Hal and Calli were waiting. Hal and Vi tended to meet at the pier in the evenings to catch up and make plans, but Hal didn't know what would happen tonight. He hadn't brought someone with him in the last few nights since their arrangement, and he didn't really want her there in the first place. But Hal just couldn't seem to shake her. It was like having a puppy follow you around only to find you have a pork chop down your shirt; Hal just hadn't found the pork chop and gotten rid of it yet.

Hal was glaring at Calli vaguely but she didn't care. She was just happy that he wasn't alone on the pier. She pushed herself up so she was sitting on a handrail.

"So," She asked after a long pause that would have felt uncomfortable if she wasn't immune to such feelings, "What's your friend like?"

She hoped that if she stuck around long enough she could get him back to her camp and he'd have somewhere safe to sleep that night.

"I dunno," Hal said sharply. "Weird, I guess. He looks diffr'nt," he glanced up at her, " 'bout as old as you, I guess. I dunno," he finished lamely.

He found he didn't like chatting about Vi. More likely than not this was because the conversation could lead to 'so, how did you meet?' Which he had not desire to answer.

Calli sensed that Hal was a little uncomfortable with her prattle, her parents often warned her about that aspect of her character. She was glad she seemed to be picking up on it for once.

"Boemo," She said nodding.

She was starting to get a little twitchy already. She was going to have to do a handstand soon or explode.

"Sorry I'm late, Hal, I've been catching up on some..." Vi paused, tilting his head slightly when he noticed Calli, "Who's this?" He asked cautiously. He was glad he never started out their meetings talking about new plans and whatnot.

Hal twitched at the sound of his partner's voice. He had tensed in the silence before his arrival, and that coiled spring in his chest released with a jolt at the noise.



Hal looked at her, suddenly embarrassed of her and angry that she had followed him. He jerked his head back at her twitchily, "It's Calli. She won't leave me alone," he looked at her sidelong, only half-caring if he hurt her feelings, "She treats me like a lost puppy, as if I can't take care of myself-- I'm lucky she hasn't adopted me." He shifted away from her, closer to Vi, in the ways that boys do around girls when other boys are near.

"Hi!" Calli said, waving merrily.



Calli flinched bodily, as though stung. Her eyes watered a little.

"I'm your friend." She said firmly, tears not entering into her voice yet. "Friends look out for each other."

Calli jumped onto a nearby shed that stored equipment on the pier, out of the light. She wrapped her arms around her legs, not willing to leave while Hal was out on his own.

"What's your name?" She called down to Vi.

Hal winced internally. He hadn't meant anything by it... well, only partly, at any rate. He didn't expect her to fly off the handle like that. No need to get all defensive, he thought angrily, are all girls this weird? He crossed his arms defensively and muttered something incomprehensible down at the ground. It was directed toward Calli, but even if she could hear him from her perch, she might simply take it for a word to Vi.

Vi smirked to himself as he witnessed this exchange. So Hal had found a girlfirend, eh? Vi couldn't exactly blame him, Calli wasn't bad looking at all, and seemed pretty nice- especially if she was tolerant enough to hang around Hal all day, without anyone to restrain her from killing him. Even so, he pulled Hal to the side, "So who is she really?" He asked in a low voice- one meant only for Hal's ears, but it was very likely Calli could hear him as well, "And can she be trusted? That is... think she might be willing to fight for our cause?" He would have loved to tease his young friend for his relationship with girl who was clearly older than him, but this was a serious matter- still, he couldn't hide the smirk.

Hal glanced up at her and back at Vi. He decided to give him a quick run-down of the girl. He began with a still-disaffected sound in his voice, but his tone warmed and quickened as he spoke of her.

"She's Calli. She's some wick with'a Red Crows in town. She's really acrobatic," he knocked his head in her direction, indicating the leap, "so I bet she could fight. I met her at the smithy's. I was tryin'a get... supplies," he winked meaningfully at Vi, meaning weaponry, "when she jumped off the roof. Three stories, an' din't hurt'er'self. An' apparently she knows summat about swords. An', yeah, I fink she's the type. Definitely trustworthy... maybe a li'l too much, but yea. An' as fer our cause, heh, she treats me like a pup, whaddayou think?" Although he tried to hide it, a hint of affection crept into his voice at the 'pup' comment. He realized it, though, and crossed his arms again, adopting a 'manly' stance, which only emphasized his height--or lack thereof-- next to the older boy.

