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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 5, 2018 14:50:24 GMT -8
"I do not have a strong opinion one way or the other." Florence answered simply, still as stiff as a board where she sat. Though, her eyes still followed his hands and his eyes as best she could. "This is a relatively clean and sanitary environment. /Lekalis/ He held the mask fast about her head still, stubbornly, but he began to let it slip as he glanced to the window in thought. Decisions were being made by the second, and instantly refuted in the next. "Understood." He sighed as he shut his eyes and let the mask fall slack to the side wherein he caught it in both hands and set it upon the table. "What was it that first drew you to be my personal physician..?" He asked as he made to seat himself on the other side of the table, his features settling into their own neutral mask as he fished out the twin wine glasses from his satchel... |
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 5, 2018 14:55:44 GMT -8
There was Florence's face, as neutral as the mask she wore. Subtle expressions of thought made her brows knit slightly, and she glanced towards the window.
More obviously, she hummed.
"I do not know." The doctor shrugged and seemed content with the answer. Her eyes watched the two, horribly familiar wine glasses. "It pleases me to see you do well."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 5, 2018 15:06:16 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
A smile broke his lips as he saw her brows twitch, his own rising up in surprise and amusement as he playfully clinked the glasses together and made to reach for the wine.
"You were frustrated the last time you couldn't define something." He pointed out as he began to work the cork out of the wine bottle. The Ex-Lord seemed like to pursue the topic, but then simply let it rest as he began to pour the wine into each glass.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 5, 2018 17:59:18 GMT -8
"Oh. I must not remember."
Florence watched curiously, stoic as ever, as he poured the wine. She seemed not to shy away from it.
She quirked her head some. "...When was that?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 5, 2018 18:01:30 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He gave her a small smile, shrugging and miming a frown as he theatrically contemplated his memories,
"Naught but a moment ago; you couldn't define how to measure boredom... You were frustrated then, now..?"
Lekalis sighed as he poured out an even, half-glass measure to each glass, he eyed his precision with pride, then looked to Florence with a shrug as he took his seat and took his wine.
"... Now you seem fine with not knowing why you care for me."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 5, 2018 18:04:42 GMT -8
"Oh..."
Florence's eyes widened momentarily with the realization, and she straightened up. Eyeing the wine, she was unsure if she should take the initiative to accept the wine, or wait for it to be given to her.
Her hands unfolded themselves.
"That is different." She nodded. "I do not need a reason to care for you."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 5, 2018 18:18:37 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He lowered his gaze on her, clearly noting the hesitation as he hummed and squinted at her; playing into an old pass time.
"Because you are a doctor? That's why you don't need a reason..?"
Lekalis pondered as he looked to his drink and idly swirled the wine.
"... Do you want to share the wine with me?"
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 5, 2018 18:22:21 GMT -8
"I should not need a reason to care for you. I do not seek any benefit from it."
Florence held out her hand, pivoting like a lever. She did not squint back.
"Yes, I wish to partake in wine with you."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 5, 2018 18:30:24 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
Her words made his smile widen again, and he nodded, as he placed the glass of wine in her hand,
"You're an enigma to me, Florence..." He admitted with a sigh as he plucked up his own.
He rose it up in cheers.
"... I've tried for as long as I've known you to read you, to understand what makes you tick. To... To try and understand you." His risen hand lowered for a moment, before raising high again, waiting for her.
"I feel I might have to accept that I don't need to understand you. That I don't... That we don't need to be up to my fantasies of romance."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 5, 2018 18:54:33 GMT -8
"I do not think there is much to understand." Florence told him, earnestly, as she placed the wine glass adjacent to his; enough to clink, though she was late to draw it back, as though she were still learning how to say cheers.
She did smile, though, albeit briefly.
"Why would you like to know how to read me?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 7, 2018 3:37:30 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
A flicker of surprise crossed the Ex-Lord's face as he pulled his glass of wine to his lips with a bit of hesitance. Not out of any fright but out of curiosity and, as mentioned, some due surprise. Practically mirroring Florence's own late retreat.
His eyes watched her lips intensely before he closed his eyes and sighed, taking a sip of the wine. And, of course, smiling warmly as he set the glass on the table.
"Because... You seem to know me well enough. You've been the ear to my rambles, mad as some were." He admitted earnestly, his eyes lingered on the deep red of the wine with some rumination.
She'd only ever been honest with him, transparent as the glass that held the wine. Lekalis' reclined and settled his eyes on her features once more, remembering the time when he'd first seen them around the campfire in the Weald so long ago. He was curious of her then, as he was now; he had many questions for the veil of neutrality she seemed to wear. Though, now he knew it was less a veil and more like a stone whose texture and grain had been worn away by rain and time.
"We'd professed our love for eachother, yet... Here we sit. As we've sat countless nights, across from eachother, supping on wine and biting into venison." He rose his hand and smirked with amusement as his brows furrowed,
"I'd wanted to know how to read you... So I might know when you'd wish me to hold your hand. O-or remove your mask." His tone lightened, his inflection upwards and soft as he tapped his fingers anxiously on the table. He took another draft of the wine.
"So I might know if you'd ever think of me, the same way I think of you..."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 7, 2018 14:09:53 GMT -8
Florence listened dutifully, as though she were a student again, attending a lecture-- this time with wine, which she sipped gradually as Lekalis spoke. She let it loosen her joints like medicine as it flowed through her veins.
She felt oddly at peace, contented.
"I am untalented at understanding most people. Including yourself. I simply provide when I am asked." She answered, holding the rim of the wineglass up to her lips, but neglecting to sip just yet as her dark eyes, sharp-- despite her brief excursion into the Warrens-- studied Lekalis.
