Welcome to Gaia! ::

”So painting is your hobby then huh? I remember my mom giving me finger paints as a kid… though after I painted a huge mess on the walls my mom never did get them for me again. I guess my artistic talents fell short of her expectations...” Orpheus chuckled a little, remembering what had happened back then, holy crap his mom was some pissed at him when she came in and found the paint smeared all over the walls. Orpheus rocked forwards a bit, placing his hands on his ankles and locking his elbows at the joints, trying to get a little more physically comfortable while still trying to hold Nicolette’s attention. ”Man, that must have spooked you, finding yourself here and not being totally sure where ‘here’ is… I probably would have bawled like a baby if that happened.” Orpheus grinned, he wasn’t afraid of making himself the fool if it meant cheering someone up. ”Are there other places like this at the end of the goat trails? Or… is this the only real good one?” Orpheus leaned back on his hands, putting his weight on his arms and getting more comfortable. By the sounds of it, they might be there a while, and it was probably best to get comfy while he could. ”By the way… what element is it that you have? I saw you use it earlier but… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before, to be honest.”
Orpheus would offer a big, toothy grin whenever Nicolette looked over at him, maybe being positive around her would do some good. He was starting to find himself actually relaxing round Nicolette, she was more or less just like he was, or maybe just like the Queen would be far more accurate for the situation. He was really glad that she wasn’t like Lumia at all, gods… he was tired of getting his a** chewed on for no other reason that he was a guy.

Annette could see that Ana was far beyond furious at this point, it was all over her body language. She gently stood up while Ana started to once again pace the floor. When Ana turned to storm around once more, she was greeted by Annette who was right behind her. The younger girl gently took the Queens clenched fists and softly, gently forced her fingers in between them so that Ana would unclench her fists. Annette looked at her with those soft eyes of hers.
”What Lumia thinks or does not think of herself is irrelevant right now, my Queen. Lumia was brought up with hatred and intolerance and it festered and grew into what you saw today. I’m not sticking up for her, her actions led to her consequences. But I think that we can all learn something about hatred from this. Lumia was a slave to men by allowing her hatred to dictate and guild her. I understand that you are very upset right now… but you’ve already dealt with it and she is no longer someone who you have to concern yourself with. Okay? Let it go, your majesty, or Lumia will enslave you in your hatred as well.” Annette gave Ana’s hand a gentle squeeze, and offered her one of those smiles that she usually had on her face. It was a kind and caring one, one that you would perhaps see on a mother, or perhaps a grandmother. ”Come and have some tea before it gets cold, those cakes aren’t going to eat themselves either.”
Annette pulled her friend over to the table where the tea and cakes were sitting. She pulled out the chair, waiting for Ana to sit then pushed it in for her before taking her own seat. She poured the hot tea for them and took a small cake for herself. ”I must say, I am impressed with Orpheus you Majesty. He saw what was going on before even I did and took action, he more or less shielded her with his body and used his sound element to knock everyone down for me to capture… then he went after Nicolette without even a second though. I think he will make a good leader of the Valkyries someday, your highness… I’m happy you brought him into the Sisterhood despite the fact he isn’t a sister.” Annette took a sip of her tea. ”This is much better than pacing a whole in the floor, isn’t it? We can’t have you making trenches in you room… it would make things very hard for the maids that clean them.” Annette put her hand over Ana’s giving it a squeeze of reassurance.

Orpheus listened to what Nicolette had to say, no in the usual detached, only listening because you felt obligated to, but genuinely paying attention to what she had to say. Oh come on now… I bet your really good at a lot of things, you just don’t think about them when you do it. Don’t sell yourself so short.” Orpheus propped himself up once again and leaned forwards, holding his ankles. ”I think it’s really cool that you can feel that way painting, seriously, how many people can say that they are in such a zone that they can become one with what they are doing like that? I can’t say that I’ve been able to do anything like that. Do you do portraits or just landscaping stuff? Maybe you can paint me sometime, I’ll strike a heroic, sexy pose and you’ll make money hand over fist with it!” Orpheus flexed his muscles in a way that he was expecting girls to shriek in delight and men to throw money for the privilege to bear witness to his awesome.
Orpheus was rather… quirky… that way. He lowered his arms and brought them behind him again, leaning back and into more of a resting position. ”It sounds like there are a lot of amazing views around here, maybe when I get some breaks every now and then you could show me some of these other places and view. I would go myself but… I’d just get lost.” Orpheus admission came with a bit of an embarrassed tone and a rubbing of the back of his head. When Nicolette showed him the dazzling little stars he created, he smiled, closing his eyes while he did so. ”Anybody can make light into sunshine, M’lady, but it takes a special sort of person to be able to make stars, after all… stars are a beacon of hope to a lot of people during their long, cold nights. I think anyone who can make stars is way better than anyone who can throw sunbeams out their wazoo. So I have to disagree with you, stars are way more impressive.”

