[ has rueful underpinnings, Bastien’s smile small and eyes dimmed with worry. It’s not too cheerful a joke. But a joke nonetheless: ]
Now I really can’t make you run away with me anytime soon, or they will think you are running away from them.
[ He counts two of them as friends, sort of, to varying degrees, which makes it all the more annoying that the four of them collectively seem to manage less camaraderie and generosity with one another than Bastien’s managed with people who had previously quite literally tried to kill him.
—an assessment Byerly is not exempt from, of course, with the provocation. Bastien considers him and his talent for stirring up trouble and puffed-up outrage, which he finds so charming in a tavern—and doubly so in a stuffy ballroom—but likely would not find charming at all if he were trying to hack through it to achieve something. ]
You like attention, [ is frank, and extremely obvious, and nothing Byerly hasn’t said about himself. More of a prompt than a diagnosis. ]
no subject
[ has rueful underpinnings, Bastien’s smile small and eyes dimmed with worry. It’s not too cheerful a joke. But a joke nonetheless: ]
Now I really can’t make you run away with me anytime soon, or they will think you are running away from them.
[ He counts two of them as friends, sort of, to varying degrees, which makes it all the more annoying that the four of them collectively seem to manage less camaraderie and generosity with one another than Bastien’s managed with people who had previously quite literally tried to kill him.
—an assessment Byerly is not exempt from, of course, with the provocation. Bastien considers him and his talent for stirring up trouble and puffed-up outrage, which he finds so charming in a tavern—and doubly so in a stuffy ballroom—but likely would not find charming at all if he were trying to hack through it to achieve something. ]
You like attention, [ is frank, and extremely obvious, and nothing Byerly hasn’t said about himself. More of a prompt than a diagnosis. ]