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Gia Riddell ([info]neverfitin) wrote in [info]watchers_rp,
@ 2017-05-25 01:11:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:#day 007/07 may, daphina, gia

Who: Daphina and Gia
When: Afternoon
Where: Elkwood Castle

Libraries were pretty much the same no matter what part of the Realm one was in, as Gia had learned some time ago. The only thing that really changed was the size. The library in the palace at Kingswood was one that she had become very familiar with during her time at court. She had come there to read more often than not, but sometimes she had spent time there with the other young women she befriended. They would look at books of poetry or out the windows to sigh at the sight of young men walking wherever they were going, while Gia more often than not looked at them. They were fond memories, brought back by the scent of the library when she walked in and set herself up at a table, humming to herself as she did her best to keep all memories of last night at bay. Ilario had asked her at breakfast that morning and she had been forced to say that it had been an enjoyable meal, but for the way Rune had stared at her like she was on a plate. That had set him off and it had only been the timely intervention of her sister-in-law that had given her the window she needed to slip away before she was netted into a repeat performance.

It was just embarrassing to have someone stare at you like that when you knew they weren't getting anything out of it.

Gia meant to finish her project for Eileen, she really did, but it was turning out to be troublesome to focus on something that didn't want to work when she was surrounded by so many fond memories. The sand came together just as she wished, but everything else wasn't working like it had in her vision. Gia hated projects like that. They went from perfect in her mind to flawed in reality, and she ended up giving up on them. Her rooms back in Avalon were littered with such things -- the servants forbidden to do anything with them -- and it looked as though her room here was going to be the same way before the year was up. "This is not cooperating," Gia sighed, pushing herself back from the table. She turned her head, spotting another woman who had wandered into the same space. "Can you believe the absolute audacity of some ideas? To think that they exist in our minds only to utterly refuse to come out of them. You would think they had lives of their own."


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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-26 02:28 am UTC (link)
Gia gave what she hoped was a sympathetic smile at the idea of Daphina's parents considering her use of her mother's sigil as inappropriate. Her own father likely would've had the same issues, had he still been alive. Had she chosen to announce to Ilario the following day that she intended on taking their mother's name and using her sigil, he likely would've danced a jig to have her name no longer directly associated with his. Which was precisely why she wouldn't do it. "Discretion... oh! Honor and Discretion," Gia declared with a pleased little smile at having remembered. She brushed away the thought that she had remembered because Janna was pretty and she tended to remember everything she could about the pretty ones. Daphina? Was actually quite a bit prettier, and a better conversationalist. "A strange combination if you ask me, though I mean no offense to you." Gia accompanied the words with the briefest brush of a finger against the top of Daphina's hand and a reassuring smile. "My words are about wit cutting. Truly I think some of the people who came up with these were well into their cups."

The little laugh caused Gia to tip her head to the side, both because it was a lovely little sound and because she didn't understand why it was funny, until Daphina elaborated. The surprise that accompanied the words earned a slight shake of her head. "My own elder brother seems to be missing the brains that our words declare we must have, so perhaps it skips the eldest male of the family." Or skips the males entirely. Gia managed to resist adding that simply because she knew the Taraias family had more males in its midst, and she didn't know what Daphina's views on them were. Offending her company usually wasn't a bother for her, only she thought she might like to not offend Daphina. Another laugh followed at the declaration of having the ordeal written out, a longer one that ended with Gia wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. The Lady Regent of Mag Mell had a legendary wit, and she only hoped that she might be able to see her use it against someone some day. "I will thank you for it. Perhaps I could draw a likeness for you to ever after look at and smile at the memory of your brother being verbally stripped." She found that she liked the idea of making something for Daphina.

Nodding, Gia reached out to pour the tea, setting the cup at Daphina's hand, another excuse for her fingers to brush hers -- she was always amazed at how soft female hands were -- before moving the small sugar pot and cream container closer for her to use as she pleased. This time she found herself flushing at the idea of suitors, though she tried to wave it away with a motion of her hand and a roll of her eyes. Her attempts at nonchalance failed as she felt her flush spreading to her neck as Daphina quite neatly turned the flattery around on her. "Last night I had to have dinner with Rune Halvari," she admitted, knowing Ilario would be cross at her and not caring. He wasn't here, was he? "It was dreadful. The poor boy-" He was older than her. "-was tripping over his tongue and giving the most simpleminded compliments as though they were diamonds to be treasured. I almost felt bad for him." She took a sip of her tea, feeling her blush fading as she added, "Almost. His elder sister was not bad company."

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-26 03:56 pm UTC (link)
“Oh -- None taken, truly,” Daphina assured with a smile that was rather brighter than anything that would usually have accompanied such a reassurance. Her mind had focused almost entirely on the touch that suddenly left her with an urge to stare at the back of her own hand. She managed to refrain from that, at least. But if her face had now turned completely purple she couldn’t say she cared, because she was too busy internally thanking the Watchers for whatever it was that had not give Gia a nasty shock. Unless I’ve done something else. A thought she could have done without but one that occurred with such regularity that she dismissed it with ease. “Sometimes I suspect family words are a little like naming your child after a virtue. You hope they live up to it, or later in life it becomes something of a joke.” Likely all of court knew the Taraias family words did not apply to all: Daemyn was far from discreet when it came to his love of brothels no matter how much others tidied up after him. “I daresay you have the wit covered,” she added archly. She believed the cunning was there also. No, she was not going to look at her own hand.

A touch of mischief lit Daphina’s face. “I wonder how many of the lords present at court are first sons…” The likelihood didn’t speak well of them, really, but she was far more interested in Gia’s laughter to follow that trail of thought even inside her own head. She wondered if the other woman truly realised how beautiful she was. Effortlessly so. It would be a lie to say she was not very seriously considering having Daemyn and Lady Delyth collide just for Gia’s entertainment. Thought of something, anything, gifted from her meant Daphina struggled to keep something resembling shyness colouring her expression -- which was doubtlessly literally coloured already. She wasn’t the kind of person who received gifts like that from anyone save perhaps Thyme, who sometimes gave her things she had found and thought were pretty. Thyme was a child and had the luxury of whimsy. A luxury it seemed Gia had never lost. Trying to rein in control of her facial muscles, Daphina gave in to the urge to glance at the hand before she blurted out thanks for something that had not happened and possibly never may.

