar as breathing. People bustled about with their lovers or their friends or their kids. Finding Padma in all that would be impossible. The Sihabahu patrollers always spooked him so damn much! But Nalin guessed there was nothing he could do but face his fear -- if he didn't find Padma somehow, he face the wrath of Khidamuna herself! Or maybe just his avasha. Even still.

The closest one that he could see was posted on the corner. He dutifully shuffled his way down the street, scrubbing at his arms to scour off a layer of glitter. When he was under the wash of purple street lamp, his arms still shimmered from last night's club. He pouted openly at that. There goes looking like an untouched innocent.

Red curls bowed, boots scuffing the black pavement, Nalin gathered the courage to speak.

"Excuse me!" Nalin piped over the din. "Um, excuse me, Sihabahu-erha? Can you help me? I...I, like, lost somethin' kinda important. Really really important, even."

[Siba Suriyanaa]

Siba looked down to see who was hailing her. This was ridiculous, she was just a junior patroller, but the unit had been on general quarters for the day, meaning everyone was at max capacity for watch. Meaning that she wasn't able to swim today, after not having been able to for months and months! But of course, Aunt Isyani didn't care and patrolling was good for character anyway and-

She finally got a good look at the boy. Oh geez, bad idea. She prayed a silent thank you for her uniform's helmet, or else the Danava would have seen the blush that washed her face. She could only hope steam wasn't coming out of the visor.

Geez, this boy was gorgeous! She couldn't describe how pretty he was, his darling auburn curls, his huge amber eyes, the innocent expression on his face. Even the glitter on his body served to make his beauty even more otherworldy. Like if the Crow had been reborn and now stood in front of her.

She couldn't talk for a few moments, she just stared, once again, thankful that the polarized glass of her helmet was keeping her eyes hidden as she took in every soft, sparkling detail of him. Finally, after she rested control of her brain from her basest desires, she was able to ask "what is it, exactly, that you have lost?" She prayed she had kept it professional, and not like some slack jawed boy crazy dweeb.

[Nalin ibu Avani]

"Like...my sister. Y'know, I was just trying on clothes, and she was out in the store, and she'd been being good and not fussin' with anything, but I try on this new sarong-thing but it was way too small and I couldn't even tie it so I spent for-ev-er like fussing with it and stuff? Then I peek out to check on her and she is just gone! She's no place in the store. And so I'm all, 'where is she?' and I look for her, and she isn't nowhere. If I don't find her, my avasha is gonna slap me so hard her feet is gonna come off the ground, and then she's gonna slap me again. So could you help me? I don't wanna get smacked or anything and I don't want her to get hurt or whatever."

Zinzana -- especially this part -- was choked with nastiness. Ralasi nastiness. Ralasi nastiness probably didn't mind too much about hurting little Danava girls. It felt like there was a huge chunk of ice in his stomach, not melting away completely, just melting all the time. Nalin was clearly worried beyond the prospect of getting slapped around a little. Getting slapped around a little was survivable.

"So...so...can you help me, or somethin'? It's okay if you don't wanna, I mean, I guess you have other stuff to do, but...um....yeah. She is so gone an' I don't want her to get hurt or anythin'. She's like...ten...and about as tall your...uh." Nalin's gaze fluttered down from the Sihabahu's helmeted face down to her hips, her legs -- oh Khidamuna, she was so tall it made his knees hurt just looking at those legs. "...tall as your hip, maybe. And...and...she's real brown," he added, waving his sparkly arm in the lamplight, "like me, and she has real long red hair."

Nalin glanced around the crush of people milling around them. She could be anybody, by that description. Oh well, oh well. It was the best he could do. He sidled closer, fiddling nervously with the edge of his sarong.

"You can like...hear her with your special ears, or somethin'? People tell me Sihabahu are special, so....so, like, I'm guessin' you're special too, Sihabahu-erha," he added, bobbing into a little bow.

