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[Memory] Once upon a time

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 5:58 am
by Mannon
Frost 58, 109 AoS
“Tonight is the night!” Mannon's younger sister exclaimed with a childish squeak.
Mannon part snorted, part giggled at her younger sister’s fussing before averting her eyes back to the mirror to apply rouge to her lips.
“Hey Madelyn.” Mannon smacked her lips, calling to her sister and putting down the brush. Madelyn had been ready for the past half an hour at least. Well collected in her evening dress, she was check that the necklace set perfectly upon her collarbones. Mannon was surprised that her sister had not yet freaked out and wasn't ushering them out the door.
“Yes?” Madelyn responded in that well-measured tone trained into her by their mother. Mannon's face curled into a grimace.
“One, you're super stiff right now," Mannon told Madelyn. "But that's not what I wanted to say." The young girl then turned on her stool. Her sharp eyes burying into her sister's profile. "How come you don’t get to meet your charming man?” Mannon asked, running her hands down her own dress, her lips turned into a teasing smile.
Madelyn looked at her sister with raised eyebrows.
“Well don’t look at me like that. I have a man. Maisie will soon have one. But what about you?” Madelyn’s otherwise controlled expression started to grow a little tense. Mannon knew she was playing with a hornet. But she also knew that the hornet could not sting today. So she waved her hand at Madelyn, brushing off the reaction and an answer that would not come. They all knew why Madelyn had no man yet. She was trained to be the next matriarch and to matriarch’s, all good things come in time.
Well I will have a bunch of babies by the time Maddie discovers where man's crotch is located, Mannon thought and chuckled to herself.
“Anyways, don’t you think our parents are quite unimaginative anyway?” Mannon then threw out another curveball.
“What?!” Madelyn questioned face scrunching into confusion. Mannon liked it when that mask of collectedness broke and her sister came through. Next to Mannon, Maisie’s hands curled in excited balls under her chin watching her big sisters go at it again.
“I mean, think about it. Firstly, this indoors ball when we could have an outdoors ice sculptures and dance." Her hands gestured with the picture she had in her mind but Madelyn just sighed and shook her head.
"No, no, bear with me," Mannon continued, pointing at herself. "Mannon.” Then she pointed at her older sister. “Madelyn.” She patted Maisie's curly hair that by the end of the night would stand in all directions. “Maisie.” After a pause, she added. “Marco, Martin… I mean, come on! It’s like our parent's could be asked and instead opted to take stock of their children!”
“That’s enough!” Madelyn exclaimed and took a few resolute steps towards Mannon. Maisie shook in anticipation. “That’s enough, Mannon. If you’re trying to upset me, well you’re doing it. Now shut up, finish up getting ready and let’s go.”
Maisie giggled which only earned her a stern look from her older sister. With a squeak, the little girl scooted away, towards one of the maids who was to finish putting on her shoes.
Yet, Madelyn wasn’t finished with Mannon. She took one more step towards her sister, meeting Mannon at standing. They had these face-offs quite regularly these days. Madelyn was trying to maintain her position of the future matriarch and Mannon was happy to challenge it on occasion. Not out of spite. Mannon couldn't be asked to be a matriarch. Mannon believed she did it to remind Madelyn who she really was.
But right now, she was looking at a nicely manicured finger pointing at her face and heard her sisters whispered words of caution. “You better behave tonight, Mannon. Leave those absurd ideas behind. This matters to the family and your future. Do not let us down.”
Mannon’s face grew still. The smile disappeared from her lips and she returned the stiff stare to her sister.
“I will,” she said. “But will you, my dear Madelyn?"
A flash of confusion ran across Madelyn's face
"With all the handsome men around?" Mannon opened up her arms, her own mask breaking. "Or will you dash away ---”
Madelyn threw her hands in the air and uttered a displeased, angered grunt before turning around and stomping away.
“---to chase another man’s pants?!” Mannon called after her sister. Unable to hold a straight face anymore, she burst into laughter.
There was no way in hell she was going to play by the book tonight, not with her man attending the ball. She believed him when he said he would make her ideas come true.

