[Closed] The Flower Garden

[Su'yina Liae]

🙐 The Waterfront / Old Rose Harbor

on the 32nd of loshis, 2720, during noon.

This poor child, this poor misguided soul. Su’yina watched flabbergasted as the butler offered up his cards. Violet was coughing to the side, choked on her smoke as she inhaled down the wrong pipe in her shock. As if Yazad had grown three heads and gave birth to a litter of shrews, the duo looked at him as if he was the next coming of the apocalypse itself. “The fuck?” the crass word left Su’s lip, followed by the sound of the creaky chair rattling as Violet stifled her snickers. “WHY?” Her tanned hand slammed against the table as she stood up. Her hair was a fluff of disarray in her haste. Su’yina looked akin to a puffed-up kitten as she leaned over the table, cheeks round. “Y-you—” it was probably abnormal to be this impassioned over a game but when had she not like a little bit of theatrics. It had nothing to do with just how fun this slave was to tease. Despite her theatrics, the tsat was curious. This boy, his mind worked in ways she had yet to comprehend. Why had he not taken this chance? His only two, the last two he had needed to discard to potentially win. The tsat stared, and stared, and stared as if her understanding would be had if she tried hard enough to understand. “YIELDING ISN’T ALLOWED? BE A MAN.” She whined, but the card was already shown so there was no point in continuing with his hand anymore. “Why would you even yield? You only have two cards left?!” He could have won, he really could have, he had been honest so far and it would have been all too easy for them to simply believe him…

Or perhaps not.

“Ya really can’t lie can you.” The emotions that flitted across his features just seconds before he became a rather funny imitation of rock have told her exactly what she needed to know about his personality. When he had slapped his cards down her musing had only been confirmed. Obvious as the headlines smacked across the newspapers that were carelessly tossed in the alleys, the man was a poor liar, or perhaps the best way to put it, was that he simply was too good to lie. Which was an odd thought to the tsat, back home by the even fishier smelling sea, everyone knew how to lie, everyone would lie as if their lives depended on it. And now as she paused, to think about her ol’ fish ‘nan, Su’yina would realize just how much that was the way it is. Even the wrinkly old witch had a few secrets in her closet. “But the point of this game is to cheat so it woulda been okay, y’know,” the witch scratched the back of her head, “but ehh…” at a loss for words, Su’yina could hum to herself. They could offer up another round, but she highly doubted the other’s ability to scrounge up the courage to play again. “We could play slapjack instead—”

The witch’s finger moved to collect the cards, only to send them scattering again as a large thump echoed from below followed by a muffled voice.

Su’yina paused, a finger pressed against her lips as she craned her head, trying her best to hear the commotion below. It looked like trouble was just about to find her or at least…she thought it would. In this case, it was better to be safe than sorry! There was a nice bonus at risk if she failed! With a shrug, the girl ignored the raised brow her friend sent her way in place of staring at the poor boy that was roped into her issues. She could leave him here…as another diversion…but…it felt as if he would be a distraction to Violet. "Whoopsie, look's like I gotta go."

Her conscience happily reminded her that he did pay for her room, was accosted just moments earlier, and was nice enough to play cards with.

“Wanna jump out of a window with me?” There was a tree just outside, one thick enough to hold its weight. “Less you wanna stay here and watch Violet and the lovely man coming here---”

“He better looks decent—” Violet started, “Oh shush! He’s a cute moneybag, milk ‘em dry…both ways eh?” Su’yina cut in before turning to look at Yazad expectantly.

Below angry footsteps took the stairs one by one alongside the extra tittering of a matron. “Excuse me, ye need ta spare some coin to be up here!”

[Yazad]

The Waterfront, Old Rose Harbor

32nd of Loshis, 2720; Noon

H e had done the right thing, the decent thing. Yazad was fully convinced of that, and he had not a shred of doubt about his beliefs and principals. The passive, however, doubted Su’yina’s state of mind -for perhaps the ninth time today- when she stared at him with the intensity of someone watching a kitchen burn. The young woman looked more than just surprised--shocked, even. Yazad did not know why, or what he is supposed to do or say about it.

