Sara

He shook his head and he frowned. He seemed to enjoy the image of the thieves riding away on the Roman's horses. She shuddered herself, shaking her head. "They should not have done it. The Romans are...powerful." She sighed. Achaea had been conquered by them for as long as she knew. People needed to respect it. But she understood his questioning frown and gesture. "Where am I from? Achaea." She smiled softly, "Or not the mainland I mean, it's an island, it's called Kefalonia. It's the most beautiful place - crystal clear waters and beaches and peace and quiet." She hummed to herself. "I wish I could see it again before I die." But she was under no illusion that it was unlikely in the extreme. TAG: @Chevi

Her eyebrows rose and surprise registered across her face. "A Senator!" she exclaimed with a grin. "How important!" She could only imagine that the life of a slave in a household like that was beyond comparison to her own life. Spurius' domus floated into her minds eye. She couldn't imagine anything grander, but she understood the place where Jason lived must have been. But the conversation meandered on and she tugged the blanket up to cover herself against the chill that seeped into the windowless cell. She smiled softly to herself. "It sounds beautiful. Like somewhere I would like." She nodded. "Peace and quiet." Those were some of her favourite things. Her brows rose though as he asked a question and she stuttered. "I...I don't know. I rarely leave this place but...but I went to the games not long ago for the first time, on Cerealia and I met a kind man who showed me the horses at a stables near there. I liked it there. It was peaceful." She smiled. "And you?" TAG: @Sharpie

"Who is your master?" She ventured with an easy smile. She was not trying to pry, it was just her natural curiosity more than anything. "You are dressed finely, he must be important." She offered. 'Finely' was relative, of course - but Ione who usually spent her days naked, in a cheap gaudy toga or her only spare plain tunica considered anything but those, finely dressed. "I've...been to the market twice but no...not the Forum. I mainly just stay in this regio, when I have to look for business." She smiled at him. "But the crowds..." She wrinkled her nose. "There were so few people on my island, in my village...I don't think I'll ever get used to how busy it is here. Is it busy in Sarmatia?" TAG: @Sharpie

"Yes domine." Ione nodded, eyes downcast as her dominus ordered her to be a good girl, and then he left leaving Spurius and her entirely alone. She offered him a wan smile but didn't meet his eyes. From here it felt so different to the times she met him, conversed with him in his own domus. Here the whole interaction felt...so much cheaper. But as she asked and he answered she blinked as he lay down. She moved nimbly to the bed, making no move to cover her nakedness. He'd already seen her nude but this - again - felt different. She sat down gently and then curled up, facing him, eyes searching his face. "Would you rather me face the other way?" She asked with no malice, although she was visibly weary as were her words. The last client had been brief and rough. She just wanted to sleep. TAG: @Sarah @Atrice

She walked over immediately as he beckoned her from where he sat, allowing his fingers to adjust the palla - placing it up over her hair. She grinned at him, a genuine soft smile. There was no trace of manipulation or duplicity in her face as he then pulled it down. She stepped back for a moment and twirled in it - the fabric skirting up as she almost giggled in delight at the beauty of the moment, of the clothes. But his statement made her stop her twirling and she looked at him, gratitude passing clearly across her face. There was no hiding her emotions - a blessing and a curse. "Thank you domine, I...I would be grateful if I could keep them here." She smoothed her hands over her dress - her fingers softly stroking the fineness. But then she picked them up and as she stepped closer to him, moved them to gently stroke the side of his face before her hands settled on either side of his neck. "I am grateful for a lot of things." She chuckled, a small flush coming to her cheeks. "Including for your company above all others. You..." She cleared her throat. "Make me happy." TAG: @Sarah

Ione fluttered him a relieved smile as he said he felt better. "That's excellent news domine, I'm so glad." She nodded and then crouched down, trying to fish the cup out from where it had rolled under the bed. Procuring it, she blew dust off the edge before pouring some of the watered wine from the cup - holding it out to him. She kept her eyes lowered as she spoke, her voice light but she felt her heart hammering against her ribs. "I...I have enjoyed looking after you domine, being here...these past few days." It had given her purpose versus her work at the brothel. Besides her looks, she was far more suited to life as a house slave. TAG: @Atrice

