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 Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:28 am
Nyx Argyros O: Damn Ed, look at you, winning over ladies and s**t!
Leaning back in his chair, he nodded and said, "When you can't save them all, you have to let go of the hopeless cases." Her amusement made it seem funnier than perhaps it should, but Edgar felt more at ease here than he had in a long while. He could allow himself these moments of morbid humor. It wasn't often that he found others to indulge with him.
"Don't worry overmuch about me and him," Edgar added reassuringly. "We'll be well taken care of by these wards of yours. Who knows, if we're quite lucky, we might even make it out unscathed."
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Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:05 pm
The hedge witch hummed in agreement, honey-gold eyes glinting. Spirits knew there were more than enough of those hopeless cases scattered about. Most that came to her, she could help, but some simply refused to be tended by a hedge witch. Well, it was their own stubbornness that was to blame. Even if she could force treatment on them, they would not thank her for it. Perhaps Edgar was right. Perhaps she had to learn to just let some of them go.
Alice shook her head at his apparent confidence in her wards. "They're all well and good, but they're not miracle-workers," she advised drily. "I know it will be difficult for you to resist, but do try not to do anything too reckless, defying scientific hypotheses or otherwise."
Hecate peered at her mistress from atop the plush armchair in the living area, dark eyes suspicious at the unusually light mood of the household's occupants. The hedge witch frowned back. She was simply having a friendly conversation. Was there anything wrong with that? Even she was not a complete scrooge, thank you very much.
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Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:58 am
"I can promise to do my best," Edgar replied frankly, grinning. Promising any more than that could easily make a liar of him, but resisting some things, if not all, was doable. Or seemed doable, anyway. That was something else he would have to test before he could know for sure.
"But I won't be a fool, that I can guarantee," he said after a moment's pause. "If I need help, I won't hesitate to reach out for it." It was a thin line, but sometimes that was about all that separated Edgar from a fool; he was never too proud or too stupid to realize when he couldn't manage alone, and it never shamed him accept aid.
Behind him, Dardanos leaned his head against the back of Edgar's chair, watching and listening as the humans conversed, seemingly content to bask in the happiness lingering in the house. The buck let out a soft, barely audible sigh. Knowing that his Chosen was slowly forging connections in this world was reward enough for his troubles.
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Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:29 am
"I suppose that will have to do," she said. From firsthand experience, she knew that he was not above accepting help, and she suspected that getting him to behave like a completely sensible human being would be akin to asking Hecate to treat every stranger kindly. Some things were simply not meant to be. At least she had managed to wrangle some sort of promise out of him. It might actually be a pity to see him die from his own folly.
The smoke drifting from the little pot was beginning to thin, but it was not yet through. Alice returned her attention to her guest.
"If I may ask," she began. "What brings you to this part of the country? Other than your experiment in sleep-deprivation." She was never one to pry into personal matters, but she was still passingly curious.
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Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 9:31 am
"Ah, that," Edgar said at the mention of his proximity to Oldcastle, and he fell to watching the smoke again while deciding how best to explain. "That was another experiment of sorts, I suppose."
When he was younger, he had gone through a phase in which he tried his hardest to anger Lord Ashworth, wrongly thinking that negative attention was still an indicator of some paternal love hidden deep down. He was wrong, and all of efforts had resulted in Lord Ashworth simply avoiding the house and leaving on business more often. The only negative attention Edgar received was from his tutors.
Then he had progressed to trying to win attention of any sort, good or bad or neutral. It wasn't until Dardanos appeared that Edgar realized it was hardly worth his trouble and now it had become a something of a game, trying to figure out exactly how much he could get away with before Lord Ashworth would notice.
"I wanted to know how many days I could be missing before my... well my father, I suppose, realized I was gone," he said finally. It would be useful knowledge to have in the future, perhaps allowing him to expand his travels without raising suspicions. Perhaps Lord Ashworth would not notice at all. Edgar wouldn't be too surprised either way. Expectations of his alleged father had gone out the window long ago. "Or how far I could go. It's a little silly, I suppose, but good to know." There was some melancholy in his voice, not because it had come to this, but because he didn't know what could have been, if he hadn't wound up as heir to the Ashworth estate, if he had remained with a real family. The chances that he would never find out were high.
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Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:31 am
"That sounds...lonely," she said at last. Allison may be a rather reclusive person by choice, and she had never had a father; however, it had been impossible to so much as step out of the cottage without her mother realizing when she was growing up. Family was small, and not always easy, but it was valued. It made her wonder what his life was like.
Well, that was his business. He would share it if he liked and keep it to himself if he preferred. Spirits knew she did not carry on about her personal life. On the other hand, she had been known to listen when others did wish to speak. Either way, she left it to him.
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:58 am
"Lonely," Edgar echoed a little distantly. "Yes, I suppose you could call it that. Lord-- My father, that is, is not what you would call a loving man." Jealous, yes. Possessive, even more so. Those were the qualities the man had that had kept Edgar in a position of privilege and wealth. Those, and vanity, pride, arrogance. The list went on.
Some days, Edgar wondered if he was too hard on the man. He was not Lord Ashworth's son, after all, and yet he had never been chased from the house or improperly looked after or denied any material wish. It was a lot to give another man's son.
But then he remembered all the times he had felt distinctly alienated from the rest of the people in their society, the moments when he had seen the looks on people's faces and knew that they were whispering about "that Ashworth boy" and judging things they could not possibly know about him, the instances in which he had wondered what right they had to think anything at all about him. And the guilt quickly disappeared.
"Funny, I think I can count on my hands and feet the number of times we've talked since my mother died," he continued pensively. "Just exchanged words, mind you, not even full conversations." If those had ever happened, they were dim memories indeed.
It occurred to him that he might be on the precipice of spiraling into a darker place, a place that haunted him from his younger years when he had struggled to cope with his lack of identity. A place that had trapped him before Dardanos came along...
And then, like magic, the buck was nestling his muzzle into Edgar's hair, resting his proudly antlered head atop that of his Chosen and huffing a contented sigh that seemed to say, There, there, my boy. Here I am.
In a moment, the sentimental Edgar was gone, replaced by a more adamantly upbeat one that could either have been a mask for a deep inner pain or the face of a man liberated from the struggles of his young life. Perhaps it was both. "Ah, but I have this fellow," this new Edgar said with a sudden smile, reach up to rub Dardanos' face. "I don't need too much more than that, I've found."
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 12:17 pm
Lord, hmm? Well, he was entitled to his secrets. She certainly had no interest in uncovering them. This was not the first time a noble had wound up in her humble home, and she doubted it would be the last. Blood meant little here. She would let him keep his lineage to himself if he preferred.
Looking at the pair of them, Alice thought she was witnessing the very best of the bond between Chosen and their Guardians. What it was meant to be. A pillar of mutual strength and support. Something not unlike her own bond with Hecate. The thought made her smile.
"No, I suppose you wouldn't." The last of the smoke trickled through the grate, faint and curling. "You may stay here and recover before you are on your way again. I suggest proper sleep before you attempt travel."
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Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:13 pm
He waited until the smoke had died away completely before carefully retrieving the totem and tucking it away safely, feeling instantly comforted even though it had been under no threat of harm. By some twist of luck, this was where he had wound up and Edgar felt quite grateful that it had all panned out the way it had. At the very least, he was grateful that Alice had been the one to stumble across him and not someone else.
"I believe I'll take your suggestion to heart," he said with a smile. After days without sleep, some proper rest would do him the world of good. "And thank you again, truly, for everything."
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