2017-05-04: Curling Up
- Log: Curling Up
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline
- Where: Adlehyde
- Date: 499 PC
- Summary: Riesenlied curls up with books and a blanket and hot cocoa, while Noeline teases her... and reminds her of how far they've come.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
In the next couple of days, Riesenlied's certainly been throwing herself rather busily into a headlong gamut of work... save for today, where she's suddenly come down with one of her impurity episodes. This time, it's manifested, fortunately, as a rather curious case of the human cold; the winged woman's bundled up in the inn with a large stack of very boring books: history, culture, poetry, philosophy... and a big cup of cocoa and has a scarf wrapped around her, cheeks red and nose ruddy.
"A-ah-- achoo!" Riese sneezes again, wiping herself with her handkerchief. A-aww...
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
At this point, given the sheer amount of time she's spent taking up one of the more comfortable armchairs of the inn, Noeline should probably be paying rent. In fact, given her recent endowments from digging, she probably is, having found something pleasant enough about the place to want to use it as some kind of temporary base. The fact that Lunata is easy to lightly bully into providing good sweets and desserts is just an extra plus.
Today, though, she's sitting a little uncomfortably - if only because she keeps throwing a somewhat dirty glance at each sniff and cough, not exactly keeping her distance but at least trying to be careful about it.
"Honestly..." she sighs heavily, one hand at her forehead as she elegantly reclines, legs crossed and her feet propped up on an ottoman as she balances a small plate of cake on one knee. "All that confidence and pomp, and then you call up into a roly-poly ball," she finishes at almost a ridiculous sing-song.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has the cutest sulks, Noeline can attest, as she mumbles in the midst of flipping pages, "I ahm not a rolly-polly," which just doesn't help her case at all, does it? She sniffles again and rubs at her nose, before letting loose with a somewhat phlemgy-sounding cough. At the very least, she's sitting somewhat opposite and to a right angle of Noeline, so she doesn't shoot... well, she can't shoot any germs out, but it's still unsightly all the same.
"Besides, didn't you call me a rolly-polly when we first met?" she mumbles. Riese was probably a lot more modest... in dress... before Noeline went and gave suggestions out.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"I wouldn't have used those /exact/ words. But it was obvious to see that you were desperately in need of a shot of self-confidence," the other demon attests with a smirk, flicking out her hair in time with a frown - the latter largely brought on by that bout of coughing. "Fortunately, I turned out to be an /excellent/ judge of these things, as expected. You do clean up terribly well," she adds, reverting back towards her lazy grins before she continues.
"Really, though. Whoever would have thought that your - situation would manifest in such a low-key illness as that? It hardly even seems like a malady, so much as an excuse to laze around doing as you will for a few days," puffs up Noeline in the tone of voice of one who simply doesn't know how to get a cold. "Not that I can really complain, I suppose. As far as motivators go, that's a significant one, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's a quiet, slight pout as she says, "Perhaps so, but... I would not have called you the most lenient of trainers." She sighs very softly, before looking down at herself. "It is rather curious to think about how I developed more of an appetite for it after you introduced me to it..."
A certain fallen dragon probably dressed mostly in concealing clothes and warm capelets and other things that were undeniably cute, but made her look like a bit of a bundle.
"You know me well enough that if I were well enough to go up and about, I would do so," Riese grumbles, though not too dourly. "Besides, who lazes about all day doing nothing despite feeling perfectly fine?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a snort, the demon lowers the book on her lap, viciously assaulting a corner of the cake with a tiny fork. "As if you have /not/ sat around all day reading reports and scientific matters in the past. Really, this could be an average day for you sometimes, save that you look a lot less breathtaking while going about it," smirks Noeline, possibly just aiming to get a rise out of Riese. "I am hardly one to judge, beyond pointing out a simple truth, after all."
"I wouldn't call it /strange/, mind you. The outside world has a habit of throwing up interesting things, and you just found one to take an interest in," she adds with an elegant shrug, popping the piece into her mouth to chew contentedly on it for a long moment. "--it's been pleasant to watch you come into your own. Even I was surprised at the style you ended up with," she adds, a dangerously playful smirk on her face after she swallows, wagging the fork in Riese's direction.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"B-breathtaking?" Riese mumbles with a rub of her nose.
She pauses, before flipping the page to say, "That's different, though. I am doing valuable research. Just because you do not see much value in it does not mean it is not... important to me." She sighs faintly. She-- sulks quietly as she says, "It wouldn't have happened without everyone's suggestions. 'Become an angel'... who would have thought that would be the shape it would take? Ancient literature is strange indeed." Elhaym van Houten (Elly) pages: ughuu
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"I never said it wasn't /important/ to you. You can read what you like! But you have to admit, it's more pleasant to do so with your feet up, don't you think?" she adds, recrossing her legs with an amused hum as she adjusts her skirts, the cat-like grin on her face as she very deliberately doesn't respond to Riesenlied's confused echo.
