PM to join [BDC] A Little Chat (Shayna)

[Aspahassajiv Rajor]

Time Stamp: 2nd Winter 513

"Ah — no, not the, ah, coloured creme …" Ajiv, met the eyes of the woman behind the counter who was trying to assist him and saw no comprehension there. He let out a short hiss of frustration. The flat clumpy tongue of a human did not shiver responsively like the bifurcated one of his Dhani or snake form, so the relief from his annoyance was brief.

The wooden counter before him was littered with salves, cremes, unguents, liquids, lotions, soaps, tinctures and infusions. At the far left the different products were widely spaced, each a different option that had had its properties explained. A few polite (though halting) words from Ajiv had been offered in response in turn. The words had been listened to with a smile and a nod, before the next was retrieved and described. Moving to the right and forward in time, the pots had begun to be opened; their qualities demonstrated. The cremes had peaks in them from where fingers had been dipped; the scent of sandalwood in the store was now mingled with various aromatic infusions; the wooden countertop shimmered with powders that had drifted to it during demonstrations. The open pots had started neatly spaced, then became haphazard and crowded in desperation, then an erratic spacing returned in exhaustion. The pots were not open to the furthest right, where Ajiv stood now. Each pot was placed, and then the salesperson and the Dhani exchanged a moment of mutual mute incomprehension. They would bond over the shared torment before inevitably, inescapably, the salesperson retrieved the next pot. The current offering was a shimmery foundation that looked suitable for an anaemic Inarta, rather than the dusky 6' 2" Dhani that stood before her, dense with the coiled power of a natural wrestler.

"Ah — I have … remember. Mussst meet a friend. Thank you — Ah, thank you very much for your help." Ajiv stepped back from the counter — a long step, taking the distance while it was available. Relief swept across his interlocutor's face and she seemed to have to visibly restrain herself from sagging against the counter. Ajiv turned to leave as she finished her pleasantries, cursing himself. If he wished to have a life outside the plantation — a serious one, not just of partying with low lives and freeborns, seducing slaves — then he needed to master the language in which they all conversed. Worse, he knew his language skills were at least a little better than he was portraying. This exchange had been too close to a reminder of the business he was intending to start, and had put him on edge, afraid to push himself. As resourceful as he knew himself to be, he could surely have mangled some Common into a clearer request; but would mangling Common get him the respect and credibility he would need?

As he stood at the top of the steps, fretting, he took in the elegant grounds of Black Diamond Cosmetics. The greenery calmed him. At the edge of his consciousness, he became aware of a scratchy rustling. The stairs below him were being swept by an amusingly small slave. Perhaps a child … One could never really tell with humans. Looking at her, however, he realised that if he was to practice his Common, doing so in front of someone unimportant might be the wisest route.

"Girl!" He called out to the slave in Common as he swept down the stairs towards her. "Girl, you sssspeak Common?" His question was a little flat, the full inflection to differentiate it from a statement somewhat lacking. Still, as he stood across from the girl, towering fourteen inches above her, she would quickly realise a response was required.

[Shayna]

Time Stamp: 2nd Winter 513

ooc :

I time stamped the thread. Remember whenever you start a thread always date it so that people(graders and ST's) know what time of the season it was in

The short slave moved quickly across her duties, the winter air cool but not cold in the swamp. Her black hair was well brushed, if a little unevenly cut thanks to her Mistress desire to make her look 'presentable'. Her clothing was simple garments, a straight knee length skirt that allowed movement without being shapeless, and a blouse that was sleeveless. The only thing truly remarkable about her was her rather short nature, and her wide green eyes that held a black circle around the outside of the colored portions. Otherwise she was plain, and her Mistress never let her forget it. The freckles on her face dusted across her face until the raised ridge of her slave's brand that was burned into the side of her face. Three pillars with a suspended diamond graced her cheek just beside her eye.

Shayna looked up with a start when she heard a voice, her green eyes going immediately to his face even though she had to tip her head back to see even at a small distance. She was looking for the markings that would declare him freeborn or slave, and thus decide how she responded. However there were no markings...a Dynasty.

