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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 17:26:46 GMT -6
One thing you could always rely on the courtyard having was picnic tables. Though people often used them for lunch, it always seemed surprising the number of students doing homework at them. Unlike these two groups, Guinevere liked them for another reason. Space. She never had to worry about things blowing away, and save for the occasional conversation with one of her teammates, it was rather peaceful. She enjoyed their company, but sometimes, she just wanted to do some work.
If she remembered from last year, there was a festival coming up soon. She had always liked them – the bright colors, strange and fanciful acts roaring into the nights. She reminisced about those in Pinnacle. Looking back down to her current project, she shuffled through the stack of fabric swatches to her right. That girl’s dress had looked nice, and it might sell during the fair. Roughly yanking a lighter tan from the pile, she started in with her scissors, chopping off some narrow bands of the fabric. Turning back towards a foot and a half tall marionette, she looked over her work thus far. The dress thus far was a white top, fabric bleeding into a deep brown bell. Nothing much, but these highlights should liven it up a bit.
Unraveling a thread from the swatch of fabric, she began to stitch the lighter tan onto the little outfit. She hummed softly to herself, eyes going closed enough to make one question if she was really paying attention to the people around her… or her work.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 0:46:46 GMT -6
Guinevere’s humming slowly built in tempo as she swapped between needles and threads. All the while, her hands flicked to and fro with the little scraps of fabric. Surprisingly, her eyes never seemed to flicker open for more than a couple brief stitches or to grab another one of the strips she had cut off from the tan swatch. As she picked up the last piece of fabric, her hands were a blur almost struggling to match the tempo of her tune. Her back slumped over the feverish movements of her hands, looking similar to a pianist deep in their craft. Each chord brought forth a flash of fabric and thread until with a final beat, the thread was loosed from the eye of the needle.
Her eyes slowly blinking open, Guinevere glanced at her hands, both still a little shaky from the pitch of their motions. She gave a soft breath, calming herself. The soft crimson glow of her aura rippled down her fingers with her pulse. A little faster than normal, but nothing to be overly concerned about. With a few more breaths to calm her heart, she looked at the dress. Now bearing the light tan trim, the dress was coming along quite nicely. Something however, was missing.
Gazing out over the girls walking, chattering, or playing about the courtyard, she bounced from outfit to outfit. Girl in blue looking like a classier Azure, a Faunus Hare wearing a flowy white dress, A well-dressed guy walking on his own – mrm – too bad he probably had the personality of a brick. She spotted it. Just beyond her angle of the debonair dude there was a girl walking past in a light green ensemble. With a belt. Inspiration had struck like lightning.
She turned back towards her pile of cloth swatches, eagerly searching for the color to match her marionette’s dress. Something bold. She tossed part of the pile to the other side of the table. Something bright. Another half the stack came tumbling off, some swatches drifting to the ground around the table. Something Red.
She huffed and rolled her eyes at her findings. That didn’t even cut it down to below a dozen fabrics.
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Post by lilywilde on Oct 20, 2016 5:47:52 GMT -6
Lily had been sitting in the food court after a long day of training. Today had been a free day, so without any classes to worry about, she was free to train all day. However, she also made a point of taking a little more free time than usual. Her normal half hour had been upgraded to an hour, maybe an hour and a half if she were feeling particularly slothful. She'd already spent a bit of her free time back in her wooded encampment. She'd taken a bit of her smoked meats with her as she returned to school. Hoping to enjoy it as a light snack should she lose too much energy while fighting. However, she was munching on it before even having returned to her training due to a shameless lack of self control mingling with her love of meat.
She was idly munching, curiously watching the people nearest her. One person, the reason she'd sat down in the first place and began enjoying her delicious smoked meat, was working on an interesting sewing project. Her gunmetal grey eyes scanned ever needle stroke as if they were viewing magic at work. After quite some time, she shyly approached, squeaking out a soft greeting.
"H-Hey," She said nervously approaching, looking at the beautiful dress and feeling envious that the girl could make something so lovely. Today she was wearing something purchased from her by amber. She wore the same ruffled blue skirt with white lace poking out between tiers of the skirt, with a plane blue blouse and spaghetti straps. She wore white stockings with black buckle shoes and kept the gifted blue fabric rose in her hair. Nothing else adorned her, she was a relatively simple girl, the simple style of dress suited her well.
"Uhm, I couldn't help but notice what you're doing here.." She said taking her backpack off and rifling through it to make sure her mother's dress were still present. When she confirmed it's presence in her bag before zipping it back and swallowing her fears to finish her thought.
