INT - Windgrace Manor; day
Dorian had not been able to resist the seal with the ornate R on it, upon Dinah's desk. Had not stopped sulking and skulking having watched her respond. With his saber on his hip, having broken the desk upon which he'd found the letter, the chair upon while having read it into splintered ruin, he'd got a shirt on, and found a kerosene container he'd filled with the oil he could steal from lamps around, in his right hand, venting the stuff into the air around him. It was lovely that his emotions alone did not spark it, given how big, hot and angry they were. He began stomping down the stairs, considering what other reservoirs of lamp oil he could rob before dousing a house with it.
Dinah had been amused at the letter and her reply had been sent promptly, sending young Hoshi scurrying from the house to deliver it. Now she had turned her attention to other business for the day, though mildly distracted as she was by the sounds of smashing and shattering wood, and then the embodied thunderstorm that was her twin stomped his way down the stairs with what seemed to be fuel. She paused, head canted, bafflement on her face.
"...darling. what ARE you doing?"
Dorian rounded on Dinah as her voice cut through his singular intention: to destroy. In that quarter moment that it took to face her, some of the ugliness of his intentions softened out of the sheer power of adoration for her. The greater part of him, that which would rabidly keep her safe, smiled his gladness at seeing she was here, and not in the pathway of ruin he'd laid out just down the lane. He was rather willing to risk burning more than he intended if it meant Niles would be there, duel notwithstanding. He'd answer her, after a few beats of laying flaming silver glamoured eyes upon her, "Landscaping."
A more disingenuous word had never fallen from his mouth. Surely as the breaking furniture had been related to his towering plume of rage.
Dinah rested her hand against the orrery with amusement on her face. Some that bubbled into a laugh at his explanantion.
"Landscaping. With kerosene? And your sword?" she arched a brow "...how very french of you, darling." she approached him, standing on her tiptoes to lean around the bannister and press a kiss to his cheek.
"And the sound of destruction from upstairs? I assume you killed whatever beastie you found?" she asked with similar amusement on her face.
Dorian had got to the bottom of the stair, had tried to square up his shoulders without quite getting to true pride levels. The cannister in his hand was agape and full of the smell of stuff evaporating off of it. He'd be caught up in gazing at her, his mind remarking what he did not, that he was jealous, enraged at the audacity, and that he would destroy anything that came between him and the other half of his soul. His cool eyes were wild with the frozen certainty of sunlight on the arctic in relentless summer, about how to lay waste. His smile though it widened was grim and mad with the same. Tense at the edges where true glee was relaxed with assurance. "I am afraid that I had quite an absurd and violent encounter with the little desk up there."
He did not say so, but the letter somehow rested atop it. Only torn in twain. Yet heaving with plans, his chest moved with an excitement below a barely contained rage on the exterior.
Dinah reached out to smooth her hands across his chest at his words. "My poor little desk. did it come at you with a knife? Self defense, I am sure" her tongue clicked and she peered up towards him, her far more placid eyes meeting his.
"Darling, whyever do you feel the need to smash about the place today? and Kerosene? put it aside, the stuff stinks something awfully." she protested. "You're going to end up stinking of it too."
Dorian set the can down and would reach to snake his hands among her own. Only his right hand yet reeked of the stuff he'd mispoured. But he didn't seem to understand nor care that he'd get the fuel onto both of them, when he replied, "Are you certain? I can burn these clothes. The king and the hunter both know that they are the least important of things. And I cannot suffer this... this indignity." Only at the very end, did his eyes glint and narrow, peering at her. He did not (could not?) speak aloud about Roesler's letter.
Dinah reached for his hands gladly as it was offered, reaching up with her free one to lace around his shoulders and press her palm there. "You do somewhat like destroying clothes too, but burning them is new, I must admit" she chuckled in some amusement, but she tilted her head to study him "What possible indignity are you implying, darling?" but at the expression on his face, her own softened a touch and her grip on his shoulder turned her fingernails against his shirt. "Dearest heart, you read my letter. Do you still think he plans to sweep me away from you? Do you think him capable?"
