firsttolast | (no subject)

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).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

withintenfeet

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

"He understands everything you're saying."

From:

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.

From:

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.

From:

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?'

From:

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."

From:

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?"

From:

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.

From:

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.

From:

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."

From:

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.

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

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.

From:

withintenfeet

Zerxus leans further back against Tempus, smirking with blatantly amused fondness.

"Well, considering that was a deeply Laerryn thing to say - " He gestures now to the other elf in the group, resplendent in purple and gold. "It was her spell that connected all of us, which was..." His expression turns wistful. "She wasn't an easy person to get to know. Part of her mind was always somewhere else, doing a dozen things at once."

From:

knightbynight

That gets his eyebrows up a bit. "Is the interconnecting thread going to be 'smart'?" Just, you know, curious.

Actually, he isn't. He's smarting off. He knows this isn't an 'intelligence' thing. He's curious, and the more Zerxus relaxes, the more Bruce does - for now, anyway. Could flip around on a dime, but right now? Relaxed conversational partner going the long way around, engaging his curiosity and interest?

...It's nice

From:

withintenfeet

Zerxus gives that the reaction it deserves: rolling his eyes with a snort.

(He hasn't felt this relaxed since the last time they were all together, away from the rest of the city. He's not sure when it was, exactly; at least a month before the Replenishment, before the end of the world.)

"She's exactly as arrogant, and you can't even argue with her because she's right." If he realises he's shifted to present tense, he doesn't show it. "The city would crash without her."

From:

knightbynight

"So the answer to my question is yes."

He's actually smiling a little when he says it, though. "The common thread you're going to find is intelligence."

He's being a bit dense, on purpose. "You must miss them all nearly as much as your husband and son."

From:

withintenfeet

His expression - flat, wry, trying not to be amused - softens immediately the observation, and not just for the obvious reasons.

"Nearly." Bruce has seen the stone carved with Evandrin's name, but he wears another necklace close to his heart; his hand dips beneath his collar and pulls out a locket that shimmers strangely in the light, inscribed the what appear to be magical runes.

"Laerryn was Evandrin's best friend. He gave her this, not long before - before."

From:

knightbynight

"What does it do?"

He's not missing the sentimentality. He's trying to figure out how to approach it, or if he's going to. If not is more or less kind. If he's going to express sympathy or engage with his own emotions - or one or the other or neither.

And he's absolutely using question to stall or time on that.

It shouldn't be that complicated.

But it is.

From:

withintenfeet

Once, a very long time ago, he might not see exactly what is happening here. But he knows - he knew - a mind so painfully, beautifully similar to this. In a way, he's cupping a piece of it in his palm right now.

"It's...a sort of container. Not for anything physical. Memories, emotions - love, and friendship. So that whatever happened, however much time may pass, she'd know that it would win out in the end." His voice has gone soft and distant, as if he's reciting something.

These were not words he knew, before he pressed the locket to his chest and closed his eyes. This was a private moment between two old friends.

"One of the last things Laerryn ever did was give this to me."

From:

knightbynight

He gives Zerxus a moment, respectful of the moment - and perhaps a little awed and touched by it. Which is as at odds with what he says next as the near reverent, soft, tone he says it in.

"You're a lot of sentimental - and incredibly stubborn - fools, aren't you?"

From:

withintenfeet

"Laerryn would throw a Firebolt at you if you called her that." His voice is just as soft, and the amusement in his expression is desperately warm. "Well. She'd accept 'stubborn'."

That is very much not a disagreement. Laerryn was one of the most brilliant people he knew, and second in foolishness only to himself.

From:

knightbynight

"I was hoping it would be the sentimental she would object to." He'd hate to start questioning the company Zerxus keeps now.

Or his assessment of them.

"You, of course, are all three."