[a pause. Perhaps she hasn't told Bastien all that much about Jacques. It's strange to think, standing here now, how long they've known each other and how little she knows about him, aside from surface-level observations and pleasant chatter.]
After, [she explains gently,] I thought there might be vengeance for him in their cause. But he and his like were commoners, not what it was about.
[A sigh.] Where were you, during the war? [her smile is tired, but a bit hopeful:] Did the monarchy keep their hands off you?
[ He nods. Distracted, still, by what she's said, but he unsticks from it to answer, ]
I faked a limp.
[ A poor target for press gangs. ]
And it worked out for me. I got out of the Game just before it started, and it was—a kind of cover, I suppose. Everything was in chaos. My friends assumed that was what had happened to me, the war or the riots. No one was looking for me anymore when I came back to Val Royeaux. I passed some of them in the street and their eyes went right through me.
Of course, [ dropping his voice, because it's a secret, ] I am very good.
[A wry smile, almost amused-- it's very Bastien, and although it might be easy for some to get angry that he evaded the war so easily when others didn't, all it really means is that he's clever.]
[a silent nod, acknowledging the meaning of that: no family, not for a long time. rather than poke at it, she moves on, but a piece or two of the Who Bastien Is puzzle start to click into place.]
My father still lives out in the plains, [she confirms,] a shepherd. I'm going to try to visit him soon, with the eluvian.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-09-20 07:17 pm (UTC)For either of us, [she amends,] being a human is hardly protection in itself.
[If it were, Jacques would be alive, and Bastien wouldn't have spent his life hiding.]
They were stupid. [A melancholy smirk,] but the power was still theirs.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-12 08:30 pm (UTC)[ Will it always be? Maybe. Sometimes it all seems insurmountable.
He puts his hands in his pockets. ]
Did you go to the Freemen with him? Or after—
[ Bastien knows Jacques didn't come out of the war alive, but not which part of it killed him. For him could mean several different things. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-10-15 07:08 pm (UTC)[a pause. Perhaps she hasn't told Bastien all that much about Jacques. It's strange to think, standing here now, how long they've known each other and how little she knows about him, aside from surface-level observations and pleasant chatter.]
After, [she explains gently,] I thought there might be vengeance for him in their cause. But he and his like were commoners, not what it was about.
[A sigh.] Where were you, during the war? [her smile is tired, but a bit hopeful:] Did the monarchy keep their hands off you?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 02:59 am (UTC)I faked a limp.
[ A poor target for press gangs. ]
And it worked out for me. I got out of the Game just before it started, and it was—a kind of cover, I suppose. Everything was in chaos. My friends assumed that was what had happened to me, the war or the riots. No one was looking for me anymore when I came back to Val Royeaux. I passed some of them in the street and their eyes went right through me.
Of course, [ dropping his voice, because it's a secret, ] I am very good.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-29 08:04 pm (UTC)To disappear so easily has its upsides. [but,]
You'd no family holding out hope?
no subject
Date: 2024-11-21 04:04 am (UTC)They'd been gone for a long time.
Was it only Jacques, for you? Did you have any other family left?
no subject
Date: 2024-11-22 08:45 pm (UTC)My father still lives out in the plains, [she confirms,] a shepherd. I'm going to try to visit him soon, with the eluvian.