Checking Progress (Flora)

[Zero]

Tatsu found himself blinking at the woman as she jumped up and fetched herself an apple for breakfast. It wasn't her movement, really, but more her choice of dialog. Now she was becoming quite chatty, wasn't she? Well, an improvement from pure business dealings, he supposed.

"Now that that is settled. I wonder why you are so afraid of taking a risk by trying to promote your work elsewhere. Without risk, you will never gain anything. How can you know you will fail before you have tried?"

[Passifloraceae]

"If I can eke out a success here, don't you think it would be better to stay around and not risk it, particularly if there was something or someone else on the line...?" Her tone lent the question an air of genuine inquiry as opposed to what one would typically have considered it to be rhetorical or snarky. Aliyah shot a glance at him before she started busying herself with random things, like picking up messes left behind by the two males of earlier. She wanted it to seem as if she were just being a busybody, but she was using it as a good enough excuse to keep her back turned to him while she munched her fruit. Wouldn't want any slip-ups or exposures today, now would we!

[Zero]

Tatsu let his eyes travel over the small basement room. His brows furrowed. "Oh yes, I can see how you have found great success here. Would be terrible to give it up in favor of opportunity." His words were perhaps a bit unkind, but he really did not see why she would submit herself to such poverty if there was a chance for something greater.

[Passifloraceae]

"You're very funny," Aliyah drawled sarcastically, finally taking a seat beside the statue she was working on, though she remained with her back carefully turned to him until she was finished eating. "I don't pretend I live a luxurious life here, but I live a life as well as anyone else, and it is plenty enough for me." The woman's hands started feeling the statue again, and she analyzed it carefully, like she was looking for something specific. "You wish to know the truth, and the truth is that I would love the opportunity to go somewhere else and take a risk, and if I succeeded or not, I doubt, as my own entity, I would be in any less of a place than I am now. With honesty, I've wished to go many places. I've thought endlessly about how far I could go, how much I could see, and how well a life I could make out there." Her fingers fiddled with the mountain base, and she began to pick flecks of sand off here and there. "But there's someone else I want to give happiness to, and if I run somewhere else to try something different and then fail...what could happen? If I was not surviving, if I was not at least making something here, I would take the risk with open arms, but like this I'm at least crawling towards getting him back. But if I go out there, what if I end up barreling backwards too far away from the starting line to ever catch up?"

[Zero]

Tatsu grew very still, eyes half-lidded and expression becoming unreadable again. He let her speak, she deserved to speak, and he deserved her sarcastic response. So he listened as she went on, revealing things to him that perhaps she might not otherwise have been willing to say. Perhaps more than she had ever intended to share with him. He felt that he had upset her, had perhaps pushed a little too far. As she finished he was at first silent. Silent for several long minutes, in fact.

Finally he stirred, eyes and face both becoming...apologetic, perhaps? "I am sorry, Madame Aliyah, I fear that I have overstepped my bounds. I hope that I have not upset you too greatly, it was not my place to say such things. It only pains me to see a woman, deserving of so much better, in such a state." He burned to know who it was she was trying to get back, but he had been so very rude so far, to ask would have shamed him greatly.

[Passifloraceae]

Aliyah glanced back at him after tossing the remnants of her fruit to one side of the room, frowning as she did so. She sidled closer to him, daring to reach out to try to poke him in the shoulder. "Oh, come now Sir. Wipe that sorry look off your face! It takes much more than anything you've said to offend or even slightly upset me, so don't look so. Besides, I'd dare to say it's a bit relieving to speak about such things considering the typical crowd. She grinned, the action mirrored in her eyes. "You're quite different in ways, and it is refreshing, I suppose I could say." And it was true! How different he was. Difficult to gauge at first, she did not step back to analyze because of what he seemed like, but just that she didn't really know how to react to him. The closest thing she could consider to comfort had replaced that peculiarity quickly, and she felt almost like she should scold him for being so silly. "If I had not wanted to speak to you about it, I would not have done so, and you can trust me on that one."

[Zero]

Humans and their strange ways. Tatsu would never understand them! He'd been trying for years upon years, and yet still they were a mystery in so many ways. How could she not be offended? Why was she not upset? He'd been terribly rude, by the standards of his people. Shifting uncomfortably as she poked him, a frown and a shake of the head was given. "Perhaps you are not outraged at my behavior, but by my own standards, I was extremely rude."

