Mari and Moirine - Remember what your heart is for
Who: Mari and Moirine w/ special guest Simon
When: after this.
Where: Moirine's room at the Green Man
Rating & Warnings: G
She was still a bit drunk after her dinner with Ira. Dinner, ha. She was still a bit drunk after her argument with Ira. Moirine lay on the bed, picking absently at the bits of fuzz that came off her woolen dress. And to think she'd just said that he wasn't all that bad. He was going to figure out who she was soon, she knew it, and then he'd send Silence after her. She needed to find another inn to stay at, but... as the room spun slightly, she decided that could wait until the morning.
Mari was coming. Their conversation over the ledgers had been surprisingly civil. Moirine frowned as she pushed herself off the bed to kneel beside it and retrieve her jewelery box. Why had she offered to help support her, she wondered. All Moirine ever did was cause Mari trouble, yet she was unfailingly helpful, despite being infuriating all the while. Her small hands slipped against the latch on the box before finally getting it open. The potion was nestled between some folded letters and an amethyst necklace she'd been given for her fifteenth birthday. For a moment, she was tempted to drink the potion. It wasn't the same as taking herbs she knew would kill the baby. Moirine wasn't certain at all what would happen. If she lost Jude... it would be an accident.
Snapping the box shut, she leaned forward to hug her knees. She hated herself for even thinking something so terrible. What was wrong with her? Hiccuping loudly, Moirine smothered her face in her skirt and let out a loud groan, for once confident that it wouldn't bring the cancellari running.
Coming from a mountain in the wettest place in Britain, Mari wasn't as moved by the cold as Rowan was, but she knew its dangers well enough to be anything but apathetic about it. Thus, it was a thing more layers than human that came knocking on Moirine's door. British wool was high quality compared to the rest of the world (in her mind) and her knitted cap was one of the few things that she'd kept from home. It barely covered the tips of her ears now, but it worked well with her scarf to keep her head warm. Even if she probably did look a little silly, wearing a hat meant for a twelve year old.
Beside her, Simon spread out on the ground as they waited for Moirine to answer the door. He was a good dog, surprisingly obedient, happy whether walking or flopping around in her or Lucia's rooms. His owner kept giving her bits of cake, free buns. Mari didn't have a sweet tooth though - a few bites and she was already sick of the taste of chocolate. It would be best to save what she got to give to Marijke, she reckoned. The poor woman needed a cheer up. Lifting a foot and balancing carefully, she rubbed the back of Simon's neck with the toe of her shoe, then knocked again.
"Hello, dog deliverer. Are you going to let me in?"
Moirine glanced to the door, then lurched to her feet. To her credit, she didn't stumble, but she did take a moment to close her eyes and collect herself. Drinking had not been a good idea. "Coming," she called. One hand went to her wig, making sure it was still in place, and the other was held out in front of her to keep her from running into anything.
She opened the door and her eyes went from Mari to the lion dog at her side. It was enormous. Openly gaping, she forgot to step out of the way to let them into the room. "Bashirah and Asher are going to look like this," she mumbled to herself. The puppies she could hide behind her pillows would one day be the size of... horses. After a few seconds, she allowed Mari and Simon in.
"Sorry. I didn't expect such a large dog." Could Mari control it if it turned vicious?
Mari waited impatiently to be let in, stepping past Moirine when she finally let her through, tugging gently on Simon's lead. He followed obediently, with the air of humouring a small child, but sniffed at Moirine as he passed, his large brown eyes settling on the stranger curiously. "He's a good boy," Mari answered, looking back towards the other girl. "And he's just been fed. Needn't look at him like he's going to eat you."
She pulled the scarf down off her mouth, rubbing her arms and looking around Moirine's new room with her mouth open. She'd only gotten to see her old place over the girl's shoulder as she'd pinned her against a wall and made a lot of words, but even if she hadn't had the first hand experience, she'd know this was a serious step down. "Who're Bashirah and Asher?"
"I didn't-" she began, then gave up. It really didn't matter whether Mari thought she was afraid of the dog or in awe of it. Closing the door, she followed after them and tentatively patted Simon on the head. The dog wagged its tail, but otherwise didn't respond. "Hello," Moirine murmured. "You are a good boy."
