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"You have-" She starts, grunting a bit as she settles near the desk, leaning against it rather than putting weight on her leg. "A lovely voice."

It feels important to say. Not a compliment, merely a statement of fact. Her voice is lovely and so, too, is the rest of her.

Wait.

Adelaide shakes that thought off in favor of looking over the fruit and the still. "Productive. More paperwork than usual but that is to be expected near the beginning of a new month."

Ruby's expression flickers with a little frown. "Here, hang on." Pulling the lone chair over, a for all that it's got a couple of trays of apples stacked on it - she lifts them off with ease, and nudges it closer to Adelaide with her foot before turning to find a new home for the fruit.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," she jokes, before carefully stepping over a box to another area to pop them down. "I can help with the paperwork, you know."

"It is not flattery if it is true." She sniffs, not quite imperiously but close enough for casual mockery. "And I know you can- and you do. I simply end up with more than I even send to you to handle."

Quite a bit more- though it is a sign of trust that she sends any of it to Ruby at all rather than handling it herself. Delegation is key and this is something she is only just now beginning to grasp.

With great care she slips over to the chair, straightening out her leg. "Thank you, Red."

A quiet laugh,shaking her head. "Now you're just making fun of me." Evading or just being ridiculous - who knows?

With a little smile Ruby drags a crate over and claims it as her own seat, popping down before Adelaide.

"So, what did one snowman say to the otger?"

"Not at all." Not even a little. "LeBlancs do not flatter."

It is unbecoming or- something. She needs to brush up on the old rules as they will be annoyingly relevant once the Inquisition settles in Orlais.

"...I am afraid to ask but, what?" Snowmen, talking?

"Neither do Lucases," she replies, a little dry. Eugenia Lucas was renowned for the opposite, in fact.

Ah, indulgence. Ruby's smile could light up a room. "'Do you smell carrots?'"

"...Do you smell-"

Noses. Common noses for snowmen were.

"Red." She holds a straight face for as long as she could manage (which is not as long as it ought to be) before cracking a smile.

The smile makes a dumb joke entirely worth it.

"LeBlancs don't approve of cheese, either, huh?"

"On the contrary- I think we own part of a creamery? Or at least have invested in the same. At the very least I know we have a hand in some manner of brie made with walnuts and apricots." Her mother sent a sample. It was lovely.

"Really?"

Huh. Go figure. "In my village only a coupla families even owned cows." One of them was the family of a girl who made Red's childhood hell, fun fact.

She leans back on her crate, humming thoughtfully. "Is it legendairy chesse?"

"I wouldn't say 'legendary' but there is a catchy little song that is used to advertise-" Wait.

wait.

Adelaide's mouth snaps shut as she glares, or tries to glare, over a twitch of a smirk. "You think you are being funny, don't you?"

Smoothly ignoring that,

"Anyway, if there is cheese then you might need to revisit the thing about being the only mage in your family. You can't have 'fromages' without 'mages,' after all."

No. Please. Silence her.

She will not laugh. She will not laugh. She will not-

Adelaide covers her face with a hand, supposedly despairing if not for the way her shoulders shake with repressed laughter.

"Uh oh. Cheese forgive me? I was really milking it for all it was worth."

Is it possible for a voice to sound like a wink? Because if it is, that's exactly what just happened.

"Sorry, I'm done. I think."

Not laughing, not laughing- She presses the back of her hand against her mouth, like that will help. "You are terrible. You are terrible, Red, and you ought to feel terrible."

"I feel great, but I'll pretend to feel a little bad, just because you're special."

She's not trying very hard to be convincing, however, given the grin. It's good to make Adelaide laugh, and always is. She's always so tense and hardworking and serious.

"You're kind of encouraging me a little bit. The smile's worth the misguided judgment."

"Not that special." But she'll take the warm, curling thing in her chest and hold onto that for a little while if it is all the same to Ruby.

"I shall endeavor to smile less to prevent such behavior in the future." She'd had a reason for coming down here, she's certain. But right now she cannot for the life of her recall it. "Did you have something you wished to show me? Aside from the dancing and the singing."

"I think that one's for me to decide on, actually." She says Adelaide is special, and she means it... even if she was being a tiny bit obnoxious.

And, hey. Her smile is mortified in a good humoured way as she covers her face with her hands. "Please forget all about that. That shouldn't be anyone's first impression of Madonna." Her hands drop back to her lap. "I was going to show you th team schnapps, actually. For the snow thing?"

"You will have to give me a proper impression some time in the future." It was certainly spirited music, something she could appreciate. Along with the dancing.

"Ah- you have finished them already?" Excellent. "You never did tell me what flavors you had in mind for violet and periwinkle. Apricot and Raspberry are fairly straightforward."

"I was hoping that maybe instead we could never speak of it again, actually." So bright, so hopeful.

Ruby pushes herself up from her seat, and wanders to a cabinet with a broken door. "Not sure if they're perfect, but hopefully they're not toxic."

For the record, she turns to quirk a smile at Adelaide, "Apricot and raspberry were a little too easy. I mixed it up, some."

"Oh, no. I intend to ask after it in the future." Just you wait, Ruby. Just you wait.

"...hopefully? That does not entirely inspire confidence-" She says, entirely confident they aren't poisonous.

Fairly confident.

She trusts Red not to intentionally kill anyone, atl east. "Now I am curious. What do we have?"

Ugh. Ugh. "I probably deserve that," she admits, shaking her head with false woe.

Excuse her as she manages to scoop up six bottles, inspecting them carefully to double check what's what - these aren't the only things she's working on. "I made a couple of different versions of stuff, just in case. And if they're awful then I guess no one ever has to know."

Apologising in advance, as she wanders back and sets the first bottle in front of Adelaide. Team Violet, one could deduce based on the colour. "Blueberry. But actually with some violet as well, and a little bit of vanilla. It's... hopefully you like it? It's kind of a sweeter schnapps, I guess, but uh. Yeah."

Edited 2016-07-13 08:31 (UTC)

The color is- quite pleasing, actually. And that is the most important place to start. Not cloudy, vibrant- she is already somewhat impressed. Taking a small glass from the table she uncorks it and pours herself a measure, the aroma of violet and vanilla a pleasant surprise.

"To experiments." She toasts Ruby before taking a sip. Sweet, yes, but not cloyingly so. The floral notes rest well and it is quite good, the blueberry providing a nice tartness. "This is excellent. And dangerous."

"To experiments," Ruby echoes, mouth quirking a little before she shakes her head almost imperceptibly. To experimentation would have probably made her splutter, and then she'd have to explain, and thank God they both avoided that mortifying conversation.

For a moment she's... well, nervous wouldn't be quite the right word. Apprehensive? Ruby waits for Adelaide's judgment before trying it for herself.

"'Excellent and dangerous' are probably going to be fitting words for your team," she replies, amused. "I'm glad you like it." Not least because neither violets, blueberries or vanilla were particularly easy or cheap to get hold of, and represented a series of kitchen bribes she was going to be paying back for a while. Admittedly she'd pay off a bit of it with some of the schnapps itself, but even so.

"Please tell me you wrote down the recipe because this? This would make back the cost of production quickly." And she might want a case for herself but that can wait until later. She none too subtly corks the bottle and tugs it closer to her side of the table all the same.

Red's not getting it back. Sorry.

"What else do you have?"

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