It Takes Two

 
 

You're struck by Venus's girl-next-door looks (or perhaps girl-who-lived-down-the-street-for-decades looks). She engages you in a conversation that's sweet, but unusually terse...
  • Dissuade the fleet she owns (5 3 6)
  • Self-absorbed person put a disguise on the face of a young nocturnal bird (7 6 5)
  • It's read when a dumbwaiter dies (8 6)
  • Newly-created kilt gives off energy (5 5 8)
  • "Pastry made of a secreting organ, m'lord?" ("5 4, 3?")
  • Wonderful green gem (5 7)
  • "___, will travel (to fruity green proms or movie premieres)" (4 4 4)
  • Non-extremists fire a weapon at a branchlet (9 5 4)
  • Challenge issued to a raised landform that doesn't keep still (6 4 4)
  • Currently smashed into pieces (3 9)
  • Indian mystics that are sleazier (or more viscous) than any others (8 6)
  • Debonair sweepstakes that occurs once every seven days (5 6 5)