Jaq made her way towards the gates carefully. Evening was coming on, and it was best to pay attention to where one stepped or else one could end up breaking something. Or worse.

The circus wasn't too far from some of the wick encampments, but she wasn't interested in playing cards or having a drink. She was on a mission, and it was an easy one at that: get to Mulm's, speak to Catarina ("I'm happy and I'm free."), get Sarinah's stuff and go home.

Jaqueline thought as she walked. She'd donned a ragged appearance on purpose. Granted, she wasn't too tattered, but she obviously wasn't up and coming. With no field, it should be obvious she wasn't a wick. She was merely a weary traveler returning home. Or maybe coming back from making a delivery to the circus? After all, circus folk have to eat. The thought of food made the girl's stomach gurgle a little. "Hush, you!" she whispered. The last thing she needed was to look bedraggled AND starved. Hopefully, if she appealed enough, the guards would allow her entry. It was getting out that would be the issue. She'd deal with that when the time came, though. Perhaps there would be something of Sarinah's to help aid in a transition...

Finally, Jaq reached the gates. They were quiet and appeared empty; doubtful the damn gollies would leave 'em unattended, what with all the angry wicks layin about outside. There has to be somebody here somewhere.

"Um, hello? Is, ah, is there anyone here? I seek permission to enter the city, please."

A bored looking guard gave Jaq a slow look up and down.

"You planning on starting something?" He asked, wondering what she was doing wandering about in the evening outside the city. "If you're one of those sympathisers you can turn on your heel right now."

The man drew himself up to his full height which, being a galdor, wasn't particularly high. He looked grumpy and slightly overstuffed but more importantly he also looked apathetic. He didn't really care whether she went into Vienda or not, he just felt like bothering someone smaller than him for a change.

Jaq shook her head. "I ain't a sympathiser. I'm a delivery girl who's finished her delivery and wants back in. I don't get paid to stand at gates all day and debate the reason of my being there. So if'n ye don't mind, I'd like to return to work and see what all else needs doin' before I get fired, or worse."

With one hand on her hip, the girl scratched at her hair. The wig was begining to get itchy. "What would a sympathiser be doin' outside the city anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to protest at the palace?"

The guard look disgruntled and fairly resigned.

"You can keep your lip, young miss." He said dryly. "More than enough protestors have been by the gates today trying to make a statement. There aren't enough of us out here to keep the peace on the outskirts as there is by the palace."

He sighed loudly.

"In you go, you shouldn't be tarrying with so many ne'er do wells about this time of night." He waved his hand about indicating she go through the gate. "If I were you I'd be quitting any job that made me go near those two rioting tribes."

He straightened and looked ahead again, ignoring Jaq and seeming to quietly hate the ground before him.

"They ain't so bad if'n you're bringin about their dinner," Jaq replied as she passed. The guard wasn't paying her any more mind, and frankly she'd achieved her goal. Now it was a matter of making it to Mulm's.

The girl kept to the side of the streets, her head down and posture suggesting someone who wanted no trouble whatsoever, just in case somebody had the slightest thought that she really did. Jaq had been to Mulm's back when it was Cooks--only once, and only long enough to realize what exactly it was and make her way hastily in the opposite direction. She'd heard stories of girls who voluntarily went to work there, and she'd also heard stories of girls who went in to do someone a favor and somehow or another never quite made it back out.

Standing before the building now, it didn't seem quite as scary as before when she didn't really have anyone worrying about her safe return. But Sarinah and Tristaan know I'm here, and if something somehow did go wrong...Jaq straightened herself and went inside.

It was warm. Very warm. Steamed vegitables warm. Quite the contrast of the cooling evening outside. Girls were everywhere, as were men with leering faces. It took quite a bit of control for Jaq to not cross her arms in front of her chest, just in case. Looking around, she saw a few girls leaning against what could have been a bar as equally as it could have been a low table. Approaching carefully, yet purposefully, she gave a slight wave and a cough. "Hello, I, uh, I'm looking for Catarina. Is she around?"

The girls perked up when they saw Jaq actively addressing them. They were all quite pretty, though their beauty was partly obscured by the somewhat garish makeup they were wearing. The nearest smiled and shrugged her shoulders, black curls falling forward across her collar bone.

