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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Aszera meets Oslynn at the Veyne townhouse, to teach her a new style of dancing and to discuss the upcoming gala. ~4900 words. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
The Veyne townhouse in a nicer part of the Oldtown District of Stormwind City is clearly in the Stormwind style, complete with the light grey stone and appropriately-colored roof tiles. The discerning eye, however, might detect certain differences in shape, more elongated windows, peakier dormers, which give a slight nod to the Gilnean style.
An elvish woman in a bronze gown covered over with a black, red-lined, hooded cloak makes her way to the front door, knocks, and slips inside, ushered in by the butler. It seems she was expected.
Inside, the foyer is modest, but well-decorated, and the butler politely takes Aszera Sunstrike's cloak before leading her onwards. With cloak off, there's no hiding her blindfold and the tattoos winding up her bare arms and below her collarbone, but the butler makes no comment about such oddities.
Aze follows along easily enough, despite the blindfold, as she is led around a corner and to the door to the music room. The butler opens the door, and dryly says, "Miss Sunstrike, here for Miss Gravehowl," before nodding for her to enter the room.
The center of the music room is open space, which is likely why it was chosen for possible dancing. A piano sits in one corner, and a collection of soft padded chairs and benches can be found around the perimeter. It is in one of these chairs, maybe, that Miss Gravehowl is expected to be waiting.
Miss Gravehowl is waiting, but perhaps not in the manner one might expect. She's lying sideways across the seat of a padded armchair, as though its arms are "cradling" her, her legs dangling over one side and her wavy brass-blonde hair trailing over the other. She has fallen asleep, and is drooling slightly. Her shoes have fallen onto the floor right under her stocking-covered feet, as though she pried them off with one foot at a time from that very position. But at least her dress is fairly nice. Sage-green with lots of little buttons and pleats and things. Zzzzzz.
The butler quietly absents himself. Miss Gravehowl has her guest, and is no longer his concern. Aze steps into the room, her own bronze gown sleek and a little low cut, and considers the sleeping form.
"Ozzy," Aze says, stopping a few paces away. She might have experience in startling dangerous people awake. "Hey."
Ozzy snorts and leaps to her feet, shifting immediately into worgen form. Her dress shifts with her; she's suddenly seven feet tall, towering over her guest. That's as far as she gets in the threatening department, because once she's fully awake she recognizes Aze, even before she seems to recognize her surroundings.
With obvious effort, she shrinks back into Seemingly Harmless Human Girl form, barefoot on the fine hardwood(?) floor.
"Oh," she says, flushing. "Ello, sorry. Must've dozed off. Air's so stuffy in 'ere."
Then she clears her throat and tries again.
"Hello, Miss Sunstrike," she says with a curtsey. The "i" in Sunstrike is still just leaning just a little bit toward "oi," but she nailed the H in Hello perfectly.
Aze takes a step back at the Sudden Worgen, but seems otherwise unconcerned. She does not undergo any transformation herself, at least, likely to everyone's benefit.
"Oh, are we doing manners?" Aze laughs, and then executes a graceful curtsy. "Good afternoon, Miss Gravehowl."
She undercuts this show of propriety with an amused, knowing smile, that seems to say, you and I both know we're playing.
Ozzy grins back. "Just practicin'. Lord Arric's been drillin' me good and proper." She hears herself and bursts into giggles. "Not in the fun way!!" she clarifies.
Aze laughs again, and says, "Shame he doesn't mix a little fun in with the manners, might make them go down easier. How've you been since Wyrmrest? Hell of a fight, wasn't it?"
Aze steps forward, offering a much less formal hug in greeting.
Ozzy practically crushes the elf's bones. Even in human form, she's considerably larger and… denser.
"Been awroight. Mostly focusin' on preparin' for the ball. Gala. Fing. I wanna arsk someone to go wif me but Lord Arric says a lady doesn't do such fings so it'd be 'defeating the point' if I did." She says the phrase in something much closer to a snooty Stormwind noble accent. "But ain't no one gonna arsk me, tha's for sure, an' so I'll end up stuck wif Merry all noight."