Dorian tacked on as an afterthought, "At the very least I should have a new desk brought up for you." It was easier to address this than the question she had asked of him twice by now, however abstractly. He wanted to argue that he'd burned clothes before, more than once, but to what end? At length, after just staring mute, he'd answer, "He is apparently respectable, he is powerful, tall. And he desires... ...you. So much to tell you so, in print. Today. And who can blame him?"
He could, and if she'd relinquish his hands, he would prove it, tugging them from hers to fit them around the kerosene again.
Dinah laughed gently and she reached for his cheek, curling her fingers beneath his jaw. "You are tall, powerful, definitely respectable, and you desire me more than anyone that could ever exist. He told me no such thing, simply that he wanted to catch up." she pressed another kiss to his cheek. "Darling, you're already going to duel the man, to try and burn his house down too would be terribly ungallant so close to your event, wouldn't you say so? He's hardly going to be dueling you for the chance to get into my unmentionables, is he?"
Dorian tried to take hold of his feelings. To wrangle them. All while staring into the face that drove him past reason. It was a strange thing, to hear her discouragements, at odds with his fury, but rather than raging against her, something he could not readily do, he'd let loose a breath, and some of his grip upon her fingers. He murmured, sulkily, "He desires intimacy with you." He'd share that with his brother, and sister, but them alone, and she knew it was hard enough for him then. Or giving her time to herself besides. The burning rage yet persisted, but he tried, for her sake to put some cap upon it, however, unsteady. Sure that meant her unmentionables precisely.
Dinah gave a soft sigh and she smiled, shaking her head "See, this is where I believe you are reading it from an...alternate perspective to me. *I* read it as either town, a public setting or a more intimate one as in *private*, and therefore less likely to be interrupted by strangers and his little collection of followers. You saw how many people were at that party, with more that wished to be." she smoothed her hand down his chest once more, resting over his heart. "I must confess.. I'd normally not complain of you being willing to do harm upon one of my apparent suitors. But a housefire, Dorian darling? Truly?"
Dorian could easily own to what was different, "That creature has been inside of you. He has held your very heart in his hands. He knows-- he taunt--" A sharp snuff issued from his flared nostrils, like a hot punctuation to what he'd said, which filled in blanks to what he'd not spoken. At least she had stopped him from grabbing up the kerosene tank once more to storm out. Instead he'd just clasped his fingers around his twins' tightly again. "Fire is clean," came the final response.
Dinah 's own fury flared at his words and she took two very brisk steps backwards apart from him, though her fingernails dug into the back of his hands. "he removed my heart to cook and eat it for a party and you believe that this means he desires me intimately. I think this is somewhat more telling on *you* than *him*, Dorian. Roesler has never been anything other than a gentleman to me and these *repeated* insistences of yours that he will somehow use the knowledge he gained from the inside of my chest cavity to seduce me is insulting to *both* of us" she said sharply. "If you had not *read my post* there would have been no taunt. Why do you not read any of the rest of my correspondence? Professor Dashrix is a man too, isn't he? and HE speaks highly of me too. Ought I be worried of you trying to set him ablaze too?"
Dorian left the kerosene can where it was, took two steps from it toward her as her own anger took flame. But then he'd hardened again. Hours of looking at her beating first heart did not hurt in this. He'd growl and turn on his heel. There would be a door opening sound after his footfalls went there, And then a swoosh of golden unglowing wings, the color of golden shadows, presaging his departure. He did not say aloud, but she'd know that he felt that she just did not understand what Roesler was really up to. That she was being the naive one for a change.
