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[Memory] A Singing Bird

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:24 am
by Mannon
Glade 31, 110 AoS
"On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist"

Her voice carried over the heads of the people who weren’t really paying attention to her. Earlier, Axel pressured Mannon into standing in front of all of them to sing.
“We’re missing entertainment!” He exclaimed back then, grabbing Mannon by her arm, pulling her out of the chair and shoving her into the only space that was clear of furniture or rubbish. They were in what used to be the dining hall. The eight people table had not seen polish in a long time and armchairs and chairs were dragged into the small place from other parts of the manor.
“Let’s hear the prude sing!” Axel announced. It was the laughter of the people and the silence of others with their averted gaze that pushed Mannon.
She already had a steel cage around her heart and though his comments still snuck through the bars and hurt her, she kept her responses and emotions a prisoner whenever she was able to. So she stuck out her chin and did as she was told.
Mannon wasn’t a bad singer, but neither did she have any practice. Her voice was raspy and untrained, struggling to find the right notes sometimes. Her knees were shaking from nerves and her cheeks became as red as the wine in everyone’s cups very early on into the song.
People stopped paying attention to her by the time she got to the second verse. But still, she carried on. At first, she was trying to hold eye contact with everyone. She did her best to perform like she sometimes saw the prostitutes hired who came into the manor and how they danced seductively, inciting the orgies.
But as almost each and every one of the pair of eyes shifted from Mannon to the game of cards, or their goblet, or even the drugs on the table, Mannon found herself staring straight at Axel. There weren't many others of interest to her. In fact, no one else was.
Yet, Axel...he didn’t care. He didn’t even look at her. He had a woman on his lap. His hand exploring her form over the flimsy dress. She wasn’t a prostitute. She was one of the unfortunate souls already present in the mansion when Mannon arrived. Mannon didn’t know her name. She didn’t care to learn any of their names. They were inferior to her because they were common and their love with Axel wasn’t as great and unbreakable as hers was. So seeing him dedicate himself to that slut in making, it spurred fire in Mannon’s belly.
The last verse, Mannon tried to belt it. Perhaps in volume, she hoped to capture his attention, to capture his gaze and lock it with hers so he would see the fire inside her. The attempt only turned her voice hoarse and more into a shout rather than a melodic finish.
Axel slammed his hand on the table. Those who were numbed by substances jerked a little in their haze, others jumped. But they all grew quiet when Axel looked at Mannon with anger and annoyance. He was still being erratic in his actions despite the amount of time that passed since Mannon was disowned.
It’s the women….they are distracting him, Mannon thought and it wasn’t the first time that the idea of getting rid of them crossed her mind.
“Jesus. You really weren’t taught anything, were you, Your Disgrace?” His new pet name for her still seized her throat.
Axel scoffed. “You know, actually. Better shut up. Just stay quiet in a corner somewhere.” And he waved his hand at her as though she was a mere servant. And she lost his attention again as he picked up a few pieces of food mixed with some of the nasty mushrooms and he fed them to the woman on his lap.
A billowing wave rose inside Mannon. She wasn’t sure whether she was going to shout, scream or cry.