Aze makes a little grunt at first, at the intensity of the hug, but then again she's more durable than a lot of elves. No bones fully snap. Instead, Aze just hugs her back.
"You got anybody in mind you want to invite you?" Aze says, as she pulls back from the hug. "There's ways of asking that aren't asking, if you get what I mean."
"Um… King Varian?" Ozzy giggles.
"Okay, ambitious, I'm impressed," Aze says, trying to keep a straight face. "Then again, who knows? Maybe he's lonely. Hard one to talk up casually, though. Guards might throw us out of the Keep."
Ozzy giggles again. "Ummm tryna fink o' someone fauncy 'oo ain't got a woife awready. You know anyone loike 'at?"
"Hmm… lot of the nobles I know are married or women," Aze says, sitting down on the nearby bench without invitation. "But if he doesn't have to be noble, there's Rae's brother… Elle, Reniya…"
"I don' know any of 'em but Elle, an' you know 'e ain't goin'. E'd be goin wif you if 'e was, I reckon."
"Would he?" Aze says, as if the idea hadn't occurred to her. "Brendol's pretty nice, but you'd have to meet him and hint hard, I think. I guess if the guards aren't going, Reniya might not be, either. I don't know either of them well, but I could probably introduce you sometime."
Ozzy sulks. "I'm gonna end up standin on the wall all noight wif Merry," she says glumly. "But anyway, you ain't come 'ere to set me up wif some nobleman, you came to teach me a dance! The sort wif hips in it!"
Ozzy waggles hers. Peasant hips, a nobleman might say scornfully. She looks like she could drop a baby and not even pause in her harvesting.
"No, hey, even if you don't go with somebody, people will dance with you. I mean, I will, if I go. Stormwind dances — I know a lot of them now," Aze says, leaning back against the wall as she (probably) considers Ozzy's hip waggling. "And yeah, I can teach you elvish dancing. Not something that'll be useful for the gala, but maybe it'll be a good thing to know for the future."
"Why don't they do elf dances?" Ozzy asks. "We got elfs in the Alliance, roight?"
"Yeah, but a lot of people still sort of think we're traitors," Aze says with a casual shrug. "That, and while there are some Thalassian dances that Stormwind nobles might deem appropriate… my favorite ones are a little sexier than Stormwind might like."
"Ooooh, I loike sexy," Ozzy says. "Maybe I can show some of those fauncy boys in private an' seduce 'em that way!" Her eyes gleam conspiratorially.
"Fancy boys definitely like sexy, at least in private," Aze agrees, and rocks steps back away from the wall. "Especially if what you're after is, you know, just that. My favorite — the dance itself, the basic step, is like this."
Aze raises her arms to drift lightly in front of her, to either side, and then takes three steps and then taps her toe. Her feet are not the sexy part of the dance, though.
Moving fluidly with the steps, her slender hips trace an infinity symbol, the movement cascading into a sensual shift of her torso before drifting through to a natural, effortless undulation of her arms.
"So it's three steps and a tap," Aze says helpfully.
Ozzy frowns and tries to echo Aze's demonstration. Sadly, Ozzy is not built for flowing, sinuous movements. She gets the feet more or less right if a bit heavy on the steps, but her body is wobbling all over the place.
"Yeah, you're getting the idea," Aze says, somewhat generously. She steps around behind Ozzy and lets her hands rest on Ozzy's hips. "Don't worry about your arms. Just hold them out in front, like you're pushing a cart. Let 'em move if they move, but really your partner will have your hands. Try it again and I'll see if I can move with you."
Ozzy grabs Aze's hands as though they were, in fact, the handles of a cart, and tries again. Moving with Ozzy is a bit of a challenge; it feels a bit like holding the end of a kite string on a gusty day.
Aze tries her best to guide Ozzy's hips with her hands, as she herself moves with the steps. It… is challenging. Aze makes a hmm sound, and then says, "Maybe it'll help if we start with some… isolations. It'll be fun."
"Wot's that?" Ozzy says curiously, her enthusiasm undimmed by her lack of aptitude.
