#buttonflask

[foreaft]

@buttonflask   / /   nott.      a pearlescent button rolls ‘cross porcelain knuckles as she flips, lazily, through the pages of a book.  a book she has devoured a hundred times over and soon a hundred times again.  the poise known to her is still somewhat there, but it lacks the usual unyielding presence of formality; wren’s shoulders are lax and she is at ease .  .  . a feeling that is unfamiliar when in company, but it is not unwelcome.  it is trust she’s choosing to place in her new friends   —   the mighty nein, so she must bridle fight or flight.  she must; no longer will she kowtow to the fears in her heart, in her mind.  but, that isn’t as easy as it sounds.  no, it takes effort .  .  . though, it’s becoming easier with each passing day, and that comes as a surprise   —   a pleasant one.  she chuckles softly to herself, inhaling with the softest shake of her head; it is then that she feels a presence suddenly near her and she turns her head to find nott standing there.  withdrawn from her thoughts, a brown brow arches and there is a soft curl to one corner of her lips;   “   oh, hej nott,   ”   she speaks smoothly, turning her torso towards the goblin girl .  .  . wren wouldn’t lie, she’s been curious about this one.  very curious.   “   what can i do for you, nott?   ”

[widaugast]

5e SKILLS STARTERS --- no longer accepting!     @buttonflask asked for an arcana check.

        It was a curious thing, and a thrilling one, to watch more fully-fledged spells flicker forth from Veth's fingertips  ---  how often had Caleb felt the same thrill that he now saw on her face within the pit of his own stomach, had he felt the same electricity that flickers from her fingers within his own hands, clasped together before they softly explode into blossoming power?  It is a heady thing, a strange thing, and yet so exciting  ---  so exciting from memory, yet equally exciting, in its own way, to see the growth within so great a friend.

        With her first spell being a Voltaic Bolt, perhaps it's no surprise, then, that the attempted Firebolt comes out as something a bit more electric  ---  whizzing from the edge of the Nicodranian beach where they've gone to practice to a spot in the sand, just through the wood Caleb had set out as targets, to turn some of the beach into...  a shimmer.  Glass?

        (ARCANA CHECK: 10 + 11 = 21.)  Caleb's eyebrows raise, both in surprise and a pride sparked by curiosity and love, as he looks over to Veth, her hand still out.  ❝ Well, I...  I am impressed.  I cannot say I've ever quite seen that happen before. ❞

[archived-hellesfeuer]

*    @buttonflask​​    —    LOOK  AWAY,  BUT  I’M  STILL  THERE. 

IF   NOTT   MEANT   TO   LEAVE   HIM,   SHE   WOULD   HAVE   DONE   SO   ALREADY.         and   now   she   knows   the   worst   of   him:      she   knows   his   biggest   mistake.      there   are   many   other   skeletons   in   the   closet   of   caleb   widogast’s   cluttered   mind      —      many   more   that   she   will   never   find,   not   for   years   and   years      —      and   he   knows   that   he   should   leave   her.      he   should   go   because   she   will   not   abandon   him.      but   instead,   he   leans   into   her   small   hand   cupping   his   cheek   and   shuts   his   eyes   wearily,   swallowing   thickly   around   the   teary,   pathetic   lump   in   his   throat.            “      you   .   .   .      are   too   good   to   me.      why   are   you   so   good   to   me   .   .   .      ”   

[widaugast]

YEARNING MEME  ---  no longer accepting! @buttonflask​ cast message:  i sleep better when you’re around.

        This, at the end of everything, is familiar  ---  when the day ends, when the night turns to dusk and whatever protective charm, simple thread or the heavier-duty dome he'd learnt to cast above them, set between them and the wild, it nearly always turns to the same image inside.  Even as they'd begun travelling with others, as they had become two of seven misfit toys somehow stuck together, Caleb and Nott's sleeping patterns hadn't ever fully changed on the road.  When the day closes, Caleb knows that that weight on the side of his legs, almost near his feet, will be the same, surprisingly easy-breathing goblin that he's become used to, the curl of her back pressed against his own, on the nights where they were so jammed they had to sleep on their sides, familiar as that of Frumpkin on his lap, the heaviness of the worn coat on his shoulders.

        They are in newer clothing now, the unexpected spoils of Xhorhas, and in the wastelands  ---  unknown scrub and sands howling in the night around the dome, the jagged thrust of distant rocks scraping at the low, dark belly of the sky  ---  he's grateful for this acknowledgement as Nott curls closer, as the familiar warmth settles up to his side again after adjusting to the Xhorhaus, to her nights spent with Yeza.  He is happy for that, for what she can grasp of her old life and her husband  ---  so few are fortunate enough to have the chance to readily grasp their past  ---  but can take some small, private comfort now, even in fragments, in the old gesture.  Frumpkin, still summoned, pads over to curiously sniff at Nott's braids, kneading twice into Caleb's knee before settling between his master's leg and the curl of the goblin's neck, seemingly content with the old closeness as well.  ❝ You know, I... ❞  A beat, his hands behind his head while he stares up at the faint sheen of the dome.  ❝ It's  ----  ah, good. I...  we have been doing this old chestnut awhile, it is...  nice, somewhere so... uncharted. ❞

[widaugast]

YEARNING MEME  ---  no longer accepting! @buttonflask​ cast message: are you... jealous?

        ❝ Was? ❞  For all that they know each other  ---  and well, ever at a level of closeness that surprised even Caleb, this far into their travels together  ---  Nott's question takes him off-guard, catches at the edge of his mind and slips.  His tone is not accusatory, not rash, but simply  ---  well, surprised, curiosity knitting its way between his eyebrows as he looks briefly up and over his shoulder, angled towards where the familiar figure sits at the alchemist's tools that take up the other section of the Xhorhaus' library.

        He had noticed Yeza leave  ---  try as he might, the usual all-consuming fog of diving deeply into his latest loaned research from Essek was not happening at quite the speed Caleb would hope for  ---  but the tinkering noises had subsided only slightly, now pausing for a beat as Nott's halfling disguise flickers over the beakers.  She did not have to put it up here, not unless she desired as much, but Caleb also did not ask about it  ---  it was not...  how he had always seen her, but neither were either of them who they had been born to be.  If it was anyone's place not to judge, surely it was his.

        In the meantime, slowly drawing a leg down from where it had been tucked beneath him, Caleb turns more fully towards Veth, looking at him above a slow-bubbling beaker as the small flame beneath it flickers.  ❝ No, no, I  ---  not like that.  I...  why do you ask? ❞