1227.3 What Happens Next

[gerg]

@cunningrat1

((Now that's just not nice, gerg. Dangling hidden conflict in front of a Tytalus is practically an invitation for him to poke Tranquillina just to see the resulting explosion. ))

(( And thus verifying her opinion of Tytali! - anyway, not that he couldn't've guessed what was on her mind ))

@cunningrat1

Stultus nods. "I do. I, um, seem to be able to understand and speak just about any language you'd care to name. I'm told that's not an unknown ability... some Redcaps seem to exhibit it. God alone knows how I wound up with it, though." He doesn't show any sign of noticing Tranquillina's genteel and subtle flinch away from his familiar. Rahere, however, stops in his tracks, pouts even harder, and reverses course, slouching off down the hallway with every line of his body expressing indignation at the vast unfairness of the universe.

Tranquillina blinks for a bit at this information. "Um. Any language? - They ... the Mercere, they call it the Gift of Tongues, don't they." (( Int 3 + Order of Hermes Lore 1 + stress die 7 = 11.)) She peers at him, not knowing whether to rate his revelation as a jest. "Any language?! Let's see, what was it...." She searches for one of the very few phrases she managed to pick up from Elizabeth during her brief stay at Le Maison. "אני לא מדברת עברית" she pronounces carefully, raising an eyebrow at Stultus. By now, with the ape out of sight, her shoulders have relaxed to a state of less tension.

@cunningrat1

"That, or just plain keel over from overeating." He mimes something falling over with his hands. "Whee-ack-gasp-THUMP. Finita la commedia." Timing is everything. One... two... NOW. He blinks up at Tranquillina with a small smile on his face. "Wouldn't shed too many tears if that happened, would you." His voice is cheerful, mild and not accusatory in the least -- it's like he's discussing the weather, or inviting Tranquillina to share an amused chuckle at a mutual friend's minor foibles.

Tranquillina opens her mouth as she detected her turn in the conversation arriving; but once she hears Stultus's final phrase, she stops, having no idea what to say. She regards his face carefully as it pivots around the long axis of its nose. An echo of understanding from last night's dinner washes over her, and she is able to see that his speaking about the emotional elephant in the room is an attempt to make things less awkward, not an attack on her. ((Per 2 + Folk Ken (opinion of her) 4 + stress die 9 = 15.)) Unfortunately, her surprise is complete enough that she fails to make any but a token attempt to mask her feelings. ((Prs 2 + Guile 3 + stress die 0 (no botch) = 5.))

Finally Tranquillina throws up her hands, shaking her head at herself. "Stultus, I can't change what I think about my first trainer, and about those of her House," she confesses. "Not like that. But I am working on ... not acting like it." The situation as a whole seems to sadden her somewhat, although it's unclear whether the deflation stems more from Stultus's presence or from recognizing her own biases.