==== January 21st 2014
==== Nora, Lisette
==== Nora calls Lisette to the carpet about her work in the laundries. The discussion about a new position brings a little secret to light.

Who Nora, Lisette
What Nora calls Lisette to the carpet about her work in the laundries. The discussion about a new position brings a little secret to light.
When There are 0 turns, 1 month and 27 days until the 12th pass.
Where Nora's Room

Nora11.jpg Lis3.png


Nora's Room
The generous space is divided down the middle, turning one large room into two more intimate ones. Directly across the from the door, the wall is dominated by set of sparsely filled shelves, as artfully arranged as it is neatly organized. Before it sits a tidy desk with all the usual trimmings, a wooden chair on either side. A far more comfortable setup of an upholstered armchair and stuffed footrest takes up the cozy corner created by the back of a large whitewashed wardrobe, with a tall rack of shoes and scarves and a pale patterned screen creating the rest of the makeshift wall and obscuring the other half of the room from view.


It went like so: One Lisette, recently 'relieved' of her laundry job. One Nora, spying her in the midst of distracting a nice young handyman from getting that hallway bench repaired. A narrowed eye from the assistant headwoman and a come hither finger to beckon her to leave the hammer to the professional and follow her down the hall. And so thusly, they're in Nora's room, the headwoman breezing in first with the door left open behind her for Lisette to follow. "So, the laundry. Do you want to tell me what happened?" She doesn't sit behind her desk but rather leans against the front of it with a nod for her guest to have a seat if she likes.

Man. Lisette has been here before. It never seems to end very well for her, so forgive the girl if she doesn't look optimistic right now. She drops down into the chair across from the headwoman and crosses her legs at the ankle before folding her arms over her chest. "The laundry?" Despite knowing what all of this is about, she gives her a nice quizzical expression anyway. "Well it was much like any other day. I was scrubbing the stains out of someones socks. And then Holga was saying that I supposedly had been switching out people's clothes on purpose. Which is just crazy. I'm much too busy to be doing anything like that. She hates me. She's had it for me since the day she thought I got glass in her food when I was in the kitchens as a candidate."

Nora will play along, matching Lisette's innocence as the tale begins, her smile sweet and patient, listening to the explanation, the buck passed and blame shifted. "I've been thinking…" she says in the end, not granting all that much weight to the story, even though she's asked for it. "That maybe you need something a little more challenging than the laundry. And maybe a little less… hands-on than the kitchens. That business with the glass…" She shakes her head, dropping sorry lashes for the way that went, even if her smile remains in place. Let's not repeat that again. But instead of launching into a propositions, she glances around her room with a thoughtful eye. "Do you think you'd be happy being waited on hand and foot? If all you had to do was sit around being pretty and flirting with people?" There's no accusation in it, but rather a more musing curiosity. "Day in, day out, just that?"

There's a narrowing of green eyes as she shifts uncomfortably in the chair, drumming her fingers along her arm. "That was an accident." The whole glass thing. She can't be responsible for every piece of dishware in the whole lower caverns, can she? Sounding dubious now, "I don't know. I've been kind of liking the laundry room." Which, Nora would likely have come to know by now has become a position of soft power for her. An instrument of revenge. Or favor. Depending. Not that Lisette would know that she knows. "I do like sitting around and being pretty…" Regardless of the lack of accusation, she's clever enough to be suspicious. "And flirting. But maybe not day in and day out. I guess it would lose its shine."

Liking the laundry. That narrows Nora's eye a little, those things she heard about the way Lisette used the job for her own personal gains. "So what do you think you'd itch for, when the shine is wearing off? Doing something with your hands? Solving puzzles? What is it you liked about the laundry?" she wonders, managing to keep at least most of the knowing glint from her eye as she straightens to take a step around the desk, her weight dress swinging wide as she drops into her chair to pull at a drawer.

The flurry of questions is one too many for her. Rather than answering each one seperately and with a thoughtful answer she opts to go for a more general approach. Which involves half answering Nora's questions. "I'm not sure. I liked… the part where-" Probably best to not admit what she truly enjoyed about being down there. "The people. The people were really nice down in the laundries." Except for the one who thought she fed her glass one time, lets forget that one. When the other woman begins to pull out the drawer, she lifts her eyebrows and watches with reserved curiosity.

Nora snorts out a laugh for the 'nice' people. "That's a lie if ever I heard one. I did a few days in the laundry when I first got here," she points out, pausing in her rifle through a drawer full of files. "You liked the gossip. And you liked being able to threaten that you'd mess with peoples' things. Did you turn your nose up at the other girls?" Rifle rifle, and then folder comes out, a page slipped onto the desk and turned to be right side up for Lisette. "Do any of these appeal to you?" It's a list, a list of craft specializations from ovine husbandry to smelting and everything in between.

"Maybe sometimes." Lisette will allow. Though it's clear she's becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation. Which is probably to be expected, people don't usually like it when they're called to the floor on their less than acceptable behavior. Of course, Nora is hardly being abusive about it, but that doesn't matter to a guilty conscience. "Any of these?" Her expression blanches when an actual list is produced in front of her. To choose from. She inches her chair forward so she can take a better look at it, but she doesn't pick the page up. Instead she runs a finger along the many, many choices. Her eyebrows draw together and she bites down on her lower lip. There's a certain lack of left to right eye movement, almost as if she's just scanning for show. "This one." Master Herdsman? That can't be right.

