you don't need to sneak your way into favors, brekker. you've done enough for me that you need only ask. but if that sort of thing verges on the discomforts of true honesty, i'm sure you've already thought of a dozen ways to blackmail me. can i have those blueprints back that you nicked? they're of no use to you and very useful to me.
aren't we? friends.
oh, i'm afraid it's impossible to divert attention from myself. i steal all eyes in any room i enter. it's the curse of a tragically handsome face. i've been bearing it my whole life.
Oh, thereâs nothing I need to do, itâs just prudent to have options. And as in most things, I suspect that uselessness and usefulness really falls somewhere in the middle. You can have the blueprints back, however. One look is always enough for me.
As long as you donât pen a poem about it. Good poetry will always come first in my heart.
Iâll learn the violin to play a sad song just for you. Youâve learned how to make the attention work in your favor well enough. Which isnât the same thing as always enjoying it, granted. Iâm not sure enjoying it is what matters, though.
i don't judge my company by how useful they can be to me. although you are very useful.
what a slight. i can write good poetry if i've slept for twelve hours and haven't had to listen to complaints about the rising prices of imported sugar. unfortunately, that combination hasn't taken place in quite some time.
i enjoy it most times. lack of attention leaves me feeling reprehensibly lonely â make a note of that. but i do, at times, miss being able to disappear without anyone immediately beginning to look for me. no one cares about the second son until you have no choice but to pay attention to him now on account of him being king. and the first son being tragically eaten by a volcra, but i digress. do you need anything for your journey home?
I always like to note someoneâs usefulness. Especially my own. Recognizing anotherâs talents is often beneficial to everyone, including themselves, if it can then be built upon. It needn't always be about judging in a poor way.
Mmm, that sounds like a lot of excuses. You should have a âhow toâ mindset, Lantsov, instead of a âwhy not.â [Part of being Kazâs friend is him being an absolute little shit and having very little sympathy for a lack of sleep and work machinations.] Sugar imports and exports though, theyâve been very lucrative to me and mine.
[Family issues earn more leeway with his mockery.] It sounds like you had a shipâs crew that didnât give a shit what birth order you were born into. As far as your other family is concerned, for what itâs worth, I wonât mock the losses youâve had. A ship and crew is all I need. I can see to the rest. And yes, theyâll be in good hands. Dirtyhands, but trust me, those are ones youâd want them in.
have you ever just enjoyed someone's company in a moment for no reason other than they just are enjoyable? i encourage you try it.
too right, brekker. once i figure out the how to's of napping, i'll send you my marvelous poem on our friendship. in the meantime, all of ravka drinks very expensive tea, all thanks to you.
the seas are a dangerous place to be a prince, so i made sure only a few trusted men knew. but go ahead and mock. i don't miss my brother. well, i tried to, i'm not a complete monster, but it doesn't come easily. i think i just miss the idea of what a brother could've been. mine tried to poison me at twelve. i'm fairly certain that's not what a brother is supposed to do. do you have family?
I have. Iâve never known someone where I didnât know what their talents and weaknesses were. Not all of those talents and weakness were relevant though at every moment. Unless they were making me a drink and they lacked the ability to taste and measure.
If you want me to pull strings with the Merchantâs Council Iâll need your country to adopt better beverage preferences. I canât argue on behalf of people who choose tea over coffee.
I know monsters, Lantsov. Iâve lurked in doorways myself. Youâre not one of them. As for family, I have my crew. And more importantly, they have me.
luckily for you, i'm excellent at both tasting and measuring, and i have no weaknesses.
i can't change generations of tradition in one reign, brekker. the people love their tea almost as much as they love praying to their saints. the public's perception of me would plummet if i shunned tea entirely. you'll have to forgive them, though. most of our citizens have never left ravka.
do you? know monsters. the people kind or the ones with sharp teeth?
Craft a drink in my honor and I'll at least acquiesce your weakness doesn't lie in the beverage department.
That's the nice thing about not bending a knee to king, country, or saint. I don't have to do a damn thing. If you want to discuss coffee exporting or fair taxes on the fat merchers' kruge though, we can talk.
The two can coincide, and it's always in how one uses an attribute, fangs or otherwise.
does being incorrigibly good-looking count as a weakness? too clever? too charming? because then you've nailed it.
what do you bend your knee to? is it only money or is there something else you hold sacred?
i think ravka has had its fill of monsters for the time being, even ones that might wish to use its attributes for good. the next one to show up has a good chance of getting crucified in the streets.
