and then she gets out another sheet of paper and draws a mismatched butterfly. She comes closer to actually writing on butterflies than anything else, and saves them for special occasions lest someone be suspicious of the little curlicues and personal ideograms passing for wing designs.
On the one wing, if he's for real, this is close to the cushiest situation imaginable. Effectively unlimited quantities of food better than what she ever learned to make, a comfortable room to herself, shelves and shelves of books she hasn't read yet, an attic full of things to entertain herself with if she takes him at his word, plenty of paper, and no demands on her time.
On the other wing, he seems sufficiently distraught by her presence that he might or might not be keeping an eye out for a way to get rid of her, and while he seems like he'd manumit her if he could, she has no strong reason to believe he wouldn't consider selling her to get her out of the way a strong second choice if it ever came up.
On the third wing, she can make no progress towards her original goal from here. With marked heel and no papers, she cannot very well save up money, attend school with it, make friends and social capital, and use these acquisitions plus remaining quantities of money to create change in things that annoy her about the world.
On the fourth wing, the boy who is (the buffer between her and the man who is actually responsible for) holding her back from this plan is the heir to Viore - the relationship between him and the current duke might be a disaster zone, but there's no sign of siblings anywhere and he hasn't been formally turned out or disinherited in favor of some cousin. She might be able to completely leapfrog her plan, if he's come down harder on the "sympathetic" side than the "does not want her around" side.
The butterfly gets one antenna, and it is on the side of the first and fourth wings.
no subject
sits very still for a moment,
and then she gets out another sheet of paper and draws a mismatched butterfly. She comes closer to actually writing on butterflies than anything else, and saves them for special occasions lest someone be suspicious of the little curlicues and personal ideograms passing for wing designs.
On the one wing, if he's for real, this is close to the cushiest situation imaginable. Effectively unlimited quantities of food better than what she ever learned to make, a comfortable room to herself, shelves and shelves of books she hasn't read yet, an attic full of things to entertain herself with if she takes him at his word, plenty of paper, and no demands on her time.
On the other wing, he seems sufficiently distraught by her presence that he might or might not be keeping an eye out for a way to get rid of her, and while he seems like he'd manumit her if he could, she has no strong reason to believe he wouldn't consider selling her to get her out of the way a strong second choice if it ever came up.
On the third wing, she can make no progress towards her original goal from here. With marked heel and no papers, she cannot very well save up money, attend school with it, make friends and social capital, and use these acquisitions plus remaining quantities of money to create change in things that annoy her about the world.
On the fourth wing, the boy who is (the buffer between her and the man who is actually responsible for) holding her back from this plan is the heir to Viore - the relationship between him and the current duke might be a disaster zone, but there's no sign of siblings anywhere and he hasn't been formally turned out or disinherited in favor of some cousin. She might be able to completely leapfrog her plan, if he's come down harder on the "sympathetic" side than the "does not want her around" side.
The butterfly gets one antenna, and it is on the side of the first and fourth wings.