Around animals, she was practically a different person. Thoughts of her expulsion and her pregnancy vanished as she played with the dog's great ears. Smiling slightly, she looked up at Mari's question. "What?" Frowning, Moirine stepped away from Simon. "Two puppies who live at the citadel. I think they're the same kind as-" she pointed at Simon.
"I'll get you your potion." Her cheer drained away as she was brought back to reality. "I'm not certain I'd take it again even if I could, actually..."
Mari watched them interact, hunching her shoulders slightly as she processed the image of Moirine actually smiling at something. That didn't happen often. Not around her, anyway. "The fish," she started slowly, then stopped. "And the dog," she finished. Words to connect the two sentence fragments would be a good idea, she figured after a moment. "You like animals." Her tone was mildly surprised. It wasn't that liking animals was an unexpected thing, it was just strange that she'd never really mentioned it before. Strange to see her happy, too.
"Oh right, then. Grand. I'll take that." With the potion, any doubt that Abel Paré was a fake name might be struck from the minds of Whispers who weren't Rhys and that Jai guy. "You didn't like being a man?"
"They're less complicated," Moirine said beneath her breath, "People aren't worth the effort."
Kneeling, she opened her box, careful to keep it faced away from Mari. These were her things, the only things she truly cared for. Even Allen hadn't been allowed to see them. Moirine pulled the almost full bottle of potion out, closed the box and pushed it back under her bed. "Here," she said, holding it out to Mari after she struggled to her feet. Moving was getting trickier. She could only imagine how she'd be in a few months.
Didn't like being a man? What sort of a question was that? Did Mari enjoy being a man? So much of Moirine's identity had hinged on her gender that experiencing life as a man for even a minute had been truly disturbing. Now, she had the baby and her motherhood to think about. Of course she didn't like being a man. "No. Not at all." Her tongue was still loose from the ale, so she added, "Anyway, I was ugly."
Mari frowned. Had she done that on purpose? Said something so quietly just to annoy? She'd managed to catch the tail-end of it, though, and found herself nodding along. "They are far kinder than many humans. Speak up, please."
She wasn't too interested in the baubles that Moirine had kept and looked down to the dog beside her, sitting on the floor uninvited and rubbing his back, stroking his side. She angled herself side-on to Moirine in order to hear her better, jumping to her feet when the bottle was finally produced. "Thanks. This'll save me from buying more from Ermesinda." Would Moirine like Ermesinda? Erme was an Other, it was true, but she was adorable. How could even Moirine hold anything against something so small?
"You were," Mari's mouth slid into a faint smirk. "Not ugly. Was a downgrade, though. You looked a bit like a rat, but rats have their charms. Besides, you were probably comparing yourself to my male form internally. And I'm so incredibly handsome, anyone would fall short."
Moirine glared at Mari. She might have charged her for the rest of the potion. Cita knew Mari seemed to think she needed the money, yet she accepted a gift and patronized her at the same time. If she hadn't brought the dog, she would have kept the ungrateful girl out this very second.
"You're ugly as well," she said with complete honesty. Scratching Simon under the chin, she started smiling a bit again. All lords kept hounds. Perhaps she could get a job tending to them. "If only you could see him," she cooed quietly, now staying hushed to annoy, "You'd say 'what an ugly master I have' in dog."
"I look like my brother," Mari angled her head to watch Moirine with Simon. "He was very handsome. So I'm handsome." She was smiling though, enjoying the banter. Bickering like this felt more natural than being polite to each other, or shouting. Most of her relationships contained some form of rudeness. It was just knowing when not to get upset, that was Moirine's trouble.
"I'm not his master besides. The lady in the cake shop asked me to look after him. I bet he's too loyal to call her ugly." She always got a stupid little grin on her face when she looked at the dog. He looked so silly with his tongue hanging out and his wrinkles and the way he seemed to be smiling at the both of them, despite probably not understanding what was going on. Dogs were adorable.
SO IT'S OKAY FOR YOU TO THINK YOUR BRO'S HANDSOME HUH?