Vi snickered into his hand, cleverly turning it into a cough, and then turned his attention back to the new arrival, "So, Calli, is it? Think you could come down here? I'd prefer not to have to shout. My name's Nivious Lumen, you can call me Vi. Anyway, I'm sure if Hal of all people let you come to our meeting you can't be all that bad. Tell me, what do you think of the passive situation?" So that sounded kind of lame.... ok, so it sounded very lame, but Vi never really was great at talking to pretty girls, and he wanted to get the introductions out of the way and move on to the point... he covered that pretty well... didn't he? He hoped his face wasn't getting too noticably pink as he awaited her response.

Calli sniffed, wanting to be petulant a while longer. She wasn't very good at it though.

"Alright." She said almost immediately, reluctance obvious,"but I'm coming up here again if you rag on me."

Calli climbed noisily down off the roof, not feeling in the mood to do it with style.

"Passive situation?" She said, thinking about it. "I know a fair amount of Passives, doesn't seem to be a good situation to be in, really. Not very fair at all."

Hal glanced between Vi and Calli. Since Vi brought it up he may as well tell her. It was Hal's idea to begin with, anyway...

"Yeah, not at all. The two of us're passives, an' we're lookin'ta do summat bigger'n ourselves," he stood in what he hoped was an imposing, official-looking position, with his feet shoulder-width apart and his hands clasped behind his back,"We're formin' the Passive Resistance."

In all honesty he hadn't thought what they would call the group, and it had just popped into his head.

Calli gasped, genuinely very impressed.

"Wow! That's great! Can I help?" She asked, smiling.

Hal was going to give her a hard time, but in an unusual moment of intelligence, realized they would need as much help as they could get.

He glanced over at Vi then back at her, "Yeah, sure."

"But you'll have to be tough, and keep on yer toes, an' keep yer eyes'n ears open fer other passives," he paused,"y'know, for us ta help, or free. N'stuff."

Vi grinned. So she cared- even offered to help before they had to ask. This was good. "We would be delighted to recieve your help. Currently, we're still in a planning stage. If you want to join us, feel free- I can see you're quite the skilled acrobat. That may come in handy. Have any other unique skills to speak of?"

((Dangit, wrong account. Oh, wells... ><))

Calli nodded.

"I travel all over, finding Passives should be easy."



Calli thought about it.

"I can ride, I can do a lot of showmanship related things like palming cards and I'm good at getting in and out of places although that's usually accidental..." Calli wasn't sure but she thought she might have broken into a prison once, "I can't fight really but I'm usually pretty good at getting people off me if they get too close and I kick accurately so getting me down at closed range is difficult. I can sword dance but that's not really the same as truly using a sword..."

Calli bit her lip.

"I don't know, I guess that's it. I'm rubbish at spells unless they're really, really easy."

"Ah, so you have a lot of skills. Getting in and out of places should be especially good. Of course we don't need all that right now, as we're only just starting. Hm... well since Hal brought you here I assume you know when and where to meet should you need us..."

Hal glanced between them, "Well, she didn't know when she got 'ere what's goin' on..." He turned to Calli,"We meet sunset, here, ever' night. Evenin'. Summat." He blushed slightly, so he ducked his head down so no one would see.

Calli smiled, a little out of her depth and unsure of what to do.

"That's great!" She said, teeth flashing. "Well... I suppose you probably don't want me here all the time but so long as I'm in town you know where to find me."

Calli looked up at the night sky, felt the wind start to turn a little colder.

"I should probably head home now, my uncle might think I get sold into slavery or something. Um, I guess I'll see you guys later? Anything I can do to help, I'd be happy to." She offered it as gamely as she could, "Hey Hal, you know you guys are welcome to bunk with the Crows if you need a place to stay, right? You'll come by?"

She looked at Hal hopefully.

"Yeah, we know where to find yer tribe," he joked,"But seems't'me yer never there!"



Hal shifted, again awkward. He didn't want Vi to think he liked her or couldn't take care of himself, but he still felt the sting from hurting Calli before. "Erm," his eyes twitched between them again,"If... If I need it, yeah. Sure."

"Oh, yeah." Calli replied, knowing it to be true and not sure what to do about it.



Calli rubbed her arm a little from the cold.

"Ok, great, well... I guess I'll see you around, huh?" Calli half smiled, hoping that she'd get up tomorrow and see Hal safe by the campfire.

Calli gave him an animated wave and started to walk back to her camp.

"Bye!" She said over her shoulder, making sure to glance at Hal and Vi.