Janice
"Hmm, that's a shame," Io mused. "Guess I'll just have to learn by observing you." Not like that was helping a lot, Vhun was moving way faster than Io could keep up with. It was still pretty cool, though, watching her work on repairing the cloak.

Luckily, Vhun didn't question Io's relationship with the woman in question any more - they would've been fine with explaining it, but it might have taken a while, as it was a long story. Perhaps it was best for both of their sanity that Io didn't get into that whole rant.

"Oh, I thought you might've known. You don't visit the place, then?" They asked curiously, right antenna perking up. Vhun did give off the vibe that she'd been living here for a while, but Io thought she might've gone there somewhat recently. Apparently not? That was unexpected.

Io had noticed the way one of Vhun's antennae was shorter than the other, though they refrained from mentioning it. If she didn't mention their wing, they didn't want to mention her antenna. That didn't mean they weren't curious, they just didn't want to scare off the first mothfolk they'd spoken to in years. Maybe if she asked about their damaged wing, they would ask about her antenna in return - it only seemed like a fair trade.

What did they do for work...? Well, that was... A difficult question to answer. Io hummed, thinking it over for a moment. They didn't want to lie completely, but telling the truth was a shit idea. Maybe...

"I help collectors procure rare and valuable items," Io said cheerfully. In a way, that was what they did, wasn't it? Only the people they took said items from weren't always consenting to them doing so. And the collectors in question were just their guildmates and master. Still, they found it close enough to the truth to be acceptable.
_ _

They once more looked away as Vhun shook her head, leaning forward and resting their head on their backpack, which made a soft noise as they did, the sound of several pieces of metal hitting against each other.

"You're not intimidating, I guess? I'm not great at explaining... Uh, I get what you mean, though, people act weird around me a lot." They paused, raising a hand to scratch the back of their head, refusing to look at Vhun.

"I guess the reason why I'm nervous is, um... Well, y'know how most mothfolk can, like... Fly, n'shit?" Io became very aware of the feeling of their right wing as they spoke, especially the sensitive parts where it had been torn. "And I kinda... Can't. And a lotta flying people I've met tend to get real judgy about all that. And, like, there's a couple people that tried to, um, fix me? But, like, I don't need fixing... Y'know? I guess I'm kinda, uh... Scared of being judged." They made an indistinct noise, covering their head with their upper arms, looking almost ashamed. "I dunno... It's probably stupid..."
Dwight
Vhun was just about halfway done with her repair by now, given that the hole really wasn't all that severe and that there wasn't a meaningful amount of fabric missing. At least this individual appeared reasonably adept at preventing the damage from getting worse. Some would have simply let their clothing fall to shreds in the name of not needing to address the issue. The mothfolk gave a soft hum, mostly to herself, and then lifted her head to look at Io once more.

"Not really. I write home, but I am very happy here. What of you? Have you been back lately?"

Even if Io hadn't noticed, Vhun had rather intentionally avoided asking further about this woman in their life. Though she had certainly packed away the question for the future, she didn't want to seem nosy now. No, there was no point in that. Her antennae gave another little twitch, the woman's head slowly turning back toward Io. Her hands had stilled for the moment, taking note of the pause that came before the answer.

"That's a very interesting career. What brought you to it?"

That was incredibly vague, and sounded somewhat sketchy. If Vhun's eyes had been capable of narrowing, they would have. Instead, she was blessed with her own relatively non-expressive eyes. Her head continued to nod slowly as Io continued to speak. She wasn't intimidating? Good. Sort of. Vhun liked to think she could be intimidating if she wanted to be, but she didn't want to be. She wanted friends.

"Yes, I am aware of that."

Her gaze dropped back to Io's wings. She'd tried not to stare at their torn wing out of politeness, but now it was somewhat hard to avoid as a subject.

"Well. I am not judging you. It isn't your fault."

She couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't sought out help for this. Surely there was someone capable of healing magic that would repair such a thing? If it caused such concern for them, and it was an injury, why would they not try to fix it? She didn't understand.

