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Lucent knocks on Varanim's door, pacing about. Dressed in the usual Kashaen fineries, without any of his Artifacts save the Rosary, carrying five nonsdescript bags!
Varanim "What?" Varanim barks from inside, as the door swings open to show her desk completely buried in opened books, and the everpresent sprawling diagram having gained another six inches up the walls.
Lucent looked up her face - a practice harder to break even when you get taller than people! - and handed her the bags with a sweet smile. "You... are not too busy, are you?"
Varanim "Let's save time by pretending I said yes, and you smiled really big and ignored me." She took the bags with a slightly bemused expression. "What the hell is this about?"
Lucent "Am I really that predictable?" He hands most of the bags, walking in quite uninvited and looking about, "You know, I could let you borrow some of the Kashaen maids. You do not have to live amidst this mess."
Varanim somehow obviously makes an effort to not roll her eyes at his first question. "Wow," she says to the rest. "You mean there are servants around here? It must be, like, a PALACE or something." Then she pokes in the bags.
Lucent The first thing she can see is... a dress. Low cut, made of some silken material, with a midnight-blue embroidery of a flower that appear like Marigold, and wings of a raven. "Well, yes, it IS a palace. So why not let the servants clean your room?"
Varanim "Because they'd make a mess of it. Did you pick the wrong set of bags on the way out the door? These are for Zahara or your mistress, I think."
Lucent "No. They are for you!" He smiles, and the next bag has... two makeup kits, three different perfumes in colorful flasks, and lace and frillies for the hair. It is also all resting in marigold flowers. "I thought you could use some. To help me!"
Varanim carefully sets the bags down on her desk as if she has suddenly discovered they are full of dung, vipers, or even vipers made of dung which might strike at any moment.
Varanim "To help you... play dress-up? Get in touch with your feminine side?"
Lucent "No, no." He waves that away, trying to find a good place to sit down.. and failing. "Say, what do you know of Crow-Devours-Flame?"
Varanim smirks, leaning against her desk and folding her arms. "Abyssal, very sad, probably right now hunting for a darker color than black to match the woe in her soul. Lucent, if you are bringing me flowers, you're transparently about to ask a big favor, or are trying to annoy me. So which is it?"
Varanim "Are you trying to make up with her? I'm assuming you've slept with her."
Lucent makes an undescribable face. "... why would you assume THAT?"
Varanim "Because you seem to have an irrepressible instinct to rub your Essence against everything you can find that makes you feel naughty, PROBABLY because of your huge guilt issues. Speaking of which, there's some fairytale book about you in the library that completely clashes with your angst about your dead loser friends. You might want to coordinate that."
Lucent blanches. "... you read Birds' books. The ones that... did not get updated after the Eclipse."
Lucent sits down over books anyways, palm over his face
Varanim "I'd say I skimmed, but... your reaction is actually WAY more interesting than anything I saw. What is Zee protecting about you?" Her eyes are sharp and speculative, looking more directly AT Lucent than she normally ever does.
Lucent "Birds turned into Phoenix, she ceased updating those books when she did. Before the Eclipse..."
Varanim simply waits in silence for him to finish, watching him with folded arms.
Lucent realises she is looking, the golden pools looking into her eyes. "... and I do NOT feel like rubbing my essence on naughty things! Damn it, I want to help you, I wanted to help Alveua, you..."
Varanim "Exactly. You want to help me--whatever THAT means--because I'm your latest Quen surrogate. How about Alveua; which one of your past failures did SHE remind you of? Was it Quen again, or do you have a whole stable of them?"
Lucent is up, close to Varanim, his eyes raging like a furious sea, threatening to spill out of their sockets. "What do you THINK you know? Larquen was still alive back then! We all were! You are getting this all wrong, damnit! You are making everything like... like..."
Varanim smirks, her eyes hard and brilliant. "Like I've decided everything relevant about you, and your real actions and motivations are completely unable to affect the model of you I've built in my head? Huh, I wonder what THAT feels like." She leans forward, eyes narrowing. "He's dead, you fucked up, it's done. LET IT GO."
Lucent is closer, almost butting heads with her. "Oh? Like you have LET GO? Drinking all the time like your mother to stop from thinking about it? Making your mind cold and controlled because you cannot allow yourself to FEEL? And all you did was because you could not let me know!"
Varanim Before the last words are out of Lucent's mouth, Varanim's left hand whips up to slap him, backhanded, across the face.
Lucent Lucent's face snaps back, his cheek red. "Oh, it is like that? That is VERY mature, youhighandmightybi..." He did not even finish his own sentence before pressing his lips to hers'
Varanim "Self-righteous, moronic--" She kisses back, hard.
Lucent presses her against the nearest wall, and Varanim has much to thank that she dresses haggard, for her clothes rip handily, without Lucent's realising that. He was not thinking much of anything at that point, to be fair.
Varanim doesn't seem to care as clothes tear--both sets--papers scatter, diagrams smudge... there is a bed somewhere, but it goes unlocated.
Lucent And later, much later, the edge of a nightmare coming into a peaceful slumber makes Varanim the first one to wake up, to the feel of a warm body close to her, smiling like a contented feline, her room a broken mess even by HER standards!
Varanim sits bolt upright, a look of horror on her face, and shakes Lucent's shoulder immediately. "We DIDN'T."
Lucent wakes up from a contented, dreamless sleep, seeing Varanim's face, realising he has no clothes on, eyes promptly opening wide. "... what?" He blinks, "... what did you DO?!?"
Lucent He edges away from her, knocking his head below the table, books raining over him
Varanim "What did I do?" She throws her hands up, then snatches up a nearby scroll to cover herself. "I spent the WHOLE DAY working in my room, ALONE, because you were NEVER HERE."
Lucent tries to cover himself with one of the fallen books. "Yes. Yes, you did." He looks around, trying to find the door, wanting to get out of there NOW. "And I was in my room. Training to help Imrama. This never happenned."
Varanim "Leave the books," she hisses at him, locating the nearest large clothing fragment that looks like his and throwing it at him. "This never happened."
Lucent leaves them, hoping they did not get smared, picking the clothes and realising they are 'nim's pants instead. "My pants, my pants..." He gets up, finishing putting the haggard clothing up, then noticing something out the window "... you threw my pants out your GARDEN!"
Varanim "They were in the way!" Varanim snaps, then goes pale. "OUT!"
Lucent runs out, with justh er pants, not bothering to find anything else, looking back to just reassure something, "NOT telling anyone." a question and a statement both at once!
Varanim "Tell what? NOTHING HAPPENED." Varanim shuts the door as hastily as possible without making a loud slamming noise.
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