New Arrival (OPEN)

Not always alone, he had said. That meant he was either cocky, or just compulsively flirtatious. Either way, it was a positive response in her column, as it implied that he wasn't "exclusive"; his "one true love" was still out there and there was a good chance he didn't know who it was.

Not strange, had been his next comment. Oh, if only he knew. Daughter of Maleficent, the mistress of all evil; cursed to forever make bad decisions in life; plotting to kill Snow White and Prince Charming for the last fourteen years. Nah. Not strange at all. Even if he didn't know anything about her or was legitimately trying to con her, the fact that he took the time to say that she was not strange made her soften a bit. Growing up, all she'd ever heard was that she was wrong, or that she was bad, or immoral, etc et al. The truth of the matter was that very few people knew the real Lily under all her masks. Actually, Emma was the only one. Since her Enlightenment, as she called it, Lily had stopped trying to make friends, so compliments were few and far between.

Vermin eradicator. Lily's brow furrowed for a moment before she realized what he meant. "You're an exterminator?" Her eyebrows shot up. Whatever she had been expecting, that wasn't it. She pictured him in a jumpsuit with a can of pesticide on his back, mask over face, and quirked a brow; it didn't suit him. He looked more like a rapscallion than your average joe. She'd figured at the very least he worked with horses, given the boots and all. Her brow furrowed again, Lily nevertheless took a French fry from his plate and bit into it, mindlessly chewing as she mulled the idea over. She just couldn't see it. But se la vie.

She considered his question. Truthfully, she didn't have a career; she envied him that. He had a ready, confident response. Lily, on the other hand, had never had a job for more than a few weeks; unless you count hunting for fairy tale creatures. The idea of answering him with 'I hunt down make believe characters to assassinate' made her chuckle softly. Finally, she said, "To be honest, I just left my old job. Looking for a new start." Not a lie in the least, though it was far from the whole truth. "Though I am in the market for a job, if you know anyone hiring," she added, snagging another of his fries. It didn't hurt to ask; plus, if she was going to be here for awhile, and she had a feeling she would be, she would need a paying job eventually. She'd crash in her car until she found a place to squat; surely even Storybrooke had some abandoned buildings suitable for living.

"Next question," she said, pointing a fry at him. "Hobbies. What do you like to do in your spare time?"

So he didn't like his job, eh? Interesting, too, the way he phrased his distaste for it. Not 'I hate my job, but it pays the bills' or something else so cliche. No, he had said he didn't feel "at home with it". She'd have to look into it later.

His hobbies were pretty standard, so no real clues there. She had noticed his penchant for romance, but she didn't give it any thought; she wasn't one to be swept off her feet. She was more the type to hit first, ask questions later.

Dropping another hint to his name, Lily frowned. The meaning, 'hunter', narrowed it down a bit, but it still left too much open. Could he be the Huntsman from Snow White? Or the one from Little Red Riding Hood? And, knowing as she did that all fairy tale characters seemed to inhabit the same land, could that make him the same man from two stories? It was something to consider. But, as he had opened up a bit more about his name, she'd inquire more about that and see where it led. "Hunter, huh?" She pondered over it. "Any chance you'd give me the etymology of that name?" she asked innocently. "Or is 'hunter' all I get?"

A Greek hunter, eh? The only thing that immediately popped into Lily's mind was Orion, but that couldn't be right. Greek gods were just myths. Weren't they? Just stories...Lily inhaled audibly, but otherwise kept her face neutral. The thought of Greek gods roaming the world wasn't something she had ever considered, but if freakin' fairy tales were real, why not gods? It chilled her. However, the more she thought about what she knew of this guy, the less she saw any resemblance between the starry huntsman and current company. First of all, Orion, if she was remembering correctly, was a giant; this guy didn't look much taller than she was. Also, Orion was blind; judging by the way he had been eying her, Stetson was not.

She shrugged off the idea of him being the incarnate of a god and refocused on her fairy tale lore. A hunter who worked in other people's homes by tracking and outwitting small prey. The description made her think of a cat. Lily blinked. A romantic cat in boots, she chuckled to herself and smiled. There could be only one. If she had to take a guess, she'd guess Puss from Puss in Boots.

