June 12th, 1894 — The Bone Menagerie Underground Cavern, Padmore Park

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Nova felt somewhat sheepish about leaving her children at home while she went to the bone menagerie. She hadn't felt so that morning, but upon arriving and seeing others with their children in tow, it suddenly occurred to her that her own children might appreciate the skeletal animals too. There was nothing to be done now though, oh well, she'd just have to enjoy it by herself. She had actually considered asking Porphyria if she wanted to attend and had gotten as far as penning a letter to her when she'd become unaccountably self-conscious about it and had to abandon it entirely. Now that she was there, however, she regretted her cowardice. Miss Dempsey would be the perfect person to have for company at such a place.

Subdued by her foolish oversights, Nova paid her extra sickle to go into the underground cavern where the magical beasts supposedly were. As she descended, she felt an unshiftable glumness come over her. This wasn't what she'd imagined it to be, all the enthusiasm she'd felt seemed abruptly drained from her and it was only inertia that kept her moving forward. She told herself she'd feel differently once she saw the bone creatures but as she entered the enclosure, she knew it wasn't true. They were as ghastly and grand as she'd hoped but there was no one to share it with.

She had barely entered the cavern when she found herself starting to turn around to leave, but she hadn't considered that there were people following her into the cavern who weren't planning on abruptly turning around as soon as they arrived and so she walked straight into someone. Horrified, she leaped back with a gasp and clapped her hands to her face. F-Forgive me, I- I am terribly sorry!

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Outfit | Tag: N/A | Notes:

  

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If there was something Ife liked less than being plowed into while she was walking on a perfectly predictable path, it was having someone trip over their own tongue trying to apologize about it. "Oh, stop that," she admonished the young woman sternly, and she thought if she had something to hand — a cane or a fan or something — she might have rapped it on the woman's hand for good measure, to punctuate her annoyance. As it was she had nothing. "I'm hardly an invalid." It was rude for this girl to have walked right into her, but Ife cared more about keeping her pride intact than a bruise to her shin or her knuckles where she'd reached out to catch the side of the cave.

"It's not wide enough for two just here," she continued, obviously irritated. "If you've lost your stomach for it, you'll just have to find it again until there's enough space for you to turn around without burrowing through the rest of us."

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The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes--
The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes.

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If Nova's pallor wasn't already that of particularly chalky wallpaper paste, the fact she blanched in mortification would've been far more obvious than it ultimately was. She had expected a far more gentle admonishment she thought, or at the very least not this sharp scolding she seemed to now be at the receiving end of. Perhaps it seemed more of an attack to her than it actually was, but the words still managed to cut her like glass.

Nova opened and closed her mouth several times without any words ever leaving it. She was so overwhelmed, she didn't know where to start in a reply but felt an urgency to make it sooner rather than later. M-Madam, she finally managed to blurt out, although further words failed to materialize. Someone was usually there to save her in any similar sort of situation, but there wasn't anyone there to save her now. What made it all worse was knowing how influential Mrs. Gbadamosi was in society and while she hadn't really had much involvement with her, Nova of course knew her by reputation and now Mrs. Gbadamosi was forming what was surely the harshest of first impressions of her.

She felt a sudden wave of lightheadedness threaten to take her out but she took a steadying breath and fought it off. My apologies... Nova cut herself off as she remembered being told to 'stop' and that it was probably in reference to her apologizing although she wasn't entirely certain.

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Outfit | Tag: Ife Gbadamosi | Notes:

  

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Ife gazed at Mrs. Malfoy sternly. She didn't deign to respond to the second apology, but expected that the girl would take her direction to heart and turn herself around. Ife was content to wait until she did so. She certainly had no intention of shoving herself up against the wall of the cave in an undignified manner to allow the younger woman to scuttle past and flee the exhibition. May my granddaughters never stutter in apology, she prayed. Not that she expected either of her granddaughters to be in a position to apologize much. Ife herself did not make a habit of it; but then, she also didn't make a habit of being in the wrong. Mrs. Malfoy seemed, if she had to guess, to be on the opposite end of the spectrum — one would think she would have mastered the two word phrase I'm sorry without stammering by now, given how much practice she probably had with it.

She cleared her throat to indicate that she was still waiting for the woman to continue walking, now with slightly less patience.

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