He wouldn't think her so sweet and gentle if there was anything sharp within her reach. As it is the temptation to stab the pen down and ruin something he so obviously cherished is overwhelming. Nill sets her hands on the bar top, still managing to seem mostly polite as she twirls it idly with her fingers because she does not trust herself not to do something with it if she can hold it in her first for an extended period of time. It's a good show of dexterity, though not an over the top one, and concentrating on it does at least help not to have her mind focused purely on this pathetic moving pound of flesh in front of her.
Thankfully Nill's tells are restricted to her wings this evening; though she can't possibly stop every little thing that would give her away, if she's conscious of it then she can at least make sure that most are only seen in the shift and bristling of feathers. There's a very obvious twitch when Claudius talks about watching then, and Nill needs to put a plastic and not as convincing smile on her face so as not to outright grimace. Maybe, maybe that could happen between them some day, if either of them lived long enough for at least one of them to get over all the trauma and misery that might prevent it, but the idea of this monstrosity watching is enough to make her feel ill.
It's nothing compared to the sudden, gaping hole in her chest when he says there's a revised contract, that it's no longer a rule, that he absolutely intends to touch Linden's neck later whether he wants it or not, maybe even because he doesn't, and her wings practically turn to stone against her back, tense and rigid.
Whether or not the confirmation from Linden makes it worse is of course unclear, but it is one of the only times during most of this entire thing that Nill completely turns her attention away from Claudius so she can look at Linden, expression remaining mostly neutral save for where the ice has been replaced by confusion and an at least partial lack of understanding.
What the fuck was Stephen doing?
She looks like she wants to ask, to do something, but she doesn't have the chance. It's around then that a woman from the group Nill had been in earlier finally makes it over to the bar, and immediately starts gushing about Nill's clothes, her drink, and Linden might recognize her, because it's the Capitolite that Stephen just broke up with recently that has come to fetch Nill again. That might also be why she doesn't seem intent on sticking around, because though Nill jumps slightly when Candi grabs her hand the young Capitolite woman seems not to have noticed, and is entirely intent on brining Nill back over to the people that have technically been given her time for the evening and who Nill has not been paying enough attention to.
Unless Linden or Claudius try to get them to stay she will probably succeed in dragging Nill away.
no subject
Thankfully Nill's tells are restricted to her wings this evening; though she can't possibly stop every little thing that would give her away, if she's conscious of it then she can at least make sure that most are only seen in the shift and bristling of feathers. There's a very obvious twitch when Claudius talks about watching then, and Nill needs to put a plastic and not as convincing smile on her face so as not to outright grimace. Maybe, maybe that could happen between them some day, if either of them lived long enough for at least one of them to get over all the trauma and misery that might prevent it, but the idea of this monstrosity watching is enough to make her feel ill.
It's nothing compared to the sudden, gaping hole in her chest when he says there's a revised contract, that it's no longer a rule, that he absolutely intends to touch Linden's neck later whether he wants it or not, maybe even because he doesn't, and her wings practically turn to stone against her back, tense and rigid.
Whether or not the confirmation from Linden makes it worse is of course unclear, but it is one of the only times during most of this entire thing that Nill completely turns her attention away from Claudius so she can look at Linden, expression remaining mostly neutral save for where the ice has been replaced by confusion and an at least partial lack of understanding.
What the fuck was Stephen doing?
She looks like she wants to ask, to do something, but she doesn't have the chance. It's around then that a woman from the group Nill had been in earlier finally makes it over to the bar, and immediately starts gushing about Nill's clothes, her drink, and Linden might recognize her, because it's the Capitolite that Stephen just broke up with recently that has come to fetch Nill again. That might also be why she doesn't seem intent on sticking around, because though Nill jumps slightly when Candi grabs her hand the young Capitolite woman seems not to have noticed, and is entirely intent on brining Nill back over to the people that have technically been given her time for the evening and who Nill has not been paying enough attention to.
Unless Linden or Claudius try to get them to stay she will probably succeed in dragging Nill away.