Aze pulls her hands away from Ozzy's hips, and slips around to step in front of her. She holds her arms out straight and down at an angle to either side, holding them still as a very subtle shimmer traces briefly over her tattoos.
"It's learning how to control each muscle individually. That'll help not just with dancing, but moving more deliberately in general," Aze says with a smile. "So like, think of your… here…" Aze reaches forward to touch briefly the center of her chest, just at the bottom of her sternum, "as a fixed point, and try to let everything below that be loose. Then move your hips side to side, as far as you can. Don't let your shoulders or your head move."
Aze drops her hand again, and demonstrates.
Ozzy tries to imitate her, and does a bit better than trying to figure out the entire dance at one time, but it still takes an incredibly long time for her to get her body to obey even such a simple command. First her head and shoulders wiggle, then she gets her head and shoulders still but her hips barely move. When she gets her hips moving more generously, the head and shoulders start wobbling again, until she holds everything still and starts over.
If not for her enthusiasm for the lesson, she might have given up by the time she finally gets the hang of it, her hips moving while her shoulders and head stay almost completely still.
"Ey," she says, "oi fink oi'm gettin' it!"
Aze reaches over to set her hand on top of Ozzy's head, gauging it. "Yeah, you are! Now try to like, move your hips in a circle. Left, forward, right, back." She demonstrates. "It's all quietening your body, making it move only exactly where you want it to."
Aze rolls her hips again, and then says more quietly, "Do you think I should go to the gala? I guess I did help with Deathwing and everything, but I've never been to like… a formal Stormwind noble party. I hadn't even thought of needing to bring a date."
Ozzy was already starting to wobble her head and shoulders slightly when she switched to moving her hips in a circle; trying to converse completely collapses her tenuous control. She's still enjoying herself and not in danger of falling down, but there is zero discipline in her movements.
"I'm sure if you told Elle you wanted to go, he'd take toime off work an' go wif ya," says Ozzy. "Oi didn't even fink about the fact you moight not wanna. Do you?"
Aze pauses in her rotation, and shrugs. "I don't know. I guess I could ask a friend, but… it'd be easier if I just slipped in and kept to the edges of things, like at Wyrmrest." After another moment's thought, she nods firmly to Ozzy with a quick flash of a smile. "I should go, one way or another. Just in case anyone's paying attention — it'd give the wrong impression if I didn't. Anyway, hips…"
"Are you sure you don't wanna go wif Elle? You say it'd be easier, but wot's easiest isn't always wot we wont. An' maybe 'e wonts to go isself an' would 'ave a good toime but finks it's 'easier' if 'e just works loike always. You know 'ow 'e is. Or maybe 'e ain't loike 'at wif you an' lets 'is 'air down, I dunno. But even if 'e wonted to go oi don't reckon e'd say. Oi didn't push too 'ard about it when oi was wif 'im 'cause oi didn't wont 'im to fink oi was tryin'a arsk 'im. Also the dance 'e was teachin' me, oi was actually pretty good at, so I needed to focus on it. See, 'e knows all the dances an' everyfing."
"Do you want to go with him?" Aze asks, pausing, with an air like she's clearly missed something and she's trying to figure out what. "You could ask, you know. It seemed like you two were getting along pretty well up in the Highlands, and I don't think he's the sort to act different just because we're in a life and death situation. Sounds like you're good at dancing together, too."
Ozzy goes pale. "No, no, I ain't tryin'a interfere in nuffing, tha's not 'ow I roll at all, mate! 'E an I are just friends, e's made tha' real real clear. Besoides, oi gotta marry a noble to be one, so oi best go wif a girlfriend or alone. Don't wont none o' them rich fancy blokes finkin oi'm taykin."
"I didn't realize he had anything going on to be interfered with," Aze says, her brow drawing down in thought. "Maybe Ren…? Maybe I need to pay more attention. But yeah, he's not a noble, so if that's what you're after you could just turn up looking like a fresh flower and see who buzzes around. I could go with you, if you wanted, but no worries if you think the two of us might scare timid noble boys off."