Why was Mari smiling? Moirine focused her attention back on Simon, slowly lowering herself to one knee to be on eye-level with him. Actually, in this position he was taller than she was. Avith and Tobias had no idea what they'd gotten themselves into. "And I looked like my brother," she said, able to talk about Allen only because she was petting Simon, "He was handsome and I was ugly. What your brother looked like doesn't mat- ah!"
Simon was licking her face with his enormous tongue. For a moment, Moirine was terrified, then she began to laugh and toppled back. The mastiff kept licking her and she tried futilely to push him off of her. "Off," she said between giggles, "Get him- Get him off!"
Oh, he was a nuisance, but perhaps she'd sneak back to the citadel long enough to steal one of the cancellari's dogs.
YOU CAN THINK SOMEONE'S HANDSOME AND NOT WANT TO BONE THEM OK
"Owain was handsomest." Tallest, strongest, smartest, bravest. Even though he'd ruined everything, he'd still hold first position for all of those things in her head. Perhaps that was why she tried not to think of him as much as she thought of her other siblings - even at his worst, nobody measured up to him. "Like me."
Mari couldn't help but laugh too at the sight of Simon washing Moirine's face with his tongue. She dropped to the floor again after stashing the potion back in her back, and rubbed the dog's side. "Maybe you should ask to dog-sit him," she grinned at the other girl.
WHATEVER
She couldn't stop laughing as Simon tickled her face. It felt good to be so taken over by a stupid, childish reaction. When Mari started rubbing the dog's side, he backed up and Moirine could finally sit up. She wiped at his face, half-smiling, half-grimacing as she cleaned the spit away. "I can't. I'll have to find work. I doubt a baby and a massive dog will help me..."
"What did you call yourself? Abel? He wasn't impressive at all," she said, a faint laugh still in her voice. He hadn't impressed her, but in such a temporarily good (and slightly drunk) mood, it almost sounded as if she were teasing Mari.
Mari sprawled back on the ground beside the dog, her cap going askew. She pulled it down over the tips of her ears, then threw an arm around Simon. "You could ride him to work," she suggested. "Or he could take care of the baby."
"Lanzo Lott, too. Like Lancelot," her words shook with laughter. "Abel too. Abel now. And you had to impressed by how amazingly tall I am. Well, was."
Still thumbing Simon's face clean before tending to her own, Moirine shook her head slightly. "It's all very fun to joke about," she started mumbling again, "But joking isn't an option anymore." Moirine was half-terrified over what was going to become of her. Ira, well, he might be her only recourse.
Just as she was getting down on herself again, she laughed. "Lanzo Lott. That's so-" she put the back of her hand to her mouth. "That's so stupid." As much as Mari frustrated her, she was happy to not be alone, picking lint off her dress, feeling sorry for herself. Moirine drew her knees up to her chest. "I can't remember being impressed by that, either. I'll let you know my verdict when I see him again. The height of his hair, though... that was memorable."
"I can't hear you too good when you go all quiet." It was annoying, having to deal with Moirine's mumblings. Mari rested her cheek on the dog's side, turning her head to watch the other girl's face. "You'll find something. You could always inform, I suppose. And Lucia's sister runs a bakery." Mari slipped her hand into her pocket and retrieved a squashed, sticky bun. "She'd probably get her to give you the leftovers. You won't starve, at least."
Mari grinned. She'd gotten it. "I couldn't think of anything else! The only other surname I could think of was Gelen!" In response to the comment about his hair, she took off her cap and mussed up her hair, trying to push it upwards. "Like this, right?"
"Sorry..." She was used to mumbling. One half of her wanted to be listened to, the other half wanted to be forgotten entirely. Mumbling was a way of seeing who cared enough to strain to hear her. She'd forgotten about Mari's injury. "I'll speak up."
Working in a bakery, joining a gang... They were both better options than becoming a maid, but Moirine had prepared herself for that. She'd be like Aribella. It would take time to convince herself that working as a serving girl or a Whisper might be viable. And time was something she didn't have.
"No," she said, letting the comments about her prospects pass, "It needs to be more... simply more." Moirine fluffed Mari's hair. This was the first time she'd ever touched the other girl without cringing or wanting to cause her harm. It was strange. "There." She leaned back to study Mari's tower of hair. "It's something like that."