"Sorry about the clown faces doll, it's some sort of new fad. Apparently men find it attractive..." She smiled, eyes rolling and her face reddening a little.

Another woman, a curvy brunette, next to her elbowed her.

"You have to stop saying that to everyone that sees you. She didn't even mention it, she asked about Catarina!" The brunette huffed and turned to address Jaq. "She's with a, uh, client but she oughta be out in a moment."

A blonde to their right snorted. "She's with Huberto, she'll be out in half a moment."

The other two women gave her a dirty look.

"Oh please, it's true." She said with flick of her wrist. "Look, kid, how about we take you out back and away from the nasty punters. We have a tea room you can wait in."

The black haired woman frowned. "You don't even know what this is about!"

"True. I also don't care." The blonde replied. "Name's Bella, come with me if you want to escape without a venereal disease."

Bella started to walk away while the other two women watched.

"She's got a point." They said in tandem.


----


Jaq shrugged. "Eh, it's ok. I'm in the circus, I see clown faces all the time."

Jaq's eyebrows shot up simultaneously. If they went any higher they would knock her wig off.

Punters? Tea room? Venereal disease?!

"Right behind you!" Jaq said quickly and followed closely behind Bella, and making carefully sure to stay away from the hot pools. "The name's Jaqueline Hyde, an' I thank ye for the help." While they walked, the girl's eyes roamed the room around them, taking in every detail, good or otherwise.

The tearoom was a dramatic difference. Jaq let out a breath she'd been holding for half a minute, just to ward off the smell of the place. "I guess this ain't exactly typical work, eh? How do you get into this sorta thing, anyways?" She looked at Bella sideways for a second, lowering her voice. "Ya'll ain't, erm, 'traded' or nothin, are you? I mean to say, everything's, uh, legitimate?"


---




Bella simply nodded.

"No probs, kid."



In one instant Bella's face transformed from affected, though alluring, boredom into disgruntled distaste.

"Oh Gods, you're not one of those are you?" She said, nose wrinkling and making her look substantially more human. "Here to teach me the wikedness of my ways?"

She slumped down into the nearest chair and indicated that Jaq should sit. She reached behind herself for a jar on the bench and plonked it down as well. When she opened the top, Jaq could see cookies.

"Look, Jaqueline, I appreciate the concern. I do. But you're not the first to ask and it gets old." She pulled out a biscuit and chomped on it. "I wouldn't say that anything goes on here that's legitimate, aside from the menfolk's orgasms. Even then, some of them can't quite get it up and need to save face. I could walk out the front door right now and no one, no one, would stop me."

She chomped loudly, slinging one leg over the other, her thighs now showing.

"If I did that though, I'd have no job, no money and no way to pay my rent. I was born in the Dives." Her foot was tapping against her knee now. "I had two options growing up, work in the factories and probably die before I hit thirty or spend a few nights a week on my back, feigning interest. I help provide for my family."

A sigh came from the nearby doorway.

"Oh Bella, leave the poor dear alone, she was just being polite." A curvy blonde woman said.

"This one's for you, Catarina." Bella said, standing. "You want tea, girls? I'm afraid we don't got any milk, Jaqueline."

Bella rubbed her back irritably as she put a kettle down on the stove.

"Ouch." She grumbled, still rubbing. "Traded my ass."


----


Jaq gave the girl a look. "Don't be silly, I just like askin questions is all. It helps me perfect my persona, my look."

Jaq nodded. "You gotta do what you gotta do, I guess. This is quite a step up from the Dives, that's for sure." She was silent for a moment before asking, "Are there a lot of wicks workin' here? Or more humans? I wonder how long it's gonna be 'fore they start knockin' in doors and draggin folks to the gate by the scruff o' their necks..." The girls eyebrows furrowed in anger. "Corks, it just makes my blood boil!"

"S'alright, I can't drink it anyway. Makes my stomach angry."

Jaq got up and extended a hand towards the blonde at the door. "You're Catarina, then? I have a message for you from Sarinah."

Catarina sighed, readjusting the neckline around her more than generous bosom. She was shaped like an hourglass, a wide one and she gave the overall impression of a vaguely piratey fertility goddess. She looked larger than life, although there was something holding her back. She didn't look happy.