"It isn't stupid."

It was hard not to be slightly judgmental, or at least a little curious, but Vhun pushed that away. It wasn't worth offending. Her voice remained unchanged.

"Nobody has the right to harass you for that."
Janice
They shook their head, sighing softly. "Nah... Haven't really felt the need to go back home. My ma's probably dead by now, and my siblings... I doubt they remember me at all. It's better not to return. Don't wanna hurt 'em more than I did when I... Departed." There was an undertone of sadness in their voice as Io said that, or maybe it was regret. Regret for leaving? Well, that didn't make sense, they hadn't had a choice in the matter. Regret for nor going back, though? That was a possibility.

Upon second consideration, maybe what Io claimed was their job had been a little suspicious. Then again, there was no backing out now, right? That'd be even more suspicious. "Well, my pa did the same thing. Is real good at it too. The best there is. Or was, I guess. Until I, uh..." They trailed off awkwardly, realizing just a moment too late that they might've said too much. Hopefully Vhun would just drop it if they moved on quickly enough? Probably not, but it was worth a shot.

"That's good. That you're not judging, I mean. A lotta people do." Io paused, lowering a right hand to softly trace over the frayed edge where their wing had been torn all those years ago. Oddly enough, despite the event having had such an effect on their life, they could barely remember what exactly had happened. Memories were weird, they supposed.

Eventually, they continued. "But yeah, you're right. They really shouldn't be harassing me for that. It's weird. People are weird." Once more, Io sat up straight for a moment and crossed their legs, then placed their bag on the bench, once more bending over to hug the thing with all four arms.
_ _

"Say, I'm curious," Io said, turning to look at Vhun again. "If you were in my situation, and got your wing all fucked up, would you go try to fix it? Y'know, find some biomancer, have them take care of it somehow?" They didn't mean anything malicious with the question, it was just genuine curiosity. A second opinion, perhaps.

Most people, if they were in this situation, seemed to be desperately looking for a cure, some way to fix what had been broken, and yet, Io had never been particularly interested in doing that. Sure, it did cause them some amount of distress, and their life would be much easier if it was fixed, yet... They didn't. In the late hours of the night, when others were asleep, Io had thought about this question often, and had never been able to come to a proper conclusion as to why they thought this way.
Dwight
"I am sorry for your loss."

Vhun spoke after a long moment, inclining her head as she did. She didn't know what to say about this, about this apparent loss. There was clearly a story here, but not one that she was entitled to know. She'd met this person less than an hour ago, after all. Certainly she'd ask if they met again in the future, but it was downright inappropriate to do so now. A soft click indicated that Vhun was clearing her throat.

"I do hope you can find peace."

Maybe that was an unnecessary additional statement, but it was out of her mouth now and there was nothing she could do about it. Her head slowly moved back toward her work. She was almost done now, and part of her really wanted to sink into the ground and disappear. Had she made this awkward? More than anything, she wanted to get away from this subject.

"Yes... People are weird."

She took another long pause to consider their question. What was the best way to answer this? Surely there had to be one. Ah well, maybe honesty was the best strategy here. Or maybe it wasn't. Either way, this was the strategy that Vhun was going to employ. She knew her input probably wouldn't do much, but she thought she may as well give an answer.

"I... Think I would."

Another pause. She needed to figure out how to formulate her thoughts, how to best phrase this. She didn't want to sound judgmental, but she did want to be articulate.

"Life is sort of short, and we are gifted with wings. I would say that getting it fixed would be an act that at best would give you the opportunity to fly, and at worst would change nothing."

She sat up straighter, her own wings lightly fanning as she thought.

"I mean to say is this: I suppose the worst that could happen is that your wings are fixed, you discover you don't like to fly much and then go back to the way you were before. It's not a bad thing to have an injury, but there is also nothing wrong with wishing that you could fix something that inconveniences you, if it does."