Ah, ah-- This time the blonde sat up just that bit straighter; nothing strange to the casual observer even if she was a little flushed, it was quite proper to sit straight while drinking tea. Or so she was telling herself. Frankly, she was too busy smothering any concern over magic to notice where her composure was going. “Thank you.” At least her voice had not yet turned traitor. Daphina’s addition of sugar and cream was a little distracted as she noted the colour in Gia with no small degree of delight. Presently, she reserved the right to feel thoroughly pleased with herself. Though upon hearing Rune Halvari’s name her lips pressed together before she laughed. Watchers, if talk was correct then Sir Rune was a more pleasant and likely more intelligent version of Daemyn. When Gia called him a ‘poor boy’, Daphina had to set her tea down so as to cover her hand with her mouth to try and force the laughter back the way it had come. Part of her did not really wish to make fun of the man because truth be told, she understood the feeling. Lowering her hand to fidget with the handle on her teacup, she arched her eyebrow in amusement at the second ‘almost’. “I have not met her in person, but the lady Synnove is a beautiful woman.” Because, naturally, that was the same as making up for your brother’s behaviour by having good conversational skills.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-26 04:34 pm UTC (link)
Nodding along in agreement with Daphina's words, Gia allowed herself a self-satisfied smile at the last. "To my brother's dismay, you are correct. I enjoy using it against him with the protection of 'brother, I am merely practicing what our banner preaches'. He still has not figure out how to answer that back." Her father likely rolled over in his grave at half the exchanges between his children. Gia might have cared had he been more attentive to her while he was alive, since he had not been she found that the idea of upsetting him wasn't at all upsetting to her. "I believe they all must be first sons, barring accidents that saw the second or third take up the lordship." Personally, Gia thought inheritance should follow some different line. Perhaps go to the most worthy child as they practiced in the Bhain family, although child should mean daughter as well as son.

Gia could've smirked at the way that Daphina shifted, but then she would've had to turn her amusement around on herself for wasn't she nearly as red as the blonde's dress? A small voice in the back of her mind questioned whether or not Daphina listened to gossip about nobles, or more specifically, if she had ever listened to any of the gossip attached to the name Gia Ridell. Or believed it. Gia always hoped people did. Not just because she enjoyed the looks or whispers not truly muted behind cupped hands; because she did not care if they disliked her because of it or thought less of her. Truly, shouldn't a woman who made everyone miserable because she pretended to be someone she wasn't be more of an outcast than someone who refused to do the same? Her fingers went out to idly draw in the black sand of her garden, sculpting out a mountain without realizing what they were doing.

"I laughed," Gia confided when she noticed that Daphina had essentially muffled what would have been a laugh, realizing that she wished she'd been able to hear it. "She is very much so. Every Halvari woman I have seen is beautiful, even the youngest one who I believe attempts to hide it." Gia tipped her head to the side, her smile lifting only one corner of her mouth. "Their complexions run a little dark for my taste; I find that lighter hair and eyes have a certain appeal which is simply lacking elsewhere. Do not let Sir Rune hear that, though, I fear that no matter what I did he will be seeking me out again." Still smiling the crooked smile that Selena had told her she needed to practice hiding for it gave away her amusement too readily, Gia added, "What of your suitors, Daphina? Between your looks and your family name, I cannot imagine your father doing anything but turning them away by the droves." Taraias may not have been the ruling family of Tirna but it was undeniably one of the wealthiest, for all that they bred ferrets.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-26 08:17 pm UTC (link)
Daphina momentarily considered where cousin Gaillard’s line of inheritance seemed to be headed, but kept it to herself. Both because it was a family matter and Gia was more than a little distracting. The second Taraias daughter absorbed gossip like it was water and she a sponge, but did not give it away again quite so freely. Knowledge was what she was after, always, and separating the wheat from the chaff in this regard was something court had taught her to begin with. There was almost an art to removing the personal bias from the rumours. Of course, meeting Gia had added a rather significant personal bias on her part. Just for starters, the men who had tried describing Gia Ridell to her had fallen terribly short when trying to convey the particulars of her appearance. They tripped over their tongues too.

The poor man. Had he not been a number of years her senior, she would have thought Sir Rune a boy (were not all men boys at heart?), but as amusing as she found his predicament he still had her sympathy. Daphina thought she might die if Gia laughed at her. No, she actually would. She tried to think of something to say about the lady Freja -- or Lady Sigfinna, who was surely the source of the Halvaris’ looks -- but the mention of lighter hair and eyes quite derailed that trail of thought. The blonde realised with a horror that was somehow extremely distant that her pleasure at that fact had registered on her face. Also that her tea was going completely neglected, but truly, who could blame her? “Bribe the servants to send him in the wrong direction,” she suggested, reaching for the forgotten beverage. “I’ve found they can be really very accommodating.” That what she had said may be taken as an admission of bribery did not bother Daphina in the least. She saw nothing wrong with it, else she would not have suggested it. “My suitors--” Oh, now she was laughing. Laughter that ended in a delighted smile because she could not ignore that compliment if she tried. “That is precisely what father does. Four years at court and he turned down every offer.” She sipped her tea and suddenly smirked. “I think they’re afraid of him.”

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-26 09:37 pm UTC (link)
To her credit, Gia didn't grin broadly when Daphina's face lit up at the mention of fairer looks being more to her taste. She was clearly not an unintelligent girl who couldn't figure out that Gia might be referencing her appearance directly, so of course she was pleased by it. How could she be anything else when a pretty woman had that look because of her? It is nearly as good as - ah, Gia, no, do not do that. Not now. Any thoughts of another woman who may intrude on her mind were pushed to the back behind a wall labeled 'do not cross' and Gia finished off her tea to help them stay there. "Perhaps I shall, though Ilario has a tendency to do something similar to ensure I do not have the suitors sent off the wrong way. He is a persistent man." The laughter she had earned from Daphnia helped to keep thoughts of Eileen behind the wall, her smile still amused as she waited for her to finish and say why it was so funny.