No, Nora is hardly crucifying her for these traits she's guessed at, though Lisette's muted confirmation is confirmation nonetheless. The assistant headwoman busies herself with glancing over a few other pages as she leaves the one for her guest to skim over, but a peek across the desk does seem to create a new kind of curiosity on Nora's face. Maybe she doesn't spot the lack of reading eye movement so much ass he just recognizes that there's something not right. Or maybe this isn't the first time she's seen someone read like that. She leans in to see which upside-down option is the one pointed out. "Being a.. master herdsman?" Her brows pinch, then her lips. But she appears to take it at face value for now. "What about it?" Who knows? Maybe Lisette has had a long, meaningful and private dream of corralling bleating animals across an open plain.

Lisette purses her lips while she waits for Nora to read out the job that's on the list. When she says it outloud, there's a look of dismay. Her cheeks take on a vague rosy hint and she shakes her head, "Oh, no. Not that one. Uh, I meant this one." And she points at another a few rows down. This isn't any better, it says: Archivist - Specializing in relations between Hold and Craft. Does that sound like something she's qualified for or the type of thing a girl like her would want to do? And if it's possible Nora has missed the signs or was waiting for another one, the expectant look the teenager fixes on her probably says a lot. She's waiting for her to say what the page says, outloud. Because she has no idea.

"Ar…" Nora is about to oblige and say it, but then she stops. "Are you sure?" That's where she takes it instead. It's with a quiet, thoughtful expression that she regards Lisette, a few seconds of quiet slipping by, or maybe Lisette's improvised response. Her head tilts with a new thought, the pristine updo staying exactly in place. "So how many of these other jobs have gone wry just because you didn't want to say you couldn't read? You know you can learn. You… well, you have to learn." Though it might not be encouraging, the way Nora is momentarily daunted by the prospect.

The first question is nearly a challenge. Does she commit to being an archivist or does she try her hand again? But those seconds slip by so quickly and instead Lisette just stares at Nora with a dumb expression, eyes a little wide as she struggles. "You don't need to be able to read to work at the bar. Or- in the kitchen." Debatable. "Or the nursery." Debatable. "Or- Uh. Plenty of places. I didn't think that it was that important." Except there's probably been more than a time or two where it was important. Or at the very least it would have been exceedingly helpful. "I have to learn?" If Nora's daunted, she's borderline overwhelmed at the idea.

Quick to realize how her expression has helped to make this news all the more upsetting, Nora is quick to rectify it, to smooth her smile back into place and shake her head at any need to be overwhelmed. "It's good. It's worth it. And eventually, you'll read things without even thinking about it. You won't be able to not read them. It'll be that easy." Eventually. Okay, so there's still a bit of unease creeping about the edge, lifting Nora's finger to rub lightly at her temple. "We'll get you some lessons. You can sit in on classes too, but.. some dedicated time is probably the best way to go. And you…" She hesitates, because Lisette should really have some kind of job in the meantime, just like all those good little learning children who change glows and sweet floors. "You can report to me in the meantime."

Like anyone that's peeked behind the curtain, Nora may sweep aside that initial reaction but Lisette has seen it. She presses her lips into a thin line and attempts to at least keep the panic down below the surface, for while she's in front of the headwoman anyway. Swallowing, she pushes whatever dissent she has away. "I guess that'll be nice. Lessons. Reading." She sounds dubious and her eyes flicker down to the paper on the table before she begins to push her chair back. "Report to you in the meantime, like? Doing errands for you or something? Or just different jobs?" She's seeking clarificatio even as she's making to escape this situation. This horribly embarassing situation.

"Yeah, well, unless there's something in particular that you want to do?" But the arch of Nora's brow is skeptical at best. After all, when has Lisette ever been forthcoming with what she really wants to be doing, other than, perhaps, as little work as possible. "You wouldn't mind, would you? It would probably be different every day. A lot of running about to deliver messages, I suppose. Or standing around to oversee things. But we've had you in the kitchens, the nursery, the laundry… We could try the infirmary, if you want. Or the library, though that would be… immersion, wouldn't it." Which may not be a terrible idea, but she's not certain on it yet. And then, well, she looks a little distracted by some other newly arrived thought.

"No, alright. I mean- That's fine." Lisette has just had one of the rocks in her life overturned and the little bugs gone skittering out on her. "It might be a nice change of pace from the same thing every day." When she mention the infirmary, her mouth goes to a straight line again and her eyes widen at the idea of library. She begins to get to her feet, smoothing her skirts out. "I'll report to you tomorrow morning for my duties then." She's a bit more subdued than she was earlier in the day, but then that's probably to be expected given the circumstances. Waiting to be given permission to exit, she twists her fingers together.

"I'll see about a harper for you. And we'll try to work your schedule around that. Hopefully afterwards… there will be some more options available." And that does make Nora smile, like it's a very promising thing indeed, like Lisette, too, should feel excited about the prospect of Options. But she's not oblivious to all the skirt-smoothing or the anxious finger-twisting. "Hey, it'll be okay. We'll take it a day at a time and I won't tell anyone." That she promises with the dip of her chin and a serious eye. Lisette's secret is safe. And with the spread of a warm, easy smile from Nora, Lisette is also free to go.

"Options are probably a good thing. I can't rely on my good looks forever, right?" There's a half-hearted attempt at laughter and she rolls her eyes, shakes her head a little. "And some people are just plain jealous." Lisette continues with the finger twisting, all the while taking a step back towards the door. The assurance that Nora won't be spreading her illiteracy around for everyone to learn about, does garner a more legitimate smile from the girl. As tense as it might be, it's grateful. "Thank you." Then she's slipping out, into the hall.

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