"Oh… oh…" Ozzy looks like she is doing a lot of quick math in her head. "So it's Ren, not you? Balls, I shoulda seen it. Pretty soft fing loike 'at. If 'e don't like girls oi don't feel so bad 'e ain't even been tempted. Even if 'e was wif you an' a gennleman e'd look now an' then, yeah? But nuffing. Just pats me 'ead loike oi was foive. Which is noice, mind you, oi got no 'ead pats when oi was foive an' oi'm damn well overdue. But oi 'ate finkin' I'm just so ugly tha' even when oi clean up 'e just politely says oi look pretty an' 'is oyes don't do nuffing special. An 'e ain't try to cop a feel even subtle loike even when we was dancin.' But if e's a bloke's bloke well, it ain't on me, roight?" Her expression is a peculiar mix of relieved and crestfallen.
"Yeah, I really don't know — but he and Ren seem close?" Aze shrugs. "He's always seemed cuddly, but like you said — hugs and stuff. Innocent. I don't think I've ever caught him trying to 'cop a feel' on me either, and I'm pretty hot too. Could be he likes guys, or might be he's just trained to be so polite he doesn't let anything out. Oh, but I can tell you one thing — he likes people to ask him questions, and to let him ask them questions. So if you want to know something about him, I bet it'll make him happy if you ask."
"Oh, oi ask 'im fings all the toime. But 'is answers are loike… I dunno, you ever talk to one of 'em interactive gnome security drones? 'E koinda answers loike that. Just the facts, real dry an' crisp mostly. We 'ad one pretty good conversation about why 'e keeps 'is feelin's all bottled up… but oi didn't seem to make much impression, as 'e went roight back to security bot awfter.. Oi guess it'd 'ave to be someone real important to 'im to influence 'im, not some random former urchin an' criminal 'e just met."
"Criminal?" Aze says curiously, not seeming terribly concerned by the prospect. "I thought you were more like a rebel. I guess you did say you get in trouble. But I don't know, maybe you just have to work at him to get him to open up over time. He's got curiosity, if you tell him it's okay to."
"Oi just blather on about meself wifout anyone arskin' most of the toime," Ozzy says, "but Lord Arric says that ain't ladyloike so oi s'pose oi should quit, at least around lords an' strangers."
Aze grins. "If you want to be the mysterious flower, then yeah — spend a lot of time looking like you've got something to say, and then not saying it. I bet it'll drive people wild. But I'm not a lord or a stranger, so you can tell me whatever you like. I won't judge. I mean. I fused my soul with a demon, I pretty much have no room to judge ever again."
"Yeah. Well, oi was a thief when oi was a kid. Pretty good one, too. But then an 'arvest witch an' awfter tha', a rebel. Then a worgen an' a shapeshiftin' druid-beast. Next up: proper laydy!" She guffaws.
"I was… a dancer, and then a soldier, and then a monster," Aze says, laughing. "Or wait, I'm not supposed to say that last one. Uh, let's say Illidari. Then a drunk, then an Argent Crusader, then a member of the Alliance. I don't know if I'll ever get ‘proper lady’, but I can try to fake it. Anyway, we keep all of it, right? So now you can be a shapeshifting rebel harvest witch lady thief, if you want."
Ozzy's eyes go wide. "That sounds loike somefing from all 'em books people are makin' me read. They're real innerestin' but it's slow to get f'rough. Which stinks loike bad eggs, since most chapters end on a cliff'anger."
"Maybe someone could write about you someday, and menace other people with cliffhangers," Aze says, grinning, and she steps closer to Ozzy, holding her hands out. "I think you're starting to get your hips under control — let's do a few steps, so you can feel how it is with a partner."
"Awroight," Ozzy says, gripping Aze's hands a bit too tightly. Hers are a bit moist.
Aze pulls their clasped hands down, and says, "Okay, so you want to mirror my steps — but don't look down at them. Look at my—" Aze cuts off, sighs, and continues, "Look at my blindfold, I guess. I was gonna say eyes. You'll feel when I shift my weight through your hands."
"We're going to step…" Aze steps out with one foot, "Then shift our weight, resting into our hip… that's what'll give you the hip motion."
