Library

[[deleted user]]

((WHY IS SHE NICE TO DA PRINCE AND NOT JAKE? ASDFGHJKL))

[dyanne, explanations queen]

[I DON'T KNOW DON'T ASK ME SHE'S JUST A HEAVILY INFURIATING CHARACTER]

"If you say so, Perry," she drawled, rolling the 'r's to add to the effect. "Exasperating? Oh my, isn't that a surprise. A girl that is exasperating and beautiful is simply the worst, tsk tsk, I'm afraid you might've made a mistake here. As for the lovely Ms. Reeter, well, when's the first interview coming up? Tomorrow?" Heather asked with another devious, cheeky wink. "Back to the point-- say the word and we'll fly off into the sunset on matching white horses until we reach the music room. At that point, you shall make me a flower crown as I play songs which remind you how sweet it is to be in company of the fairest maiden of all of Illea." Heather said all this with a deadpan expression and her voice became deeper, airier, and hinted now and then of heavy sarcasm as she drawled, until suddenly, she snapped out of it, giving a cheeky grin to match the personality she had adopted. "You'll be Percula, I'll be Cheekyzilla-- the unstoppable monsters of Illea, whaddya say?"

[Heather. are. you. flirting. with. the. prince. no. no. no.]

[[deleted user]]

"Oh, Heather, I know I'm gonna like you so much. You remind me of someone." he laughed at everything she said. A little too much of laughter, actually. "Oh, beg to differ, I think my masochism makes me think that a girl like you is someone I can't just let to slip away so easily. You're kind of my light, really. Haven't met anyone like you in such long time. And the interview? Well, ask the royal planner, woman. Do I look like a secretary? Why should I know about scheduling thingy?" he asked, more like teasing actually. "Actually, I prefer to be Illea's super secret vigilante who fights crime at night, and a genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, prince at day. The lonely masked hero with a tragic past, like, the only girl he ever love is tragically been taken away to the after life, and the only clue he has to catch her killer are, a red tie, and male shoes number ten."

[dyanne, explanations queen]

[That sounds awfully familiar... damn I know this my mind is drawing a blank what is that reference Rea]

[[deleted user]]

((The Avengers. Duh. Tony Stark's reference.

Since he is a fan of swashbuckling action movie, I figure, he probably will use some movies reference once in a while))

[dyanne, explanations queen]

[Well there are a TON of billionaire philanthropist geniuses (*cough* Bruce Wayne I just rewatched the dark knight so my mind is fuzzy) and that was my first guess but I don't want to be quoting the wrong thing so I'm sorry AHAHAHA have you watched the how it should've ended for iron man 3 it's absolutely fantastic]

[[deleted user]]

((If I never watch The Avengers, I probably would say it's for Bruce Wayne slash Batman.

haha, how it should've ended for iron man 3 is frigging hilarious. Poor tony. xD))

[[deleted user]]

((STOP FLIRTING WITH EACH OTHER!
PERRY YOU HAVE CLAUDIA WTH ARE YOU DOING?!))

[[deleted user]]

((READER REA DOES NOT APPROVE IT.))

[[deleted user]]

((Dudeeee omg, I was probably right, Perry is not related by blood to these people omg he's so different.))

[[deleted user]]

((That is actually true, Roan. xD))

[mels, awkwardice queen]

Claudia wandered through the shelves of the library, looking around. She hadn't been in here in forever, except maybe to dust the books. But to actually look for a book? Never. There were a lot. Too many to choose from. And she hadn't the faintest idea what she should read first, now that she suddenly had time on her hands.

[Δ|вσω]

Sabella. She should have been over it. She shouldn't have humiliated herself in front of Illea and she shouldn't have let the newspaper show the pictures of her. Ever since she made all of those mistakes Illea has felt sympathy for her and have pretty much left her out of the " bad gossip". No one wants to annoy her any more. She couldn't help but miss the days when the camera men would cluster around and ask for pictures of her ring or when the wedding would be. The most commonly ask question was what are you wearing. The wedding dress was bought, and hadn't been thrown away just yet. Sabella was waiting. She knew she has been through the sadness and was currently going through the anger. But whenever the self hate for letting him get away from her came into play was when she'd take out the wedding dress. And she'd wear it and act as if nothing was wrong until the fantasy of perfection drifted away. The wedding dress would probably be burned after that. But she wasn't letting that horrible cheating man ruin a good dress, no matter how much she hated him. That day she'd let them all take pictures of the gown, the day she wore the wedding dress, and she wanted her ex-lover's to see how beautiful she looked in it and want her back. But even better she wanted his new wife to see the pictures of her beauty in the gown that her husband was going to marry someone else in.

