bouchonne | contact part deux

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

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From:

cozen

Does she?

[ The aww is in his eyes. ]

Is it a secret?

From:

bouchonne

Something to be treated with discretion. But not a secret.

[ He practically beams with pride. ]

She's grown up.

From:

cozen

[ It would be odd to hear a man talk about his wife like a little sister, if Bastien didn't know better already. But he does. So it's not odd. It's sweet. ]

How darling. They have to come, then. We can go to the Belltower. [ The cleanest place he can think of where no one will look twice at who's dancing with whom. ] Can you tell me who her companion is? Or should I ask her.

From:

bouchonne

Well - I'm sure you'd like a tiny mystery to solve, wouldn't you?

From:

cozen

Yes. I would.

[ He thumbs By's cheekbone, then lets go to trace the length of his nose with one finger. He could get off the desk now that the letter is gone, but he's enjoying feeling so tall. ]

I'll report back with my findings—have you spoken much with Astarion?

[ There's no graceful segue aloud, but his thoughts do follow a path: his future endeavor to find out who Sidony fancies, Astarion's teasing threats about finding out who he does, an on to the man himself. ]

From:

bouchonne

A bit.

[ An eyebrow lifted. A chin snuggled in further onto Bastien's knee. ]

Why do you ask?

From:

cozen

[ Bastien’s smile doesn’t go entirely away, but it does shrink down to something more serious. ]

Be careful with him. Of him, I mean. He told me he finds killing exciting. That he aims it at villains and our cause is a good excuse, but we’re all animals and he embraces it. All of that.

He might be full of shit. [ Bastien punctuates his possibility by pressing the tip of Byerly’s nose like a button. ] I used to try to swagger like that, to pretend—

But I know how you like to wind people up. Maybe don’t wind him up if you are very alone.

From:

bouchonne

[ Ah. By's gaze sharpens. ]

What were the circumstances under which he said all this?

From:

cozen

We were talking. I told him I liked that my job didn’t require killing anyone, and he said it sounded boring.

[ He moves his finger to play with the shell of By’s ear. ]

It is probably fine. He lost his temper with Madame Baudin before, did you hear that? She is still alive. And it’s a war, and we need people who can do this, and it probably isn’t fair of me to want other people to do the dirty work and also want them to hate doing it.

From:

bouchonne

Hm.

[ His brows draw down, and his lips press into a troubled line. He lifts his chin slightly off of Bastien's leg, posture turning more guarded and pensive. ]

Does he have any sort of magic, do you know? It seems he's close with some of the mages, which - [ Isn't great in and of itself. ]

From:

cozen

He says he is a vampire. But it isn’t like the stories.

[ Stories that might be true, in places darker and wilder than Bastien frequents, about people possessed by hunger demons. ]

He said they bite to make more of themselves, and they are very beautiful and they lure people in and then—you know.

[ This all sounds very dire. Bastien pulls his hand away, freeing Byerly to sit up properly and be serious, while he leans back on his hands on the desk and says, ]

I don’t want you yanking on his tail, that’s all.

From:

bouchonne

[ By does take a moment away from the seriousness to smile drolly at Bastien and say, innocently: ]

Me?

From:

cozen

[ Bastien smiles fondly back. ]

You, monsieur le provocateur.

[ He might be worried about drawing By a map to somewhere he could potentially outsource his self-destruction, should a dark enough mood take hold of him, if there weren’t so many more obvious options to choose from already. ]

I like you with exactly as many holes as you have right now. No more.

From:

bouchonne

I'll keep it to my current seventeen. You have my oath.

[ A kindly pinch to Bastien's side. And it's true enough: if By is in a truly dark place, being wrecked by Astarion wouldn't be nearly poetic enough for him. A Rifter? Hardly any drama in that at all. ]

That's not a very Bardly attitude, though, is it?

From:

cozen

[ Bastien sways into the pinch instead of away from it, grin at seventeen still lingering. ]

Which part? Not wanting you to provoke him?

From:

bouchonne

Wanting people to detest the evil things they do.

From:

cozen

Ah. No. I suppose it isn’t.

[ He watches Byerly’s face, looking for a hint, wanting to know if he’s getting at something more—are they talking about Astarion? about what Byerly has done? what Bastien has? purely in generalizations?—so Bastien can say what might make him smile.

Then he notices himself doing it, and he looks away, considering the uncommunicative fastenings on By’s shirt instead of his expression. ]

And very hypocritical. What is the difference between doing it for money and doing it for fun? Someone is still dead.

From:

bouchonne

Someone is still dead.

[ By tilts his head in acknowledgment. There's no condemnation in his manner. Nor any suspicion, nor any trouble in his brow. This is just a conversation to uncover something about Bastien. Just looking for a little piece of his soul, to have it, to know him. ]

But it's hard not to feel that way. Rather like how it's so easy to loathe the louts who hunt to prove their athletic prowess, and easy to empathize with those who hunt to eat.

From:

cozen

[ Bastien nods, considering the metaphor, and looks back at Byerly’s face. ]

Don’t imagine me as the someone hunting to eat, [ he says first; he’s said similar before, vigilant against Byerly making him out to be someone without a choice. ] But yeah. Like that. And the people doing it to fend off an attack, [ is a little pointed. Byerly. ] They are the easiest.

From:

bouchonne

[ He purses his lips slightly. Don't take this as an opportunity to be kind, you son of a bitch. But the faint disapproval fades: ]

I suppose, though, not many people have only one motive, do they. We can pretend purity of intent - condemn a fellow for craving violence - when for many, it's a combination of a few different desires. I'll bet that Astarion gets pleasure from it because he's a terrified creature who finds some sense of control in the enacting of violence.

From:

cozen

[ That lip purse earns a little what are you going to do about it eyebrow raise, before he’s nodding along with By’s assessment. ]

It sounds like he has had a hard life and not a lot of choices. If he did much killing before he came here, it probably wasn’t of his own accord. Maybe he needs to think of it that way now to—to feel like less has been taken from him.

I do like him, [ Bastien adds; however Astarion truly feels about murder, he’s on their side, he hasn’t stabbed anyone without warning, and he’s fun. It really is only about wanting Byerly to be careful. ] We should make him come out with us sometime, too.

From:

bouchonne

[ Innocently: ]

Why, do you think he'd fit in with us?

From:

cozen

[ Bastien sits forward so he can place a finger between Byerly’s eyebrows and try to push the innocence out of them. ]

He’s a card cheat if I ever saw one, so—yes.