Completed A Strong Drink

[Zephyrine]

Looking around Thraah's space, Zephyrine could see the limited space she was offered. Even she had scored a sizeable room to call her own, and had nothing to fill it with. Only... Zeph liked having it so empty.

Her eyes took it all in for a moment, awkwardly moving into the dimly lit room and peered at the posters on the wall.

"It is cozy. Did you not ask for another room, Thraah?" She turned around and found the Initiate, her brows furrowed slightly in wonder. Zephyrine was sure there would be rooms, possibly even shared ones.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"No I didn't... Wait YOU CAN ASK FOR ANOTHER ROOM?"
Thraah's jaw hung slack on her face. The idea had never occurred to her that this was a temporary set up.
She sat on the bed and held her head down in her hands feeling utterly foolish.
Of course she could ask for a better room. A window at least.
Instead she just stayed there, for a year and didn't do anything but complain and curse the dark.
"I'm a fucking idiot!"
Thraah's bluster was gone. She made the statement with all the weight of the hundreds of lonely, dark nights behind it.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Comfort was the last thing Zephyrine knew to do, but still, her hand found itself pressing weight upon Thraah's shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"An idiot that also made do with what they were given. It is a testament to you Thraah. Look at this!" Zeph stepped back now, comforting accomplished. "You make my room look like no one has lived in it for years." Which... it truly looked like. It lacked personality, and she was unsure what that would look like if she were to add her personal touch to the four walls.

"In this space... I think you have warmed it so much with you that it is truly the best room here."

Zephyrine spied a small area on the wall by the top end of the bed. Her hand fished inside the pouch of shards and pulled out a nice piece of wrought iron. She pressed it against the wall, her other hand moving to illustrate a window she had seen once from her childhood. Of what she remembered of Vel Zrada.

It was empty, only a frame and that made Zephyrine grimace. Was that offensive? To gift a window with no view?

"Oh... I, um, can unmake it and try again with something pretty. Like a painting... if I even knew how to paint..."


Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah didn't react to the touch. She felt unusually cold but she did look up when the window frame was added.
Typically words of support didn't really move her especially when the topic was her own foolishness. Every mistake brought her attention to the fact that she stood out and she never managed to shake the idea that, for various reasons, this place did not want her.
But the gesture, unfinished as it was, that caught her attention and gave her a moment to sniff up her dribbles and wipe her eyes.
She wasn't crying, Thraah did not cry. ESPECIALLY not in front of people.
"Wait, can... can you do that with anything?"
Her face and eyes were red with sorrow and embarrassment but she tried to act calm despite the slight wavering to her voice.
She had an idea though and her mind went to the small drawer in which she kept the flower pin she had been mysteriously gifted.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine blinked, staring at Thraah and wondered if she had not grasped how little boundaries there was to her magic. It was with a smile and chuckle that she rolled her eyes and nodded. "If I can create weapons, then I can create anything familiar in mind. The more simplistic in my mind it is, the easier for me to reconstruct it from memory. Knives are my specialty, but so are swords. Not so munch as lances yet..."

Her head fell to one side, expressing her curiosity of what Thraah was thinking.


Thraah

 

[Thraah]

An explosion of energy sent Thraah rocketing to the top drawer of her bedside table. In the cramped space of her room the sudden motion was matched by a blast of heat born of excitement that radiated from her body.
"I have... This!"
Digging her hand into the drawer she rapped her knuckles off the tabletop, flensing a layer of skin in her haste but pulled out a small object, a hairpiece in the style of a crushed pink flower made of tin and coloured glass.
She turned to Zeph and opened her hand slowly as if expecting it to disappear from her palm. Part of her did in fact wonder if it was real since it has arrived so mysteriously in her room. She had not worn it outside at all for fear of loosing it.
"Can you fill the window with it?"
Thraah hoped it wasn't asking too much.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine handled the piece gently, feeling the fragile material between thumb and forefinger. She was no artist, but there was a vision forming in her mind. Facing the window frame she had crafted, she pressed and effectively broke the glass, but piece by piece, a new view had come into picture. A mosaic, made from the stained glass and tin, now depicted a tree that blossomed the flowers that had once been a hairpiece.