Gia had meant it. She was sure beyond a doubt that Daphina Taraias was the sort of woman who attracted suitors whether she wished for them or not.

"Would that your father were my brother," Gia lamented. "He would accept every offer that came his way if it were not for his wife. She and I met at court when I was here, you see, and so we were friends before he ever wedded her." It was helpful at times, and painful at others, and the slip in her smile may have attested to that, but Gia tried to cover it by pouring herself more tea. She imagined that women in situations like this drank far more than they would have otherwise. "But just because your father frightens them does not mean they do not exist." Her pale eyes sparkled as she set her tea down and leaned forward. "You seem clever enough, if you wished a suitor success I imagine you would find ways about your father."

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-26 11:57 pm UTC (link)
Part of Daphina wanted to reach across and touch the corner of Gia’s mouth that curved in amusement. And she could not have said why, because the only verbal answer she really had was the name of that mouth’s owner. “Counter his persistence.” It was more insistent than a suggestion ought to be, and mischief played in Daphina’s eyes. “Beautiful women are intimidating in their own right. Why should it not be you they fear?” Right there was the Taraias in her -- the answer was always in the game. Oh certainly, Daphisio was intimidating even to his own daughter, and it was a well-kept secret that she knew how to dress up that fact in order to highlight it just so.“Such fear works best when one keeps tripping on one’s tongue.” She would know; she had been panicking over the idea of doing damage to Gia since it became clear to her that she was certainly having an… effect on her. Enough of one for Daphina to be half-convinced that she must be tripping over her words as much as Sir Rune, and her advantage lay elsewhere.

Ah, but watch what you wish for, she thought soberly, before washing the thought away with tea. She had been watching Gia’s face too closely not to see the shift in expression, and immediately felt a pang of her own. Likely nothing close to her friendship with her sister in law. But four years at court was a long enough time to build strong friendships -- some that she had wished were more, some that had been a little more before they were whisked away with a betrothal. “Men should learn not to wed their sisters’ friends, they lose too many fights that way.” Was it not sound logic? “And I do not believe you would much appreciate being governed by my father,” Daphina added, brows drawing together as she tried to imagine it. She found she did not like the result. He would ruin Gia -- she was too… unique to be forced into an allegedly model family. When it was asserted -- implied? -- that Daphina’s suitors did exist, she opened her mouth to fall back into the comfortable realm of plausible deniability, then promptly closed at when she realised there was more. “They exist,” she confirmed eventually, though there was no blush at that. She felt nothing for them. “If is most certainly the operative word, for while I may have wished them luck I have never wished them success.” Something she had never said aloud before, which likely turned her face pink. Men were hardly revolting, but her interests lay elsewhere. Currently, they were sat right there. “My interests aside, I see no point in swapping one gilded cage for another. At least I am familiar with the one I have.” She paused. “Did that sound awfully like I was defending myself at trial? It was not meant to.” She just found it so easy to simply talk when she was not around her family and the company was… well, Gia.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-27 02:17 am UTC (link)
Gia's smile grew, appreciation tinging it, at not only Daphina's words, but also the mischief she saw in her eyes. "You know," she declared, drumming her fingers lightly on the tabletop with no mind for the particles of sand that fell off. "I think that I like you, Daphina Taraias. Beauty and brains, far too rare a combination in this climate, and yet here you sit, possessing both. I think you must be a unicorn." Gia wasn't even being truly sarcastic, and that was the surprising thing. She so rarely met witty, pretty ladies who... had a certain opinion about men and a hopefully very different one about women. She delighted in them when they came up, though the last one to do so was in all the ways that mattered completely unavailable to her.

"It is true, yet they seem drawn to them. Perhaps they see all the same qualities we do and need to gather them in under their name." A darker view was that they stole them. Gia had spent many a night thinking that Ilario had done exactly that, and hating him for it. Now she doubted he was intelligent enough to know why his marriage had upset her so much. Gia watched Daphina's brow knit together, fingers itching to reach over and soothe the skin there before it wrinkled, but she kept her hands where they were. Gia laughed again when Daphina confirmed that she did have suitors, even adding that she'd never wished them success. That was what she had rather been hoping to hear, and it caused a little flutter to jump around in her chest. As for the idea of defending herself, Gia let one shoulder rise and fall in a shrug, her eyes having gone to the sand as she sketched something out. "Actually, it sounded as though you are more content with the life you have than the one you believe you would go to. And how could I think that wrong? I am closer to thirty than I am twenty and still I have no marriage for what sounds like the very same reason."

Sketch complete, Gia crooked a finger for Daphina to shift and look into the sand. She had needed to use both colors, but she had managed a decent rendering all the same. Paper would've been better, but Gia tended to use whatever material was closest to hand. "I was incorrect," she murmured, fingers withdrawing to reveal what looked very much like a phoenix. "Birds live in cages and if you were one... you should look like that rather than all the others chirping away in theirs." Her mind did enjoy its flights of fancy.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-27 04:54 pm UTC (link)
Cheeks having coloured to the point she believed she had reached what she called her ‘doll stage’, Daphina could only allow herself to acknowledge that her expression continued to brighten without her permission. There were multiple reasons she had been compared to a porcelain doll over the years, the main being that sun neither burned nor tanned her skin. Her fair complexion was a constant. On the admittedly rare occasion she did flush, she tended to look like a doll with badly painted rouge. And her face tended to be more controlled than it had any right to be. She could not make that claim just now. Gia had somehow disabled it. “I’ve a cousin with a unicorn as his sigil, so there is likely more truth to that than not,” she agreed, tone laced with amusement. Indeed, Lord Gaillard was a unicorn also. “If beauty and brains make me a unicorn then you must be something equally mystical.” Daphina was not being sarcastic at all, and while ‘mythical’ was almost the word she used it wasn’t what she meant. Mythical somehow suggested it was an impossibility.