"Thanks," she bobbed her head up and down slightly in a nod. She should mention the nausea that'd come with the blow, but bonding over wanting to be sick every time you moved your head too fast didn't seem like...a good way to bond.
She eyed Moirine's hand warily, half-expecting to be slapped upside the head, then grinned with a mixture of relief and amusement when she simply fluffed up her hair. "I need a mirror," she laughed. "Is it really impressive? It is, right?"
"There's one over the basin." She pointed over her shoulder. It was strange, Mari's male and female forms' hair had completely different textures. She could never hope to get Mari's hair as high as... Lanzo's. "It's more impressive now," Moirine said apologetically.
Without warning, Simon trotted forward and flopped down, laying his front paws and head in Moirine's lap. She let out a sigh, but simply smiled down at him. Someone didn't like being ignored, apparently. "I-"
"Ira doesn't believe that I'm a maid. You made me think you were a man..." Moirine blurted. That had to be much trickier, she told herself. "How do I convince people that I'm what I say I am?"
Mari stood up carefully, half to protect her hair and half to keep herself from getting dizzy. She laughed again when she saw herself in the mirror. "Very impressive," she agreed with a grin, touching her tongue to her crooked front tooth. She tried to flatten it, but it remained mussed, bits sticking up at all angles. That was what the cap was for, she supposed as she sat back down next to Moirine and the dog.
"He never believes anything I say either," she shrugged, locating her cap and putting it on Simon's head. "Having a background story, creating a character, having an answer for most questions, it all helps. I," she dropped her accent, picking up the Tyrolian one she'd practised for Lanzo, "find that changing your speech pattern works." The 'r' sound was still an issue. She had to concentrate to keep from rolling them. "I also tried to imitate the men I knew." Bleddyn had liked fighting and playing around, Rowan was a sissy, but she'd imitated his stride. "If they keep looking, throwing people a thread from another story to distract them away from your own helps." Mari shrugged. "Ira gets less interested in finding out what I know about you if I tell him about what the Hour is up to." Well, not the Hour. The werewolf, that creature.
Simon tilted his head up and chomped at the air a few times after Mari put the hat on him. Laughing, she tugged the cap down over his eyes, which only made him struggle more. Still, he was too lazy to get up and fling the hat off. Yes, it was decided, she was stealing this dog.
Halfway through what Mari was saying, Moirine looked up and pretended that she'd been listening the entire time. "Won't it seem suspicious if I'm always trying to distract them?" she said, absently tugging the cap down again when Simon was dangerously close to freeing himself of it.
Mari had folded her arms loosely over her chest, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she watched Simon fight lethargically with the hat. "It suits him better than it suits me."
"Not always," she answered. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them. "It's a tactic to use rarely, and only when you're in serious need of it. 'Whatever you're looking for, I know it's not as important as this'. Like that. Then you tell them something shocking enough that they forget until later and you can avoid and think up a good story."
"Yes, it does." Finally, Simon started to whine. He sounded almost exactly like Bashirah and Asher and so Moirine took the cap off and let him chew on it. If Mari wanted it in one piece, she could get it away from him.
Moirine frowned and nodded. A last recourse. It would be hard to keep the illusion of Cerys up while not losing herself. Already it was becoming a habit to tack useless phrases to the end of her sentences, to curse, to smile. "Thank you," she murmured, then remembered Mari's ear and repeated at full volume. "Thank you. This was..." Moirine looked down at Simon and caught herself smiling again. "Nice."
Surprisingly enough.
Mari put an arm around Simon's neck and managed to just about tug the cap out of his jaws. She dried it off on her arm as he slid around on his belly to try and sneak it back into his mouth. Perching it jauntily on top of her head she saw the dog eye it and stood up to avoid him knocking her over.
"It's no trouble." She smiled down at the other girl as she readjusted her cap and tugged a little on Simon's leash to get him to stand. "We'd better be going, anyway. Before it gets too dark..." she threw a frown at the door, then smiled back at Moirine. "We'll see you later."
