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 All Too Well

There are no significant content warnings for this thread.
Timestamp
Spring, Era XXVII
Location
Primus Guado, Centripax
Content Warnings
Potentially NSFW
Happy enough,
To leave matters of fashion,
For Melissa to determine when playing dress-up, and Anna for the more everyday wear,
Especially when style? In Clairé’s case tended to have been but a Little Black Dress or the Crimson Tea Dres that Mister Plushy Lord Jorel had provided in a round-about manner,
Really, only knew,
What worked when well, Clairé’s ‘business wear’ being decidedly skimpy,
And the idea of actually harming any garments really was just rude, costly and really didn’t see the point in it,​
Mwah~!
And curling up with Anna,
Far from capable of being able to sit still for long,
With some severe risks of just looking to go for a nap if they ended up in the li-bra-ry all too long - couch was comfy enough, but cuddling up with her wife sounded like a far more pleasant option in the moment,​
“I mean,
I can do the voices for you if you like!”
With a teasing grin, sneaking another quick kiss as she considered the whole,
Side effects of the Black Fog and what it might have done to what’d been Lauryl,
”With any luck,
Centripax and Medonia fared okay,
I mean, I can’t remember if the Fog ended up getting to the Basin but there’s a lot of rivers so… probably had some impact?” Clairé hazarded there, only to nod slightly, “But even then, something’s better than nothing and we’ll have plenty of chances to find out!”​
Her own reading?
Uh, "No corsets, knitting might be harder than I thought,
But the Ballet book was pretty nifty..."​
 
"Thanks for the offer, Love, but I think it's fine." It'd been a nice little trip down nostalgia lane but that's all Anna needed it to be! There was... well, a lot of other books to get through that she did want to actually get some information from. That trebuchet book lay untouched for now...

No corset? For sure. Hard to imagine what sort of sadist had even come up with those. Or why they'd taken off like they had.

Knitting? Hard? "Practice makes perfect! Maybe we can look into buying you something to get started, if we get to the marketplaces today?" Anna offered. "I seem to recall that all you really need to do is understand the basics. From there, it's just practice and figuring out patterns."

But Anna also didn't knit, so maybe she had no idea what she was talking about! And ballet? "Can I have it if you're done with it? Can't hurt to take a look!" Anna, too, was a ballerina after all! Even if not as talented as her darling wife here. "Watcha learn from it? Anything you can show me?"
 
Probably for the best!
Especially when Clairé’s own accent,
Flicked between her native Lauryllian, and that of having uh, ‘collected’,
Attributes of Anna’s own Aslangrad and Melissa’s Enamorian to fashion a discordant mess that really tended to be all over the place at the best of times,
Mostly though,
Enamorian seemed to be winning,
In large part due to a combination of Melissa, and having made their home within Temperance - and so, a part of old Enamoria for so long,​
Clairé?
Avoiding looking at the book that bespoke of an interest in siege warfare,
Trusted Anna unconditionally… just, war begat war…​
“I think I’d like that,
I mean, beginners have to start somewhere,
So be good to at least make those first steps!” Clairé beamed, leaning in to steal another kiss as her cheeks flushed at the idea of well; being able to potentially make something that Melissa and Anna could wear and have and keep all bundled up and warm,
Ballet?
“All yours! Uh, mostly different styles,
Like, there was the pretty one of Mister Moonbeard’s but there,
Looks to have been others before it got banned so… maybe some of the other schools still exist, even if they had to kinda sorta hide…” though, maybe not if people had just been ignoring the law. Sure, Clairé had no problems thumbing her nose to Law, but also, it did make it harder to find fellow dancers…​
”It might be good to learn,
Some of the more… conventional steps, I mean,
I’m sure it’s probably frowned upon performing in a sheer leotard in some places so… yeah!” Sure, exhibitionist, Clairé certainly didn’t mind, nor in being able to appreciate Melissa and Anna joining her thus - but who knew how stick-in-the-mud Medonia might be…​
 
Mwah!

Ballet really might be kind of tricky to practice now that they were outside of Temperance - both as a matter of its legality as well as the fact that, well, they'd learned from Ilph. Brilliant ballerina? For sure, but there was no denying that the style was uniquely Vysstichi. Anna didn't doubt that trying to port it over to Medonia might come along with a host of problems. Falling back onto some of the more conventional forms? At least then it was probably mostly going to be a matter of whether or not people gave a hoot about the whims of an Emperor who was no longer around.