[mels, awkwardice queen]

She heard the door open and shut, and peered around a shelf carefully to see Princess Sabella. Princess... Sabella. She'd been locked up in her room for days, as far as Claudia had known. She'd never seen her at least. And now... She was out. In the library. She wondered whether she should step out, introduce herself as one of the girls who'd been her maid for a short time. And who was now a Selected girl. But she decided to wait and see if Sabella was interested in conversation, if she wanted to talk.

[Δ|вσω]

Foot steps. Sabella with other people wasn't a good idea. She was in the library because she though no one liked reading these days and her maid had to clean her room. I knew I should've went to the prison, she said in her mind.

"Who goes there at such an hour?" Sabella said, knowing it was the afternoon and that it was usual hours to be out and about.

She felt the need to read a book to get the though of him off her mind. The chance to see someone else was not something she wanted, but perhaps it would help. It hadn't crossed her mind.

[mels, awkwardice queen]

So she'd heard her. Interesting. She'd worn flats for such a purpose as to not be heard if she didn't want to, but it didn't really matter anyway. She stepped out from behind the bookshelf, and curtsied deeply. "Claudia Girard, Your Highness. You wouldn't remember, but I was your maid for a few months a few years ago while one of your usual maids was sick."

[Δ|вσω]

" Why aren't you still my maid, Claw? Oh, and don't mind the nicknames, I like making them up for people. You don't mind Claw, do you?" Sabella asked, kind of darkly. After a long pause she added onto her statement. " I mean even if you did I wouldn't care. Maid Claw, go grab me some tea."

Sabella thought she was still a maid, and even if she knew she was a Selected she still would have treated her like a maid.

" Bring it to my room. You are excused. The day is almost here, tell that to my ladies maid when you get downstairs with the others like you."

[mels, awkwardice queen]

Claudia restrained the sigh that threatened to be let out. "I'm no longer a maid, Your Highness. I'm a Selected girl, currently." Of course Sabella would still think she was a maid. She remembered, now, why when the sick maid had returned, she hadn't taken the offered post as one of Sabella's full time maids. She let the nickname be, for the moment. She could deal with it later, if she wanted to, though it annoyed her.

[Δ|вσω]

"I'm so not embarrassed, Claw," Sabella said as she rung a bell that was on the table next to her arm. " So I guess you heard then. I like to get that part of the conversation out of the way so it isn't brought up later on. That lying cheating stupid ba-" She stopped herself. " Excuse my choice of words, Claw. Would you enjoy having tea with me? I know you will do the proper thing to win my brothers heart and say yes so I'm just going to say two teas when the maid comes over, Claw."

Sabella fiddled with her black dress and then cracked her knuckles.

"Before you fall in love with someone you don't know I want to give you some advice, since you were such a decent maid. Love can be hell or a field of daisies. I pranced through a field of fresh sweet roses but then they turned to ashes. I want you to stop in the middle of the field and be happy. God knows no one in the palace needs another one of me."

[mels, awkwardice queen]

She inclined her head. "I didn't expect you to be, Your Highness." Claw. She felt like wincing every time she heard it. Perry might call her carrot, and that was bad enough, but Claw? It just didn't sound like a good nickname. Harsh, and... She just didn't like it.

"I had heard, Your Highness. I was sorry to hear of the news." She almost wanted to say no, but it would be a stupid thing to do, so she nodded. "I would love to have tea with you, Your Highness."

"Thank you for the advise, Your Highness, but I've learned that lesson before, believe me."

[Δ|вσω]

"I'm not sad anymore, you know. And please Your Highness makes me sound like the snob I can't accept I am, so please, Claw, call me Princess Sabella."

Then out of the blue Sabella laughed a calm laugh like she would have when she was with him.

"Claw, have you ever finally noticed how stupid it is to mourn for someone that has been taken away from you? I guess I am stupid, agreed?"

[mels, awkwardice queen]

She nodded, again. "Of course, Princess Sabella." Claw. Again.