Simon headbutted Moirine's leg gently as they went to the door and Mari waved. "Take care."
When: after this.
Where: Moirine's room at the Green Man
Rating & Warnings: G
She was still a bit drunk after her dinner with Ira. Dinner, ha. She was still a bit drunk after her argument with Ira. Moirine lay on the bed, picking absently at the bits of fuzz that came off her woolen dress. And to think she'd just said that he wasn't all that bad. He was going to figure out who she was soon, she knew it, and then he'd send Silence after her. She needed to find another inn to stay at, but... as the room spun slightly, she decided that could wait until the morning.
Mari was coming. Their conversation over the ledgers had been surprisingly civil. Moirine frowned as she pushed herself off the bed to kneel beside it and retrieve her jewelery box. Why had she offered to help support her, she wondered. All Moirine ever did was cause Mari trouble, yet she was unfailingly helpful, despite being infuriating all the while. Her small hands slipped against the latch on the box before finally getting it open. The potion was nestled between some folded letters and an amethyst necklace she'd been given for her fifteenth birthday. For a moment, she was tempted to drink the potion. It wasn't the same as taking herbs she knew would kill the baby. Moirine wasn't certain at all what would happen. If she lost Jude... it would be an accident.
Snapping the box shut, she leaned forward to hug her knees. She hated herself for even thinking something so terrible. What was wrong with her? Hiccuping loudly, Moirine smothered her face in her skirt and let out a loud groan, for once confident that it wouldn't bring the cancellari running.
Coming from a mountain in the wettest place in Britain, Mari wasn't as moved by the cold as Rowan was, but she knew its dangers well enough to be anything but apathetic about it. Thus, it was a thing more layers than human that came knocking on Moirine's door. British wool was high quality compared to the rest of the world (in her mind) and her knitted cap was one of the few things that she'd kept from home. It barely covered the tips of her ears now, but it worked well with her scarf to keep her head warm. Even if she probably did look a little silly, wearing a hat meant for a twelve year old.
Beside her, Simon spread out on the ground as they waited for Moirine to answer the door. He was a good dog, surprisingly obedient, happy whether walking or flopping around in her or Lucia's rooms. His owner kept giving her bits of cake, free buns. Mari didn't have a sweet tooth though - a few bites and she was already sick of the taste of chocolate. It would be best to save what she got to give to Marijke, she reckoned. The poor woman needed a cheer up. Lifting a foot and balancing carefully, she rubbed the back of Simon's neck with the toe of her shoe, then knocked again.
"Hello, dog deliverer. Are you going to let me in?"
Moirine glanced to the door, then lurched to her feet. To her credit, she didn't stumble, but she did take a moment to close her eyes and collect herself. Drinking had not been a good idea. "Coming," she called. One hand went to her wig, making sure it was still in place, and the other was held out in front of her to keep her from running into anything.
She opened the door and her eyes went from Mari to the lion dog at her side. It was enormous. Openly gaping, she forgot to step out of the way to let them into the room. "Bashirah and Asher are going to look like this," she mumbled to herself. The puppies she could hide behind her pillows would one day be the size of... horses. After a few seconds, she allowed Mari and Simon in.
"Sorry. I didn't expect such a large dog." Could Mari control it if it turned vicious?
Mari waited impatiently to be let in, stepping past Moirine when she finally let her through, tugging gently on Simon's lead. He followed obediently, with the air of humouring a small child, but sniffed at Moirine as he passed, his large brown eyes settling on the stranger curiously. "He's a good boy," Mari answered, looking back towards the other girl. "And he's just been fed. Needn't look at him like he's going to eat you."
She pulled the scarf down off her mouth, rubbing her arms and looking around Moirine's new room with her mouth open. She'd only gotten to see her old place over the girl's shoulder as she'd pinned her against a wall and made a lot of words, but even if she hadn't had the first hand experience, she'd know this was a serious step down. "Who're Bashirah and Asher?"
"I didn't-" she began, then gave up. It really didn't matter whether Mari thought she was afraid of the dog or in awe of it. Closing the door, she followed after them and tentatively patted Simon on the head. The dog wagged its tail, but otherwise didn't respond. "Hello," Moirine murmured. "You are a good boy."
