Do as I say not as I do (Cal)

[Richard Locksley]

Richard had been banished from the flat because Tristian was doing... something involving clothes that apparently Richard wasn't allowed to see and also absolutely did not care about, which was a mild annoyance because he'd needed to study today and he didn't want to do it shut up in his room trying not to listen to Tristian singing as he did whatever he was doing in the house (not that Tristian was a bad singer, of course, it was just annoying hearing pop tunes he didn't recognise being belted through the flat when he was trying to study), but the living room had been declared off limits, so library it was.

He didn't like the library, not at this time of day anyway, when there were other people here, studying was something of a solitary pursuit - especially when one was studying for an english literature assignment involving poetry. Normally, it would be wonderful to do something he enjoyed doing, or something he knew he was good at, but the problem was... he didn't, for one, know for certain that his poems were actually good, and he also didn't want anybody to know about them. They contained feelings that he would rather not share, that was to say, they contained feelings at all.
Which meant he had to write a poem for this class that would still get him the grade he needed while being different enough from his usual stuff that nobody would make the connection.

It was a task made much more difficult by the nattering students sitting at the table to his left, and he'd finally had enough. He leaned over and gave the two girls his most charming smile, they immediately smiled back flirtatiously.

"Ladies," he said smoothly "It really is wonderful to hear your delightful tones, like studying to the background of birdsong." the girls were clearly flattered, and he smiled indulgently, his expression remaining serene as he continued.

"But since the birds in question right now happen to be crows, I really must ask you to shut the f*ck up and let the rest of us study."

[Cal Karnstein]

If those girls tweeted one more time, Cal was going to go full vampire rage. Red eyes, extended fangs; she might even see if she had a blood packet on her somewhere for the full effect. She could definitely flip a table, that was for darn sure. They just would not shut up: and wasn't this section of the library the bit where people worked quietly? Cal had checked a few times and tried her patented icy stare (sometimes with literal ice) but thus far, nothing. There had been a few coughs as well, and Cal had just decided to start humming a song in exact opposite time of their endless prattle when some handsome dude rounded on them.

Cal saw it, and as she did, she pressed her hands to her heart. The girls looked absolutely flabbergasted, clearly shocked that a man so pretty would talk so ugly at them. TO make her point abundantly clear, Cal clapped as loud as possible a few times, rising up to her feet. That got a librarian's attention, so Cal just shrugged and slid over to the table with the pretty guy while the girls began packing up their things to move away.

"You sir, are my new favorite person," whispered Cal, leaning toward Richard. "I owe you like all the drinks, and not just because you are far too pretty to be allowed. Really it's taking all my willpower not to make out with you wildly,' Cal nodded, then settled in, pulling out her own work, smoothing out what was clearly half-written song lyrics. She didn't move away, but she also lapsed into something of a quiet after, besides the scribbling of her pen and some odd head bobbing.

[Richard Locksley]

Richard raised an eyebrow at the girl who suddenly slid into the seat opposite him, but he couldn't help but smirk slightly at what she said - clearly the gossiping airheads were annoying more than just him.
Now that the girls had shut up and were leaving, Richard was content to ignore them completely, his point was made and they didn't deserve any more of his attention, so despite pointed glares in his direction as they left, he paid them no further mind.

"Perhaps I'll hold you to that," he murmured back with a faint smile "It would be stupid to say no to a free drink, after all."

He shifted his books slightly, potentially to get back to his work, or possibly, just possibly, so that it was more difficult for her to see exactly what was on his page.

[Cal Karnstein]

"Just name a time, pretty boy,' replied Cal, adding another wink. She went to work for a while, humming, and it was entirely likely that Cal would've went right back to her work. She was actually missing some of the side elements though, and she was realizing with each passing moment that she probably actually needed noise. Not that it mattered: her won work was much less interesting than the reason why this guy sitting next to her had started shuffling and trying to get his work out of her sight.

That had Cal leaning slightly, running her eyes across the books. Poetry. That had her grinning, and she glanced down, before writing a quick note and sliding it over.

Want any feedback on the poetry, prettyboy? I'm no slouch myself. Give me a sec to prove it.

Cal tapped her fingers for a moment while prettyboy read her note, then jotted down:

Clucking chickens bawk
disturb our joint tranquility
fry them up with words

For her audience to see, of course.