If only she realized how different he was! Aliyah spoke of him being different and refreshing, but she did not know the half of it. He mused what she might think and say if she knew the truth. An idle thought to amuse himself with, but nothing more. "If you are so willing to speak in front of me about it, an almost complete stranger, then perhaps you would tell me about this 'he' that you wish to get back so badly."

It was beyond rude, but if she wasn't going to get upset anyway, he might as well quell his curiosity before it ate away at him.

[Passifloraceae]

"Well, maybe now I don't want to! After all, it's like you said, you're an 'almost complete stranger.'" Aliyah tried as well as she could to mimic his voice when she quoted him, waving her hands around in a ridiculously teasing manner. Still, though, she sighed and returned to seriousness to answer the question.

"His name is Khalil. Khalil Faris El-Hashem. He's my son, only four years old but soon to be five." The woman sighed and fiddled with her veil, then moved her hand to her hair to carefully stroke it as if to reassure herself that it was still there. "He lives with his father and carries his name, but someday he will carry mine and be away from them."

[Zero]

Tatsu became impassive again as Aliyah poked fun at him. He understood that humans liked to engage in this teasing behavior. In fact, he and his daughter had frequently done so to one another. The thought of Nellie brought on another wave of loneliness, but he pushed it aside as Aliyah became serious and spoke of her son; a young son. Children should not be separated from their mothers, and there were only a few reasons that he could think of to cause such a separation in Essyrni culture.

"Your son...and what exactly do you need to get him back?" He almost asked what had transpired to make her son be taken to begin with. Although, he really didn't need to ask. If the boy lived with his father and she did not, then in one way or another she'd been cast out.

[Passifloraceae]

"I just have to save the money. I'm about halfway there. Enough coin to keep us alive until I can situate us somewhere away from here, and if I can do that, then I think we'll be okay." Aliyah fiddled with the toes on one of her feet, staring at them intently. "I know that he will be confused and scared. He won't know who I am or what I'm doing, and I have to make his life as easy as possible until he gets used to me...so I need the coin to make sure his lifestyle is similar to that which he lives now, and if I can do that..." She looked to Tatsu. "If I can do that, I'm certain I can be  exactly what he needs."

[Zero]

Tatsu studied her intently, his pale eyes could be intimidating when they were examining someone as closely as he now examined Aliyah. His expression softened, in a way, he felt sorry for her. To be forcefully separated from one's child would be quite devastating. He couldn't imagine what he might have done had someone tried to take Nellie from him.

"Your plan is flawed. Even should you manage to situate yourself appropriately, do you really believe the boy's father will simply let you take him? Or that Essyrni society will allow it? It would be better for you to get out of Essyrn now and make your own way, then return for him when your position has improved." It was a harsh thing to say, but he believed it was true.

[Passifloraceae]

Aliyah stubbornly stared back at him, though she shifted and harumphed when he finished speaking. "I know he won't let me take him; that's why I'm planning to run away. We'll hide, and they'll have to look everywhere to find us." Shaking her head, she looked back to her toes. "If I leave now, what if I can't come back to get him? What if I fail out there and lose everything? How will I ever get to him then?"

[Zero]

Tatsu shook his head, not knowing whether to be impressed by her resolve or annoyed at her stubbornness. It would be a risky endeavor on her part. If she could manage to gather all that she needed. That was questionable and he thought she might not realize just what she was getting herself into. Then again, this was her son, and he knew that as a father he would have done anything to get Nellie back in her position.

"You could always come back for him. No matter what. What if you stay and lose everything anyway? Why would it be any more likely for you to fail out there? I think you could do quite well in Serendipity or Adela. Women are actually viewed as equals there. That would arguably make it easier to do well for yourself."

[Passifloraceae]

"It is hardly even correct to call myself a woman..." She scowled, returning her attention to the statue and picking grains of sand off of the stone once more to busy herself. "People see me and they see a criminal, worse than a criminal to some. I know I'm not thriving here, but I'm at least slowly climbing. Slowly, slowly acquiring what I need..." Aliyah continued to pluck sand off of the mountain until she finally sighed, looking to him miserably. "Would any place out there hide the two of us? Would we be able to be free anywhere out there?"

