( Diana can't chase her fondness for antiques. antique in and of itself is such a baffling term. something valued, collected, for its significance in time. how values in societies change, as time keeps pressing forward. her fingers run the plaque of a weathered bronze piece she's admiring from the eighteenth century. it looks to be a fawn of some manner, and it is... charming, if worn by its age.
she shifts from that piece to a grandfather clock, one that already has an admirer. she offers a hint of a smile, her lips reddened to match her growing understanding of what was fashionable in this time. the ideas of modern women were quite different to those in Themyscira, though perhaps not always in ways she dislikes.
lipstick, for example, Diana has no shame in enjoying. ) Lovely, is it not? ( she inquires, dark eyes skating the figure of the woman only once, though noticeably all the same. )
[Phryne has never been one quite so much for trinkets as for grandiosity. The dramatic, the sweeping; there's a reason her hats tend to have such wide brims and well-kept feathers, the better to make a statement as she enters and leaves. She's known for such things when it comes to fashion, but when it comes to things like home decor--]
[Well. People don't consider that quite as much, she's noticed. The placement of an imposing grandfather clock in the front hall is not, perhaps, considered as feminine as the arrangement of flowers in a vase on a tablecloth. But she likes it. A clock like this makes a statement. Sweeps without moving at all.]
[She's not alone, which is just as well. She prefers not to be. But in this case, she's especially curious. Her companion moves with a grace and confidence that most women are trained not to, a sense of self that's usually ground out.]
Very much so. [A beat, a breath, but barely.] Looking for a souvenir? [She can tell when someone's not from here; it's hard not to stand out in a place like Melbourne if you don't fit a very particular mold.]
i bet the skirts they are wearing make for great twirling
Perhaps, ( Diana laughs, because if she's honest she is fond of a few bits and pieces of her travels. she likes to have a history of where she's been, it helps her think about where she'd like to go next. she reaches out to run her fingers along the carved lines, expression thoughtful. ) I imagine this one would be hard to take with me, though.
( despite its sturdy size, clocks could be quite fragile. Diana would hate to let her fondness for the piece ruin it, when it could find a happier home where it already was. she moved around too much for such a sturdy piece, no matter how lovely it was. she seems a little passingly sad, at the realization.
she shakes it off, though, sparing a smile for her company. it's true; she doesn't seem as if she belongs, she rarely does. even when she takes the time to wear the fittings of each new place she visits. her accent gives her away, even when she knows the language (and she almost always does). she's foreign and she'll be foreign no matter where she goes, won't she? might as well own it. ) I don't mind. I like to admire.
Oh, well. It depends how you're traveling. But it isn't the safest bet, that's certain.
[There's a gleam in her eyes as she says it. Why take the safe bet? is what that gleam says, why bother, when there is so much more fun to be had in danger?]
[It's a very human attitude. But then, Phryne is the quintessence of willful, whimsical humanity. Her smile isn't spared, but thrown out with abandon and pleasure, even (especially) for beautiful strangers from places even she doesn't yet know.]
You like to admire, and you like to travel. That makes you a tourist, and . . . [She makes a show of examining Diana carefully, in not-quite-polite curiosity.] A scholar? An explorer? Both require some bravery, as well as some forward planning--the second reason being why I'd do terribly at either.
( it would depend, wouldn't it? Diana pauses, things left unsaid, before she smiles instead. a girl does benefit from a bit of mystery, after all, and she finds that the less she gives, the better it tends to be. so often she inspires too many questions, and she's not the naive girl she used to be anymore. she can't give too much, she knows the consequence of it. so instead, she keeps to her mystery.
she doesn't mind the casual perusal, though — it's not wrong she's a tourist, she's been a tourist to every place she's been since she left the safe shores of Themyscira. a scholar and explorer... well, depending on the definition. such practices were apparently not welcome fields for women, though so far Diana had not let that slow down her curiosity for the world of man. )
I would call myself a student. There is much in the world I do not know, and I am trying to learn all I can. ( if that suited the definition of scholar, she'd take it. she lifts a dark brow at her company before adding, ) You notice much in very little. That is the act of the better scholars, in my opinion, forethought or not. ( a pause, then a smile. ) Diana.
Oh, clever answer. Aren't we all students? --Diana.
[She, for herself, is always trying to learn. Perhaps she's been cocky in the past, perhaps she's cocky even now, but she's learned the benefit of an open mind. Life is full of the strange and mysterious.]
[She holds her white-gloved hand out to shake. Women don't shake, in these times. But Phryne shakes.]
