EXT to INT - Windgrace Manor, evening
Dorian clambered right up the post to the balcony, though he could have walked around and through the house. The challenge of the novelty of climbing was the whole thing of it. He'd just strolled back from the shop and seen her the moment before he'd enacted this brilliant plan. The moment after grunting and scuffling was heard, though, he'd pop over the rail, chuckling.
Dinah had been leaning on the balcony when she'd seen Dori come through the gate. Thinking. A strange turn her life had seen of late, and so when he decided to scale the side of the house she grinned, immediately distracted, and she feigned shock. "guards, guards! a scoundrel is clambering about the place!" she called out, turning for where he emerged, though she grinned and reached out, pressing his cheeks between her palms and a kiss to his lips. "that really was far too easy for you"
Dorian had less of a fear of falling for.... reasons, than most people. Which dared love attempt, but he turned and looking around mocked, "Where, where, I shall dash them to bits!"
But he calmed his antics when his face was grabbed and kissed, and his rapscallion's grin redoubled. He'd reach and arm around to settle upon her back, under her flaxen hair and just stare at her in lovestruck wonder. Surely he'd meant to talk, to quip or something, but the smooch had taken him by storm, off his guard unto mute grinning.
Dorian: *an arm around to settle upon
Dinah gave him an amused smile, still smushing his cheeks in her palms "you can't be both the scoundrel AND the guard, Dori. do keep up" she said playfully, though as his arms laced about her she stepped in close to his chest. "my sweetling, you are mischievous today, aren't you? what if this house had not supported you? Though that really was quite easy for you to do that. maybe I *should* get a guard for my balcony" she teased, her hands resting at his chest. "where have you been?"
Dorian canted his head at her questioning, slowly, and though he portrayed inquisitiveness, his true seeking seemed to be for the contours of her lower back with a warm hand not content to rest in one spot. Given he asked, half a chuckle lingering in his voice, "Do you suppose I cannot be both? It worked for Walter Raleigh. For a time, anyway. Am I not guard enough? Between Lilah and myself, well if you do not feel safe we can talk to Drystan about it." He was not going to dignify the house not supporting him, especially since he'd used a shutter for one boot's purchase, and she might have a point. "Just back from the shop, glad to report it is still there." He receded to chuckling at the end, and inquired in turn, "Why are you looking so delectable today, not going to see a suitor, I hope?" His other hand, around the front found fascination with her hair while his eyes intently sought out her face, even though they were so close it was not a simple affair.
Dinah wrinkled her nose and she tittered "the potato man? gracious, I never understood why he caught on" she trailed her fingers up to his neck, playing with his collar. "I think i should be safe enough, love. there's not a thing in this town i fear" she admitted. Turning to glance towards the dock, she grinned "I haven't been for... well. quite a while. I'm pleased to know it's still there." she reached her hand up to push through her hair "don't you think my hair is getting light with the sea water? Suitor, though, no. not of sorts. But I *am* Seen by *something*" her own eyes glittered, amusement on her face.
"Drystan found something that had been sent to the house. A tarot card, and a letter. A gift, it said, for the dread queen that I might look favourably upon my servants." her fingers squeezed his chest. "The card is *me*. Crowned, and glorious. and if you flip it, I wear blood on my hands and the arms of the deep behind me"
Dorian could not help laughing at the way she recalled Raleigh. It was a quiet one that turned into a little growl of delight as she helped herself to being cuddlesome. He had a wanted to comment on her hair, and had even made a noise in the affirmative, before starting to answer, "I think your hair is getting fairer. I envy the sunlight and salt water their time wi--wait what did you say?" She'd feel him stiffen as the tumblers fell into place following the initial confused and alarm of what she'd said. His hand stilled upon her back, fell from her hair to rest by his side. He did not move away from her though.
