open, catch-all

[bouchonne]

WHO: Byerly Rutyer and Linden Doesntgetalastname
WHAT: Just a general catch-all
WHEN: This month, last month, next month, as you wish
WHERE: The Gallows and Lowtown
NOTES: Everything open! Reach out to me if you want something special and closed!

Starters in comments!

Comments

[bouchonne]

Tell me a dirty rhyme.

[ He grins, and lays a hand upon the glass without drinking from it yet. ]

[delphian]

( without missing a beat, )

There was a young blood mage named Mabel whose monthlies were always quite stable. At every full moon, she took out a spoon, and drank herself under the table.

( pipe in her teeth, she offers her glass to clink. )

[bouchonne]

Not bad at all.

[ He clinks his glass with hers, frowning appreciatively. Then he lifts the glass to his mouth to wet his lips - but does no more than that.

Then - ]

There's something I've always wondered. Slap me if you want to for asking it. But could a lady blood mage...? [ He gestures vaguely downward to capture the uterine/menstrual nature of his question. ]

[delphian]

( tsenka laughs, abruptly— not offended, certainly entertained by the boldness of the question. certainly one she'd ordinarily assume anyone who'd ask would reserve for someone they'd probably not have to see again with any frequency.

she breathes out a wreath of smoke, considerately not in his direction. )

I'm by no means the expert to ask, though I can see where you might think.

( the scars around her wrists are old enough to look more like bruises or discoloration; tevinter sure was a time. )

To what I've heard, doubt it.

[bouchonne]

I'm not sure whether to think that's a pity.

[ He tips his head from one side to the other. ]

On the one hand, one would want a blood mage to use a harmless source of power. On the other hand, one would want there to be no blood magic at all. So.

[delphian]

No such thing as a harmless source of power for blood magic, ( is matter of fact. she tilts her hand— )

It's not the blood that makes it powerful. D'you ever see the statues, before your lot all cleared them out?

( a tip of her head, toward the gallows. she's wearing a scouting pin, but they're not at we or our yet. )

What makes blood magic strong is the pain and the fear. That's what's wrong with it. You can't make that good. Blood magic does harm by its nature; it derives its power from harm. Not as popular up north as you'd think— but where would that end, if it was?

( a tevinter that endorsed blood magic would be a tevinter that tore itself apart, that ripped its own throat out. corypheus's tevinter.

reflectively, )

Mind you, I've had some bad months.

[bouchonne]

[ A laugh. His manner is cheerful when he says: ]

This conversation has turned far too educational for these environs.

[delphian]

Oh, it's a dangerous business asking questions.

( you simply never know the answers you're going to get. tsenka crosses her ankles, legs stretched to the side of the table, the louche elegance of someone about six inches taller than she actually is. tips the hand with the pipe in it, easy. )

What'd you rather talk about?

[bouchonne]

What brings you to Lowtown, perhaps?

[ It's a gentle suggestion. Practically an invitation for her to wrinkle her nose and decline to answer. ]

No two people have precisely the same reasons. The answer often says much about the respondent.

[delphian]

( she does not wrinkle her nose, nor decline to answer; she lifts a hand and points, sort of vaguely, toward somewhere between the door and the wall— )

I live here.

( she didn't miss all the extremely public displays of affection, so she is presumably not expecting him to bite when she quirks her eyebrows and the corner of her mouth, ) Happy to show you, if you like. Seneschal recommended to me some fascinating interior decorating.

( he asked her back to his bedroom to show her some art and they fucked is what happened. )

[bouchonne]

I wouldn't mind seeing it.

[ - which is not biting, per se. It appears to be a genuinely curious response to her offer, as though he missed the suggestiveness of the invitation. ]

The Seneschal has excellent taste.

[delphian]

He certainly does.

( and he's a shockingly good lay, which would probably be more annoying if tsenka had a different outlook on political differences between mages. or if she found his personality more irritating, instead of sort of entertaining to watch happen.

possibly the fact cassius black's personality isn't a deterrent to her explains a lot about how primed she is to apparently get along fine with byerly rutyer. )

Well, you know what the pay is, I've nothing so fancy as his like. But Lowtown is as good a place as any to be.

( and better by far than the gallows. )

[bouchonne]

Is it?

[ His smile crinkles the fine lines around his eyes. ]

I can think of a few that are finer, at least by reputation. More flowers and greenery, more light...

[delphian]

And if you should like to pay for me to live in any one of them, I would not decline,

( with aplomb. )

[bouchonne]

Well, it's not my fault you decided to join Scouting.

[ As if everyone doesn't get paid basically the same. ]

[delphian]

Ah, well, then.

( a philosophical tip of her pipe— )

There's worse places to have landed.

[bouchonne]

Worse places than Lowtown, or worse places than Scouting?

[delphian]

Certainly,

( in an agreeable sort of way.

her glass is not much less empty than it was upon his sitting down; a taste of it here and there (unobjectionably drinkable), but more occupied with the little circles of smoke she can send up to the ceiling. it's nothing headier than tobacco. )

[bouchonne]

Many mages end up in Forces instead.

[ Another lift of the cup to his lips. He barely wets them. His progress through the liquor is agonizingly slow. ]

[delphian]

Makes sense, ( she allows, without seeming to give it much thought for herself beyond that easy agreement. ) My brother did—your Captain of the Guard.

( ah, marcus rowntree, with whom she shares an accent if not surname nor species. )

Suits him, I expect.

[bouchonne]

[ An arched eyebrow. A little dryly: ]

Brother.

[ "I don't see the resemblance" goes unsaid. ]

[delphian]

Aye.

( byerly is by no means the first person to challenge that assessment; tsenka shrugs. )

Is that very strange to you as grow up outside, to love the people you're close to?

[bouchonne]

[ The eyebrow raises a scant millimeter further. He paraphrases her question - ]

Do I love the people around me?

[ Which seems, to him, tautological; if he is close, there is love. But: ]

You'll forgive me. The term brother typically implies that there is shared blood between two people.

[delphian]

Or that they were raised together, ( easily, ) as brothers and sisters are.

[bouchonne]

[ Noble Byerly, who as a child sat learning genealogies by heart, has, of course, a rather less flexible definition of the term. ]

Foster is most typically appended to the title, in that case.

[ But: ]

So you are from his Circle, then?