Phryne Fisher. Do you know the story? [Of the name, she means.]
( Diana doesn't mind a handshake. it's hardly the first thing she's done that women aren't meant to. a handshake seems so perfectly harmless, too, a method of greeting. why should men be the only one allowed to greet each other in a particular way? when she accepts Phryne's hand, the one free is gloveless. seems she might have taken it off in her wanderings, she likes to run a finger along the pieces she's admiring on occasion. a glove simply won't tell her the same that her fingertip will.
does she know the story of a Phryne Fisher? it does seem familiar, from a paper article or two, perhaps, though exactly how Diana can't say. she frowns in thought, but it only lasts for a breath of a moment before she shakes her head, familiarity or no. )
I suspect I'd like it better from the lady herself.
she can tell in the way he walks, the way his hand skates up his neck into his already mussed hair for the third time as they head through the crowded hall. she knows it's more than simply lack of sleep that ails him, yet a part of Diana feels powerless in watching him. the exhaustion in his face only grows the closer they get to this front, and no matter how she tries to reassure him with the promise she will stop Hades before it is too late, it never seems to cheer him. similar promises live on the tip of her tongue, yet as Diana watches the heavy line of his shoulders, she bites them back.
she falls into step next to him over behind, trying to push the wide brim of her hat out of her eyes. she is not sure why Steve Trevor insists on her wearing things that limit her peripheral vision. ) This aeroplane we are flying. Tell me about it.
( their mission is dire, and serious, and yet there's an obvious hum of excitement in her tone. she knows enough about airplanes to know that they will be flying, and how could that prospect not be thrilling? )
( the fight with Steppenwolf had left its scars. on their burgeoning team, on the sense of security of their world, and of course the team themselves. Diana is usually immune to most damage, yet her sword can no longer boast such a promise. it had been a sturdy blade, enchanted by a world long gone, yet even it had limits. destroying Steppenwolf's axe had reached them.
usually, the path to find a new sword she would walk alone. testing the waters of teammate is still a rusty practice for her, though she's glad she asked Arthur to join her. they fought well together, and there might be need of that partnership when it comes to the blade she hopes to retrieve. Bruce had managed to get them intel on a basic location, though that wasn't quite end of the journey. their answer is somewhere along these misted hills and remote islands, if it still exists.
they've been searching and traveling for longer than a human might think sensible, yet even a demigod will occasionally tire. when she hears the buzz of a village ahead of them, she taps Arthur at the elbow. ) There's a town close. We should stop for the night. ( the moon is already rising, and there is too much that could be lost in the dark. )
[ They save the world. It's an impossible thing even for Arthur, who's walked as fearlessly towards the water as he does towards the land out of it, but the more impossible thing is that he doesn't mind sticking around. Being in the light is a weird concept when he's done his best to keep out of it, but his world — the biggest of all of theirs, the seven seas — can't be that small anymore. ]
[ Clark's back — it's how it's always been, their friendship picked up where it left off years ago when they were both drifters. Arthur's attention turns to the others: the Bat, the metal man, the little zipper. ]
[ — and of course, the Amazon. The alliance of Atlantis and Themyscira go back millennia, she carries a sword, he carries a trident. There's a joke in there somewhere about outdated weaponry, but Arthur thinks more about being the products of worlds that wanted to cut themselves off from the tribes of man — in both cases, succeeded. They faded into myth, now they walk out of it. ]
[ When she requests he accompany her to find a new sword, he doesn't say no. ]
( it may be dated, but she is not the modern creature she's so capable of appearing. Diana favors her sword over every weapon she's seen and tried in decades. truly hard to find comfort and mastery in another weapon when she's held a sword in her hands for centuries, after all. it makes her think of home, and as bittersweet as the thought is? she needs those little pieces of the girl she used to be.
hungry? well, considering the length of their day and the voracity of their hike, even Diana and her superhuman temperament are starting to feel it. ) Starving, ( she decides, and if she was supposed to play it cool and detached, she has already failed. look, there's nothing wrong with having an appetite! ) I figured a meal could be a part of our stopping. Did you have something in mind?
[ He's not king of Atlantis. Nor even a citizen in more than name, the only title he lays claim to is that he protects the oceans. The duty of an Atlantean king. Orm is doing — whatever the fuck he's doing. Arthur does his own shit. ]
[ But he carries Poseidon's trident. His back is always straight, in Vulko's heart Arthur is a king. ]
Fish, [ he says, like that's hilarious. ] I don't mind lobster, either. Let's take a look around.