Ozzy gives it a try. She manages to make it work somewhat mechanically, even if she doesn't have Aze's fluid grace. Her one advantage that Aze can't appreciate is that her breadth of hip makes the slightest movement very visible.
"Then we bring the other foot in, and shift the weight," Aze says, leading her in the step. "You don't need to be tense — I'm leading right now, so you just need to relax and let me move you around. I won't move you anywhere weird."
Ozzy giggles. "Oi hope some of the blokes I dance wif in the future move me somewhere weird… loike bed!" Another giggle, but she does relax a bit and obligingly let herself be moved around. Again the feeling is of a combatant's rather than a dancer's reactions to another's movement - evading and closing in as needed.
"Oh, this is a great dance for that," Aze says with enthusiasm. "Here, let me move you…"
Aze keeps hold of both of Ozzy's hands, lifting them and rotating her, such that she'll end up nestled against Aze's side with her arms crossed in front of her.
Ozzy permits; with her nestled up against Aze's side, her indelicate breadth and thickness of hip and shoulder are a bit more obvious.
Holding her close, Aze starts a rolling motion down her own torso, inviting Ozzy's body to follow. "See? A lot more touch in this dance, once you learn a few things. It's like the opposite of a lot of Stormwind ballroom in a lot of ways — where you want to be firm there, you want to be soft here."
"Ohhh boy," Ozzy says. "Just imaginin' doin' this wif … a bloke, it gets me a bit het up. Oi fink oi'd probably drag 'IM straight to bed oi would." Her movements naturally get a bit softer, more sensual, as her mind drifts in that direction. Her face also goes rather red.
Aze laughs and gently spins her out, raising one of Ozzy's hands to place behind her own head as she does. "Here, just let the weight of your hand move it, trail across the back of my neck, down my chest, back to my hand below."
She pauses while the motion is executed, and adds, "I think dragging each other off to bed is a pretty good way to end a dance. If only all dances ended that way. Then balls would get really interesting."
Ozzy cackles, losing her rhythm in the dance. "Hehe, innerestin' bawls. So 'oo you been draggin' off to bed if not Elle?" she inquires mischievously.
"I think I'm supposed to be discreet," Aze says, sending Ozzy into another turn, but this one ending with her facing her partner again. "A few here in Stormwind now, though I think the demon thing puts some people off. I went like a year without fucking anybody after that whole fiasco, because I didn't know if it would affect my control. It doesn't, I've thoroughly checked now. Do you… turn into a worgen, when things heat up?"
"Not unless oi'm doin' it wif another worgen," she says, "or unless the bloke's into it. 'Avin a 'uman partner seems to kick in somefin' in me brain that makes the 'uman form feel more natural than usual. Not that oi 'ave 'ad any partners of note. Just one-noight koinda stuff. I guess oi better quit even wif 'at, if oi wanna be a proper laydy."
"Oh, fel, no, you can keep that up," Aze says in surprise, coaxing her back into the steps of the dance. "Proper ladies and gentlemen want just as much as anybody else might, and they'll go for it if they can. They just might not talk about it at the balls and the dinners. There's a whole reputation thing here that they keep up. But you don't have to keep your skirt down to be a lady, if you're asking me."
"Well tha's wot Lord Arric said, an' I reckon 'e knows better wot 'uman gennlemen wont, yeah?" She looks a bit glum about the whole thing, her dancing getting sluggish. "If I did it oi'd 'ave to be real secret, an' you know the sayin' about two people keepin' a secret. Oi'd 'ave to be be loike a black widow or somefing." She makes a slicing motion across her throat with a free hand.
"Uh," Aze says, and just that for a moment. This is an approach she may never have considered, and for good reason. "I guess it depends on what you want. But uh… don't kill your partners. That's like… the opposite of what sex is for. It's supposed to be for pleasure, for all people involved. As long as you've got that, I don't see why it matters if it's once or a dozen times and one person or a dozen. But if you want a boyfriend or a husband or something, then maybe this Lord Arric's plan is a good one. Then once you've found the guy you can see what he's into."