"Look girl, if you're wondering if we hire humans, we do." She said, sitting down. "But otherwise, love, I'm in no mood to satisfy your curiosity."



Catarina shook her hand. Her grip was firm and warm.

"Aye, I am. Where is my dear girl? I've been worried sick. I was about to go find my guns and go look for her myself." Catarina said, pulling some tobacco from her pocket and starting to roll a cigarette.

Her hands were shaking slightly. It was obvious that she was impatient to hear what jaq had to say.

Jaq looked down, blushing a little, and scratched her neck. "Oh, erm, sorry. Din' mean to, erm..." she trailed off, a little embarassed and feeling childish. She should have known better--folks in jobs like these are only interested in you if'n ye've got money.

Jaq noticed the woman's jittery hands, but she wasn't entirely sure if it was nerves or withdrawl. She shook her head slightly, clearing her thoughts. "She's fine. She got caught by the Seventen on her way out with, erm, a friend earlier. Needless to say, they got a free pass to Anywhere But Vienda. They wouldn't allow her to come back for her stuff, so I volunteered to get it for her. They mighta kicked the wicks out, but they can't exactly tell a human she can't come an' go when she pleases." The girl paused for a moment before continuing. "An', well, she wanted you to know she's safe. An' she's happy. An' she's free."

Catarina smiled, a slow smile that started at her lips and began to build. Before long it was all over her face and spreading down to her toes, as though her entire body were happy.

"Gods clockin' damn." She said, throwing the semi-rolled cigarette down. "I knew she had it in 'er. Hate to see her go but I'm glad she's not coming back. Was never really what she wanted from life, yellow eyes or no she never truly liked being stuck in one place."

She reached her hand over the table to Jaq.

"Thank you, gel, I'm glad to hear she's doing fine. Send her my love and tell her I'll have one of the boys pack her stuff and send it out on a wagon." Bella seemed more relaxed behind Catarina now, shoulders starting droop in relief. "Where exactly should I send it all to?"

*(Dude, I totally forgot about this one. My bad, Shark!)*

The woman's smile was contagious not only to herself but also to Jaqueline. Before long, Jaq was grinning just as hard as Catarina. She jumped when the dancer threw her cigarette down, however, but the smile was still there.

Jaq scratched her neck for a moment. "Well, I can take some of the small stuff if ye'd like, but for the moment she's stayin' with us at the circus, so I guess ye could deliver it there. Tell 'em to look fer Jaq, Eriyenna or Calli, and we'd make sure it got to her if'n she weren't 'round right that moment."

Jaq stood, running a hand over her wig. "Well, that's that I s'pose. Message delivered an' all. Erm, I don't guess there'd be a place 'round here I could change clothes, would there? I only wore this so's the Greenbacks would let me in fer sure."

Catarina nodded, already standing and leading Jaq down towards Sarinah's old room. It was stylish in its own way, small but tasteful. It was full to the brim with clothes and accessories.

"Don't rightly know why the gel thought you could carry it all." She said, her old Rose drawl becoming more obvious now. "She's like a Crow fer shiny things, ha ha. I'll give you a change of clothes or two and some necessities."

She looked Jaq up and down.

"Hun'..." She said, grasping for the right words. "I can give you a change of clothes but there aren't many girls here as skinny as you and when you walked out you would look like you'd b'n horking the fork."

She handed Jaq a small bundle of items out of almost thin air.

"If you know what I mean..." She added pointedly though gently.

Jaq looked around the room in speechless amazement. It was beautiful. It had a magical feel to it, like it could be part of a caravan, or a mystic's tent. So many sparklies...

Jaq nodded a little absently. She was still quite distracted by the sparklies. "Yeah, that's...that's fine. Um...yeah. She, ah, she failed to mention just how much there was...heh."

The girl looked at Catarina with a confused look for a moment before realizing what she meant. Jaq laughed. "Haha, no! I don't mean to change into anything of yours. I have my own stuff, I just need a location. Actually, since we're in here, I could just close the door. I promise I won't be a minute, and I don't steal either. Especially not from friends." Even if it is sparklie...

Catarina nodded, arm waving now she understood what Jaq meant.

"Oh, of course, just close the door. When you're done you can just sneak out back. Unless you need a place to stay for the night." She tipped her head as though she was wearing a hat and walked outside.