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 Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 1:26 pm
Ellandra bit her lip, managing not to smile at the rather-embarrassing (for Banning) scene before her. She blinked timidly at the woman's question, hesitating for a few moments before answering,
"No bear c-cave, ma'am. . . I just . . . ran into him on the street," she said quietly, shooting Banning apologetic look for talking around him. "He was already hurt," she added, dropping her gaze to the floor and twirling her pendant with her fingers. It had become a new nervous habit of hers since she had left her hat with Faolan.
This was a bit of an awkward situation, wasn't it? She was out of her depth, floundering for the right way to react, respond, speak; she wished Faolan or - or anyone she trusted, really - were here to help her. She was so useless and frightened on her own. . .
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Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 1:37 pm
"Ah, yes. If he hasn't thanked you already, I will do it again miss Sanders. Hopeless man, simply hopeless." Twitter twatter, on and on she rambled, but in the meantime the woman had finished her preparations and started her neverending quest to patch up her employer.
"It's very decent of you to look after him a bit, I always tell him he should find himself more.. social contacts, but he never listens to me, dear. Only that official jumbo he cares about, and those hobbies of his we're not allowed to know about."
"Magdala..."
"Hush you. I'll have a word with you later."
"No, I meant to say you should stop trying to undress me, please..." How about you try to fix my hand first, that'd be.. ever so dashing.
"... and please tell Jonathan to fetch miss Sanders a drink?"
"Oh, sure. Right away dear." and off she was for a second. The 'phew' was almost visible over Banning's head.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 1:55 pm
Ellandra was rather relieved to see the fussy woman go, as well - she seemed nice enough, but it was like watching Ziazan with Faolan, and all the fussing was overwhelming after a short time. She shifted her weight from food to foot, not quite managing to look Banning in the eye. She wanted to ask after Misha, find out how he was, but didn't want to bother the man either, especially when he was hurt.
So instead she simply stood there, fidgeting with her necklace and looking, she was sure, like an idiot. She closed her eyes, trying to draw on the small bit of courage she had in order to really speak to Banning - about anything really, it was so rude to just stand here looking uncomfortable - without success.
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 9:48 am
"... you can sit down if you want, no need to stand around. Unless you wish to venture out for a while, of course." Banning spoke up again after a while of silence. He appeared not much more at ease than Ella.
"Sorry about that... I never felt the need to train her out of that attitude, the staff loves her. Mother hen and all..." Like, eep. "If you... still want to help me out, you could maybe... try to distract me a little? Just pretend I'm human like you, you know... I am."
That sounded rather pathetic actually. He didn't mean 'entertain' at all, no. Just talk to me while we get this over with.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 10:02 am
Ellandra bit her lip, but nodded a little. "I. . . I don't have much to - to talk about that would interest you, I'm afraid," she said hesitantly, nevertheless not wanting to leave the man alone, not when he seemed so . . . well, she couldn't really find any words to describe how he seemed to her right now, but she couldn't leave yet, not with him in this state.
Though that still didn't help her know what to do, it at least gave her a bit more direction that stand-around-looking-foolish. Or. . . she thought it did, anyway. Yes? No . . . maybe it didn't? Ahh, she didn't know. Not that it really mattered anyway. She twirled the pendant in her fingers again and chewed on her lip a little, her mind casting about for any sort of conversation topic that would ease the awkwardness a little.
Unfortunately, the only things she could think of were to talk about Faolan or to inquire about how Misha was, neither of which were appropriate conversation topics to have with. . . um, Banning, certainly not while he was injured. It would be silly to bring up the fortune-teller, and downright rude to ask about Misha when the man she was talking to was injured!
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 10:15 am
If he could read her mind he'd most likely chide her on thinking in circles and forgetting he'd just pretty much asked her to ignore the fact he wasn't in such a dandy shape BECAUSE he needed some distraction.
"... I heard you stood up against my employee regarding her treament of her... partner. If it isn't too bold a question, may I enquire what lead you to do so?" he looked at her, head slightly nudged aside, sizing her up. He'd wondered about that for a while now, and percehd on the medic's table was as good a moment to ask as any other. There was no good timing in personal questions. He deliberately avoided the term 'Essentic' as well.
Not long after he'd asked, miss Magdala came juggling back inside the room, twittering a polite apology -Jonathan was busy, sir, he truly couldn't be disturbed now-, and banning glanced at her and nodded. Alright then... He knew the man wouldn't have a cheap excuse.
"But here you go sweetheart. I hope you like tea, it's made of mint we grow here on the terrain, with honey from our own beehives." she smiled, put the tablet down within Ellandra's reach. "Now I'll have to go and patch up the duke. I'm almost getting the impression he's avoiding it." With a cheeky grin, she looked at Bane, who'd indeed shuffled away from her slightly, with a look of controlled apprehension.
"Now now..."
"Ah,... err...." He kept glancing at Ellandra, tried not to start wibbling on the spot. Just... keep the conversation going? Please?
