(no subject)

[knightbynight]

Bruce isn't happy about the announcement that he's been paired off to Zerxus. It isn't personal; he wouldn't be happy about anyone having his file.

He's just... differently unhappy with this particular pairing. It would always feel like his privacy and autonomy were being stripped away, that he was being made exposed and vulnerable, losing agency and control. This case? It feels like the balance is being thrown and he's losing something else -- a friend, or at least someone who could have been one.

He doesn't seek the other man out when he is informed, but he doesn't avoid, either.

In fact, he parks himself on the deck railing with a cup of coffee and... waits (and, really, broods).

Comments

[knightbynight]

Bruce doesn't know what he really means, just that this conversation is hitting 'fight or flight' territory, his fight options are limited and his flight ones are either 'over the railing' or 'straight at the thing that scares him'.

"Five."

[withintenfeet]

Zerxus sees that, and he leans a little closer. It's a precarious position, considering most of his weight is on the rail at this point.

"That's four angry teenagers after the first time you learned your limitations."

[knightbynight]

Is... Zerxus deliberately trying to push Bruce to break in one direction or another or is he trying to be helpful.

Bruce honestly does not know. He suspects the former, second guesses and over thinks to the later.

Regardless having the other man leaning in, Bruce pushes off the railing and starts walking to Zerxus' cabin.

Where he would, if he didn't have to wait to be let in, be real tempted to silently pick the file up and fling it like a frisbee at Zerxus' neck.

[withintenfeet]

He's certainly pushing, because balancing on this tight rope is only going to get them so far, and he's frankly ready for either possibility. Not the first punch he's taken in the name of furthering communication.

That's not what happens, which is - good, bad or neutral, he isn't really sure. All he can really do at this point is follow Bruce to his cabin - in silence, because he does know you can push too much.

Once he steps forward to unlock it, though, he gestures inside for Bruce to go first, if he wants.

[knightbynight]

Oh, look. An opportunity to live out his tiny, petty, fantasy.

And, you know, vent some frustration (and anger) when he's basically shut down on a verbal level.

He goes inside, sees the file and picks it up - it is hefty - and throws it back handed - like... some shuriken throws, or a disc, at Zerxus' head.

...Mature? Absolutely not.

Satisfying? yes.

[withintenfeet]

Punches he will take, but paper cuts? No, his hand whips up to catch the file, and also prevent all those papers from spilling all over the floor.

"You can throw something heavier at me later."

[knightbynight]

Bruce is still tense, kind of half-frozen up, but. "Just. Read. It."

Or he might throw something heavier.

[withintenfeet]

"I will." But right now, he's walking over to the chairs at the fireplace. Much less awkward reading position.

"Something is coming through the balcony in a second, don't attack him."

The room - solid stone, for the most part, furnished plainly but not cheaply - has a very large window overseeing a balcony that apparently still functions on the Barge. At least for the griffon that swoops in a few moments later.

[knightbynight]

Bruce follows Zerxus far enough to have a good view of the window and balcony outside it, but he does not continue to follow him after that warning and he sure as hell doesn't sit down.

He just waits those moments and when the Griffon comes in.

Then slowly turns his eyes to his warden, and equally slowly lifts his eyebrows.

"really."

Well he's not about to melt into violence anymore, at least.

[withintenfeet]

Zerxus tilts his head up, and his grin is broad, sharp and absolutely shameless.

"Bruce, Tempus. Tempus, Bruce."

Tempus bows his head in acknowledgement before flopping onto the floor behind the chairs, looking nothing less than a big cat.

[knightbynight]

Bruce absolutely is not sitting down with his back to that thing this fast. Instead he crouches down and tilts his head, in a way that's pretty cat like, too, to study the animal.

"...How sentient is he?"

[withintenfeet]

Zerxus angles his chair towards them, and for once looks like he's utterly enjoying himself.

"He understands everything you're saying."

[knightbynight]

"And what are you going to do with that?"

He's not talking to Zerxus. If it's not a pet, he's not treating it like one. No matter what it looks like.

[withintenfeet]

Tempus cocks his head, and the glimmering amethyst of his eyes seems to flare gently with interest as Zerxus' grin deepens.

"He can't respond directly, not to anyone but me." Zerxus brushes his temple with a hint of wistfulness; Tempus isn't the only presence meant to be there. "But he's intrigued. He thinks you're probably less tedious than most people."

It's hard to say whether the impatience with society at large is natural for a celestial griffon or Zerxus' influence or some combination of both.