“Likely it is cynical of me, but sometimes I suspect they do such things to avoid friction between their in-laws.” Though she had always been lead to believe that sort of discomfort was a marital requirement. “Which circles back to one’s wife and sister and possibly even mother taking sides.” Daphina fidgeted slightly, thinking it rude to automatically look to see what Gia was doing, though it was the hand itself that her eyes followed and not the sand. Her fingers… One of the servants at Deleik had told her some kind of blanket rule involving fixating on the smaller things, but it quite slipped her mind. She wondered if Gia played an instrument. “I am of the firm opinion that brothers should have no say in their sisters’ marriage,” she remarked. “All control of that should fall to the lady in question upon the death of her parents -- because I do believe Daemyn will have me married off in my sleep the moment father is not there to knock offers back.” That the general result of her proposition would mean a significant number of women may simply never marry was merely a convenient side effect, naturally. Did she truly believe Daemyn would manage that? No, and she did not doubt it showed, but the point remained he may actually be stupid enough to try.

Equal parts fascinated by Gia’s hands -- therefore the way that finger gestured -- and curious about what she had worked in the sand, Daphina moved to look properly. Eyebrows arching in interest, her mouth curved with a degree of wonder that was quickly followed by unabashed pleasure at being compared to what looked very much like a phoenix. “You think so?” It was an honest question, and once that left Daphina far more open to possible damages than she would ever admit, but it begged to be asked. Even the most conceited and stupid of people -- Daemyn -- were capable of pretty words, and she had heard a great deal in the past, yet none had come at all close to catching her attention half as much as Gia had done with her picture in the sand.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-27 05:51 pm UTC (link)
She likes me. Gia decided as she watched the expression on Daphina's face without a bit of shame at how openly she was looking. Had Daphina mentioned that people had compared her to a doll, then Gia would've had to agree in that moment if only for the color in her cheeks, and the paleness of her skin, and how well her features -- alright, Gia would've just agreed. Though she was prettier than any doll Gia had ever played with in her childhood. "Hmmmm." Badly disguised amusement laced Gia's eyes and smile as she considered Daphina's words. "You are cousin to the Bhain's? As for me, perhaps I have elven blood." Yes, her voice was teasing now. "Or faerie's are real and my mother dallied near a place she should not at sunset."

Gia listened as Daphina spoke while she drew, nodding where she thought it necessary. "Were that the truth, I would have an easier life. However it never will be, for who would reign in the stubborn women and tell them what is best for them if not their brothers once their father has passed?" Gia wouldn't even have to entertain the notion of pretending to be interested in the suitors who came after her. She could simply be. Perhaps she could have even gone to the Island of Doves to learn at the College of Creation. "Your brother should worry if he tries to marry you off when you do not wish it."

Eyes trained on Daphina once again as she leaned in, Gia felt that flutter that had started in her chest grow in intensity at the wonder and pleasure that grew on the blonde's face. "If I did not think so then I would not say so, Daphina," Gia assured her in an oddly serious voice, sand-covered fingers resting on the table. "Phoenixes do not belong in cages, and I suspect you would do better without one. Gilded or not. If I added a cage here, it would ruin the image, do you not think so?" Her bottom lip caught between her teeth as her expression faltered again. "Do you like it?" It may have just been a quick sand sketch, but she had enjoyed doing the little thing.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-28 12:45 am UTC (link)
“First cousin once removed to Lord Gaillard,” Daphina supplied without missing a beat, not at all minding that Gia’s gaze was so open, if only because it gave her cause to mirror it. There was every chance she knew her genealogy a little too well, but she had always supposed most nobles knew the same amount about their own families. Head tilting -- for even if Gia was joking, she was giving the idea rather more consideration -- she took a moment to examine the other’s features closer. Also separately: nose, ears… “I can see either being true. You would suit wings, I think.”

The blonde gave a frown of a false reproach. “Do not use the ‘S’ word.” By which she meant ‘stubborn’. “We are strong of will.” Her wrists flicked a small shrug that said ‘that’s all’ -- although now that it had been said, Gia had a point about Daemyn trying to make her marry. “More likely the opposite would happen,” she confirmed a touch distractedly while her mind tried to find its way down that trail of thought before visibly casting it aside in favour of those blue eyes. Any thoughts of being sent away to the Island of Doves as though she were nought but an embarrassment had been firmly elbowed to the back of her head.

Daphina ducked her head rather uncharacteristically at the reassurance, feeling silly for having needed to ask and… actually, she hardly knew what the ‘and’ what because she was not sure she had truly felt it before, but it didn’t give her much choice over that particular movement. Delighted by Gia’s further explanation and actually a little mesmerised by the shift in her expression, she was surprised by the question of whether she liked it. “Very much so.” She knew she was beaming, and wished she could control that a little, but what mattered was that Gia definitely knew it. “How could I not?” Even if it was only temporary, that was beside the point. Daphina was… moved? Yes, she thought that might have been the word. “Thank you.”

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-28 03:30 am UTC (link)
"Part-unicorn then," Gia declared in a satisfied tone. She didn't find it odd that Daphina knew these things about her family, for Gia knew them about her own and several others. Usually those with the banners or sigils she found most interesting, delving into their history with the hope of finding something to catch her interest. More often than not there wasn't a thing there but dry and dusty names of people long dead who had never done a thing with their lives but have children. Gia did think that should anyone happen across them at the moment they might find them odd, with how they were staring unabashedly at one another. "Strong-willed then, it sounds better." She was amused by that little look of reproach. She imagined that should Daphina wish it, she'd have a very off-putting glare.

All the assurance Gia really needed came in the form of that smile. She looked as though someone had gone and given her a priceless necklace rather than a sketch in the sand that could be swept away with less than a thought. "Some would say it is nothing at all, a sketch in the sand that could be done by a child and simply blown away with a breath." She puffed out her cheeks in demonstration, but refused to blow at the sand. Instead she let the air out slowly. "I..." Her voice wavered slightly, a fresh flush of pink suffusing her cheeks. Her fingers rubbed against the side of her neck and down along her collarbone, tapping against her skin once she reached the other side, an old habit that had seemed to irritate her father. It was likely the reason she still tended not to wear necklaces unless the dress called for it. It is alright. What's the worst that could happen?