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 10:37 am
"Thank you, ma'am," Ellandra said quietly, taking the tea and sipping it cautiously. She watched the woman and Banning for a moment, her eyes half-closing as she tried to think of a good way to answer Banning's question, when she noticed something odd and nearly dropped her teacup. "M-ma'am . . . w-wouldn't it be good to - to at least u-use some form of - of local anesthetic f-for that cut a-at least?"
She was no medic, but she knew that no pain-numbing = baaaad. No matter how stubborn a person was, that was just something she didn't understand - why they should endure stitches and other treatments without any kind of assistance. She'd studied some medicine-related texts on her own before, when she needed the information for a few of her novels, and knew how ridiculous that behavior was. Ah, well, this wasn't really anyof her business, anyway, she supposed.
Right. . . . back to Misha.
She took another sip of the tea, and finally spoke again, somewhat hesitantly, trying not to stutter. "Well. . . it will . . . probably seem rather - rather silly, but. . . Misha was. . . he was kind, to me, and he helped me - I'm sure you know we got caught in a - a thunderstorm? I - I have a severe phobia of them, and w-was rather panicked. . . he helped keep me calm, and - he was just so very. . . nice - I'm not used to th-that, you see. . . The reason I was angry at him, that day, was that he t-tried to set me up on a blind date, of sorts - I rather think you would know better than I w-what his sources were; but. . . he meant well, and he's so young. . . I just. . ." She trailed off for a long moment, then, and sighed, feeling foolish to the extreme.
"He's so very kind, and, at the time, at least, I didn't think your employee appreciated th-that aspect of him. I . . . like I said on the way here, I - I overreacted, I'm afraid."
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 10:52 am
"Oh dear. You are absolutely right." And on the fuss went, with both an apology to banning and a slight scolding for him always, always forgetting to remind her, you know it's my weak point, sir. At least she wouldn't have any retalitation from him. banning wasn't sure if he should be thankful or annoyed now, he hated anaesthetics with a child's disdain.
From there on, madame Magdale remained quiet and left them to converse in all privacy they had with her manhandling the noble. At least Ellandra's preszence kept him from spluttering when she gave him a glass of water and a tablet to swallow. Once he'd ingested it neatly, she set about to try and get him to remove his shirt, and he only half complied, keeping it half on. I'm not going to... sit here half naked, thank you were much.
Once that hurdle was taken and the painkiller had kicked in, she began cleaning his wound and stitching it up carefully.
"Too nice you say... He's quite the troublemaker as I know him. I suppose you have a point though, he's not mean-spirited." Bane picked up the chitchat again, a little distracted and giving an occasional uncomfortable twitch. "The information he gets from my registry... I have a quite extensive database, and I have acquired quite some statistics on you as well, to be honest. Rest assured, nobody can get to it but me and miss Longway now. She left the codes hanging around and has been corrected in that habit now." Yes, that's.. fixed now. Ahem. Every young company has hurdles to be taken.
"You have every right to act as you wish, miss Sanders. Longway won't hold it against you, but I might mention she does not approve of being lectured. .. but enough about my employees, how have you been faring since?" He sounded genuinely interested, and managed to hold back a wince in favour of looking the part.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 11:20 am
Ellandra nodded a little, though she couldn't help but privately wonder what Banning - or anyone at his shop, really - could possibly want with information on her. She knew better than to lose her temper again; in fact she was rather surprised she had in the first place, she wasn't normally one who was easy to anger. But she supposed there wasn't much chance of worrying about upsetting... - Longway, was it? - again, as she doubted she'd get to return to Life Essentials any time in the future.
Instead, she let her mind drift to slightly more-recent events, and a smile came unbidden to her face as she continued to fidget with her crystal necklace. "Fairly well, I suppose," she said quietly, her eyes taking on a distant, happy sparkle. "Pardon the - the silliness of the phrase, but I've met th-the love of my life, and he loves me too," she paused a minute, her dazed, love-touched smile turning into one of slightly devilish amusement as a thought crossed her mind. "I believe you've met him, actually. . . his name is Faolan." she didn't say his profession, quite sure that his name alone would be recognizable to Banning, if nothing else than because of Ziazan.
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 4:44 am
Oho, that revelation caused even Magadala to look up from her work briefly.
Are you serious? Aww, how precious lass. The nurse and head-of-staff congratulated her warmly before continuing, now with a smile. Both her and the dukedidn't doubt the young woman had been genuinely stricken with the bat of love right there. You don't fake faces like that, oh no.
"Mister Grady?" Of course Banning knew 'that one', haha. "... talk about coincidences. That's certainly an interesting... development." For a short moment he wondered if here were more connections forming between owners and potential customers already. That might not be a bad thing, especially if it happened spontaneously.
For a while, the man looked at her ponderously. Plotting in progress.
"So you believe you're ready for a long-term commitment with him? Not to question your choices, he's a good man, but you realise his companion might become more troublesome later?" Answer whatever you like, I just want to know what your opinion on the matter is.