Yoink! Book get! Anna would peruse when she had the time.

"You mean there are options besides body-hugging sheer leotards?" Anna asked, feigning ignorance. "But, that's right, you did get to see a bit of that dwarf's style, right? It matched up a bit more with this conventional style? How big of a difference is there, really?"

When Ilph's was all Anna really knew, it was hard for her to imagine what 'normal' ballet was like. Reading it was one thing, actually seeing it another entirely! It seemed like 'when she had the time' might just turn into 'now', as Anna began to flip through the book curiously.
 
“Not good options!”
As Clairé? Very much an advocate for,
How it showed off Melissa and Anna (and herself!),
When moving through the intricate forms,
”But yes, Mister Moonbeard’s method,
I think, well, from what I can tell anyway, his style more matches the norm,
Rather than Miss Ilph’s…” which, given one was a Vysstichi style and one was a Dwarf? Of the two, it made sense when one was a long-term ally of the Imperium and the other a steadfast enemy both socially and religiously,​
Which was, t’was fine!
“Hopefully, that wasn’t a bridge burned,
When having to choose between Ilph and Moonbeard,
It might be worthwhile at least seeing if can’t one day have some lessons again with, or a counterpart so at least have the option for a more uh… acceptable… style…”​
Not that Clairé,
Was inclined to think so privately,
When if she was going to engage in a ‘banned’ dance style,
Then she was going to at least pick the one that had potential cause and warranted such treatment,
 
"I'd hope not, considering it was such a little thing, but I suppose people have gotten mad over lesser slights," Anna offered with a shrug. People were going to be silly sometimes and there wasn't really much you could do about that sort of thing, right? How people responded to something was completely out of your control, no matter how reasonable you tried to be to stave off that sort of thing. Between Ilph and Moonbeard, well, you kind of had to go with one or another. Hopefully the dwarf was the sort of person who could accept something like that, but weren't dwarves notoriously prideful and the sort to hold grudges?

But also, entirely possible that Moonbeard wasn't that sort of person, either! Anna didn't want to say that a dwarf who did ballet was more likely to be the exception, but...

"Do you remember where Moonbeard was from? Just wondering if it'd really be that simple getting him to relocate to Medonia." Who'd be the point of contact for something like that? But Clairé did have a fair point, might just be easier to see if the dwarf knew somebody more local who'd be able to help out.

And, of course, fingers crossed Ilph wasn't the sort to hold grudges about the fact that they might be looking for something new and different from her style.
 
“People be weird.”
Looking all kinds of sageous, for all,
That Clairé was definitely not a fountain of wisdom about almost anything and everything that bore a semblance to conventional society,
So long as kept in mind,
That so many people had their knickers in a twist,
And possibly wouldn’t appreciate Clairé’s Ballet (so tasteless!), well, it was what it was. One couldn’t expect everything to do everything how she so wished it - even if it would have done wonders for the overall happiness of the whole world at large! Sooner people complied with Her Mister Jorel’s Will, the better life would be!​
Until then?
T’was work to be done!​
That Moonbeard,
Might also bear a grudge?
Possible! But either way, it was a potential avenue to explore!
Not so much buyer’s regret with Ilph (never!) so much as expanding one’s horizons just that little bit further when developing her own style of Ballet,
”Umm… not off the top of my head,
I remember Cerys was the one that found Ilph and Moonbeard…”
and well, could remember her lessons with the Dwarf - but Clairé did so tend to avoid personal questions - treating it with a token amount of leave well enough alone, and hopefully people would show her the same courtesy,​
”Can always ask,
I mean what’s the worst that happens - he says no?”
And surely Ilph had more than enough awareness to know she’d been and was still Clairé’s #1 choice!​
 
People be weird!

Could always ask, for sure. What was the worst thing that could happen? Well, offending the dwarf somehow and having an entire clan declare a grudge against your bloodline... or, of course, he could just say no. That might be the reasonable expectation of things. But as had already been established - people be weird!

"Perhaps we can send Cerys a letter while we're here, then?" Anna suggested. "Have her start making those inquiries so that by the time we're in Medonia, we could already potentially have it sorted. Or, if we're still too far out for that, maybe wait until we're in Ziel Aerca."

Or if getting a head start didn't really matter all that much, could just wait until they were settled in Medonia before thinking about the ballet side of things.