"I wonder if you should like something more permanent? I enjoy making things, though... I rarely have reason to make something for someone." She had already decided that this was not going to go to Eileen, now that she had sketched something out in the sand for another woman. A lovely one who mad her blush and feel as though perhaps she actually was as beautiful as her suitors continued to tell her. Her smile returned, her hand now resting on her opposite shoulder. If she kept her hands busy then they wouldn't want to move nearer Daphina. "I should enjoy making something for you, Daphina, I think you would appreciate it.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-28 07:41 pm UTC (link)
Trying not to let her attention follow Gia’s hand too intently (because it was one thing to watch a lady’s face and another entirely to risk accusations involving her neckline), Daphina drew invisible circles on a corner of the table. “Some also have no soul and send their servants out to purchase a selection of gifts so that they may choose which they believe suits me better,” she pointed out with a degree of humour. “I’ve always considered that more of a gift to them than myself.” Such men, she imagined, would replace the entirety of their wife’s wardrobe with clothes that had passed their approval -- had possibly been chosen by them -- and likely micromanaged everything down to her bath salts. “Your phoenix can be bought from no merchant.” How did others think that nothing? A lack of permanence did not make it lesser, surely. Would it not be the other way around?

Daphina’s chins rested on the back on her her fingers, that elbow upon the table while the other hand continued to doodle invisible squiggles and swirls on the wood. It bothered her that she had just now realised it was far easier to watch Gia while seated like this. “If you enjoy making things then I shall never refuse; it would be rude of me.” The glint in her eye rather ruined the image of a lady who was actually concerned about her manners, but since she could not see her own eyes and that was not her main concern, it did not feature in Daphina’s thoughts. “I believe I would.” She gave a faintly amused smile and raised her chin from her fingers to touch an earring. “You did prove sand to be worth more than pearls.” Well it was true. Somewhere in her mind she swung a kick at the not-so-quiet voice that told her what her parents thought of such sentimentality, but they were not around for their opinions to be counted. Nor was she full sure their opinions truly did count in this.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-28 11:07 pm UTC (link)
Gia made a tsking sound at the mention of such men, though she knew them well. Ilario was practically the same, with the only difference being that he used her, applying the logic that she knew his wife so well and they were such good friends that surely she should know what she wanted. Gia didn't always tell him the truth, getting a vindictive little thrill out of the look of confusion on Selena's face when she received gifts she never would have picked out for herself. Ilario never seemed to notice. "You flatter me. My ego should be impossible to deal with if I listen to such things for too long." The amusement in her tone said that she truly did not mind. There had been times when she had created true works of art, wonderful and beautiful things, that no one ever saw because she didn't trust to show them. Why show someone something if you didn't think they were going to appreciate it for what it was?

Gia wished to slide a piece of parchment under Dahpina's fingers to catch whatever it was that she was drawing, just so that she might know, even if it appeared to be nothing at all. "I would not make them if you only accepted out of fear of being rude," she half-teased the blonde. "I would make them because not only do I enjoy them, but I think that you deserve something you would enjoy. Something that cannot just be bought at any merchant's stand." Kingswood certainly had plenty of those. Her hand darted into the bag she tended to carry with her, ignoring the words of any who thought it strange, bringing out a sketchpad. "What might you like? What do you like?" Her head tilted as she studied Daphina, only partially to imagine what she'd like, the rest being entirely because she liked looked. "I feel I would like to know the answer to that even if I was not going to make you something. You are... interesting."

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-29 03:09 pm UTC (link)
Daphina gave an odd, gleeful noise that bordered on laughter. “Whyever would I flatter you? That would require insincere praise, and I draw the line at insincere courtesy.” She allowed for outright lies, but that did not apply here. This, she reflected was how she got away with so much. She talked her way right back out of it again. To think it was a skill likely honed in conversations just like this… “If your ego manages to surpass that of a Taraias I will be most impressed, however,” she added with something of a smirk. Truly, she would. Her own was quiet just now, but a great part of that was probably directly connected to the fact a beautiful woman was paying her attention.

If her blush had faded at all, Daphina could feel it return upon the word ‘deserve’. She thought she more than likely deserved to be forcibly sent to the Island of Doves for accidentally (though sometimes she thought possibly not-so-accidentally) giving one of her siblings, or a suitor, a sudden sting of a shock. Or singeing their garments. Those who were not siblings she had just caused some kind of upset usually made no remark regarding what she deserved. And she felt strangely startled when she realised Gia had actually brought forth a pad. “What do I like?” That question felt much harder to answer than Daphina believed it was supposed to be, and she felt her face fall in a thoughtful frown. “Reading?” Which was an easy one to guess, she supposed, since she was in a library, but nevertheless. “Dancing, singing… Red,” she added, nearly kicking herself for not thinking of it before reading. “Thunderstorms. New things -- not recently-purchased new, but outside-of-my-experience new. Although I suppose that leaves a great deal, since I’ve been nowhere but court and Deleik Castle.” She paused to consider Gia before finishing. “I am rambling, but you probably ought to add yourself to the list as well.” It was the truth, was it not? Gia was new and interesting, terribly pretty, and the question had been hers. So she was going into the answer. Now Daphina felt just that little bit exposed, though she was not sure she had told anything to warrant such.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-29 05:55 pm UTC (link)
Surprise showed on Gia's face following Daphina's declaration that she wasn't flattering her, quickly followed by amusement at the remark about ego and her family. "Perhaps your house's words should have ego somewhere in them," she teased. "I have seen your elder brother strutting about the castle, surely his alone surpasses that of many others." Men always did seem to have the larger egos between them and women, or so Gia had noticed, though she suspected that Daphina may have one of her own. Gia herself certainly did, and that was something Ilario liked to say was one of the many reasons why he struggled to find her a husband.

