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RESPITE STREETS - MORNING
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Mirriam has spent the morning from just before dawn on her route, sporting a scarf and foot wraps that compliment her uniform quite nicely as the weather starts to get relatively cool. Particularly the cobble roads, having one of the few early frosts that Respite gets to enjoy before the sun leaves only shadows caked in the icy reminder that yes, winter is still a thing in the desert. The delivery roo finds a nice sunny patch to warm herself up in as she starts fingering through her pouches of mail, assessing her best route.
Shirley is wandering through the streets, feeling a little restless with nothing to tinker on or construct due to both her injury and the fact that her workshop is all the way in Vamas. She's currently wearing a full ensemble of Rhask's clothing, the lizard having been nice enough to give her a set for free due to her circumstances, even though she fully intends to pay once she gets back home. Her left arm is wrapped in a plaster cast and a cloth sling keeps it elevated against her abdomen, and her missing feathers have yet to grow back, the only remaining signs left of her rather unfortunate arrival to Aephix that only time can heal.
Mirriam hums cheerily to herself as she pulls out a handful of letters all addressed to the various little shops, or rather their keepers, along this stretch. She steps forward, looking up just in time to stop short of the jay crossing in front of her. "Whoahey! Mornin' to ya miss! Almost ran ya over." She gets a look at Shirley's state. "Wouldn' be tha firs' either, I guess."
Shirley blinks out of her reverie when she hears Mirriam, only to pause and sidestep just in case. "Oh! I'm so sorry, miss. Didn't mean to get in the way, really. Just been thinking a bit, is all." She gestures at her arm, "...And what caused this is more or less what's on my mind."
Mirriam hums, tilting her head a bit. "Oh, ya that makes some sense. I mean, it'd be hard ta ignore after all! Accident or incident stops ya from workin' then? Cause that's what I'd do ta keep my mind offa the dwellin'."
Shirley nods. "Yeah, it's that and the fact that I'm nowhere near home right now. Before now, I was only vaguely aware of Aephix being out there somewhere." She sighs a bit and shrugs, "Didn't think my first visit here would be how it actually happened, really."
Mirriam ahhs. nodding in understanding. "I see, so ya didn't come 'ere on purpose then. Heard that lizard guy at the clinic is kinda the same, wrecked in the South... OH! I did hear of ya! I was thinkin' a bit, cause there's word around 'bout a hurt jay-gal. You also wrecked down that way, yeah? Place is cursed fer ships, I s'pose."
Shirley nods again with a slightly sour hum. "Mmh, that'd be me, yeah. Trust me, though, it wasn't intentional. I was all the way up in Vamas testing a vessel of mine out when a freak storm blew me out to sea... and then into the sea. Woke up here a bit ago, ran into one of the town guards out a ways south, then got escorted to town, where the good doctor did their best to patch me up."
Mirriam: "Ah, so ya got sunk by a storm, huh? What abou' the rest of the crew? Or did ya get drifted out on yer boat all alone?"
Shirley shakes her head a bit and gives a half-smile. "It was just me. I was testing my vessel on land when the storm rolled in. Didn't need a crew to keep things tethered in place, you know? But then that bloody storm had to go and snap the tethers." She heaves a bit of a sigh of annoyance at that last detail.
Mirriam pauses, trying to picture the explanation. "Like... In a dry dock? or... How do ya test a boat on land?"
Shirley smiles a bit more readily. "Because the boat I built could fly, that's how!" She stands a bit more proudly, "I built an airship, capable of moving about without the inconveniences of water travel. Like a bird, we could fly just about anywhere on board my vessel! And I managed to do it without any magitech involved!""
Mirriam perks up, smiling. "Oh! Oh that makes sense, yeah! Sounds like wuite the advancement! So what kinda... Wait, no magitech? Huh... Is that why the storm knocked ya out, then? Like a... Well a kite in a storm?"
