BuzzingBee

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Nice cx

Oliver's weakness is 'pretty' women so he may have ogled at Penelope a bit xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope and Dimia soon finished their baths and headed off to the ballroom to see how things were going along there. Upon stepping inside, she saw rather quickly just how much there was to be done before the party. At the time, the servants were busy cleaning every last inch of the room that they could. Penelope found it a bit interesting to watch them. They nearly operated like a mini battalion, breaking off into small groups to handle certain tasks and parts of the room. It certainly gave the knight a newfound respect for their efficiency.

She also found out that despite Dimia demeaning of their work, she got along rather well her head servant, who was an older woman named Addy. The two spoke formally with each other but each clearly held a great deal of respect for the other. That aside, Dimia seemed pleased with the servants and their work, voicing her approval to the older woman. Feeling confident that they would be ready on time, she advised Penelope to return to her room to put on her dress and then meet back up with her after.

Penelope followed her instructions without arguments and returned to her room. Now inside, she headed over to where she had stored the dress she had bought and unfolded it. Looking over the expensive piece, she was still pleased with her purchase but the test would be seeing how it fit. If worse came to worse, she could always seek assistance from Naida and borrow something from her if she found the dress wasn't flattering enough. Taking in a breath, she slipped into the dress. Luckily it seemed to fit fine. It fell smoothly around her body and didn't seem overly tight or big. The only slight issue she had with it was that it was slightly more low cut at the chest than she was used to.

Deciding to ignore the slight discomfort, she ran her hands over the soft fabric and took in a deep breath as she was hit again with just how close the party was. Shaking off her nerves, Penelope collected herself and headed out of the room to return to the Lenz's, whom she assumed were also in the process of getting ready. Traveling down the corridors, she felt a bit out of place in the extravagant dress. Some of the guards she past stared at her, clearly noticing her change from armor to dress. Penelope avoided their gazes, feeling a bit embarrassed, and hurried off to the Lenz's room. As she knocked, it was Oliver this time who answered.

"Oh Penelope welco-" his gaze drifted over her. He blinked, seeming to catch himself and quickly lifted his gaze back up to meet hers. "-come. Come on inside, Dimia's just fixing her hair at the moment."

"Uh, thanks." Penelope dipped her head to the nobleman and walked into the room. Dimia was settled at the desk, having set up a small mirror, and the tentatively creating a complex braided pattern. Using the mirror to see behind her, a smirk crossed over the noblewoman's features as she eyed Penelope's dress.

"Huh, well who knew, you actually have a decent body when you put it in the right clothing." Dimia snickered.

"Thanks." Penelope responded dryly, rolling her eyes.

"What are you going to do for your hair and makeup?" Dimia asked curiously.

"I don't really wear makeup... And what's wrong with my hair? I've always just worn it down for parties." Penelope said, running her fingers through her wavy brown hair.

Dimia pursed her lips together. "Yes, and you've also never hosted a party.. You need to style your hair properly otherwise it'll be a complete mess by the time you speaking to everyone what with dancing and all." she gave an exasperated sigh. "I'll let the makeup slide, but I'm doing your hair as soon as I finish mine!"

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Nice cx

I decided to throw in a little heart to heart with Dimia and Penelope cx turns out she's a bit of a softy lol

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Having nothing else to do and no real reason to deny Dimia's orders, Penelope trailed after the noblewoman as she led them to the woman's bathhouse. A large part of her still wanted to do more to help out preparations than just taking a bath. It felt like a waste of time but having never thrown a party, she could only follow Dimia's lead. The two reached the bathhouse soon and stepped inside. At the moment, it was fairly empty. Penelope guessed it was both because of the cold weather and noblewomen waiting until later to begin getting ready for the party.

She stepped off to the side and stripped out of her clothes, bundling them neatly together near the pool's edge. Once she was down she turned to begin to step into the water. However, she paused slightly as she noticed Dimia's gaze, focusing on the large scar that cut across her torso. The knight side eyed the noblewoman, assuming she was about to make some comment on the blemish, but Dimia simply turned her head away instead and wadded into the water. Penelope felt a small hint of surprise from Dimia's lack of comment. Most noblewomen were shocked when they saw it and Dimia hadn't been one to hold her tongue if she thought lowly of one's appearance.

