Nino cocked his head and eyed the girl as she stammered and took a deep breath to collect herself. How funny. Certainly she'd seen wings before? She was a witch, after all! This couldn't be her first dealing with a non-human. Right?
"Of course they are," he sniffed. Then cleared his throat. "... but thank you."
He stretched his wings, folded them against his back, and settled lightly onto the windowsill once more. He tossed a leg over a knee, propped his arm on it, and considered the top of Meisa's head.
"They wouldn't be much use if I couldn't fly at a particular size," Nino added, huffing a quick laugh at the thought. "They'd be an absolutely terrible decoration."
While Meisa had not grown up immersed in magic, she did have non-human friends growing up. But they hadn't had wings. Or they had kept them hidden, she amended, remembering that one of her oldest friends had preferred keeping her wings hidden for as long as Meisa had known her..
Nino's voice held a note of pride, she noted with a small smile, finally finding the candy she wanted. She sat back on her heels and looked up at Nino with an amused grin. "That would suck to not be able to fly and just be stuck with wings for show."
"Not that I would know firsthand," she added after a slight pause, "But I can try to imagine."
Her right leg cramped. Meisa shifted uncomfortably, looked at Nino sheepishly, and asked tentatively, "Would you mind if I come up to lean on the window sill with you? I need to stretch my leg out."
Nino froze, the piece of dark chocolate half-way to his mouth. He stared at Meisa intently. She... wanted... Well. It did look like her leg really was bothering her. Nino didn't think she was that good of a liar, if she was a liar at all (and you really couldn't tell with humans sometimes).
Her magic felt Good, inasmuch as witch-magic ever felt Good. Mostly it felt Chaotic, which was really kind of a natural state, or weirdly repressed. It was when it felt weirdly repressed that Nino had learned to be truly wary. Meisa's didn't feel like that at all.
He took a breath and shifted himself over, pressing tight against the wall. "A... all right."
Meisa's leg was cramping and while it didn't hurt too badly at the moment, she really did need to stretch it out. She waited. It was all she could do because she didn't want to scare Nino away. He looked poised to go at any second and she didn't want that. It was enjoyable sitting here talking to him. Well, before her leg started bothering her.
At his concession, Meisa gave him a grateful grin and carefully got up. Hobbling the little bit to the window sill, she tentatively sat down, careful not to invade Nino's personal bubble. He was already pressing tight against the wall away from her as if trying to meld into it.
"Ow." She winced as she stretched it out, muttering, "Either I need to eat more bananas or the heels I had to wear yesterday are exacting their revenge."
Somewhere between Meisa getting up and Meisa taking a seat on the sill, Nino shoved the chocolate into his mouth and half closed his eyes. In preparation for what, exactly, he wasn't sure. For her to try and touch him perhaps. But nothing happened.
Nino opened his eyes all the way and looked over a little. Meisa wasn't sitting close. In fact she was as decidedly away from him as she could be in the small space. Not that Nino supposed he was being casual about his wariness, but he'd met humans who hadn't been able to pick up on even the most obvious body-language. Nino felt a little bad. Meisa hadn't once been anything but polite, but he really couldn't help himself. He still wasn't comfortable around humans like he had been so many years ago.
Nino stayed pressed to the wall and watched Meisa from the corner of his eye.
The stretching was helping the cramp in her leg calm down. Meisa focused on massaging it just to ease the discomfort. So despite being hyperaware of Nino's position, his question came as a surprise to her.
"Hmmn?" A cramp flared up when she paused in her massage to look at Nino, but she ignored it in favor of answering. "Bananas? No, they don't really help the knees, it's the muscles. It's the potassium or something." She winced a little and resumed massaging. "It's those darn stilettos I had to wear yesterday for work. I remembered the cushioning charms too late. So it's kinda my fault."
But still... "See if I model for that brand again," Meisa groused mostly to herself, "You can't even stand for more than ten minutes in them! Impracticality should stay on the runway."
Nino had been watching her warily, the last time she had glanced at him. She wondered if he still was, feeling that she wasn't making a very good first impression with her complaining.
