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Lorna walked along the sidewalk with an idle gait. Her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, a simple cotton sun-dress swishing about her calves as she walked and every so often paused in front of a window display. She sighed, tucking a stray strand of hair back behind an ear as she stared up at the brightly colored clothes on display at a store that she'd never be able to afford. A grimace tugged at her lips as she avoided another man walking along, a newspaper tucked up around his features and blinding him to her presence.
She grumbled a faint mutter of 'rude' but otherwise just tried to avoid current of humanity that bustled around the shopping square and down the sidewalks. Traffic whizzed by at its usual pace, and the sun continued to beat down in the lazy stream of gold. The heat still present enough to remind everyone that summer was just ending to make way for fall.
*
Sinjin is in another world but he's been in New York long enough to navigate and think at the same time. The same man with a newspaper nearly runs someone down again, this time it's Sinjin who sidesteps just in time. The man gets another five paces before he shouts in surprise — with a brief flare of light, his newspaper is nothing but ash and his scrub brush of a moustache is smoking gently. Sinjin regards him passively for another moment as the man casts about in panic, takes a drag on his cigarette, and shrugs.
"Can't be sure of anything in this town, can you?" he says mildly, to no one in particular.
*
The flare of light caught Lorna's gaze, and her eyes widened in surprise. How was it that she had gone most of her life without running into powered individuals, but less than two months in New York, she had run into half a dozen or more? It was shocking, as a result, she was quick to deny what she saw as a 'trick of the light'. Still, she was so focused on that, that she nearly stumbled into the man that caused it. A soft, squeak escaped her as she stumbled back to avoid crashing into him, and ended up bumping into the person walking behind her, spilling the few small items she had purchased earlier—a new hat and a brightly colored bracelet tumbled onto the sidewalk.
"Sorry!" She grimaced as the woman behind her shot back with a sharp 'Watch where you're going!' before shoving along passed Lorna.
A sigh tumbled from her lips and Lorna bent to pick up the spilled items. The bracelet practically jumping into her hand before she actually touched it, and her lips thinned.
*
"Steady on there," Sinjin's voice is mild, the accent definitely not American — easily mistaken for British by the uninitiated but definitely not that either, probably Australian. "New York's a hard town." He steps into the path of an oncoming couple, quite deliberated, to divert them from running into Lorna and he offers her a hand to help her back up. "All in order?"
*
A blush crossed Lorna's cheeks as she straightened, bag in one hand as the other accepted Sinjin's offered help. Once she was on her feet properly, she retracted her hand, smoothing over her skirt. "Uhm, yes.. I know.. I.. er.. I promise I'm not normally that clumsy. I've actually, well I'm going to school around here.. here being New York. I'm not from here—" She trailed off and paused.
"Am I that obvious?" She asked, arching a brown eyebrow upwards. A nervous smile pulling at her lips even as the blush only somewhat cooled. What girl couldn't resist a foreign accent?
*
"It's not a bad thing." Sinjin's smile is warm. "New Yorkers are an unshakeable lot and, well, a little shake is charming when the timing is right. St. John Allerdyce." He says it 'Sinjin', all run together, almost, but with just enough inflection that one can tell it's not all one word. "I've only been here a short time myself. Perhaps it's easier to spot your own kind."
*
A smile, bright and decidedly less nervous, warmed her features as she offered her hand again. "Lorna Dane! It's nice to meet you." Her other hand reaching up, the bag of items slipping down her arm, to twist at a lock of hair. She fidgeted on her toes, and green eyes lit up again with a faint measure of shy bounyancy.
"I just started school here actually. Wait, no I said that already. I'm not a city girl at all. My mother would chide me for being so clumsy though in public. I should be more aware of my surroundings and everything. Still, it's really nice to meet a friendly face!"
*
Oh dear. Sinjin hasn't met a genuine ingenue in a while. "You'll learn to be a right city woman and then your mother would wish she had that clumsy little girl back," Sinjin predicts. "You'll see. All the while you're at home it's 'grow up' and then you do and it's 'my baby!'. Where were you headed? I'm just out to stretch my legs, been at my desk all day."
*
Lorna shrugged, her shoulders rising and falling and her ponytail bouncing with the movement. "I was out shopping, I didn't have classes today.. And it was my birthday not too long ago. My grandmother sent me a card with a little spending money. I was going to go shopping not too long ago, but —Well I ran into friends and also the actress that played 'Patsy'.. I don't know if you ever watched it. It was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid." She blushed again and looked down.
"I didn't get to actually go shopping because then Kittymy friend, she hit her head. So she had to go home. And the actressshe offered to get her a car. It was all very distracting." She bit her lower lip and offered a sheepish laugh.
