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Tweak says, "Moose bites are painful."

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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