Around animals, she was practically a different person. Thoughts of her expulsion and her pregnancy vanished as she played with the dog's great ears. Smiling slightly, she looked up at Mari's question. "What?" Frowning, Moirine stepped away from Simon. "Two puppies who live at the citadel. I think they're the same kind as-" she pointed at Simon.
"I'll get you your potion." Her cheer drained away as she was brought back to reality. "I'm not certain I'd take it again even if I could, actually..."
Mari watched them interact, hunching her shoulders slightly as she processed the image of Moirine actually smiling at something. That didn't happen often. Not around her, anyway. "The fish," she started slowly, then stopped. "And the dog," she finished. Words to connect the two sentence fragments would be a good idea, she figured after a moment. "You like animals." Her tone was mildly surprised. It wasn't that liking animals was an unexpected thing, it was just strange that she'd never really mentioned it before. Strange to see her happy, too.
"Oh right, then. Grand. I'll take that." With the potion, any doubt that Abel Paré was a fake name might be struck from the minds of Whispers who weren't Rhys and that Jai guy. "You didn't like being a man?"
"They're less complicated," Moirine said beneath her breath, "People aren't worth the effort."
Kneeling, she opened her box, careful to keep it faced away from Mari. These were her things, the only things she truly cared for. Even Allen hadn't been allowed to see them. Moirine pulled the almost full bottle of potion out, closed the box and pushed it back under her bed. "Here," she said, holding it out to Mari after she struggled to her feet. Moving was getting trickier. She could only imagine how she'd be in a few months.
Didn't like being a man? What sort of a question was that? Did Mari enjoy being a man? So much of Moirine's identity had hinged on her gender that experiencing life as a man for even a minute had been truly disturbing. Now, she had the baby and her motherhood to think about. Of course she didn't like being a man. "No. Not at all." Her tongue was still loose from the ale, so she added, "Anyway, I was ugly."
Mari frowned. Had she done that on purpose? Said something so quietly just to annoy? She'd managed to catch the tail-end of it, though, and found herself nodding along. "They are far kinder than many humans. Speak up, please."
She wasn't too interested in the baubles that Moirine had kept and looked down to the dog beside her, sitting on the floor uninvited and rubbing his back, stroking his side. She angled herself side-on to Moirine in order to hear her better, jumping to her feet when the bottle was finally produced. "Thanks. This'll save me from buying more from Ermesinda." Would Moirine like Ermesinda? Erme was an Other, it was true, but she was adorable. How could even Moirine hold anything against something so small?
"You were," Mari's mouth slid into a faint smirk. "Not ugly. Was a downgrade, though. You looked a bit like a rat, but rats have their charms. Besides, you were probably comparing yourself to my male form internally. And I'm so incredibly handsome, anyone would fall short."
Moirine glared at Mari. She might have charged her for the rest of the potion. Cita knew Mari seemed to think she needed the money, yet she accepted a gift and patronized her at the same time. If she hadn't brought the dog, she would have kept the ungrateful girl out this very second.
"You're ugly as well," she said with complete honesty. Scratching Simon under the chin, she started smiling a bit again. All lords kept hounds. Perhaps she could get a job tending to them. "If only you could see him," she cooed quietly, now staying hushed to annoy, "You'd say 'what an ugly master I have' in dog."
"I look like my brother," Mari angled her head to watch Moirine with Simon. "He was very handsome. So I'm handsome." She was smiling though, enjoying the banter. Bickering like this felt more natural than being polite to each other, or shouting. Most of her relationships contained some form of rudeness. It was just knowing when not to get upset, that was Moirine's trouble.
"I'm not his master besides. The lady in the cake shop asked me to look after him. I bet he's too loyal to call her ugly." She always got a stupid little grin on her face when she looked at the dog. He looked so silly with his tongue hanging out and his wrinkles and the way he seemed to be smiling at the both of them, despite probably not understanding what was going on. Dogs were adorable.
SO IT'S OKAY FOR YOU TO THINK YOUR BRO'S HANDSOME HUH?