[ There are lights up ahead, they should consider how best to be incognito. ]
( given a chance to declare a preference, Diana likes lamb. the occasional venison, if she wanted to hunt it herself. however, she has no battle with seafood, so gives him half a smirk at his demand. )
Seafood it is.
( their thoughts seem to be of a similar pattern as they make their way toward the limited lights of civilization. ) These people are quiet, and traditional. They would find it strange for a man and woman to travel unattached. We would be better to tell them we are related, or wed.
( she does not care which, though they do not look particularly similar. half siblings, perhaps? )
[ Even by every stretch of the imagination, he understands how people look at what's different. He was a boy growing up in Maine, a young man coming into Atlantis, and there are things that cannot be pared down or stripped to be offered up. ]
So, lead the way, dearest.
[ It's deliberately exaggerated — they should damn well get a few laughs out of their attempt to fly under the radar. ]
( they wouldn't have to resemble each other much for that, but, it also might be a bit harder to believe. marriage was likely a bit more comforting to the quiet greek villagers they were likely to run into, however. Diana agrees it's the safer call, and shifts slightly to pull a ring she'd been wearing on her pointer to the more traditional ring finger. a little more convincing to prying eyes. )
Ah, wonderful. You already sound a beleagued married man. You're good at this. ( he's exaggerated, she's teasing. there's something bittersweet about a feigned marriage, looking back and thinking of the only man who had made the prospect appealing. Diana has never been married, and she doubts she will. this is as close as she will get. )
[ He has no such ring. Arthur simply walks beside her, having no other way to assert any presence and no desire to be domineering. It's too dramatic to call this a battlefield, but there are roles, and he understands. He snorts. ]
You're the only one with that opinion.
[ Like her,marriage doesn't appeal to him: for the simple fact that there's no one with the same life experience. Clark is his brother, the closest Arthur can have to family other than his own father. But anyone else on this world — they don't walk between the land and sea, they don't know how to look up at the sun or down towards the trench with the same breath. He's alone. ]
( a man not wearing a wedding ring is far more normal than a woman to do the same. while Diana has never been much impressed by sexist limitations, she has learned to play them like a fiddle.
has she ever thought about marriage? her playfulness fades, just slightly. this is the sort of question she might have retreated from, before. now... well, answering it isn't easy, yet she's honest. )
Yes. Mostly after it was already too late. ( what it would have been like, if he were still with her. occasionally she'd wonder, daydream... only to realize the pain in that impossibility. )
[ Not everyone needs water to drown. A man of the sea understands. He'll never die that way, but its effects are pronounced. Did she think about marriage, in this world, and how to inhabit it, with where she came from? He doesn't know if that's possible, if it ever was. Some things make it easier, but the one thing Arthur doesn't do is hold to false hope. That's too close to drowning him. ]
[ Her answer isn't encouraging. ]
Hard to find somebody, [ he says, agreeably, finishing a thought she didn't bring up. ]
( hard to find and harder to keep, especially if you are an ageless amazon that very well might outlive everyone she ever meets. if Diana lets herself she finds it too easy to find those she might love. for the longest she imagined it was better to avoid. these days she's not so sure. )
They do say there are plenty of fish in the sea, ( Diana says, and oh yes, you can tell just from the look on her face that she thinks that she's hilarious. ) You don't need to marry to enjoy your time with someone. Don't worry, this will only be for the night.
( she pats his arm, as if he were genuinely concerned he'd be stuck married to her the rest of time. )
For the sake of our friendship, we should keep it that way.
( amazons and atlanteans weren't exactly as friendly as they had been once upon a time. there was not a lot good she could quote from Themyscira. she's doing him a favor.
they're getting closer to the village, and she takes his arm. not all married couples require such proximity, yet closeness makes the cover come easier. )
Keep the fish jokes to yourself, and we've got a deal.
[ He's heard every single one of them. Especially from the fish. They too aren't as funny as they like to think. ]
[ Arthur accepts the contact without remark. It doesn't seem worth remarking on, nor making light of. They greet a few others on the path, stop and ask for directions as any newcomers are wont to do. Once in town, he nods, ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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wildly aus
she shifts from that piece to a grandfather clock, one that already has an admirer. she offers a hint of a smile, her lips reddened to match her growing understanding of what was fashionable in this time. the ideas of modern women were quite different to those in Themyscira, though perhaps not always in ways she dislikes.
lipstick, for example, Diana has no shame in enjoying. ) Lovely, is it not? ( she inquires, dark eyes skating the figure of the woman only once, though noticeably all the same. )
twirls in this au
[Well. People don't consider that quite as much, she's noticed. The placement of an imposing grandfather clock in the front hall is not, perhaps, considered as feminine as the arrangement of flowers in a vase on a tablecloth. But she likes it. A clock like this makes a statement. Sweeps without moving at all.]
