The One With the Fist (Solo)

[Talya]

Timestamp: Summer 75, 515 AV It was raining outside. Talya could see the gathering of grey clouds if only she bothered to peer through her window; veiled with a gossamer white curtain. She could see the raindrops too if she squinted, falling on a slant. Slamming against the glass panes now and again, in between the wooden cross, that supported it, and helped it maintain its shape. The transparent beads slid down the panes with ease, making delicately undulating lines against the glass, just as much as they pattered softly on the roof of the building, or landed with muffled thuds on the grass and dirt outside. Talya sighed, the breath leaving her lungs rather heavily. She was bored. There was nothing to do, as she was stuck indoors, and didn't much want to venture out into the rain today, to get to some other location where there were actually people, any more than she was certain that she actually wanted to hang around any people. She was stuck on her bed. Her legs bent and held up slightly toward her chest, her bare feet resting upon the sheets. Her lightly arched back against her pillow, with her head held back so that it tipped over the edge, and she was forced to look up at the plain wooden ceiling. Talya sighed again. What was there to do? Especially when your mind was consumed with the sound of the rain in almost every sector, save for those where thoughts of work had wandered in? A part of her wished she had work at this hour, as it meant she would have something to do with her time. Something to distract her from the rain. But it wasn't meant to be so, and so now she was here. But still, her mind was busy with thoughts of the same old order, since it was essentially, the only thing you could order at the Quill's Rest- kelp tea. Just like her mind was busy reminding her nose how it looked, and how it smelled, and how nicely it set off thin, meandering lines of steam, which for whatever reason, made her thirsty. A base urge she squelched down instantly, as she remembered easily how much she had disliked the taste of the tea when she had been asked to try it when she had first started working there, so she could accurately tell customers all about it. But that didn't really help the situation much, as her midn was still stuck on all the details of Work. Work. Work, which got Talya thinking that perhaps this day would feel a little less wasted if only she practiced the skills she would need to be a better worker. But what could she do? And what would those skills be? Communication? Listening? Brewing? Maybe a little seduction for the boys so she could get some decent sized tips? Talya shook her head, and sighed again. She doubt anyone in the World's End Grotto would want to help her with any of that. And she doubt there was much of anything she could practice on her own- as you needed two to communicate, and at least two to listen, and supplies she didn't have to brew, and another person to try and seduce in order to get her tips. Which left her with what, exactly? Talking to herself, if anything? Listening to the sound of her own voice? Of course, it could work, but it simply wouldn't be the same. You couldn't derive the same level of feed back from yourself, that you could from another person- either by listening to what they said, or how they reacted to you. But it could be done if it had to, and as there weren't many other options, it felt like it did, so Talya rolled her head off the pillow and faced forward. She looked at the not so distant far, wooden wall, and realized that she didn't want to talk to that. It was just a bit to weird; even if it were only to practice. And there were no reflective surfaces in the room, any more than there were lots of things to work with. It was really only her bed, a chair, and a small wooden table. A small trunk to dump her belongings by the foot of her bed. Which meant that if Talya wanted to talk to anything, it would have to be herself. Which while weird, didn't seem quite as crazy to her as talking to the furniture.

[Talya]

