WHO: Bastien & Kostos + Various WHAT: A catch-all WHEN: Harvestmere 9:47 WHERE: Mostly Kirkwall probably! NOTES: No open things but I will be delighted to plan & start things for you if you hit me up.
Yseult takes her time pouring wine into all three glasses as this little comedy double-act proceeds, then sits back with hers, smoothing her skirt over a knee and reading this list of names she already knows. They'll have to forgive her if she's slightly slow in catching up.
"These are people a magic ring tells you are using false names?"
"No, no, dear Scoutmaster," By says. "It tells you anyone's name at all. For example, it told good Bastien my middle name, in spite of the fact that I very rarely tell anyone my middle name."
(This is not true. Byerly's middle name is unimportant, and he only keeps the important things secret.)
"Or - did you know that Loxley's real name is Chivalry?" He laughs - "No wonder he keeps that one secret."
“I think it’s charming,” Bastien says, passing one cup to Byerly and taking the other for himself. “He could have gone by Chiv for short.”
But they are somewhat ahead of themselves, he supposes, in the excitement to be delivering a present. So his smile shrinks to something more serious, and he gestures to the list.
“I didn’t write down the real names,” he explains. “I didn’t want to have them lying around while I collected them. Someone broke into my room again last month, you know—got into all the nooks and crannies. But we can write them down now. They’ll be safer with you.”
"Chivalry?" Yseult's with Byerly on that one. It may be cute but what kind of parent--.
"So this is a list of people a magic ring tells you are using false names," she says again, to confirm. But without giving them a chance to imply otherwise again and confuse the issue further. "Let me get a pen." She rises to collect one from her desk (neatly covered in half-finished work), along with a book she props on one knee as she retakes her seat. 'Chivalry' is filled in alongside Loxley's name, and then scans down the list more closely. "Stark?"
“He is not lying,” Bastien says. “He is Anthony Edward Stark. But I thought it was interesting to know for sure that it really is Stark, since he lied before.”
Not to Bastien, directly, but he was ambiently aware.
“Tony Roads-Pots—do you think he picked the first two things he saw?”
By laughs. "You two should choose surnames the same way," he says cheerily. "Form the noble houses of Wineglass and Mostbeautifulmanintheworld." (The suggestions are, of course, for Yseult and Bastien respectively. By does not even bother trying to flirt with Yseult any longer.)
More seriously - "Petrana is lying," he volunteers. "Which I found fascinating."
"But Darras left before you arrived," Yseult deadpans without looking up from the list. There are a handful of interesting names on it, some to be expected, others less so. She puts a check next to Stark--surely his middle name isn't useful enough to bother remembering.
"For all her insistence, she is not Madame de Cedoux?"
Bastien grins at Byerly’s joke, held back from laughing by nerves. Nerves! Him! Horrible. But he would very much like his two favorite people to get along, is the thing, and not consider each other wholly obnoxious or wholly severe, with him between them insisting they’re both wonderful until the end of time.
So it’s Yseult’s rejoinder that cracks him open into a quiet laugh that’s two parts tickled, one part relieved. It dies quickly, as they move along, but he’s still smiling when he says, “Petrana Solene de Lamorraine.”
He loosely crosses one leg over and holds the wine cup on his elevated knee.
“She might not be lying, exactly,” he says. There’s no reluctance in his tone, but he does glance at Byerly with a hint of apology. He knows they’re at odds. But, “If the ring always gives birth names instead of legal ones, she might have been Mademoiselle de Lamorraine before Madame de Cedoux. I didn’t think to try it on your wife,” to Byerly, “or Madame d’Asgard, since we know they are who they say they are. But I can find some married women in the city,” to Yseult now, “to see if there is a rule to it.”
Byerly grins at Yseult's joke, both because he enjoys being razzed very much, and also because that was cute. Blame Bastien, and blame Alexandrie, but By has lately been sick with the effects of, dreadfully, being in love with love.
