INT - Windgrace Manor, day
Dorian didn't knock today, nor did he call out to her with his inward voice nor his outer; he just listened out for sounds of her abroad in her room, going so far as to put his ear to the door. After the morning ride, he'd bathed and eaten and was now availing himself of one of his favorite activities: bothering his twin.
Dinah: There were certain things that dinah did that she kept secret from her brothers. Some of them she did for their own preservation, like the fairground incident. Others...well, other singular, was for herself. she had tucked her ballet costume in the bottom of her wardrobe and kept it wrapped in tissue paper for whenever she felt the inclination and today was one of those rare occasions.
She had no clue her twin was behind the door, but there was the sound of soft thumping and scuffing on the floorboards as she practiced her pirouette
Dorian: || Pointe shoes on wooden beams made a singular sound, though it was one he didn't ever imagine would be behind this particular door. He couldn't figure out what the sound was out of context, so out of pure wonderment he was already putting his hand on the knob of her door to go in and see for himself before he realized it. Just before turning the knob he mentally announced himself, amplifying his inquisitiveness without particular questions to go along with it.
Upon laying eyes on her, his jaw would go slack and he'd cease moving, leaning against the door as he was, and peeking around it. A second later he was pulling the door closed again only to knock on it this time, and insistently. His mouth was still ajar and his mind reeling with the sight of his sister in ballet gear. It was almost as if he needed another moment to live in the reality where Di wasn't such a dancer to prepare himself for the grand possibility on the far side of the door.
Dinah jerked at the mental announcement and it was already too late, with him opening the door as she stumbled a little, having gone from pointe to flat without any other preparation. She stared at him, owlish and surprised for him to just...come straight in through the door like she'd already told him a million times that he could, and yet he so very rarely actually ever did.
She clutched her hands in the tulle of her skirt, staring at him still wordlessly for a long moment though she tried to step aside, slinking towards her wardrobe as if somehow moving slowly would prevent him from seeing her trying to sidle towards the rest of her clothes.
Dorian: || When she didn't answer the knocking but, he presumed continued backing toward her wardrobe, he'd barge in and cast his gaze upon her again, which made his jaw drop further. Then he'd close blue eyes, overcompensate by putting a hand over them and shutting the door behind himself. This all before he'd manage, "Did I just see you twirl like you were a prima onstage?"
Inwardly he'd realize and announce a few things, <You know how. You looked amazing. You have been at this a /while/.> He'd peek through his fingers with one eye because if this was a dream he didn't want to miss out on seeing her in that outfit.
Dinah sighed and she shook her head, wrenching her robe from the wardrobe and hugged it close to herself, though she didnt put it on just yet.
"No, you did not. absolutely not. you saw nothing" she protested sulkily, half-hiding behind the wardrobe door. it was foolish to tell him he'd not seen anything when she was still dressed in the prancery of her lessons at least, though she stepped up into the bottom of her wardrobe and attempted to close it behind her with her inside it.
"it's nothing, it was just a momentary fancy. things I had lying around." she mumbled, draping the robe over the top of herself in a little silken heap at the bottom of her clothes.
Dorian watched her try to hide from him through his fingers before dropping his hand. He'd approach the wardrobe and tug on the door, offering her a hand out of there. They couldn't both be hiding. He hazarded a guess, "I know you are not embarrassed. You are a priestess to fearsome gods, and a world class mage. You are Dinah Bloody Windgrace and you have hidden ballet from me for what.... years? Why in the name of the eldritch and almighty would you hide that? You-you... graceful goose!" He was laughing a little bit as he said his accusations, and didn't shy away from taking in a full view of the revealing, form-fitted, fanciful garments upon his sister's body.
Dinah huffed from beneath the robe though as he offered her a hand, she peered out from beneath it at him, still sulking "I am not a goose!" she whined, throwing a fur stole at him from the bottom of her wardrobe. She sighed in frustration, taking his hand but she didn't come out completely, remaining sitting in the bottom of her wardrobe, though she considered taking off her slippers.
"I learned in paris." she said quietly. "before." she added just as quietly. "You were both always so...determined to see me rid of reminders of the place." she rested her palms against the threshold of the wardrobe.