Then, the princess laughed. Actually laughed. "It's not stupid, Your Highness. Never stupid. Mourning someone isn't stupid." It hadn't been stupid when an 8 year old girl had howled through the night upon finding her family's charred corpses. Losing your fiance wasn't really that same thing, though.

[[deleted user]]

(( Yo. I'm actually making an effort to reply at 11:25 PM, hence the short post ))

Tiptoeing in wedges was difficult, Rhiannon thought as she maneuvered herself between the bookshelves. She didn't know what she was doing here besides walking around. She had expected the Palace to be full of adventure and surprises and such, but it was in fact just the opposite.

She had heard voices coming from the other end of the library when she had first entered, and now decided to make it her business to see who they belonged to. Rhiannon was now just a few shelves away, and she recognized one of the faces as another Selected as she peeked around the corner.

Bringing her foot ahead, it clanked loudly on a shelf. D*mmit.

[Δ|вσω]

" How dare someone who was once my maid disagree to me? What will my brother think? At least you didn't call me stupid. You get one point. Consider yourself lucky. Everyone else is at zero. You are my favorite so far. Don't flatter yourself though, I only know you. I wish to meet no more after this visit. I'll be waiting for the day to come. It may be tomorrow or could be two years. I can't wait to be the front page of the Illea Magazine." Sabella said as tea was set down by at a nearby table and she began walking towards it.

[mels, awkwardice queen]

She just nodded warily, unsure of anything to say. Sabella was a loose cannon when she was like this. So she didn't say anything more, didn't correct her. Just followed her silently over to the tea.

[[deleted user]]

The mystery girl, the one whose face Rhiannon did not know of sat down along with the other Selected. Was this a good time to intrude, she wondered. Or should she stay hidden? No, it would just make it worse if she was discovered as one of the girls seemed rather moody, in fact. "Excuse me." She said softly as she brushed past the sitting area. Half of her wished that she would be asked to stay, the other half was just the opposite.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

[Im on mobile... So...]

Heather wanted out. All she wanted to do, really, was dance, but this palace's ballroom had been clossd this mlrning and well, so she was back. Back to trying to find a not so sucky book to read. So far, a novel called The Shining had caught her attention, and she read, but in a much distracted manner.

What would she be doing if she was home? Dancing, training, conditioning... Right. For every page she finished, she did fifty sit ups. When she got eliminated, for she surely would, seeing the amount of cheek she had excersised, she couldn't afford to have lost the skills she had.

[Δ|вσω]

@ Meli & Aliya

" You are excused," Sabella answered to the girl passing by and glanced up at her with nothing less than a disgusted look. Then she turned to face Claw. " How come I always try to get out of other humans grasps and even though I am faster than them they catch my leg from billions of miles away, without ever touching me, Claw?"

She didn't touch her tea and didn't bother to meet Claw's gaze, nor the unnamed girl.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

Sʜᴀʜᴅɪᴀ { محب الكتب } wrote: "Jake had found a book, an old book on physics by the looks of it"

Heather rounded the corner to find him, wrapped up in a book that was titled Advanced Mechanical Physics, Volume 1. It was thick, unwieldy, the type of book that would be put to better use as a tool for throwing rather than a tool for reading but Jake seemed so entranced, his brow slightly furrowed as his eyes moved down the page that Heather couldn't help but crack a smile. "Did I ever tell you how much of a nerd you are?"

[mels, awkwardice queen]

Claudia's eyes followed the girl as she walked by, and angled her head so that Sabella wouldn't see, motioning that the girl, whoever as was, should curtsy. Turning her attention back to the princess, she shrugged politely. "I wouldn't know, Your Highness."

[Δ|вσω]

"What did I expect, not everyone figures out someone they love hates them. Ah, love should be considered a horrible word, just as bad as hate. Love is hate. If I didn't love him I wouldn't have hated him. I wish I could tell all these stupid Selected girls that they shouldn't feel sorry for themselves because all they did was earn a spot here out of a long shot, they should be grateful they are here. Except you of course, you were already here, to serve me. Funny how my server who would never dream of being near a quarter of an equal to me but here they are, almost there," Sabella exclaimed.

