thisbluespirit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisbluespirit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic2025-01-26 08:15 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote in rainbowfic2025-01-26 08:15 pm
Warm Heart #9; Colour of the Day 26/01/25 [Starfall]
Name: Lucky Strike
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #9 (Confusion); Colour of the Day - 26th Jan 2025 (well-nigh)
Supplies and Styles:
Word Count: 1503
Rating: PG
Warnings: Brief violence/prejudice (non real world)
Notes: 1313, Portcallan. Viyony Eseray, Eollan Barra, Laida Modelen, Tess Hyan, Rodern Ylie. Takes place on the evening after it's beginning to get to me.
Summary: Viyony goes out for the evening with the wrong crowd, and pays for it.
Viyony sat in an exclusive dining house with Eollan Barra, Laida Modelen, Tess Hyan and a few more of their friends, a particularly high-flying set, and thought about warehouses.
It wasn't the dining house's fault. It had an excellent reputation, so Laida told her, and was, in peculiarly Portcallan manner, arranged into long separate tables that seated around ten or twelve each. They filled them up table by table, so there were two people on the far end of theirs who Viyony was fairly sure had not arrived with her group.
"How is the soup?" Eollan asked, breaking into her calculations over costs and space and location.
Viyony looked down at it. Eollan had advised her to order green soup, when she'd said she wanted something that wasn't sea food for a change. She could not argue with the description. It was smooth and pale green with dark green flecks. She hadn't identified yet exactly which green vegetables had gone into it and thought it was probably better not to ask. Knowing Portcallan, it might turn out to be seaweed, but it was pleasantly light and tasty enough.
"It's very good, thank you," she said.
Laida Modelen leant in towards her at the same moment as Tess, on the other side of Eollan, tugged at his arm and drew his attention away from Viyony.
Laida frowned briefly at the strikingly verdant soup, and then asked "Are you seeing Leion again soon?"
"I did—earlier today, sorry," Viyony said. "He was helping me look around a warehouse. Why?"
Laida shrugged. "Oh, never mind, then. I might as well write him a note." Then she bent her head closer. "I've been thinking about taking up law, and I asked Leion if he'd speak to his mother about me. Well, he did, and I saw her yesterday. She was so kind—very helpful—and I always thought she seemed so terrifying. I suppose a High Justice has to be like that, doesn't she?"
"Oh, well done!" said Viyony. "I'm sure you'll do brilliantly, too."
"I'll try at any rate. I can't sit here doing nothing worthwhile with my life any longer." Laida stopped speaking as Rodern Ylie waved wildly at her from across the table. She rolled her eyes at Viyony, and then craned over to catch what the youngest member of their party was trying to tell her
Viyony studied the ghostly reflections of her fellow diners in the window opposite as they continued eating. It had grown dark outside. She ate desultorily, and listened with only half an ear to the conversation between one of the Ylies and a stranger at the end of the table about a race that was taking place outside the city tomorrow, doing her best to avoid giving Eollan an opening to talk in case he brought up her affinity again.
She seemed to be doing everything the wrong way round. Her mother had advised her to have one last affair in Portcallan, which Viyony had told her in no uncertain terms was a terrible idea. But Viyony had then had enough long days on the road to reflect and think instead that perhaps, perhaps, it wouldn't be such an awful idea to try sleeping with someone she liked before she got married to an upright but much older man who had never pretended he loved her.
She had met Eollan before she had even left North Eastern District, then still a colonel in the Rosfallen Regiment. When he had taken an interest in her on the journey, and duly turned up again to see her once she arrived at Portcallan, she had wondered about him as a possibility—and Tess, too, now, who seemed to be firmly tagging along.
Except, of course, then she had met Leion Valerno and nothing had gone to order since. Leion had offered to have an affair with her quite cheerfully and bluntly, but he was, of course, quite wrong for that role for several reasons, the foremost being that Viyony liked him far too much, and she had absolutely no intention of jeopardising the future of Eseray and perhaps even her own sanity for love.
Now Viyony was unsure if having a fling with Leion was still in question even as this evening forcibly made it clear that she simply didn't want Eollan or Tess. She didn't want anyone but Leion, except here she was, having a luxurious dinner with them and a work-related lunch with Leion at some half-price dockland hotel, with the bonus alarm of a worrying figure from Leion's past following them about. Viyony had enjoyed all of that far more than she was enjoying her meal out. There was nothing to do but concentrate hard on weighing up the two warehouses she'd viewed and forget about her love life entirely—but rental prices could only distract a person from folly for so long.
