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Tweak says, "So Normal And Ugly Am I!"

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
2017-05-30 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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