[OPEN]

[nonvenomous]

WHO: Richard Dickerson and YOU
WHAT: Open/catch all prompts.
WHEN: Winter
WHERE: Lowtown, Gallows, Invading Your Personal Privacy
NOTES: Looking to make friends and influence people. Will add CW as needed.

Robbery - Lowtown

[ How often does Richard get shaken down in Lowtown? Tonight he’s a lean-armored figure standing with his gloved hands raised patiently out and open near the center of the street, while a dagger point picks its way through the beard under his chin.

Initially it looks like it’s just one guy doing the robbing, dagger-holding with his one hand and patting through pockets and over leather plate with the other. Filthy snow dams meltwater into brown pits in the shapes of hooves and boots over the cobble at their feet, catching wet flecks of sleet.

But Richard is looking up and to his right, and a voice hisses out from the rooftop shadows on high: ]

The fook you lookin’ at?

[ Before Dick can reply, Knife Groper (pats escalating into slaps) cuts in: ]

WHERE’S YER FOOKIN’ PURSE??


Astronomy - Gallows Tower

[ It’s a clear winter night over Kirkwall, stars pinned out sharp and cold in the velvet sky. Richard is an abominable bundle of wool and furs beneath them, gawky frame little more than a skeleton for the bear hide humped over his shoulders, gloves more akin to mittens, splayed clumsy and thick across the spread of an open book of constellations.

This would be easier with a partner native to the world, no doubt, but that would require asking anyone.

Instead, he’s built up a small fire in the brazier behind him and is piecing it out himself, breath streaming thin over the pages. The uneven wobble of orange light it provides shouldn’t be enough to read by, but he doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with the volume spread across the parapet before him.

It’s freezing, and it’s late. He isn’t expecting company. ]


Semi-Wildcard* - anywhere you wouldn’t want to find a snake

[ This is a place. It’s a place Dick shouldn’t be in. It’s a supply closet, or a records room, or personal quarters. It’s dark or it’s light, it’s too late or it’s too early. The door was left unlocked, or maybe it wasn’t.

The important thing is that he is here when you arrive -- an unremarkable man of average height and lean build, bearded and balding and holding a clipboard. He looks to the open door with cool, clear eyes, and waits a beat before prompting: ]

Hello.

[ expectantly. ]


True Wildcard

[ Try me with whatever or hmu and we can brainstorm. ]

*OOC notes: If you WILDCARD pls help me out with the description/any important Implications in your reply so I can adjust accordingly.

Also prose or action spam is fine I can roll with whichever.

Comments

[nonvenomous]

[ Gosh, he sure is very clearly over by her stuff. There is absolutely nothing in his posture indicative of guilt, or even unease; he scratches a note on his board, and flips the topmost page down over it, calling her eyes up away from the casual half a step he takes away from the stuff in question. Maybe she is in the wrong place. ]

I’m Richard, [ he says, helpfully, as if to remind her of the convention most normal introductions follow. Heeeello. Honestly. ]

I don’t think we’ve met.

[sulahnan]

Have now. [ Sorta. ] I'm Athessa.

[ That makes introductions official, regardless of how familiar or not she is with the convention of such things. ]

So...whatcha doin' with that there clipboard then, Richard? [ If that is your real name. ]

[nonvenomous]

Oh yes, [ ‘Athessa.’ His recognition is immediate: ] You were pushed down a flight of stairs.

[ He glances her over, as if to assess for any months old damage (or discernible motive), and tips his clipboard to the chamber at large around them. ]

Someone reported a smell.

[ It’s not his real name. ]

[sulahnan]

[ Please don't let that be her reputation from now on. She'd much rather be Oh yes, you're one of the griffon riders who felled that dragon, or even the one responsible for the live nug running around the Division offices.]

What kind of smell?

[nonvenomous]

An unpleasant smell.

[ So many questions, Athessa ‘pushed down the stairs’ Sulahnan. Dick fields them all with the same deadpan ease, direct without dismissing her curiosity. In fact, he takes another step, this one in her direction, skepticism (not quite suspicion) subtle in a push down at his brows. ]

You haven’t noticed anything? [ Strange. He makes another note. ] Did you stay the night here?

[sulahnan]

Well I hardly figured someone would've reported a good smell.

[ She doesn't step back when he steps towards her, but she might lean a little bit. Or just kinda tuck her chin in a tiny bit in that way that someone does when they want to lean away but don't want to be obvious about it. ]

Uh, no, last night I was in someone else's room. What division are you in? I didn't realize we had a... smell investigator.

[nonvenomous]

[ There’s nothing particularly physically intimidating about Richard to back down from. He’s lightly built, for a human -- gawky, even -- and average in most respects. Taller than Athessa, but not inclined to make a statement of it. He stops at a respectfully conversational distance, well out of her bubble, for all that he gives no outward indication he's noticed her not-leaning. ]

Diplomacy. [ Sure why not.

She might have seen him in briefings with the other scouts. He might have seen her. ]

How long have you been with Riftwatch?

[sulahnan]

Since Bloomingtide, so...seven months?

[ It's hard not to make a statement about height when she's nearly a full foot shorter than him. ]

So bad smells are Diplomacy's purview, are they?

[nonvenomous]

Why wouldn’t they be?

[ He angles his chin to offset the tip of hers, down and aside, pen poised against the wedge of this thumb. What is she trying to say? ]

[sulahnan]

[ Shrug. ]

Cos it's custodial, innit?

[nonvenomous]

I don’t know, is it? [ Now he does take another couple of steps towards her, angled just off-center -- putting him in a better position to leave. A sort of casual taxiing-towards-the-runway maneuver. ]

You seem to be quite the expert.

[ On reporting procedure for stank. ]

[sulahnan]

[ She laughs, like she suspects she's being Punk'd. ]

I'm definitely not. But I know bad smells aren't Scouting's area, unless it smells like secrets.

[ Yes, she has seen him at briefings. She steps aside to let him pass, which is a pointless gesture as there's plenty of space around her, but whatever. ]

[nonvenomous]

[ She laughs, and there isn’t so much as a flicker in Richard’s assessment of her assessment. This is a serious matter with serious implications. ]

No, of course not, [ he says, on the subject of Scouting. That’s why Diplomacy is handling it, clearly. ]

If you have any concerns you should escalate them to directly to Byerly. I’m sure he’d embrace deciphering your input as a worthwhile use of his time.

[ He nods his thanks to her step aside, and leans to walk himself out if she lets him. ]

[sulahnan]

[ He is free to go, though she watches with a bemused expression and calls after him in sing-song: ]

Good luck!