[Siba Suriyanaa]

As soon as she heard the boy had lost his sister, she snapped back to reality. This wasn't some worthless watch like gawking at the strippers over at Milk and Water with her sisters. The Danava needed her help. She did her best to focus on what she'd been told, and not just who was telling her. She tried to look above the boy, which should have by all rights been laughably easy for someone of her stature, but no, her traitorous eyes kept coming back to him, back to his little dimpled cheeks and plump little hands ringing the front of his sarong and-

Focus! Little girl, brown, coming up to her hip, long red hair... that description was useless. "I... think I'll need more to help you." She took a moment to actually register who the boy was and not just stare. Hmmm, Danava number 611744, clean criminal record, works as a trash collector and...

Of course he'd work at Milk and Water, looking like that. Too young to be a dancer though... Siba's mind wandered, thinking of the little thing in one of that bar's ridiculously revealing uniforms, serving drinks and smiling and...

"Do you have anything that she owns, 611744? My hearing is useless since I don't know how she sounds, but smell is better for tracking anyway." Her enhanced smell was currently causing her so much trouble, the heady smell of the Danava's perfume wafting in front of her, almost teasing her. Siba hated general quarters. This kind of thing never happened on regular duty.

[Nalin ibu Avani]

“It is?" This had been a foreign concept to him as of two seconds ago, it seemed. "Huh. I guess...that makes sense...” Nalin peered up at her in that way that suggested a person was thinking very, very hard. Furrowed his brows, yellow eyes narrowed. “I mean. I guess you don’t know what she’d sound li—wait.”

Epiphanies, that’s what these were called.

“How can you smell her? She don’t like, stink or anythin’. My ava made me give ‘er a bath this morning, so she’ll jus’ smell like soap or whatever.” True remorse and true incredulity were there – the kind of a-ha! moment only had by people who believed mostly everything. “I’m sure lots of people use soap. So I don’t see how she’d smell any different than anybody else, Sihabahu-erha.”

Even as he spoke, Nalin was tugging a cherry colored hair tie off his wrist. Maybe he shouldn’t be telling a patroller that their logic wasn’t quite clicking, but he was truly just trying to help in any way he could. Even if that was defending the fact that his sister did not smell to the stars. Because she didn’t. Padma smelled perfectly fine, thank you.

“Um. Here.” Nalin reached up high as he could, holding the hair tie out towards the patroller’s face. ...then rocked up on the tiptoes of his boots, because his little arms didn’t feel quite substantial enough. This lady was a monolith. “It’s her hair thing. I guess...I guess it would smell like her head, or somethin’,” he offered helpfully.

[Siba Suriyanaa]

Siba hadn't thought of how her comment would be taken, but honestly, she hadn't expected the danava boy to take it like that! "Oh no, it doesn't mean anything like that!" she said, bringing her hands up quickly. "It's like... well... everyone doesn't smell the same, everyone smells different. It's like with voices or noses, I guess. It's like... different frequencies, it's like sound, how you can tune a certain string to the same tone but different octaves, or sharpen or flatten it, and the smell's like a chord that's made from a lot of different tones at once and..." Siba was never too good at explaining things. She blushed again and fell silent. "Well, it's like you say, we Sihabahu are special." She shrugged and took the little hair tie.

Opening her visor just enough to put it too her nose, she inhaled deeply and focused on her tracking training. One deep breath first, hold the scent in the cavity. Her unit's particular sense platform was meant for patrolling the Ghetto, where there were many smells. It wasn't particularly powerful, like the dogblood's gear, but it had three different organic chemical sensers that didn't even naturally exist, and they'd literally cut up the inside of her nasal cavity so it had a much greater surface area on the inside. She was practically able to see with her scent. But it took concentration to not get overwhelmed by it.

A few more deep breaths, now she focused on knocking out obvious scents. That's an eggplant curry from last night. That's the cute danava boy's perfume. Hmm, a little oil from her hair, that could be useful. That's... aha! Spit! Spit was perfect, each person's breath was practically a fingerprint! Hmmm, this girl seemed to like sweets, there was the sharp tang of those little orange swirls she sometimes bought when she was off duty.

