The Square, Middle of Downtown, busiest sector

[Mayor Nardine]

[Yeid]

"I'm fine, Mother," Yeid sighed, tilting her head impatiently as she tried to tune out the worried mumblings of her maternal parent. Well, if you could call Vehna her mother. Most Farza did. In that one respect, her 'family' were traditionalists: they'd been part of the children's registry. Old Farza culture dictated that children did not necessarily stay with their biological parents, but instead get placed in a home with parents determined to have the optimum potential benefit for that specific child. Remnants of that old Perfection fixation remained there, though they had learned from hard experience not to force it on anyone else.

Still, Yeid could not complain. Luckily for her, she'd been placed with one of the Wealthiest Farza families on the planet. She was the only child placed there too, so she got to enjoy the benefit of being their sole heir.

She smiled. It was her kind of life, she thought as she noted with satisfaction the hefty weight of the bags hanging from her arm. There was was probably room enough for one or two more.

"Mother..., yes. Yes, I have my pepper spray. Please stop- I am a grown woman after all. I'll be fine. I have to go anyway; there's something I want to get, and I'm not sure if it's been sold out yet or not. Mm-hm. Love you too."

Clicking her phone shut, she fumbled with her purchases, trying not to drop them as she slid it into her pocket. Just then, someone rounded the corner in front of her and wasn't looking where they were going. Her packages scattered and she ended up on her well-clad rump on the sidewalk.

[Tobin]

Tobin again found himself wandering all over town without much purpose in his steps. He wondered what caused him to walk around without any intent on going anywhere but ended everywhere. He'd crossed the bridge to the outskirts more than twice this week, reaching the end of the Crystal lake and staring at the moon before he came to his senses and returned back to his apartment.

Now standing by the bus stop to catch his bus back home, Tobin silently scolded himself for wandering off as though he was caught sleepwalking all over town. Perhaps he needed to visit a psychiatrist. He frowned. That was not an option. He hated the idea of someone else probing in his mind, even if he too was curious to the secrets hidden there, secrets he didn't know of.

Suddenly a person shoved past him and someone yelled after him. Tobin clenched his jaw and turned to the person sprinting blindly down the street as though being chased by the Metropolis police. He narrowed his eyes, debating whether to run after the person but realized that he was not that kind of guy. Good Samaritan was far from his middle name. Telling himself to mind his own business, Tobin turned back to face the street, waiting for the bus to pull over.

[Yeid]

"Oh no, it broke," Yeid mourned as she lifted the shattered remains of the decorative cup she bought by the handle. "That was so cute, And it was the last one in the store..." The culprit of her perceived disaster had fled, literally leaving her to pick up the pieces.

"Bother," she said grumpily. She looked up and saw a human man standing at the nearest bus stop. He'd glanced her way and not even offered to help. How rude. Maybe he just didn't want to help a Farza. No, that couldn't be it. Yeid knew she was far too charming to be summarily judged like that, or at least, that's what her parents had always told her.

She stood up and brushed her skirts off with her daintily manicured hands. Then she flashed her most charming smile at the gentleman and in a coquettish voice said, "Excuse me sir, but would you mind helping me for one teensy little moment?"

Technically she didn't need the help, but Yeid being Yeid, she hated being ignored as she had spent most of her life in the limelight of wealth.

[Tobin]

Noticing that someone had spoken over the bustling traffic that zoomed past, Tobin assumed it couldn't be directed at him and continued facing the street. Until he felt someone tap his shouder. Frowning, Tobin glanced back and a creature with three eyes blinking at him pointed to his right.

He followed the man's direction and blinked at the creature with snow-white hair and pale skin. It still took him a while to get used to the various different species residing in Metropolis Cove but having a half-serpent, half-human for a landlord, Tobin had to get rid of his worries quickly. Tobin's brow furrowed. "Yes?" he muttered, not understanding why this creature was talking to him. "What...?" Tobin didn't even bother trying to hide the impatience in his voice. Where was that bus?

[Yeid]

Her mouth hung in shock at his terse tone. No one had EVER spoken to her like that in her life, and she had a thin enough skin that she did not handle it at all well.

Her pretty mouth snapped shut and she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the human.

"I see your upbringing was sorely neglected. Allow me to fill in the gaps. Lady-" she said, pointing a finger to her own chest, then turning it to him. "Gentleman. At least, you would be if you weren't such a buffoon as to ignore a lady's request for help. Some fool made me drop my packages and they've scattered everywhere. i was asking for some help rounding them all up."

Some might have called her pout pretty or sexy or some other adjective that made it sound attractive. But it wasn't. While she was indeed the typical Farza example of alabaster beauty, her scowl was petulant.

[Tobin]

Tobin stared blankly at the woman who practically lashed out unreasonably, at least to him. He glanced around, looking from over one shoulder to the next, searching for the person she meant to insult. Then sighing, he looked back down at her from his straight nose and smirked. "Pardon me but I don't see a lady anywhere..."

Not even waiting for her to respond, he walked around her and started walking down the street. Tobin was aware that the bus was almost arriving at the bus stop but it didn't matter anymore. If he waited just one minute late, she might attack him with those bottomless smoky eyes of hers. Not that he was frightened of course, more like unnerved by her interrupting his peace and solitude.

[Yeid]

Yeid was in total shock. This man was incredible. He treated her like some unwanted nobody, she, the heiress to the family fortune. For one moment, she wracked her brain trying to find some kind of grounds she could use his comment to sue him, but to her dismay, she could think of nothing. Oh how she wanted to slap him.

And yet.... in some perverse way his boorish (in her opinion) attitude made him almost, well, attractive to her.So she started following him down the street, intending to have herself a little fun.

