A Potter's Cottage (open)

[Hana]

“I… Well… Ah…”

She bit her lip, looking at him with wide eyes. When he took her hand, she didn’t break her shocked gaze. It was only as she was pulled up, and she nearly brushed into him that she looked away. Once the distance between them was at least proper she started to look around, considering it.

“I… Well…”

What had she done to deserve this? What good deed? She thought herself perhaps a little too trusting of Alistair, but in truth she simply couldn’t help it. The surprise and excitement was written all over her expression.

She cleared her throat. “I suppose that the heat would be too great in the warm months for the cottage…”

She looked back at him again.

[Alistair deGrey]

Sometimes the universe conspires to aid you, painting innocuous facades onto events of great import. When this happens, and existence lurches something into motion, there are two paths to take: create a disconnect and ignore conspiracy, or perhaps give it a little push yourself."

It was then that deGrey noticed the afternoon sun wavering above their heads. The day was waning, and he wanted to commence the project today. However, doubts hovered about him when he considered leaving Ha'na at this moment. Perhaps they could take lunch together, perhaps they could stroll the streets. Perhaps, perhaps, just another may perhaps. deGrey dare not ask her to abandon her station, though he badly wanted to.

The traffic in the street was depleting as the sun pierced into the streets sunken between buildings. People were returning to their various abodes to break for luncheon, or perhaps escape the streets devoid of shadow.

Alistair noticed Ha'na gazing at him once more, and his consciousness was immediately repealed by the lingering surprise and exuberance in her eyes. Truthfully he did not know what to say, had no words. The reluctant tug of his mind, reminding him of the work he must soon do, was all that kept him from becoming lost.

deGrey did not relish his next words, the fear of rejection tinting his thoughts like smoky glass. "Shall we proceed? If... If you do not have the tools here, we might need to return to my workshop later." Alistair desperately wanted to share himself with her, to show her the machines that populated his life, the smooth hum of gears. But a look of doubt crossed his face regardless.

Whats more, if Ha'na did not have parchment and coals to design the blueprint with here, he actually would require her presence at the workshop.

[Hana]

“I don’t have tools to build, save a shovel,” she said all too quietly, looking down with slight embarrassment at the fact that really she was barely making due.

It had been such a long time since she’d truly let someone in.

The word was precipice. She’d seen them everywhere she’d traveled. Mountains. Coasts. Rivers… Sometimes with waterfalls, gentle enough to stand under. Sometimes with abris to hide in. How many times had she stood at the edge, never feeling any urge to jump?

The last place she would have thought she’d find a cliff was in front of her own home – As if the ground underneath her shifted against itself, forming it over noon. She stood, and the sinking sensation curved into the pit of her stomach. She wanted to jump. She really did. It was the fear of the unknown that kept her hesitant.

She was curious about him. She wanted to know more. Yet she knew how this story went. Perhaps she didn’t know how it ended, but she knew that eventually she would have to share more of herself than simply her skills with clay and her meek attempts at story-telling. He would want to know more. A fair trade. Friendships and human interaction was not so different from bartering at the market for something you wanted. What scared her was the thought of letting someone in.

Just one step. Then two. Out into the air.

She swallowed, looking back up at him, hoping rather sorely that he didn’t sense what was a moment of existential crisis.

“I want to see your workshop.”

[Alistair deGrey]

Open the doors, let the wind sweep into the room. Let it fill the cracks and crevices, and make the four walls breathe like lungs. Allow it to usher fear and anxiety from you, recreating you with extract of anticipation and concentrated novelty.

It was enlightenment. An entirely new dimension had been slipped into Alistair's world. Never had deGrey been so exhilarated to show somebody himself, peel back the iron casing and let them examine the gears. In fact, never had he shown anybody in Syliras his workshop voluntarily. Always business, always work. Alistair knew that she had only agreed to accompany him to his workshop, but the overwhelming novelty was inebriating.

"Oh excellent!" Alistair glanced at the pots sitting on the table before them, "would you like me to return your pieces to your house?" Alistair was not entirely sure if Ha'na wanted to leave her pottery out, but he was more than willing to put her stock away until she returned. At this point in time there was little he would not do for Ha'na, who had brought such a strange experience.

Forgotten memories stirred, guilty reburied, attraction ignited. For the man who raised learning to his highest priority, Ha'na was a god send.

[Hana]

She stood for a moment nodding at him slowly like she didn’t understand what he was saying. What had distracted her was the feeling of jumping and the sensation of her stomach in her throat. She blinked out of it, looking to her pots then.

“Oh! My pots… Yes.” She nodded slightly, starting her quick little movements to walk to them. Bending down, she started to take them off of the trunk and put them on the ground. “We can put them in the trunk, and then would you help me carry them inside? I will have to put the chair and table back in too.”

She looked up at him, offering another radiant, slightly scared smile. “Really? You’re going to let me see your workshop?”

It seemed this one had a hard time believing anyone would take the time to do anything for or with her.

[Alistair deGrey]

Its cool anticipation. Its like swallowing ice so they butterflies don't die of thirst.

deGrey snatched up the proffered smile like a drowning man gasping for air. "Of course I am." Like it was simple, like it was obvious. Because who wouldn't? Alistair returned Ha'na's smiled, offering acceptance in return for company. Life could become lonely now and again.

The pots still smelled of the kiln and the earth that they came from. Alistair's hands grasped each pot and delicately put them into the case. His caution with each one was overwhelming, far be it from him to wreak disaster. Finally the pots had been placed inside the secure trunk, and the pair lifted it into her small house. This is not nearly as heavy as I had anticipated... deGrey found himself silently wishing he had carried it in himself. Whether it was because he wished to display physical prowess, or because he did not want Ha'na to have to work, remained unknown. The inventor remedied his slip by taking the table in himself, rather awkwardly, while his Benshiran companion stowed the chair. Within short order the task was finished.

"Excellent. Shall we depart madame?" Alistair held out his arm.

Continued here...

[Dusk]

XP Award! Ha'na XP Award Pottery: 1 XP Seduction: 1 XP Storytelling: 2 XP Teaching: 1 XP Lore Award Flirting with an awkward genius Alistair XP Award Interrogation: 2 XP Seduction: 3 XP Lore Award Buying Pottery Benshira Pottery Decorations Fire-pits Flirting despite being an awkward genius Additional Notes Okay, so you don't actually need to keep those Flirting Lores, I just thought it was funny. ^^ I love these two - like, seriously, I am waiting with baited breath for the next installment! By which I mean, I've already read the next installment, and am waiting to see how it ends. Fantastic role-playing, both of you, and I look forward to seeing how it progresses. Or how life shows up to bite them in the ass.