Re: [Memory] Once upon a time

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:26 am
by Mannon
The Stål kinship, as capable as it was in mining and supplying superior ore to the metalworkers, it was just as vain in certain sense. The matriarch believed in a periodical reminder to the land of who the Stål kinship was and by whose gracious hand and generosity they all prospered. Hence, there were these occasional balls for those affluent and those on the rise organized within the kinship's estate. People of lower standing were able to enjoy a night of free drinking and eating in their local taverns.
Frankly, Mannon didn’t care much about the details. She probably wasn't even aware of the full impact of these events. That was something for her sister to immerse herself in. For Mannon, this presented an opportunity to get to know as many people as possible. Usually. This time around, she was solely focusing on one person. One man. And the scent of his cologne.
“I think now is the best time to leave.” His breath brushed against her ear and she tilted her head in hopes she could feel his lips on her skin as well. His unspoken suggestion reverberated throughout her body and she was so near to accepting.
But instead, she placed a hand in his chest, not sure if the strong beating was her heart or his, and she pushed him far enough to look up into the azure eyes. Here was a man with real stories and scars to show for it. She wanted to run her fingers across the one running over his right eye.
“So?” He purred at her again, lips breaking into a smile. He knew what was on her mind and so he shifted, bringing his face closer.
Her cheeks flushed. The temptation was pulling on her limbs like strings. She took another lungful of the air filled with his scent...and she pushed him away further.
“Not now,” she said, her smile that of a devil in disguise. Their game was the one of tug-of-war to see who would cross the line first, who would break first under the tension. So far she had won each time. She looked away from him and surveyed the hall buzzing with people, none of whom paid them much attention.
“Why not, M?” His hand on her waist squeezed and with it, air caught in her throat. Yep, it was certainly her heart that was doing a tap dance in her chest.
"It's not the time yet," she told him. After all, there was this nagging feeling in the back of her mind. Something was happening and she was missing it.
It was then that she saw her sister, Madelyn, marching around the room with a subdued scowl on her face.
The partner match. It dawned on Mannon and the earlier excitement, drained from her face.
“M? What is it?” Axel didn't see Madelyn target locking the two in the crosshair of her attention and charging towards them. She gave him a wide yet uncertain smile, trying to step away, but her sister already saw.
“Mannon!” Madelyn exclaimed when she arrived, grabbing her sister by the arm and pulling her away from Axel. “What are you doing?!” Madelyn looked Axel up and down only once and only to make sure that her sister wasn’t wasting her time away with a guard or a lowly noble. In fact, her sister wasn’t meant to be wasting time at all!
“Why aren’t you in the sitting room?!” Madelyn hissed at her.
“Mm, because I am standing right here?” Mannon tried to play innocent. The heat of earlier returned and she let it warm her features into a wide, challenging smile. That was a mistake because Madelyn’s fuse was already short. She squeezed Mannon’s arm to the point of pain, making the girl hiss and squirm a little.
“Ladies. No need to be so harsh.” Axel then stepped in. Dressed in fine garments with decent style, he certainly belonged to the mid or higher echelon of society. However, that didn't stop Madelyn from giving him a cold stare. But it wouldn’t be Axel if he got discouraged. He met Madelyn’s stare with unfaltering smile and hands at shoulder height, meaning no harm. “It is my fault that Lady Mannon is late for her duties whatever those are.”
Mannon stifled a short laugh which soon turned into a hiss when she felt her sister's nails dig into her skin. However, Axel seemed to have a momentary effect on Madelyn. An emotion ran across her face. It was brief, but it showed a crack in her demeanour before the matriarch-to-be mask returned.
"And you are?" She questioned him, trying to hide the interest that was undoubtedly there.
Axel placed a hand on his chest and offered Madelyn a respectful bow. "Axel Opheim, the heir to Opheim Kinship in the surroundings of Alfsos."
Madelyn's eyebrows shot up. "Can't say I've heard of your kinship."
Axel chuckled, scratching at the back of his head. "Perhaps not here, my lady, but in Alfsos people know my kinship as beast slayers." Then he pointed at the scar running across his right eye and said no more.
Madelyn stood there for a moment or two and Mannon knew she was fighting the questions she wanted to ask. Questions that Mannon already had answers to and that in itself felt like a delicious victory over her sister. Alas, Madelyn's training was strict and she remembered it much better than Mannon.
Madelyn huffed a single hm, regarding the man one more time before saying. “Indeed she is late. So I am sure you will excuse us if we leave.” Madelyn stuck her chin out, expecting now resistance. None other than from her sister who twisted her arm in her grasp to no avail.
“Of course,” Axel agreed, before lifting a finger. An authoritative gesture that Mannon found strangely delicious and the rebel inside her stirred too. “Only if I may…” And without waiting for permission he reached for Mannon’s hand and pressed it to his lips. “It was my utmost pleasure, Lady Mannon. I hope our paths will cross again.”
If Madelyn didn’t freeze in the spot at the suddenness of the notion, she would have torn her younger sister out of the man’s grasp.
“I hope so too, sir. I would love to indulge in your company again,” Mannon replied with a few beats of eyelashes and an unnecessary curtsy of the upper torso with its delicate low decolletage.
It was then that Madely dragged Mannon away.
“You really can’t help it, can you, Mannon? Flirting around with whichever lord you find. Were you hoping to dive into his pants later?” Madelyn hissed at Mannon as they walked away.
"Certainly more than you can hope for," Mannon responded, twisting her hand out of her sister's grasp. Madelyn's face was a shade redder and her eyes a degree more murderous. Yet, Mannon maintained the smirk on her lips, the young and naive righteousness in her steps. Madelyn didn't know Axel. He wasn't just a lord. He was the noble from Alfsos, with a scar from a beast fight that cost him his father's life. A man with tragic past but exotic ideas of what love was meant to be. And it certainly wasn't waiting for her in the sitting room.
Mannon turned as much as she could to look back.
No.
It was waiting for her right there, watching her every move over the rim of his chalice with the same all-consuming fire on his face he gave her ever since they met.

Re: [Memory] Once upon a time

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 6:24 am
by Haldir
Oh Look! I prescribe you one Review!


XP:
  • 5 {No Magic}
Pieces of knowledge:
  • Acting: Switch between roles quickly
    Deception: Match emotion to facial expression
    Seduction: Act hard to get to raise the anticipation
    Seduction: Use suggestive body language
    Seduction: Work with tension
Loot:
  • N/A
Injuries:
  • N/A
Comments:
  • If you have any questions, comments or concerns, let me know. Enjoy your rewards!