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 Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:31 pm
After quite a lot of ego-coddling and eyeing some great looking food, Uuni had managed to convince one of the pastry chefs at Ghenza to give her something delectable. If she gave credit to nothing else, it was that the food here was outstanding. That food which she wanted to eat, in any case. Some of their dishes looked a bit questionable.
The small menagerie of breakfast items - although that one looked more like a dessert - were supposedly to be shared with the Harper that she was supposedly meeting. Of course, it seemed as though very few believed her unless she were to dish out a name. Unfortunately, she was busy trying to remember just what the Harper's name was.
It must not have been that important. Whoever she was, she was going to get a nice breakfast.
Having found a nice spot in the eating area, Uuni had settled herself down. It was quite close to the entrance she and Isandra had run into each other by, still fairly out in the open, and gave her a nice view of the rest of the building. It was bustling with individuals excited to get started on the day. Uuni wondered why they ever bothered sitting down. It would be so much more productive if they grabbed their food and swallowed it whole as they ran from task to task with unending vicariousness. Perhaps the kitchen was the social aspect of Ghenzan life.
While she was waiting, bored out of her mind and debating eating everything before Isandra arrived, she'd struck a conversation with a Ghenza male at a table not too far away to answer some of these confusing questions. He was a very dull, dull chap, but it gave her something to do.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:57 am
Stifling a yawn, Isandra brushed out her hair and ignored her parents. That was basically how mornings worked in within the small Harper family; Isandra's parents made loving small talk despite the fact they were practically ancient, their daughter rolled her eyes dramatically and brushed her hair far longer than anyone ought to. Her parents didn't speak to her before her brain was in functioning order and in return, Isandra didn't bite their heads off. Finally, she comes to some semblance of humanity and her father assigns her duties for the day.
It is half-shuffling, half-striding down to the dining hall for something to eat that the Harper remembers she roped herself a servant minion for the day. Closing her eyes, Isandra wondered why she decided to subject herself to this form of torment. Ah, well. What's done was done and if nothing else, perhaps this could turn itself into an interesting teaching song.
Isandra pressed into the hall and spotted Uuni almost immediately (no, it wasn't like she was looking, honestly). Deciding she had best save the poor gentleman who had the misfortune of attracting the bluerider's attention, the black-haired woman marched over. Doing her best to loom over the rider menacingly, and really, it was rather a difficult task when she was smaller than the majority of young women her age, she cleared her throat. "I see you're on time, rider," she said by way of greeting, doing her best to keep emotion out of her voice. "Have you eaten? We have a lot of things to do today!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:09 am
Never had a voice been so sharp. Uuni wrinkled up her nose when she heard the short quip and glanced back towards the Harper in question. The regret, however, was short lived as she pulled her lips into a smile while the woman prattled off.
Casting a wink at her conversation partner, she uttered in a voice Isandra was most certainly able to here, "She's cute, right? It's not just me?"
That seemed to be the end of that moment, as Uuni swung her legs around the bench and leaned one elbow on the table with which to prop up her head as she rested her left cheek on her hand.
"I am eating. Come on, sit down. Can't work well if you don't eat well!" she piped off. Its obvious mockery was more evident in how smoothly convincing her voice seemed to be. Her hand patted the bench next to her once, and she offered up one of the pastries she'd wooed up to the Harper before taking another to stuff it into her mouth.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:25 am
All the Harper training in the world couldn't save Isandra from the blush; women never spoke of her like that. While she had come to accept this as fact, it was terribly unnerving to find someone who defied her own personal logic.
The blush was short-loved, however, Isandra wrinkled her nose and forcing the dreadful betrayal of her thoughts back from whence it came. "I tend to take my meals with me," she finally said, sniffing a little as she was offered a pastry. Stubborn as she might be, there was no denying that she was very, very hungry. Snatching the treat away from the bluerider, the Harper took a decisive bite.