Other slaves might have thought about what an inconvenience it was to be noticed by such as they, but Shayna viewed it as an opportunity at first. A Dynasty had information, and information was wealth as a slave. However as he got closer his height began to register, and though she was used to most adults towering over her, this one was different. Without thinking the slave girl stepped back, her fingers tighten against the broom handle not daring to raise it but looking as if she wanted to. Her back and her arms bore the stripes of the last time a Dynasty that wasn't her Mistress took notice of her on the streets. The lash marks fully healed but still new enough that they were not faded to thickened scars yet, but were still red. Fortunately for Shayna most are hidden by her blouse, except the few strokes that had landed on her arm.

She did not drop her head, as many slaves were prone to doing, instead she lifted her chin though her eyes did not meet his. They stopped somewhere around his chin area, much like she addresses her Mistress. Her heart pounded mostly due to the syllabant s's that marked him as Dhani. Snakes of all kinds gave her the shivers. "Yes m'lord I do speak common...do you need directions?" What else could he want from her? She had been very careful to watch her tongue since the last time. Though she knew that her Mistress was not happy at the lashing she had received through no real fault of her own, she also knew that her Mistress was not happy at her either for bringing attention like that upon her.

[Aspahassajiv Rajor]

It was almost curious how varied the ripples of flesh could be across the face of the diminutive mammal in front of him could be. It had been about a decade that Ajiv himself was able to assume this ape-form, but he had not used the time to become familiar with the subtle shifting of the human face. He had spent time enough as a human, but the faces he had seen had emotions etched deeply throughout them. A thick-ridged sculpture of a wild laugh, or, with a shift of the light, a tortured scream. Here, on this little mouse: a small flicker of something positive at first? And then fear. The signs were subtle, but a predator was attuned to such. A sensible enough reaction, but irritating at the present moment. He pursed his lips.

"No, not directionsss … Talking." His eyes flicked from side to side briefly as he searched his memory. "Converssation!" He rolled his shoulders as a little triumphant smile played over his lips. "Yessss. We will conversssation — Have converssation. And you will correct me." He glanced over the steps, his eyes alighting on an area that Shayna had recently cleared that would serve as a makeshift seat. "Sssit here," he gestured towards the steps, "Or if there isss bench?" He turned his head out over the garden. A slight breeze played over the grass and Ajiv suppressed a small shudder. Even as mild as the Kenash winters were, he longed for the sweltering heat to come. He wished to spread out in great coils and on baking rocks and swallow whole Kenashires. He had come to find himself watching the wild backs of the lot. He snapped his attention back to the conversation, and the girl with dark hair and green eyes who would be his first step to a fortune in this town and moving more centrally in the Rajor family, despite his birth. The toothy grin he had borne at the thought of summer returned.

"Sssit," he repeated.

[Shayna]

The longer he stood there looking at her, the more steely Shayna became. Instead of wilting under his gaze she stood straighter -subconscious effort to maximize her brief height- and her chin firmed. One didn't get anywhere but the fields if one didn't learn to anticipate what others really wanted, however this one's request was strange to her ears. Why was he wanting her to sit, to talk to him? Conversation was talking, but she couldn't fathom what he could possibly want from talking to her her.

Her green eyes flicked to the shop door, before returning towards him once more settling somewhere around his jaw and mouth region. She did lift the broom now, not in a fashion of trying to swing it at the other but just to indicate that she was holding it. "If it pleases you sir, I am sorry. But my Mistress, Katherine Morealis, has tasked me to taking care of her property. Not sitting and talking." She didn't quite have the courage to turn away from him, but she did manage to set her spine and begin to methodically sweep dirt nad debris sometimes kicked up onto the walk in front of her Mistresses shop.

"I don't know what M'lord wants to talk to me about." Shayna's words are quiet but sure, she had learned her lesson well on guarding her tongue. "I assure you that I don't have anything of importance to tell you...other then if your looking for a bench there isn't one. I can summon the twit Iora to bring you a chair." She didn't stop to think, Iora was freeborn. While her Mistress liked to fan the flames of competition between the two, Iora will always be a step higher then Shayna in Kenash. Unless she lost her freeborn status...something for Shayna to contemplate.