[Richard Locksley]

Richard wasn't sure if she intended pretty boy to be an insult or a compliment, he assumed the latter, but you never could tell with this place. He assumed compliment again when she repeated it in her note, and although he was a little annoyed she had been looking over at his work when he specifically tried to cover up what he was doing, he did somewhat appreciate the offer of help - however much he thought he didn't need it.

When she slid over the small poem, he snorted in amusement, glancing over at her.

"Very good," he said dryly, keeping his voice quieter than the two 'chickens' had, although with the two of them gone there wasn't really anybody else around to be disturbed by them talking. He hesitated for a moment, contemplating - pretending he wasn't very good at poetry would certainly keep his cover, but he also didn't like to be bad at things, even as part of a pretence.

"I'm fine," he decided eventually "...do you like poetry?" he added, off-handedly.

[Cal Karnstein]

Cal was tempted to keep note writing, but it seemed a bit odd given that he'd actually started talking. She did give him a slight bob of the head and a downright genteel twirl of her wrist: courtly manners, right there. And they were decidedly more quiet than the idiots that Prettyboy had chased off, Cal had to give them that at least.

"Pretty much," agreed Cal, pitching her voice low. "I'm better at song lyrics and," she tapped the paper, "haikus more than anything else. But I can definitely help," she leaned over a little more, scanning around his assignment and the books. "Lemme guess, you in that class with the poetry assignment? Banged mine out in a weekend, so I'm up for helping out if you want."

She shrugged. "Or I could just start writing dirty haikus and sliding them your way. Whichever seems like a better use of our time," she gave him a flirty wink, settling in with a smile.

[Richard Locksley]

"Aren't song lyrics just poetry with a tune?" Richard asked with a raised eyebrow. Sure there was plenty of poetry that wouldn't make good songs, and plenty of songs that wouldn't make good poems, but ultimately that seemed to be the case in his opinion.

"I am." he nodded "I don't need help, as such, though I wonder... is there anyone you might suggest for inspiration?" perhaps he could find a couple of other poets and try out their styles, find something different enough from his usual fare. Admittedly he played around with style choices in his usual fare, but hopefully he could find something different enough that it wouldn't have any chance of being linked with the poetry of one R. Lee.

"Unless you'd prefer writing dirty haikus, I'd certainly be interested to see what you came up with." the flirtation was almost natural, a charming smile with just a dash of smirk, the slightly lowered tone of voice, he just slipped into it automatically, there was little to no actual emotion behind it, it was just what he did.

[Cal Karnstein]

Cal nodded. Songs and poetry were interlinked, which was probably the only reason she did so well at poetry... okay, it totally wasn't. It just fell in her creative wheelhouse. Just don't go expecting her to start writing fanfiction.

"I'm guessing you mean besides life, prettyboy?" asked Cal. she popped up an arm, leaning on it now. "There's always other works," she tapped the books in front of Prettyboy now. "Or sometimes listening to music. But really the best stuff just comes from life itself. Living and experiencing everything around you and kinda taking it in. Putting it to paper."

She gave him another smile. The hand not propping her up reached down to lightly poke Prettyboy in the side. "You naughty poet you," she said teasingly. "I could do all sort of fun things in the stack. Would just love to be your muse: sure you could write lovely things about my gorgeous pale body, amiright?" another wink, and a toothy grin, complete with those slightly too sharp teeth.

[Richard Locksley]

"It's the other works I meant," Richard said, trying not to get annoyed at her for explaining poetry to him, it wasn't as though she knew how well he knew the genre after all "Do you recommend any poets in particular?"

He snorted in amusement at her flirtation, shaking his head slightly.
"I'm no poet, I'm just trying to pass this class," he shrugged "And by the way, my name's Richard." prettyboy may be a compliment, but he'd rather she used his actual name.

[Cal Karnstein]

Cal rolled her eyes. "Well, other works are only gonna get you so far, and it kinda depends on what you're looking to write yourself, now don't it? I could tel you all the great punk artists or tell you to start listening to Bob Dylan, but it ain't gonna matter to much if you need some romantic or Gothic BS," oh, she could give as good as she got, though right now, Cal was mostly just amused at the situation. Then again, Cal generally was amused by situations, with a lazy, feline grin.