Why was Mari smiling? Moirine focused her attention back on Simon, slowly lowering herself to one knee to be on eye-level with him. Actually, in this position he was taller than she was. Avith and Tobias had no idea what they'd gotten themselves into. "And I looked like my brother," she said, able to talk about Allen only because she was petting Simon, "He was handsome and I was ugly. What your brother looked like doesn't mat- ah!"
Simon was licking her face with his enormous tongue. For a moment, Moirine was terrified, then she began to laugh and toppled back. The mastiff kept licking her and she tried futilely to push him off of her. "Off," she said between giggles, "Get him- Get him off!"
Oh, he was a nuisance, but perhaps she'd sneak back to the citadel long enough to steal one of the cancellari's dogs.
YOU CAN THINK SOMEONE'S HANDSOME AND NOT WANT TO BONE THEM OK
"Owain was handsomest." Tallest, strongest, smartest, bravest. Even though he'd ruined everything, he'd still hold first position for all of those things in her head. Perhaps that was why she tried not to think of him as much as she thought of her other siblings - even at his worst, nobody measured up to him. "Like me."
Mari couldn't help but laugh too at the sight of Simon washing Moirine's face with his tongue. She dropped to the floor again after stashing the potion back in her back, and rubbed the dog's side. "Maybe you should ask to dog-sit him," she grinned at the other girl.
WHATEVER
She couldn't stop laughing as Simon tickled her face. It felt good to be so taken over by a stupid, childish reaction. When Mari started rubbing the dog's side, he backed up and Moirine could finally sit up. She wiped at his face, half-smiling, half-grimacing as she cleaned the spit away. "I can't. I'll have to find work. I doubt a baby and a massive dog will help me..."
"What did you call yourself? Abel? He wasn't impressive at all," she said, a faint laugh still in her voice. He hadn't impressed her, but in such a temporarily good (and slightly drunk) mood, it almost sounded as if she were teasing Mari.
Mari sprawled back on the ground beside the dog, her cap going askew. She pulled it down over the tips of her ears, then threw an arm around Simon. "You could ride him to work," she suggested. "Or he could take care of the baby."
"Lanzo Lott, too. Like Lancelot," her words shook with laughter. "Abel too. Abel now. And you had to impressed by how amazingly tall I am. Well, was."
Still thumbing Simon's face clean before tending to her own, Moirine shook her head slightly. "It's all very fun to joke about," she started mumbling again, "But joking isn't an option anymore." Moirine was half-terrified over what was going to become of her. Ira, well, he might be her only recourse.
Just as she was getting down on herself again, she laughed. "Lanzo Lott. That's so-" she put the back of her hand to her mouth. "That's so stupid." As much as Mari frustrated her, she was happy to not be alone, picking lint off her dress, feeling sorry for herself. Moirine drew her knees up to her chest. "I can't remember being impressed by that, either. I'll let you know my verdict when I see him again. The height of his hair, though... that was memorable."
"I can't hear you too good when you go all quiet." It was annoying, having to deal with Moirine's mumblings. Mari rested her cheek on the dog's side, turning her head to watch the other girl's face. "You'll find something. You could always inform, I suppose. And Lucia's sister runs a bakery." Mari slipped her hand into her pocket and retrieved a squashed, sticky bun. "She'd probably get her to give you the leftovers. You won't starve, at least."
Mari grinned. She'd gotten it. "I couldn't think of anything else! The only other surname I could think of was Gelen!" In response to the comment about his hair, she took off her cap and mussed up her hair, trying to push it upwards. "Like this, right?"
"Sorry..." She was used to mumbling. One half of her wanted to be listened to, the other half wanted to be forgotten entirely. Mumbling was a way of seeing who cared enough to strain to hear her. She'd forgotten about Mari's injury. "I'll speak up."
Working in a bakery, joining a gang... They were both better options than becoming a maid, but Moirine had prepared herself for that. She'd be like Aribella. It would take time to convince herself that working as a serving girl or a Whisper might be viable. And time was something she didn't have.
"No," she said, letting the comments about her prospects pass, "It needs to be more... simply more." Moirine fluffed Mari's hair. This was the first time she'd ever touched the other girl without cringing or wanting to cause her harm. It was strange. "There." She leaned back to study Mari's tower of hair. "It's something like that."
