toku matsudaira, geezermancer (giri) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-04-12 00:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, peony min, ridley irving, toku matsudaira |
five means to take a quick little break and get back to work when you're through...
Who: Toku Matsudaira, Peony Min & Ridley Irving
What: Unexpected tea party!
Where: Peony's quarters
When: Yesterday, 4/10
Rating: Disney Tame
Status: Complete!
With the founders' festival fast approaching, reports on the state of Guild affairs and the taskforce had given way on Toku's desk to bureaucratic inquiries regarding preparations for the fireworks display and their Guild's part in the opening parade. A welcome change, for it made for far more pleasant conversation during the Coucil's morning meetings than discussion of the as-of-yet unexplained attacks on the city, though it had by no means diminished the amount of paperwork to be sorted through every day. Some days, however, working side-by-side with someone else made the work go faster; it was this that made Toku leave his office and make his way to the door across the hallway from his. His knock was answered by a soft, “Come in,” and he pushed open the door, to see not Peony by herself as he had expected, but Ridley Irving sitting at the table with her, drinking tea. “My apologies,” he said at once. “I did not mean to intrude. I shall not impose on you both further.” Peony looked up from her teacup and smiled. “It is no imposition,” she assured. Quiz, who had sprawled himself like a fluffy blanket across Ridley’s lap, had looked up at Toku’s arrival, but seemed disinterested in moving. Peony, however, was already standing. “Please,” she said, “come in, sit down. I will return shortly with another cup.” Knowing Toku would be far too polite to retreat having received an invitation, she took the plate of sweets to replenish it and left for the kitchen. Most taken by the purring cat flopped over her lap, the scholar, with her fingers brushing through Quiz’s fur, smiled up toward the door. While she had come for tea with Peony, it certainly was no imposition for Toku to join them, especially considering how long it had been since she had sat down to tea with him. Tea always calmed her, brought her to a warm, happy place, not unlike the place the two councilors brought her. “Good evening, Councilor,” she greeted from her seat, weighed down by the fluffy blanket and most content to remain where she was, tending to him. “Are you well?” Slippers abandoned by the door, he stepped inside and offered Ridley a slight dip of the head before taking a seat. "Good evening, Ridley," he said. "I am quite well, thank you. I hope you are, as well?" Peony returned then, with another cup of tea, as she had promised, and a plate piled with sweets. He thanked her as she set the cup before him and turned to glance at Quiz, who appeared unconcerned with his owner's momentary absence or reappearance or, indeed, with anything that wasn't the hand petting his fur. "He is quite taken with you," Toku observed, smiling. “Ridley is his favorite friend,” Peony said, faintly amused. It was endearing how Quiz doted on the young scholar -- much as Peony herself did, if they were being honest. Perhaps he was simply taking his cues from her. “She will entertain and spoil him endlessly, and he allows it readily.” Having ensured that everyone had served themselves from the plate of snacks, she asked, “I hope your visit tonight is purely social?” If it was work, of course Ridley would have to go eventually, but it would be pleasant to have an afternoon free of such concerns. “I was just asking Ridley about her book club.” "It is," Toku replied; only half true, but the matter was not urgent and he saw little reason to pique her concern. "And I must say, I too find myself quite curious about this book club; it seems to be quite a successful initiative." From her place still seated at the table, the small blonde beamed. “Yes, it’s been very interesting. Our meetings are fewer now that I’ve been working at the clinic, but we’ve had many fascinating conversations. I’m very pleased it has worked out,” she admitted, returning her gaze to Quiz as he nudged her hand as if to say, Pet me more. “It has been encouraging me to read more in my spare time,” she continued. “The library has many wonderful tomes and textbooks.” The smile made its return. “I feel as though you would read with or without encouragement,” Peony said. “It is an admirable trait.” One she shared, in fact -- so many doors in the mind were opened by the written word. “Still,” she said thoughtfully, placing another cookie on Ridley’s plate, “I do hope you find the time to read for pleasure as well. I will be the first to advocate for the inclusion of fiction in one’s reading materials. Then again,” she added with a small smile, “I think my library will speak to this even if I am silent.” The bookshelves on the walls showed her eclectic taste, and although she had her share of grimoires and histories, they were by no means her only books. “One must at some point take a break from magic theory,” Toku said with a wry smile―for he, too, was more often than not found reading such tomes. Yet even his bookshelves contained a few tomes of fiction, interspersed throughout the treatises and mythologies. “I tend to prefer poetry; it is easier to read, if your free time is limited, but can be a welcome change of pace.” The cookie was reached for, but the girl did pause with it in hand, her other still occupied by Quiz. “My mother loved poetry very much,” she admitted, voice soft but not sad. “She had always wanted to read Ordalian poetry, but never had the time to find a translator for them.” Rather than biting into her cookie (and showering crumbs on the cat in her lap), Ridley smiled again. “Do you think I might be able to borrow some poetry from you, Councilor Matsudaira?” “Most of my poetry books are in the original language; however, I do own a couple of translated volumes.” He returned Ridley’s soft smile. “You are more than welcome to borrow them, should you wish to.” He sipped his tea―a taste so familiar and fitted to the conversation, perhaps the last remainders of the tea he had brought back for Peony from Sako Island—and added, “Everybody deserves a rest, every once in a while.” |