Dinah smiled and she reached up to run her fingers through his own hair, curling it around her fingers. "I like it when you get to come with me" she said with quiet amusement, though at his words, she gave him a giggle. "Someone thinks me a queen. Apparently I have servants out there that seek for my favour. here, look," she reached for his hand, dragging him towards her bedroom through the open window. The card and the letter were both on the vanity, and she lifted both up towards him to see. "look at the artwork, Dori. That's me, isn't it? look at the *face*"
Dorian followed after her with his heart doing a few things at once, physically it seemed to slow to thud hard and then that hard beat began to quicken, threatening to drown out the voice he wanted so desperately to hear. Of course, seeing the card it all crashed together more fully with his recent walk with Blake. It was such a likeness of his sister that he stared at it rather than her, face plainly demonstrating something like dismay compounded with confusion. He muttered, "That is certainly you. That is. Did you sit for a likeness, Dinah? Dread Queen... I have seen one of your servants." It was a force of effort but he pressed the snarl out of his face, and just wore confusion instead upon his face in a kink between his eyes, fixed yet on the way the image shifted when she moved it. He'd even reach over to tilt her wrist so that it moved again, careful not to touch the card itself.
Dinah giggled and she turned the card as he moved her wrist, tipping it this way an that. "I sat for no likeness for anyone other than Stan, and he has not painted this. he was just as confused as you are. well. I am confused too, but.. look at it, Dori" she set the card and the letter down again, reaching for his hands.
"I've been doing so much work to try and break the barriers....so much to strengthen my faith. and now I am *seen*, Dori, and I apparently have servants? you must tell me who it is. I want to know if this is real, or some sort of cruel trick, and if it IS a trick..." she glanced at the card.
"it could be anything, Dori. it could be something really wonderful.. a sign. A sign just ahead of our rite, this couldn't BE any more fortuitous, don't you think?"
Dorian tried to find the good humour she did, tried to quiet the wild mental horses she might feel thrumming hot in his pulse with their hands twined together. For he did close his fingers with hers and though it was not fully a smile, his lips curved upward. He shook his head and replied with the least reluctance he could, "You think this is because of your work? This person wore a plague doctor mask, was handing out cards in Seiiki. They said tribute had been sent to my house, and I thought them mad. Turns out, I am the bloody fool, I should have ripped the mask from her--or his face when I had the chance. Just for speaking of you." And he didn't mean to, but for just a moment he wasn't thinking and closed his hands tight around his sisters' out of frustration for a lost cause, and foreboding about things to come. He did keep staring at the card though, since there was something flashing in his eyes his sister could not agree with, given her effervescent excitement.
Dinah smile was warm and she reached for his cheek again "don't you see this is a good thing, Dorian darling? I am SEEN" she said softly. She smiled though, looking towards the window as if she might be able to see the fortune teller from here "Tribute... they were handing out cards, but they *sent* mine to me. Dorian, don't you see? A fortune teller is someone that literally makes their trade in divining what is to be, and they called me a *queen*" she giggled again, reaching for his hands. "If they are my servants, they are yours too. Never one without the other. Do you know what this card *means*? This is the queen of wands, Dori. The card suit of spiritualism. Upright, when I am queen, it means passion, energy, confidence. When I am bloody handed..." she turned the card over "jealousy, insecurity and temper."
Dorian closed his eyes and let her words wash over him, instead focusing on her happiness. It was palpable, and he needed to stop contravening it with his doubts. And over what? That would be seen soon enough. When he opened his eyes again, he was treated to her explanation of what it meant and that drew a dark chuckle from him. He'd press his face into her sun-kissed hair before saying a word. Only after applying that honeyed sweetness of her tresses to his lips, did he manage, somewhat more flatly than he hoped as he couldn't match her pure enthusiasm, "I suppose it may well be a good thing, if you are quite sure, my love. The beak had nothing for me, but gave one to the boy. The legless one. His card bore a striking resemblance to him too. I... suppose you are right. I have ever known you were a queen, I should not be surprised that someone else has taken notice, again."