[Zero]

Tatsu's eyebrows shot up as he was informed that people viewed her as a criminal or worse. The look of genuine shock was so foreign to his features, there was simply very little that could surprise him. Of course it shouldn't have, really. With all the clues she had given, and knowing what he did of Essyrn culture, of course they viewed her so harshly. They were fools, all of them.

"It most certainly is correct to call yourself a woman, Madame. You are no criminal, what crime could you have committed? Anyplace but here would accept you without judgment for whatever 'crime' these people seem to think you have committed." His voice was earnest, honest. For whatever reason, he felt protective of her, perhaps because of her persecution at the hands of her own people. Tatsu wished to help her, to make her believe that she could have something better than this.

[Passifloraceae]

Aliyah watched him for several moments before smiling slightly, then shaking her head and laughing. "You make me want to believe that very much, Sir. Assuming they would, though, how would I go about leaving? I've never traveled past the desert, and I'm not well versed in geographical nonsense. I can tell which direction I'm moving in, but that's about it. I couldn't tell you very well which country was where, nor could I really know what I should prepare for any of it..." And just like that, Aliyah started to feel the fear. Had she really thought about this at all? What would she do? She didn't know anything about anything out there!

[Zero]

Tatsu regained some of his composure, letting his face fall back into a more pensive mask. Her problem was one that she should have been considering if she had really been planning this escape. After all, how could one escape without an escape route? He fell into silence once more, tapping his fingers lightly against his knee as he thought over the options Aliyah might have. Without intimate knowledge of the way out of the vast desert, traversing it could be fatal.

With each new suggestion, Tatsu found himself discarding it. There was one option, and he bowed his head, eyes closing as he thought about it very thoroughly. If he offered, it would be a great responsibility on his part. If she would accept. Finally he looked up, and face quite serious, he spoke. "I will be leaving for Serendipity before the week is out, if you wish, you may come with me. I know the way well, and know of places where you may settle and start a new life for yourself."

[Passifloraceae]

"I could never ask you to go to such trouble!!" Aliyah replied hurriedly, shaking her head and bowing quickly to him. His offer slammed her in the face with just how much she had opened up, and she mentally cursed herself for unloading such a burden on him. It was like he had said; he was practically a complete stranger! She should never have spoken about such things, anyways! What if he turned her in? Gave away her plans? No, she knew as quickly as she had thought it that he wouldn't. But still...it was far too much to ask him.

"Forgive me, Sir, I truly burdened you with unnecessary things. Do not feel the need to take care of me; I'm just a foolish woman. If a week is what you're staying, I will have your statue completed, and you won't have to see me again!"

[Zero]

Tatsu was a bit dumbfounded. Aliyah had not been upset at his prying, but now she was going to get upset? Well, she didn't seem to be upset in a way he was expecting. If anything, he thought the fact that a complete stranger had offered to spirit her away would have been more upsetting. She seemed more concerned about being a nuisance to him. "I would not have you rush the statue, it must be given your greatest care in carving."

He shifted again, fixing her with a piercing gaze. "Madame Aliyah, if I wished to not see you again, I would not have offerred to let you accompany me. It would not be too much trouble on my part to let you come along. And I do not think you are just a foolish woman. It would be a mutually beneficial arrangement. You could leave Essyrn without fear of going astray on your way to freedom, and I would have someone to make the trip more tolerable. As I said, I have found myself rather lonely these days. Someone to talk to would be a most welcome distraction."

[Passifloraceae]

Aliyah stared at him for several moments in a sort of dumbfounded stupor. She couldn't leave. Yes she could. She shouldn't leave! Shouldn't she, though? Every what if imaginable flew through her head faster than she could have imagined, and finally her attention snapped back to the real world and she hurriedly sat up straighter. "I'll wash our clothes, and I'll make sure I cook." She threw herself forward and to the ground in a very deep, servile sort of bow; she wanted to make sure she wouldn't be a burden, at least. "And I'll carry anything that needs to be carried, and I'll gather anything we need, and I'll make sure to do my part!!"