Discrimination

[Blue]

Even though Keely had forseen the action and moved, Lucia still tried to slap the other girl\'s hand. Instead she just slapped her layers of skirt. Keeping her hand there, her other hand stayed hiding half of her flushed face. The girl\'s cheeks were smeared with tears and her breath shuddered trying to balance the sobs.
 
Lucia took a couple of these shuddering breaths. Her gray eyes glared at Keely, "Leave me alone already." She snapped, "Haven\'t you already ruined my day enough?" This reply caused new tears to form and a whole new wave of crying to begin. Lucia brought her hands back up to cover her face, trying to hide from the watching crowd in the market.
 
She had just wanted to get some new things for her closet, not to start an all-out war in a jewelry stall. Why did Fanny have to abandon her, and why couldn\'t the maid just come back so Lucia could go home.

[Erebus]

Keely sighed and without checking behind her to make sure there wasn’t a pile of sludge, she plopped down on the ground and pulled her knees to her chest.
 
“Don’t you see, though?  You ruined my day.  You came to that stall acting like you were better than everyone.”  She grimaced as she discovered she had, indeed, sat in a pile of something and it was soaking its way into her skirts.  “Just because you were born rich doesn’t mean anything, pig face.  Only that you’ve got extra coin to spare.  Doesn’t make you any better than me or any other peasant.”  
 
Her tone was deflated and her words not carefully chosen, because who was she kidding?  It wasn’t like the girl was going to take a punch in the face and a few words about how peasants were as good as nobles seriously.  “That’s why I don’t like you, because you can’t see outside of what your parents taught you.  The sad thing is most of you are like that.  You don’t want to see, do you?”

[Blue]

Lucia took the opportunity to calm her crying a bit as the other girl talked. She wished the other female would just go away already. Lucia shifted a bit, giving a half-hearted attempt to get up before flopping back to sitting on the ground. Her hair ribbon fell as all of her locks escaped from the braid. Picking the silky strand up, she held it tightly in her hands.
 
Lucia glanced over to Keely for a moment before looking away. She was still mad at the girl, but curiosity forced her to listen to what Keely was saying. However, Lucia thought the whole argument was idiotic.
 
"You\'re no better." Lucia spoke up, her eyes staring at the ribbon in her hands, "Acting like we\'re all so terrible when who are the ones that punch someone because they didn\'t like what someone said?" Lucia brought her gaze to look at Keely now, her gray eyes flickering with anger.
 
She had once read a case study of a murder. The defendant in the case had been a peasant saying that nobles deserved such treatment. Such treatment as killing by poison or knives or other horrible impliments that many ladies fainted at hearing. After reading such a case, Lucia agreed with many other higher-class citizens that peasants were just ignorant and needed someone to blame their bitterness on.
 
"Being a lady of the court requires much much more than an attitude and it allows much more than money." Lucia folded her hands in her lap, still holding onto her hair ribbon. Her words became smoother as Lucia\'s emotions calmed down, "We have education and music and art and hygiene and clean food and we are able to see politics and see why people such as you," She paused at this point, staring at Keely, "aren\'t fit to run the country in such a way."
 
Lucia turned her gaze away from Keely now, "In the end, all you are is just a bitter girl that will go nowhere." She bit her tongue the second the statement left her mouth. Lucia cringed, knowing a hit or a tug of the hair would follow and all she could do was sit there.

[Erebus]

She glanced at her hand when her fists were brought up and smiled darkly.  "If you came down from that imaginary castle you live in, you\'d understand that sometimes, it\'s better to solve your problems with your fists."  
 
Keely laughed outright when she was told "her kind" couldn\'t rule the country.  "Of course.  We can\'t rule our own lives, why be able to rule the land we live in?  We\'re no better than the rats we have to live with whenever we come home from making your skirts and your pretty jewelry and tending the fields that\'ll become your dinner."
 
She took a breath, hands twisting in her skirt.  "How dare you say we shouldn\'t run the country when we\'re not even allowed to get a proper education or can\'t focus on learning how to paint a picture because we\'re too busy trying to survive."
 
Her face reddened behind its tan in anger.  "We\'ll see where I go.  I imagine I have more options than you think."

[Blue]

Lucia had had enough of talking to this girl already. She gave a rather exasperated sort of sigh. Letting her ribbon lay on her lap, she brought her hands up. She gathered her soft hair into her hands and pulled it around to start braiding it.
 