[She's not alone, which is just as well. She prefers not to be. But in this case, she's especially curious. Her companion moves with a grace and confidence that most women are trained not to, a sense of self that's usually ground out.]
Very much so. [A beat, a breath, but barely.] Looking for a souvenir? [She can tell when someone's not from here; it's hard not to stand out in a place like Melbourne if you don't fit a very particular mold.]
i bet the skirts they are wearing make for great twirling
( despite its sturdy size, clocks could be quite fragile. Diana would hate to let her fondness for the piece ruin it, when it could find a happier home where it already was. she moved around too much for such a sturdy piece, no matter how lovely it was. she seems a little passingly sad, at the realization.
she shakes it off, though, sparing a smile for her company. it's true; she doesn't seem as if she belongs, she rarely does. even when she takes the time to wear the fittings of each new place she visits. her accent gives her away, even when she knows the language (and she almost always does). she's foreign and she'll be foreign no matter where she goes, won't she? might as well own it. ) I don't mind. I like to admire.
you're damn right they are!!
[There's a gleam in her eyes as she says it. Why take the safe bet? is what that gleam says, why bother, when there is so much more fun to be had in danger?]
[It's a very human attitude. But then, Phryne is the quintessence of willful, whimsical humanity. Her smile isn't spared, but thrown out with abandon and pleasure, even (especially) for beautiful strangers from places even she doesn't yet know.]
You like to admire, and you like to travel. That makes you a tourist, and . . . [She makes a show of examining Diana carefully, in not-quite-polite curiosity.] A scholar? An explorer? Both require some bravery, as well as some forward planning--the second reason being why I'd do terribly at either.
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she doesn't mind the casual perusal, though — it's not wrong she's a tourist, she's been a tourist to every place she's been since she left the safe shores of Themyscira. a scholar and explorer... well, depending on the definition. such practices were apparently not welcome fields for women, though so far Diana had not let that slow down her curiosity for the world of man. )
I would call myself a student. There is much in the world I do not know, and I am trying to learn all I can. ( if that suited the definition of scholar, she'd take it. she lifts a dark brow at her company before adding, ) You notice much in very little. That is the act of the better scholars, in my opinion, forethought or not. ( a pause, then a smile. ) Diana.
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[She, for herself, is always trying to learn. Perhaps she's been cocky in the past, perhaps she's cocky even now, but she's learned the benefit of an open mind. Life is full of the strange and mysterious.]
[She holds her white-gloved hand out to shake. Women don't shake, in these times. But Phryne shakes.]
Phryne Fisher. Do you know the story? [Of the name, she means.]
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does she know the story of a Phryne Fisher? it does seem familiar, from a paper article or two, perhaps, though exactly how Diana can't say. she frowns in thought, but it only lasts for a breath of a moment before she shakes her head, familiarity or no. )
I suspect I'd like it better from the lady herself.
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she can tell in the way he walks, the way his hand skates up his neck into his already mussed hair for the third time as they head through the crowded hall. she knows it's more than simply lack of sleep that ails him, yet a part of Diana feels powerless in watching him. the exhaustion in his face only grows the closer they get to this front, and no matter how she tries to reassure him with the promise she will stop Hades before it is too late, it never seems to cheer him. similar promises live on the tip of her tongue, yet as Diana watches the heavy line of his shoulders, she bites them back.
she falls into step next to him over behind, trying to push the wide brim of her hat out of her eyes. she is not sure why Steve Trevor insists on her wearing things that limit her peripheral vision. ) This aeroplane we are flying. Tell me about it.