"What... do you think?" Zeph asked Thraah, turning to look at her.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Growing up poor, Thraah never had much in the way of things that were really her's.
Clothes and toys were given to her younger siblings while everything new was already blemished when she got it.
Even her sword was worn, maybe only had a few more fights left in it.
But this was something else.
The stained glass window now let in rays of pink, yellow and red into the room.
It was unique and given freely and brand new and it was honestly HER'S.
She took it in, the whole spectacle of the thing that now dominated the wall on the far end of the door.
"It's perfect."
Thraah's voice was a delicate whisper. Barely choking back the well of emotions she was holding onto.
"You're wasted on weapons Zeph. You're a fucking artist."
She flung her arms out and clung to Zeph's frame. Gripping her body tight against hers. It was that or start crying, which she never did. Not even once but it had to come out somehow.
She felt warm and soft, like Zeph was being wrapped in heated fleece.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Colour rushed to her cheeks as Thraah embraced her. It was not a common thing for her to put herself in such a situation, but her arms moved to return the gesture. "Oh, Thraah. I honestly am no artist... just..." She grimaced, searching for the right words. Zephyrine tried not to cringe as she finished with, "A recreator."

But her eyes fell onto the stained glass window she made her for friend. It was pretty, just like the hair piece given to her as inspiration. Perhaps she was an artist, in her own way.

Zeph now tried to extract herself from Thraah, who was warmer than she was seconds ago. "Alright, I know you're really happy there, but it is truly nothing for me to gift this to you. I wanted to do something... to give this room some light and colour." Sheepish, she cleared her throat and put on an innocently bare expression. "Not that your room needed colour or light..."

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Malarkey.
The generous light of Zeph's creation bathed them both in light while Thraah provided warmth.
Before she let Zeph wrest herself free from her arms she gave an extra little squeeze.
"Shut up!"
Thraah gestured around to her now much better illuminated room.
"You've been here five minutes and look at what's happened."
She clicked her fingers and every second candle extinguished itself allowing the full effect of the windows coloured glass to be shown.
In the warm light Zeph's hair looked like it was sparking embers. It looked good on her.
*BADUMP!*
Oh fuck.
Thraah's saliva stuck in her throat for a second and she turned towards the door. Heat from her came in waves now that slightly distorted the air.
"Eh, don't think I'm forgetting the dress, you promised."
Thraah could not remember any such promise but she closed over the door to display the burnt and tattered rag that was once the billowing pink dress she had worn to the Dance and all that had come from it welled within her again.
Her eyes stared at it. Into the past and into the anger she felt at being wrenched away from Maseno.
Acceptance was a foreign country then but now it's shores had opened to her and suddenly, in the literal light of Zeph's generosity and presence, the dress didn't seem all that important anymore.
"It's okay, if you can't fix it. Really."
There was a peace in her heart from this knowledge. That she didn't need this dress anymore.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Zeph could not help but laugh, thinking the waves of warmth in the air came from Thraah's happiness seeing the window. Her eyes then fell onto the dress, and despite the damage done to it, it still held that shocking pink colour.

"Oh my." Thraah in pink? It was hard to imagine, but perhaps after she mends it, there will be purpose to wear a dress again. "The singeing... did you do this, Thraah?" She must regret doing such a thing. Zephyrine frowned, not liking that her friend had to go through such turmoil but at least there was something Zephyrine could do to fix it all.

"I just need... could you hold it up for me?" And once Thraah did hold it up high, she took a step back to assess the dress and what could have been. It certainly was a poofy skirt, as she could see from the layers from one side. Pinching the fabric between her fingers, Zeph began to work her magic.

The skirt seemed to grow, healing the burned wounds it suffered and returned to layers of chiffon of different hues of the shocking pink. She did not stop there, adding some leftover glass to the bodice and giving it a look that screamed craftsmanship only nobles could afford. By the time she was done, the dress had been reincarnated into something new.

"If you hate it... I can start again." Her smile turned sheepish.


Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah didn't want to answer the question.
"Yeah, it was me. I got... I got mad, at the Dance aaand this, happened."
She didn't feel like looking up again until Zeph had started and she watched in awe as her mistakes were banished, made new again before her very eyes. When it was done Thraah saw it glistening in the light from Zeph's first gift.
This time there was no waiting, no hesitation.
Thraah locked her arms around Zeph's neck and pulled her in granting her a warm and grateful kiss on the cheek.
It was better than before. Better than she could have thought.
"Wasted, WASTED on weapons!"
In manic glee she gripped Zeph by the sides of her face and bore her own brown eyes into Zeph's, almost nose to nose.
"WHY are you here? You need to LEAVE and become STINKING rich making, whatever you like."
*BADUMP*
Thraah let go.
She had picked up on how Zeph quickly released herself from her grasp before.
"Sorry, heh. It's beautiful. Thank you."
Thraah fixed her hair, tucking it back behind her ear. The dress really was so much prettier now. She wanted an event to wear it to now.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Never had Zephyrine feel something so simple as a kiss to her cheek. Was it the strangeness of one's face so close to her own, or perhaps the casualty of such affection? Nonetheless, Zeph's cheeks grew crimson and she cleared her throat, not wanting to bring attention to her awkwardness.

Hearing Thraah say she was wasted here at the Academy had the younger Initiate widen her eyes and stammer. "I... I don't think it would be that easy to leave." She answered, but the other's excitement was electrifying and exuberant. Her words went unheard and perhaps that was some relief to the scarlet haired Initiate.

"You know, I have never worn a dress..." The only reason she had not attended the dance so many Initiates above her went to. She had been hiding in her room and watched as Initiates finely dressed left and returned hours later. "Probably a good thing, I think I would be an awful dance partner."


Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah was having deja vu so she did a double take on Zeph and played her words over in her head.
"You, can't, you mean you've never worn a dress, not ever aaand you think you're a bad dancer?"
Thraah was under the impression that dancing was entirely subjective but if she tried to say those words she would have given up on it and said something else.
Zeph looked shrunken now. Weirdly diminished as if all worldliness had been stripped away and Thraah felt like she was looking at a turtle without its shell or perhaps one that didn't come out of it a lot.
"Okay, now I get to fix something for you."
Thraah had no idea how to fix Zeph not having ever worn a dress except to let her try on hers but they were different builds so she doubted it would fit.
"We're... Gonna get you one, a dress. One you didn't have to make. Someone is gonna make YOU a dress... Yeah."
She liked the idea. Maybe she could get Stormy in on it. Stormy had great taste, she saw that at the dance.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

What a sweet thing for someone to suggest, and coming from Thraah, she knew it would happen.

Only, Zephyrine could not stop the pained smile from pulling at her face.

"Really, Thraah. There is no need for a dress right now. It is almost Yuletide, no one would want to be in a dress for months!" She had always hidden herself under all her uniform or armour, tied her hair back but not enough for some strands to come loose. Unkempt, some would say, but Zephyrine was practical. She was brought up this way, to not care for the pretty things that were not important to her education to becoming a formidable opponent.

"I can promise you, once spring is here, we can go look at dresses. How about that?" At which point she will contest it was still much too cold for a dress, and delay the search further.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah examined Zeph.
Her eyes went narrow and her face got close, very close.
Zeph was, in some terms, cute-hot. She had that delicate blend of features that hinted at more beneath the surface. Personally Thraah didn't see the appeal in that but Liv's clearly active love life meant there must be SOMETHING to it.
By her own admission Thraah could not tell a lie from a hole in the ground but she did mark herself on being a pretty good judge of character.
Her lips pursed and she clicked her tongue before speaking.
"Nope. We're getting a dress for you. Everyone should get dolled up at least once and I think you need it."
Her hands went to her hips as she pivoted her shoulders at an angle.
"If you argue, I'll insist on dance lessons as well."
Easily the second most genuine threat Thraah had ever given.
The first being that she would remove Livia Quinnick's ears if she ever told anyone about Midnight Mystery Munchies.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine chuckled, moving to lean against the door as it was bare, and not in danger of any posters or frames being touched. "And I believe you would." It was nice to chat like this, a little more casually than she felt in the pub. She rarely spend time with anyone alone, unless they were Kor or Larkin, but that was usually related to studies and missions. This? This was what friends would do.