Dorian caught the stole mainly on the face before pulling it off with the hand that wasn't being held out for her. He couldn't help chuckling when she denied being a goose, and until she mentioned Paris. His expression grew serious then because there was no city like the French capital of love to remind him that in some ways, small and strange as they were undeniable, that Di was innocent. Unworldly. And she looked it in her dancer's gear. He'd unwittingly sucked his lower lip in as she spoke on, and as he was placing the stole beside her in the wardrobe, still getting two eyes full from the toetips to the top of her head, he'd free his lip from his teeth and remark, "No one who'd seen you dance would ever try to stop you. Unless the vision threatened to overwhelm one's senses. Even so I wish I had not stopped you, but peeked in through the window somehow."
Though he didn't yet fully understand why it had been kept secret, all things Parisian did get treated with kidgloves when it came to her and how she'd ended her tenure in that city some decades past.
Dinah huffed again when he caught the stole she chucked at his face, but as he grew more solemn at the mention of paris, she gestured towards him.
"See?" she sighed gently. "I wondered if it would be worth saying something but at the same time, I didn't want every time I got my slippers out for everyone to worry and fuss that I were going to go berserk because of paris. I wasn't even that good at it. I've just practiced a lot." Her brothers would have been right to be concerned from her behaviour, all things considered, but she leaned back, sinking into the wardrobe again somewhat petulantly.
"It's not like you don't have secrets too, dont you? I thought all things considered this was... relatively...noone needed to know that I was prancing about dressed like a meringue."
Dorian looked concerned again when she said she didn't want Paris to be stigmatized, because he knew he did just what she said. He was only just finding out that she realized the Parisian kid gloves were a thing. This gave him cause to wince, and then he'd shrug when she mentioned his secrets. He'd not go admitting anything he thought of that way, not recalling anything particularly hobbyish that he'd hidden because he was embarrassed about it. He'd whittled a few times and never made anything that looked even decent. He'd written bad poems for his sister but those stayed locked in his journal which he hid. The thing with Drystan was suppressed so it didn't even come to mind, not when he positively needed to comment, "But you look like such a sweet meringue in that outfit. You don't understand how sweet, clearly..." His grin crawled up the side of his face while he cast azure eyes up and down her plonked though she may have been in a piece of furniture decidedly not made for sitting in.
Dinah saw the wince, but she also saw the shrug, and she gave a further sulky little scowl. Remaining hidden in her wardrobe, and his compliments made her grab at something else, a blouse this time, and hurl that at his face instead.
"And just how long do you think i'd have been able to go to lessons dressed like this in paris without you present, beloved brother mine?" she said sorely, turning her attention to the knot of the waistband at her tutu, huffing in temper as her claws struggled with the knot.
"you shouldn't tease. It's cruel." she drew her legs back up into the wardrobe with her, choosing to focus on the ribbons of her slippers instead.
Dorian took another clothing item to the face, he'd been so busy staring, though, again, he'd pull the blouse from his face and move to settle it atop the stole beside her. Seeing and sensing that she was quite so displeased he'd counter, "I would have escorted you to your lessons and home. Your legs really do like quite wonderful, I am not teasing you, I mean it! And all of you. Come now, don't be cross. I shan't even tell Drystan, alright? Just.... stop trying to take it off so fast." There was a phrase he'd likely never utter again, especially when it came to items of her clothing. He continued, "Let's see an ah.... arabesque. Or a leap... or something. Ballet is really very lovely, I have always meant to pay it more attention." She could rest assured that now he would pay the art more heed.
Dinah paused her unknotting and she stared up at him with that frown on her face "and if my teacher were a man? or if I danced with another man that would need to lift me?" she countered, a brow arching "They'd have ended up in the siene" she couldn't help but smirk a little, though she huffed as he told her to stop trying to take it off, folding her arms across her lace-covered chest.
"you want to see me dance?" she narrowed her eyes a touch "...i'll show you. IF you tell me what it is that you and drystan are hiding from me. You know I can see it, and yet neither of you have told me whatever it is that you're keeping from me"
Dorian had not imagined her dancing with some man, or being instructed by one, and she really had the right of it, because he immediately sneered at the possibility, and then laughed again because he caught himself sneering. While she crossed her arms over her lace covered chest, he should have known he was in trouble, but he was fairly distracted by the costume and how much of a delicate fairie tale princess she looked like. There erupted from him no smart nor sudden comebacks when she asked about what he and Drystan were hiding. He started to go red in the ears when recalling the press of his brother's lips upon his own, or what it felt like to entangle bodies and breath. Gawping like a fish out of water the red would start to spread from his ears to his cheeks as if in a hurry to out him. Who was embarrassed now? Even unto utter silence while staring straight into her face with wide eyes.
