droppingin | ╠ NEON REQUIEM ╣╠ I N B O X ╣

When Ada returns home to her apartment next, there is a package with a note waiting for her just a few feet inside the door. Nothing has been disturbed within the apartment, Mara simply using a portal to get past the locked door to drop-off the package and then exit. The package is plainly wrapped in royal purple paper, the note in a similarly-colored envelope.

I hope you will forgive me for the slight intrusion. I wanted to make certain that no one took what is meant for you.

With many in the spirit of gift-giving recently, I decided to indulge in it as well. A little indulgence is a good thing I think you would agree.

Your presence has been a bright spot in these past few curiously chaotic months. A gift of its own, and I thank you for that.

- Mara

Within the package are two items: a pendant necklace carefully tucked in a small cloth jewelry bag, and a dagger with matching sheath in a simple box.

Hello, Ada. Time has escaped me since the ball, but I would like to thank you for being so kind to me back then. I am embarrassed that you saw me in such a state at all, but I am fortunate to have had your calm and steady hand to guide me back to my senses.

Would you like to get a drink with me tonight? My treat.

[ Ada reads the message, and then again. It clicks a moment later. ]

I'd be delighted.

Where did you have in mind?

That depends. Do you like to dance?

I've been known to. Unless you mean line dancing, I don't have the boots for it.

I am afraid I am unfamiliar with line dancing. Dancing simply for fun is a relatively new endeavor for me.

I'm tempted to introduce you. Might be an experience worth having another time, as long as you like country music.

So let's dance for fun. It's better that way.

[ ask her about Regency dances someday (please don't.) ]

Then perhaps we have our fun tonight and later you can show me what kind of boots are necessary for line dancing. How does that sound?

A drink, a dance, and another time, some shopping?

Sold.

Wonderful. Shall we meet there? I can find the address of the place I have in mind and send it to you.

Sounds perfect. I'll see you then, Jill.

[ It's shortly before the agreed upon time that Ada arrives, dressed in a color that, while not unheard of for her, is not exactly her signature. But it was free from the Solstice Ball and fit like a glove, so why not?

She's keeping an eye out for Jill, of course, and waits until either the other woman arrives or she spots her to make her way in. ]

So, come here often? [ It's both genuine question and greeting. ]

{ ooc: sorry for delay!! and please feel free to swap to prose if you prefer, I'm easy ♥ }

[Jill's easy to spot, seemingly always in some array of blue and white. When Ada greets her, Jill smiles. She's always so beautiful in every way. She's pretty sure she could show up wearing a sack and still look like a painting of some sort.]

You made it! I'm glad.

[... she can't remember the last time she spent time with a woman. Mid, she imagines, back home. It's been so long.]

Thank you for joining me tonight. Really.

[ Everyone has a signature color, as far as Ada is concerned, anyway, it's just a fact, and somehow comforting despite not being something she's bothered to analyze.

It feels natural to smile back, though she'll never get used to the easy, open way so many seem to do so. ]

Of course, I wasn't going to turn down a free drink.

[ Her tone is teasing, and she means to be clearly joking, but just in case-- ]

You surprised me. I don't get invited out much. [ Believe it or not, it's the truth. ]

I find that hard to believe.

[Ada is one of the most beautiful women she's ever seen. She suspects she's just being polite--she must be invited out so often she declines most.]

What would you like to drink? A free drink may turn into two, if that's truly the case.

[She's kidding. Maybe. Whatever, it's Clive's money, let's spend it.]

[ Her smile is warm, but she doesn't elaborate on her statement. It's nice to be flattered sincerely. ]

I'm thinking something fruity tonight. How about a cosmo?

[ it's a brighter grin for just a moment before she continues: ]

And maybe some dancing before that second drink.

[Early in the month, before the water is tainted, before she moves out, when things are still tense and too quiet but she yet sleeps at his place, Ada will wake to a surprise on bedside table. A single, deep blue orchid lies across a glossy, matching box of assorted chocolate truffles. Tucked under the flower is is a piece of cardstock long enough to be a bookmark on which V has written a poem by John Keats.]

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair lover’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.

[It's handwritten in plain but exacting calligraphy. On closer inspection, however, the 'r' in lover doesn't quite match, squeezed in afterward.]

[ It says a lot of things about her that Ada manages to sleep in, consistently, in a bed not her own, in someone else's home, even if it's temporarily just a little bit hers... Says a lot of things about whose bed it is, and whose home, too.

But none of those things are spoken aloud. They're written in poetry, occasionally passed in gifts, more often in smaller, greedy touches, in moments so quiet she barely breathes.

Her steps are near silent as she slides out of bed, slides the poem carefully between the box and the flower as if undisturbed at all, as if she didn't read it four times over, each more slowly than the last, and, still clad in nothing but an over-large tee-shirt and little else, roams out in search of her quarry.

Whatever may be occupying him, even if he should notice her approach, she wraps her arms around him from behind and lays her head against his back. Her silence feels revealing, but she doesn't trust herself to speak.

It could be just another ~~afternoon~~ morning, if she believes it hard enough. ]

[V, having slipped from their -- his? -- bed only to exchange it for a perch on an antique love seat with claw feet and a stuffy, floral print upholstery, lets his morning paper droop into his lap, head turning slightly in Ada's direction as her arms wrap him up close.

Her warmth is welcome, comfortable and a little too arresting, and he reaches up to lay his palm across the back of hers in wordless appreciation for the gesture, appreciation for the familiarity of her weight against his back. Without meaning to, he breathes in her nearness and exhales his cares.]

I'm glad you liked it, [is his bare whisper, his palm scuffing across the back of her hand twice before long fingers curl inward to clasp her hand against his chest, wheedle his thumb in to stroke her palm. He tips back against her, just enough to be felt.]

[This beautiful drawing comes along with a white carnation and a chocolate bar.]

[Along with a (fancy) chocolate bar is a red rose and a note attached:]

Thank you for spending time with me. I used to find myself missing the company of another woman, but then you came along. You are as clever as you are beautiful. I look forward to more outings with you.

- Jill

[This goes to the right lady.]

Picking up some dakbal after curtain on the matinee. Do you want anything?

[ she's still not sure if this means the show went well or not. ]

tteokbokki sounds lovely.

Kimchi, spicy cucumber salad, eggplant stirfry on the side?

[However it's going, he must have worked up an appetite.]

[ she'll take it as a positive. ]

I don't remember giving you permission to read my mind.

and extra chopsticks, I think someone has been eating mine.

Edited 2024-08-16 23:14 (UTC)

Then make it harder.

No matter how much you might wish otherwise, Griffon doesn't use chopsticks.

╠ NEON REQUIEM ╣╠ I N B O X ╣

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