Anything can be a weakness, including your strengths. Though not limited to your strengths, if you were hoping for a diversion..
Do I seem like a man who holds much sacred?
Ketterdam breeds and feeds on its monsters in turn. A bloodbath is nothing new. Strong stomachs are good for business, and crucibles are as fickle as the rumors that fan them. Better to get out ahead than stick one's head in the sand.
yes, brekker, you do. and you hold that close to your chest, because what's sacred to you is your weakness, and that would be your crew. maybe some more than others. see? i can play this game too. it's not very fun, though.
you know what else is good for business? war. i don't intend to run my country like all the rest who came before me, and i need to stay on the throne to do that. if that means i need to tell a few lies and keep some heads in the sand â purely metaphorical â then so be it.
The ones youâre aware of you donât need me to tell you, and the ones you arenât aware of I have no reason to tell you.
Youâre certainly welcome to think that.
If you think Kerch was ever run by Ravkan laws, past or present, then youâll need more than some metaphorical lies to survive. If rather you were simply steering talk back to yourself and your country, Iâd question who youâre trying to convince, because I certainly donât care what lies you tell.
you've been watching me. one might almost purport that you have a vested interest in me.
captain ghafa and sturmhond are quite good friends. rogues of the sea tend to stick together.
if kerch was run by ravkan laws, i'm sure you would have found a way to depose of the king by now. frankly speaking, i'm in favor of ending the monarchy. you can never trust a king to give you the whole truth.
and here i thought i just had very interesting pockets.
he certainly has more friends than i do, and he's better at poetry. she can attest to that.
now now, brekker, don't be so maudlin. zoya, for one, would never lie to you. she revels in harsh truths. but you can't possibly live a life of trusting no one. one might say that's hardly a life lived.
Donning a persona that boasts different talents isnât the clever trick you seem to think it is, especially when you canât pick out when others have done it.
You fall into this poor habit of black and white lines, Lantsov. Nobody is honest all the time, not even Zoya. Thatâs not maudlin, thatâs reality. It also doesnât have to mean you can never trust anyone with anything.
sturmhond isn't a trick. and i assure you, his friendship with captain ghafa is genuine. you could have a wonderfully ribald friendship with sturmhond should you choose to.
oh, zoya lies to me all the time. she just wouldn't lie to you because she despises you. but she despises most. there are days when she tries to despise me too, but my charm always wins in the end. i assume there is a similar rapport between us, perhaps more like a rosebud that hasn't quite unfurled yet.
Industrious turnip. Luck is a poor settlement in comparison.
And yet you utterly miss the point. This time I donât even think it was on purpose.
I canât say youâve left a strong enough impression for me to bother trying to despise you. You settle your debts and youâve yet to stab me in the back. I can work with that.
i don't want to start thinking of my vegetables as enterprising.
he serves the crown just as you do, and yet your animosity toward him remains. does it hit too close to home to build yourself into something so different from what you used to be? i wouldn't know anything about that, though.
i sometimes wonder if it would make you more comfortable if i did stab you in the back.
Spoken like a monarch, perhaps the turnip wants to be its own vegetable rather than called yours.
The fact that youâre claiming animosity where there isnât any is really more telling on you. Iâve actually said very little, and believe it or not, your conclusions hit quite far off. Granted, youâre trying to see what you can pry up because I dug beneath your skin, so I can appreciate the effort.
Are you certain youâre not tempted just so it would elicit a stronger emotion? Perhaps youâre more comfortable when dealing with those who see you in extremes.
by all means, the turnip may be independent. one less thing i have to wrangle.
so you do like sturmhond? you would like to have a delightfully indecent friendship with him? i'm glad we cleared this up.
i will say that it does bruise the ego that you refuse to admit to how charming and handsome i am. most do either love or despise me. there's little room for indifference. but with you, you keep a rather consistent temperament with nearly everyone, so i can hardly take it personally.
My turn to be sorry for the delay, it's been a hectic week!
One wouldnât wrangle a turnip anyway, though most things can plant themselves just fine when opportunity arises.
Iâd like that drink in my honor created, and a fitting name for it, too.