"I think I've got her scent. Umm... you should also probably tell her to not suck on things she keeps in her hair."

[Nalin ibu Avani]

"Huh?"

Nalin's already too pretty face slipped into an expression that somehow rendered it even sweeter. Wide eyes wider, plump lips slightly open, head tilted just so that the slinking curls framing his face fell becomingly across his cheeks. She was talking so much, using all those heavy words. Sihabahu certainly were special, oh Khida. Maybe she was just trying to confuse him all to pieces.

"She...like, candy or whatever? Well. Well. It's sticky after you get to lickin' on it and stuff. And sometimes you can forget you're holding it or whatever, and it can stick all over your hair. Happens to everybody, once or twice," Nali protested on Padma's behalf. He sounded so hurt, faintly petulant, but all in all just trying to be reasonable here. No matter what, though, this Sihabahu could smell her! That was good, better than good.

"You've got her scent, though? Really?" he piped, rocking up on his toes in sheer delight. "Does this mean you can find her? Aww, damn...aw, Khidamuna! Thank ya so much, Sihabahu-erha!" Oh, the boy positively beamed. The kind of megawatt smile that made old ladies question their entire romantic history. Nali hesitated before he slowly, cautiously reached out to take back Padma's hair tie. It was firmly snugged in patroller's fist, however, so he settled for awkwardly skittering his fingers over her gloved hand, tugged pointedly at the hairtie.

[Siba Suriyanaa]

Core temperature rising.... Yeah, Siba didn't need her helmet's heads up display to tell her she was blushing so hard that she was steaming her cornrows. How... how was it possible for anyone to look so sweet an innocent? Those eyes... those lips, the way he tilted his head... NO! Damnit Siba, this is what they warned about! He was a Danava, you do your duty and that's it! You don't get involved with him in any way, you have the scent now go find the-

Oh Pujehr help her he was TOUCHING HER! Those soft, plump little fingers made there way up her giant club fists and started to sneak there way into the cracks of her fingers at the hair tie... it was too much. Her mind momentarily forgot her face was being covered up by her helmet, and with a small yelp, tried to hide her blush with her hands. Of course, even after just getting off her therapy, her muscles twanged responsively, and lifted her hands and all loads attached to them upwards. This also included the little Danava boy, who discovered the other side effect of Siba's low impact therapy. Which was to say, her breasts. A startled "Eeeep!" escaped her lips as her core temperature counter ticked ever upwards.

[Nalin ibu Avani]

If it had been anybody else, in any other situation, Nalin would have flailed, bucked, kicked. But she wasn't anybody else. She was Sihabahu patroller, so all he could was squeak and go limp. This was it, then. He wasn't even quite sure what atrocity he'd committed, but he was quite certain that in the next instant he'd be vaporized. Ionized. Cauterized, a crispy critter.

Ai ya, Khidamuna! There was so much he had to live for. The girl at the fish cafe was starting to write him cute notes on his napkins, he'd be legal in two years, he'd be a dancer, he was making his ava money to buy amrita, and oh for the love of every nice piece of clothing he owned, Padma would never be found. If this patroller didn't quite kill him, his avasha certainly wouldn't hesitate to stomp his face in.

So Nalin was suspended in air, wincing into himself like a snail-thing back into its shell, patiently waiting to die.

He was almost a little annoyed when he didn't. How anti-climactic. The coarse drag of the patroller's kevlar vest against cheek and her shrill little squeak made Nali flutter his eyes open just enough to glower up at her. Scaring him like that! Horrid woman.

"Ai-ya, Khida!" he growled; it was a little cat's growl, the kind the promised annoyed little nips. "Put me down! Put me down! You're hurtin' my wrist!"