At last, everyone started making motions to leave and calling for the bill, and Viyony stifled a sigh of relief. They exited as a straggling group, Viyony close behind Eollan with Tess, who was slightly drunk, holding onto her arm and talking too loudly into her ear. They scattered out further on the pavement, Eollan turning back to see what had become of young Rodern Ylie, Laida and Tess and Viyony waiting with him, while the remainder walked on without them.
Laida shifted from one foot to the other, arms around herself in the night air. "Where has that boy got to?" she said. She swung round and marched back through the door. "Rodern!"
There was a sudden yell from across the street. Viyony turned to see a youth staggering along from the opposite street towards them.
"Rosfallen sea shit!" the youth screamed, and lobbed a piece of brick hard—straight at her.
Viyony shouted, instinctively putting her hands over her head and ducking, not quite in time. The missile went wide, hitting the window behind her with a loud crack, the glass shattering into a spiderweb.
She dared to glance up, and from that angle, she glimpsed another person there, quite distinctly for one moment in the lamplight, before they slipped away into the shadows.
Eollan moved in front of her. "Hey! You there! What d'you think you're doing?"
The man—barely more than a boy, now that Viyony could see him more clearly—stopped in the middle of the street, staring at them for a moment, before he tried to run, swaying wildly as he went. Eollan cursed, and tore after him.
Viyony straightened and moved forward, ignoring Tess tugging at her arm and begging her to come back inside.
"He's gone," Viyony said, shaking Tess gently away. She scanned the empty street with a frown. She would have taken an oath that she'd seen the same lurking pale, sandy-haired figure that had been following Leion and her earlier—Chiulder. "It was him," she said, under her breath, out of Tess's hearing. "I know it was."
Tess gave up on her and fled back into the dining house. Laida rejoined them with Rodern close behind her, and flung an arm around Viyony's shoulders. "Viyony, darling. She's right. Come back inside with us. We'll send for the Guardians and make sure it's safe before we take you back. You poor thing—you're shaking. Viyony!"
Viyony blinked. The scene held no more clues, and she doubted even Laida would believe her if she tried to tell her. She did as they told her, but her brow was still furrowed. "How did he know?"
It reminded her somehow of the attack on Soldier Delver a few weeks ago. Perhaps that was silly—perhaps it was only because unreasoning hate always looked the same. Viyony sank into the nearest chair while people fluttered and fussed around her and the restaurant owner threw up their hands at the state of the window. Viyony saw instead that scene on the bridge, not so long after she'd first arrived in Portcallan—the man who'd hit Delver, drunk and staring straight at her almost as confused as she was, before he tried to leave. Exactly like that young idiot outside a few moments ago.
"Know what?" asked Laida, belatedly. She pushed a beautiful pale green cup of something hot with milk and honey mixed into it down in front of Viyony. "Drink this. You're not making sense."
Viyony gestured down at herself. "Me. Who I am. I'm not wearing a uniform. I don't have a sign on me that says 'look at me, I'm from North Eastern.' I've never seen that boy before. How did he know?"
"He probably didn't," said Laida. "He was drunk. Probably decided one of us must be and got lucky. Or maybe he was aiming at Eollan. He could have come across him before, maybe seen him in his Rosfallen uniform, I suppose."
"Hmm," said Viyony, lifting the warm cup. She turned it round in her hands rather than drinking it. "There's no telling, is there?"
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #9 (Confusion); Colour of the Day - 26th Jan 2025 (well-nigh)
Supplies and Styles:
Word Count: 1503
Rating: PG
Warnings: Brief violence/prejudice (non real world)
Notes: 1313, Portcallan. Viyony Eseray, Eollan Barra, Laida Modelen, Tess Hyan, Rodern Ylie. Takes place on the evening after it's beginning to get to me.
Summary: Viyony goes out for the evening with the wrong crowd, and pays for it.
Viyony sat in an exclusive dining house with Eollan Barra, Laida Modelen, Tess Hyan and a few more of their friends, a particularly high-flying set, and thought about warehouses.
