closed.

[charmoffensive]

WHO: Loxley, Ket Perrino
WHAT: It's stalkception.
WHEN: August, prior to moving out to the Fields of Ghislain
WHERE: Kirkwall, heading into Hightown
NOTES: References to abuse and sexual assault

Lord Lilian Lambert cuts a path through Kirkwall on frequent evenings, particularly on nights of fine weather, from the grimiest of corners of Lowtown, to his generously proportioned estate in Hightown. It is always well into the evening that he makes the initial journey down into the muddy streets, and sometimes close to dawn when he makes his return while still dark, the evening winding down. On this evening, though it is well passed midnight, Lambert is returning home. He is a man in his fifties, clean shaven and grey haired, his wardrobe touched with the ostentation of his own Orlesian ancestry. He has to hold his cloak so that it doesn't trail in the dirt.

He doesn't go alone, of course. He is accompanied by a rotation of brutes, and this time, it's a large qunari with a broken horn, wearing custom clothing that still strains at the seams to contain all of him anyway. The qunari shadows his lord a few feet back, casting a lazy eye around to make sure there's no trouble.

It's security that would deter would be muggers, but is absolutely no challenge to someone of Ket's skill.

Comments

[sohighandwild]

"Ket Perrino," she confirms, taking the glass; the fact that she doesn't drink until he does is more habit than active suspicion that he's interested in drugging her. (Easier to do that in the Gallows, if he'd wanted to.)

"I don't see that there's any sense evading your careful not-a-question when it's easy enough to verify if you want. I was accused of either tricking a man into giving me a large sum of money or of cheating to win it from him at cards or both; the Dairsmuid Watch had a disagreement over how exactly I allegedly relieved him of so much coin. They vigorously agreed, however, that I'd gotten it dishonestly. I was on my way to stand trial, but the transport ventured inconveniently near a Rift and..." She taps her (gloved) left palm with her right index finger. "I'm now Riftwatch's responsibility until the war is over or they find a way to reliably get shards out people. Perhaps my genuine contributions to the war effort will convince them to drop the groundless charges; I suppose we'll see."

She leans forward a bit. "Now. If we're playing nice. Who are you and how did Lambert catch your eye?"

[charmoffensive]

Needle prods at his attempt to finesse the conversation are probably warranted; Loxley sits with his elbows on the table, cup between his hands, and allows it to ease on by without defense, more interested in all that comes after. There is a faint near-smile for the deniability woven into her story, and he sits back once it's done, taking a sip of wine.

"I'm still Loxley," he says. "And I come from another plane named Tassia. I was an adventurer, and prior to that, the sort of person who too might have in his possession dishonest sums of money. And I would very much like to play nice."

He glances towards the server, who has since wandered off to chat up the man at the bar, so he continues; "Lambert's accumulating a reputation amongst the lower cathouses. He used to have regulars but started leaving them too worse for wear, but that's not stopped him. He has enough coin to throw around to get his way and his reputation is such that the watchmen either can't or won't intervene, not sure which."

He isn't a great read of people, famously, but isn't being sly about watching her to gauge response.

[sohighandwild]

At the name, the coin drops, and her look clears slightly -- not necessarily in trust, but in being able to place something that she'd been trying to. "...you were the one trying to herd cats over the Rifter issue, a few months back, weren't you?" Perhaps tellingly, she doesn't ask how that turned out.

Instead, she moves on to: "My information says it's a mixture. A few strategic watchmen on the take, a few others blackmailed. Not all of them, just enough that his odds are good he'll have at least one 'friend' on any given shift ready to step in." Dry: "Not that justice in Kirkwall is easy for people like his victims to access regardless, of course. But rumor has it he's been increasingly careless as he's surer of his impunity." Whether or not she's ready to trust Loxley, she doesn't care who knows her low opinion of Lambert, under the circumstances.