"It's entirely possible that we ask for Ilph's help in Medonia and her style of ballet takes off anyway," Anna couldn't help but ponder. "Or is that just really wishful thinking?" Considering it was the style she'd learned and knew, Anna couldn't help but think that it was the best one!

"How does a dwarf go about learning ballet, anyway...?" That surely felt like a story interesting enough to make it into a book.
 
All would work out!
And even if the Clan of Moonbeard,
Took umbrage, well, at least Clairé would know their general views upon the decisions that had been made regarding Ballet. Which was, t’was fine - ever having a live and let live approach so long as Her Loves and the Dollhouse wasn’t threatened,
”Won’t hurt!”
For all that it felt a little weird,
That they hadn’t even really gone a month since leaving Temperance,
And still kept referring back to those within their old Home as if little had truly Changed,​
Old habits died hard!​
Ziel Aerca,
Primus Gaudo,
Or wait until Medonia proper?
Uncertain! That one though brought a thoughtful moue from Clairé,
Really though, remaining perturbed about the whole, New Home but didn’t really have anywhere actually selected. That it remained all hypothetical to the point where Clairé was left wondering if they should have spent the month prior instead settling into Medonia before the Big Trip,
That Clairé already had asked,
If Ilph would care to relocate to Medonia?
Came with a bit of an empty, nigh hopeless look though,
Before leaning in to peck Anna on the cheek with a token,​
“I asked,
But… she’s spent so long getting set up,
Within Temperance, that moving especially to somewhere like Medonia was a pretty Big Deal, Love…” and didn’t blame given even if the Capital of former Enamoria had been Xet-Bugged - it was still one of the four ‘Light Elfin’ places within the Imperium. Being a Vysstichi there was just asking for problems…and with a limit to the protection that Ilph garnered via Clairé…​
Wishful thinking?
Perhaps, but Clairé too,
Was reluctant of throwing away what they’d built within Temperance,
That for all the Dollhouse demanded more souls within? Neither was Clairé all that keen upon abandoning what they’d had so much as treating it as expansion,
”Uh… not sure,
But he was really good,
Can always ask if he’s keen on teaching us a bit more of his method!” Positive thinking!​
 
Limbo! Truly in a bit of a strange state at the moment, vacationing in between departing their old home and arriving at their new home. It did rather drive home the point that they were just a bit transient, that everything was tentative. Still, Anna was fully confident that it would all work out, one way or another. That if nothing else, she considered the (distant) support of Temperance to remain a constant, and that there was always a place for them to return to at least. So no need to worry!

Ilph, probably going to stay in Temperance? "Well, I can't fault the thinking there," Anna nodded, stroking her chin. "As long as things go well for her, I think that's the important thing to focus on."

A shame she couldn't join them, but best of luck to her regardless! Plus, yeah, supposed there were probably potential difficulties with the relocation. Temperance had once been Malice and with Clairé as a patron, Ilph was even further insulated from any nonsense. Medonia was pretty much the exact opposite in that regard - not familiar or friendly with Vysstichi, and the three of them not really having much influence to lean on to start with.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out! Entirely possible that there's other ballerinas, even, somewhere out there, willing to work with us." New city! New opportunities! Maybe there was already a fledgling ballet scene present?

All the more reason to study up, right? Wouldn't want to show up and not know what the 'standard' style was, like they were from the backwater or something.
 
Worst came to worst?
They had each other and all would be well!
Believed that much, even if so much otherwise about their Future was a little scary,
”Medonia and Temperance,
Aren’t all that far apart, so, isn’t like we can’t visit,
I just feel bad that finally got back into the swing with Ballet only for us to then move on too, y’know?” with more than a hint of guilt there, but also one amongst many that Clairé hoped might join them in Medonia. Losing Miss Applebloom’s cooking or Evylin’s friendship really wasn’t the ideal,​
”It’ll be Kay,
If no other Ballerina’s, well, there’s always us,”
And Melissa had proposed well, going into teaching rather than Clairé’s current profession,
Which really did have a whole lot of appeal with the more distance she put between herself and Temperance…​
Just, from what she’d been able to tell,
Ilph really hadn’t been making all that much shinies,
Wanting to contribute to the household finances, but also, had finally realised how much strain things appeared to be putting on Meli - was slow, but got there in the end!
”I’m confident, we’ll find our way!”
Would!​
 
"Just how life goes sometimes, the opportunity was realized and seized. Same way Ilph couldn't come with us because of the opportunity she had there, we moved on to Medonia because of the opportunity we saw there." Wasn't as if they couldn't feel guilt about it, of course - arguably it was because they were good people and Ilph was a good friend! - but they couldn't let it loom over them too much!

