The Harbor -- Shops

[Administrator]

A few small shops line the harbor, great place to sell papes.

[Warden Snyder]

((New Day: Open. Come if you dare))

Warden Snyder was out on patrol. He'd been having a rough couple of weeks lately and was looking for kids causing trouble. Recently a couple of kids had broken out of the refuge, completely gone missing, which he would have to report, which would result in less money, which... would result in less money. Snyder didn't like that. Rather than report that two had gone missing he'd rather find another two to replace them. He was out, on the streets, looking for people causing trouble, and he was gonna take whatever trouble making child he could get his hands on.

As he walked down the street near the harbor he could hear newsboys hawking headlines. He was never a fan of the newsboys. Making so much noise, shouting all the time, running away, and disobeying the laws, and him of course. One of these days he was going to get a whole patrol of police officers and go find all the newsboys causing trouble... take them all back to the refuge and celebrate with a bottle of champagne. Sounded like a lovely day.

[Alice Byrne]

If there was one thing that Alice hated more than anything in the world it was dressing up for no good reason. In her opinion, there were only four decent reasons to dress up in one's life: Weddings and funerals, because people always pitched a fit if you didn't dress up for those things and not doing it was really more trouble than it was worth, church, because you really don't want to tick off the big guy upstairs too much if you plan on doing anything other than saying hail Marys on your free time, or for school pictures, because they wouldn't let you be in them if you didn't look decent. Having people come into your class to tell you about their lousy careers definitely didn't make the cut in her book. But her mom had insisted and, by the time she went out the door, she was decked out in the nicest, newest and undoubtedly the whitest dress she had ever owned, with lacy white stockings on her legs and silky, white bow in her hair. For christsakes, what did her mother think it was? her confirmation?

All the way to school, she had brooded about it and prepared herself for a day of itchiness and boredom with no recess in the middle to make it even halfway bearable (the other kids might be allowed that privilege, but her mother had forbidden it, lest she soil her nice, new dress). But, when she reached the door of the schoolhouse and saw all of the familiar and immensely boring parents with even more boring jobs walking in, she had decided that she simply wouldn't put up with it. Without a second thought, she had turned tail and run for somewhere, anywhere more interesting.

Luckily, she had brought her slingshot with her, as she always did, tucked away between her books. So, it hadn't been to hard to entertain herself. All morning, she had been wandering around Manhattan pegging people with marbles and stones. It just never got old and being dressed like this, as long as she put the slingshot away quickly enough, most people didn't suspect her of being the shooter. Most just wandered away, annoyed and some pegged shoeshine boys or newsies as the culprits and chased them while she walked off scott free.

It was sort of a talent of hers to be able to identify the people who would get the most ticked off at being hit with one of her projectiles and, as she walked along near the harbor, her slingshot safely tucked away under her books, she made sure to keep an eye out for a good target.

Finally, just as she passed a store window full of knickknacks, she spotted one. Just a few feet away there stood an real nicely dressed man in a black suit and a bowler hat. He didn't look like one of those super rich folks who you saw on fifth avenue or any of those other real hoity toity places, but he definitely looked like he thought a lot of himself and that was exactly what she was looking for. Discretely, she pulled her slingshot out from under her books, slid a decent sized pebble into the sling, pulled it back and shot, sending it flying straight toward the back of the man's head. Barely containing herself, she quickly tucked the slingshot back under her books and turned away, doing her best to look innocent, which wasn't too hard considering that she was dressed like she had just stepped out of a wedding.

[Warden Snyder]

Snyder wasn't in the mood for child antics, and due to his profession, he always assumed the worst out of children. When he saw the small girl he sort of glared at her... however based on what she looked like... despite assuming the worst, she didn't look like the slingshotting type. He took a deep breath, and walked over to the young one. "Excuse me miss," he said trying to be as polite and gentlemanly as possible, "did you happen to see any other children around here?" he asked.

True, he was giving her the benefit of the doubt, but he wanted to gauge her reaction, see how things went, and such before he jumped too many conclusions. For all he knew, she could have easily stolen that dress, and be a street rat, just like any other child. And if that were true he'd be taking her to the refuge. Not as if anyone would miss her... and she'd caused enough trouble to warrant it. Disturbing the peace after all, even if it was only his peace.

[Alice Byrne]

Alice smiled back as innocently as she possibly could at the man, given the circumstances, as he strolled over to her, with a slippery, sly sort of grin on his face. Right then and there, she decided that she hated him. He was an ugly, nasty old man no matter how nicely he might have been dressed and there was nothing that he could say or do to change her mind.But, regardless of her feelings towards him, she didn't want to do anything to bring blame upon herself until she was safely out of his reach. So, when he asked her, in a disgustingly proper voice, whether or not she had seen any other children run past, she replied quickly and politely "Oh, golly, yes, sir.I think I saw a little boy run by earlier but I can't quite remember where he went..." keeping all but the slightest hint of malice out of her voice as she did so. She glanced around a bit to back up her claim before shrugging and turning back to the man "I don't see him now but I can help you look for him if you'd like. I think he went that that way." she pointed aimlessly to the side, her mischievous young eyes still fixed directly on his beady old ones. "I bet I could be of use if he slipped into any tight spaces. I'm awfully sure you haven't been able to fit into any of those in decades."

