"So you would accept," Davlin said with a small smile. "That in 50 years you'll be an old crone and me still the handsome specimen that I am today?"

Mariana laughed. "You flatter me. But thank you."

Another shrug. "He is not like other men. Or like other aristocrats. He is... unique. He has vision."

"He's helped me realize that I could occupy myself with things beyond selfish hedonism. That I don't need to let the urges of my heritage control me. That I am my own me. I've never had a father, Septimie, but he's close in some ways. You'd know more if you know him better."

***

Grila gave a shrug. "Dat long time. Grila here now."

"Fathers are vastly overrated," she muttered, before relenting. "Perhaps I vould, perhaps not. You speak highly of 'im. Zhat's a point in 'is favour."

Saying little, Irveska made a minor effort to follow Septimie out of the abode, but appearently didn't have the willpower to intrude on the conversation. Her own prejudices against horned women aside, it was so rare to see her close, bitter companion getting freindly with another person that she dicided it would be best not to intrude on this occasion.

Yeah, not now. It's neurosis time... Being silly goose even during self-reflection was a born talent. Backing off into the shade, she just gazed at the old mahogany lion mask in her hands. It was the first one she had bought, and the first one that her current compaitriots had seen her in. Even you would have thought this was fucked up, right dad?...

Being back on the cold streets of a major city, Irveska assumed that she would feel right at home here... However, like the interior of what seemed to be a gnomish night club they had entered, it was all just strange and unfirmilar.

Being dunked back into humanity without an excuse to bash heads or talk big... It was like the she was being forced to face the prospect that she just couldn't become the person that she once was anymore. Even if she acted the same, she couldn't force herself to forget...

Mariana smiled at the gorgeous redhead. "So, how about you? You're being quiet. What's your deal?"

"My father?.... My father was a brilliant man. Took care of me always, even through he was a mercenary. Spoiled me rotten, some would say." Irveska spoke with a sombre smile, as if being polite but not really expecting them to understand. One had to wonder if she always smiled with such self-sarcasm, but had litterally masked it away before. "It was me who screwed up everything for him, in the end..."

"...Sorry. It's a long story, with alot of things I can't justify here and now... For what it's worth , I'm at least trying to feel for both of you."

Mariana shrugged. "Three attractive women with daddy issues hanging out. I'm pretty sure there are tawdry stories that start this way." She gave a little laugh and gave Irveska a playful little one-handed push.

"Although usually they don't happen outside of a Gnomish temple."

Septi rolled her eyes at the word attractive, but didn't say anything. Beautiful women occasionally tried to make her feel included by pretending she wasn't ugly; it was easier just to let them. "It vas different for me, yes Irveska. My father screwed me." She shrugged, "In ze end ve parted ways over a difference of opinion. He saw himself as alive." She crossed her arms over her meagre silly goose, pulling her battered waistcoat tighter against the muscle of her back and shoulders. "Do not 'sink for a second you need to feel for us, Irveska. Zhat vould be a mistake. My life, such as eet is, 'as made me vhat I am. I can cope vhere many cannot. In some vays, I feel for you; tossed into hardship after living so long in soft luxury. Parents fuck you up in different vays, perhaps, but do not 'sink zhey do not fuck you up."

Irveska just gave Mariana's comment a whimsical smirk, before slowly accending to her feet from the rustic bench (It wasn't her thing to be talked "down" to).

"You're pretty empathic, for someone who's supposed to have such a hard shell..." The red-maned woman thought out loud, looking at the sky with hands on her ample hips. It took her a second to realise the other way that perticular sentence could be taken.

"...But... saints damn it, Septi..." She looked the towering woman over with grimace and a faux-irritated pout, before continuing. "You're too fucking modest! I've ditched ugly ducklings and hairy bass tards a plenty, and you an't one of them... an acquired taste, maybe, but... but that's why you're unique. That's why I wouldn't let anybody else have you."

Septimïe laughed, "Empathetic? Understanding o'zer people is easy. It's far harder to try and comprehend zhem." She raised her eyebrows at Irveska's next comments, her head tilted to one side in amusement. "Irveska. I am ugly." She spoke slowly, as if reminding someone that the sky is, infact, blue after they had remarked on it's astonishing lime greenness. "Eet is some'sing you get used to, like being a foot taller zhan most people, or being stuck with an irritating clerical Gnome for weeks on end." She smiled to acknowledge Irveska's trying to make her feel better, "Eet is okay, Irveska. My ugliness, like my parentage, is just ano'zer obstacle to climb over."

Irveska made a loud huffing noise, balled her fists downwards and arced her shoulders forwards, then gave Mariana quick glare, as if she was impeeding on a lover's qaurel.

"Shut up! Shut up! Septimie!" The woman growled furiously, before grasping the front of the large woman's collar and standing on the tips of her toes, so the two could make proper eye contact.

"This." She put a finger to the scar prevading her own lips. "The 'classical definition' of beauty can be fucked, becuase it doesn't include this. That thing... that horror tried to bargain with me... and it taught me that I want nothing... and I really wish you... you would..."

Irveska's voice faded as her annoyance sapped away. Her eyes went from an arced glare to a squinting, undry state. Before giving Septimie much of a chance to respond, she leant upwards and quickly kissed her on the cheek, then briskly turned around and gazed into the floor.

Mariana clearly felt awkward but did the best she could. "I don't think your ugly, Septimie." She said. "I've got a nice figure, yeah, but red skin, horns, and a tail aren't exactly part of the conventional idea of beauty, either."

She shrugged. "'Least not among Humans."

Septi touched her cheek in astonishment, then brought her hands hesitantly down onto Irveska's slender shoulders, pressing her face gently into the woman's flaming mane. "Sank you," she murmured. She paused like that a moment, terrified of her own boldness, before slowly moving to stand in front of Irveska. "Look at me, beautiful woman. It is not your body, or your face which is most wonderful to me. 'Zis is ze second time I 'ave 'ad such a terrifying conversation vis you. And again you strike me as uniquely twisted- and I mean zhat in ze best possible way." She glanced at Mariana, including her, before looking back at Irveska and crouching so as to be at eye height to her. "As far as 'ze world is concerned, I am ugly." She pushed a lock of hair behind Irveska's ear gently, the almost maternal gesture seeming to her to be practically indecent in its intimacy. "Fuck ze world. It means... it is every'sing, to 'ave you tell me I am not, to you, ugly."

Mariana smiled. "I'd go wander off to leave you two alone, but orders are orders, and I hope you understand I really don't want to be surrounded by a bunch of tiny people half my size and three times my age."

Alrough the words sunk in, Irveska didn't look up; She conisidered it better to come across as childish and angry, than to come across as guilt-ridden and dependent... That said, it wasn't completely working.

"-Just..." The sporadic girl grabbed Septimie's large hand as it retracted, and then sniffed inwards deeply before continuing. "Just, please, don't say it yourself, then. You get me so damn angry..."

The other hand moved from her face now, and placed itself on Septimie's buff upper chest.

"I don't wanna be angry around you... I wanna be... I wanna get... Well, drunk, like we said!"

"Mariana?" Her head snapped around to face the (extremely patient) tiefling, but her hands stubbornly remained where they were. "That... thing... was I invited?"