"I'm sorry, I'm rambling."
*
Not at all, it's quite charming." Sinjin somehow lights another cigarette without actually using his lighter. He offers the open case to Lorna out of manners if nothing else. "You know, when men talk on, it's musing — sounds terribly romantic and important. But when women do it, they call it rambling — as though it serves no purpose. Seems a bit unfair, if you ask me. But, then again, I like to listen. Have you finished your shopping then?"
*
A small shake of her head followed the offer of a cigarette, and a Lorna's bow shaped lips pulled into another brilliant, if not sheepish smile once more. "I'm alright, thank you." She flushed faintly again, a delicate rosy hue that sprinkled over freckles on her cheeks.
"I've been told I talk too much and that it can be annoying, so you'll have to promise me if I talk too much. It's not polite." She added, with a firm nod, as if she knew quite well the talk of manners and being polite from memory.
Then she was looking down at her tiny shopping bag and a faint sigh fell from her lips. "I was just window shopping. I can't really afford anything around here. It's all so expensive. What I got was the clearance of clearance." She shrugged, "I should really just head home.."
*
"That's New York. Doesn't matter what neighborhood you choose, you'll get rolled for your pocket money either way. Just some of them are more polite than others, and I don't mean the shop clerks." Sinjin doesn't dislike the city but he's not unrealistic about what it is.
"I'll walk you wherever you're going," he offers, and offers Lorna his arm as well. He's quite good at playing the gentleman when he wants. "And, you can talk all you like. You'd be doing me a favour, in fact."
*
"Thank you, and I appreciate the company. Maybe people won't bump into me then.. I'll try to be enteraining company.." There was only a slight pause before Lorna nodded and took the offered arm with an ease that belied how trusting she truly was around strangers. An oddity in New York, but there she was. Another smile brightened her features as she started forward with decidedly more careful steps now that she was actually walking with someone.
"So where are you from? I'm originally from Upstate, it's mostly woods still. I nearly had a panic attack coming to this city. It's just so huge. It boggles the mind. But I like being able to walk everywhere. It's really nice compared to having to drive forever. Which is a drag, but I do like to drive."
*
"Australia, originally. But most recently, Vietnam, after some time in Korea." Sinjin sounds a bit indifferent about this. "I'll take a jungle over a city any day but this is where I've washed up." He is good at navigating the crowded streets — in spite of his pleasant demeanor he seems capable of making people steer clear with the right look.
"Why here? Surely there's good schools in more likely places. Most people I know come to New York to disappear." Sinjin gestures at the crowds with the hand that holds his cigarette. "It's like dark water here. Get under the surface and you might as well be gone for real."
*
A faint sigh fell from her and Lorna made a faint grimace. "Well, mostly because my mother said she didn't think I could get into a college here. I wanted to prove her wrong. She thinks women should only go to school to find a husband. But she's totally stuck in the past! Women can do so much these days. So I came here to prove her wrong… it's just.. I feel I'm in way over my head and I'm lost.. It's all just been too much most of the time. And I'm kind of worried that she's right.." She wrinkled her nose, walking beside him easily, and missing the way the crowd just wasn't an issue anymore.
"And you're from Australia? That's so far away! That's what your accent is, I knew I couldn't place it. I mean, well, it might have been English.. but I don't really know much about England. So I was at a loss." She grinned again, and a soft laugh followed.
*
"Well, I'm well-travelled and I assure you: your mother is wrong. Completely. You just need to adjust." It's been years since Sinjin left home — more than most people would suspect — but he remembers that time well. "Confidence is everything. Feeling lost or in over your head has nothing to do with being a girl. I promise, most of the boys are just as lost right now, they're just too stupid to know it." Sinjin makes a small noise of disdain. Boys are the worst.
"Not one of these people around us has their shit together," Sinjin says emphatically, gesturing again. "Not even me," he adds in a low voice. "You just can't see it. Show up to class, turn in your work, be kind. You'll be fine. Just don't compare your inside to other people's outsides."
*
A shy smile, soft and gentle and warm crosses her features at his assurances. A faint rise of her shoulders following as she angled her eyes to the sidewalk-to the street they crossed- and back over to the opposite side. "That's good to know. Thank you. It means a lot to hear that from someone else. I always so shy and I just.. I don't make friends easily.. So having someone else say it helps." She slowed her steps as they approached a bus stop, and she gestured to it with her free hand.
"Thank you for walking me, Sinjin-" She tried her best at mimicking his pronounciation, with a modicum of success. "I just have to wait for the bus."
*
"Good luck. And, just this once, don't listen to your mother." Sinjin leaves her there with a wink and a smile.