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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 16, 2008 23:54:57 GMT -5
Even after cake and coffee, Nellie was still pretty shaky. She clung to Alexander’s arm—her knees still felt a little wobbly after all of that. With a trembling hand, she tucked one of her disheveled curls behind her ear.
The evening had been surprisingly wonderful, until that incident. She really hadn’t expected the royal family to be so gracious. Nellie realized, suddenly, that her father clearly had no idea what he was talking about. He badmouthed the monarchs so often; Nellie was raised believing the things he said to be true.
“You never told me yer auntie was a Dream,” Nellie muttered. She didn’t even have the presence to sound accusatory. The shepherdess gestured at her little two-person cart, “Could y' be a gent an' drive me ‘ome, please?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 17, 2008 0:02:53 GMT -5
He shrugged. "I didn't think about it. I've even got some Dream in me."
He sighed, chewing the inside of his lip. The hot, unpleasant remorse residing in his stomach bubbled again. He felt worse than ever for dragging Nellie into this.
"Yeah, sure," he said, with only one regretful look at his idle motocycle. He climbed into the carriage and examined the reigns closely. Truth be told, he didn't do a lot of driving. Just riding.
But, what the hell? How hard could it be?
"Hey, I'm really sorry," he said, sounding awkward because he was so unused to being sincerely apologetic. "I didn't mean for you to have to see all that."
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 17, 2008 0:41:00 GMT -5
Nellie shrugged, trying her best to be cheerful. “Eh, we all ‘as our fam’ly problems, don’ we? I’m juss sorry I’m so weak wiff this sort of thing. I tried to be really brave, comin’ ‘ere. It didn’ work so well, you know. Sorry if I embarrassed you in fronttuv yer family.”
The expression on her face was simply pathetic as she climbed into the passenger’s seat and sunk as far down into it as she possibly could. His earlier statement plucked her, slightly, out of her funk. “Wot? Yer part Dream? ‘Ow much? On yer muvver’s side?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 17, 2008 17:25:44 GMT -5
He laughed. "That was the best part, seeing the look on everyone's faces when you were introduced. You didn't embarrass me, Sheep Girl. And hey, I thought you were pretty brave too."
He flicked his wrists and only just resisted a firm, 'Giddyup!' To his relief, and delight, the pony clopped forward. So far, so good.
"Yep," he said. "One quarter. On my dad's side. Why do you think he was nominated to run this mess? He's exactly half both ways." He paused, considering that statement. "Okay, his bloodline is exactly half, but he definitely leans toward more Nightmare tendencies. My, uh, Grandma was a full Dream. Maybe your grandma and my grandma knew each other, huh?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 17, 2008 22:22:37 GMT -5
“No joke?” Nellie was awed. “I woulda never guessed, y’know? You ‘n’ yer Dad definitely don’t look Dream. Not a bit. I figured, maybe yer mum, since she’s so pretty ‘n’ all. Like a doll. Wiff fangs.” She smiled and smoothed out her skirts. The color was creeping back into her cheeks, and she wasn’t half as trembly as before.
A thought suddenly assaulted Nellie’s brain. “EW!” She looked at Alexander, positively horrified, “You fink we might be related? There’s hardly no born Dreams that don’t ‘ave some Peep in them along the lines.”
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 17, 2008 23:21:57 GMT -5
He wrinkled his nose. "Egh, I don't think we're related." (He hoped not anyway). "Maybe my grandmother had some Peep, but I don't think so. She lived near the palace."
He leaned back in his chair, holding both reins in one hand. This wasn't nearly so hard as it looked. The pony followed the road without any guidance on his part.
A thought occurred to him, and he paled. "Hey, your dad isn't going to be around anywhere by where I'm supposed to park this thing, is he?"
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 17, 2008 23:51:18 GMT -5
“Maybe not. The fam’ly was uh-lot smaller back then, and were almost exclusively in the countryside. Now we’re bred into the city slickers a bit more. Now, if y’take any old blonde Dream wiffa sweettooth, they’ve prolly got some Peep in their family tree, down the line somewhere. Gracious, there is uhhhh-lottuv us.” Nellie braided and unbraided her hair as she spoke. She felt rather empty without her usual abundance of Queen Anne’s Lace and Sweet Clover tucked into her locks. (She had tried to tone it down to meet Alexander’s family. Tried.)