[Aspahassajiv Rajor]

The little one before him eked out an extra half hair of height as any slump in her spine disappeared. Good. A creature that crumbled beneath any interaction with a Dynasty member would be unlikely to make a rousing conversation partner and might well lack the fortitude to correct his errors, in which case the whole exercise would be moot. In fact, he would have had to waste effort on trying to dredge something up from a resolutely still pool that was (in addition!) a slave. A slave can always be reshaped of course, but the process is lengthy and would stir all sorts of property disputes if he did it with one he did not own.

He had noticed in fact that slaves with a little bit of resistance were more useful and resourceful. A slave might respectfully voice their opinion in private, or even ask to be excused from work. After all, there was no reason for them to be without useful knowledge and they know their own limits. It simply wasn't efficient to overuse a slave. Unlike some of his sisters, his sadistic streak was not particularly pronounced; he kept the pain he inflicted for catharsis very separate from the pain he inflicted as punishment. Again, anything else was inefficient. So, if this liveliness could be discerned from an active conversational partner, as he now suspected, he had another tool to add to his battery for assessing new acquisitions. But to test the hypothesis, he would need co-operation from this girl. Dynamism and compliance — in equal measure — were required for a good slave. Which is why he was frustrated at this evasion. He had to remind himself she was not his slave. A slave who could resist other Dynasty would be valuable if it were his, just not in someone else. Nonetheless, the Rajor cannot be resisted for long.

His frustration mounted when it became apparent he had not made his intention clear. He was not willing to let this interaction dissolve into chaos like the one in the shop had. He needed compliance and clarity — in equal measure. His eyes raked over the slave as she continued her duties, her motions revealing stone a little brighter as she cleared away dust and debris. Red welts emerged from beneath her blouse to show on her arm. He reached out and took hold of one with his left arm, while simultaneously gripping her chin with his other hand. With the first he squeezed, careful to only apply enough pressure to smart and not to injure in his anger or with his significant strength. With the second he tilted her head back so a level gaze would meet his eyes. He was at arm's length from her to minimise the angle her neck was at, but even at that distance it was unlikely to be comfortable.

"You will sit," he dropped his hand from her chin and motioned again to the cleanest part of the steps that had room enough for them both to sit. "Important doesssn't matter." He released her arm. "You mussst teach. My Common isss bad." A pause. "Not bad. Not good." He smirked at her, inviting her to share the joke. "I mussst know." He moved and sat at the far edge of the clean section of steps. "To ssstart, what isss 'twit'? Slave?" As he spoke, he gestured to the spot near him on the stair where he wished her to sit.

[Shayna]

For other classes of people, if someone were to handle them the way the Rajor handled Shayna, their first instinct would probably be to pull back, to struggle or to fight. Shayna's instinct was the exact opposite. As soon as his fingers clamped around her arm the slave instantly went pliant. Not limp, she didn't lose composure nor did she cause him to have to either let her fall or hold her weight..however it was an immediate pliability. Completely relaxed muscles, a deep breath inhaled, the only thing that marked her as anything other then a proper slave was the fact that her eyes did not slide away from his when his hand forced her chin up. Instead her oddly colored eyes meet his until his hand released her chin, then her gaze focused once more around the chin area.

When his hand left her arm, she did relent and rub the area with her hand though there was no great pain left behind, only a slight tingle from where his hand had gripped. Her other hand never let go of the broom, and she kept it in hand as she stepped toward the step he had pointed too, giving one last look up at the shop door. "Mistress Katherine expects me to have my duties finished before she is ready to return to Blacksugar." This is given as partial warning to the Rajor, Katherine Morealis might be cross with her slave if she caught her slacking off in her duties, but she might also be cross with the Rajor as well. The Rajor had not paid for Shayna, nor did he pay for Shayna's upkeep either, so to keep her busy for too long from her Mistress' work would be unseemly.

