(Untitled)
In fairness, Candice thinks, neither of them are very good at divulging relevant information promptly. She's been busy. He's been busy. It wasn't a big deal. She forgot. -- no, actually, none of those things are an excuse. Part of it was that she wasn't sure how to explain the hotel room, but honesty is the best policy, to a certain extent ( Read more... )
For going on the past few months now, Martel has been working on something of a vanity project - a useful vanity project, but nevertheless. It started as something to occupy himself with, then he simply wanted to see if he could.
Simply put: electric lights are useful. Martel has been trying to recreate that usefulness ... with magic. It's simple enough, to start with - but then the sheer scale of the castle itself and the addition of a trigger method that anyone could use... (Of course, he himself has more direct and wider control, but for the day to day.)
When Candice finds him, he's fresh out of a bath and looks somewhere between exhausted and elated. He did it.
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"Hey, you," she says, greeting him with a smile while she notes the look on his face. That's telling. Candice steps closer to kiss him hello, because it's not a proper greeting with these two unless there's a physical element, apparently.
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Martel could get used to being greeted this way. He'll...linger at that a while, and he is unmistakably pleased with himself when he does draw back. "Hello, there."
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"You look like you've had a good day," she notes, tapping his chest with her fingertips, "care to tell me what you've been up to?"
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Martel's pleased expression appears to be setting up camp for the long haul. The almost idle command is from an Elene dialect so old as to be nearly incomprehensible, now-
Behind him, there are small explosions of fire and light - quickly settling steady - in what look like glass torches set into the wall.
(He looks like he's studiously not looking like he expects praise.)
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She laughs, startled, and looks from him to the torches and back again. "Well, with good reason, then. This is what you've been working on for ages, isn't it?"
Candice draws a half-step closer to the lights, but no more, even if she's awfully curious.
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"It is. They're all through the castle," he says, extraordinarily proud of himself. "I'll teach you the commands, later."
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"You did very well," she says, stepping back to lean on Martel, "which I think you know. Electric lighting made an impression, huh?"
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"I wanted to see if it could be done this way-" He wanted to see if he could do it this way, more accurately; in theory he was certain of the potential. "I have, of course, ultimate control over all of it, but the trickiest part was ensuring it'd respond to nearly anyone."
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"I'll be very sure to learn the commands properly, in that case. I'm really impressed, you know that?" And not a little glad. Lighting like that really is quite the luxury--one she'd stopped taking for granted given her unconventional lifestyle.
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"Glad, no doubt, that I'll stop setting fire to myself for a while." ...Martel says some strange things at the best of times, but: for a while? Honestly. "Where were you?"
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Candice gives him a rather arch look at that, and then shrugs at the question. "Some loose ends in Wyoming. I actually had something to talk to you about--two things, but they're related to each other."
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"Oh?" Martel is, predictably, interested already. "Go ahead - or-"
Sitting down sounds excellent.
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Candice leans her knees against his when he sits down, still standing. She expects that to change in the near future, though. For some reason whenever Martel finds a chair, she finds a lap not very long afterward. "Well, for starters, just to get it over with, that contact I told you about in Wyoming offered me a hotel room for a week. Not...for a job."
Um. Yeah.
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Really, it's impressive how placid he manages to make himself look, not changing his expression while - as predicted - he tugs her forward. He does not bother asking what her response was, due to being relatively certain in the knowledge he can make an educated guess.
"He really should learn better manners."
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She settles on his lap, comfortably, with her arm leaned on his (good) shoulder for balance. "Possibly," she allows, with a sneaky little smile, "so should I."
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