As for the latter issue - "It would truly be beyond shocking for Petrana, our good sweet soft-spoken Petrana, to be a liar. Why, she's such an upstanding bastion of honesty." But that's said lightly, without the full force of the dislike that he feels for the woman, so it can be interpreted as a bit of effervescent irony. More relevantly: "There was another Rifter here with that surname, was there not?"
Yseult lifts a brow at that comment all the same, but lets it pass without actually looking up from the list until she confirms: "There was. There was also another Stark, back when Tony was Rhodes-Potts. She's remained consistent, and the other rifter didn't cause any trouble; it seems unlikely to be of significance to us."
Sipping his wine and contemplating lying rifters and how much it might matter for any of them, Bastien quickly lowers his cup, mouth half-full, and tries to talk around it rather than swallowing first—
"Therahine Oh-har!"
—because he's so excited about that one that he doesn't want Byerly to beat him.
Yseult's brows lift at this--the excited marble-mouthing--and then her head tips as Byerly translates. Someone else might say good name out loud, but that will have to do for it. Her chin angles a little further, eyes allowed to unfocus for a moment, and then she shakes her head as she straightens. "Not a name I've heard before. Have you?"
“No,” Bastien admits, unfolding his features from the friendly glare he’d aimed at Byerly, the Usurper of Names. “But it’s fantastic! Serafine Tokar. What if I give her a deck of cards that is all angels for Satinalia? Do you think I could play innocent enough to keep her from realizing why?”
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"These are people a magic ring tells you are using false names?"
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(This is not true. Byerly's middle name is unimportant, and he only keeps the important things secret.)
"Or - did you know that Loxley's real name is Chivalry?" He laughs - "No wonder he keeps that one secret."
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But they are somewhat ahead of themselves, he supposes, in the excitement to be delivering a present. So his smile shrinks to something more serious, and he gestures to the list.
“I didn’t write down the real names,” he explains. “I didn’t want to have them lying around while I collected them. Someone broke into my room again last month, you know—got into all the nooks and crannies. But we can write them down now. They’ll be safer with you.”
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"So this is a list of people a magic ring tells you are using false names," she says again, to confirm. But without giving them a chance to imply otherwise again and confuse the issue further. "Let me get a pen." She rises to collect one from her desk (neatly covered in half-finished work), along with a book she props on one knee as she retakes her seat. 'Chivalry' is filled in alongside Loxley's name, and then scans down the list more closely. "Stark?"
set tag orders are for chumps
Not to Bastien, directly, but he was ambiently aware.
“Tony Roads-Pots—do you think he picked the first two things he saw?”
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More seriously - "Petrana is lying," he volunteers. "Which I found fascinating."
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"For all her insistence, she is not Madame de Cedoux?"
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So it’s Yseult’s rejoinder that cracks him open into a quiet laugh that’s two parts tickled, one part relieved. It dies quickly, as they move along, but he’s still smiling when he says, “Petrana Solene de Lamorraine.”
He loosely crosses one leg over and holds the wine cup on his elevated knee.
“She might not be lying, exactly,” he says. There’s no reluctance in his tone, but he does glance at Byerly with a hint of apology. He knows they’re at odds. But, “If the ring always gives birth names instead of legal ones, she might have been Mademoiselle de Lamorraine before Madame de Cedoux. I didn’t think to try it on your wife,” to Byerly, “or Madame d’Asgard, since we know they are who they say they are. But I can find some married women in the city,” to Yseult now, “to see if there is a rule to it.”
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As for the latter issue - "It would truly be beyond shocking for Petrana, our good sweet soft-spoken Petrana, to be a liar. Why, she's such an upstanding bastion of honesty." But that's said lightly, without the full force of the dislike that he feels for the woman, so it can be interpreted as a bit of effervescent irony. More relevantly: "There was another Rifter here with that surname, was there not?"
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Next. "Madame Fitcher?"
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"Therahine Oh-har!"
—because he's so excited about that one that he doesn't want Byerly to beat him.
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Then, less out of a spirit of cooperation than a desire to beat Bastien to what really matters - "Serafine Tokar."
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