Would find their way! Confident, with the three of them!

"Shall we go and see if maybe Melissa wants to take a look at this book too?" Anna offered. "The three of us could study together!"

They were all ballerinas, after all!
 
Certainly,
Clairé didn’t begrudge Ilph,
Having made a life for herself within Temperance; t’was after all,
Entirely the point of the Dollhouse to make the world Better and closer to His image! Just, Clairé? All kinds of selfish too, knowing Temperance and Medonia were close. Just, not really same-day close… couldn’t just wander, wouldn’t be able to just wander from the Castle into the town to say Hi-Hi,
Guilty,
But also, just that much gladdened,
That people that the three of them liked had found something within Temperance,
Even if they were moving on? Wanted the very best still for each and every soul within the Dollhouse - and that meant keeping an eye on the Aeternian town too lest someone else decide to move in and mess with what was Theirs,​
Maarkan Holdings!
Temperance belonged to Melissa, Anna and herself and that was, t’was that!​
Meli?
Sure! As Clairé rose to her knees,
Only to offer her hands to help Anna up!
“Definitely! Meli might have ideas on what style would best fit Medonia!”
 
Hand offered? Hand taken!

Over to where Melissa was studiously studying! The picturesque noble scholar! Definitely the sort who could just hole herself up in a room full of books and only need to pause for the sake of making sure she didn't starve to death - or otherwise tend to basic needs. If it weren't for the fact that the library had a no food/drinks policy when tending to the books (presumably to make sure somebody careless wouldn't wind up damaging the texts), Melissa probably would have had a nice cup of tea beside her as she read.

All smiles, though, as Anna and Clairé came over.

"How's the reading been going?" she beamed.
 
Up! Hup!
Ooh! Melissa!
And Clairé, left standing there,
In quiet awe, the token little reminder that Melissa really had come from a completely different background to herself. Nobility was all well and good - it just required being born to the right people after all - but that Meli was obviously well-educated SMRT?
The wistful, adoring smile,
Proud! Endlessly so!​
More over though,
The quiet wonderings that,
Perhaps they hadn’t accommodated for Melissa’s own pursuits anywhere near enough in Temperance,​
Medonia, well and truely,
Felt like the right call indeed,
Bringing their Wife that much closer to the life,
That had been stolen from her with the Xet Alliances’ assault,
”Slow! But,
There’s some Interesting things in here,
I didn’t really consider that well, they’d even have books on Ballet for instance.” Clairé went on, with said book in hand and offering it to Melissa too for inspection,​
 
And to think, Melissa had come from one of the Maarkan cadet branches! Had the main branch really been that much better? (Well, they were dead, so probably not.) Pedigree truly was such a curious thing in the realm of nobility. Sometimes it worked out exactly as expected, where a prestigious bloodline produced a prodigious scion - and sometimes it was exactly the opposite. Sometimes you had a lesser heir of greater sires.

It was a little hard to argue against Melissa being among the more impressive, considering the fact that she wasn't dust and ash, which put her ahead of quite an amount of the competition. Having earned herself a noble title, even if it was subordinate to the Maeve? Well, better than what anybody else had accomplished, as far as anybody was aware! Were there any other Maarkan survivors out there? Certainly hadn't made any waves in the Enamorian circle of nobility as of late! Either content to just keep to themselves after the fall of Medonia, or simply having failed to make anything out of the opportunity afforded them.

"Aaaah. But I suppose I'm not too surprised. Centripax seems to have a streak of independence to it," Melissa commented, taking the offered book. Or at least, the province had always felt like it was in an interesting enough position of power to try and pull it off. Maybe that was just a bias on Melissa's part - with Lauryl and Arakmat gone, it could be so easy to forget the influence they might have had on the central province. At the center of it all, but another way to think about it was that they were hemmed in from all sides by adversaries.

"At the end of the day, I think it's admirable that they preserved the knowledge," Melissa smiled. "I'd like to say that my opinion of this place has markedly improved. Anything in here that you'd like to try, once we're done here?"
 