...oh. That was much better than the usual breadroll. Why didn't she eat one of these every morning? (Because she had a figure to keep, shardit! What did Uuni think? It was easy to fit into her dresses? Honestly!)
"Well, you can eat and walk, can't you? Or is multitasking to much for you?" She scowled, well aware it wasn't. "I actually have things to do, you know. Time is of the essence!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:08 am
Score fourteeen for Uuni. Whether or not the blush was humilation or dirty thoughts, Uuni wasn't sure. It didn't matter. Even straight girls could be convinced once. The smile stayed as she slowed her chewing on the pastry and kept her eyes on the other woman.
It wasn't until the 'take my meals with me' that Uuni shrugged and looked away. Isandra had taken the pastry, too. There was more progress in one day than she'd had with Roka in sevendays upon sevendays.
The next words caused her to almost choke on her treat. Swallowing it down with few a light coughs, she grimaced and dropped her voice to a low whisper. "Hey, hey, take it easy on the insults. It's my day off."
Picking up the small breakfast that she'd gathered, she wrapped it back up in the square of leather she'd used to carry it to the table. Wherever Isandra was going, Uuni was willing to go, too. Sort of. As long as it didn't require too much constant walking.
"You know what you should try?" The tone of her voice was light, casual. "Spending all day in bed. I bet you've never done it. I'll bet you a whole mark you've never done it."
Did Ghenza even use marks? Or did they just trade stuff back and forth like firelizards might trade shiny objects?
"Where are we going in such a rush, anyway?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:30 am
Pleased that Uuni decided to go easily, Isandra finished her pastry in a few delicate nibbles. Thinking nothing of licking her fingers clean as she turned on her feel (yes, fine, it was unladylike, but she wasn't going to wipe it on her fine blue dress, thank you very much), the Harper began her march out of the kitchen, delicately arranging her hair when the rider decided it would be a good job to open her mouth again.
"Ah, then I suppose you win a mark," Isandra replied dryly, glancing over her shoulder just so that she might roll her eyes at the bluerider. "Pity no one in Ghenza would be fool enough to make that kind of bet." Isandra? Laze around in bed all day? Why, there was a better chance she'd Impress a gold dragon!
"I've messages to deliver today, as it were. Some for the farmers, one for the miners. We'll see how long that takes and decide where to go from there. Honestly, Uuni, we don't have time to sit around and make idle chat. Nothing will get done." She snorted lightly, half tempted to break into a job. Fortunately for her companion, Isandra wasn't sure how much she actually wanted to run in her dress. Walking would suit them just as well.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:43 am
The method that Isandra used to clean her fingers made Uuni raise one eyebrow. There was nothing wrong with watching that, now was there? Not that Isandra could see Uuni's invasive studying habits when the bluerider was one step back from the Harper's shoulder. It gave her little subtle hints. Very mouthy, and more prone to deal with a situation immediately than to clean it up perfectly. Could it get any better?
"Huh?" Uuni had completely missed the following bit about the mark. "Oh, yeah, you brilliant Ghenza people," she muttered as a cover up.
By then, she'd finally stepped into stride with Isandra and had asked the pertinent question. If they were going to the miners and the farmers, Uuni would have to explain herself to more than one person. She let out a low groan of distaste in the back of her throat. She knew there was a catch.
"Wait," she said, stopping. There was a moment of complete brilliance that she so loved getting. Actually, it was Makereth's moment of complete brilliance, but Uuni would take complete credit for it since that ugly tyke got to have all the fun while she broke her back out in the fields. Although, she had to admit, playing pranks on Ghenza-workers was a valid waste of time.
"Just messages? That's easy. We can stay in one spot. I'll write, you iterate, and we'll send Makereth between. We'll be done faster than you can say 'Uuni's a slacker'." With an overproud grin, she nudged Isandra in the side with her elbow and cast her one of those looks.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 8:24 pm
"What? That's no time for waiting." But Uuni had stopped, and Isandra had not choice but to fold her arms over her chest and fix the rider with the Death Glare. When that didn't force her acquaintance to pick up the pace, the Harper tipped her head and wore a straight face, looking terribly bored as Uuni babbled on about her master plan. Using a dragon to do their work. Why would they do that? She hadn't even met the dragon in question!