Think of it this way, you have room to grow in my display of affection or displeasure. Stagnation is terribly dull compared to a challenge, to say nothing of being more dangerous.
you and i are the industrious sort. very turnip-like.
i'll let him know he has some work to do. perhaps the next time he's in ketterdam he'll bring it to you personally for a taste so you can cast judgment. wouldn't it be wonderfully collaborative to have a sturmhond special on the crow club's menu to pay homage to the king himself? not me, of course.
it makes sense now why you're rushing your exit. i won't tell.
A number of people have attempted to carve holes in me for decorative purposes. A comparison which might make less sense if no one in Ravka has a history of carving turnips.
Youâll have to bring along a fitting toast to go with it. My staff has extremely high standards for what they serve, not to add any pressure.
Thereâs always more deals to be done. Speaking of which, I should head off. If you end up getting married off tonight, accept my preemptive congratulations or condolences and consider the return of the blueprints an engagement gift.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
( tfln overflow â noreasonneeded )
you don't need to sneak your way into favors, brekker. you've done enough for me that you need only ask. but if that sort of thing verges on the discomforts of true honesty, i'm sure you've already thought of a dozen ways to blackmail me. can i have those blueprints back that you nicked? they're of no use to you and very useful to me.
aren't we? friends.
oh, i'm afraid it's impossible to divert attention from myself. i steal all eyes in any room i enter. it's the curse of a tragically handsome face. i've been bearing it my whole life.
TY for moving!
As long as you donât pen a poem about it. Good poetry will always come first in my heart.
Iâll learn the violin to play a sad song just for you. Youâve learned how to make the attention work in your favor well enough. Which isnât the same thing as always enjoying it, granted. Iâm not sure enjoying it is what matters, though.
:)
what a slight. i can write good poetry if i've slept for twelve hours and haven't had to listen to complaints about the rising prices of imported sugar. unfortunately, that combination hasn't taken place in quite some time.
i enjoy it most times. lack of attention leaves me feeling reprehensibly lonely â make a note of that. but i do, at times, miss being able to disappear without anyone immediately beginning to look for me. no one cares about the second son until you have no choice but to pay attention to him now on account of him being king. and the first son being tragically eaten by a volcra, but i digress. do you need anything for your journey home?
no subject
Mmm, that sounds like a lot of excuses. You should have a âhow toâ mindset, Lantsov, instead of a âwhy not.â [Part of being Kazâs friend is him being an absolute little shit and having very little sympathy for a lack of sleep and work machinations.] Sugar imports and exports though, theyâve been very lucrative to me and mine.
[Family issues earn more leeway with his mockery.] It sounds like you had a shipâs crew that didnât give a shit what birth order you were born into. As far as your other family is concerned, for what itâs worth, I wonât mock the losses youâve had. A ship and crew is all I need. I can see to the rest. And yes, theyâll be in good hands. Dirtyhands, but trust me, those are ones youâd want them in.
no subject
too right, brekker. once i figure out the how to's of napping, i'll send you my marvelous poem on our friendship. in the meantime, all of ravka drinks very expensive tea, all thanks to you.
the seas are a dangerous place to be a prince, so i made sure only a few trusted men knew. but go ahead and mock. i don't miss my brother. well, i tried to, i'm not a complete monster, but it doesn't come easily. i think i just miss the idea of what a brother could've been. mine tried to poison me at twelve. i'm fairly certain that's not what a brother is supposed to do. do you have family?
no subject
If you want me to pull strings with the Merchantâs Council Iâll need your country to adopt better beverage preferences. I canât argue on behalf of people who choose tea over coffee.
I know monsters, Lantsov. Iâve lurked in doorways myself. Youâre not one of them. As for family, I have my crew. And more importantly, they have me.
no subject
i can't change generations of tradition in one reign, brekker. the people love their tea almost as much as they love praying to their saints. the public's perception of me would plummet if i shunned tea entirely. you'll have to forgive them, though. most of our citizens have never left ravka.
do you? know monsters. the people kind or the ones with sharp teeth?
no subject
That's the nice thing about not bending a knee to king, country, or saint. I don't have to do a damn thing. If you want to discuss coffee exporting or fair taxes on the fat merchers' kruge though, we can talk.
The two can coincide, and it's always in how one uses an attribute, fangs or otherwise.
no subject
what do you bend your knee to? is it only money or is there something else you hold sacred?
i think ravka has had its fill of monsters for the time being, even ones that might wish to use its attributes for good. the next one to show up has a good chance of getting crucified in the streets.
no subject
Do I seem like a man who holds much sacred?
