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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 10, 2008 23:33:00 GMT -5
Taaru's extended palm was not lost on her, although he made no formal offer. She looked from his palm to his face.
"What, did you want a tip or something?"
She waited a beat before laughing nervously in case the joke didn't come off well.
"No, actually these are uh...."
She looked down at her suitcase in hand.
"These are just books."
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 10, 2008 23:47:02 GMT -5
Taaru smudged his lips to the side and twitched his shoulders: Suit yourself.
He turned and beckoned her, heading through the dining room and into the main hall, where he began to ascend one of the two sweeping carpeted staircases.
Silence lapsed into absent-minded attempts at conversation.
"We have a lot of space in the mansion, so you vill have pick of rooms. It ees really only Jet and I that live here on regular basis anymore, and I usually sleep on couch in library."
He led her to one of the guest rooms at the top of the staircase, a spacious room, tastefully decorated with earth tones and rich, wooden furniture: a neutral room with enough finesse to impress upon guests the ample fortune the DJO possessed, as well as its refined tastes.
"Eet ees to your liking?"
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 10, 2008 23:52:41 GMT -5
The room was soothing and she smiled lightly, earth tones were always welcoming and extremely rich looking.
"This is really nice... I honestly just expected to stay in my ship while we were in planning stages."
She tossed her suitcase on the bed and flipped it open.
"Guess I'll have to make another trip down to the hanger for clothes."
Reaching into her case, she pulled out a handfull of papers and books. Turning around, she gestured to a bookshelf.
"Would you mind? If you're not busy, I wouldn't mind the help. You're probably better at organizing books than I am. Though to be fair, I usually make Collin do it."
As she spoke, she started setting the books on the top shelf.
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 11, 2008 0:03:03 GMT -5
Her request was met with a raised eyebrow. He didn't like being compared to droids."Maybe I should ask for tip."
Nevertheless, he grabbed a handful of her books, looked at their spines, and had them sorted alphabetically by author on the carrel of the writing desk near one of the room's two south-facing windows.
"Is better to shelve books near work space. Improves efficiency."
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 11, 2008 0:08:52 GMT -5
"I suppose that's true....but some of these things I don't need right away."
She picked up a few music folders she had, filled with sheet music and blank sheets for writing songs.
After placing those on the shelves, she went back to her suitcase, and produced a small bottle of liquor.
"I wish this was good whiskey, then I'd be polite and offer you a drink. But I assume you don't like the dirt cheap stuff, hmm?"
She also set the bottle on the shelf, just to get it out of the way. She stood back for a moment and mused.
"Well, it may be crap liquor, but at least it helps hold my books and things upright."
And it was true, as it was nestled in the corner, it did hold up everything like a book-end.
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 11, 2008 0:33:21 GMT -5
Taaru had surreptitiously fetched a sheet of her music work and browsed it, the notes playing out in his mind.
It was a little known fact that he had absolute pitch. He considered it a subset of his almost superhuman predisposition for languages, considering the written and spoken word were intricately related. Music was one of the rare languages, however, that translated perfectly from notation to auditory stimulus...and more importantly, it was universal.
Avery had pulled out a bottle of whiskey, which he glanced at and didn't care for immediately. But one of his core values was never to pass up an offered drink.
"This is an interesting piece you have here," he quipped, tapping the page with a fingernail. "What do you call it?"
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 11, 2008 0:43:17 GMT -5
"Which piece?"
She thought maybe it was one of her little bits of junk she stuffed in there to fix for later, but when she turned she realized it was one of her own pieces, made for the piano, that he was looking over and playing out in his mind. She quickly crossed the room and pulled it from his hands.
"It's nothing... it's not finished."
If Avery was anything, it was a slave to perfection when the piece was something intense and beautiful, and something that spoke to her in some way other than words.
She stared down at the pages clipped together and a look of embarrassment showed on her face.
"Just something I work on sometimes."
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 11, 2008 0:51:57 GMT -5
Even those with blood-stained hands are witnesses to the small crucibles of life. Taaru was a hard man, but underneath a hardened carapace of silent strength and determination was the same impulsive spirit, cast to the four winds, as all souls.
It was something peculiar about the way Avery dropped her eyes and turned her face from him, something about the way the evening light hit her then, framing the curve of her features, that pierced Taaru's memory and drug something out that had been buried for a long, long time.
He gave it no presence, simply stood and looked at her, then through her. Catching himself, he turned, and continued to busy himself with organizing her books.
Some things were best left buried.
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 11, 2008 1:00:53 GMT -5
"I'm sorry, I just..."
She glanced back up as he turned away from her.
"It's not finished..."
She sighed. Her father had his notes and papers about artifacts and ancient things, and she had her notes and papers involving old instruments and ancient ways of communication... but both things were meant to be published.
She went back to her suitcase and pulled a larger folder out. Moving to stand beside Taaru, she opened it up and produced a few pages, setting them on top of the pile.
"This is one I finished a few months ago. It's pretty bad."
She smiled and laughed lightly.
"The runs are a little problematic, but it works. I just prefer to finish stuff and never look back at it. I'd love to edit them, but..."
She shrugged.
"You know how it is. I'm biased because I wrote it."
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 11, 2008 1:08:05 GMT -5
Taaru glanced up, then down at the proffered sheaf of paper, and took it. The song unfolded effortlessly in his mind.
"You give yourself too little credit....though you should return to it and edit it..."
He handed it back. "Why this taste in music?"
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 11, 2008 1:10:32 GMT -5
"I don't know... I guess it's just the type I like. A little sad, a little blues-ish... I'm sure these would be much better with lyrics of some sort."
She put the song back in it's place and flipped through the other pages.
"Sad music is easier to write I guess."
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 11, 2008 1:14:09 GMT -5
"Because eet ees the music of experience."
And it was that moment of introspection that brought Taaru's gaze back to the bottle of whiskey.
He wrestled with the idea, balked at the implications, received mixed reviews at the most likely outcome, and decided to plunge headfirst into ineffable causality anyway.
He trudged across the room and opened a small cabinet with basic silverware necessities and produced two glasses for just the occasion. These he set on an end table, and filled the both of them, offering her one, adding "If you don't want it now, I'll take it."
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 11, 2008 1:20:05 GMT -5
Avery, much like Taaru, never turned down a drink. So when she found him pouring their drinks. She closed her folder and tossed it on the desk.
"I guess I'll take it then."
She picked up her glass and held it to him in a toast.
"To a safe trip and happy hunting?"
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Post by Taaru Masako on Dec 11, 2008 1:26:06 GMT -5
Taaru concluded the benediction in Thruvaran:
"Fest in unseren Herzen, die Tat berechtigt, der Wind in unseren Segeln."
He sipped the whiskey, and, finding it biting, swallowed it quickly. The peaty aftertaste was pleasant, but surprising in that someone like Avery could stomach it.
"You have strong taste in liquors."
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Dec 11, 2008 1:28:43 GMT -5
She inhaled sharply after taking the swig. the cold air mixed with the alcohol and had a biting sharp sensation. It was one of those kinds that would make your mind blank for a moment.
"Yeah I guess so... I get that from my father. It was one of our many common points."
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