She blinked as he took her arm and she flicked those big blue eyes up to his. His face was grim and stony and his words belied the reason. She stilled for a moment and then sighed, watching him carefully. But she snatched her arm out of his grip and folded it across her waist. "Perhaps this should be a lesson to you Marcus," she arched a brow at him. "I may just be a freedwoman but I am still your equal. I am still worthy of respect." her look hardened and she straightened her back, stepping further away from him. "And another lesson, perhaps, for your political career. You never know who might be of importance when you dismiss them, thinking they are nothing." She turned on her heel, determined to head back in the house. "I will consider whether to tell my husband or not." TAG: @Atrice

Start enjoying what your freedom means. Charis couldn't hide the brief grimace on her face and she busied herself sipping her wine. Teutus' own addition, that she'd get used to it was afforded a gentle smile in response and she sighed. She set down her cup and glanced at the pair in turn. "I suppose...I suppose it is just difficult given the last time I was free it was...very different. I had work to do - a family to cook for, siblings to look after, trade to make and now..." She gave a small shrug. "This freedom feels very different." Probably because this wasn't freedom at all, in comparison. Tertius' list of conditions was visible in her minds eye in that moment. Tertia Charis must stay in Rome, Tertia Charis is not allowed to leave the house or Rome with Peregrinus Quinctilius Varus without his father’s permission, Should Tertia Charis fail to live up to the terms of this document, Tertius Quinctilius Varus has the authority to do the following: the authority to send Tertia Charis away, the authority to keep her allowance, the authority to keep their children with him, the authority to remove the title of freedwoman from Tertia Charis and so on and so forth. She picked up her wine and sipped it deeply before she tried to move on. "How do you spend your days, Varinia?" TAG: @Sarah @Sharpie

She nodded wordlessly at his request to see the scar and shifted in her seat to bare her back, pulling her long dark hair over her shoulder. She tugged the back of her chiton down lower so he could see the neat, long pink scar down the length of her shoulder blade. When she was satisfied he'd seen enough she tugged the chiton back up and settled herself back in the chair. Her fingers shook as she gripped the arms of the chair. I will weigh your evidence on the matter. She choked - despite herself. "W-weigh the evidence..." She blinked, tears coming to her eyes. "N-No, he did this..." She trailed off as he stood. He had to be punished. He had to die. There was no other way. But Tiberius started to pace, talking and she struggled to concentrate on his words - the thought he would weigh her evidence and make a judgement that...might result in him walking free. No matter how unlikely that might be. She swallowed as he came to a stop. She finally flicked her eyes up to him as he rested a hand on her chair. His words felt like a lead weight on her chest. Her face was open, visibly upset and she pushed herself to stand - the distance between them closing. "If you do not make the correct judgement, or if news of this gets out, I will not have a life." She met his eyes in a final hard stare before she moved away, pausing at the door to flick her eyes to Jason, a softer look filtering onto her features. "Jason should be rewarded for what he did for me. I would not be here now, I'm sure of it, without him." And with that, she turned on he heel and moved back through the doors and the corridor to Pinaria and Lucius. She looked pale and ill but she managed a smile for Pinaria. "Your turn." TAG: @Sarah @Sharpie @Atrice @Chevi

