🇳🇴🇧🇴🇩🇾 // 🇴🇳🇪-🇴🇳-🇴🇳🇪 // 🅒 🅛 🅞 🅢 🅔 🅓

(Ah I feel that. You doing ok now?)
(And I’m on for a little bit today.)

@blue_topaz

(Here now!
Yeah, I'm better, sorry about that)

The city was beginning to quiet, lamps flickering off, a blanket of shadows cast over each house and winding street. The thick cloud cover above yielded only to the occasional shaft of moonlight, but sparsely so, and the stars were nowhere to be seen. Cicadas had begun to chirp; the hushed night-time symphony overtaking its daytime counterpart.

Noah tread carefully across the rooftops, watching what seemed like the whole world fall asleep beneath his feet. He was alone tonight, a solitary boy on the cusp of manhood, far above the twisting roads lain down at his feet. No ragged chimneysweeps accompanied him, not even a single nightingale—But then again, that was how he preferred it to be on nights such as this, when his thoughts were too complex to handle.

Picking his way over a gutter, he leapt nimbly onto the shingled roof of his destination, leaving only a trail of smoke as an indication of where he had been. Time to get to work….

@Toxic_Persephone

(If you ever need a break go ahead and take it.)

Arabella was the picturesque of grace and nobility. Her beauty was unclaimed by man, her ethereal body untouched by the latter. A near woman-to-be, Arabella was a perfect match for any wealthy suitor; a perfect trophy wife.

At least, that was what her father had told the world. Arabella had something different in mind. Her lady-like methods all but disappeared when out of the presence of the public.

She greatly defied her father’s wish for her to marry. She hated the thought of becoming a trophy wife to some rich snob. How could she ever pursue her dream of writing if she was locked under the responsibility of children and a husband? It was just not possible.

And so, here she stood atop the roof, having climbed from her window. Here, the world was peaceful, here she could sit and write to the world below and to the stars above.

Yet of course in a city such as this, once could not be alone for very long, even upon a rooftop. The soft tap of a shoe woke Arabella from her fantasy land. She had expected to be alone.

@blue_topaz

(nah it's fine, I just get nervous about starting rps every now and then
Thanks though)

Noah was taken aback at the sight of a silhouette, barely a few metres away from him, perched on the edge of the roof. The figure was slim, feminine—what was a young woman doing on the roof of an estate such as this? An urchin who dared to climb the walls of the intimidating manor? Another chimneysweep? But no, he alone had been sent, and no urchin could manage the risky climb besides him.

"Hello?" he called softly, a frown distorting his features.

@Toxic_Persephone

(No problem!!)

The voice scared the poor lady. She really hadn’t expected someone to speak to her. How had they gotten attop the roof anyways?

“H-hello?” Called the dove-like voice of Arabella. She feared the answer. Would it be from some creature of the forest? Maybe a gentle spirit who had died atop the roofs.

@blue_topaz

Noah's frown deepened as his brows drew together. The woman seemed…. afraid. Her voice, light and delicate, didn't resemble the careless accents possessed by the commoners on the streets, but retained a rather posh accent. Who was she?

He approached her cautiously, his feet leaving smoky imprints behind. "Who are you?"

@Toxic_Persephone

Her eyes searched for him. When they found him, her whole body seemed to relax. Or maybe, it was just a chimneysweep.

“Arabella Griggs.” She replied with a small smile, instantly regretting it. Her father had drilled her introductory into her.

@blue_topaz

Noah propped his brush, a long, wooden rod with a set of bristles attached horizontally across the top, up against the nearest chimney. He crouched until he was at eye level to her, searching her face. "The lady of this household? I don't believe you."

@Toxic_Persephone

She puffed up, huffing st him. “Yes the lady of this household. You’re starting to sound like my father.” She said with s soft growl to her tone

“I am Arabella” Her blonde hair was auburn hair was frizzy and wild. She looked exhausted.

@blue_topaz

(wait, didn't she just say her name is Arabella?)

@Toxic_Persephone

(AHAHA YES IT IS! Sorry. My brain is stupid. I meant Arabella. I was talking to my friend at the same time and their name is Eleanore. Sorry. I fixed it)

@blue_topaz

(lol don't worry about it, happens to everyone)

"You said that already," Noah pointed out, seating himself a few feet away from the stranger. A wisp of smoke curled its way up his leg, distracting him for a moment. "Your name, I mean. If you're actually Arabella Griggs….then why are you on the roof in the middle of the night?"

@Toxic_Persephone

Arabella pulled her notebook closer to her. She watched the smoke rise from his leg, wondering how dirty he had to be for it to do that. She could not place that it was him disappearing quite yet.

“It is quieter up here. It is better for… studying and thinking. My father would hate it if he learned I was staying up late.” The half lie sounded wrong to her. Thinking and writing was her passion and here she was hiding it from a random chimney sweep. “But I never got who you were before I told you who I was.”

@blue_topaz

Perplexed, Noah tilted his head. A lady, studying on the roof? But eventually, he accepted her statement—what else could he do?

“I’m Noah,” he introduced cautiously, giving no surname.

@Toxic_Persephone

Arabella grew just a tad worried. Why she had told a random stranger not only her name, but also that no one knew she was up on the roof escaped her. He easily had enough information to take her for ransom.

“Noah? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

@blue_topaz

Noah reslonded with a quiet grunt and gtnto his feet, turning away. “Unless you want to be covered from head to toe with ashes by the end of the night, I suggest you move.”

@Toxic_Persephone

The lady only stood and stretched out her tired muscles. “A little spot never hurt anyone.” She replied with a charming smile. Her posture, though lady-like, was extremely strained as if her dress refused her the comfort of slouching. In which case, it did.

@blue_topaz

“It hurts when you’re supposedly a lady who snuck up into the roof behind her parents’ backs… especially considering the fact that the ‘spot’ covers your whole body…” he muttered, turning away from her.

@Toxic_Persephone