"Thanks," she bobbed her head up and down slightly in a nod. She should mention the nausea that'd come with the blow, but bonding over wanting to be sick every time you moved your head too fast didn't seem like...a good way to bond.
She eyed Moirine's hand warily, half-expecting to be slapped upside the head, then grinned with a mixture of relief and amusement when she simply fluffed up her hair. "I need a mirror," she laughed. "Is it really impressive? It is, right?"
"There's one over the basin." She pointed over her shoulder. It was strange, Mari's male and female forms' hair had completely different textures. She could never hope to get Mari's hair as high as... Lanzo's. "It's more impressive now," Moirine said apologetically.
Without warning, Simon trotted forward and flopped down, laying his front paws and head in Moirine's lap. She let out a sigh, but simply smiled down at him. Someone didn't like being ignored, apparently. "I-"
"Ira doesn't believe that I'm a maid. You made me think you were a man..." Moirine blurted. That had to be much trickier, she told herself. "How do I convince people that I'm what I say I am?"
Mari stood up carefully, half to protect her hair and half to keep herself from getting dizzy. She laughed again when she saw herself in the mirror. "Very impressive," she agreed with a grin, touching her tongue to her crooked front tooth. She tried to flatten it, but it remained mussed, bits sticking up at all angles. That was what the cap was for, she supposed as she sat back down next to Moirine and the dog.
"He never believes anything I say either," she shrugged, locating her cap and putting it on Simon's head. "Having a background story, creating a character, having an answer for most questions, it all helps. I," she dropped her accent, picking up the Tyrolian one she'd practised for Lanzo, "find that changing your speech pattern works." The 'r' sound was still an issue. She had to concentrate to keep from rolling them. "I also tried to imitate the men I knew." Bleddyn had liked fighting and playing around, Rowan was a sissy, but she'd imitated his stride. "If they keep looking, throwing people a thread from another story to distract them away from your own helps." Mari shrugged. "Ira gets less interested in finding out what I know about you if I tell him about what the Hour is up to." Well, not the Hour. The werewolf, that creature.
Simon tilted his head up and chomped at the air a few times after Mari put the hat on him. Laughing, she tugged the cap down over his eyes, which only made him struggle more. Still, he was too lazy to get up and fling the hat off. Yes, it was decided, she was stealing this dog.
Halfway through what Mari was saying, Moirine looked up and pretended that she'd been listening the entire time. "Won't it seem suspicious if I'm always trying to distract them?" she said, absently tugging the cap down again when Simon was dangerously close to freeing himself of it.
Mari had folded her arms loosely over her chest, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she watched Simon fight lethargically with the hat. "It suits him better than it suits me."
"Not always," she answered. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them. "It's a tactic to use rarely, and only when you're in serious need of it. 'Whatever you're looking for, I know it's not as important as this'. Like that. Then you tell them something shocking enough that they forget until later and you can avoid and think up a good story."
"Yes, it does." Finally, Simon started to whine. He sounded almost exactly like Bashirah and Asher and so Moirine took the cap off and let him chew on it. If Mari wanted it in one piece, she could get it away from him.
Moirine frowned and nodded. A last recourse. It would be hard to keep the illusion of Cerys up while not losing herself. Already it was becoming a habit to tack useless phrases to the end of her sentences, to curse, to smile. "Thank you," she murmured, then remembered Mari's ear and repeated at full volume. "Thank you. This was..." Moirine looked down at Simon and caught herself smiling again. "Nice."
Surprisingly enough.
Mari put an arm around Simon's neck and managed to just about tug the cap out of his jaws. She dried it off on her arm as he slid around on his belly to try and sneak it back into his mouth. Perching it jauntily on top of her head she saw the dog eye it and stood up to avoid him knocking her over.
"It's no trouble." She smiled down at the other girl as she readjusted her cap and tugged a little on Simon's leash to get him to stand. "We'd better be going, anyway. Before it gets too dark..." she threw a frown at the door, then smiled back at Moirine. "We'll see you later."
Simon headbutted Moirine's leg gently as they went to the door and Mari waved. "Take care."