Magdala'd already long ago given up on trying to make sense of her master's conversations, finished stitching up the injury and bandaged his arm properly. There you go, all clean. Then she scuttled away to her cupboards to fetch more materials.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 7:45 am
Ellandra nodded softly, remaining silent through the rest of the nurse's activity, and thinking for a bit about how to best answer Banning's question - not that she had any doubts about her decision, most definitely not; she just needed a way to word her response properly, without sounding like a lovestruck fool. Lovestruck she admittedly was, fool she was not.
"Well," she said after a moment. "I'm not silly enough think it won't come without. . .challenges." Easy way to describe breaking the law or assisting someone in doing so, yes? Fitting, anyway. "But. . . I love Faolan, and as strange as it seems, he really does love me too, and his companion is special, a-and unique - and strange as it may sound, is a part of both of our lives now, though obviously not quite the same way with me as with him..."
She paused to catch her breath, and then continued, "What I mean to say is, I understand there will be . . . challenges, but my life has been empty until I met Faolan, and I would be an idiot who wants to live in misery if I were to give up my life because of fear - I've done that long enough in my life, I can't go back to it. Not ever again."
It wasn't as clear an explanation as she would have liked to give, and she was sure she sounded either idealistic or, well, silly, but that was the truth. It was very much how she felt.
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:32 am
All through the lady's speech, Banning kept nodding attentively. Not for a moment was he warping her message to himself, oh no, but what she said was sensible.
"You still struggle with... fear, don't you?" Bane glanced her up and down, noting that ever since the topic had shifted to mister Grady, she had appeared much more solid a presence here already.
He would have gone deeper into that matter hadn't that been the moment Magdala had picked to start on his wrist. A few jerks he couldn't hold back when the woman prodded at it, twisted his hand around and flexed his fingers to survey the damage. Deciding it was nothing that required any specific intervention, she quite crudely grabbed his lower arm, and gave his hand a firm little yank. With a none too comfortable grind the break was evened out neatly.
The duke doubled over a little though, holding back what would have surely been a loud noise of some kind with difficulty. His face lost a shade of colour almost instantly, but overall, he wasn't too worse for wear after that.
Like, ow.
Oh well, he'd handled worse over the years... Catching his breath a little, he turned his attention back to Ella.
"I have contacted you... in the past, as you might recall. I'll have you know my offer still stands..." He eyed her calmly, breathing in and out deeply to siphon off the nagging pain while Magdala splinted his wrist.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:56 am
Ellandra squeaked and blushed, dropping her gaze ddown to her toes almost instantly when Banning asked that question. "W-well... yes, I do..." she admitted, hating that fact about her but knowing that it was the truth and unwilling to lie - especially when it would be such an obvious lie at that. She jumped and flinched away from the setting of Banning's arm - that must have HURT, oh, how . . . . well, painful.
Ouch.
She blinked a little, trying to thnk of what he meant.
Oh, that, right.
She didn't see any more clearly today why she would be selected for something of this manner, but after having met two Essentic owners -- one being her beloved Faolan, after all - she realized that there was either some very unusual selection going here, or it was just an attempt to revitalize an extinct race, and she just happened to be on the list of people for some reason.
As comprehension grew in her expression, so did a certain kind of humor that had only started to develop after she'd met Faolan.
"I h-hope you're referring to your offer specficially, and not - not Misha's little plot," she said, raising a hand to her mouth to hide the rising threat of laughter.
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 11:52 am
Oho.
"Ah, I did mean the specific one. Misha will not try to pull a stunt like that again, I assure you." ... wipe that smirk off your face, you're looking like you have a strange sense of humour as well, sir.
"You are alway welcome to contact us at Life Essentials, miss Sanders. Also, I doubt we are entirely through with you as things are now. You are interesting to us for... reasons, and we would love to alow you to become more involved. If you aren't too wary of our business by now, that is." Aah yes, there he had it again, that polite, slightly calculating smile. Now that he was through the worst, he had his focus back, even if the sharp edges of his gaze were dulled mercifully.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 1:16 pm
Ellandra smiled a little and nodded politely before taking another sip of her tea. It was excellent tea, but really, she hadn't expected any less in, well, a place of this sort. "Oh, I'm not worried about that," she said softly, her eyes sparkling. "Though. . . I don't think Faolan w-would be too pleased were Misha to try a-anything like that again," she added, chewing her lip a bit at the thought of how her fortune-teller would react should Misha try and set her up.
Still. . . Banning was really offering her an Essentic? One of those dear creatures? Truly? She'd almost believed that first letter to have been a fluke, even up until this moment. Her first reaction, which she didn't give in to for obvious regions, was oddly enough to jump up and down in joy - the illigality of the beings didn't matter to her; especially after meeting Misha, she thought it was a terrible crime to deny anyone a right to existance.
However, she was never the type to leap into anything without thinking, despite steadily gaining more bravery since meeting Faolan, so she waited until her initial reaction had passed, and she could think clearly. Finally, she nodded politely, and said, "What you're offering is. . . truly wonderful, it - it really is. I fully believe that, regardless of the. . . challenges e-entailed within th-that commitment. Before I could c-contact you, though, I th-think it would be better for me to know precisely . . . what I need; it wouldn''t be right to undertake a challenge of this sort without knowing at least that much, I think."
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