Dinah dipped her chin and withdrew her legs back up under the puff of her tutu, resting her arms on her knees.
"See?" she pointed out at his sneer with a flick of her fingers but at least no more clothes were tossed at him this time. When he went red though, and he stared, her chin lifted again to fix those golden eyes on it.
"you're terrible at hiding things even if i didnt see it in your aura, dorian. did you think i'd not be able to see it? Of course I can see it. I thought i'd give you the chance to actually Tell me rather than me have to winkle it out of you" she pouted, studying him with unblinking, rapt attention.
Dorian shook himself out of his being-caught-red-handedness at length. But he was still very red faced. His hand absently reached up to scruffle his hair where it was brushy in the back of his head. That action alone didn't seem to shake loose any words, though he made a sound, "Hu-."
He furiously looked at the way the ribbons were tied around her ankles and tried to disappear. It didn't seem to be working. So a heartbeat or two later, he managed, "Ah..."
Denial was the first defense that came back to him first, so he'd argue, "I am not terrible at hiding things!" He absolutely was, and even he knew it deep down, but he argued, "I hid your birthday present for two weeks last year before I gave it to you!" He even said it like he'd made a salient point, at least he'd found his words again under her keen golden gaze.
Dinah continued to stare, though as he argued and still didn't tell her, she unlaced one of her shoes, kicking it off against the edge of the wardrobe and letting it drop to the floor in a crumple.
"Two weeks you hid it and i wasn't even looking for it, dori. Did you kill Pel? is that why you won't tell me? Hunt Niles down again? accidentally murder another housekeeper?" she started work unlacing the second slipper. "or something else?" she continued to peer at him, eyes watching the colours and swirls of his aura, the patterns, looking for the spikes that showed deception.
Dorian moved to pick up the shoe and examined it, while not seeing it at all. Ballet shoes held an interesting shape, an inhumanly strong strength resided in them usually, at least at that locus. Searching for a way to tell her or a way our of the situation in the shoe his golden brow drew down and he'd grumble a sound of hesitant acknowledgment that there were maybe more words to come. He at least shook his head to her guesses about what it was to dispel any worries on those fronts. Sliding the slipper toward her foot again he mumbled, "I sort of-- we, the two of us.... well--"
He began to cough, his body rejected the notion of coming out with it, following some glitched command from his brain. All the while his face burned ever brighter crimson each time he thought of the heated exchange that had taken place on the couch below. Small wonder she'd noticed, Dorian could hardly look at the couch, let alone sit on it since it had happened. At least for a good few weeks.
Since he couldn't make words happen, while he was having his little fit he showed her. In his mind, the memory of their elder sibling closer than closer, of their mouths being joined. Finally, while focusing on doing this, he was able to swivel his eyes to her again and his lungs ceased their spasming.
Dinah made a soft noise of frustration as he shook his head, though at least she wouldn't have to worry about body cleanup. The household was already lacking somewhat for that. When he moved the slipper towards her again she stuck her leg out of the wardrobe as he started to speak, but then hesitated.
and showed her instead.
For a moment, she paused, head tilted to one side as though she were merely slightly baffled, but then she giggled, reaching her fingers for his cheek.
"That was all?" she cradled his chin in her fingers, scruffing the fingertips across his stubble. "you were so worried to tell me about that? I thought it were something disastrous you were keeping from me. I thought someone were dead, darling" she chided him playfully.
Dorian looked rueful, like a child who knew he was about to be punished for misbehaviour. The corners of his lips had fallen and his expression might have made him look younger if not for all the stubbled growth of not having shaven in some days. But when she wasn't cross, but chiding him for hiding something she deemed unncessary to hide, he looked momentarily confused, glancing to her for a moment and then away as if to think about it without the very distraction of her. This just before he asked, "What? Really? You aren't... I mean you don't feel... I mean..."
He searched her face for signs that she was angry or jealous or disappointed somehow, fully expecting disapproval he just was not finding in her. He'd slip the lace straps up around her ankle again with great attention and care once he had stared blank and confused in her face for some long moments. His fingers were warm and when he'd finished knotting the satin strap he curled his hand around her ankle, before settling his gaze upon her face again.
Dinah kept her fingers at his cheeks even as he re-fitted her slipper and she reached to curl her fingers in his hair. She giggled again at his reaction, though her smile softened a little.
"do you not love me anymore?" she asked him softly, sincerity searching her voice. "is that why you didn't want to tell me?" she didn't wait for him to answer, knowing that it wouldn't be the case.