[Siba Suriyanaa]

Siba dropped the poor boy as soon as the protests started. Well, way to go, Siba. Very professional. Ugh, what if any of her unit sisters were here to see this? She'd be called Kuma for the rest of her days. No, shut up. You have a duty to do, you know how to do it. Ignore the Danava, why should you care what he thinks of you?

She took a few steadying breaths, face safely hid behind her helmet. "Any move you make at me, I have to register as a threat, Danava. Next time, ask what you want and I'll give it to you." It hurt her to say the next part, but she knew that she had to stay in charge. If any of the boy's friends were around, this could become an episode and she had to make sure he'd stay obedient. Leaning over the boy, making her full heart apparent, she forced herself to say, "and if you make any other move towards me like that again, I'll do more than just squeeze your wrist a little." She'd heard her superiors say far worse things to Danava who touched them, seen them do far worse things, but she had a feeling that was all she needed to do for this one to stay in line. She gently gave him back the little hair tie, letting her big hands linger on his delicate ones. So soft... even through her partially armored gloves, she could feel them.

"Now come on, before yours sister's scent is too cold to follow. Take me to where you saw her last."

[Nalin ibu Avani]

What he wanted to say was, 'You shouldn't go feelin' up my hands like some kinda Crow-lover', because that was so hypocritical and stupid, oh Khida I mean seriously, for her to be able to linger all over his hands like that when he couldn't even take back his sister's hair tie. He settled for scowling at them instead.

"Yes, Sihabahu-erha," Nalin muttered. This was so...not fair. He just wanted to get Padma back, and now this patroller was threatening him all over the place and --

Another boy Nalin's age might have mouthed off to that. Dared her to do it, taken it out of pride. Let all the people in the street see. But Nalin turned on his heel and started in a beeline shuffle back towards the clothing store, all in silence. Avuri, avuri, avuri, he thought. He thought of his ava all curled up on their divan in her amrita mumbling some about min-Radhi this and min-Radhi that, even still.

This was becoming distinctly less excited and more upsetting.

The trail was swift, he hadn't gone far. Weaving back through all the racks of colorful clothes he couldn't even appreciate this time around. The shop girl with her melon breasts gazed on, owlish and vaguely terrified, over the edge of her magazine.

Nalin pointed sullenly at the racks and racks of sarongs, of unmentionable underthings, and the thinly veiled changing units snugged against them.

"I was tryin' on some new stuff t'buy and when I came out she was...yeah."

Just yeah.

[Siba Suriyanaa]

Nalin's look did not escape the Sihabahu's look. She felt sick of the way she had acted. Looking down at her hands as she followed him, she winced a bit at the memory of her recent behavior. Why did she linger like that? Was she getting worse? She knew she was... easily distracted, but things didn't seem to have improved. She admitted, she had not been on patrol for a while, but still. That wasn't only unbecoming behavior for a patroller, it was shameful. She took a deep breath. She pulled her weight in the unit, she knew her job. But she kept thinking that if she could not learn to discipline herself, she would soon become a liability. Soon, she'd be the warning that was given to younger Zinzana patrollers. And that would forever be a brand on her unit. Still, at least now, she knew what to do.

The sharp sweet scent of her target's saliva was still fresh in the air. The danava was right, it had not been too long ago. She lingered around, smelling the whole of the place, pinpointing where it was going to. Finally catching the strongest whiff, an almost visible thread of smell, she started out of the little boutique and into the street again, her long legs moving with a purpose. "Come on, I caught her scent! She can't be too far, it's still quite strong!" She momentarily glanced back to see if the little danava boy was following her.

This was where she felt better. Purpose was firmly in her head. When she was completing a task, she was not distracted. With a goal in sight, she could do what she knew her goal to be.

[Nalin ibu Avani]

"Ah --! Wait, Sihabahu-erha!" Nalin did his very best to keep up with her. Everything about her was huge, and everything about him was so petite. Little legs weren't very good competition. Out on the street again, threading through droves of bodies and ware stalls, jostled around like a very flustered pinball.

