Seregil i Koret (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
of_bokthersa) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thesphererp2019-02-05 11:30 pm
of_bokthersa) wrote in thesphererp2019-02-05 11:30 pm
01: A thought (voice: TheOtter)
I find it interesting that ever so suddenly things are beginning to become unraveled. Suddenly, once people who are new and different arrive. Perhaps I've been around nobles too long, but it seems to me as if someone was waiting for just this moment to do whatever it is that they're doing.
The local's darker turn is interesting too. It takes a good bit of charisma to cause so many to defend one's honor so. I'm certain I could never do it. And yet, forgoing coin out of loyalty, or so one would suspect. After all, to many a merchant, coin is coin no matter who is offering it.
It should be very interesting to see where things go from here.
The local's darker turn is interesting too. It takes a good bit of charisma to cause so many to defend one's honor so. I'm certain I could never do it. And yet, forgoing coin out of loyalty, or so one would suspect. After all, to many a merchant, coin is coin no matter who is offering it.
It should be very interesting to see where things go from here.
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[Seregil didn't want to know about their futures. He'd been very clear on that point. To that end, he wouldn't realize that Alec's suspicion wasn't owed to an inability to read people. It was a genuine caution. They'd been betrayed one time too often in their time together, and the deepest of Alec's trust was limited in scope to Seregil, Micum, Thero, and Klia. He would always be an agreeable person, and he gave people more chances than he probably should. But earning his unerring trust took a fair bit more work than it once had.
Alec took up the bag and poured a few stones into his palm. A smile slowly crept onto his lips, bittersweet only because he knew this dance with Seregil, and it was a knife twisting his gut. He couldn't follow the next steps. It was unwelcome.]
Are these for me? They're well-made.
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[He kicked off the chest and started rolling the putty in his hands again.]
I've already spoken with the man who runs the black market. He seems amiable enough, and I may have already started getting the game promoted in some of the gambling halls.
[He was rather proud of himself for that, and with everything going on, it made it possible to get a bit of coin to actually purchase the things they needed that couldn't be attained in the black market.]
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[It was neither judgement nor admonishment. Alec simply appreciated Seregil's ingenuity.]
I'd ask you for a private game, but I have a feeling I'd lose my pants to you.
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[The smirk on his face was bright and pleased. Seregil rarely took things lying down, and this would be no exception. There would be thievery to even out the gouging, and all the intrigue that he lived for since his time started among the Tir.
It was also a welcome distraction from their current predicament. The fact that Alec called him talí almost constantly hadn't escaped him, or the fact that it felt right and almost comfortable to hear it from the other man.
Or that fact that he had to stop himself from saying it back almost every time he addressed him.
It wasn't the right time to be thinking of those things. It never would be. Especially not when it was someone that he cared so deeply for as he did for Alec.
The comment of a private game made him laugh again. Trust Alec to learn the intricacies of rebuilding something as strange as a toaster but not be able to hold his own at bakshi.]
If you can't even beat me once then I'll need to beat you more so you learn.
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As you say. But just because I can't beat you doesn't mean I'm terrible, you know. I can still hold my own against most people.
At least in this place, there are no luck pieces for you to hide in unmentionable places.
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It sounds like there's a story in that comment.
[The belief that Alec was from a different reality was making him bold, almost willing to hear the other man out as to what his life was like with this other Seregil.
Without hesitating, he flopped down on the bed, looking up at the other man.]
Alright, let's hear it.
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Ah... Well. As I recall, we were visiting a game house for the evening, and one of your opponents was a bit peeved at his rotten luck. He called you on cheating, and demanded you be searched for a luck piece. But...
[Alec sighed, and his face flushed a soft pink.]
You made a grandiose show of stripping down to nothing right on your chair, offered your garments over for inspection, and earned a rousing applause. Can't say I cared for half the Rhiminee nobility seeing your glories when I'd been the only one handling them for quite a few years, but...
We were riding back to Wheel Street when you told me they'd neglected to search the most obvious place.
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The blush, however, brought a satisfied smirk to his lips. Making Alec embarrassed was almost a past time at this point. It emphasized an innocence in the man that Seregil couldn't help but admire - and want to sully in a way.]
Let that be a lesson to you then; always be thorough in your investigation.
[He couldn't deny that the whole even sounded exactly like something he'd do. Stripping down was a common occurrence for Lord Seregil; at least it was back before he'd picked up Alec. Now there were more pressing matters than keeping up his debaucherous behavior. There was Alec to train and Watcher business to attend to. Especially with the war coming on fast.
