Vindication [6/20]

[18:22] Leni scuttles north of the market, towards where one of the pristine, man-made stone walls of Osrona rises alongside the walk way. A literal and more metaphorical symbol of society's pristine structure.

Which makes it perfect to deface. The druid reaches around in her coat for that stick of red chalk she'd been traded back and begins to size up her canvas.
(Leni)
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[18:24] Armondt wasn't ever about to start being uncommunicative in terms of his feelings. Were Leni to turn back to face him, she could see a fairly impatient-looking frown on his mien. "Y'can go ahead, but I ain't sure what exactly it'll get done. Do ya need me to talk to 'em personally to arrange some kinda chat...?"

"'Cause I know what you'll say -- ya tried talkin' to 'em all direct-like. But maybe if there was a third guy who ain't got nothin' to do with what's goin' on between ya..." However, as vociferous as he's being on the matter, he's not lifting a finger to try and stop her. The accord of their relationship has always held firm - you can talk and recommend and warn, but you certainly can't ever stop one another.
(Armondt)
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[18:30] The druid does glance all around, scanning for potential constables, and then up at Armondt's face. His expression does give her some pause. Some.

"It'll make me feel better. Cuz this is what I want to do."

The accomplishments were simple as that. The long-term didn't matter.

"He didn't want to be my friend. So he doesn't have to be. Now I don't have to be nice if he's not my friend," she says in all-too simple terms. He'd made his choice. She's making hers; and she's choosing to deface this wall in his oh-so-precious city.
(Leni)
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[18:33] "Alright, alright..." Armondt nods at that notion, atleast. He's not willing to reject her out of hand, no matter what. "As long as it makes ya feel better, that'll definitely help. But I ain't think it's gonna do much in terms of gettin' anythin' out to 'em. Y'know that." The moment a street cleaner runs into the chalk, it'll be presumably get wiped away as easily as anything else.

Or, maybe the poor fellow will touch the chalk for too long and wind up getting sapped of their life force. Who knows?

"Just write what ya feel ya need to and let's get movin', if ya really feel this'll help."
(Armondt)
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[18:35] Leni doesn't typically do anything with the intent to cause direct harm. If people elected to get in the way and cause it to themselves? That's their business, not hers.

In spite of her prickly mood, the thorns of her crown evincing as much, she gives Armondt a cheery smile. The courier gave advice. He gave typically sound advice, but unlike others he never sought to control her.

Not like the one she's intending to spite by drawing on this perfectly pristine grey and white wall. As a matter of fact, as she takes the chalk to it, it sure looks like she's starting to outline a certain familiar dog head...
(Leni)
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[18:41] Regardless of the misgivings he might have over the whole endeavor, he's always willing to indulge in Leni - or even just let her live and let live. So he places his hands on his knees and crouches forward just a bit in order to get a decent idea of what the druid's artistic endeavor is. Ah, yes. A basic mockery of the man.

Armondt nods, and doesn't open his mouth for a while. He just elects to let her work, and admire it as she does. Maybe this would wind up looking fairly pretty. The only thing he does wind up saying is, "Wish I brought my paints with me. Maybe next time."

At that point, it would just become an art installation.

Maybe Leni was bound towards becoming one of Esshar's eminent and most transgressive artists. Willing to break the boundaries of what made art what it was.
(Armondt)
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[18:50] This only one man-about-town (or dog) that it could be. Even if he no longer wears his 'face', the visage is one that the druid has been familiar with over the passing of years.

She renders a fanciful but pretty damn decent rendering of the watch captain. Leni looks back over her shoulder for a moment for Armondt's opinion on its accuracy. She's a little pale in the cheeks, but still fine despites the chalk's draining influence.

Perhaps she's all set to become Osrona's version of Banksy. Taking down the establishment one magical chalk drawing at a time.

"Next time. There should be more colors here."
(Leni)
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[18:54] The courier looks over at the chalk rendering. It's... surprisingly not mocking, which was somehow what he was expecting. Somehow, given what he knows of Leni. Instead, what he sees is a pretty well-set rendering of the dog-faced man formerly known as Walter Docro. He places his hands on his hips, and nods. "That's good, Len. I hope if nothin' else it'll remind him of the man he used to be."

He should really start giving his companion a little bit more credit when it comes to transgressive gestures that some closed-mind people might uncharitbly call defacing and disfigurement.

"Hope he gets to see it when he's on some fancy patrol."
(Armondt)
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[18:58] Armondt might have put a little too much hope in her. Leni shakes her head and starts scribbling beside the drawing.

"No. If he gets reminded, that's good. But he wasn't a good guy then either. He lied to me, hid stuff from me, tried to control me," she replies, and there's a bit of a harsh bite to her words. If there's one thing the druid despises it's someone else trying to exert forces over her.

And that's, ultimately, what the kitsune had done. Even if his intentions had been pure in some warped, perverse way. Her license had been taken away. Not enough change had been made for her to forgive him that either, apparently. Quite the opposite.

She starts scrawling the words beside the dog head on the wall.

OLD DOG. NO NEW TRICKS.

No one else had to understand it. What mattered was that she did.
(Leni)
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[19:15] The courier nods at those words. He was too detached from the man to know exactly what was wrong with him, and yet Leni's reported it to him time and time again. It should have seemed obvious, but something about it hits a little harder here. His protectiveness - his overprotectiveness - that he'd demonstrated some years ago should have told him everything.

That the protectiveness evinced possessiveness, as opposed to anything properly reciprocal.

Armondt's eyelids lower, and he nods. Leni had a vendetta - a justified vendetta, given everything he's known of her. Maybe it was best to accept that the man just wasn't the best dude around.

"Suppose you're right. ...Do ya wanna go somewhere and let loose?"

Armondt, meanwhile, offers the opposite: an opportunity to just go wild for a bit.
(Armondt)
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[19:24] Leni might have different and simpler priorities than most, but living a life following desire was not always a good thing. Because sometimes, just sometimes, that desire strayed into something downright vindictive. For now, all that results from it is a chalk drawing, and she holds onto that chalk just like she holds on to her anger and frustration towards the watch captain.

He'd kept her in the dark for so long. Then made his confession, as if that might have made everything better. Then his Sylvanum rampage that he denied even still, his continued aloofness for her 'protection' from his temper.

He might have taken off his mask, but just as she'd written, she has her doubts he's truly changed.

Had she been less stout of constitution that extended use of the chalk might have left her worse for wear. She doesn't look great, and her heart beats a little strange. Ironically, an injury she'd come into that gave the dog man no end of guilt.

"Uh...Yeah. Yeah! Let's...Let's find somewhere nice to hit each other."

Her ultimate message has been made loud and clear, even if people didn't understand or here it. No one tells her what to do.
(Leni)