#firsnotfurs

“ --i’m sorry, i-i’m busy again.”    fingers curled to pick at a stray thread on her sleeve, a nervous tic the young woman hadn’t quite grown out of. she hated lying, and she hated lying to delvin even more-- especially when she didn’t have a good excuse. she’s metaphorically cornered, with brynjolf late from his job in solitude, leaving her to avoid the other mentors alone... unsuccessfully. valvossa’s shoulders lifted in a shrug, and she stepped backwards from the breton, closer to the closet that lead to the cistern.   “ i have a job due. from brynjolf! i should really get that finished before he gets back. you know? ”

     Stares at Delvin and Brynjolf.

                              naughty, aren’ you?┊┊ accepting !

       A laugh threatens to bubble past smirking lips, yet in a second’s notice, is quelled. Had it been any other bawdy cabbage spouting the nonsense, he’d have dismissed it. Whether he was lighthearted or sharp all depended on the idiot in the question. 

                    This idiot, however, was no idiot at all. 

            Or, rather, this idiot was quite favored. Birds of a feather ‘n all. 

       He allows himself to crack an unabashed smile. While Mercer busied himself elsewhere, Brynjolf had made himself cozy at the ledger. His absence was welcome for this moment, as he was certain the poor, soggy potato would’ve had himself a proper conniption at their play. Fingertips gently laid his quill to rest then. Ink dried while the pot it once flowed from was quietly corked. Hands folded together, laid plainly on the now abandoned parchment, he dipped forward. Emerald eyes would meet the other’s rich brown with his head canted to the side, his tone playful as he replied simply. 

     Miraak had always had a flair for the dramatic, but how was he supposed to know he was emerging from a Black Book that somebody was trying to steal? He was rather more concerned with battling against the resistant book, pouring so much magicka into it he thought it would tear him apart, as it shrieked at him and fought him like a living thing, and at his back was that great eye forming in the air, its tendrils snaking out, reaching for him-