"Look, I've been meaning to learn how to do that for a long time, is there any chance you could teach me?" As she said that, she bowed her head deeply, arms at her sides. "It's uhh... It's important to me. Please." she pleaded, not really sure how else to ask.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 7:11:16 GMT -6
Guinevere lit up as she shuffled through her red palette. This was the one she wanted. A soft fabric if striking crimson. She paused a moment contemplating where she had used this fabric before. It seemed strikingly familiar for some reason. A passing thought made her look towards the overcoat she had sitting on the bench besi- oh. Well, apparently this fabric was only a scrap from the velvet lining her tux jacket. She reached her hand towards her shears to trim off a piece for the dress’s belt when she became aware of someone near her.
“H-Hey.”
Oh, No. Nononono. Stop. If you want to match a rhythm you don’t introduce discord. You add notes to it in a fashion to make new harmonies while breaking old ones. She sighed. There went her tempo. Her left eye slowly rose to meet the Girl’s gaze. Faunus, Feline. Around her age, possibly some years younger – an underclassman, freshman, or prodigy. No discernible weapons, a brawler or armed to the nails with dust under the layers of her skirt. Her eye drifted to the rose in her hair, thinking of the clip in her hair at this moment with small light blue roses dotting it.
“Uhm, I couldn't help but notice what you're doing here.”
Yes, why else would you be standing there? Just say what you need to say. Clearly something’s in your bag, okay. Was this child not taught how to talk during her time as an underclassman? No matter. The question finally came out.
“Look, I've been meaning to learn how to do that for a long time, is there any chance you could teach me? It's uhh... It's important to me. Please.”
A bow, a curtsy, whatever that was – at least she knew some form of how to display respect towards others. She shifted, sitting the velvet down on the table. “You’ve been meaning to learn how to… Sew?” The tone of her voice was calm and firm, but almost had a “motherly” softness to it. Perhaps a little lower than your normal girl’s voice, but only by a register compared to the norm. She seemed almost confused by the statement. They had art classes here and enough theatre craft that she found acceptable compared to Pinnacle. How had she not found a way to learn? Why had someone not taught her before? Ugh. Well, she was here now and she was obviously embarrassed by this.
“How about you sit down before you hurt yourself.” She reached across the picnic bench, collecting some of the fabric swatches she had been working with earlier. She nodded a motion towards the newly cleared spot, clearly indicating that it was fine for the girl to sit down.
Assuming she settled into the spot, she opened with her usual, “Now, I’m not terribly familiar with the people around here, and I cannot recall seeing you or hearing of you in the past, so I am lead to ask: Who are you?” She accentuated the question, though not to induce a prying tone but instill one more of curiosity than much else. It seemed strange that she had been here for five years and yet had not once seen this girl, despite attempting to make note of effectively everyone with whom she interacted.
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Post by lilywilde on Oct 20, 2016 14:37:28 GMT -6
Lily rushed into the offered seat with such speed that a small air current was created. Not enough to disturb the contents of the table, but enough that it could be felt. A smile wide on her face.
She had been wanting to pick up this skill ever since she was young, but she had never managed to learn the skill from her mother before her passing. She scanned the table, looking at the various swaths of fabric and the tools arrayed in front of the very properly dressed student in front of her. She consumed the table in front of her with her eyes quickly. She was tempted to enter into her semblance state and examine each and every item with thorough scrutiny. She resisted that urge though, remembering Sol's reaction when she'd casually entered her semblance state in their first meeting.
It took a second for the question she'd been asked to register.
"Oh uhh.. I'm Lily, Lily..." she took a moment, conjuring up the name she'd been given as a last name by the huntress who'd saved her life. "Wilde. Lily Wilde. If you don't recognize me, it's probably 'caus I'm new. I've been here for not even two months yet." Her mind drifted briefly to the events surrounding her enrollment in the school. She flinched briefly, a small expression of pain quickly replaced by her smile. She would put those memories out of her mind for now.
"I'm not really that great with people, but I'm pleased to meet you all the same. May I ask your name?"
She felt a twinge of anxiety at having asked. She had not spent too much time with people so far. She'd only really spent any meaningful time with Sol and Aegle at this point, with one notable outing with Raven, and another with Amber. Most of her time was spent in solitude, training, reading, meditating, and sleeping. Aside from her time in classes and traversing the school, she rarely interacted with other people. This little interaction was the result of her other interactions with people, and her slow but steady accumulation of manners and social etiquette. She was still a novice, but she was putting forth effort. She had a long road ahead of her, but this small step was a good one. Aegle had introduced herself to Lily on her first day here, Sol and Lily had met when Lily was gathering information on the intimidating but surprisingly sweet young man, Amber knew Lily through the battle of Setek, Raven and Lily's meeting was coincidental. This young woman who Lily was introducing herself to had the distinction of being the first stranger that Lily had introduced herself to. A connection Lily wasn't unaware of at the time. It set her nerves on edge and filled Lily with a nervous energy, she did her best to act normal and relaxed, though the soft shake of her hands belied that relaxed image she was aiming for.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 15:38:23 GMT -6
Guinevere eyed this girl curiously. It seemed odd that she was so terribly nervous – even as an orphan, she had been taught how to at least converse with people. Perhaps she was just from one of the further out Faunus settlements that avoided society. Well, she was here now.