Hissing at the elbow and the look (honestly, did Uuni think she was common), Isandra wrapped her delicate fingers around the rider's wrist and tugged. Well, tugged was an understatement. It was much closer to dragging, and there was nothing pleasant about it. Uuni was a rider, and a slacker, with no craft! She was a Harper, daughter of Harper sired by Harper, she did hard work and by Faranth, she was beautiful. She should not be forced to put up with this sort of nonsense!
"Look, Uuni. These are important messages. If your dragon lost one, there would be so much trouble." She shook her head, black waves bouncing loose. "You, rider, are an idiot."
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 8:33 pm
No one. No one insulted Makereth. They could inslut Uuni all she wanted. Could curse her to the ends of the earth. Uuni was used to it, almost craved the insults that reinforced the image that she'd created for herself. It gave her a sense of control.
This, however. This was not acceptable.
And Uuni fought back with the very default she'd trained herself so carefully to utilize.
The tug had left her close, plenty close enough to keep her voice a low, whisper, her eyes glancing up to Isandra's as she did. Her fingers twitched up and she tucked one of those black curls behind the woman's ear.
"Is this an invitation?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:02 pm
...
.....
..........
"Don't make a fool of yourself," Isandra finally hissed, green eyes narrowing as she jerked her head back, lips curled in an ugly snarl. In the face of such unwanted attention, the Harper could do nothing but bare her fangs and pin those ears. She was not a creature to be trifled with, certainly, and she refused to be taken down so easily, even if Uuni was turning her all sorts of inside out. She refused. Refused.
All but throwing Uuni's arm away, Isandra did not back away. That would be submission, and that was one thing the young woman never did. Even her own parents had learned better than to cross her, and they had raised her!
"We have work to do. Best we get to it. The sooner we begin, the sooner we will be free of each other's company, don't you agree?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:19 pm
When she had her arm back, Uuni moved her fingers around her own wrist, rubbing it not because it hurt, but that it might cast away the insults that had flamed up between them.
Unlike Isandra, she didn't mind being the submissive one in this instance. It had stopped being a sexual game and had started being a tool of who would snap first. Isandra had won that round, fair and square, so Uuni stepped back, granting the woman her space and turning her eyes away as if in apology for the sudden, brash move. It was not, however, an apology, but being so close to someone so obviously, violently against contact unnerved her down to her core.
The subject changed, Uuni dropped her hands to her sides and took in a deep breath.
It took everything she had in her to force the tiny twitch at the corner's of her lips that followed.
"I'd rather draw this out," she admitted, too honest for her own good. "I don't want to go back into the fields."
A glance over to the woman was made before Uuni straightened herself up and swallowed down the mucous in her throat. Her mind was whirling. "Just leave Makereth out of it."
"Can you drop your pride for just one second and give me that?" It was as direct as she ever was with what she really wanted. Isandra's constant ability to stay stubborn wasn't something she normally would have caved to. Makereth and Avery had changed things. Lot's of things. This whole being honest with oneself wasn't something Uuni thinked she liked much.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:29 pm
"You are the one who brought the dragon into this," Isandra hissed, taking a step back once Uuni submitted first. "But I made no slight at his character, not intentionally, as such." It was as close to an apology as the Harper would ever come. As quickly as she brushed up against something that might have been regret, she pushed on, tossing her head and fixing her black curls as she turned on her heel, blue fabric swirly around her ankles.
"What you will not get, however, is my pride. That is all I have to stand on and it is mine."