Ketterdam breeds and feeds on its monsters in turn. A bloodbath is nothing new. Strong stomachs are good for business, and crucibles are as fickle as the rumors that fan them. Better to get out ahead than stick one's head in the sand.
no subject
yes, brekker, you do. and you hold that close to your chest, because what's sacred to you is your weakness, and that would be your crew. maybe some more than others. see? i can play this game too. it's not very fun, though.
you know what else is good for business? war. i don't intend to run my country like all the rest who came before me, and i need to stay on the throne to do that. if that means i need to tell a few lies and keep some heads in the sand â purely metaphorical â then so be it.
no subject
Youâre certainly welcome to think that.
If you think Kerch was ever run by Ravkan laws, past or present, then youâll need more than some metaphorical lies to survive. If rather you were simply steering talk back to yourself and your country, Iâd question who youâre trying to convince, because I certainly donât care what lies you tell.
no subject
captain ghafa and sturmhond are quite good friends. rogues of the sea tend to stick together.
if kerch was run by ravkan laws, i'm sure you would have found a way to depose of the king by now. frankly speaking, i'm in favor of ending the monarchy. you can never trust a king to give you the whole truth.
no subject
Iâm sure Sturmhond has many friends. You should keep a list for your future poetry endeavors.
You can never trust anyone to always give the truth. Those in power, king or otherwise, merely have a wider reach for their lies.
no subject
he certainly has more friends than i do, and he's better at poetry. she can attest to that.
now now, brekker, don't be so maudlin. zoya, for one, would never lie to you. she revels in harsh truths. but you can't possibly live a life of trusting no one. one might say that's hardly a life lived.
no subject
Donning a persona that boasts different talents isnât the clever trick you seem to think it is, especially when you canât pick out when others have done it.
You fall into this poor habit of black and white lines, Lantsov. Nobody is honest all the time, not even Zoya. Thatâs not maudlin, thatâs reality. It also doesnât have to mean you can never trust anyone with anything.
no subject
sturmhond isn't a trick. and i assure you, his friendship with captain ghafa is genuine. you could have a wonderfully ribald friendship with sturmhond should you choose to.
oh, zoya lies to me all the time. she just wouldn't lie to you because she despises you. but she despises most. there are days when she tries to despise me too, but my charm always wins in the end. i assume there is a similar rapport between us, perhaps more like a rosebud that hasn't quite unfurled yet.
no subject
And yet you utterly miss the point. This time I donât even think it was on purpose.
I canât say youâve left a strong enough impression for me to bother trying to despise you. You settle your debts and youâve yet to stab me in the back. I can work with that.
no subject
he serves the crown just as you do, and yet your animosity toward him remains. does it hit too close to home to build yourself into something so different from what you used to be? i wouldn't know anything about that, though.
i sometimes wonder if it would make you more comfortable if i did stab you in the back.
no subject
The fact that youâre claiming animosity where there isnât any is really more telling on you. Iâve actually said very little, and believe it or not, your conclusions hit quite far off. Granted, youâre trying to see what you can pry up because I dug beneath your skin, so I can appreciate the effort.
Are you certain youâre not tempted just so it would elicit a stronger emotion? Perhaps youâre more comfortable when dealing with those who see you in extremes.
no subject
so you do like sturmhond? you would like to have a delightfully indecent friendship with him? i'm glad we cleared this up.
i will say that it does bruise the ego that you refuse to admit to how charming and handsome i am. most do either love or despise me. there's little room for indifference. but with you, you keep a rather consistent temperament with nearly everyone, so i can hardly take it personally.
My turn to be sorry for the delay, it's been a hectic week!
Iâd like that drink in my honor created, and a fitting name for it, too.
Think of it this way, you have room to grow in my display of affection or displeasure. Stagnation is terribly dull compared to a challenge, to say nothing of being more dangerous.
no worries at all! backtagging is The Way
i'll let him know he has some work to do. perhaps the next time he's in ketterdam he'll bring it to you personally for a taste so you can cast judgment. wouldn't it be wonderfully collaborative to have a sturmhond special on the crow club's menu to pay homage to the king himself? not me, of course.
it makes sense now why you're rushing your exit. i won't tell.
no subject
Youâll have to bring along a fitting toast to go with it. My staff has extremely high standards for what they serve, not to add any pressure.
Thereâs always more deals to be done. Speaking of which, I should head off. If you end up getting married off tonight, accept my preemptive congratulations or condolences and consider the return of the blueprints an engagement gift.