"Although the dancing, suppose that is a noble thing where they are no doubt taught from a young age, and we just have to catch up?" Not to discredit Thraah, but Zephyrine couldn't hold any merit to the threat of dance lessons.


Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"Pfft. No THAT kind of dancing."
Thraah remembered the dance under the tree with Maseno. It wasn't all bad but it was restricted in her eyes.
"I mean, like..."
How did her Dad put it?
"You already know how to dance, everyone does. I mean,"
She sat on the edge of the bed one knee up.
"... Nobody teaches crabs how to dance, or birds to sing right? They just know how. So do we."
She was paraphrasing but the gist was the same.
"To learn how to dance all you need to do is learn how to listen to yourself."
She lay the newly formed dress on the bed and smoothed it out with her hand.
"It's a kind of magic I guess."
The thought made her laugh a bit.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Zeph stared at Thraah like she was speaking a language she could not understand. Like magic? Something you learn listening to yourself? Zephyrine was the Recreator, and there was no certainty she could recreate something that would resemble dancing.

"I will, uh, take your word for it." She would rather wait for dance lessons to pop up in that Etiquette class. "There won't be another dance for a good while, Thraah. We have plenty of time to find a dress I may not even wear. Frills, ribbons, and poofy skirts... not exactly my cup of tea." She crossed a leg over the other as she watched her friend lay out her dress neatly. Zephy certainly had an eye for detail.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"No?"
Thraah's face beamed.
"What's your thing then?"
She gripped her shin with her hands and tucked it close to her.
Thraah liked getting to know people and often wondered why some people didn't seem to want to put in the effort. Zeph seemed that way at first but now she was coming to the conclusion that Zeph was just somewhat shy.
Which was a barrier Thraah relished breaking down. The trick was to keep them talking.
"What do you like, clothing-wise, fun-wise, all-wise!"

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

What a good question...

Zephyrine's brows furrowed as she thought, picturing something she knew she would like.

"Well... I like dark colours. Like... a navy colour if I really had to say a favourite." She lifted her head now, a picture forming. "Something more fitted, elegant than extravagant." She had seen a dress being made once, and on the model, it look quiet lovely.

"I actually have this nice emerald woolen coat that was once Proctor Caddel's sister's. I can fit in it now, and it still had that smell of his home when I was much too young to learn at the Academy yet."

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah listened and sat up out of her relaxed pose into a more alert one.
"How do you know Proctor Caddel?"
The question was tinged with suspicion.
In general Thraah didn't particularly like Proctors for various reasons, most of them to do with blatant and unrepentant racism.
She saw them as part of the problem really.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Any form of opening up and talking about herself came to an end when Thraah asked that question. Her tawny eyes darkened before she dropped her gaze, and her jaw set as her teeth grind together.

"Knew." Was all she could say, so softly it would have been difficult to hear.


Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah would never let anyone accuse her of being subtle but she knew pain when she saw it and loss when she heard it.
"It's, ah fuck I'm sorry. It's not my business."
*Me and my big mouth again.*
She wanted to move on but stumbled for an avenue to take the conversation.
"We, can talk about it? If you're okay with it, that is. Only if you're okay, if you're not okay you have to tell me. It's the law!"
She was beginning to ramble.
Rambling was bad, she had to stop.
THraah clapped her mouth closed tight and kept it shut after that. Waiting the endless eons of seconds for Zeph to say something, anything at all.

Zephyrine

 

[Zephyrine]

Something inside her wanted to tell Thraah, but it was such a darkness that resided in Zephyrine that she could not bear to tell her new friend in fear of putting even more of a damper on things. It was easy with Kor, for he had not cared that she witnessed such a thing. It was easy to tell Larkin, because he above all else made sure to look out for her first like an older brother would.

She chewed on her bottom lip, noting the silence had grown awkward.

"He was my guardian when I came to the Academy." And as if to make it known that was all she would impart, Zephyrine straightened up and looked around at the posters.

"You were not jesting when you said you have a love for Anir Ball."

Thraah