Her life had been anything but easy. It seemed as though even from birth, Sloane spent all of her time fighting. She fought for the teat amongst her triplet siblings. She fought for acceptance from her mother (which she never received). She fought for independence upon weaning. And now, she fought to provide for her own basic needs. Sloane spent so much of her time trying to survive that she rarely put any time into making friends or rather, trying not to make enemies. Her personality can come off as brash and uncaring, but those are qualities that Sloane never had to care about. She had to be tough and persistent if she was going to make it through life.
So now, as she stands here listening to a speech, she cannot help but cock her head at the mention of food and shelter and assistance. Never once has she been given anything for free, so its hard for her to believe that this male is offering her that. So she has to question his motives. Surely there is some other reason that he’s offering these things. Surely he has some other agenda.
And so, she asks him what the cost is. Perhaps it is so many years of service, her body, or her knowledge about the world outside of Novus. She’s not sure she has something he’s looking for, but at least she can say she asked the question. And instead of him answering, she hears another approach. She recognizes him from the fire. He had been valiantly trying to put out the flames but she had not introduced herself. At the time, she didn’t see a need to.
For once in her life, Sloane is quiet as she listens to him speak, her curiosity peaking about what sort of cost these two might come up with. But what comes from his mouth is nothing short of shocking. She supposed her jaw had dropped just slightly. In fact, she probably was staring at them rather rudely as she tried so hard to wrap her mind around what they were saying. Free? These things were free? Surely not. But he continued, sticking to his original story. “Nothing is ever free…” Not once had she ever seen anything given for free. Everything came at a cost, whether that be in favors, in money, or in secrets…but never free. “I don’t have any skills you would want.” In fact, she doesn’t have any skills period. She’s good at being a fly on the wall, but that’s about it. Getting her to actually lift a hoof for a cause is hard to come by. It’s got to benefit her in some way.
Her eyes scan the two and the bird. They seem rather dumbfounded, perhaps not. Perhaps they were perplexed as to why a complete stranger was asking them strange questions. If they knew where she had come from and where she was going, they might not think her questions were strange at all.
And just before she was about to turn and take her leave, the golden boy speaks up. Eyes glance up at him and unlike his that are warm and welcoming, hers show distrust and hesitancy. Sloane had never been very good at trusting. “My name is Sloane…” She didn’t like to be called “miss” or “ma’am” or even any version of “hey you”. Sloane was the name she had chosen for herself, her mother not caring enough to give her one. “…but I don’t need charity.” She could never accept something for free. It didn’t feel right. Perhaps she had just been mistreated so much in her life, that when kindness did finally befall her, she didn’t recognize it.
@Somnus
