[closed] opening doors: tevinter

[lumelume]

WHO: Alexandrie, Edgard, Mado
WHAT: Extracting an Eluvian from a wealthy merchant's basement vault
WHEN: A few weeks in Drakonis
WHERE: Minrathous
NOTES: smells like fish. details here

[Starters below.]

Comments

[muckspout]

Edgard pulls a face as a fish flops and shudders a little. He then nods, humming in the Lady's direction.

"Harbor cats could be helpful." He states equally dryly. "You first then."

Edgard gives her a winning smile and then sweeps his arm towards the open crate gallantly.

[lumelume]

"I like cats," Mado opines, "maybe now they'll like me more."

Breaking the tableau and the indecision of who's to go first, he steps around Edgard to start lowering himself into the crate.
Though he's pulling a This Smells Terrible face, it transitions quickly into a helpless grin as he looks back at the others. Look, it's no problem at all!

[coquettish_trees]

It's an extreme problem, and she's not going to forget this particular moment of fishy gallantry.

Alexandrie closes her eyes and very visibly takes a moment to breathe and set all of this aside before stepping determinedly into the crate after Mado. At the very least she's not likely to ruin the sturdy cloth of her travelling dress (although if it smells even the slightest bit like fish after it's been properly washed, it's being repurposed as kindling).

The fish are slimy, and they're moving, and in contrast to Mado's grin her face reports that she hates it so, so much.

"How long must we—" and then she cuts herself off and holds up a hand, immediately thinking better of her question. "No, do not tell me, or I will be counting moments rather than thinking of anything of use."

[muckspout]

"Too long." Edgard replies.

Edgard stands and pouts as the other two climb in. He gives a long suffering sigh. He climbs up to the edge, looks in at the other two neck deep in wriggling fish and leaps in as if into a swimming pool.

His gusto will probably not help the fish situation.

[lumelume]

The grin doesn't last long, of course. Especially not when Edgard hauls back to leap into the crate, which merits a nonverbal gasp of protest that becomes a groan of dismay when fish go flopping everywhere.

"Now some of them are dead," he remarks, miserably.

[coquettish_trees]

Alexandrie is intending to pretend this is some manner of daring new spa treatment. Perhaps the slime— no— oils are good for the skin. And the sinuous flopping of too many fish, trying desperately to get into some of the scant water to breathe, is a... massage technique.

"So we do not join them, let us again review our identities and the general scope of our planning." This is going to be so much worse shortly when they're closed in, might as well have a distraction. "I shall be Melusine, the recent widow of a moderately successful antiquities trader from Vyrantium named Valentus, who perished when he was thrown from a horse he was attempting to train— his one hobby.

"I have come to Minrathous to stay for as long as it takes to bring my late husband's various accounts in the city to a close, which gives us any cover we need for odd looking moveables going into and out of the space." Normally she'd gesture toward Edgard here, but that would necessitate moving her arms through the fish and that's not going to happen so she simply nods towards him.

"Edgard shall be Florian, the chief keeper of Valentus's accounts. You shall be overseeing and making note of everything that enters and leaves, and be as secretive and irritable and pompous as you please. Mado," she turns to nod at the other man, "shall be Festo, Melusine's personal valet. A slave rather than a servant, I am afraid, as such will be less noted, although that means you shall enjoy relative anonymity and pass beneath notice. As you are both in service to my family, if either of you find yourself in a difficult spot for any reason you may rely upon the excuse that you act upon my order and it is I who shall be responsible for sorting it out."

She looks back and forth between them. Questions?

[muckspout]

Edgard tries to shove a fish away which flops back towards him, so he scrunches up his face and punches it slightly. It doesn't flop back.

"I have a question." He asks. "Why does your name not start with an F?"

[lumelume]

Mado shakes his head good-naturedly, with a vacant smile in place of the abject disgust he feels and refuses to express.

[coquettish_trees]

"Two is a matter of pleasant amusement, three is uncommonly memorable."

Other questions?

[muckspout]

Edgard looks at her and blinks.

"That...makes a lot of sense."

Seemingly ignoring the fish, he pauses thoughtfully.

"You are very smart." He says it with the air of discovering the concept of time.