angels and moths

[deservesadaisy]

Who: Ilde Decima and Ivan

What: something stupid

Where: a flat in Mafaton

When: a couple nights after the missions in (let's say Veerdi?)

Notes: they make the best decisions

Warnings: Mention of past abuse. Will almost certainly include sex and blood-drinking, though likely not explicit. Also, Ivan may be drunk later.


Ivan found, after dying twice, that one's sense of caution was somewhat eroded. Not completely, of course - years of habit and innate temperament saw to that - but really, what was the worst that could happen? He was strong enough in nearly all cases to make it a matter of letting him walk away or killing him. If the latter... well, he wasn't suicidal, but he was curious. Maybe the afterlife would be city on city, like nesting dolls. Maybe it would be better, or worse. Maybe it would eventually be oblivion.

But in the meanwhile, he may as well take a few risks and enjoy himself.

He sat on the balcony, smoking, and waiting for Ilde to arrive.

Comments

[deservesadaisy]

"And, I've no doubt, terrifying." He didn't sound worried so much as thoughtful. "Regardless. Healing things has never been my gift, I'm afraid."

[rhinemaid]

"Then it's a good thing that's not why I came here." Katya would help her, if she needed it; that was something valuable to know.

(And she had a tendency to use 'lovely' and 'terrifying' like interchangeable concepts.)

[deservesadaisy]

"It is." He considered her. "Did you actually want supper? I'm happy to have some food sent, but if you'd rather straight to it.."

He may be teasing her, just slightly.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde laughed, rubbing her free hand over the back of her neck, under her hair. "I was enjoying your company, actually. Oddly enough."

[deservesadaisy]

"Well, I won't tell if you won't." He seemed in no hurry to get up, settled with her, his wine and his cigarettes.

"You know, before Baedal, I hadn't been with anyone but my wife in almost 70 years. I hope you'll be sure to let me know if you find anything disappointing."

[rhinemaid]

"It's been about five years, for me," since there'd been anyone at all, "which is one small mercy." She saluted the remark with her wineglass; at least that hadn't been among her abuses at the hands of Prometheus. To the best of her knowledge, at least, but she generally tried to avoid thinking about what she might not know about what happened under sedation.

[deservesadaisy]

He raised his glass in turn.

After a pause, he said, "You're a puzzle, have I told you that?"

[rhinemaid]

"Not in so many words." Or probably not, anyway; her frown wasn't ill-natured, just a moment where she went down a mental sidetrack on whether or not she remembered him saying specifically that. "Why do you say?"

[deservesadaisy]

"Most people are easy to sort out." Complex, yes, but there were a handful of types of people in Ivan's experience. Once you'd sorted out which one a person was, most everything fell into place.

"You - you're intriguing."

[rhinemaid]

She shifted, resting her side against the back of the chair and her chin on her own shoulder as she studied him, her wine half-drunk. (It probably wasn't going to be finished.) "What do you make of me so far, then?"

[deservesadaisy]

"I think you've created a very charming character for public consumption," he said, after a moment of smoking. "I'm not sure which bits are just play. I think you'd be easy for fools to underestimate."

[rhinemaid]

"Fairies are supposed to be playful," she said, smiling. Like cats, there was an element of sadism in it, curious and curiously unrepentant. "That's where 'fey' comes from, isn't it? Otherworldly and unpredictable. I guess they use that word for a lot of things, though, which fits as well."

Not that she was, admittedly, an expert on her nature in the wider sense.

[deservesadaisy]

"Like I said. You're my first fairy. I enjoy the unpredictability." At least to a point.

[rhinemaid]

"So far." There'd always been a point at which she wasn't any fun any more, she remembered, before, and she wasn't unaware that that had been before Prometheus made a wreck of her already fragile ability to deal with the world on its terms. That might've had something to do with why this wasn't a nice dinner date with someone who had a last name, a pulse, and any expectations about where it might be going.

(Then again, the girl did have a type.)

[deservesadaisy]

"You're afraid I'll get bored? This is only our third conversation." Ivan's attention was hard to gain, but also hard to lose.

[rhinemaid]

"Fourth," she corrected him, ever the pedant, as she stood up to take her glass back inside. "And that wasn't what I was thinking of, no."

She considered, briefly, asserting that she wasn't afraid of anything. It wasn't true, but under the circumstances, he was probably the person most likely to buy it.

[deservesadaisy]

"Fourth," he allowed, "depending on how one counts. But even so. I doubt that I'll be able to predict much about you any time soon."

[rhinemaid]

"I'm starting to think," when she returned, leaning against the stone railing with her weight on her hands behind her, facing him for better ease of conversation, "that you just bore easy nowadays." He seemed a bit preoccupied with the concept.

[deservesadaisy]

"I am, as you observed, teetering on the edge of cliche." How terribly world-weary he could be was, in part, no more genuine than the way she presented (or no less).

[rhinemaid]

"I didn't say teetering," Ilde reminded him, "I said you are a cliché." An assessment she was willing to stand by, at least for the persona he adopted; that wasn't an inherently terrible thing, just worth making a note of. If she found it so tiresome, presumably she wouldn't have come this evening.

[deservesadaisy]

"I was giving myself a small benefit," he laughed, "but as you like. Regardless, much of what I see I find repetitive."

[rhinemaid]

His usual refrain on that subject made the fact he'd apparently been faithful to his wife some seventy years sort of interesting, but it wasn't a point she was inclined to raise. Instead, "I'll just have to enjoy your company 'til you've figured me out." And get bored. She seemed more amused by the idea than concerned, presently.

[deservesadaisy]

"When you put it like that, it sounds like quite a burden," he said, grinning still.

[rhinemaid]

"You don't like 'enjoy it while it lasts'?" She quirked her eyebrows at him, clasping her hands behind her, one over the other on stone.

[deservesadaisy]

"Oh, on the contrary. But 'just' having to do anything sounds like settling."