"You\'re just whining." Lucia snapped after a moment\'s pause once Keely had finished speaking. She tied her loose braid with the hair ribbon. "Many people find the time to do what they want. It\'s the bitter people that would rather blame it on others and whine that are the ones who never get anywhere." Lucia glanced over.
 
She had decided in the back of her mind. Her maid was going to be fired. Lucia began thinking about how she was going to get up and home without her maid who didn\'t seem to be coming back anytime soon. The young lady didn\'t even consider asking Keely to help her up so she could leave. Lucia was determined to never ask Keely for a favor let alone anything else.

[Erebus]

Keely stood, needing no assistance to get her rump off the ground.  "If you say so," she said and kicked at the dirt, hoping most of it ended up in the noble girl\'s lap.  
 
"Don\'t talk about having time until you\'ve worked in a tavern and have to deal with both a man sticking his hand into your shirt or skirt, or both, while balancing three glasses of ale and a pitcher.  Try doing that while smiling and tell me you\'re thinking about all the time you have to paint or pick flowers that don\'t even exist in your garden."
 
She was being quite the hypocrite, telling Lucia to keep her mouth shut about something she\'d never experienced when she herself hadn\'t truly experienced noble life.  But she figured she was safe enough when she would eventually.  She doubted Lucia would ever visit Falcon\'s Mask Inn, much less take her up on her advice of working as a tavern wench for a night.

[Blue]

Lucia looked over at Keely. She felt extremly frustrated at not being able to get up still. The young lady stared at the other before looking away with a scoff, "It couldn\'t be that bad and besides if it is, it is not nobles one would serve at such a place."
 
She put her hands on the ground, trying to lift herself on her knees. Perhaps if she got that far, she could lift herself up to a standing position. Her braid fell back to bounce against Lucia\'s back. Lucia\'s dress was by now torn and filthy. The lady hated it and wanted to change as soon as possible.
 
The crowd that had been watching had filtered to a smaller audience now,  mainly of vendors. Lucia wondered why most of them seemed to not want to help her. Most likely because they were scared of Keely. Lucia was sure she would be too if she saw the peasant beating up someone on the street.

[Erebus]

"Couldn\'t be that bad," she mocked in a high-pitched voice dripping with disdain. "Please." Again, she kicked at the ground. "You continue plodding along like a cow to slaughter."
 
Keely grinned maliciously. "Oh, but you\'ll be wearing the newest and best of clothes, won\'t you? You\'ll be thankful you have your fur trimmed coat on, because it\'s cold, even colder than the axe they\'re sharpening for you."
 
She watched Lucia struggle to gain her feet and shook her head. "Try wearing one less skirt next time you insult a peasant."

[Blue]

"Just shut up already." Lucia snapped as she almost fell back to the ground as she propped up to her knees. The lady had quite enough of Keely\'s talk. Her gray eyes darted around trying to find something to aid her getting to her feet.
 
Lucia didn\'t reply to the comment of her skirts, choosing to just ignore Keely. Shuffling over closer to a wooden pole that held up a stall, Lucia grabbed onto it. She stumbly stood up with the help of the pole. Brushing off her dirty skirts, even though it did no good, Lucia offered a rather cold glare towards a nearby group of peasants who had just watched instead of helped.
 
Sniffing lightly, Lucia tucked an escaped strand of hair behind her ear. "I hope, I never ever see you again." She glared at Keely for a moment before suddenly smirking, "I most likely won\'t though." With that, she turned and began to walk with her regular grace down the marketplace. She was going home with or without her maid.

[Erebus]

"Moo," she called out, as Lucia hadn\'t left her much time to think of or voice any comment better than that.
 
She regarded Lucia\'s back with a tight smile. The noble girl would see her sooner than she wanted. Lord Dagger still needed to show her around the castle as promised.
 
Brushing off the seat of her dull brown skirts, Keely thought again of the girl and her blue outfit. She would have to walk home in a disgraceful state. Keely\'s dress, on the other hand, allowed dirt to blend right in with the fabric. No one merely passing by (anyone that hadn\'t watched the fight take place anyway) would realize she\'d been in a scuffle. There were only her bruised knuckles and an angry red mark on her cheek to contend with.
 
Grinning smugly to herself, Keely turned and started down the road she\'d followed into the market.