Nino hummed an acknowledgement. So bananas helped muscles. Funny things, the things fruit - food, really - did to human bodies. (Nino couldn't be sure that bananas had ever done anything to his own body since it had been so long since the last one he'd eaten. Still, he was willing to put his flight on 'nothing'.)
"Impracticality wouldn't do a runway very much good," he said instead, frowning. "The airplanes would run into each other or flip over or something." He paused and looked over at her. "Why were you modeling shoes on a runway anyway?"
"Planes?" Meisa looked at Nino quizzically. "What do planes have to do with shoes?" Then it hit her. "Oooh. A runway in modeling is the same as the catwalk," she explained, a small smile of amusement on her lips, "I just got this really funny image of models modeling high fashion on the tarmac."
"What I meant was that impractical fashion should stay, well, on the runway. Though if a plane were to run over the shoes I wore yesterday, I wouldn't say no to that. They really hurt!" The cramp was dying down, so she stopped massaging and stood up.
She contemplated doing a quick round around the small room to see if she could walk on her leg. "I much prefer being in flats to be honest, but I always have to have a pair of heels on me for go-sees."
Oh. Modeling. Meisa was a model. Nino flushed a very dim glow under his skin - but how was he supposed to know that, anyway? Models were a brand new thing, still, and certainly the shows they did stuff for were. Nino only knew about it from what he heard.
He watched Meisa out of the corner of his eye as she stood. Was she leaving? He supposed it made sense; she was done massaging.
"Why do people wear those really high heels? They look super uncomfortable and they look funny."
Meisa had just sort of slipped into talking about her job without meaning to. Nino probably never looked at the fashion magazines - he didn't seem the sort to go out of his way to do so. She would be surprised if he said he did.
"I'm not leaving," Meisa said, just missing Nino glow dimly but catching the slightly questioning glance Nino shot her way. "I just wanted to check if the cramp was really gone and I could stand on it without falling over." Deciding to test if she could walk later, she sat back down, still mindful of Nino's space. "It's all good."
Why did people wear high heels? It was a perfectly valid question that she often asked herself. "Probably because women are vain," Meisa thought out loud, "We know deep down that they aren't the best things to wear, but they make our legs look longer and our butt stick out... And make us taller
( ... )
"Not his butt, his legs," Nino said absently. "That's why the pants were cut short and puffy. To show off the legs and make the thighs look slimmer. Also red was really hard to make then so he was showing off his money."
Which he knew from experience. Both about the king's expenditures and the shoes. He hadn't much cared for the pants fashion, but he'd watched the shoes being made. The heels had been comfortable as far as he remembered. Of course, they weren't being made in factories by children the way they made shoes now. And people wondered why shoes didn't last!
"Legs, huh? That does explain the pants," Meisa mused, "Thighs look slimmer with puffy pants?" That was... interesting. She'd always thought that they didn't do anybody any favors. But maybe when you were king that wasn't the sort of thing you had to worry about. Expensive shoes probably weren't an issue either (her weakness was well made, expensive shoes, she was always a little sad after a job to give them back).
She nodded, agreeing that Louis the XIV was showing off his money. Wait. "Did you know him?" Meisa asked curiously, full of wonder.
"What you can see of them," Nino amended. "They got pretty short for a while there."
He'd settled a little, now, unconsciously un-pressing himself from the wall. He scratched at a point behind his ear. "Sort of. I was in Spain, then. King Carlos II was in terrible health and didn't have kids, and he had a bunch of territory that both France and Austria had claims to. I was in and out of France a lot. In the end I went to Austria and most of the land went to France. It didn't stop the war from happening though."
Meisa grinned in amusement at the thought of royalty in short puffy pants. The history of fashion was definitely interesting. She put the thought aside as a possible thesis topic. It was, in a tangential sort of way, related to art.
Though she didn't see it (there was a scuff on one of her shoes. Where did it come from?), she could feel the Nino's slight relaxation as some of the tension between the two of them dissipated. "Which war was that?" she asked, somewhat sheepishly. As someone who should have had a fairly decent grasp of history, it was kind of embarrassing to admit that for the life of her, she couldn't think of which war he was talking about. "There were a lot of wars in the 18th century and the order and dates tend to get jumbled around in my head."