[[deleted user]]

((Aww, Sabella. Burns~))

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"Reading?" Heather put quotation marks around the words she spoke. "You know, I was thinking you looked familiar and then I realized, you're that stereotypical TV-trope of the tweed-jacket professor who is more comfortable with his theories and three thousand page textbooks than he is with human beings," Heather teased as she flipped through the book in her hands in a nonchalant manner.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"Okay, then, not-a-tweed-jacket-nerd, if you didn't get drafted as a guard, what would you have done? Become a quantum mechanics professor? A rocket scientist?" It didn't surprise Heather-- school, the mandatory part of it, had always bored the hell out of Heather, the monotony, the memorization, the random trivia that no one cared about, but Jake was probably the guy who sat at the front with his little glasses and took notes on everything.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"Danced. Played cello. Tried to find ways to achieve world peace. Became a genius and the leading voice for women's rights. All very typical for a Five," Heather replied solemnly, before cracking a wicked smile. "Oh, so you are a-tweed-jacket-nerd," she teased yet again in mock surprise. "Why am I not surprised?"

[dyanne, explanations queen]

Heather raised an eyebrow and looked at the boy as if he were crazy. "You're hopeless," she stated matter-of-factly before sliding down into a splits position to try and freaking read the book. There really was nothing better to do. Heather was a girl of action, and yet here she was, making small talk with a dweeb of a guard and trying to read a book. When was the last time she had actually read a book? Two years? Three?

[[deleted user]]

(( @ Bow/Meli ))

The Selected motioned for her to curtsy. Why? This person indeed wore a beautiful dress, carried herself like a princess and.. Oh, how obvious. Rhiannon would have to curtsy because she was a princess. The princess in fact. Rhiannon nudged her head slightly, meaning that the girl no longer had to angle her head. There was no point in curtsying if the person wouldn't see you. So she did a shallow curtsy.

[mels, awkwardice queen]

She raised an eyebrow at the thee girl, and looked away. She would have thought anyone would have recognized Princess Sabella. She'd become a recluse as of late, of course, but only a short while ago she'd been all over the news, with her engagement and then the sudden breaking of the engagement. She returned her face to the princess beside her, nodding meekly. "Of course, Your Highness. It was an honour to be Selected."

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"So tell me, socially-awkward-professor, what's so fascinating about science?" What was so fascinating about science? It was so sedentary, and it required an immense amount of patience, of simply observing, something Heather could never do. It did not have the thrill of twirling and twirling without becoming dizzy or leaping across stage as little girls whispered, someday, that'll be me. I wanna be a ballerina, like that girl. It did not have the thrill of all the hours of practice paying off as you went from minor roles to major roles.

Heather appreciated hard work, nights staying up in one's own room with bruises and aching joints, aching everything as they did the same thing over and over again, striving for perfection, determined to achieve that next level. She appreciated balance and delicacy and detail, she appreciated the competition, the fight to get into that school, that theater, that role. But she did not see the point in memorization and mere numbers and trial after trial, error after error, until one day, there was a lucky break. A stroke of chance, really. All it had taken was some patience and some luck, and that sort of victory was so hollow. Or so it seemed.

But seeing the boy with shining eyes as he read voraciously, maybe not. And if not, she wanted to know the secreet.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"Don't scientists disprove "true" theories and facts about science all the time?" Heather asked with an eyebrow raise, challenging him. There were a crap ton of names to memorize in science, and one of the reasons were that there was always more, or because no, actually, that person wasn't right and that person didn't deserve the credit and this person actually only had part of the answer. Science was the furthest away from straightforward, at least, from what her teachers had taught her. "Well, try, Jake. If I was your student, and I had reluctantly signed up for your class because may or may not have had a thing for nerdy guys with ruffled brown hair, how would you convince me that science isn't just a set of monotonous laws and theories that can never actually be proven?"

[dyanne, explanations queen]

[Trying to make a chara (also study for a math test and do bio homework)-- will get back ASAP]

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"Oho, so you are admitting to being nothing more than a boring, tweed-jacket dweeb of a professor?" Heather asked, raising her eyebrow. "I thought that Threes were allowed to dream big." It was another thing that Heather hated about the caste system. For as long as she could remember, when it came to Heather and her talents, everyone told her to remember that 99% of the time, Fives never made it. The occasional stories of Fives becoming Twos, achieving fame, wealth, the "it" life could be fairy tales, and children were taught at a very young age that the reality was that you would most likely live in a small two, maybe three room condo for the rest of your life, have kids, try to juggle work with family, reach the age where your legs became brittle and refused to dance and eyes could not read music any more, and at that point, you had to cross fingers and hope to god that your children loved you more than you loved your parents. There were far more stories of Fives becoming Eights than Fives becoming Twos. Three down was much easier than Three up. That was just the way of the world. But Threes? No, it was ridiculous that this boy aspired to be just a teacher. But then again, Jake was ridiculous, and not just in this one aspect.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