It wasn't the dining house's fault. It had an excellent reputation, so Laida told her, and was, in peculiarly Portcallan manner, arranged into long separate tables that seated around ten or twelve each. They filled them up table by table, so there were two people on the far end of theirs who Viyony was fairly sure had not arrived with her group.
"How is the soup?" Eollan asked, breaking into her calculations over costs and space and location.
Viyony looked down at it. Eollan had advised her to order green soup, when she'd said she wanted something that wasn't sea food for a change. She could not argue with the description. It was smooth and pale green with dark green flecks. She hadn't identified yet exactly which green vegetables had gone into it and thought it was probably better not to ask. Knowing Portcallan, it might turn out to be seaweed, but it was pleasantly light and tasty enough.
"It's very good, thank you," she said.
Laida Modelen leant in towards her at the same moment as Tess, on the other side of Eollan, tugged at his arm and drew his attention away from Viyony.
Laida frowned briefly at the strikingly verdant soup, and then asked "Are you seeing Leion again soon?"
"I did—earlier today, sorry," Viyony said. "He was helping me look around a warehouse. Why?"
Laida shrugged. "Oh, never mind, then. I might as well write him a note." Then she bent her head closer. "I've been thinking about taking up law, and I asked Leion if he'd speak to his mother about me. Well, he did, and I saw her yesterday. She was so kind—very helpful—and I always thought she seemed so terrifying. I suppose a High Justice has to be like that, doesn't she?"
"Oh, well done!" said Viyony. "I'm sure you'll do brilliantly, too."
"I'll try at any rate. I can't sit here doing nothing worthwhile with my life any longer." Laida stopped speaking as Rodern Ylie waved wildly at her from across the table. She rolled her eyes at Viyony, and then craned over to catch what the youngest member of their party was trying to tell her
Viyony studied the ghostly reflections of her fellow diners in the window opposite as they continued eating. It had grown dark outside. She ate desultorily, and listened with only half an ear to the conversation between one of the Ylies and a stranger at the end of the table about a race that was taking place outside the city tomorrow, doing her best to avoid giving Eollan an opening to talk in case he brought up her affinity again.
She seemed to be doing everything the wrong way round. Her mother had advised her to have one last affair in Portcallan, which Viyony had told her in no uncertain terms was a terrible idea. But Viyony had then had enough long days on the road to reflect and think instead that perhaps, perhaps, it wouldn't be such an awful idea to try sleeping with someone she liked before she got married to an upright but much older man who had never pretended he loved her.
She had met Eollan before she had even left North Eastern District, then still a colonel in the Rosfallen Regiment. When he had taken an interest in her on the journey, and duly turned up again to see her once she arrived at Portcallan, she had wondered about him as a possibility—and Tess, too, now, who seemed to be firmly tagging along.
Except, of course, then she had met Leion Valerno and nothing had gone to order since. Leion had offered to have an affair with her quite cheerfully and bluntly, but he was, of course, quite wrong for that role for several reasons, the foremost being that Viyony liked him far too much, and she had absolutely no intention of jeopardising the future of Eseray and perhaps even her own sanity for love.
Now Viyony was unsure if having a fling with Leion was still in question even as this evening forcibly made it clear that she simply didn't want Eollan or Tess. She didn't want anyone but Leion, except here she was, having a luxurious dinner with them and a work-related lunch with Leion at some half-price dockland hotel, with the bonus alarm of a worrying figure from Leion's past following them about. Viyony had enjoyed all of that far more than she was enjoying her meal out. There was nothing to do but concentrate hard on weighing up the two warehouses she'd viewed and forget about her love life entirely—but rental prices could only distract a person from folly for so long.
At last, everyone started making motions to leave and calling for the bill, and Viyony stifled a sigh of relief. They exited as a straggling group, Viyony close behind Eollan with Tess, who was slightly drunk, holding onto her arm and talking too loudly into her ear. They scattered out further on the pavement, Eollan turning back to see what had become of young Rodern Ylie, Laida and Tess and Viyony waiting with him, while the remainder walked on without them.
Laida shifted from one foot to the other, arms around herself in the night air. "Where has that boy got to?" she said. She swung round and marched back through the door. "Rodern!"
There was a sudden yell from across the street. Viyony turned to see a youth staggering along from the opposite street towards them.
"Rosfallen sea shit!" the youth screamed, and lobbed a piece of brick hard—straight at her.