"It must have been a pretty crazy world, Europe, at that time." Like Nino, Meisa unconsciously relaxed a little herself, holding herself less stiffly as she turned to give him a small smile. "Now it seems all so romantic, for lack of a better word."
"They call it the War of Spanish Succession, I think," Nino said, "Both Austria and France had claims to Spain's territory, the Spaniards wanted to keep their own rule, thanks much, and the British really wanted them all to destroy each other so they could have their way with shipping. It was a good time to be a pirate."
He didn't blame her for getting mixed up. There had been a lot of wars then - most times it seemed like war would never end. He'd wondered if the humans liked fighting and killing each other, if it gave them something to do. He'd never gotten an answer.
"Europe... was cruel and harsh and bleakly beautiful, especially in the northern parts," he said honestly. He shrugged. "Unless you were landed, and even the landed had to worry about plague and uprising. Her humans love her anyway." Nino smiled a little. "There's a lot to look back on proudly - certainly nobody does art like they did then."
Nobody did art at all in his opinion. White on white? Dots? Stripes that made no form at all? It was horrendously ugly.
Meisa 'ahhh'-ed and nodded, vaguely remembering it mentioned in one of her classes. "When I was there, I loved wandering around and finding a little bit of history everywhere I looked." Europe was quaint and cultured in a way that America had yet to achieve. "I think I could live there again. For a couple years at least. Have you ever thought of going back?"
"Art is different now for sure," she agreed. It was about concepts of an image, rather than the image that was important. Or put a different way, how the image contributed to its own concept. Or something like that. Thinking about it made her head hurt sometimes. "Personally, I'm not fan of the art where it looks like anybody can do it. But I can appreciate it, given that you show me that you can actually properly draw something properly and then you can go on breaking down the concept of what art is to your heart's desire."
Being avante garde didn't mean that just anybody could do something and call it art.
"Of course they are," he sniffed. Then cleared his throat. "... but thank you."
He stretched his wings, folded them against his back, and settled lightly onto the windowsill once more. He tossed a leg over a knee, propped his arm on it, and considered the top of Meisa's head.
"They wouldn't be much use if I couldn't fly at a particular size," Nino added, huffing a quick laugh at the thought. "They'd be an absolutely terrible decoration."
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Nino's voice held a note of pride, she noted with a small smile, finally finding the candy she wanted. She sat back on her heels and looked up at Nino with an amused grin. "That would suck to not be able to fly and just be stuck with wings for show."
"Not that I would know firsthand," she added after a slight pause, "But I can try to imagine."
Her right leg cramped. Meisa shifted uncomfortably, looked at Nino sheepishly, and asked tentatively, "Would you mind if I come up to lean on the window sill with you? I need to stretch my leg out."
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Her magic felt Good, inasmuch as witch-magic ever felt Good. Mostly it felt Chaotic, which was really kind of a natural state, or weirdly repressed. It was when it felt weirdly repressed that Nino had learned to be truly wary. Meisa's didn't feel like that at all.
He took a breath and shifted himself over, pressing tight against the wall. "A... all right."
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At his concession, Meisa gave him a grateful grin and carefully got up. Hobbling the little bit to the window sill, she tentatively sat down, careful not to invade Nino's personal bubble. He was already pressing tight against the wall away from her as if trying to meld into it.
"Ow." She winced as she stretched it out, muttering, "Either I need to eat more bananas or the heels I had to wear yesterday are exacting their revenge."
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Nino opened his eyes all the way and looked over a little. Meisa wasn't sitting close. In fact she was as decidedly away from him as she could be in the small space. Not that Nino supposed he was being casual about his wariness, but he'd met humans who hadn't been able to pick up on even the most obvious body-language. Nino felt a little bad. Meisa hadn't once been anything but polite, but he really couldn't help himself. He still wasn't comfortable around humans like he had been so many years ago.
Nino stayed pressed to the wall and watched Meisa from the corner of his eye.
"Do bananas help knees?"
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"Hmmn?" A cramp flared up when she paused in her massage to look at Nino, but she ignored it in favor of answering. "Bananas? No, they don't really help the knees, it's the muscles. It's the potassium or something." She winced a little and resumed massaging. "It's those darn stilettos I had to wear yesterday for work. I remembered the cushioning charms too late. So it's kinda my fault."