She had a simpler reason: it was because she didn't want one.
She
Gia was just about to point out that the questioning tone meant she wasn't sure, and that she herself couldn't tell Daphina what she liked, when the blonde began to add more things as her face took on that thoughtful expression. If Gia stared a little harder in that moment then it was only because she was trying to lock away that exact expression for later recreation. She had a drawing pad specially saved for the faces she saw and wished to draw. Her fingers flew to copy down what Daphina had said, in little sketches rather than words, and her pencil paused when she realized that the last sketch was an outline of her own face. She'd drawn it enough times for practice to know every little nuance of her features, but she stumbled a little at the realization of what she was drawing. Her eyes were a little wider than normal as she looked over at Daphina, back to her page, and then back again. "Is it because I am beautiful-" People said it too often for Gia not to repeated it first." "Because I am ... outside-of-your-experience new, or because I am queer?" Odd, strange, queer, different, all words Gia had heard applied after the beautiful as reasons why she was outside of the acceptable box.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-29 09:25 pm UTC (link)
“It would be far more effective had he the brains to work beside it,” Daphina confirmed with a faint smirk. “His own daughter has been known to outwit him.” Because one aunt or the other had set her up to perform a very specific task and Thyme was nothing if not obliging. Daphina was also quite aware she was breaking her rule of conversation regarding her parental approval filter, but it did not seem to matter as much just now. Besides, what she had just said may as well have been a universal truth.

Quite transfixed by Gia’s face and fingers as she sketched, the blonde smiled as eyes widened and seemed to require a double-take of the page and Daphina herself. For a moment she thought she had said something wrong, or something that translated correctly in her own head, in the context of her own situation, but made no sense to anybody else. That question, however -- and she did love that beautiful had been listed first -- threw her a little. Mostly because, no matter what the rumour-mill told her, she did not find Gia to be as strange as some had claimed. Mouth open while she considered her answer (though not so open as to catch flies), Daphina settled for the simple and most obvious one. “Yes.” Then, because she felt as though she really ought to clarify: “You are certainly the first two, and we all of us have our peculiarities, do we not?” Watchers knew Daphina had hers. Her face lit almost impishly. “So… yes. But if it would make you feel better I can remove a category.” In almost the same breath, she leaned forward to sneak a closer look at the hand that had been sketching. “Do you play an instrument? Your fingers have the grace one associates with music.” Dexterity. That had been the word she meant, but she did not believe the sound of the word was half as complimentary as its meaning. And she thought Gia’s were graceful hands.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-30 01:41 am UTC (link)
Gia didn't even bother raising a hand to her mouth to cover the smirk that came when Daphina said her brother's daughter outwitted him. "She sounds like a little gem." She hadn't had much interaction with children, not even her own nephew, but she assumed that some of them must be delightful. She had been a delightful child by all accounts -- if occasionally very annoying or frustrating -- so by sheer logic others must be. One related to Daphina likely had more potential to be so, even if Daemyn was her father. If Gia thought about it, then she realized there was only one true child in the Taraias family now. Which was odd with so many of the Lord's children being more than grown enough to have children of their own.

Oh, Gia wished to reach forward and urge Daphina's mouth closed with a tap of her finger, but she resisted the urge until she had the answer she wanted. Part of her wished for her to say because she was beautiful and the rest wanted it to be because she was different. Maybe even because she matched the rumors about her. "Oh?" Gia asked, a little distracted at how much closer she had moved. "Which category would you remove?" As for the remark about her fingers, Gia found her ears turned red at that. The only other time she had had someone say things about her finger had been, well, in bed. "There is little I have not done," she replied, setting the pencil down so that she could stretch her fingers out in the mimic of a dance they might do on a flute. "I have played the flute, the harp... I tried the lute, but found it wanting, and have discovered an overall preference for the flute. I may even have brought one with me." Others may have called what she did next bold, but Gia didn't. Gia didn't have the same rules of conduct that other people did. She held her hands out, one palm up and the other down, towards Daphina, that one-sided smile back. "They are my personally viewed best feature."

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-30 03:04 am UTC (link)
Which category would she remove? Daphina looked intently at Gia for a moment, as though she could divine the answer from it, and maybe she could have done if she had looked a little longer but then it would begin to feel like the proverbial cat had run off with her tongue. “Why do easy questions seem to become hard when you ask them?” She was teasing, but at the same time there was far too much truth to it. “I’m quite torn. On the one hand I could remove the beautiful category, since I find it impossible to believe you do not know you are, and our peers would agree it is a truth. So is that not like saying I like you because the sky is blue?” Without thinking, Daphina had fallen into a visible mode of debate with herself, brow creasing delicately while she tried to voice her try of thought. “Then on the other hand I could remove the queerness -- but that is entirely subjective, else a mere codeword for someone who doesn’t prescribe to every degree of social etiquette. Like normalcy, I’m unconvinced of its existence as a general state of being.” Well, it was true. She understood structure and rules and such, but words like ‘normal’ did not actually mean a thing. Deciding she had reached the end of her likely unnecessarily long deliberation, she flashed a grin and tried not to fidget.

Watching Gia’s fingers play an instrument that was not actually there, Daphina chewed a little on the inside of her cheek. She had an urge to reach out, but… “I’m envious,” she admitted freely. “Green is not my colour -- wait, that is not true, I quite suit it.” She waved her tangent away. “I have never played an instrument. Singing and dancing, yes. Enough drawing lessons for me to claims I had a lady’s education.” Which really, was not much, and did not make her anywhere near as proficient an artist as Gia, whose hand movements she automatically mirrored. Her attention mostly remained on Gia hands and not her own -- then her face. Because that smile… she could hear that smile. “Your hands are definitely part faerie.” It was the first thing she could think of to say, and she hoped she didn’t sound as distracted as she probably looked. For just a second Daphina had to press her lips together to make certain her mouth was closed. “I believe I must have borrowed mine from a stable boy,” When compared to Gia’s, at least. “A stable boy with good skin,” She had clearly never done a day’s manual labour in her life.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-30 05:06 am UTC (link)
"Because the answer seems so simple that our minds reject it as too simple," Gia replied instantly, having struggled with the very same thing on more than one occasion. Though she had to admit that she enjoyed the teasing tone. How many people teased her these days? Now that she was out of child's clothing Ilario no longer did and he had really been the only one who had. By the time she had come to court she'd been grown most of the way into womanhood and people seemed too busy staring to tease, or being downright cruel because she was odd. Her expression was truly delighted by Daphina's answer. Although she had a point to observe. "I do not mind being queer, truly. I think of it in a very certain way since I think of a specific bit of social etiquette I refuse to observe." She liked the word itself, and the various meanings behind it, taking more than a little bit of pride in hearing people refer to her as such.