Dinah reached up to wrap her arms over his shoulders, a soft sigh on her lips "Dorian, darling. you worry. i know you do. but.. you shouldn't. If this is something awful, i will see it coming, wont i? especially at the rite" she reassured him "and if the boy got one too, how dangerous could it be, really? he's but a fragile little mortal thing and if he isn't dead, then it would surely be fine" she promised earnestly. "it means that I've been SEEN, though. It means that the direction we walk is the right one. our independence, the diving, the heart.. us." she tilted her head to kiss his throat "stepping out of the boundaries of human society is showing benefit, Dorian. it is, i am sure of it"
Dorian would put both his arms around her in turn, and had already been trying to turn his remarks around to find something to match her excitement inside himself. It was a grinding process since her other admirers tended to be branded as interlopers and threats to him. Unless she asked otherwise. He'd renew, redouble his effort to smile, to be with her in her gladness, something the feel of her lips upon his neck could coax, even though he did not necessarily see the same conflation of things constellating together as she did. He had not her eyes, though. He grumbled a quiet reply, "I am certainly glad you are pleased. I do not read portents, and I cannot see signs. I trust you, dearest, and I want you to be glad here. If this means you having some secret cabal of admirers, well, if it please you, who am I to stand in your way? The potato man said 'But true love is a durable fire, In the mind ever burning, Never sick, never old, never dead, From itself never turning.' I could not turn from you if I tried. You are rather passionate and energetic."
Since they were close but not close enough he pressed himself to her, and held her very near, biting back worry and declarations of what he'd do to even a cabal of challengers.
Dinah grinned and she kept her lips pressed to his throat as he grumbled, burying her face against his shoulder. "Anyone that gives me respect as queen will respect you too as my solar half, Dorian, or any amount of pretty words on a card shall not win my favour" she whispered, though she giggled again at his poetry. "...pretty words, for a potato man" she stood on her toes to kiss him tenderly again. "I would like to think as sole beneficiary of my most energetic passions, you would certainly recognize it when you see it" she agreed, but she sighed with a wistful smile, turning her head to look at them both in the mirror. "a plague mask, you said? I will have to find them. see what this is about. get an answer, or three. if you see them before me... tell them I would like to speak with them?"
Dorian was sufficiently distracted by kisses, by the part of him that had pushed her past societal bounds. In their reflection, even he was staring at her hair, which fairly filled his view, though his tactile senses were the ones he focused on while she enlivened his skin with her lips. He agreed to her words first with a nod, then with a laughing continuing nod, and then with his hand seeking the golden buttons fastening her into the ornate blouse-bodice thing she wore. He'd answer, "I shall carry them here for an audience with their queen should I see them again, now that I know they're so fond of you."
Since this was not that time and they'd invoked energetic passions, he was seeking those out. That did not unsettle him, afterall. That was the one thing that felt most right to him, most fortuitous about this island: his getting to be nearest to her.
Dinah leaned the upper half of her torso back as he unfastened the buttons and her expression became impish. "carry them? no, make them walk if they are servants, they can put in the effort. No one wants lazy servants, Dori." she said playfully, pawing at his chest to deftly unfasten each of his own buttons in kind. "I think though, you ought to stay in here with me tonight. for safety. did you hear, there was some *lunatic* climbing the front of the house earlier?" she mock-whispered, voice playful "what if he is some sort of... lecherous soul?"
Dorian was careful with her attire this time, no repeating the tearing the dress from her incident. He'd be stepping on the heel of one foot with the other to loosen his boots. His face grew serious from the quiet laughter her humour had infected him with, talking about lazy servants when she spoke of the lunatic lecher. He'd show her how she was in fact locked inside with a monster though, to keep the other ones away, given how he leaned to ostensibly whisper to her, something grave and of utmost importance hotly to her ear, "An insatiable lecher, I am afraid. Quite madly pursuing a queen." Then the bite of her earlobe, and seeking out her lips again.
This was one surefire way to be certain that it felt there was and could be nothing wrong in all the world.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44938/as-you-came-from-the-holy-land-attributed