Fondling his hands, scaring the piss out of him -- those were all forgivable, more or less. But making him run? Making him look like a total and utter jerkass in front of everyone? Oh, oh...Ravi, Thalia, or Anish, anyone of them could be witnessing this.

A thousand times, that patroller girl was damned and damnable.

"Sihabahu-erha! Please slow down!" he called, a touch petulant. "I'm sure isn't gonna...if you come all up on her like a bullet train she's gonna get scared!"

[Siba Suriyanaa]

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!" Siba wasn't sure where that came from, but she had felt something growing inside her this entire time. Distaste for her own behavior, anger at the contempt this Danava held her in. It all came out at once. "I DO THIS JOB EVERY DAMN DAY! IT'S ONE OF THE FEW THINGS I'M PROUD OF! I LIKE DOING THIS! AND I REALIZE I FUCKED UP, OKAY!" People were staring. She finally slowed down. She looked down at the boy, through her visor, just taking him in. He was lovely, but she didn't care right now. She bent down, brought her helmet low. She didn't care how it looked, they could stare at her. She could break any man or woman on the street with a flick of her arm. She was strong, she knew this. This was the job she was meant to do, and this Danava boy would understand that.

"Listen to me." Her voice was low and even. "I will find your sister. I'll make sure she's safe. She will not see me. She doesn't have to and I KNOW she would be scared of me." She turned her head and smelled it. It was the same smell... and a smell so similar to the Danava too. She pinpointed it, confirmed it, heard the voice of a little girl laughing. "She's in the alley way over there." She pointed with one of her great arms. "Go find her. Take her back to her house. Don't lose her again. If I'd ever lost one of my sisters on a patrol..." She looked down at him. "I'd be ashamed of myself forever. I would let my hair grow and I would never wear this uniform again because I failed them. Please take better care of your sister. If you need me, I'll be back at my post."

So saying, she strode away from him, praying she would never have to see him again. She had to be stronger, for herself and her unit. Sweet Pujehr, she hated general quarters.

[Nalin ibu Avani]

Did he cringe? Did he squeak? Of course he did, how could he not when some massive Sihabahu was shouting in his face. She was going to bore a lazer through his finger tips, bat him around the face with that electrocute-y baton at her hip, crush the bones in his arm in one second. To make an example of him for the people on the street -- one of those big the Sihabahu are not a force to be fucked with things her brothers and sisters got up to. Kicking people in the shins, calling nasty things, flipping up the back of his sarong with their electrocution bats while he was waiting for the stupid maglev bus.

Sabiya killer! he wanted to spit. Crow fucker! Kuma, Kuma, Kuma! A storm of hot words boiled on his tongue, but he said none of them. Just huddled down into himself, just scowled at his boots, just clenched his useless little fists. When she finally stalked away, Nalin spat on the pavement where she'd stood moments before. She could hear that, he knew. Could smell it. She couldn't taste his spit from there, no matter how much she probably wanted to. He glowered at his hands where she'd touched him, rubbed at his face where she'd hauled him against her tits. His hands drifted down to the high hem of his sarong, and he tugged it down fitfully.

That's what happens when you scamper about dressed like the slut you're so set on being, avasha would hiss.

Nalin stomped off to go find Padma. People stared, he stared back. A few spat insults and dirty gestures later, Nalin had threaded through the Katra Market crowd to the lip of the alley the patroller had noted. And Padma was there, of course she was, sitting on metal steps of a fire escape with handful of older girls, and their little sisters too. Busying herself with fixing another little girl's braids and not caring about the rotten world one bit.

After a coy chrous of 'Sa'eeda, Nali-shuri's and plumped out breasts from the girls his age, he mumbled something along the lines of 'Ava says we gotta go home'. Padma's expression darkened, but she slid up off the step without a protest and tottered over to his side.

"You look sad."

"I'm not...I'm not sad," he shot back. "I'm not anything."

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