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 Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:59 pm
Edgar would have liked to respond, but the sight of the fawn having what he could only guess was a seizure of some sort stopped the words from forming in his mouth. He could only watch in mild shock as Morai threw himself to the ground for a roll, only to stop dead a moment later in the grass.
What...
Dardanos replied with a mental shrug. He was not, after all, an expert in youngsters. Certainly, Edgar had been pleasantly surprised that the buck had dealt so well with the fawn, and so willingly.
And then, as if nothing had happened, Morai stood and returned to his Chosen.
During the exchange between odd man and equally odd fawn, Edgar had half a mind to walk away, to take Dardanos and forget this meeting had ever happened. But before he could move, the man spoke and the name seemed to ring a bell in his memory.
"Blithe," he said, forgetting in that instance that the proper protocol was to provide his own name in exchange. It was doubtful that Gabriel would have cared, in any case, especially if he was the Blithe that Edgar thought he was. "I've read about you." ... your family. The events that had transpired there. He didn't know how much of it was truth and how much of it rumor, vastly exaggerated rumor, but he didn't doubt the stories had to have come from somewhere.
He knew, in fact, exactly where he had read about the Blithes. A letter to his father, long years ago, that Edgar had spirited out of Lord Ashworth's study; he hadn't known, then, that Edwin wasn't his father. A book recently published exploring the supposed complexities of the upper class and the scandals it involved.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:00 pm
Another chuckle crossed Gabriel's throat, but with his Guardian beside him he seemed to have lost some of his threatening energy. The boy who had not yet shared his name seemed too young to have read about him, and even those who had first heard of him in the papers had read very little and assumed the rest. A young boy, away from home, wounded and covered in blood, unable to speak.
It was hardly anything that would cause the negativity he saw now.
"Did you? May I ask how?" There was no mirth in his voice, but he did crouch to put his knife away. The buzzing had stopped. "A boy of your age has no business or interest in reading eight-year-old papers." When he stood, he tilted his head much like a bird of prey and clasped his hands behind his back. "Your family, perhaps? What is your name? I may have known them. ...known of them." He was insinuating something with that tone of voice... something that people like his company may find offensive, but this man in particular? Perhaps not.
As his Chosen spoke, Morai returned to Dardanos and gently nudged his neck, settling in almost as if for warmth. There was a change in the air, in both of the oddities present.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:29 pm
Edgar blinked twice and frowned. A boy his age. The reference made more sense before he had found out who Gabriel was, but now that he was aware his companion was one of the sole survivors of the fabled Blithe family... Gabriel couldn't have been more than a few years Edgar's senior.
"Ashworth..." he said carefully, still trying to riddle out the pair that stood before him. The Blithes had been far more influential a family than the Ashworths, still considered by many to be up-jumped traders with unusual luck, and Edgar wouldn't have been surprised if Gabriel had not heard their name before. Had Lord Ashworth not been the man he was - obsessed with upward mobility and networking - and squashed the potential for rumors, the stories that might have gone around about their family were plenty, though perhaps not as morbid as those surrounding the Blithes.
"I read a letter," Edgar added. He could still remember the extravagant penmanship and the falcon seal on the paper and the shock he had felt after reading it. "And there's a book... out there, about... well."
His gaze slid to the fawn as he returned to Dardanos, calm now, almost normal. Edgar's instinct might have been to step away after Morai's display, but the buck seemed to understand that it had not been a threat. It was not danger that Morai represented, but something else entirely. Something... fixable? Edgar wasn't so sure. Sure, it's alright now for him.
But Dardanos simply nudged the fawn in return.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:46 pm
Morai simply remained, head somewhat downcast, watching the conversation before them with apparent curiosity. He sighed deeply.
Gabriel looked down a moment. Ashworth. The name sounded familiar, although he could not place why. They had been of different rank, probably. His father had not been one to share the names of those he met in private, although the name...
All of a sudden, the train of though dropped. Gabriel stopped and looked to the Ashworth boy, eyes narrowing. There was a book? If not concerning his family alone then at least mentioning it in passing. He had not been made aware of this and was caused to wonder if his grandmother perhaps had heard and not told him. ...no, not likely, but there was a book.
"Tell me more about this book," he demanded. His voice was not kind, but the negativity within was not directed toward the Ashworth boy or even toward the author of the note he had mentioned. People talked, especially within the upper class. It was unavoidable.
...but there was a book...
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:05 pm
Edgar thought that perhaps Gabriel was set to comment when something seemed to shutter in the other man's face and he cast his narrowed gaze over. The book. Of course. In hindsight, perhaps mentioning it had not been the best idea. Had he allowed Gabriel to remain under the impression that the news had spread through the papers and nothing more...
