[open]

[lumelume]

WHO: Mado and you
WHAT: where are my beloved cousins??
WHEN: whatever month this is
WHERE: the Gallows
NOTES: he's here

There's a strange man in the Gallows courtyard, a man nobody has seen before. He looks shabby, dressed in a long yellow surcoat that has seen much better days, but his face is lit with a plaintive grin as his melodic, Antivan-accented voice rings out:

"Averesk? I'm looking for Kostos, or Nikos Averesk! Have you seen them?"

It's not even entirely clear how he got here, because nobody saw him enter or leave the ferry, and this is not a person who escapes notice easily. Maybe he's a ghost. Maybe he's been living under the island this entire time.

"You there, please! I'm looking for my cousins!"

Comments

[lumelume]

"Kostos," comes the breathy gasp, and Mado turns quickly to see the back of the man's head, his whole being tensed for this moment.

"Kostos?" more direct, aimed toward the departing man, and suddenly Mado is all uncertainty, clasping his hands in front of him.
"I'm Amador. ...Vivas, if you like. I'm your cousin."

[exequy]

No, Kostos would like to say—but it’s been years since he spoke to most of his relatives, and there’s a full suite of aunts and uncles in Antiva, and maybe one of them has a son named Amador. He doesn’t know. He barely cares.

The no impulse arises less from the impossibility of a Cousin Amador and more from the impossibility of a Cousin Amador who dresses like that.

He manages to restrain it. But what he says instead is, “Who the fuck are your parents?”

So not much better, there.

[sulahnan]

"Well, that sounds like my cue to go," Athessa says, shooting a vaguely apologetic smile in Mado's direction and moving to step past Kostos. "Have fun catching up."

[lumelume]

"Ah! That's a good question!" Mado replies, with the air of a dog whose tail has only just begun tentatively wagging upon eye contact with a person.

"I've never met my father, but he's-- your mother's brother?" he guesses, since he has at least a vague idea of how surnames tend to work, "...Vivas. And my mother was Dalish, so it's unlikely you'd know her." He smiles eagerly.

[exequy]

"What," Kostos says to Athessa, because she's leaving, and then, "Uh," to the new fellow, because he's just said his mother was Dalish.

He steps in front of Athessa to block her path. If this is some sort of prank, she's going to stay here and answer for it—maybe, if stepping in front of her is enough to make her stay.

[sulahnan]

Athessa does stop, looking as surprised by it as a marionette would be when hefted by the eyebrows.

"Whaddya mean what," She gestures to Mado as if he's Exhibit One. "This is Mado, he's your cousin. And since your family is none of my business, this--" Here she turns back to Kostos and gestures to herself. Exhibit Two. "--is me walking away."

[lumelume]

Mado stands there smiling blithely, unsure what to make of any of this and therefore not contributing. When Kostos looks at him again, he waves.

[exequy]

“When you bring me supposed family members, it becomes your—” Kostos is saying, when Mado waves at him and his brain trips mid-sentence over the absurdity and falls flat into several seconds of silence.

He steps out of Athessa’s way.

“Fine,” he says to her, but he’s still looking at Mado. The next part is for him: “Do you have any proof?”

[sulahnan]

Athessa smiles, triumphant, and walks away. But not without a lilting call of "Play nice" thrown over her shoulder.

[lumelume]

"Oh-- no, of course not," Mado replies, a little confused, even hurt by the question; what would he gain by lying about such a thing?

"I only know what I was told! Which is that the sister of my father married someone named Averesch, and that she was your mother." He holds out his hands in a helpless shrug.

[exequy]

Kostos twists to give Athessa’s retreating back a look—a look he’ll follow up with words later, when he can talk to her alone instead of in front of a potential con artist—while he says, “And you believe everything you are told?”

[lumelume]

"Well," the stranger says with less certainty, "everything Borachio tells me, at least!" He smiles helplessly. "He helped me identify my father's family."

[exequy]

"I do not know who that is," Kostos says, in a tone that indicates he also doesn't care. "Does your father—" 'father' "—claim you?"

[lumelume]

"Oh... oh, no." Mado shakes his head emphatically. "Not in the slightest. But I'd hoped that..."

His words die on his lips as he fully takes in the look Kostos is giving him.

"...I'd hoped that we might be friends, at least."

[exequy]

[exequy]

"And the money has nothing to do with that?"

[lumelume]

Mado blinks, with a look like he has been left behind at some important turn in the conversation.

"Money?"

[exequy]

There's no telling which part of that is confusing to the man, exactly, but Kostos gives his coat a long look and makes his best—or at least his most insulting—guess.

"You buy things with it."

[lumelume]

"Yes, but," he smiles helplessly, waiting for the punchline, "what does it have to do with us?"

[exequy]

"Nothing," Kostos says, "because I cannot inherit. If you want to blackmail your way into an allowance, you will have to take it up with Nikos."

[lumelume]

"Blackmail!"

Mado breaks into a peal of delighted laughter. The very thought!

"I should hope not! Don't you see, that's not why I'm here!" He takes a step forward, opening his arms slightly, the vaguest invitation to a hug.

"I don't need money, I don't even want it. I just wanted to meet you."

His eyes are damp with affectionate tears.

[exequy]

The only reason Kostos doesn't step back is that stepping back isn't something his feet do, even when someone is approaching him with swinging fists instead of glistening eyes and vaguely inviting arms. But he does say, "Don't touch me," just to make sure that's clear.

He needs a few moments after that to look at the man, trying to think. The results are mixed.

"Fine," he winds up saying, for lack of knowing what else to say. "Come with me."

[lumelume]

Mado's arms drop again, but he doesn't seem too dissuaded. He's a little bit shorter than Kostos, but up close, there are definite, ominous similarities: the curl of their hair, the line of their jaws, the angle of their brows.

"Where are we going?" he chirps, following along easily.

[exequy]

"You are going to tell me how you happened," Kostos says, "but first I need a drink."

And to get Mado slightly further away from everyone he knows, in the meantime. How did he get here? Does the ferryman just let anyone have a ride in the boat if they ask nicely enough? He'll have to complain to someone about that later. For now they're going back across the bay—a ride Kostos spends in as much silence as Mado allows him to, aside from some mumbling into his sending crystal—and into a tavern not far from the docks.

Once he has his drink and they have a table, he looks across the table at the man.

And looks.

The silence becomes expectant.

[lumelume]

Silence is not a thing to which Mado lends himself easily, and he chatters for most of it: about Kirkwall, about the bay, about how lovely the city is, how many interesting little shops and different kinds of people there are here, much like Antiva, but more Southern and so forth.

He's pleased as punch to be sitting across a table from Kostos, especially now that he has a drink himself.
"You asked me how I happened!" he says brightly, "and the answer-- well, I don't know, the way babies happen, but as I understand it my mother got a little too friendly with a shem'len from Rialto against the Keeper's wishes."