Laughing at the remark about green, and the subsequent removal of it, Gia couldn't help but imagine Daphina doing those things. "I can imagine you have a lovely voice." Dancing must also suit her with that frame. She wondered if she might ask her to dance for her sometime without being refused. "Had I just done what was necessary for a lady's education, I would be far less experienced. Alas, my grandfather humored me and my desire to learn everything I was curious about and here we are. I have a blacksmith -- a woman if you believe it -- in the city here who will let me observe her, perhaps even teach me if I have questions. Once my brother finds out I suspect he would pay her not to do it." Imagine his horror if she came back burned. Her cheeks were going to ache at the end of the day with how much Daphina made her smile, especially with the faerie comment. Her bottom lip found its way back between her teeth as she watched Daphina echo her movement, eyes tracing over hands that didn't look at all like those of a stable boy. "Your hands are lovely," she disagreed, shifting hers so close that she could actually feel the heat radiating off Daphina's palm. "I have sketched many hands, mostly women's, and even if they are short or stubby or overly large, they are still lovelier than a boy's could ever be. Yours..." Her voice drifted off and she found herself swallowing a little hard as she looked away from Daphina's hands and into her eyes again. "Could be called nothing but exactly suited to you." Gia was trying, and failing, not to imagine how they felt.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-30 02:10 pm UTC (link)
Daphina’s eyes lit up as she realised she had given an answer many might consider to be right, though how an opinion could be correct was beyond her. “Mm,” she nodded her understanding, though her head tilted ever-so-slightly. “Which bit will not you observe? I have been told I treat etiquette like a menu.” But if there were rumours of any strangeness about herself, she would have known. Nobody called her queer either behind closed doors or in open conversation. Nobody uttered a syllable about magic, save the one bizarre metaphor from a stable-hand at Deleik. Daphina had no idea how she might react if she learned that people were talking about her negatively in any way that she cared about, and realised she admired Gia more for it.

“Mother and father found me a vocal coach, though I didn’t need him,” she remarked without a hint of conceit. It was mere fact, and her mouth twisted in a display of how unimpressed that fact made her. “I think it was meant to entertain me. He called me Lark for weeks--” It was less of an emphasis than an unloading of disdain. “--until I refused to sing during lessons because caged larks are not known for their singing.” A small smile, somewhere between triumphant and vindictive, played about her lips. Sometimes it truly was the little victories that cheered her up. Daphina was both fascinated and horrified by the idea of learning in a forge, though the latter came from having been warned away from anything resembling a forge by the smiths themselves at home. Watchers, the farrier by Deleik would never let her near while he was shoeing her horse. Just in case. “Oh, fie on that. If he tries to pay her off I shall counter it,” she declared with a giggle of mischief. Overruling Lord Ridell suddenly seemed like fun.

There was a dance, Daphina had forgotten the name, where the couple did not touch. At least, not for most of it. The idea was to mirror each other’s moves as though you were physically joined, but there would always be an inch or so between your hands. As wish many dances, eye contact rarely broke. The whole point of the dance was to build tension, so those taking part were invariably couples and it was most often seen at weddings -- or, she supposed, at someone’s behest. With those thoughts and the compliment to her hands swirling through her head, Daphina allowed her face to give away how undeniably pleased she was feeling. Then she broke the one rule of the dance, hands shifting so they each caught one of Gia’s. Quite brazenly, at that. “I thought they might get cold,” she offered in excuse -- or rather, an excuse that only just hid a refusal to apologise. Since the mischief had not yet left her eyes and Gia’s hand were making her blush by virtue of being in her own, Daphina was not at all sorry.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-30 07:07 pm UTC (link)
Ask a gossip that question and the majority would give the same answer Gia was about to, while the rest would vary between this, that and the other. But Gia, and likely the majority of the court, would focus on precisely one part that made her queer in the eyes of many. Even if, she suspected, there were a larger number who wouldn't admit they might be just the same, with refusals to admit it for the shame it would supposedly bring to their family. "I refuse to observe the idea that I should marry a man and bear him children. This is nothing that the world does not seem to know, though it brings Ilario many headaches, and the lords still try their very best." Rune. That man who'd hung his jaw at her in the throneroom and sought her brother after. "So you should be careful lest I corrupt you." Now her voice had a teasing lilt, though she was partially serious. People talked, and she could occasionally be a favorite topic. She couldn't imagine Lord Daphisio Taraias being pleased if his daughter was painted with her brush.

"No lark," Gia agreed. "Though it is perfect that you sing... it makes you a true phoenix. Their songs are said to be the most beautiful and pure." Though she imagined they didn't sing in cages either. As for the matter of the blacksmith, Gia found herself giggling. "He may not thank you for that, but I surely would."

Gia's breath caught in her throat when Daphina caught her hands in her own, eyes widening with surprise. No apology was forthcoming, just something that Gia suspected was said more to say something than let the silence continue. Her cheeks were reddening again as Gia suspected hers might also be. Gia gave Daphina's hands a light squeeze. "Truly not the hands of a stableboy," she murmured, her thumbs rubbing lightly against the skin they were resting on. "The hands of a lady; well-cared for, soft..." Her thumb shifted, sliding between their hands to trace along what she could reach of Daphina's wrist, her smile returning as the surprise faded from her eyes. "Delicate wrists as well. Is all of you so soft?" The last was actually a whisper and Gia wouldn't be sure she'd said it unless Daphina reacted as it was a question she'd meant to keep inside her head.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-30 11:38 pm UTC (link)
“The lords who continue to try are often among those who can acknowledge two men can be attracted to each other but flounder when the concept of two women is introduced.” The smile she breathed actually pitied them. Mostly for lacking a certain capacity for critical thinking. But at the warning, no matter how much of it was teasing, Daphina’s features shifted into the signature smile she had once heard described as ‘potentially all-knowing and rather amused’. “You must know it isn’t possible to corrupt one with ‘honour’ among their family words,” she said in a tone that matched her expression, a moment before allowing herself a brief laugh. “Especially when ‘discretion’ is the other half.” Although if she was to be honest, she did not know how much of herself was truly that honourable or how things like that were quantified. The only rumours she had ever heard circulated about herself tended to paint her as quite the harpy or simply the model daughter. Whether or not she chose to disprove the former depended on her company.

