Hybrid Vigor [Ashley/OPEN]

The young girl looked about nervously, though she kept her eyes downcast to avoid seeing anyone's face directly. Just where had Yuu gone? She grasped the red capelet tightly around her as she counted her breaths the way she had been told to whenever the panic started to claw its way out of her belly. Beating down the tendrils of thought that strayed away from the rise and fall and steady expansion and contraction of her chest, Priscilla's mind found itself powerfully drawn to the loud knocking that surely anyone standing close by could also hear. The recesses of her mind echoed with the sound of her own heartbeat, and the more she noticed, the quicker it became. The unintelligible chatter to her left, behind, and off to the side bore down on her, nearly overwhelming her already sensitive awareness of the world about her. Her lip trembled as a pair of girls walked past, laughing to themselves. Absolutely none of these people in the market square resembled her cousin.

This was what young babies did, and at fourteen she was at least ten years too old to be still acting like a distressed toddler with no sense of object permanence. He couldn't have just decided to return to the academy by himself, not after making such a big fuss about having her accompany him to survey their claim, or however he said it, as though it was an outing by a smug ruler to admire what he called his own. She had no desire to be outside, at the mercy of a mass of unfamiliar faces, when she was already intimate with the interior of her dormitory room. People could be paid to go out into the city for errands, she and Yuu both had more than enough pocket change to avoid being assailed on all sides by aggressive hawkers. Besides, Priscilla already knew more than she ever wanted about social dynamics from attempting to stay afloat with the family that she had. Yuu was probably wearing her name out right this moment. How incapable did she have to be to manage to lose sight of him when he had been mindful to stay no more than a few steps ahead of her as they maneuvered through the streets?

An aristocratic young girl lost amidst the Death City regulars in more ways than one, she continued walking forwards to nowhere in particular. This was an awful place where unfamiliar warm bodies spilled out of every conceivable corner. They loitered by the stalls and leaned against the buildings, sat with their unrecognized faces against their hands at the outdoor cafe tables and chased one another screaming around the large fountain. If there was a single space to seek solitude, one place to rest and restore the bubble separating herself from everyone else, it was no doubt already occupied. The unattended box, however, looked about as forlorn and unheeded as she was.

Priscilla would have been content to walk on by, not being the type to fall to pieces analyzing the personal significance of a simple box left in between a jewelry stall and a shopkeeper displaying silverware on a blanket, if not for the small feline faces poking their way out the open top. She crouched down as daintily as she could manage and scooped out a gray kitten with short, soft fur. The background radiation of anxiety and fright was not forgotten as she held first one and now two small cats in her lap, merely temporarily overridden. There was no smile on her somber but still pretty face, though she still seemed especially vulnerable as she pet one with her gloved hand and moved her arm to keep the other from tumbling off her leg. Yuu would find her. Squatting in the dust with abandoned kittens was slightly more productive than stumbling about the crowd with her chest tightened in an oncoming panic attack.

Ashley never really went outside of her home in, ever. She had lived for most of her life inside of her home; she never knew how much fun it was to go outside! There were so many different faces! So many differently fashioned men and women! It was one thing to simply look outside through a window, but being outside was so exciting for Ashley! She had lived her whole life within the city, yet she knew so little of it; it was like she travelled into another country!

Even if she had been in the DWMA dorms for well over a year now, her physique was bad enough that she barely managed to go to her classes, much less leave her own room on certain days.

She lost all of her care about having people tower over her to-and-fro. She was so busy looking around like an excited child; she managed to bump into someone. What should have been a small knock that normal people shrugged off like nothing, Ashley was sent falling to the ground. Her hat fell down beside her. As she muttered about her pain, she almost immediately begged her pardon to the man. Quickly she grabbed her hat and scampered off.

And just as quickly forgetting that this little incident occurred, Ashley looked around at the different shops. Everything seemed gorgeous! She was old enough to have her own allowance, add to the allowance from the DWMA dorms to help students with money problems; Ashley had a nice, little amount that she managed to save up. However, today was not a day to spend, but to look around for where to spend! Oh, there were so many things that caught her attention that Ashley found herself walking from one stall to another. Like a moth to an open flame, she gazed at the various objects which prodded her curiosity.

Her head began to spin and her body getting tired. Too much excitation and going left and right everywhere was wearing down poor Ashley. But she simply could not stop in the middle of the road! Her tired state looked around for somewhere to sit down. Instead, bright red eyes managed to spot a girl squatting down in front of a box. Are-- are those…

[/i] The tired girl's pace escalated as she made her way over to where the other girl was. Ashley stopped right beside the other girl and crouched down herself. "Aww~! They're just adorable~!" She exclaimed happily as she looked at the various kittens in the box, and on the girl's lap.
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