Viyony shouted, instinctively putting her hands over her head and ducking, not quite in time. The missile went wide, hitting the window behind her with a loud crack, the glass shattering into a spiderweb.
She dared to glance up, and from that angle, she glimpsed another person there, quite distinctly for one moment in the lamplight, before they slipped away into the shadows.
Eollan moved in front of her. "Hey! You there! What d'you think you're doing?"
The man—barely more than a boy, now that Viyony could see him more clearly—stopped in the middle of the street, staring at them for a moment, before he tried to run, swaying wildly as he went. Eollan cursed, and tore after him.
Viyony straightened and moved forward, ignoring Tess tugging at her arm and begging her to come back inside.
"He's gone," Viyony said, shaking Tess gently away. She scanned the empty street with a frown. She would have taken an oath that she'd seen the same lurking pale, sandy-haired figure that had been following Leion and her earlier—Chiulder. "It was him," she said, under her breath, out of Tess's hearing. "I know it was."
Tess gave up on her and fled back into the dining house. Laida rejoined them with Rodern close behind her, and flung an arm around Viyony's shoulders. "Viyony, darling. She's right. Come back inside with us. We'll send for the Guardians and make sure it's safe before we take you back. You poor thing—you're shaking. Viyony!"
Viyony blinked. The scene held no more clues, and she doubted even Laida would believe her if she tried to tell her. She did as they told her, but her brow was still furrowed. "How did he know?"
It reminded her somehow of the attack on Soldier Delver a few weeks ago. Perhaps that was silly—perhaps it was only because unreasoning hate always looked the same. Viyony sank into the nearest chair while people fluttered and fussed around her and the restaurant owner threw up their hands at the state of the window. Viyony saw instead that scene on the bridge, not so long after she'd first arrived in Portcallan—the man who'd hit Delver, drunk and staring straight at her almost as confused as she was, before he tried to leave. Exactly like that young idiot outside a few moments ago.
"Know what?" asked Laida, belatedly. She pushed a beautiful pale green cup of something hot with milk and honey mixed into it down in front of Viyony. "Drink this. You're not making sense."
Viyony gestured down at herself. "Me. Who I am. I'm not wearing a uniform. I don't have a sign on me that says 'look at me, I'm from North Eastern.' I've never seen that boy before. How did he know?"
"He probably didn't," said Laida. "He was drunk. Probably decided one of us must be and got lucky. Or maybe he was aiming at Eollan. He could have come across him before, maybe seen him in his Rosfallen uniform, I suppose."
"Hmm," said Viyony, lifting the warm cup. She turned it round in her hands rather than drinking it. "There's no telling, is there?"
no subject
no subject
no subject
Oh, interesting, what is the politics here? I assume some past war?
One note, though, in this paragraph:
Viyony shouted, instinctively putting her hands over her head and ducking, not quite in time. The missile went wide, hitting the window behind her with a loud crack, the glass shattering into a spiderweb. She dared to glance up, and from that angle, she glimpsed another person there, quite distinctly for one moment in the lamplight, before they slipped away into the shadows.
at first it seemed like she had seen Chiulder in the window that broke, since that sentence is right after the one about the window breaking, but after reading through I see you meant she saw him in the street. It's a little confusing to describe the visual of the window breaking behind her when she is looking the other direction.
no subject
Oh, interesting, what is the politics here? I assume some past war?
Yes, it's been a while since this came up in any detail -
The country these pieces are set in, Emoyra, is made up of formerly independent 'Districts' (that were always loosely linked but effectively individual nations by the time they (re)united). North Eastern District (formerly known as Rosfallen), where Viyony is from, was the last District to sign up and tends to be the first to join any sort of demands for disunion, for historical reasons. The rest of Emoyra regards it as the poorest, most superstitious, backward & least Emoyran District.
At the point these Viyony & Leion pieces are set, Portcallan is not so far away from a crisis point of its own that caused a rise in 'disunionist' activity, but that had died down for nearly a decade until the start of this sequence, which kicks off with an ineffective assassination attempt on the High Governor, and there have been attacks on North Easterners in the city since.
no subject
Ahh, neat, thanks for the details.
no subject
What are the aftereffects of a headful of Chiulder?
no subject
*points to your following coment* Heh. (In this case, the swaying is because they're drunk, though.)
no subject
no subject
As Leion says, Viyonys ideas and plans aren't necessarily good ones. And thank you!