June 19, 2017
[3:09 PM] LadyDeme: At the last stop where they could send messages, she'd sent her notebooks home. Most of them, anyway. Many of them were just jumbled notes, or sketches, or poems. There was a painting she still had yet to send home -- she'd wanted to show it to Mateus, first. There were personal belongings. There were messages of love, overflowing with 'see you laters.' There was everything she wanted to be sure reached home if she could not, here, before the final battle. Well. Almost everything, she supposed.
Such a fool... Delphine sighed to herself, not sure if she meant her efforts, concerned now for if she died. Or if she meant going forward, like she was invincible. The waters of the sacred lake lapped up against her ankles, washing up over her feet. Compared to the sea shore, the placid lake was a light brush, the water gone silver in the early morning light. It was slightly nippy in the fall air, her toes digging pathways into the golden sand as they curled.
"Brr." Of course, she hadn't exactly sent away all of her notebooks -- she wanted to document what would happen next, and... And there were things she wanted to say. While she had the chance. She'd brought a quill and quill-knife with her; her inkpot sat beneath a small tree near the surface of the lake as she paced, tring to pin things down to the book in her hands.
I know from my shadow the art:
Hours occupied , whiling in its light,
And still unaware until, with fluttering sight,
it glanced up at once and saw its heart;
Shades would die before they start,
stretched thin and dull with fright.
Even as the sun offered that bright
A
C
D
E
C
D
E
[3:09 PM] LadyDeme: She chuckled to herself. She'd probably cornered herself with the rhyme sceme -- which seemed to rather be her problem, on the whole. But if she got to that final line, the rhyme scheme... Wouldn't really matter. Maybe she'd toss it out, for the poetic reasons occuring to her now. Even as she chuckled, looking out at the lake, she felt a nervous twisting, like today's selection of braids, forming into braids, that hung down her back.
[3:22 PM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo looked out across the lake, taking a deep breath and moving out to the water, a fist clenched. He was back in his tunic--his armor needed to keep its polish, and he did not want to hold himself out anymore, anyway. The knight had not stowed away any personal belongings either--should he die, Artemis would take his things home. He tentatively moves forward, giving her a warm smile and calling out to her from a distance behind. "Delphine... enjoying the water, eh?"
[3:34 PM] LadyDeme: Delphine turned her head, then the rest of her -- the wet ink made it harder to close the book immediately, and so she let it hang open across a free hand. Somewhere, a bookbinder winced, and Delphine considered briefly that pain and shrugged it off on the inside.
"I am indeed. It's got the look of melted silver in the mornings; it's a face for only an hour or so, I suppose."
It was not what she was writing about, but it was a fine topic for another day. She smiled just as warmly in return. The feathered ends of her quill pen snapped back into place after her thumb brushed up against them.
"And you? Out for a walk?"
[3:41 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He nods lightly, bringing his hands forward, enclosing his closed fist with the other. Lorenzo shuffles slightly, focusing his gaze to her eyes. No stopping now... and besides, we might just die anyway. "I... was, actually, yes. And it appears I've reached my destination. I should thank you again, Delphine--in spite of the sky darkening with evil, my spirits have all but left me."
[4:27 PM] LadyDeme: Delphine's heart settles in that moment, at least -- if only, for a moment. She realized only then that her heart had, as in her half-baked poem, begun beating more quickly. Hearing him sound, by comparison, untroubled from a soldier's ills, from the reminders of his comrades and from the grief of having seen the rawest face of war.
"That's wonderful. You've got a lot of yourself to thank, as well -- your own heart, and courage. Though I'll accept the thanks all the same. My offers, naturally, still stand, in case you'd prefer a more light sleepover."
She teased him, grinning, but her face eventually grew a bit more quiet in its smile, her eyes darting quietly back towards the lake -- towards what felt like a storm on the horizon. The darkness had felt like a noose, then.
"...And I wanted to thank you, too. For that last battle. I was so glad for your help, and the results were... About as splendid as one might have hoped, from the situation. The world's a little better place -- to spite the darkening sky, as you've put it."(edited)
[4:40 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He nods, grinning as he was reminded of the daring rescue of both Noelle and the entire room of villagers all done on his own. "Yes, I... thank you for planning that, as well. You helped me save many that day. We were a great team, then. In fact..." He opens his hands, showing the two Lovers Rings.
"I thought we might... keep that going, after this. Should we not perish in a desperate battle with a mad god, that is."
[5:44 PM] LadyDeme: Delphine froze for a second or two, whatever she was about to say wiped out of her mouth. She had understood. He had understood. Lacking a sense of what to do with her, her throat bubbled up laughter -- a breathless laugh, first, but then in her heart, she admitted: she was such a foolish, foolish girl, and it became bright and warm. However uncertain she had felt in that moment on the wall (had she just been insecure?), it became whole, and clear as lakewater. She almost doubled over with it, putting her hands on his hands -- on those rings -- to steady herself.
