Evie

Sport seemed far more interested in trying to lick Evelyn’s chin at the moment than listening to any possible suggestions she might have. It was an idea though, maybe she’d tell her mum about Sport later. Maybe not, if her mum couldn’t find Hels then it was too much to put on the puppy. It was certainly nice to be liked by Sport though, even if Evelyn’s arm might eventually fall off with all the belly rubbing. Not that she was likely to complain Sport’s timely arrival had brightened Evie’s evening tenfold.

He means the dress she decides fairly quickly. She almost paused paying attention to Sport for a moment. People didn’t pay her compliments …not compliments like that. They may say something nice to her if Phoenix was around, but it was never about her appearance. It was probably the only reason she noticed and fixated on it. Her first instinct was to expect teasing, some kind of cruel joke she hadn’t quite figured out yet was being played on her and it made her unsure. Not for the first time in her life did she wish she had her mother’s power of truth sight. Still, he didn’t seem malicious and the presence of Sport was surely a good indication of character so… he had to be talking about the dress. “You look fine,” her nose scrunches as soon as she’s said it, it was an awful compliment… did it even pass as a compliment? Probably not. Wait… did she want to give a compliment? Yes. “I mean you don’t look like you’ve rolled out of bed, maybe your hair does but it’s nice, like a style thing, right?” Still not a pass. Time to stop trying.

She quickly becomes very focused on Sport until the weird churning embarrassment she’s feeling settles itself down and she stumbles her way into more awkward questions. It definitely wasn’t her business if he was from Earth and she didn’t mean anything by it, she’d just been curious. He doesn’t seem offended by her question but still she feels like she’s overstepped some mark, can sense the awkwardness she’s caused as Morgon looks at his feet. Instantly she wishes she could take back the question. She was going about this all wrong. She’d finally found someone at this party as uncomfortable as her and her stupid mouth was ruining it all. And he’s being nice, telling her not to worry and she hates herself for asking even more. “It’s just… I was born on Shaman. My mother she’s from… well she doesn’t talk about it much, not Earth but not here either. My brother’s a traveller and then I’ve been nowhere,” she shrugs not mentioning the rest of her family but desperate to explain, “I guess I’m curious, not that I don’t like it here, here’s great… maybe not this party but Shaman in general.” Evelyn stopped as soon as she realised, she’d started to ramble and probably hadn’t made the situation any better.

She decides she’s awful at this, whatever this is; smalltalk, socialising, chit chat, all of it. It surprises her then when he says it’s nice to meet her and she blinks stupidly for a second as all she can think is ‘really?’ Manners and embarrassment return in a flood and she hides her heavily blushing face in Sport’s fur as she mumbles something that sounds like a ‘thank you’.

The same instinct that whispered of cruel jokes and teasing also flood back when he speaks again but then he asks her if she wants to go for a walk with him and Sport and her heart instantly leaps. “Yes, please, I’d love to,” there the first easy words she’s said as she smiles, big and wide. She would much rather go for a walk than stay here, Phoenix wouldn’t worry about her, neither would Aunty Ana, she was so busy. Sport seems disappointed as Evelyn stopped playing with her to stand back up. “Where do you wanna go?” She’s already wondering how much of the castle he’s seen and the places she could show him.