So Talya raised her left hand. She balanced her elbow on her knee, as she balled the hand into a fist, folding the fingers so that they formed a sort of squishy potato face. The thumb the mouth, the rest of them, the rest of the face. She imagined having drawn red lips on the thumb, with two eyes over it, completing her makeshift person, and smiled, as she thought on where to begin. Before realizing that something as simple as a greeting was probably her best start. "Hello Sir," Talya said, far too cheerily, a broad smile spreading across her face. She shook her head, that was too much. She decided to try softening her voice and toning it down a little. "Why hello there Sir." Better, but she needed to screw the why, it sounded a bit pompous to her ear and condescending. And customers hated condesention. They just wanted a nice, pleasant experience, when they went out for a cup of tea. "Hello Sir," she said again, still better, but the Sir was a little soft, and might be difficult to hear. "Hello Sir," she tried again, but this time she made the 'sir' a bit to loud. Again, she made an attempt, "hello sir," it was ok, the words too soft. "Hello Sir," she thought, with the word petch sailing through her mind. The words sounded angrier to her now. She had to keep herself calm, so she took a moment to breath deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth over and over again, before making her next attempt, which was still to loud. And then another, which was garbled. The next to fast, the following to slow. She continued for several minutes, until she got it just right- an even pace, with a level tone. The words audible and easy to understand. She then repeated it several more times, to be sure that it was firmly imprinted within her mind, and that she would recall the sounds at the drop of a hat. Talya moved the lip on her hand up and down. "Hello," she had her imaginary man reply in a gruff voice, that nearly made her chuckle. "What can I get you today?" Tal asked next. But the laugh was laced into the edge of her words, and she knew it wouldn't do, she would have to try it again. "What can I get you today?" she ventured, but this time the words came too fast. The next too slow, the following had to much emphasis on the word 'today.' She sighed, she breathed deeply. Then she tried again. "What can I get you today?" but there was too much emphasis on the three middle words, and then when she tried again, the last two. Talya sighed, shook out her head, and began again. "What can I get you today?" she inquired, this time, the word were a little squeaky. The next time, just plain loud. She tried again, doing her best to imitate the sound she had used to finalize and speak the first sentence. This time it came out just about right in tone and in pitch, but it was a bit fast. So she slowed it down a little, and finally got it right. Again, she repeated the sentence a few times, to make sure it solidified in her mind and she had it, before going through the entire scene all over again, from the top, and making sure she had everything together, which she seemed to. When she was done, she decided to continue onward. "Just an order of kelp tea," she had her hand reply in a gruff tone, as she moved the 'lip' and down, to emphasize the forming of each word. "Sure," she replied cheerily, "coming right up," she added in a sultry tone as she pat the 'customer' on the arm with her free hand. And then realized it seemed unnatural- to early to try working an element of seduction into things. She decided to try again. "Sure," she said in the same cheery tone, "coming right up," she said in a little too sultry a manner, as she pat the head again, realizing instantly that the tone only made the gesture worse, and she should cease the gesture too, as it didn't come off as friendly either. Just a failed attempt at seductive contact; or something exceedingly awkward and out of place. "Sure," she began again, a little less cheerily. "Coming right up," she added in the same bright tone, a smile spreading from ear to ear. It seemed to fake, the smile just as fabricated, and she felt she couldn't have that. It would just be too off putting to customers, so she reigned in the smile a little bit, and then tried again when her face didn't ache as much from forcing the muscles into that foreign position. This time, she sounded a little more genuine, but the words were garbled. She slowed herself down with her next attempt, but still, her enunciation proved to be rather lacking. She tried again- same thing. Again- to slow. Again- to fast. Again- just right. She practiced this a few times until she had it down. "Great, thank you," she had the hand reply, as she pictured herself walking off to fill the order, and then returning with it a few moments later.

[Talya]

Talya pictured herself setting a steaming hot mug of kelp tea in front of her customer. "Here you are sir," she exclaimed. "Enjoy it while it's hot," she finished, as she passed her free hand over where she imagined the customer's shoulder to be. Giving it a little rub. Talya shook her head, that wouldn't do, she sounded like an overly optimistic, cheap whore. She tried the scenario over again, using the same words, but more sultry tones. That certainly didn't help, so she decided to try again. Hoping that maybe if she got the words right, she could practice seductiveness afterward, and then hopefully figure out how to stick the two together and make things work for her. "Here you are sir," she said happily, "enjoy your tea," she added, which sounded a lot better than the previous two sentences. It was a bit too upbeat though, so she tried again, this time keeping her tone a little more neutral, which seemed to work out a lot better. It was a bit fast paced though, so she slowed it down a little until it felt right, at which point, she practiced it a few times over to make sure she had it. "Thank you," she had the hand mouth to her, before she imagined the customer dropping a sizeable tip into her hand. She thanked him for it. With this done, she pictured herself walking away from her customer, and moving onto a new one. This was probably the easiest part for Talya to do. But she knew her training was far from over, as more rain continued to role down the window. She decided to replay the whole scenario over and over again, until she felt as though she had it all down, while she thought on how to continue with her training. This took several minutes, until she felt as though she were ready to move on. She decided that she would begin with something simple- establishing some sort of physical contact with someone, which would move things from a more innocent, friendly category, to a far less innocent, seductive one. To start things off, she kept her hand poised in the "fake customer" position, while she moved the other over to it. She began by pressing her pointer finger against her hand, and brushing it over the body, to see how intimate certain levels of pressure would feel to her. She found that this seemed like an awkward, half hearted pet. If not a confused poking, so she moved on to using two fingers- the middle and the pointer. This was only marginally better, and seemed like a more polite, pompous version of a confused tapping. So she tried her middle three, as they were all different sizes, and she couldn't just lean then one way or the other anymore to make sure they all touched at once, she had to scrunch them up, so she knocked this way out for sheer awkward minor complications. Then she tried all the fingers but the thumb, which was a vast improvement over everything, she felt, although, she realized, when she applied all of her fingers and held her palm a little closer, that she could apply more pressure this way. That the method produced more heat between both of her hand, and it felt more intimate; affectionate, more natural. Having decided that this was the best way of doing things, Talya moved on to simply seeing how different things felt. She tried a general petting first- by moving her hand from the left side of her enclosed fist to the other, but it made her feel like a cat, or an agitated dog, which made her think that unless someone were secretly a kelvic, it would be best not to use. So she tried a back and forth motion- moving her free hand from one side of the enclosed fist to the other, over and over again. She found that this allowed more heat to build up than the other method, but it was just as awkward and felt like petting. Then she tried moving her hands up and down, but felt like that was too much of a massage, coupling with an attempt at comfort- like someone's mom had just died. So she tried moving her hand in circles next- first clockwise, then counterclockwise. That made her feel comforted, either way, even when she tried making the circles larger, and then a little smaller. So then she tried to combine things- a swiping circle. A whirl followed by a back and forth swipe again, which she felt was a little more intimate, but not great. Although it wasn't quite perfect, she wasn't sure what else she could do to make it better- she was out of directions, and decided to try something else. Now, Talya felt, she had to figure out how to speak to someone in order to seduce them. As that was the other part of the game. Of course, she could hypnotize them to help things, but where was the art in that? She decided then, that she would say random, totally unsexy things in whatever fashion she could to make it seductive, because that way she felt she could make anything sound tempting when she needed to do so. She searched her mind, where to begin?

