(Untitled)

[cant_kim]

Even good pickpockets are sometimes not quite as deft as they'd like. Kim went for a swell mort's purse today, and the woman, feeling the tug, yelled that there was a pickpocket in the crowd. Kim had had the presence of mind to fall back and yell that there he goes -- but in the resulting surge of the crowd, a would-be nabbing cull saw fit to elbow

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[mmquitecontrary]

Not too far off, there's a twelve-year-old girl who's taking in the vocabulary lesson with a great deal of interest.

[mmquitecontrary]

"Yes," Mary says, her cheeks flushing red with anger, "and I suppose you have the sense not to need to learn anything either - you think you shall know everything, just by yourself, I expect! As if it were magic!"

[cant_kim]

"That ain't so!" she snaps -- and then, noticing that she's letting a twelve-year-old wind her up, she subsides into disdain.

"And what's that got to do with anything, anyhow?"

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary feels rather as if she's scored a point, and looks it.

Triumphant: "Only someone who was very foolish would think they knew enough never to have to listen to what other people were saying. That is all I mean."

[cant_kim]

"I want to know somethin' from someone, I'll ask."

This is not strictly true, but Mary's not to know that.

"Or I'll figure it out m'self. So."

[mmquitecontrary]

"And I suppose people always tell you whatever you ask," Mary says, flushing again, "since you are a boy and grown. It is awfully easy for you."

[cant_kim]

"Oh, so? And things're so hard for you, my little lady," Kim spits, "'s that it?"

[mmquitecontrary]

"I am not so little!"

Mary folds her arms tightly in front of her, falling back on her first line of defense - but she's at a disadvantage, here, not really understanding the argument.

Class hasn't really sunk in yet for her, except as something automatic.

"And I have done plenty of hard things. I have been in danger and I have fought and - I bet more than you have!"

[cant_kim]

She snorts. "You ain't got the first idea of danger, I'll wager. What would a toff chit like you do in a fight?"

[mmquitecontrary]

"I know how to hit - and I have. And I have a knife."

She's certainly not going to tell this boy that she doesn't really know how to use it yet.

[cant_kim]

"Anyone can have a knife," Kim scoffs.

"I don't believe you."

[mmquitecontrary]

"I don't lie."

Mary's gaze is sharp and angry.

"If I were not only supposed to hit people who have tried to hurt me first, I would prove it to you now."

[cant_kim]

"There's rules about that, you know."

Kim wouldn't quite put it past this girl to ignore the rules, but she's secure in the knowledge that she could probably deal with her. Kim fights dirty.

[mmquitecontrary]

"I know."

Mary holds her head a little higher. "I have been in the cells, too."

Mary's two hours in the cells clearly make her BADASS.

[cant_kim]

Kim bursts out laughing.

"What'd you do, pull someone's hair?"

[mmquitecontrary]

The short answer to this question is 'yes'.

"I was in a fight," Mary snaps, practically stomping her foot in frustration, "because I was bespelled."