"you love me. I know you do. The only thing that would bring me grief is if you decided you loved someone else more than me" she leaned forward to press a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Sex is just... physical. it doesn't matter. Not really. obviously it'd be different if you were off having children or getting yourself sick all over the teahouse, but drystan? why would I be cross with you for that? he's us"
Dorian's blush finally began to fade, not standing out quite so starkly against his fair complexion any longer, though her touch usually had the opposite effect upon him of getting his blood up. Upon being told her reasoning, he'd add, just because had to, "I love you. And he IS us. It didn't feel wrong, it's just... you know. I never... with anyone else so... I did not mean to hurt you, of course I did not. You are quite sure you don't mind?"
There might be rumors of him at the teahouse, with Hana, but those were cultivated as they were baseless. Knowing his own jealousy he'd just misapplied what he'd feel to her. Now the green monster that lived inside of him would have to get a long examination and he wasn't sure he liked that idea. Turnabout needed to be fair play and he was maybe not as mature as she was on most, if not all fronts.
Dinah nodded when he said he loved her, not needing any reassurance for that, and she steadily slid out of the wardrobe, fluffing her skirt around herself as she tapped her foot back into position within the slipper.
"He is us." she added "though I am surprised, I didn't think you were attracted to men" she straightened up and reached for him again. "I do not mind. I'd never mind with him. There are some things that I have considered far more in-depth since considering the tenets of worshipping the old gods means forsaking most common moral mores. As I said, dorian darling. I would only mind if any of them replaced me. I shan't be replaced. but otherwise?" she shrugged a shoulder.
"I trust in you that you will always come back to me. As long as you don't come back to me with syphillis, or an armful of brats, then I shan't complain."
Dorian could stand without upsetting her hand in his hair once she was attending to her tutu. He'd give over both his hands to take up both of hers, smiling radiantly in relief and gladness. He'd shake his head against her ever being replaced only to nod when she said she trusted him to always come back to her. He muttered, more admitted "I am not, I mean I had never been attracted to anyone really who wasn't you. Syphilis, gods no. I may be a sailor, but I am not a common one; however, I do miss the sea, which... is a strange thing to say on an island this size, with our view."
He'd unentangle one hand from hers in order to toy with the ends of her hair dangling near the front of her ace.
Dinah let him take her hans and she squeezed his fingers in hers, humming in consideration at his words. "I wonder if you're similar to me in that regard. I never find myself interested in anyone unless I have any sort of emotional connection with them" she said thoughtfully. "or it could just be because it's drystan" she giggled, a smile on her face still. "though perhaps I should be cross that you both didn't call for me?" she feigned a pout, but she giggled again and nodded.
"I understand missing the sea. I shall have to take you to meet Grandpa. Unless he visits soon. I went to speak with the deep ones" she guided their hands above her head, though one arm of hers reached out to her side, she lifted herself to a pointe, extending her leg out behind her to balance herself neatly on her toes.
Dorian literally couldn't guess as to why his tastes were as they were. He'd only known one love, one desire. To find any appetite for another at his age was very much a gift from his elder brother. He explained, "I sort of-- well when I realized what I was doing I got embarrassed and ran upstairs. He is... Drystan, isn't he?" Only Dorian maybe understood what he meant by that, but if someone else could it might be Dinah. Further, as regards the ocean, he sulked, "Anyone with half a brain would know it's useless trying to sever an Englishman from the sea.... Deep ones? Like from the fair?"
Dinah giggled at his confession and she leaned forward in her arabesque to plant a kiss on his cheek again. "I can see that of you" she agreed. "why did you get embarrassed?" she asked with interest, nodding at his words. "he's as much a part of us as we are, I think" she agreed. "it stands to reason he'd be the exception. there's noone else in the world we know as well." she hummed, straightening back up and tucking the leg she had pointed behind her back close to herself, swapping which leg she lifted herself up to.
"The deep ones. I went to go and see them. to grieve with them. max has promised them so much, he 'saved' them from a sickness. I told them of his lies, showed them. They're in the aether mines, the ones that we had to vacate" she brightened "When we have the chance, would you show me the sea charts? If we can find an over-ored mineshaft for them, they could live there instead. I said i might invoke the first rite with them, to have them become...sponsors of the isle. we can bear the cost, I am certain"
Dorian applauded her stance when she took up the new one, rather than getting into her space and messing with her hair. After the standing ovation from her tiny audience, he'd murmur, "The control and training it must take..." From the look in his eyes while he watched her in form, he was excited about it, more than carnally, and there was a light in his eyes that spoke to how this vision from today would stay with him, maybe move him toward action. But he didn't speak of nascent plans, there was other more pressing and present business to discuss, "I should like to try to meet them, if I can hold my breath long enough not to hold you back. And of course I shall show you the charts. I know there are older mines which have played out, it should be simple as simple to identify a vein divers no longer visit. I will take a look and then share with you. So... they were tricked by him then? That is why they wrought such havoc?"
