Hydaelyn Role-Players

Tani leaned forward, all right, and lowered her voice in kind.  "Why don't you give me something new to love?"

She allowed the touch, tilting her face into it before its withdrawal.

Ul'dah was full of the illicit and the tawdry, after all, and it was tradition to add a little more to the pot.  Tani leaned into the arm set to the back of the bench, making the shift just this side of proper.  The wrong side.

Isabelle mused and began to strum a little something, "Your wishes are my desires.."

The perfect song came to mind..

"The rain now falls
Each drop an agony
The war has come
Without you next to me

Oh wandering love
Farther with every mile
Know no defeat
Through ice and dragon fire

Come to back to me if i fall
Please believe you once loved me

Though you don't know me.."

Her song was soft and haunting, heartfelt and gentle. Her gaze remained locked with Tani's as she continued..

"The arrows fly
Points tipped in misery
To ruins laid
Our home, our sanctuary

Smoke fills the skies
All the worlds a burning ember
Shall our love die?
With no one to remember

Hold onto me and what was
Please believe you one loved me

Though you don't know me.."

Isabelle lost herself in her own song, strumming her harp as her heart poured forth wordlessly with such passion.

"Come back to me if I fall
Please believe you once loved me

Though you don't know me.."

She paused as the song ended, still gazing into Tani's eyes.

Something in Tani's face shifted, amorphous and delicate, though she showed the bard another wry smile.  "My, my," she said, as if the sudden silence was unwelcome.  "You must be thirsty.  Care for a drink?"

Isabelle nodded once, "Sounds lovely. Lead on..?" She would only stand once Tani did, following the hyur with curiousity.

What the hell do you think you're doing? Mm.. relax.

Ul'dah belonged to Tani.  Would always belong to Tani.  Not because it was the city of her birth, because it wasn't.  Not even because it was the city of her childhood, because it certainly had been.  No, it was because everything had happened in Ul'dah, had stripped her down to her bones, and ingrained its sand and wind into her flesh.

She was still one of its denizens as she stood, heavy-lidded eyes daring much as she settled them on the other, the stranger, at once familiar and new.  Just like every other stranger who had crossed Tani's path, and touched the blood that ran hot beneath her skin.  She didn't know if the minstrel was part of Ul'dah, and really didn't care, because as she held out her hand with her fingers crooking languidly in a universal sign to follow, she intended to draw that honey-tongued flower down beneath the sands, to the bonedust that clogged her gutters and her perfumes that ground everything into so much flesh and heat.

That mood.

Silent now, choking silent.  Tani drew her guest past the bronze and gold stone walls, over the cobbled walk.  Out, away from the center of the city, past the throngs and rosy lantern lights.  They drew attention as they walked, and Tani knew what it must seem; the elezen was dressed in some kind of finery, in the sort of outfit Ul'dah was famous for, flashing skin in waves of motion and heat, a mirage of invitation all too quick to prove fatal.  So many looked, open questions on their faces: Tani, by contrast, was dressed in rough-spun, loose fitting shirt, and cheap shorts.  Her sandals were worn, and dusty.  There were only so many reasons why someone like her would be leading someone like the minstrel about, and passing fancies reflected back at her in the faces of those who noticed them.  Seen and forgotten, like so many things in Ul'dah.

She breathed it in.  Spice and perfume, blood and dirt.  Strident catcalls, answering songs; the endless back and forth between predators of every gender, looking for money and pleasure, back and forth: a game.  Ul'dah's game.  So many games to be had.  Tani slid past most of them, pausing for brief snatches of the life around them, gauging her companion's reaction at each: the coordinated, easy movement of dancers in torchlight; the drumming rhythm of a street performer making do with the things others had thrown away; a game of dice, in the dust -- its players a scruffy lot of dark-eyed miners slinging back booze and hard words; children chasing a dog, sticks, and whoops, and hollers lingering behind them long after they were out of sight, until their voices faded into the city. 

Tani didn't know why she was touring the woman around, as if presenting some shiny bauble to fickle friends, though which was which, she didn't care and wouldn't name.  She walked because she wanted to, because the most overt haunts were not her favorites, because maybe she wanted to feel the pulse of the city with new fingers at its throat.  Whatever the case, a quarter-bell had passed before she stopped in front of a dimly lit archway, unmarked but for the crude sign that was carved into the arch: a mallet.  Behind a loosely hung cloth and some hanging beads was a small, smoky den.

There was music -- raspy strings -- under the scattered chatter, with just enough light to catch the curling smoke.  No one really paid them heed as they entered, but for the bartender, wiping down a glass in that way some bartenders had: stodgy, but well-rehearsed.

The bar was Tani's destination, and she sat without introduction, simply turning partway to look behind her: observing, waiting, daring.