Orpheus gave a big toothy grin when Nicolette suggested that she paint his victory over the Armoured Queen. ”Sure! I might as well immortalize the only victory I’ll probably ever have… though was that really my victory? She did flip me around and damn near dislocate my shoulder after that happened…” Orpheus pondered over that for a moment before he was brought back by a bit of a flustered panic from Niccy. ”Huh? Is it really eavesdropping when the Valkyries are here to protect you too? But hey, if you don’t want the Queen to know, then my lips are sealed shut!” Orpheus looked around for a moment before making a final commenting on taking them down the trails. ”That’d be awesome, I’m sure we can arrange something, the Queen sounds like she’s a pretty cool person.”

Orpheus animated the conversation for a while longer, they didn’t seem to talk about anything in particular, though they seemed to be getting a little more comfortable with each other’s company, at least him and Nicolette, it was pretty hard to tell what Lorelei was thinking, though. She seemed to be happy for the most part being silent. After a while Orpheus stood up and stretched. ”Let’s head back, I’m sure your mom is getting worried and its close to noon rations. I think a hot meal would really hit the spot right now, don’t you?” Orpheus offered his hand to Nicolette, though noticed the reluctance, it was also there when she readjusted her cloak earlier too. His face softened. ”You don’t have to hide yourself away you know, to us, you will always be the Princess, no matter what you may look like now, I know that you’re the same person inside, so… you don’t have to be so shy around us, alright? We’ll accept you no matter what.”

Orpheus let Nicolette lead the way, he followed her to the Queen’s personal chambers where he knocked on the door for her. ”Your Majesty, it’s your Valkyrie Orpheus and Lorelei, the Princess is here to see you.”

”How about some more of the Uniform… I’m freezing!” Orpheus suggested, bringing his arms in a cuddle as if to keep warm. Honestly, a chest wrap and an exaggerated loin cloth were doing little to protect against the autumn chill that accumulated in the air.
”Oh!” Annette suddenly clapped, her face in some sort of a realization. ”I need to get the winter uniforms ready for the rest of the girls. Oh, I’ll do that after if it’s alright your majesty?” Annette wanted to make sure that the Queen was alright at least and calmed down enough to be left alone without the worry of her destroying everything in sight. She did note that Nicolette looked rather calmed now, a soft smile appeared on her face as she watched the young princess go up and hug her mother tightly.
Orpheus looked over at Annette then looked back at the Queen, it looked like this problem he was having in the current moment was about to be resolved anyway so… what price should he ask for, he brought his clenched fist to grasp the bottom of his chin in thought, closed his eyes and hummed for a few moments in thought as to what his reward will be. It would be a rather… offensive… thing to turn the Queen down on her offer of a reward, but he really wasn’t the one to ask for material things, what would be something that would benefit him, yet cost the Queen little?
”All right then. For my reward, I want to spare with you again, no holding back this time and no time limit, we’ll make it something of a no-holds-bar duel, that should test the limits of our abilities. It doesn’t have to be today or tomorrow, but when you get the chance and our schedules allow some free time. I’d really like to spare with you again to see how far I’ve come and what I could do better in a fight.”
Yeah, that was good, that was the best thing that he could think of that would allow him to both grow as a warrior for the Queen and make things rather challenging as well. Hopefully the Queen wouldn’t mind some of her precious little time eaten up by Orpheus sometime in the future. He learned quite a bit from their last spare, despite how short it was and that it did feel rather rushed. Orpheus beamed up a toothy smile at the Queen, his hand on his hips as if to say ‘Yep, that’s what I want’.
Annette giggled, she thought that Orpheus was being rather simple, but then again he did seem to come off to her as a bit of a Simple Simon, she would often see the Queen sparing with the Valkyries from time to time, as if to sample test them and see how well they were being instructed. For Orpheus to go out of his way and ask for it was rather… unusual. Usually the girls secretly dreaded such a time, mostly because they felt like they were being tested in such a surprise way, but Annette understood Ana’s reasoning, you can’t always prepare for a battle and such surprised did come.
”I’ll bring your Winter uniform to you by this evening Orpheus, well… either myself of Sorcha, she’s usually the one on top of this sort of thing…” Annette let herself pause there, not wanting to bring up fresh stings and have to calm things down all over again if she could help it.