Shirley shakes her head a little. "No magitech. Blasted blizzard tore a hole clean through the envelope that keeps it in the air, but it held long enough for me to get blown clear out to sea."
Mirriam shakes her head, shivering a bit. "Sounds like ya wouldn't have wanted ta be on there. I guess ya get so engrossed in yer work that the blizzard snuck up a bit, hm? Can't blame ya, really."
Shirley laughs a little, smiling wryly. "I wasn't letting a storm take my hard work away from me. I was able to keep the airship together right up until the storm ripped the floaters open." She shrugs with another sigh, "Let's just say I don't recommend dropping a ship onto the ocean at..." She trails off, doing a quick couple of calculations in her head, "...A few dozen meters per second?"
Mirriam gulps, shaking her head in a bit of awe as she looks over Shirley's injuries. "I mean, think ya got away pretty intact fer that kinda crash, yeah? And I mean, yer obviously smart enough ta build it once. Why not do it again but like, fly it back to Vamas?"
Shirley pauses, going still as she considers that idea for a few seconds. "...You know, that's a very good idea, miss. The only issue is that since I'm rather well shipwrecked all the way out here, I have nothing to my name aside from the clothing I'm wearing... and whatever's left of my other outfit from when I first, ah... 'arrived' here."
Mirriam hums, nodding. "Ya, I'm full of good ideas, they jus' tend ta get shuffled aside by the bad'ns. So ya got no resources or credit, an' ta top it off, ya broke yer arm. Yeah... I c'n admit that leaves ya pretty well lurched. Where ya stayin', if yer broke?"
Shirley glances over her shoulder down the lane a bit. "There's a nice family down the way that's letting me stay in a guest room of their house for now, at least until I can find some kind of income to afford... well, just about everything. Some kind of work, or some such." She lets out another little sigh, though she looks quite grateful, "So many people I need to repay for their kindness, once I do get back home."
Mirriam nods, grinning. "Ya, respite is fulla folks like that. 'Mean, lot of 'em came out this way cause they had little at home worth stickin' around for. Also helps that there's too much else ta worry about, so nobody really cares to enforce the law of other places. Unless ya murdered someone or somethin'. ... Even then, long as ya don't do it here."
Shirley laughs heartily. "Oh, you've nothing to worry about, my dear. My assistant and I are inventors both. The worst thing we've ever picked up, far as I know, is a wrench and a hammer. You won't be hearing about any murders involving me."
Mirriam shrugs. "Well, there's plenty of other inventor types in town, maybe they c'n give ya a leg up in buildin' a new sky boat? 'Lot of em are skilled with magitech stuff, too, if ya aren't."
Shirley 's smile slides a bit, but she takes it in stride. "Mmh, maybe it'd be worth talking to them, sure. I'm not going anywhere for the next while, anyway, so no harm in chatting up the locals a little, hm?"
Mirriam giggles, nodding. "Ya got a lot of folks ta chat up, then. This town might be a bit of frontier, but it's still got all kindsa big city stuff. In small scale."
Shirley gestures at the mail Mirriam's holding. "Like the courier job you're doing? Good to know things are still moving smoothly, even this far out from other places." She smiles a bit and gives a graceful dip of her head, "I should let you get back to your route, though. I'm Shirley Cawlins, and I'm sure we'll run into each other again around town."
Mirriam blinks, looking down to her hand. "Oh geez yea! I was running so smooth this mornin', too! We probably will, I'm always runnin' around. Ya can call me Mirriam, since it's m'name! See ya around, miss Cawlins." She shuffles the letters in her hands straight as she turns and bounds off, returning to her route as if nothing had interrupted her to begin with.
Shirley raises a hand in farewell as Mirriam bounds off to continue her delivery route. "Be seeing you, miss Mirriam." She waves for a moment, then lets her arm drop back down again. She spends a few moments thinking, then sighs to herself, "If I'm going to try and build a ship to fly back home, I'd best start finding some work around town that I can do one-handed..."