[Talya]

Talya decided to begin with shorter sentences, or even single words, figuring that if she could master the art of making them seductive, than fuller sentences would no longer be an issue with her. "I like green eggs," she began, before flicking her eyebrows up and down. She decided swiftly not to do that as she made her hand walk away from her, as it made her sound like a dorky guy in a bar who didn't know how to pick up chicks. She tried again, after stilling her brows. "I like green eggs," she said, her voice clear, a little soft. A sort of wispy sound, a little above a whisper. "What?" the hand screwed up its face and hollered. "I... like... green... eggs!" Talya shouted back. Taking each time to say the words, as though she were talking to someone who was a little intellectually challenged. That simply wouldn't do, customers didn't like to be talked down to. Especially men, something about sensitive egos. So she tried again, this time, taking a moment to clear her throat and take a deep breath before trying again. "I like green eggs," she said more softly, a little slowly. It sounded like a simple statement of fact, not at all sexy. So she tried again, this time, more softly, as she had the impression that speaking in a sultry fashion meant that you had to walk a fine line between talking softly in little more than a breathy, smoky whisper, through which people could just make out what you were saying and speaking too loud and aggressively, or alternatively, so quietly that you could not be heard at all. And finding that balance, well that was a major pain in the behind. But Talya wasn't about to complain any more than she was about to quit, she had all day to do this, apparently. Talya tried again and again. Placing emphasis on each of the words, one at a time, which she felt, made her sound rather stupid. Then she would pair the words she emphasized- the first two, the last two, first and last, middle two. It really didn't help, but she felt, all the same, that if employed properly, placing emphasis on a word to two out of each sentence could be useful. In any case, she tried again and again, until she felt as though she had come pretty darn close, as which point, she added "and ham," to her statement. "I like green eggs and ham," Talya ventured, in a level, swift tone. It wouldn't do, so she tried again. This time, she sped up, which made everything worse. There was nothing sexy about talking to fast, it was just confusing, and gave people a headache as they tried to listen to you, she felt. She tried to slow things down, making her speech languid, and fell into the complete opposite end of the spectrum, which proved to be no better, as it made her appear dense and thick; a little slow, no pun intended. She sighed, as she sped up again; to fast. Slowed down; to much. She tried again, this time her pace was right, but her inflections a bit awkward and high pitched. Again, Talya tried the sentence, it was softer, and wispier, but distinctively unattractive still. She wondered if it had anything to do with the words she was speaking. She tried another time- this time, adding a little bit more time between she spoke each word, which helped a little, she thought, although not by much. She sighed and kept on trying, until she felt as though she had done a passable job, at which point she moved onto the word "apple," and repeated a similar process. With the word apple tucked into her sexy word repertoire, Talya decided to move onto a phrase far more prone to sounding sultry- "you're pretty good looking there yourself." She imagined herself smiling just right- not showing too much of her teeth, or to little. Not creating deep set dimples, or making her scrunch her eyes. Something perfect. She imagined her eyes sparkling playfully after she spoke- hearing the sentence spoken perfectly within her ears. Then she tried to mirror it. This proved to be a far easier task than if she had just tried to speak. Imitation, created ease, but it still wasn't quite perfect, and she had to practice it a few times before she got it right. When she was done, she kept practicing with other phrases like, "sorry we don't have any bananas," "do you like cookies?" and "my what big teeth you have grandma!" But that didn't seem like enough, so she tried "I like your mittens," "that shirt looks good on you," "would you like to get into bed with me? the covers are nice and warm," (after which point she let her voice trail off for a bit), "kiss me already," "there's a strange pink elephant over there," and "would you mind helping me undress?" until she felt like she had gotten more than enough practice, and noticed herself to be improving. With that done- she decided to move onto something else- what happened after you had seduced someone. She may never use it, at least on her customers, but she had awhile, and felt like practicing her kissing, although her enclosed fist didn't make the most desirable of partners.