( their mission is dire, and serious, and yet there's an obvious hum of excitement in her tone. she knows enough about airplanes to know that they will be flying, and how could that prospect not be thrilling? )
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( what are you up to, Barry Allen... )
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( Barry Allen. what did you do. )
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usually, the path to find a new sword she would walk alone. testing the waters of teammate is still a rusty practice for her, though she's glad she asked Arthur to join her. they fought well together, and there might be need of that partnership when it comes to the blade she hopes to retrieve. Bruce had managed to get them intel on a basic location, though that wasn't quite end of the journey. their answer is somewhere along these misted hills and remote islands, if it still exists.
they've been searching and traveling for longer than a human might think sensible, yet even a demigod will occasionally tire. when she hears the buzz of a village ahead of them, she taps Arthur at the elbow. ) There's a town close. We should stop for the night. ( the moon is already rising, and there is too much that could be lost in the dark. )
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[ Clark's back — it's how it's always been, their friendship picked up where it left off years ago when they were both drifters. Arthur's attention turns to the others: the Bat, the metal man, the little zipper. ]
[ — and of course, the Amazon. The alliance of Atlantis and Themyscira go back millennia, she carries a sword, he carries a trident. There's a joke in there somewhere about outdated weaponry, but Arthur thinks more about being the products of worlds that wanted to cut themselves off from the tribes of man — in both cases, succeeded. They faded into myth, now they walk out of it. ]
[ When she requests he accompany her to find a new sword, he doesn't say no. ]
How hungry are you?
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hungry? well, considering the length of their day and the voracity of their hike, even Diana and her superhuman temperament are starting to feel it. ) Starving, ( she decides, and if she was supposed to play it cool and detached, she has already failed. look, there's nothing wrong with having an appetite! ) I figured a meal could be a part of our stopping. Did you have something in mind?
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[ But he carries Poseidon's trident. His back is always straight, in Vulko's heart Arthur is a king. ]
Fish, [ he says, like that's hilarious. ] I don't mind lobster, either. Let's take a look around.
[ There are lights up ahead, they should consider how best to be incognito. ]
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Seafood it is.
( their thoughts seem to be of a similar pattern as they make their way toward the limited lights of civilization. ) These people are quiet, and traditional. They would find it strange for a man and woman to travel unattached. We would be better to tell them we are related, or wed.
( she does not care which, though they do not look particularly similar. half siblings, perhaps? )
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We don't look related.
[ Even by every stretch of the imagination, he understands how people look at what's different. He was a boy growing up in Maine, a young man coming into Atlantis, and there are things that cannot be pared down or stripped to be offered up. ]
So, lead the way, dearest.
[ It's deliberately exaggerated — they should damn well get a few laughs out of their attempt to fly under the radar. ]
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( they wouldn't have to resemble each other much for that, but, it also might be a bit harder to believe. marriage was likely a bit more comforting to the quiet greek villagers they were likely to run into, however. Diana agrees it's the safer call, and shifts slightly to pull a ring she'd been wearing on her pointer to the more traditional ring finger. a little more convincing to prying eyes. )
Ah, wonderful. You already sound a beleagued married man. You're good at this. ( he's exaggerated, she's teasing. there's something bittersweet about a feigned marriage, looking back and thinking of the only man who had made the prospect appealing. Diana has never been married, and she doubts she will. this is as close as she will get. )
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You're the only one with that opinion.
[ Like her,marriage doesn't appeal to him: for the simple fact that there's no one with the same life experience. Clark is his brother, the closest Arthur can have to family other than his own father. But anyone else on this world — they don't walk between the land and sea, they don't know how to look up at the sun or down towards the trench with the same breath. He's alone. ]
Did you ever think about it?
[ Hey, might as well ask. ]
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has she ever thought about marriage? her playfulness fades, just slightly. this is the sort of question she might have retreated from, before. now... well, answering it isn't easy, yet she's honest. )
Yes. Mostly after it was already too late. ( what it would have been like, if he were still with her. occasionally she'd wonder, daydream... only to realize the pain in that impossibility. )
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[ Her answer isn't encouraging. ]
Hard to find somebody, [ he says, agreeably, finishing a thought she didn't bring up. ]
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They do say there are plenty of fish in the sea, ( Diana says, and oh yes, you can tell just from the look on her face that she thinks that she's hilarious. ) You don't need to marry to enjoy your time with someone. Don't worry, this will only be for the night.
( she pats his arm, as if he were genuinely concerned he'd be stuck married to her the rest of time. )
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They don't say that where you're from, [ just to be contrary. ]
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( amazons and atlanteans weren't exactly as friendly as they had been once upon a time. there was not a lot good she could quote from Themyscira. she's doing him a favor.
they're getting closer to the village, and she takes his arm. not all married couples require such proximity, yet closeness makes the cover come easier. )
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[ He's heard every single one of them. Especially from the fish. They too aren't as funny as they like to think. ]
[ Arthur accepts the contact without remark. It doesn't seem worth remarking on, nor making light of. They greet a few others on the path, stop and ask for directions as any newcomers are wont to do. Once in town, he nods, ]
That inn?