Nellie shrugged, “I cert-ant-ly ‘ope ‘e innit. Yer birfdays been bad enough, anyway. I told ‘im I was babysitting fer me aunt and I’d be back later. ‘e didn’t ask witch aunt, so, it’s not like ‘e can come over to check wot I was doin’. But,” She added, trailing off slightly, “We may want to drop you off before we get to the carriage ‘ouse, wot?”
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 18, 2008 0:14:31 GMT -5
He blew out a breath. He didn't want to seem like a coward, but, "Yeah, maybe we should."
He shrugged, giving a distracted grunting like noise. "It's not like I won't have another one," he said in reference to his birthday. "I'm immortal."
He glanced over at Nellie. The pink was back in her cheeks, and she seemed to have already shaken off the events of the day (didn't take her long). The last thing he wanted to do was go home and face his dad, but he wasn't sure he could coerce her into spending even more time with him.
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 18, 2008 0:34:50 GMT -5
“Sure, you’ll ‘ave another ‘un, doesn’t mean I’ll be there,” Nellie’s voice gained a strangely mature, rather somber tone to it for a moment. It was clear that beneath that halo of blonde hair and spattering of freckles, something was amiss.
She shook it off quickly, in a typical Eleanor-sort of way. “’Ow old are you, for real, anyhow? I never really considered…”She stared at him for a moment, trying to see if she could burrow into his mind and obtain that snip of information.
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 18, 2008 0:56:07 GMT -5
"Scared you off, did I?" he asked, taking it as just another teasing insult of many. Until he glanced at her face. He frowned. "Are you--"
But then her next question distracted him. "Oh." He blinked, studying the sky as if it held the answer. "One hundred and forty five, I think. I know I'm definitely almost a century and a half." He grinned and winked. "In lamen's terms, I'm about twenty."
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 18, 2008 1:24:01 GMT -5
“Goodness sake.” She muttered, sitting back from her turned, trying-to-get-a-better-look position. “I’m glad you don’t act yer age. You would be borin times a million. Yer younger than me Da’, though, still. ‘E an mum ‘ad me late in life. Didn’t fink they could ‘ave a kid, so I guess they stopped tryin’ fer a while.” Nellie shrugged.
As soon as she stopped talking, the expression on her face went back to the misty, far-off look that had replaced her normal, jubilant expression a moment ago. She grabbed Alexander’s knee suddenly and without warning.
“Stop!” She just about shouted, before calming herself down enough to speak in a quieter tone. “I ‘ave somefin to tell ya.” Nellie frowned at the floorboards of the carriage. She didn’t want to tell him. She had suppressed it via distraction all night, but keeping things secret from Alexander made her stomach hurt.
“I fink I’m getting’ married. Soonish. I ‘eard me Da’ talkin’ to one of me uncles. ‘Bout my dowry ‘n’ such. An’ me father was marking fings down on paper. It weren’t just a casual ‘When-if-Nellie-gets-Married’ conversation.” The shepherdess’s shoulders slumped visibly.
“I don’ wanna go home.”
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 18, 2008 1:40:52 GMT -5
He jerked a little as she suddenly grabbed his knee, but managed to calmly pull on the reins until the pony slowed. He raised an eyebrow, not saying anything, simply waiting. She had that face again, but it was Sheep Girl--- how serious could she be?
"I fink I’m getting’ married."
If she said anything beyond that, then he didn't hear it. His expression didn't change, his eyes glassy, but after a moment the smell of burning leather hit his nose and he snapped out of it, dropping the reins. "You're... what?" His mouth flapped helplessly for a minute, flabberghast, his eyes wide. "I... I mean, you're like, twelve! You can't get married!"
Whoa, Alexander. He didn't know why this was bothering him so much, but he needed to get a grip before his entire body burst into flame. He tried to push it down, failed. "Um. Okay. I just..." He pressed a hand over his eyes, waving the other one uselessly at her. "I just need a minute, or something...."
He focused the reckless energy broiling inside him and sent it from him. Almost a football field away, a lone tree burst into unexpected flame. He breathed noisily and straightened, placing his hands back at his sides. "Okay," he said slowly. "I think I'm okay."
His smoldering eyes found Nellie's and his face fell. No, he wasn't. He hadn't been prepared for a reaction like that. His stomach was still twisting with it. Was it just the idea of marriage that gripped his nerves in a cold vice? Or was it sharing Nellie with somebody else? Or was it.... not having Nellie for himself?
