it is my duty to inform you that we took a vote all us women ( open )

[ipseite]

WHO: Petrana + ?
WHAT: Nuggalope training.
WHEN: Current-ish.
WHERE: The Gallows.
NOTES: No content warnings currently applicable. You are not hallucinating, this post does look familiar; it was originally posted end of last year, but mod plot took precedent so I have deleted the untagged original post and am recycling it for reasons.

It is rare, for much of the Gallows, to see Mme de Cedoux out of her office. Rarer still to see her out of her office and not presently engaged in being on the way to an office, possibly hers. Their respective obligations mean that more often than not, it is Enchanter Rowntree who takes Vysvolod for his constitutionals; her outings tend to be more Hightown-oriented than not. If she does take her nuggalope—yes he is named the Black Divine, no she doesn't see anything at all wrong with it—out for his constitutionals, it is typically somewhat further afield than merely nearby the stables and the docks.

And yet.

The physical exercise has done her a world of good, much as it has taught the Black Divine skills that she hopes will never be necessary and knows the sense in hoping; she is sufficiently confident, after some months, in both her own ability (less rusty than it had been) and his (unlikely to cause a catastrophe in front of an audience). So there is no need to take him as far as she's accustomed to doing for the sake of keeping both their hands in, and anyone nearby the dockside stables can,

if they so desire,

be treated to the unusual sight of Mme de Cedoux, in full skirts and corset but sans her sensible shoes, standing at her full five foot height atop the back of a saddled nuggalope, instructing him apparently by subtle shifts of her weight, and

there is a flurry of skirts. A running leap—and nothing beneath her bare feet but the opportunity that decent people will ignore to get a glimpse of knees and ankles until she lands hard and upright on her mount, beneath her at precisely the right moment, and precisely the right angle.

“Very good.”

Comments

[acreage]

There it is.

Clarifies, "Nuggalope tricks. You could put on a real show if you wanted to."

[ipseite]

In retrospect, that feels obvious enough that she laughs, rueful, at her own oversight. It's not even as if she doesn't enjoy what she's doing — not everything she learned for some terrible reason has become some terrible thing — or that she's completely oblivious to the way other people may also.

But it can come as no great surprise to anyone who knows her even a little that her mind would not, naturally, run along lines leading toward the circus.

“I suppose I could, at that,” she concedes, patting the Black Divine on his neck, affectionate. She says a short word that sounds almost like Orlesian, and he obliges her by rearing up onto his back legs and holding in place, the angle of the saddle and Petrana's confident seat the only things keeping her from spilling off the back immediately; Jim is treated, briefly, to a perfect view of the nuggalope's enormous hand-feet flexing in the air.

[acreage]

Thank you, Petra, he really needed a reminder today that he hates Thedas. There was a time of his life when he'd never heard of a nuggalope, he thinks wistfully.

But that doesn't mean he can't appreciate the skill she's demonstrating, whether or not she's ever thought about the circus.

"I'm not kidding," he says, offers a brief round of applause. "What you're doing is impressive." But she's not, he thinks, one to linger on compliments, so — "Is he yours?"

[ipseite]

“I acquired him on an excursion to Orlais,” she confirms, laying a palm flat against the back of his big head that prompts him to ease back down on all fours, Petrana adjusting so smoothly in the process that she barely seems to actually move, the pair of them seamlessly in tandem. “His name is the Black Divine.”

Yes, like in Tevinter.

Yes, she thinks she's hilarious, although she delivers it as if it's a perfectly reasonable thing to have named a war nug.

[acreage]

"I'm assuming you named him that, but tell me if I'm wrong."

He crosses his arms loosely, eyes bright with humor. It's possible, of course, that she got her nuggalope from an Orlesian with a very particular sense of humor. But even if she did, she's the one who chose to keep the name.

[ipseite]

“I think it suits him,” she declares, ingenuous.

[acreage]

He casts a critical gaze back over the nuggalope, and her on it, as perfectly coordinated as the centaurs he used to read about as a child.

"We can hope the other Black Divine's as even-tempered as yours."

[ipseite]

“That seems desperately unlikely, but what a piece of luck it would be if we could turn him.”

Imagine. Probably not going to happen under absolutely any circumstances.

[acreage]

"If anyone could do it, I'm sure you could."

He says it with a wave at her Black Divine. Like, she already has a great track record, clearly. Barring that, he knows from experience how well her Stern Tone can put the fear of God into people, so there's a two-pronged strategy here.