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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 7, 2011 18:21:45 GMT -5
With my debut set for the next day or so I'd heard a good deal about what was expected of me, especially in the areas that seemed to escape my notice at times. My choice of jewelry was deemed to be too childish and I was told to go without it for the auction save for one small bracelet, and my perfume and oils didn't seem to fare any better. I had the feeling that Octavian didn't expect much from my bidding so he was trying to gather every cent he could.
Once of the training adepts was told to take me to the best perfume shop in the city and keep an eye on my choices, but she seemed distracted so I contented myself with looking around the shelves, my money pouch holding a few coins that jingled against each other in the loose fabric. There were many choices, some spicy, some sweet, and some even dark, but I'd been told to look for something mysterious. When I'd asked if mystery could have a smell as that would define the undefinable I was given a piercing look and sent to continue looking. One of the bottles would call out to me eventually if I kept looking long enough and so I continued to walk along the rows, silvery eyes unblinking as I read over the names of the scents.
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 7, 2011 20:47:38 GMT -5
In an effort to get to know the businesses my family contracted with, I entered the perfumery and began to look around. It was one thing to know how things ran from the supply side, but I was learning it was important to know what the customers wanted as well.
I recognized one of the rarer flowers my family grew in the scents listed for a vial of perfume, and took out the glass stopper to see if I could detect it. What I was greeted with was an assault of too many mixed scents and it made me wrinkle my nose as I quickly stoppered the vial once more.
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 8, 2011 15:44:13 GMT -5
The boy who was also wandering the aisles was handsome but didn't seem at all haughty, which was a nice change from a lot of the adepts I usually saw. I watched interestedly as he pulled down a bottle and put it close to his face before sniffing and immediately recoiled. That didn't really surprise me though, when I did the same thing everything smelled too strongly because the scent needed to be on the skin and exposed to air in order to grow correctly. Perhaps because they were made of flowers and spices they had to be treated as such.
Walking closer without any concern whatsoever that I was intruding I gave the boy a slight, dreamy smile, then cocked my head and looked at the bottle. "It might help if you leave the bottle open and keep your face back to let the smell come to you," I offered in a helpful tone. "Then the smells come in layers and you can tell what they are. Or you can put some on, that helps too because the skin warms it." Reaching onto the shelf near where he'd picked up his bottle I took up a smaller one of my own and looked it over. "Do you think lotus smell good?"
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 9, 2011 17:55:12 GMT -5
“I do,” I said, replacing the vial. “I’ve always thought it a pleasing scent.”
I smiled at the girl who’d spoken to me, she was quite lovely. “Are you shopping for yourself?”
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 10, 2011 13:36:12 GMT -5
"Thank you," I replied serenely in response to his answer, picking up one of the vials and looking at it. "I'm shopping for my debut and my Dowayne said I needed to find new things because the ones I had were too odd and childish." I'd never really understood why someone shouldn't answer a question as honestly as they could when presented the chance to do so. There were always polite methods to use when saying such things, so why not give the other person the honesty they deserved? Taking off the top of the bottle I waited a moment, then wafted some of the scent toward me and inhaled, considering it before looking back at the boy I was standing next to and offering it to him. "It is very nice. Perhaps that's mysterious enough for my House."
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 10, 2011 18:34:32 GMT -5
She was an adept? I found my curiosity peaked and I wondered what House she was from.
Leaning in, I smelled the scent rising from the vial. “It’s nice. Mysterious seems an odd character to want out of a perfume though, what is mysterious to one person may be obvious to another,” I commented. “That’s a pleasant scent though and it is not ordinary.”
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 13, 2011 17:43:02 GMT -5
"Not ordinary is very nice," I replied with a smile, thinking for a moment. "But I think my Dowayne means something that no one can define. Perhaps mysterious was the wrong word, or maybe he means for me to learn it by testing until I find out what it is." Putting the stopper back into the bottle I set it gently back onto the shelf and picked up another near it, opening it next. There were so many bottles it would take a long time to find the right one. "Do you think they make a perfume from gentian flowers?"
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 13, 2011 20:34:05 GMT -5
“No, I don’t think they do,” I said, shaking my head. “Gentian flowers do not tend to have a pleasing scent when taken to their essence, at least not one to be used in perfumes. You might be able to find an essence oil though and blend your own.”
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 21, 2011 18:46:20 GMT -5
For a moment I considered his idea, head cocked sideways slightly and expression thoughtful, then glanced back at him as the idea turned over in my mind, finding every possibility. "But I'm not sure that I'd be good at making a scent, especially since I don't know much about them," I replied simply, voice quiet and contemplative. "And I'm not sure I could afford all of the parts to try it for myself. Perhaps I'll just look around more, I'm having fun doing that and it's very nice to talk to you."
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 21, 2011 19:03:59 GMT -5
“Thank you, it’s nice talking to you as well,” I replied. “My name is Sébastien, by the way. Also, I have great experience with flowers if that helps in any way.”
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 21, 2011 19:13:50 GMT -5
"I'm Kasia no' Gentian," I replied with a curtsy, though I wondered if he'd already guessed which House I was with by the scents I was looking for. "Sebastien is just the name for you, I think it suits you very well. If you wouldn't mind helping I'd like that. Sometimes I pick things that I like but they end up being a bit odd, and another opinion would tell me when I was on the right track. If you want to go back to your flowers though I understand."
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 22, 2011 0:08:53 GMT -5
“Oh no, I’d be more than happy to help,” I said, grinning. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Kasia.”
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jun 24, 2011 16:55:03 GMT -5
"It's a pleasure to meet you too," I replied in a cheerful tone that may have still been a little distracted as I tried to think of what else to say. My training told me to make all sorts of conversation but sometimes it didn't seem like the right sort of things to say or do, at least not for me. It did feel right to give him another smile, and I did so, then reached out and ran my hand over a bottle and picked it up gently. "What flower scents do you like best? Perhaps since I met you here that's a sign of the place I should start."
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jun 25, 2011 17:04:17 GMT -5
“It would be easier to ask which ones I don’t like,” I said with a laugh. “I am rather biased towards flowers.” I thought for a moment. “Gentian… that’s the House of seeing and dreams, right? The perhaps honeysuckle, it is supposed to increase such powers and is also lucky.”
I found a vial of honeysuckle and offered it to her.
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Post by Kasia nó Gentian on Jul 8, 2011 8:30:10 GMT -5
Taking the vial of honeysuckle I sniffed it, then let my gaze go somewhat distant as I though about it. Sharp but sweet, and so intense, nice enough in its own way, but was it me? Couldn't I smell like myself somehow and still be what people wanted? Perhaps that was what worried Octavian in the first place since I was such an odd creature and didn't always behave as people expected me to. "It's very nice, I'll keep it in mind," I told the boy with a smile as I put the stopper back into the bottle. "I don't know how many flowers smell when they're turned into perfume but I know how some of them look. I like larkspurs and dianthus and the little daffodils called 'yellow cheerfulness'."
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Post by Sébastien Fleury on Jul 8, 2011 16:24:54 GMT -5
“Daffodils are glorious,” I agreed, smiling wide. “The first flowers of spring, they greet the world like the sun rising from the very soil itself, chasing away the snow.”
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