Now that you're actually not cool, I kinda like you better. (Open/Closed)

[wasalmostdaphne]

Who: Catchall for Bay (Open) and Abby (Closed)
When: Throughout July
What: All sorts of things.
Warnings: Abby swears and does drugs and is generally going to be a problem. Abby and Jesper's closed prompt is NSFW.

Nocwich - Open
Horizon - Open
Thorne - Open

Comments

[everybodysterrible]

Abby honestly can't tell when his suggestions are serious (and a bad idea) or playful (and a great thing to think about). Nobody that clever, so aware of the world at the Fey ball is just a chaotic disaster.

...right?

She is smiling, considering the chaos she could do if she could manage wind that strong and that wide. Shattered plates everywhere. But that question of where the joke ended and actual chaos began kept creeping into her thoughts. It was an annoying itch that she just had to scratch, "Why are you like this?"

[godshattering]

In the seconds go by where Abby contemplates this, the server drops off their order to which he offers a thanks, and he's mid-tea preparation when Abby asks an all important question. At that he can't help immediately laughing, even if it gets them a suspicious look from yet another nearby table. Worth it.

"My friends say I have a flair for the dramatic, but I just like keeping things interesting. Maybe in another life I would've been a scientist so I'd have an excuse for it or an outlet for a healthy amount of curiosity."

That's an explanation, right? Or something like one; Claude takes a moment to pour himself a cup of tea, followed by a cautious sip and then a small wince when it's still too hot to appreciate. That's coupled with some time to consider what he'd answered with, too. "Or there's always the standby of an active imagination. Take your pick."

[everybodysterrible]

Abby, meanwhile ignores the hot leaf water to attack her food. It made sense, magic was an effort, a personal expenditure of energy. So of course you would get hungry. Like after a dance party, or sincerely trying to do your homework. Abby was also mad enough at the patrons whispering she went out of her way to eat more like a wild animal with no table manners than normal.

And normally she was basically a gremlin pretending she was a girl.

Claude's response, 'answer' and 'explanation' feel like the wrong word for what he just gave, made her think of Max. A bottomless well of energy and drama capable of making sure things were 'interesting.' Which Abby realizes, if you gave Max actual magic there's a solid chance that she'd level a city block because she was too sad, or happy, or bored. And she'd definitely do that if she had someone like Claude to 'offer suggestions.' Which gives Abby a pleasant nostalgic smile (made sillier by all the food in her mouth).

Abby swallows more food than she should have tried to at once, with no real detriment to her, "So you're a theater kid who believes he's very charming, and that he can definitely talk his way out of whatever trouble he gets into?"

[godshattering]

"Something like that. Though," with a life of one finger off his mug of tea like he's about to bring up a Very Important point, "if you mean 'believe' in the sense of someone being overly confident and 'definitely' as something like will probably get in over their head without knowing what to do next, I'll have to correct both of those. The whole running a country thing would've been difficult without actually having either skill."

And - this is something Claude knows he excels at from all that time spent studying how exactly people work, what sorts of things would get them to concede he was right or which would push them over a metaphorical edge when agreement wasn't what he wanted. All said matter-of-factly, since on this he doesn't see a reason to hide the truth, and as he takes another sip of tea he follows that up with a shrug.

"Useful for that keeping things interesting I've mentioned since some of that wouldn't have worked out quite so well without the dramatic alongside. I like to think of them as being complementary. But the trick to it is finding one part of that you're good at and working upwards from there - well, that and a lot of practice. No time like the present to start with whatever you think is a good idea, sort of like with magic."

[everybodysterrible]

"Yeah, keep trying to wrap my head around that and not seeing it." The hints of a smile at the edge of he mouth make it clear she's being a brat on purpose, teasing because she can see how he can lead a country. But also feels like feeding his ego is the opposite of useful here. Or... feeding his ego isn't the more fun option on hand.

This is what you get for feeding teenagers.

"So the show is as much a part of the plan as anything else?" Abby's question comes off sincere and serious. As she is trying to get her mind around how Claude gets away with being like this. That the dramatics and charm are a part of how he maneuvers through events. "It's like a huge grift, keeping control of what's going on?"

No judgments on if that's good or bad. Just trying to determine what he's playing at.

[godshattering]

That merely gets a cheerful grin from him. If only she knew how much people back in Fodlan said the same thing, mostly because he refused to do all of the stuffy nobility things they'd insisted on doing for years. Or so he'd avoided as many of them as he could, anyway, aside from the ones truly required and none of which are (immediately) present here in Abraxas. This is more his speed in every way that sentiment can apply, and his grin just grows wider at her question.

"Something like that. It's helpful for keeping attention where you want it focused and not anywhere else, or to steer a conversation towards where you want it to go. The practice is the important part but it gets easier from there." A moment for him to take another drink of tea before he puts it back down on the table and leans back in his chair again, at ease. "Or it's all sincere and I'm making it up that it's an act. Just depends on what you think about it, really."

With the truth once again somewhere in the middle, but maybe that's a conversation for another time.