"... the look truly does suit you," she says after a moment, her grin dialled down to an amused and maybe almost fond smirk. "After all, for a Tainted who's risen from the depths to lead - isn't it a terribly appropriate motif? Besides, the fallen Angel and the Noble Devil-- don't you think we make all the better a pair for it?" she hums.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks down towards Noeline's legs for a moment, then her own, before she awkwardly shifts an ottoman forward and... tries putting her legs up. There's a bit of a show. She pauses. "N-no, not really..." she sets them down again, aww.
"... there is a measure of deception to it, though... most of all, to myself," Riese admits. "Still, it has been, in its own way, comforting. I think that it has served as a symbol for many as well, the way the image has been cultivated..." She frowns. "Whyever would you suggest an opposite, anyhow? Is that what you fancy?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's riding too high on amusement and good feeling to enhance her looks with a blush right now - though her eyes do at least sweep down Riese's legs to watch in amusement as she attempts the look. "... I could get a few more blankets, I suppose," she says with a certain degree of inevitability, flicking out her hair as she does so. "Though I cannot make any guarantees that you will not look like even more of a pillow after I am done piling them on you."
"Of course there is deception. But every attempt to remake oneself needs some element of deception mixed in - before you change yourself, you have to tell yourself you want to be something different to what you are now. Over time, you work towards that deception, until no-one can tell the difference anymore. The perception of others is really all you need in the end, you know." It's surprisingly eloquent - not to mention delivered rather seriously by Noeline's standards, almost a well-meant lecture as she shrugs one shoulder.
The Crimson Noble pauses, and then splits into such a bright grin that her fangs show. "... because of the /contrast/, Riese dear. If we both were Crimson Nobles, the two of us would not be nearly so special set side to side. But a Crimson Noble and her Angel... well, all the best romance novels involve the pure heroine being tempted by the darkness just a /little/." Someone is far too amused, if she's even flirting with a sniffling and sneezing Riese.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... well, if you are already calling me rolly polly, then I may as well go the full length and go humpty dumpty!" Riesenlied quietly huffs. She closes her eyes for a longer moment to say, "Even though we can deceive others... we cannot deceive ourselves. But I do take your point... I have worked a rather long way towards fulfilling that role, haven't I?"
There's a tender little sigh, blushing just a little bit as she murmurs, "Are I not already much more a creature of the dark than you are? You are the beloved of many, rather than how we Tainted march on in the snow..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline pauses for rather a long moment, leaning on her arm with an amused raise of her eyebrows. "... am I, really?" she wonders aloud, grinning off to one side. "I am /known/ by many, for sure, but I don't know that I'd call it /beloved/. More like 'oh, no, it's that crazy girl again'," she imitates an elderly voice rather spookily well, though her grin remains absolutely lit up throughout.
"Actually being an effective leader, on the other hand - well, that's something I could never do, and I know it. It simply isn't in my skillset," she adds in an airy voice as she carefully moves her plate to a side table and sets down her latest book. "And that, if you ask me, is what makes all the difference."
A pause, and then Noeline has abruptly stood up, moving around behind Riese's chair and out of view. "Oh--" she adds, peeking around briefly, suddenly surprisingly close to where Riesenlied is sitting. "--and you can /absolutely/ deceive yourself. In fact, if you can do that, you've already passed the final exam. Hup!" she adds - and sure enough, true to her word, Riesenlied gets an extra blanket for her troubles, draped over her knees and lower legs.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied closes her eyes for a moment longer as she ruminates on what Noeline's commented upon, sighing. "... certainly so, but is that really what we should be doing?" She presses a hand to her chest to say, "Delude yourself too much, and you may well lose sight of the ground beneath your feet..."
By the time Noeline's back, she might have... dozed off a little on the couch, bundled up in her pile of blankets, adorably curled up in it. B-baww!!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"In moderation, just like anything else," hums Noeline as she returns, not aware that Riesenlied has already conked out amidst her nest of warmth. "I'm not about to delude myself over our successes as a whole, for instance - putting the cart before the horse never works out well, in my experience - but if it's a matter of ensuring I have the appropriate self-confidence, that is surely a constructive-- ah."
She pauses when she realizes just how lost to the world the other demon is, letting out a breath that doesn't quite count as irritated as she leans forward to rest her arms on one of the armrests of Riese's chair, the better to closely study her. Despite Noeline's best efforts to not be tsundere as hell, one hand draws up to clear some of the hair away from the other woman's forehead. "Really, now, you worry about far too much. Soothe that brow," she commands, imperious while also quiet, and perhaps lingering rather too long on the idea of--... well, she's not one hundred percent sure. But she lingers either way.