That was rather noble. Heather thought back to faceless names and nameless faceless, men and women who looked at their children with bored, tired expressions, out of f*cks to give, there only for the small amount of money it gave them. If a teacher actually enjoyed their job, would the student actually enjoy learning? It was a novel idea for Heather, and she simply raised her eyebrows yet again as she let this sink in. If Jake Reynolds could read minds, he would find that the small amount of respect that Heather had for him had grown considerably at this, that she found, against all odds, his "nerdiness" endearing, that she really wouldn't mind being in his class because that certain fire in the boy's eyes told her that he wouldn't be anything like the teachers of the old. But Heather was not one for sentimentality or voicing her feelings, for that matter, and while she had decided that it was wrong of her to judge so quickly on Jake, it wasn't wrong to feel a bit wary, and slightly embarassed at the memory of the kiss. "I think I've already mentioned how weird you are, love?"

[Sooo sorry Shad GR didn't update me on this wtf and seriously Jeather I'm so attached to this ship now Heather actually has complexity and feelings that aren't anger thanks to Jake]

[Δ|вσω]

"Well, ladies, I must head off now. I believe my maid has finished cleaning my room and I can go back inside. Until next time," Sabella said, slightly wanting to stay and be herself with those girls.

Just once if she could be her funny self that everyone knew on the televisions years ago, if she could forget about him. She had to move on, that was what Sabella decided. Oh, but she knew how to do that. The only way to move on was to hurt him, too.

She was beginning to think she had a nice time with that girl, but believed nice times were in the past, which flooded her with bad memories of him and her in the library reading books and drinking tea just like that. A tear fell from her eye as she stood up.

With a short and nearly silent whimper she turned to walk away.

[mels, awkwardice queen]

Claudia bowed her head to the Princess. "Goodbye, Your Highness. I hope you'll have a pleasant rest of the day." She saw the tear. And she heard the whimper. But the Princess would not thank her for mentioning them. And it was the Princess's problem. She would need to figure it out on her own, for now.

[[deleted user]]

Rhiannon did the same, and added in a small curtsy, not wanting to be outdone as usual. She saw the tear, but did not hear the whimper. She would have said something else if the Princess hadn't already left. Sabella must have mastered composing herself by now- she obviously had, in fact, because that tear was the only flaw Rhiannon saw. She then turned to the other girl, and gave her a quick once over.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"If you say so," Heather replied in an unconvinced manner as she stood up and looked at the boy in a confused way. Noble, but stupid, she thought to herself dryly, wondering how long it would take for insufferable brats to catch up to him and make him lose interest in such a job. She was being quite the debby downer but Heather didn't remember any of her teachers, or, if she did, it was merely because they had strange names. Not one of them had left any sort of effect on her, and she questioned his statements. Would trying really make that much of a difference?

[mels, awkwardice queen]

She returned the look, picking up her cup of tea, and taking a sip. Another selected girl, by the looks of her. She was pretty. Really pretty. She wondered if he was one of the girls Perry had his eye on.

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"What's it like? Having a teacher who cares?" Was it like the dance instructors who knew they weren't being paid for the extra hours they put in pushing their students towards flawlessness? Standing, critiquing, somehow still up with another shot of espresso as the hands of the clock inched towards 1 am and everything was sore but they cared so much that Heather ended up caring that much more herself? It was pushing born out of love, out of eyes which somehow saw talent in this girl who was more than just another pretty face and to the few who had taken time to try to nurture it, Heather was eternally grateful. Was that why Jake wanted to teach?

[dyanne, explanations queen]

"Sure," Heather said in a disinterested manner before giving a softer smile. "No, I get what you mean. It's like that with dance, I just never thought someone could fall in love with science the way I fell in love with dance. They seem so different, you know? One's all about movement and balance and flow while the other one is wild hair and nerds gathered around glass tubes trying to see what things explode and what things don't explode, no offense."