"Thus, I cannot make a comparison without knowing what you think of me."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 7, 2018 14:39:50 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
As she spoke evenly, he made to bring up the glass to his own lips before he paused, as she did... As usual, he found himself miming her motions in due respect.
Lekalis shut his eyes again and breathed deeply, the aroma of wine was foul for a moment. The inebriation was a foul way to go about this, a bitter excuse.
He slowly set the wine glass down with a purpose, his eyes opening to catch hers, trying to spy just where she was looking.
He was about to take a risk, his neck tense and his cheeks flush... But not so much from wine, as his eyes peered into Florence's own. An intellect there that he'd always delighted in... There was a surgical precision to everything she did, and there were no lies in what she could not do. A curiosity that matched his own.
A dark delight he knew to never find again.
"I'd told you I'd needed more time to think before... About this Love I have for you. And I'd asked you to ponder on the same." He shifted in his seat, scooting his chair closer, pushing the wine to the center of the table in the crux of his thumbs.
His eyes danced across the table, as though the grain would provide fruit for his vocabulary. Lekalis' lips pulled taught, his heart was racing as he dove;
"When I'd lain with Tilly, to have a child too... The Love I had for her was still not the same as the Love I hold for you." He tried to explain, cocking his head to the side. There was a pain to his features that dug deep, and he fought to keep his features plain.
"With her, I feel warm... Settled. There's a blind animalistic sense to it, a sort of... Stasis of the humors, of the corpus and vitae. I'm happy yet--"
A brief shock of a ragged breath and he chuckled, running a hand through his hair, incredulous of his own words. He believed them, yet a societal conflict raged in the way his brows knitted than unknitted. A moment of panic, as he glanced out the window then... Resolution.
His calm demeanour returned, and he took a steadying breath. When his eyes settled on Florence again, his dark eyes glimmered in the moonlight with an earthen tone.
"-- Yet, with you I feel better. My mind is clear, I can breathe... I am... Me, when I'm with you." The words finally came free like an arrow from flesh.
"My Love for you is... Beyond any mortal desire to reproduce. When the world collapses from the countless apocalypses, when our body's rot, our bones turn to dust and the dust to the essential elements of Life... When all we've done returns to the void... And whatever soul or humor or breath we hold is gone. I know my last thought will be that I Love you. I'm sorry."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 7, 2018 17:06:15 GMT -8
To those who did not know her, Florence's expression maintained a flat neutrality as he spoke on. The slight shifts in her brows, where they tensed and untensed; subtle squints of the eyes, ghosts of frowns...
She was thinking hard, as though she were mentally walking herself through a difficult equation.
Florence rose a palm, pale for want of sun, though it still held traces of an olive tone in its pigment.
"You need not apologize for experiencing emotion." The other hand gently set aside the wine, in tandem with Lekalis. She watched him for another moment, calculatingly, as though to deliberate on her words.
She was not daft; she knew moments like these held gratuitous amounts of emotional weight. While she was unskilled at managing situations of this particular caliber, the Crowgazer knew better than most that it is always possible to substitute hard work and unwavering determination for innate talent.
"It is... beneficial that this pleases you. It pleases me, as well." She bridged her fingers together on the table as she spoke. "However, we both have commitments. I must devote myself to research with what little time I have left. It is a path best left unmarred by distractions for the sake of those that depend on my focus. As you may come to know..."
Her gaze drifted to the wine, almost regretfully, before looking back to Lekalis.
"...You will soon find yourself in a role, older than time, of utmost demand. As you might depend on my skill and my focus, your woman and your child will depend on your love and devotion. The father serves to protect and to nurture, and his role is irreplaceable in the eyes of a child that thrives best in stability."
Her pale hands reached for one of Lekalis's, and she held it gently between hers, as though it were made of glass.
"It would be inhuman and unachievable to ask that you refrain from experiencing emotions. Not one person is capable of such a thing-- but in positions of great responsibility, we must maintain a clear division between emotions and actions for the sake of those that depend on our care."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 7, 2018 17:51:32 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
She was right, of course... Again. As Florence's hands closed around his for what felt like the final time, the medicinal temperature of her fingertips warmed his mind like an ambrosia. His mind was cloudy, yet sharp... His throat tightened and he found it suddenly hard to breathe.
Like a man in prayer, he closed his hands around Florence's and curled over the table and sucked in a sharp breath. He rubbed his thumb over Florence's surgical fingers, a sooth coming over him as his thumb ran across the hills and valleys between each digit.
"I'd never found myself... with responsibilities I'd not prepared for..." His eyes had been transfixed on their hands, interlinked, though now they rose to meet hers again. His features were drawn in a subtle, but pained, happiness.
"... I've thought on it for a long time; being a Father. My Wife, my child... I'd not been given blessings in either; I want to do right by them." He explained as he admired the hue of her skin, like the ivory of bone beneath. He sometimes wondered if she'd blood at all, or if her veins were naught but formaldehyde and salt.
But in the light that filtered through the window panes, with his hands warming hers, he could see the subtle touches of red in her lips and gums, in the tearducts of her focused eyes.
"But... with what little time we have left, in these... Quiet hours of eternity that we steal; while we've time away from those positions of great responsibility, would you share a bed with me still?" He proposed, his features softened and his brows rose in sincere curiosity,
"Not for long, but for an hour at most; we needn't fear of child... this room is secluded." His proposal only grew as he held Florence's grip kindly in his hands,
"I know it is not your role... But I would ask you to join me in shirking our responsabilities for but a moment." He almost pleaded...
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