"Gracious me--" Yazad flinched, moving his body away from the verbally explosive woman and frowning at her violent behavior. The man’s gloved hand rested on his chest, over his fluttering heart. Violet was on the side coughing while hunched over as if he had just told them the most humorous of jests. There was a fervent question of ‘WHY?’, and Yazad would have been obliged to answer her if he knew what she was even so offended about. In his pressing need to understand, the raven-haired man’s eyes slid towards Violet, hoping to glean something out of her, but to no avail. "Well this is rather troublesome, yielding is a strategic part of any competitive sport. And I am being a man. A man, a proper one, would do the right thing and adhere to the path of integrity." Conviction was apparent in the passive’s steady voice despite the confused blinking and the way he tilted his head to the side questioningly. Truly, how did this woman even think to be saying these things with such heated passion? "Well, er, yes. It is true that I do, but neither one of them is usable. They are a one and a six." He explained with similar if not equally lively bafflement, his hand motioning towards the upwards cards as though the other was slow or blind.

There was a smile of pride tugging at the man’s mouth as he nodded, rather gratefully, to Su’yina’s words. "Why, thank you. I do make certain that I remain truthful at all times." Her compliment of his honesty was appreciated, though he still could not understand why the other looked and sounded bothered about it. A good man, a true gentleman, is measured by more than simply his social manners. Honor and chivalry dedicated what he should and should not do, regardless of context. If he could not uphold himself to the standards that he himself had set, then how despicable would he be? "It most certainly would not be okay. I would not be able to forgive myself, and then I would lose sleep over it. A terrible thing both for the skin and the soul." The passive, sitting up straight and holding his head high, retorted earnestly yet with a large degree of patience. Meanwhile, it appeared as though Su’yina was bristling up more and more with every passing moment. What an odd, amusing person.

Yazad raised a hand haltingly, his lips parting to offer a polite rejection to Su’yina’s suggestion of another game. Slapjack. He was even less inclined to be playing something that involves any sort of slapping. What violence, what savagery. Surely these people can come up with more civilized pastimes than this. His apologetic refusal did not make it out and was instead replaced by a soft gasp of surprise when a loud commotion erupted somewhere outside. A flurry of cards followed.

Yazad was frozen in place, uncertain. He looked between Violet and Su’yina, trying to gather if this was a normal occurrence in such a place, but the witch’s reaction told him that it is probably not. It might not involve them at all, though. Some passing tussle, a clumsy hand dropping something heavy. It could be anything, really. The passive, not having much to feel alarmed about, was willing to chalk the noise up as loud yet benign, but one of his companions was not as relaxed as him about it. His slight puzzlement had morphed into utter disbelief in less than a few seconds.

"No?!" Yazad exclaimed indignantly, the short word coming out in a tone that was a clear mix of ‘who would ever do that?!’ and ‘what is wrong with you?!’. She cannot possibly be intending to actually do that...she cannot--

She was heading towards the window!

"Hurte above!" The passive finally moved, shooting up from his seat to look between the expectant woman and the door. What madness! He most certainly did not want to be present for any sort of ill conducts, but he was not daft enough to attempt something as reckless and ungainly as climb down a tree. He was wearing his best boots and had arms full of his own removed coat that he haphazardly gathered. Is this really the time to be talking about milk? "Oh goodness gracious. Ah, I must be off, madam. Thank you kindly for hosting us. Good day." Unable to just leave without offering a courteous goodbye to Violet, the swiftly-speaking passive took a moment to place a couple of tallies on the table and give her a brief bow. It was not entirely clear why Su’yina was suddenly so eager to leave, he did not want to linger behind for whatever was making her willing to jump out of a window.

"Here is the door." Yazad called out to the madwoman, motioning towards the room’s door. It was not very far, a few paces and he was already opening it. In his haste to walk out, the raven-haired man had slammed right into whom he assumed to be Violet’s next visitor. A cloaked figure, with only a few features peeking from beneath all the fabric. The force of the impact sent both of them tumbling in opposite directions. Yazad, humiliatingly a heap on the floor now, quickly regained his wits and his balance. "Oh my, please pardon me. I do hope that you are unharmed. Ah, I shall not delay your seemingly urgent business. Have a good day." The now standing man draped his coat over his arm, gave a short bow, then walked away with the dignity of someone who had erased his clumsy collision with the other out of his mind.

The Flower Garden