open | and now that you don't have to be perfect,

[elegiaque]

WHO: Gwenaëlle Baudin, et menagerie, and you?
WHAT: Baby got a houseboat, and it's move-in day. Find her at the Kirkwall docks as things are unpacked into it, or after that across the harbor at the Gallows slip where it'll be secured for the foreseeable future.
WHEN: Shortly after the return from Cumberland.
WHERE: Kirkwall harbour.
NOTES: Y'all I have coveted that houseboat since it went up on the rewards page.

Originally some manner of riverboat not intended for the purpose it presently serves, the houseboat that is for now moored perfectly in line with the anchored Walrus in the harbor is— something of a monstrosity, an eccentricity built up over time, not impossible to move under its own power but more commonly affixed to a more purposeful vessel and tugged along behind it. Having won it in a game of cards from a local who'd been tired of the lifestyle and tired of Kirkwall besides, it's taken some time for the Duke de Coucy to consider it sufficiently worthy to relinquish his granddaughter into—

which is to say, the interiors are now substantially finer, even if she'd put her foot down and insisted she didn't want anything done to the exterior that wasn't absolutely necessary. No need to turn it into obvious thief-bait, for a start, and besides: she rather likes the aesthetic. It's shabby and shambling but it was in otherwise good repair when it came into her hands, surprisingly sturdy and featuring beneath the water a wine-cellar kept cool by the ambient temperature around it where she's spent much of the morning while the rest of her belongings are brought in by de Coucy footmen and servants packing her stockpile of only slightly stolen Vauquelin wealth in the locked store-room behind the wineracks.

With only slightly stolen de Coucy wine, naturally.

Gwenaëlle emerges from below as trunks and furnishings are still being unloaded from carriages come down from Hightown, Small Yngvi the cat sleeping in a pinned up portion of the front of her skirts and Leviathan, the nug, doing laps of the exterior in an effort to understand his new environs. Hardie sits sentinel on the deck in front of the door, supervising the efforts of the de Coucy men (who are, in fact, being supervised by Guilfoyle—) and upon consideration Gwenaëlle sits down beside him, fingers in his fur, occasionally answering questions about where something needs to be put and if she would like it unpacked, also, or left to her (or Guilfoyle) to manage later.

Once everything's been securely stowed, a boat waits to haul it over to one of the empty slips surrounding the Gallows, where Gwenaëlle will finally have significantly less of a commute. The last thing to be done before that, of course—

“I have always wanted to do this,” Gwenaëlle says, and smashes a champagne bottle against the balustrade, just above the brand-new sign identifying the vessel as La Souveraineté.

Comments

[overharrowed]

Julius didn't come to visit expressly, but he'ss returning from a visit to town when the activity catches his eye. When he approaches, it's with good humor (better humor, arguably, when he sees Hardie, who gets a hand to sniff as soon as Julius is close enough, with a murmured you remember me, don't you for good measure). Gwenaëlle is sitting close enough to Hardie he could hardly avoid greeting her if he wanted to, though he shows no sign of being sorry to see her. Instead, he says, "Are you thinking of commissioning any wards, or have you already done it and I should be jealous?"

[elegiaque]

“I should ask your scary boyfriend,” she drawls, “but no, I hadn't got so far. And I thought you'd probably be busy—”

Probably with his scary boyfriend, at that.

Hardie butts his head against Julius's thigh, affectionate where Gwenaëlle is just sly, but it's a peaceful moment amidst the continuing controlled chaos. “What do you think of her? You can lie.”

[overharrowed]

Her initial comment gets a small laugh; her following question gets him to consider the houseboat as a whole for a moment. "...I think it suggests you were ready for a change from Hightown." Which is diplomatic, but not a lie.

[elegiaque]

“Rutyer should give you a raise,” she says, laughing. “Whatever you're being paid, it can't possibly be enough.”

[overharrowed]

It makes him laugh again, franker. "I'll tell him you said so. Are you happy with it?"

[elegiaque]

“I like it very much,” she admits, which is an easy admission, and not likely to come as a great surprise to him. “And it's surprisingly sizeable, once you're in it. Space enough for the things I need of it.”

[overharrowed]

"Well, that's what's important." That she was pleased. "Will you admit visitors, once you're settled in? I always meant to come back and see you in Hightown, but I admit being unsure of my welcome once your grandfather was in residence."

[elegiaque]

“I'm admitting them now, if you'd like a drink and a tour,” she says, mild as you like, a hint of amusement pulling at the corner of her mouth at his admission. “I promise I'm not hiding my grandfather in here anywhere. He wouldn't have minded you any, but he fucking hates the boat.”

[overharrowed]

"I'd like both the drink and the tour very much, as long as I'm not putting you out," he said, not commenting on the duke's approval or lack thereof. "I admit to being curious; I don't think I've ever been inside a boat designed as living quarters before."