► Show Spoiler

Re: [Memory] A Singing Bird

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:58 am
by Mannon
She burst out of the dining hall and into the chilling ambient of the corridor. The air glided over her exposed skin. She hated the dress now.
A while back, she asked one of the maids, the one who sometimes brought her ointments, to sow her a dress. The maid found a dress abandoned somewhere in the manor, fixed up the holes and brought it to Mannon. It was only after Mannon’s demand that she made it more revealing that the dress took on a shape it held now.
So there she was. In a thin fabric with naked shoulders, a strip of fabric wrapped around her upper arms to hold the top in place and a flowing skirt with a high slit. Her body was marked by goosebumps, but she felt none of at that moment.“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!” Mannon mutter, hitting the knuckles of her fist into her open palm with each word. “Who would listen to your croaking, you idiot. You need to do better,” she continued as her feet took her pacing. Her mind was whirring. She saw the world around her as a blur. The wave was suffocating her in its embrace.
What was she going to do now? She looked down at herself. Two fat tears spilt over the edge of her eyelids and plummeted to the floor. At least now she saw a bit clearer.
“You look like a cheap streetwalker,” she told herself and she grabbed the fabric of her skirts and shook them with violence, revealing a thin leg with marks on it.
The dining hall door opened. Without even looking who it was, Mannon swivelled around to turn her back to it. It was a surprise and embarrassment that made her do it. But she reasoned to herself that she couldn’t risk being seen like this. What if it was Axel?! What if he came to apologise?
Her heart thudded in her chest. Both in anticipation and hopes she still held onto. She quickly wiped her face.
“I’m sorry.”
Mannon frowned and turned around enough to see who it was, without showing all of herself. Her arms crossed over her chest to cover it. Suddenly, she became self-aware and she was especially conscious of the nipples that hardened in the cool air.
It wasn’t Axel. Instead, it was the man who arrived a few days ago. He was tall, with a bushy beard and hair tied at the back of his head. He had a pair of piercing yet warm eyes. She was inexplicably drawn to him but not in the same sexually charged or obsessive way. There was something else. She remembered seeing him earlier as one of the few who remained her audience.
Yet his apology baffled her. She looked around, down the corridor. There was plenty of space to walk past her, but still, she stepped further aside and towards the wall.
“No, no,” the man said then, taking a few steps towards her. When her arms tightened around her torso, he stopped.
That action further confused the woman. She hadn’t seen class and etiquette in the manor for a long time, but she was still able to spot it from a mile away. The fire and storm inside her were subsiding, replaced with suspicion and curiosity. Still, she said nothing.
“I meant, I am sorry for what happened in there.” He poked his thumb behind him, towards the door.
Right, that was it. She officially had no darn clue what he wanted, why he approached her or why on earth he was apologising for something that was frankly quite normal in this place. So she scoffed, looked away from him and shook her head.
“You know,” Mannon said after a moment with the last bits of the heat of fight within her. “If you really were sorry, maybe you should have done something.” She threw it at him with spite and venom.
The man raised his hands and nodded. “You are right. I should have.”
What?! He floored her again. His behaviour was entirely out of place.
“Why are you here?” She asked him with a fierce frown and a sense of indignation as though his compassion was an insult to her. And in a way perhaps she saw it that way back then.
“Well, I came to see if you were ok. You looked like---”
“No, no. Why are you here?” She asked and to clarify, she spread her arms to encompass the building. Such motion revealed the state of her nipples, but the man’s eyes didn’t falter. They were fixed on hers.
“You don’t belong in here,” Mannon told the man with a sneer, words she heard herself so many times. Yet with him, the fact was as obvious as the chill in the corridor.
“Neither do you,” he countered. Though he unsettled her in the recent moments more than her current predicament in the past weeks, Mannon still wobbled.
“Yes, I do,” she said with resistance in her voice. The wobble was internal and she brushed it aside as quickly as it appeared. It had no place in her conviction.
Her response elicited a minor smile to play across his lips and a shake of his head.
Mannon stuck out her chin even further, preparing to finally receive a barrage of derogatory language.
But it didn’t come. Instead, he took the few extra steps left between them until he was standing right in front of her.
Mannon’s body stiffened. Did he know the rule of the house? Then a breath caught in her throat. Maybe Axel gave her away again and that’s why this man was here. He had permission.
His piercing gaze was fixed on her eyes and the small muscles around them were dancing as though he was looking for something but he wasn’t finding it. Not until his features softened and he spoke again.
“Maybe there is a better way for you to belong here then,” the man then said. It must have been her confused expression because he continued. “You’re not like the other women in there. Axel told me that you came from a kinship, a wealthy one in fact. You’re a noble in a house of harlots trying to fit in.” He immediately raised his palms in peace-seeking gesture. “And I don’t mean that as an insult, but a fact.”
Mannon’s chest, as it expanded in defiance to that comparison, deflated almost immediately and she waited for him to say more. She didn't find it in herself to interject, to question, to contradict. Not when she felt as though a secret was about to be shared with her.
“There is a way, you can still fit in, maintain your refined upbringing and come out on top.”
“Come out on top...” Mannon whispered, dropping her eyes to a side. It was all she wanted since coming. Come out on top. Be above others here. Be where she belonged. At Axel’s side. That was the top she imagined.
“Yes. And I can show you, or even teach you how.”
Her eyes buried back into his. Here was a man making a promise to help her achieve what she wanted. Did she trust him? No. But he dangled candy in front of her and she was desperate enough to try anything.

Re: [Memory] A Singing Bird

Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:36 pm
by Haldir
Oh Dear, you seem to have contracted a REVIEW!


XP:
  • 5 {No Magic}
Pieces of knowledge:
  • Seduction: Sing a love song
    Seduction: Make eye contact
    Singing: Bleed emotions into the words
    Singing: Warm up before singing
    Singing: Sing withing your range
Loot: N/A

Injuries: N/A

Comments:
  • If you have any questions, comments or concerns, let me know. Enjoy your rewards!