"He is." Horatia responded to the question about Lucius with a small, wry smile. "I suspect he's enjoying himself too much to come home and enter the political sphere." Of all of the siblings Lucius was the most vibrant, perhaps. Where Publius and Horatia were methodical and calculating, Livia was temperamental (and sometimes downright hostile), Lucius seemed not to have a care in the world. Sometimes she wished she'd been given just a fraction of his temperament. But she nodded at his ambitions for a civilian career and Aulus' offer of help, although her eyes widened slightly at the idea of remarriage. She'd known how much her brother had come to love his wife, and in turn how much Horatia herself had valued her friendship. Her death had been a dark day and she knew it had marred the year that followed for Publius, even if he would not admit he ran away to Achaea to escape said dark shadow. She supposed it was a natural desire, to remarry. Particularly given that his son would soon be of an age to venture to the military where who knew what tragedy might befall him. One son was good, two was eminently preferable. And it wasn't as if the Horatii-Justini couldn't afford to nominate two sons to the Senate. She flicked her cool blue, assessing gaze to Aulus as he offered words of comfort and nodded in agreement. It would be a practical thing, this new marriage. Publius himself had admitted that - he wanted a role model, and a woman to give him another son. Love, she suspected, would be incidental and not a priority. "You will need somebody young enough to bare sons." She added thoughtfully. "But from an excellent family if she is to be the materfamilias of the Horatii-Justini in the future." After their fathers inevitable demise. She sighed and glanced at both men in turn before settling on her brother. "I would be happy to think on it and provide some suggestions, if that would be helpful?" Her lips twitched in a smile. "Although knowing what sort of woman you like would probably be helpful." TAG: @Sarah @Sharpie

As he asked her she merely nodded and took up the cithara on her hip from where she'd reclined on the couch. She'd been playing for so many years it felt like second nature to her and she started plucking a slow, soft, almost melancholic tune if not for the high notes that chimed occasionally as they continued to speak. It was no hardship to do both for her. She watched him - eyes open and warm as he spoke. Well...that was not what she'd been expecting. "It is different for every woman." She said softly with a slow smile but it wasn't lascivious nor was it unkind. She continued the tune, her fingers working nimbly over the strings. "But it's a noble endeavour to try and learn the basics all the same." She added and flicked her eyes down to her hands. She could probably play blindfolded but she suspected he'd rather she not be looking at him, assessing him, as they spoke details. The warm, soft tune drifted through the room. "Many women, I'd venture most women, do not get the most pleasure in lovemaking from the act itself or the man's member. It's their hands, or - if you were to be so bold - their lips, their tongue, that allows a woman to climax in the same way her husband or her partner might." As she continued to play her hair fell over her shoulder in a shimmering blonde wave. "Some of it I'm sure is against the very idea of masculinity but other things perhaps not...there is a place," She said, a soft smile on her lips, "Between a woman's thighs, that if you touch it, she will be trembling beneath you in adulation." Only then did she flick her pale blue eyes back up to Tiberius. "Of course it would be easier to show you rather than explain." TAG: @Sarah

She watched the pair of them gesticulate and then her eyes flicked to the older one as he apologised in a dialect she hadn't heard - beyond speaking it just now - in years. Despite the situation it brought a wry smile to her lips and she flicked her eyes over both men. "Thank you." She responded in the same dialect before switching back to fluent but accented Latin. "Gallus will sort out the product, how much coin do you have?" She asked, glancing at them in turn and then she reclined against the wall again. "What brings two Sarmatians to my shop though I wonder? This one-" she gestured at Azarion, "I know is in the white faction. You were passable, last time I saw you race." She smirked at him. "But what about you? Who owns you?" She asked Jason as Gallus extended his hand for the coins and brought out a pungent smelling box from under the counter. TAG: @Chevi @Sharpie

"People live on food and drink. Not hope." he countered. Hope drove people to stupid dreamlike places. As a slave he had learned that the only way to change his fortune was to do what was right, and what his gut told him to. He was a man of action, not a man of dreams and hope. The only way to change one's circumstances in Titus' opinion was to actually do something about it. But he rolled his eyes as the man said he did his trade for free as well and muttered; "What a charitable soul you are." His breath catching in a scoff at the end. Only when he questioned Titus did he spare a glance over his shoulder at the other man. "Titus." He barked out. "Vigile." If that didn't make the man leave him alone, given how generally loathed the vigiles were, then nothing would. TAG: @Chevi