Drystan Windgrace made his way back to the house from the Pub, rather the apartment upstairs from the pub. He was enjoying the day, having spent a lazy morning having breakfast and other treats before heading for home, absentmindedly thinking about nothing in particular, just that he was content and had a little bounce in his step. He made it down to the last house on the row, and stepped up on the porch to the sound of muted voices coming from the house. He leaned back and saw that the windows were all shut, but it was enough to make out that it was the twins voices he heard. His brow furrowed slightly. He was just about to open the door when he head footsteps coming quickly towards it, so, He met it head on, crossing his hands in front of him, as his brother in all his furious plumage suddenly faced him. "Good afternoon, dear brother...what impeccable timing you have, as always." He wasn't really blocking the way out, but more so just centered there. He leaned his head to the side to look around the spectral feathers to see Dinah not too far off. "Hello dear sister."
Dinah 's hands gripped into fists at her sides and she narrowed her eyes "How *dare* you. How *DARE* you? You think I am some sort of simple cannery whore to be flattered to seduction with a few kind words? If you try any of your nonsense, dorian, I swear on each of the old gods you *shall* regret doing so, don't you *DARE*" she said sharply as he headed for the door. At least he'd left the kerosene behind. As Drystan turned up to unintentionally mediate, she pointed an accusing finger at her twins back.
"Tell the man he is being a dolt, Drystan, he was set to burn Roeslers' house down over a *letter*."
Dorian: "A LETTER! WHERE THE MAN BEMOANS HIS LACK OF INTIMACY WITH YOU!" He roared, in the same moment as he realized he was blocked by big brother, and was turning around to answer his twin. He exhaled a hot breath of rage, rather than speaking any further. He glared at his twin for mentioning that he might have thought she was a simple whore, when it was Roesler who frequented the damned cannery. There wasn't reason in it, there was just rage constrained until the moment he could be quit of the room to express it properly, whatever that meant.
Drystan Windgrace widened his eyes at Dinah's demand and what Dorian was set upon. What was it with this guy Roesler anyhow?? He'd never met him and only heard tale of what had occurred at the dinner, the result of which he was far too able to recall with clarity, but Dorian did have a jealous streak when it came to Dinah, so this accusation wasn't that far off the tracks. Then Dorian spun on his heel and roared at Dinah with a raged fury he wasn't quite expecting. Well Fuck. "Whoa now, ey, the both of you, ..*He raised his hands up and stepped to the side some, reaching out one of them to place it near Dorian's chest, but not on his person.* ..just take it down a notch. Okay?" Playing referee to the love spatting twins was something different than just a random blow up of emotions or their squabbles back and forth that just came with having a mirror of yourself living at your side for centuries. This was some not oft tread territory but it held precedence. "This is not a life and death moment. I am saying this, not offering it up for question. Not for any of us, or anyone else for that matter." He pointed down the street. "I can think of a hundred thousand things more satisfying than burning a house down. If you need to separate, then you shall for a time - I will not choose sides...*His eyes drifted between the two of them* .. I just want to nullify this moment. Alright? Are we in agreement for just the time being??" Big brothering time, and he placed the stiffness in his back and shoulders that made him more commanding in stature and in the tone of his voice. He wasn't his brother or his sisters keeper, but he was so used to being the monkey in the middle. At least this monkey had a voice of his own in this situation, his reputation and life was at hand if Dorian flew too close to the sun proverbially. "Perhaps you'd like to go to the academy's sparring ring? I've heard of the gymnasium they have as well, plenty of punching bags if poking holes in me isn't satisfactory?" One eyebrow crept up.
Dinah shook her head with a grimace and she glared, a furious blush on her face. "He was talking about *meeting up*, either in town in public, or a more intimate setting like a HOUSE. Not at any point has Niles Roesler tried to fuck me and even if he wanted to, why do you constantly seem to think I'd let him?" she shot back at Dorians' roar sharply, but she fell to sullen silence at Drystans' intercession. His implication that they separate even temporarily had her gaze flicking towards him and her hands flexed at her sides. She folded her arms across her chest and turned side, jaw tense and trembling in anger.
