a halo around her finger around you

[epyonrose]

As much as Treize enjoys to occasional foray into the bar scene of the Nexus, he'll never be entirely comfortable there; he will always be an observer in certain crowds, despite his generally positive social outlook. Here, in this upscale cocktail lounge high on an observation deck in a hotel he's 'found', he seems much more at home

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[ladyquietude]

As far as Petra's concerned, the nexus is still alien and alarming - but it is a distraction from the frustrating slow progression of days through the month and all of the accompanying worries. (That Martel lives, here, is a worry all of its own that she is afraid to examine and so does not, letting it settle in the back of her mind like a half-remembered nightmare.)

How she got here is something of a mystery, though, a row of encounters like chinese whispers that led her somewhere interesting until she comes to be handing her cloak off and accepting a glass of wine, idly wishing she'd worn something a more adventurous hue than dark brown. No one could call her sense of style 'frumpy', but the colour makes her feel matronly where she'd like to feel - rebellious, who knows.

"Oh my word," she breathes out, startled, looking out the windows over the nexus proper, and thinks that maybe she's a little past the age for wild rebellions, after all.

[ladyquietude]

"It is, yes, but..." Petra weighs how to put this, leaning back where she's sitting and holding her glass as if she's holding court - it's easy to see how she could, herself, have been enthralling even if she doesn't devote herself to it now. "I'm not a young woman any more, Treize. I've seen frightening things and I've lived through them. The strange things I see here...I'd like to know more about them, I'd very much like to understand. Isn't that the only way to pass by fear?"

[epyonrose]

"I think so," he says, having given enough pause to reflect on her words but not be taken aback by them. Fear is a strange subject for him, when dealt with in any seriousness. "Men speak of mastering fear, conquering it - of course they wouldn't think to learn about it." A soft smile, a little wry. Treize has no knowledge of fear.

[ladyquietude]

"I wish they would," Petra says, lightly, taking a sip. "Perhaps in time." (But she doubts it, and here in the nexus is something that she feels proves her point entirely and concerns her a great deal more than advancements in science.) "I've spent most of my life around warriors, though, you needn't tell me twice."

[epyonrose]

"Though I must say, it's easier to learn about something once it's under your heel." Teasing, perhaps? He smiles. "Is your husband a warrior?" Because it is a lovely ring.

[ladyquietude]

Petra wouldn't care to make a guess at whether that's just a joke or not - instead she's smiling slightly and pressing her thumb against the band of her ring. "My lord is a knight, yes," she confirms, with no small amount of pride. "I grew up in amongst the Pandions, but the Alcione Order isn't too much of a change. I'm sure he'd say they're better behaved."

[epyonrose]

It's certainly amusing, funny, even, so sure, it's a joke. But aren't the cleverest ones based in reality? ... Anyway.

"I wouldn't think a lesser man could engage you," he tells her, and then pauses. "I've no intimate knowledge of your world but the names sometimes ring familiar. I believe I've had ... wine, actually, Acacian?" Is he saying it right?

[ladyquietude]

"I am a woman of high standards. And speaking of such standards - Arcian," she corrects him - with visible delight. "Arcian red? When I was a girl we'd drink it in Vardenais and Lady Veleda would tell me about the time she'd spent in Arcium with her family - it really is the very best wine in Eosia. Do they have it here? That's magnificent."

What a pleasant slice of home to find, instead of the endless tug of war between Sparhawk and Martel.

[epyonrose]

He nods, smiling. "At least in the bar I was at, here, I'm not sure, though there's no harm in asking. I don't recall who shared it with me, but it made quite the impression." He does remember, actually, because his memory is just like that, but he isn't the sort of man to turn attention away from something a lady is so charmed about. "What's Arcium like that it brings out such excellent drink?"

[ladyquietude]

"They're an exacting people," she says, still pleased by this development and half-surprised to have found something in the nexus to brighten her mood. "More...devout than I would be accustomed to-" which would be odd, coming from a woman surrounded by militant clergymen, if you didn't know how church knights can get, "-but not so head-in-the-clouds about it. Very straightforward, in their way."

One day, Petra will stop persistently trying to analyze everyone around her - no, that's not true, it'll never happen. "They produce more artists than I'd expect from a place so devoted to simple logic."

[epyonrose]

"Perhaps it is logical to do what you excel at," he muses, "Even if what you excel at is something superfluous." He finishes his glass of wine, having already been drinking it before Petrana arrived.

"But is art illogical? A style may be, or a piece, but I think humanity would suffer without its honest mirror, no matter the society."

[ladyquietude]

"I'm sure if I asked my old mentor - when I was learning to paint - then he would say that logic plays a role in all things men and women do. He was from Sarrinium, himself." She chuckles, a little, brushing the loose curls from her updo out of her way as she shifts where she's sitting.

"All the time I spent with them and my own accent has always had a bit of Arcium. Some foolish affectation to endear myself when I was younger that somehow stuck, I suppose, my visits to the country itself have always been fleeting."

[epyonrose]

"It doesn't sound foolish at all," he says, quite literal. Her voice is exotic, not matching any particular aesthetic from his world, and people are always fond of such things; Treize is no holdout.

[ladyquietude]

"You know, that's rather why I've been asking after people's homes?" Petra confesses, inclining her head at the compliment with an easy sort of smile. "I like to be able to place the accents, the way we come out of our lands speaking."

[epyonrose]

He smiles. "To most people from my world, you would sound 'vaguely European', I believe. To actual traveled Europeans you sound very mysterious, but I think foreigners would assume you were from France, maybe, but skilled in English."

[ladyquietude]

"'English', that's what you call this?" Petra queries, interested, setting her empty glass down and resting her hands on the side of her chair. "I speak Elenic as a native, and I know a little Styric but not nearly so much as someone who'd properly learned the language...you look Thalesian to me, I must say."