The knight made no comment on it though and instead stepped into the water after her. She let out a content sigh as she sunk into the warmth of the water. It was a welcomed change from the chilly air outside. For a moment, Penelope simply enjoyed being in the water and Dimia seemed to do the same as they leaned against the pool wall in silence. Penelope eventually broke it though.

"You know.. I'm still confused about one thing.." she mused as she cracked a quick glance over at the red head.

"And what is that?" Dimia sighed, seeming disappointed the silence was over.

"Well... why did you go through all of this to help me so much?" she asked. It had been weighing on her mind for a while now. She knew Dimia had answered it before but her answer of saying it was due to Gavin's request didn't quite add up in her opinion. The two siblings barely saw eye to eye and throwing such a grand party had been no easy task. "I mean, I know you said it was because of Gavin and how he wrote you and wanting to through a party but why go to this extreme you know?"

Dimia pursed her lips into a thin line and let out a sigh. "I have my reasons."

"I know, I'm trying to figure out what they are." Penelope snorted.

Dimia shot her an annoyed glare. However, as she looked away, Penelope noticed her expression soften slightly. "If the war continues, then my brother will continue to fight in it and others I care about might join him if we lose too many out there... We've already lost quite a few after all.. Some of the women I'm friends with have lost siblings, friends, and even their spouses. The losses are taking such a toll on everyone, I'd like to see it stop before it happens to me."

Penelope frowned, finding herself unexpectedly sympathetic towards Dimia. It seemed that the noblewoman had gone to such lengths just to try and protect her loved ones as well as to prevent people from losing anymore. The notion was something Penelope could respect and perhaps, the first common ground she actually shared with Dimia. "And if we end it peacefully, we won't have to worry about the war continuing, unlike if we follow the king's plan." Penelope mused with a sigh.

Dimia nodded her head. "After tonight, the king's plan won't see the light of day." she said with surprising confidence.

Penelope found herself smiling in spite of herself, finding Dimia's certainty refreshing. "Right, but first we need to get clean." she snickered as she grabbed her cloth and soap.

"Yes and once we're done here, we'll go check on things in the ballroom while our hair dries." Dimia instructed as she picked up her own and began to scrub herself down.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope's gotta spend one last day with Dimia xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope noticed his gaze flicker down towards her unfinished food. She glad that he didn't try to push her to eat more though and gave a small nod at his words as she rose to her feet. "See you then." she said before slipping off the bench and making her way out of the Great Hall. Now that she was feeling a little better after speaking with both her father and Crow, she made her way to the Lenz's room with less stress than before and even felt a bit eager to get to work on things now. It didn't take her long to reach the room and she knocked on the door, before stepping back to wait for a response.

It didn't take long for Dimia to poke her head out. As her gaze fell on Penelope, she raised an eyebrow at her in a confused manner. "Penelope? You're here already?" she questioned.

Used to Dimia griping about her being late, she was caught off guard by the other noblewoman's confused expression. "Well.. yeah. I figured there'd be quite a bit to do to get ready for this evening so I came as soon as I could." she explained shrugging her shoulders.

Dimia let out a sigh. "There is a lot to do but that's work for the servants I've hired. We don't have to do anything aside from overseeing them and making sure things get done properly, which is a one woman job that I can handle." she said dismissively.

Penelope blinked in surprise. "There's nothing else?" she questioned. As Dimia shook her head, the knight frowned slightly. "Well maybe I could go help the servants then if they have so much to do. Where are then? At the ballroom already?"

Dimia groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please don't go doing low class work right before the party where you need to impress everyone."

Penelope rolled her eyes, slightly irritated by how Dimia spoke. She didn't see why it would have been such an issue. Sure she had to impress others but most of their guests wouldn't even be around until later in the day and by then she'd be ready to impress. Besides, it was just a bit of labor, what harm could that possibly due to her reputation? While she wanted to argue with Dimia about, she decided it was best not to, especially after all that she had done to help prepare this party. "Alright fine but then what am I supposed to do? Surely there's something other than just standing around." Penelope grumbled.

"If you really must do something then you can spend the day getting ready with me." Dimia announced, folding her arms over her chest.

"Isn't it a little early to start getting ready?" Penelope questioned.

"The host must always be ready far before the guests arrive... And I can tell you haven't had a bath in sometime." Dimia snorted. She sighed and called over her shoulder. "I'll be leaving a bit early, dear. I'll meet you in the ballroom later." When a quiet reply of approval came, Dimia stepped out of her room and closed the door behind her. She gestured to Penelope, who was shooting an annoyed glare at her for the bathing comment, to follow her. "Come on then. Let's head to the bath house."

