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got my serious game-face on now! :I Sorry I'm being so long-winded m'dear.
The spark of inspiration that had hit herself and Terra when they met was not something Caspa could explain. She was quite a mechanical animal, not given to sentiment, and her liking for the other girl was based on the fact that she recognised a usefulness in the dextrous and nimble-minded coywolf that tallied with her own skills to enhance them both in partnership. Which would, she hoped in turn enhance the Court they inhabited. While dull was not something she disapproved of, as it gave her plenty of time to think - and the world outside had become so threatening lately that she was grateful for the peaceful respite the sanctuary of the pack gave her - she knew that the bonds between the members had grown thin lately, perhaps because they were spread out geographically, or because their numbers were not what they had been. And she was an artist, in her own way, she was observant and analytical, and she felt the world more empty when everybody did not have a purpose or a task in mind - if not a single, collective one, at least something separately acted upon that would benefit the group as a whole. Perhaps she was high-minded and idealistic for this, but that was a good part of the reason for her aspiration to become a stage performer. And yes, she wanted to bring the magic back to the world, too: to make it about dreams and ideas and using one's talents to please others and make things better, not to fight or vie for power with everybody else. There was nothing unambitious about the slight white hound, although she was insignificant to look upon and in her daily actions, and anyone would be forgiven for doubting she could ever achieve half the things she set her mind to.
She had no idea that in Strelein's wandering mind was born another reason for her to dislike the towering grey male she had met within days of her first arrival: Noss. The thought that he would lay a finger on the decorative tailor for such an adulterous thing would have angered her, although she too believed such an unfaithful action was unremittingly wrong. It was one of those contradictions destined to be forever unexamined in the woman's mind. She moved slowly to the paper and took up charcoal as she sank into the seat, the black stick leaving smudges on her pristine fingertips. She spoke absently as her quick hand sketched, her mind in two places at once and thus rather less clear than usual. "I think no matter how randomly you did it, the abstraction would still be a work of art as is anything from the hand of a true artist." Caspa had never been told, but perhaps a deep part of her self-conscious mind noted now the slight irony of her habit of speaking in axioms like an ancient ancestor brimming with the wisdom of the ages and not of a dog not even two years old. As he spoke, in halting tones sounding rather undecided, she listened with growing unease, then laid down the charcoal and turned her narrow and aquiline face to him with a reproving expression in those liquid-black eyes. "The price you ask is nowhere near enough - I can make bags aplenty, but do you really have use for them? I suppose I can in addition provide alcohol, though it will have to be a good many bottles before the debt is repaid." She owned none herself, but had confidence that she could track the liquor down or travel to the Arte pack where traders were in residence - alone this time, and to deal with legitimate merchants only. The reminder of her recent journey made her eyes even harder, but she did not mean to turn such emotion upon the innocent tailor and looked back to her drawing. "So... if you are willing to receive a leather bottle carrier and be plied with spirits to fill it for a good long time to come, then we'll leave it at that. But let me know if there is anything else you need." She finished a few lines on the drawing and lifted it to the window's light to peer closely at the design, then turned it towards him. "Here are some pockets, along the belt with invisible openings at their top, they would run down the inside of the folds. Then there are more in the sleeves, and inside..." She hoped her scribbles were comprehensible enough. "I was mainly wondering if you think the stitching would show to the outside if these pockets were added, but perhaps the seams could be concealed by your decorations? It would probably be for the best anyway - my needlework is not the neatest."
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