She allowed hint of a smirk to flash across her face at her first blunt jab at the detestable old man's ego, but quickly covered it up with a polite titter and a much more amiable remark. "Don't worry, my papa's the same way. My mama says that's just what happens when you get old." she added with a forced smile, wandering a few steps in the direction that her imaginary little boy had allegedly gone. "How old are you?" she asked, glancing around in search of an actual, flesh and blood little boy she might be able to pin the slingshot incident on. "If you don't mind my asking..."

[Warden Snyder]

Snyder looked down at the little girl. He wasn't buying her act. Small children are typically not so quick to speak up and carry on a conversation he believed. He became quite skeptical in a heart beat, however, what was he going to do? Arrest a small girl in a pretty white dress right on the harbor streets where everyone could see him? Not wise. He particularly didn't like the stinging way she insulted him. He'd been insulted before, but when a child truly meant no harm... they didn't say it in such an articulate way. He believed this child older than they were pretending to be. Besides all that he'd turned around a bit quickly in order to catch whom ever had attacked him. They would have had very little time to run, and would be quite close by even if they had just dashed down an alley.

No, he would not be telling this young girl his age. It didn't matter, and he was more interested in learning about her. He was going to follow after her but then looked down at her books. "Why aren't you in school little one? And, shouldn't you be taking these with you? I can get them for you if you like," he offered. He started leaning down to pick up the little one's books. If she was half as proper as she was pretending to be, she should be in school. She looked as though she had the money. Her story was falling apart in his mind.

[Alice Byrne]

Alice promptly arranged her face into a sorrowful expression at the mention of school. She played hooky enough that she had about a million and one excuses stocked up as to why she wasn't in school at any given time of the day, each of them a gem, and her acting skills were getting pretty good with all the times she'd had to use them over the past couple years. "Oh, I sure do wish I was, mister. It's career day today and I've been looking forward to it all year" she bowed her head partially to accentuate her make believe sorrow at the tragedy of missing such a fine event as career day and partially to hide the ghost of a smile that flitted across her lips at the sheer ridiculousness of such a statement. Anyone who thought that listening to a bunch of boring adults talk about their boring jobs was fun ought to have themselves admitted. But, for some reason, adults seemed to buy it whenever she told them. "I even bought a new dress just for it. isn't it pretty?" She asked him, stepping back and holding out her arms to give him a better look at it. "But, it turns out that one of the tenants at my papa's apartments that we had to kick out just made an awful mess of the room before he left and we have someone else moving in tomorrow, so, he needs my help fixing it up and I have to miss school." she gave a soft kick at a little pebble near her feet doing her very best to look disappointed and downtrodden under the gross old man's scrutiny. "I'm getting some new paint and a couple of hinges for the doors right now from a shop down that way" she said, pointing in the general direction of a shop a few streets down from which she knew her father actually had bought some hinges in the past. As much as fit disgusted her to do so, she inched in as bit closer to the man so that he could hear her as she lowered her voice to a whisper for the next part of her rather elaborate explanation "I'm really not supposed to be wearing the dress for it" she told him "But I just couldn't help it. I've never had a dress so pretty before in my life." At least that last apart was the truth. She really hadn't, in her knowledge owned a prettier dress before in her life, but, truthfully, she would have been more than happy to have left it that way. She would take her ratty old brown dresses over this one any day. They were a lot easier to play in. "you won't tell my mama, will you?" she finished in mock desperation, taking a long awaited step back. "She'd be awfully sore if she found out."

Her heart nearly skipped a beat as he leaned down to pick up her books and, likely unknown to him, her slingshot with them. As quickly as she could she dashed over and snatched them up before his fingers even touched them. There was definitely something to be said for youthful speed. "I can get them" she blurted out with a momentarily panicky sort of smile "I always find adults' hands to be a bit too grimy with all the hanky panky they get up to." she rationalized a bit more calmly, channeling her annoyance at his inconvenient near discovery into a politely stated but rather thinly veiled and jibe at him. "Granted, sir, you really don't look like the type to have that kind of problem, but I figure it's better safe than sorry. My schoolbooks are awfully precious to me." at that, she pressed them, face up against her chest, making sure to keep the side with the slingshot pointing safely toward the ground and their edges digging firmly into her bony chest. "Thank you for the offer, though" she added, with a would-be grateful smile that didn't quite match her eyes.

[Warden Snyder]

He did find it rather odd that such a beautifully dressed child was missing school to help their father with something. children wearing such nice clothes aren't usually asked to stay home and help fix up apartments. But perhaps they had saved up for the dress. It really wasn't proper of him to jump to such conclusions as this, so he promptly stopped himself. For he had no reason to believe the girl was skipping school. He nodded his head slightly. "No, I won't tell your mother," he said as he looked down at the young girl. She was an interesting character wasn't she? "Why don't I just walk you to the hardware store then, and help you get the things you need." He didn't know how young she was, but he knew that younger children might need some assistance with things like that. He knew the store she spoke of so why not help her?

He did find it odd she was so eager to carry her own books however. She was a curious child using words the way she was and speaking so forwardly to adults. He looked down at the girl's empty gaze and her books in her arms. Something about her just wasn't sounding sincere, but he didn't know what it was as she was talking about so much at once. "Come along then, let's get you the things you need so you can get along home and off the filthy streets." He did find it odd how she'd just been sitting on the corner too. Why wouldn't she be heading to the store? And why was she alone? So many questions that he just couldn't fully bring himself to trust this young one.