So cute!
All fancy and everything!
Beaming proudly, and for all that Clairé,
For the life of her couldn’t figure out what she’d done to deserve Melissa and Anna in her life? Definitely not asking too many questions! Mister Jorel provided! Beyond that, so didn’t need to know, and certainly wasn’t letting either of Her Lover’s go!
Oblivious to the intricacies of Maarkan,
Beyond that Melissa had an older sister, and had had another sister before well, Act of Were Uvak had been called upon to solve that dilemma,​
Content that,
When they arrived in Medonia?
Would be doing her best to back Melissa’s aspirations - and sure, would have been nice to aim high, but all in all? Clairé wasn’t completely delusional (just, mostly) and figured the goal was ensuring that they held the Barony rather than dealing with the half dozen Duchies nonsense of Enamoria,​
“Really?”
Hadn’t known!
“I figured ‘cause it was in the middle,
It’d have been forced to do what everyone around them does or else things might get all bad…” like, ganging up on Centripax, surrounded from all sides! Sure, the West was probably Friendly, and North… well…Deadbeat, but also Clairé was pretty certain that no love was lost with Maeve after what had transpired. Dark Elves and the Church to the East and well… positioning wasn’t great, was it?
”Mmm, but not sure,
Thought we might ask Cerys though,
If can get back in contact with Mister Moonbeard - his style of Ballet might be better for Medonia?
Be good to finesse a little…?”​
 
"It really just depends on the strength of the person in that position," Melissa idly commented, flipping through the pages of the ballet book. "If you're in the center and you're weak, then it's just a gangbang, yes. But if you're in the center and you're strong, then it's more like they're being carried in a palanquin."

Being lifted up by others as opposed to being in the middle of a clusterfuck. Granted, it wasn't as if the Countess believed that Centripax was necessarily in a good position. Just that, given the current state of things, it seemed like Centripax was trending more towards a strong and independent state as opposed to being the punching bag of its neighbors. Even before the war with the Xet, had Centripax really been in that sort of situation? Melissa couldn't say, she hadn't paid too much attention to anything outside Enamoria before meeting Clairé. Admittedly, the 'current' Centripax simply colored her perception of the province as a whole.

Dwarves, a powerful Duchess, and an alliance with Arium. Of course Centripax was a strong, independent province who don't need no Crown.

"Like if you and I sandwich Anna, that doesn't necessarily mean we're in control, right?" she teased, Anna smiling and flashing two 'V's in response. Sometimes they were ganging up on Anna, sometimes Anna was handling the both of them.

Moonbeard?

"Sure! No harm in reaching out, right?" Melissa shrugged. "It's never bad to have too many options. But maybe it'd make sense to do that once we've gotten to Medonia and taken a moment to take in the scene? After all, there's no saying that people will quite like Ilph's way of doing things."

Leave it to the noblewoman to assume the degeneracy of others.
 
As analogies went,
Clairé had to concede that at least Melissa,
Knew how to put things in context, even if it probably,
Wasn’t the kind of example that Miss Tiyribi likely cared to have said about her Province. Which given just how many wars that Centripax had been subjected to that Clairé knew of? Err…. yeah… Province had been fucked for sure,
Oh well!
More cause for them to not,
Hang around Centripax for too long!
Who knew when the next disaster would unfold, and far better that they were somewhere else when the inevitable occurred,​
”I mean…
We can put that to the test later…”
Had handcuffs still! Might need the edge, but well, even if it was cheating?
The end results were always worthwhile,​
Though of course,
Running the risks that,
If they failed to cuff Anna… well, odds were pretty high,
That they’d end up in her hands as an additional resource… umm…
The fond peck on Anna’s cheek,
Definitely not getting ideas, honest!​
As for Mister Moonbeard?
“So leave it till later? I mean, there’s no rush really,
And I do kind of want to avoid continually pestering Cerys while we’re out and about…”
Could, would wait!​
 
"No rush!" Melissa agreed with a nod. Better, in her opinion, to be more sure what the state of things in Medonia was rather than assume away. And if it did wind up being the case that they needed Moonbeard, were they really in all that much of a rush to get him on site? There didn't really seem to be much downside to not utilizing that particular connection if they didn't have to, you know?

"Shall we take a bit of a break?" the noblewoman suggested next, considering the both of them had come over. "We more or less have this room reserved. So, we could go for a walk, refresh ourselves, come back?"

Figure out lunch along the way, perhaps?
 
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