Dorian looked down at the hand upon his chest, still huffing with a particularly deep disquiet that dragged breaths more raggedly from him. He'd make to shove his way past his brother just as soon as the space was clear. And with one further remark, "FINE! I shall be back for dinner." Such words never had more accusation and sulk in them, than when he spake them. But he'd tired of arguing that their neighbour was nefarious, when Di did not agree. When her behavior was beyond question. With another huff, he'd pull the doors closed behind him with a SLAM, as he departed. What was he going to stick around to admit that he'd been reading Di's letters? No. He was going to blow off some steam, and basically do it without breaking anything else in the home, nor burning down any houses. He just needed a few. Maybe he'd even apologize later, after being relegated to the couch.
Drystan Windgrace felt the air of the slam push his hair into his face, his hands left hanging in space. Slowly he turned them skywards and let out a deep long breath and turned his head around as if to work out a kink. "That was BRILLIANT!" He pulled his hands together and clapped a few times and side stepped further inside the house, creeping his way forwards to where Dinah stood. He feigned a smile at her and then let it drop, his shoulders dropping with them. He did not like to see her so, even if he was unable to ever fix any of it for her, he really did wish he could, for her, and for him, for all of them. "Are you alright?" He spoke much more softly and with genuine concern. "Fool's question, do not feel as if you need answer. Better question, .." He stepped closer to her again and turned one of his hands palm up towards her. "... is there anything I can do in this moment to make things better?" His brows knitted up in the middle and and his mouth was a little sideways and crookedly earnest. "I can leave, I can stay..I will listen, I will let you vent your flames without judgment, this you know."
Dinah let out a frustrated sigh as Dorian stormed out. She glared at the can of lamp-looted kerosene at her feet and for a moment, considered throwing it or kicking it across the room. She was still glaring at it when Drystan joined her and she frowned, nodding in angry silence at his first question.
"There are a hundred things I would like to do right now and at least ninety nine of them are ill advised and designed to spite him" she said darkly, reaching for his hand. She curled herself closer, stepping into the crook of his arm and burying herself against his chest. "As far as what you could do to help... I'm not entirely sure. but thank you" she let her forehead bump against his chest as she rested there, exhaling a ragged stream of curses.
"Little short of beating him around the head I think there's little that could make him listen, though. Hundreds of years and still he acts as though the German is going to sweep me away"
Drystan Windgrace took her hand and wrapped his arm around her, nodding as she spoke into his chest, gently rubbing his hand on the back of her shoulders. "I can beat him about the head, but we both know that still won't do much, ...but honestly. If this becomes such a wound to fester, left for so long..." he let out a huffed sigh and leaned his chin on the top of her head, then rolled it to the side when he spoke, using her as a beautiful angry little pillow of rage. ".. if it came down to me needing to speak to him, ..have words, and if it did come to blows, perhaps he does need to see reality by way of desperate measure. I do not want to hurt him, but I cannot see you be hurt as well. "
Dinah made a soft noise of agreement that he would be able to beat their brother around the head, but she knew that yes, it'd not do a lot. It rarely did.
"It oughtn't have become a wound at all Stan. He's already going to be dueling the man soon. And yet today he was going to burn his house down because he sent me a letter." She muttered sulkily "I don't know if you'd be able to talk any sense into the man. He's been my only since we were born and yet he still doesn't trust me to not be stolen away" she huffed. "If I weren't friends with Roesler, I'd not *mind* so much. It's such a bloody pain."
Drystan Windgrace nodded cheek still in place, frowning with his bottom lip jutting out some, even if she'd never see that. He really was at a point of sadness for them both. It wore on him as well, though in vastly different ways, things he would never be able to put words to. He rolled his face to the side and kissed her hair and then pulled his head back tucking his chin to his chest so that he could get a look at her face. "You are right, it shouldn't have, but it has already. Triage...Do what you can, while you can because you must. Maybe this duel will finally let him pop a cork. We will be there, there will likely be others, who sit on either, both or neither side. It will be a large public display for him to decree what he shall and fight this man, ..." He trailed off a moment. "He is surely not just a man...not in this town, not with that skill and penchant. He can hold his own against Dorian?" His face went to that of concern.