That said, the Harper pressed onward, lapsing into an uncharacteristic silence as she led the rider towards their first destination. It wasn't as though Isandra didn't desire some form of sexual tension in her life, the Harper carefully did not reflect, but that she simply couldn't allow that kind of recklessness in her life. She had a career, a life and a goal ahead of her. There was no time, nevermind her pride. Isandra did not do things that threw her off her usual pedestal.
It would seem Uuni happened to be one of those things.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:43 pm
Good enough, Uuni supposed. It was more evident now, than ever to Uuni that clearly Isandra was more than stressed. With all that work, and all that desire of pride, who wouldn't be? When you had confidence, everyone wanted to bring you down. That had to be stressful.
"I'm glad we got that settled," Uuni said aloud, not quite sure what exactly they had settled.
She took another moment to pause and consider these before she broke into a jog and caught up with Isandra. She supposed she owed the woman something now. Damnit. Why was it she was always owing people things?
Well, the payback was easy enough. Uuni was not quiet for the majority of the day. In fact, she had more charisma than usual, and after the first hour, she'd resumed her subtle teasing, although with a great degree less of sexual innuendo mixed in. Her payback was simple: she didn't complain about work, and she went about it with the effort that would have made someone at High Reaches proud. At Ghenza, it was likely to be mediocre.
Considering she was supposed to have the day completely off - or it had been on her end of the bargain - Uuni thought this was good enough.
By the end of it, she was beginning to realize that she'd almost enjoyed the day. Isandra was more than fun to quip over, and it beat having to talk to the High Reaches members who she had seen too much of in the fields lately.
"You sure you want me to go?" she asked after the last message had been delivered and was finally out of her sight. "You can't show me what you Ghenzans do for fun or something?" If Isandra said work. . .
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:39 am
Isandra cast Uuni a baleful look. Today was truly one of the most exhausting days in the Harper's recent memory. All she really wanted was to go home and brush the dirt out of her hair, clean her boots, maybe spend some time with her father before calling it a day. Of course, that wasn't going to happen; she needed to eat and she was probably assigned to entertain tonight. Not that she minded terribly, she was just. Dirty.
"I sing for fun," the dark-haired woman responded after a short pause. "I enjoy my job. I also enjoy listening to the other Harpers." She shrugged, changing courses as she took a sudden left turn down a small corridor. "I also happen to think getting clean is fun. I could really use bath, ug." If it were up to Isandra, she would probably wash at least three times a day. It was a shame there was too much work to afford such luxuries. "But I imagine even you outsiders know how to bathe."
Doing her best to stifle a yawn, her stride did not falter as she tracked down a seeming maze of hallways and corridors, boots clicking on the stone. "I also find new dresses to be fun, but I have not the marks to afford one, so I suspect you are just out of luck, hm?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:29 am
Had Isandra really just said that? Let her just say cards or something. Maybe going fishing? A skinny dip now and then? There had to be something!
The pure lack of this rooted reality hit Uuni like a whiplash shock. Sure, all the evidence pointed to work, work, work. Work is play. Even when you weren't working, you were watching others work, but Uuni did not like this boldfaced admittance. Cultureshock was beginning to grate on her nerves.
"Uh-huh," she answered the bathing bit, half aware that she had lost interest in the little snaps to get on top Isandra was good at giving.
The only glimmer of hope was the bit about new dresses. Avery liked new dresses and probably had one right about now. Falling back into old memories, Uuni imagined a blue one just like that wouldn't have been that far out Avery's league.
. . . maybe thinking about that wasn't such a great idea. It made her even more homesick. What an idea. Homesick.
"It really is official then. You are the most boring Harper I have ever met, and I've met some really boring people." There was a light snort of laughter to go with this, although it wasn't mocking or pleased in the slightest. It was a combination of being too tired physically and mentally and having no one to express it to.
"I'm going this way, then," Uuni told her, calling out louder since the woman must have been farther away with such fast walking. Uuni really had no idea where the hall went, but she followed it in any case. Isandra had gotten her lost, but there was still time in the day to salvage some fun. Ugh, that sounded like work, too. Would the insanity ever end?
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