[Talya]

Talya decided that she would work on simple pecks and the like, as anything with tongue would simply be too weird. She began by bringing her lips up against the narrow crevice formed by her thumb and other furled fingers. Her lips just having enough time to brush over her skin; discern how smooth it was, before she pulled away. That was hardly a kiss, and it hardly made her long for more, it simply made her think that her fist must be thinking that she were having second thoughts, and had backed out at the last moment. So, she tried again, this time, she held her lips against her fist, long enough where she could feel them mold against the contours of her hand. Bend with it, as she pushed her thumb a little farther forward, and then slowly back. She closed her eyes, there was something about closing your eyes that made you feel the kiss more. Made you experience more; as it somehow made the kiss more intimate. Maybe it had something to do with how it made it so much harder for you to concentrate on anything else. Anyway, whatever the case, Talya let her lips linger for a few seconds, before she pulled away and opened her eyes. This time, the kiss had been better, but something was still missing- in didn't do enough to make her fist long for more interaction. This time, she decided she would try moving her lips around a bit. People did that, it made sense that such could be what was missing with her previous kiss. So she brought her fist up to her lips, and pressed them against one another. Softly at first, but with increasing amounts of pressure and strength, until it was built up to something steady and firm. From there, she slowly rocked her fist forward and back, forward and back, so that the angle of the kiss would change, and she was forced to come forward with it, and then back with it, so that the same amount of pressure would be applied, and her lips never left her fist. She thought she moved around to quickly however, and pulled away to wipe her mouth. Her partner was a sloppy kisser, but no matter, she would try everything out again. This time, she moved her mouth more slowly, so that it would meet with her fist, each time she shifted it ever so slight- up and down, left and right, in tiny circles. The kiss was far less sloppy this time, there was far less build up of saliva she found, and it felt more intimate than her previous kisses. She kept up the occurrence for several seconds, until pulling away and finally opening her eyes. Talya felt proud of herself- she had been improving, but she wanted to continue her practice, drawing out each kiss each time she made another attempt at it. So she began again by taking a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth, before closing her eyes and pulling her fist into her lips. She mimicked the same method as before- slowly sliding her fist from left to right, so that she would have to alternate the way she tilted her head and pushed forward to keep to meeting with them. This time though, she wanted to add another element to it; another level to the kiss. She decided she could do this in one of two ways- by making additional contact with her partner, or creating sounds, which could work as signs signifying that she was enjoying this whole process. She began with sound, adding "mmms" here and there, but she thought that sounded over eager in most cases, and stupid in others, and simply stopped. Then there was a garbling of other sounds, which sounded forced and unnatural, and even worse than "mmm" so she threw out sound and decided to try contact. She raised her free hand to her fist- and began to move it up and down toward the wrist. That was ok. She imagined cupping the neck, the back of the head, resting a hand on a shoulder, and on the thigh next, which seemed to have varying degrees of intimacy, which was nice. She pulled away for a moment, to regain her breath, and then started again. This time, rubbing the thigh, the shoulder, running fingers through hair, which was all very nice. There was a knock on the door. She opened her eyes, returned her hands to her side after practically jumping in alarm. Her heart skipping a few beats; she felt like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and as her cheeks turned red, became increasingly pleased that the doors in the place were not transparent. Talya then ran her hands over the skirt of her dress, straightened out the wrinkles, caught her breath, and ran for the door. She wondered who it could be at such an hour... OOCThis is likely to be the most awkward thread of my career, and is the result of being bored over the weekend. Beware, it could happen to YOU!