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

[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?

[delphian]

( another shrug; the parts of what he says that don't interest her sliding off like water, curiosities of how another person sees the world without being anything she feels the need to adopt for herself. )

Together our whole lives. Besides the bit where everyone thought me dead.

[bouchonne]

And why did they think that?

[delphian]

( tsenka holds up her wrists— )

Do you not know, or do you want to hear it as I tell it?

[bouchonne]

I don't know.

[ A truth? A lie? Hard to tell with Byerly. ]

[delphian]

( her laugh is bright— )

Well, it's probably written down someplace, I bet you can give yourself permission to read it.

( not in terribly great detail, but about the same broad strokes tsenka would summarize it in. he's likable, this one, and she likes him fine, but stripping naked her recent traumas—

at minimum, he'd have to buy better drink. )

What brought you to Riftwatch?

[bouchonne]

[ He tips his head slightly to the side in acknowledgment of her refusal. If, indeed, it was a lie, and he knows, the lie was surely for that purpose - to give her the ability to feel as though she's not in the presence of someone who knows to pity her. And who knows? He's a busy man. Maybe it was true. ]

Would you like an exciting lie, or would you like the truth?

[delphian]

( it is, on first impression, difficult to imagine byerly pitying anyone, particularly.

but she lifts her fingers from the edge of her pipe, an elegant sort of gesture, habitual, )

Whatever you like.

[bouchonne]

[ So he shrugs in response. ]

The Venatori aren't a threat only in the North. Even beyond the Frostbacks, there is concern.

[delphian]

Well, and as well there ought.

( as someone who knows a thing or two about making her continued existence the problem of everyone around her, the venatori really fucking excel at that. )

How long has it been Riftwatch, and not the Inquisition? I don't remember hearing about it before I came here. Small world to cross so many familiar paths in it.

[bouchonne]

[ A light smile touches his lips. Many would follow with other questions - after all, Byerly's manner isn't that of someone who would fight for patriotism. The odd juxtaposition would perhaps draw suspicion from those with deep wells of curiosity. Perhaps Tsenka does not have those wells. ]

A few years now. The arrangement has suited us well enough. Given this group, oversight by an organization as disciplined as the Inquisition - [ ha-ha, low bar to clear ] was rather uncomfortable.

[delphian]

( byerly strikes tsenka as someone with the presence of mind to know that a world under corypheus' bootheel will be a world without dank, comfortable pubs to sing for liquor in—

probably there are deeper reasons. probably it's rude to push at them, after you've pushed someone away from your own. she doesn't imagine this will be the only time they ever talk (would be disappointed),

and there's always his dreams. )

Not many here who seem as they'd do well in an arm of the Chantry.

( there's some fondness in the observation, so whatever keeps tsenka at arm's reach of riftwatch, it isn't dislike. )

[bouchonne]

[ A short laugh. ]

You might be shocked to hear just how many of our number openly spit at the Maker's name.

[ Neither approving nor disapproving. It's just a curiosity more than anything else. ]

[delphian]

( the laugh she breathes out through her nose has smoke in it— )

Probably not, ( wryly. ) Though I wouldn't go so far, myself.

( tsenka isn't an atheist, nor an agnostic; she supposes she believes in the maker, but if he's turned his back to them, then everyone's ought to shift for themselves. the chantry, she thinks— that's a separate thing again.

like a verbal shrug: ) He's minding His business as I'm minding mine.

[bouchonne]

[ Likewise: ]

If every parent earned hatred for being neglectful, why, we'd have no love at all in this world.

[delphian]

( that makes her laugh, though she isn't sure how someone outside a circle would take the joke — if he were another mage, or she knew him better, she might have made a crack about how little she knows about parents,

but tsenka is au fait with the concept of making a joke and having someone ask, concerned, if she's all right. and he doesn't seem heartless. so maybe best not. though, that's quite a jest for him to make in the first place— +5 approval, relatability. )

Thank the Maker for witherstalk is all I've to say, ( is dry as hell.

she'd sort of like to be a parent, if it were ever possible, but the idea of being able to settle down somewhere with a little cottage and no fear of being dragged from it— maybe it's easier to imagine if you're already sleeping beside who you'd like to be in it. )