six. list & private & spam. hail the pages turning.

[indispensible]

This is rude.

➽ Ben: Comfortable, dressy shoes to dance in
➽ Alana: A slim knife, with a note that I’ll show her how to use it if she likes.
➽ Nathan: Memorable smells from my home – the beer and liquor of our hideout, the perfumes of the balls, ash beaten into a Mistcloak, the smell of metal shavings suspended in liquid. A locket with a picture of her in it.
➽ Beatrix: A glass dagger.
➽ Megamind: A music box, with music and steps from home, if you can do that.
➽ Morgana: A comfortable gown with space in the sleeves for weapons, and a simple circlet.
➽ Kelsier: A gold pocket-watch, with a picture of Mare inside.
➽ Marsh: Fabric, as much as he wants and any kind he wants.
➽ Zane: Things to touch. Pieces of coarse furs, or soft leaves, lamb’s ear, rough bark. Things to remind him who he is when he gets upset.
➽ Stark: A koloss sword
➽ Arya: Ways to conceal weapons – thigh straps, arm straps. Thin, light mail. A key to my cabin, in case she ever needs me.
➽ Dean: Ten pies. They have to stay good until he wakes up and be next to his bed when he does.

private } arya

I want to talk to you.

[Because she feels weird and confused about this holiday, and she wants to beat it up.]

spam } stark

[Vin sends Clifford after Stark, not to monitor his behavior exactly, but to essentially bother him until he gets fed up with it and comes to find her. She has a question, okay.]

open spam } library

[She's looking for information - she's even writing it down. Not about the holidays, all of which frighten and annoy her in ways she can't even begin to articulate, but about dance. She starts with a history, gets frustrated with it, manages not to throw it across the room, and finds a book with more pictures and less history. Reading is still relatively new to her. She doesn't understand why it's harder when she's upset.]

[This is her gift to herself, if everyone is meant to get them: a search for movements that mean as much to other people as hers mean to her. Different ways of learning to speak.]

[Soon enough, she's surrounded by piles of books and half-crumpled papers, with her childish handwriting scrawled across it.]

Comments

[indispensible]

Research.

[She goes back to flipping pages. Then, after equally exaggerated consideration:]

On a subject.

[Some subject. Or something.]

[mercurialize]

You don't say.

[You could just tell him to shoo, but since it seems you don't mind...]

Find anything interesting on the subject so far?

[indispensible]

I think so. It's hard to say this early.

[She turns a few more pages, then frowns.]

Isn't salsa a type of food?

[mercurialize]

[He'll peer over trying to see what exactly she's referring to.]

Salsa? Never heard of it.

[indispensible]

I heard it was a type of food, but also a dance.

[She narrows her eyes at him, then turns the book to show him a diagram of the dance she's referring to.]

It's ridiculous to name those the same thing.

[mercurialize]

[He'll take a look, it's no dance he's familiar with.]

I've never heard of either.

[He'll curve a smile]

Maybe the person who thought up the dance was hungry at the time. Or his favorite food was this other salsa. The name doesn't really matter, does it?

[indispensible]

[Vin purses her lips.]

Names matter. Everything matters somehow.

Anyway, it looks complicated. [She has to figure out how to do it. Or at least commit it to memory.]

[mercurialize]

[Those words bother him, being most accurately called Nameless himself. Outwardly, he only shrugs.]

Let me see that?

[He doesn't really wait, and instead picks up the book and begins flipping through pages. He'll think on it. Dancing is like fighting in his head, it's all about foot work and balance. Holding the book out, he'll start stepping slowly and awkwardly to the diagrams and then pick up his pace until it's in solid repetition.]

Something like... this?

[indispensible]

[She watches him, skeptical at first and then becoming increasingly convinced that he's actually figuring this out. Once he's picked up tempo, she's smiling, very hesitantly.]

Something like it . . .

[She pulls the book back toward herself, scrutinizing the steps on the pages and the movements he's making. Okay, it's actually really good. What the heck.]

Very like it. How'd you do that?

[mercurialize]

[His dancing slows until it comes to a halt. Hopefully buying him some time to answer. He can't very well say, 'I've been trained to memorize everything I see or hear the first time it's seen or said.' That could lead to questions, so he'll shrug instead.]

I don't know. The pictures are right there, though. You give it a try.

[indispensible]

[She squints at the pictures suspiciously, then shakes her head.]

In a minute. Let me watch you one more time.

[mercurialize]

[With a shrug he'll begin repeating the steps again, this time with more fluidity than before.]

Just focus on your feet, then the rest is pretty simple.

[indispensible]

[Focus on your feet. Easy for him to say. Slowly, she begins to replicate his movement, with her standard Mistborn grace but even so, without the ease he's displaying. She glares at her feet as if they've personally wronged her.]

[mercurialize]

[He'll stop and watch her a moment, holding a 'hmmn'.]

You are way too tense. Just relax, it's only a dance.

[indispensible]

['Only a dance'. She huffs.]

Some of us like doing things right.

[But she does relax, with some effort, and she does improve. A little. Enough to give him a triumphant, haha! look.]

[mercurialize]

Or scared of doing things wrong?

[He'll raise his eyebrows but turns it into a smile once she starts getting a better grasp of it.]

See? You got it.

[indispensible]

I'm not scared of anything.

[The freaky part is, she's mostly not lying. Vin is just stubborn as all hell. She scowls at him at the praise, but then focuses on her feet again, and before she knows it she's smiling somewhat with satisfaction.]

Of course I got it. [Hmph.]

[mercurialize]

Of course.

[He'll fold his arms before peering over at the other books.]

So, why are you trying to learn these? I'm guessing there's more than just that one, right?

[indispensible]

[She hesitates. This is getting dangerously close to sensitive territory, but - well, he'd figure it out eventually. She can always dodge.]

Different types of dances. All kinds. Just to compare them.

[Compare them to what she knew before, and see what's similar, what's different; what they make her feel, if anything.]

[mercurialize]

[He'll pick up a book at random and flip through pages idly.]

Yeah? What for though? Just curiosity?

[indispensible]

Curiosity. And practice.

I used to dance back home. There was never much . . . variety, though.

[mercurialize]

That so?

Then, what were dances back home like? Not like that salsa, I'm guessing.

[indispensible]

No. Slower, but more complicated. Some of them were more complicated, anyway.

Sort of like a waltz. I learned about a waltz here. But a different count.

. . . There might have been some I didn't know about, too. I only learned a few dances before I had to stop. [Because other things became significantly more important.]

[mercurialize]

Huh, so how's a waltz go?

[indispensible]

[She just stares at him, a little suspiciously. But he hasn't attacked her yet, she guesses. Abruptly, she gives a huffy little sigh and takes his hands in hers, pushing him away from the table.]

Follow my steps, all right?

[Which is in her opinion enough warning to just go. It's not a waltz, actually; it's the first dance she learned at home. But he doesn't need to know that.]