She shook what might have been a little mist in her eyes -- when they'd sprung up, she didn't know. She'd been shocked and happy, and all her breath had gone spindly.
And she stopped laughing. And she kept smiling.
And she did not let go of his hands.
"Yes, yes, I'd love that. I think... I think somewhere along the line, I'd loved you all along. So I'd love to be a team with you."(edited)
[5:51 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He raises an eyebrow, smile growing, giving a nervous laugh along with hers. Her words are offputting--he had lost track, but he was not sure if he had loved her always... if anything, he had thought it would need a process, a development, courting. He closes his hand on one of her gently, face a light red with excitement. For all his preparation--in general, and for this--he's thrown off guard utterly.
"You... you would? Delphine, I... for however long this world will last, I am sure I will be the happiest man in it."
[7:44 PM] LadyDeme: "I would -- I tried to be straightforward about that this time!" she said, gaining a bit more playfullness; she was a hummingbird in flight in that moment. Her blood felt like it bubbled, and the was moving under her. Her book, with its half-written love poem, had fallen by her feet, just an inch from the water's edge.
"Though I have to admit, invoking a time paradox for the rest is, well, not the most smooth," she laughed again, aware that at least one thing she'd said there had been warped. It was what she'd been trying to pin down before, but she supposed she'd have plenty of time for that.
"If it lasts only one battle, and one space before the battle, more... I will be happy from now until the end of the world. But I think I'm a greedy person, so I'm not going to be satisfied with just that. Happiness is a flower that grows if nurtured through time -- something of that nature."
She said it, somewhere between a joke and sincere, just basking in the warmth of his hand, a little sun between the two of them, tilting her head towards it. The rings were warming up under their combined grasps, for that little moment.
"You know, if you hadn't said something, I was planning of writing you a little poem, hiding it somewhere you'd find it... And then I was going to grab you and kiss you, and tell you to come home with me, when you had the chance."(edited)
[7:56 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He took a moment to switch the rings from his right hand to his left, clasping her hand with his open one completely. He reddens slightly as she describes her plan
"Ah... my goodness, that's much more direct than my approach. I almost wish it were so that it happened--ah, but it doesn't matter, it's happened..." He sighs playfully, giving her hand a squeeze.
"And I suppose I shall satisfy all your greedy tendecies, if I must. But I do not believe our happiness is a mere flower--if I can be poetic, which I did not wish to be when I first arrived, I think ours might last as long as an oak, and stable as stone."
[4:51 PM] LadyDeme: "I got anxious pussyfooting around," Delphine admitted, grinning as he squeezed her hand. She would enjoy that red face as long as she could. "But this is quite direct, in its own right. And surprisingly forward... But we could still meet our plans in the middle."
The poem still was unwritten, but the kiss was still rather on the table, delivered with something like a chuckle. And then, slower, more softly.
"That sounds like a fine set of things for happiness to be."
[5:13 PM] MCVII - The Whale: "I... you are right, this is forward, I had something planned..." 'Something' was a bit of a speech that he had planned--present the rings, tell her of some of his feelings. It wasn't even a question of being together, just a promise of courtship in the future, that might blossom. Her proclamation threw him off--but perhaps it was better this way, to talk of themselves and a future without practiced acts, as he had done with the army.
"But this feels much nicer. Not just because it's impromptu, so to speak, but... it is all so much clearer, what would lie in store for... us."
He pauses, a small bout of hesitation, then takes a breath.
"You spoke of meeting in the middle..." Lorenzo leans his head forward, a distance more or less halfway between their faces being closed.
"There, I've done my part, now you."
[5:44 PM] LadyDeme: "Yes, I think so." In some ways, this had more future to it than her plan, which might have laid herself bare, but... Beyond only that he survived, and game to Amarana one day, had asked little expectation of him. Perhaps she'd meant it to offer him an out.
"Yes, I think so. I doubt there will be a lot of time, right away, for...Much of anything. And I think a chance to ease into things will do well. But where we're starting -- where we might want to be -- I'm glad to know. I'm not afraid of what's next."
And so she leaned forward. When she shut her eyes, she kept the image of him there in her heart; she would for a long time. Delphine's lips briefly formed a smile again, just faintly, as she drew in a breath -- her breath trembled in her lungs with excitement. She could smell the faint smell of polish on him, and the evergreen scent of the lake's edge.
And she kissed him.
Her lips lapped at his like the water's edge at their feet -- at first, just a brief touch, and then, more insistantly, until she was wading in the kiss. She entwined her fingers with his, digging deeper as her mouth did, aware of the folds of his lips (surprisingly soft) and the callouses of his hands (expectedly firm) and time seemed to melt into the grip of her mouth on his mouth, her hands on his hand. Her face radiated heat against the chill air -- or perhaps that was his, and more than just the time had ceased to matter.
[5:53 PM] MCVII - The Whale: ========and they all lived happily ever after. If they didnt die.==========
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