Cheeks darkening from the renewed phoenix comparison, one of Daphina’s shoulders rose as though it was stuck halfway through a shrug and stayed there. She wanted to say that she did not think she quite did the phoenix justice if that were the case, but then Gia would say something else, she would turn the same colour as her dress -- and did that not seem frightfully self-serving? Despite being sure her own train of thought had turned her face the same crimson as her dress, she dropped her shoulder again and wrinkled her nose. “As a rule, precious few men thank me for anything.” The fact that the loss of Lord Ridell’s gratitude (and possibly good graces) meant very little to her went unsaid. “If you wish to learn in the smithy you should have that right.” After all, the lady who worked there obviously learned from someone. The commoner-versus-nobility argument was terribly tedious when used as a reason for noble women to not do something.

The faintest panicked mantra (please do not spark, do not burn, do not freeze--) played in a corner of Daphina’s head, though she was distracted by her need to swallow as she truly took note of Gia’s skin. She had the strangest concern that if she did swallow, it would somehow be very loud and demand attention. No, it made no sense and she knew that, but she was also preoccupied watching Gia’s face with fascination while she made her assessment about her hands. There was something about her manner of movement that only cemented the idea Gia was part faerie even further in Daphina’s mind. I have delicate wrists? That was something the blonde would have considered further if the question that followed it had not suddenly knocked from her a breath that she’d not realised she was holding. In the space it took her to breath in again, she became acutely aware (unless she was imagining it) that the heat in her face had spread right down her neck. “Yes.” It was likely some degree of improper to answer that -- had Gia been anyone else, Daphina would have had little to no problem pretending nothing had been said -- but it was a little late for that now. So she actually considered the answer given and elaborated. “Perhaps not the soles of my feet, but they are subjected to the same bath oils. Else I daresay my hands would be more rough: I like riding without gloves.” Biting her lip, she wondered if it was either bad form or simply improper to turn that question around and send it back -- or both. So she settled for watching Gia and knowing her own ears were probably pink by now. Against blonde hair that was most unflattering.

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[info]neverfitin
2017-05-31 02:46 am UTC (link)
"If that were true then it should be true that no one can outwit someone with 'wit' in their words." Still, Gia was pleased by the fact that Daphina was not at all bothered by what she had just said. She has suspected she wouldn't be, but to have it confirmed was another thing entirely. Eyebrow quirking at that shoulder, expecting a shrug, Gia smirked when Daphina stopped the motion. I win that. It was a small victory, but it was one nonetheless, and she enjoyed these little victories. "Thank you. There are few people who think that I should be allowed to do as I wish." Very few. Even her grandfather, the man who spoiled her, likely would disapprove of her spending time in a smithy.

Having no idea that Daphina was concerned about her Gift sparking up -- literally -- Gia was able to just enjoy the skin-on-skin contact. It had been too long since she'd had anything like this. There was an extra thrill to be sitting in a library with her palms pressed to Daphina's, seeing the color she turned and feeling her own skin flushing in response. "Yes," Gia repeated, amazed that she had been answered, that she had asked it, her amazement showing on her face. "Soles tend to be rough," she agreed, her voice light as her mind spun that response over and over in her mind. Now she was imagining it. Thankfully she was already blushing, so it couldn't get much worse. Yet. Freeing one of her hands, Gia did something she'd been thinking about even though she knew it was undeniably improper, brushing the tip of a finger against the lip Daphina had bitten. "If you do that too hard, you will make yourself bleed. Harder yet, you will scar." Her finger lingered most inappropriately. "Such lovely lips should not be scarred. They should be pampered." Pull away now, the strictest part of her mind instructed. You have been too close for too long. Behave yourself. Gia was just as bad at listening to herself as she was anyone else.

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[info]inmyelements
2017-05-31 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Daphina, a woman who believed that one should do whatever one could get away with within reason, could not say she felt any form of shame for having answered the question to begin with. It had seemed like the most normal thing in the world, though there were those in court who would consider it quite the opposite, and now she found she could not draw her attention away from Gia’s reaction. Though for reasons unknown to herself she wriggled the toes of one foot when the comments about soles was confirmed. Still, since she had -- at some point -- at least considered turning that question around… the subject was on her mind and it was most distracting. Proper or not, she needed to remember to tell Gia how much of a distraction she could be in a library.

The finger on her lip gave Daphina a slight mental start -- enough for her to more or less do as she was being told and release it. The effect of suddenly letting that lower lip go resulted in something of a jutting pout for a moment, and if asked she would forever deny that it was potentially deliberate. Because it was not. “I was not biting hard,” she defended, not particularly knowing why she had opened that line of discussion while also weighing up the rest of what Gia had said. She could think of only one real way to pamper lips when cosmetics were absent, and for all of a moment Daphina’s mouth curled up at one corner in a manner that made her seem inexplicably triumphant where it marked Gia’s amusement. Without daring to put too much thought into the matter, the blonde leaned over and placed a soft kiss on lips she half-worried might run away with the woman they belonged to. Wasn’t that how it usually worked at court? Though her now-free hand seemed to have touched a finger to Gia jawline, and it did not seem like she was fleeing in horror.

“Forgive me; that was horribly forward and I am a shameless opportunist.” While having not technically moved, Daphina had… stopped. Because… well, she could not explain why besides the voice of self-criticism playing in her mind, informing her she could have burned the library down and she would never have noticed. Which was likely true. Unless Gia now slapped her for her behaviour, she did not care -- if she was going to be completely honest she had wanted to do that since she laid eyes on her.

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