Dinah huffed and she shook her head, taking a few steps backwards again from him. She stared upwards to the work of art.
"Triage how? whenever I try to reassure Dorian that Roesler has never been anything other than a gentleman with me he treats me like I'm some naive halfwit. I couldn't care less what the man does around the rest of the town. to ME he has been a gentleman" she said with a frown of frustration. "He isn't just a man, no. He's a psychic, for one. A Faerie. He has wings, has a crown atop his head. I have no reason to believe that he wouldn't be able to withstand Dorian but I would worry somewhat that dorian is more inclined to just ignore the 'first blood' stipulation," she agreed.
Drystan Windgrace screwed up his lips as he thought. "Fae? Well, yes, I suppose he could do well enough on his own... But don't fear Dorian's wrath against this being. If he's a psychic he has a considerable advantage over Dorian there, if he is not using it to duel as a gentleman would ...and something was to occur...he would know the moment Dorian came at him like a bull. At that point he best use what he has on hand and be able to seek refuge. As for Dorian, ..we can handle him. We have in the past. This is almost an illness for him it seems Dinah, and we will do what we have to to keep him safe, and ourselves. Maybe there is a reason beyond what we know if him that he needs more space from you..." He pointed up, to where the tiny attic would be far above, then towards the windows that looked out on the barren spot that used to house the small house Dorian had made for so long. "It was always because of Father, I assumed. Or to help keep himself at bay...I don't know. It is delicate for me to speak on such things, but..." He sighed and pressed his lips together. "Maybe there is more to it than we realize. We have all the time we want, and he will heal. He will learn the error of his ways. He has a heavy heart of regrets, I feel it sometimes how he dwells. Regret means there is hope." He tried to be positive, and reassuring.
Dinah bowed her head "Fae. I'm not sure what *kind* but he told me as such. I'm surprised you've not met him yet, in truth." she ran her hand across her face.
"he said that Roesler was taunting him with the letter, but if he'd not READ it, then he'd not have been taunted by anything. if he thinks Roesler is playing with him and he took up the pieces himself by reading my post, then he's only antagonizing himself" she groused, shaking her head. "I don't *want* him to have space between us" she said sullenly. "I have no idea what it could be that we would have to do. What I would have to say for him to actually set this to rest. Gods' blood." she screwed up her fists at her side again
Drystan Windgrace shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe at the Cabaret, but there are so many people and things to look at in there and you know I'm not terribly social. I might have seen him and just not known it." He waved his hand to clear the air. "He crossed the line reading your personal post. There is an air of disrespect that has me troubled more than anything. He should trust you, you've never given him reason not to. But This may not even be about you at its core. I am no psychiatrist, but they do say everything has to do with your mother or your father and my fucking gods do we have those type of issues working against us. I do have to defend Dorian's state to a degree, like I said I am not choosing a side, I never will between you. All or nothing." He placed his hand on his chest over his heart. "I wish I could take everything away from his mind that torments him about Father, I wish I could seal away his unfounded jealousy...I love him. So very much. But I know you do as well and more. It may never be just one thing that has to happen...but something that happens over time." There had to be a path forward, they simply had not stumbled upon it yet. "Please stay steadfast."
Dinah made a soft noise in her throat "you'd know him if you saw him. He's a very interesting sort of specimen. Mottled. his wings are red." she clicked her tongue and she shook her head "I'd not even object to him reading my post. there certainly isnt anything in there that I'd need to keep a secret from him. The trouble comes with him reading it and imagining that it's some...plan to rendezvous with me in some illicit tryst. that if he were trying to seduce me I'd be to stupid or too pliable to stop him" she bristled, but she nodded again. "Each of his rings was some suitor or another, but Roesler is literally just a man who ate my heart once. nothing more" she reached up for Drystans' cheek, pressing a kiss to the opposite one.
"I'm going to go and sit in the garden for a while. If he comes back, he'd better bring me a desk to replace the one he destroyed. I need the air. Thank you, Darling."