Zia realised she'd fucked up the moment the mute one's eyes trailed from her face to her neck. She readjusted the cloak but it was too late, he'd seen it and she could understand the sign. Her glare hardened and Gallus' back stiffened. He'd evidently seen it too. She flicked her eyes to the talking one, appraising him from head to toe as her eyes narrowed on him. "I do not need to take your advice about my freedom." She replied, her voice a cold hiss. She only needed a little more. She could have been free months ago at the rate her business was expanding but with Titus now absent she'd concentrated on new supply channels instead and pumped the money back into the business. Hence the room they now stood in and the larger portion of the warehouse they rented for their goods. "This venture is all of my own making and I have enough gold in it to buy all of us, perhaps." She tilted her head and then studied both men in turn. "I have plenty of other customers, why should I sell to you two?" She smirked and switched to a border dialect - one that was used by traders that crossed between Dacia and Sarmatia - an amalgamation of their languages, one she suspected they'd understand judging by the trade signals the mute one used; "Perhaps you could apologise for your tone? And then we can do business." TAG: @Chevi @Sharpie

Yes, he had hit a sore spot and Charis' teeth ground together to stop herself from lashing out. She should have told him to fuck off - but for all the power she held over him now, she still understood some basics of propriety. Equally, to be so crude would only play into his impression of her that she was just a piece of dirt to be trodden in. She was Tertia Charis. No, she was Erea, a free woman. She would not be spoken to like this. She practically hissed the words up at him. "I can fend for myself. But you see Marcus, now I don't have to. Just like I'm sure you run to your father or brother or whoever you want when you need more money for your whores or your parties, or the next promotion on your cursus, now I have somebody looking out for me." She gave him a feline smirk and stepped back, turning on her heel to leave. "I shall tell my husband, Tertius Quinctilius Varus, Praetor of Rome, what you've said." TAG: @Atrice

"I've heard of Homer." He muttered quietly as he walked - only because somebody had done a bawdy retelling of the Odyssey at the castra. He didn't know why he'd answered the question and blinked before a frown settled on his face, annoyed at himself. The second question was easier to answer though and he smirked as he continued to stalk away - the crowds parting for the athletic, glowering blonde man and his trailing curly-headed companion. "Because they give people false hope. And don't help them. And people waste money that should and could go food or clothing or help for their children, to be comforted with a story instead. It's weak." TAG: @Chevi

Ione's brows rose and she offered Jason a small smile as she accepted the cup of wine back. She hugged a hand around her knees that were drawn up to her chest. "He can read? I've always wondered what that must be like." Her look wasn't unkind but it was pensive. To her - besides the letters 'I O N E' which had been pointed out to her under a very crude drawing on a wall in the Subura, she just thought it all looked like odd squiggles. She'd never felt any need to learn even if she could afford the time and expense. What could be contained in the letters that would be worth it? She nodded at his explanation, noting he didn't answer her question, and offered an opinion of her own from her inference: "I am the same...we sometimes get some festival days off and I never know what to do with my time. I sometimes just...walk...until I find something to look at or somebody to speak to." TAG: @Sharpie

Ione woke to water splashing across her face, smothering her. For a brief moment she was back on her home island as a young girl, having stayed out too late and fallen asleep on one of the hard shingle beaches only to be awoken by the incoming tide spraying her with its water. She spluttered, coughing and opened her eyes as a chill set into her bones at the sudden drenching. She pushed off the blanket - hastily sought after Armenius had fallen into a deep slumber and pushed herself to kneel, breathless and panicked for a moment. She heard him curse and thought he was cursing at her rather than his own clumsiness. "It's just Ione, domine, I'm sorry." She moved on wobbly legs - still trying to blink sleep and water from her eyes as she moved outside of the room to fetch an oil lamp burning just outside. She brought it in and it cast the room in a warm amber glow. It must be halfway to midnight by now and the domus was silent. She blinked at him. "H-how are you feeling domine?" She asked as she stood awkwardly in front of him clutching the lamp, her wet hair and faces leaving damp droplets of water on the floor. TAG: @Atrice