"A recent book. Based solely on rumor and old news, I suppose. I wouldn't imagine the author managed to talk to you about... what happened, if you weren't aware of its existence." He was a little more cautious now, unsure as to how exactly Gabriel would react. The past several moments had done more to convince Edgar of his companion's instability than any book or letter ever had.
Not that he was putting much stock in pure insanity. Blithe seemed to be capable of function, just... in a way that did not resemble anything Edgar had ever seen. Certainly not what one would consider normal.
"The Infamy of Fortune, written by... Holden James. He wrote about several of the most widely discussed scand-- events of the past several decades." If that made it any better. To be honest, how Edgar had ever managed to lay hands on such a book was beyond him. Lord Ashworth was not one to indulge in such fanciful tales and there were enough books in the library at Rosehill Manor to keep Edgar entertained for a lifetime.
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:11 pm
Gabriel's lips curled into a rather nasty grin. The word "scandal" was not one he considered particularly offensive. It had been a scandal to start and his grandmother still referred to it as much for a lack of anything else to call it. She was not willing to call any of it a "murder" after all. Wealthy people only had "scandals".
"You can call it what it is, I don't take offense," he said, his voice having suddenly taken on the characteristics of a snake's, "Of course, what you think it is depends on what you've heard and... read, apparently. Is there any possibility of me finding this book anywhere nearby?" If the boy had gotten his hands on it, he could too... right?
"...and any idea of whether or not this Mister James is alive...?" What an odd question! Gabriel did not falter, though. It didn't seem that he was kidding.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:05 pm
Well. Edgar supposed Gabriel was right. The man would have found out eventually anyway. The word "scandal" was used ample times in the book, and that was the way it had been described for a decade. It was one of the great unsolved mysteries as far as noble scandals went, though Holden James had taken a rather liberal view in his book and seemed to be pushing for his readers to believe that Gabriel Blithe had been the sole perpetrator of the crime and for no other reason than that he had lost his mind.
Edgar shrugged. "You can't always believe everything you read," he said. Obviously The Infamy of Fortune was one of those things that didn't seem quite believable. It was hard to put complete faith in a book written based solely on secondary sources, after all, not to mention that many of James' claims seemed far-fetched at best. That said, it wasn't like Edgar was planning to question the primary source himself. Not after the knife, anyway. "It isn't the most popular book, but I suspect there might be copies in the public library."
Edgar shot Gabriel a look. "He certainly wasn't old..." he answered with care. What exactly did he have in mind when he said... alive? Edgar didn't hear an overt threat, but everything else he had seen from Gabriel hardly pointed toward the assumption of harmlessness. "But I couldn't guarantee that he is alive."
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 6:37 pm
The grin Gabriel was already expressing widened at the notion of the man still being alive. There was a swell of pride, for a moment.
"Not a popular book? For shame. It certainly was a popular crime," he mused aloud. There had been a strange strike of pride that he could not quite explain and, as with most things, it simply expressed itself rather than passing through a verbal filter. "I wonder how they'd react to me in a library... hm."
All of a sudden, something struck him. His grin disappeared and his eyes focused as well as they could. "You wouldn't happen to know who's been trying to get in at night, do you? It seemed to have stopped somewhat once my builders arrived, but it's begun again."
He had needed to prove to no less than 3 children that he was not, in fact, the ghost of any kind of murderer. His heart was beating well enough, and there was no proof of the latter.
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:13 pm
For lack of a better idea, Edgar had to wonder how anyone would react to Gabriel in an enclosed space. He was still thinking of the knife, so casually drawn and bandied about. At least out here in the open, there was a smaller chance of that knife ever reaching its mark if it chose to strike.
"Well, it..." Edgar frowned. "It tended to offend the people who read it." And made no impact whatsoever on its target audience, the majority of which could hardly be expected to read at all, let alone such a thick volume. It seemed they had little interest, in any case. Edgar's interactions with the commonfolk had left him with the impression that most of them simply wanted to live their lives from day to day. The troubles of the nobility, or lack thereof, did not concern them.
And then, again. Oddity. Edgar's frown deepened, but this time out of confusion. Who was getting in at night? It took him a moment to realize that Gabriel meant his own home. The one that was a vague enough impression to Edgar that he could hardly even picture it.
"Neighbors?" He ventured, realized almost immediately that it was likely an unhelpful guess. "Rumor hunters, perhaps. Or regular vandals." Though he doubted the average hoodlum would have the stones to venture onto Blithe's property.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:26 pm
"Hm. I didn't figure you would be of much help," Gabriel replied, and for a moment he seemed put-off but recovered very quickly, "Well, it's not as if it's been you. I simply never have the occasion to ask anyone, and the law enforcement around here seems to agree that I've lost my mind." Gabriel tapped his finger against his lips which whitened and pursed to a straight line.
"Have you read the book?"