[knightbynight]

"I've known enough telepaths to say that I dislike every expression of the ability on principal." He's still seems to be watching Tempus, but it isn't just him. "I suspect the feeling is mutual, and I know I'm more tedious than most."

then, without pause between words, he changes his gaze to Zerxus. "Who are you missing?'

[withintenfeet]

Bruce swerves between subjects with the same merciless velocity as Laerryn, which doesn't help the sudden onset of loneliness.

"Firstly, that really doesn't surprise me. Secondly, I'm betting you'd put up with it for the sake of strategic efficiency." Don't worry, this is in fact him answering the question.

"...Rary's Telepathic Bond. It's a spell that links up to eight people telepathically, so we can communicate as privately as we need to across any distance."

[knightbynight]

"I'll put up with a lot for strategic efficiency."

Which is his way of giving himself a moment to process and Zerxus a (tiny) reprieve.

"Who, specifically, did it link you to?"

[withintenfeet]

He's braced himself with less.

"The Ring of Brass." There's a weight of pain and regret in the words, but there's love and pride there too. "We were - Avalir was ruled by a council of mages. Their apprentices made up the Ring of Gold, and a tier beneath that was the Ring of Silver." Old, weary disdain has crept into his voice. It feels uncharitable, considering the fact that most of them probably died horrifically, but he's never been a saint.

"The six of us - " He pauses, then, before abruptly standing up and heading towards that desk. From one of the drawers, he pulls out what appears to be an empty pedestal. Then he presses something on the edge, and what appears to be a static but three-dimensional hologram shimmers to life.

Zerxus stares at it for a long moment before handing it over. It looks like a frozen moment of time.

[knightbynight]

Zerxus opened himself up to being asked all sorts of personal questions, and Bruce is taking advantage of that. Still not going to leave the Gryphon at his back by sitting in a chair, though, and yes, those are related. It means he's still crouched on the floor and can watch the other man move around.

There's something vaguely familiar about the nature of that tech, and also something jarring. He studies the image it presents for a moment, though, before:

"You're riding a Griffin, holding a sword, and have the magic or technology to create that."

what.

but also deliberate back off from the deeply painful he can all but feel.

[withintenfeet]

"I like swords." He considers, for a moment, before sliding his chair back a bit and just settling on the floor next to Bruce and Tempus. Not crouched, though; he crosses his legs beneath him and rests an arm across his knees, leaning slightly into the griffon's side.

"Magic and technology are - it's a fine line, especially in Avalir." There's a distracted quality to his voice; he has, after all, given himself a direct line of sight into the past. From this angle he can almost meet Patia's eyes.

After a second, more softly, "You remind me of all of them."

[knightbynight]

Bruce will eventually get all the way down to a sit - not yet, but when he does it will be a sign of relaxation. It will also respect his knees a good deal more than the position he's currently in, albeit meaner to them when he inevitably stands up again.

"That sounds like most things both technological and magic," he admits, with a faint smile. Because it's all innovation and making things work and levels of understanding and manipulating... material and tools.

Any way he follows Zerxus' eyes to the ...hologram?

"That doesn't seem possible." he sounds... almost sad about that.

[withintenfeet]

They're close enough to touch, but he doesn't; Zerxus reaches out carefully, finger brushing the gleaming golden orb that hovers at Patia's shoulder.

"Patia kept every spell she knew - and maybe more importantly, every secret - in this. Every wizard learns to wield knowledge like a weapon, but she was in a class of her own. Most people didn't see what that cost her, or how lonely she was."

[knightbynight]

Bruce gradually drops one knee down and sits on his other heel. Sort of a half-way on his way to sitting, instead of half-way to standing.

"I understand the implication and connection. My question is whether the isolation was a byproduct or purpose."

[withintenfeet]

"It's hard to say. Patia was a few hundred years old by the time we met, and she wasn't exactly an open book about her past." It's easy, now, to wish he'd pushed harder. Maybe if he had, they'd both have been a little less lonely in the end.

"But I know she never married, or had children, because she dedicated herself so thoroughly to that pursuit of knowledge. In the name of her city." He knows how she looked at Laerryn, sometimes, and Nydas; he knows that she vowed to be there for Elias once he and Evandrin had passed on.

"Her grandfather was the one who founded Avalir."

[knightbynight]

"Should I respond to that, or just wait for you to draw a comparison to each of them?" He does sit down though, and his tone is dry but not nearly as sharp or defensive as it had been earlier.