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Thora and Birdie are having a chat over dinner, just the two of them as they tend to enjoy.
Birdie’s kind of a blabbermouth, talking about all sorts of stuff that doesn’t really actually mean anything at all, but Thora loves it. Her casual chattering is an amazing break from the bored, serious types Thora finds herself in rooms with all the time in her life. It gets her to spill some of her own secrets, talk about things that would definitely get her in trouble with the guards if they found out she was doing it behind their backs.
Birdie gasps, in a scandalous and intrigued sort of way. Hopefully not at all bad.
“I worry about you!” Birdie says.
“I can handle myself fine, you don’t have to worry.”
“Oh, I believe you. I’m not talking about that.”
“So… huh?”
“I don’t have to have a reason!” Birdie flies her little body over to the other side of the table and fills a thimble full with tea.
“I suppose everybody deserves to be worried about. Especially you.” Birdie takes a confident swig of it, while Thora only blinks and presses her arms together.
“…You know, those are decorative cups.”
Birdie giggles. “I’m decorating them with my tea! you ought to try it, the extra beauté is good for you.”
Thora doesn’t respond— she rarely does to Birdie’s interesting views on life. It’s not to say that she doesn’t appreciate it. In fact, she appreciates it so much she can’t help but smile.
To be worried about is a strange sort of thing, and Thora supposes her life has no shortage of it. There’s also no question that her and Birdie are very important figures, and overseeing a kingdom certainly leads a girl to give out all of the worries she’d need for a few lifetimes… but none of those are so personal as the consideration you lend to a friend. It hasn’t been a very long time since the first official, diplomatic kind of conversations between the mantises under Thora’s mother, and the ladybugs under the rule of Beatrice’s family. Thora feels a little embarrassed having already forgotten their names given the recency of those very long conversations— but— honestly, Beatrice, or Birdie as she insisted to be called, is the only ladybug she finds herself concerned with anyways. They’ve only known each other for around 4 months diplomatically, and slightly less so in the personal way, but Thora has a great liking for the girl. Despite how strange it must be for a mantis and a ladybug to be seen together.
Regardless, It’d be more than a little bit embarrassing to ask the name of her parents, admitting her forgetfulness, after having made such a big deal of solidarity towards the issues they posed. It’s not like Thora was lying, she really does care, but… “How have your parents been?” Feeling silly, Thora avoids eye contact. The sky outside is going grey. It’ll probably rain today.
“I thought her majesty— ah, your mother, met with them only a week ago?” Birdie hums.
“Well yes, she just doesn’t tell me about that stuff unless it’s ’beneficial to my eventual succession’ and all that, ” Thora laments, “and I meant in a… casual way. Not the business way.”
Thora rises from the floor-level chair she’d been sitting on and strides closer to Birdie, looking down at her with interest while Birdie rubs her chin in an overt little show of thought, her two lower arms crossed meanwhile the extra still holding her thimble.
“I’m not quite sure!” Birdie’s antennae twitch, as if in emphasis, “I’d ought to ask them about it. Although, it’d do you good to know we’re hosting a Midsummer’s banquet quite soon in our court. I’d love it if you could join us!” Birdie excitedly hovers up to Thora’s eye level. “Not to mention, I hear Ser Ocellus will be in attendance…”
Her sing-songy cadence does nothing to change the sour taste flooding Thora’s throat at the name.
“Really?” Thora frowns, “Ah… yeah, he would be. Well, I’m glad you’re happy about that.”
Ocellus is a self absorbed jerk, everyone knows that— especially Thora. She doesn’t really understand what Birdie’s infatuation with him is all about. She’s the sweetest girl Thora knows, maybe too sweet if only for her own sake, yet she takes every chance to mention him as soon as it comes up. “Don’t you think he’s a little gaudy of a personality for an event like that?”
Birdie laughs, boisterous and free, “Oh, not at all!” She pokes in between Thora’s eyes, leaving her in shock. “Maybe for a mantis party, but you’ll soon find out that ladybugs are not at all as rigid,” she sips on her tea and makes a scrunchy kind of face with an ‘eugh, cold!’ before setting it down on the table. “But anyhow, we appreciate a bit of eccentricity in our sector, and do forgive me if I'm wrong, but I’ve only ever heard the opposite of yours.”
Thora nods. By the rule of Queen Tarsa (or mom, as Thora calls her,) there’s a lot of customs that have been through the family. Not necessarily originating there, but simply the Mantis way. Thora’s never really been a fan of some of them, specifically the formalities and endless social rules that must be upheld when you are of ‘such importance’— but it’s how she was raised. No matter how rebellious she’s chided for being. (And yes, maybe she shouldn’t be sneaking out, leaving her sector and wondering what goes past the course’s edge but she does.)
“Sounds like my kind of party.” Thora admits.
Birdie clasps her top set of hands together and grins, all teeth. “You’ll love it!” Her lower set grabs onto Thora’s forelegs, holding hands. “Though I have to ask… is it true that a mantis can’t manage the waltz?”
Thora’s face heats up.
“That’s a myth,” she laughs, feeling silly for the second time this evening, “we just add a few steps.”
It’s not actually impossible for a mantis to do the waltz— but it’s probably significantly harder. Thora’s done much more difficult things that require a lot more coordination, but her legs always fail her when she tries to dance. It’s kind of embarrassing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun.
“You’d ought to prove everyone wrong at the banquet, then!”
Birdie’s enthusiasm is positively contagious, Thora thinks, long enough for a beat to pass. There’s no reason to let the presence of one guy she doesn’t like ruin the possibility of a night of excitement— of fun with a friend!
“…You know what? I will!”