But still... "See if I model for that brand again," Meisa groused mostly to herself, "You can't even stand for more than ten minutes in them! Impracticality should stay on the runway."
Nino had been watching her warily, the last time she had glanced at him. She wondered if he still was, feeling that she wasn't making a very good first impression with her complaining.
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"Impracticality wouldn't do a runway very much good," he said instead, frowning. "The airplanes would run into each other or flip over or something." He paused and looked over at her. "Why were you modeling shoes on a runway anyway?"
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"What I meant was that impractical fashion should stay, well, on the runway. Though if a plane were to run over the shoes I wore yesterday, I wouldn't say no to that. They really hurt!" The cramp was dying down, so she stopped massaging and stood up.
She contemplated doing a quick round around the small room to see if she could walk on her leg. "I much prefer being in flats to be honest, but I always have to have a pair of heels on me for go-sees."
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He watched Meisa out of the corner of his eye as she stood. Was she leaving? He supposed it made sense; she was done massaging.
"Why do people wear those really high heels? They look super uncomfortable and they look funny."
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"I'm not leaving," Meisa said, just missing Nino glow dimly but catching the slightly questioning glance Nino shot her way. "I just wanted to check if the cramp was really gone and I could stand on it without falling over." Deciding to test if she could walk later, she sat back down, still mindful of Nino's space. "It's all good."
Why did people wear high heels? It was a perfectly valid question that she often asked herself. "Probably because women are vain," Meisa thought out loud, "We know deep down that they aren't the best things to wear, but they make our legs look longer and our butt stick out... And make us taller ( ... )
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Which he knew from experience. Both about the king's expenditures and the shoes. He hadn't much cared for the pants fashion, but he'd watched the shoes being made. The heels had been comfortable as far as he remembered. Of course, they weren't being made in factories by children the way they made shoes now. And people wondered why shoes didn't last!
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She nodded, agreeing that Louis the XIV was showing off his money. Wait. "Did you know him?" Meisa asked curiously, full of wonder.
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He'd settled a little, now, unconsciously un-pressing himself from the wall. He scratched at a point behind his ear. "Sort of. I was in Spain, then. King Carlos II was in terrible health and didn't have kids, and he had a bunch of territory that both France and Austria had claims to. I was in and out of France a lot. In the end I went to Austria and most of the land went to France. It didn't stop the war from happening though."
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Though she didn't see it (there was a scuff on one of her shoes. Where did it come from?), she could feel the Nino's slight relaxation as some of the tension between the two of them dissipated. "Which war was that?" she asked, somewhat sheepishly. As someone who should have had a fairly decent grasp of history, it was kind of embarrassing to admit that for the life of her, she couldn't think of which war he was talking about. "There were a lot of wars in the 18th century and the order and dates tend to get jumbled around in my head."
"It must have been a pretty crazy world, Europe, at that time." Like Nino, Meisa unconsciously relaxed a little herself, holding herself less stiffly as she turned to give him a small smile. "Now it seems all so romantic, for lack of a better word."
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He didn't blame her for getting mixed up. There had been a lot of wars then - most times it seemed like war would never end. He'd wondered if the humans liked fighting and killing each other, if it gave them something to do. He'd never gotten an answer.
"Europe... was cruel and harsh and bleakly beautiful, especially in the northern parts," he said honestly. He shrugged. "Unless you were landed, and even the landed had to worry about plague and uprising. Her humans love her anyway." Nino smiled a little. "There's a lot to look back on proudly - certainly nobody does art like they did then."
Nobody did art at all in his opinion. White on white? Dots? Stripes that made no form at all? It was horrendously ugly.
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"Art is different now for sure," she agreed. It was about concepts of an image, rather than the image that was important. Or put a different way, how the image contributed to its own concept. Or something like that. Thinking about it made her head hurt sometimes. "Personally, I'm not fan of the art where it looks like anybody can do it. But I can appreciate it, given that you show me that you can actually properly draw something properly and then you can go on breaking down the concept of what art is to your heart's desire."
Being avante garde didn't mean that just anybody could do something and call it art.
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