[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 waves his arms wildly in front of him to form a big X.

"I took a bath. a bath! Which is against my principles, but I draw the line at," Edgard makes an expression like one about to lose their lunch and gasps out the rest of sentence in a harsh whisper, "scented oil."

[coquettish_trees]

A little splish noise as she flicks the surface of the water behind the screen. It's unconcerned rather than cross. That line will move.

"Each other," she replies breezily in the direction of Mado's voice, "although you must have a lighter touch with it, Mado." Then, just as lightly, after enough space to indicate she's speaking to the second party: "It may be against your principles, monsieur, but Florian has no such compunctions. In fact, Florian is extremely well put together and quite vain about it. He smells delightful and has not a single hair out of place."

There's the sound of water cascading, cloth noises, and then Alexandrie's face appears alongside the screen wearing a smile so pleasant there's little chance that it's not layered over iron.

"And, for the tenure of our stay in Minrathous, you are Florian."

[lumelume]

"A light touch is nearly too much," Mado says conversationally, dabbing a bit of one oil on his wrist and bringing it near to his nose to give it a whiff. Though his olfactory senses aren't superhuman, he does notice more than the average person, and finds it nigh-overpowering.

But he beams right back at Alexandrie when she peeks around the screen, mindless of his own state of undress (it's all right, he's covered by the water).

"Have you never played make believe, Edgard?"

[muckspout]

"Make believe? lied before if that's what you mean." He frowns and adds, "Only when I have to."

He gives the oils a withering stare and sighs dramatically. Edgard closes his eyes. When he opens them again, he says in a stilted voice.

"Good day. It is, I, Florian. Please hand me an oil please." His face is very blank, but at the last moment he breaks and shudders.

[coquettish_trees]

Alexandrie is outwardly delighted and inwardly recalibrating.

There's a little soft inward delight too. As a woman slowly recovering from a life spent drowning in deception, those who seem almost functionally incapable of being other than they are give her a unique kind of joy. Like finding a small flower growing somewhere unexpected.

She can work with stilted. Perhaps Florian is now a standoffish prig! But if there is a chance to help Edgard think of it differently...

"Ah, c'est bon!" She exclaims, clapping. "You need not worry, should you find the idea of prolonged falsehood distasteful. Think of us as actors telling a story together, and you might find it amusing to freely behave in a way you should hardly do were you yourself!"

[lumelume]

"That's not what I mean," Mado answers easily, but doesn't correct him, allowing Alexandrie to speak instead as he scrubs at his arms.

"It's not really falsehood, anyway! Or at least, not in a way that matters. It's mummery."

He grins back over at Edgard.

"If I'm to be mostly silent, that in itself is a pretense."

[muckspout]

"I, Florian, understand you both." Edgard intones in his stilted voice. He puts the oil on his arms, still with a blank face, every so often his eyes widening in horror for a split second.

"Good sir, are you not someone who is very very silent--" Edgard thinks for a moment. "Festo?"

Edgard bows low to Alexandrie. "And Madame!" He points at her. "Florian does not remember thy name! What story shall you tell?"

[coquettish_trees]

In answer Alexandrie pulls her head back behind the screen, then appears in full wrapped in a plush robe to proclaim in a soft voice with a Tevene accent:

"I, Melusine, have tragically lost my beloved husband," her eyebrows draw together and up over a shuddering inhale, a more theatrical expression of sorrow than she would use in practice. "It has broken my heart, but I must wear a brave face and conclude his business in the city. It is—" sniff! "—what he would want."

[lumelume]

Opening his mouth as though to answer, Mado quickly catches on and closes it again with a pleasant smile-- ah, we're in character now.

He proceeds to look Very Invested in Melusine's tragic tale, his eyes glittering with emotion.

[muckspout]

Edgard looks from Alexandrie to Mado and breaks character.

"Why is everyone crying?" He whispers in distress. "I thought we were pretending!" He wrings his hands a little.