Sitting, her height making it easy for her to take up just a small amount of space on the steps, her knees bending and her hands pulling at the hem of her skirt downward over her knees. "A twit is a dullard. Someone who is too simple to do more then follow orders..Someone who can not think for themselves." Some might say that describes slaves, however Shayna is an example of why that is not always true. Her sharp mind, that often takes in observations that many would never reveal to an important member of society is her ticket to climbing the slave hierarchy.

"Why do you ask a slave to teach you common. Wouldn't it be easier to have someone who spoke your..native language to teach you?"

[Aspahassajiv Rajor]

Ajiv was pleased to see the girl coming to sit with him, despite the various glances and reluctances. The magnitude of her concern, clear from her grip on the broom, was slightly concerning. He really had no sense how this would affect her quality as a conversationalist. Or, indeed, as an instructor. Perhaps the fact that she had ceased to make eye contact with him after he released her chin was a bad sign. Or perhaps merely a sign of politeness. He had to counterpose this potentially problematic signal with the fact she had met his eyes when he had lifted her chin. Another sign of the backbone he sought. He cared little either way whether she met his eyes, but making clear that she was permitted to might allow her to lean into the conversation more. Of course, communicating that was in itself a problem. What a conundrum: he could not improve his Common unless he put her at ease, but he would struggle to put her at ease with his limited Common.

As he mused on this the girl mentioned her duties once again before sitting. He supposed her mistress might be angry at them both for wasting the time of the slave. There was little love lost between the Morealis Dynasty and the Rajors. But if the worst came to it, he would shove a few Mizas in the ape-lady’s face. No one could claim that was not more than ample recompense for the slave’s time he had ‘wasted’.

He had settled on an approach to the girl. It seemed possible the action would spook her, but he judged it worth the risk. He tapped the side of her head close to her eyes. “Very green eyesss. Good. May sssee — look.” He tapped two fingers beneath his own eyes. “May look. But mussstn’t.” The Dhani struggled briefly to differentiate between ‘don’t have to’ and ‘have to not’. “Not mussst. May look but not mussst.” The words were clearly not right, but if this slave attended to her proper task she would correct him and he would learn.

Though he did not know the word ‘dullard’, he was able to follow the rest easily enough. It seemed easier to follow fluent common then to produce it. “To be a twit isss … bad.” He hissed slightly, reaching one arm higher up the steps before curling it back to place a fist on his head: a physical expression of his frustration. He sought for a way to express himself. “If I wasss — were! — a twit, I … would … be bored.” Ajiv let out a little laugh at that! He had dredged up some old grammar lessons there. “A twit is a slave,” he averred. “A slave to …” he struggled again “Do one, then do two, then do three. Then do one, then do two, then do three …” He trailed off. It was in response to her question that he spoke again.

“There are some reasons. Not one.” He tried to clarify his first statement. The hand that had rested on his head swept out slowly as if to indicate the many reasons he had asked her. “If I am …” He grinned here, “If I cannot say word to family, I say snake-tongue word. If I cannot say word here, I must find other way. Learn.” He nodded in agreement to his own statement.

“I am Ajiv,” he added after a moment. “Your name, slave?”

[Shayna]

Shayna flinches when he tapped her temple, but again she didn't try and avoid his touch or deter his touch. She stared at him for a moment, trying to work out what he meant when he said she could look but mustn't look. She avoided Dynasty eyes simply because it would not do to make one feel as if she were being aggressive, yet she didn't cower and duck her head to show she was not a beaten meek twit. Finally though it dawned on her what he had meant, or rather what he might have meant. "Do you mean I may look at your eyes, but it isn't a demand that I do?" She tilts her head, her eyes moving up once more to boldly look him in the eye. Not challenging him, but simply allowing her natural tendency toward almost a proud stance to show. "Mustn't means Must not. A better phrase would be 'you don't have to.'" Shayna felt slightly uncomfortable instructing someone, particularly a Dynasty man, and the discomfort showed by the way her hands continued to wrap her fingers around the broom so tightly. Of course this might be because he was a Dhani as well.