Dinah smiled somewhere between modesty and proudly, though she pushed herself up onto her tiptoes, up onto the pointe. She giggled and she nodded. "A lot of it is control. learning to hold very specific posture. Very specific angles. You can't move freely, everything has to be an execution of will" she moved her arm in a slow arc, fingers curled up towards the sky, lifting her chin so it were parallel to the floor.
"I will give you gills, if you like. it's how I got down there. but you will need to speak deep-speech. I am not sure how well they speak english" she straightened again and twisted herself into a steady pirouette.
"I suspected there would be old mines. I am quite sure they would be fine down there, if we have a spot for them. They are few. They were tricked.." she trailed off. "They were sick. No doubt with something of his corruption magic. And he promised them a home, and breeders, and some of them worship him as a savior. I managed to get at least some of them to see reason, but many others will not, still. doing as he willed"
Dorian's cheek had enlivened with a fresh rush of blood from getting pecked. He'd listened as she explained how ballet worked and he replied with commentary that occurred to him as he said it, "No wonder you took to it so well. You said magic is like that too. An imposition of will upon the world. "
Another small bout of applause broke out when she pirouetted, and he'd answer, on the Deep Ones front, "We shall help them then, and they will see who their true friends are. I may not be able to speak their tongue, but I can still help. You can do the talking for me, like you did when we were very little. I suspect I will be out of my depth too much for speech in more ways than one."
Dinah hummed again and she chuckled, nodding. "ballet isn't much of a dance As much as a very orchestrated set of movements. you can't really just...flounce about, all of the dances are structured to the second...so i suppose, yes. that makes sense. i'd never really thought about it that way before" she agreed, smiling as she gave another twirl on her pointed toes.
"as I said, they are our friends. our kin. family, I suppose" she giggled. "Their elder called me 'little sister'" she lowered both feet to the floor and stepped against his chest.
"Their sponsoring will involve some...moral unpleasantness, darling, so I will leave that to you to determine how involved you would want to be in that side of matters."
Dorian was able to take the minor blow of being warned as the soft one easily because he had his sister pressed to him. He put his arms around her and held himself near to her. He didn't imagine himself reveling in some of the straying away from regular morality the way his siblings so fully did. Sure he was attracted to his siblings and would kill for them, but beyond that, and even within those confines he sometimes struggled. An echo of Charles Windgrace said to him that was why he wasn't suited to immortality, nor any of the finer things that magic had brought to the family. But it was batted away, and he murred, "I am glad to know they have no qualm with us. The fire at the carnivale tent was rather... ...grisly in the end." Now he had her so close all he could think of with regard to her outfit was how to get her out of it, stopping thinking about singed animals was also a great impetus.
Dinah hummed again and she rested her cheek against his chest. "you saved them though, didnt you? the animals?" she said softly "...it wouldn't be animals that would go beneath the water when I make arrangements with the deepkin, darling." she reached to press his knuckles to her lips. "Just don't hate me for what I will have to do, darling, and that's all I can ask of you." She said softly, pressing another kiss to his cheek, then his neck.
She lifted their hands again over her head, once more using it to help balance herself as she lifted into another arabesque.
Dorian beamed dreamily upon getting such affections and when she beseeched him not to hate her, he was shaking his head before she could finish. After she moved away and found another pose, he'd answer, "I understand certain things have to be done, even if I lack the stomach for them. And I could never hate you at all. Not for anything, least of all helping another species. Just let me know if you need my help with any of it past the charts. I... could you do that pirouette again?"
He was plenty glad to talk about family business like taking care of eldritch creatures below the surface, most of the time. Well some of the time at least. But he was more glad to find fellowship with his twin of any kind, such as being her support beam as she did something so lovely. So he leaned against her wall getting ready to watch her execute the next move, wistfully imagining sweeping her off of those strong skilled feet. There would be a lot of laces to disengage before he was done, and he couldn't for the life of him imagine how the leotard's lacy confines might be negotiated. But he intended to find out....