contact part deux

[bouchonne]

if this were modern times byerly would probably make you listen to total eclipse of the heart before you were able to leave a message

Comments

[littlemissfutility]

They...weren't really a thing, where I'm from.

[bouchonne]

Well, you must go. The fellow who looks like me plays a number of different places, but there's a rumor that in three days he - and a fellow who looks rather a lot like Bastien - will be playing at the Red Lion theater in Lowtown. The opera will be The Baker's Three Wives, a comic opera focusing on mistaken identities, manners, so on and so forth. It's saucy but not scandalous.

[littlemissfutility]

I think I can probably handle 'scandalous.'

[ How bad can it be? Someplace like this, where they don't even have electricity, she's kind of assuming there might be a flash of bare ankles. Something quaint. ]

But maybe I'll go to that one.

[bouchonne]

[ A lifted eyebrow. ]

Define scandalous for me.

[littlemissfutility]

...Drugs, violence, sex? That's what would've been scandalous at home.

[bouchonne]

Blasphemy, too. Don't forget that.

[littlemissfutility]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about that.

[bouchonne]

But your precious little ears!

[littlemissfutility]

If the worst they do around here is say "goddamn" sometimes, I think I'm gonna be okay.

[bouchonne]

"Andraste's tits" is a worse one.

[littlemissfutility]

If you're Andrastian, probably.

[bouchonne]

What, you haven't already converted?

[littlemissfutility]

Do I need to?

[bouchonne]

Life might be easier if you do. Or if you seem to do so. That's not an official request or recommendation, mind, just something to bear in mind.

[littlemissfutility]

Are you an Andrastian?

[bouchonne]

I am.

[littlemissfutility]

Did you convert?

[bouchonne]

Maker, no. I was born to it. Beyond born to it. My ancestors marched north with Andraste to lay siege to Tevinter, all those centuries ago.

[littlemissfutility]

You can trace your family that far back?

[bouchonne]

Oh, yes. The Rutyer family has deep roots indeed.

[littlemissfutility]

Wow. That's a lot to live up to.

[bouchonne]

Yes, I suspect all my cousins who are still giving it a go find quite a lot of stress in it. I myself stopped making an attempt - oh - thirty years ago? A far superior choice.

[littlemissfutility]

[ A pause. ]

You just...gave up?

[bouchonne]

[ With a laugh - ]

Is that so shocking? - I'm from a cadet branch of the family, so there's no real money to inherit, if that's the source of your surprise. I lost out on a few coppers at most. Perhaps a few old pelts we had stashed in the attic.

[littlemissfutility]

--What's a cadet branch?