“Lily Wilde.”
Well, that answered that question. Not even having been here two months – so probably a freshman according to Guinevere’s watch. How did she get here without taking any of the classes of the underclassmen? Well, as a Huntsman academy, large things did sometimes come in small packages, so she’d just have to let that lie.
“I'm not really that great with people, but I'm pleased to meet you all the same. May I ask your name?”
No, you most certainly are not. Oh well, you did have to start somewhere. Although that “somewhere” usually belonged at an infantile daycare. She couldn’t recall anything saying Faunus aged slower, but maybe she was secretly some tortoise-cat thing. But it at least gave her some room to work with. She reached out and grabbed a couple of the fabrics and sat them down in front of Lily. “Guinevere Hematos, Sophomore.” She shuffled to another piece of fabric, unraveling from it a thread.
“If you want to learn, first I need to know what you know.”
She placed the thread in front of Lily. She looked up expectantly. At this point, she was probably on the receiving end of a questioning look. She had failed to provide a needle. “Oh.”
Guinevere brought her hand up towards her ear, running her finger the length of one of the hairclips sitting above her left ear. As she did so, a piece of the cable like thread composing the inner workings of her weapon came out. At about two inches long, she grasped this wire with her hand and snapped it off with a flick of her wrist. An almost indistinguishable puff of purple came from the point of breakage. She rolled the thread between her fingers, letting some of her aura pulse into it. As she did so, it folded back on its own, forming an eye like any other needle. Another flick of the wrist and the glass dust within the needle was triggered, bringing rigidity to the structure.
She held out the needle between her forefingers towards Lily, in a motion for her to take it. She would rather risk being touched than one of her needles go careening off into the wilds. The kinetic dust still inside the needle would make sure escape velocity could be obtained with disturbing ease – as she had learned all too well in her first few sewing escapades using Hammer’s Fancy.
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Post by lilywilde on Oct 20, 2016 17:26:02 GMT -6
The puff of purple smoke was not lost on Lily as the thread was severed. She wondered where that emanated from. Was it some property of the thread? A poisoned gas? Dust? Or perhaps some hint as to what the girl before her employed as a semblance? No matter the case, Lily didn't think on it too much. The normally paranoid and overly cautious girl was making an attempt to be less critical of this girl. She had also not spent several hours stalking her in order to ascertain whether she was dangerous, as she'd done with Sol. She was improving.
Lily held a hand up as she was offered a the needle. Though she'd seen her mother work one before, she had no business handling one until she studied them in practice with an eye that was actually paying attention to the finer details of the craft. She might be able to mimic the motions her mother had gone through, but after her recent shopping trip with amber, and seeing the fine fabric arrayed here, she doubted that her mother was too skilled in the craft herself. Even so, she wouldn't alter the dress given proper skill. She merely wanted to mend the rips and tears the poor dress had suffered since it was sewn four years prior.
"I know nothing beyond the basic motions my mother would make. I don't know how she prepped the needle, or what the intent of each movement was. I could only mimic the movements her hands made." She lowered her hand and looked down nervously. "I know it's a lot to ask, but I promise I can make it up for you somehow or another. I'm not sure what I could do for you in exchange, but... well, we could figure it out y'know?"
Her voice was quivering slightly, she was worried that her total lack of skill would disqualify her. The girl was obviously busy, and she felt quite guilty interrupting her craft. The fact that she'd interrupted at all was proof enough that she was desperate to learn. She fidgeted in her seat slightly, doing her best to keep her head. Should she tell this girl her motive? Maybe that would improve her chances. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but stalled herself. Would she care to hear her story? Would talking about it annoy her? Would she bring down the mood and make the girl mad at her? Maybe a more vague statement of intent would be more appropriate.
"I've just... I've got a dress that needs to be mended, and it's important to me that I am the one to mend it."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 18:24:22 GMT -6
As Guinevere was holding the needle, she saw Lily hesitate.
“I know nothing beyond the basic motions my mother would make. I don't know how she prepped the needle, or what the intent of each movement was. I could only mimic the movements her hands made.”
Whew boy, this was going to be a fun one. A promise to make it up to her? Yes, she had interrupted Guinevere’s sewing, but that wasn’t something to be forgiven or made up for. She furrowed her brow in moderate confusion.
It was time to play Guidance counselor.
“Lily, I don’t need to know why you want to learn to sew.” She was firm. Not harsh, but firm – though the mother like overtone never seemed to leave her voice. “It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you are or where you come from. Your history: trivial. Each of our lives is short. The world isn’t so forgiving to us. You never know when will be your last day.”