The Case of the Full Moon [buzzingbee + Sunflower]

Ann groaned as someone hollered and banged on the front door. She had just gotten into the office a short while ago—usually Kate opened but her partner was late for some reason or another—and had been hoping to get a couple more peaceful minutes in. Unfortunately it seemed that morning would be busier than the detective had hoped. She slowly rose to her feet and sauntered over to the front door, opening it to find two women. One was screaming her head off about some terrible attack while the other was trying to get her to quiet down.

By now, the ruckus was already attracting the attention of other townsfolk. Ann glanced over at near passersbys that had slowed to a stop to eye the group, clearly trying to listen in on what was going on. Not wanting the situation to get out of hand, she stepped out and waved her hands to get the attention of the two women.

"Alright, alright calm down now. What the heck is going on here? What happened?" Ann asked, placing her hands on her hips as she glanced between the two other women.

The one that had been hollering and making a scene quickly stepped forward, looking pale and frantic. "T-There was an attack out in the forest!! Oh it was so horrible!" she wailed.

"An attack?" Ann prompted, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes! This poor man he-he had his innards ripped out and everything was scratched up.. It.. It had to be some sort of monster!" the woman whimpered. "No man or animal could have possibly done that!"

Ann let out a long sigh as this woman claimed it must have been some type of monster. Monsters were nothing but stories to scare children when they were misbehaving in her opinion. Of course, she knew some people actually took those stories quite seriously but having never seen any true proof for herself, she didn't believe in such things. She was just about to open her mouth to respond when a passing figure caught her eye.

"Hold on." she told the two and flagged down Kate. "Kathryn! I think we have a case to deal with!"

Kate had just left her home, managing to sneak out of the forest. She had washed up properly there, ridding herself completely of the blood that still stuck to her. The detective had just been on her way out to the office when she had heard the woman reciting what she had seen out in the woods. Realizing that the woman was reporting her crime, she had been tempted to make a bolt for it instead of going into work that day. Unfortunately, there was no way for her to avoid it as Ann spotted her. For now, she would just have to pretend to be as clueless as everyone else.

"Morning... What's going on here? What do you mean a case?" Kate asked putting on a calm demeanor as she trotted over to the other women. For a moment, her gaze lingered on the third woman. She didn't seem particularly panicked, unlike the one who had seen the body. The detective wondered if perhaps she was just someone the witness had grabbed for support, since she certainly didn't seem as upset.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope's realizing she might have some men trying to win her over at the party herself xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Penelope stifled a chuckle as Crow made a face at her words. She gave a small nod and poked at the food on her plate. "Well you're prime marrying age and hold the highest title someone not apart of the royal family can. In noble terms, that means you're quite the catch, regardless of anything else like your past." she mused with a small laugh. Shifting her gaze back over to him she shrugged her shoulders haplessly. "There's power and wealth in marriage so it draws them like moths to a flame."

"Regardless, I'm certainly glad I'm not in your shoes." Penelope said with a teasing smile. "This 'bachelorette' thing is easy to pull off when you don't have anything like that to offer. Plus being a knight certainly turns away a good handful of noblemen. Especially the stuffy scholars." It was why the men she had courted in the past—Gavin and Cedric—were both fellow knights and lower rank than her. Those of higher rank were often looking for someone with more 'delicate' features that someone such as Dimia would possess.

Although, at the party , she'd be displaying as much wealth and power as she could to get people to listen to her. While she might not have had a great fortune, she did have fairly great connections with higher ranking nobles that might draw some unwanted attention to her. The realization made her teasing look fade and she let out a small groan. "But with this party I might be in a similar boat to you for once. Especially since I'm going to be relying on my closeness with Naida and partially you as well to get people's attention tonight. I'm sure some will see me as a good stepping stone to get to you guys and the king." the knight groaned annoyedly.

"I hope for both our sakes that this is the last night we'll have to entertain any 'admirers'." she mused with a small shake of her head. She took another bite from her food before leaning away from what was left on the plate. Though reluctant, she knew she should likely get going to see what Dimia had planned for them that. Penelope sighed softly and looked over at him with a half hearted smile. "I suppose I should get going. Wouldn't want to set the Lenz's behind by being late."

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Whoops xD Penelope doesn't even realize since she's just so used to her father being stoic lol