But it was good to know he'd return to such outrageous behavior one day. In a way, it had its own subtle charm.]
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In any case, I'm not sure it's entirely healthy to hide magic inside yourself like that. You never seem to have trouble with talismans or protection charms, but they're not inside of you. That's the only reason I asked you to use more caution in the future.
[That, and perhaps he wasn't entirely past his Dalnan prudishness when it came to public displays of nudity.]
Damn, this...Talí, I've left the screws on that table next to you. Could you hand me two, please?
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[The comment was an airy thing that dismissed Alec's concerns about his magic dysfunction. Concerned he may be, but Seregil got the feeling that there was more the Dalnan prudishness at play than anything else.
It was disturbing how easily Seregil replied to Alec's calling him that word. Instead of saying anything or pausing, he simply reached over to grab the screws and handed them to him. He didn't even move from his all-too-close proximity to the other man. Seregil had always been one for physical contact and a lack of proximity when it came to those who were trusted in his orbit. That wouldn't stop with the situation they'd found themselves in.]
What do you think of the people on that counsel?
[He had his own opinions already, especially about Max, but Alec's was just as important to him.]
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I'm not sure I've seen enough of them to form a solid opinion. They seem to care, but I'm not certain it's genuine. So I suppose I'm still just waiting to see?
[Alec slipped the silver cover back over the appliance and turned the thing over. Rather than ask Seregil for the screws again, he leaned sideways over the man's lap, sprawled across to the bedside table. Screws in hand, he sat up again, and set back to work.]
Have you heard something I haven't?
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He squashed the thought by turning to look at the toaster and its silver reflective surface.
It wasn't Alec's fault; he reminded himself; Alec was doing nothing that hadn't been ordinary and natural just days before. They'd always had a type of intimacy about them that was their own, and everything had been perfectly fine there. There had been issues, of course, but those were his own. They were the fancies of a man who fell too quickly and too deeply for another man who he could never reach in that way. And he didn't want to. At least that's what he kept telling himself that he was fine so long as he had a place, somewhere, in Alec's heart.
But since their meeting here there was a pull. It was as if Alec were carefully untying the strings that held his heart at bay. The old reminders were starting not to be enough - every time Alec called him his talí, his beloved, a string came undone and it took more force to put it back in place.]
I've spoken with Max; he's the one who runs that black market of theirs.
[He carefully kept his voice even, casual almost.]
It's possible he'll be asking about night work.
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[As if they weren't busy already. Simply trying to figure this place out was work, and Alec wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of burgling anything he didn't fully understand. Seregil had only himself to blame for that, too; he'd set Alec to task on locks so often, it instilled something like a compulsion in the boy. He had to learn it, practice it, master it, before he put it into practical use.
But the appliance was whole once more. At least, Alec assumed it was. There were no wayward parts on the bed, and he had a fairly deft memory, so of it functioned before, it should function again.
Alec eyed their dressers, and gave Seregil's knee a light squeeze as he rolled out of their bed and made way to kneel before his own drawers.]
Come on, there has to be more than one way into these things. Maybe we can interrupt or bypass what's powering them. We can figure it out between the two of us.
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[The truth was that they didn't. They could live without nightrunning here - but who would want to? Since Skala and becoming a Watcher it had become more a part of who he was. The danger and adventure were as much what kept him going as the blood in his veins.
The squeezing of his knee was a surprise, and it brought him up a bit too quickly, eyeing Alec with a measured look before it was gone.]
You sound like you have more knowledge about these things than me these days.
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[Alec offered Seregil a soft smile and then turned his attention to the dresser.]
Their reliance on electric could be a boon, in fact. We may not get anywhere while the locks are being powered, but perhaps cutting the electric would give us a way to open them manually. It's too much to hope that disabling the power would open them for us immediately, but...
[It was just musing while Alec pondered the mechanism, jamming his nails into the openings and tugging, trying to find some leeway for tools. Even if they had to make new kits for this nonsense, figuring a way in seemed the most important first step.]
You didn't happen to find picks in that black market of yours, did you?
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[There's a part of him that's a bit concerned that this is one lock they can't pick. Before Alec arrived, he'd tried everything with his. Nothing managed to work.
Still, he would let Alec work with it a while and see what came up. It would give him a reprieve from the thoughts haunting him regarding the other man.
He tossed him his roll, the same one that Alec would recognize from home. After all, he didn't leave the house without it (even when going to the Street of Lights), so it had been on his person when he'd arrived.]
From what I can gather they seem rather impregnable. A damned nuisance if you ask me.
[Only because he couldn't get into them. Though he couldn't say he wasn't impressed.]