She sighed when he shook his head and gave him a sympathetic smile and a nod, as if saying; I understand. No slave - no matter how well respected or important to a household's function was ever truly free. Slaves at the bottom of the pile - like her in the Elysium, and him with his obvious FVG brand, were certainly not. It rarely bothered her, she didn't know what she'd do with freedom anyway. Spurius had asked her once and she'd merely said she'd find a man and raise a family. She didn't have grand dreams and few marketable skills. Still, she longed for the day she could do something other than open her legs. She watched Azarion carefully as he offered an apple to another of the horses and then tried to work out his gestures. It took her a long few moments and she glanced between herself and the horse almost comically, and with a slightly weak smile. "Have I ridden one? No." She confirmed. That was obvious by her skittishness around them. Then she expanded, in case he'd meant the other possibility. "And I don't think I'd want to ride one. I'd be too scared it would take me far away and I'd get lost, or it would throw me off. I saw some nasty injuries at home from men who'd tried to ride other horses. Broken arms and legs and..." She sighed and shook her head. "Then again they were fools who'd tried to steal them from the Roman garrison, so maybe the Gods punished them for it." TAG: @Chevi

He cradled her hand tenderly and she smiled softly at him, letting out a gentle sigh and brought his hand down to kiss his knuckles as he had to hers. "You shouldn't be the one saying thank you." She chuckled with a shake of her head. "You've given me everything," everything besides a ring, "Love and laughter and the courage to do what I want, and show me I can do more and be more...whilst at the same time giving everything to the city as well." She shook her head. "I hated it at first...that's why I hated you...because it infuriated me that you could feel so free, be so free and I...couldn't. I didn't realise that was why I resented you." She chuckled with a shake of her head, "But now I see I can be free...in a different way. But I can." TAG: @Chevi

She watched him, her dark eyes following his. He was just watching her, not saying anything. She wondered if she misstepped but decided she hadn't. She had figured it out herself a few months ago but she supposed she'd never told him. It had seemed like the perfect time for it. She moved her arm, and then reached her fingers to stroke his cheek softly. "Are you alright?" TAG: @Chevi

She grinned. "Maybe I should have a little statuette commissioned of your likeness so I could keep it at home with me and I could ogle you all day." That was...not a half bad idea actually. But she'd have to convince Lucius to sit for a sculptor, first, and then hide it from her family members who had seen him. But she deserved to give him more than that. More than the fact she found him attractive because that was obvious - both in her reaction to his affection, and in her general starry eyed demeanour. She watched him closely. "I love you because you are attractive, obviously but you're a good person and you...have changed me. Or...no, not changed me...you've revealed things in me that I didn't know I had. I...thought I knew what I wanted and it wasn't until I met you that I realised I wasn't doing anything for myself. You have such a big heart...a good heart and...you gave it all to me and made me realise I deserve love and affection and...what I want." TAG: @Chevi

She smirked at him. "Am I being cute right now?" She chuckled, shaking her head, trying to imagine what he saw in her that was cute. But he was soon distracted, as was she as he pressed. She chuckled, still flushed, and pulled the sheet up higher until just her head was showing as she peered up at him. "I'm a proper Roman maiden, excuse you." But she was teasing him, but that was only fair given she felt on the brunt of his jokes more often than not. "If I said it's because of your lovely face and great arms, would that satisfy you?" TAG: @Chevi

"Which one?" She quirked a brow, tilting her head to watch him in amusement and as he shifted - she shifted too so she was laying horizontal, her head on his lap as she peered up at him. "The one in the crowd? The one against the wall? The one as we were leaving?" She smirked. They certainly hadn't been...restrained. Which had been fine for her. "I..." She blinked. "I'm not sure anybody has ever described me as...cute." she flushed a little, her cheeks turning pink. Cold and aloof of course, beautiful maybe...not...cute. She cleared her throat and gave him a smug smile as she looked up at him. "I don't have to tell you shit." TAG: @Chevi

She chuckled. "Yes but now I've figured out why I like you." She smiled to herself, not expanding on that. He'd have to dig for it if he wanted an answer - but for now she was happy to be washed back to Saturnalia. The desperation she felt for him. Because of him. It hadn't gone away. She'd never, ever forget that night. "You know that was the first proper kiss I ever had." She murmured quietly, still smiling to herself. Although the smile turned to a frown as he articulated the reasons he liked her. She glanced up, giving him a curious look. "...cute?" TAG: @Chevi