"Wait! Please," she pleaded, trotting after him as quickly as her stiletto heels would allow. "I'm sorry, really I am. My name is Yeid. It's just been a long day and I was just knocked over by some creep that didn't stop, so I was in foul mood. I shouldn't have taken it out on you, though. Will you let me treat you to a cup of coffee to make up for it?"

[Tobin]

He couldn't believe it. She actually followed him after throwing a mini tantrum back at the bus station. In his mind, Tobin knew she was definitely someone to steer clear away from, believing that she was looking for trouble. Tobin decided to ignore her for as long as he could.

"I don't drink coffee..." he mumbled in response. Taking advantage of his long legs, Tobin sped up his pace, widening the distance between his legs with each step away from her. Still, he could hear the incessant clicking of her heels on the concrete. Tobin rubbed his ears and kept walking, hoping she'd fall back and leave him alone.

But he got to the end of the street and still could hear her heels. Tobin turned around and frowned down at her. "Have you taken leave of your senses? Do you have any idea who I am?"

[Yeid]

She let out a laugh in tinkling silvery tones and actually smiled at him. A carefully sculpted brow arched in amusement at his words. Obviously, he failed to appreciate the irony of his question in the first place, since he actually deigned to utter it.

"I might ask you the same thing," she said, her pearly eyes twinkling with merriment. True, she was somewhat offended at his rebuff, but chalked it up to ignorance that she would simply take upon herself to correct. She crossed her arms and smiled, saying, "I'm Yeid, of the tenth Farza family. Perhaps we have just not lived in the city long enough for you to recognize me. After all, what's 500 years? And who might you be?"

"Just as valuable as you are from the sound of things." A voice spoke quietly from a nearby alley. "Gentleman, detain the lady and her new friend."

Yeid let out a piercing scream before one of the masked thugs clapped a hand over her mouth and cut it short. Two more of them went for the human she'd been pestering, bundling them both in a forcefully businesslike manner into the back of an unmarked van.

[Tobin]

Before he could even counter her response with a smart reply, Tobin found himself roughly handled. Pushed and dragged once his eyes and his arms were bound, Tobin discovered he was shoved into a corner and it didn't take long for his annoyance to grow. What kind of inconvenience was this? All because of the bratty woman wriggling against him. He nudged her away from him with his shoulder and shifted his back to face her.

The van was dark and soon, it started to move. Tobin dug his heels on the uncarpeted floor before inertia could jerk him forward. He couldn't say the same for the woman who slid across the back of the van, slamming her body against his leg. He glared at her but made no move to push her away this time. Tobin needed to save his energy once they stopped moving and his kidnappers came to lead him out.

[Yeid]

Yeid couldn't care less that they two of them were on technically less than friendly terms- she was absolutely petrified and clung nervously to him. She couldn't be sure, what with their face masks, but she thought she caught one of them looking at her with disgust as she melded herself to the human's side.

"Please, just let us go. We haven't done anything to you," she said, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. She steeled herself for one moment and looked at her unwilling companion and found herself doing something utterly uncharacteristic.

She tried to help him out.

"He's no good for ransom, you know. The clothes he's wearing he got from a charity Father donated to. When he asked if I knew who he was, it was because he was startled that I showed any interest in talking to a pauper." She could only hope they wouldn't take the trembling of her voice as evidence of her untruthfulness.

"That was a nice try, Miss Yeid, but I"m afraid we won't be able to take your word for that. Now just rest quietly. We would hate for anything to happen to you before you've had a chance to talk to your daddy."

[Tobin]

Confused to what the girl was babbling beside her, he tried nudging her hands from around his own arm. Why was she clinging so close and why was he in captive along with her?

His brow furrowed in disapproval at her words. "Who do you think you are? I don't even know you or your father, whoever he is." Clenching his jaw, he glared up at the people watching them curiously. "You've got the wrong guy. I don't know this crazy woman. You better let me go before I really get angry."

They snorted, not at all fazed by his threats. Tobin narrowed his eyes, jerking the tightly-bound ropes around his wrists. Something was quite fishy about this situation beside him being tied up with this girl. What did they want from him?

[Yeid]

At the human's unfeeling words, Yeid began to cry softly, try though she might to suppress the urge. The captor closest to her backhanded her across the face and she cried out in pain, clutching the place where he'd hit her.

Then the sharp crack of a gunshot sounded in the van and the one that had struck her fell over and the two captives were splattered with small flecks of his blood.

They all turned to stare at the leader, who still held the smoking gun in his hand. "I told all of you that she was not to be harmed yet," he said simply. "Toss him out."

Not bothering to stop the van, another of the thugs slid open the side door as they barreled down a freeway bridge over water and chucked his erstwhile cohort out.

[Tobin]

Tobin's eyes widened when one of the men slapped the pale-skinned girl across her face. This he could not stand and clenched his fists, ready to lunge over the seat at the character. Even though she was a brat and whiny one at that, it was more than rude to hit a female, no matter if she was a human or not.

But one of the others got to him first and forced Tobin to freeze, wincing only when the gunshot sent the man's brains splattering all over the van. He shifted his eyes to the frightened girl beside him, wondering why they were going through all the fuss for her. It was then he noticed her garb and her coiffed hair. Had she been serious about her status after all? Was she some kind of princess that had to be taken care of?

Suddenly he was curious of the creature quivering beside him. Tobin didn't know what to do yet, he couldn't make a move to approach her since one of the men was armed with a quick lethal weapon. Perhaps later, he told himself and merely kept an eye on her until the next opportunity.