TEXT ✦ un: scion

[shtola]

[Hey, City network! What are you up to today? Having fun exploring the liminal spaces, reliving past memories, getting locked into vaults — or maybe just fucking around? Because apparently someone's in the mood for the latter.]

what's a girl got to do to get a little attention around here? ;)

[A short time after that initial post, a follow-up appears.]

because i certainly wouldn't mind being asked out for a meal and an evening in good company, myself. by someone worthy of the honor, of course; naturally, i'm a lady of discerning tastes.

[And then, a little bit later still: ]

takers must feel the unquenchable thirst of the pursuit of knowledge and be willing to participate in intellectual debate for bells on end. oh, and graciously accept defeat when i inevitably hand it to them. or don't — i'll best you at it whether you accept it or not. i'm ever so brilliant that way. how's that for sharing?

[OOC: If the content of this post sounds suspiciously unlike Y'shtola, that's because it isn't — Thancred (onlythans) and his sticky fingers have "borrowed" her network device for a short time. Responses will come from both Thancred and Y'shtola or possibly just Y'shtola after she murders Thancred in cold blood for this!]

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[shtola]

( and speaking of silence, that is exactly what he is met with the moment her gaze lands on the screen. a beat, then a second, a third - and there truly isn't much for her to be reading that it would take her this long to do much of anything beyond stare.

now comes the mortification. ears pinned back in her abject horror and a healthy flush born of anger and embarrassment that she's positive she will never recover from.

without too much thought, her hand reaches for the staff on her back - pausing only when she realizes that her aether still can't seem to find purchase on the gnarled wood. there seems to be consideration for the briefest of moments that she could simply hit him with it instead, but abandons the thought in favor of simply taking him by the ear with a snarl. )

If it was my undivided attention you wanted, you most certainly have it now.

[onlythans]

You — ouch!

[His reflex is immediate: a hand flashing up to grasp her wrist, the differences in their size and build instantly coming into clear focus with the way his large palm circles all the way around her more slender limb with ease. He's far, far too careful to risk even the slightest of bruises on her skin, but he hardly needs to grip very hard for the implication to be there anyway. These are a pickpocket's hands, yes, but they are also a gunbreaker's, and the strength in his fingers is unmistakable.]

Thal's bloody balls, don't rip it clean off! At least have the common decency to turn me into a damned toad — that, at least, I might recover from!

[shtola]

( a fact she knows all too well. the encircled wrist would be a real danger if the one holding her were any other. mages of her brand do their best work at a distance - to be rendered immobile or silent may as well spell their deaths and seal their coffins. it'd be all too simple for him, too. he's dispatched threats far worse than herself.

it's by grace and luck that she happens to be on the right side of the line he's drawn does she get to keep her hand. that, she also knows. these are the differences between them that she's been made eminently more aware of in these last few suns since their arrival.

it does not mean she releases him though. because it's only now does she realize that he's managed to lead her right where he needs her to be, and she feels just a little cornered despite herself, so she'll take what little form of rebellion she can. )

To ask that you be made smaller, to be something more frail and utterly defenseless in this space rather than suffer a slight pinch - ( it's a measured cadence, neither angry nor surprised, like this was something she's seen a long time coming. his eyes are keen and a man that plays the fool is never truly one. ) - is that what this is truly about?

( to see if she even can? )

'Tis quite the gamble.