To confirm her guess, she dug deeper. "Well, I have to admit, cowboy," she began with a grin. "Etymology was never my strong suit. How about animals? Are you dog guy?" Theoretically, he would respond with a negative; cats hated dogs, right?

His answer made her roll her eyes, but grin in spite of herself. Not a dog person, though; that was promising. If she had to guess, she'd go with Puss in Boots, if the Evil Queen's curse could change animals to humans, anyway; she'd yet to prove that, as she was still new and this was her first stop in her Storybrooke Tour. Still, she found herself warming up to the mysterious hunter in front of her. He was easy to talk to, and she felt more at ease. Or it might be the hot meal settling in her stomach. One or the other.

"Or a cat, perhaps," Lily replied cheekily to his comment about hard working women. Hard working wasn't how she would describe herself, sadly; obsessed would be more accurate. Ever since she'd found out about her past, about how she owed her miserable existence to the two most "honorable" characters in history, obsession had pretty much ruled her life. It made her sigh; sometimes she wished she'd never found out why her life was so wrong. Knowing was just as much a burden as not knowing; maybe more so, because now she had a purpose. She glared down at her coffee and muttered, almost inaudibly, "They deserved to be cursed." She set her cup down again and attacked what remained of her sandwich.

In all the years Lily had spent searching for the mysterious, elusive Storybrooke, all the nights she had lay awake cursing Snow White and Prince Charming, she never really imagined how she would get her vengeance. A truly evil villain would want their suffering to be drawn out as long as possible, and while Lily did want them to suffer, she didn't consider herself 'truly evil'. Not even regular 'evil'. She was just angry and wanted them to know what it felt like; because of their actions, she had been subjected to a life of darkness and misery. She wanted them to understand what it was to live a life where, even when you tried to do the right thing, it would always, always backfire, making you the villain in everyone else's eyes. A therapist had once told Lily not to worry about what everyone else thought, and Lily had tried. As a teenager, she'd brush off what the other kids said, what her fosters wrongfully accused her of, but it was never ending. As an adult, it affected her life even more; finding a lasting job, for instance, was nearly impossible, which in turn made finding a simple place to live difficult. Lily wanted Snow and Charming to know how that felt; how the complete and utter rejection of the world could shape a person. Sadly, she didn't know how to go about achieving this particular goal.

At the cowboy's words, Lily looked up. "Huh?" Shaking the conundrum from her mind, she returned her attention to her dining companion. "Oh," she replied with a chuckle. "No, cats don't need to be cursed. Well, except maybe the ones outside my apartment in New York. Those sons of bitches were complete assholes." She cringed and shuddered. "Up all hours of the night, fighting. I found more than one with torn ears and scarred eyes. And you couldn't even get near them to give them food. You know one actually bit me? A big, cranky, orange tom." She shook her head. "So maybe that cat deserves to be cursed, but for the rest of them?" Her nose crinkled as she shook her head. "Nah. I was talking about Prince Charming and Snow White." She took a drink of coffee.

Lily shook her head, snickering. All men wanted was a roll in the sheets and, on occasion, breakfast the next morning. Or, in her experience, a patsy to take the fall for their crimes. Sighing, Lily just shrugged. "Maybe," she admittedly doubtfully. She took another drink of coffee.

As he asked uncertainly about Snow White being cursed, Lily, distracted by her near-empty coffee cup, held it up to a passing waitress. Smiling in gratitude when the girl refilled it, she turned back to her companion and scoffed. "Sure," she replied, "for like a month. But she screwed up." She paused and took a gulp of the hot coffee. "What she should have done, from the beginning," Lily emphasized the last bit, "is curse both Snow and Charming with eternal sleep. Then her revenge would have been complete, and none of this would have happened." She nodded, realizing for the first time what she needed to do in order to get her revenge.

Quickly downing the rest of her coffee, Lily got to her feet. Now that she had a plan, she intended to see to its inaction personally. She still needed to visit the library, and with a full belly, she was much less crabby and more likely to enjoy herself. Turning to her companion, she explained, "I gotta get going, but thank you for the lunch and the chat." She smiled a genuine smile. "It was nice."