She reached up, unspooling another three feet or so of thread from her hairclip – I’m going to have to replace that tonight – and snapped it off with a flick of her other wrist. This would make a lifetime of needles if Lily didn’t lose them. She assumed that Lily’s nervousness would let her continue talking, and did so.
“And in this world, we chose to be Huntsmen. And no, I do not need a reason for that either. But we are short-lived, fleeting lights in a darkness that threatens to swallow us and everything we try illuminate.” She started absentmindedly snapping off needles from the thread, forming a small pile of the opalescent purple sharps on one of the sleeves of the jacket she had placed on the table.
“It is our duty and obligation to each other and the world to pass on our skills and knowledge, for we never know when might be out last chance. And I will help you to sew at no cost.” Finishing the needles, she flourished her hands, holding up a threaded needle towards Lily.
“You saw your mother sew. You have an image of her sewing in your mind. There are two pieces of fabric in front of you that I have no need for, and this is a threaded needle. Imitate, and show me that image. Then I know what fabric I have to work with.” Now, of course, her potentially not-so-rousing speech would not instill any skill in Lily, but it would give her the opportunity to think of and channel those possibly happy moments with her mother.
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Post by lilywilde on Oct 22, 2016 19:47:43 GMT -6
Lily listened to Guinevere's small speech and pondered on it for a while. She decided that this girl was another who she would like to count among her friends by the time she'd concluded it. Something about the kindness her tone had taken on appealed to the young faunus. She was looking at her the way one might look at a wizened old sage, despite the fact the the girls were the same age. She appreciated that this girl wouldn't make her jump through hoops to gain some knowledge, but at the same time she still felt guilty not being able to return the favor. She decided then that if she ever needed her assistance with anything, she would have it.
"If it is our duty and obligation to each other and the world to pass on our skills, then should you ever have need of mine, or wish to learn a thing or two about what I know, then I'll be more than happy to share. I'm something of a survival expert, and have developed a wide range of skills pertaining to that." She said smiling. It was actually very strange that sewing had never been one of theme.
In all honesty, she had the core skill set down to be half decent at sewing. She'd stitched up her own self plenty of times over the years. While that hardly was a perfect translation to fabrics, it was close enough that the foundations were set in her mind.
She took up the needle, this time there was a light of determination in her eyes.
She began piercing through the two pieces of fabric, she remembered that when her mother was starting, she'd always loop through whatever she was stitching several times in wide arcs. Following this pattern, Lily unwittingly basted the two pieces together. She then began at the base of the fabric and started working her way up. The repetitive movements of the thread were spaced unevenly, and a bit looser in some places than they should be. She had also forgotten to thread the knot, so the liklihood that this stitch would hold was pretty low, but when she got to the top of the fabric, she was left with a pretty basic running stitch for her efforts. It wasn't pretty, and she forgot that her mother always removed the basting stitch, but it was something to start with.
She sat the needle down in front of her, still connected to the thread that held the fabric together. She saw how inconsistently spaced her work was, and how there were still gaps in between the fabric where she'd failed to make sure the two pieces lined up perfectly. She looked up at the girl who'd asked to see what she could do. "How's that?" she asked self consciously.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 21:04:54 GMT -6
Guinevere nodded, seeing Lily’s confidence pick up a bit. Hurray for her damnable empathy. Responding to her statement, she gave a light nod, giving a well-acted and rehearsed chuckle. “Well, I will certainly keep that in mind. Though, I can’t say how a certain furry friend of mine does around cats.” She just left it at that.
She watched as Lily worked – no knot at the end, and a very wide stitch. Had her mother potentially done embroidery of some sorts? Hunched over the table to observe, she rested her hand on one hand, while the other sat below the table fiddling with some fabric and a needle out of sight. There were gaps, sure, but all in all, the stitch itself was solid. Though with the tightness in some places, Guinevere was glad she had tossed some high thread count fabrics at her.
“How’s That?”
“A wide stitch – good for sewing up fabrics and people alike.” She reached over to the pile of fabrics and absentmindedly pulled a navy blue piece of fabric from the assortment. “Also good for embroidery.” She placed the fabric down in front of Lily, showing the numerous little golden stars speckling the surface. “Uneven spacing though, so you would need to work on that.” She took one of the needles off her pile and poked one end of the stitch with it, pulling through the loose end of the thread. “And you want to tie off before you start or else your stitch comes unraveled.” She accentuated this by pulling out another loop with the needle. “There are a few ways to do that I can show you.”
She set down the needle and picked up the sewn together fabric. “One last thing…” She now grasped it firmly with both hands, and brought both down. Rrriiippp. “There is one true test of a sewing job.” She placed one sheet of fabric, now a small rectangle with a frayed side. “And you passed.” On top of the first piece, she put a second one, the other half of her initial project, still sewn together.
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