Fear of failure

[Faith Augustin]

6th Vhalar
cont'd from here

"Just one bit! Hello," came a voice in reply. A young woman came out from the door which led deeper into the house, presumably, and was behind the neat counter. This reception area, for want of a better way of putting it, was mostly spartan. There were chairs to sit on, they were comfortable and well stuffed, clean and, should he notice such thing, they had been repaired and reupholstered a lot of times. A lot. The paint was clean and fresh - and scrubbed. As was the floor and the counter. There was no finery or frippery here, no ornamentation. What was here was a place to sit and a place to speak to the person at the reception desk.

This trial, apparently, that was a young woman of maybe late teens or early twenties. She was small, just short of five foot four and she had a very slender, petite figure. Her hair was jet black and pulled back from her face in a loose braid; she wore no make up. Which meant that her pale skin was obvious and stood in stark contrast to her hair. Possibly the most unusual thing about the petite young woman who made her way out to meet him with a smile, however, was her eyes. They were so pale they seemed to be almost silver and they had flecks of deep wine red in them.

"Welcome to Isonomia," she said and her voice was quiet, almost a whisper, but her smile was genuine and friendly.

As she moved around the counter, Faith held her hand out to shake hands with Oskar - she didn't ignore how he looked, nor did she assume anything from it. Genuinely, she didn't care about his appearance at all. "It's nice to meet you," she said and the hand that the young woman offered showed a single black tattoo on her wrist, made to look like a delicate lace wrist band, there was another on the opposite wrist and it was mirrored around her neck. Her nails were long and black and it led to a very particular sort of look, which really didn't match her white blouse and knee length green skirt.

"My name is Faith, and I'm one of the workers here," she said, with a smile. "How can I help you to-trial?"

[Oskar]

The woman who called out was young, younger than him, with a fresh face that was naturally beautiful and dark hair she had styled. She was younger and smaller and so tiny looking that if Oskar had any sort of strength, he would have noticed. But he didn't so he didn't. Instead, he found himself catching her eyes, wondering at the grey and red flecks that he saw. He would have called it strange, if he knew more about it. But to him, normal was red hair and periwinkle skin and eyes lacking a pupil or iris of any sort. He smiled, still uncomfortable, and took a step forward towards her.

Her smile had coaxed him. She had barely spoken loud enough for him to hear her properly, but he knew the words would have to have been nice. That smile was wide and open and couldn't have come from someone who didn't want him to be here. Who thought this wasn't the place for him.

She extended her hand and he was surprised that someone was willing to touch him without it being through a blow. He took it nervously, scared to hold too tight in case she considered it as aggressive. Sharp nails brushed against his skin, by accident, as he took the hand, and he wondered about the reason. Somehow, they looked almost ornamental, rather than claws she had grown naturally. They looked useless too. Oskar wondered how hard she worked if she could get away with having nails that were purely for decoration. An afternoon with him, she'd find that they had been ground down to a more suitable size naturally.

"It's nice to meet you too," he replied, mirroring her words in a lack of knowledge on what else to say.

He lingered as she introduced herself before pulling his hand back and ducking it in a bottomless pocket in his coat. He shifted on his feet tentatively, letting her finish before realising she still had nothing negative to say, she still wasn't planning on kicking him out.

"I want to help you, actually," he said, pausing a moment before continuing, "I can't do much. I don't have much money to give. But I can do little jobs, manual labour, that sort of thing. Odd jobs, if you need it." He paused again, not happy how he had phrased that. "If you need it to help others. I've seen the Dust Quarter. I see people there every day. I want to help you help them. If you'd let me."

He took a step back, dropping his head and letting her reply. His breath flickered as he waited.

[Faith Augustin]

6th Vhalar
cont'd from here

He said that he wanted to help and Faith looked delighted at that. He said that he wasn't there to give money and the expression on her face told the honest truth of her feelings as she waved a hand. Money wasn't important to her. His offer of work was much more appreciated and, when he spoke of the Dust Quarter, Faith's face positively lit up. "Oh, that's excellent!" She seemed genuinely delighted, "We're going to be focusing our efforts in the Dust Quarter. The... I've got the plans, here, let me show you?" She gestured for him to come with her and she led him behind the counter and then through the door.

It was a small office back there, with maps on the walls of Rharne and clear overlays of very thin glass to put over them which had been marked with strange symbols in different colours. A large bookshelf stood in the corner and there was a desk with a chair behind it, and three well stuffed armchairs around a table. All of the furniture was in good order, but none of it was new and all of it had been repaired or restored.

"Please, have a seat," she said, gesturing to the armchairs - soft and comfortable and covered in good, sturdy fabric, Faith pulled a rolled up scroll from a bucket of them behind her desk and moved over to the armchair next to him. "Here," unraveling the parchment, it was obviously Rharne, but this was a map of the Dust Quarter specifically. There were three buildings marked out particularly and she pointed to them.

"Here, we are putting a satellite clinic for the Order of the Adunih. The people in the Dust Quarter have to come here, to the Earth Quarter if they need medical attention. Many of them do not, or do not come until things are much more serious than they need to be. Accessible medical care, first." Then she pointed to two buildings, close to the first and next to each other. "A soup kitchen and hostel, with a community center here. The idea is not to give charity, that's not what people want." She looked at him with silver and wine red eyes and smiled, as though she believed she was pre-empting an argument from him. She believed she was.

"I want to set up a skill exchange programme. If you have a strong back, then you go and help the elderly couple who need to repair their home. In exchange for which, they feed you, or sew you new clothes. Each person uses their skills for the betterment of the community at large." Her expression, everything about her was passionate as she spoke. "And if people have no skills, well we can teach them. While we're repairing houses, in community groups. "

She stopped talking, putting the paperweight down on the map and she gave a slight, almost rueful smile. "My apologies. I am sure that you have questions before I talk your head off." Motioning to the map she smiled. "Is there anything you'd like to know? Does that sound like the kind of thing you could help with?"