"Yeah, I gotta keep me 'usband 'appy if oi wont to stay a noble. They'll drop me loike a rock if they fink oi'm fooloin' around, an' oi'm no' natural good at secrets. Unless it's loife or death, like war secrets."
"Oh, yeah, definitely don't fool around," Aze says, and that might sound oddly prim before she adds, "If you want to do that, it can't be a secret. They've got to be in for it. Like, if you bring people back to share, or if you're both allowed to go after other lovers, or if you both want to be a one and only — I've seen all sorts. You just need to know what your guy wants before you tie any knots, and make sure you'll be happy with it."
"Roight," she says. "But even if I ain't 'appy wif it, I better marry anyone willin' - an' make sure 'e gets wot 'e wonts. It's me only paf to bein' a noble."
Aze actually misses a step in the dance. "That sounds awful. Do you really want to be a noble so much? What if what he wants is to smack you around? I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best person to ask about marriage, but you've got to look out for yourself a little here. Being a noble isn't worth misery, is it?"
"Oh, oi won't let no one smack me aroun'. Never again. An' law says, if a noblewoman's 'usband smacks 'er aroun' she gets to live separate an' still keep everyfing includin' title if she wants it. So 'e better not try it. Oi don't fink a bloke would, knowin' oi could kick 'is arse. They usually go fer the delicate ones."
"Maybe, but if you go into it thinking you're at a disadvantage, and you've just got to give him whatever he wants…" Aze shivers, even though the room is warm. "There's different ways to be delicate. Why do you want to get married, be a noble?"
"So no one can tell me oi'm nuffing anymore. So people gotta stand up when oi walk into a room. So people gotta consider me feelings before they open their mouf. So oi can 'obnob wif 'Ouse of Nobles blokes an' tewwem wot oi fink should be law, an' they gotta listen an' be poloite even if they ain't agree, an' not just teww me to shut it."
"You can get most of that without swearing your life away," Aze says, guiding her through the steps again. "Just by meeting the right people, impressing them. You're not nothing, you're a shapeshifting rebel harvest witch lady thief, remember? But if you want a guy to be your one and only, to back you up against the world, I get that. I mean, I don't, not really, but I know people like that. Like my sister."
"It's the title I want, mostly," says Ozzy. "An' ain't nobody noble care about the feelings an' opinions of shapeshiftin' rebel witch thiefs. Or stand up when they walk in. Just ladies. An it's nobles run everyfing, so I want 'em to respecc me."
"If you say so," Aze says dubiously. "It's not my path, so I wouldn't know. Some nobles seem to like me, some not so much — all I can do is be me and let things fall as they fall. Anyway, let me move your arms…"
Aze takes hold of Ozzy's hands and circles them around to rest above her head, and then she grabs Ozzy's shoulders to spin her around in place and catch her afterward.
Ozzy giggles, allowing herself to be tossed about. "This'd be so much fun wif a big strong man doin' it. Real shame they wouldn't do it at a gala. Maybe if we got everyone good an' plawstered."
"I teach where I can," Aze says with a grin, taking Ozzy's hands again. "Maybe it'll catch on eventually? We can hope. If not, maybe you can teach your future noble husband, have some fun with it."
"Mmm," Ozzy says. "Oi can 'ave fun wif just about anyone if they let me," she says. "Even a fauncy lord."
"Maybe there's an appeal in making a fancy guy blush," Aze says, putting a little extra flourish in the next few steps. "What all are you working on for the gala then? Dancing and elocution and…"
"Table manners. 'Ow servants work. Bit o' politics. 'Air an' makeup. Fashion. Loikley oi won't get it all in f'ree weeks, but it's a start. Even if I ain't catch a bloke this toime, maybe oi'll do well enough to get invited to other bawls. An' eventually, other bawls, haha."
"Plenty of balls in the world," Aze says with a playful grin, giving Ozzy another turn. "Maybe some of that you could share with me? Like politics, I'm still trying to get a handle on that. I came in behind, and I can't even read to catch up."
"Oi'll 'elp you any way oi can," Ozzy says. "You said we was friends, an' that's wot friends is for."
"Yeah," Aze says with a smile, taking the two of them through a quick simultaneous turn. "That's what friends are for."