Something about there being a book disturbed him. It was expected that any murder or disappearance investigated by the police would make it to the newspapers. Every crime got its 15 minutes of fame. He suspected that even the one he had been involved in would not have been so sensational if he hadn't survived and hadn't been found. With nobody to blame, it was a public scandal. Because he had made it out alive, however, it was his problem. When children died, the public wanted a lynching. Presumably, he narrowly escaped that fate when the law realized that he'd gone stark raving mad and sent him to be with the rest of his family. His brief stint in the asylum had been a stressful one, and attacks on the doctors had led his grandmother to believe that home was best, and there he had regained some new sense of normalcy. The book, though... how far did it delve? How much information did it reveal? He understood that those who could not be bothered could simply not be bothered, but to have people reading the written word, bound eternally between leather scraps... that worried him. Only the older generation truly hated him now, but with the intellectual climb of the common man, who knew how far it would go? Lost in thought and a quiet buzzing, her murmured aloud to himself, "Yes, I'll need to find it."
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:55 pm
Edgar hadn't expected to be any help, and he didn't expect the law would be much help either - not without a gentle... push anyway. Law could be bought, that much he had learned from Lord Ashworth, who had an uncanny ability to worm his way out of tight fixes on the rare occasions that they came knocking. When Edgar was younger, he had considered it an odd sort of magic: one day there were thugs or policemen at the door and the next, none. It wasn't until he had grown a little older that he had figured out how exactly that happened.
"I have. It does come across as somewhat sensationalist, I suppose." He hadn't bothered to read it twice. The books that he did revisit were few and far between, and this one in particular had not been nearly enticing enough to invite a second read.
"It isn't the type of book people remember for long," Edgar added, uncertain if that would help the situation any. But it was certainly a major reason that the book had not gained popularity and had faded so swiftly from the public's memory.
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Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 1:44 pm
"Sensationalist," Gabriel scoffed, shaking his head. The Incident had certainly been sensational, at least to everyone else. He didn't remember having had many sensations at all... not many. There had been some very specific sensations...
A smile like a wolf's crossed the man's features and his gaze went somewhat vacant. He spoke on the Ashworth boy's second comment only after a moment or two of noncommittal silence. "Ah, yes. The book did not last, and yet I find myself at the center of some very unsavory gossip. It must be a truly terrible book." Still, he would like to read it. One man's opinions certainly mirrored others' regardless of their level of writing ability. His fingers tapped his stomach a moment and Morai gave a 'bbbth' that seemed to have some finality to it.
"Well, thank you, Young Ashworth. I've been... enlightened. I do believe that I should make my way to the public library. It was a pleasure"
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 12:20 am
Should he reassure Blithe that it was just the rich being the rich? It didn't strike Edgar as the sort of comment that would make the situation better. But before he had the chance to figure out some sort of response, Gabriel spoke again and saved him the trouble of having to do so.
"Glad to be of service..." he managed to say. It had all happened so fast.
As Dardanos left the fawn with one last nudge to join his Chosen, Edgar frowned and wondered what sort of trouble might arise once Gabriel had read the book. Perhaps nothing. He heard the buck's steps come to a half behind him and knew that Dardanos was there from the warmth radiating off the buck's body.
It is not every day we meet someone like him, Edgar thought to the Guardian. Dardanos replied with what might have been a smile, might have been a laugh. Don't worry about it, he was trying to say. It happens.
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 6:12 pm
Morai seemed to frown and lowered his head, flailing it around a bit in displeasure. His friend was leaving! No other Guardian had ever played with him so willingly! With a few angry scrapes and leaps, he went to Gabriel and went head-first into his hip, remaining still there. He was ignored, although his Chosen did waver slightly at the force.
"Mm," was all Gabriel replied with, a brow arching. His dear deer was a bit... odd, at times. It was only appropriate. "Thank you for your, ah... insight. Your family is wealthy?"
Well, there went another bizarre change of tact. Morai stuck his tongue out and it wiggled. He seemed to be finished after a moment and removed his forehead from his Chosen. Tongue still out, he looked to the young Ashworth and his former playmate.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 6:02 pm
An odd little deer for an odd man; Edgar could certainly appreciate that. He was still wondering what the fawn was trying to do when Gabriel spoke again, and what had seemed like the end of a conversation began anew again. It became a little less surprising with every turn.
"We have... sufficient funds," he answered. The Ashworths had made their minor fortune through trade and had none of the wealth of the old and storied families that boasted ancestors who had helped found the very city of Palisade. They had enough to lead a more-than-comfortable lifestyle, if not enough for them to start spending recklessly. It wasn't in Edgar's blood to do so, in any case. A library stocked with books and a warm fireplace had always been enough for him. "We're wealthier than a common merchant."
Dardanos regarded the fawn with patient curiosity. What a strange little soul. The buck tossed his antlered head and blew a puff of air from his nose.
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