"I don't want go home either," he said, his voice a strange, low pitch. He grabbed the half-ruined reins and urged their motor forward again. "You're not getting married." Just like that. He decided.
...
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 18, 2008 13:55:09 GMT -5
“Ow!” Nellie quickly retracted her hand from Alexander’s knee and rubbed its palm with her other hand. His skin temperature was not currently a ‘toasty 107’. She had expected him to be a little upset; when they were talking about marriage before, he seemed pretty opposed to it. But she hadn’t been expecting this sort of response. He seemed more upset by this than she was.
The sudden burst of light and the crackling of living wood nearly made Nellie jump out of her skin. She was already on-edge tonight. Her big blue eyes started to water up. Up until this point, she had sort of convinced herself that she would be okay with getting married, but Alexander’s reaction brought her real feelings on the subject back up.
In a very un-Nellie-like way, she sat in absolute silence until Alexander got a hold of himself. She gingerly placed a little hand on his shoulder. “Sure yer okay?” she asked, in a voice just above a whisper. Speaking up a little, she added, “I’m sixteen, not twelve. Girls far younger than me is gettin’ married all the time. Some girls is born promised to a fella.” She was clearly trying to sound nonchalant about this whole business, hoping Alexander wouldn’t freak out again.
“Okay, so, where are we goin’, then?” She asked, overcompensating with the cheer level just a bit. If they could just change the subject and pretend it never came up, it would be fine with Nellie. But of course, he brought it back up, just as she was preparing to reach into her Vault of Mindless Conversation.
It was now Nellie’s turn to stare, bowled over. “I’m not?” She asked skeptically, “Ha, well, you try tellin’ me father that. An’ the fella I’ve been promised to.” Her face held a hint of a smile, but her throat and words were pinched, like she was on the verge of crying.
“So, if I’m not gettin’ married, like y’ say, wot exactly am I gonna do? Run away from ‘ome? I’m juss a girl Alexander. I don’t ‘ave no way of supportin’ myself, no skills worth nothin’ outside the farm…” It wasn’t that easy. Despite her ardent attempts, she couldn’t keep a few of the more strong-willed tears from escaping. She quickly turned her face away from Alexander, rubbing fervently at her eyes with the back of her hands.
“It’s not a option for me, it’s already decided,” she mumbled, her voice muffled from the hands she buried her face in.
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Post by Miss Jack on Aug 18, 2008 16:50:42 GMT -5
ooc; WOT!! Surprise post. Like Christmas early.
At the muffled sound of a sniffling nose, Alexander turned, his stormy features clearing for a moment. "Hey," he said softly. He reached over and tucked a stray curl behind her ear, brushing his fingertip over the corner of her eye. Her tears glittlered slightly on his skin. "Don't cry, okay? It kills me."
He turned back to the road, pressing his lips together. "Where do you want to go?" he asked.
He thought for a minute, and began rambling, "We'll make you look like the ugliest Dream girl on the entire farm, and I'll teach you to be more annoying than you already are, and we'll arrange secret meetings with him and some other.... desirable girl, and maybe we could bribe him, or you know...." He trailed off. "Something."
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Post by Princess Katie on Aug 18, 2008 22:33:48 GMT -5
Nellie sniffed, and swallowed hard to remove the lump from her throat. Get a holduv yerself, Clementine.
She managed to put away the waterworks, though for how long was suspect. “I dunno where we can go. Th’ only place I know is ‘ome. Ain’t you s’posed to be all well-travelled and wotnot? You pick.” Dabbing at her eyes with her poorly embroidered handkerchief, she listened with no small amount of doubt to Alexander’s madcap planning.
“’We’? ‘Oo’s ‘we’? Y’ got a mouse in yer pocket?” She offered a watery-eyed smile. In her head, she had a perfect counter to every point of his plan. A) She probably wasn’t chosen for her looks. B) She couldn’t get any more annoying, most likely. C) There were plenty of desirable girls, all Peeps and Nellie’s age. D) Whoever her father would have given her hand would be in no need for money. The Peeps were the Rockafellers of The Woodland Pastures, and Mr. Peep would hardly allow some subsistence farmer to take his only daughter.
But she held her tongue. She didn’t want to disappoint Alexander. “Sure…we’ll do…something. I’m sure everything will be okay.”
--
OoC: RIGHT? I was surprised to find internet here too, since on tuesday/wednesday, there was none.
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