open

[inkindled]

WHO: Matthias, Nikos, Salvio (tbd if Doki, Val, and Darras will get open stuff. how did I get all of these characters) + YOU
WHAT: just open stuff, man
WHEN: NOW
WHERE: various
NOTES: tiny bit of self-harm but it's so small and it gets fixed so fast

Comments

OPEN -- lowtown tavern

[exsecutus]

[The Silver Fish isn't as gleaming as its name makes it sound. Nikos likes it for that. He has spent a lot of time in taverns like this, shadowed and generally inhabited by people who don't come for the conversation. When he was younger, he used to come to places like this, desperate to prove himself among the People. Slumming. He was a fucking idiot. He knows better now.

Brusque, and without comment, Nikos stuffs the last of his pamphlets under the lantern sitting in the center of the last trestle table. The paper is not very thick, but it's enough to tilt the lantern a little, shifting the light across the scarred surface of the table.

The pamphlets are Caspar's idea. Everything is Caspar's idea. But Caspar's ideas work, usually, so Nikos does as he's told.

The language in the pamphlet is simple and digestible, written to be read. A short summary of the history of the title of viscount, the history of the Orlesian occupation of Kirkwall, the sanctioned process of nobility electing a new line of viscounts from their own ranks when the viscount dies without an heir. A king who is not called a king remains a king, inevitable tyranny. It draws no conclusions but poses simple and pointed questions, questions that the reader of the pamphlet will, hopefully, answer for himself, or at least begin toward consideration.

Or wipe his arse with it, Nikos had said to Caspar, when Caspar read it aloud to him. Which made Caspar laugh, which made Nikos, against all odds, smile, because--Maker's balls--he's over thirty years of age and he is still besotted.

Not right now. Not on his face, at least. It helps that Caspar isn't in the room. Right now, Nikos is ready to get down to the business of drinking the last of his wine, and going back to the bar for more.]

[thereneverwas]

[Already at the bar and acquiring his first drink is one Obeisance Barrow, who, noticing the familiar face (though he isn't sure which one it belongs to), raises his mug in smiling greeting.]

Easier to think down here, isn't it?

[exsecutus]

[Nikos grunts, which is as close as he will get to assenting, and shoves his cup across the bar. It is refilled; he lays down coin.

He doesn't walk away, but tolerates the company for a moment of quiet. Easier to think that way. He takes a mouthful of wine, swallows it, then says,]

Nikos. Not Kostos. To forestall hilarious confusion.

[Or not so hilarious. He's been held accountable for Kostos' debts a few times.]

[thereneverwas]

Not to worry, [Barrow assures him lightly,] I didn't know your names in the first place.

[He takes a sip of his own drink.]

No need to be so dour, I'm just saying hello.

[exsecutus]

[Being unknown is almost nice. Nikos has missed anonymity. He takes a sip of his wine, drowning anything appreciative he might have said.]

This is just how my face looks. [Deadpan.] Unfortunate accident. What's your excuse?

[thereneverwas]

[The quickness and brutality of the insult results in a loud, surprised but delighted bark of laughter.]

Maker.

[He collects himself.]

Just lucky, I suppose.

[exsecutus]

I hope that's not what luck looks like. We all up shit creek if it is.

[thereneverwas]

Shows how much you know. I know for a fact I'm quite handsome.

[exsecutus]

[With great exaggeration, Nikos pushes away from the bar so he's turned toward Barrow, to get a proper look at him. He gives him a slow and very careful up and down, checking him out.

Eventually, he gives his assessment:]

You're a type.

[thereneverwas]

[When he sees that this is the way things are going, Barrow stands a little straighter, cocking his head with a refined smile as though he were sitting for a portrait.]

What does that mean?

[He's pretending to be offended, he knows damn well what it means. But Nikos-not-Kostos is proving more interesting a conversation partner than he'd originally thought.]

[exsecutus]

[wow what a compliment thnx]

It means, [in a tone like fucking duh, and Nikos gestures with his cup, up and down,] that you have a certain general physical appeal that would be stupid to pretend didn't exist, which I'm sure you fucking know, but you still aren't my type.

[thereneverwas]

[This begs the question of how mad or at least disgruntled he might get if continuously poked, but Barrow has enough self-preservation to know he doesn't want to be on the receiving end of a true tongue-lashing from this one.]

Kind of you to say so, [he says amiably,] though if you thought that's why I said hello, I'm afraid you're giving yourself a little too much credit.

[He downs the rest of his ale and sets the cup on the bar, digging in his pouch for a coin to slide over for more.]

What do you do? In Riftwatch?

[exsecutus]

[Nikos snorts, and turns somewhat unsteadily back toward the bar.]

It was an observation. I wouldn't flatter myself.

[He swallows half his cup of wine, and at the question, gestures to the tavern around them. What does he do in Riftwatch? This. The gesture is contained to the bar, and the area around it. Purposefully does not encompass the tables, the pamphlets tucked away to be discovered later.]

[thereneverwas]

[The witty comeback dies on Barrow's lips when he sees how Nikos wobbles. He... drinks? For Riftwatch?

Perhaps this is less funny than he thought.]

...everything all right, mate?

[He knows before he even says it that the 'mate' will be thrown back at him, but it's an impulse he can't help.]

[exsecutus]

Fucking fine, [he says, with venom,] mate.

[Annoyed, Nikos hunches over the bar again, and finishes off the last of his wine. He pushes the cup to the other side and flags down the barkeep for a refill.]

What do you do for Riftwatch?

[thereneverwas]

[There it is. No one can ever just let him call them mate.]

Dumb muscle mostly. [Barrow glances to Nikos' cup as he has it refilled again for the second time since they've been up here, which... hasn't been long.]

And I train the new blood. Heavy weapons for most, but also teaching a few mages to fight without magic.

[He remembers something.]

Think I saw your brother there once.

[exsecutus]

Kostos is the mage. Don't teach him too well. Fighting without magic is all I have on him.

[He takes another mouthful of wine.]

Never bothered with heavy weapons. Don't know why.

[thereneverwas]

One mage, one not?

[Things are starting to come together, even if they don't quite make sense yet.]

That must've been hard on the family.

[exsecutus]

[He snorts.]

Please. We're Nevarran. We love mages.

[thereneverwas]

Oh, well that's good.

[Barrow sips pleasantly at his ale.]

You seem like you love a lot of things.

[exsecutus]

I do. [THANKS.] Just because I don't wear a fucking badge on my chest for every one of the things that I love doesn't mean I don't.

[What a stupid sentence. Nikos scowls into his wine.]

Don't speculate.

[thereneverwas]

[Barrow can't help but grin. Maker's breath, this person.]

I'm not!

[exsecutus]

Just grinning like an idiot for no reason?

[He raises his eyebrows at Barrow, mocking.]

What do you love?

[thereneverwas]

People who don't hide their feelings.

[It's true enough.]

... and ale.

[He pauses.]

And tits.

[exsecutus]

[ew, or--]

Fine, overrated, overrated.