Her head bobbed as he spoke of not being a poet, willing to buy that (for now). When he confessed his name, she winced. "Oh, you sure that's what you wanna go with, Prettyboy? This is your chance to call yourself something dashing: Romeo or Lothario or even go with a poet, y'know, Shakespeare or Dylan or Joey Ramone or Kurt Cobain..." she trailed off, studying Richard. "You do kinda got a Ramone thing, or maybe a bit more shakespearean, with the hair and all. Could definitely see you in tights," her gaze drifted down, clearly indicating what parts she'd be most interested in seeing in tights indeed.

[Richard Locksley]

"The assignment was not all that specific," Richard shrugged "It was just an assignment to try out a style of poetry and write about something you know... unimaginative and dull, but necessary. I just want to get it over with and turn my attention to more interesting things." like getting back to writing his own actual poetry, but she didn't need to know that part. That or going out to the practice field to shoot or fence or ride or literally anything else than what he was doing right now.

"That's my name, why would I want to call myself anything different?" he raised an eyebrow. He'd been named after a king... admittedly it was a king he'd then spent his entire life being told was his enemy, but it was still a royal name. "And I believe you're talking about hose. They're not actually that flattering on most people." he leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs up onto the table.

"So what's your name? Or what's the name you're going to make up today, since you seem to think that's something people do?"

[Cal Karnstein]

Cal rolled her eyes. "So stick with haiku if you want the easy way out. Claim you really thought it out, punch out three lines with the right syllables, make it loosely related to something natural, boom," which was the easy fix that Richard had probably been angling for, which Cal might have been subtly calling him out on. Or she could've just been legitimately helping to move the conversation along; sometimes it was hard to tell what her motivations were, when they weren't about making her look better.

The raised brow had Cal chuckling. "Sure thing, Ricardo,' she replied, drawling out his name and giving it an almost twang. "And I was so talking about tights," her eyes scanned the legs now in much better view. "And I maintain," she pinched the fabric at his leg, raising it up and releasing it, "you could pull them off."

She leaned forward, all but laying on the table now. "Hmm, excellent question. Probably should go with something fun. I'ma land on Kleio for the time being," she gave him a wink, wondering if he'd catch that she purposefully picked one of the muses.

[Richard Locksley]

"That could work..." he said thoughtfully, he'd never written haikus before, it would be something different enough to not raise any suspicion but could still potentially earn him a good mark... unless the teacher called him out on the laziness of writing such a short poem. Would probably depend how many other people took the easy route. "I'll think about it..."

"Something tells me you'd want to pull them off," Richard shot back with a smirk, her flirting was so obvious he didn't think she'd be all that bothered being called out on it, she'd probably take it for encouragement, and he at least had to show face when it came to such things in order to maintain his reputation.

"Very well, Kleio, it's nice to meet you." he nodded his head in greeting. While he was technically the son of an earl, due to his unorthodox upbringing his lessons as a child had been a little more clubs and garroting than classics and greek gods.

[Cal Karnstein]

"Probly should do a couple, since you're getting graded," advised Cal, head bobbing. she was actually putting together a small folio of haikus herself, though she was almost tempted to shove a few of her songs across. But she was pretty sure gross amounts of profanity and reference to sex wouldn't go over. Though she supposed she did have some that weren't ballads.

The mention of removing tights had Cal gasping. "For shame! and you such a gentleman! Implying that I, Kleio, your benevolent muse, would have scandalous thoughts!" she lightly slapped his arm, mostly just using the gesture as opposed to putting any real force. To further make her point, she scooted her chair over a bit and sniffed, looking as if she were going to totally stop talking to him now out of the sheer offense of having been accused of something so naughty and debauched.

[Richard Locksley]

"Good idea," Richard agreed with a slight nod, that would certainly take away the appearance of a lack of effort, and would potentially even make it look like he'd taken the assignment more seriously. He'd do them about something generic and impersonal, like the seasons, and just pretend they had some significance to him. Maybe he'd write about the seasons at home, as if they meant anything other than just how cold it was when he was sent out into the yard to practice.

"Oh, I am afraid you are mistaken lady," he replied with a wicked smile, easily shifting back into the slightly more archaic speech he was used to using at home "I am no gentleman at all, and as such I am free to make as many insinuations as I like. Especially when said benevolent muse has such obvious wickedness in her eyes."