"A twit is stupid. Plain and simple." She didn't quite take on a correcting tone, though it was a struggle not to. It chafed a little bit to be compared to a twit even in just an analogy. Simply being a slave does not make one a twit. "A slave is someone bound to serve another. There is a difference. I am called Shayna." He had given her his name, which was more then many Dynasty members bothered to give, so it was something of interest to store away to remember.

[Aspahassajiv Rajor]

OoC :

I keep forgetting to thank you for reminding me about timestamping! I've added it to the top post for when grading comes around. Also, I'm not gonna be around much this weekend. Just some forewarning.

Ah! The girl was responding boldly. And serving her function in correcting him. An excellent result; despite his difficulty reading the mouse, this might prove to be a fruitful resource for his language acquisition — maybe even one he would use again. The green eyes met his in a surprisingly steady gaze after she was able to fathom his meaning. "Ah. Don't have to." He noted that though the girl's positioning seemed to show strength, her tight grip on her broom showed she was unlikely to be relaxed. Perhaps the position she had assumed did not indicate strength in a mammal? Her neck was sort of bared, which could be intentional vulnerability, but the eye contact made it unlikely. Perhaps she was tense, though showing strength, because she was in a confrontational mode; her words did not seem to support such a conclusion, but the lashes on her arm might mark her a troublesome slave. He could let this discomfort slide if she was able to be useful nonetheless. Indeed, she continued to correct him in the usage of 'slave', though in fact his point had been philosophical, rather than linguistic. Perhaps her correction was in the same vein. Well, it mattered little: he was now confident in his usage of 'twit', and had some inkling towards 'dullard'.

"Very well, Shayna. I sssuposssse I shall asssk you sssome questionsss." Ajiv was vaguely aware of the additional hiss on his words. Maybe it would be sensible to work out how to avoid too many 's's in his speech. "You shall do the sssame, but I may not anssswer." Did he need to continue to put Shayna at ease, or could he ask more obvious questions? How she came to be a slave was obvious, but perhaps painful. Her role with the Morealis woman might be natural, but she would likely worry about getting in trouble. As he thought, he realised he was being a 'twit'. His comprehension of Common was fairly strong. He needed to focus on his production, not hers.

"No. In fact, what do you know of Sssmokesssend? The plantation of the Rajor?" It would firstly be interesting to know what this slave from a nearby plantation knew of his home. Secondly, even a broad knowledge would leave him something to add or even discuss. Talking about something he knew so well would also leave him free to focus on the Common he was speaking, rather than the subject about which he was speaking.

[Shayna]

ooc :

No worries at all.

Shayna wasn't quite sure what questions he thought she would ask, considering that she did not want to prolong this conversation. He was proving one of the more lenient of the Dynasty, surprising considering he was Dhani and she had heard rumors about about their..proclivities toward causing pain and torment. Though the house Radacke was more well known for their brutal breaking of their slaves.

One hand raised to tuck an errant strand of black hair behind her ear, trying to sort through the bits of information she had learned about the Rajor family and their home. She tried to find the better bits of information, tossing aside the information that put the family in a bad light. There was no need to ask for trouble. "The Smokesend plantation supplies Kenash and much of the world with tobacco products mainly. There are a few other things grown on the plantation but that is by far it's largest endeavor. The house Rajor is an old house...for D-dhani and their family. Not as old as some but older then others."

This information is rattled off by rote, all except for the slight hesitation on the race that makes up the Rajor family. There was fewer things then the Rajor that made Shayna go cold with fear over, but a home made up of snake people had made her thank whatever god there was that it was not a Rajor that took an interest in her when she was sold.

"Since my days on the breeding farms, before I was trained well enough to be sold, few Rajor frequented there..They bought ill tempered or otherwise hard-to-train slaves cheap." She did not continue the thought, that it was widely gossiped about on the farm, about why they wanted slaves that were inferior. None of the rumors were good so she kept her lips shut. "You are not the head of the Rajor household, I have heard that Dhani were ...female led, is this true?" Information was wealth for a slave, and rarely did Shayna have the ability to simply question and satisfy her curiosity as she does now.