Isabelle was intrigued with this side of Tani. The confidence, the arrogance, the clear-cut assertion. She would follow the hyur through the streets of Ul'dah. A place not unfamiliar to herself. Though she was born to the icy snows of Coerthas, Ul'dah was the city of choice. The night life thrived and cool air wasn't quite so frigid and icy. The sound of sand in the wind was nothing short of calming. A different kind of ocean than the one she'd been living in.

The elezen would play her part, winking, smirking, musing at the attentions of others as they glanced at the pair. She followed without protest. Without a second thought. With.. trust.

Trust? Hmph. Curiousity. Merely curiousity. That is it.

Isabelle glanced at the tavern and strode in behind Tani. She was slightly wary, though did her best not to show it. Confidence. Steady..

When prompted with that curious little side-glance, the elezen would continue to smile. "Such an interesting place. Of all my time spent in Ul'dah.. I am pleased to see that there are always new things to learn and new places to dwell."

"Ul'dah would be impossible to know fully, unless you spent all of your life chasing her.  She is always changing."  The words were full of fondness, Tani rolling her head back on her neck as she looked from the other to the bartender.  She lifted her hand for service, and was rewarded by the slender man moving before them, the question asked with a silent lift of his brows.

Tani took a deep breath, relishing the smell of smoke and an underlying scent, like fragrant wood. 

"Spiced tea," she said, exhaling, smiling contentedly.  She lifted her hand, holding her fingers an ilm apart.  "Spicy, and sharp.  On the side."

She slid her eyes to the other.  "On me."

Isabelle would playfully retort to those words, "On you..? What position?" She'd mischievously grin and giggle a little before turning towards the bartender, "Have you a bit of spiced ale? Nay much. I like the warmth but I like my wits about me."

She'd give Tani a knowing side-glance. She knew this game. It was a game of chess.. and she delighted in it.

There was a shadow in Tani's eyes as her companion giggled, and the bartender nodded and moved off.  She rubbed at her lips, the hand gliding over her cheek to toy with her earring.  It jingled, barely heard above chatter and that deep, rasping stringed instrument.

"A winning hand," she said.  Her smile was lopsided, and easy.  "Really, any winning position."

Isabelle would lean closer. She'd let the hyur smell the soft scent of her perfume. Floral. Cinnamon. Expensive.. She'd let Tani's eyes wander her form freely, as she did others. Once more, that nail traced the accountant's jawline with a predatory glint in her eye.

Her voice was a low, sultry purr, "An earned victory or a stole one..?" She would lean in close. Very teasingly close. The elezen bit her bottom lip and mused, comforable within Tani's space without a care in the world who saw or spectated.

That nail would trace down Tani's neck.. only to withdraw after it had traced the hyur's collarbone.

Drinks are here.

Tani withdrew from that near embrace, reaching out for her drink and the shooter beside it.  Blasphemy, really, but sometimes fun made that a requirement. 

"Whyever would I tell you, madam?"

She leaned forward, onto the bar, both hands wrapped around the mug and its scented heat -- much stronger than the perfume.  Tani buried herself in it, thinking of flowers.

The elezen would elegantly take a sip of her ale. She would watch Tani from the corner of her eyes. "Mm.. I wonder, what happens next in that delightfully devious mind of yours..? Surely you did not merely ask me here for a drink." 

She'd tilt her head, "Your sly smile gives you away."

"Perhaps you must need get your eyes checked."  Tani's voice roughened around the edges -- a likely byproduct of her drink.  She chased it with the shooter, savoring it with drooping eyelids and rocking back on her stool, torso stretching as her head tipped back.

"You maintain your reputation, Master Aylwin" she said, turning the small glass over and sliding it towards the bartender, who acknowledged her without speaking.

Rumor was he'd lost his tongue, though Tani was fairly sure it was untrue.

She turned her attention back to her drinking companion.  "Or...perhaps you merely speak of things you hope to be true, mm?"

Isabelle laughed light-heartedly. "Tis rare one would invite a minstrel someplace for merely a drink. Forgive my assumptions."

She'd smile at Tani and take another sip of her spiced ale. Ul'dah always had it right.. Far too many disappointments in Limsa.

The minstrel would hum a soft tune to herself, merely enjoying the quiet moments... for however long they lasted.

Not long, as it turned out.

"Oh?  Shall I demand a song in repayment for your drink?" Her tone was playful, but Tani watched Isabelle sidelong, never quite looking at the other woman straight.  There was a certain gravity in her eyes; a consideration in the way her eyes slid over that silken-clad body, that veiled face. 

Or not.  Aylwin brought her another chaser, as her fingers climbed up and down her mug: demonstrative, to say the least.